Logically speaking, although Su Min had seen her fair share of grand scenes, from the Golden Core Avenue to the fallen ones, she still felt an indescribable, bone-deep pressure at this moment.
The being before her was a genuine Mahayana expert. Even if only a wisp of his remnant soul remained and he was already physically dead, just by looking at his colossal skeletal remains, Su Min had no doubt that at his peak, he could have slapped an entire continent into the sea with a single, casual palm.
Most battles at the Mahayana level didn't even take place on the ground but rather in the depths of the starry skies, because every strike they unleashed would be enough to shatter the earth and boil the oceans if it landed.
"These guys are on a completely different level..."
Su Min now faced a rather complicated situation. In terms of pure combat power and technique, the person before her, being just a remnant, couldn't compare to her at her peak versatility. But even relying solely on the indestructible, Mahayana-level skeleton, it was enough to crush some early Unity-stage cultivators to death through sheer force.
However, Su Min's sharp senses could detect that the other party harbored no genuine killing intent. Otherwise, she would have had to resort to using Xie Yingying's essence blood immediately to escape. It was a simple truth, unless she could achieve great mastery while still at the Dao Comprehension stage, she shouldn't even think about facing a Mahayana-level existence head-on, even if it was just a corpse animated by a wisp of soul.
"What should we do? This is your show."
Su Min immediately looked at Tian Hao beside her. This situation was his doing, triggered by his connection, and the trial was undoubtedly meant for him, a test for a fellow Great Desolate Holy Body. There was no need for her to take the lead, especially since the two of them had almost no tacit understanding or practiced coordination.
If they messed up their coordination and got in each other's way, it would be a complete joke. So Su Min consciously took half a step back, clearly letting him take charge of the main assault.
"Provide ranged support for me. I can sense the senior's intention. This trial is for me, so just don't charge ahead and let me handle the close combat."
"Alright. Shout if you need covering fire."
Hearing this, Su Min acted decisively. Her hands moved rapidly through a series of seals, and a massive wooden Buddha, serene yet imposing, rose from the cracked ground behind her.
With the skeleton of the Great Desolate Holy Body suppressing the area with its pure, golden aura, there were no chaotic demonic disturbances within tens of kilometers. Su Min could fight without worry about external corruption, though the only downside was that her Buddha was too small in comparison.
Though it stood nearly a thousand meters tall, a truly majestic sight, it was nothing compared to the golden skeleton that stretched for tens of thousands of meters, blotting out the bloody sky. But it didn't matter, she didn't need to be on the front lines. The rest would depend on Tian Hao's performance.
"Martial Saint's Descent!!!"
The moment Su Min solidified her support stance, Tian Hao roared, his voice brimming with fighting spirit. Almost instantly, a phantom figure similar in size and majesty to Su Min's Buddha appeared behind him, clad in ancient, desolate armor. Then, with an unstoppable momentum, he charged toward the towering golden skeleton. Seeing this fearless assault, the remnant soul floating above the skeleton nodded in visible satisfaction.
Clearly, in the eyes of this ancient Great Desolate Holy Body, cowardice was far worse than weakness. With such a supreme physique, one could never be truly weak, but a lack of fighting spirit was utterly unacceptable. Moreover, since he had already made it clear that he bore no killing intent, shrinking back now would mean being unworthy of his legacy.
At that moment, the massive golden skeleton swung its palm down at Tian Hao, the movement slow but carrying the weight of a mountain. In an instant, the two colossal figures collided.
Clang!!!
A deafening metallic impact reverberated across the plain. The Martial Saint avatar was struck head-on by the golden skeleton's palm, the force sending it crashing down toward the ground, cracking the earth beneath it.
"Thousand-Handed Massacre!!!"
Su Min's support arrived just in time. The same relentless barrage of wooden fists that had nearly obliterated Meng in the past reappeared, raining down upon the golden skeleton's arm and torso like a divine storm. The very earth around the skeleton's feet seemed to split apart from the concussive force.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The ear-piercing clashes of wood on golden bone shook the heavens. Su Min's attack was powerful enough to split normal mountains and shatter the earth, yet it couldn't even leave a scratch on the luminous golden skeleton. But it was enough. As half of Su Min's strikes landed, the golden palm's trajectory was slightly diverted, its force dispersed just enough for Tian Hao to break free from its pressure and regain his footing.
"East Azure Wood and the Great Sun Tathāgata Sutra? Is this little girl a Buddhist cultivator? No, that can't be, she's only practiced Buddhist techniques, not cultivated the Buddhist heart."
