The Five Elements Domain served as the vibrant core of human inheritance, its secret realms opening and closing on a regular, rhythmic cycle. These pockets of fragmented space, left behind by ancient powerhouses, were a cultivator's greatest opportunity. While the world outside might have lacked an abundance of supreme experts in the current era, the Golden Core Avenue had accumulated a deep well of these powerful legacies over countless millennia.
Naturally, Su Min had ventured into many. She had never been interested in the core inheritances themselves; her focus was always on the supporting materials that others overlooked. She became a ghost in the machine, slipping into secret realms and stripping them of rare herbs and precious ores before the true heirs even arrived. As long as she steered clear of the central legacy altar, no one was willing to make an enemy of her. Everything else in the room was negotiable, and her presence was often treated as a natural disaster one simply had to endure.
During this time, she had also delivered the five pills she promised. It was no surprise that none of her clients had the patience to wait for the superior high-tier Grade 4 version; they had all requested the more achievable mid-tier instead. With those five transactions complete, Su Min's reputation was sealed. She was universally acknowledged as the top alchemist on the Golden Core Avenue, a figure of awe and whispered rumors.
Now, business came to her without any effort. She still accepted commissions, but the price for her services had skyrocketed. She demanded exorbitant fees that would make a sect leader wince. Yet, the Golden Core Avenue was truly a land of plenty, overflowing with resources that had been ripening for centuries. In less than half a year, she had gathered enough ingredients for three full batches of the coveted Nascent Soul Pill, plus a massive hoard of other rare and valuable herbs that filled her spatial ring to bursting.
"I will hold off on attempting the Nascent Soul Pill for now," she mused, staring at the embers beneath her cauldron. The heat radiated against her skin, smelling of charcoal and melted jade. "It's a low-tier Grade 5 pill, a step too far for my current state. But the herb abundance here is insane. I can push for high-tier Grade 4 instead."
High-tier Grade 4 pills were treasures that would make even seasoned Nascent Soul old monsters grovel. Here and now, she could strut through the Golden Core Avenue completely unchallenged. After the crowd had witnessed the Wood Madman's brutal and public dismemberment, everyone had learned a single, bloody lesson: don't provoke Su Min.
In this place, few people cared about your background. Your sect was ancient and powerful? So was mine. Who was scared of whom?
Her terms were simple and ruthless. Three complete sets of materials per commission, which she kept regardless of success or failure, plus a hefty additional pile of the Avenue's finest herbs as her payment. Onlookers could only watch and salivate, powerless to match her skills. The barrier to becoming a top alchemist was impossibly high. While a few other alchemists existed here, none of them had surpassed Grade 3.
The leap from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core was a chasm; the jump from Grade 3 to Grade 4 was a vertical abyss. Few possessed Su Min's unique advantages. The divine flame, Nanming Lihuo, seemed tailor-made for alchemy, and her player-bestowed Five Elements Holy Body provided incredible bonuses to her success rates. Without that specific flame, her alchemy success rate would plummet, and her ability to forge artifacts would be crippled.
For anyone else to craft a Grade 4 pill, they would first need to reach the Nascent Soul realm, leveraging the all-around stat boost from that monumental breakthrough.
"What is your timeline?" Su Min asked, turning her head toward Xie Yingying. Her friend was standing near the cave entrance, her silhouette framed by the red glow of the Fire Domain. "That legacy site is opening soon. I can attempt high-tier Grade 4 now. Should we wait?"
After refining the Eastern Azure Wood, Su Min's growth had skyrocketed. While Nanming Lihuo enhanced her base stats, the Eastern Azure Wood's comprehensive boost was on another level entirely. She felt more solid, her connections to the world's elements more fluid.
She had come to understand that divine materials each had their own specialties. Metal and Fire excelled in offense, with Fire dominating area attacks and Metal focusing on armor-piercing strikes. Earth dominated pure defense. Water prioritized recovery and stamina. And Wood, her Eastern Azure Wood, enhanced all her attributes in a beautifully balanced way, a steady hum of vitality beneath her ribs.
Of course, these were primary focuses, not absolutes. There was some cross-functionality. Her Eastern Azure Wood could heal, for instance, though not as effectively as a Water-based divine material could.
"Go for it. There's no need to rush," Xie Yingying replied, a cold smirk touching her lips. She understood the fundamental duality of all things. Yin and Yang required each other to remain stable. Singularity bred only destruction.
The legacy site left by that Lunar Sovereign Body expert would be a barren, frigid place, holding nothing of material value except the Lunar Sovereign Ancient Scripture at its heart. In fact, Xie Yingying wouldn't even dare to venture too deep without Su Min there. Her companion's Eastern Azure Wood was the only thing that could counter the lethal, concentrated Yin energy that would permeate the core like a physical weight.
"Let the fools rush in first," Xie Yingying said flatly. "Their deaths won't be my fault."
Besides, Su Min mastering high-tier Grade 4 pills would only increase their odds of success in all their future endeavors.
"Alright," Su Min agreed. "Taking it slow is fine with me."
