The sheer scale of the bone mountain was staggering, a monument to slaughter that dwarfed any battlefield Su Min had ever seen or imagined. The bleached white peaks stretched to the horizon, a grim range where every "stone" was the remains of a fallen expert. The air itself was thick with a residue of ancient violence, a killing intent so potent it had become a physical presence, a milky-white haze that pulsed with a malevolent life of its own at the mountain's base.
"How murderous is this white tiger? The scene is so spectacular, so... absolute," Tian Hao murmured, his voice hushed.
"The White Tiger governs slaughter, its very purpose is to use killing to suppress a greater evil. This is the result," Su Min replied, her own tone grim. "Hmm..."
The reason both of them were so shocked was that the scene before them was simply too staggering, even for their seasoned eyes. Piles upon piles of bleached bones, fused and fossilized together, formed a mountainous range stretching as far as the eye could see. Even with their vast experience, Su Min and Tian Hao couldn't help but suck in a sharp, cold breath.
Judging by the faint, residual aura still clinging to these remains, every single one had belonged to a formidable expert in life. The weakest among them had been at the Divine Transformation stage, and even the distinctive, colossal body parts of Mahayana experts could be spotted among the ossified peaks.
What shocked them the most, however, was that these bones were truly, utterly dead. Unlike the previous Great Desolate Holy Body's remains, which had retained a wisp of soul and potential for "undeath," these bones were completely inert, fossilized and stripped of all spiritual essence, incapable of any form of reanimation.
Clearly, these were the cleansed remnants, the final residue left behind after the malevolent miasma of the fallen experts had been purged by the White Tiger's overwhelming slaughter, something far beyond what ordinary people, or even ordinary experts, could have ever contended with.
"Well? What's the plan?" Tian Hao asked, his gaze sweeping over the macabre landscape.
"My scalp's gone numb just looking at it," Su Min admitted flatly.
The two exchanged a silent, understanding glance before descending from the sky. Though the mountain of corpses looked imposing and psychologically daunting, the bones themselves posed no real threat to them now.
"What a waste. These bones have lost all spiritual value and potency," Su Min muttered after scanning a nearby femur the size of a tree trunk with her divine sense. She couldn't help but sigh. These remains had fossilized completely, their energy long since dissipated or purified into nothingness, rendering them useless for cultivation. Of course, any one of them would cause a sensation if brought to the outside world, but only as macabre collector's items or historical curiosities. For practical cultivators like them, they were worthless.
"This mountain of corpses must be countless times larger than the Himalayas from my past life," Su Min thought, a sense of profound scale settling over her. "The scale of this war is even more horrifying than I imagined."
She sighed inwardly before refocusing on the task at hand. She needed to pinpoint the exact location of the White Tiger's legacy, but she soon realized it was unnecessary to search.
At the very base of the colossal bone mountain, where the milky-white killing intent pulsed most strongly, the ground seemed to fall away into a deep, shadowy rift. And from that rift, an aura of absolute, razor-sharp lethality emanated.
And then, as she instinctively tried to probe it with a wisp of her divine sense,
"Ugh, Western Metal's Sharp Gold!!!"
In an instant, Su Min clutched her forehead, her face paling noticeably. As the most lethally imbued of the divine treasures, the one representing the unyielding sharpness of metal, the Western Metal's Sharp Gold had unique and dangerous properties.
It had actually severed, cleanly and painfully, the strand of her divine sense she had sent to investigate.
"What's wrong?" Tian Hao was immediately alert, his body tensing.
"Don't probe downward with your divine sense," Su Min warned, her voice tight. "The Western Metal's Sharp Gold is down there, and just a wisp of its untamed aura injured me. That thing is... dangerously sharp. It doesn't just cut flesh; it severs spirit and sense."
Su Min's expression darkened. Clearly, this world and its inheritances held surprises beyond her expectations. Among the divine treasures she'd encountered so far, the Western Metal's Sharp Gold was undoubtedly the most directly perilous. If given a choice, she'd prefer to absorb it last.
The Eastern Azure Wood and the Southern Vermilion Bird's Flame had been tempered and gentled by their original masters, leaving only their purest, most manageable essences for easier absorption. The Northern Water's Profound Origin, though less refined, was gentle by its very nature and posed no issues.
