"Where did they go???"
In that instant, everyone present was stunned. The two figures had vanished from the spiritual projection without a trace, something completely unexpected and unprecedented. Especially for Liao Jie, a faint, cold sense of unease rose in his heart. Things had spiraled completely beyond his expectations and control.
"Life and death are fated, wealth is ordained by heaven," he muttered the Buddhist saying to himself, trying to regain composure.
If Su Min emerged from this alive, there was truly nothing more he could do to her directly here. The Buddhist sects were heavily restricted by ancient treaties, and Future Maitreya Mountain's core domain, the distant Maitreya Heaven Prefecture, was extremely far from Su Min's two known strongholds in Eastern Mulberry Land and the former Blood Puppet Sect lands. If he dared to launch a long range assassination mission, his forces would be intercepted and questioned by various major sects along the way.
Moreover, even though he was close to reaching the coveted Dao Comprehension Stage, the world was vast and full of hidden wonders. There were undoubtedly some peak Divine Transformation experts who deliberately suppressed their cultivation, waiting for the perfect moment when the heavens fully opened to break through in one leap.
Not to mention, the Little Golden Crow by Su Min's side was no joke. Divine beasts were inherently terrifying in combat, and this one was of the noble royal bloodline. Even he was not confident he could defeat it in its home territory. The Eastern Sea Immortal Sect might theoretically be destroyed by a full assault from Future Maitreya Mountain, but Su Min herself would absolutely escape. And if she did, a vengeful, genius alchemist with a Divine Transformation beast at her back would spell absolute disaster for them in the coming decades.
"Everyone, head to that location immediately and intercept her!" Liao Jie commanded his disciples through a spiritual message, his voice tight. "No matter the cost, she must die here!"
Since they were all in the same overarching space, the Medicine Master's secret realm, Su Min and Liao Neng were merely in a more secluded, restricted area, one reserved specifically for the competing alchemists. Getting there from the main legacy areas would take some time. As for the trial and the legacy? That was no longer a concern. Liao Jie had already lost all interest in the competition's rewards.
"Have they gone mad?"
"What is wrong with Future Maitreya Mountain?"
"This is—unprecedented!"
In an instant, everyone watched through the projection as the first generation senior brother of Future Maitreya Mountain led his dozen disciples charging toward the spatial coordinates where Su Min had disappeared, completely abandoning both the legacy search and the main trial. This meant they were willingly giving up a massive share of the Buddhist Light Secret Realm's resources.
"Amitabha." Kong Hui spoke calmly, though his eyes were hard. "You have fallen into demonic obsession, Liao Jie."
The ancient monk from the Ancient Lamp Monastery nodded silently beside him, secretly sending a message to his own disciples to stay far away from that volatile area. The atmosphere in the viewing grounds grew heavy and tense. This was all too bizarre. What were they even after?
Killing Su Min served no tangible, immediate purpose for their sect. And if they failed? It would be a catastrophe, creating a powerful, immortal enemy. Once Su Min reached the Divine Transformation Stage, which now seemed inevitable, even the full might of Future Maitreya Mountain would find it nearly impossible to kill her without suffering devastating losses.
Meanwhile, inside the Medicine Master's Cauldron...
Boom! Boom! Crash!
The sounds of spiritual collisions and explosions echoed continuously as two figures clashed in the misty sky of the inner world. Su Min might not be able to kill Liao Neng easily in a direct fight, but if she did not want to fight head on, he could not do anything to pin her down.
"You are ranked first on the Heavenly Leaderboard! Have you no shame?! Stop running like a coward!!!"
Liao Neng roared in fury, his face purpling as Su Min darted around like a slippery eel, her movements a blur. With the Azure Dragon Creation Art activated, her physical prowess and speed had reached terrifying levels. Combined with her superior spiritual sense that allowed her to predict his moves, Liao Neng could not even land a solid hit. All he could do was rage helplessly and waste spiritual energy.
"Hmph."
Su Min simply stuck out her tongue in a mocking gesture and continued her evasive maneuvers. The two had been chasing each other in this strange space for nearly four minutes now.
"Future Eternal Bliss World!!!"
In that moment, the utterly enraged Liao Neng suddenly decided to end it. He burned a hundred years of his precious lifespan to activate a forbidden technique. The world around them twisted into a surreal, golden landscape as thick Buddhist light solidified around Su Min like amber, trapping her in place. Liao Neng's face was now crimson with madness, his expression twisted like a rabid dog. Three hundred years of lifespan, gone in an instant.
A Divine Transformation cultivator only lived for about three thousand years. He had just sacrificed a tenth of his life. Now, seeing her trapped, he lunged forward with his vajra hammer to kill Su Min—
But then, a calm, knowing smirk curled at the corner of her lips.
