"The world is in chaos. Blood flows like rivers. We, Emperor Taizong's youngest descendant, must—"
"It seems... Prince Yong has finally made his move. Is it because she has returned?"
In the depths of a grand hall within his sect, Mo Shaosheng frowned as he read the parchment proclamation. The paper was heavy and smelled of fresh ink. Prince Yong had issued a call to arms, and as one of his closest and most powerful allies in the martial world, Mo had naturally received the message early.
The Yong household had long endured in silence, biding their time while the seasons turned. Decades had passed, and the princely title had already passed to the third generation. Yet they never acted until this moment. For them to suddenly rally the entire realm could mean only one thing: they had finally found someone strong enough to challenge the Demon Queen in her lair.
In this world, there was only one person capable of such a feat: Danxian.
Even the revered Radiant Monk, Hui Ming, paled in comparison. If Danxian had truly returned from her long seclusion, then Mo Shaosheng had no choice but to act. The debt he owed, and the opportunity she represented, were too great to ignore.
The crusade against the corrupt Emperor Wei had long since become a shared conviction among the righteous martial sects. Over the decades, countless brave warriors and ambitious cultivators had attempted it, only to perish miserably. Their bodies and souls were consumed by the emperor's dark techniques. Their deaths only strengthened the Demon Queen's vile power, fueling the shadows that haunted the capital.
Few dared even speak of rebellion anymore.
The Demon Queen, just as the late hero Zhao Yiping had once foretold, couldn't easily leave the imperial capital for long. But in recent years, her sphere of influence had grown. She could now project her strength and awareness far beyond the city walls, shrouding nearly half the surrounding region in her oppressive and demonic presence. The air in those lands felt stagnant and tasted of copper.
"To honor the heroes of the martial world who rise to challenge injustice and restore order," Prince Yong had written, "I shall personally bestow one Foundation Establishment Pill and one Foundation Spirit Pill to those who perform with exceptional merit."
"Foundation Establishment Pill? Foundation Spirit Pill?!"
Mo Shaosheng shot up from his seat, his eyes blazing with shock and sudden greed. Even he, a seasoned Foundation Establishment expert, was deeply tempted. With the Foundation Spirit Pill, he could break through his current bottleneck to the late Foundation Establishment Realm. It would secure his place as the martial alliance's undisputed leader for decades to come.
He had no immediate need for the Foundation Establishment Pill himself, but several of his most promising disciples were in dire need of one to step into the realm. For years, they had tried every trick and called in every favor to obtain such a pill from the Yong household, but to no avail.
Prince Yong's faction was formidable. They couldn't be coerced easily, let alone robbed.
"Summon the elders," Mo Shaosheng commanded, his voice firm. "We ride for Prince Yong's manor at once. Even if I don't earn both pills, I must secure at least one."
"Yes, Elder!"
No one in the great hall objected. Mo Shaosheng wasn't the only one stirred to action. Across the empire, news of the Foundation Spirit Pill sparked a frenzy. Every seasoned cultivator knew the Yong household couldn't possibly have such a pill in their own stores. If they did, their pillar, Cao Yuanmu, would have advanced to the late Foundation Realm long ago.
The implication was clear. Danxian, vanished for over a decade, had returned. This time, she stood openly against the Demon Queen. If it were anyone else making such a claim, the sects might hesitate. But this was her. Even if they failed to earn the reward, many resolved to simply plead with Su Min and beg her on their knees for a single furnace of pills.
They didn't care about supplying the materials. All they needed was a chance. The martial world surged into motion. Every major sect mobilized its experts. Even reclusive rogue cultivators emerged from hidden caves and ancient tombs. Many didn't care who ultimately claimed the throne; they only knew this call, from this person, couldn't be ignored.
-
In the Forbidden City, the emperor heard the news.
"Impossible… Her? It can't be…"
Emperor Wei's voice cracked. His hands trembled as he read the intelligence report again, as if the characters might have changed. They hadn't. His face drained of color, and cold sweat beaded at his temples despite the cool spring breeze drifting through the open window.
