The so-called "Immortal Mortal Divide" was not a lightning tribulation, but the quiet, inevitable heartbreak of watching loved ones age and wither while you remained unchanged. It was an emotional hurdle every long lived being eventually faced. For someone like Su Min, who was unattached and free of worldly ties, it was not a personal issue. But for others who formed deep bonds, she could not say how they would fare.
"In the decade you were in seclusion, the island's population grew by another fifty thousand," the Peacock King reported. "I have had the spirit beasts help establish new settlements. As for the sect, we have added thirty more qualified youths, though none have shown the foundational capacity for Heavenly Foundation Establishment yet. Forcing it upon them would only break their potential."
"Tch." Su Min could only sigh in response. Heavenly Foundation Establishment required an innate, intangible capacity that was impossible to artificially create. Those who achieved it were virtually guaranteed to reach the Golden Core stage at a minimum.
"Who will you take as your personal disciple?" the Peacock King asked.
"No one yet," Su Min replied. "But I will remain here, periodically entering dormancy until the Golden Core Avenue opens." She gazed down at the bustling settlement below. Their cultivation progress was slow, and even with the pills she had stockpiled, they had only just reached the Qi Refining stage after more than a decade. But she was not worried. As generations passed, their descendants, born and raised in this rich environment, would naturally grow stronger.
"I still do not understand your criteria," the Peacock King said, her tone carrying a trace of disapproval. "The overall quality of the people you brought is... lacking." When Su Min first proposed bringing humans to the island, the spirit beasts had been thrilled. The Path of Divine Flames was originally designed for their kind. Just look at the Four Symbols, the pinnacle existences who had mastered it. But the Peacock King had not expected Su Min to recruit poverty stricken refugees. Among tens of thousands, only a handful had even reached the Body Refining stage.
"We have time," Su Min said simply. "With this island's environment, each new generation will be stronger than the last."
With that, she descended to walk among her people. As the sect master, she could not remain completely absent, or her founding purpose would be meaningless. Moreover, her path to immortality meant she would never decline, eternally retaining her prime. But she was not idle. She had a greater task ahead of her, elevating her life bound spirit treasure to Mystic tier high grade.
This would take decades, perhaps even centuries. Unlike her past battles where she had overwhelmed opponents with sheer advantage, the coming trials in the Golden Core Avenue would demand true prowess and the best tools she could forge.
Years flowed by like water as Su Min gradually refined her weapon between intermittent periods of seclusion. The island's abundant resources meant she did not need to expend her rarest, most precious materials all at once.
She had named her sect the East Sea Immortal Gate, though she was the first to admit she was terrible at naming things.
Under her steady care, it grew. But she was not just a sect master. She was the governor of the entire Eastern Mulberry Island, which was now home to nearly ten million people after a full century. Even so, this was only a fraction of the island's vast, unexplored land. The sect's disciples numbered in the hundreds, their growth deliberately controlled by Su Min's strict standards. She understood that true cultivation was brutally difficult and could not be rushed.
Like now
"Sect Master, this old man comes to bid farewell." A white haired elder stood before her, one of the original seven children she had selected. He was now among the sect's most senior members, after her and the Peacock King. All of the first seven had reached Foundation Establishment, and all had stalled there, unable to cross the next great divide.
The Immortal Mortal Divide was not easily crossed. If ten to twenty percent of Qi Refining cultivators reached Foundation Establishment, a mere zero point one to zero point two percent ever advanced to Golden Core.
This elder had achieved a solid Earthly Foundation Establishment. Su Min had even prepared special, tribulation resistant gear for him, yet the ferocious Triple Nine Heavenly Tribulation had remained insurmountable.
"A pity," Su Min said, her voice soft. "With your talent, reaching Foundation Establishment was already a great achievement. Your grandson may yet reach Golden Core, but that is thirty years away. You will not live to see it." She could only sigh. This was precisely why she had always kept a certain emotional distance from her mortal disciples.
"As for you, Master, centuries have passed, yet your immortal grace remains undimmed," the elder said, bowing his head. "I resign as sect leader and shall retreat to the rear mountains." After the first century, Su Min had stepped down from the day to day leadership. With her frequent seclusions and the Golden Core Avenue approaching, she had gradually transitioned to a revered Elder status, delegating authority. Now, this elder, who had led the sect ably for decades, was yielding his position as his own vitality faded.
"Granted," Su Min said. "Join the elder council henceforth." The sect now operated smoothly without her constant oversight. To most outsiders and newer disciples, she was always "in seclusion," a convenient cover for her agelessness. The current lack of Golden Core experts did not worry her. Even the ten thousand year old sects of the Great Luo Tian State had very few active Golden Core cultivators. Most of their top talents were still sealed away, waiting.
And with the heavenly suppression still in place, tribulations were unusually harsh. Once it was lifted, the difficulty of the Triple Nine Tribulation would drop slightly, though the Six Nine and Nine Nine Tribulations would remain as deadly as ever.
"Thank you, Master." The elder bowed deeply and withdrew.
Su Min turned back to her work, rekindling the forge and tossing in another rare, spiritual metal. Forging a Mystic tier high grade weapon demanded monstrous resources. Without the sect's steady, centuries long supply effort, she would never have gathered enough to complete her sword before the Golden Core Avenue opened.
Finally, as the flames died down and the last rune was carved, the finished product hovered before her.
[Nanming Lihuo Sword (Mystic-tier High Grade)]
[Effects:
① Boosts fire/wood attribute damage.
