Su Min still remembered every line of her face, every subtle shift in her qi. But now… there was something different. Not in strength, but in time. The thread of Xie Yingying's life was growing thinner.
"If you can't break through," she said gently, "there's still another path. I can create a space for you—a completely safe place. You could sever your cultivation and start again. I can give you eleven years—more than enough to return to Qi Refinement."
Xie Yingying's breath caught. "You'd make me start over?"
"I'm offering a way to live longer," Su Min replied. Her voice didn't waver, but her eyes softened. "You won't reach Transcendence. Not with your current physique. Not with the way this world is shaped. But you don't have to disappear. You don't have to fade."
It wasn't just advice. It was an invitation. A promise.
A plea.
She knew how much Xie Yingying had sacrificed already. Knew what it meant to ask more. But she also knew what would happen if she said nothing.
Xie Yingying would stay.
She would burn through her remaining lifespan trying to keep pace with Su Min.
And she would die.
Su Min had never told her about the immortality talent. Had never explained why she could disappear for millennia without fear. Why she never seemed in a rush, even when the world was on fire.
She couldn't say it. Not yet.
Because if she did, Xie Yingying would follow her to the ends of time.
And Su Min wasn't sure her heart could take that.
"And you?" Xie Yingying asked. Her tone was steady, but there was something behind it. Fear, perhaps. Or grief she refused to show.
"I'll go further," Su Min said. "This is only the beginning for me. I have time... more than anyone else. I can wait through the long nights. I can rebuild again and again, until I find the answer."
Su Min stepped closer and touched her cheek. Her hand was warm. "That's why I'll prepare everything for you. You can rest. Sleep. Start again if you choose. I won't force you. I just…"
She stopped.
Words hovered on her tongue. Not 'I miss you.' Not 'I need you.'
Something quieter. Deeper.
"I don't want you to disappear," she said.
Xie Yingying's lips trembled, but she nodded. "Then let me stay by your side a little longer."
Su Min gave a faint smile. "That's all I need."
They didn't speak of love. They didn't need to. It filled the space between them, weightless and impossible.
For now, they would walk together.
Until time pulled them apart again.
And when that day came?
They would find their way back. As they always did.
Moreover, Mahayana-stage cultivators couldn't be sealed—at least, not under the current circumstances. Therefore, Su Min couldn't rely too heavily on Xie Yingying's abilities. Besides, she was capable of shielding herself from heavenly scrutiny. As long as she remained sufficiently hidden, there shouldn't be any major issues.
"Great Desolate Martial Sage, Tian Hao, requests an audience."
Just then, Su Min paused slightly as a powerful aura descended from the sky. At the same time, she received a message from the current sect master.
Lin Yao had already stepped down from her position as sect leader and was now at a critical stage of breaking through to the Mahayana stage.
After all, the role of sect master was mostly ceremonial. With so many trivial matters to handle and no major crises at the moment, a Dao Comprehension-stage cultivator was more than enough to manage things.
"I'll go meet him. He might have already guessed something."
With that, Su Min's figure vanished, reappearing inside the grand hall. There, a young man sat quietly, his mere breathing causing the entire hall to tremble.
"Congratulations on reaching the pinnacle. You are now invincible in this world."
Su Min teased Tian Hao with a smile.
"And then the enemies come from the heavens, right? Besides, I'm no match for you."
Tian Hao shot back with a wry remark. Su Min had disappeared for nearly thousands of years, and no one knew where she had gone.
He had only realized she had returned when the communication artifact she had left him lit up again. That was why he had rushed here immediately.
In truth, he felt somewhat conflicted. Su Min was the kind of existence that had left everyone in this era speechless. No one dared to compete with her for the imprint, yet she hadn't even glanced at it. In the end, he had been the one to seize the opportunity.
But now that he had ascended to this position, he felt nothing but despair. If he had never seen those immortals, it might have been different. But since he had, he couldn't help but feel unwilling.
He had come to Su Min to seek the path to immortality, hoping she had a method.
"If you wish to become an immortal, you must endure life after life in this vast mortal world. Alternatively, you can seek out Yao Xian'er and try her method."
Su Min had no other solutions to offer. Since he had already reached the Transcendence stage, the method she had used before wouldn't work for him. He would either have to continuously break through, surviving lifetime after lifetime, or face complete annihilation.
