"The sky, the birds, the flowers, the grass, everything seemed so beautiful after being trapped in that gray space for so long. Back then, the Five Elements Great Emperor slew a fallen immortal during the Mahayana stage, though he was already at the late Mahayana phase. With my current cultivation, even though I'm only at the early Mahayana stage,"
Feeling the vast, profound power circulating within her, Su Min slowly turned her gaze toward the depths of the dark cosmos. She could sense violent, chaotic fluctuations emanating from there, clearly, a great battle was raging.
At this moment, in the dark universe, Yao Xian'er's expression grew increasingly grim.
A pitch black, malevolent sun now hung in the void, casting its ominous, suppressing light over the entire battlefield.
This was the weapon projected by the being who had descended here, a tool capable of unleashing vast waves of dark, deathly energy. It specifically suppressed the power of cultivators from the normal universe, leaving even Yao Xian'er in dire straits.
And she wasn't the only one. The entire battlefront was collapsing under its influence.
Under the oppressive force of the black sun, Yao Xian'er was being forced back step by step toward the Celestial Palace.
"Pfft—"
At that moment, Yao Xian'er couldn't hold back any longer and spat out a mouthful of bright blood before shouting to everyone through spiritual sense, "Retreat! We can't keep fighting! If this continues, we will all die here!"
She'd never expected the descended immortal to possess such means. Even though he couldn't leave the depths of the dark core, he'd summoned this black sun to suppress them all. Worse, under its light, the dark cultivators' combat power had surged dramatically.
With their own strength waning and the enemy's growing, the entire battlefront was crumbling. Casualties had already appeared on their side, and Yao Xian'er knew they had to withdraw immediately.
"Tian Yang, pull everyone back NOW!!!"
She sent an urgent spiritual message to Tian Yang on the surface, but her expression darkened when she received no response. The message had vanished without a trace, blocked by the dark energy. The situation below was equally dire.
Originally, the Sand Wolf was certain to die, but the black sun had also enveloped the Dark Continent. Worse, their forces had no imperial artifacts to protect them from this suppression, and now, even Tian Yang had deteriorated to a horrifying degree.
"Uncle Master!!!"
Elsewhere, the three senior brothers of Kong Hui's sect also sensed something terribly wrong. The three of them were jointly channeling the Purple Gold Alms Bowl, barely holding off a mid stage Mahayana dark cultivator even under the black sun's suppression. But they could do no more, even self preservation had become a struggle.
If their uncle master fell here, it'd be an irreparable loss for the Great Thunder Temple.
A heartbeat later, amidst the swirling sand, Tian Yang opened his eyes.
He'd sensed it. The irreversible shift in the battle. The sky above was now an endless storm of black sand, blotting out every ray of light. They'd lost the advantage completely. The air was thick with death and dark qi that gnawed at the body and soul. Their strength wasn't enough, and they all knew it.
Yet his gaze didn't rest on the deteriorating battlefield. It was on her.
Xie Yingying.
Blood streaked her pale cheek. Her robes were torn, soaked in ash and flame. Yet she stood unbowed, sword in hand, her Taiyin aura burning cold and sharp as a crescent moon. Her eyes held no panic. Only silence. Stillness. A grim acceptance.
"Amitabha."
Tian Yang's voice was low, calm, as if speaking to the wind itself.
"This old monk has lived through nearly a hundred cycles of reincarnation. It's only natural I face this final tribulation in turn. But you, Miss Xie, I must send you away."
Tian Yang looked at her, not as a junior, nor merely as a fellow cultivator, but as someone bound tightly, irrevocably to Su Min's fate.
Not merely her companion. Not merely her cauldron or cultivation partner. She was the anchor Su Min had chosen in this turbulent world. A thread Su Min had tied her own fate to, willingly, with eyes wide open. Her one true weakness. Her emotional root.
And if something happened to Xie Yingying here—
Tian Yang shuddered inwardly. He truly didn't know what that woman might do in her rage. Maybe Su Min would burn the entire world for her. That was why he made his choice. Even if it cost him his life, even if all the others fell around him, he wouldn't let Su Min's heart break here.
"Go," he said gently but firmly. "This battlefield no longer needs you. She does."
