"The gap between stages at the Divine Transformation level is truly immense," Su Min mused, flexing her hand and feeling the vast, new power coursing through her meridians like a deep, steady river. "Under normal circumstances, a mid-stage Divine Transformation cultivator would possess enough of an advantage to make an early-stage one simply despair." She was slightly surprised by the sheer magnitude of the change. Clearly, the leap in power was greater than she had imagined, a fact she had somewhat forgotten after constantly battling foes who far surpassed her own nominal level.
But this fundamental, internal change did not occupy her thoughts for long. A far more pressing and complex matter pushed to the forefront of her mind, the Dao Comprehension stage.
To reach the revered Dao Comprehension stage, one had to comprehend their own unique Dao Law, a fundamental truth of the universe. The strength and profundity of this law directly determined one's future combat power and potential, but achieving it was far from simple. In the game, there were specific, if incredibly grindy, ways to obtain it, primarily revolving around the investment of vast amounts of time. To walk the Path of Slaughter, for instance, one had to engage in endless, bloody battles, which was the inherent route of the White Tiger's legacy. But merely qualifying for a path did not mean she wanted it. There was only one Law she truly sought, the pinnacle of conceptual power, Time.
The Law of Time was the most formidable and mysterious law in the game's entire lore. Under normal circumstances, obtaining it was nearly impossible because to wear the crown, one had to bear its immense weight. To comprehend it, a cultivator had to endure its rapid, unrelenting passage within their own perception. In other words, one needed an effectively infinite lifespan, and had to be at least at the Divine Transformation stage, as the Heavenly Dao itself suppressed the formation of true, independent Laws beyond this level.
But that was only the first, daunting hurdle. The second was the sheer, soul-crushing time investment. One had to sit in deep meditation, enduring the subjective passage of millennia within their own mind. In the game, this often led to a common "failure mode", the game world would be consumed by the rampaging Fallen Ones long before the player could ever succeed. The only reliable way to obtain it was through cheats or specific, game-breaking exploits.
But reality, she knew all too well, had no console commands.
Yet, Su Min had one unique, irreplaceable tool left, the Medicine King's Cauldron.
Now that she had reached the solid mid-stage of Divine Transformation, she could keenly sense the emptiness within her spiritual sea where a nascent Law should be forming. She knew she had to start preparing immediately. Once she reached the Divine Transformation peak, she could extend her perception into the Half-Step Dao Comprehension stage. At that transitional level, one could only faintly sense the Dao, not truly wield its power. The legendary Dao Comprehension Pill worked on a similar principle, it brought one's spirit closer to a Dao Law, unlike the earlier, simpler breakthrough pills.
"I still have some time before I reach that peak. But the foundation must be laid now. Medicine King's Cauldron, come forth!"
With a focused thought, the ancient, bronze cauldron materialized before her, its surface etched with shifting, flowing patterns that seemed to tell stories of life and decay. The cauldron's primary function was to nurture herbs, not for direct cultivation via time acceleration. Its unique temporal properties caused the mind and body to desynchronize in a way that was dangerously destabilizing for most living beings. But for Su Min, with her specific, immortal physique that defied conventional aging, this inherent flaw was the perfect opportunity. Experiencing the rapid, visceral flow of time within its confines was the only feasible way to perfectly comprehend her chosen, supreme Law.
~
"What are you planning now?" The cauldron's voice was calm, yet held a note of wariness as it hovered before her. It had been thriving inside her dantian, an Innate Spiritual Treasure needed specific, nourishing conditions to evolve, and none had been as uniquely favorable as Su Min's body. With two other heavenly treasures already integrated, providing a stable spiritual environment, it was only waiting for the third, the Central Wutu Divine Earth, to ascend to a new level of power.
"I need your help," Su Min stated flatly, her tone leaving no room for argument. The cauldron had enjoyed enough passive benefits; now it was time to contribute actively. While she had harvested many precious herbs from it over the years, that did not count as true utilization. Its core purpose was to nurture life; her periodic harvesting actually accelerated the natural ecological cycle within its spatial pocket, which was beneficial for it.
"What do you want from me?" The cauldron was genuinely puzzled. As a treasure focused entirely on nurturing life, it possessed no inherent combat power. The only reason it had managed to trap that Divine Transformation cultivator before was due to the complex formations of the Alchemist's constructed secret realm, where it held absolute authority as the core. Out here in the open, real world, it was useless for fighting. Su Min would have to physically capture and throw enemies inside, which was utterly impractical in any real battle.
"I need you to help me comprehend the Law of Time."
"!!!"
The cauldron trembled so violently it nearly fell from the air. If it had a human form, its eyes would be bulging in sheer shock. To it, this was tantamount to spiritual suicide. How much lifespan did she think she had to burn? Even the legendary Alchemist Emperor it once served, a figure of immense power and knowledge, would not have dared attempt this reckless feat!
But Su Min was not waiting for permission or debate. "My physique is special, you know this, do not worry about that. Just maximize the internal time flow once I enter. I need to experience the passage of time, to truly feel its weight and flow, not just observe it."