But the Western Metal's Sharp Gold was different. The White Tiger, as the primordial embodiment of slaughter, offered no concessions or gentleness to its successors. Its philosophy was simple and brutal: either you were strong enough to refine it and wield its killing intent, or you were not, and it would destroy you.
"This..." Tian Hao's pupils contracted as he watched a thin trickle of blood escape from Su Min's nose. Even after reaching the Dao Comprehension stage, his soul power still fell slightly short of hers. That was to be expected; she was a seventh-grade alchemist, after all, a field that demanded immense spiritual strength. But if even she could be injured so easily by a mere probe, he dared not extend his own divine sense recklessly.
Su Min's injury might seem minor, just a nosebleed, but for a peak late-stage Divine Transformation expert whose body was a finely tuned instrument, falling ill or bleeding from a minor spiritual backlash was practically impossible. To put it bluntly, anything capable of causing such a visible reaction in a Divine Transformation cultivator could erase entire cities or regions if its power were unleashed upon mortals.
And since his soul power was inferior to Su Min's, any recklessness on his part would be tantamount to suicide.
"Ah, we've got company. And not the friendly kind."
Su Min's brow twitched as her gaze shifted sharply toward the distant eastern sky. Though injured, the damage was truly negligible; her body, tempered by multiple divine treasures and her unique holy body constitution, repaired the minor spiritual laceration almost instantly.
She didn't intend to descend into the depths of the rift now. There was no need. Even from their vantage point high above, her perception blanketed the surrounding battlefield like a fine, spiritual net. Two figures were approaching, fast, and the oppressive, cloying weight of their auras stirred an instant, instinctive revulsion in her blood.
"As expected," she murmured, her voice calm but edged with frost. "This won't be a simple contest for a legacy. Two late-stage Dao Comprehension Fallen Ones. You handle them. Don't tell me that's too much for you now?"
"Two?" Tian Hao didn't doubt her assessment for a second. Su Min never spoke lightly when it came to battlefield judgment. Fighting alongside her was like operating within the eye of a storm; her support made everything feel effortless. She provided absolute clarity. She covered every role without flaw: reconnaissance, healing, command, and if needed, direct, overwhelming annihilation.
Frankly, it made her the ideal partner. Efficient. Unshakable. Lethal.
…Which was also precisely why Xie Yingying liked to stay so near to her.
If questioned, she would only give a cool, straightforward answer: "It's just more convenient this way."
Yes, convenient, because Su Min was efficient, dependable, always several steps ahead. It sounded perfectly reasonable. Unassailable, even.
But anyone who had watched them closely, truly observed the way Xie Yingying's gaze lingered when Su Min wasn't looking, the way her footsteps always, unconsciously, matched Su Min's shadow, would know there was more to it.
The truth was, Xie Yingying was… territorial. Possessive, in that quiet, elegant, yet utterly unwavering way of hers. And when Su Min was within reach, within sight, she was at ease. Guarded yet calm, like a sentinel keeping watch over a treasure too rare to ever name. Something irreplaceable.
Not that she'd ever say as much aloud.
Certainly not because seeing Su Min disappear from her view, even for a moment, made her chest tighten with a strange, cold unease. Or because staying close meant no one else could draw too near, could try to claim a piece of Su Min's attention.
No, definitely not that.
No, she would always insist, almost too quickly, that staying close to Su Min was simply the most practical and logical choice.
Just practical.
Of course.
"Two late-stage Dao Comprehension Fallen Ones," Su Min repeated, pulling Tian Hao back to the present danger. "Their auras are practically screaming for attention, and they seem fully restored, not weakened like the ones we usually encounter. Disgusting. Who knows how many worlds or lives they've devoured to reach such a state? There's also an early-stage Dao Comprehension and a late-stage Divine Transformation youth with them."
Eyes closed to better focus her senses, Su Min relayed her findings. The two Fallen Ones were so overwhelmingly powerful, and so utterly rejected by the natural order of the world, that she'd detected them the moment they entered the range of her perception. The other two, while significant threats, required slightly more focused effort to pinpoint.
