Inside the quiet, secluded room, Su Min sat cross-legged in deep meditation. The spiritual energy around her was calm and settled, a tranquil pool reflecting the strength of her resolve. She had finally mastered a finer control over her Heavenly Dao Insight, which meant she was no longer at risk of being disrupted mid-battle by its unpredictable, untimely activation. Now, she could consciously delay its profound effects. She chose to process the accumulated insights and revelations after the immediate danger had passed. It's a kind of deferred spiritual reckoning.
At this moment, her focus was turned entirely inward, sensing the deep, fundamental transformations stirring within her body and soul. A vast confluence of forces, unlocked by her recent victory, surged through her meridians. It didn't move as a chaotic flood, but as a purposeful, converging river.
"There's no mistaking this feeling. My Path has truly begun to converge."
It felt as if a single, crucial thread had been pulled, rearranging an entire web of spiritual understanding. Defeating that Corpse Wraith hadn't merely resonated with her nascent Path of Slaughter. It had also, unexpectedly, awakened and clarified her parallel Path of Salvation. The act of destruction had, paradoxically, cemented her role as a savior.
"A game is still a game, in the end. But now, within me, everything is merging."
As this thought solidified in her mind, a profound vision unfolded behind her closed eyelids. The Vermilion Bird of the south, wreathed in eternal flames, and the spectral White Tiger of the west, shimmering with killing intent, now pulsed in perfect, resonant harmony.
This White Tiger wasn't yet one of the supreme Four Symbols; its conceptual level wasn't that high. But it's still potent enough to harmonize with the incomplete Vermilion Bird legacy sleeping within her, creating a new, stable equilibrium.
[Integration of White Tiger Possession and Vermilion Bird Possession complete. New divine ability acquired.]
[Four Symbols Possession: Can simultaneously activate the possession of any of the Four Symbols and their subordinate spirits currently mastered. (Current: Vermilion Bird Possession, Tiger Soul Possession.)]
"Excellent."
A pure, potent surge of exhilaration rushed through her. This solved a critical, major problem she had been quietly grappling with during her recent trials.
Back when she had fought the Demon Crown Prince, his secret royal technique had temporarily boosted all his physical attributes. Meanwhile, her Vermilion Bird Possession, while powerful, didn't directly enhance her stats. It only amplified the combat power of the Nanming Lihuo and drastically reduced its spiritual energy consumption.
Since nearly all her ultimate skills were built upon the foundation of the heavenly flame, this indirectly greatly enhanced her combat effectiveness. However, the lack of direct physical and spiritual stat boosts had remained a notable weakness. When she had clashed with the Demon Crown Prince, she had held her own, but that's primarily because his own foundation was unstable and her Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment gave her an overwhelming qualitative advantage.
But when she had briefly crossed swords with Xie Yingying, whose foundation was on par with her own and whose rare Lunar Sovereign physique was even stronger, she had suffered a swift and crushing defeat. Now, with the two abilities merged, her overall combat power had risen to a significantly higher tier.
"Four Symbols Possession."
Su Min narrowed her eyes, focusing her intent. In an instant, her appearance underwent a dramatic transformation. Flames, more vivid and controlled than before, danced in a corona around her silhouette. The heat in the room spiked, making the air shimmer with an iridescent haze. Her long hair lost its natural pigment, turning the color of driven snow, and her pupils blazed with the intense, deep crimson light of the fully unleashed Nanming Lihuo. She felt a primal, metallic weight in her muscles, the tiger's presence sharpening her reflexes until the world seemed to slow.
"What is this, some kind of white hair, red eyes power-up trope? Whatever. It works."
After lightly roasting the cosmetic cliché, Su Min dispelled the transformation with a thought. She had only wanted to test the ability's feel; there's no need for prolonged theatrics. Despite her superficial complaints, what truly mattered to her was the practical energy cost and the tangible boost. Unlike the cookie-cutter, ethereal beauties that seemed to fill the cultivation world, she is always more concerned with brutal function over elegant form.
"A near-perfect divine ability. The energy cost isn't significantly higher for me, and the combined effects are far superior to the original single buffs. The overall endurance is better than the pure Vermilion Bird Possession but wasn't as efficient as the original White Tiger speed boost was by itself. Still, even if I were to use them separately now, each individual effect is stronger than before."
Overall, she is extremely satisfied. This's a massive, qualitative upgrade for her current strength, arriving at the perfect time.
