[Profound Origin Golden Puppet]
"It is successful. A puppet specifically designed to absorb heavenly lightning during pill refinement." Su Min looked at the metallic figure standing silently before her. "As for its combat capability... well, never mind. It is just a tool for dealing with pill tribulation lightning; no need to worry about its fighting power."
Satisfied with the creation, Su Min began making mental calculations, assessing its utility.
To be honest, its combat ability was not actually bad. It should be able to handle some early stage Dao Comprehension stage cultivators. However, since it was fundamentally a puppet and lacked the nuanced understanding of laws, and since Su Min was not a dedicated puppetry specialist, its actual combat performance was inherently limited.
It could hold off cultivators who had just entered the Dao Comprehension stage, but anything beyond that would be difficult. Not that Su Min expected it to fight for her. Right now, she just wanted to test its primary function. With that thought, she waved her hand, and the massive cauldron reappeared before her with a low, resonant hum.
"Come on, let me test it against single colored pill tribulation lightning."
Muttering to herself, Su Min summoned the necessary medicinal herbs once more. Back when she first refined an eighth grade pill, it had nearly cost her half her life in exhaustion. Now, she was far from reaching that level of depletion. Her control and reserves had grown immensely.
By the next day, dark, roiling thunderclouds had gathered in the sky, crackling with pent up energy. This time, Su Min was completely calm. Though she had expended some spiritual energy, she was confident she could handle the tribulation even without Xie Yingying's emergency intervention this time.
Besides, she was very close to the little Golden Crow's territory. If the puppet failed, the divine beast could rush over to assist immediately.
Boom—!
In an instant, lightning streaked across the sky, countless brilliant white bolts crashing down like a furious, divine tide. They struck the hovering puppet violently, sending dazzling sparks flying in all directions. The unique metallic liquid covering the puppet's body seemed to come alive, rippling and greedily devouring the tribulation lightning's power.
"This thing can only handle pill tribulation lightning, not a cultivator's heavenly ascension tribulation." Su Min observed from her safe position. "Directly devouring heavenly lightning from a breakthrough would be outright defiance of the Heavenly Dao, and it would be obliterated."
Watching the spectacular light show above, Su Min mused silently. A few minutes later, the pill tribulation ended as abruptly as it began, and her puppet descended, its surface gleaming with a new, subtle energy.
"Not bad. It seems to have grown stronger." Su Min inspected it closely. "It handled single colored tribulation lightning without any issue, so now I can proceed with confidence to refining the Unity Pill."
Su Min was quite pleased with the puppet's performance and immediately set her mind to the main task, refining the Unity Pill.
With this pill's assistance, she was absolutely certain she could break through to the Unity stage in one attempt. Otherwise, she would have to spend at least a century grinding her way there through slow accumulation. While she had the time thanks to her immortality, there was no real need to waste it.
"I only have three chances. Gathering enough materials is just too difficult."
Su Min winced slightly at the thought. The higher the grade of the materials, the rarer and harder they were to obtain. In the past, whenever she reached a new cultivation stage, she would refine numerous pills of the corresponding rank to solidify her foundation and wealth.
But now, she only had two eighth grade pills in her possession, and both were healing pills. As for other, more complex eighth grade pills? None. After all her efforts and calling in every favor, she had only managed to gather enough materials for three batches of Unity Pills. Anything else was currently beyond her reach.
"Unity Pill..."
Muttering the revered name, Su Min suddenly waved her hand. Over a thousand radiant medicinal herbs flew out of her spatial ring, hovering in the air around her like a constellation of rare gems. The value of a single Unity Pill far surpassed that of a high grade healing pill, and the materials required for its refinement were terrifyingly extensive and precious. Nearly every herb here was incredibly rare, some so expensive that even veteran Divine Transformation stage cultivators would have to exhaust their entire clan's fortune to obtain just one.
The total value of these materials was enough to make even an ancient immortal sect, with its long standing accumulation of wealth, feel a distinct sting.
Of course, Su Min did not care about the cost. Was not this why she had established her own sect, to amass such resources? Besides, nearly half of these herbs had been personally harvested and nurtured from the Medicine Master Cauldron's mystical soil. The profound legacy of the Medicine Master Buddha was just that formidable.
"Let us begin. The eighth grade Unity Pill."
Taking a deep, centering breath, Su Min slowly closed her eyes. In an instant, a wave of scorching heat erupted from her, enveloping the entire secluded valley. The air shimmered.
Su Min sat cross legged, her hands raised in a calm, controlled gesture as waves of flame, reaching temperatures of over a thousand degrees, washed over the floating herbs and the cauldron. As the refinement progressed, the alternating extremes of heat and cold required for different stages turned the immediate surroundings into a lifeless, glassy wasteland.
Days passed slowly. Since this was her first time refining such a pinnacle pill, Su Min's pace was far from quick; in fact, it was painstakingly slow and deliberate. A low grade eighth grade healing pill had taken her only a day, but this was in a completely different league.
The first stage of purification alone consumed an entire week.
