Above the skies of the Southern Borderlands, two terrifying auras stood in opposition. The very air seemed to thicken and crackle with their power.
As their energies clashed, a faint tremor ran through the entire Wei-Wu Continent. To the mortals below, a Divine Transformation cultivator was no different from a true god, and the power on display was beyond their comprehension.
"Today's misfortune is my own doing!"
Upon hearing Su Min's name, the hunched figure let out a cold, resigned snort. He began to gather his energy, clearly intending to flee.
"Leaving will not be so easy," Su Min's voice cut through the air, sharp and final. "The lives lost in the desert their debt has yet to be settled. Remember, this land is under my protection. Since you have come, you will stay here forever. Golden Crow Ancient Bell!"
In the next instant, she clapped her hands together. A massive, brilliantly golden bell materialized in the sky above them. This bell had always been a somewhat awkward tool for her, not ideal for direct combat. But now, it served a different, more critical purpose: to devour and isolate a vast stretch of space.
The Golden Crow Ancient Bell was a replica of the legendary Donghuang Bell, and now it possessed a sliver of that divine might. In the blink of an eye, everyone below witnessed a horrifying sight as the golden bell flashed across the sky, the azure heavens themselves seeming to be swallowed by an inky darkness where it passed. Su Min had used the bell to consume the very space around them. The shattered void was slowly repairing itself at the edges, but the all-consuming darkness within the bell's influence remained.
"You!"
Inside the confined space of the Golden Crow Ancient Bell, the figure was both shocked and furious. Su Min had just severed his escape route, forcing him into a fight to the death. His only goal was survival, avoiding battle whenever possible. This was the common trait of all Fallen Ones. None who reached this level were heroes; they were ancient monsters who would do anything to cling to life.
The Black Serpent had been the same. Had he known a Dragon Princess was allied with Su Min, he would never have dared to show his face.
"Do not worry," Su Min said, a calm smile on her face as she looked at the hunched old man. "The Golden Crow Ancient Bell is an Imperial Artifact of the Golden Crow Clan. Only a pure-blooded Golden Crow can unleash its true power. Right now, all I can do is trap you here."
She was telling the truth, but she knew that admitting a limitation outright often made an enemy more suspicious, not less. It sowed doubt.
"Like hell I believe you!"
The old man sneered inwardly. If she had gone so far as to use an Imperial Artifact to trap him, there was nothing left to say. It was time to fight. And conveniently, this girl's vitality was terrifyingly potent. Devouring her might just restore him to his peak. At that thought, a trickle of drool escaped the corner of his mouth, making him look like a senile old fool.
"So he sees me as a great supplement," Su Min sighed internally. This was always the way. If she were not strong enough, she would be nothing more than a resource to beings like him. They did not know her lifespan was infinite if they did, every Fallen One would go mad with greed.
Her hands moved swiftly, forming complex seals. A hundred-meter-long wooden dragon materialized beneath her feet, its form coiling with vibrant, life-giving energy. The Azure Dragon Saint Avatar was balanced, with no overwhelming strengths but no glaring weaknesses either. It was the safest choice against an unknown ancient monster.
"Good, good. This old man had no intention of making an enemy of you. But since you insist, your flesh and blood shall be the key to my return to the Dao Comprehension Stage." The old man's voice was a dry rasp. "Remember the name of your killer: I am the Emperor Tianxiu, founder of the Tianxiu Dynasty. Once, I brought prosperity to this land. Now, it is time for this land to repay me."
"Oh?" Su Min's burning pupils flickered with recognition. The Tianxiu Dynasty a name lost to antiquity, even older than the Great Wei that had collapsed centuries ago. It had been overthrown by the founder of the Wei Dynasty. And its last emperor... "Your dynasty's final emperor spent five hundred years turning himself into a corpse demon. Pity I killed him. His demon core was the key to my Golden Core breakthrough."
BOOM!
The moment Su Min finished speaking, a terrifying energy erupted from the old man. Were it not for the Golden Crow Ancient Bell's containment, the Southern Borderlands would have been scoured clean in an instant.
"So be it. Victory and defeat are the way of the world. Heaven's Net Annihilation Claw!"
A colossal black claw materialized in the confined sky, slamming down toward Su Min with pure, undiluted murderous intent. This was no probing strike.
"Interesting..."
Feeling the crushing pressure, Su Min marveled inwardly. This was nothing like her battle with Xuan Mengyin. This was a truly lethal assault. She drew her newly upgraded Earth-grade mid-tier sword and slashed upward.
"Five Elements Annihilation Slash!"
Reversing the five elements within her body, the radiant, multicolored slash she released was devastating. It tore through the colossal claw effortlessly and continued straight toward the old man himself.
"Hmph." The old man's eyebrow twitched in surprise. He shattered the remaining energy of the slash with a wave of his hand, but the message was clear: this junior was far more powerful than her cultivation suggested. In that case...
"Hah!"
His body suddenly erupted with a thick, black mist. A monstrous half-beast, half-human figure emerged before Su Min, its form shifting and unnatural.
Staring at the abomination, Su Min froze for a moment before a name surfaced in her mind. "Taotie?"
It was impossible not to recognize it. She had seen something similar before. But this thing had a physical body. It was neither human nor demon, but a horrifying fusion.
"Correct. This old man once encountered a dying Taotie. After a near-fatal struggle, I fused my flesh with its remains. This body allowed me to reach the Dao Comprehension Stage. Now, witness my Dao Devour Heaven and Earth!"
