Silence.
Amidst the surreal spectacle of countless flowers blooming and withering in the span of a single breath, the entire battlefield seemed to freeze for a heartbeat.
Back during the Golden Core Avenue competition, Yao Xian'er had fought bare handed, relying solely on her profound spell comprehension to subdue all the other supreme geniuses. Even Su Min had chosen to avoid her edge at the time, only clashing with her later to obtain a cultivation technique perfectly suited to her needs.
But this scene unfolding now was even more spectacular than before. Back then, Yao Xian'er was merely a Golden Core cultivator. Now, Su Min had reached the Unity Stage, a level where even in the ancient era of glory, she would have been a dominant force to be reckoned with.
The gap between her current strength and what she once was had grown immeasurably.
"Hah..."
Su Min gasped for breath, a faint tremor in her limbs as her massive Dharma Form faded away. As the brilliant light dissipated, her enemy was revealed, a once mighty figure now in a wretched state, half his body utterly destroyed.
A bizarre and horrifying sight unfolded, half his form was shrouded in a writhing black matter, his flesh constantly reconstructing only to wither and die again in a relentless, gruesome cycle. It was a grotesque, surreal scene of life and death locked in a futile struggle.
"Tch..."
Su Min inhaled sharply, steadying herself. She hadn't expected this new attack to be so devastatingly effective. This was a newfound comprehension she had gained after entering the Unity Stage, one she had never had the chance to test or unleash before.
The spiritual energy cost was staggeringly high, but the effect was undeniably astonishing.
Splat.
Another mouthful of dark blood sprayed into the air as Zuo Tiansheng realized in mounting horror that his entire body was on the verge of complete collapse. What infuriated him even more was Su Min's sheer audacity, who opened with their ultimate, most draining move right at the start of a fight?
And worse, it had worked perfectly. Despite burning through all his life saving treasures and secret techniques in that instant, he was still left with terrifying, potentially crippling injuries. Just who was this woman? How could she possibly unleash such a despair inducing attack? Though she could no longer maintain her Dharma Form, he was in far, far worse shape.
But the next moment, true despair truly set in.
Su Min flicked her wrist with casual ease, producing a pill that radiated extraordinary, concentrated spiritual energy, an Eighth Grade Pill, which she promptly swallowed without a second thought.
"Damn it."
Without a moment's hesitation, Zuo Tiansheng turned and fled, burning his blood essence to accelerate. An Eighth Grade Pill, even the lowest tier Spirit Recovery or Healing Pill, would have cost him a fortune back in his prime era. Now? Forget about finding one, no one but Su Min could even refine them.
And he wasn't the only one who realized the implication. The moment Su Min revealed the pill, the faces of all her enemies paled simultaneously. A terrifying realization struck them, Su Min had known they were coming to ambush her. She had prepared thoroughly, coming to a fight with a full stock of recovery items.
Which logically meant her allies likely had similar life saving pills too.
In that instant, even the Skeleton Emperor felt a profound chill in his heart.
It was like fighting a boss with a single health bar while the opponent had endless cards to play and a full stock of recovery items. What was the point? The morale of the Black Seal forces shattered instantly.
"Retreat."
Even the Skeleton Emperor gave up, his voice a grating roar. Fighting a well prepared, resource rich alchemist was pure terror. Chaos erupted across the battlefield as all thoughts of battle vanished, replaced by the single instinct to flee. But then, something even more shocking happened.
Brilliant lights flashed across the distant edge of the continent as new figures arrived, each one wielding a gleaming, aura radiating Imperial Artifact. The massive battle had alerted nearly every major force in the Heavenly Continent. While they might not have joined the fight earlier out of caution, none would miss the chance to crush a weakened, fleeing enemy.
"Hahaha, Lady Su, you're too polite. The Golden Winged Great Peng Clan will gladly lend its strength."
