Deep within the Church of Light, the captured young cultivator was tied up on the central altar. The extra button Su Min had planted on his clothing went completely unnoticed by anyone.
Everything unfolded just as she had predicted. As the sacrificial light flashed, the cultivator vanished, and along with him, hidden within the locket, Su Min disappeared as well.
"Well, well, so that's how it is."
When the light faded and space stabilized, Su Min couldn't help but feel a flicker of surprise.
"This is deep within the planet's core, and there's an independent space carved out here. Interesting. This guy is really cautious."
Narrowing her eyes, Su Min assessed their current location. The enemy had indeed hidden himself well, buried at the planet's core within a specially constructed pocket dimension. If anyone tried to attack the planet directly, he'd sense it immediately and use the folded space to escape undetected.
Whether he was actually strong or not was debatable, but his hiding skills were definitely top notch. Typical of the Dark Universe, where the law of the dark forest reigned supreme.
In this primal, violent, and emotionless dark forest, only the strong and the exceptionally well hidden survived. Such a brutal environment was unheard of in normal universes, where cultivators might be wary of each other but not to this extreme.
But since this was the world she was in, Su Min didn't have any complaints. She just had to play by its rules.
"Let me see your true form. What's your cultivation level? Mahayana? Unity? Hmm, Unity late stage? Perfect."
A cold smile curled on her lips as she watched a massive figure emerge from the void. A Unity late stage cultivator, just a step away from Mahayana, was the ideal target for her. Just as Su Min was silently gloating, the figure rapidly shrank to normal size and approached the captive. With a single grasp, he lifted the man and stared into his eyes.
Then, with effortless, brutal ease, the Unity cultivator forcibly extracted the poor Qi Refining cultivator's Three Souls and Six Spirits.
"Hmm, this soul is strange. A Qi Refining cultivator with no residual soul fragments, his soul is intact. It's as if he absorbed purified soul fragments. Where did he get them?"
The Unity cultivator frowned in confusion. Who would even bother purifying soul fragments? The process wasted over ninety percent of their essence. Normally, consuming one raw could elevate a mortal straight to Foundation Establishment, yet this guy had only reached Qi Refining.
But his confusion didn't last long.
Squelch!
"!!!"
The Unity cultivator froze, his body going rigid as he stared down at the hand that had just pierced through his chest from behind. Clutched in that delicate, unyielding palm was his own still beating heart.
Then,
Crunch.
The heart was crushed into a pulp of flesh and spiritual energy.
"Gah!!!"
The Unity cultivator coughed up a mouthful of black blood. While a Unity stage expert wouldn't die from a crushed heart alone, the attack had severely wounded his core. Su Min hadn't just stabbed him; she had infused destructive Time Laws and corrosive Chaos energy directly into his body.
"You, you, who are you?!"
Trembling with terror and pain, the Unity cultivator stared at the black haired woman who had appeared behind him without a shred of warning. Once a cultivator reached the Unity stage, their Nascent Soul fully merged with their physical body; otherwise, Su Min would have gone straight for his soul core.
"No need for you to know that."
Su Min sneered, and in the next instant, her furious battle armor materialized around her in a flash of light. Sword in hand, she lunged forward. With him already heavily injured from the ambush, the fight was straightforward. The only thing Su Min really had to worry about was whether he'd resort to self destruction and try to blow up the planet in a final, desperate act.
And indeed, that was exactly what the Unity cultivator was thinking. Having lurked on this planet for centuries, he had contingency measures in place for exactly this scenario. But the next moment, pure despair filled his eyes. An unfathomable, oppressive power had already sealed the entire pocket space, locking down all energy.
An Imperial Artifact.
While the Dark Universe's top cultivators might surpass those of normal universes in raw survival instinct, they had one critical weakness: they completely lacked Imperial Artifacts. That was why, even if they managed to escape the Dark Universe, they would never dare approach a place like the Heavenly Continent.
The major factions there could easily teach them a brutal lesson with their Imperial Artifacts. Trapped under the absolute suppression of such a relic, the Unity cultivator had no chance to make a desperate last stand. Back then, Su Min had expended tremendous effort to dismantle the Mountain God's Thousand Slaughter Formation. But against this guy? She didn't need to waste nearly as much energy.
Soon,
"Done!"
Holding the collected, swirling mass of soul fragments, Su Min smiled in satisfaction. After a brief pause, she set up a powerful killing formation right there in the pocket space. While she wasn't a master of formations, her immense cultivation level alone allowed her to create a trap capable of annihilating any Divine Transformation cultivator with ease.
Her reasoning was simple and brutal.
The cultists would undoubtedly continue sacrificing people to their "god." But now that their master was dead, any future offerings sent to this space would be instantly obliterated by her formation.
To be honest, Su Min was a little disappointed. She had given that young man resources to help him survive the initial madness of his awakening. Once he'd regained his sanity, he could have used the information within the soul fragments to cultivate properly and find a better path.
Yet, it seemed a dog can't stop eating shit.
This planet's cultivators were simply beyond redemption. Seeing that, Su Min wouldn't hold back any longer. Hunting down every single one of them was impractical, but ensuring the planet's original, non cultivator order remained intact was the best she could do.
"Consider this my only mercy for this world."
With everything set, she turned and left without a backward glance. What would happen to this planet after she left? Whether new tyrants would rise to dominate it, that wasn't her concern anymore. The brutal, unforgiving rules of the Dark Universe dictated that she couldn't afford to linger on any planet for too long.
"Next stop, another life bearing planet, about one point five light years away. Let's see what's there."
