"What happened, what happened, what happened..."
The words tumbled from the lips of the late Divine Transformation expert in a frantic, disbelieving whisper, his mind reeling as he tried to process the impossible. Just moments ago, the spiritual presence of his three subordinates had been as clear and sharp as stars on a cold night, their killing intent poised to strike. Then, in the space between one heartbeat and the next, they were simply gone. Snuffed out. It was as if a giant, invisible hand had reached down from the heavens and plucked them from existence, leaving behind a void so absolute it was deafening.
This left him completely bewildered, his confidence shaken to its core. He had been watching the entire time, his spiritual sense stretched over the area like a fine net. No one else could have entered; the alliance they were monitoring didn't even have anyone stronger than him lurking in the shadows. If not for their need to keep the rampaging impurity beasts at bay, his faction would have already taken direct, overwhelming action against those people. The balance of power had been clear, or so he thought.
But what the hell just happened? The question echoed in his skull, finding no purchase, no answer.
In truth, despite observing from a significant distance, he had been monitoring the secret realm with meticulous care. However, his perception was nowhere near as sharp or profound as Su Min's. He had been unceremoniously dragged into her time-stop field without ever realizing it, completely unaware of her subtle, god-like interference. She had deliberately left him alive and ignorant, a single thread left unbroken to avoid prematurely alerting the vast, shadowy web of the enemy.
If she had killed a late Divine Transformation expert, the implications would have been obvious, sending shockwaves through the organization. Even taking out three early Divine Transformation cultivators was already pushing the boundaries of what could be explained away, but leaving one alive, confused and searching for answers, would sow far more discord and confusion, muddying the waters perfectly.
"This secret realm is so barren, there's practically nothing here?" Inside the dim, echoing cavern of the tomb, the late Nascent Soul leader couldn't help but voice his disappointment, his words bouncing off the stone walls. Lin Yao, however, pretended to be just as clueless, simply nodding along with a carefully crafted look of shared frustration. She knew this had been a meticulously laid trap meant to kill her, but the assassins had already been whisked away by Su Min, erased from the board before they could make their move. Still, she played her part flawlessly, following the group as they half-heartedly explored the so-called "tomb," a place that held no treasures, only deceit.
Outside, not too far away, hidden from sight and sense, Su Min kept her vigil.
"A late Divine Transformation expert... I'll keep an eye on him." She muttered the words to herself, a soft breath on the wind. She didn't stray too far from Lin Yao's location. She also took the opportunity to thoroughly search the minds of the three captives she held in stasis. As expected, she found a wealth of new information unfolding before her, a dark map of their operations that included the locations of over a dozen hidden bases, each one a secret scar on the world.
"Good heavens, did these people completely ransack the Kirin clan?" Su Min was genuinely stunned by the scale of what she uncovered. Just how had that fallen, desperate Mahayana cultivator managed to orchestrate such a comprehensive theft? The sheer audacity was staggering.
Once she returned to her own people, she'd have to tell the Golden Crow and the Dragon Girl about the Kirin's plight. They'd probably laugh their heads off, the sound both mocking and pitying. How could a divine beast clan, one of their same esteemed tier, end up in such a sorry state, their future stolen away egg by egg?
"That guy's gone. Time to act." She noted the late Divine Transformation expert's departure, his confusion finally driving him to retreat and report. His leaving meant Lin Yao was safe, for now, the immediate threat having passed.
And so, Su Min happily continued her covert operations, a ghost moving between the shadows, righting a terrible wrong.
-
Meanwhile, in a hidden chamber deep beneath the earth, sealed away from prying eyes, panic was setting in.
"They disappeared?!" The voice was sharp with barely contained fear. The group, a gathering of the organization's higher-ups, was in a panic. Three Divine Transformation experts, gone without a trace or a struggle. For them, this was a devastating, bone-deep loss. Cultivators of that level weren't easily replaced; they were pillars of their strength, and now three were simply missing.
The room fell into an eerie silence, thick and heavy with dread.