A mighty, piercing avian cry echoed as a colossal golden bird soared across the sky, its aura no weaker than the Golden Crow or the Dragon Princess. Another supreme divine beast had arrived, and not just it. More massive figures approached from all directions, beasts, divine creatures, and powerful human cultivators alike.
The entire continent's top powerhouses had gathered, drawn by the commotion like sharks to blood.
Though Lin Yao had warned them, none had taken her words completely at face value. But now, seeing the scene before them with their own eyes, there was no doubt. As cultivators of this era, eradicating the fallen Black Seal was their shared duty. And earning Su Min's favor in the process? It was a win win situation.
"Looks like you're finished. If you came to kill me, be prepared to be wiped out in return."
Su Min smiled coldly. The outcome was now clear. When cockroaches lurking in the shadows were exposed to bright sunlight, their doom was sealed. Even without her direct intervention from this point, the result wouldn't have been much different.
BOOM.
But then, an overwhelming, desperate energy surge erupted from high above. The Golden Crow and Dragon Princess, who had been jointly restraining the Skeleton Emperor, were sent flying backwards, blood spraying from their mouths.
Seizing the momentary opening, the Skeleton Emperor brute forced his way through the blockade of Emperor Weapons and fled at incredible speed into the depths of space.
"You all clean up here. I'm going after him. This ends today."
Without a moment's hesitation, Su Min gave chase, her figure blurring into a streak of light. She could tell, the Skeleton Emperor had used some kind of soul damaging forbidden art to escape.
Though this wasn't his true body, this clone carried his precious Imperial Artifact. Losing it would be an irreparable blow. Su Min knew that. Her goal? To sever at least one of his arms, to make him pay a heavy price.
The battlefield grew even fiercer after her departure. Zuo Tiansheng, already heavily injured by Su Min's initial strike, quickly fell under the combined assault of the newly arrived Golden Winged Great Peng and another Unity Stage cultivator.
The other Black Seal members met similar fates. With more and more Unity Stage experts joining the fray, the tide turned completely and mercilessly. Where Xie Yingying and the others had once fought multiple enemies alone, they now led the charge in overwhelming their outnumbered foes.
In less than half a day, all the fallen who had ambushed Su Min were dead, their souls scattered.
The Black Seal had met its permanent end.
From this day forth, the shadowy organization that had once bathed the continent in blood ceased to exist.
As for Su Min,
The stars blurred around her into streaks of light as she pursued the Skeletal Emperor, her comprehension of the Time Law pushed to its limits. Yet despite distorting the very fabric of space around her to accelerate, she still couldn't quite close the final gap.
"Hey, are you the Skeleton Emperor or the Fleeing Emperor?"
Su Min couldn't resist taunting, her voice carrying through the void. Hours had passed, and they had crossed countless star systems. For a Unity Stage cultivator, traversing the empty void was no great challenge.
"..."
The Skeleton Emperor ignored her completely, focused solely on his desperate escape.
Then, abruptly, Su Min stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes widening slightly.
Before her lay a nightmarish vista, a galaxy twisted into a grotesque mass of corrupted flesh. It stretched across multiple planets, each one larger than Earth, all fused together into a single, revolting organism.
An entire star system, larger than the Solar System, had been transformed into a vast breeding ground of horror.
Su Min didn't dare step inside. A primal instinct screamed at her to stay away.
"So this is your trump card? Turning an entire galaxy into a feeding ground? And those fleshy masses are covered in Imperial Runes... This guy..."
She took a deep, steadying breath. The moment the Skeleton Emperor plunged into one of those pulsating flesh lumps, his aura vanished completely from her senses.
She had lost him.
But more terrifying than losing her prey was the sight before her. This was clearly a grand, horrifying formation. And in the cultivation world, one rule was absolute, never, ever enter a formation laid by your enemy lightly.
"Little girl, know when to retreat. This is no place for a mere Unity Stage ant. Did you really think I feared those whelps back there?"
