At this moment, the group of crippled immortals had their eyes locked intently onto the shimmering passage ahead, their bodies coiled with tension, each of them mentally preparing, itching to charge forward the moment the way cleared. Meanwhile, far away in her secluded chambers within the sect, Su Min, who had been peacefully refining her miniature world, suddenly opened her eyes. The spiritual energy around her stilled as her focus shifted outward.
"The energy storm's about to dissipate completely. Those bastards should be making their move soon."
Narrowing her eyes slightly, a cold, sharp trace of killing intent flickered deep within Su Min's pupils. It was a focused, predatory gleam. After leaving the Dark Domain, she had taken the precaution of leaving a sophisticated monitoring artifact behind, hidden near the dimensional rift. Now, as time passed, the violent energy disturbances left by the seven immortals who had forcibly descended were finally settling, smoothing out like a tempestuous sea calming after a storm.
With the powerful anchor mark they had placed upon her soul now in place, a spiritual brand she could feel like a cold splinter in her mind, those people would undoubtedly act. They wouldn't waste this opportunity. Sure enough, in the very next moment, three distinct, powerful auras materialized just outside her secluded spot, their presence pressing against her senses like mountains.
Yao Xian'er, Tian Yang, and Tian Hao. These three, along with Su Min herself, were universally acknowledged as the strongest pillars in this universe, the last line of defense.
The divine beasts, while powerful, were still far from fully matured. Even the little Golden Crow, for all her fiery pride, had only just reached the early Mahayana stage, so they weren't yet qualified to participate in a battle of this magnitude.
"Can you feel it? The spatial storm's about to vanish. When it does, new enemies will descend, and if we're not prepared, it'll be a catastrophe for us all." Yao Xian'er's expression was uncharacteristically grave this time. Her usual confident smirk was gone, replaced by a deep furrow in her brow. The last time, only a single true immortal had descended, and that had been trouble enough. But this time, the scale felt different. She was being extremely cautious, her every sense stretched taut.
Of course, if the invaders were just more crippled immortals, half stepped beings, there would be no need for such profound concern. But the feeling in the air suggested otherwise.
"No problem. But just in case, we should set up layered defenses at the edge of the Dark Universe. Even if a true immortal comes, I will make sure they stay here forever." As she spoke, a cold, confident smirk crossed Su Min's lips. She wasn't afraid even if full immortals came. At most, they were just immortals. Now that she had reached the late Mahayana stage and her Chaos Body had reached its long sought perfection, she felt a steady, thrumming power within her that banished fear. Moreover, this was her home turf, her world. She knew every flow of energy, every ley line.
She had already drained a significant amount of energy from the Dark Universe during her pill refinement, reducing its vast, oppressive size to less than half of what it once was. The dark energy was thinner, less corrupting. Even the Dark Continent had completely detached from the Dark Universe's core, and now, major sects, including ancient immortal sects, had settled there, building outposts and fortresses.
With so many top tier forces joining together, the Dark Continent was now full of a strange, resilient vitality. More importantly, because it was so close to the rift, it had become a forward outpost, the first line of sight for any invader. Thus, they had detected the spatial anomaly not long after Su Min herself had.
"What are you planning exactly? The number of enemies this time is likely substantial, and there might even be multiple true immortals among them. I already know about what happened in the Nether Prison. Even though you have reached the late Mahayana stage, the qualitative gap between a true immortal and a half immortal might not be as large as you think. It's a fundamental difference." Yao Xian'er's voice was low, her worry evident.
"Don't worry. If I had only progressed from mid Mahayana to late Mahayana, I wouldn't be this confident. But you have almost forgotten, my Chaos Body has reached perfection. It's no longer just a powerful physique, it's a state of being." Su Min smiled indifferently, her face full of a serene, unshakable confidence. Back then, the legendary Five Elements Emperor had slain a half immortal while at the late Mahayana stage. She was now far stronger, far more complete, than he had ever been.
