"Take it. This is the pill you wanted. Also, please deliver these message jades to Yingying and the little Golden Crow. I need to continue my journey now."
"You're leaving? Just like that?"
"Correct. The trail I'm following won't wait."
Hearing Su Min's firm words, Tian Hao's brow furrowed deeply. Her departure would be a tremendous, tangible loss for their world. After all, a top-tier alchemist of her caliber was a strategic resource, someone who could elevate an entire world's strength significantly over a single generation.
"The current environment is what it is. The well is drying up. No matter how advanced my alchemy skills are, without the proper materials, I can't produce anything. It's like trying to cook a feast without ingredients."
Su Min smiled a faint, wry smile. She knew this truth better than anyone. No matter how formidable an alchemist was, specific, high-grade ingredients were essential. The current continent, still recovering from the Great Sealing, simply didn't have enough of the rare resources she needed to work with at her level. It was better for her to venture out now into the wider multiverse. With her Treasure Gourd now full of refined essence and the Medicine King's Cauldron's unique properties, finding and processing new resources wasn't an insurmountable issue.
Even if she returned to the state she was in when she first transmigrated, completely destitute, as long as the new world didn't forcibly suppress cultivation, nothing could truly hinder her progress for long. This expedition to the ancient battlefield had yielded an abundance of demonic beast corpses, which had proven that. Though the beasts' bodies weren't particularly valuable individually, their sheer numbers had made up for it. Her Treasure Gourd had now reached an impressively potent level, its internal reserves containing enough refined spiritual energy to theoretically cultivate all the way to the Unity Stage. By then, she would be powerful enough to traverse the starry void freely, no longer confined to the fate of a single world.
"Leave it to me. They will receive your messages."
After a long, measuring glance at Su Min, Tian Hao took the items and turned, his form blurring as he shot toward the spatial rift. She knew he wouldn't deceive her; the soul oath saw to that, and even if he tried, she had other, more direct means of ensuring compliance.
"Finally gone. Good. The connection to the Kirin has been growing fainter by the hour. If not for the promised pill, I would've left days earlier."
Watching Tian Hao's figure vanish into the shimmering portal, Su Min muttered to herself before turning and darting in the opposite direction, her figure transforming into a barely visible streak of light. In this chaotic, space-scarred world, she couldn't safely use spatial compression techniques without risking a tear, so she could only rely on raw, physical speed. Even so, she moved astonishingly fast, a blur over the bone-white landscape. In the blink of an eye, she had crossed vast, desolate distances, arriving at a secluded, hidden corner of the battlefield where the air hummed with a different, more volatile energy.
"This must be it, the source of the resonance. The call from the Kirin Vault is coming from just beyond this gate."
Su Min could clearly sense the faint, desperate vibrations emanating from the unstable rift before her.
"Such intense, concussive firepower on the other side, yet almost no spiritual energy fluctuations. What in the world are the people of this world doing? Should I just go in and see?"
But standing at the shimmering threshold, she hesitated, a rare moment of caution. Something felt off. The energy fluctuations she sensed were physically powerful, yet their nature was peculiar, artificial. Su Min recognized this sensation from her deepest memories, it was the signature of advanced modern weaponry, not cultivation. What puzzled her even more was that the Kirin's unique, earthy resonance was undeniably coming from this exact location.
"Let's take a look first. No point standing here guessing."
Muttering to herself, Su Min steeled herself and stepped forward through the rift. The next moment, the world shifted, and she was stunned by what she saw. Before her, an endless ocean was aflame. Not from any mystical technique or divine fire, but from thick, black crude oil, burning relentlessly, covering the sea's surface in a hellish blanket of fire and smoke.
"Did I... return home?"
Seeing the sleek, grey warships in the distance, their profiles so familiar yet alien, Su Min froze momentarily, a wave of disorienting nostalgia hitting her. But she quickly shook her head, her sharp eyes picking out the details. The flags on those vessels didn't belong to any nation she recognized from her past life. This was clearly a parallel world, a divergent timeline.
Beneath the burning waves, hordes of mutated, multi-limbed monsters thrashed and writhed. Then, a colossal figure, over a hundred meters tall, covered in weeping sores and jagged bone spurs, emerged from the depths. In an instant, even the distant, massive aircraft carriers seemed insignificant, like toys in a bathtub. Su Min rubbed her temples in sheer exasperation.