Closing her eyes, she focused inward, recalling the endless stream of recipes from her player-acquired Alchemy and Artifact Manual. With her skills, she would never lack for formulas. Her only limit was the personal power required to execute them. The niche, specialized pills requested by others were not in her tome, which focused on mainstream, powerful elixirs. The world was simply too vast for any single compilation to cover everything.
Her current target was the most renowned high-tier Grade 4 pill: the Golden Core Heart Pill.
Its purpose was simple and immensely valuable. It assisted in breaking through the stubborn bottlenecks within the Golden Core stage.
After forming a Golden Core, a cultivator's progress slowed to a crawl. Even moving between the three sub-levels of the stage was an arduous task. Advancing required not just accumulating and refining vast amounts of spiritual energy, but repeatedly assaulting minor, yet firm, barriers.
Reaching late Golden Core could easily take over a century under normal circumstances. Su Min's own rapid ascent was thanks entirely to the Eastern Azure Wood. Xie Yingying's speed came from her Naiqiong Divine Ice. But now, the initial grace period from the Eastern Azure Wood had ended.
To reach late Golden Core after saturating her energy, Su Min needed external aids. Hence, the Golden Core Heart Pill. Before this, she had been lax, seeing no pressing need. With the Eastern Azure Wood and the Azure Dragon legacy secured, the Golden Core Heavenly Ranking's rewards meant nothing to her.
Now? To claim that final inheritance tied to the Five Elements Flags, she had to push harder.
One month later, a satisfied sigh echoed in the quiet cave.
"Whew. High-tier Grade 4. Done."
Two lustrous, spirit-filled pills rolled gently in the bottom of her cauldron. They were a deep gold color, smelling of mountain air and honey. Su Min exhaled in deep relief. This success had been preceded by two failed batches that turned her precious ingredients to worthless ash. Luck had blessed her this time, yielding two pills instead of just one.
"One for me, and one for trade," she decided, carefully bottling them in jade.
She considered their fates. Xie Yingying's Lunar Sovereign Body naturally bypassed cultivation bottlenecks, so this pill was useless to her. As for the Nascent Soul Pill she planned to make later, its purpose was different. It was designed to safeguard the body during the dangerous breakthrough process and accelerate Yuányīng formation. The transitions from late Foundation Establishment to Golden Core, and from Golden Core to Nascent Soul, had no barriers to break. They only had soul-crushing risks of catastrophic failure. Their associated pills existed solely to mitigate those life-ending perils.
She called one of her helpers over. He was a nimble young man who had proven useful in gathering rumors. "Oh, spread the word. I have a Golden Core Heart Pill. If anyone wants it, they have got thirty years to trade me an Earth-grade artifact."
Over time, Su Min had recruited a few lackeys to handle errands and gather intelligence while she focused on her alchemy. They weren't fighters, just helpers who knew how to find things in the crowded markets.
"An Earth-grade artifact?!" the lackey gasped, his eyes wide as dinner plates.
The demand was daylight robbery. A high-tier Grade 4 pill was priceless, but an Earth-grade artifact was a legend. In the Golden Core Avenue, no one could bring such powerful items in from the outside. Crafting them here was nearly impossible. Even with her Nanming Lihuo, or the forge-optimized Six Ding Divine Fire, Su Min knew she couldn't produce Earth-grade items yet.
The few Earth-grade artifacts that did exist here were spawned by the Golden Core Avenue itself, rare treasures generated every few centuries from the lingering power of deceased experts. Su Min hadn't been lucky enough to find one yet.
"Oh, and add this," she said casually, leaning back against the cool stone wall. "I'm only refining this once. Take it or leave it."
This, at least, was the truth. She couldn't make more. The two failed batches had exhausted her core ingredients for the Golden Core Heart Pill. Like the three irreplaceable herbs for the Nascent Soul Pill, these specific materials were untradeable.
"Understood," her lackey said, exchanging a knowing glance with the others.
They sensed her predicament. Although Su Min's demand was outrageous, they knew desperate buyers would eventually bite. For most, having only ninety years to advance from early to late Golden Core was impossible. Yet the Golden Core Heavenly Ranking's rewards—the three-hundred-year lifespan extension and the protective baptism—were too crucial to miss.
Besides, an Earth-grade artifact that didn't match your cultivation path was little more than a glorified paperweight. Trading one for the pill, while painful, could be a calculated and worthwhile sacrifice.
As expected, her announcement sent shockwaves through the entire Golden Core Avenue. Holy Sons and Daughters were mobilized, their calm demeanors shattered. The top five spots on the ranking weren't meant for ordinary Six-Nine Tribulation Golden Core cultivators; only elites like them stood a real chance.
A frenzied competition erupted for newly appeared secret realms, all to scrape together the astronomical price Su Min had set. It felt like swallowing flies, but they had no other choice.
While the rest of the world scrambled and fought, Su Min and Xie Yingying simply departed. Their helpers weren't invited. It was time to head for the legacy site. Extreme Yin begets Yang. The site's core surely harbored a unique space, one Su Min needed for her own cultivation. Without the powerful energy there, reaching late Golden Core would be a far more difficult and tedious struggle.