"What kind of lineup is this? From what world?" Tian Hao's eyelid twitched. Two late-stage Dao Comprehension experts? Even the super sects in their prime might struggle to field such a concentrated force. Take Su Min's own Immortal Gate Sect, for example; it only had two Dao Comprehension experts, and both were at the early stage.
Though, to be fair, their combat prowess was terrifying enough to challenge higher levels, they were still nominally early-stage, and would be completely outclassed in raw power here.
"No idea which backwater, dying world they crawled out of. But they're definitely not from our world, otherwise, I'd have hunted them down and exterminated them already," Su Min's voice turned icy. Had these particular Fallen Ones been operating in her world, she'd have mobilized the entire sect and its allies to hunt them down long ago. The only reason she hadn't dealt with every last one of their kind was that she simply couldn't find them all.
"Leave those two Fallen elders to me. Anyone who willingly associates with such creatures deserves no mercy. We're ending this here, today." Golden light flickered in Tian Hao's pupils, his battle intent igniting. His life's mission, the core of his path, was to protect all living beings from such existential threats. These monsters were his sworn enemies. As for Su Min, while she lacked his lofty, universal ideals, she wasn't about to back down from a fight either, especially when the opponents were so repulsive.
Both of them flared their auras, spiritual pressure washing outwards as they braced for battle. Soon, black dots appeared on the horizon, swiftly enlarging until they loomed directly before them, their sinister energies crashing against Su Min and Tian Hao's own.
"Kekeke! So you're the one who recently broke through to Dao Comprehension! Such vibrant, potent blood essence, what a delightful feast you will make!"
Before the figures even landed properly, two raspy, overlapping voices cackled with glee. Then, two withered, grotesque elders clad in tattered robes crashed down before them, their movements unnaturally swift. Their yellowed, jagged teeth were bared in grins that looked ready to tear into flesh, which, admittedly, was their exact intention. Tian Hao, with his Great Desolate Holy Body's incredibly potent and pure vitality, was practically a walking, talking supreme delicacy to them.
"Two rotting old fools who should have turned to dust ages ago. Keep gnashing those teeth, see if they don't shatter on the bones of the righteous," Su Min sneered, multicolored light shimmering deep within her eyes, the combined radiance of her three integrated divine treasures. If she'd once been nicknamed the "Crimson Blazing Bird" for her fiery temper, her palette of power was far more diverse and formidable now.
"Young lady," one of the elders hissed, his hollow eyes fixing on Su Min, "I sense the White Tiger's profound killing aura within you. You must be its intended inheritor. I'll offer you a choice, a chance to—"
Before the elder could continue his spiel, a youthful, imperious voice rang out from above as the other two figures landed.
"A choice?" Su Min raised an eyebrow, her tone dripping with mock curiosity.
"Such a peerless beauty, why waste your time with these brutish matters?" the pale youth said, his eyes roving over Su Min with undisguised avarice. "Why not spend a pleasant night with me? My father is a supreme Mahayana expert, and I rule an entire world. Wealth, luxury, power beyond your wildest dreams await at my side."
"..."
Tian Hao's eyebrow spasmed as he glanced sideways at Su Min. If his own girlfriend had been propositioned so brazenly and condescendingly, she'd have likely incinerated the offender on the spot without a second thought.
Yet Su Min remained eerily calm, her arms crossed under her chest, studying the youth with a detached, clinical air as if she were deep in thought, diagnosing a peculiar specimen.
Though this was hardly the time for it, Tian Hao was genuinely curious now about what was going through her mind.
Sure enough, after a moment of this intense, silent scrutiny, Su Min spoke, her voice flat and analytical.
"Judging by your pallid complexion, the faint dark circles under your eyes despite your cultivation, and your notably feeble core vitality, you've clearly overdosed on yin-aligned aphrodisiacs or intimate dual cultivation techniques. Such potent stimulants have severe side effects. Despite being a late-stage Divine Transformation expert, you're... lacking in certain fundamental departments, aren't you? A soft, weak man like you, whose foundation is hollowed out, shouldn't embarrass himself here by pretending to be a conquering hero."
"..."
A dead silence fell over the group.
