A low, guttural sound rumbled in the core of the absolute darkness. The True Immortal's gaze was locked onto the pill, his eyes burning with a hunger that was both ancient and profound. For a being like him, even now, it represented a significant supplement, a concentrated burst of power. But it was maddeningly out of reach. He knew, with a certainty that grated on his very soul, that Su Min was fishing. She was doing this on purpose.
She was deliberately trying to provoke him into making a move. It was a simple, brutal calculus. As long as she survived his attack, that guy, meaning him, would undoubtedly die. But to charge in now and fight a True Immortal to the death was an unnecessary risk, a foolish gamble.
To become a True Immortal, one had to transcend the Transcendence Stage and step fully into the Immortal Ascension Realm. Her Chaos Body wasn't yet complete, a rough and unpolished gem. Her cultivation was only at the early Mahayana Stage. These were absolute shortcomings, gaps in her power that she couldn't afford to ignore. There was simply no way for her to confront him head-on, not yet.
Of course, if the opponent were a crippled immortal, that would be a completely different story. She would charge in without a single moment of hesitation. But for now, she could only wait, biding her time with an infuriating patience. After all, she had already killed all his vital sources of nourishment, severing his avenues for a quick recovery. She had him cornered, and they both knew it.
The clear qi rose, while the turbid qi sank. This was the fundamental law. The clear qi formed the myriad realms of heaven, and the turbid qi became the Burial Earth and Nether Lands.
"It seems he's still holding back," she murmured to herself. "But this pill alone isn't enough to reach the mid Mahayana Stage." After a moment of quiet contemplation, Su Min decisively vanished from her position above the Dark Continent. With her heightened perception, she could naturally evade his gaze with ease. So she needed to find a secluded place, a hidden corner, to slowly and safely refine the pill.
Soon, she disappeared completely from his senses, only to reappear in a concealed location far from prying eyes. Then, looking at the pulsating pill in her hand, she swallowed it without a second thought. Almost immediately, a violent and untamed surge of energy erupted within her body, a raging river of power accompanied by thick, cloying waves of turbid qi.
"If Yao Xian'er or the others had taken this pill, they'd probably be instantly corrupted by this turbid qi and go completely mad," she thought, her voice a soft whisper in the stillness. Feeling the tumultuous changes rippling through her body, Su Min began the meticulous work of converting everything, every last drop of energy, into her own power. A ninth-grade pill was entirely different from an eighth-grade one. They weren't even in the same category. The gulf between them was vast. Even for someone like Su Min, it would take a long, long time to fully refine it.
On the other side, the True Immortal's expression darkened, his features twisting into a mask of grim frustration. He realized he was trapped in a dead end, a checkmate of his own making. There was absolutely no way for him to kill Su Min now. The chilling thought echoed in his mind, if she reached perfection, her very existence would spell absolute despair for the entire Burial Earth and Nether Lands.
If she sat at the end of the passageway, a final, unbreachable guardian, they would never be able to set foot in this world again. What was even more terrifying about the Chaos Body was that it wasn't bound by the limits of a single world. It could grow infinitely, without any apparent ceiling.
Of course, if it were just an ordinary Chaos Body, they could simply retreat and wait it out. But history was a harsh teacher. In ancient times, a Chaos Body had once appeared in one of the countless universes. That person had single-handedly charged into the Burial Earth and Nether Lands, a force of nature causing the collapse of the Nine Heavens and the deaths of countless experts.
But in the end, they had found a way. They sacrificed dozens of their own to cast the Decay Curse, a forbidden technique so potent it could rapidly age even an immortal. The cost of using it was immense, a scar upon their very civilization. The result was that the Burial Earth and Nether Lands had lost nearly all their top experts and still hadn't fully recovered from that devastating blow. Meanwhile, that legendary Chaos Body had slaughtered as many as possible before finally succumbing to age and death, worn away by the relentless curse.
So once they had somewhat recovered, their first act was to place a heavenly curse upon the myriad realms. From then on, no more Chaos Bodies appeared. They thought they could rest easy after that. True Immortals, with their infinite lifespans, were ultimately beings that defied the heavens. After the myriad realms dispersed, they couldn't no longer gather the tribulation necessary to ascend.
But the Burial Earth and Nether Lands hadn't completely scattered. They could still ascend to immortality when necessary. Normally, even if another Chaos Body appeared by some accident, they could use the same method to kill it before it had a chance to wreak havoc like the last one.
But then they received a message, a dire warning from a supreme expert peering into the future. The message was clear, that method had failed. That's what terrified them the most, the core of their dread. The clear and turbid qi had originally coexisted without conflict, maintaining the balance of all things. But they wanted to go further, to tip the scales entirely, and that meant disrupting the natural order itself.
