"Look at that corpse over there, it's stirring, it's the remains of a Unity-stage powerhouse!"
"Damn it, everyone, retreat! Get out through the nearest exit now! This is far beyond our capabilities. That supreme expert probably intends to resolve this place's issues completely. A battle of this level isn't something we can withstand, even the shockwaves could kill us."
In an instant, everyone felt the very heavens and earth tremble, the ground shaking beneath their feet. Even some of the long-dormant Unity-stage skeletal remains began moving, their ancient bones, some still covered in patches of withered crimson flesh, slowly crawling out of the ground, driven by the most primal, mindless hunger for life energy.
The horrifying sight left everyone dumbfounded, and they all had the same unified thought, run. A supreme expert had come to "fish in troubled waters," to clean house, and those like them, at most at the Divine Transformation or early Dao Comprehension stage, didn't even have the right to spectate from a safe distance.
So, without a single exception, they all turned and fled for the exits. As for why the supreme expert was doing this, the reason was simple, to resolve this place's deep-seated issues once and for all. While this pocket dimension had been an opportunity for them, a place to seek advancement, it had also been a festering wound, corrupting countless connected worlds and claiming the lives of millions, if not billions, of beings over the eons.
Before, no one had possessed the power or the specific means to do anything about the root cause. But now, with Su Min's Five Elements Holy Body fully realized, her combat power and, more importantly, her purifying capabilities had undergone a terrifying, qualitative leap. Moreover, the unique nature of her physique, embodying the cycle of creation, allowed her to unleash vast amounts of pure vitality, forcibly restoring entire regions of corrupted land to health.
Thus, in the entire known universe, Su Min was quite possibly the only one who could thoroughly cleanse this place at its source. Even some of the ancient emperors wouldn't have been able to manage it, as their strengths lay in destruction and dominion, not in large-scale purification. But Su Min, with her balanced elemental power, could.
Unfortunately, this grand undertaking meant very bad luck for those still inside seeking treasures. Their only sane option was to flee and wait for the storm to pass.
Meanwhile, Su Min was fully aware of the chaos and exodus she was causing. But she couldn't be bothered to care about their lost opportunities. Right now, she was essentially a super "tank" in a video game, drawing the attention and aggression of every single hostile entity in the entire zone. If anyone was foolish or greedy enough to stay and still died under these circumstances, it could only be blamed on their own poor judgment, it had nothing to do with her.
"I already knew this place was a complete cesspool of corruption. Right now, I'm basically throwing a grenade into it to clear out the filth. But what I didn't expect was just how deep and vast this cesspool actually is."
Looking at the unbelievable commotion she had stirred up, the sheer scale of the response, Su Min took a deep, steadying breath, bracing herself.
The scene was simply too spectacular, too chaotic. The ground beneath her feet was shaking violently, with earthquakes powerful enough to level mortal cities erupting every moment. And these weren't ordinary seismic events.
The reason was simple and horrifying, countless corrupted creatures were emerging from beneath the earth, answering her challenge. Even more terrifying, in the distance, a literal tide of indescribable monstrosities, a seething, writhing mass of flesh, bone, and malice, was surging toward her position like a single, massive tidal wave.
The sheer, mind-boggling sight sent a genuine chill down Su Min's spine. She had never seen anything so recklessly, mindlessly suicidal.
Even the fallen Skeleton Emperor would assess the risks before attacking her. But these things didn't think at all, their souls were already broken, shattered beyond repair, worse than mere beasts. They were like rabid zombies, launching suicidal charges without a single moment of hesitation.
That said, while Su Min felt a bit unnerved by the scale, her hands never hesitated. Drawing her sword, she swung it in a wide, devastating arc, instantly clearing a massive swath of the onrushing monsters, turning them to dust. Then, pressing her palm flat against the corrupted ground, she channeled her wood and water elements, purifying a large area of the blighted land. She knew simply killing these creatures wasn't enough, she had to cleanse the very soil itself, the source of the corruption.
