Yin and Yang, the Five Elements, yet something fundamental still seemed to be missing between them, a final piece to unify the whole.
At this moment, Su Min sensed a profound truth. After achieving a hard won mastery over Yin and Yang, she now felt closer than ever to the elusive path of Chaos she sought.
"What is it that is missing?" she muttered to herself, her gaze sharp and analytical as it fell upon the half male, half female monstrosity still struggling before her.
The battle between them was clearly nearing its end. Though her own colossal Dharma Body bore some cracks and injuries, it remained fundamentally intact and pulsing with power. In stark contrast, her opponent was in a truly pitiful state, their robes torn to shreds, half of their fused body shattered and leaking dark energy. The disheveled state of their attire was partly due to Su Min's morbid curiosity. Since they had refused to answer her earlier question about how it felt to fuck oneself, she had decided to satisfy her own curiosity visually before delivering the final blow.
To her great disappointment, upon closer inspection, she found that the lower half of their fused form was smooth and featureless, utterly devoid of any gender specific characteristics.
Instantly, a wave of indifference washed over her. With no further interest in the creature, she began attacking with pure, lethal intent. Bolstered by the suppressing power of her Emperor Artifact, her opponent's body, though still somewhat physically intact, had their controlling soul thoroughly shattered by her relentless spiritual assault.
Since this body was not originally theirs, the compatibility between soul and flesh was always low. Under Su Min's overwhelming suppression, their fractured soul had been torn apart completely.
"Hah, it is over."
With that final thought, the distorted, gray white space around her returned to the familiar endless black of the void. She flew over and grabbed the twitching, defeated foe. The forcibly merged Yin Yang fusion was simply no match for someone like her, who understood the true harmony of the forces.
"Not bad. The amount of essence blood in this one is even greater than that Solar Sovereign Emperor from the ancient battlefield back then. I will store the corpse for now."
As the puppeteer's soul finally dissipated, the unstable fused body split back into two distinct halves. Su Min collected both the male and female corpses and stored them securely in her spatial treasure. She knew this area was no longer safe, the scale of their battle was so vast that even the reclusive Mahayana cultivators on the Dark Continent might have sensed the ripples.
They likely had not intervened because they could not discern the exact situation from such a distance. But once the battle's energy subsided, someone would surely come to investigate.
Without a moment's hesitation, Su Min activated the Yin Yang Escape technique, using the lingering primordial energies from the fight to vanish swiftly and silently into the depths of the void.
Truth be told, her own injuries were not light either. Her opponent was a flawed, violent fusion of Yin and Yang, and her own mastery was not yet perfect. The inherent mutual suppression between Taiyin and Taiyang energies meant that both sides powerfully countered each other. However, Su Min's superior comprehension and more refined application of Yin Yang principles had ultimately allowed her to emerge victorious.
"These twin swords are mine now, and they are among the few artifacts I can wield effectively in this state."
Holding the gleaming Male Female Twin Swords, Su Min allowed herself a small, triumphant grin before storing them away. These unique weapons were primarily driven by the wielder's physique. As a woman now housing potent Taiyang Qi, she could theoretically utilize both swords to their full potential.
In fact, half of the injuries she had sustained in this battle had been inflicted by these very blades, a testament to their terrifying power.
After fleeing through the void for what felt like an eternity, she eventually landed on a barren, airless planet to recuperate.
"Hah, I will recover here."
With a sigh of relief, she summoned her trusted Heaven and Earth Qiankun Gourd. Recovery in the Dark Universe was never easy, it would take a considerable amount of time.
Thankfully, she had the gourd. Otherwise, like Yao Xian'er, she would have to find a rare, pure spiritual spring or leave the Dark Starry Sky entirely. Crossing the universal boundary in an injured state, however, risked severe corruption by the pervasive dark energy, a true nightmare scenario.
"This planet is safe. There are no lifeforms or strong energy signatures within a full light year radius."
Consulting her star map once more, Su Min confirmed her temporary safety. The universe was simply too vast, even Mahayana cultivators overlooked countless planets during their travels. Their divine sense typically only covered a single star system at a time, akin to glancing out the window of a high speed train.
Unless someone used powerful, causality based techniques to observe her directly, she was effectively untouchable here.
And anyone foolish enough to try? Well, they could ask the Future Maitreya Bell how that worked out.
Now at the Unity Stage, and with a Great Completion Five Elements Holy Body, her very existence was a complex knot of fate. Peering into her future would require any diviner to pay a steep, likely fatal price.
"Full recovery will take about ten years. Hopefully, nothing major happens in the meantime."
She was not too worried. In the past millennium, Yao Xian'er and Tian Yang had killed fewer Mahayana cultivators combined than she had in this single encounter, four in one go if she counted the fused entity as two.
She felt she had every right to "slack off" and recover now.
Just when Su Min was settling into her rest, in a distant, chaotic space beyond normal comprehension, several shadowy figures were discussing something, their mere presence causing the local cosmos to tremble.
"The Yin Yang fusion failed. It could not even stall them."
The fusion was no weak technique, against Yao Xian'er or Tian Yang individually, it could have held its own for a time. Yet, it was completely annihilated in a single day.
"Could it be, the one our master spoke of?"
"Unclear. But the master, seated atop the River of Time, has long feared this individual. In ancient times, they even clashed with a Transcended cultivator. That one burned their own laws and dao foundation to sever the master's anchor, preventing his true descent into that universe."
"The Time Law is too rare. Almost no one comprehends it to a high level."
"The master's predicted timeline approaches. We must act."
"But endless Chaos separates us from that universe. We lack enough Mahayana cultivators on that side to guide us through."
