Sigh…
Hearing this final confirmation, Su Min could only let out a helpless, resigned sigh. The time frame of a few decades wasn't a big issue for her, given her endless lifespan, but it still felt like a bit of a loss, a delay in her carefully laid plans. So now, she watched expressionlessly as Tian Hao entered a small cave she had carved out of a nearby bone-ridge, beginning his secluded absorption, while she herself could do nothing but wait for the time being.
Looking around at the oppressive, corpse-strewn environment, she didn't dare venture alone deeper into this battlefield. There were known to be Dao Comprehension-stage beasts with twisted minds, and even the residual auras and latent curses on the corpses of fallen experts could still kill her if she provoked them. Fortunately, this specific area had been thoroughly cleansed and sanctified by the Mahayana expert's lingering presence, making it relatively safe for now.
"Little girl, don't be so disheartened. Your turn will come. Take this, it's a special treasure I crafted in my spare time. Before my death, I sent most of my artifacts and inheritance away to my clan, leaving only this behind for a worthy successor."
With a wave of his translucent hand, the old man summoned a shimmering, condensed golden orb that floated gently before Su Min.
"What is this?" she asked, her curiosity piqued.
"A disposable artifact of mine, albeit only at the low Heaven Tier. It contains the condensed essence of my fist technique, equivalent to a casual strike from my peak. To me, it was just a toy, a test of my crafting skills, but for you, it should be quite useful as a life-saving trump card."
"Indeed, it will be."
Su Min silently pocketed the golden orb, feeling its warm, contained power. It would be invaluable to her in a pinch. But since there was no rush now, she might as well continue her own secluded cultivation. Though she couldn't break through to the Dao Comprehension stage yet, accumulating more insights and solidifying her foundation wouldn't hurt.
The main bottleneck was still energy; her current reservoir of spiritual power was far from sufficient to fuel the qualitative leap required for the breakthrough.
"I hope tragedies like this won't repeat. These two juniors are quite promising, a new hope."
High above, the old man took one last deep, longing look at the two cultivating figures below before exhaling slowly, a sound like the passing of an age. He was already dead; this was just a wisp of his remnant soul, clinging stubbornly to his bones. Now that his skeleton had been passed on, there was nothing left tethering him to this world.
And so, his ethereal form flickered once, twice, and then dissipated completely into the void, leaving behind only a final, peaceful silence.
"The senior has truly left. You'd better absorb his legacy properly and not waste his final wish."
On the ground, both Su Min and Tian Hao, even from within their seclusion, had felt the shift and looked up at where the ethereal figure had vanished. She couldn't help but sigh softly; such a mighty existence, capable of holding up the heavens, had finally turned to ash, forever erased from the river of time.
"In the end, he never told us what really happened here, the full truth of this war."
Tian Hao, who had emerged briefly from his cave, bowed deeply in the direction the soul had vanished, his brow tightly furrowed in contemplation.
"The ancient battlefield formed during the Era of Immortal Fall, a cataclysmic period lost to most history. Since then, countless experts, at least at the Unity-stage, and even many Mahayana, have fought and died here. And they came from different worlds, not just ours. This place is a nexus, a crossroads."
"For what? What could possibly be worth such a price?"
Hearing this, Tian Hao felt goosebumps rise all over his body, a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature.
"Have you heard of the Fallen Ones? Those who embrace the outer corruption?"
"I've killed at least ten of them. They are a blight upon all worlds."
Tian Hao's pupils sharpened with pure, unadulterated killing intent. Clearly, he held not an ounce of goodwill toward those twisted beings.
"Same here. They are a common enemy."
Su Min chuckled, a dry, humorless sound, before dropping a bombshell that sent chills down his spine.
"What if I told you… the war that created this graveyard involved something even worse than a Fallen One? It involved a Fallen Immortal."
Hiss,
"Enough." Su Min cut him off, seeing the dawning horror on his face. "Knowing too much right now won't do you any good. That's all I understand from the fragments of lore anyway. The formation of this place is tied to that Fallen Immortal, something far beyond our current scope to confront. So focus on your cultivation, strengthen yourself, and help me secure the White Tiger's legacy. That is the practical path forward."
With that, Su Min turned and walked away, finding her own nook to continue comprehending the elusive threads of the Time Law. Though her current realm limited further major insights, every bit of accumulation was a step forward, a foundation that would propel her understanding once she finally reached the Dao Comprehension stage.
