At this moment, the Fulu Mountain God was utterly dumbfounded, his stone mind reeling.
Between the two of them, who was the real Mahayana cultivator here?
He had prepared so many trump cards. First, he had willingly abandoned his original physical body to merge his consciousness with the vast mountain range, allowing him to retreat into the earth at any moment. Second, he had painstakingly refined his Five Elements Golden Body over centuries, granting him near immunity to all conventional elemental attacks. Third, he had spent countless years preparing thousands of lethal formations within his lair. And finally, there was the vast, ancient city he could summon and wield as a weapon.
With such extensive preparations, even that formidable woman in white had not been able to kill him back then.
But now?
He must have run into some kind of cosmic curse.
This woman had clearly sneaked in through the "dog hole" he had prepared for the sacrificial children. A mighty expert of her caliber, crawling through a dog hole, where was her dignity? Did she have no pride as a powerhouse? What kind of ambush specialist resorted to this?
Fine, so be it. He could accept that part.
His primary escape route being blocked? Fine, he could grudgingly accept that too.
His thousands of intricate formations being shattered by an Emperor Artifact unleashed at full power? Also fine, after all, it was an Emperor Artifact, a relic of ultimate power. He could swallow that loss. But what he truly could not understand was how his Five Elements Golden Body, which he had poured his life's effort into refining to resist all things, had been so easily broken by her. And that strike had been just a normal attack from her, how had it dealt dozens of times the expected damage?
Of course, he did not know the truth.
This was the sheer, absolute dominance of the Five Elements Holy Body.
Most people only had one or two primary elemental affinities. But he, in his quest for ultimate defense, had gone all out, stacking all five elements into his form. So when Su Min slashed with her sword, each of his five elemental defenses was countered in sequence by her superior elemental force. Her single "normal attack" had triggered five layers of elemental suppression. Naturally, the compounded effect was spectacularly destructive.
But the Fulu Mountain God did not know that. What really made him lose his composure was that this woman had caught his ancient city with one hand while spouting ridiculous taunts, and then charged straight at him without a hint of strain.
In that instant, his survival instincts screamed at him to flee. Because he simply could not comprehend it. How could a mid Unity stage cultivator possess such terrifying, overwhelming power?
He had reached the Mahayana stage by slaughtering and devouring countless Unity stage cultivators, but none of them had been this monstrous.
Was this woman really just a Unity stage cultivator?
This was downright unnatural, it defied all known logic. But unfortunately for him, escape was now impossible. To be fair, despite Su Min's bold taunts, she was not having an easy time either. She was, after all, only at the mid Unity stage.
The only reason she could physically catch a Heaven grade high tier treasure was due to the power of the Eastern Azure Wood and the Azure Dragon's legacy she possessed, which had tempered her body to rival that of the legendary Five Clawed Golden Dragon, a breed renowned for its physical might.
That was the sole reason she could catch it bare handed. But the pressure on her body and soul was still immense. That said, it did not stop her from utterly crushing her opponent once she got close. Who told this idiot to play with the Five Elements in front of the one person in the universe who mastered them completely?
"Close call. Almost got wrecked," Su Min thought, feeling the strain in her muscles. "Compared to this guy, those two Divine Beasts were downright pathetic."
Seeing the sheer terror dawning on the Mountain God's stone face, Su Min smirked coldly.
He was finally out of tricks.
These ancient, corrupted creatures were no pushovers. Their chaotic memories had one advantage, they came with a vast arsenal of techniques and experiences. Even with her perfect ambush and preemptive strike, she had almost been overturned by his relentless trump cards. If he had had any more hidden cards, she would have been in real trouble. But fortunately, it seemed he had none left.
What followed was exactly as Su Min had predicted. Under her relentless, close quarters assault, the Mountain God was forced into constant, desperate retreat. As for running away?
It was impossible.
Against a master of Time Laws, attempting to flee would only leave him full of holes, trapped in temporal loops or slowed to a crawl.
So very soon,
BOOM!!!
A pitch black bolt of Demon Slaying Thunder flashed across the cavern sky. The Fulu Mountain God was officially dead, his stone form cracking apart and his soul scattering. At the same time, the massive ancient city, now devoid of its master's will, lost all support and hovered inertly. It was promptly stored away by Su Min into her Qiankun pouch. She could not use it herself in its current form, but she could always melt it down for priceless materials. It might come in handy when she next refined her own artifacts.
But what was even more valuable than this Heaven grade high tier treasure was the enormous, condensed soul fragments left behind after the Mountain God's death. This was the real prize that fascinated Su Min.