"A Dao Comprehension-stage demonic beast? Here?"
In her home world, these corrupted creatures hadn't caused substantial damage simply because the landmass was vast enough to keep their spawning grounds contained and isolated. The corrupted mutants, drawn to the black blood, rarely strayed far from their points of origin. But not every world was so expansive or fortunate. Here, in this world of oceans, their pollution could easily spread, engulfing entire seas and coastlines.
"Did the Kirin clan get corrupted? Is that the problem? Wait, huh?"
Just as she prepared to dive in and eliminate the beast, Su Min paused, her head snapping upwards. A peculiar, immense pressure suddenly filled the distant skies, a mundane yet terrifyingly potent force one that even she, with all her power, couldn't simply ignore.
"Holy, is that a hydrogen bomb?!"
When she realized what the descending spear-like object was, she couldn't help but curse aloud. Instincts born from another life took over. Instinctively, she summoned her Black Tortoise Armor, the obsidian plates sealing around her, and her body glowed as the South Ming Blaze erupted outwards to form a secondary, intense heat shield.
BOOM!!!
The next instant, a deafening, world-ending explosion erupted. A blinding white light consumed everything, followed by a towering, hellish mushroom cloud that rose from the ocean before crashing its shockwave down onto the massive beast and everything else in the vicinity.
Simultaneously, in command centers and bunkers across the world, countless eyes were fixed on satellite feeds of this moment. Decades ago, a rift had appeared in the sky over the Pacific, raining down the corrosive black blood. Within a few short years, the entire ocean had been polluted, triggering a global biological catastrophe. Beyond severed trade routes and devastated fisheries, marine life had mutated en masse into horrific abominations. Overwhelming numbers had forced humanity back onto the continents, fighting a desperate, losing battle. Armies, newly formed cultivator alliances, bioweapons, they had tried everything.
Yet against the endless, mindless tide of monsters, even their most powerful nuclear weapons seemed pitifully inadequate. Formerly hostile nations had been forced into a fragile global coalition. But recently, a truly terrifying, intelligent creature had emerged from the central rift. Disaster had followed in its wake. The monster defied all previous understanding, like a divine punishment, annihilating coastal defenses on both sides of the ocean with ease. Now, humanity had mobilized its full remaining might, deploying even their newest, most powerful superweapon in a last, desperate gamble.
As the cataclysmic explosion engulfed the screen, everyone held their breath, praying it would finally, finally destroy the abomination. But before the flames and radiation could even begin to dissipate, a massive, charred figure writhed free from the epicenter. Though half its body was blasted away and crisped to black, the beast wasn't dead. A single, pained movement of its remaining limbs made the sea tremble for miles. In that moment, absolute despair gripped the watching world.
Meanwhile, closer to the blast zone,
"Damn it, what rotten luck! If not for the Nanming Lihuo's control over fire and my physique's innate resistance, I'd be in trouble too. That weapon could seriously injure or even kill a standard Divine Transformation cultivator, but against a true Dao Comprehension existence, it's just not enough. Laws can mitigate most of the blunt force and heat; pure explosive force alone won't cut it at this level."
Su Min grimaced, brushing ash from her armor as she hovered in the scorching, radioactive air. She'd been caught near the edge of the blast radius alongside the beast. Fortunately, her Five Elements Holy Body granted her extreme, near-total heat and radiation resistance. Otherwise, she'd have been in real trouble, her spiritual energy drained just shielding herself. Now, she just wanted to get away from this messy, noisy place.
If one hydrogen bomb wasn't enough, they'd likely fire more. To avoid becoming collateral damage in a nuclear exchange, Su Min prepared to retreat and reassess. She wasn't familiar with this world's technological level or its leaders' sanity. She needed to lay low, find a quiet spot, and properly locate the Kirin. But the moment she moved, the colossal, wounded beast turned its one remaining, burning eye and its shattered maw toward her. Her position, hovering right above its head, wasn't exactly subtle.
ROAR!!!
A deafening, pain-filled bellow echoed across the water as its jaws lunged upward to swallow her.