"A Fallen Immortal… such a thing truly exists…"
Tian Hao took a deep, shuddering breath, feeling the immense, crushing weight of those words. Before such an existence, even the so-called Great Emperors, those at the pinnacle Ascension stage, would struggle to prevail, let alone win. After all, no matter how broken or fallen, an Immortal was still an Immortal, a being that had transcended mortality.
Meanwhile, Su Min returned to her makeshift cave and summoned her Medicine King Cauldron, leaping inside its spatial realm. It couldn't function as a time-accelerated chamber for cultivation here, the ambient laws were too unstable, but it still had its uses as a secure, quiet space.
"This time, I must reach the Dao Comprehension stage with the help of the White Tiger's legacy. Failure is not an option. The stakes are too high."
With that firm resolve, she closed her eyes and immersed herself in deep cultivation, cycling her energy and meditating on the Dao. Tian Hao did the same in his adjacent cave, his breakthrough to Dao Comprehension was equally urgent for his own path. Time flowed relentlessly outside. Within the ancient battlefield, where the sky was forever stained and the ground littered with death, everything seemed frozen, unchanging, a snapshot of eternal conflict.
But this place was special, a completely independent realm severed from the main cosmic systems. Unlike the Buddhist Water-Land Ceremony or Jiang Xi's tomb, which were pocket dimensions carved from the main world, this was a full-fledged, if dead and shattered, world in itself.
Once, in a time long forgotten, it had teemed with life and vitality. But when even Unity and Mahayana experts fell in droves, how could the lesser beings, the mortals and low-level cultivators, have possibly survived?
Yet the cataclysmic wars had left this shattered world with a unique and dangerous trait; its spatial barriers were exceptionally fragile and thin. If it could connect to Su Min's world, it could, and did, link to countless others too. Hidden throughout this vast realm were numerous, unstable spatial rifts, flickering gateways to different, unknown worlds.
Elsewhere, before one such violently shimmering rift…
Several figures stood with arms crossed, coldly observing the unstable fissure. Below them lay a horrifying sight; humans, men, women, and children, piled upon one another in a grotesque, writhing mountain of flesh and despair.
"Damn it, the passage is still too unstable. Dao Comprehension cultivators can't even enter without being torn apart."
A pale, effeminate youth with long white hair scowled in disgust at the rift. Thick, black blood dripped sporadically from the narrow fissure. With each drop that fell, the sea of people below convulsed in fresh agony, their bodies twisting.
Cries, screams, and wails of utter despair filled the air, a symphony of suffering.
"Young Master, we've gathered a million souls as you ordered. With our sect's secret art, we can use their life force to temporarily widen the passage, allowing those at the Dao Comprehension-stage to enter safely."
"Hurry up then. This Young Master will not be denied. I will claim the White Tiger's legacy."
The youth waved a lazy, dismissive hand, his eyes gleaming with avarice.
"As you command."
The elder behind him raised a gnarled hand, and crimson, sinister arrays lit up, dividing the massive area into sections. Instantly, the flesh of every man, woman, and child was stripped away in a wave of horrific energy, leaving only gleaming white bones behind.
The piled skeletons formed a macabre landscape of death, yet the youth paid it no mind, his attention fixed solely on the rift.
"Heavenly Tiger Secret Art, Blood Refinement of the Firmament!"
The rift trembled violently as more black filth gushed forth, swallowing the bones whole. Unearthly screams erupted from the skeletons themselves, their souls, not yet dispersed, were now trapped within the taint, fueling the ritual. The black blood clung to the bones like malignant parasites, twisting them into grotesque, shambling monsters.
"Tch, amusing. As expected of a stronghold of the fallen. The energy here is potent. Elders, the passage can now accommodate Dao Comprehension cultivators. The two of you, both at late Dao Comprehension, will accompany me. Elder Mu, you as well."
"Yes, Young Master."
The three powerful figures behind him nodded in unison before plunging into the now-calmer rift, completely ignoring the writhing, newly-formed abominations left shrieking below.
Had Su Min and Tian Hao been present, they would've immediately sensed the nauseating, familiar aura radiating from two of the youth's companions; these were Fallen Ones, not mere tainted beings, but fully restored and in command of their power.
How many worlds, how many millions of lives, had they devoured to reach such strength?
As for the twisted monsters left behind, whether they'd wreak havoc on this dead world or eventually find their way out was none of their concern.
Of course, this wasn't the only active rift. From other, smaller fissures in the fabric of this realm, other groups had entered, some at late Divine Transformation or half-step Dao Comprehension, drawn by the legendary inheritance. Soon, life, foreign and hostile life, began to seep into this dead world.
