Amid the howling blizzard, a wall of white noise and stinging ice, the three cloaked figures jolted in surprise, their senses strained against the storm's fury. Their perception in this chaos was even worse than Su Min's, so they only registered her presence as a sudden, sharp pressure in the tempest, a ghost materializing from the snow when she was practically on top of them.
A deafening crack, like the sky itself splitting apart, split the air. One of the men was swatted aside as if by an invisible giant's hand, his body hurtling through the swirling snow like a discarded rag doll, a dark streak that vanished into the distant, featureless white. The remaining two, their minds reeling, barely had time to process what had happened. The empty space where their companion had stood was a silent, terrifying testament to her speed.
"So fast!" The thought flashed through their minds, a cold dread settling deep in their bones. Su Min's speed was simply impossible. It was so quick, so utterly beyond their expectations, that they couldn't react at all. One moment there were three of them, a coordinated unit, and the next, a flash of movement and their companion was just gone, erased from the battlefield.
"Who are you?" one of them finally managed to shout, his voice thin against the wind. "How is this possible at the Divine Transformation stage? This speed rivals even those who have comprehended the Law of Speed. You—?!"
The reason for her incredible speed was deceptively simple: the Law of Time. Her mastery was still fledgling, a sapling in a vast forest of possibility, granting her only two basic effects: acceleration and deceleration. But even this nascent understanding was terrifying in its application. It was like gaining a permanent, overwhelming speed multiplier. She had simply accelerated herself, moving in a blur that defied their senses and shattered their confidence.
"Guess who's inside," she said, her voice cool and cutting through the howling wind like a shard of ice. "And guess who I am." Almost before the words finished leaving her lips, her hands were already moving, forming a series of complex, fluid seals with practiced ease. A shrill, piercing cry echoed across the frozen basin as a massive firebird, wreathed in radiant vermilion flame, materialized above her. It tore through the snowstorm like a falling star, its wake of intense heat melting the eternal frost into great, hissing plumes of steam that rose like ghosts.
She didn't spare the stunned ambushers another glance. Her goal was clear. Instead, she plunged downward, a streak of decisive motion, straight toward the ancient tomb buried deep beneath the layers of ice and snow.
"No!!" one of them roared, the sound a mixture of fury and desperation.
"You're courting death!!" the other screamed, his voice cracking with the strain.
BOOM!
A violent explosion erupted right before the tomb's hidden entrance. The complex, layered formation they had spent decades carefully preparing, the one they hadn't even activated yet, was instantly obliterated by the sheer force of Su Min's fiery descent. Now, if the holder of the Lunar Sovereign Physique emerged, there would be nothing left to trap or weaken her. They would be truly exposed, their plan laid bare.
This was a complete disaster. The Lunar Sovereign Physique came with its own innate Primordial Force, a deep well of ancient power. While the breakthrough conditions for the core cultivation stages were universal, once one surpassed Divine Transformation, the gap between a special physique and an ordinary cultivator became a chasm, vast and unbridgeable. Without the formation, facing a late-stage Divine Transformation Lunar Sovereign expert was a massive, potentially fatal risk. Moreover, the formation could have trapped Su Min too, boxing her in, but she had reacted with blistering speed and destroyed it completely, turning their own weapon to dust.
"Fine, very well!" The one Su Min had initially sent flying returned, his face a bloody, twisted mask of pure rage. He landed heavily, spitting out a mouthful of crimson onto the snow. "The Five Elements Holy Body, huh? Though not yet fully matured and inferior to the Lunar Sovereign girl, since you're seeking death, we'll oblige you!!"
Their meticulous preparations were in ruins, their decades of work undone in a single moment. But since Su Min had come, they would make sure she never left. They weren't like the large, established sects with their codes and honor; their own sects had perished long ago in the relentless river of time. As fallen ones, they had hoarded all the resources for themselves, especially the vast quantities of sealing crystals they needed to sustain their twisted, prolonged existence. They had no ties to this world left, no one to answer to. They were enemies of all living beings, and they acted like it.