"Pity I have to purify them thoroughly before use," she mused, looking at the swirling dark mass. "As for those other people, well, they are already dead."
Glancing around the devastated cavern, Su Min confirmed that none of the captured Divine Transformation stage cultivators had survived. The mere aftershocks of her first clash with the Mountain God had been enough to obliterate them all. In a battle at the Mahayana level, even Divine Transformation stage cultivators did not have the right to spectate, let alone survive.
"I need to leave. This fight caused too much commotion," she decided, sensing the unstable energy in the air. The entire Fulu Mountain Range's terrain had been irreversibly altered, and her own energy consumption had been huge. In this world saturated with dark matter, recovering spiritual energy would not be easy or quick.
When Su Min finally emerged from underground, the sight made her lips twitch. The once towering, majestic mountain peaks had all collapsed into rubble. Even the inherently sturdy structure of the Dark Continent could not withstand the violent shockwaves of a battle between two Mahayana level existences. The landscape for hundreds of miles had been reduced to a flat, ruined plain. With such a massive disturbance, every powerful entity on the continent would surely take notice. Staying here any longer would be far too dangerous.
She had expended a lot in this fight. At the Mahayana stage, raw strength was one thing, but trump cards and preparations were equally critical. This guy had truly been loaded with them. If she had not destroyed his biggest life saving card first, she might not have made it out unscathed.
"Six more left," she reminded herself, checking the scroll. "These six will not be simple. Some might even be at the late Mahayana stage. I will need to take this slowly and carefully."
With that thought, Su Min transformed into a faint streak of light and vanished from the devastated area, careful to leave no spiritual trail.
This world was not peaceful.
Mahayana cultivators here fought without restraint, completely heedless of mortal lives or the environment. And they were vicious even among themselves. These Mahayana beings would not hesitate to devour one another if given the chance. The fact that these seven had survived this long meant they all had absolute, reliable life saving methods. Until she could find a way to dismantle those, she would avoid direct confrontation whenever possible. With that in mind, Su Min departed swiftly and silently. The next day, several shadowy, indistinct figures arrived at the scene, their auras concealed.
"That old rock was killed? And in just one day?"
Staring at the flattened mountains, the figures frowned deeply. That old thing's combat power was one thing, but his survival skills had been top notch. Yet he had been slain in a single day. The thought alone was staggering.
"Was it the work of those two? Impossible. Even if they survived their injuries, they should have been severely wounded, not capable of this."
"Has a new, powerful player arrived? The Heavenly Continent truly breeds extraordinary talents. Pity we cannot leave the Dark Starry Sky to see it for ourselves."
"Tch."
After a brief, tense exchange, the figures left just as quickly as they came. Tracking Su Min was impossible. She had only expended a great deal of energy, she was not injured. There was no way she would lose control of her aura and leave openings for them to trace. So while they wanted answers, they found none. Moreover, none of them dared to leave their own lairs recklessly, these were just remote projections they had sent to investigate.
After all, their heavily fortified bases were their safest havens. If Su Min had not fought the Mountain God inside his own lair, forcing him to defend it, her energy consumption would have been much lower, but so would her chance of success.
Soon, inside a modest, newly carved cave in a remote location.
Su Min had carved out a temporary hideout for herself, even shabbier than Yao Xian'er's. At least Yao Xian'er had prepared a clean, refreshing spirit spring for herself. Su Min did not even have that luxury. As for recovery resources?
Her Heaven and Earth Qiankun Gourd had evolved significantly after absorbing the essence of those two Mahayana Dark Divine Beasts, and was now capable of producing enough spiritual liquid to sustain a Mahayana cultivator. With its seemingly endless supply of nectar and divine liquors, she had no immediate worries about replenishing her energy.
A full week later.
"Whew. Finally recovered."
Feeling her spiritual energy reserves fully restored to their peak, Su Min exhaled a long breath of relief. Then, she took out the carefully sealed soul fragments. Before leaving the battlefield, she had not just collected the Mountain God's core soul fragments, she had also taken those of the countless unfortunate souls he had captured and devoured over the centuries. Now, she held a massive, swirling clump of them, containing immense potential power.
"Do not rush to purify them yet. Let me see if there is anything useful here first," she decided.
Flipping through the fragmented memories with her divine sense, Su Min soon frowned. She was not planning to absorb them directly, she wanted to read them, to mine them for information. After all, her sole purpose in coming to the Dark Starry Sky was to find more remnants or clues related to the Solar Sovereign Body, allowing her Taiyang Qi to reach true perfection.
Only then could she further develop her physique and advance her cultivation.
The Five Elements Holy Body was powerful, but it was not her ultimate limit.
