"Piece of cake," Su Min muttered, wiping a smear of dark fluid from her armor. "But this place has clearly been rearranged since the Medicine Buddha was here."
Casually tossing aside a severed puppet limb that clattered against the stone floor, she had to admit, she quite enjoyed pure melee combat. Back in her previous life, she'd sometimes fantasized about having a powerful, muscular body with eight-pack abs, dazzling everyone in sight with her physical prowess.
Unfortunately, that was no longer possible in her current form. While she wasn't exactly the delicate "pale, young, and beautiful" type that some cultivators favored, she was far from burly. No eight-pack here, not even a single defined muscle visible under her robes.
Shaking off the fleeting regret, she reminded herself that her current body aligned perfectly with her actual preferences, balancing strength and agility without looking like a slab of stone.
Right now, her attention was entirely focused on the room's unnatural layout. The signs of deliberate, recent modification were obvious to her trained eye.
"The Medicine Buddha repurposed this place into a true legacy ground," the Medicine King's Cauldron confirmed from within her consciousness. "What you inherited during the Water-Land Ceremony was primarily his alchemy legacy. But you must understand, in the higher tenets of Buddhism, what they call a 'Buddha' is equivalent to an emperor elsewhere in the cultivation world."
"Great. So I'm either going to die in here or lose a layer of skin. There's no middle ground," Su Min said, her expression flattening into a look of resigned acceptance. She had a sinking feeling she was about to suffer immensely for this power.
An emperor's legacy wasn't something you could just waltz in and claim easily. Was this damn cauldron setting her up? Unlike Xie Yingying, who had inherited a legacy perfectly suited to her innate physique, Su Min had no such natural advantage here. She was walking a path entirely her own.
Still, she couldn't help feeling a flicker of anticipation. Because advancing to the coveted Unity stage came with a massive, specific hurdle, the formation of one's Dharma Body.
The true hallmark of the Unity stage was the ability to manifest the colossal Dharma Visage, a gigantic projection that was the ultimate fusion of all one's abilities, laws, and spiritual essence into a singular, overwhelming form. Unless you reached this level yourself, breaking an opponent's Dharma Visage was nearly impossible.
Xie Yingying and Tian Hao had both received one-on-one guidance from their powerful predecessors, solving this problem early. But Su Min? She was completely on her own, with no master to guide her.
Throughout history, the only other truly renowned Five Elements Saint had been the original Five Elements Emperor. Hell, most people hadn't even known what a Five Elements Saint was before she appeared on the scene.
That was why so many of her earlier opponents had been caught completely off guard when facing her; they simply didn't understand the intricacies of her rare saintly physique. Now, of course, the entire continent knew: if you fought Su Min, you should forget about using flashy elemental attacks against her. They were just fuel for her power.
Brutal, law-based assaults and even more brutal physical strikes were the only way to go. Thankfully, by the later stages of cultivation, most experts had plenty of such tricks up their sleeves.
So the days of her casually curb-stomping everyone with elemental reversal were mostly over, especially since the opponents worthy of her attention now were usually seasoned Mahayana-stage experts.
"Ahead, in the main hall, there's a super puppet waiting," the cauldron informed her. "It's equivalent to a late-stage Dao Comprehension expert. In life, it was a supreme body cultivator with laws focused entirely on physical refinement, basically a weaker version of the Great Desolate Saint."
Expressionlessly setting down the puppet core she'd been examining, Su Min knew the road ahead wouldn't be easy. While most puppets suffered a significant drop in combat power after being transformed from living beings, this particular configuration, perfected by the Puppet Ancient Emperor, somehow made them stronger.
They had no fear of death. They felt no pain. They had no fragile soul or consciousness to target with spiritual attacks.
Even Su Min felt a genuine headache coming on. These legacies weren't going to be handed to her on a silver platter; she was going to have to fight for every scrap of knowledge and power.
"The only real pity is that the Puppet Ancient Emperor's own emperor artifact was dismantled by the Medicine Buddha," the cauldron added. "So you can't obtain it."
Glancing at the information in the jade slip again, Su Min sighed. The core issue was that the emperor had refined himself into an artifact, and unlike a certain legendary, ruthless figure, he hadn't fully succeeded.
