Inside the quiet, secluded room, Su Min sat cross-legged in deep meditation. The spiritual energy around her was calm and settled. She had finally mastered a finer control over her Heavenly Dao Insight, no longer at risk of being disrupted mid battle by its unpredictable, untimely activation. Now, she could consciously delay its profound effects, processing the accumulated insights and revelations after the immediate danger had passed, a kind of deferred spiritual reckoning that suited her methodical nature.
At this moment, her focus was turned entirely inward, sensing the deep, fundamental transformations stirring within her body and soul. A vast confluence of forces, unlocked by her recent victory, surged through her meridians, not as a chaotic flood, but as a purposeful, converging river.
"There is no mistaking this feeling… my Path has truly begun to converge."
It was like a single, crucial thread being pulled, rearranging an entire web. Defeating that Corpse Wraith had not merely resonated with her nascent Path of Slaughter, but it had also, unexpectedly, awakened and clarified her parallel Path of Salvation. The act of destruction had, paradoxically, cemented her role as a savior.
"A game is still a game, in the end… But now, within me, everything is merging."
As this thought solidified in her mind, a profound vision unfolded behind her closed eyelids, the Vermilion Bird of the south, wreathed in eternal flames, and the spectral White Tiger of the west, shimmering with killing intent, now pulsed in perfect, resonant harmony.
This White Tiger was not yet one of the supreme Four Symbols, its conceptual level was not that high. But it was still potent enough to harmonize with the incomplete Vermilion Bird legacy sleeping within her, creating a new, stable equilibrium.
[Integration of White Tiger Possession and Vermilion Bird Possession complete. New divine ability acquired.]
[Four Symbols Possession: Can simultaneously activate the possession of any of the Four Symbols and their subordinate spirits currently mastered. (Current: Vermilion Bird Possession, Tiger Soul Possession.)]
"Excellent."
A pure, potent surge of exhilaration rushed through her. This solved a critical, major problem she had been quietly grappling with.
Back when she had fought the Demon Crown Prince, his secret royal technique had temporarily boosted all his physical attributes. Meanwhile, her Vermilion Bird Possession, while powerful, did not directly enhance her stats. It only amplified the combat power of the Nanming Lihuo and drastically reduced its spiritual energy consumption.
Since nearly all her ultimate skills were built upon the foundation of the heavenly flame, this indirectly greatly enhanced her combat effectiveness. However, the lack of direct physical and spiritual stat boosts had remained a notable weakness. When she had clashed with the Demon Crown Prince, she had held her own, but that was primarily because his own foundation was unstable and her Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment gave her an overwhelming qualitative advantage.
But when she had briefly crossed swords with Xie Yingying, whose foundation was on par with her own and whose rare Lunar Sovereign physique was even stronger, she had suffered a swift and crushing defeat. Now, with the two abilities merged, her overall combat power had risen to a significantly higher tier.
"Four Symbols Possession."
Su Min narrowed her eyes, focusing her intent. In an instant, her appearance underwent a dramatic transformation. Flames, more vivid and controlled than before, danced in a corona around her silhouette. Her long hair lost its natural pigment, turning the color of driven snow, and her pupils blazed with the intense, deep crimson light of the fully unleashed Nanming Lihuo.
"What is this, some kind of 'white hair, red eyes' power up trope? Whatever. It works."
After lightly roasting the cosmetic cliché, Su Min dispelled the transformation with a thought. She had only wanted to test the ability's feel; there was no need for prolonged theatrics. Despite her superficial complaints, what truly mattered to her was the practical energy cost and the tangible boost. Unlike the cookie-cutter, ethereal beauties that seemed to fill the cultivation world, Su Min was always more concerned with brutal function over elegant form.
"A near perfect divine ability. The energy cost is not significantly higher for me, and the combined effects are far superior to the original single buffs. The overall endurance is better than the pure Vermilion Bird Possession but not as efficient as the original White Tiger Speed Boost was by itself. Still, even if I were to use them separately now, each individual effect is stronger than before."
Overall, she was extremely satisfied. This was a massive, qualitative upgrade for her current strength, arriving at the perfect time.
"Phew, not a bad harvest at all," she murmured to the empty room. "Now, time to make good on my promise and refine pills for Yingying. Advancing from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core Formation is not that difficult in theory…"
She muttered the last part thoughtfully. In her experience, each previous realm, Body Refining, Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, had each posed a towering, daunting wall. But the conceptual leap from Foundation to Golden Core, while monumental, was not as treacherously complex.