"Seeking death? A mere early Dao Comprehension beast, and a corrupted, unstable one at that. A perfect chance to test my new legacy. White Tiger Possession!"
In an instant, a massive, spectral snow-white tiger materialized around her, its size rivaling the monster's ruined form. The beast's crimson eyes widened in instant, primal terror. It recognized this aura, one that had once made countless ancient horrors and its own progenitors tremble. The Four Symbols' White Tiger, which wielded the Western Metal's Sharp Gold, was its absolute bane.
ROAR!
The tiger's phantom roar shook the very seas. These corrupted beasts, forcibly elevated by the black blood without true comprehension, were inherently weaker than true cultivators of their rank. Their grasp of laws and spiritual perception was flawed and shallow; otherwise, the relatively slow nuke would never have hit it directly. As for why Su Min had taken the blast? Simple curiosity and a test of her own defenses. Her senses had told her it wasn't a lethal threat to her personally. Now, facing the fully manifested White Tiger's image, the already crippled monster was torn into dissipating black mist in a matter of seconds, its corrupt energy purified by the sharp, holy aura.
"Done. A minor nuisance. But I still can't clearly sense the Kirin. The connection is completely scrambled by this world's background noise. Guess I'll have to search manually. Something must've happened to them, something severe."
Su Min frowned, her triumph short-lived. Based on her previous interactions with the other divine beasts, the Kirin clan's current ruler, the Black Kirin, should have reached at least the Dao Comprehension stage by now, if not higher.
If that were true, such primitive weapons wouldn't be necessary to defend its territory. Yet there was no trace of its majestic presence, only this lingering, faint call for help. With a sigh, she vanished from the spot, teleporting away from the still-burning waters. Unbeknownst to her, her brief, spectacular battle had already shaken the entire world.
"That monster... it was torn apart like paper, the same one our combined fleet couldn't scratch!"
"Not just the fleet, even our newest strategic weapons couldn't kill it, only wound it!"
"Something the United Super Fleet and the Global Cultivator Alliance were helpless against, she obliterated effortlessly, in seconds!"
"That has to be a goddess! Did you see her attire? That ancient, elegant dress... she must be an immortal from the heavens, descending to quell the calamity!"
Instantly, Su Min's sudden appearance and impossible feat trended worldwide. Special military and cultivation artifacts had live-streamed the battle across the global net. Her mysterious, peerless elegance and overwhelming power captivated all who saw the footage. But for the five great families ruling this world from the shadows, the implications were far more serious.
"Is that woman... is she at the Dao Comprehension stage? Truly?"
"Unclear. The readings are chaotic. But even if not, she's at least half-step Dao Comprehension. Otherwise, she couldn't have slain that thing, even in its wounded state."
In a heavily secured underground chamber, a group of powerful individuals convened. The core members exuded the stable auras of Divine Transformation experts, while the rest were at Golden Core or Nascent Soul. They were this world's true, supreme rulers. Centuries ago, when spiritual energy had first descended, the old national powers had collapsed before them. Now, the five families ruled the surviving human population unchallenged.
"Spare no expense to find her. Her attire suggests an ancient origin, likely from a primordial, isolated world. Probably culturally unsophisticated, technologically naive. She'll expose herself soon in a society like ours."
"And then? What is the directive?"
"Determine her goals. Her power is... significant. Avoid antagonizing her if possible. Cooperate if we can. And especially, keep this from those rebellious rats in the underground. Eliminate any of them who get close to her, swiftly and quietly."
"Understood."
A consensus was reached, they would locate Su Min at all costs. The vast, panopticon-like surveillance network of the world mobilized, deploying every method, from facial recognition to energy signature tracking, to find the mysterious woman in white.
Meanwhile, in a quiet suburban neighborhood,
"It's almost identical to the tech level of my past life, just a few decades behind in some areas. But how have they only just developed hydrogen bombs? And only one was deployed at that? The logistics don't add up."
Su Min mused, glancing at the smartphone in her hand she had "borrowed" before turning to the dazed, blank-faced girl beside her whom she had found home alone.
"This outfit is too conspicuous, and without a digital ID or financial history, I can't move freely here. Though the surface technology is advanced, true power, as always, lies with the cultivators, the five families."
