"Greetings, Fairy Su."
After their initial shock faded, everyone stared at Su Min with eyes blazing with fervent hope and naked ambition. Sweeping her pitch black gaze across the room, she understood exactly what they wanted. She had no interest in wasting time on pleasantries or political formalities. They were here for a transaction, and so was she.
"Once this matter is settled," she said plainly, cutting straight to the heart of it, "I will devote an entire year to alchemical refining. Each of you will have the opportunity to request a pill from me, but you must prepare your own ingredients. Given my skill, a single batch of third tier pills usually yields two to three pellets, so you may pair up and submit your request together. Just make sure to prepare at least two full sets of materials."
What she did not mention was that, as a genuine fourth rank alchemist, she could easily refine three to five pills per batch as long as the ingredients were of good quality. Her success rate for third tier pills was essentially one hundred percent.
Any surplus pills? Naturally, they would belong to her. It was the unspoken tax for her services. Even if the others found out, they had no right to object. Just look at the so called alchemists trained by Prince Yong's household, they were utterly mediocre by comparison. Before leaving this continent, she fully intended to wring every last drop of value from it.
"Thank you, Fairy Su!!!"
Her words sent waves of palpable joy and relief through the room. Her ever cold and detached demeanor had led many to assume that asking her to refine pills was a near impossible feat. With expectations already rock bottom, her straightforward terms felt like a divine blessing.
Two sets of ingredients for a guaranteed single third tier pill? That was absurdly, unbelievably cheap. Prince Yong's in house alchemist demanded at least three sets for a chance at one pellet, with no guarantee of success. Of course, providing one's own ingredients was perfectly reasonable, no one in their right mind expected a master alchemist like Su Min to supply them herself.
"One last thing," Su Min added, her voice dropping several degrees, becoming as sharp and cold. "I do not expect you to defeat the enemy supreme experts outright. But when that Demon Queen uses her secret arts to extract and consume souls on the battlefield, if you fail to shatter those souls before she absorbs them fully, do not blame me for the consequences that will follow."
Her obsidian eyes swept across the hall, carrying a chilling, lethal edge. Everyone present instinctively lowered their heads, their necks shrinking as if caught in a sudden, killing frost. They understood the warning perfectly, failure to contain the Queen's soul devouring techniques would mean facing a Su Min who had run out of patience.
"We shall not fail you!"
"Good."
Su Min gave a single, slight nod. A faint, almost imperceptible flicker of thunderlight passed through the air, and then she was gone from the throne. These were people of status and hardened ambition, flowery words and long speeches meant little to them. Tangible rewards and dire warnings were far more effective. Now that she had made her offer and her threat clear, she had no reason to linger. Another, more pressing matter required her attention, she needed to forge a new pill furnace, her old one having shattered under the strain of the Golden Spirit Pill.
"Troublesome. I simply do not have enough high grade materials. I cannot even make a proper low Mystic tier furnace, let alone any other Mystic grade artifacts."
She stared at the limited, albeit high quality, materials in her hand, her lips quirking in resignation. At this point, the only thing holding her back was a lack of raw, supreme grade material. She would have to make do with what she had. Locking herself in a forging chamber, she worked through the night. By the next day, a brand new, serviceable furnace took shape in her hands.
"Mid tier yellow grade. I will just have to make do. Although I am a fourth rank alchemist now, the core ingredients needed for true fourth tier pills are too rare in this land to waste on a subpar furnace."
She sighed. If she was not planning to refine fourth tier pills in the immediate future, this furnace would suffice. Pushing it to handle such potent energies would likely make it explode after just two or three batches. Those kinds of pill flames and spiritual pressures were not something a mere yellow grade tool could endure for long.
"Once that old hag is dead, I will be able to visit the major sects and trade for proper materials. They must have hoarded some things over the centuries."
She muttered under her breath. That Demon Queen held something extremely rare, a spatial coordinate jade slip that was essential to her future plans and freedom. Su Min had to kill her to obtain it. As for the pill furnace, it would do for now. Besides, this was not the time for alchemy. Just then, she received word that Prince Yong had officially mobilized his armies.