The remnant soul of the Great Desolate Holy Body was slightly surprised. For someone at the half-step Dao Comprehension stage to slightly alter his attack, even a restrained one, was genuinely impressive.
"Very well, little ones. You have spirit and power. If you can withstand this next strike, you'll have passed my trial."
At this point, the old man had gauged their strength and seemed satisfied. There was no need to drag this out any longer. Golden light flickered around the massive skeleton once more, its aura intensifying.
"You, what is he... Oh no, danger!!!"
In that instant, Su Min's perception of the Time Law, still incomplete, screamed a warning. She froze for a split second before flashing to Tian Hao's side at her absolute top speed, her form a blur. She yanked him bodily out of his phantom form.
"You, what are you doing?!"
Tian Hao was stunned. Given their alliance and the soul oath they'd sworn, he hadn't been on guard against Su Min, allowing her to pull him away so easily. But before he could question her, he realized her movements were as fast as lightning, fueled by an urgency he hadn't sensed.
"Time Law??? She foresaw something!"
Both of them understood what had happened in that moment, Su Min had pushed her incomplete comprehension of the Time Law to its limits, gaining a fraction of a second's precognition. In the blink of an eye, she dragged Tian Hao back, away from his previous position. Then, her hands moved again in a frantic dance, summoning massive, ancient trees that erupted from the ground and enveloped them both in a thick, layered wooden cocoon.
"Azure Dragon Wood Shield, but that's not enough! Black Tortoise Holy Manifestation!!!"
Seeing the sturdy wooden shield form around them, Su Min roared, knowing it wouldn't hold against what was coming. Without hesitation, she tossed a high-grade Tier 6 Spirit Recovery pill into her mouth, crushing it with her teeth to release its energy instantly. Tian Hao's lips twitched at the sight. He didn't have such precious pills to burn, only a prodigal alchemist like Su Min could afford to be so extravagant in a mere trial.
Boom!
But before he could dwell on it, the attack landed. In that moment, as the golden skeleton clasped its hands together and brought down a storm of fist-shaped energies, he felt the genuine aura of death brush against his soul.
Outside, the old man had chosen this move precisely because it was controllable, designed to push them to their absolute limits without actually killing them.
Yet the first punch shattered the multi-layered wooden shield into splinters, revealing the dark, watery manifestation of the Black Tortoise beneath. The second punch landed with a sound like cracking ice, webbing the Black Tortoise shield with fissures. The third punch, the strongest of the volley, shattered it completely, exposing the two of them inside to the remaining onslaught.
Su Min didn't hesitate, she immediately pulled out one of the vials containing Xie Yingying's essence blood. The overwhelming sense of death left no room for second thought. It was pure survival instinct, and she trusted it implicitly.
But at that moment, instead of retreating, Tian Hao burst forward from her side, his Martial Saint avatar reappearing around him, blazing with a light she hadn't seen before.
"Martial Saint's Mark, Thousand Fists of Annihilation!!!"
A unique, complex sigil glowed brightly on his raised fist, a special mark Tian Hao had imprinted with his very lifeblood, a true trump card. In the next instant, a thousand phantom punches flew out, not as a barrage, but as a single, concentrated point of impact. In less than a second, every strike landed precisely on the same spot of the incoming golden fist energy. The colossal attack was shattered, point by point, disintegrating into motes of harmless light.
Su Min's eyelids twitched. That kind of concentrated, penetrative power could've broken her strongest Black Tortoise manifestation and likely left her severely injured, if not dead.
"Is this his real trump card? Even many seasoned Dao Comprehension experts wouldn't survive a direct hit from that."
She mused silently. Now that she knew about it, she could prepare a counter, lay traps, though it likely wouldn't come to that, given they were bound by oath and weren't enemies.
Crack!
As Su Min pondered, a final shattering sound echoed. The last of the phantom fist energies dispersed mid-air, and the suffocating aura of death vanished completely.
"Whew... That was too close."
Su Min exhaled a deep breath she hadn't realized she was holding, watching as Tian Hao's energy rapidly drained away, his face pale. She was utterly shocked by the display.
They had been forced to reveal their deepest trump cards just to face a single, testing strike from a Mahayana corpse, and the opponent had clearly held back. Such beings were truly terrifying, their power far beyond her current level of comprehension.
