Su Min's urgency was a live wire beneath her skin, a restless heat that prickled at her fingertips. She knew the old turtle's token, the Black Tortoise Token, was a fickle thing. It had a habit of fading from one spot and materializing in another without warning, its presence as unstable as a flickering candle in a gale. This usually happened every day or two, a rhythmic vanishing act that mocked those who sought it. The only way to pin it down, to keep it from slipping away into the void, was to secure it within a player's personal inventory. For her, that meant the dark silver spatial ring on her finger.
She had no interest in the girl meditating on the inheritance platform deeper in the cave, whose silhouette was blurred by a hazy, fire-colored light. Her goal was singular. If the young man blocking the entrance wouldn't step aside, then she would have to move him herself.
She sized him up quickly. The air between them hummed with the weight of their combined presence. His Great Desolate Holy Body was powerful—a legendary physique like her own Five Elements Holy Body—but it was also incomplete, a raw and unpolished diamond. As for Xie Yingying's Lunar Sovereign Body, it was whole, but the power of the Lunar Sovereign was brutally domineering. Without the specific methods of the Lunar Sovereign Ancient Scripture to guide it, that power was a locked vault, heavy and cold.
The truth was, the three of them were stuck in a stalemate. If a real fight broke out, the sheer pressure of their auras would likely bring the cavern ceiling down before a winner could be decided.
"Block him for me," Su Min said, her voice low and tight. "There's something in there I need."
She shot a cool glance at the young man. He was good, but he couldn't stop both of them at once. The moment she spoke, Xie Yingying released a wave of chilling intent. The temperature in the hall plummeted, frost blooming across the stone floor in jagged, crystalline patterns. A heavy, frosty pressure settled squarely on the young man's shoulders, making his muscles tense and his breath hitch.
The crowd of onlookers watched from the edges of the room, their hopes rising like a tide. They were itching for a fight. While Su Min and Xie Yingying might not care about the inheritance, everyone else certainly did. If these two powerhouses went all out, the guardian would be overwhelmed. That would be their chance to slip inside and scavenge whatever treasures remained before the secret realm closed its gates forever.
After all, anyone still standing here was no weakling. If the top players took each other out, the leftovers would be a feast for the rest. But these hopefuls were about to be disappointed. Su Min didn't know when the token might vanish, so she chose the most direct path.
Heavenly lightning sparked at her feet, a sharp crackle of blue energy. In the blink of an eye, she became a blur of motion. The young man was fast, too. The instant she moved, his instincts took over and he threw out a palm strike, his skin glowing with a faint, earthen gold. Su Min met him just as fast, her hand morphing into a scaly Azure Dragon Claw that slammed into his golden fist.
BOOM!
The collision shook the ground, the shockwave echoing like a thunderclap. The force of it threw both of them back several steps, their boots carving furrows into the ancient stone.
"Such terrifying strength!" more than one spectator whispered, their eyes wide. This was the same young man who had been casually slapping people away earlier as if they were children. Now, he was trading blows evenly with Su Min, the alchemist known for her Five Elements Holy Body.
"Could that be the secret of the Five Elements Holy Body? Overwhelming force to crush all techniques?" someone wondered aloud, but they dismissed the thought just as quickly. The exchange had been a flash, a mere glimpse of azure light that left spots in their vision. They could barely make out the shape of the power she had unleashed.
"Was that a dragon's claw?" The murmur rippled through the crowd, but there was no one to answer them.
"Well then, I will take my leave," Su Min said.
In that split second after the impact, their positions had reversed. The force of his own palm strike had helped propel her past him and into the mouth of the cave. As the Great Desolate Holy Body wielder tried to pivot and intercept, that icy aura from Xie Yingying clamped down harder. The frost climbed his legs, freezing him in place for a critical heartbeat.
It was all the time Su Min needed. She flashed into the side chamber, not even sparing a look for the girl on the main platform. The tension in the main cavern eased a fraction. At least the young man now understood her goal wasn't the inheritance he was guarding.
He had already looted that side room himself and found it empty of any obvious treasures, so this was an acceptable outcome. The woman still facing him, however, felt far more dangerous. The onlookers sighed in collective disappointment. They had hoped for a chaotic brawl, a chance to pick through the scraps. Unfortunately, Su Min had no intention of fighting without a cause.