"I must take action," the True Immortal resolved, his voice a low growl in the darkness. "If that person reaches perfection, it'll mean absolute despair. I have no choice." Feeling Su Min's complete disappearance and the slow, steady shrinking of the dark region, he knew the time for hesitation was over. If he was going to die either way, he might as well gamble everything. With that grim thought, he gripped his Black Sun, the source of his power, and slowly walked toward the deepest part of his domain.
Soon, he arrived before the hollow space where he resided. From his unique perspective, he could see the chaotic and violently unstable energy swirling within. It was a tomb of sorts. Back then, seven of them had entered this place together. Now, he was the only one left. The others had died, expending their very essence to ensure he could reach this point. As immortals, they had exhausted all their energy before perishing, leaving behind this hollow space filled with terrifyingly violent power.
"I'll open the passage to the Nether Prison and release the beings inside to invade this world," he declared, his decision made. They had invaded countless worlds and captured countless experts over the eons. So they had built a special space, a prison closer to the myriad universes, to hold those captured experts.
In times of dire need, they could open it and unleash the trapped experts. Of course, those experts had long been completely corrupted by the turbid qi, their minds eroded into nothing but rage and hunger. Once released, they'd slaughter indiscriminately, friend or foe alike. He planned to unleash them upon this world for a grand massacre. But connecting the two worlds came at a great cost, one he could barely afford now. There was another, more strategic reason. Doing this would alert the others, the rest of his kind.
Once the passage here was restored, they'd spare no effort to devour this world. No matter how powerful that woman was, how many of the countless Mahayana Stage madmen could she possibly stop? The numbers would be overwhelming.
"Haah..." A long, weary sigh escaped him. With that, he slowly closed his eyes and began to merge his consciousness completely with the Black Sun.
"Boundless Burial Earth, infinite Nether Lands. Ten thousand souls return to one, calamity bars the way home." Then, his physical figure vanished completely, and the Black Sun turned a deep, ominous blood-red.
—
Meanwhile, in her hidden refuge, Su Min slowly opened her eyes and looked down at her body. She raised her hand slightly, turning it over in the dim light. She saw something coalescing in her palm, a murky, shifting aura. She could now wield dark energy, truly wield it as her own.
"Still not enough," she whispered to the silence. "Far from it."
Feeling her internal condition, Su Min shook her head slowly. The Chaos Body was divided into Innate Chaos and Acquired Chaos. The two had similar ultimate limits but many crucial differences.
The Innate Chaos Body was complete from the very moment of birth, with balanced clear and turbid qi from the start. It could grow steadily with normal cultivation, a natural and harmonious progression.
But the Acquired Chaos Body was different. Before reaching this state, she couldn't harmonize with the turbid qi at all. It was alien and hostile. Now, her clear qi was complete and refined, but the missing turbid qi wasn't so easily replenished. It required a staggering amount.
"The effect of this pill..." Su Min frowned, a line of concentration appearing on her brow.
This pill wasn't primarily meant to boost cultivation. Its purpose was to flood her system with raw turbid qi. Ninth-grade pills had no fixed effects. Their properties depended on the local energy tides and the specific conditions during their refinement. When Su Min refined this particular pill, she'd gathered an overwhelming amount of dark energy from the environment, so its primary effect was to supply her with vast, concentrated amounts of it.
As for actual cultivation progress, the gain was even less than she'd expected. It was disappointing.
"This is a big problem..." She massaged her temples, feeling a faint headache coming on. The sheer volume of dark energy she needed to achieve balance was terrifying, almost unimaginable.
But then, she froze, her body going still.
"Huh?"
A communication device tucked away on her person had just buzzed softly. It was a message from Tian Hao.
"What's he up to now?" she wondered.
Under normal circumstances, Su Min would've found him a bit exasperating, with his relentless drive and seemingly endless luck. He was the standard protagonist template, the kind fate seemed to favor. But fortunately, they had no real conflicts between them. Now that she had the Chaos Body, her path was her own, and she wouldn't clash with anyone over trivial matters. The so-called coveted quota for the Transcendence Stage had nothing to do with her anymore.
"I didn't see him in the last wave of battles. Where did he run off to?" she mused. "If I had to guess, he might've been in some location that was completely unreachable."
Muttering to herself, Su Min vanished from her secluded spot, leaving the dark region in an instant. Even if she wasn't here personally, she knew nothing major would happen in her absence. That guy, the True Immortal, wouldn't recover his strength for thousands of years. A thousand years was nothing to her, a mere blink in her now endless lifespan. She wasn't in a hurry.
