It was a woman.
She had ocean blue eyes that seemed to contain a dense spirituality, long, brunette hair cascaded down her back like a perfectly gentle waterfall and split at her shoulders. Those strands of hair seemed to be perfect, and they led one's gaze to an utterly mesmerizing valley that was her chest.
Her height wasn't impressive, being average, but her slim, bottle-like frame, incredible curves, and flawless jade skin left one breathless and desiring to see more. Her long, thin eyelashes and phoenix-like eyes that seemed to carry profound truths of the world drew one further into the abyss that was her beauty.
Godlord Lin!
When Wei Wuyin saw her, he stilled. She was gorgeous and seemed to be even more so than before. He had never expected to meet the possessor of the Haven Heart Monolith here of all places.
She had a beautiful frown that made one wish to eliminate all that could cause it. When he had first seen her in the Scarlet Solaris Sect, he was only at the Fourth Stage of Qi Condensation, nothing worthy of her notice, but now, he had become a Mortal God.
He often recalled what would happen if he told her about his successful cultivation of the Haven Heart Qi Method. Actually, that's not true. He had changed the fourth level and directly bypassed the fifth level. What he successfully cultivated could be considered a unique, more perfect version of the technique.
Would she stay true to her words and become his? This thought crossed his mind like a pervasive lightning bolt.
He saw another beautiful woman standing next to her. This woman was more modest and, while beautiful, had a very holy feeling to her. He could've sworn that she was emitting faint traces of intent that subdued the spirit. It felt transcendent and sacred.
When he looked at that woman again, he couldn't help but marvel. His first impression had changed immediately. She was a heavenly beauty, her blonde hair and blue eyes were perfect. She was shorter than Godlord Lin, but her physique was shapely and her breasts and ass were perky and tight.
One can tell she had an exceptionally powerful body beneath those white robes of hers.
He licked his lips unintentionally as a fire was lit in his heart. He had the urge to strike up a conversation, but then he recalled Godlord Lin and his mind cleared up. He chuckled to himself and inwardly shook his head.
He didn't want to die by making rash decisions with foolish confidence. Shu Yang was a constant reminder to him that things needed to be taken slowly.
He took a deep breath and walked up to the counter. The two ladies didn't even notice him as Godlord Lin had a frown and a look of contemplation while the blonde haired woman was silently waiting, her eyes shone with a faint want.
That faint desire almost made Wei Wuyin loudly gulp a wad of saliva, but he suppressed it. His heart was burning for her. It was like her every action could tease a man dry, birthing an intense desire of conquest.
The store clerk was a thin-looking, bearded man who was looking at the two with glowing eyes. When Wei Wuyin arrived, he shot him a brief glance and thought for a moment. He looked at the two women, but seeing that they were still thinking, he politely called out, "Excuse me."
The two didn't even react to his words. The clerk, however, made his way over with a smile, but Wei Wuyin could sense a tinge of impatience within.
Wei Wuyin smiled and said, "I'm looking for high-level Ice Essence, do you have any?"
The clerk's eyes shined and he nodded, "I have top quality ones! If you gave birth to their qi, you would reach the heavens in a single leap!"
Wei Wuyin became excited. He needed a high-level Ice Essence. He thought he would need to wait for a lucky chance, but he forgot that the world didn't revolve around lucky chances. Instead, it was more tangible and consistent. The things you're looking for, others could have them, and they could be ready for purchase.
After all, the sect had violet lightning crystals, no?
The clerk smiled and listed off his Ice Essences, "There's the Everfrost Ice Essence. This ice essence can give birth to qi that is difficult to melt even at high temperatures! If you birth Everfrost Ice Qi, your advantage against fire arts would be absolute! I have two stones, worth forty-two essence stones each!"
Wei Wuyin frowned. The Everfrost Ice Essence could be considered a high-level essence, but it was rather weak. While it was resilient to heat, it was fragile in terms of offensive and defensive means. It couldn't even win a battle of attrition. It was only a counter-type essence.
Observing Wei Wuyin's expression, the clerk snorted inwardly. "There's an exceptional Ice Essence even better than the Everfrost Ice Essence, the Cryo Life Ice Essence! If birthed as a qi, it can seal lifeforce! If you use it to temper your body, you'll extend your life! I have three stones of such, worth seventy each!"
Wei Wuyin was shocked that he had such an ice essence, but he still frowned in the end. The issue was that it could seal lifeforce but it required an immense consumption of qi daily, lowering one's combat efficiency. It can also contain life energy and be used to store it, but unless you reach the Godlord level, the Eighth Phase, Infused Spirituality Phase, you can't have it leave your sight.
The uses were limited and if you wanted to trap someone, putting them in ice was pointless. They would become icicles, and they'd either die or live anyhow, so sealing their lifeforce was pretty irrelevant.
The clerk smiled witnessing Wei Wuyin's high standards, "Those two give you a higher chance of birthing ice qi. The next essence is impossible to birth as qi."