Truly, this was the power of an immortal's artifact. It'd suppressed them to the point of helplessness while strengthening their enemies to terrifying heights. And the environment itself was against them, the dark energy corroded their bodies, forcing them to divert much of their strength just to resist its influence.
Otherwise, they might've at least held their ground. But now, there was no other choice.
"How could this junior retreat now?"
She understood exactly what was at stake, the gravity of their mission.
Xie Yingying wiped the blood from her lips. She knew the purpose of this desperate mission, to buy precious time for Su Min outside.
Whether this endless cycle of annihilation could be broken depended entirely on Su Min now.
If she fell here, so be it.
But she wouldn't leave.
Not when Su Min still needed her.
Not when this world's last chance depended on the woman she'd chosen to follow, heart and soul.
And it wasn't just Tian Yang. Yao Xian'er was in a similar predicament in the sky. Facing the combined assault of the Wind and Thunder Emperors, she was being pushed back step by step, her golden blood staining her robes.
Her Ten Thousand Laws Crucible had been suppressed by the black sun to the point of near uselessness, after all, a significant portion of its power was focused directly on her, the strongest opponent.
"Hah, I'll have to detonate my imperial artifact and fight to the death."
Seeing that the situation was beyond salvation, Yao Xian'er gathered a radiant, unstable light in her palm. She was prepared to detonate both her weapon and her life's essence, otherwise, total annihilation was inevitable.
She couldn't be blamed for this. No one had ever encountered such methods from a descended immortal before. Her original plan had been to retreat safely with the Celestial Palace even if they failed.
But now, everything had spiraled completely beyond her expectations, or rather, the immortal who'd descended here was simply too terrifying, his methods too absolute.
"Ten Thousand Laws Eternal, Annihilation Returns to, Ugh, Pfft—!"
Just as she was about to initiate the self destruction sequence, she suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood. A strange, calming force had surged from afar, gently interrupting her strongest attack. The backlash of disrupted spiritual energy made her vomit blood, but it also stopped the detonation.
"It's not yet time for mutual destruction."
A familiar, calm voice rang softly in her ears. Then, a figure descended from the heavens, standing between her and the oppressive black sun. In an instant, Yao Xian'er felt an overwhelming sense of relief wash over her, the terrible suppression that'd been crushing her had vanished.
Not just the black sun's suppression, all the dark energy in the surroundings was now actively surging toward the figure before her, as if being drawn into a vortex.
"What are you doing?!"
Yao Xian'er couldn't hold back a cry of alarm. Absorbing darkness so recklessly, did she have a death wish?
"Chaos embraces all things, even death and destruction."
Su Min's voice was preternaturally calm. The dark energy could no longer suppress her, instead, it had become nourishment, fuel. Even the black sun itself, radiating pure darkness and corruption, was nothing more than sustenance to her now.
In the next moment, Su Min appeared directly before the Wind and Thunder Emperors.
With a single, seemingly casual palm strike toward each of them, a motion so simple it defied their complex battle stances, the two emperors' expressions twisted in horror. They found they couldn't dodge, space itself seemed to lock around them.
But if they couldn't evade, they'd meet it head on.
Boom!
The next instant, two small, delicate looking palms collided with their massive, energy wreathed fists.
And in that moment of contact,
The Wind and Thunder Emperors' faces contorted in unimaginable agony.
An indescribable, primordial force surged into their bodies, wreaking absolute havoc within, disintegrating their dark energy from the inside out.
"Creation returns to Chaos."
As Su Min spoke those quiet words,
"Pfft—!"
The bodies of the two emperor puppets exploded into motes of dark light, then nothingness.
Had it not been for the black sun and the dark energy suppressing her before, Yao Xian'er would've slain them long ago. Now, facing Su Min, who'd turned this entire battlefield into her own domain, they stood no chance at all.
In the next few moments, Su Min's figure flickered across the void like lightning.
Countless dark silhouettes of Mahayana stage cultivators burst apart under her touch.
None of the Mahayana stage dark cultivators could withstand a single, direct blow from her.
"Is this, the true power of a Chaos Physique?"
Yao Xian'er watched in stunned silence. She now understood, Su Min had surpassed her completely. Some kind of fundamental transformation had occurred within the secret realm, and though Su Min was only at the early Mahayana stage, she now wielded strength that rivaled, no, surpassed, many historical Great Emperors.
