"Sigh…"
Su Min exhaled deeply, a stream of scorching air escaping her parched lips and shimmering in the heavy heat of the room. The space around her was in total shambles. Every plant she had placed there for decoration had withered and turned to gray ash under the intense, unrelenting temperature, and several parts of the wooden furniture and wall decorations had carbonized, turning black and brittle. The air itself smelled of ozone and charcoal, thick enough to make her throat itch.
The cause?
It was the weapon currently hovering steadily in the air before her, radiating a fierce, undulating glow.
[Vermilion Bird's Flameblade / Nanming Lihuo Sword (High Yellow-tier) (Upgradable)]
[Effects:]
[① Flame Resonance – Perfectly harmonized with the Vermilion Bird's flames, drastically amplifying their destructive power.]
[② Armor Piercer – Attacks gain enhanced penetration against spiritual defenses.]
"It even has a name now, and the effects are fully manifested," she observed, her eyes tracing the pulse of light along the crimson steel. She reached out and took firm hold of the slender, crimson-hued sword. The hilt felt warm and hummed gently against her palm, vibrating with a life of its own. "It must be because I refined all the materials using the concentrated heat of my Nanming Lihuo."
The two effects were a perfect complement to her divine abilities. She knew most people's "Heavenly Revelations" granted them powerful cultivation techniques or unique combat skills to use in the world. Hers, however, had been different from the very start. They granted her direct access to the divine abilities themselves.
While her current acquired abilities couldn't yet compare to true, innate divine powers, she knew that with enough time and cultivation, they would eventually surpass them. Her chosen path was one of exponential growth, though she recognized that the early stages were grueling and had left her combat prowess feeling incomplete for a long time.
Outside her closed room, a small crowd of observers had gathered in the hallway, drawn by the phenomenal heat radiating through the walls. The wood of the hallway floor was hot to the touch, and the air shimmered with an invisible haze.
"Good heavens! How hot is it in there?!" one of the three young cultivators whispered. He used his sleeve to wipe thick beads of sweat from his brow, his face flushed a deep red.
"Remember, senior fought us barehanded," another replied, his voice hushed and filled with awe as he leaned his shoulder against the opposite wall. "She didn't use a weapon, and she certainly didn't unleash her flames on us back then."
"Don't even mention it," the third chimed in, gesturing toward the guards stationed farther down the hall who were already drenched in sweat, their armor slick and gleaming. "Look at them. It isn't even a warm day outside, yet they look like they are standing in the middle of a sauna."
"What is she forging in there to cause such a commotion?"
"Whatever it is," a middle-aged voice—that of Sect Leader Mo—abruptly cut through their idle chatter. He rounded the corner with his hands tucked into his sleeves, his brow furrowed. "It's good news for us." He silenced the youngsters with a sharp look, though a thread of tension laced his own words. "Those two old monsters from the grasslands are far beyond our current capabilities to handle."
Inside the ruined, smoke-stained room, Su Min murmured to herself, "Seems everyone is gathered outside. My final preparations are complete."
A high-grade Yellow-tier weapon was the absolute best she could obtain at her current stage of cultivation, and she knew it would have to suffice for the foreseeable future. Now, all that remained for her was to wait for the storm of war to finally break.
"Ah, right." She blinked, as if waking from a long trance. "I almost forgot his weapon."
She had been so utterly engrossed in the meticulous process of refining her own blade that she had nearly neglected her promise to Sect Leader Mo. The man was probably growing impatient standing outside her door. She strode toward the exit, her new sword held loosely in her hand.
"This is the weapon I promised you," she began, pulling the handle to open the door. "Take it and—"
Crack!
Before she could finish her sentence, the heavy wooden doors, already weakened and dried out by the prolonged, intense heat of the forge, finally gave way. They splintered loudly at the hinges and collapsed inward with a groaning crash that sent a cloud of charcoal dust and gray soot into the air.
An awkward silence fell over the gathered crowd in the corridor. But Sect Leader Mo hardly noticed the minor disaster of the door. His eyes were locked onto the other sword in Su Min's hand, the one she had just crafted specifically for him. Even before touching the hilt, he was completely entranced, his expression that of a man beholding a priceless, legendary treasure.
Su Min shot him a sidelong glance of mild disgust at his gaping mouth. "Hmph. Men and their weapons," she muttered under her breath.
Then it happened.