These were not ragtag rebels hastily trying to seize power. This was a force carefully nurtured over decades, slowly devouring the Great Wei Empire from within like a cancer. Now, with a single command, three great armies surged forward in terrifying unison, one from the northwest, one from the southern frontiers, and one from the eastern seas.
The Duke Fu, who nominally held the southern front, barely had time to rally a defense before his own personal guards turned on him, tying him up and forbidding him from leaving his residence. The betrayal was absolute.
Over the years, Prince Yong had used the vast network of the Fuding Merchant Guild to silently replace every key position in Prince Fu's household and military with his own loyal men.
The combined army exceeded half a million well trained, well equipped troops. In less than a week, vast swaths of the Great Wei Empire fell under their boots with shocking speed. Even the elite Demon Slayer Division, once the sharpest blade of the imperial court, could only offer desperate, piecemeal resistance. With the entire martial world mobilized behind them, and the hidden resources of Prince Fu's faction now brought to bear, their strength far outstripped anything the rotting imperial court could muster.
The empire's defenders were like ants trying to stop a flood. And unlike past fools who charged the capital hoping for a single decisive battle, Prince Yong's strategy was meticulous and ruthless. He dismantled the empire piece by piece, severing its limbs before going for the heart. Even if they ultimately failed, they would have already carved the court's territory down to a mere shadow.
Su Min did not participate in any of these early battles, not to conserve her energy, but because the resistance was laughably weak. Decades of decay under the emperor's neglectful rule, compounded by Prince Yong's strategic bloodletting and corruption, had left the imperial heartlands hollowed out. There was not even a token struggle. Most cities and garrisons surrendered without a fight. The only reason the Great Wei still clung to a semblance of life was the terrifying presence of the Demon Queen herself.
She spent this time in the central command tent, a silent, looming presence. The commander leading the main campaign was none other than Cao Yuanmu.
"There is no need to rush," he said, frowning at the large strategic map laid out before him. "The other two armies must proceed steadily, consolidating our gains. We will converge on the imperial capital in one week. If we give that Demon Queen an opening by arriving piecemeal, things could turn ugly."
Despite the sweeping, unprecedented momentum, Cao Yuanmu remained deeply cautious. He had not forgotten how past, larger rebel forces were completely wiped out by a single careless mistake. The two flanking armies were purposely routed toward northern fortresses and supply lines instead of the capital, avoiding a premature, concentrated confrontation. Only the central army, with Su Min at its conceptual core, marched directly for the imperial city.
"Any word from deep within the capital?" Su Min asked, her brows tightly furrowed. "It is too quiet. This is going far too smoothly."
The Great Wei was not some fragile porcelain doll. Even a crumbling house kicks up a cloud of dust when it falls. Yet now, it was as if the entire empire waited in a silent, ominous hush for the final blade to fall.
"The inner palace is tightly guarded by the Demon Queen's own personal wards and devotees. We have not been able to infiltrate deeply. But… our best spies report that the emperor recently sent all his surviving children and consorts into her private chambers."
"What?"
Su Min froze for a beat, then a grim memory surfaced from a past, indirect clash with the Queen's energy, a vision of a hidden charnel pit where small bones, barely more than infants, were littered like gravel.
"That emperor and his Demon Queen truly are a match made in hell. The entire royal bloodline is almost wiped out already. What are they trying to accomplish now with this final sacrifice?"
Cao Yuanmu shuddered. With the world changing and spiritual energy resurgent, royal bloodlines, once merely symbolic, were becoming valuable spiritual assets. In this new age, where the pursuit of immortality was becoming a tangible reality, a family's long term foundation relied heavily on the number of cultivators it could produce. Erasing their own lineage was shortsighted madness.
"That woman is truly ruthless… though I suppose it saves me the trouble of dirtying my hands with the innocent," Su Min said, her voice cold as a grave.
But her expression darkened considerably as she realized the implication.
"She is cornered. She is trying to use a mass blood sacrifice to forcibly restore herself to the peak of the early Golden Core stage, or even push into the mid stage. If she succeeds… she and I will be near equals in raw cultivation."
"What?!"
Cao Yuanmu paled visibly. He was only at the mid stage of Foundation Establishment, but through his long association with Hui Ming, he had learned much about the realms beyond. The Golden Core realm was a monstrous threshold. The third strike of the heavenly tribulation was a death sentence for nearly all Foundation cultivators. Only a rare, heaven defying few, like Su Min, could pass it unscathed.