"Not yet. I'm still incomplete."
Su Min shook her head almost imperceptibly before turning her gaze to the massive black sun. Just as she was about to act, a furious, world shaking roar echoed through the entire dark universe.
"Good, Very good. I was just one step too late. The Chaos Physique, back then, we sacrificed fifteen Immortal Kings just to alter this world's foundational laws and seal away this cursed physique. And yet, you still appeared."
The voice sent shivers down everyone's spines, even Yao Xian'er's. It felt like thunder exploding directly in their souls, despite the vast distance and the fact that the speaker dared not step out of the dark core's protection.
If he truly emerged, everyone present except perhaps Su Min would be annihilated instantly by the heavenly tribulation his presence would trigger.
"Since you know, why don't you just scram?"
Su Min smirked, utterly fearless. She wasn't afraid of him. Though her Chaos Physique wasn't yet perfected, she was no longer someone to be trifled with. Even if she couldn't defeat him now, if he dared step out of the core, the Heavenly Dao would lock onto him immediately. All she had to do was stall him, and his death would be certain.
"Don't celebrate too soon. So what if you have the Chaos Physique? It's not yet complete, and you haven't even stepped into the Immortal Dao."
The voice was icy with suppressed rage. Then, the black sun slowly faded away, retracting its power. Maintaining it across such a distance while evading the Heavenly Dao's detection had been a tremendous burden, and now, with Su Min present, it was meaningless.
With the black sun gone, the tide of battle shifted instantly.
Tian Yang's power returned in full. Xie Yingying unleashed her full Lunar Avatar and charged back into the fray with renewed fury.
"ARGH!"
A piercing scream rang out as the Sand Wolf, caught off guard by the sudden shift, was instantly slain. In his greed and confidence, he'd abandoned all caution to kill his foes, but with Su Min's arrival, the decades long stalemate had been overturned in mere moments.
The remaining dark cultivators were routed, fleeing in complete disarray back toward the dark core.
But Su Min didn't pursue the fading enemies.
She simply stood there, suspended above the scarred, broken skies of the Dark Continent, her gaze locked on the desolate wasteland below. After a long, heavy pause, she murmured a few words under her breath. No one caught them. The howling winds of the dying continent swallowed them whole.
Tian Yang soon flew up to meet her, his expression a mix of relief and deep concern.
"You—"
He was stunned into near speechlessness. Su Min had undergone a heaven shaking transformation. Not just powerful, not merely evolved, but primordial. The pressure radiating from her wasn't spiritual in nature, but existential, as if she belonged to an era before thought itself, before the concepts of life and death were defined.
But what shocked him even more was what she did next.
She took the dark soul fragment he'd collected from the Sand Wolf, crushed it in her palm, and, without any purification, absorbed the swirling dark energy directly.
His eyes widened in disbelief. He couldn't understand, dark energy wasn't something to be absorbed so recklessly. It contained death, madness, violence, decay, all the foulest things in existence. Even touching it was dangerous for normal cultivators.
Yet Su Min could devour it without any visible issue.
This, wasn't how it was before. Back when she was hunting in the dark universe, she'd been cautious, carefully avoiding direct contact with these corrupted energies.
"Chaos embraces all, both the beautiful and the foul."
Su Min's smile was faint, distant, as if she was looking at them from across a vast gulf of time. There was a softness in her eyes, but it didn't reach her heart. She looked ahead, not at anyone present, but at something far beyond them all, a destiny only she could see.
A moment later, a silver figure streaked through the air and collided with her.
Xie Yingying.
The moment she reached Su Min, she threw herself into her arms with almost violent force, like someone grabbing hold of a dream before it dissolved into nothingness. Her arms wrapped tightly around Su Min's waist, her face buried against the side of her neck.
She breathed in deeply. Once. Twice. As if trying to memorize a scent that was already fading.
But it wasn't the scent she remembered. The scent clinging to Su Min was different now. Not fire or herbs or sunlight, it was chaos itself. Ancient, intoxicating, endlessly shifting. Even at the Unity stage, even with all the restraint she'd honed over centuries, she almost couldn't hold herself back.