Besides, the passage wasn't that large. Its unstable nature meant only one or two could come through at a time. It was a bottleneck. She just needed to block the entrance, to become the stopper in the bottle. Of course, they still needed to set up wide area defenses to contain the fallout.
The combined forces of the universe, all its sects and hidden experts working in concert, could probably hold off a single true immortal for a time, but any more than that would be impossible. Fortunately, the anchor mark wasn't perfectly stable, so sending even a single half immortal through reliably would already be difficult and costly for them.
But now, it seemed they had paid a heavy price to curse her and turn her into their anchor. That was the only explanation for the persistent mark on her soul. At least, that was Su Min's own speculation based on the information she had gathered and the feeling of the curse that had briefly washed over her.
"..."
Hearing her calm words, the three exchanged silent, weighted glances but said nothing more. None of them had ever seen a true, perfected Chaos Body before. It was a myth, a legend.
But even Su Min's previous, incomplete Chaos Body had been terrifyingly powerful, defying all known limits. Now that it was complete, it seemed to have undergone another profound transformation, something that settled her aura into an unnerving stillness, something beyond their expectations and understanding.
Soon, deep within the Dark Universe, the core area's dark energy had been almost completely stripped away due to Su Min's previous alchemy, the land now bleached and barren.
Thus, the moment those people descended, they would immediately face the direct suppression of this universe's Heavenly Dao. The laws here would reject them, weaken them. Here, Su Min held an absolute, home field advantage. Though, a small voice in her mind whispered that even without that advantage, she wouldn't be afraid.
"I can sense their numbers now. All of them are true immortals, and there are quite a few of them." Su Min narrowed her eyes as she assessed the situation, her gaze turning inward. This was not just her normal spiritual perception, no ordinary perception could penetrate the chaotic dimensional rift.
Instead, it was the unique, world sensing ability of the perfected Chaos Body to communicate directly with the world's will, allowing her to sense the approaching strength and numbers. But as soon as she spoke, the expressions of the other three changed dramatically, paling slightly.
Ten immortals. This was an unprecedented, overwhelming force. Were they planning to end everything in one decisive battle, swallowing the entire world in a single, devastating strike?
"No problem. Coordinate with the alliance and set up the final defenses. A great battle is coming, and I just hope the universe won't suffer too much collateral damage." Su Min paid no more attention to their worried expressions. Her mind was already made up. She planned to block the entrance herself and slaughter them one by one as they emerged. None of them would leave this world unscathed. If necessary, she might even charge into the rift itself to confront them. After all, as a favored child of the Heavenly Dao, the Chaos Body granted her the rare privilege of traversing world boundaries without the usual restrictions.
"Then be careful." Hearing the finality in her words, the three didn't know what else to say. Even Yao Xian'er, for all her power, had her limits. She could at best fight a single true immortal one on one and hope for a stalemate. But with ten of them coming, that was far beyond her capabilities. She could perhaps hold off two at most, and even that wasn't guaranteed, it would be a desperate, losing fight.
So now, everything truly depended on Su Min. As for Tian Yang and Tian Hao, they were even less capable in this arena, dealing with crippled immortals was already the limit of their effective combat power.
"Deploy all the Imperial Artifacts. Use them to form a massive, interlocking defensive array around the rift area. Just make sure they can't run wild and cause widespread destruction if they get past me." Su Min spoke calmly, as if discussing the weather. Imperial Artifacts were the precious embryos of future immortal tools. Only by bathing in enough immortal blood and soul energy could they advance further. Even in their current state, their combined power could still hold off an immortal for a short time, at least long enough to contain the battle. Among them, the Golden Crow Clan's strongest Imperial Artifact, the legendary Eastern Emperor Bell, was rumored to be the most effective against beings of dark energy.
"Then how should we divide the battle roles? Where do you want us?" Tian Hao asked, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.