With that, Su Min vanished once more into the void. She had discovered a new, efficient strategy: using these dark cultivators' own bait to lure them out, then giving them a nasty surprise. Whether Yao Xian'er had ever used this method, Su Min didn't know. But knowing her pride and direct nature, she probably hadn't.
It was the arrogance of the truly strong.
But Su Min didn't care about such things. If she had that kind of pride, she would've died countless times already in her journey.
Time flew by in the monotonous vastness of space.
In what felt like a blink, nearly fifty years had passed. During this time, Su Min traveled from planet to planet, witnessing many strange and often depressing sights. Yao Xian'er had spent a full thousand years navigating the Dark Universe. While a millennium was nothing to the cosmos, it was an eternity for any living being.
As Su Min diligently followed the ancient star map, she realized with growing dismay that many of the marked life bearing planets had turned barren, and some were even completely destroyed, reduced to floating debris.
It was unclear who or what was responsible.
Most cultivators, even the dark ones, wouldn't casually attack and destroy a planet. Normal cultivators weren't completely inhuman, and dark cultivators valued life bearing worlds too much; they needed them to continuously harvest soul fragments. Yet, despite that, many planets had been completely drained of all life.
Su Min's personal gains, however, were substantial. Even with many planets destroyed, countless others remained.
Her tally was: Twelve Dao Comprehension stage cultivators slain; Eight Unity stage cultivators slain.
Now, she possessed a considerable stockpile of soul fragments. But she hadn't absorbed or refined them yet, saving them for a concentrated effort.
"Still not enough. This still isn't sufficient to push me to Unity late stage."
Flipping through her spiritual spoils, Su Min let out a sigh. The energy required to advance through the later Unity stages was truly immense. If she were to absorb the fragments directly and recklessly, it would probably be enough, but she would never, ever do that.
Just look at Jiang Xi; a Mahayana peak expert who had been driven to utter madness by these very things, unable to even die a clean death. If Su Min hadn't intervened, he would've been forced to perish alongside the corruption. She knew better than to take such foolish risks. But refining the fragments properly meant losing most of their raw energy potential.
"What a waste. I'll need to hunt more targets. Hm?"
Just as she was about to resume her mission, something unexpected happened. The token at her waist began vibrating violently. This was no ordinary token; it was a genuine Heaven grade treasure with one simple, critical function: Interstellar communication, instant and without any delay.
Beyond that, it was practically useless.
Su Min didn't know how to craft such an item herself; Yao Xian'er had given it to her before she'd left. Its only limitation was that it couldn't be used from outside the Dark Universe, not even at its very edges.
"Oh? What's going on?"
Taking out the glowing token, Su Min raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
"Where are you? I'm sending you coordinates now. Get there immediately, no delays!"
Yao Xian'er's voice was sharp and urgent, brooking no argument.
"Understood. What's happening?"
Without a moment's hesitation, Su Min turned and rushed toward the designated location flashing in her mind. If Yao Xian'er was this anxious, it had to be seriously bad news.
"According to Tian Yang, that's the young monk's Dharma name, a Mahayana stage existence just emerged from the dark chaotic zone. He was held up by something else and couldn't stop it in time."
"What?!"
Su Min's eyes narrowed instantly, her expression turning grave.
This was very bad news. If true, she might not be able to defeat this foe alone. While the Five Elements Holy Body was overpowered, the fundamental gap between Unity and Mahayana was vast. And among Mahayana experts, some were exceptionally strong, ones she might not be able to defeat, possibly even forcing her to flee for her life.
"A Mahayana early stage cultivator. But, his body is a Solar Sovereign Body."
"Huh?"
Su Min paused mid flight, then her expression hardened into one of fierce determination.
"Has the law that 'Yin and Yang Shall Never Meet' been broken?"
"No. That was his body's original, natural state. Now, it's severely damaged and corrupted by the dark energy, no longer a true, pure Solar Sovereign Body."
"Good. In that case, I'll have to test myself against him."
A sharp glint of killing intent flashed in Su Min's eyes. Her ultimate goal in coming to the Dark Universe was to gather enough Solar Sovereign Body essence to perfect her own Taiyang Qi. If this enemy was once a genuine Solar Sovereign Body, his flesh and bones must contain concentrated Solar Essence Blood.
And that meant, she absolutely had to kill him.
With that thought, Su Min warped the space around her, accelerating far beyond light speed. In less than a day, she caught up to the faint, corrupt aura of the target. She didn't know what he was planning or where he was headed, but she couldn't let him roam freely. Cultivators emerging from the Dark Universe's deepest depths were far more stable and coherent than those on the Dark Continent, and they were likely much stronger as well.
The only downside? Their soul fragments weren't usually as dense or numerous.
But they also weren't as paranoid or cautious; these were often new lives born from complete, powerful bodies, fundamentally different from the stitched together fragment kings.
Yet, just as she closed in on his position,
"Heh. You've finally arrived."
The Solar Sovereign Body cultivator stood calmly in the void, as if he had been waiting for her all along.
"?"
Su Min froze for a split second, then her expression darkened into a stormy glare.
The figure's body suddenly twisted violently, contorting in an impossible way.
A slender, pale arm burst out from its chest, ripping through flesh and dark energy.
One figure became two.
And what made Su Min's face turn grim with realization was their opposing, yet complementary physiques.
Solar Sovereign Body. Lunar Sovereign Body.
"Well, damn," Su Min muttered, her grip tightening on her sword. This had just gotten a lot more complicated.