Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The sound wasn't just loud. It was a physical assault, a series of deep, percussive shocks that hit the chest and made the teeth rattle. Inside the confined cavern, which had now been transformed into a crucible of elemental fury, two overwhelming auras clashed with earth-shaking violence.
Shockwaves were visible as distortions in the air that rippled outwards from the epicenter of their conflict, reverberating through the very fabric of the space. The chaotic, untamed energy surged wildly, making the light bend and warp. It even caused the nearby teleportation arrays to flicker and sputter erratically, their light dying and flaring in a frantic, unstable rhythm.
Any reckless Qi Refining cultivators who dared to peek into the chamber or attempt to enter were instantly blasted back by the mere peripheral energy. The force hit them like a physical wall, sending them coughing blood as they slammed into the far walls with sickening thuds. Those at the more stable mid-to-late Qi Refining stages barely managed to plant their feet and stay standing, their bodies trembling from the strain. Early-stage cultivators were sent flying through the air like ragdolls, quickly dragged to safety by their smarter, more cautious companions who knew better than to approach that storm.
Despite Cao Dinghua's wildly unstable spiritual energy and his forbidden art-boosted strength, he was still, nominally, a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator for the moment. That fact alone gave his attacks a terrifying, if clumsy, weight.
Su Min armed with her impeccable Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, her top-tier defensive armor, and the supreme power of Nanming Lihuo, fought him to a furious, destructive standstill. Their battle swept through the cavern like a typhoon through a field of dry leaves, leaving any mere Qi Refining cultivator with no right to spectate, only to flee for their very lives.
"Mystic Firewood Sword Art—Blazing Sword Array."
With a fluid flick of her wrist, Su Min's primary sword erupted in a corona of azure flame. At the same moment, six more fiery, spiritually projected wooden swords materialized in the air around her with a sharp hiss. All seven blades blazed with the concentrated fury of Nanming Lihuo, then shot toward Cao Dinghua from all directions, sealing his escape. The principle was simple and devastating: wood fed fire, making the conjured attack even deadlier than pure flame.
"If only these projected swords were forged from true Eastern Azure Wood," she mused internally. It was a fleeting thought in the heat of combat. "It would have been truly terrifying."
"SHATTER!!!"
Seeing the ring of flaming swords closing in, Cao Dinghua didn't dare to block them head-on. After just a few exchanges with Su Min, he knew exactly how terrifying her controlled flames were. Instead, he spread his arms wide, summoning a gigantic, ghostly green spiritual scythe formed from his corrupted energy. With a fierce, sweeping slash, he shattered all the incoming sword projections. The resulting spiritual shockwave pulverized the stone floor where he stood, sending sharp debris flying in all directions like shrapnel.
"Mystic Firewood Sword Art—Solar Annihilation."
Su Min's assault was far from over. A massive, intricate circular fire array, like a stylized sun, blazed into existence in the air before her as she channeled a vast amount of spiritual energy into it. The air hummed with power, the vibration rattling the crystalline structures in the garden. A moment later, a thick, devastating beam of pure solar annihilation energy blasted forth from its center, so bright it seared the eyes of any who dared look.
"ARGHH—!!!"
Cao Dinghua still off-balance from destroying the sword barrage, took the full, concussive brunt of the attack square in the chest. The force sent him crashing into the ground with bone-shattering impact, carving a deep furrow in the stone. The only reason he had lasted this long was that Su Min wasn't going all out. She had been holding back, carefully managing her energy expenditure and treating the fight as a controlled experiment.
Why?
Because Cao Dinghua, for all his inflated power, fundamentally couldn't hurt her through her armor and flames. There was no need to waste her true trump cards on someone who posed no real, strategic threat. Once his forbidden art's duration ran out, she could finish him at her leisure.
Sure enough, as he struggled to rise from the crater, his artificially boosted aura began to rapidly dim and crumble like rotten wood. His temporary power was expiring, and his true, weaker foundation was reasserting itself. His face twisted in abject horror, the arrogance finally wiped away by raw fear. If he couldn't defeat Su Min even with the peak Foundation Establishment boost, what hopeless chance did he have now?
"If you kill me," he roared, "my parents will never, ever let you go!" "They will hunt you to the ends of the earth!"
"A child birthed through vile secret arts, one fundamentally unworthy of ever stepping into the Golden Core Realm," Su Min's voice was flat. Her gaze was as cold and impersonal as a winter sky. "And you dare to threaten me? Be gone."
The Golden Core stage marked the ultimate divide between mortals and true immortals. A single, stable Golden Core cultivator could support a minor kingdom for centuries—a walking strategic asset that could dictate the fate of nations. Out of a hundred Body Refining cultivators, maybe half would ever reach Qi Refining. Out of those Qi Refining cultivators, perhaps a dozen might, with great fortune, enter Foundation Establishment.
