With two out of four scheming entities thwarted, the last mountain-slinging Sage and the false Sage Skytouch were at odds, entering into a contest where the objective was none other than Shang Wanqing, the last daughter of Shang Liu.
The newly arrived mountain-slinging Sage descended with great fanfare and purpose, their identity shrouded by mystery and a glittering hooded cloak of four dark colors—teal, dark green, burgundy, and stormy grey. They possessed a weighty aura that caused a chaotic atmosphere within the palace that felt body-crushing and soul-stifling. If not for Wei Wuyin's provided protections, the recently revived mortals would have been flattened into meat paste or worse.
Skytouch held Shang Wanqing in a cradle carry, her cloudy figure evading sense with respectable speeds, yet the mountain-slinging Sage pinpointed her instantly. Holding Shang Wanqing tight, Skytouch accessed her Sage-level Mystic Power to bolster her speed, aiming to exit the palace in a single go.
However, the mountain-slinging Sage refused to allow her escape to be carried out so easily, turning their waist to summon an ashen grey braided rope that was tossed out with a loop. The rope seemed sentient as it moved with a liveliness that followed Skytouch with eerie precision. Her left ankle was caught. The mountain-slinging Sage tugged, tightening the rope, and then pulled!
Skytouch felt her body lurch to a halt. Her left leg was in immense pain, as if skin-piercing spikes of steel had stabbed into it, but before she could redirect her external power to free herself in any meaningful way, she felt the surroundings whiz by as her body slammed against the palace's easternmost wall.
BOOM!
Her throat violently gasped as she felt the wind knocked out of her lungs, briefly losing contact with Shang Wanqing. Fortunately, her focus was strong and her goal was clear. She reached out and held Shang Wanqing tighter than before. If not for the soul light surrounding Shang Wanqing, the tightness of her grip would have crushed some bones and left deep imprints on flesh.
She was clearly unaccustomed to wielding such godly power of Sages, like an infant swinging a hammer. This was the reality of using external power without extensive skill or depth of understanding of certain powers such as Legion Commander Zhan Zheng.
Furthermore, gaps in her facade were crumbling bit by bit. However, the mountain-slinging Sage didn't care for Skytouch's difficulties. Instead, they moved like a planet-bustering meteorite, arriving beside Skytouch with heavy, fiery momentum. With their right palm, they slammed against Skytouch's left shoulder, inducing a thunderous crack of bone and flesh and power, and with their left palm, slipped expertly to slap Skytouch across the face, ripping her veil asunder. Each blow was concentrated to an extreme, not generating any damage to anything else.
Skytouch was instantly dizzy. The only reason for her survival against these two attacks was the passive ward of Sage-level Mystic Power that guarded her body and soul from being obliterated.
"No!" Skytouch mentally cried out as a gaspy breath of reluctance left her throat, but she could only helplessly watch as her body lost the strength to hold onto Shang Wanqing and the mountain-slinging Sage expertly took her from her hands. The mountain-slinging Sage held Shang Wanqing at a distance, using the rope to rapidly spin around her and construct a man-sized sphere of ashen grey rope. She was captured with a few moves.
Then, she was kept in an independent dimensional space tethered to an extracted Internal World of a deceased Original Magistrate that revealed itself as a hand-sized cube exuding both heavenly radiance and worldly radiance. With a swift kick to the abdomen, the mountain-slinging Sage sent Skytouch crashing deeper into the palace's walls until she was unseen, only crumbling portions of the walls remained.
Not looking at their devastation, the mountain-slinging Sage that acted with ruthless efficiency was already taking their leave with a pair of shadowy wings forming that was on the verge of merging with the world once and for all.
"Stop!"
A booming shout shook the world, distorted time and space, and twisted light and shadows, causing the escape attempt to be halted. The Sinful Sage, Sage Avenging Heart, otherwise known as Zai Yingwen by his comrades and allies, finally returned!
In a cushion of mystic power was a Skytouch, whose nose and mouth were flooding with cloudy white and red blood. Her Sage-level disguise remained strong despite her hazy eyes and shaky fingers. There was an unyielding will within her gaze.
The mountain-slinging Sage's escape was halted by Zai Yingwen's prevention-type Spiritual Spell intermixed with distorting abilities, but they didn't immediately try to make a fleeing attempt again as Zai Yingwen approached with murderous momentum and righteous indignation. No. They placed their foot on a solid platform of mana, and then kicked off! Rushing not away but toward!
Zai Yingwen was stunned. Then, he was angry. With a wave of his hand, an eight-foot spear forged from blood crystals emerged, exuding a strong aura of slaughter and killing intent. It carried his unique will, clearly an item he forged using his quintessential cultivation, much like how Pakhet used her own bones to forge her khopesh.
However, the heavenly unity and aura of Law emanating from this weapon was unstable, signs that it was not a finished product but an incomplete Heavenly Treasure.