Facing Su Min, they felt no hesitation, only a cold, predatory intent. In the next moment, radiance swirled around one of the elders as a massive, ox-like monster materialized in the sky, its form blotting out the falling snow. Its enormous, muscular body seemed to absorb the light as it charged toward Su Min with overwhelming, brute force, each step shaking the air.
"Thunder, manifest upon me."
Seeing the giant beast, Su Min's hands moved in a blur, a dance of intricate signs. A colossal, majestic Thunder God emerged from the void, its ethereal, crackling hands gripping the monster's thick horns, holding it back in a contest of pure strength.
"Mastery of the Five Thunders—Prison of Lightning!!!"
With a single, sharp gesture from Su Min, the Thunder God vanished, its form dissolving into countless, sizzling bolts of lightning that snapped and writhed through the air, wrapping around the hundreds-of-meters-long beast, binding it tightly in a cage of pure energy. The creature was thick-skinned and incredibly tough; a direct, prolonged confrontation would be wasteful and drawn out. At the very same instant, the two remaining fallen ones flickered through the air, their movements sharp and coordinated, attempting to ambush her from both sides, a classic pincer attack.
But Su Min was already gone, her form dissipating like mist, reappearing a safe distance away as if she had never been there.
"What just happened?" one muttered, his eyes wide.
"Did you sense something off?" the other replied, his voice low with confusion.
In that instant, the two men's expressions turned grim, their confidence shaken. Their perfectly coordinated attack had found only empty air. Worse, in that split second, they had both felt a strange, unnatural sluggishness weigh down their movements, a thick molasses clinging to their limbs. It lasted only a fraction of a second, but at their level, that was an eternity. It was like a critical lag spike in a high-stakes duel. And in their perception, Su Min's movements seemed to be in fast-forward, a sped-up illusion.
"Her law is unusual," one of them muttered, the realization dawning like a cold sunrise. "To be touching upon laws at the Divine Transformation middle stage... Even if the Five Elements Holy Body isn't fully matured, reaching Dao Comprehension is only a matter of time for her."
They now understood the source of their stark disadvantage. Su Min had comprehended a law. This was what created such a qualitative difference, allowing a Divine Transformation cultivator to make former Dao Comprehension experts feel so utterly outmatched and slow.
"Can only trap it for about a minute," Su Min assessed, glancing at the temporarily restrained beast as it struggled against its crackling bonds. "In that case, for safety's sake, I'll have to use it."
She knew time was short, the clock ticking loudly in her mind. Once the beast broke free, it would be three against one, a situation she didn't relish. These old monsters were all former Dao Comprehension experts. Who knew what hidden cards they still held in their sleeves? That Tianxiu Emperor had been unlucky, exposing his strongest trump card too early. These two were more cautious; they wouldn't make the same mistake. She had to end this quickly, decisively.
So then—
"Yin-Yang Fusion."
In the next moment, Su Min absorbed the last drop of Lunar Sovereign essence blood. She hardly needed its raw power anymore, her own reserves vast and deep, but it served as a perfect catalyst, a key to a greater door. Besides, once she rescued Xie Yingying, she could always get more from her. The thought of her, trapped and waiting, fueled Su Min's resolve.
The instant she did so, the entire space around them warped and bent. The terrifying blizzard, the very heart of the snow plains where Golden Core cultivators would be shredded to pieces, simply vanished, silenced. The area was now overlaid with two profound, swirling colors—a deep, absorbing black that promised oblivion and a stark, luminous white that spoke of pure creation. It was as if the Heavenly Dao itself had been pushed back, a small corner of the universe rewriting its own rules.
"What is this?!"
The two remaining foes exchanged a single, panicked glance, their eyes wide with a fear they hadn't felt in centuries. Then, without another word, they turned and fled in opposite directions, their self preservation instincts screaming. These people had no honor, no loyalty to anything but themselves; their deepest, most primal instinct was survival. When faced with the unknown and incomprehensible, they ran.
