The boy, along with everyone else in the village, turned toward the voice, their jaws dropping in unison as they stared upward.
High in the sky, a stunning woman in white robes sat casually on a gleaming silver flying sword, one leg crossed over the other. Her pristine garments fluttered in the sharp wind, revealing practical trousers and sleek boots beneath the layered silk. To these fishermen, their faces weathered by salt and the harsh sea, she looked like she had stepped out of a half-forgotten legend.
Cultivators naturally exuded an ethereal aura, a convergence of heaven and earth's spiritual energy that manifested as a visible radiance. Some radiated a hypnotic charm, others an icy, untouchable detachment. Su Min's presence carried a playful, yet sharp and undeniable power that felt like the sun breaking through a storm.
To the villagers, however, she might as well have been a goddess descending from the heavens to end their suffering. In an instant, everyone dropped to their knees on the damp earth.
"Immortal, please save us! I will give you anything!" The boy, being a cultivator himself, was the first to kowtow. His forehead struck the dirt with a dull thud. He had no real concept of how strong she was, but just the aura she had released was enough to pin the Qi Refining lizard in place like an insect under glass. That was power beyond his wildest imagination.
"Sure," Su Min said with a faint smile, though a flicker of disappointment crossed her eyes. She could see the boy had forced his potential too early, straining his young, underdeveloped body in a desperate bid for survival. His chances of ever reaching Qi Refining were now slim, but that didn't matter too much in the grand scheme of things. She wasn't just recruiting fighters; she was gathering the labor and lifeblood to build the foundation of her sect.
A final, pitiful screech echoed as the lead lizard suddenly exploded into chunks of grey flesh and green ichor under the invisible, crushing pressure of Su Min's spiritual force. A mere early Qi Refining beast stood no chance against the focused aura of a Golden Core cultivator. The remaining lizards scrambled away into the undergrowth in a blind panic, their claws clicking frantically against the stones, but Su Min paid them no mind. Her focus was now on the bigger picture—convincing this entire village to relocate to her island.
But before she could even speak, the boy looked up, his eyes bloodshot.
"Immortal, please save my family! This place is," his voice broke into a jagged sob, "it's a nightmare!"
"Ah, right. Monster-infested hellhole," Su Min finished for him, her tone matter-of-fact.
The villagers clung to her presence like drowning men to a piece of driftwood, weeping openly into their calloused hands. Life here was so brutally harsh that even the complete unknown of a strange island seemed preferable to another night in Yao Xin State. Su Min didn't hesitate. With a casual wave of her hand, she summoned her spatial shuttle and activated it to its full size.
A hundred-meter-long airship materialized above them, its massive shadow swallowing the entire village whole and chilling the air. She would take them all. The island had vast, empty lands, enough for millions, let alone a few hundred people. Though it was called an "island," it was larger than any continent she knew from her old world.
Unlike the wild, mindless beasts of Yao Xin State, the island's spirit creatures were intelligent and controlled. They couldn't reproduce quickly, so their numbers stayed low, mostly clustered near the Fusang Divine Tree, leaving the outer regions wide open for settlement. And the environment there was simply unmatched. Even the weeds were spirit grass, passively absorbing energy from the sky. Su Min had also brought spirit rice seeds from the great sects—useless to her, but perfect for nourishing mortals and strengthening the physiques of future generations.
As she prepared to address the stunned villagers, however, she noticed everyone was staring at her, utterly mesmerized by her features.
"Right," she thought. Cultivators were never ugly unless they chose to be. And in any era, looks mattered.
"Well, at least recruitment is easy," she muttered to herself.
Unbeknownst to her, the villagers were thinking a simpler version of the same thing: "Someone this beautiful wouldn't trick us, right?"
Over the next several days, Su Min made multiple trips, eventually transporting over a thousand people from the surrounding coastal regions. They brought everything they owned—battered pots, woven nets, even their winter food stores. She just stuffed the excess into her spacious spatial ring with a flick of her wrist.
The local tyrants and minor sect leaders who tried to stop her from taking their "property" found themselves helpless. A single spiritual seal from Su Min pinned them to the ground as she calmly looted their granaries to feed her new settlers and left without a backward glance. When the shuttle finally landed on the lush shores of the blessed island, the newcomers gasped.
The spiritual energy was so rich it was palpable, even to the mortals, feeling like a cool, refreshing mist against their skin. And in the distance, the Fusang Divine Tree's golden silhouette pierced the clouds, a sight that was both awe-inspiring and slightly terrifying. Su Min knew better than to mess with it; she was well aware that the tree could vaporize her if she ever threatened the Golden Crow.
