Facing the overwhelming pressure of the Dark Clan, every universe in existence would tremble under the strain.
"Alright then."
Su Min's quiet voice carried across the ruined void, calm and steady even in the face of cosmic corruption. It was neither cold nor forceful, yet it brooked no refusal, a simple statement of fact that settled over the battlefield.
The others exchanged uneasy looks. Even Xie Yingying hesitated, her fingers twitching faintly at her side, a silent protest.
To be honest, even Tian Yang, with his near hundred lifetimes of accumulated experience, couldn't fully comprehend Su Min's current state. This was a realm beyond the Five Great Physiques, a state of being that no one had ever reached or documented before.
Moreover, she was actually able to absorb raw dark matter like this, something that would drive any other cultivator instantly mad. He refused to believe that Su Min was someone who'd lose her mind for power. If that wasn't the case, then she must have her own profound plans, ones they couldn't yet fathom.
Everyone was injured to varying degrees. The brutal, prolonged battles had left them spiritually drained, their foundations cracked, their souls stretched thin. So when Su Min gave them leave to retreat, no one argued, the need for recovery was too great.
In the blink of an eye, the battlefield cleared as cultivators vanished through spatial rips back to the Heavenly Palace. Only Su Min, Yao Xian'er, and a stubborn Xie Yingying remained in the dark, churning space.
Yao Xian'er hovered nearby, arms crossed over her chest, her golden eyes flickering with a mix of wariness and something akin to awed respect.
Xie Yingying, on the other hand, stood completely still, rooted to the spot. Her body trembled almost imperceptibly, whether from sheer exhaustion or something deeper, even she didn't know.
She didn't want to go. The words were a knot in her throat.
"What're you planning to do?" she asked finally, her voice low and tight.
Su Min didn't look up. Her hands moved in a flowing, practiced gesture, pulling chaotic strands of dark essence from the void and weaving them into the shape of a massive, intricate alchemy furnace.
"I'm going to refine a Grade Nine Dark Pill," she said, her focus entirely on the forming construct. "Once complete, it'll allow me to absorb the dark substance of this universe faster, and far more efficiently."
Xie Yingying stared at her, the words not quite computing. "That's insane," she whispered, aghast.
Yao Xian'er snorted lightly from the side. "Ruthless is more like it. This universe has only ever grown larger, more chaotic with each passing epoch. And now, you're planning to force it to shrink, to reverse its very nature."
If she weren't still limping from her injuries and weighed down by the residual suppression of the black sun, Yao Xian'er might have thrown a punch for old time's sake. But even she had to admit, if Su Min could truly reverse this cosmic corruption, she'd single handedly change the fate of countless worlds and trillions of lives.
"If we had managed to lure those dark beasts into a specific place to die back then, things might've been simpler," Yao Xian'er added with a sigh. "Too bad the price for that plan was always too high."
"Enough," Su Min said gently but firmly, finally glancing at them. "You've done enough. Leave the rest to me."
"You're really staying here alone."
The words weren't a question from Xie Yingying, but a hollow statement of fact.
Xie Yingying's fists curled tightly at her sides. She wanted to argue, to step forward and declare she would remain too. But her cultivation was unstable, her soul still trembling from the last spiritual impact. She'd only slow Su Min down, be a liability, and that knowledge burned like acid.
She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.
Then a cool, steady hand wrapped around her wrist.
"Let us go," Jiang Xi said softly, having landed beside her with a tired, resigned expression. Her eyes flicked to Su Min, then back to Xie Yingying, full of unspoken understanding.
"We can't help her right now. If we stay, we're just giving her more to worry about, another chain."
"I—"
Xie Yingying glanced back one more time.
Su Min stood there, already beginning the intricate preparation for the pill refinement, her silhouette framed by writhing strands of dark essence and floating shards of collapsed space. She looked utterly calm. Completely composed. And entirely, terrifyingly untouchable.
Something in Xie Yingying's chest twisted into a painful knot.
There was a quiet, gnawing fear, one she hadn't spoken aloud to anyone.
That this growing distance wasn't temporary. That Su Min was moving beyond them, beyond her, into a realm they couldn't follow.
And that someday soon, she might never be able to catch up to her again.