The contents were clear. Danxian had stepped forward, not as a neutral party or a mere healer, but as the spearhead of rebellion. She was backed openly by the Prince Yong faction. Her edict, circulated by fast couriers and cultivation messengers, had already stirred sects and generals alike. The long-dormant martial world had begun to move, answering her call.
The weight of her words and their calm authority made even his imperial decrees feel weak. What chilled him most wasn't the content of the proclamation. It was the implication.
After decades of silence and neutrality, she had finally chosen a side.
For years, Danxian had remained an elusive constant in his calculations. She was like a great river flowing beside his own path: visible and powerful, yet never crossing his course. She had treated the empire's battles and his own ambitions with the same detached mercy she showed to common folk. She healed the wounded and left when summoned, never pledging allegiance.
Until now.
Without warning, she had crossed the river and declared herself his enemy.
A gust of frigid and demonic wind swept into the hall, howling like a funeral bell. Curtains snapped and lanterns guttered as the Demon Queen materialized beside the throne in a flutter of black mist and decayed rose petals. She looked down at the proclamation clenched in Emperor Wei's hand. For a long moment, she said nothing. Then, her ancient eyes narrowed to slits.
"She reached the Golden Core Realm?!"
There was a sharp edge to her voice. Even for someone as ancient and dreadful as her, a cultivator who had clawed her way up from the abyss, the words weren't easy to believe.
"She was supposed to be in self-sealed slumber," the Queen murmured, her voice a low rasp. "Just like that Holy Maiden from the Heavenly Yin Sect…"
Her brow furrowed in thought.
"…but to choose to step directly into the Golden Core Realm, to face the tribulation and succeed—"
It was unthinkable. Self-sealing at that level came at a terrifying cost to a person's foundation and future potential. Hadn't the Queen cultivated a soul-corrupting demonic method, she would never have survived her own attempts. Yet, if Su Min could reach that level without sealing herself, there could only be one reason.
"Vengeance," the Demon Queen whispered, the word hanging in the cold air. "She came back for vengeance."
But even as she said it, something crucial didn't add up.
Danxian had always walked alone. She had no sect to avenge, no known family, and no disciples. The Demon Queen herself had crossed paths with her several times before, but their battles had never escalated beyond probing skirmishes. There wasn't a blood feud between them deep enough to warrant this.
So who?
The Queen's pupils contracted as a memory surfaced from the depths of her mind.
"No, it couldn't be… That girl? From that year—"
Her voice dropped to a horrified whisper.
"Wait… Could it be her?"
The words made Emperor Wei snap his head up, his confusion momentarily overriding his fear.
"What is it?" he asked, his voice low.
The Queen turned, her face drawn taut, her thoughts racing through decades of history.
"Do you remember… years ago, when your cultivation hadn't yet recovered, and you ordered two hundred thousand troops to surround and kill a single girl from a fallen noble house?"
He blinked, the memory vague and dusty.
"That—!"
But then he stopped. The breath caught in his throat. A silence fell over the hall as the pieces clicked into place.
His mind reeled backward to that long-buried memory. A name he had forgotten. A face he had dismissed as insignificant. It was a minor affair he had believed was just another troublesome remnant of a purged clan. He had given the command personally, expecting her to die quietly with the rest of her family's legacy.
She hadn't.
The Demon Queen took a step forward, her voice trembling with a mixture of restrained fury and grudging awe.
"She escaped. She disappeared into the southern wilds for decades. She never retaliated. She never spoke your name in hatred. She never even showed a flicker of ambition. But now…"
She stared at the edict again, as if seeing the author's true intent for the first time. Her hands clenched, the parchment crumpling.
"Heavens… If she is that girl…"
A breath followed, bitter with the taste of a monumental miscalculation.
"…then I was blind. Utterly blind. I thought her merely gifted, a talented alchemist, when in truth, she is a once-in-ten-thousand-epochs genius biding her time."
The words echoed in the great hall like a clap of thunder, sealing their fate.
The emperor sat frozen on his dragon throne. He was pale and utterly hollow. The report was still in his hands, unread for the third time. He didn't speak. The weight of the realization had struck too deep. He had seen her once, at the very edge of his power, and let her go. He hadn't thought she would ever matter.