That single exchange had left Su Min's entire arm numb. If not for the resilience granted by her Azure Dragon Creation Art, her bones might have shattered under that golden pressure. Her Five Elements Holy Body was powerful, but it wasn't a close-combat physique. To make matters worse, she still lacked the earth element—the divine material that represented supreme defense. Without it, she was like a fragile mage in a brawler's fight. The Azure Dragon Creation Art helped, but it couldn't fully bridge the gap between her and one of the world's premier strength-based physiques.
"Was this guy a packrat?" she muttered, her eyes scanning the barren side chamber. The walls were smooth and bare, the floor picked clean of even dust. "Let's see. That strange sensation is coming from right here."
Her gaze settled on a section of the wall behind a pile of rubble. The young man had been in too much of a hurry to notice, but her senses, honed by the divine materials already within her, detected a hidden space behind it. Without those materials, even she would have missed the faint, rhythmic thrumming behind the rock.
BOOM!
She blasted the wall with a concentrated burst of fire. The structures in this secret realm were made of special stone that blocked ordinary perception and resisted even heavy strikes. A strike like that could have leveled half a city back home, but here, it only left a small, jagged hole. Inside that hole, a black token flickered unstably. Its form wavered as if it were a mirage, smelling faintly of salt and deep water.
The Black Tortoise Token.
Su Min snatched it without a second thought and stuffed it directly into her spatial ring. The moment it entered her storage, the flickering stopped. The token solidified, becoming heavy and real in her mental inventory. She let out a quiet sigh of relief, the tension in her shoulders finally beginning to bleed away.
"Good. I'm not taking this out again until I'm standing at the Black Tortoise's hidden vault. Better safe than sorry. Can you imagine arriving only for it to disappear at the last second?"
The Black Tortoise's true legacy wasn't here in the Golden Core Avenue. It was hidden deep within the Nether Sacrificial Sea, a place so perilous that even Nascent Soul cultivators would struggle to survive the crushing depths. There was no rush to go there now.
"With this, only the White Tiger remains among the Four Symbols," she whispered to herself. "And then there's the Kirin's legacy. Ugh, so troublesome."
Muttering, she left the chamber. There was another room nearby, but it wasn't worth checking. The remaining three divine materials she needed could wait. Their locations were like this one—locked away until the right moment in the secret realm's cycle. Until then, the best course was to focus on her own cultivation.
"Alright, let's go," she said, rejoining Xie Yingying in the main hall.
With a final glance at the crowd, she saw no reason to stay. After this round of plundering, the secret realm was likely emptied of anything major. She was more than satisfied with her gains. Xie Yingying followed without a word, her brush disappearing into her sleeve. The spectators could only sigh again, their hopes of sneaking in now thoroughly dashed.
Once they were outside and a good distance away, the volcanic heat of the domain pressing against them once more, Xie Yingying finally asked the question she had been holding back. "What was in there?" Su Min had been in such a rush she hadn't explained.
"Something related to the Black Tortoise's legacy," Su Min answered. She adjusted the ring on her finger, feeling the weight of the token within.
"Your luck is incredible," Xie Yingying said, a note of admiration in her voice. She looked at Su Min, her eyes softening in a way they never did for anyone else.
"Well, I would have died a long time ago if my luck were any worse," Su Min chuckled. This time, she had been exceptionally fortunate.
"Are we heading to the Black Tortoise's ruins now?"
Su Min realized her friend had misunderstood the scope of the search. "Uh, the Black Tortoise ruins aren't in the Golden Core Avenue. They're deep in the Nether Sacrificial Sea. It's a place even Nascent Soul cultivators would struggle to survive."
"What?" Xie Yingying blinked, her brow furrowing, then she let out a soft sigh. "I see."
"Let's find a quiet place first," Su Min said, shifting gears. "I need to check where this new legacy leads."
She stopped dwelling on the distant future. Since she couldn't proceed with the Black Tortoise now, she would focus on the most efficient path right in front of her. They soon arrived at a desolate mountain range where the jagged peaks pierced the red-tinged sky. Before descending, Su Min glanced back. She could feel many eyes still watching them from a safe distance. She ignored them, her mind already moving to the next task.
Inside a temporary cave they secured, the stone cool and smelling of dry earth, five colored banners floated in the air around Su Min. She sat cross-legged, absorbing the information they contained. Her expression quickly darkened, her mouth thinning into a hard line.