"Let us go," Jiang Xi said, more firmly this time, giving her wrist a slight pull.
Xie Yingying didn't resist. Not outwardly. But as the two of them ascended together into the void and vanished into a retreating streak of silver light, her heart, her soul, was still facing the woman below.
And she didn't look away.
Not until the churning darkness swallowed Su Min completely from view.
As they left, the dark tides of the universe, held at bay by Su Min's presence, surged forward again, and Su Min closed her eyes, embracing the incoming corruption.
The others had retreated to safety.
Now it was her turn to shape the darkness to her will.
"First, deal with the remaining four Mahayana stage cultivators below. Then, it'll be my time to perform."
With that thought, Su Min looked down at the scarred surface of the Dark Continent. She intended to kill all the remaining Mahayana stage cultivators, completely cutting off that descended entity's hopes of a quick recovery.
Of course, even though her current strength had reached terrifying, unprecedented heights, she still wasn't absolutely confident in facing the true immortal who'd descended here. The gap in their raw cultivation was simply too vast. However, that being didn't dare leave the core region. What Su Min needed to do was simple, gradually compress the core region's territory, strangling its resources.
She was about to engage in a prolonged war of attrition with that thing. This wasn't something that could be resolved in a day or a year.
"This time, you won't be able to hide. Without your environmental advantage, what else do you have left?"
Sensing the entire Dark Continent with her immense soul power, Su Min revealed a faint, cold smile. After reaching the Mahayana stage, it was no exaggeration to say that her soul power had undergone another qualitative leap. Thanks to her earlier transformation into a Half Chaos Body, it'd reached a truly astonishing level.
In her current state, she was fully capable of refining the legendary Grade 9 Pills.
For a Grade 9 Alchemist, there was no such thing as a fixed pill formula. Even with the complete inheritance of the Medicine Buddha, she couldn't find a single ready made Grade 9 Pill recipe. But that didn't matter, an alchemist of this level was no longer constrained by formulas. They could create as they pleased, guided by intuition and profound understanding.
Thus, Su Min intended to refine a Dark Pill, using the filthy, corrupted energy of this universe as its foundation. This would allow her to rapidly deplete this world's corrupted spiritual energy while also accelerating her own path to perfection.
Once she reached true Perfection of the Chaos Body, she'd dare to face even that true immortal in direct battle.
"Then, let us start by eliminating you all. A Mid Mahayana cultivator, this time, let us see how far you can hide. Show yourself!"
In that instant, Su Min's figure vanished and reappeared above a massive, desolate tomb that stretched for miles. The Mid Mahayana cultivator, Old Man Withered Bones. He'd hidden his true core consciousness within this ancient, sprawling graveyard. It was said that he'd left countless skeleton avatars scattered across this continent. If he were killed, he'd simply revive in one of them. Thus, killing him permanently was nearly impossible. Though he was weaker than the thing in the desert, even the pragmatic Tian Yang hadn't chosen him as the final target due to the sheer hassle. But now, things were completely different for Su Min.
"Chaotic Karmic Seal!"
Without any hesitation, Su Min raised her hand, palm facing down. In the next moment, the entire graveyard was enveloped in an inky, swirling glow that seemed to drink the very light around it.
By merging the primordial forces of Yin Yang and the fundamental threads of Karma, she could theoretically seal all things in existence. No matter how many preparations he'd made, there was no way for him to escape this net now.
"Now, please die."
With that simple command, Su Min slammed her palm down. In an instant, the entire ancient graveyard, with all its tombs and hidden chambers, was obliterated into fine dust. Within the newly formed ruins, a withered, skeletal old man stared at her in sheer horror. He couldn't understand, how could a mere Early Mahayana stage cultivator severely injure his true body with a single, casual strike?
What terrified him even more was that he'd instantly lost all connection to his countless hidden skeleton avatars. This was his ultimate life saving trump card, a connection based on karma itself. Yet this woman had severed even karma. "Who is she?" his mind screamed.
Unfortunately, no one would answer his question. Because in the very next moment, Su Min struck again with that same calm expression, and he was utterly crushed, his body and soul disintegrating under the force.