A cultivator's so called Great Perfection in a realm was simply about reaching the absolute peak of their current stage. And while attribute gaps existed between early, mid, and late stages, they were not as vast and insurmountable as the chasms that existed in the later, more mythic realms. The real, deadly trial lay in the heavenly tribulation itself. To Su Min, with her supreme foundation, the basic Three Nine Heavenly Tribulation was hardly a threat. But to over ninety nine percent of all other cultivators, it was a genuine brush with annihilation, a gamble with their very soul.
Just look at the world around them, nearly all Foundation Establishment cultivators had relied on the most common Human Path Foundations, anything rarer was an extreme luxury.
So, as long as Xie Yingying could reliably break into the late Foundation Establishment stage, Su Min was confident she could use a perfected Golden Spirit Pill to forcefully draw forth her tribulation. But that was a matter for later. For now, with a wave of her hand, three complete sets of rare, glowing herbs materialized in the air before her.
"Yingying's three precious portions. If I succeed on the first attempt, I can… creatively reallocate her leftover materials to make one Golden Core Advancement Pill for my own future use."
After a quiet, pragmatic calculation, Su Min tossed the first set of herbs into her waiting furnace. The room immediately flared with controlled heat as crimson golden flames danced to life beneath it. She had been capable of refining Foundation Establishment Pills even when she was at the peak of Qi Refining. Now, solidly in the mid Foundation Establishment stage with the immense backing of a Heaven level foundation and the unparalleled aid of the Nanming Lihuo, concocting a Grade Three high grade pill was well within her means.
Still, it was her first attempt at this specific, complex formula, so a measure of caution was warranted.
Meanwhile, Outside the Seclusion Room…
"She has started refining. Do not mess this up. This pill is crucial for me, it is the key to surviving the final stages of the Nine Nine Heavenly Tribulation."
Perched silently on the rooftop directly above Su Min's room, Xie Yingying sat in a lotus position, her slender black sword resting across her lap. The estate guards had long since learned not to approach this area under her watchful, icy gaze. Su Min had been in seclusion for over a day, primarily to digest the gains from her recent battle. Now, the distinct, complex scent of simmering medicinal herbs finally wafted through the air. Xie Yingying's heart, usually as calm as a frozen lake, pounded with a rare, thrumming anxiety.
"Even in my era, Wei Wu Province was a spiritual backwater. Its native cultivators had no deep foundation. For centuries, they could only rely on sporadic heavenly revelations and stumbled upon breakthroughs by chance."
If even Su Min, the most monstrously talented alchemist to appear here in living memory, failed, then there was truly no hope left for her to obtain this pill. And Su Min's talent was truly in a realm of its own. Even within the vast archives of Xie Yingying's ancient sect, no record existed of a high level alchemist who could refine five high quality Foundation Establishment Pills in a single batch. Then again, none of them had ever been blessed with the Nanming Lihuo, a divine flame that seemed tailor made for the art of alchemy.
Three Days Later…
Creak.
The tightly shut wooden door finally swung inward. Su Min stepped out, blinking slightly in the daylight before her gaze drifted upward to the rooftop.
"Your pills are done. Since your ingredients were all of the profound yin attribute, the reaction was more volatile. This batch only yielded two. But the quality is peak, and it should be more than enough for your needs. Consider my debt to you settled. No more lifespan will be wasted."
She casually tossed a small, intricately carved wooden box toward the waiting, and undoubtedly impatient, woman.
"Oh, and this box is something I crafted in my spare time. It infuses the pills with a sliver of temporal qi, extending their peak preservation period by about fifty years."
Xie Yingying caught the box neatly, her usually steady fingers trembling almost imperceptibly as she lifted the lid to inspect the contents. Two pills, shimmering with a soft, moonlike silver light and emanating a chilling spiritual fragrance, lay within. After a moment of intense scrutiny, she exhaled a breath she did not realize she had been holding and stored the box securely within her robes.
"Thank you," she said, the words simple but carrying genuine weight.
Then, a flicker of curiosity sparked in her cool, dark eyes.
"What is your next move?"
Su Min's lips curled into a characteristically sharp, ambitious smirk.
"Issuing a bounty across the land. I have a list of rare materials I need to prepare for my own Golden Core breakthrough."
Xie Yingying: "…"
She could only stare, momentarily speechless at the sheer audacity and scale of the declaration.
===
Yingying will get used after getting 'choked' by Su Min so many times
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Four Symbols (四象) – Mythical creatures representing the four cardinal directions: Vermilion Bird (South), Azure Dragon (East), White Tiger (West), Black Tortoise (North).