But for every hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators, perhaps only one could survive the Heavenly Tribulation and successfully form a Golden Core. That tribulation was the true gatekeeper, the final judge of a person's foundation and comprehension. Without a perfectly firm foundation, there was no hope. Cao Dinghua was just a disposable pawn, a flawed creation, not even worth a ripple of concern in her long-term plans. She hadn't ever intended to let him live after his threats, and now, her patience was gone.
A torrent of Nanming Lihuo burst forth from her with renewed, focused fury. The temperature in the cavern skyrocketed in an instant, turning the very air into a blistering furnace that burned the lungs with each breath. Even those hiding in adjacent chambers could feel the scorching waves washing over them, wiping the color from their faces as they huddled back.
Crack—
Suddenly, a sharp, crystalline fracture echoed through the superheated air. It was a sound that shouldn't have been possible. It was the sound of reality breaking. The spatial fabric of the room Su Min stood in couldn't withstand the concentrated power and shattered like glass. Caught off guard, the severely weakened Cao Dinghua plummeted through the broken floor into the boundless darkness below. Su Min flinched in surprise.
The raw power of a Foundation Establishment cultivator alone shouldn't have been enough to damage stable spatial formations like these. But Nanming Lihuo was different. As a legendary flame uniquely attuned to forging and unmaking, it possessed a destructive resonance with many types of spiritual and magical constructs. She had inadvertently struck a critical weak point and shattered the entire pocket dimension.
"Tch... don't tell me I have triggered some hidden difficulty ahead of schedule."
Staring into the swirling, boundless darkness that now lay below, Su Min furrowed her brows in frustration. They were still within the broader estate—or rather, this rupture had likely revealed the true, hidden core of the estate. Perhaps the only way to access the inner realm was to destroy one of the outer chambers. She hadn't known that. Had she realized it earlier, she might have reconsidered her approach. The system interface had clearly listed this place as a five-star hidden difficulty zone for a reason.
"No use crying about it now," she steeled herself. "I need to find him. His enhancement is over, and Foundation Establishment cultivators can glide for short bursts. He shouldn't be dead from the fall alone. Su Min quickly refocused. What was done was done. For now, she had to press on and clean up the mess. She hadn't landed a truly fatal strike yet; Cao Dinghua was likely still breathing, clinging to life. The fall wasn't shallow, but it wasn't necessarily enough to kill a cultivator of his level outright.
With that thought, her flaming Vermilion Bird wings retracted, and her body dove downward into the abyss like a falling comet, cutting through the darkness. Within moments, she descended through the spatial tear and landed in a strange and wondrous new landscape that took her breath away. It was an inner sanctum, brimming with heavenly treasures and rare resources the likes of which she had only read about.
The sight made her pause, her eyes widening. There were countless high-grade spirit herbs and legendary forging materials, some of which were so advanced she couldn't even use them yet. In one corner, a small, glittering mountain of spirit stones gleamed under an artificial sky, with even the outermost ones easily classified as mid-grade. Compared to the hoard in this chamber, everything they had found in the outer layers was mere trash.
"This… this must be the true treasury, the personal stockpile of the estate's original owner…" she whispered. Her heart was pounding in her chest. "Calm down, Su Min. Don't let greed cloud your mind. I still need to find that bastard. I don't want to start a fight with the real owner of this place by plundering their cache. She muttered the words quietly to herself, forcibly dragging her gaze away from the intoxicating treasures.
Though immensely tempting, it was obvious these were cultivation resources left behind for a specific purpose, likely for the Tianjiao's own use upon awakening. She was still a trespasser. Unbridled greed here would only hasten her death.
"There. His aura is nearby, and it's fading." Locking onto his weakening spiritual signature—a faint trail of corruption in the pure energy of the sanctum—Su Min quickly gave chase, bypassing the treasures.
Within moments, she arrived at the center of the sanctum, where a raised dais resembled an ancient altar made of polished, dark stone. Cao Dinghua was already there, collapsed before it. He looked utterly wretched, his skin and robes charred black from her flames, his breathing shallow and wet as he barely clung to life. His spiritual energy was in complete tatters.
Yet, with a final, desperate effort, he had crawled to the base of a large, perfectly clear crystal that stood at the altar's center. His hand trembled violently as he slowly, painstakingly raised it toward the crystal's smooth surface.
"You… bastard…"
Seeing her arrive, his expression twisted into a mask of pure, undiluted hatred. He hadn't just lost the battle; he had been utterly exposed. He was exposed for what he truly was: a disposable tool, doomed to be cast aside, someone who would never, ever reach the Golden Core Realm. Humiliated, cornered, and with nothing left to lose, he pressed his palm flat against the crystal.
"Stop!!"
Su Min's heart jolted with a terrible premonition. She lunged forward, her hand outstretched to pull him away, but she was a single, critical moment too late.
With a loud, resonant slap, Cao Dinghua's palm struck the crystal's surface. For a heartbeat, nothing happened. The world seemed to hold its breath. Then, a network of fine, spiderweb fractures spread across the once flawless crystal with an unnerving crackle.
===
Are you ready to meet our beloved "Female Lead"? The slumbering master of the Xuantian Mansion is about to awaken.