The result? A potentially incredibly powerful emperor artifact, but one without a proper, ordered spirit.
After his death, a chaotic, disordered, and malevolent artifact spirit would have inevitably taken over his corpse-puppet, potentially wreaking havoc on the world.
The Medicine Buddha, though compassionate, wasn't naive. He'd destroyed the unstable artifact immediately to prevent that future.
Su Min could only lament the loss of such a treasure. But there was nothing to be done about it now. For the moment, she'd just take it step by step. In the end, cultivation had two fundamental paths: quiet meditation and TATAKAI!!!（戦い,たたかい）, the path of fighting.
While Su Min was busy with the arduous legacy trial, two ominous figures hovered in the concealed skies outside the tomb.
"Lao Liu, this is confirmed Heavenly God Sect territory. We're not safe lingering here for long. That sect has a genuine late-stage Dao Comprehension expert guarding it. While he's no direct threat to us individually, if they detect us and activate an emperor artifact, we're in serious trouble."
One of them, a gaunt man with shadowy energy writhing around his form, spoke cautiously. If Su Min had been present, she'd have been shocked, as both were at the late Dao Comprehension stage, and one, the one called Lao Liu, was on the verge of breaking through to Unity.
In their original primes, before their long sleep, neither had been weaker than the infamous Bloodfiend Old Demon. They just hadn't been lucky enough to stumble upon a treasure trove like a Kirin's lair. Still, they'd left themselves sophisticated contingencies, and now they'd recovered most of their former power.
Especially Lao Liu, he was frighteningly close to regaining his full Unity-stage strength. The only remaining issue was the slight deviation in his reconstituted laws, requiring further adjustment and stabilization.
"Relax, Lao Ba," Lao Liu replied, his voice a low rumble. "While this is technically Heavenly God Sect territory, these particular mountains are resource-poor and sparsely patrolled. Plus, their very proximity to the sect's core region creates a perceptual blind spot. They don't expect serious threats to emerge from right under their nose. We don't need to worry too much."
"Then why are we here?" Lao Ba asked, taking a deep breath of the thin mountain air. The day before, Lao Liu had mysteriously summoned him without explanation.
"Remember the Puppet Ancient Emperor?" Lao Liu said, a grim smile playing on his lips.
"!!!"
Lao Ba's face instantly twisted with horror and revulsion, as if recalling something deeply traumatic.
"That freak who turned himself into a machine?" he whispered.
They'd lived in the same era as the Puppet Ancient Emperor. And it had been a miserable experience for all their contemporaries.
While they'd been renowned, fearsome experts in their own right, their glory had been utterly overshadowed by that one monster. Sharing an era with an emperor was never pleasant for other prodigies. They'd both fought him at different times, and both had been humiliatingly defeated without him even seeming to exert much effort.
"Remember how he ended up?" Lao Liu prompted.
"Turned himself completely into an emperor artifact, nearly degenerating into a mere artifact spirit in the process. It ruined his so-called 'Eternal Ascension' plan, and then he just vanished," Lao Ba recalled. "Probably went somewhere deep and hidden to 'fix' himself. But even if he lived another hundred thousand years, it wouldn't matter. His body had become his prison. True eternal life is about freedom, not trapping yourself in a cage like a beast."
"It's worse than that," Lao Liu smirked. Though both had joined the Black Seal, the internal hierarchy was clear, and Lao Liu was stronger and occupied a higher rank.
So he was privy to a few extra, dark secrets.
"He locked himself away in this tomb, endlessly tinkering with his own form, trying to achieve perfection. By the end, he only had two possible outcomes: complete self-annihilation or becoming a full, bound artifact spirit, losing all free will."
"Wait, you mean, he failed? He's truly gone?" Lao Ba's eyes widened.
"Exactly. That means there's an unclaimed, masterless emperor artifact just sitting in there. Right now, only the boss at the very top of the Black Seal has one. Our own Heaven-rank high-grade treasures are decent, but they're simply no match for a true emperor artifact in a fight."