The monstrous beast's gaping maw stretched wide, and an inescapable vortex of suction enveloped Su Min, trying to drag her into its depths.
"This is not a spectral possession. It has a physical body. I cannot just brute-force it!"
Su Min's eyes narrowed. She tossed out a single feather, summoning a hundred-meter-long Vermilion Bird. It was instantly swallowed whole. But just before it entered the beast's maw, she detonated it.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion rang out, but the blast was swallowed before it could properly spread, causing only a faint tremor.
"I see..."
Su Min's brows furrowed. She threw out two more feathers.
BOOM! BOOM!
The twin explosions barely made a dent, only causing the beast's maw to shudder slightly. The suction weakened perceptibly. That could only mean one thing its capacity was not infinite. Even a true Taotie's Devour Heaven and Earth had limits. The ability did not truly consume everything; it transported targets into a special internal space for gradual refinement. But due to his flawed fusion, this old man seemed to have misunderstood its true purpose and could not wield its full power.
"Since that is the case..."
A plan formed in Su Min's mind. Her sleek, black Xuanwu armor materialized around her with a thought. Then, the wooden dragon beneath her feet transformed into a streak of light, and she shot forward, not away from the vortex, but straight into the Taotie's gaping maw.
"!!!"
The Emperor Tianxiu was stunned. But Su Min was too fast. Before he could react, she had plunged into his body. The space fell eerily silent.
His Taotie body could reduce anything it swallowed to nothingness. Was she committing suicide? Even with her Black Tortoise armor, the corrosive environment inside would drain her spiritual energy in minutes. This was going far too smoothly. Then his expression twisted further in rage because his original plan had been to consume her flesh. If she was fully digested, he would gain nothing. Having possessed this body for so long, he knew its flaw: anything he swallowed was digested and expelled as waste, not converted into usable energy.
"Is that woman insane? To avoid being devoured, she would do this?"
Meanwhile, inside the strange, corrosive space, Su Min's eyes narrowed. "Spiritual energy drains quickly, but with the Northern Water's Profound Origin, I can endure. He cannot digest me easily. But the darkest place is under the lampstone he will have no surveillance here."
A cold smirk played on her lips. In her past life, she had seen countless stories. One lesson stood out: never swallow things recklessly. Any creature that devoured indiscriminately would meet the same fate being blown apart by exceeding their limits.
So without hesitation, she popped two pills into her mouth.
[Mystic Spirit Treasure Pill (6th Tier Mid-Grade): Temporarily grants vast amounts of spiritual energy upon consumption.]
The pills took effect instantly, flooding her with violent energy. These were life-or-death burst pills, not meant for casual use—their backlash could ravage meridians. But thanks to the Divine Tree within her, Su Min could handle two at once.
With the pills in her system, Su Min summoned two more Possessions. Without wasting time, she muttered:
"Unite the Four Symbols—EXPLODE!"
[Commanding the Four Symbols: Simultaneously controls all four Possessions, harmonizing or clashing their energies. Harmony brings life, conflict brings annihilation.]
Instantly, Su Min reversed the three avatars' energies. Though lacking the White Tiger weakened the effect, it was still devastating. Without the pills, Su Min wouldn't have had enough energy to unleash this.
A dazzling, chaotic light erupted, filling the entire space.
Outside—
"Huh?"
The Emperor Tianxiu froze, then his face paled dramatically. A searing, tearing pain erupted from his core where his inner space resided. Before he could even process it, the uncontrollable energy tore through him from the inside out!
"Impossible! Is that woman actually a Dao Comprehension Stage expert?!"
In that moment, pure terror gripped him. His stomach had a high limit, but an early-stage Divine Transformation cultivator should not have been able to breach it. A horrifying realization struck him had that cunning woman been masking her true cultivation all along?
"NO!"
A despairing wail escaped him as the energy swelled uncontrollably within. His body bloated grotesquely, stretching his form into a monstrous, spherical mass of flesh.
BOOM!
A final, cataclysmic explosion rocked the confined space. The mighty Emperor Tianxiu was utterly vaporized, reduced to nothingness.
"Ah, satisfying," Su Min said, reappearing in the void where the creature had been, her armor scuffed but intact. "As expected, all who take without restraint must burst."
The explosion had been so complete that not even bone fragments remained.
But as she stretched, her expression suddenly sharpened. With a cold smirk, she thrust out a hand, manifesting a hundred-meter-long giant claw of pure energy that clamped down on a seemingly empty patch of space.
"ARGH!"
A scream rang out as a wriggling, ethereal figure was yanked into her grasp. It was the old man's primordial spirit, his face twisted in horror and disbelief. At the last moment before the explosion, he had abandoned his body and fled as a spirit, hiding with a secret technique. He had planned to escape once Su Min withdrew the Golden Crow Ancient Bell.
"Fascinating. It seems fusing with that body altered even your primordial spirit," Su Min mocked, her grip tightening. "But did you really think you could hide from a 6th Tier alchemist? How laughable."
Her soul power, rivaling a peak Dao Comprehension expert, had detected him instantly.
"Since that is the case, you will serve one final purpose. I will reunite you with your descendant."
Meeting his terrified gaze, Su Min coldly produced her treasure gourd and aimed it at him. In the next instant, he was sucked inside without even a final scream.
After devouring hundreds of thousands of lives, he had met the same fate consumed by another.
Truly, the heavens' retribution was just.