"The improvement is quite substantial," Su Min murmured to herself, flexing her fingers and feeling the potent energy coursing through her veins. "I originally thought there wouldn't be noticeable progress during my Mahayana stage, that the gains would be incremental."
Feeling the profound changes in her body, she was slightly surprised. The comprehensive refining furnaces within her, the complex systems that constituted her Chaos Body, were so powerful and efficient that she had assumed minor realm advancements would bring only limited gains.
But she was wrong. Her spiritual sea had expanded, her physical strength had increased, and her connection to the fundamental laws felt sharper. Her combat power had increased significantly. If she reached the late-stage Mahayana, she would truly be qualified to face so-called immortals on equal footing, something that had seemed a distant dream not long ago.
As for the special Transcendence stage, that transitional realm between mortal and immortal, she might just skip it entirely. The Transcendence stage had no subdivisions like early, middle, or late phases. It was a single, preparatory state. With sufficient accumulation and a body as unique as hers, one could theoretically leap past it directly into the Immortal Ascension Realm.
"Time to check the situation outside," she thought, shaking off her musings. "After all, this is their territory, not ours. Every moment we delay is a risk."
With that thought, she quietly emerged from her secluded spot and quickly arrived at the pre-arranged gathering point. The oppressive, heavy atmosphere there immediately struck her as unusual. The cultivators weren't just resting, they were tense, their auras coiled tight like springs.
"What happened?" Su Min asked, her voice cutting through the grim silence.
Seeing the grim expressions, her own curiosity was piqued, but it was quickly followed by a spike of wariness.
"You're reached the Mahayana middle stage?" Tian Hao's face finally showed a hint of relief upon noticing the subtle yet undeniable shift in Su Min's aura. This was the only piece of good news they had. Su Min was their absolute core, their linchpin.
But his expression soon darkened again as he returned to the pressing issue. "The warden acted decisively. He abandoned two of the outer altars and gathered the remaining three half-immortals together in the final fortress. Now we don't dare approach it. Their combined spiritual sense would detect us from too far away."
"Damn it," Su Min couldn't help but curse under her breath. This turtle-shell tactic was indeed frustrating. In one-on-one battles, she was confident she could kill them all, given time and the right circumstances. But one against three? That was no joke. The pressure would be immense, though for now, it was just theoretical pressure.
"Let's act. Dragging this out is meaningless," Su Min stated, her mind already working through strategies. "But we can't fight them inside the fortress. If all three have trump cards like the last guy, some large-scale sacrificial technique, we're truly outmatched. We'd be annihilated."
Su Min quickly set her primary goal, they had to avoid fighting them in their fortified stronghold. Otherwise, she would die, and their mission would fail. Luring them out into the open would prevent them from instantly draining the lifeblood of the entire fortress's population to power a single, devastating attack.
Of course, if they truly turtled up and refused to leave their defenses, she had no immediate solution. A direct assault on a fortress manned by three Half-Immortals was suicide.
"Hmm." Seeing Su Min's furrowed brow, yet hearing the determination in her voice, Tian Hao understood she had considerable confidence in facing them in the open. While he was continually amazed by her seemingly bottomless strength, he also felt a measure of reassurance. They weren't completely without hope.
"This time, we'll feign an attack on their fortress," Tian Hao began, laying out the plan he had discussed with the others. "Given their inherently arrogant nature, they'll definitely come out to swat what they see as flies. They won't be able to resist."
"I won't engage directly at first this time. I'll stay hidden," Su Min stated her part of the plan upfront. "If all three rush out together, I'll ambush them from the shadows, aiming to kill or at least severely injure one first. Reducing their numbers is our top priority." Facing three half-immortals at once was genuinely daunting, even for her. Unbeknownst to her, the others already saw her as a monster for even considering it. A Mahayana cultivator, mid-stage at that, planning to fight three near-Transcendence opponents was unheard of in any of their experiences.
Regardless, they had no path of retreat. The passage back to their home universe was impassable for them now, and the current fragile peace existed only because the warden remained deep inside the core, presumably unable to leave his post. Once he finished his tasks, his true immortal strength would sweep through this dimension and annihilate them all. No hiding spot would save them. Since death was inevitable either way, they might as well fight on their own terms.