"Huff—"
When Su Min opened her eyes again, the intense heat had subsided, and the temperature had returned to normal. The ground beneath her was now a network of cracked, parched earth.
"Purification complete." She announced to the silent valley. "This cauldron probably will not last much longer."
Glancing at the flames inside the cauldron, she saw they had already extinguished, their energy spent. Inside were the perfectly extracted medicinal essences from over a thousand herbs, each one a glowing droplet of pure energy, each requiring a subtly different temperature to remain active and stable.
In other words, Su Min had to simultaneously control all the flames with her mind to maintain these precise temperatures, with deviations allowed to be no greater than 0.1 degrees Celsius, or the delicate essences would be ruined, turning into worthless slag.
"Time for the next step."
Taking another deep, steadying breath, Su Min manipulated the Nanming Lihuo once more, her concentration absolute. With her Five Elements Holy Body nearing completion, the flame's attributes, including its controllability, had been enhanced across the board. This was a crucial advantage.
Without this enhanced control, given her current Dao Comprehension stage cultivation, she would never have been able to achieve such impossible precision. She would have been trapped in a frustrating paradox.
"I need the Unity Pill to reach the Unity stage. But I need to be at the Unity stage to refine the Unity Pill."
It was a classic cultivation conundrum, like needing the reward from a dungeon to get the gear required to enter that very dungeon.
As time passed, the individual medicinal essences gradually began to merge together, their lights blending into a harmonious whole. This delicate process took another full week. By the end, what lay swirling within the cauldron was a single, unstable spherical mass of energy the size of a football, pulsating with raw power.
Of course, she could not just swallow this unrefined mass whole; she was only human, not a primordial beast. Even as a peak Dao Comprehension stage cultivator, ingesting it directly was impossible. The violent, uncontained energy would tear her apart from the inside. Even if she cut open her stomach and stuffed it inside, it would not work; the energy needed to be condensed and sealed within a pill form.
"Pill Condensation!!!"
At this critical moment, Su Min roared, pouring a torrent of her spiritual energy into the cauldron. The glowing mass began to tremble violently, compressing in on itself. Instantly, she felt her scalp tingle, a clear sign that her spiritual energy reserves were nearly depleted.
"Better notify the little Golden Crow. If the puppet cannot hold out, she will have to step in."
With that thought, she sent a quick pulse of spiritual sense towards the Golden Crow's territory just as lightning exploded across the sky once more, the clouds turning dark and ominous.
"It is done."
Su Min's eyes snapped open, her gaze sharp and focused as she observed the gathering thunderclouds, analyzing their formation.
"One color, two colors, three colors... Three colored tribulation lightning?"
She was slightly surprised by the intensity. Almost immediately, the dazzling, multi hued lightning bolts shot toward her cauldron like divine spears of judgment.
Crackle—!
At the very edge of the rolling thunderclouds, a magnificent golden Golden Crow hovered silently, observing. The little Golden Crow had arrived at the periphery as requested, her ancient golden pupils filled with astonishment at the sight below.
An eighth grade alchemist. Even at the very peak of the Golden Crow Clan's historical power, such a figure would have been treated with the utmost respect and caution, a strategic asset of unimaginable value.
As divine beasts, their bodies were innately powerful and resilient, capable of withstanding energies and concoctions that would be instantly lethal to human cultivators. Some pills that were poisonous to humans were perfect nourishing supplements for them.
This meant their requirements for pill grades were often lower for the same effect, but even a Mahayana stage Golden Crow would still need an alchemist of this supreme level for the most advanced breakthroughs and healings.
And she, the little Golden Crow, was just a youngling who had barely entered the Unity stage, nowhere near the level of her clan's peak experts from the ancient texts.
Boom—!
Almost instantly, the colorful heavenly lightning descended like daggers of pure light, slashing toward the completed pill resting within the cauldron. But this time, it did not reach its target. Su Min lay sprawled on the ground some distance away, conserving her energy like a salted fish, watching the violent storm above with a calm detachment.
Thud!
A moment later, the puppet was struck down from the sky by a particularly thick bolt, stopping its fall just a dozen meters above the ground before rallying and soaring back up defiantly. It clashed with the massive lightning bolts once more, its metallic body ringing like a bell, causing Su Min's eyes to gleam with interest. The strange metal trembled, almost as if it were cheering in its own way.
Even as smoke rose from its scorched surface, it seemed more alive, more vibrant than before.
"It is evolving." Su Min whispered, a smile touching her lips. "According to the ancient puppet texts, it can advance further through such tempering. At that point, it might be able to genuinely block early Unity stage cultivators. In the hands of a truly skilled puppeteer, it could become a formidable weapon with even higher potential."
Su Min narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. This was excellent news for her. While the puppet's combat ability was not particularly useful to her personally at this stage, if she were ever surrounded by multiple Unity stage enemies, it could buy her precious seconds to escape or counterattack.
Though the puppet inherently lacked laws, the unique, spiritually conductive metal she had used, combined with the repeated tempering of the potent pill tribulation lightning, allowed it to store the power of thunder, one of nature's most majestic and destructive forces.