"I see…" Lao Ba's eyes gleamed with undisguised greed. For anything else, he might hesitate, considering the risks. But an emperor artifact? The risk was absolutely worth it.
No one in the cultivation world would ever complain about having too many emperor artifacts. Su Min might casually melt down a Heaven-rank high-grade treasure for materials, but she'd never dare treat an emperor artifact so carelessly.
Aside from the artifact spirits themselves turning on their wielder, destroying an emperor artifact was beyond the capabilities of even her and the little Golden Crow combined. And if pushed too far, those ancient spirits would fight back with vicious, world-shaking power.
"Let's move. This has to be ours," Lao Ba said, his voice hardening with resolve. "Once we have it, we won't need to kowtow to the higher-ups so much. We can carve out our own territory. But…"
Lao Ba frowned, looking down at the endless, jagged peaks and deep ravines below. With dozens of mountains stretching over 10,000 meters tall and incredibly complex terrain, finding their specific target wouldn't be easy.
"No rush. We've got time to search thoroughly," Lao Liu assured him. "Clues will turn up. Besides, there aren't any major Black Seal operations right now that require our immediate attention. Though I did hear that Fourteen and Fifteen were killed recently chasing that damned Great Desolate Saint. Those two got too greedy, drooling over his pure bloodline the moment they saw him."
"Can't really blame them," Lao Ba mused. "The Great Desolate Saint's bloodline is a supreme tonic for fallen beings like us. And he's stubbornly independent, not affiliated with any major faction for protection."
"Stubborn fool," Lao Liu snorted. "If I were him, I'd have swallowed my pride and joined the Immortal Sect long ago. Then no one would dare touch him without facing Su Min's wrath."
"The truly strong have their pride, I suppose," Lao Ba said. "What puzzles me more is how the Lunar Sovereign Body agreed to follow the Five Elements Saint. Even with Su Min being a top-tier alchemist, that alone shouldn't be enough to bind someone of that caliber. I wonder what hidden price she paid or promise she made."
"Enough speculation about them," Lao Liu cut him off. "Focus. I've heard Lao Qi is already hunting the Great Desolate Saint himself. The top five among us haven't fully awakened from their slumber yet. Once they do, the grand plan begins in earnest. Until then, we must seize every opportunity to boost our own strength. This artifact is a prime opportunity."
"Right."
"I sensed a distinct spatial ripple from this area earlier. The tomb's entrance should be emerging into our plane soon. Once it does fully manifest, every major faction on the continent will detect it and descend upon this place. If beings of our level get too close then, we'll face multiple emperor artifacts from the righteous sects. So we have to get in first. The rest doesn't matter, that emperor artifact must be ours."
"Understood."
With their goal firmly set, the two powerful figures began their methodical, invisible combing of the vast mountain range.
Back inside the tomb's second hall,
THUD!
Su Min collapsed to the cold stone ground, gasping for breath. Her usual composed poise was gone, replaced by the reality of utter exhaustion. She was drenched in sweat, her fine robes sticking to her skin, and strands of her hair clung to her damp forehead.
"These puppets are no joke," she wheezed, addressing the cauldron. "That Medicine Buddha, why'd he turn this place into a one-way gauntlet? Does he expect me to fight my way through an entire army by myself?"
Glancing at the dozens of dismantled puppets scattered around her like metallic carnage, Su Min felt every pore on her body trembling from the exertion. That last battle had drained her spiritually and physically.
Her strongest, most destructive area attacks were useless here; she couldn't risk collapsing the entire tomb on top of herself.
Worse, these puppets didn't come at her one at a time in a polite, dueling fashion. They swarmed. She'd had no clean chance to unleash a technique like Four Symbols Annihilation. Instead, she'd been forced to dismantle them one by one in brutal, close-quarters combat.
The ordeal had been grueling. Right now, Su Min felt like her body might just fall apart. It was a potent reminder that even as a powerful Dao Comprehension-stage cultivator, such intense, sustained combat pushed her to her absolute limits.
Not that she truly minded the feeling. In a strange way, it reminded her that she was still fundamentally human, not some invincible, untouchable deity.