But given its vast, continent-sized scope, these newcomers had yet to cross paths with Su Min and Tian Hao. Worse for them, they were immediately beset by the native hordes of mindless monsters, leaving no room for peaceful exploration.
Regardless of their intentions, the ancient battlefield was no longer a quiet graveyard. It was stirring.
Back in the cave, days later…
Su Min slowly opened her eyes, ending her meditation.
"Progress is decent, but too slow. The gains are incremental. For Divine Transformation cultivators, advancement is a brutal grind; it's either centuries of patient accumulation or seizing rare, heaven-defying opportunities, otherwise, meaningful advancement is near impossible."
She sighed, feeling the tangible limits of her current realm. Though she'd grown subtly stronger, the chasm to the next stage remained vast and daunting. The White Tiger's legacy was now a necessity, not just a desire. Unaware of the specific outside changes, Su Min wouldn't have cared much even if she knew. After all, she was a bona fide transmigrator, a woman who had seen the meta-narrative of a game world; very little could truly faze her. In fact, meeting people from other, unknown worlds might even excite her anthropological curiosity.
"Time to push further, to see if I can find a better cultivation spot."
With that thought, she floated out of her cave, only to frown immediately. The reason she'd ended her seclusion was simple: a growing sense of danger. Per their agreement, she was to guard Tian Hao's critical breakthrough to Dao Comprehension. She'd even given him a precious, self-refined Dao Comprehension Pill to hasten the process and increase his chances.
A gut feeling, honed by a life of conflict, told her that without a Dao Comprehension expert on her side when the time came, securing the legacy would be near impossible against the competition.
But stepping outside, the view made her massage her temples in sheer frustration.
Their sanctuary was being actively corroded, literally.
The crimson, blood-soaked soil and the skittering, multi-legged parasitic organisms were creeping visibly closer, a slow but inexorable tide of filth.
This area had once been the final resting site of the Great Desolate Holy Body. Even in death, his residual power and pure aura had purged all corruption for miles, keeping the area pristine and safe.
But now that he was truly gone, his soul departed and his bones sealed away, the balance was broken. The ambient filth was seeping back in like water rushing to fill a void. When Su Min first entered seclusion, the surroundings were still completely safe. Now, they clearly weren't.
"Headache. Hurry up and wake already, you blockhead."
She grumbled internally, glancing back at Tian Hao's silent cave. Unlike the Mahayana expert, she couldn't hope to repel the encroachment entirely with her own power. At best, she could slow it down, a delaying action. Against the slow, creeping tide of black blood oozing from all directions, she was practically helpless; destroying it was like trying to sweep back the ocean with a broom.
"If you don't break through within ten years, I'm dragging you out. Better to fail the breakthrough and try again later than die here, or worse, get corrupted and turned into one of those things."
She steeled herself, making a difficult decision. If Tian Hao took too long, she'd have no choice but to interrupt his process, potentially ruining his best chance. By then, this place would be completely overrun. What seemed like barren, inert ground was actually steeped in the tainted, potent blood of countless fallen experts, seeping deep into the earth, permeating every inch of this dead world.
Now, like a natural, malignant tide, it was spreading unstoppably, reclaiming the land purified by the saint's death.
All Su Min could do now was buy them precious time.
Pulling out a thick stack of pre-made scrolls from her spatial ring, she unfurled them with a flick of her wrist, revealing intricate, glowing arrays that hovered in the air.
Array Scrolls, a cultivator's prepared artillery and defense.
Among the three main auxiliary professions of cultivators, alchemy, arrays, and artifact forging, their general prestige and perceived difficulty descended in that order.
Alchemists were the rarest and most revered, array masters were moderately common but still highly respected, and blacksmiths were practically a dime a dozen, since most high-level experts dabbled in forging their own weapons.
These scrolls, which she had traded for a single high-grade Tier 6 pill back in Eastern Mulberry State, contained the power of dozens of different Divine Transformation-level defensive and restrictive arrays. Now, in this dire situation, they'd finally prove their worth.
"That tainted blood is highly corrosive, even my holy body can't touch it carelessly without risk. Let's see if this can buy you the time you need, Tian Hao."
Watching the arrays unfold overhead, interlocking to form a shimmering, multi-layered protective dome around their two caves, Su Min could only sigh again, settling down to maintain the arrays and stand her lonely vigil against the creeping darkness.