"Did we forget something?" The undercover Divine Transformation expert who had infiltrated the alliance suddenly spoke up, his voice cutting through the quiet.
"Hm?" The others turned to him, their attention sharpening.
"The Netherworld Ghost Flame descended from the heavens, its arrival was far too unnatural, too convenient," he began, his words measured. "According to our master's ancient records, deep in the starry skies, far beyond our world, there exists a special place. It is not a planet, but a vast continent suspended in the cosmos, defying all known natural laws. It's known as the Celestial Continent."
"You mean...?" The others exchanged glances, a dawning, unsettling realization beginning to take hold.
"Exactly. The Heavenly Continent is spoken of as the heart of all mysteries. It possesses the finest environment and resources, and even heavenly divine artifacts appear there in abundance. That Netherworld Ghost Flame, a treasure of legend, likely originated from there."
"Go on." The leader's voice was a low growl.
"That damned girl has a unique constitution, one we've never encountered in any of our records. She didn't even have a proper cultivation method and had to rely on self-enlightenment, piecing it together as she went. Yet, she reached the Golden Core stage at just thirty years old. Doesn't that strike you as absurd? It defies all logic."
"..."
The group fell into a heavy silence. While some legendary geniuses could advance rapidly through profound epiphanies, that process usually required vast amounts of time and accumulation. Lin Yao's progress was simply too fast, too unnatural, as if she were being carried along by an invisible current.
"Precisely," the infiltrator continued, driving his point home. "Ancient powerhouses with special physiques often left behind unique inheritance methods tailored specifically for their kind. That girl must have entered a deep state of enlightenment during her cultivation, unconsciously triggering a legacy left behind by an ancient expert. That's the only explanation for how the Netherworld Ghost Flame and its accompanying cultivation method descended upon our world from the distant stars."
"And?" the leader prompted, his expression grim.
"But it's not just the flame and the inheritance, there must also be protective measures. A Mahayana cultivator's handiwork, even from beyond the grave, is something you all understand the power of."
"Tsk—!"
The group collectively shuddered, a wave of cold fear passing through them. They all knew the stories, the legends.
Just like how Su Min and Tian Hao had encountered that skeletal remains in the ancient battlefield, they understood that Divine Transformation cultivators were nothing before a Mahayana existence, even a dead one. They remembered the tales of how even those two monstrously powerful Divine Transformation experts had barely managed to deflect a single, casual swing of its arm. Had that skeleton been truly hostile and alive, they would've been annihilated in an instant. Thus, they knew all too well that only a Mahayana cultivator's profound methods could cross the endless starry void to reach them and protect their chosen heir.
"So you're saying she has a Mahayana cultivator's protective mark inside her, which is why our people vanished?" the leader asked, his voice tight.
"Correct." The single word hung in the air, final and terrifying.
The others gritted their teeth in frustration. The atmosphere in the hall grew heavy, the weight of the revelation pressing down on them. If this were true, even if all of them attacked together, they wouldn't stand a chance. They would be swatted aside like flies.
"Don't panic." The infiltrator's voice was calm, trying to stem the tide of fear. "No one can reach the Mahayana stage in this era of Heavenly Decay. That means the one who left the mark must already be dead, so its effects are limited, a fading echo. We'll have to use our master's treasure, that Heaven-grade high-tier artifact. If the two of us control it together, pooling our strength, we should be able to suppress the Mahayana mark inside that girl."
"Hmm..."
The group fell silent once more, considering the monumental risk.
A Heaven-grade high-tier artifact wasn't something cultivators at their level could wield freely. The cost was always immense. Even Su Min, for all her power, couldn't fully control one without consequence. Take Xie Yingying's Xuantian Mansion for example, that was a standard Heaven-grade high-tier artifact, yet even she rarely used it for direct attacks, preferring to use it as a sanctuary.
Such artifacts were the rightful weapons of Mahayana cultivators, not to be used lightly by their lessers.
Activating one required an enormous price, a sacrifice that would drain them. They might even end up in a situation where two Heaven-grade artifacts clashed. While not as catastrophic as Imperial artifacts colliding, the backlash could still be devastating, ripping apart the users from the inside out.