"Impossible?" Wei Wuyin became intrigued.
"Yes. Impossible," he said with a sigh.
"I'm interested!" Wei Wuyin stated.
The clerk gave him a long look, but coldly smiled inwardly. "The price is incredible and its very, very, very dangerous! I recommend you pick one of the other two." He informed with a helpless expression, as if to say: "You can't do it."
"I said I'm interested." Wei Wuyin knew what the clerk was doing, playing upon his ego to bait him, but he didn't care. He was curious about this last essence, and he already had some ideas of what it was.
"Okay! The Absolute Zero Ice Essence. It is so deadly that touching it can freeze your blood in an instant. It has the highest frost energy purity out of any ice essence and is the coldest essence rumored to exist. There have been many who've tried to refine it, but everyone who's tried has died!" The clerk said solemnly.
"This!" Wei Wuyin's eyes brightened. Absolute Zero Ice Essence?! That was said to be the coldest form of ice in existence and takes frost energy to its extreme. It was rumored that it can flash freeze literal fire. However, he also knew that what the clerk said was the truth.
No one had ever succeeded. It didn't have a talent requirement, but because it was truly dangerous and lethal. Absorbing that pure frost energy was as dangerous as absorbing pure yin and pure yang. In fact, pure energy in general was fatal. However, frost energy can instantly kill, making it especially dangerous.
Wei Wuyin had to say that, if he compared all his elemental energies, none of them matched the pure frost energy within a single Absolute Zero Ice Essence.
He closed his eyes in thought.
"How much?" He asked.
"I have only one stone, it's worth one hundred and fifty essence stones." The clerk said with a little mocking in his voice, as if saying: "I told you, you won't do it. Know your limits."
Wei Wuyin wasn't provoked by the man but he was calculating. Calculating his possibility of success with a single stone and survival chances.
He had two Hearts of Qi, and it contained twelve types of energies, excluding the most basic type, and he felt it could work. A single stone may be little, but he had to try at least. If he could only birth a normal ice qi, he would just come back and buy one of the other two.
He decided to purchase it.
"I'll take it."
The clerk's eyes lit up and he ran off to the back in a hurry. When he came back, he brought a child-sized blue box. It emitted frost energy and the temperature of the room dropped by sixty degrees, even with the box blocking off a vast majority of frost energy.
Comparing it to the Blazing Inferno Magma Essence, who increased the temperature by forty without being sealed, there was a clear difference!
After ensuring that the item was the actual item, without any tricks, Wei Wuyin made the purchase. The clerk was happy. He had just sold off a product no one wanted! He felt like laughing, but it would be a little much with those two guests here.
Wei Wuyin placed the ice box in the second layer of the three-layered ring. Only the weird book was there, and the paper won't suffer from the temperature drop.
Just as he was about to walk out of the shop, the blonde woman abruptly said, "That stone is a calamity. There is no fortune there."
Her voice was like a beautiful lark, and it caused his body to shiver. He didn't turn around. Instead, he asked, "How do you know?"
The woman was silent for nearly a minute, but Wei Wuyin wasn't willing to leave without an answer. The word calamity was like a trigger to him. The Eighteen Calamities of Hell was constantly lingering over his head and left him desiring strength to overcome it.
Then, she spoke, "The world says you, at the Fifth Phase, can not overcome it. It is certain failure, certain death." As she said that, her eyes turned around as those blue eyes suffused with a trace of heavenly karma.
Wei Wuyin stilled instantly.
What?!
Then, he abruptly laughed. He laughed loudly and with heart. An amusement suffused his entire body. This came from his very soul, as if it considered hsr words an absolute joke.
She was a fortune teller? Seer? Oracle? He had read about them in the Scriptures of Sin. They were beings who could peer into the Heavenly Daos. No, the truth was that they can ask them questions and receive vague answers, sometimes in words, sometimes in images.
For example, if Wei Wuyin had asked her if his mission against the Ash Dragon City Lord would be successful, she could only give an idea of what the heavens arranged. The Heavenly Daos had an improper understanding of his abilities and strength to begin with, so it would've been considered as a high risk, small window of opportunity, but a tiny chance for great benefit.
Instead, it was exceptionally low to no risk, there was no time window, and the benefits were incredible.
This was why she got his cultivation base wrong. His cultivation was powerful and pure yin-yang energy was stored in his Hearts of Qi. Unless he revealed his strength by using yin-yang qi, at most, they would assume he was at the Fifth Phase. This was why Wu Xinghong, the Ancestral Elder of the Scarlet Solaris Sect, was also unable to determine his cultivation base with a glance.
The heavens would also assume wrong because he wasn't guided to have two Hearts of Qi that helped refine the Yin-Yang God Sphere, and it couldn't properly judge him due to the Bloodline of Sin. So it's going off a fool's assumption.
It likely didn't even realize he had a Nascent Saber Soul.
"Do you care to make a bet?" Wei Wuyin turned around and looked at her directly in those beautiful eyes.
