Boom! Boom! Boom!!!
Deafening collisions echoed through the void, each impact sending violent ripples through the fabric of space itself. Su Min stood her ground, facing two massive, black-and-gold behemoths—a Dark Three-Legged Golden Crow and a Dark Five-Clawed Golden Dragon.
Their once-magnificent and radiant bodies were now dull and tarnished, covered in eerie, pulsating dark patterns that seemed to drink the light around them. Their formidable physiques, though still powerful, had clearly weakened, and the innate divine techniques they tried to unleash were fragmented and unstable. Even though these two early Mahayana-stage Dark Divine Beasts were ganging up on Su Min, who was only at the mid-Unity Stage, the battle remained fiercely and surprisingly evenly matched.
Terrifying shockwaves of raw power rippled outwards through the dark void, devouring and annihilating everything in their path. Strangely, the more Su Min fought, the more exhilarated she felt. Since reaching the Unity Stage, and especially after achieving completion of her Five Elements Sacred Body, few opponents could challenge her like this. Even Little Golden Crow and Ao Xue combined were no match for her anymore.
Back when she was at the early Unity Stage, she had thrashed them effortlessly without them even resorting to their Emperor artifacts. Now, at the mid-Unity Stage, the power gap was even wider.
So Su Min truly relished this fight. After reaching a certain level, flashy techniques became meaningless. Only the most brutal, direct clashes of power and will mattered. Her 10,000 meter Dharma Body wielded a massive blade of condensed energy, slashing ruthlessly at the two Dark Divine Beasts. Despite their colossal size, her movements were lightning fast, each strike landing with precise, devastating force.
If not for their supreme divine beast heritage and their original Mahayana peak level foundations, they would have been incapacitated long ago. Even so, the two beasts were growing increasingly frustrated and enraged. They had noticed something horrifying. Every time they tried to activate their incomplete divine techniques, Su Min would flawlessly and effortlessly disrupt them, anticipating their every move.
"How is she so familiar with our techniques?!" the dragon roared in frustration.
Su Min knew their moves inside and out, leaving them utterly helpless. Worse, their techniques were already flawed and full of holes to begin with, making them easy prey for her.
"Seems like this is all you've got," Su Min said, a hint of disappointment in her voice. "Time to end this."
With a sigh, she casually formed a massive, swirling energy sphere between her hands, a technique that was once her ultimate attack. Now that she had reached the Unity Stage and achieved completion, the spiritual cost of using it was negligible.
With a simple flick of her wrist, she hurled the volatile sphere forward.
"Shit! Dodge!" the golden crow shrieked.
"That thing's packed with mixed elemental energy!" the dragon bellowed in panic.
The two beasts scrambled in opposite directions, their instincts screaming of imminent doom. But in that very instant, the space around them seemed to congeal.
Time itself seemed to freeze.
"Time Law?!" they realized, but it was far too late.
Their frantic attempts to break free with their own comprehended Laws were futile and sluggish. The multicolored energy sphere had already landed squarely between them.
BOOM!!!
A cataclysmic explosion erupted, tearing through the void. Their already battered and scorched bodies were torn asunder, their massive forms shrinking rapidly under the destructive force until they were a mere dozen meters in size. Before Su Min's colossal Dharma Body, they looked like insignificant, wounded ants.
Then, with a cold smirk, Su Min unleashed two radiant, ancient symbols that bloomed on her palms, one on each hand.
"卍" the Swastika of Buddha's Light, and "雷" the Thunder Rune.
The symbols shot forward, locking onto the two weakened beasts with unerring accuracy. They unleashed a blinding Buddhist radiance that scoured the darkness and devastating heavenly lightning that cracked through the void, both forces being natural and potent counters to dark, corrupted entities.
In an instant, under that purifying, dual assault, the two were utterly obliterated, their forms dissolving into motes of black dust.
Su Min dismissed her towering Dharma Body and calmly collected their lingering essence and remains into her ever hungry treasure gourd.
Two early Mahayana stage Dark Divine Beasts, annihilated.
Meanwhile,
BOOM!!!