"Phew, not a bad harvest at all," she murmured to the empty room. "Now, it's time to make good on my promise and refine pills for Yingying. Advancing from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core isn't that difficult in theory."
She muttered the last part thoughtfully. In her experience, each previous realm—Body Refining, Qi Refining, and Foundation Establishment—had posed a towering, daunting wall. But the conceptual leap from Foundation to Golden Core, while monumental, wasn't as treacherously complex.
A cultivator's so-called Great Perfection in a realm was simply about reaching the absolute peak of their current stage. And while attribute gaps existed between early, mid, and late stages, they weren't as vast and insurmountable as the chasms that existed in the later, more mythic realms. The real, deadly trial lay in the heavenly tribulation itself. To Su Min, with her supreme foundation, the basic Three-Nine Heavenly Tribulation was hardly a threat. But to over ninety-nine percent of all other cultivators, it's a genuine brush with annihilation, a gamble with their very soul.
Nearly all Foundation Establishment cultivators had relied on the most common Human Path Foundations; anything rarer was an extreme luxury.
She had been capable of refining Foundation Establishment Pills even when she was at the peak of Qi Refining. Now, solidly in the mid-Foundation Establishment stage with the immense backing of a Heaven-level foundation and the Nanming Lihuo's unparalleled aid, concocting a Grade-Three high-grade pill wasn't well within her means.
Still, it's her first attempt at this specific, complex formula, so a measure of caution was warranted.
Meanwhile, Outside the Seclusion Room…
"She has started refining. Don't mess this up. This pill is crucial for me; it's the key to surviving the final stages of the Nine-Nine Heavenly Tribulation."
Perched silently on the rooftop directly above Su Min's room, Xie Yingying sat in a lotus position, her slender black sword resting across her lap. The estate guards had long since learned not to approach this area under her watchful, icy gaze. Su Min had been in seclusion for over a day, primarily to digest the gains from her recent battle. Now, the distinct, complex scent of simmering medicinal herbs finally wafted through the air. Xie Yingying's heart, usually as calm as a frozen lake, thrummed with a rare anxiety.
"Even in my era, Weiwu Prefecture was a spiritual backwater. Its native cultivators hadn't any deep foundation. For centuries, they could only rely on sporadic heavenly revelations and stumbled upon breakthroughs by chance."
If even Su Min, the most monstrously talented alchemist to appear here in living memory, failed, then there was truly no hope left for her to obtain this pill. And Su Min's talent was truly in a realm of its own. Even within the vast archives of Xie Yingying's ancient sect, no record existed of a high-level alchemist who could refine five high-quality Foundation Establishment Pills in a single batch. Then again, none of them had ever been blessed with the Nanming Lihuo, a divine flame that seemed tailor-made for the art of alchemy.
Three Days Later…
Creak.
The tightly shut wooden door finally swung inward. Su Min stepped out, blinking slightly in the daylight before her gaze drifted upward to the rooftop.
"Your pills are done. Since your ingredients were all of the profound yin attribute, the reaction was more volatile. This batch only yielded two. But the quality is peak, and it should be more than enough for your needs. Consider my debt to you settled. No more lifespan will be wasted."
She casually tossed a small, intricately carved wooden box toward the waiting woman.
"Oh, and this box is something I crafted in my spare time. It infuses the pills with a sliver of temporal qi, extending their peak preservation period by about fifty years."
Xie Yingying caught the box neatly, her usually steady fingers trembling almost imperceptibly as she lifted the lid to inspect the contents. Two pills, shimmering with a soft, moon-like silver light and emanating a chilling spiritual fragrance, lay within. After a moment of intense scrutiny, she had exhaled a breath she didn't realize she had been holding and stored the box securely within her robes.
"Thank you," she said, the words simple but carrying genuine weight.
Then, a flicker of curiosity sparked in her cool, dark eyes.
"What is your next move?"
Su Min's lips curled into a sharp, ambitious smirk.
"Issuing a bounty across the land. I have a list of rare materials I need to prepare for my own Golden Core breakthrough."
Xie Yingying: "…"
She could only stare, momentarily speechless at the sheer audacity and scale of the declaration.
===
Yingying will get used after getting 'choked' by Su Min so many times
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Four Symbols (四象) – Mythical creatures representing the four cardinal directions: Vermilion Bird (South), Azure Dragon (East), White Tiger (West), Black Tortoise (North).