"We have been chasing each other for about four minutes now."
"Huh?"
Liao Neng paused, his killing momentum faltering as he was momentarily confused by her calm demeanor. Now that he had her trapped, he was not in a particular hurry. He wanted to see what final trick she was playing before her death.
"Just delaying the inevitable," he spat.
"Yeah, delaying the inevitable," Su Min agreed, her voice eerily calm. "But do you know where we are? And you have let anger completely cloud your judgment. A fatal mistake for a cultivator."
"?"
Liao Neng stiffened. He suddenly realized with dawning horror, the faint spiritual connection he had with Elder Liao Jie had been completely severed. But Su Min's next words snapped him back to a terrifying reality.
"This is the inside of the Medicine Master's Cauldron. I once accidentally established a connection with its spirit. This place is a treasure trove of rare materials, but it is also an inescapable death trap if you do not know its rules."
Her voice turned icy as she delivered the verdict.
"And I had it maximize the flow of time here for you."
The surroundings looked serene, but something was deeply wrong. Liao Neng noticed with horror, everything around him was decaying at an insane, visible speed. Flowers bloomed and withered in seconds. Trees sprouted, grew, and rotted in moments. Only the rarest, most resilient spiritual herbs could resist the violent erosion of time. He knew exactly what this meant.
"Right now, one second here equals ten years outside. You chased me for four minutes. That is two hundred and forty seconds. Add the three hundred years of lifespan you just burned, do you understand what that means?"
"!!!!"
In that instant, Liao Neng's face twisted in pure, unadulterated horror. He looked down at his hands and saw the skin beginning to wrinkle and spot with age. He raised his now trembling palm, gathering the last of his power, and slammed it down at Su Min with all his might, a final, desperate act.
But then—
A delicate, yet firm hand met his withered, aged one.
Boom!
A shockwave of energy erupted, but it was weak. Liao Neng was sent flying backward like a dry leaf, crashing into the soft, moss covered ground with a heavy, final thud.
"A Divine Transformation cultivator's lifespan is three thousand years. You are now on your last legs, your vitality is nearly gone," Su Min stated, her voice merciless as she walked toward him. "You reek of decay. And I will not give you a chance to reincarnate. Stay here forever, demonic monk."
With that, she raised her hand, a ball of condensed Five Elements energy swirling in her palm—
Crunch.
Liao Neng did not even have time to scream. His body, already desiccated by millennia of accelerated time, turned to dust under her palm, his eyes in the final moment filled with nothing but bitter hatred and deep despair.
"Done. Now, for these herbs..."
Su Min glanced around at the pristine valley, satisfied. At that moment, as if on command, the rapid, violent cycle of life and death slowed down, the visual blurring ceasing as time returned to a normal, manageable flow.
[How did you survive?]
A whisper echoed in her ear, the voice of the Medicine Master's Cauldron spirit. It had helped her, though not entirely out of goodwill. After their last meeting, Su Min had specifically requested it to maximize the time flow if she ever brought a hostile in again. This extreme state, where one second equaled ten years, could not be maintained for long, even by the cauldron. It had expended a significant amount of its stored energy to do so.
But what puzzled it was, why was Su Min completely unaffected? Liao Neng had aged to death in moments, yet she remained completely unharmed, not a single day older.
"Hehe," she chuckled lightly, "because I have another Innate Spiritual Treasure. Its ability is... rather special. It shields my soul and body from unnatural time erosion, like the kind inside you."
She pulled out the simple looking gourd from her ring and shook it playfully before putting it away.
"I do not have that ability," a faint, grumpy voice complained in her mind from the gourd.
"Shh. Just play along. Don't you want a nice, juicy Nascent Soul demon corpse to munch on later, Little Gourd?"
After some quick mental bargaining, she had her excuse ready. No one else knew the gourd's true powers anyway, they would just assume it was a mysterious treasure.
[I see. The time flow has now normalized, one second here equals one day outside. Only the herbs that withstand this level of temporal erosion are worth taking. You may choose three.]
"Thanks."
Su Min nodded and began her search in earnest. Though there were many high grade herbs here, she had to choose the ones most critical for her path. This might be her only chance to gather the ingredients needed to break through to the sixth grade alchemist level.
[By the way, another larger group from Future Maitreya Mountain has gathered outside the spatial node. As you predicted, some of their followers have indeed fallen beyond redemption.]
"I know."
Su Min's smile turned cold. If they wanted to ambush her upon exit, then she would not hold back. She had never been particularly fond of killing. Throughout her long journey, she had rarely been pushed to such extremes where slaughter was the only answer.