As for their enemies, they would certainly engage. Born from turbid energy, these cultivators weren't as completely deranged as the mindless ones from the Dark Continent, but they were far from benevolent. Arrogance and a belief in their inherent superiority were their defining traits. They would emerge.
"Understood!!!" the group responded, their voices a unified, determined growl.
—
Meanwhile, inside the final, heavily fortified fortress, three powerful figures drank and grumbled in a lavishly decorated chamber, their frustration palpable.
"Disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful," one of them, a burly man with a bestial aura, slammed his cup down. "And how did that fool Yan Ji die out there? Why did the warden issue such cowardly orders?"
"That guy was always lazy, obsessed with draining lifeblood for quick power," a second, thinner man with sharp features sneered. "Probably fried his own brain with one of his experiments. But abandoning two altars on a mere suspicion? It's sheer humiliation!"
"If those pests dare to come here, I'll tear them apart limb from limb," the third, a woman with cold, reptilian eyes, hissed. "Just remnants from worlds we've already turned into fertilizer. Nothing to fear."
"Hahaha..." Soon, the three were laughing and drinking together, their bravado filling the room. But despite their loud boasts, they weren't complete fools. They recognized the potential threat, which was why they had consolidated. They wouldn't venture out alone. They might struggle one-on-one against this unknown enemy, but three against one? Even the legendary emperors of those conquered universes would perish before such combined might.
The Burial Ground was like this, overflowing with terrifying experts. But they were often constrained by cosmic rules, unable to deploy excessive force into other universes directly. Typically, they'd open a small rift and occasionally send in a single half-immortal as a vanguard. If the half-immortals succeeded, good. If not, they'd still corrupt the universe slowly. Given enough time, every universe would fall. Thus, many cosmic Daos had triggered eras of spiritual decline to suppress the influx of turbid energy, a defensive mechanism. But this approach had a major flaw, it also severely weakened the universe's native powerhouses, making them even more vulnerable in the long run.
BOOM!!!
Amid their revelry, a colossal explosion shook the very foundations of the fortress. For Mahayana cultivators, destroying planets was trivial. Naturally, their fortress was far sturdier, its walls inscribed with powerful formations, and it remained largely unscathed. But the violent tremor and the blatant provocation still enraged the trio.
"A mere late-stage Mahayana dares this? They're really here," the burly man snarled, his eyes flashing with fury.
Exchanging a quick glance, a silent agreement passed between them. The three vanished from the room in streaks of dark light. Though cautious about venturing out alone, they felt utterly invincible together. Almost instantly, both Tian Hao, who was leading the feint attack, and the hidden Su Min, were stunned. The three Half-Immortals shot out recklessly, radiating boundless fury and a crushing pressure directly toward the attack's origin.
"They just left their stronghold? Just like that? Without even bringing any subordinates?" This outcome surprised both Su Min and Tian Hao. Their original, more complex plan had involved prolonged provocations, attacks spanning days, even months, to gradually lure the enemies out while minimizing their own casualties. But all that meticulous preparation proved unnecessary. The trio had charged out immediately, driven by pure arrogance.
"Proceed as planned," Su Min's voice whispered into Tian Hao's mind via a spiritual thread.
Though their extensive efforts seemed wasted, they didn't dwell on it. With a simple, pre-arranged signal, the scattered Mahayana cultivators began to regroup, drawing the enemy's attention.
"Hahaha, look at these ants, they actually gathered together," the burly elder laughed mockingly, his voice booming across the barren landscape. "Do they think a bunch of mere Mahayana cultivators can oppose us, who stand at immortality's very threshold? I'll crush them all!" He raised a clawed hand, and a massive, spectral ghostly claw materialized in the sky, poised to crush the gathered cultivators below. In his eyes, this single strike might not kill them all, but the weaker early-stage Mahayana would surely perish.
"Old man, that's unfair, save some for us," the other two complained half-heartedly, though their eyes gleamed with equal bloodthirst. Trapped in the monotony of the Nether Prison with few chances for real slaughter, they craved this violent release. These insects would learn the true meaning of disparity.
"Now!!!" Su Min's eyes flashed with cold light.
In an instant, she appeared directly behind the lead attacker, her presence previously completely undetectable. She didn't hesitate, striking out with a palm that seemed to contain a swirling microcosm of black and white energy.
"Chaos Annihilation Palm!"
