Clang!
A sharp, clear sound echoed through the quiet cave as a luminous pill shot out from the alchemy furnace, trailing a ribbon of spiritual mist. A pale, delicate hand snapped out, catching it mid-air before depositing it neatly into a waiting jade box.
"Whew, the last one is done." Su Min let out a long breath, the tension in her shoulders easing. "All these pills they requested are for protecting meridians and aiding the breakthrough to Nascent Soul, huh? Now that I have gathered enough materials for myself, there is no need to waste any more time on commissions. It is time to refine a few pills for my own trump cards."
She stretched lazily, her joints popping softly, before gathering the finished pills and walking out of her inner workshop. The intermittent refining had taken a considerable amount of time. Now, the descent of the Golden Core Heavenly Ranking was not far off; the air itself was beginning to hum with a subtle, anticipatory energy.
"Fewer and fewer people are coming now," she observed, looking toward the silent entrance of her cave abode. "It looks like we have entered the latter half of the Golden Core Avenue's cycle."
In this final phase, new secret realms had all but stopped appearing. The entire Golden Core Avenue had settled into a tense, waiting quiet. Everyone was holed up in their own retreats, desperately digesting the gains of the past few decades and converting their plundered resources into tangible combat power. All that remained was to wait for the colossal heavenly ranking to descend and the final battles to begin.
"Have you noticed?" Xie Yingying remarked, her gaze lingering on the box of pills in Su Min's hand. "None of the top ranked prodigies on the Tianjiao Ranking have come to you for pill refinement. They are all very confident in themselves."
She had privately hoped this stream of clients would offer a glimpse into the strengths and weaknesses of their ultimate rivals, but so far, not a single one from the uppermost echelon had shown their face.
"Who knows what they are thinking? But there is definitely something strange about that number one."
"Strange?" Xie Yingying frowned.
They had only seen jade slip recordings of that person's attacks, which were undeniably spectacular and terrifying. Brilliant, holy looking rays of light would descend from the heavens, blasting opponents into oblivion with overwhelming force. No matter how many enemies surrounded her, they stood no chance against that purifying radiance. Even the formidable Great Desolate Holy Body had been crushed under its weight. Su Min had spent a long time studying those recordings, but she had come up completely empty handed.
She had even secretly crafted a few countermeasures tailored against Xie Yingying's Lunar Sovereign abilities, but against that mysterious, all encompassing light, she was completely clueless. There was no technique to dissect, no flaw to exploit, just pure, annihilating power.
This led her to a single, disturbing possibility.
"That woman might be a reincarnated ancient powerhouse, deliberately reborn as a mortal to conquer this era."
Su Min's lips twitched as she said it. This was a classic tactic veteran players used in the game. After choosing reincarnation, they retained their high level comprehension of techniques and laws, and could often surpass their previous limits due to the rebirth process tempering their soul in a new, pristine body.
If that were the case, this person could be a truly ancient supreme expert. Such beings had already climbed to the pinnacle once; their mastery of techniques and battle instincts would be overwhelming. As for her physique, it was undoubtedly a genuine mortal one, the more ordinary the better, for such a body offered the greatest compatibility and potential for growth, unconstrained by any inherent elemental bias.
For example, Xie Yingying's Lunar Sovereign Body, while immensely powerful, naturally limited her to Yin aligned and lunar techniques. Su Min's own Five Elements Holy Body was far more adaptable, yet even it had its inherent leanings. It could not compare to the blank slate of a so called mortal body for someone who had already comprehended the Dao at a supreme level.
"What did you say?" Xie Yingying looked genuinely shocked. "That does not make sense. Most reincarnated experts would seek out a special physique for their new life. Besides, the Golden Core Avenue can only be entered once per soul. Once a soul enters, it is barred from returning, no matter how many times it reincarnates. Take the old demon queen, for example. She never even considered entering the Golden Core Avenue for this very reason."
Reincarnation came at an enormous price, even for players in the game. Many failed the process, and even those who succeeded were not guaranteed to remain the same person. In the game, that difference was merely mechanical, a stat reset, but players did not care. They were only controlling avatars. Their so called comprehension was just data being transferred.
"Alternatively, she might not be reincarnated at all, but someone who severed her cultivation, like the old demon queen," Su Min proposed another theory. "The difference is that this one went even further. She gave up everything, her cultivation, her memories, her Dao base, and started over completely from scratch, trading all her past power for a new, untainted lifespan. I am not sure about the specific method, but facing her will be troublesome no matter what."
Su Min scratched her head in frustration. That person really had no need for her pills; she was playing an entirely different game.
"Whatever. In the end, it does not matter. Tell the others that until the Golden Core Avenue concludes, I will not accept any more pill refining commissions."
