The Heaven Sundering Demonic Lightning descended from the skies in a blinding pillar of pure, destructive will, completely engulfing the struggling immortal in its heavenly wrath. Coupled with the relentless barrage of attacks from the countless cultivators manning the heavenly palace's defenses, the immortal was instantly pushed to the very brink of death, his immortal aura flickering like a guttering candle.
"Looks like your friend won't last much longer. But don't worry. You won't have to wait for him." Su Min's voice was calm, almost conversational, as she addressed the remaining Tiger Clan immortal. These two were just the appetizer, the first course in a bloody feast. She had no intention of going all out against them. They simply weren't worth the significant expenditure of her core chaos energy. Now that only one remained, things were much simpler, a straightforward execution. Sure enough, Su Min's next attack, a plain yet deadly thrust of her Chaos Sword, sent the remaining immortal into a desperate, frenzied defense.
Panic set in on his face, erasing the last vestiges of immortal arrogance. Their original plan had been simple, stall this Chaos Body wielder until reinforcements could arrive through the next cycle of the passage. A couple of days was nothing for an immortal, a mere blink in their long lives. But now, that plan had failed spectacularly, shattered by the reality of Su Min's overwhelming power.
The Heavenly Dao's intervention wasn't entirely unexpected, they had prepared for that possibility. But Su Min's raw combat prowess had far exceeded their most pessimistic calculations. Even with two immortals working in perfect sync, they had barely held on, and that was with Su Min only using basic attacks, not even her signature techniques. The Chaos Physique was just that absurdly overpowered. It didn't need flashy techniques. Its fundamental nature was the ultimate weapon.
Squelch!
In the next instant, Su Min seized a microscopic opening in his guard and cleaved through the immortal's arm at the shoulder. Dark, swirling chaos energy immediately seeped into his body through the grievous wound, and his face twisted in pure, unadulterated horror. Now he understood exactly how his companion had died so quickly. This was just a severed arm. If Su Min's blade had pierced his core, his dantian... He finally grasped the visceral terror his ancestors must have faced, why they had sacrificed so much, even ten upper immortals, to unleash the legendary Zhexian Curse.
This was no ordinary foe. If she was already this terrifying at the Mahayana stage, what unspeakable catastrophe would occur if she ever ascended to true immortality? But it was far too late for such regrets. Su Min's next strike was a blur, the Chaos Sword piercing his chest with surgical precision, and life swiftly faded from his wide, staring eyes. The Chaos Physique had once slaughtered all the immortals of the Netherworld Burial Grounds. These two lower tier immortals stood no chance. After finishing them off, Su Min turned her dispassionate gaze to the last desperate immortal being pummeled by the heavenly lightning and, without a hint of hesitation, ran him through with a flick of her wrist, ending his struggle.
"That was disturbingly easy." Yao Xian'er stared at the two new immortal corpses Su Min had casually collected and stored away, too stunned to form more complex sentences. Back in her own legendary era, she had fought three severely weakened immortals and had barely scraped a victory after an exhausting, day long battle that left her on the verge of collapse. Yet Su Min had just casually, almost effortlessly, killed two true, full powered immortals in the space of a few minutes.
The sheer, absolute dominance of the Chaos Physique was beyond her imagination. But in the end, she knew, the physique was only as strong as its wielder. Su Min's own will and comprehension were what made it truly terrifying. This battle, however, was far from over. Three immortals had already fallen, a feat that would undoubtedly be recorded in the annals of history for all time. And this was just the beginning, the opening skirmish.
"Today's battle will be remembered for eternity. But it's not over yet." Tian Yang stated, his voice a low rumble of both awe and grim determination.
"Right. The next wave will have four enemies. The real fight hasn't even started. Keep preparing, and stay vigilant." Su Min nodded in agreement. This was merely the prelude. She glanced at the others. Their morale was high, buoyed by her overwhelming display, and she didn't need to give them a motivational speech. But she couldn't afford to let them, or herself, underestimate the coming battle. The next wave would be twice as large.
"Since ambushes won't work anymore, let's prepare something bigger, something they can't simply defend against." Her gaze shifted to the temporarily sealed passage, its energies churning as it reset. It was time for a decisive change in strategy. The enemy wasn't stupid. They would be on high alert now, having witnessed the fate of their comrades. The previous two immortals had focused purely on defense, proving they weren't easy prey to be casually dispatched. So Su Min adjusted her approach. She would meet their numbers with overwhelming, indiscriminate force.
"Chaos Azure Lotus!"