He had believed she would live a small and quiet life. Perhaps she would marry a farmer, disappear into obscurity, and grow old until she faded into dust.
Instead, she had buried her name. She had buried her rage. She had buried him in her memory until the moment she was strong enough to return and drag his entire empire down into the grave with her.
"What do we do…?" he finally whispered. He inhaled sharply, his voice trembling with a fear he hadn't felt in fifty years.
"She is confident. That means she is truly broken through to Golden Core. She knows the heavenly suppression limits you to the early stage."
The Queen clenched her jaw, the bones creaking audibly.
In her original plans, it would have taken her another century to fully recover. In reality, her pace had barely improved. But those foolish heroes who attacked the capital in recent years, even as they were devoured, had gifted her slivers of strength. She was a single breath away from mid-Golden Core. She was one step from unleashing her true terror upon the world.
"How many children of yours, bearing the imperial Ziwei aura, do you have left?" the Queen asked.
"You want to use… the old method?" Emperor Wei blinked in disbelief.
"No. The great soul-refining array can now be shattered by even a peak Foundation Realm cultivator with the right tools. Against a true Golden Core master, it's mere paper."
She shook her head. Their old method had been brutal. She would briefly leave the palace to cripple the Foundation and peak Qi Refining cultivators among the attacking armies. Then the Slayers of the Four Directions, her four Foundation Realm elites, would activate the array and refine the entire army into pure spirit essence for her to consume.
Not now. Not against her.
With Su Min present, that method would be useless. She could slay a general from amidst ten thousand soldiers. They needed the Queen at her full and unshakable strength to have any hope.
The only way to recover that final step now was through a direct and vile ritual involving men and women bearing strong traces of Ziwei aura—the imperial destiny itself.
"I have… over a hundred left," the emperor said.
"Send them. All of them. To my chambers. We are out of time."
"…Very well!"
The emperor didn't hesitate. Children could be sired again; there were always more concubines. But if they died today, they would die for a cause: to preserve his throne and his life.
Soon, the opulent halls of the inner palace echoed with screams of utter despair.
"My child! Give him back to me!"
"No! Please, not my baby! He is your son!"
"Aahhhh! You monsters!"
"M-Mama! I'm scared!"
The royal palace was filled that night with the heart-wrenching wails of grieving mothers. Infants and young children were snatched from their cradles and beds by impassive guards and grim-faced eunuchs. Those concubines who resisted too fiercely were cut down without a second thought. Their blood stained the jade-inlaid floors.
"Hmph. Short-sighted fools. If I fall, what glory, what life, will be left for any of you?"
Emperor Wei heard it all from his private cultivation chamber. He only sneered. These women were nothing. They were nobodies from weak families, chosen only for docility. If not for his need of offspring to secure the lineage, he would have sacrificed them long ago.
-
In a quiet and spacious chamber within Prince Yong's capital residence, Su Min sat in deep meditation. A soft and golden light shimmered around her. Across from her, the Radiant Monk Hui Ming watched in silence.
"Such pure and dense energy… This is the true power of the Golden Core Stage? And your comprehension of our Buddhist teachings is… profoundly deep."
Su Min smirked inwardly. Though she had never formally studied Buddhist scriptures in her past life, the cultural essence of Buddhism and Daoism had seeped into her soul. Understanding their core principles now came naturally, reflected in her sutra-based techniques.
"Not enough. I haven't yet mastered the third supreme technique of the Great Sun Tathāgata Sutra."
She sighed softly. Progress at this stage was slow, and the constant heavenly suppression made it worse. Vast quantities of the accumulated incense faith energy she had gathered over decades had been burned in her attempt.
"You are being too harsh on yourself," Hui Ming said, rolling his eyes. "Did you think the Great Thunder Temple's supreme techniques were child's play? They're meant to be contemplated over a lifetime."
"We have taken over the management of the temples dedicated to me. Leaving them completely unattended would be a waste of the incense energy."
"Hmm."
