"What the hell? Where is this?"
The moment she activated the jade slip, Su Min found herself completely disoriented in an unfamiliar, gray space.
She had assumed the activation would simply teleport her to an entrance point, not plunge her directly inside the secret realm itself. The abruptness of the transition left her momentarily stunned.
"Well, I guess it makes sense. This is Yao Xian'er's ultimate trump card. She wouldn't design it to be cumbersome, it would have to allow for instant access in an emergency. No wonder no one ever dared to provoke her seriously."
Su Min rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she took in her surroundings. Yao Xian'er had clearly prepared for every contingency, which was why even arrogant young masters on the Golden Core Path might stir up trouble but never dared cross the line into truly lethal conflict with her.
"But something feels off here. My Five Elements Holy Body and my Half Step Chaos Physique, they feel suppressed."
A deep wave of discomfort washed over her, a feeling of being fundamentally weakened.
"Don't resist this force. Only by relinquishing the active influence of your innate physiques can you truly begin to fuse with my Ten Thousand Laws. Otherwise, you'll never awaken to them and integrate them fully."
Yao Xian'er's disembodied voice echoed strangely in Su Min's ears, guiding her.
"Why? What's the purpose?"
"The Enlightened Dao Body is a unique constitution capable of sensing and harmonizing with countless laws of the world. While its base requirements aren't as stringent as your Five Elements Holy Body, its potential power varies drastically, its ultimate strength depends entirely on how many laws you comprehend and how deeply you fuse them into your being."
"I see."
"But know this, two physiques are said to surpass even the Enlightened Dao Body's ultimate ceiling, the legendary Mortal Body of antiquity, and another, even more mythical constitution whose full nature and name remain unknown to this day."
"So what do I do now?"
Su Min cut to the chase, impatient with the philosophy.
"Abandon your reliance on the Five Elements Holy Body. Within my hidden trove lies the concentrated remnants of the Great Dao I severed during my self destruction. Under its pervasive influence, your Five Elements Holy Body will be temporarily nullified, though only within the confines of this realm, not outside it. Only in the state of a pure Mortal Body can you truly open yourself and merge with my legacy."
"Fine."
Su Min's eyes gleamed with understanding. "Abandoning" her Five Elements Holy Body in this context didn't mean severing its origin like Yao Xian'er had with her Enlightened Dao Body. Instead, it meant consciously suppressing her own essence, reducing herself to the external state of a Mortal Body. Recognizing this, she readily agreed.
If true, permanent severance were required, she would've refused outright. That was a price she would never pay.
The next instant, a crushing weight seemed to press down on Su Min from all directions. Her legs buckled, and she collapsed to one knee on the hard, featureless ground.
Her face paled as the reality of her condition struck her harder than she'd expected.
Though her Five Elements Holy Body and Half Step Chaos Physique could usually switch dominance like layered skins, their suppression now felt absolute. Worse, the five divine elemental treasures within her dantian, core to her power, had also deactivated completely. Without the active Five Elements Holy Body, hosting them was impossible, anyone else attempting it would've had their body explode from the conflicting energies.
With her supreme physiques suppressed and her divine treasures inert, the inherited powers of the Four Sacred Beasts she'd relied on since her Qi Refining days also vanished. The sudden, profound weakness shattered her accustomed balance.
Not that she was physically frail, even now, as a late stage Unity stage cultivator, her base body remained formidable. But her overall combat power had effectively halved, eliminating her ability to challenge those far stronger than herself.
Among her fellow late stage Unity experts, however, she was still an elite. Her comprehended laws remained intact, and not just one. Almost immediately, Yao Xian'er's astonished voice rang out in the space,
"You harbor nearly ten major laws within you? Normally, your primary physique and your dominant law suppress them so completely, I never sensed them before!"
The distinct law fluctuations now radiating from Su Min in her suppressed state had finally shocked the unflappable Yao Xian'er. Su Min's opportunities had been truly extraordinary, inheriting legacies from the Five Elements Emperor, the Lunar Sovereign Emperor, the Solar Sovereign Emperor, the Sinless Buddha, the Medicine Buddha, and even the Puppet Emperor. The Medicine Buddha's legacy alone had allowed her to fuse multiple laws peacefully.
But Yao Xian'er hadn't known the full extent of this. Moreover, the sheer dominance of Su Min's Five Elements Holy Body and Half Step Chaos Physique had completely overshadowed these other laws, until now.
"My inheritances exceed your imagination. Especially around my Unity stage breakthrough, when I raided the ancient tomb of the Puppet Emperor. These are the rewards from that venture."
Su Min rolled her eyes and pushed herself back to her feet, brushing off her robes. Though her combat power had halved, her late stage Unity foundation remained solid. After a moment to adjust to the initial wave of weakness, she quickly stabilized herself.
Her current strength might not allow her to rival Mahayana experts anymore, but among Unity stage peers, she was still virtually unmatched.
"Excellent. You've resolved my greatest concern. Since you've already fused multiple laws without conflict, your task here is simpler, assimilate more and forge a true Law Crucible within your body."
"Law Crucible?"
Su Min blinked, unfamiliar with the term.
"That's my ultimate goal in this new life. When I first formed my Law Crucible in my previous incarnation, I was already at my peak. My power had solidified, leaving no room for further growth or integration. So this time, I discarded everything to rebuild from scratch, and fuse the Ten Thousand Laws anew from a better foundation. What you saw me using in the Golden Core Avenue was merely a tiny, unstable fragment of that potential."
Yao Xian'er's tone turned cryptic. Back then, Su Min's ability to temporarily seal her unstable Law Crucible fragment had shaken her profoundly.
