"Hmm?"
Facing the earnest offer from the Solar Sovereign Body cultivator's remnant soul, Su Min froze momentarily, her mind racing.
Though she had hoped for some guidance or a clue, she hadn't expected a full inheritance. She knew accepting his complete legacy would be somewhat wasteful given her unique constitution. If a genuine Solar Sovereign Body cultivator could absorb 100% of the legacy's power and knowledge, she'd be lucky to assimilate even 10% due to the fundamental incompatibility. The rest would simply dissipate, lost.
Moreover, she hadn't even obtained her primary objective yet, a clear path to evolve her physique, this felt too soon, too direct.
"I truly can't hold on much longer. Rather than exhausting the power I preserved, waiting for a perfect inheritor who may never come, power that could help future generations fight the Fallen Immortals, I'd rather entrust it to you now. I can sense you've already obtained fragments of the Solar Sovereign Ancient Scripture. So I won't teach you what you already know. Instead, I'll pour all my refined essence directly into that wisp of Taiyang energy within you. As for what happens next, what form it takes... I don't know. Your situation is something I've never encountered in all my years."
"Very well. I accept." Su Min's brow furrowed in concentration. Clearly, this was the only practical way forward. If even this ancient, peak Mahayana expert didn't know the answer, then the wider world likely had no ready solutions. As for finding a living Solar Sovereign Body emperor to consult, forget it. There weren't even the faintest clues or legends pointing to one.
As for fighting the Fallen Immortals? That went without saying. It was an inevitable future conflict. When the nest overturned, no egg remained intact. Sooner or later, she'd clash with them directly.
Almost immediately after her agreement, the translucent figure smiled faintly and then dissipated completely into motes of light. Then, the massive skeletal remains behind him began emitting a dazzling, intense radiance, resembling a miniature, blazing sun from afar, concentrating all its remaining power.
If another, true Solar Sovereign Body cultivator received this inheritance, they'd instantly gain a perfected Solar Sovereign Physique, clearing all cultivation obstacles all the way to the Mahayana stage. But for Su Min, with her conflicting Five Elements Holy Body...
At this point, Su Min slowly raised her hand, palm facing the brilliant skeleton. In an instant, that pure, concentrated, sun-like essence converged from the bones into a stream of liquid light, pouring directly into her palm.
"Ugh—"
Her entire body trembled violently as the foreign, supremely yang energy invaded her system. Even with her robust holy body, she couldn't withstand such a terrifying, concentrated energy impact completely unscathed. Her female, yin-based physiology inherently resisted this supremely yang essence. The next moment, Su Min felt her strength waver and she descended from the sky, landing hard on one knee. Enduring the searing, burning pain throughout her meridians, she willed her consciousness to summon her alchemy puppet, which she had continuously upgraded, now capable of battling early Unity-stage experts, though it would be instantly crushed against a true mid or late-stage Dao Comprehension opponent.
"Guard this area! Within a hundred-mile radius, kill anyone who dares approach!!!" Su Min commanded through gritted teeth, her voice strained.
She needed to fully digest and refine this essence immediately, but the violent rejection reaction left her practically immobile and vulnerable. Thus, she had no choice but to enter seclusion on the spot, right here in the open. However, the earlier brilliant commotion, the sun-like radiance, had already drawn attention, she could sense several groups of people flying toward her location from different directions. The puppet would have to hold the line.
"First warning strike for those within 100 to 500 miles. Kill anyone who forces their way in after that!!!" she added, her voice sharp.
This concerned her immediate safety, she had to be excessively cautious. Although ordinary Divine Transformation cultivators probably couldn't breach her natural defenses even if she lay motionless, any external interference or attack during the delicate refining process could have disastrous, even fatal, consequences. With that final mental command, the puppet vanished in a streak of light to patrol the perimeter while Su Min mustered her strength, blasted a crude cave into a nearby cliff face with a burst of energy, and sequestered herself inside, hastily setting up basic warning barriers.
"Damn it, this definitely isn't going to be easy to accept or refine," she cursed inwardly, sweat already beading on her forehead.
Immediately sitting cross-legged on the stone floor, she began rapidly circulating the Solar Sovereign Ancient Scripture she had learned earlier, using its pathways to tame and guide the rampaging taiyang energy now flooding her meridians.
This was unavoidable, it was the only method that could effectively control and direct this specific power within her.
If one had mystical vision to see through her body, they'd witness streams of brilliant, molten-gold essence flowing violently through Su Min's veins like rushing rivers. This was the complete, remaining life essence of that peak Mahayana Solar Sovereign Body cultivator, now forcibly poured into her, a vessel not designed for it.
"The Taiyang energy is growing, rapidly," she observed internally, a mix of awe and concern.