As a result, many ordinary Dao Comprehension stage cultivators would suffer miserably against its lightning infused attacks. Of course, Su Min herself was an exception; even now, she was confident she could tear the puppet apart with her bare hands if she needed to.
"Thanks. Looks like I will not need your help after all."
Seeing that the puppet was handling the tribulation with ease, Su Min sent another pulse of spiritual sense to the watching Golden Crow, informing her that her intervention was unnecessary. The latter gave a slow, regal nod of her massive head before turning to leave, her golden wings stirring the clouds. She had her own matters and territory to attend to and could not linger here forever.
Finally, as the last, defiant bolt of triple colored lightning struck and was absorbed, the thunderclouds dispersed, revealing clear skies once more. The puppet descended gracefully, hovering silently before Su Min like a loyal metal guardian.
"Let us see how strong you have become."
Reaching out, Su Min touched the puppet's cool, azure surface. The moment her finger made contact, ripples of visible energy spread across its body, and even with her formidable physique and high lightning resistance, she could not suppress a slight, sharp jolt of numbness that shot up her arm.
"Damn, not bad at all."
Su Min was genuinely impressed. Given her physical strength and innate resistances, the fact that she could feel anything at all was remarkable. In her current state, she could probably grab live, ultra high voltage wires without blinking an eye.
Clearly, the puppet had absorbed and stored a significant amount of the Heavenly Dao's thunder essence, an alternative, brute force application of mimicking laws.
"If I handed this to a dedicated Unity stage puppeteer, they could use it to fight on par with early Unity experts." Su Min mused, her eyes narrowing in calculation. "Unless their opponent was at the mid Unity stage or higher, they would be in for a very nasty surprise."
Su Min was acutely aware that the gap between early and late Unity stage cultivators was vast. Strictly speaking, even though she had killed a fallen Unity stage cultivator before, facing a genuine, stable Unity stage expert was a completely different matter. Even now, with all her cards, she could not guarantee victory.
After all, if she had her trump cards and heaven defying techniques, so would they, and they would undoubtedly be peerless geniuses who had climbed to that heights through their own immense talent and luck.
As for that fallen cultivator, Yuan Wangtian? He had just been unlucky, his foundation flawed. Both of them had the Five Elements Holy Body, so their core abilities were similar, except Su Min had unlocked more attributes and achieved greater harmony, while he only had one, making him inherently weaker against her.
Even his final, desperate attack had been less effective against her due to her resistances, and his frail, incomplete body had left him critically vulnerable to her close quarters pummeling.
Against a true, well rounded Unity stage opponent, the outcome would be far less certain, likely decided in a single, decisive exchange.
At this point, the power boost from Xie Yingying's shared blood essence offered diminishing returns. As for the Future Maitreya Bell, while powerful, its restrictions as an imperial artifact prevented her from unleashing its full potential without severe personal cost.
"Now, it is time for the real Unity stage."
With that thought, Su Min turned her attention back to the cauldron, where the perfectly formed Unity Pill, radiating a soft, captivating light, now rested. At the same time—
Crack!
A sharp, final sound echoed through the valley. The Earth grade high tier cauldron that had accompanied her for so many years, through countless refinements, finally reached the end of its lifespan, shattering into countless fragments before her eyes.
She could only sigh helplessly. The flames and spiritual pressures produced during eighth grade pill refinement were simply too intense, too profound for an Earth grade artifact to withstand indefinitely. Its destruction was inevitable.
"Guess the first major task after reaching Unity will be to refine a Heaven grade cauldron for myself."
Muttering to herself, Su Min glanced down at her palm, where the Unity Pill now lay, pulsing with a gentle, rabbit like energy.
"Unity stage, here I come."
Internally cheering, Su Min immediately sat down in a meditation posture, circulating her cultivation technique to its peak. To take the final step, she needed to be in absolute peak condition; her current spiritually drained state was far from ideal.
Thus, another three days passed in deep meditation before Su Min fully recovered her expended spiritual energy, her aura becoming calm, deep, and vast like an ocean.
"It is about time to break through to the Unity stage." She opened her eyes, which now shone with a piercing light. "Should I go outside the beast territories for this...? No, I will just do it here."
Shaking her head, Su Min dismissed the thought. For cultivators, breakthrough seclusions were major, vulnerable events. In the past, she had always kept her advancements low key, rarely announcing them even after succeeding, to avoid drawing unnecessary attention or envy.
Now was no different. Moreover, Su Min was acutely aware that she had killed the third seat of the Black Seal. And this had not happened in some isolated secret realm; it had been a battle that shook the heavens. They definitely knew it was her by now.
They might already be lying in wait somewhere, looking for a chance to kill her during her vulnerable breakthrough. This was not some childish game where bosses idly waited in place for players to challenge them at their leisure.
She needed to be prepared, mentally and physically, ready to face the wrath of the Skeletal Emperor himself at any moment. Her secluded spot deep within the spirit beast territories was the safest place for this final ascent.