"No need. I will handle it. All of it. Just make sure the battle's aftermath doesn't spread to the inhabited continents. And, hmm?!" At that moment, Su Min stretched lazily, her joints popping softly, her perfect curves on full display under her simple robes. She felt a bit rusty, like a blade that had been sheathed for too long. Ever since reaching the late Mahayana stage and perfecting her Chaos Body, she had not yet had a chance to fully unleash and test her new power. Now that these people were coming, it was a good opportunity, a live training exercise.
Seeing Su Min calmly take everything upon herself, the three exchanged surprised, almost disbelieving glances.
They knew her personality well, she was usually quite cautious, even paranoid. Even when she could crush her enemies outright, she often preferred roundabout, safer methods to minimize risk. So if she was displaying this level of blunt confidence now, it could only mean she had absolute certainty of victory. With that sobering thought in mind, they said nothing more and withdrew, moving to gather the strongest available experts to set up the defensive perimeter outside the rift zone.
They prepared to withstand the potential shockwaves from the clash of titans, using the artifacts to create a colossal, colosseum like space around the rift for Su Min, a designated killing zone.
"Feels nostalgic, somehow..." Looking at the shimmering, multi layered barriers forming around her, Su Min felt a twinge of nostalgia. It reminded her of much simpler times. Back during the Golden Core Avenue competitions and the grand Sect Tournaments, she had fought in similar, if much smaller and weaker, artificial arenas.
But as her power had grown exponentially, ordinary spatial treasures and formation barriers could no longer hope to contain her destructive force. Now, not even the incredibly stable landmasses of the Heavenly Continent or the Dark Continent could withstand her full powered attacks. A single casual strike from her could reduce an entire mountain region to dust and nothingness.
If she were to strike the Dark Continent with her full force, the entire landmass would tremble and crack. Even single Imperial Artifacts could not hope to block her full powered attacks. The current barrier was a patchwork formation woven from the combined power of nearly all the Imperial Artifacts the alliance could muster.
"They're coming, huh? Heh, some things never change." Su Min nearly laughed aloud, a sound devoid of humor. The passage before her suddenly erupted with fresh, chaotic energy fluctuations. But this time, it wasn't because they were resisting the last vestiges of the spatial storm. It was because they were fighting among themselves, their auras clashing violently even before they arrived.
Even at a critical time like this, they were still bickering and competing. It was almost comically predictable.
What Su Min didn't know was that the five royal families of the Burial Netherlands had always been at odds, their alliances shifting like sand. The ones she had fought before belonged largely to a single family, but if multiple families were forced to team up, they would be lucky not to start killing each other before even engaging the enemy.
To the five families, their relationship could be described, in stark religious terms, as mutual heresy. They each saw the others' methods and bloodlines as abominations. Especially now, when it involved the primordial essence of a universe's destruction. World essence was the ultimate treasure, the foundation of their families' power and expansion. Normally, each family would quietly target a different, weaker universe, reaping the benefits at their own pace without competition.
But this time, the five families had collectively paid too great a price against Su Min, forcing them to act together to recoup their losses. Hence, the current chaotic situation. Of course, while families like the Tiger and Crane could cooperate in joint attacks below the immortal level, that synergy became useless once they reached true immortality, their individual power too great to merge safely.
Moreover, there was only one source of world essence from this conquest, only one ultimate winner.
So under Su Min's exasperated gaze, they started fighting in earnest even before arriving, their conflict sending ripples through the fabric of the passage.
And judging by the increasingly violent energy fluctuations, they had already lost their tempers, old grudges boiling over.
The reality was not far off. Inside the unstable passage, a scene of chaos unfolded.
"Tiger Family!!! You dare?!" A furious roar echoed as two figures clad in bestial aura clashed with full force, their blows meant to kill. In an instant, a terrifying shockwave rippled through the narrow passage, straining its integrity, neither side willing to yield an inch.
