"ARGHH—!!!"
In the pitch-black night, a massive, blazing '卍' character descended from the heavens like divine judgment. It plummeted through the thin mountain air, slamming down onto the corpse fiend just as it was greedily absorbing the moon's spiritual essence. The beast was crushed against the blackened earth, its form hissing and spitting like hot metal plunged into water. Steam rose in thick, foul-smelling clouds, carrying the scent of scorched rot and ancient sulfur.
"You are from the Great Thunder Temple?"
Xie Yingying stood frozen at the sight, the cold wind whipping her dark hair across her face. That '卍' symbol was unmistakable; it was a manifestation of pure, unadulterated Buddhist power that made the shadows of the valley cower. But Su Min? She never once acted like a Buddhist cultivator. Sure, there were temples that housed her statues, but Xie Yingying had always assumed the monks were just borrowing her fame to attract followers. That sort of transactional relationship wasn't uncommon.
But never had she imagined that Su Min actually wielded the Great Thunder Temple's core technique, the legendary Great Sun Tathāgata Sutra.
"I made a deal with them. They gave it to me after I swore a heart oath not to spread it further."
"That's impossible..."
To hand over a sect's foundational cultivation technique to an outsider was unheard of. Even for the sake of spreading their faith, that crossed too many unbreakable rules. And everyone within the Great Thunder Temple should have sworn the same binding oath Su Min did, unless...
"Stay away from them," Su Min added. "They 'enlighten' others without much regard for reason."
"I got it from a high-ranking monk," she continued, noticing the questions in Xie Yingying's eyes. "He had the authority. Anyway, that guy is yours. The seal won't hold much longer."
As they spoke, the two of them closed the distance to the pinned corpse fiend. Cracks had already started to spiderweb across the glowing symbol's surface. After all, this was a creature at the late stage of Foundation Establishment, just a hair's breadth from Golden Core. A symbol thrown so casually would never suppress it for long.
And just as expected…
CRACK!
With a bone-rattling roar that tore through the night, the massive '卍' shattered into fragments of fading light. The corpse fiend rose, its rotting form emanating a sickening, palpable undeath aura that made the very air feel heavy.
"Hah! I have slept for far too long! But who would have thought that upon awakening, I would be greeted by two such rare beauties? Kneel before me now, and when I reclaim my strength and rise again, I will grant you the honor of becoming royal concubines in my harem!"
"You—!" Xie Yingying's face instantly turned to ice. Her hand already gripped her pitch-black slender sword's hilt, her body coiling to charge forward. But before she could move,
"Tch."
A soft, dismissive sound came from beside her. Su Min didn't move, her gaze fixed on the creature's jagged, yellowed teeth. What raised her brow more, however, was that this thing could still form coherent speech. It had half a brain left, and yet it was choosing to waste it on running its mouth.
So she tilted her head. "Say… do you still have that thing?"
"…"
Even Xie Yingying was rendered dumbfounded for a moment, her aggressive stance faltering. She looked at Su Min, her eyes wide with a confusion that matched the sudden silence of the valley.
"Hahaha! Once this king devours ten thousand humans, my flesh shall be fully restored! My virility shall return in full! How about it, beauties? Tempted?!"
The Corpse Demon, understanding Su Min's implication, laughed arrogantly. It even thrust its hips forward in a grotesque gesture to showcase its rotting lower half, where the skin hung in grey, tattered strips.
"..."
For a single, suspended moment, Xie Yingying's brain seemed to short circuit. She glanced sideways at Su Min, her expression one of complete and utter bafflement. Was this… was this her type?
Before she could form a single word, Su Min's expression turned serious.
"Nah. Too small. Not worth it."
"..."
"..."
Silence.
The entire world seemed to pause, the very wind holding its breath. Both Xie Yingying and the Corpse Demon were rendered utterly speechless by the statement.
Then—
"YOU WRETCHED WOMAN! THIS KING WILL SHOW YOU HIS MIGHT!!!"
After a brief, stunned stupor, the Corpse Demon erupted in a world-shaking rage. It launched itself at Su Min like a corrupted cannonball, its claws extended and dripping with black, viscous fluid. Its charge's speed and raw ferocity startled Xie Yingying. She was just about to intercept when she caught the faint smirk tugging at the corner of Su Min's lips.
With a casual flick of her wrist, a small, unassuming gourd appeared in her palm. The moment the corpse fiend lunged into close range, he saw it. A tiny gourd, its mouth aimed directly at him. It was barely the size of a finger, but in his heightened perception, it gaped like a cosmic black hole, a devourer of souls and flesh.
His every survival instinct screamed at him to run, to flee. But his broken, momentum-driven body couldn't obey. And then—
BOOM!!!
A bolt of pitch-black lightning, pure concentrated annihilation, streaked across the sky. It didn't so much strike the Corpse Demon as it simply appeared on the creature's chest, blasting the monster mid-air and slamming it back into the ground with earth-shattering force.
Demon Slaying Thunder.
One of Su Min's most potent trump cards. She had held this back during her last battle with the Demon Crown Prince. This time, she wasn't making the same mistake. The creature's howl of pure, unadulterated agony echoed through the valley, a sound that would haunt the night.
It was true that hitting a Golden Core level creature with Demon Slaying Thunder wasn't easy. Their speed and perception alone made it difficult to land a clean shot. That's precisely why Su Min had provoked him so deliberately. If he had been an emperor once, taunting his manhood and pride was bound to work.
"You—!"
Xie Yingying gaped, her mind struggling to process the efficiency of what just happened. She looked at the smoldering crater where the beast lay, then back at Su Min.
That single blast of Demon Slaying Thunder had likely crippled the monster's combat ability outright.
"Quit staring and help me finish it off! Buy me some time, we are killing this thing together!"
Su Min's sharp command snapped her out of her daze.
"R-right!"
Xie Yingying sprinted forward, her black sword already leaving trails of frost in the air. The temperature around her plummeted, turning the humid night air into a flurry of ice crystals.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Their blades clashed furiously against the Corpse Demon's hardened claws, neither side gaining a clear advantage. But Su Min's sharp eyes noticed the subtle frost creeping over the zombie's limbs and torso. He was undead, cold by his very nature, and yet Xie Yingying's profound Lunar Sovereign aura was freezing him over from the inside out. This was not just a technique gap; it was pure, overwhelming physique suppression.
As for the Corpse Demon, it was in a sorry state. Its head had been partially blown apart by Su Min's thunder, leaving only a jagged mess of bone and grey matter. Still, the damage was severe; otherwise, Xie Yingying wouldn't be holding it off so easily without even tapping into her full power.
One small silver lining: its mouth was gone. No more vulgar taunts or piercing screams, just muffled, impotent rage gurgling from its ruined throat.
Meanwhile, high above the fray—
Su Min took a deep, centering breath. The Nanming Lihuo erupted across her body in a corona of crimson and gold, channeling in a roaring river into her raised sword. A gigantic, spectral firebird began taking shape in the air before her, its form coalescing from pure, destructive spiritual energy that smelled of ozone and hot ash.
"Mystic Firewood Sword—Flame Manifestation"
In an instant, scorching waves of heat gathered, distorting the air around her. The sheer energy fluctuations made the wounded Corpse Demon below tremble violently, its instincts screaming of imminent annihilation.
===
Su Min, your joke made your wife's heart stopped for a moment.
Heart Oath (心神誓约): A binding vow tied to one's soul, with severe consequences if broken.