"Post-battle exhaustion is often the best time for enlightenment and consolidation," the Medicine King's Cauldron noted. "Do you think the Medicine Buddha planned it this way? Forcing you to grow through relentless combat?"
Sitting up with effort, Su Min shifted into a cross-legged position and began to meditate. Battles of this caliber, against opponents that could truly push her, were incredibly rare in the outside world. With so few top-tier experts walking the earth, even counting all the hidden powerhouses and fallen ones, the total number of living Unity-stage cultivators likely didn't exceed single digits.
Opportunities for such high-intensity, life-and-death combat were scarce. No wonder the Medicine Buddha had modified this place into a trial. No wonder the cauldron had practically lured her here.
"Maybe… maybe I can solve my biggest hurdle, the form of my Dharma Body, before I even officially reach the Unity stage…" she mused quietly.
Closing her eyes, Su Min let the residual energy from the battles and the potent ambient energy of the tomb flow through her, seeking insights within her exhaustion.
Time passed slowly within the sealed tomb. Her progress was gradual, which was expected at the Dao Comprehension stage. The dramatic leaps and bounds of her earlier cultivation were a thing of the past. Steady, solid advancement was the key now. And fortunately, she had plenty of time.
Outside, the two hunters were getting closer.
"It should be right here. This is the only spot in a fifty-kilometer radius with these specific, subtle spatial distortions. But something's off, the ripples are too faint, too controlled. Lao Liu, are you absolutely sure you sensed it correctly?"
The two figures stood on a rocky outcrop where Su Min had vanished just days before. Before them, an almost imperceptible spatial wrinkle shimmered in the air, visible only to their enhanced senses.
"This is the place," Lao Liu insisted, his brow furrowed in concentration. "But it doesn't make sense. The aura should be stronger."
He'd clearly detected the Puppet Emperor's unique, metallic and soul-less aura earlier. After his humiliating defeat all those millennia ago, he'd seared that particular presence into his memory forever.
That's why he'd rushed here, not just for the powerful emperor artifact, but also for the chance to desecrate the bastard's tomb out of sheer, long-held spite. But things weren't adding up. There was no grand entrance, just the faintest trace of power.
"The entrance must've opened briefly for someone and then closed," Lao Ba deduced. "Without our specific target and this meticulous search, we'd never have noticed the residual energy."
"Do we try to force our way in?" Lao Ba asked, a dangerous glint in his eye.
"No. Too risky. Even if it worked, the energy backlash would definitely alert the entire Heavenly God Sect. We'd have their elders and their emperor artifact on us before we could take two steps inside."
"Then we do this the hard way…" Lao Ba said, cracking his knuckles as he prepared to set up a complex, stealthy formation to pry open the hidden door without triggering any major alarms. "We wait, and we pry it open slowly, like cracking a safe."
===
I see, so she kind of has "interest" on muscle. This will be the answer why when Little Golden Crow's egg cracked she become worried as it will amerge with her "Prefrence". LOL
If she had that 8 pack abs, I really bet there will be many female cultivator who floored by her. I mean her charm is also working very well on female too.
"I wonder what hidden price she paid…" Her body. She paid with her body, well, her body and her soul. Earlier chapters already showed that Su Min's definitely interested in Xie Yingying physically, and the recent chapters make it pretty clear that Xie Yingying is just as greedy for her. These two really are a perfect match~
---
So Lao Liu, Lao Qi, and Lao Ba are all nicknames, basically Six, Seven, and Eight. I think they refer to their positions in Black Seal. Lao Liu in the chapter title carries a double meaning, both as a nickname and as the slang term. If you forget, I'll remind you.
"Old Six" or Lao Liu is a term for a sneaky, unpredictable player who operates outside the normal rules of engagement. It's not necessarily about pure strength, but about a specific, often frustrating, style of behavior.
An Lao Liu is characterized by:
Sneakiness & Dirty Tricks: They win through ambushes, campy playstyles, and deception, not head-on fights.
Unpredictability: You never know where they'll pop up or what bizarre tactic they'll use.
Lack of Teamplay: They often do their own thing, ignoring the team's strategy.
In a nutshell, an "Lao Liu" is a "sneaky bastard," a "camper," or a "wild card."