Very soon, Su Min arrived back at Prince Yong's Manor, her return as swift and unannounced as her departure.
Her reason for coming here was simple. Over the past twenty years, this place had become a focal point, accumulating a considerable amount of incense offerings and faith energy directed toward her. She needed a quiet, secure place to slowly refine that energy while simultaneously cultivating her Great Sun Tathāgata Sutra. Naturally, the well guarded and familiar Prince Yong's Manor made perfect sense.
However, at the sight of the black clad woman silently following half a step behind Su Min like a graceful, living shadow, Prince Yong felt an unshakable discomfort creeping over him, a primal chill that had little to do with the temperature.
Su Min, despite her usual stern and formidable exterior, was not truly hard to get along with if one understood her straightforward, transactional nature. Her aloofness was more a deliberate act to deter unnecessary trouble and sycophants. But the woman behind her was fundamentally different.
Perhaps it was their unfamiliarity, or perhaps it was the profound, bone deep yin aura she naturally carried, a cold that seemed to leach the warmth from the very air. Even just standing in the same hall as her made one's skin crawl and spiritual energy stagnate. Su Min could ignore it because she possessed the supreme yang power of Nanming Lihuo within her, and her own cultivation level was already formidable. For Prince Yong it was a different matter entirely. He was already starting to tremble slightly, his breath misting faintly in the suddenly cool air.
"Prepare a quiet room for me. I will be in seclusion for a while," Su Min commanded, her voice cutting through the oppressive atmosphere. "Make sure no one disturbs me. And gather all available information on this location for me."
As she spoke, a faint, warm golden radiance naturally exuded from her body, a byproduct of her sutra's power. It pushed back against the invasive chill in the air, creating a small pocket of comfort. Prince Yong exhaled in palpable relief, discreetly wiping a bead of cold sweat from his brow. "Of course, right away. Miss Su's personal chamber has been kept perfectly clean and ready for your return at all times."
He cast a grateful glance at her, then another wary, apprehensive one toward the veiled woman behind her. Only then did he feel somewhat at ease. He had already heard rumors of this mysterious woman's origins. After all, it had been some time since the commotion over that ancient ruin, and news traveled fast among the upper echelons.
No one dared speak carelessly about her, especially after witnessing her power. Aside from that blind, arrogant fool of a crown prince, she had not killed a single other soul during the entire ordeal, showing a level of restraint that was both surprising and telling.
"Just... the location you have chosen..." he began, but when he saw the specific place Su Min pointed to on the map he had unrolled, his expression changed visibly, draining of color.
"What is wrong with it?" Su Min asked, a little puzzled by his strong reaction.
"Miss Su may not know, but… this is not a good place. It is a land of profound misfortune."
"Oh?" Her interest was piqued.
Seeing her genuine confusion, Prince Yong sighed heavily and spoke with clear hesitation, as if recalling something dreadful from the history books.
"Before Great Wei unified the land, during the final, bloody fall of the previous dynasty, the last desperate emperor held a horrifying, large scale ritual there in a final attempt to defy fate and ascend to immortality. No one knows how many thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, were sacrificed—the dead were piled high, their severed heads forming literal hills. In the end, in his madness, the emperor even sacrificed himself at the very center of the ritual array. From that day on, the land was cursed. No grass grew, the soil turned black and brittle, and any living being who wandered too close would inevitably fall gravely ill and die a painful death."
"A Corpse Demon?"
Before Su Min could say anything, Xie Yingying, who had been standing silently, suddenly spoke, a note of recognition in her cool voice.
"So I was not mistaken... I have always felt something strange and deeply malevolent about the spiritual currents in that region," she said, more to herself than to them.
Su Min nodded in agreement, though in truth, she had no detailed idea of what exactly had happened there. She only knew from her game knowledge that some kind of powerful monster was scheduled to emerge there. She could remember the main plotlines and major event locations, but not every grisly piece of background lore.
"No wonder it was categorized as a side quest," she thought. "It was probably just buried flavor text in the game's lore."
"A what?" Prince Yong asked, bewildered by the term.
"A Corpse Demon at the Golden Core stage is taking shape there," Su Min said calmly, tapping her finger on the map. "It is using the accumulated resentment and death energy of that ancient massacre as its cradle."
Prince Yong's brows twitched violently, and then his face turned a sickly pale. Cold sweat beaded on his back, soaking through his inner robes. The creature's location was barely one hundred kilometers from their current position. For a Golden Core stage entity, that distance was nothing, a short flight. If a monster of that level appeared so close to his seat of power, how could he, responsible for millions of lives, possibly remain calm?
"Can... can it be destroyed before it fully matures?" he asked, his voice tight with anxiety.