The gap between a peak Foundation cultivator and a newly ascended Golden Core expert was wider than the gulf between an early Body Refining novice and Foundation Establishment. A true Golden Core cultivator, unchecked by peers, could single handedly shatter the morale and formations of entire armies comprised of Foundation cultivators. They might not kill every last one, but they could rout them through sheer, overwhelming pressure.
A single Golden Core expert, without opposition, could rout an army of 100,000, even one supported by dozens of Foundation Establishment experts. They might not kill everyone, but they could decapitate the leadership and break the army's will to fight.
Of course, an army composed entirely of 100,000 Foundation Establishment cultivators was a different story, but any faction capable of fielding such a force would undoubtedly also have its own Golden Core experts to counter such a threat.
"Order the armies to advance at double time! Any city that surrenders is to be left untouched, we do not have time for pacification! We must completely surround the capital within three days!!!"
Cao Yuanmu did not hesitate. Instantly, couriers were dispatched, and the 200,000 strong central army mobilized, abandoning heavy siege supplies to race toward the capital with lightening speed. Su Min said nothing, merely watching. An early, decisive battle suited her just fine. She was prepared to fight a fully recovered Golden Core Demon Queen, but if she could face an incomplete, hastily empowered version, even better. She was not some reckless protagonist from a story who chose the harder path out of pride.
——
"What?! They are speeding up? They will reach the capital walls by dawn tomorrow?!"
In the main palace throne room, the emperor's face twisted in pure panic. He had recalled all elite Demon Slayer Division members to the capital, hoping to buy precious time by sacrificially yielding the outer territories. But now, the enemy had seen through his stalling tactic and was charging straight for the heart, ignoring everything else.
"Queen… how much longer do you need?"
For the first time in decades, the emperor felt a cold, clawing fear in his gut. Though he was technically in the Foundation Establishment stage, his foundation was unstable and brittle, built on pills and forbidden shortcuts taken solely to prolong his life. In a real fight, he would lose to any properly trained Foundation Establishment expert. And against a genuine Golden Core monster like Su Min, he was utterly, hopelessly outmatched.
"Report! Her Majesty the Queen says… it is still not enough. The Ziwei aura is potent but scattered, she needs more… essence to condense it."
"Not enough?!"
The emperor's fists clenched, his knuckles white. A wild, desperate look flashed in his eyes.
"Then send men into the capital and the nearby villages. Gather 1,000 children, those with the brightest spiritual spark, and bring them to the palace immediately!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Several Foundation Establishment experts clad in dark robes bowed and vanished into the gathering twilight. A thousand children was not a small number, but in the grand, desperate scheme of saving the empire, it was a price he was willing to pay. They would take them from the poorest, most defenseless outskirts, where no one had the power to resist. Soon, the night air was pierced by the terrified screams of parents and the wailing of stolen children.
——
By dawn the next day, Su Min's vanguard sighted the capital's towering, grim walls. By noon, the entire 200,000 strong army had fully encircled the city. The surrounding villages were already deserted and silent, everyone had fled days before as the army's approach became known.
"Commander, the encirclement is complete. Shall we order the attack? The Great Wei's outer defenses seem… surprisingly lax."
A messenger reported to Cao Yuanmu in the command tent.
"No need for a prolonged siege. This city has no true, spirit stone powered protective formation. Its walls are merely stone and mortar."
Before Cao Yuanmu could respond, Su Min's voice, cool and clear, cut through the air. Then, in a flash of silent lightning, she vanished from the command tent and reappeared high above the battlefield, hovering effortlessly on a glowing, spirit sword.
"Look! Up in the sky! Who is that? So… beautiful…"
Murmurs of awe spread through both armies. At this height, even the civilians and soldiers hiding within the city could see her clearly. The radiant sword beneath her feet, specially crafted for flight, made her an impossible to miss spectacle against the grey sky.
"That is… a Golden Core expert… truly flying…"
The Foundation Establishment cultivators in both armies watched with a mixture of raw awe and bitter envy. This was the realm they all dreamed of but ninety nine percent would never reach.