Another explosion erupted behind her as Yao Xian'er, with a single, graceful yet decisive finger thrust, shattered the core of the Nine Colored Heavenly Phoenix. Even severely injured and operating at a fraction of her power, Yao Xian'er's combat prowess and battle acuity were nothing to scoff at. As for the two beasts Su Min had slain, they were just unlucky.
Their descendants, Little Golden Crow and Ao Xue, had unwittingly screwed them over. By sparring with Su Min so frequently, they had allowed her to learn the flawless, original versions of their clan techniques. The dark copies' techniques were full of holes by comparison, and Su Min had seen the perfect originals. Naturally, she dismantled them with ease.
"What a waste."
Su Min watched as the phoenix's massive remains dissolved into a bloody rain, too vast and dispersed to collect. In her past life, this much blood could have drowned an entire country. There was no practical way to collect it all. But since she'd already secured the concentrated essence of the two Dark Divine Beasts, she didn't dwell on it for long.
"I never thought you could actually kill two Mahayana stage beings while at the Unity Stage," Yao Xian'er said, her voice full of awe before she suddenly convulsed, vomiting a mouthful of dark blood. Her injuries were far worse than they appeared on the surface. Even without a close inspection, Su Min could see the countless, faintly glowing Dao scars weaving across her body and soul, like a cracked porcelain doll held together by will alone.
"Your wounds…"
Su Min was genuinely stunned. What kind of monstrous entity could leave such profound and damaging injuries on someone as powerful as Yao Xian'er?
"It's fine," Yao Xian'er wheezed, wiping her mouth. "I fought a monster that crawled out of the 'Eye.' Most dark corrupted beings can't leave this void, but that thing could, and it could bring other dark creatures with it. So I had to kill it, no matter the cost."
"What was it?" Su Min asked, her curiosity piqued.
"A Fallen Immortal."
"…What?"
Su Min blinked, completely taken aback. She hadn't expected Yao Xian'er to encounter something with such a title, let alone survive the battle at her current Mahayana Stage.
"Come. We need to get to the Dark Continent. We cannot stay here in the open," Yao Xian'er sighed, signaling for Su Min to follow. This dark, corrupted void was no place to rest or attempt recovery.
"What's the Dark Continent?" Su Min asked, falling into step beside her.
The game's lore she remembered had only covered up to the Skeleton Emperor's defeat, leaving her completely in the dark about what existed in this remote, nightmarish place.
"The Dark Continent is like the Heavenly Continent in scale, a massive floating landmass. But it's submerged in this corrupted void, so everything here, the very land and air, is tainted by darkness."
"It was also the site of an ancient, final battlefield," Yao Xian'er explained as they flew. "Countless powerful corpses from that war remain here. The 'Ancient Battlefield' that exists in the outside world is just a small fragment of the Dark Continent that we tore off and flung into space, specifically to prevent the dark corruption from spreading."
Su Min nearly rolled her eyes. "Do you have any idea how much trouble that little fragment caused?" she thought, but kept it to herself. As chaotic and deadly as that place was, it was still infinitely better than letting hordes of corrupted Mahayana experts rampage freely across the universe.
Under Yao Xian'er's lead, the two traversed a dense, swirling cloud of malevolent energy, which parted to reveal a staggering sight. A landmass as vast as the Heavenly Continent lay before them. But unlike the lush greenery and vibrant life of the Heavenly Continent, this place was a complete desolate wasteland. Barren, cracked earth, exposed bedrock, and vast patches of land shrouded in eerie, crimson miasma stretched as far as the eye could see.
"This place…" Su Min was speechless. She didn't dare recklessly scan with her divine sense for fear of attracting attention, but even a single glance told her this world was utterly ruined, a corpse of a continent.
"You guessed right," Yao Xian'er said grimly. "For generations, Great Emperors have waged a secret, endless war against the darkness here. If left unchecked, a catastrophic event we call a 'Dark Upheaval' would erupt, spilling this corruption across all creation.
Countless Mahayana experts, and even some Great Emperors, have died here. We couldn't retrieve all the bodies, so their remnants linger, their soul fragments infected by the dark energy.
The people who choose to stay here, the cultivators, they absorb these fragments, allowing their cultivation to skyrocket overnight without the centuries of meditation and comprehension.