Many of the Sages that Wei Wuyin had encountered had complete Heavenly Treasures, the standard of Mystic Overlords and Sages from beyond the Utmost Purity Galaxy that Wei Wuyin had met thus far have all been quite high. For example, the Abyssal Overlords were rulers of their respective galaxies who had access to an unseemingly amount of materials and resources and many of their Heavenly Treasures came from the White Abyss while the Resolute Dusk Galaxy's Sages were Sages who had similar, if not, greater access while most of the Heavenly Treasures were produced By their joint effort, as three of the Heavenly Treasures were made by Imentet's Law of Light.
The process of creating a Heavenly Treasure was both expensive and difficult, with a high chance of failure, and not every Mystic Overlord or Sage had access to this tool that could kill Sages. To add, without a Heavenly Treasure, the threat one posed to a Sage's Soulguard was almost non-existent without extensive refinement.
Teng Jiangwen didn't have a Heavenly Treasure of his own despite being a Sage with a Minor Law.
The vast majority of cultivators in the Mystic Ascendant Realm relied on Mystic-Earth and Mystic-World graded armaments that contained the principles of the Mystic Dao.
Wei Wuyin observed the spear with narrowed eyes. He had an inkling of an idea as to why Zai Yingwen was a Sinful Sage, but he couldn't be absolutely certain.
Zai Yingwen charged at the mountain-slinging Sage with his spear. Mustering her remaining strength, Skytouch readied to execute a Spiritual Spell. The mountain-slinging Sage was without fear, using two fingers to slice toward Skytouch, before using their leg to clash with Zai Yingwen's spear of slaughter.
A raging whirlwind of power ravaged the Main Hall, sending individuals flying about like headless flies as they crushed against walls, smashed against tables, or were sent out of holes and into the Dark Void.
Zai Yingwen's eyes widened instantly as he felt the weighty strength traverse through the spear. He tried to send a pulse of power to disperse the slithering strength but was met with failure as it crushed his power and entered his body. In a flash, he spat a geyser of glaringly red blood as he was sent back a few feet.
The mountain-slinging Sage kept the momentum, arriving beside him with three palm strikes to the body in his brief delay, shattering his Mystic Ward with consecutive strikes.
The first impacted it with ripples, the second caused cracks to surface, and the third shattered it like exploding glass as the palm met flesh, causing Zai Yingwen's ears, mouth, eyes, and nostrils to spew out blood.
With a slap of their left hand across a face as a finishing touch, the mountain-slinging Sage sent Zai Yingwen into the floor of the palace, piercing until he hit the foundation of the palatial structure, sending rumbling throughout the continent and sky.
Meanwhile, Skytouch was unable to gather spiritual power for her spell as a weighty ashen grey mountain was conjured and smashed into her body, crushing her into a wall. She had to desperately roar outwards as her power projected around her, forcefully stopping the mountain's attempt to turn her into meat paste and then some.
The mountain-slinging Sage's foundational Mystic Power was a level higher than Pakhet and the others. If Wei Wuyin had to guess, they had condensed a fourth-tier True Breath of a Sage to enter sagehood, establishing a firm foundation of power.
Zai Yingwen wasn't weak either, having miraculously condensed a second-tier True Breath of a Sage to sagehood, but the difference between each tier was clearly displayed in a few moves. He was outclassed.
That said, it wasn't entirely fair; the hooded cloak was a Heavenly Treasure on the verge of becoming a Supreme Heavenly Treasure! Moreover, each attack carried the mountainous strength of the Minor Earth Law!
Whoever this person was, they were strong!
Having dealt with the two Sages, the mountain-slinging Sage took decisive flight, about to disappear. Just as their figure melded halfway with the shadows, a viscous river of thick color whipped towards him like a painted dragon. It was astonishingly quick and blasted the mountain-slinging Sage into the floor.
It dragged them across the floor like a mighty and ferocious god before slamming them to the westernmost wall.
Sage Painted Star—Yuchi Yiseng—had returned!
"They have Shang Wanqing!" Shang Liu shouted. As a Mystic Overlord, the best he could do at this level of conflict was inform others. "Beware the cloak! It's a Heavenly Treasure!" He stayed where he was, but he sent a message to Azure Rain regarding Sui Yuan's condition.
Yuchi Yiseng's breathing was a little labored. He had taken an attack unguarded from another Sage. He suffered tremendously due to it and had only just regained consciousness. He didn't have time to account for the revived mortals and cultivators, and held his large human-sized paint brush with hairs of gold and its tip dipped and dripping in rainbow. The slender shaft of the brush was used like a staff as he brandished it expertly, calming his turbulent aura.
Who in the heavens were these people?! Unfortunately, that question couldn't be easily answered at the moment as the mountain-slinging Sage blasted out of the river of colorful paint, tainted by all sorts of vibrant colors, and blitzed toward Sage Painted Star!
This was domineering! This was imposing!

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