Wei Wuyin exited the room, closing the entrance, and then he halted his movements. Then, without warning, his nose, eyes, and mouth leaked grey blood. It was horrific looking, almost as if his blood was being squeezed out of his head, pushing through any orifice that was open.

He grasped his chest with his left hand, clutching tightly enough to rend his flesh. When he tried to lift his head, his body tittered and tottered about with imbalance. He could barely stand upright!

​​

The radiant silver light of his eyes dimmed considerably, clearly signifying the immense depletion of his mental energies. Still, he kept his mouth shut and didn't reveal a single sound.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, Eden's Astral Soul that was embedded within it was quivering non-stop. Its roots that penetrated throughout his Sea of Consciousness, fusing it and expanding it, were withered. This was a sign of all its astral force being expanded. Those withered roots were surrounding the formation he had inscribed when he cultivated the Celestial Eyes of Spiritual Divinity.

Wei Wuyin glanced at the ring within his hand, feeling a little gratified that it all worked out. 'Such a heavy risk. If it didn't work out, if it didn't last a single millisecond longer, perhaps I would've been completely drained, losing consciousness.' Thinking thus, he recalled his plan to take the ring.

There were only two options: take it by force or take it beneath their notice.

To be a thug or a thief.

The former option wasn't very likely. A single miscalculation and the Realmlord would be freed, and he would be forced to deal with those consequences. The latter didn't seem possible at first as it was worn by the Realmlord, and taking it from beneath their notice shouldn't be possible.

Fortunately, he had a method! His Celestial Eyes of Spiritual Divinity's Eye of Illusion. It could bring a subject into an illusory world of his making, and as long as he could replicate the room in a split second, ensuring no gap in the transition, he could drag the Realmlord into his illusion.

This was the only reason he spoke to the Realmlord, trying to draw away their attention. That being said, he couldn't use it to kill the Realmlord. With their Worldly Domain erected, a faint sense of overt danger would be noticed and his illusion would collapse. The issue was the power required to establish a powerful enough illusion to fool a Realmlord.

He had invested all his mental energies, empowering it with eden force until its utmost limits, and even then, he could only keep such a realistic replication for less than a minute. The crucial aspect was fooling the Worldly Domain, taking the ring from her finger.

To achieve that, he couldn't use an ounce of his own power, energies, or means to infiltrate. It also had to come from within the Worldly Domain, giving the Realmlord a false sense of security!

Zenith Origin State!

It had the unique ability to manipulate ambient mana to an extremely high degree, exceeding anything he'd seen thus far, and he used it to lift the ring in a similar manner as he'd establish mana flight, keeping up the illusion to dull the Realmlord's senses while it slowly left her finger.

But the illusion still remained the most difficult aspect of the plan, and his Sea of Consciousness suffered immensely as a result. A single mistake and he could've over exhausted himself, subsequently losing control of the formation, and then meeting a violent death by the hands of the newly freed Realmlord.

He took several breaths to relax himself, invigorating his mind a little. Afterwhich, he took out a vial of elixir, imbibed it with a single gulp, and felt Eden instantly absorb it. His mental energies started to rapidly replenish itself and the withered roots were growing thick and full.

If it wasn't for the need of continuous exertion and utter lack of distractions required, he wouldn't have been pushed to this limit. He had numerous elixirs and pills to support his exhaustion of mental energies. He wasn't a Mortal Sovereign Alchemist for nothing!

After several minutes, he had thoroughly regained his original state, cleaning up his bloody appearance. With a heavy breath, he brightly grinned as he regarded the ring in his hand. The Eye of Illusion and Eye of Truth were far too incredible and profound, being core components of his strength thus far, but he hadn't put much emphasis on the former.

The Eye of Illusion was exquisite and versatile, but it, just like the Eye of Truth and the Celestial Gaze, was very much dependent on his cultivation base and level of innate energies that fueled them. The stronger he became, the stronger they became.

Perhaps one day he would be able to engulf an entire world in an illusion or see the trend of the myriad starfields with a single glance, seeing unseen divinities!

Wei Wuyin left after recovering, returning to his room as he saw Ai Juling nuzzled with the sheets in her embrace, sleeping peacefully. He laid next to her, still clothed, and quietly contemplated matters.

He couldn't hold the city.

This was the first thought that entered his mind. At first, he believed he could with the Desolate Ninth Mountain Astral Formation at his beck and call, capable of suppressing Realmlords, but he discovered from the memories of the City Lord that the formation could be deactivated regardless of who controlled it using a special method. Unless he changed the aspects of the formation, redesigning it entirely, it was impossible to change this.

He couldn't. While he knew he was skilled in formations and arrays, he wasn't at that level yet. At most, he could resist the deactivation for a few moments, giving him some leeway, but that was it.

Furthermore, that wasn't the only issue. He learned of the terrifying strength of the twelve cities and the forces that oversee them in conjunction. To clarify, the twelve cities were each overseen by a Guardian, a single expert at the Realmlord level, and a City Lord that oversees the various technical matters of the city. But each city was controlled by not one but multiple forces that existed in The Desolate Lands and Central Region.

They were a complex web of integrated connections and relations. The city was something that concerned their interests, so they would certainly interfere and retrieve the city eventually. The Grandquake City was jointly owned by three forces, two clans and one sect.

The two clans originate from the Central Region while the sect was native to The Desolate Lands, and just the sect had a Timelord! Considering partnership in the cultivation world required equal or greater strength, it could be easily concluded that there were at least three Timelords with vested interest in the city.

Even if he wanted to control the city, he couldn't resist them! A Realmlord was widely considered as matchless to all beneath their cultivation phase, their Worldly Domain capable of dominating everyone, but Timelords had a similar consideration.

They were at the Eighth Stage of the Astral Core Realm, the Temporal Eye Phase, and they harnessed the elusive and nigh-inscrutable time energy! He didn't wish to be at the receiving end of that power, even with Kratos at his side.

Unless…

Wei Wuyin wasn't the short-sighted type. He knew that operating as he intended would force him to face those at that level sooner or later, and he had to have the means to do so.

Wei Wuyin held the ring in his hand, his eyes gleaming with an excited and meaningful light. He could've spent countless hours and days trying to obtain sufficient desolate pearls, but this direct and aggressive manner of action had solved his problem in a flash. If he had decided to act his standard way, through.careful trade and peaceful negotiation, he might've never obtained this amount of wealth.

After all, if he revealed to the world high-level alchemical products, others might even hunt him down. Even Realmlords! And it won't just be from three forces. He had little desire to deal with all that. But now, he had obtained decades of an entire city's wealth in the blink of an eye!

Wei Wuyin sent a message to Kratos, "It's time to recover!"

His heart throbbed intensely, racing with each beat accompanied by a faint draconic roar!