If she could not find a reliable countermeasure now, there was no point in dwelling on it. What mattered most was boosting her own strength to its absolute peak. As for the romanticized idea of cultivating from a mortal body, Su Min inwardly scoffed. Starting from a higher point was always better. There was no need to glorify hardship. Those who pursued such a path were likely trying to fuse myriad techniques within themselves to break past the inherent limits of a specialized physique. But what did ordinary cultivators truly have inside them? Nothing but a longer, harder road.
With that, Su Min turned and returned to her private chamber. This time, her focus shifted inward. She intended to refine the pills that would be her personal lifelines in the coming trials.
She laid out the plans for three specific formulas, each one notorious.
[Heavenly Life Sacrifice Pill (Fourth-tier, High-grade): After consumption, the user sacrifices a large amount of lifespan. For Golden Core cultivators, it grants power surpassing the Golden Core stage for a short duration.]
[Bone-Melting Potential Pill (Fourth-tier, High-grade): Unleashes the user's full potential, maximizing combat power at the cost of damaging meridians.]
[Return from Death Pill (Fourth-tier, High-grade): Rapidly heals all injuries but leaves residual medicinal properties in the body, disrupting spiritual energy flow.]
These were the so called "Desperate Gambit Trinity," the most terrifying and costly pills Su Min could currently refine. Each one came with a heavy, often permanent price, and in the past, she would not have dared to use them recklessly.
The first pill was self explanatory, any technique that traded lifespan for power was a forbidden taboo. The lowest grade for such pills was fourth tier high grade, which had been beyond her before. But now, with her infinite lifespan talent, burning a few decades or even centuries of years for a burst of power was a viable, if distasteful, option.
The second and third pills, however, were dangerous even for her. The Bone Melting Potential Pill, for instance, would inflict a three month long debuff after the first use, drastically reducing all her attributes. Taking a second pill within that recovery period could permanently lower her attribute caps. She had heard tales of foolish players in the beta tests who had chained these pills and reduced their avatars to a state weaker than a Body Refining cultivator.
This effect came from overdrawing one's very foundation and potential. But, if a person's physique was inherently strong enough, like the Great Desolate Holy Body, the first pill might cause no weakness at all. Only the second dose would leave side effects, and even then, they could not be used consecutively in a single battle.
As for the third pill, its primary drawback was that it "occupied" one's health and mana pool. Normally, when depleted, these pools would be at a clean 0 out of 100. After taking this pill, they would become 10 out of 100, with the residual medicine blocking full recovery. One pill was manageable, a few months of dedicated refining with her flames could clear it. But a second pill would make it 20 out of 100, and even strenuous effort might only reduce it back to 10.
In short, these were pills of last resort, to be used with extreme caution. But to Su Min, with her unique advantages, the costs were far more negligible.
The first pill's drawback did not concern her in the slightest. The second pill's side effects could be largely offset by the Eastern Azure Wood's profound vitality and the physical reinforcement from the Azure Dragon Creation Art. The first dose would likely not weaken her at all. As for the third pill, her Nanming Lihuo could aggressively purge the lingering effects far more efficiently than anyone else. The only real problem was that refining these three pills, with their complex and volatile energies, required significant time, focus, and spiritual energy.
"I should still avoid the first pill when possible," she mused as she began the meticulous process. "Not because of the effects on me, but if people notice I am not aging a single day despite visibly burning lifespan, it could raise dangerous suspicions."
Her primary goal was straightforward, to secure a top five position in the ranking. The legacy of the Five Elements Emperor was essential for her future path. With her current preparations and these pills, she was confident she could defeat any opponent except perhaps that mysterious number one, and that included Xie Yingying.
Her trump cards were numerous, and many of them defied the conventional limits of what a Golden Core cultivator should be capable of.
One Month Later
"Five of each pill should be more than enough. Yingying doesn't want any, so I will keep them all for myself. Given her innate strength, she is unlikely to face any opponent she cannot handle without resorting to such measures."
Su Min squinted, a satisfied gleam in her eyes as she looked at the fifteen floating pills before her. They shimmered with a dangerous, potent light. This was her personal arsenal, carefully crafted and perfectly prepared for the chaos to come.
"Once the Golden Core Heavenly Ranking concludes, I will officially attempt to break through to fifth tier alchemist."
She mused silently. Currently, refining fourth tier high grade pills posed no real challenge to her. She had not failed even once with these three notoriously difficult formulas, consistently producing two or even three high quality pills per batch. This was a stark contrast to her earlier struggles with the Golden Heart Pill, which had caused multiple cauldron explosions. The Desperate Gambit Trinity was considered even harder to refine, yet she had breezed through them.
The reason was simple. Since emerging from her last seclusion, she had done little else but refine pills. Decades of constant, focused practice had honed her skills to the very peak of the fourth tier. As for fifth tier pills, there was no immediate rush. She had no pressing need for them yet. After the Golden Core Avenue concluded, she would shatter her core and advance to Nascent Soul. Her success rate for that was already high, thanks to her divine materials, though she certainly would not mind making it a absolute certainty. A fifth tier Nascent Soul Pill would do just that.