After leaving the Golden Core Avenue, Yao Xian'er had scoured every ancient text she could find, even secretly infiltrating the archives of major sects, until she found a reference to two words in a crumbling tome predating recorded history, Chaos.
At the dawn of creation, all was One, all was Chaos, the origin of everything, a primordial physique theoretically capable of encompassing all laws without conflict. Only such a primordial constitution could've so easily sealed her nascent Law Crucible.
Yet Su Min's current form was clearly imperfect, unsustainable, and seemingly cursed by the "Yin and Yang Shall Never Meet" universal edict. Yao Xian'er had slowly deduced the terrifying truth, Someone, or something, feared this physique enough to alter the very laws of the world at great cost to prevent its birth.
Only the ancient entities of the Dark Source could possibly achieve such a feat. This confirmed Su Min's role as the one hope to break the endless cycle of darkness.
Her own historical research had revealed that the cosmos had its own tides. Each epoch's end was always followed by an era of decay and spiritual decline, culling cultivators, not for natural balance, but almost as if targeting something specific. Now, a new epoch was dawning. Though prosperity reigned and powerhouses flourished, this golden age would inevitably wither, resetting all progress.
The key to breaking this cruel cycle was now standing in her secret realm.
"Enough talk. Show me my enemies."
Unaware of the depth of Yao Xian'er's thoughts, Su Min cracked her knuckles and strode forward confidently, only to yelp in pain as an invisible force swatted her aside like a fly.
"Ah!"
"Be careful. These are the physical remnants of laws I severed. Your task is to defeat them and absorb their essence. Succeed, and you'll not only reach Mahayana but also form your own Law Crucible during your breakthrough. Of course, death's a possibility, but with your skills and foundation, mere survival shouldn't be an issue. One last warning, Watch your step. Don't rely on spiritual perception. These law remnants have no discernible aura or energy signature."
"Damn it, you could've said that earlier!"
Su Min groaned, picking herself up from where she'd been slammed into a seemingly solid wall of nothingness. Her hyper sensitive perception, unrelated to her physique, had failed her spectacularly. For a moment, she wondered if this entire trial was deliberately designed to counter her specific skill set.
But before she could voice her complaint, the scene ahead silenced her.
A shadowy, humanoid figure flickered erratically in the distance, completely untraceable by her spiritual senses, only visible to the naked eye. It was an unnerving sight.
"A law construct. And my Time Law won't be able to lock it down completely."
The implications were immediately clear, Defeating this thing wouldn't be easy at all.
"Darkness, shadow, swiftness, assassination, a crystallization of multiple laws all focused on ambush and single strike kills. Just how many laws did that woman comprehend and fuse?"
Su Min cursed inwardly. For Enlightened Dao Body wielders, reaching the Dao Comprehension stage was simple, just grasp any single law. But stopping at one made for a mediocre cultivator.
To truly rival the other supreme physiques, comprehending dozens of laws was mandatory. Unlike those with innate, defined powers, the Enlightened Dao Body demanded constant, arduous expansion, especially as one's cultivation advanced.
To surpass a contemporary Lunar Sovereign's innate physique, Yao Xian'er must've fused an absurd number. These laws could combine freely, creating unpredictable effects, and without her usual trump cards, Su Min faced a grueling battle of attrition.
Channeling her Time Law to its limits, she managed to slow the creature's movements to a perceivable level. The rest would require patience, skill, and a lot of dodging.
Meanwhile, the outside world wasn't entirely peaceful either.
Xie Yingying emerged from her seclusion, her cultivation having soared to the late stage of Unity thanks to Su Min's aid. Augmented by her innate Lunar Sovereign's physique, her combat power now approached the level of an early stage Mahayana expert, a monumental leap forward.
Most genuine Mahayana stage experts could slaughter groups of Unity cultivators, outliers like Su Min were exceedingly rare.
Now, Xie Yingying effectively stood as the world's fourth strongest cultivator. Without the use of imperial artifacts, she could thoroughly thrash the little Golden Crow in a straight duel. Even with Ao Xue assisting her, the two divine beasts would fall within a hundred rounds, as both were still at the mid stage of Unity.
As super divine beasts, they faced no real bottlenecks but their advancement was naturally slower than a human's with great opportunities.
After stabilizing her new cultivation and sparring with the little Golden Crow to test her limits, Xie Yingying sought out Yao Xian'er and the recovered Jiang Xi.
"Where's Su Min? She always explains her departures and arranges everything beforehand. This silence's unusual."
Due to the abrupt nature of the jade slip's transmission, neither Xie Yingying nor the immortal sect's administration had received any word. Dark rumors were already beginning to swirl among the lower level disciples, that Yao Xian'er had imprisoned Su Min to seize the alliance leadership for herself.
Xie Yingying knew better than to believe such nonsense. At their level, titles like "alliance leader" meant nothing compared to the true pursuit of higher realms and power.
Still, a thread of concern lingered in her heart.
"She's here, training. Few things in this world can push her this far, so I provided the opportunity."
Yao Xian'er smirked and produced a shimmering crystal orb. Inside, a live image showed Su Min dodging frantically in the gray realm as a law construct harried her with invisible attacks, a rare sight of genuine vulnerability.
The secret realm's safety was guaranteed by its own rules, but Yao Xian'er was more than happy to spectate and record the event.
Xie Yingying watched the scene for a long moment, a slow smile spreading across her face. Then she settled comfortably into a nearby chair, a plate of spirit fruits appearing in her hand. After Su Min's recent teasing and the century of longing, a little schadenfreude was simply irresistible. She was going to enjoy this show.