And she couldn't just shatter this pocket world either, tempting as that might be. It was like a pressurized cesspool, if you blew it up, all the contained filth and corruption would spill out into the connected lower worlds, dooming them completely.
So now, Su Min fought a relentless battle while simultaneously purifying the world around her. With her complete Five Elements Holy Body, she could restore dozens of square kilometers of land in mere moments. The corrupted substances buried deep in the soil, sensing their destruction, grew increasingly agitated and violent.
Thus, the once-quiet, if dangerous, Ancient Battlefield now resembled a boiling, roaring cauldron of chaos and light. Meanwhile, in the myriad smaller worlds that had been slowly tainted by the battlefield's leaking foul blood, their inhabitants were shocked to discover that the flowing corruption had suddenly stopped, the advance halting.
The inhabitants of these worlds were overjoyed, weeping with relief. They weren't completely incapable of dealing with the corruption on a small scale, but the endless, pervasive tide of tainted blood and energy from a higher realm had been utterly beyond their power to stop. It had devoured far too many of their own top-tier experts over the centuries, its inherent level was simply too high for these lower worlds to handle.
In fact, even the mighty Heavenly Continent would have been hard-pressed to deal with a full-scale breach. But the continent was vast and powerful enough that the corruption, when it had leaked there, had eventually reached its natural limit of expansion. Smaller worlds, like Lin Yao's home, had been completely consumed or nearly so. Lin Yao's home had been relatively lucky, though the sleeping Mahayana expert had been torn apart by Su Min, his legacy and formation core had remained. They had used it to finally seal the last of the corruption.
But not every world had a convenient Mahayana expert's legacy to rely on for salvation.
Now, at long last, they had a chance to push back, to reclaim their lands and avenge the millions, no, billions, of lives lost to the creeping blight.
The great slaughter within the battlefield had begun, and the tragic outcome for the corrupted hordes was already clear. And so, the battle raged on, a one-sided purge. In just a single day, Su Min had slaughtered countless monsters, her sword a blur of cleansing light. Around her, mountains of bones and dissolved flesh had piled up, only to be purified moments later. Those few bold enough, or foolish enough, to have stayed nearby witnessed a truly horrifying, awe-inspiring sight.
Su Min was like the God of Death itself, or perhaps the God of Purification. Dao Comprehension-stage worms? Slaughtered by the hundreds. The vengeful spirits of fallen experts? Annihilated with a wave of her hand. It was as if everything before her, no matter how terrifying it once was, was now nothing more than ants before a boot.
One day passed, then two. The constant fighting stretched on. One year, then two. The pocket dimension had no sun, but the passage of time was marked by the ever-shrinking areas of corruption.
Eventually, those cultivators who had fled the initial upheaval began to tentatively return. This place was, after all, their primary hope for further advancement, a unique treasure trove of legacies. To their absolute shock, they discovered that the rivers of foul blood had vanished. The world, once a grim graveyard, had somehow been transformed into a virtual paradise of blooming flowers and singing birds.
The once-thorny, dangerous paths were now covered in lush, vibrant grass and sweet-smelling blossoms. Even more astonishing, the ever-present, ambient danger was gone. The skeletal remains that had hungered for life had disappeared, either purified or destroyed, leaving behind only those that still retained a sliver of benevolent consciousness, those truly seeking worthy inheritors.
Only these enlightened remains, their auras clean and focused, remained unaffected by Su Min's overwhelming purifying aura, sparing them from destruction.
Excited, the returning cultivators rushed toward these remains, hoping for an easy inheritance, only to—
"AHHH!!!"
Screams of pain and surprise echoed throughout the cleansed world as they immediately met with misfortune. Previously, when the battlefield was deadly, the skeletal remains had been somewhat desperate, often willing to accept anyone who could simply traverse the external dangers to reach them as inheritors. But now, with the environment safe? Hah! They had standards now. Prospective disciples had to pass proper, challenging trials first.
No precious inheritance would be granted without overcoming their specific challenges and proving their worth.