As she continuously circulated the scripture and refined the essence, the original wisp of taiyang energy within her dantian expanded at an alarming rate. If it had originally been like a candle's flame, it was now the size of a fist, and still swelling. A peak Mahayana expert's condensed essence was simply too potent, too vast. Even the boundless capacity of her Five Elements Holy Body felt strained in comparison.
"Indeed, if I'd faced him at his peak in a real fight, survival would've been unlikely. That guy was truly extraordinary. Then again, any cultivator who manages to reach the peak of Mahayana is anything but ordinary," she mused, a newfound respect for the previous owner of this power.
Had others heard her internal thoughts, they might've wanted to slap her for her audacity. Although the Five Elements Holy Body was indeed heaven-defying, other supreme physiques weren't to be underestimated either. They were equally formidable in their own rights, and with such a vast cultivation gap, she should know her limits.
Time passed quietly once again within the dark cave. Unbeknownst to the fully focused Su Min, the very earth within hundreds of miles around her had begun to emit a faint, dazzling milky-white glow, a side effect of the immense solar energy she was radiating.
As expected, treasure seekers arrived one after another, drawn by the light and the earlier disturbance. Some heeded the puppet's silent, imposing presence and its warning strikes, but many more, driven by greed, stubbornly pressed forward, convinced a great treasure was being born, only to be smashed into bloody mists by the puppet's relentless, powerful blows.
It began with a lone, reckless Divine Transformation cultivator, who then, before dying, managed to send a message, gathering a small group of fellow Divine Transformation experts. They assumed numbers would prevail against a single guardian, only to be mercilessly slaughtered together. Soon, the area within hundreds of miles of Su Min's cave became a blood-soaked battleground, littered with the remains of the greedy.
Nothing drove cultivators to madness like the prospect of unparalleled power advancement. But this frenzy soon met a brutal end. After two early Dao Comprehension stage cultivators, local legends in their own right, were similarly obliterated without fanfare, the survivors finally grasped the grim reality and beat a hasty retreat, the news spreading quickly.
The bloodshed concluded with the confirmed deaths of several Dao Comprehension experts. Only a few specialized puppet masters gazed covetously at the guardian puppet from a distance, recognizing its incredible craftsmanship, but Su Min's soul imprint was too powerful and profound, only peak Mahayana experts or emperors could hope to erase or override it.
The external carnage had nothing to do with the secluded Su Min. Though the thousand-mile radius was vast, her Unity-stage puppet, unhindered by terrain, could traverse it in mere moments, an ever-present deterrent.
Another decade slipped by before Su Min finally, fully refined and integrated the massive influx of essence. Now, the Taiyang energy within her dantian felt like a contained, miniature sun, pulsating with power, yet she felt no real joy, only a sense of incompleteness.
"Not enough. One Mahayana expert, or rather, one who's been dead for who knows how long, his essence degraded by time, isn't sufficient. I need more, much more..." Frowning deeply, Su Min finally recognized the core issue. Her Taiyang energy, while vastly amplified, remained incomplete, still far from the perfection needed to balance her holy body. This realization filled her with a spark of despair, if a peak Mahayana Solar Sovereign Body's entire essence wasn't enough, achieving true completion might require the essence of an emperor-level Solar Sovereign Body.
But where in all the heavens would she find such an individual? Emperors weren't like Mahayana experts, their existence was too vast, their connection to the Heavenly Dao too profound for simple self-sealing or preserving remnants of essence like these Mahayana practitioners had done.
Unless they underwent freakish, unnatural transformations like the legendary Puppet Emperor, but he was considered the only emperor who'd ever subjected himself to such extremes, and his path was lost to history.
"Forget it. I'll have to find another way later. What a pity, such wasted potential." Shaking her head in resignation, Su Min acknowledged that this amplified but still incomplete Taiyang energy was essentially useless for direct combat. After all, her Five Elements Holy Body in its complete form already surpassed other physiques in raw power and versatility.
If the Taiyang energy could somehow reach true completion and harmony, it might rival a genuine Solar Sovereign Body and provide a new dimension of power. But that seemed impossible for now, she could only seal the turbulent energy away once more within a corner of her dantian, containing its dissonance.
"Though there is one unexpected gain, my cultivation base," she murmured inwardly, turning her attention elsewhere.
She discovered, to her slight surprise, that her cultivation level had skyrocketed after receiving and refining the massive inheritance. While the essence's core nature had been refined into the Taiyang energy, a tremendous amount of residual, pure spiritual energy remained, and it had seamlessly flowed into and filled her cultivation base.
Moreover, at the Unity stage, there were no longer the same concerns about unstable foundations that plagued lower realms. At this level, comprehending the laws was key, and any method of breakthrough that worked was considered valid, no need to worry about future instability from rapid advancement.