She frowned, "I was only warning you. Heed or not, it's your future." To her, she was doing Wei Wuyin a kindness. If he wanted to throw his life away, she couldn't do anything about that.
With her eyes, she could see the flow of karmic fate interlaced in the heavenly daos of people and events. She knew that according to karmic fate, Wei Wuyin wasn't destined to succeed in refining the Absolute Zero Ice Essence, if he tried, he would without a doubt die. He didn't have sufficient luck or ability to succeed in that endeavor.
"Scared?" Wei Wuyin coldly mocked.
The blonde woman frowned. Scared?! Do you not see that I'm just trying to save your life? If you don't want to listen, then don't listen! Why would I bet with a dead man? She screamed internally, but only pouted on the surface. Her pouted lips were exceptionally cute, causing Wei Wuyin's heart to stir.
"I'll give you a piece of Blazing Inferno Magma Essence, if I fail, you can keep it." He withdrew a piece of magma essence causing the temperature to abruptly rise.
The store clerk and blonde woman were shocked as they looked at the dark crimson stone. Moreover, Wei Wuyin was holding it with his bare hands. The stone itself definitely burned hundreds of degrees, yet he held it with ease.
That stone was rather large and was definitely enough for multiple people to birth the rare magma qi.
A tinge of desire entered her eyes. If she had that, and was lucky enough to birth Blazing Inferno Magma Qi, then the long-term benefits were immeasurable.
"..." She bit her bottom lip, her eyes suffused with temptation.
When Wei Wuyin saw that action, a fire was lit in his heart once more. This woman may come off as sacred and holy, but she had the looks of a temptress.
Godlord Lin noticed the sudden shift in temperature and saw Wei Wuyin. She frowned as she saw his silver eyes, handsome visage, and confident smile.
"Aren't you?" She thought for a moment and recalled, "You're that boy who reached the fourth phase in his mid-twenties, the Scarlet Solaris Sect's disciple."
Wei Wuyin slightly smiled after finally grasping Godlord Lin's attention. He greeted her with a slight bow and clasp of his hands, "It is a pleasure to meet you again, Godlord Lin."
The blonde woman was surprised that the two knew each other.
"Agree to the bet," Godlord Lin casually said. She trusted the blonde woman's deductions and didn't care about Wei Wuyin's fate. Why not benefit from an idiot's confidence? Recalling Shu Yang who she crippled, her impression of the Scarlet Solaris Sect disciples was that they were rash, hasty, arrogant, and stupid.
The men thought too much with their lower head and not their upper one. She clearly saw Wei Wuyin's lust and wrote him off.
"I don't usually like doing something like this, but sure." The blonde woman lightly shook her head and sent out a trace of qi to retrieve the magma essence.
Wei Wuyin let her take it, shaking his head inwardly at her confidence. "I haven't even said what I want if I win this bet and succeed, no? That's some confidence."
The blonde woman just gave an indifferent smile. She stopped caring about Wei Wuyin, so she didn't care about the condition. To her, he can't win because he can't birth the Absolute Zero Ice Qi without dying.
Godlord Lin interjected, "There should be a time limit. A month is enough."
Wei Wuyin knew why she would say that. If he waited until he became a Godlord and birthed it by some godforsaken luck, then the losses wouldn't be worth it. He had to refine it in that short period otherwise her prediction would fail.
"I agree, but If I win. I think I want you as a…"
"You shouldn't demand what you shouldn't demand," Godlord Lin interrupted, her eyes flashing with a dangerous intent. Wei Wuyin stood there stunned. Weren't they certain he would lose? Why can't he say what he wants to say?
The blonde woman chuckled softly. She seemed to grow excited by Godlord Lin's actions.
With a sigh, Wei Wuyin said clearly, "Fine. You must listen to my every order for an entire day. I won't force you to become a slave forever, give up your primal yin, force you to marry, and I also won't order you to bring physical harm to you or put you in harm's way for that entire day. However, besides that, anything goes. Is this good?"
Godlord Lin's eyes frowned.
"Sure!" The blonde woman cheerily agreed. She had already stored the magma essence in her storage space with a holy smile.
"Swear an oath on your spirit!" Wei Wuyin said. A spirit oath was a serious internal promise. If broken, one's spirit would shatter. Only Qi Condensation experts can make this promise, and without one's spirit, well…
Boom.
"Hmph. I swear an oath with my spirit that this bet will be upheld." She swore.
"I swear an oath with my spirit that this bet will be upheld." Wei Wuyin also did so. A formless pressure enveloped his spirit.
This wasn't the first time he had swore an oath. However, he was shocked to discover only one spirit had the restriction! If he broke the bet, he could abandon a Heart of Qi and survive.
His eyes flashed and he smiled.
"One month. I'll be here in exactly one month from today!" He said, taking his leave.
The two didn't seem to care. Godlord Lin had already turned away and went back to contemplation while the blonde woman smiled with glee at her sudden windfall. She didn't care if Wei Wuyin became an icicle, it was his own fault, no?