"Damn it!" she cursed, her eyes snapping open. "The legacy requires reaching the top five of the Golden Core Heavenly Ranking while holding the Five Elements Flags."
"Hmm?" Xie Yingying tilted her head, curious.
The Golden Core Heavenly Ranking was the final, grand event of the Golden Core Avenue's decade-long cycle. In its last ten years, a colossal heavenly ranking would descend from the sky, its power enveloping the entire area. Every Golden Core cultivator could participate, fighting in a brutal, one-and-done, single-elimination tournament. The top five would have their names inscribed on the ranking for all to see, but the real prizes were the rewards.
First, a three-hundred-year extension to their lifespan. This was priceless, even for Mahayana cultivators nearing the end of their immortal road. Second, a baptism of the Great Dao, which would safeguard their meridians during the dangerous breakthrough to the Nascent Soul realm.
After the Golden Core stage, cultivators no longer faced heavenly tribulations. But each step forward was just as perilous. To form a Yuányīng, a cultivator had to shatter their Golden Core. It was a process fraught with risk, a moment of absolute vulnerability. Ninety-nine percent of Golden Core cultivators failed.
Failure meant the core's destruction, regressing the cultivator all the way back to the Foundation Establishment stage with no chance of ever forming a core again. Most Golden Core cultivators were already centuries old, far beyond the natural lifespan of a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Once their cultivation dropped, time itself would erase them. It was a death sentence as final as any lightning tribulation.
But for Su Min, this wasn't an issue. With the Eastern Azure Wood divine material in her body, her chances of a successful breakthrough were over ninety percent, especially with the help of a Nascent Soul Pill. Divine materials had unique traits. Those with a wood attribute provided immense vitality. Even if her core shattered and her Yuányīng didn't form immediately, the profound life force of the Eastern Azure Wood would sustain her, preventing her cultivation from regressing into dust. Some water-attributed divine materials had similar effects, relying on water's natural, restorative properties.
Moreover, her innate talent was Immortality. The Golden Core Heavenly Ranking's rewards meant very little to her. She had fully planned to sit the whole thing out and slack off while the others fought for scraps of time. But now, this legacy was forcing her to compete. The ranking's matches were utterly random. One round, win or go home. No second chances, no best-of-three series. If you were unlucky enough to face a powerhouse in the first round, that was just your tough luck. In the world of cultivation, luck was part of one's strength.
A new, worrying thought struck her. "What if Yingying and I get matched?"
She didn't care about the baptism, but Xie Yingying would never pass up three hundred years of lifespan. Any cultivator, even a Mahayana expert, would covet it.
"This isn't so bad," Xie Yingying said, seemingly unfazed. She watched Su Min's anxious expression with a calm gaze. "You were going to join the ranking anyway." In her eyes, someone of Su Min's caliber belonged on that list.
"Easy for you to say," Su Min retorted. She rubbed her face with her hands. "What if we face each other in the very first round?"
"We won't," Xie Yingying stated simply.
"Huh? How can you be so sure?"
"Didn't you say your luck is always good?" Xie Yingying replied. Her lips curved into a tiny, knowing smile. "True powerhouses never lack fortune. Or destiny."
"Uh…"
Su Min was speechless. Was that survivorship bias? Those with good luck succeeded and lived to tell the tale; those without it died and were forgotten. But when she reflected on her own journey, she had to admit that luck had indeed played a huge role more than once.
"Relax," Xie Yingying continued. She reached out, her fingers brushing Su Min's arm for a fleeting second. "The Golden Core Heavenly Ranking has its own mechanisms. Holy Bodies like yours, or my Lunar Sovereign Body, are obviously top-tier. The ranking was built by ancient experts to nurture the strongest. Its goal is to make the strong stronger. It won't let us clash until the finals."
"Oh." Su Min exhaled in genuine relief. So luck mattered, but there were underlying rules to prevent the top contenders from eliminating each other too early.
"How long until your Lunar Sovereign legacy site opens?" Su Min asked, changing the subject to distract herself from the looming tournament.
"About six months."
"Alright." Su Min nodded. She would wait. Besides, she still owed people pills. Six months wasn't enough for any meaningful closed-door cultivation anyway. She might as well set up a stall and earn some money.