"See that ocean?" Su Min announced to the gathered crowd, her voice carrying over the sound of the waves. "You can fish freely within five hundred kilometers. Those forests and fields? Each family gets twenty acres. Plant whatever you want. I will provide the seeds, and a spirit ox will help till the land. Taxes? Ten percent. Oh, and land sales are forbidden."
The island's incredible fertility meant that even scattered seeds would thrive with minimal effort. The five-hundred-kilometer boundary marked the edge of the Crystal Palace's territory, so no powerful sea monsters would intrude on the fishing grounds. Beyond that, they were on their own. As for twenty acres, it was more than enough for a family. These weren't mechanized farms, and overworking the soil was pointless in such a rich environment anyway.
A collective wail of relief and joy erupted from the crowd. The villagers, the young boy included, burst into tears.
Su Min chuckled softly to herself. "Ah, humanity's shining moments."
She understood. To them, this wasn't just a new home; it was salvation from a slow death. She put the boy, now the sole cultivator among them, in charge of land allocation. "Ensure it's fair," she instructed him, her tone leaving no room for argument. "If I find you hoarding the best land or exiling people to bad plots, there will be consequences."
"Yes, Immortal!" he responded, his voice filled with fervent dedication.
Su Min decided to trust him, for now. Then, with a sharp clap of her hands, she summoned a radiant, azure-colored ox from the nearby forest. It was a Heavenly Azure Spirit Ox, a true spirit beast and one of the Golden Crow Emperor's ancient subjects. With over ten thousand in number, they were the island's most populous spirit creatures. The villagers gaped. Oxen were priceless in agrarian societies, and this one was at the Qi Refining level, stronger than anyone present except for Su Min herself.
"This ox will protect you and assist with the heavy labor," she declared. "Build it a shrine and keep incense burning for it year-round."
"YES!" the crowd shouted in unison.
The spirit ox's presence sealed the deal. Su Min had already negotiated this arrangement with the island's spirit beasts. Unlike mindless monsters, they were highly intelligent, and some, like this ox, even pursued paths of divine flame cultivation.
With the ox handling the heavy labor and even collecting the taxes—which were paid in spirit rice that Su Min would then feed back to the beasts as treats—the entire system became beautifully self-sustaining.
Over the next few years, Su Min became a one-woman relocation agency, ferrying over thirty thousand people from eight different neighboring states. She deliberately avoided Wei Wu Province, as she had too many acquaintances there and poaching populations felt awkward. The other regions were oppressive hellscapes, making her offers utterly irresistible. A little kindness, combined with her striking appearance, bred instant and fierce loyalty.
This, in turn, spawned local legends of a "Celestial Fairy" who rescued the suffering and whisked them away to an immortal paradise. Of course, this kind of activity drew backlash from the states she was draining. Once, a dozen Foundation Establishment cultivators from a particularly aggrieved state ambushed her. Su Min's response was swift and humiliating.
A single, sweeping slap from her sent each attacker flying, leaving a glowing, indelible handprint on their faces that was impossible to hide for years. After that very public incident, no one dared oppose her directly. Whether she was a fairy or not, one thing became crystal clear to everyone: you didn't mess with her. Just don't.
With thirty thousand settlers, the island's first true city began to emerge from the timber and stone. Su Min's focus then shifted to her original purpose—cultivating disciples. From the new generation of children born on the island or brought there at a very young age, she carefully selected seven. There were four girls and three boys, all under ten years old, and each possessed unique constitutions and promising spiritual roots. They stood before her now in her simple hall, their young eyes wide with awe and a little fear.
"The path of cultivation seeks the Great Dao and eternal life," she began, her voice calm and clear in the stillness of the hall. "You must learn to cut worldly attachments early. Honor your parents, but shun mortal power and wealth. They are fleeting distractions."
She didn't expect them to fully understand the depth of her words yet. Time and experience would be their real teachers. They would learn the hard truths, like why immortals so often avoided mortal romance. It was hard to maintain a relationship when your lover aged decades during a single, deep meditation session.
"I will be entering seclusion soon," she informed them. "Until I return, you will heed your 'aunt' here." She gestured to a girl who looked to be about their age, but whose piercing, multicolored eyes held an ancient, knowing light. This was the Nine-Colored Peacock, one of the Golden Crow's two guardians. The Azure Dragon had remained with the still-slumbering hatchling. Between his power and the innate defenses of the Fusang Tree, the young Golden Crow was utterly untouchable.
Su Min's seclusion was now urgent. Decades of accumulated insights and experiences from her travels and alchemy needed to be consolidated and digested. With the powerful and intelligent peacock overseeing the fledgling sect and its new disciples, she could finally focus on her own path without distraction.