Tian Hao stared at Su Min as if seeing her for the first time. Normally, her ethereal, often aloof demeanor made such vulgar, targeted thoughts seem unthinkable coming from her.
But these words? They were absolutely savage, delivered with the cold precision of a surgeon's scalpel.
"A three-second wonder like you should spare us the cringe," she continued, her voice laced with palpable pity. "Go relieve yourself in private first, then maybe we can talk. I'll wait."
"..."
Tian Hao's face darkened further, a mix of secondhand embarrassment and stunned admiration. Even the two grotesque elders gaped in disbelief, their eyes involuntarily darting toward their young master. The latter's delicate, androgynous features twisted into a purplish grimace of pure, unadulterated rage, because Su Min had, with unnerving accuracy, struck a very raw and deeply hidden nerve. His father's cultivation technique leaned heavily yin, and a side effect had rendered him functionally incapable in certain aspects until he could reach the Unity stage and rebalance his energies.
It wasn't quite at the "castrate yourself to cultivate" level of some extreme techniques, but it was embarrassingly close.
For a young man who was the nominal ruler of an entire world, this was an unbearable shame, a secret weakness.
"I'LL KILL YOU!!!" the youth shrieked, his voice cracking with fury.
Su Min's mocking, utterly pitying gaze was the final straw. The youth lunged forward recklessly, a sword of black ice materializing in his hand, ignoring the startled attempts of the two elders to restrain him.
"Hmph. Predictable."
Su Min had provoked him deliberately. As a seventh-grade alchemist with perception far beyond the norm, she'd instantly spotted the severe imbalance in his energy the moment he landed. While unsure of the exact cause, it was clear his yang energy was critically depleted, completely overwhelmed by a stagnant, cold yin energy.
Except for the rare, perfectly balanced Solar Sovereign and Lunar Sovereign physiques, all cultivators required a relative balance of yin-yang energies within their bodies. A severe imbalance led to... well, complications.
If a woman's Yang Qi is too strong, her feminine characteristics will be covered up, and she may even grow things like a beard and an adam's apple, and she may not be able to practice certain techniques. For men, the most visible and psychologically damaging symptom was often certain... inadequacies.
Hence his instant, volcanic rage. Su Min had struck his Achilles' heel with surgical, public precision.
So when Xie Yingying had once seen that Su Min was able to absorb the pure Taiyang Qi directly without any adverse effects, it was like seeing a ghost, because there had been no change in Su Min's feminine appearance or aura at all; her constitution was simply built differently.
"Oho, triggered. Good," Su Min whispered to Tian Hao without turning her head. "This one's mine. Those two late-stage Dao Comprehension experts shouldn't be too much for you to handle for a while, right?" These two Fallen had clearly self-sealed to enter this realm, a process that invariably left their comprehension of laws flawed and incomplete. Though troublesome due to their raw power, they shouldn't be able to overwhelm a true Great Desolate Holy Body who had just solidified his Dharma Manifestation.
As for the remaining early-stage Dao Comprehension expert and this enraged late-stage Divine Transformation youth? They were her prey.
And since he'd charged at her alone, well, she wouldn't hold back.
In a flash, Su Min's form blurred. Obsidian-like armor, shimmering with five-colored light, encased her body, and her long raven hair turned snow-white as she tapped into a deeper reserve of power.
"Azure Dragon Skyrending Fist!!!"
Without any further hesitation, she channeled the combined power of her physique and integrated treasures into her fist, and smashed it forward, not at the sword, but directly at the youth's sneering face.
THUD!!!
A sound like a mountain being struck echoed. The impact connected squarely, sending the youth flying backwards even faster than he'd arrived. After tumbling head over heels through the air for hundreds of meters, he finally managed to stabilize himself, but his once-delicate face was now a complete mess.
Blood gushed from his shattered nose and broken jaw, and one eye had been completely obliterated, leaving a ruined socket. The force of the punch had also driven residual, chaotic energy deep into his meridians, ravaging his spiritual foundation and soul.
"Not so tough after all, kid," Su Min commented idly, flicking a nonexistent piece of dust from a faint scratch on her obsidian armor. Both had traded unguarded blows, but hers had been completely negated by her monstrous defenses, while his face had met the fist of a holy body cultivator.
==
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