She raised her hand, palm open to the void, and a single, small, gray white lotus materialized above it, its petals slowly unfurling. It was beautiful and deadly. Back before her physique had fully matured, she had used these lotuses to kill several half immortals. At the time, it had been a last resort technique, draining her severely. But now, with her Chaos Body perfected, she wielded them with far greater mastery. They were more powerful. More concentrated. And crucially, more unstable. This was the true evolution of her Chaos Physique, a depth of power no one in this universe had ever fully explored or documented.
"If only I could find the Chaos Physique's legacy, some guidance from a predecessor... But who knows if it even exists?" She sighed softly, a rare moment of vulnerability she showed to no one. She was certain a Chaos Physique wielder had existed before, otherwise the enemy wouldn't be so universally and instinctively terrified of it. But that predecessor wasn't from this universe. There were no traces, no ruins, no ancient texts left to follow. No matter. She would have to forge her own path, discover the limits of this power herself.
Dozens of gray white lotuses bloomed into existence around her, then hundreds, their faint luminescence dotting the dark space around the passage. They soon filled a vast expanse of space, a serene yet menacing garden of annihilation.
"Those lotuses..." Tian Hao and the others who had seen them before felt their eyelids twitch at the sight.
The lotuses were far more refined than before, their energy perfectly contained, their forms more intricate. Most of the onlookers didn't understand their significance, they only knew they were Su Min's doing, and that was enough to inspire both hope and fear. But Tian Hao and a few other veterans had seen them in action back in the Nether Prison. Back then, a single one had been enough to annihilate a half immortal and level a fortress.
Now, with Su Min at the late stage Mahayana and her Chaos Physique perfected to a state of primordial return... These lotuses were on another level entirely. Not a single wisp of their terrifying energy leaked out, making them seem deceptively harmless. It was like a massive, invisible minefield waiting for an armored division to stumble in, backed by the concentrated firepower of an entire artillery battalion.
As if on cue, the spatial passage reopened with a resonant hum, its energies stabilized once more.
Four figures charged out this time without a moment's hesitation, their auras erupting like newborn stars. They weren't going to be caught hesitating like the previous group.
Every spectator's heart leaped into their throats. The air grew thick with tension. Each of those four was a nightmare incarnate, a being of legend and fear. The moment they emerged, their immortal forms instinctively expanded, their bodies towering in the void like ancient, indestructible monoliths, radiating immense pressure. This was the true, unrestrained power of true immortals, the ultimate dream and goal of every cultivator present.
"Tch."
Even Yao Xian'er, the proud Spirit Dao Emperor, inhaled sharply. Against such concentrated might, she felt a genuine pang of powerlessness. Without Su Min, the only option would've been a strategy of mutual annihilation, leveraging the entire universe's strength and sacrificing countless lives to maybe take one or two down with them. But four at once? That was a force that could systematically dismantle their world, and it was beyond her ability to counter.
Yet the four immortals, ready for battle, paused mid charge, confusion on their majestic faces. The universe around them was eerily silent, save for the floating gray white flowers. There was no sign of their three comrades.
"Where are the other two?" one muttered in confusion, his voice like grinding stones. Only two days had passed in their perception.
"Wait, LOOK OUT!" another suddenly screamed, his immortal instincts screaming a warning of imminent death.
In that instant, as if responding to a silent command, the thousands of serene lotuses drifting around them began to move, drifting toward the four colossal figures with a gentle, inexorable motion.
To their immense immortal forms, the palm sized lotuses were like insignificant specks of dust, barely noticeable.
But all four immortals felt a primal, soul deep dread that they hadn't felt in millennia. Hundreds, no, thousands of these specks now surrounded them, closing in from all directions. This was Su Min's current limit, maintaining a thousand Chaos Azure Lotuses simultaneously, a testament to her vast spiritual sea and control. But for the four immortals, it was a vision of pure, inescapable terror. They knew, on an instinctual level, that any attack infused with that primordial chaos energy was likely lethal. A high tier immortal, a clan elder, might withstand it through sheer, monumental cultivation, but for these lower tier immortals... There was only despair.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
One after another, the lotuses detonated. Though their original forms were tiny, the explosions birthed massive, blooming chaotic lotus blossoms, each one rivaling the size of a small planet. The silent void was filled with a symphony of creation and destruction. In the blink of an eye, the four immortals were completely swallowed by the cataclysmic storm of gray white energy, their towering forms vanishing within the maelstrom.
"Did it work?" The observers couldn't see through the chaotic energy storm. Though awed by the terrifyingly beautiful display, they still felt a core chilling fear. The explosions lasted only a few minutes before an absolute silence returned, the energy dissipating as quickly as it had appeared.