There was no clever shortcut to the Law of Time, no secret manual, only enduring its rapid, corrosive flow and hoping to comprehend its essence before one's spirit aged to dust. Not even a supreme talent like Yao Xian'er could have achieved this through normal means. In theory, she might have had one chance to comprehend a second, lesser Dao Law later, but Su Min did not know the details and did not care.
"Are you absolutely sure?" the cauldron asked, its voice now laced with deep unease.
"Yes."
"Fine." Seeing the unwavering, diamond-hard determination in her eyes, the cauldron did not argue further. It glowed with a soft, ancient light, and an entrance, shimmering like a heat haze, swirled open on its side. Su Min had lived for centuries and faced countless perils; she was not reckless. Though the cauldron did not fully understand her plan, her track record of surviving the impossible spoke for itself.
In a flash of motion, Su Min entered the temporal realm within.
With her unique immortal body and the cauldron's specialized assistance, she had no reason to choose any other, slower, more conventional method. Moreover, the Divine Transformation stage was a true watershed moment, only beyond it could the true, dormant power of her immortality talent and her Heavenly Dao Insight fully manifest. That power was the innate ability to comprehend unique and supreme Daos that were closed to others. After all, once one truly entered the Dao Comprehension stage, the Dao Law itself became the most critical component of combat strength. Creatures like the Three-Legged Golden Crow and Five-Clawed Divine Dragon were born with complete, powerful Dao Laws inherited in their bloodlines, an immense advantage ordinary humans could not hope to match. But their laws were fixed, innate. None of them could ever reach the conceptual heights of the Law of Time.
~
"Begin." Su Min took a deep breath of the cauldron's strangely sterile, timeless air and closed her eyes, settling her spirit. "To witness the Dao through time, one must walk its entire path, from beginning to end."
Inside the cauldron, time accelerated to its absolute maximum. Though it could not match the raw, spatial energy of a full secret realm, the surroundings still transformed at a visible, dizzying pace. Seeds sprouted from the spiritual soil, grew into vibrant plants, bloomed into explosions of color, and withered back to dust in the space of a single, steady heartbeat. Life and death cycled in moments, a silent, frantic dance of creation and dissolution.
Su Min sat cross-legged at the center of it all, her senses stretched wide open, her Heavenly Dao Insight fully active, taking in every fleeting, profound detail of the temporal chaos.
And it was here that her innate talent now displayed its most terrifying effect. Amidst the chaotic, blindingly rapid flow of time, she faintly began to grasp something, a silvery, elusive force that surged forward with the inevitability of lightning, yet flickered in and out of perceptible existence, profound and maddeningly elusive.
~
While Su Min immersed herself completely in the subjective river of time, unrest brewed in the frozen wastes elsewhere. Before the grand, rune-carved entrance of an ancient, ice-encased tomb, three withered, skeletal figures sat in silence, their ragged robes dusted with a fresh layer of snow, their auras cold and patient.
"It has been several decades since the Lunar Princess entered. She has not emerged, could she have already reached the Dao Comprehension stage inside?" one of them rasped, his voice like dry leaves scraping against stone.
"All because you failed to kill her cleanly the last time she was outside, letting her escape into this sanctuary!" another accused, his voice a dry, hateful rattle.
"Relax," the third, and seemingly eldest, croaked, a ghastly smile stretching his desiccated lips. "Even if she reaches Dao Comprehension inside, it changes nothing. Over these long decades, I have personally laid hundreds of lethal, soul-rending formations around this place. She will die the moment she steps out!"
"Do not underestimate her. She is closely tied to that monstrous woman, the alchemist. Anyone who can defeat a prodigy with a Spirit Dao Body must be handled with extreme care."
"You might not know this," the first one added with a grim tone, "but without a specific guide or talisman in these trackless snow plains, even a genuine Mahayana expert would get hopelessly lost. She has no way to call for help, no path for reinforcements to find her."
"I want her Lunar Sovereign Blood," the second one hissed, his eyes glowing with a greedy red light. "It will perfectly replenish my vital essence."
"Her Lunar Sovereign Bones are mine," the third claimed, his bony fingers clenching. "They will serve as the perfect material to reforge my damaged skeleton."
"Then I will take her flesh and dantian. Consuming her pure, potent body will restore the three of us to our peak, Dao Comprehension perfection. Then we can lure out that other woman and kill her together. But we must stay far from the Eastern Mulberry Continent and that damned Golden Crow."
"That Golden Crow is too dangerous. In our current state, the three of us together would struggle against her unless we first reach the Unity stage."
"Obviously. Hmm, what is that,?" Suddenly, all three ancient figures froze, their heads snapping in unison toward the tomb's massive, sealed stone doors.
A faint, almost imperceptible wisp of black, malevolent mist had begun to seep from between the cracks of the ancient stone, carrying a scent of primordial hatred and decay.