But borrowed power is worthless. Look at those two Dark Divine Beasts you killed. Without their original, supreme physiques to back it up, their actual combat skills were pathetic. Their technique usage was garbage, partly due to their incomplete inheritance, but mostly because they were too young and impatient to properly refine and understand the power they stole.
They could bully the weak, but against real experts who built their power step by step? They were doomed from the start."
Su Min scoffed in agreement. "What isn't yours will never truly be yours."
These people, these dark cultivators, either went completely insane, became mindless calamities, or ended up as laughably weak fighters like the two she'd just slaughtered. Still, her expression darkened as she considered the scale. If their numbers grew too large, a true swarm, even she with all her power wouldn't be able to stop them all.
"Follow me. There are others waiting, or there were," Yao Xian'er said, taking a deep breath and leading Su Min to a secluded, deeply hidden corner of the continent, a jagged mountain range that housed her humble abode. The cave entrance was so well hidden and shielded by arrays that Su Min only noticed it when they were standing right in front of it. Inside, the space was cramped and bare, barely 30 square meters, with nothing but a small, gently glowing spiritual spring for comfort and a simple meditation mat.
"You live like this?" Su Min couldn't help but laugh, the sound echoing in the small space. "This is beyond frugal. It is austere."
"This is just a place to rest and heal. It is covered in multiple layers of concealment and defensive arrays. Comfort is a liability here," Yao Xian'er explained patiently.
"Remember this, Su Min. On the Dark Continent, everyone you meet is your enemy, especially the so called cultivators. If you see one, kill them immediately. Do not hesitate, and do not speak to them."
"Why?" Su Min frowned. Was this some kind of dark forest law where every other being was a hunter?
"The Dark Continent is barren of natural spiritual energy. Most cultivators here don't cultivate properly, they just hunt and devour the soul fragments of the fallen to boost their power rapidly."
"Fucking lunatics!" Su Min cursed, her disgust evident. "Were they trying to become immortals or demons?"
It was worse than she thought. They weren't just eating the soul fragments for energy, they were actively fusing them into their own souls, creating a patchwork consciousness.
At that point, who could say if they were even themselves anymore? Su Min would never, ever dare merge a foreign soul into her own. The risk of identity loss, schizophrenia, or outright madness was far too high.
The stronger they grew by this method, the crazier and more unstable they inevitably became.
"As you can see, I will need a very long time to recover from this," Yao Xian'er smiled bitterly, her body trembling slightly from the effort of standing. In her current state, fighting even one ordinary Mahayana expert was a struggle. If Su Min hadn't arrived in time, she would have had to burn her origin essence, a desperate act risking her second life and her entire Dao foundation.
"What do you need me to do?" Su Min asked, her tone turning serious and businesslike.
"From what we have gathered, that Fallen Immortal was not acting alone. It was lured out, summoned by someone from this side."
"Huh?" Su Min's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"To cross from the 'Heaven's Eye' to our universe, one must traverse a chaotic and dangerous zone between dimensions. Without enough 'anchors' on this side to guide and pull them through, there is a ninety nine percent chance of getting lost forever in the chaos."
"The beings here, after absorbing enough dark energy, naturally become beacons, anchors. We have been hunting down the strongest ones to delay the inevitable invasion, to buy time."
"Where is 'he'?" Su Min asked, blinking. "You mean the other guy? The little monk?"
"No idea. This is a map of the continent's known powerhouses. It is up to you now," Yao Xian'er said, her voice heavy with responsibility.
"As for him, he seems to have encountered a powerful foe of his own. He will not be able to help us much for the time being.
But remember, those soul fragments can be useful to you, just do not fuse them directly. Use your gourd, refine them into pure, neutral energy to safely boost your cultivation. It is a dangerous but fast path if you have the means to purify the corruption."
"Now that is good news," Su Min grinned, a predatory gleam in her eyes. "Leave it to me. I will hunt down as many of these dark cultivators as I can."
Yao Xian'er nodded, a flicker of relief in her exhausted eyes, and handed her a worn scroll.
"Here is a list of the current 'Seven Dark Kings.' They are the ringleaders, all at the Mahayana Stage. They are your priority now. Cut off the head, and the body will flounder."