"Well done. You've both passed the trial. Successor, come forward. My remnant soul won't last much longer. This specially preserved skeleton will merge with your body, don't look so alarmed. I'll seal most of its power. This will pave your way straight to the Mahayana stage. Once you finish seclusion and fully absorb it, you should reach the Dao Comprehension stage with ease."
Seeing Tian Hao's horrified expression at the idea of absorbing a Mahayana-level skeleton, the old man chuckled. True to his words, the colossal skeleton shrank rapidly, its immense energy compressed into a denser and denser form. In just a minute, it was human-sized, its blinding golden glow completely hidden under a layer of stone-like sealing.
Tian Hao sighed in palpable relief, absorbing the raw, unsealed skeleton at full power would've made him explode like an overfilled waterskin.
"Thank you, Senior, for helping me refine my bones."
"Bone refinement?"
Su Min blinked in confusion. She wasn't a walking encyclopedia of all cultivation techniques, some things, especially the secrets of other supreme physiques, were beyond her knowledge.
"It's a necessary, grueling step for us Great Desolate Holy Bodies to achieve great mastery, the process of transforming our bones into that radiant, indestructible gold. The process is incredibly dangerous and arduous, taking centuries of dedicated effort. But by fusing with the Senior's pre-refined remains, I'll skip that entire stage. I might even reach great mastery by the Unity stage."
"Tch. Talk about a lucky break."
Su Min couldn't help but feel a spike of envy. She'd risked life and limb traversing dangerous realms and fighting powerful foes to collect her heavenly treasures one by one, while his inheritance was just handed to him, this overpowered.
"Don't fret, little girl. I have gifts for you too. Besides, the White Tiger's legacy hasn't appeared yet, and my actions won't interfere with your opportunity."
The old man smiled kindly, sensing her thoughts. His inheritance was hyper-specialized, only working for fellow Great Desolate Holy Bodies; Su Min couldn't use it even if she tried. But he had other compensations for her efforts.
"Senior, can you tell me the exact timing for the White Tiger legacy's appearance?"
Su Min sighed, letting go of her jealousy. No matter how jealous she was, it didn't change the facts.
The stronger Tian Hao became, the better her chances of successfully securing the White Tiger legacy. And that legacy would be no less transformative for her than the golden skeleton was for him, especially since it would complete her Four Symbols inheritance, triggering a qualitative evolution in her power.
Moreover, she was just one final heavenly treasure away from achieving great mastery in her own Five Elements Sacred Body.
"You've seen the environment here. The reason this overwhelming bloodlust and corruption hasn't spread, wreaking havoc on the outside world, is because the White Tiger's will and power are still here, suppressing it."
"Huh? It's still actively suppressing?"
Su Min stiffened, her brow furrowing deeply. That was not good news. If she took the legacy, the ancient battlefield might lose that suppression and go completely berserk, releasing its hordes of monsters and the bloodlust out into the world. The resulting destruction could very well rival that of the Fallen Ones' invasion.
She'd already seen countless Nascent Soul and Divine Transformation beasts outside. The only silver lining was that they were all drawn to the black, rotting blood, clustering here instead of spreading out. But if this place erupted, all hell would break loose. In that case, obtaining the White Tiger legacy would be morally problematic, to say the least.
"Don't worry. The White Tiger has prepared for this. The legacy won't fully emerge for a few more decades, when the battlefield enters the period known as the Bloodlust Sky, the specific day when the bloodlust is most volatile and the suppression is naturally weakest. That is the ordained time for the succession."
Seeing her immediate concern, the old man reassured her, his expression approving. He was pleased she wasn't a power-hungry lunatic who would sacrifice the world for personal gain.
"Bloodlust Sky?"
Su Min frowned, her memory searching for any reference. "What exactly is that? It sounds ominous."
"You've seen the countless corpses here. Their accumulated resentment and killing intent gather over time, coalescing into a single, monstrous bloodlust entity. The White Tiger has stayed all this time primarily to suppress it, to prevent it from gaining consciousness and breaking free."
"That still sounds incredibly bad. There are countless Unity-stage corpses here, and even Mahayana ones like you, Senior. The collective resentment of that... The two of us would be cannon fodder against such a thing."
Su Min rolled her eyes, her voice laced with skepticism. That thing sounded like a world-ending threat, far beyond the paygrade of a late-stage Divine Transformation cultivator like her, even with her abnormal combat power.
"Don't worry. It has been weakened over the millennia, its power siphoned and contained to a manageable level. With the strength you two possess, and will possess by then, you will be able to handle it. That, I can promise."