"You would be best advised not to try that," Xie Yingying answered flatly before Su Min could formulate a response. "If you forcefully break its formation and slay it before it finishes absorbing and converting the toxic energies, the residual poison and concentrated resentment would erupt outwards, turning everything within a thousand kilometers into a lifeless, haunted hellscape. The only safe course is to wait. Wait until it finishes the transformation process—once it has converted ninety nine percent of the toxins into its own cultivation base, then we strike and kill it. The remaining one percent will dissipate harmlessly."
Su Min let out a subtle breath of relief. She had not wanted to come up with a convincing reason herself. After all, if the creature never matured, she would not be able to claim its Golden Core demon core, the very purpose of this endeavor.
"Very well. Then keep people watching it—but discreetly, from a very safe distance," Su Min instructed, her tone leaving no room for argument. "If I were not at the Foundation Establishment stage and a master alchemist sensitive to spiritual poisons, I would not have sensed its presence either. But until I am ready to deal with it, no one else can know of its existence. Panic would be more dangerous than the monster itself."
With that, Su Min turned and left the main hall, heading toward her prepared quarters. She needed to enter seclusion immediately and refine the accumulated faith energy. Without doing so and strengthening her soul, even with Xie Yingying's support, her chances against a Golden Core beast would not improve by much.
Besides, if that monster really did awaken, she would have a strong, innate advantage in the fight. Nanming Lihuo, a Heavenly flame, was the natural bane of all demonic, undead, or corrupted beings. Not to mention the Great Sun Tathāgata Sutra, a supreme Buddhist scripture of immense pure yang force—it was practically designed for purging such evils.
"A Corpse Immortal... It really must be eliminated," Xie Yingying said gravely as they walked away from the main hall.
"Hmm?" Su Min turned to glance at her, a hint of curiosity in her eyes. There seemed to be more to her statement.
Xie Yingying did not keep her in suspense. "Entities born from such blood drenched, heaven defying rituals, when righteously slain, grant the killer an elusive form of heavenly merit. To most people, it is a useless, abstract concept. But for cultivators on our path, it can be accumulated and used to slightly shield oneself during heavenly tribulations, reducing their ferocity. The earlier in its maturation you slay it, the more potent the merit gained."
"I see..."
Su Min nodded thoughtfully, filing this valuable piece of information away, but said nothing more. Soon, the two arrived at a quiet, secluded side hall reserved for her use. Su Min immediately sat cross-legged on the meditation cushion and settled into a deep state of meditation.
"I need to cultivate in seclusion for a while. Do as you please in the meantime," she said without opening her eyes. "At my current early Foundation Establishment level, I cannot yet refine that high tier pill for you. I must break through first."
She did not bother hiding her goals from Xie Yingying. They were partners in this now. At this stage, the only way to rapidly increase her soul power and alchemical proficiency was to advance her cultivation. She had already spent over twenty years building her Heavenly Foundation, and her roots were exceptionally solid. Her subsequent advancement would naturally be faster and smoother than most. And she had other means, like the gourd's spirit nectar, to assist as well.
Xie Yingying did not verbally respond, merely giving a slight nod. For high level cultivators, entering seclusion for months or years was perfectly normal. But as soon as Su Min closed her eyes and began her cultivation, something startled the normally unflappable Xie Yingying. A towering, ethereal golden Buddha, radiant with sacred light, manifested around Su Min's form like a divine apparition, its hands forming mudras of profound peace and power.
"That is a high level Buddhist technique... but she does not carry herself like one of those bald donkeys," Xie Yingying muttered under her breath, her eyes wide with surprise. "And this is not an ordinary Buddha's manifestation… This is the golden body form of a modern Buddha… She is practicing the core techniques of the Great Thunder Temple."
She shook her head in quiet amazement, sighing softly, and then quietly left the chamber, closing the door behind her. She was not in a rush to cultivate herself and decided to act as Su Min's temporary protector for now. Once Su Min sensed she had gone, she relaxed fully and immersed herself completely in her cultivation, the golden light around her growing steadily brighter.
"The Ancient Lamp Monastery, the Great Thunder Temple, the Future Maitreya Mountain…" Xie Yingying mused, standing on a high balcony and staring out at the bustling, unaware city of Prince Yong. "The three great orthodox Buddhist sects have already extended their reach here. The world is truly changing."
Another unit of elite soldiers marched past below, heading out of the city. They had likely received orders and had begun discreetly sealing off the region Prince Yong had pointed to on the map. Clearly, the Prince was not taking any chances. He did not want any civilians, woodcutters, or curious cultivators stumbling into that cursed zone and either triggering a disaster or spreading panic.
"How boring. I guess I will go cultivate as well, but I must find somewhere far away from her."
With that final thought, Xie Yingying's figure seemed to dissolve, vanishing from the balcony like dissipating mist.
Her yin-aligned cultivation clashed too harshly with Su Min's pure yang energies. Cultivating together would do more harm than good for either of them.
==
"Cultivating together would do more harm than good for either of them." Only for now~~