Chapter 40 - 40: Rite Of A Sinner

Chapter 40 - 40: Rite Of A Sinner

On the broad back of the white crane, Wei Wuyin soared through the air. Golden Milk City had already become a small blip behind him. Having left, he headed east, not northwest.

He still had a sense of priority, so he would first make way for the Helios Witch’s territory within the Mystic Elven Forest. For that, he would need to leave the Wu Country and travel further east, bypassing the Clear Sky Mountain Range to enter the forest itself.

It had nearly been two months since Mei Mei’s disappearance. He had made significant progress in his cultivation during this period. The only path left to him was reaching the next phase of cultivation. Therefore, he had no need to delay any longer.

Whether he could find her was still an unlikely possibility. After all, even if he went to the Helios Witch, his only lead, it wasn’t a definite possibility that she had something to do with it.

That was Wei Si’s deduction based on his keen sense of smell. He didn’t actually see her get taken. In fact, Mei Mei could’ve been practically disintegrated like Gu Futu. If so, he could only find out why and if it had anything to do with her dealings with the Helios Witch.

This was why he didn’t feel an immense amount of pressure in finding her or searching. His only clue was vague anyhow. Not everything would just lay below his feet, pointing towards what happened. He wasn’t that naive.

If this turned out to be a deadend, it’s likely the story of Mei Mei would end up unsolved, regardless of his emotions or desires.

The journey there was no longer filled with detours or lucky chances. His karmic luck value had remained the same, and he hadn’t met anyone outside of the traveling cultivators. As they were on their way somewhere, there was no need to bother each other.

It was a boring cycle of fly for nearly ten to twelve hours, eat, rest and recover, and repeat.

Wei Wuyin had stopped a few times in towns and cities, but besides finding a brief and comfortable bed to rest on, he didn’t interact with the locals or other travelers. While there were bandits who stayed in the shadows and attacked travelers and merchants, the white crane could rival First Stage of Qi Condensation experts, so there was barely any need for him to do a thing.

Any cultivator who could enter the Qi Condensation Realm would have their entire life changed in the Wu Country. Resorting to banditry to rob mortals for silver and gold was fruitless.

In that realm, mortal wealth was no longer an issue.

You had the opportunity to become a guard of a grand city like Ash Dragon City or Golden Milk City. A single day’s pay could encapsulate the entire lifetime wealth of a mortal.

You could establish your own clan, have dozens of wives, and hundreds of children and make sure each was fed and taken care of.

Therefore, Wei Wuyin didn’t need to bother with those trifling matters. And while there were cultivator bandits, they wouldn’t target those with powerful mounts, but those too weak to afford to raise or train mounts.

Before long, three weeks zipped by.

Wei Wuyin, atop the white crane, could see a mountain range in the distance. It was a series of tall mountains that went up two kilometers high. It was like jagged teeth, rising and falling, with spaces in between. In certain angles, they seemed to be connected and alive, like the jaws of a shark.

Then, as one looked up in the sky above those ferocious mountains, they would see a clear sky. There were clouds in the nearby area, but above those mountains, there was an obvious lack of them. Even when the clouds floated towards it, it seemed they would never touch that distinct portion of clear sky; they never did.

Wei Wuyin felt enlivened at finally seeing this mountain range. Having traveled for so long, he knew his goal was on the other side. Luckily, the white crane could easily fly over that range.

If it was any other mount whose strength was below that of a Qi Condensation cultivator, the mysterious force surrounding the mountain would impede them all.

Wei Wuyin had read about this mysterious force, but most of the information was vague detailing of the mountain’s characteristics. There were some who theorized that the mountain range was a piece of a jaw from a divine beast, others believed it was formed by an expert who could travel the stars.

There were other theories, but those two were the most grand. The rest were more mundane and didn’t leave much to one’s imagination. He knew that one of those mundane theories was likely the truth behind the mountain’s mysterious force and horrific shape, but he had always enjoyed embellishments of a story.

Rubbing the white crane’s feathers, he grinned and urged it to travel faster. Now that he was here, he wanted to see this mountain’s force! A throb of excitement entered his heart at the unknown and new.

BOOM!

Just as he felt that throb, an explosive sound erupted nearby. Wei Wuyin frowned, the sound came off kind of muffled and indistinguishable, but he knew its location. He turned north and frowned.