"Then we force our way through. Last time, we expended great effort to seal the Taiyin and Taiyang Bodies, preventing their simultaneous birth in that universe. Yet, the Chaos Heavenly Emperor still emerged. Now, we have one final chance to correct this."
"Mm."
"Launch the Dark War. Remember the master's warning, if that one is born, we will be erased from existence, stripped of eternity and reincarnation itself."
A heavy silence fell among the entities.
These beings, who had lived for eons, enslaved countless universes, and wielded unimaginable power, felt a genuine chill at the warning.
They could not fathom why an entity as powerful as their master, capable of traversing time itself, would fear something enough to seek its destruction from the dawn of antiquity.
Whatever it was, it demanded the most extreme measures.
~
Su Min's eyes snapped open, spiritual light flashing within them.
"Finally recovered. Now, it is time to break through to Unity Late Stage."
The massive pile of soul fragments and the two powerful corpses before her ignited with Nanming Lihuo, melting under its intense, purifying heat.
Though much of their original essence had dissipated after death, these were still intact bodies, unlike the skeletal remains she had found last time. They still held vast reserves of potent essence blood. Both had been at Mahayana Peak in life, and even now, their corpses radiated energy equivalent to the Mahayana Early Stage.
The only oddity was that the Taiyin essence blood did not trigger the same deep, resonant state as before.
"Is it because of my soul bond with Yingying? Or is it because this blood comes from a long dead entity, lacking vitality?"
Shaking her head, she put the thought aside and focused on the swirling mass of soul fragments.
"This should be enough to push me to Unity Late Stage. After that, I will hunt another Mahayana. But the boundary is so vague, crossing it will not be easy."
Closing her eyes, she began the meticulous process of refining the fragments while simultaneously absorbing spiritual liquid from her gourd. In this tainted environment, she relied entirely on the gourd's internal world for pure energy.
A full year later, the last of the fragments were fully absorbed. Her aura had grown denser, more profound, hovering at the very peak of mid stage.
"Next, the Taiyang essence blood. Strangely, I'm even more compatible with it than with Taiyin. The resonance goes straight into my soul. Is it because my constitution leans toward a Yin Body and a Yang Soul?"
This self revelation stunned her. The first time she had absorbed Taiyang essence blood, it had been forcibly injected during a life or death struggle, she never had the chance to feel it clearly. Only now did she understand why the Heavenly Thunder had granted her Taiyang Qi in the first place. Her soul's core nature was already aligned with it, long before she ever came to this world.
A soul perfectly in sync with a body so different in nature, yet still harmonizing with it flawlessly, was something rare enough to be almost unheard of.
"I will absorb the Taiyin essence blood first, then use the Taiyang for the final breakthrough push."
Since both corpses had similar reserves, and her affinity with Taiyang was higher, it made sense to use that for the advancement. The amount of essence blood here far exceeded what a living Xie Yingying could ever provide, these were the remains of true Mahayana Peak cultivators, after all.
"I will only absorb a third of the Taiyin essence blood. The rest is for Yingying, my absorption efficiency for it is lower. The Taiyang essence blood, though, I will take all of it for myself."
As the first drop of icy Taiyin essence blood entered her meridians, something completely unexpected happened, it fused with her own energy seamlessly, with virtually no waste or resistance.
"Huh?"
Activating the Lunar Sovereign Ancient Scripture, a pure, dark lunar aura erupted from her, cold and powerful.
"Holy shit."
This was far beyond her expectations.
She tested another drop, carefully monitoring the process, and confirmed her body's freakish, near perfect compatibility with both supreme forces.
"Well, this changes my cultivation plans significantly. But I cannot just keep pestering Yingying for her blood, that is not sustainable."
With a wry, internal smile, she turned her attention to the blazing Taiyang essence blood.
The moment the first drop entered her system, her body erupted, blazing like a miniature sun. An ordinary cultivator, even a Mahayana one, would have combusted into ash instantly.
Taiyang essence blood was lethally, purely yang, its bearers rarely survived childhood without significant external aid or a perfectly suited physique.
Su Min's simple robes incinerated instantly into nothingness. The violent yang energy clashed ferociously with her innate female, yin physiology.
"Channel it directly into my soul, do not let it spill out into my body!"
The moment she forced the energy into her spiritual core, agony erupted through her very being, but then, something miraculous happened, equilibrium.
Her internal Taiyin and Taiyang energies swirled together and fused into a perfect, stable balance.
Yin Yang Balance, Achieved.
Her eyes flew open, wide with shock and realization.
"This is,"
A shiver of both fear and excitement ran down her spine. Had she broken through recklessly without this understanding, the internal imbalance would have surely destroyed her.
"Did I accidentally advance my constitution further?"
This was the fabled Half Step Chaos Body, a state theoretically on par with her Five Elements Holy Body, yet inherently conflicting with it.
She was now one step, one final, elusive insight away from the legendary true Chaos Body.
But what was that final step?
"No time to ponder that now. Unity Late Stage, here I come!"
With a deep, steadying breath, she closed her eyes and focused inward.
Her spiritual energy surged violently, a tidal wave of power crashing against the next barrier, breaching it in an instant.
The barren planet beneath her quaked violently as her power erupted outwards, unable to be fully contained.
The vibrant vitality of the Five Elements spread wildly from her, stirring the planet's dormant core into activity. Lightning storms raged in the newly formed atmosphere. Oceans of water condensed from nothingness. Deep within the planet, the first sparks of single celled life sparked into existence from the sheer creative energy.
And then,
Su Min's eyes snapped open, glowing with newfound power and stability.
Unity Late Stage—Attained.
===
Remember in the previous chapter when I say, I didn't have any idea how she get 'Taiyin'? Now it answered. She get an experience bag -_-
Completely tailor made for her -_-