As for Yao Xian'er's method, it was far too dangerous for him. And if he dared to become a fallen cultivator—well, that would be the end of him. Did he really think this was still the era of decay? Anyone who tried to sever their cultivation in such a way would be hunted down and killed.
Not everyone had the same capabilities as those from the Black Seal faction. Those individuals had clearly received support from the Nether Prison. But now, that place had been destroyed by Su Min, using the corpses of seven immortals as materials.
Unless one became an immortal—and a high-level one at that—no one could break the seal from within.
Not even Tian Hao.
"Sigh..."
After hearing Su Min's words, Tian Hao turned and left without another word.
As for Su Min, she didn't stay much longer. In the end, Xie Yingying had chosen the path of self-severing. With her foundation, if she had been in the Nether Prison, she would have had enough potential to ascend to immortality. Now, she was simply waiting for a better opportunity.
Thus, Xie Yingying became the first in the sect to sever her cultivation and be sealed away. As for the little Golden Crow, she wasn't in a hurry. Her lifespan was far too long, and Su Min had no intention of rushing her.
After sealing Xie Yingying away with her Chaos Seal, Su Min continued her journey.
This time, she was even more ruthless. A mortal physique was no longer the focus—she left herself with only a Five-Element Mixed Spiritual Root.
Frankly, the difficulty of cultivating with this kind of spiritual root was even greater than that of a mortal physique.
Although all Five-Element Holy Physiques were based on a Five-Element Mixed Spiritual Root, once a single attribute was activated, it would immediately elevate to a Heavenly Spiritual Root while suppressing the others completely.
Su Min had faced this problem before. The only saving grace was that the Body Tempering stage didn't depend on spiritual roots, and she had obtained the South Ming Divine Flame very early on.
But this time, using a Five-Element Mixed Spiritual Root was an enormous challenge for Su Min.
Her progress was excruciatingly slow. While the Body Refining stage only took three months, everything slowed to a crawl once she reached Qi Refining. Even so, she pressed forward step by step.
In the end, it took her nearly ten thousand years to return to the Mahayana stage this time. There were even moments when she exceeded her lifespan limit—this was no ordinary difficulty.
Yet, after reaching Mahayana again, Su Min didn't linger. She chose to sever her cultivation once more—this time, she even cut off her meridians.
She intended to reach the pinnacle with different physiques, accumulating enough power with each iteration. Every time she restored herself to the Mahayana stage, she was breaking through her own limits.
Over these ten thousand years, the world underwent its own rise and fall.
After a glorious reign of ten thousand years, Tian Hao eventually disappeared. No one knew where he had gone. At some point, Yao Xian'er also arrived at the Immortal Gate, entrusted Jiang Xi to them, and vanished as well.
Thus, the strongest figures of the golden age following the end of the era of decay had all disappeared. What followed was an era of flourishing diversity.
Each of these four individuals could have dominated an entire era on their own. But when they all converged in the same period, they completely overshadowed all other geniuses.
Now, with their departure, everything returned to silence.
This time, however, Su Min's path was even more arduous. She was now truly severed from her meridians. It took her a full ten thousand years to return to the Mahayana stage again.
But her journey didn't end there. Having mastered the three most difficult physiques to their limits, she turned to various other special physiques—after all, the Chaos Body encompassed all things.
She could strip away her own origin and restore herself to peak condition again and again.
This time, she chose to evolve her physique into the Spiritual Dao Body—Yao Xian'er's unique physique. This lifetime passed much faster, taking only a thousand years.
Next came the Great Desolate Holy Body, the Lunar Sovereign Body, and even the Solar Sovereign Body. As her Chaos Body reached perfection, the curse had already been broken.
She even successfully manifested the Solar Sovereign Body, mastering all five major physiques to their peak. Her speed grew increasingly rapid—especially with the Solar Sovereign Body, which took her only a few hundred years.
This was because her internal power had become overwhelmingly abundant, especially after the first three lifetimes had restored her strength to its utmost limit.
Finally, this time, Su Min did not choose to sever her cultivation. She could feel that her power had reached its absolute peak.
Now, Su Min knew—it was time to face those existences directly.
And so, on this day, a peculiar energy flowed through the depths of the cosmos. Every being in the universe widened their eyes in shock.
For they all sensed a vast, heavenly might gathering above them.
It was Su Min's power.
She had summoned the Heavenly Tribulation.