Su Min rubbed her nose, a little chastised but not truly concerned. She had no time to personally manage temples. If the monks wanted to help while skimming some of the faith energy benefits for their own sect, it was fine by her. It was a fair price for their administrative labor.
"With the proclamation issued, the world rallies. The suffering of the people under that tyrant will finally end."
Hui Ming smiled a gentle smile. He had reached the peak of Foundation Establishment, but the chasm-like leap to Golden Core was far beyond his current capabilities. Not everyone could effortlessly survive the Three-Nine Heavenly Tribulation like Su Min. His Human Path Foundation Establishment was simply too weak compared to her supreme Heavenly Dao Foundation. He would need at least a century of preparation to even have a chance.
"Indeed. And you know as well as I do: most of them are here for me. The influence of a fourth-grade alchemist is truly terrifying."
Su Min chuckled dryly. In the past thirty to forty years, Prince Yong Mansion had only managed to train ten alchemists. One was mid-second grade, two were low-second grade, and the rest were first grade. Even their best alchemist struggled to refine a single Qi Inducing Pill without exhausting himself for weeks. Now that she was here, every sect leader and elder would be begging her for pills.
A single and custom-tailored pill from her could save them decades of bitter effort. It was an irresistible offer for cultivators desperate for a longer lifespan and greater power.
"I must warn you," Hui Ming said, his tone turning serious, "once the empire is unified, you, as an existence beyond the throne, may face suspicion from the new court."
"Hah."
Su Min wasn't worried in the slightest.
No sane ruler would willingly alienate a fourth-grade alchemist and a Golden Core Paragon. Besides, she fully planned to leave Weiwu Prefecture after this affair was concluded. The Demon Queen had something she needed: a key piece of intelligence about a stable spatial tear that led toward the legendary Three Blessed Lands. At the Golden Core Stage, meaningful cultivation required vast and sustained resources that only a properly established sect could provide.
With the wider cultivation world still in its first phase of awakening, most of the truly powerful ancient factions remained hidden. This was the perfect time to claim a prime territory and build her influence. By the time the true powers emerged, she would be entrenched and untouchable. Let them suspect her all they wanted; they would never find her to act on it.
"I see you have already made thorough plans. Then I will say no more. As for the coming war, I will remain in the rear, leading the monks in guiding lost souls and performing rites for the dead. It's where we are most needed."
"Good."
As an outsider sect with deep roots but no imperial ambitions, the Great Thunder Temple had to walk a fine line. Without Su Min's incense energy connection providing them a measure of political cover, their position would be even more precarious. Hui Ming was strong, but not strong enough to dominate an era. His flawed foundation would always hold him back.
"A message for you, Lady Su. Prince Yong's men are calling. The assembled sect leaders are demanding an audience. It seems it's time to make some promises." A guard announced from outside the door.
With a faint crackle of lightning, Su Min vanished from the meditation chamber.
Prince Yong Mansion's grand reception hall was packed to the brim. The leaders of the Seven Great Sects, along with countless elders and renowned experts, filled the room. Even powerful figures like Mo Shaosheng and Cao Yuanmu sat respectfully on the raised dais on either side, leaving the central, ornately carved seat empty. Prince Yong himself wasn't present. His cultivation was too weak to command respect in this gathering of the land's most powerful martial artists.
Then, a flash of light, silent and swift.
Su Min appeared on the central throne before anyone's senses could even register the movement. The Mastery of the Five Thunders contained thousands of variations, and she had only begun exploring its depths. This short-range lightning-speed movement was far beyond the perception of any Foundation Establishment cultivator.
For a moment, the hall was dead silent. Every warrior and elder present felt a visceral chill, realizing that if Su Min wanted them dead, they would not even see the attack coming. But then, just as quickly, the fear faded, replaced by a strange sense of resignation. If a Golden Core cultivator wanted them dead, they would be dead regardless of what they saw or felt.
One by one, they rose from their seats and bowed deeply, a wave of deference sweeping through the hall.
Even Mo Shaosheng and Cao Yuanmu showed her their full and unreserved respect. The time for posturing was over. The hammer was here.