"Mu'er, take these two to the rear hall."
Prince Yong gave the jade bottle in his hand one last, considering glance before passing it to his son. The two men who had received the pills bowed deeply, their faces etched with a gratitude so intense it looked like worship. Under the prince's signal, they quickly followed his son out of the main hall.
It was a deliberate move. With Su Min still seated there, it was unwise to let her see the full extent of their reactions or the process that was about to unfold.
Only a few moments later, a powerful wave of spiritual pressure surged from the back of the estate, sharp and new. Prince Yong let out a slow, relieved breath he hadn't realized he was holding. It was done. Three true Qi Refining cultivators now stood under his command. These weren't like the useless so-called experts Su Min had cut down before; these were genuine warriors, firmly on the path of cultivation.
With this new strength, his faction's power had just taken a massive leap forward. He turned back to Su Min, his expression growing serious as he shifted the conversation to more urgent matters.
"Lady Su, regarding the two items you seek... I am afraid they are not within the borders of Great Wei. If they were, my networks would have found word of them long ago."
"Not in Great Wei?"
Su Min's brow twitched slightly. A vague but familiar unease began to creep into her heart.
"All evidence points to the northern plains. Our reach there is thin, but we have some eyes. I did receive one report, though it is still unconfirmed."
"What kind of report?" she asked, her expression tightening.
The territories of Great Wei were vast, but its dominion was not absolute. They held firm control over the prosperous central lands, but the south was a wall of impassable mountains, the west a sea of shifting dunes, and the north... the endless, wild grasslands. Those outer realms were unsuitable for farming or easy rule, so Great Wei had never bothered to fully conquer them.
"In the past decade, two top masters have emerged from the grasslands," Prince Yong explained, his voice low. "They have spent the last ten years conquering the scattered tribes. Now, they are on the verge of unifying the entire steppe." His expression darkened. "This is very bad news for us."
"Two of them?" Su Min's stomach sank. A memory, hazy like from another life, was clicking into place.
"Yes. They are known as the Twin Elders of Flame and Earth. A little over a year ago, they ventured deep into the heart of the plains. No one knows what they found there, but they returned each wielding a powerful artifact, perfectly attuned to their elemental affinities."
"Damn it. That is troublesome."
She didn't doubt him for a moment. In the game world she remembered, those two were infamous mid-stage bosses, usually only encountered if a player deliberately wandered into the northern grasslands on a specific side quest.
Most players avoided that quest. But avoiding it had consequences. It led to an eventual, massive invasion by the unified steppe tribes. Even with the Demon Queen defending the borders, Great Wei would not fall outright, but huge swathes of territory would be lost. The fate of the civilians left behind was a grim and easy thing to imagine.
In the original timeline, those two old monsters would eventually be subdued by the Demon Queen herself and transformed into late-game enemies. If intercepted early, they were still in the late Qi Refining stage. But once under her control, they would evolve, eventually stepping into the Golden Core realm.
What made them truly dangerous was their cultivation technique. It allowed them to temporarily fuse their powers, creating a monstrous entity of combined fire and earth. Against that fusion, even a cultivator of equal level would be hard-pressed to survive.
Su Min had never planned to seek them out. But if the two rare materials she needed for Foundation Establishment were truly in their possession, she could not afford to wait. If they reached the Foundation Establishment stage first, seizing those items would become nearly impossible.
Their origins were similar to the Demon Queen's—ancient beings who had been sealed away. Their clans were weaker, their seals less complete, which was why they had awakened decades earlier.
Even so, after all these years, they had not advanced beyond late-stage Qi Refining. Their raw combat strength, however, was formidable. That combined technique was the thing of nightmares, enough to make even Su Min proceed with extreme caution.
"A pity," she murmured under her breath. "It seems a fight is inevitable. They have no natural path to Foundation Establishment unless the Demon Queen aids them directly. In that case, striking first is my only real option."
She fell into a deep silence, weighing strategies and risks.
"Lady Su? Lady Su?"
Prince Yong's voice pulled her back to the present. He had a clear favor to ask. With the steppe tribes nearing unification, their ancient, instinctual drive to march south would soon awaken. His city, Yongzhou, guarded the frontier between the grassland and the desert. It would be the first to bear the brunt of the assault.
Even with three new Qi Refining cultivators under his command, he felt no confidence. Too many intelligence reports hinted that the two elders had already reached the peak of Qi Refining.
Unless the Demon Queen herself took action, there was no one in Great Wei capable of stopping them—except for the woman sitting before him.
"War is coming, isn't it?" Su Min asked, her voice quiet but clear.
"You have sensed it too, then."
"I know what you are going to ask. The Twin Elders of Flame and Earth... fine. I will handle them." She held up a hand to stop his thanks. "But do not misunderstand. Those two are not beneath me in cultivation. Do not rely on your three new subordinates in this fight, and do not expect any aid from the royal palace."
She was not exaggerating. Expecting that useless emperor to produce a Foundation Establishment cultivator in time was a fantasy. As for the Demon Queen intervening, that was even less likely. It meant the task would fall entirely on her shoulders.
She could walk away. But doing so would push her own path to Foundation Establishment further out of reach. Those rare materials were true world treasures, the kind that appeared only once every few decades. Missing this chance could mean waiting another century. By then, the Demon Queen would be utterly unstoppable. If Su Min was still in the Qi Refining stage, she would not stand a chance.
And it was more than that. If she abandoned Yongzhou now, the three neighboring provinces would drown in blood and chaos. For her own sake, and for the sake of countless innocents, she had to act.
"Then I thank Lady Su for your aid," Prince Yong said, his voice thick with solemn gratitude.
"Do not thank me yet." Her tone turned cold and practical. "Before I make my move, I must remain hidden. They cannot learn of my presence or my power. In the meantime, you will spare no cost in gathering every scrap of information on those two. If I am to face them alone, I need every possible advantage."
She already knew much about their abilities from the game, but this was not a game anymore. Reality could, and would, change. In the original timeline, the Twin Elders never left their stronghold to pursue treasures, but perhaps this time, the lure of Foundation Establishment materials had drawn them out.
Besides, those items were not just for breakthroughs. Even unrefined, they were valuable enough to serve as top-grade spiritual artifacts. She wanted as much current, real-world intelligence as possible before she committed.
In that old game world, weapon forgers were even rarer than alchemists. Many powerful cultivators had been like Hui Ming of the desert—strong, but poorly equipped. Su Min, however, wore a full set of spiritual armor and carried a powerful staff. Her odds were not bad.
Even so, a cold knot of caution tightened in her chest.
"I will have to be very, very careful."