Flipping through the phone's news feeds and public databases, she pondered her next move. She'd come here for the Kirin legacy, but upon entering this world, the specific connection had severed, replaced by a general, diffuse call. It was maddening. Ideally, she'd find the legacy, take it, and leave, even if she couldn't immediately refine the Central Wutu Divine Earth.
Having just absorbed a new, violently potent heavenly treasure, her body was at its capacity. Further immediate refinement risked bursting her meridians and damaging her foundation.
"No clear trace of the Kirin. No idea if the ruling five families are friend or foe in this matter. Maybe the Kirin clan's disappearance is their doing."
Her brow furrowed in thought as she slipped the phone back into the girl's pocket. This unlucky bystander, home alone with no security cameras, had lent her device briefly. The girl herself was under a light, temporary hypnosis and would remember nothing.
"To avoid drawing the attention of the powers that be, I need a legitimate identity. And my original appearance seems to have been broadcast everywhere. Time for a disguise."
Checking the trending headlines and seeing her own face and flowing white dress splashed across every screen, Su Min noted with irony how effortlessly she had navigated the smartphone. Though she hadn't touched one in nearly a millennium, her past-life memories remained sharp. The footage must have been captured by those special artifacts she sensed on the warships. She hadn't noticed them earlier because her focus had been entirely on sensing the Kirin, and then on the immediate battle with the beast. The recording devices, carrying no hostile intent or spiritual pressure, had simply slipped her attention.
With a flick of her wrist, the Disguise Ring on her finger shimmered. Light cascaded over her, and when it faded, a completely different person stood there. Now, a vibrant, modern young woman stood in the alley, wearing a simple T-shirt, faded jeans, and sneakers, her hair in a practical ponytail, radiating youthful, commonplace energy. It was a far cry from the regal, untouchable figure in the footage. Clothes truly made the person. A few subtle changes to her facial structure and aura created a completely different, unremarkable impression. This lively, ordinary aura wasn't entirely feigned, it was a part of her true self that she rarely showed.
For high-level cultivators, appearance often reflected inner mentality, not physical age. And Su Min's mental age wasn't actually that old, despite her knowledge. The usual majesty and mystery she projected? Just masks worn for effect and authority.
"First, I need to find someone pliable, someone obedient, to 'borrow' an identity from. Preferably a young girl with strong, unfulfilled desires. They are the easiest to motivate."
Su Min's eyes gleamed with pragmatic calculation. In this information-driven world, she didn't need to search blindly on foot. The internet, for all its firewalls, held the answers if one knew how to look. As for a new identity? It was easy for someone of her skills. She didn't need food or shelter. She just needed to find someone willing to lend theirs, controlled by any number of subtle methods. But overt coercion was a last resort; it drew attention. A willing, compensated accomplice would be much better. And as a master alchemist, she had plenty of mundane and mystical bargaining chips.
As for the five families? Until she knew their stance and power level, it was best to avoid them entirely. Human nature was complex, and here, she had no allies, no sect to watch her back. If they were involved in the Kirin clan's plight, then at least one truly terrifying existence lurked among them. Otherwise, they couldn't have made an entire divine beast lineage vanish without a trace.
"Decision made. No time to waste. Time to act."
With that, Su Min disappeared from the alley, her new form blending seamlessly into the crowd as she began her search for someone suitably desperate or ambitious.
Soon, her search led her to a location that felt strangely familiar, a place of youthful energy and latent potential. Hovering invisibly above a large public school during an outdoor event, she observed a group of teenagers, genuine fourteen- or fifteen-year-olds, their lifespans bright and short, not ageless cultivators like herself.
"Oh? An awakening ceremony? To test for spiritual roots. Interesting. So the great families aren't completely selfish, they've spread basic cultivation knowledge to the masses to find talent. But true, high-level talent will always be rare, no matter the population."
Su Min smirked, a plan beginning to form. Even across her four prosperous continents and the Eastern Mulberry State, only about one in a hundred individuals possessed the spiritual roots to cultivate at all. Reaching Golden Core? Maybe one in tens of thousands. Nascent Soul and Divine Transformation? Even scarcer, like finding a single specific grain of sand on a vast beach.
But here, in this world of billions, there had to be suitable candidates, diamonds in the rough she could use. She just had to find the right one.