Worse, the texts suggested they might have to sacrifice Nascent Soul cultivators as fuel, burning their very souls to power the artifact's terrifying might.
The group hesitated, the moral and practical cost giving them pause.
The Nascent Soul cultivators standing below them in the chamber trembled, their faces pale. They were clearly the ones who'd be sacrificed, their lives offered up as kindling. This was the cruel, unspoken fate of those in major factions, where power came at any price. Making this decision wouldn't be easy, rocking the very foundation of their organization, so they needed to discuss it carefully, to weigh the value of their subordinates' lives against their ultimate goal.
While they deliberated, Su Min clapped her hands together softly, a satisfied smile on her face as she admired the pile of glowing, beautifully patterned eggs now resting safely before her. These were the fruits of her labor, the rescued future of an entire clan. At this point, she could probably declare herself the Kirin clan's savior, a title earned one stolen egg at a time.
"According to the memories of those Divine Transformation cultivators, there's one last base left," she mused, sifting through the extracted knowledge. "Inside it is a black-and-white Kirin egg, likely the Kirin King's own direct descendant, the most precious of them all."
After carefully storing the rest of the eggs away in a secure spatial treasure, she focused on this final, crucial piece of information. The only downside was that none of them knew the exact location of the main altar, the heart of the serpent. Still, it wasn't all bad news. Aside from that one mystery, she now had the locations of all the other bases. She had practically wiped them out in one go, a devastating blow to their operations.
Not only that, but she had also left hidden spiritual marks on all the cultists she had encountered through their memories. If she wanted, she could uproot the entire organization, tracking them down one by one. But she wouldn't act yet, not until she secured that last, most important Kirin egg. She would not leave the job half finished.
"You're back. How was it?" Su Min looked up with genuine interest as Lin Yao returned to their room, her shoulders slumped with exhaustion.
"That secret realm was a complete trap, there was almost nothing of value inside," Lin Yao reported, sighing. "Most people came away empty-handed, including me... I couldn't find anything useful at all. It was a total waste of time."
"That's to be expected. But I made quite the haul," Su Min said, a hint of a smirk playing on her lips. "Out of their six known Divine Transformation experts, half are now in my hands. The future pressure on your alliance should ease a bit, at least for a little while." Her expression then turned more serious as she added, "The only downside is that the next assassination attempt against you will probably be even more intense, more desperate. They know they've lost face, and they will want to correct that."
"Huh?!" Lin Yao's eyes widened in alarm.
"An organization backed by a Mahayana cultivator's legacy, even a fallen one, won't be so easily destroyed or discouraged. They have depths we have yet to see."
"Mahayana..." Even though she had heard the term from Su Min before, Lin Yao couldn't help but suck in a sharp, nervous breath. To her, a Mahayana cultivator was practically a deity, a figure from creation myths. Then again, Su Min herself, with her calm power was already godlike in her eyes.
"No need to worry too much, though," Su Min reassured her with a soft chuckle. "Those self-sealed Mahayana cultivators have had to sacrifice too much of their power to survive this long. Plus, after so many eons under the relentless suppression of the Heavenly Decay, the countermeasures they left behind are limited, like a candle guttering in the wind."
Her chuckle was light, but it held the weight of experience. Even if their master awakened, she wasn't afraid. In their current atrophied state, those Mahayana cultivators would likely be weaker than that skeletal remains they'd encountered on the ancient battlefield; at least that thing had preserved its core essence and fighting will through sheer malice.
She wasn't just spouting nonsense. Just look at her own homeland, she thought; most true Mahayana legacies and ruins were sealed within the legendary Golden Core Avenue. Very few remained active and potent in the outside world.
"What kind of countermeasures would a Mahayana cultivator leave behind?" Lin Yao asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Most likely a Heaven-grade high-tier artifact. But even I would struggle to wield something like that properly without the correct cultivation methods. They'd probably be in the same boat, maybe even need to burn Nascent Soul cultivators as fuel to ignite it."