The palm, deceptively simple in appearance, slammed squarely into the unprepared half-immortal's back. There was a sickening sound.
SPLAT
The man's upper body exploded into a cloud of bloody mist. At the Mahayana middle stage and with the element of surprise and full preparation, Su Min's strike was nearly all-out, though she kept a fraction of her power in reserve to account for potential immediate counterattacks. The results spoke for themselves. Though half-immortals weren't easily killed, their souls and vitality incredibly tenacious, the victim barely managed to reconstitute his body a second later, his new form pale and translucent as he rapidly retreated to his companions' side.
All three now stared at Su Min like she was a ghost that had materialized from their worst nightmares. The injured elder barely clung to life, the chaotic, corrosive energy she had implanted ravaging his body from within as black blood streamed continuously from his mouth and the cracks in his newly formed flesh.
"Impossible... You're only at the Mahayana middle stage? Was it you... did you kill Yan Ji?" their shock was understandable, their arrogance shattered in an instant. How had a Mahayana mid-stage cultivator bypassed their combined spiritual senses so completely?
But regrets were pointless now. They sorely missed not bringing their Mahayana subordinates. They'd left all their forces back in the fortress to guard against potential infiltrators while they hunted the pests outside. They had thought, at worst, they'd return later to mop up any stragglers. But now? A single Mahayana cultivator had ambushed them, one who was clearly capable of slaying any of them solo. Most baffling to them was how their vast combat experience, which rivaled that of universe emperors, had failed them so utterly against one single strike.
"Yan Ji? It doesn't matter now," Su Min smiled indifferently, her stance relaxed but ready. "But yes, I'm your culprit. That wounded one is yours," she said, glancing towards Tian Hao and the others. "I'll handle the rest."
The plan had succeeded beyond expectations. She had prepared herself mentally for the daunting task of one against three, but with the enemy's reinforcements absent, the odds had improved dramatically. The injured half-immortal, plagued by the persistent chaotic energy, could be worn down and eventually killed by the large group of Mahayana experts led by Tian Hao. Given enough time, he would fall.
That left two for Su Min to deal with alone.
"He Zhi, Wen Bi, attack! Don't hold back!" the injured elder cursed, retreating further behind his comrades. In his severely weakened state, he could only hope to cover them against interference from the other Mahayana cultivators.
"Tiger-Crane Unity!" the remaining two, He Zhi and Wen Bi, exchanged a single glance, their movements becoming perfectly synchronized. Hailing from the Burial Ground's prestigious Tiger and Crane Clans, lineages so ancient they had once birthed immortal 'Kings', their paired techniques unleashed a terrifying synergy that was more than the sum of its parts.
They were childhood friends who had cultivated together since the body refining stage. They had slain Foundation Establishment experts while they themselves were only at Qi Refining, and had famously killed a Mahayana expert when they were only at the Unity middle stage, a feat that had shocked countless observers in their home realm.
This was precisely why Su Min hadn't chosen to ambush one of them first. Their seamless coordination was evident even in their casual stances, unlike the more reckless and isolated elder she had struck. With no clear opening for a surprise attack on them, she'd opted for the safer approach of weakening the group as a whole, which had successfully reduced the enemy's effective numbers.
But her challenges were far from over. As the duo moved, an eerie and spectacular illusion unfolded around them, a towering spectral tiger with a majestic, sharp-beaked crane perched effortlessly on its back, their auras merging into a single, oppressive force.
"Just my luck, another freakish combo," Su Min sighed internally, recalling the last time she'd faced such perfectly synergistic opponents. In certain cultivation worlds, this would be called a fusion technique. With their combined cultivation base pressuring hers, the pressure was real and immense.
She had no choice but to get serious. Su Min's hands blurred through a series of complex, ancient seals.
"Chaos Embodiment!!!"
Instantly, a colossal, semi-transparent figure enveloped her, a manifestation of pure chaotic power that towered over the landscape. Since becoming a Chaos Body, her Dharma Form had transformed entirely, merging seamlessly with her Heaven-Earth Manifestation into this new, ultimate form. Though less explosively destructive than the all-consuming Chaos Azure Lotus, its energy cost was far lower and its durability immense. Against two unknown foes with perfect coordination, a prolonged battle of attrition was the ideal, if difficult, strategy.