The Skeleton Emperor's smug, echoing voice came from within the fleshy mass, making her eyebrow twitch in irritation.
"Hmph."
With a subtle, almost imperceptible wave of her hand, Su Min sent out a tiny, refined soul imprint, attaching it to the surface of the nearest fleshy mass without the Skeleton Emperor's notice. Their mastery of soul arts was on entirely different levels, he couldn't detect her move.
But having marked the location, she turned and left without any hesitation. She wasn't confident enough to force her way in alone, but that didn't mean she was giving up.
Now that she had a marker, she would return one day to finish him for good. But first, she had a more pressing matter, obtaining the Central Wutu Divine Earth, the final piece for her Five Elements Holy Body's completion.
Only then would she be truly ready to settle the score.
With a Great Completion Five Elements Holy Body, even a dragon's den or a tiger's lair would be no obstacle.
By the time she returned to the Heavenly Continent, two full days had passed. Chasing the Skeletal Emperor in a straight line had been straightforward, but navigating her way back through the trackless void took longer. Yet when she finally arrived, the great battle was long over. Even the reinforcements had dispersed, their work done.
The show had ended, the crowd had gone home.
"So you sent them all away?"
Xie Yingying, who had been waiting for her, quickly filled her in. After Su Min left, the battle had raged for another day until every last Black Seal member present was dead. Then, under Xie Yingying's firm advice, the others had departed.
After all, the Black Seal wasn't just its fallen elite, it had countless ordinary members and hidden branches. Who knew how many were left? Or if they would seek revenge for today?
More importantly, Xie Yingying didn't want anyone else to know that Su Min was now just one step away from completing her Five Elements Saint Body.
Though Su Min had no overt enemies left, jealousy and greed could always breed new schemes.
"You can come out now."
Su Min retrieved the spatial container, and with a flash of light, Mo Yun appeared beside her, looking disgruntled. She had brought them all along in this vessel for the journey, but Mo Yun, only at the early Dao Comprehension Stage, was too weak to participate in such a high level battle without an Imperial Artifact to protect her.
Stuck inside the container, she had been teased relentlessly by the Golden Crow and the other two supreme divine beasts, leaving her both furious and utterly helpless. Now, her face was still dark with irritation.
"Let's head to your secret realm. Though with your current strength, protecting it might be difficult."
Su Min glanced at Mo Yun, offering a kind but pointed reminder.
"As we agreed, I will move the Kirin Secret Realm to the Eastern Mulberry Continent. We will join the Immortal Sect and open part of our heritage to your disciples. In exchange, you guarantee our clan's safety and provide necessary resources."
"Deal."
Su Min smiled, a genuine expression of satisfaction. She had only learned the full details of this agreement later.
When she had originally handed the Kirin Egg to Xie Yingying for incubation, she had been busy elsewhere. By the time Mo Yun hatched, the delicate negotiations had been handled entirely by Xie Yingying.
Knowing what Su Min ultimately wanted but also seeking to secure more benefits for the sect, Xie Yingying had used a masterful mix of threats and incentives to secure the Kirin Clan's submission.
Of course, there were conditions.
The core Five Elements Divine Treasures, key to their deepest heritage, were to remain off limits to the sect, with the sole exception of the Central Wutu Divine Earth, which Su Min needed. However, promising disciples would be allowed to train in their heritage grounds, after the young Kirin herself had grown strong enough to oversee them.
Mo Yun had little choice but to agree. Born too late, her cultivation lagged far behind the current top tiers, a dangerously vulnerable position in a world where strength ruled all. Weakness left no room for proud negotiation.
Soon, the two of them traversed the vast Heavenly Continent, arriving at its western edge, their destination, The Kirin Secret Realm.
"Hah..."
Su Min took a deep breath as she looked upon the hidden entrance. Though her outer composure was unshakable, a powerful excitement surged within her.
Her Five Elements Holy Body was finally, finally on the verge of Great Completion.