"Senior... can you handle that?" Lin Yao's face was pale.
"It'd be tough, a real fight, but I should be able to protect myself and you," Su Min stated matter-of-factly.
"Huh?!" Lin Yao's face paled even further. She couldn't help but mutter under her breath, the words despairing, "Damn it... if even Senior can't easily deal with it, then no one can."
She suddenly felt a wave of cold despair wash over her. This was such an undeserved calamity. She had always been surrounded by admirers, her path smooth, and with her supreme talent, everyone had treated her with deference and respect. She had never deliberately offended anyone, had tried to be kind. Yet here she was, targeted for no reason other than what she was. It was beyond frustrating, a deep, profound injustice.
"Tall trees catch much wind," Su Min said, her voice taking on a softer, knowing tone. "As a genius, you must bear this weight. Your very existence, your potential, threatens the established order certain people cling to, and they'll stop at nothing to eliminate that threat before it can fully blossom."
Su Min's smile turned cold and distant as she spoke, her tone carrying a clear hint of personal experience, of old scars remembered.
The Future Maitreya Mountain Sect, that whole conflict had been utterly baffling to her at the time, a stark lesson in the petty jealousies of the world.
"!!!"
Lin Yao froze when she saw the look on Su Min's face. It wasn't just sympathy; it was one of deep, hard-won understanding.
"Half-step Dao Comprehension, Dao Comprehension... they even paid a huge, bloody price to uncover my trump cards, one by one," Su Min continued, her gaze looking through Lin Yao into the past.
"Huh?!" Lin Yao gasped, hanging on every word.
"Oh, and the sect they belonged to once produced an Emperor, in an age long past."
"WHAT?!" Lin Yao's jaw dropped open, her mind reeling at the scale of the enemies Su Min had faced. Then, her eyes filled with absolute, unadulterated admiration. Clearly, Su Min's experiences were an amplified, epic version of her own troubles. In that moment, she gazed at her with undisguised reverence, seeing her not just as a powerful senior, but as a legend walking beside her.
"So... what happened to that sect?" Lin Yao dared to ask.
"I annihilated them." The words were simple, flat, and final. "Though, to be fair, they were already far down the wrong path, corrupted from within. Their own Imperial artifact abandoned them, turned its back on their legacy, so the process was... surprisingly smooth, in the end."
"Uh..." Lin Yao didn't know how to respond to such a staggering statement.
"I led a group of Dao Comprehension experts to wipe them out. Oh, and we used five Imperial artifacts to break their mountain's defenses and shatter their foundations."
"..."
Lin Yao's scalp went numb, a prickling sensation of pure awe and terror. What kind of life had Su Min lived?! It was a saga of conflicts on a scale Lin Yao could barely comprehend.
"The only downside is that Imperial artifacts have their own wills, their own personalities," Su Min added with a slight, helpless shrug. "None of them chose to follow me here through the void, so I don't have any on hand. Heck, I don't even have a single Heaven-grade artifact to my name right now."
"..."
Lin Yao was speechless. She had just gone from awe to a kind of sympathetic despair in seconds. The image of her invincible senior was suddenly tinged with a very relatable, practical problem.
Truth be told, Su Min was also somewhat helpless about the situation.
She couldn't forge Heaven-grade artifacts herself, the knowledge and power required were beyond even her, and there were vanishingly few of them left in the world, hidden away in ancient vaults or lost to time. Worse, Heaven-grade artifacts differed from Earth-grade ones in that they required specific, often lost, cultivation methods to wield properly. Simply obtaining one wasn't enough; you had to be worthy in its eyes.
Thus, to this day, despite all her power and accomplishments, Su Min didn't possess a single Heaven-grade artifact. No amount of high-tier pills or priceless materials she could offer seemed to be enough to buy her one either, as those who had them would never part with them.
It was an awkward, frustrating situation for someone of her stature.
Of course, she mused, no matter how powerful an artifact was, it still depended on the wielder. A tool was only as good as the hand that held it, and her hands had managed just fine so far.