Su Min descended from her position, breathing heavily, a slight sheen of sweat on her brow, and landed firmly before the passage entrance. In her hands were two more immortal corpses, which she promptly stored away. The lotuses had done their job, she had finished off two of them in the initial blast. The remaining two were heavily injured, their immortal bodies cracked and leaking spiritual light, but Su Min wasn't completely unscathed either.
"Damn immortals... Even at death's door, they still bite back." She wiped a trickle of golden blood from the corner of her lips with the back of her hand. The Chaos Azure Lotuses were devastatingly powerful, but they had one inherent flaw, their contained chaos energy was finite, drawn directly from her reserves. She couldn't sustain such a massive output indefinitely. These immortals had existed for eons, their life force deeply intertwined with the laws of existence. T
o kill them permanently, to prevent any chance of recovery, Su Min had only one surefire method, erasing them completely with the primordial power of creation itself, the chaos energy. Raw explosive force could wound them grievously, but not necessarily kill them outright if their cores were protected. Yet the four's desperate, final counterattacks, launched even as their bodies were being torn apart, had still managed to injure her, a testament to their power and resilience.
"What, what was that?" The two surviving immortals, their bodies broken and auras dimmed, stared at Su Min with a horror that went beyond the physical pain. Normally, killing an immortal was a process that required centuries, if not millennia, of protracted battle, slowly exhausting every last drop of their immortal blood and severing their connection to their source. Even then, a wisp of their soul might escape to be reborn. But Su Min had just obliterated two of their comrades in an instant, not just killing them, but erasing them. Completely. Utterly. There was nothing left to recover.
"The Chaos Physique... That thing from back then... The one that slaughtered all our immortals..." one of them stammered, the ancient, clan buried memories surfacing. They finally understood the gravity of the situation, the reason their clans had gone to such extreme, desperate lengths. High tier immortals were the true backbone of their great families. Lower tier immortals like them were numerous, somewhat expendable. Yet their ancestors had sacrificed ten of those precious high tier immortals just to cast the Zhexian Curse, and it hadn't been enough.
"How did you resist the Zhexian Curse?" the other finally blurted out, his voice cracking with desperation and confusion. That curse was their ultimate weapon, a forbidden art that should've annihilated even a high tier immortal, let alone a mere Mahayana cultivator. Normally, no one would've ever wasted it on a mere clan leader, the cost was astronomically, prohibitively high. Ten high tier immortals had to burn their very essence and souls to cast it, leaving them utterly vulnerable and weakened for days afterwards. If they were interrupted during the ritual, they would've perished instantly.
The previous Chaos Physique wielder had fallen because they hadn't recognized the curse until it was too late, and even then, it had taken the sacrifice of hundreds of high tier immortals and over a dozen Kings just to stall them long enough for the curse to take full effect. But Su Min? She was still at the Mahayana stage. It made no sense.
"What Zhexian Curse?" Su Min's response, delivered with genuine, blank confusion, nearly made the two injured immortals vomit blood in frustration.
She genuinely had no idea what they were talking about. The name meant nothing to her. It sounded terrifying, something that could break an immortal. But then, a memory surfaced in her mind, the strange sensation she had felt during her pill refinement, the sudden drain that had then vanished just as quickly. And she almost laughed aloud in realization.
That thing had been a lifespan draining curse. But her lifespan, thanks to her chosen Immortality talent, was infinite, an unending river. It was like trying to empty an infinite ocean with a single, small bucket. The effect was negligible, gone before she even registered it. She had assumed it was just some minor anchoring spell they had used to track her.
"No wonder the first immortal charged out so recklessly... They thought I was already dead, or at least dying." she mused, pieces clicking into place.
"The curse failed! We must report this immediately!" The two immortals exchanged a single, frantic glance, a silent communication passing between them. This was intelligence far beyond their pay grade. If the Zhexian Curse, their ultimate trump card, didn't work on her, their clans needed to know immediately, so they could prepare a different, second attempt, perhaps an even more desperate one.
After witnessing Su Min's power firsthand, they knew they stood no chance of winning, let alone capturing her. Even injured as she was now, she could likely escape anytime she wished. And once she recovered fully, they were dead. But turning their backs on her to flee into the passage? It was a suicidal move, but it was their only chance to warn their people.
"Looking to die?!" Su Min didn't know their specific thoughts, but their actions were pure, unadulterated idiocy in the middle of a battle. They had abandoned all pretense of defense, focusing their remaining power solely on tearing open the passage for escape. Which meant they had just presented their undefended backs to her. It was an invitation she wouldn't refuse.