Thus, Su Min immediately channeled all this newfound spiritual power without hesitation, guiding it through her meridians to impact the next bottleneck. Under normal circumstances, accumulating enough pure energy to advance from early to mid Unity stage might take a thousand years of diligent cultivation, but she'd now bypassed that tedious step entirely.
As for relying on cultivation-boosting pills? Forget it. No known Unity-stage pills could forcibly elevate cultivation at this level. Among eighth-grade pills, the highest grade, none were known to directly and safely enhance Unity stage cultivation.
Narrowing her eyes in focus, Su Min rapidly circulated the massive energy, pushing her cultivation to its absolute peak, feeling the barrier between early and mid-stage grow thin.
Then, with one final, mental step forward, guided by her will, the barrier shattered.
Unity mid-stage.
"Whew—"
A long, steady stream of turbid air escaped Su Min's lips as she exhaled deeply, feeling the new, vastly more powerful energy coursing through her. She'd finally reached this significant level.
"Unity mid-stage, and that went surprisingly smoothly. My Five Elements Holy Body must play a role in this stability as well. It seems after achieving completion, the path before the emperor stage should be relatively smooth sailing, at least in terms of energy accumulation." Feeling the profound changes within her expanded dantian and strengthened soul, Su Min allowed herself a small, satisfied smile. Advancing to Unity mid-stage had felt natural, like a river finding its course, without any of the heart-stopping obstacles or heavenly tribulations of lower realms.
It was similar to Xie Yingying and Tian Hao after they received their own supreme inheritances, they would face no significant barriers except perhaps when charging toward the mythical emperor stage. As long as they accumulated sufficient energy and deepened their law comprehension, they could advance steadily.
Her situation was now similar to theirs, perhaps even better due to the holistic nature of her holy body. Su Min even felt a fleeting illusion that if she had the energy, she could step directly into the late Unity stage. Of course, that might just be a feeling born of rapid advancement, she couldn't be certain without testing it.
"Another fifty-plus years gone, just like that," she mused, standing up and stretching her stiff limbs, bones popping pleasantly.
Emerging from the dark cave, blinking in the ambient light of the battlefield, Su Min observed the now-collapsed, grey pile of dust that was once the magnificent skeletal remains, their essence fully depleted, the Solar Sovereign Body practitioner's lingering soul finally completely dispersed, his duty done.
"Rest in peace, senior. At the very least, I'll remember your contribution and protect this world when the next great Calamity Tide arrives," she sighed, offering a slight bow to the ashes.
Summoning a ball of crimson Phoenix Nirvana Flame in her palm, a skill learned from Lin Yao, she cast it forth onto the dust pile. Within minutes, the remains were purified into nothingness, returned to the universe. At this level, a traditional burial was impractical, cremation was the most respectful and efficient. Otherwise, she'd need to excavate a pit dozens of miles long to inter such colossal remains of fallen experts, a pointless endeavor.
She noted that when cultivators died of natural causes or their energy faded, their qi and blood rapidly declined, leaving ordinary-sized corpses. But those who fell violently at their peak, like this one, had rampaging energy that could inflate their bodies to such enormous proportions post-mortem.
"Time to return. I should head to the distant shore now. Hmm... why are you covered in blood?" Waving her hand, Su Min summoned the guardian puppet back to her side. It was now a blood-drenched, gruesome mess, its golden surface stained a dark, rusty crimson. The sight nearly made her lose her composure.
The once-pristine golden puppet was now caked in layers of dried blood. The reason was obvious. The immense energy radiating from her cave during the refinement process had acted like a beacon, drawing countless greedy cultivators who'd underestimated the unassuming puppet's power, only to learn the fatal lesson too late.
The puppet's key defensive trait was its lack of detectable energy aura, it relied purely on physical strength and speed. Ordinary cultivators couldn't sense its power level, perhaps even mistaking its initial warning strikes for its full capability, leading to their disastrous charge.
The sole consolation was that the bloodstains were old and dried, clearly, people had eventually realized they were hopelessly outmatched and stopped coming. After all, while the Ancient Battlefield held great value for lower-level cultivators, it offered little to true Unity-stage experts beyond specific legacy hunts.
Had that Solar Sovereign Body cultivator not recognized his time was up and that he'd never find a perfect male inheritor in time, he wouldn't have been so accommodating. In a real fight for his remains, Su Min might not have lost given her holy body, but the essence would've likely been destroyed in the process, benefiting no one.
Thus, no other Unity-stage cultivators would bother coming here for such a specific, uncertain gamble. Even if they did, they'd likely sense her powerful soul imprint on the puppet and the lingering pressure of her mid-Unity stage aura and wisely retreat.
"Let's go home first!!! I need a proper bath, and this puppet needs a serious cleaning," Su Min declared aloud, shaking her head at the metallic smell, before folding space and vanishing from the cleansed Ancient Battlefield, beginning her journey back to the Heavenly Continent to prepare for her next, greater journey.