"You smell different," she whispered, her voice trembling. "You feel, different."
Su Min chuckled softly, one hand rising to stroke her back in slow, grounding circles.
"Alright, alright," she said, her tone patient, almost placating. "Once I reach perfection, I'll draw out a portion of my Chaos Origin just for you. You can absorb it freely then."
"Perfection?" Xie Yingying's voice was low, strained, still muffled against her shoulder.
Su Min nodded, her chin resting lightly atop Xie Yingying's head. "Yes. I still need more. A vast amount of dark energy. Only when the filth perfectly balances the purity within me will my Chaos Physique be truly complete."
Her words left the others gathering around them speechless.
Neither black nor white, to embrace all things was the true essence of the Chaos Physique. It was a physique close to the origin of the world, or rather, what the world was meant to be before order was imposed.
Before there was light or shadow, before heaven and earth were separated, before the concept of good or evil existed, there was chaos.
That was the fundamental nature of her body now. Not the radiant, structured order of the Five Elements Holy Physique, nor the perfect balance of the Yin Yang duality, nor even the formless comprehension of the Ten Thousand Laws Crucible. Those were the later gifts of the established Heavenly Dao.
But Chaos came before the Dao. And to perfect it meant embracing not just creation, but also everything that was discarded, corrupted, and cursed. She needed the darkness. The filth that clung to the forgotten corners of the universe. The rot beneath all things.
And she'd consume it all.
At the same time, in her moment of ascension, she'd glimpsed the deeper truth of the world beyond the darkness, and now, she had a plan, a terrible, final plan.
Xie Yingying's grip tightened convulsively. Her spiritual qi trembled uncontrollably. This wasn't just cultivation talk anymore. She felt it, the distance in Su Min's tone, the weight of inevitability behind her eyes.
"What are you planning?" she asked suddenly, lifting her head to search Su Min's face.
"Everyone," Su Min said, her voice calm but carrying a resolute finality that brooked no argument, "return to your home realms. Don't come back to the dark universe. Not for any reason."
There was no warning in her tone. Only absolute finality.
Xie Yingying seized her arm, hard. "What are you planning?" she repeated, her voice sharper this time, thinner, edged with panic.
Su Min turned to her, eyes steady, her other hand coming to rest over Xie Yingying's clutching fingers. "I'll end this dark universe," she said, her words simple, devastating. "This endless cycle of sacrifice, this realm that devours itself, over and over, across epochs. I'm going to break it.
I'll let the Heavenly Dao's light shine upon it again, and seal the Dark Clan beyond the boundaries of this cosmos, forever."
Xie Yingying stared at her, unable to speak. Her heart hammered against her ribs. She wanted to argue, to plead, to refuse. But what words could possibly stop Su Min, when she looked like that?
Calm. Absolute. Unmoved.
And behind that calm, a flicker of something else. A terrifying gleam in her eyes, unreadable, as she turned back to gaze into the endless void.
A breath later, Xie Yingying's hand dropped to her side, her fingers trembling.
She knew Su Min wasn't speaking in metaphor. She meant it literally. She intended to reshape the very structure of this cursed realm itself, to force order upon primordial chaos.
But to do so, she'd have to dive deeper into corruption than anyone ever had, to become one with the very darkness she sought to cleanse.
And Xie Yingying couldn't go with her. Not this time.
She looked away, her jaw tight, her eyes glistening with a sheen of helpless tears she wouldn't let fall in front of anyone else. She'd always known, in the depths of her soul, that Su Min walked a different, lonelier path. But knowing that truth didn't soften the ache, the fear of being left behind.
Legends said that when the world was first born from the primordial egg, the clear, light qi rose to form the countless universes and stars, while the turbid, heavy qi sank into the deepest abyss, congealing into a single, vast entity.
But while the clear qi fragmented into many separate, beautiful worlds, the turbid qi remained as one, a unified, monstrous whole.
That was why the Dark Clan was so powerful, and why they refused to remain in the depths, seeking instead to reclaim the clear qi, to unmake the separation.
But their very existence, their fundamental nature, clashed with the clear worlds. Wherever they stepped, corruption followed, a blight upon reality itself. And Su Min was now going to face that blight alone.
===
~(˘▾˘~) Everybody knew (~˘▾˘)~