~
Inside the accelerated realm of the cauldron, Su Min's eyes snapped open.
A sharp, urgent pulse vibrated against her finger, a physical jolt of alarm. She looked down. The simple jade token Yao Xian'er had given her was glowing with a fierce, warning red light, its cold radiance cutting through the misty, time-accelerated air like a beacon.
"The Evil Soul... it is stirring early?" Her pupils narrowed to pinpricks, all thoughts of meditation vanishing.
Outside, the wider world might have remained silent and unaware. But that ominous glow was proof enough, something fundamental had shifted within the tomb's delicate balance. The seal was weakening ahead of schedule.
"My comprehension is progressing well," she assessed her own state with lightning speed. "I have half-stepped into the preliminary understanding of the Law of Time. But fully grasping it, making it my own, will take much, much longer." The realization of the true cost was staggering. "This single attempt must have burned the spiritual equivalent of at least two thousand years of a normal cultivator's lifespan, and that is only because of my Heavenly Dao Insight drastically reducing the time needed. Without it, even this half-step comprehension would have taken tens of thousands of years, an impossible span for any mortal being."
Despite the terrifying cost, she felt a thrill of exhilaration at her progress. Now, she could even lightly wield a sliver, a faint echo, of the Law's power. Other Half-Step Dao Comprehension experts rarely used their incomplete Laws in direct battle, they were too weak, too nascent, too spiritually costly to be of much practical use. But the Law of Time was different. It stood above and beyond almost all other laws. Most cultivators were forced to choose simple Laws aligned with their innate spiritual attributes because comprehending any Dao Law at the Divine Transformation stage was brutally difficult.
Every Half-Step Dao Comprehension expert Su Min had encountered so far followed this pattern. Their Daos lacked active, controllable abilities, merely providing passive amplification to their techniques. But Time was different. It was not a simple elemental attribute; it could not just enhance a fireball or sharpen a sword technique. Instead, it belonged to the rarest category of conceptual laws, standing at the very pinnacle of all Daos. Time and Space, the two supreme, foundational laws. Unfortunately, Su Min had no leads whatsoever on the Law of Space. So Time was her only, and ultimate, choice.
"First, those three old monsters lying in wait." Her voice was low. Calm. But a thin, invisible layer of frost seemed to glaze over her burgeoning killing intent, making the very air around her chill. "Since they are so eager to ambush Yingying, then let them be the first to bear the consequences of my new understanding."
Her eyes glinted with cold, sharp light as she gripped the glowing token tightly. The Evil Soul inside the tomb was only showing the very first signs of awakening; it would likely take years, perhaps even a decade or two, to fully emerge and break the main seal. For most high-level cultivators, that was a mere blink of an eye, a short wait. But to Su Min, it was a critical, precious window. One she did not intend to waste.
Exiting her seclusion within the cauldron in a ripple of distorted time, she shot through the endless, blizzard-scoured snow plains like a phantom comet, her speed defying perception. In her other hand, she held the last, precious drop of Lunar Sovereign Blood Essence. She would not use it to empower herself, with three divine treasures already integrated into her body, its benefits were now limited. But it could serve another, more vital purpose, a perfect spiritual beacon to guide her unerringly through the chaotic glacial energies.
Yao Xian'er's token was for direct, emergency teleportation into the tomb's heart, usable from anywhere, but it was not designed as a long-range guide. The Evil Soul was no ordinary foe. It contained the concentrated hatred and power of a fallen peak Mahayana expert. Even a full Unity-stage cultivator would likely die facing it head-on, let alone someone still at the Divine Transformation stage like her. Thus, Su Min could not afford any variables, any mistakes. Not now. Not with Xie Yingying's life hanging in the balance inside that sealed tomb.
In her current state, dealing with three Half-Step Dao Comprehension experts was not a significant issue. Even if they somehow used a secret art to temporarily restore their peak Dao Comprehension strength, it would not matter. Their self-severed paths were fundamentally flawed and unstable. Even at their theoretical best, their Dao Laws would remain crippled and weak, shadows of their former selves. How to truly repair such a damaged Dao? Su Min did not know nor care. But from her game knowledge, most Fallen Ones chose a simple, brutal method, devouring. They consumed vast quantities of life force and spiritual energy to overwrite their original, broken Laws with a crude, violent Law of Bloody Slaughter. They were, by their very nature, the eternal enemies of all living beings.
Now, despite being only at the mid-stage of Divine Transformation, Su Min traversed the treacherous, illusion-filled snow plains in an instant, the blood essence acting as her compass. Soon, she arrived at her destination, a vast, desolate basin shielded by towering ice cliffs, where a majestic, yet deeply sinister, palace of fused blue ice and ancient black stone stood half-buried in the perpetual snow.
And there, shrouded in the howling blizzard, their auras carefully concealed but not enough to hide from her sharpened senses, three shadowy figures lurked like patient vultures.
Even with her spiritual senses partially suppressed by the unnatural storm, their stench of spiritual decay and ancient hunger was unmistakable.