"Trying to run? Too late!!"
Su Min had anticipated this. In the game, hunting these fallen ones was a nightmare without proper preparation and trapping formations. They always fled at the first sign of real danger. But she had made her move, committed to this path, and she wouldn't let them escape now. Moreover, to fully walk the Path of Slaughter and claim the White Tiger's devastating power, she needed their heads as trophies and proof.
Thus, she raised one hand for Taiyin, the essence of the moon, and the other for Taiyang, the heart of the sun. The space around one of the fleeing men was instantly engulfed in an inky, light swallowing glow, and then—
"Ahhh!!!"
A piercing scream tore through the sudden silence as a stark Yin-Yang mark, a symbol of perfect balance and ultimate judgment, bloomed on his forehead. His soaring flight was cut short as he plummeted from the sky like a stone, his cultivation crumbling from half-step Dao Comprehension all the way down to the shaky foundations of Foundation Establishment in an instant. The blizzard, which had only seemed suppressed, was still lethally active just beyond Su Min's domain. A storm capable of tearing apart Golden Core cultivators instantly consumed him as his power collapsed, the icy winds shredding his weakened body and ending him in seconds.
"!!!"
Seeing this, the last fleeing man skidded to a halt, his escape momentum dying in his tracks. He knew it was futile, a pointless gesture. He had seen her speed, her control over the very flow of their engagement. There was no outrunning her. If he fled, he would only be turning his back on a guaranteed death blow. Running now would just make him an easy, undefended target.
For Su Min, one drop of essence blood could only accomplish so much, its power finite. Still, instantly annihilating a half-step Dao Comprehension expert was an impressive, terrifying result, a statement of her growing power.
"You're at least somewhat intelligent," Su Min said, a cold smile playing on her lips as she faced the final foe, her stance relaxed but ready. "Now, the real battle begins. Show me everything you've got. Don't disappoint me."
Now that she had comprehended the Law of Time, even incompletely, her entire combat style had transformed, evolved. She had always lacked reliable pursuit techniques, forcing her to fight with caution to prevent her enemies from escaping. That was no longer an issue. The only regret was the distance and the storm's persistent interference preventing her from summoning the Golden Crow Ancient Bell. Otherwise, she wouldn't have needed to use this particular trump card so early. But a true trump card should turn the tide when revealed, and it had. Now that it was played, she would rely on her own solidified, hard won strength to finish this.
"In that case—" The remaining enemy's body began to expand, his muscles bulging and tearing through his robes with sounds of ripping cloth and straining sinew. In moments, he transformed into a giant dozens of meters tall, a hulking behemoth of flesh and power. He let out a ground-shaking roar that vibrated through the ice and charged, his massive fist, the size of a small house, hurtling toward Su Min with enough raw, physical force to pulverize a mountain into dust.
"A power-type?" Su Min was inwardly surprised. Power-types were straightforward but often troublesome. They specialized in closing the distance and relied entirely on overwhelming physical force to suppress their opponents, preventing the use of more complex, elegant techniques.
But for her, it wasn't an issue. In the next instant, two vastly disproportionate fists met in mid air, a collision of two different philosophies of power.
THUD!
A dull, powerful impact echoed across the basin, a sound of profound, concentrated force, followed by a shockwave that rippled outwards, temporarily pushing back the blizzard itself and creating a momentary bubble of calm. It was a moment of terrifying, focused energy.
And the most shocking thing was that the dozens-of-meters-tall giant was the one sent flying backward, his immense form crashing into the deep snow with a ground-shaking thud that sent plumes of white powder high into the air.
"You—?!" The man scrambled to his feet, his face darkening like a burnt pot, contorted in pain and disbelief. He was injured, his knuckles split and bleeding from the recoil of the impact. Su Min, meanwhile, stood firm, her fist unmarked, not a single hair out of place. She hadn't even shifted her stance. The gap in their pure, unadulterated physical power was absurd, defying all logic.