His soul fragments were all gathered into a swirling orb in Su Min's hand. After using her spiritual force to shatter the chaotic memories within, she swallowed the pure energy whole. At this point, she didn't even need purification. She desperately needed these fragments to fuel her transformation.
"Next, it's your turn."
Glancing at the jade slip in her hand, which now had several more red dots extinguished, Su Min quickly locked onto her next target. Right now, she was an emotionless, efficient speedrunning machine. She'd clear the entire Dark Continent of its top threats in three days.
She'd kill all nine of the strongest beings here.
This continent had suffered long enough under their predatory rule. It was time to give its ordinary inhabitants a chance to breathe, to live without constant fear.
And so, she vanished once more into the distorted space.
In just three short, brutal days, all the Mahayana stage experts who'd lurked on the continent for millennia were dead. Su Min'd collected an enormous number of soul fragments, but unfortunately, it still wasn't enough for her to break through to the next stage.
After all, she'd shattered all the memories within them to avoid contamination, greatly diminishing their efficacy. Moreover, progressing through the Mahayana stage was incredibly difficult, each small step required immense accumulation. To advance further, she still needed significant external help.
So now, Su Min hovered at the very peak of the Dark Continent's atmosphere. With a wave of her hand, a massive cauldron formed from the pure essences of the five elements, metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, materialized before her, vast enough to cast a shadow over entire mountain ranges.
This time, she was going all out.
On the Dark Continent, all cultivators were driven by bloody, primal instincts, a result of their corrupted souls. In the past, during her travels, Su Min had helped a few of them, purifying their souls when they first awakened out of a faint hope. But all of them had one thing in common, while they no longer attacked their loved ones, they still ruthlessly devoured any stranger they encountered, viewing them as mere sustenance.
"If that's the case, then I have no reason to hold back any longer."
The next moment, the colossal elemental cauldron descended, its mouth opening to envelop the entire Dark Continent in a dome of shimmering energy. The ambient dark energy began rapidly condensing, drawn into the cauldron in a visible, frenzied torrent. But it wasn't just the ambient energy, even the dark power within the continent's cultivators was being forcibly extracted. Those who possessed soul fragments were instantly stripped of them, collapsing as their power was ripped away.
The unawakened ones, the ordinary people and low level cultivators, were spared, but the bloodthirsty dark cultivators were rapidly drained. In the blink of an eye, they withered into desiccated corpses, their life force consumed. The low level cultivators they'd been preying upon didn't even have time to turn on each other in the resulting power vacuum before meeting the same fate as the dark energy was scoured from the land.
In that single, cataclysmic moment, the war torn, fear ridden continent finally experienced a long lost, profound peace. At least while the colossal cauldron remained, they no longer had to fear being hunted by dark cultivators. Of course, these people were only a small part of the equation. Within a single month, the entire Dark Continent was completely cleansed of dark matter, the land itself seeming to sigh in relief.
The instant the corruption vanished, the Heavenly Dao's pure, radiant laws descended upon the land for the first time in eons.
Lush green plants sprouted across the barren, cracked earth, life returning with explosive vigor.
And for the first time in centuries, true cultivators emerged, not the corrupted ones, but those blessed by Heaven's Enlightenment, their auras pure and stable.
Su Min watched, a rare flicker of satisfaction in her eyes. At the very least, this continent had finally begun its natural cycle of life and death, free from the blight of darkness. Meanwhile, her massive, continuous absorption of dark energy had caused a fundamental reverse flow within the Dark Universe's energy matrix.
In less than a year, the Dark Universe's observable radius had shrunk by nearly a hundred kilometers. While this was insignificant compared to the universe's vast, immeasurable size, it was still a cause for celebration. For countless eons, the Dark Universe had only expanded, starting from a single corrupted planet and growing to its current, terrifying state. Now, for the first time in recorded history, it'd measurably shrunk.
Even if it was only a hundred kilometers, it was a monumental, symbolic change. Of course, the initial shrinkage was rapid because the outer layers of dark energy were thin and relatively easy to reclaim. But further progress would be far more difficult, the resistance from the concentrated core would be immense, perhaps even impossible to overcome fully.