② Armor Penetration: Strong defense-ignoring properties.
③ Cremation: All attacks inflict burning effects.]
"At last," she whispered, a wave of relief and satisfaction washing over her. "With this, I will not be completely outmatched in the Golden Core Avenue."
Over the centuries, she had systematically upgraded her entire arsenal, relegating her old gear to become rewards for outstanding sect members. But one persistent problem remained, she had found no worthy successor in alchemy. The best she had found were second rate alchemists, no better than Prince Yong's old retainers, and nowhere near her own standards.
The sky above the sect was a calm, shimmering gold, the sunlight bathing the mountain peaks in a serene warmth. Stepping out from the main pavilion, Su Min's robes rustled gently in the breeze. At her waist, the jade pendant Xie Yingying had given her pulsed once, a faint but insistent sensation. She lowered her eyes, her fingers brushing against the familiar, cool shape.
"...Has it been that long already?" she murmured to the empty air.
The voice that slipped from her lips was softer than usual, almost wistful.
"Yingying said she would reach out a decade before the Golden Core Avenue opened, and yet, centuries have flown by."
She lingered at the edge of the veranda, letting the wind play with the loose strands of hair at her temples. Somewhere in the valley below, disciples laughed during their training. Birds circled lazily above the courtyard. But Su Min's gaze was not on them. It was fixed on the distant horizon, where clouds curled and shifted like rising incense smoke.
That memory, of a sealed mansion beneath a silver moon, surfaced in her mind.
How long had it been since they had parted without a proper word?
She allowed herself a single, deep breath. Just one.
"The sect will be fine without me for a while," she said quietly, the words sounding like a farewell. "The Azure Dragon and the Peacock King can handle things. There is nothing left here that requires my direct protection."
A flicker of light enveloped her, and she vanished from the pavilion, a streak of light shooting into the sky.
—
"Much has changed," Su Min observed, flying over the familiar landscape of Yu City. It was her first stop from centuries ago, and the closest place to a hometown she had in this world. Wei Wu State had clearly grown. She could sense a Golden Core level aura pulsing near the imperial capital, belonging to a new expert unrelated to anyone she had known. People like Cao Yuanmu and the other officials from her time had long since turned to dust.
"I wonder how Hui Ming is faring," she thought. "With his Mortal Foundation Establishment, even if he reached Golden Core, he would not qualify for the Avenue." As Xie Yingying had once explained, only those who achieved Heavenly Foundation Establishment or survived the Six Nine Tribulation stood a real chance there. Everyone else was merely cannon fodder.
The jade pendant at her waist pulsed again, more urgently this time.
Su Min's expression shifted, becoming sharp and alert. This was not a simple call. It was a warning.
Fluctuating qi. Seal destabilization.
Her heart tightened.
"Is she in danger?!"
There was no hesitation. Her speed exploded, ripping across the sky as a barely visible streak of crimson flame.
She clenched her fists. Beneath the roar of the wind and her incredible speed, her face was an unreadable mask, save for a flicker of something raw and urgent in her eyes—
Worry.
—
A normally desolate mountain peak now teemed with hundreds of cultivators, all at least at the Foundation Establishment stage. Wei Wu State's larger population and head start in the new era had indeed produced more experts than her own East Sea Island.
"Hahaha! To think such a treasure trove was hidden here!" a brawny man at peak Foundation Establishment bellowed. He was the leader of the Blood Bone Sect, a power second only to the imperial family's Golden Core ancestor. "By right of discovery, it belongs to us!"
"Earth Demon Old Ghost, heaven's treasures favor the destined," the leader of a rival faction sneered. "We will not yield today."
A third voice joined the fray. "Hah! This land falls under the domain of Great Yong." It was a group of imperial envoys. "As representatives of the court, we claim priority." This forced the other two factions to hesitate. Since Su Min's departure, the court's authority had waned, until a lone Golden Core expert emerged from their ranks, restoring a tense balance of power.
Now, all three groups had their eyes locked on the valley's center, where a massive, crystalline structure was slowly becoming visible. Had this scene played out centuries earlier, someone might have recognized it. But those who could were long dead.
—
Inside the crystalline palace, Xie Yingying's face was pale. This self imposed seal, unlike the one her sect had used before, had inherent flaws. While it preserved her lifespan, it could not fully suppress the natural growth of her power over such a long time.
Now, she was at a critical juncture, her cultivation on the verge of a breakthrough.
Fighting outside would trigger her tribulation prematurely. The Three Nine Heavenly Tribulation she could handle, even while battling others. But the Six Nine? Her ultimate goal was the legendary Nine Nine Heavenly Tribulation, and these intruders had cornered her at the worst possible moment.
Unlike her last awakening, when only Su Min and the demon prince were at the Foundation Establishment stage, she now faced hordes of cultivators at the same realm.
"Everyone, ready yourselves!" the Earth Demon Old Ghost shouted, licking his lips in anticipation. "The spatial fluctuations suggest a vast treasury inside! Kill the owner, and we plunder everything!" In this era, it was common knowledge that no sealed realm housed active Golden Core experts, making such raids low risk and high reward.
And if the occupant was merely a wealthy Foundation Establishment cultivator?
That was even better.
===
If you forget: Golden Core Avenue=Golden Core Path=The Heavenly Pride (Tianjiao) Road
BTW, you know what? Until now, Su Min always call her "Yingying" if she alone, and call her Xie Yingying when she with her or with other people. What a tsundere