But soon, her eyebrow twitched in surprise.
When she saw Tian Hao, his entire body was shrouded in a thick, clinging cloak of dark energy. His cultivation had also reached the early Mahayana Stage, the same as hers. She wasn't particularly surprised by his progress. After all, Xie Yingying had stayed behind to guard her home, so she hadn't gone out seeking opportunities and breakthroughs like Tian Hao had.
"What's going on with you?" Su Min narrowed her eyes at him, her gaze sharp and assessing.
But she didn't attack. She could see that, like her, his soul was unharmed and clear despite the dark energy swirling around him. He hadn't gone mad like Jiang Xi had. His eyes held a focused, if somewhat strained, clarity.
"I fused with the dark energy," Tian Hao explained, his voice steady. "It took me a hundred years to fully harmonize with the turbid qi. And you're the same, aren't you? Your dark energy's even denser and more controlled than mine."
"Mhm," Su Min grunted in acknowledgment. She didn't elaborate further, but she had to silently admit, this guy was genuinely impressive. She had only achieved this balance after attaining the complete Chaos Body, but he had somehow managed to forcibly fuse with the turbid qi, making it his own through sheer willpower.
"Over the past few centuries, I entered a special zone," he continued. "It was filled with countless insane experts, including Unity Stage and even Mahayana Stage cultivators. I merged with the turbid qi and, in the process, managed to free many of them from their corruption."
"Huh?" Su Min was taken aback. Had he actually absorbed the turbid qi from those people? That was a reckless, dangerous method.
"Exactly. All the turbid qi in me came from them. That space was absolutely filled with it. We call it the Nether Prison. And inside, there's a terrifying entity known as the Warden."
"What, like World of Warcraft?" Su Min couldn't help but mutter under her breath. The name and the setup felt strangely familiar. The Nether Prison was clearly related to those guys from the Burial Earth and Nether Lands.
"Why are you looking for me?" she asked, getting back to the point. "If it can imprison Unity Stage and Mahayana Stage experts, that Warden must be at least at the Transcendence Stage, or possibly..." Her eyes narrowed again as the implication settled in. Tian Hao understood her meaning immediately.
"An immortal," he confirmed.
"Right. At our current level, fighting an immortal's practically suicide." This was Su Min's main concern. She was still deeply wary of the True Immortal lurking deep in the darkness. Provoking another one seemed like a terrible idea.
"We don't have to fight him directly," Tian Hao countered. "Right now, they seem to be in some kind of trouble. The Warden's entered the core depths of the prison, and last year..." Tian Hao's eyes flickered, a shadow passing over his face as if he was recalling something deeply unpleasant.
"What happened last year?" Su Min pressed.
"Someone tried to open a passage to the Nether Prison from the outside, a forced connection meant to release all those madmen into our world."
"!!!"
Su Min stiffened, a cold realization washing over her.
She understood instantly. The only reason someone would act so desperately, so recklessly, was probably because of her. Her rapid growth and her Chaos Body had likely pushed the True Immortal into this desperate move. She was, without a doubt, the cause.
"What do you want me to do?" she asked, her voice low and serious.
She still didn't dare enter the prison herself. There was another problem nagging at her. She didn't know if this was a trap, a lure designed specifically for her.
"Come with me to the Nether Prison," Tian Hao urged. "I've managed to save many people there, to shield them from the corruption."
"Where did these people come from?" Su Min was surprised and looked at him with renewed interest.
"They're from other worlds, other universes. Those tainted by the turbid qi age very slowly inside the Nether Prison. Some Unity Stage experts can live up to twenty thousand years there, and some Mahayana Stage experts gain an extra ten or twenty thousand years of life. But more importantly, this prison world's vast, unimaginably so. It's not just connected to our universe. It holds captives from everywhere."
"Oh?" Su Min blinked, processing this information. She wasn't too shocked by the concept of multiple worlds, but the scale was impressive. Still, she followed Tian Hao as he led the way inside, though she kept her guard up, her senses alert for any sign of betrayal. Soon, they arrived in a place filled with black-red flames that licked at the air, where the dark energy was even denser and more oppressive than in the Dark Starry Sky.
"You didn't go mad in a place like this?" she asked, genuinely curious. "And it feels... comfortable to you?"
Taking a deep breath, Su Min instinctively began devouring the surrounding dark energy. In an instant, she purified an entire area around her, drawing the murky power into herself and refining it into pure, balanced force.
Tian Hao's eyes widened in shock as he watched the dark energy simply dissolve around her, cleansed by her mere presence.