Thus, these cultivators found themselves in a suddenly miserable situation, forced to endure beatings and tests they were unprepared for. Fortunately, the danger wasn't too severe, mostly painful and ego-bruising, but not deadly.
Meanwhile, in the deepest, most thoroughly cleansed part of the battlefield, Su Min slowly opened her eyes, ending a short period of meditation. She shook her slightly numb arm, a phantom sensation after years of constant fighting, though it might have just been psychological.
She had been slaughtering and purifying nonstop in this world for what felt like years. Countless abominations had fallen to her blade and her purifying light, including even some Mahayana-level remains. Of course, those that could be corrupted in the first place hadn't been particularly strong or willed Mahayana experts even in life.
Even in life, a young Su Min could have likely fought them to a standstill. As mindless corpses? They were no match for her. But the sheer, relentless numbers had been overwhelming, a test of endurance. After all this, she was thoroughly exhausted, not in terms of energy, but in spirit.
Of course, she hadn't killed everything. Worlds, even pocket dimensions, possessed self-purification capabilities, just like how pollutants could naturally degrade over time with help, this world could now cleanse the remaining, scattered corruption on its own once the major sources were suppressed. That was exactly what Su Min had done, she had broken the back of the corruption.
The major, concentrated threats had been eradicated. The rest, the scattered remnants, could be left to the world's natural processes and the brave cultivators now returning, no need for her to hunt them down one by one.
Now, she turned her attention to her original, personal matter, searching for the remains of Solar Sovereign Body cultivators. Perhaps she could gain some insight from them. Moreover, she knew that true Solar Sovereign Body cultivators could never be corrupted by this kind of filth in the first place.
As the purest of yang physiques, a natural bane to darkness, even ordinary evil spirits would be purified just by getting close to their remains. Thus, none of the mindless creatures that had surged forth earlier had been Solar Sovereign Body cultivators. Su Min would have to find them herself, a needle in a haystack.
This was troublesome. Like the Heavenly Continent, this pocket dimension wasn't a planet in the traditional sense, making systematic searching difficult. And as an ancient, law-imbued battlefield, its restrictions on spiritual sense were even more severe, Su Min's powerful spiritual sense was heavily suppressed, forcing her to search manually, area by area.
Fortunately, after some time, she detected a faint, familiar disturbance, a pull on the trace of Taiyang energy within her.
"The Taiyang energy within me is trembling, resonating, it must be reacting to something nearby. I didn't come near this area last time with Tian Hao. There must be what I'm looking for here."
The Ancient Battlefield was vast. During her previous visit, she and Tian Hao had only covered a small, survival-focused fraction of it. And during this purification trip, she had been too busy fighting and cleansing to inspect every single corner. If not for the fact that her Five Elements Cycle had enhanced the regenerative properties of the Northern Water's Profound Origin, giving her near-limitless stamina, she might have had to retreat in shame partway through to recover.
It was a far cry from her initial, somewhat naive heroic aspirations of a quick cleanup. Su Min admitted to herself she needed a mental breather from the monotony of slaughter. But regardless of her personal thoughts, as a Unity-stage powerhouse, she quickly reached the source of the resonance. There, before her, standing proudly in a cleansed valley, was a massive, brilliantly white skeleton, its bones still enveloped in a faint, persistent black-and-white glow, the sign of a supreme yang physique.
"Solar Sovereign Body... and a powerful one at that," Su Min's eyes lit up with anticipation at the sight. This one's cultivation level in life had likely been on par with that Great Desolate Holy Body cultivator she'd met, both peak Mahayana experts, just half a step from the Emperor realm.
At their peak, a young Su Min would have stood no chance against them. But as a corpse, even a powerful one? At the very least, she could confidently escape if things turned hostile. With that in mind, she boldly approached the magnificent skeleton.
But then—
"Are you male or female?"
A voice, ethereal and filled with gentle surprise, rang out in her mind, nearly making Su Min jump out of her skin in shock.
Her expression froze instantly. She had half-expected this question, ever since Xie Yingying had first asked her something similar after she obtained the Solar Sovereign Scripture fragments, and then again from Yao Xian'er. It seemed to be a recurring theme.