A shiver, cold and unmistakable, coursed through her spiritual core, a sensation entirely separate from the room's lingering heat.
"The Heavenly Dao Insight is activating again!"
Without another word of explanation to the stunned crowd, she all but shoved the Thunderbrand Sword into Sect Leader Mo's surprised hands and shooed everyone away with an impatient wave. She then retreated back into her heat-scorched room, ignoring the collapsed doorway and the staring eyes. This was unexpected.
Her divine ability had been dormant lately, not for lack of trying on her part, but because her comprehension had reached a temporary limit. Any more insights risked overwhelming her mind. She knew that once she reached Foundation Establishment, the dam would break and the backlog of understanding would flood in. But this sudden activation was different.
"It's the Path of Longevity!"
Sitting cross-legged on her simple, charred bed, Su Min closed her eyes as a stream of profound knowledge surged into her mind like a cooling river. Only a revelation related to this specific, life-extending path could trigger it now.
[Changchun Gong – First Layer]
Inhale…
She hadn't anticipated her Changchun Gong advancing at this very moment.
"Changchun Gong… the art of longevity," she whispered, tasting the ancient concept as if it were a physical sweetness on her tongue.
As she meditated on the technique's new spiritual flow, its fundamental nature became clear to her. It was gentle. It was profoundly, fundamentally gentle, unlike the volatile, powerful fusion of fire and wood that characterized her main cultivation method. Its hallmark was endurance: it drastically reduced her spiritual energy consumption and accelerated its recovery rate. It was a pleasant and incredibly timely surprise.
"My sustainability in battle just doubled."
With this advancement, her Vermilion Bird Possession could now last twice as long as before. As for the Tiger Soul Possession? The cost for that was always lower, as it wasn't the true White Tiger's power, merely its precursor among the Four Symbols. With no outward physical changes required for that form, she could now maintain it almost indefinitely in her late Qi Refining stage.
"Now, all that's left is the battle itself."
Her eyes narrowed with focused intent. Those two hundred thousand troops had to be nearing readiness on the border. Once she slew those two elders and seized their fire and earth elemental treasures, she could finally begin her Heavenly Foundation Establishment. But that path was long and arduous, and she would need prolonged, undisturbed seclusion to see it through to the end.
"Once I reach Foundation Establishment, even if the Demon Queen emerges early, they won't be able to kill me." A steely resolve settled in her heart. "I might even start preparing my countermeasures against her."
As the first major boss in the grand scheme of things, Su Min knew the Demon Queen's abilities and weaknesses intimately. But knowledge alone wasn't enough to secure victory. At the Qi Refining stage, she simply lacked the raw power to act on that knowledge. At Foundation Establishment? The real, tangible preparations could finally begin.
-
Meanwhile, in the Great Wei capital, a very different conversation was taking place within the cold stone walls of the palace. The shadows in the throne room were long and sharp, the air smelling of old incense and damp stone.
"Your Majesty, this is Prince Yong's official plea for aid." A minister presented a heavy scroll with a deep, respectful bow, his forehead nearly touching the cold floor.
The Emperor glanced at the document, then waved a dismissive hand. "Let Yong handle his own problems."
A cold smirk played on his lips as the minister retreated from the throne room.
"Let the grasslands and Yong tear each other apart. It saves us the trouble."
He picked up another intelligence report from the desk, his eyes glowering as he read the confirmation written there. "And that alchemist is holed up in Yong's estate, isn't she? If those two old bastards can kill her, all the better."
That woman was a persistent thorn in his side. Even after suffering such a public humiliation at her hands, neither he nor the Demon Queen had dared to press the issue further. A master alchemist of her caliber was a resource beyond price. At the height of her power, even the Demon Queen would have sought to recruit such a person, not make an enemy of her. Driving such a figure into outright, permanent opposition was unthinkable, especially now when they genuinely lacked the manpower to safely eliminate her.
So for now, he could do nothing.
He could only sit, wait, and pray that those two grassland elders were up to the task.
===
"Yu Yu, after dealing with the branch of contract she is now penniless. Move to another town, and get a new job, she stumbled into a new game "Eternal Darkness". With how weird and dangerous the Earth become, and how she was able to use the spell on real world, is there any connection between them? Is this really an ordinary game? Why does "anomaly" in the Earth same as with anomaly on "Alen Peninsula"? what decision was finally taken by Yu? In which side she finally in???"
-Games Invade Reality-