Deep within the Dark Universe's core, the True Immortal glared in impotent rage. He'd seen everything Su Min had done through his spiritual sense, yet despite his fury, he was powerless to stop her. Su Min would love nothing more than for him to come out and fight her directly. If he did, as long as she didn't lose immediately, he'd inevitably die under the Heavenly Dao's tribulation.
So for now, he remained entrenched, a turtle in its shell, refusing to move.
But what frustrated him even more was another, more pressing problem,
Because of their forced, violent descent, the dimensional passageways connecting this lower world to the Immortal Realm were in complete chaos. If he tried to return now, he'd be annihilated the moment he left this world's protection. Worse, he couldn't even send back a single scrap of information to warn the others. This meant he had no choice but to kill Su Min himself, or all their sacrifice, the lives of nine other Immortals, would be for nothing.
Even the supreme entity sitting atop the River of Time in their home realm would be threatened if the Chaos Body fully manifested.
But he couldn't leave this place to hunt her.
All he could do was watch helplessly, fuming, as Su Min continued her systematic work, like a gardener patiently weeding a field.
Yes, she was compressing the Dark Universe's territory, but she couldn't threaten him directly yet, not in the core.
So for now, he waited, and festered, and plotted.
~
Time passed in a blur within the monotonous darkness.
Decades flew by in the blink of an eye, marked only by the gradual, agonizingly slow shrinkage of the dark frontier.
Then, on this unremarkable day,
A terrifying, concentrated aura enveloped the peak of the Dark Continent where Su Min had made her base.
A Grade 9 Pill was about to be born.
Unlike Grade 8 Pills, which summoned spectacular tribulation lightning, the birth of a Grade 9 Pill triggered a silent, immense energy tide that engulfed the entire region in a vortex of power.
No cultivator, no matter how strong, could interfere at this critical stage, the energies were too wild and fundamental.
Thus, every Grade 9 Pill's successful birth required perfect timing, an ideal location rich in energy, and a great deal of luck.
All the alchemist could do was lay the foundation and hope.
Su Min had spent ten full, uninterrupted years preparing for this single moment.
And now,
The energy tide erupted.
A visible torrent of multicolored power surged from all directions of the dark universe, pouring into the nascent pill floating within the dark energy furnace. Su Min quietly retreated to a safe distance. There was nothing more she could do. The pill would have to endure this final trial on its own. Even so, after a decade of focus, she couldn't help but feel a thread of nervousness.
Refining a Grade 9 Pill was incredibly difficult, this one single pill had taken her ten years of constant effort. And Grade 9 Pills were further classified into Gold, Silver, and Bronze tiers, with massive, qualitative gaps between them.
Moreover, Grade 9 Pills had complex, often unique effects. In ancient myths, there were legends of mortals consuming divine pills and ascending to immortality in a single day. While Grade 9 Pills weren't that powerful, they could allow an ordinary, talentless mortal to instantly reach the Divine Transformation stage, a feat normally requiring centuries.
Of course, no sane person would actually waste a precious Grade 9 Pill on a mere mortal.
Under Su Min's intense, watchful gaze, the energy tide raged, the very space around the furnace distorting,
Until finally, the energies coalesced and a single, bronze hued pill emerged, pulsating with latent power.
[Dark Great Recovery Pill (Grade 9 - Bronze Tier)]
The moment it fully formed, the pill didn't stay still. It shot into the air with a mind of its own,
And transformed into a ferocious, bestial monster, roaring defiantly at its creator with Mahayana stage power. This was another unique trait of Grade 9 Pills, their spiritual intelligence was so high that they were practically sentient beings. Even though Su Min had created it from nothing, the pill instinctively knew she intended to consume it, so it resisted with everything it had, its survival instinct overriding its origin.
After all, this pill contained vast amounts of condensed dark energy and purified soul fragments. An ordinary Mahayana cultivator wouldn't dare use it, and if it were released into the wild, it would inevitably become a calamity, a rampaging demonic entity.
"Early Mahayana strength is impressive for a newborn, but it's still far from enough against me."
Su Min smirked, a flash of amusement in her otherwise serene eyes,
Then she simply reached out and slapped the monstrous form with an open palm. The form shuddered, collapsed in on itself, and re condensed with a faint chime back into a simple, bronze pill, now docile and floating obediently before her. The battle was over before it truly began.