"So messy. What kind of jumbled memories are these?" she muttered in frustration. "There must be memory fragments from over a thousand different people here, most of them powerful cultivators from various eras. Stuffing all these conflicting thoughts and personalities together is just asking for madness."
Sighing, Su Min began the tedious work of sifting through the fragments. With her Unity stage mental processing speed, reviewing memories spanning centuries or even millennia took only a matter of minutes.
Another week passed in deep concentration.
Su Min finally retracted her divine sense, her expression neutral and unmoved.
"Too fragmented. No useful information at all regarding the Solar Sovereign Body."
Muttering to herself, she was not too surprised by the result. Since there was nothing of value to find, she did not hesitate any longer. The power of Western Metal's Sharp Golds manifested once more around her hands. As the crystallization of Heavenly Execution, it was the natural bane of these corrupted, dark fragments. In just a day, she refined all the soul resources in her hands into pure, neutral energy. Though this method wasted a lot of the original potential energy, Su Min deemed it a necessary sacrifice. She would never, ever recklessly fuse foreign soul fragments and risk destabilizing her own pure soul.
"Done. All purified. Now, time to absorb them," she said, holding the glowing, calm energy. "Not sure how much progress I will make. Breaking through to late Unity is likely impossible with this, but further solidifying my soul foundation should not be an issue. And there were some interesting finds in these memories after all."
At this, Su Min smiled slightly.
Among the countless fragmented memories, she had discovered records of some useful soul based techniques. These were rare treasures. Most cultivators did not possess dedicated soul attack or defense techniques, and soul clashes were inherently dangerous. A stronger soul could outright crush a weaker one without such skills. And Su Min's soul was already exceptionally powerful. Learning these techniques would only multiply her effectiveness in spiritual combat, so there was no reason to hesitate.
Time flowed quietly as Su Min meditated, slowly and safely refining the purified essence. She considered Yao Xian'er's rapid ascent to Mahayana. It had been due not only to her past life foundations and comprehension, but also to the vast quantity of soul fragments she had harvested here. But Yao Xian'er had been hunting in this dark realm for nearly a millennium. Her accumulated resources were far beyond what Su Min, a newcomer, could match in a single hunt.
"Another month gone."
Opening her eyes, Su Min saw that the stockpile of soul fragments had been fully depleted. She had not reached the late Unity stage, but that was to be expected. Every single step forward in the Unity stage was immensely difficult, requiring vast accumulation or great opportunity.
"But it is not a big deal. And I think I have been stuck in a mental rut."
Suddenly, Su Min smacked her own forehead in realization. She had just realized something crucial. She did not have to hunt only the remaining six Mahayana cultivators. That was a high risk strategy. She could just as easily target Unity stage Dark cultivators instead. Their soul fragments might pale in comparison to a Mahayana's, but killing them would be far easier, faster, and safer. No matter how many tricks they had, they would not pose much resistance to her.
"But there is a problem. Unity stage cultivators probably are not on the Dark Continent itself."
Rubbing her temples, Su Min felt a headache coming on. The Dark Continent was the most densely populated region in the Dark Starry Sky, where soul fragments were most abundant, hence the high concentration of the very top powerhouses. But because of these powerhouses, the Mahayana cultivators here had no scruples about preying on those weaker than them.
Just look at the Fulu Mountain God, he even devoured Divine Transformation stage cultivators he had cultivated himself. Any Unity stage experts would be prime targets and would not last long here. Most sensible ones would hide in the remote depths of the Dark Starry Sky, striving to reach Mahayana in secret before revealing themselves.
The Dark Continent's power hierarchy had a glaring gap, below Mahayana, there were effectively no Unity stage cultivators, and even Dao Comprehension stage experts were few and far between. Only those Divine Transformation stage cultivators who were not strong enough to survive outside the continent's relative safety remained. Which meant finding her new, easier targets would be extremely difficult.
"Looks like I will have to trouble Yao Xian'er for more information again. But at least my soul power has improved noticeably. I should be able to stably refine six colored tribulation pills now, and maybe even attempt seven colored ones."
At this thought, Su Min's mood lifted slightly. However, the Dark Continent's thick, corrosive dark matter made the delicate process of pill refining impossible here. The ambient energy would poison the pills. So there was no point testing her improved skills now. She would wait until she had accumulated enough resources, then find a safe place outside this dark realm to refine a large batch.
===
Su Min, if I didn't know any better, I would thought that your obsession with become true Solar Sovereign body because you want to make Xie Yingying happy..
Anyway, I was curious how Su Min would get her "Taiyin Qi" as to become Chaos Body she also need it. But right now it seems impossible to do it.