Kree!!

Suddenly, the crane cried in a heartrending shriek. It flapped its wings fiercely and soared towards the direct south. Its speed had nearly doubled. Wei Wuyin was caught off guard, but with his cultivation, how could he be thrown off because of this?

He placed his hand softly on its back and a trace of qi attached him to the crane. Then, when he was fastened, he sent it a spiritual communication.

Fear.

When he received a reply, that was all he felt. He couldn’t actually talk to the crane, but he knew its feelings and emotions. The emotions it projected was fear and abject horror, a strong sense of instinctual danger on the horizon.

"Horizon?" Wei Wuyin frowned, looking north with his eyes. There was nothing there. Why was the...

"Ahhhhh!!!" He shouted with his life on the line, slicing Element out once more! He turned into a comet of elemental saber qi and fired off. In a blink, his speed and form reached a miraculous state. He was no longer moving with mass or a body, but with the elements, with the world, with the saber.

Woosh!!

The wall was just a mile away from him. Just his actions alone wasted so much time that the wall was already so near.

Now, in the world, there was one wall and one comet of white light. One chasing and one running away.

As he ran, his body underwent numerous changes due to the stress, his meridians and flesh were meshed together with his elemental and saber qi. It was monstrously painful and yet, he did not let up for a single moment.

This continued for forty-nine seconds. From the moment he activated his art, Wei Wuyin had already ran for a full forty-nine seconds!

Then, it dissipated abruptly. The wall collapsed, leaving just a strip of clean land, and a pile up of corpses, rocks, and trees.

"Argh!" Wei Wuyin exited the art immediately after it stopped. He tumbled, his head, arms, legs, flailing wildly as he was rolled forward like a dead body. The impacts towards the ground barely hindered his momentum, and only when he smashed into a mountain, digging in nearly three hundred meters deep, did he stop.

Luckily, his body had been tempered by elemental energy, so he barely survived. Unfortunately, his bones were broken, his muscles and skin ripped, even several of his teeth had fallen out.

As for his hair and clothes, he didn’t have any.

Anywhere.

In the depths of the mountain, he crawled out. It took him an hour before he escaped, landing heavily on the ground with a thud. When he did, he heard a cry of a bird nearby.

The bird flew beside him and used its beak to softly peck at his naked, hairless body, as if trying to verify its guess.

"I-it’s me..." Wei Wuyin said in an exhausted and pained voice. The white crane’s momentum had been halted with his remaining energy. While he had a faint chance at surviving the momentum, the crane did not.

He realized only after the fact how stupid he was. The last bit of energy would have ensured his survival without the risky tumble, but he used it on the crane instead, and nearly lost his life in the resulting crash.

"Haha," he had tried everything to survive, even drawing upon the quintessence energy of his Hearts of Qi, causing them to nearly destabilize, but in his last action, he saved the crane instead of himself.

It was truly laughable.

Zsst!!

"Argh!" A burning sensation stung his skin. He weakly lifted his head and looked at his right arm. He saw blood-colored lights erupt from his skin.

In a portion of the tattoos that were originally empty, a series of new tattoos formed. He couldn’t actually read it, but he knew what it meant:

Rite of a Sinner.

First Calamity: Awakened.

"..." Wei Wuyin groaned in agony and pain. What the fuck was this?

This...this wasn’t the first calamity?!?!

In the scriptures, it had described that those who hold the Bloodline of Sin must pass a trial against heaven. It wasn’t a normal heavenly tribulation, but one filled with the intent to kill you and anything around you.

After successfully obtaining the rights, only then can one undergo the Eighteen Calamities of Hell.

He didn’t expect it to be so out of nowhere.

Wei Wuyin laid flat on his back, his eyes blurry as he stared up at the sky. A wave of exhaustion flowed through his body as he felt like sleeping.

Before then, he used his all to raise his left hand, stuck only his middle-finger to the air and yelled weakly, "Fuck you heaven, fuck you hell, fuck you first sinner! Fuck you all!"

Before he could curse more, his hand fell nearly lifelessly as his eyes closed.

The white crane grew terrified. Hastily arriving next to her master as she tried to wake him up, even faint traces of tears formed in her eyes. This master gave his life to save her! She was filled with sadness.

Wei Wuyin twitched abruptly, scaring the crane, and then started to snore.

"..." The crane.