But this time? They had forced her hand. She would not hesitate. Still, she was not in a hurry. Without a Divine Transformation expert present in that group, no number of Nascent Soul cultivators could truly threaten her. Unless they were all absolute freaks of nature like the top Heavenly Ranking talents, they were nothing to her. So, with that in mind, she focused on carefully finding the three most suitable herbs for her immediate needs.
Then, her eyes locked onto a small, unassuming tree.
"Is that... a Soul Heaven Fruit???"
Her delighted voice rang out in the quiet valley. The fruit's effect was simple and profound, it directly and permanently enhanced soul power. This was the final piece she needed to cross her bottleneck. Without a moment's hesitation, she plucked the shimmering, star like fruit and swallowed it whole. Instantly, Su Min felt as if she were ascending to immortality, her mind expanding, her spiritual perception sharpening to an unbelievable degree. Her soul power surged, reaching a level comparable to an early Dao Comprehension expert's.
"Huff... huff..."
Soon, her breathing steadied, and the intense spiritual pressure around her subsided as she fully absorbed the fruit's power.
"This is the soul power foundation needed for a sixth grade alchemist," she confirmed, feeling the new limits of her perception. "And I even found the last two ingredients for the Flesh and Bone pill. Send me out now."
The cauldron complied without comment. A shimmering spatial gate swirled into existence before her. With a cold hum, Su Min stepped through, the three chosen herbs secure in her ring. She knew she only had this one chance to leave. If she stayed to gather more, the portal might close, and she could be trapped in this accelerated time stream forever.
Outside the secret realm...
"The spatial gate has opened!"
With the two having disappeared earlier, everyone's attention had been intensely fixed on the spot where they vanished.
Now, they all saw it, a distortion in space, a golden ring of light—
And the Future Maitreya Mountain monks, who had been waiting, their weapons already drawn, charged forward with unified murderous intent.
But then, before they could reach the portal—
A single, crimson feather floated out from the gate. Before anyone could process it, it transformed in mid air into a blazing, condor sized crimson bird of fire.
BOOM!!!
A deafening explosion erupted, swallowing the front lines of the charging monks. The unprepared monks were engulfed in the divine flames of Nanming Lihuo. The Golden Core cultivators were annihilated on the spot, their spiritual auras snuffed out instantly. The dozen or so Nascent Soul monks were all sent flying, their robes on fire, injured to varying degrees.
Though this was only a miniature Vermilion Bird Phantom, a fraction of her true technique, even a full power strike from the real thing could seriously wound a Spirit Transformation expert if they did not defend in time. This scaled down version was more than enough to obliterate Golden Core cultivators and injure unprepared Nascent Soul experts.
Then—
A fiery white haired figure shot out from the gate like a bolt of lightning, a massive greatsword already in hand.
Splat!
The first Nascent Soul monk to regain his footing was bisected vertically before he could raise his weapon, reduced to a cloud of bloody mist.
"KILL HER!!!"
The remaining monks, enraged and horrified, lunged forward, but they had been caught completely off guard by the explosive entrance. Their Golden Core support forces were wiped out, and now, they were seeing red, their discipline shattered. Death here in this realm, by violence, meant no guided reincarnation. Only those who passed away peacefully in meditation could reliably enter the cycle.
"Tsk... she is ruthless..."
The spectators outside watching the projection gasped in collective shock.
They did not know why Future Maitreya Mountain wanted Su Min dead so badly, but she was proving far more ruthless and prepared than anyone anticipated. In just the first ten minutes after her return, two Nascent Soul monks had already fallen. Many remembered Su Min from the Golden Core Avenue, where she had generally been kind and approachable, only turning truly violent against the hated Blood Puppet Sect.
Now? They were suddenly very glad they had never provoked this demoness.
Then—
A terrifying, mountain like aura erupted from the viewing platform. Liao Jie's killing intent surged like a tidal wave as he watched Su Min coldly slaughter his sect's disciples.
But just as he was about to act, to possibly break the rules and intervene—
"Amitabha."
An even more oppressive, ancient, and profound aura descended from the highest seat, effortlessly crushing Liao Jie's murderous intent and pinning him in place.
"Good deeds bring good rewards, evil deeds bring evil retribution," the ancient monk from the Ancient Lamp Monastery intoned, his eyes open and glowing with soft light. "Today's karma is the fruit of yesterday's actions. Let it play out, Liao Jie."
"Dao... Dao Comprehension Stage?!"
The crowd recoiled in shock, finally understanding the true gap between the three leaders. The representative from the Ancient Lamp Monastery had not been sealing his power at the peak of Divine Transformation, he had already taken that final, legendary step.