"Nanming Lihuo Slash!!!"
Ignoring the stunned crowd below, Su Min simply raised her sword, gathered a fraction of her power, and swung it downward. A massive blade of concentrated heavenly fire, over thirty meters long, materialized in the air and descended from the sky like divine punishment.
BOOM!!!
The earth shook violently. When the dust and dissipating flame settled, both armies gasped as one. The centuries old, heavily fortified main gate and a large section of the wall, built with untold wealth and labor, had been reduced to a smoldering, collapsed ruin of rubble in a single, casual strike. One attack had breached the supposedly impregnable capital. A single, humbling thought echoed in everyone's mind:
"This… this defies all logic and warfare."
Golden Core experts existed precisely to shatter common sense and mortal limitations. No conventional fortress could hope to withstand them.
What they did not know was that in true, established cultivation societies, major city walls were always reinforced with complex spirit stone formations, making them durable enough to resist even multiple strikes from an expert like Su Min. But in this spiritually underdeveloped backwater, such sophisticated, energy intensive defenses simply did not exist yet.
"Attack. Now."
Cao Yuanmu suppressed his surge of jubilation and gave the order, his voice booming across the field.
"CHARGE!!!"
The imperial soldiers' morale shattered completely and instantly. Most threw down their weapons and surrendered on the spot, while the Prince Yong army stormed forward through the breach like an unstoppable tide. Su Min did not join the slaughter in the streets. Her gaze was locked on the inner palace complex, now shrouded in a massive, shimmering crimson barrier. They had not been able to protect the entire city, but the inner palace was sealed tight behind a powerful, if temporary, formation.
"The current world's thin spiritual energy cannot sustain long term formations. Every second that barrier holds drains their limited stockpile of spirit stones. Let us see how long they can last."
She did not rush to break it herself. Doing so would drain a significant portion of her own spiritual energy, potentially leaving her weakened and vulnerable to the Demon Queen's ambush. So she simply hovered in the air, a silent sentinel, watching calmly as the army advanced through the city. But just as the vanguard reached the plaza before the palace gates—
"ROAR!!!"
A deafening, soul shaking screech, filled with hatred and Yin energy, erupted from the heart of the palace, sending visible shockwaves in all directions. The frontline troops were sent flying like dried leaves. Only the Qi Refining experts remained standing, and even they staggered under the oppressive pressure. Then, dozens of powerful, unstable auras flared to life atop the palace walls. Over forty Foundation Establishment experts, more than the Prince Yong army had in its entire force, now stood revealed. Even Cao Yuanmu's face fell as he felt their collective pressure.
How many monsters had the Demon Queen created using her forbidden techniques?
What they did not know was that the Emperor and Demon Queen had resorted to the most vile of soul burning arts, forcibly boosting the cultivation of their most loyal followers at the cost of their future and most of their lifespan. But numbers were numbers, and against the army's experts, they were a terrifying, sudden force. Behind them, over five hundred Qi Refining experts stood ready, their eyes glowing with a feverish, unnatural light.
Almost instantly, the battle for the plaza erupted into chaos. The elite, empowered warriors leaped from the walls, crashing into the Prince Yong forces with reckless abandon.
"Engage them!!! Hold the line!"
Cao Yuanmu roared and led the counter charge, his sword clashing against a similarly empowered enemy commander. The ground trembled under the force of their blows. This was a fight far beyond the capability of ordinary soldiers, a storm of spiritual energy and sharpened steel. Su Min still did not move from her position in the sky.
Because the moment that ear splitting screech had sounded, she knew with absolute certainty—
The Demon Queen had fully recovered her strength, and was now making her presence known.
Sure enough, a wave of sinister, Yin cold aura so thick it was almost tangible burst from the palace's heart, condensing into a spear of black ice that shot straight toward Su Min's heart. She did not flinch or dodge. With a mere thought, six flaming wooden swords, woven from Nanming Lihuo and ancient wood essence, materialized around her and shot forward to intercept the attack.
BOOM!!!
The collision of fire and absolute cold sent violent shockwaves rippling across the sky. Below, soldiers from both sides were knocked flat by the concussive force. The final, decisive battle between the two supreme powers of the land had begun.