"What do you think?" Facing the translucent, handsome male figure that was now floating before her, conjured from the remnant soul power in the bones, Su Min rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"Indeed, female. And your physique... it feels both familiar and alien. A complete Five Elements Holy Body?" The figure stared at her in growing astonishment, sensing not just her physique but the aura of multiple elemental divine artifacts harmoniously within her. This convergence could only mean one thing, she was the legendary Five Elements Holy Body practitioner, and possibly even a complete one.
"Correct." Su Min grinned, a confident, almost cocky smile. Throughout all of history, there had only ever been two confirmed complete Five Elements Holy Body practitioners. How astronomically rare was that?
"But why, then, do you possess the clear aura of a Solar Sovereign Body? And... even some subtle traces of a Lunar Sovereign Body?" The soul figure's confusion was evident on his translucent face.
"Heh, the current living Lunar Sovereign Body is my partner. As for the Taiyang energy, I awaken it by accident during my Nine-Nine Heavenly Tribulation when I formed my core. I came here seeking a way to understand and perhaps strengthen it, to integrate it fully or remove the dissonance."
As she spoke, Su Min channeled that specific energy, causing a concentrated, milky-white glow to shimmer to life in her palm, the pure Taiyang energy. Once, it had been a powerful trump card for her. But now, with her complete holy body, it was utterly useless, a foreign element. In fact, using it might even interfere with the perfect balance of her Five Elements Holy Body, making it a pure detriment she needed to resolve.
"..."
To her surprise, the figure fell into a deep, silent thought upon seeing the independent ball of Taiyang energy in her hand, his expression growing increasingly perplexed.
"The Solar Sovereign Body is the most yang, the most masculine of all physiques. It absolutely cannot naturally manifest in a woman, the yin-yang contradiction would be fatal. And aren't you, fundamentally, a Five Elements Holy Body practitioner? This... this defies the foundational laws of physiques." The middle-aged man's soul frowned deeply, utterly baffled. He truly couldn't understand how this was possible, it went against all known logic and precedent.
How could a woman possess and contain this level of pure yang energy without it consuming her? And he was absolutely certain Su Min wasn't some kind of genderless anomaly; her yin essence was clear. But since he couldn't figure it out, he decided to drop that line of inquiry, focusing instead on another pressing matter.
"So, you confirm the current living cultivator with a supreme physique is a Lunar Sovereign Body?"
"Correct. Her name is Xie Yingying."
"What about her lifespan? How much does she have remaining?"
"Plenty to spare. She's young, powerful, and her physique is complete. She'll likely live for tens of thousands of years more, at the very least."
"..."
At this, the man narrowed his eyes, a look of resignation crossing his spectral features. He knew one other crucial piece of information, the Lunar Sovereign and Solar Sovereign Bodies, as polar opposites, could not coexist in the same era. Only one of each could exist at any given time, their fates intertwined yet separate.
This implied something unfortunate for him, his intended inheritor, a male Solar Sovereign Body, likely wouldn't appear for tens of thousands of years, not until after the current Lunar Sovereign passed away. And he didn't have that much time left.
The previous era of spiritual decline had forced him into deep dormancy, preserving his soul power. But now that the decline had ended and spiritual energy was thriving again, his soul was rapidly depleting, no longer able to remain in stasis.
He could hold on for another ten thousand years at most, he estimated. Meanwhile, a Lunar Sovereign Body practitioner, especially a complete one, would undoubtedly reach the Mahayana stage and live a very, very long life, meaning his true, destined inheritor wouldn't appear for many millennia, long after he was gone.
"Ah, forget it. What use is clinging to destiny?" With a long, weary sigh, the middle-aged man shook his head. If his remaining consciousness dissipated completely, all the essence, knowledge, and power he had painstakingly preserved would be wasted, lost to time.
In that case, this confounding, unprecedented girl before him was his only viable option. "Little girl, I don't know how any of this is possible, and perhaps it's better I don't ask... but... would you be willing to accept my inheritance?"