"Be careful, you fools! If you trigger a full energy backlash, we'll all die here, our souls scattered to the void!" But before the speaker, a man from the Serpent Clan, could finish his warning, someone from the Crane Family stabbed him from behind with a sharp beak like energy projection, making him cough up a spray of black blood.
"Should I just let them fight it out? No. I can't rely solely on the enemy's infighting. Once they snap out of it and remember their common goal, they will still gang up on me. So..." In that instant, Su Min's expression hardened. She slowly drew her weapon, the Chaos Sword, from its sheath at her waist. The blade, now dark and profound, hummed with contained power. After melting down that immortal artifact and reforging it with her Chaos Flames, her sword had reached the peak level of an Imperial Artifact, even surpassing ordinary ones. It was now a peerless treasure, on par with the legendary Eastern Emperor Bell itself.
"Bastards!!!" The next moment, another enraged roar rang out from the passage. A bloodied figure, covered in fresh wounds and missing an arm, rushed out of the swirling energy of the passage, then immediately turned and slapped the person behind him with his remaining hand, a concentrated blast of dark power sending his pursuer flying back into the chaotic rift.
But before the bloodied immortal could even smirk in savage satisfaction, his face froze into a mask of shock and pain.
A sword, simple and dark, had already pierced straight through his chest from behind. And the terrifying, corrosive Chaos Qi contained within it instantly flooded his body, annihilating all his vitality, severing his connection to the world.
"You, it's you?" At the last moment of his consciousness, the immortal stiffly turned his head, his eyes widening in profound shock. The person behind him was only at the late Mahayana stage. Even if he was injured and depleted, a normal late Mahayana cultivator shouldn't have been able to kill him so effortlessly, to bypass all his immortal defenses. Then, as if remembering the intelligence reports, his expression slowly slackened into one of horrified understanding.
"These old bastards really, their information was fatally flawed..." Su Min muttered under her breath as she watched the light fade from his eyes. Seeing how easily she had killed this immortal, thanks to her perfect sneak attack and the all consuming nature of her Chaos Qi severing his life force, her own expression darkened thoughtfully. Despite his miserable, bloodied appearance, his internal injuries were actually relatively minor. They hadn't even started fighting seriously yet inside the passage, it had been posturing and skirmishing.
Meaning, if she let all of them out unimpeded, she would be swarmed by nine furious, fully powered immortals. These people would likely only start a true life and death struggle amongst themselves over the spoils after they had destroyed this world and its defenders.
So before that could happen, Su Min quietly repositioned herself, settling directly at the entrance of the passage, her sword held ready. She would meet them one by one.
Inside the passage, the remaining nine immortals were momentarily stunned into silence by the sudden death of their compatriot, especially the one from the same family as the slain immortal, his face darkening with rage and panic. The ten of them had been divided into five groups of two. Now that one of his own was dead, he was alone, at a severe disadvantage against the other pairs.
More importantly, who could possibly kill a true immortal so quickly, so silently?
Their earlier scuffle had just been probing, testing each other's resolve. No one had wanted to go all out, to expend their true power, because the passage itself wasn't stable enough. Fighting recklessly here with their full immortal might would mean certain death for all of them as the passage collapsed.
Yet someone outside, in that supposedly weak world, had just killed a true immortal? It was impossible. According to all their intelligence, this place shouldn't even have more than one or two late Mahayana cultivators, let alone someone capable of this.
But in the very next moment, all nine immortal faces stiffened in unison, their eyes wide with a dawning, terrible recognition.
"This can't be!!!"
Because standing there at the entrance, calm and poised, was Su Min, a face they all recognized instantly from countless circulated intelligence reports. Her image and deeds had spread throughout the five royal families after she had caused the deaths of several of their high ranking immortals and a True Immortal.
But wasn't she supposed to be under the effects of the Zhexian Curse, her lifespan rapidly draining away? And given how strong the anchor mark on her soul felt, the curse should have succeeded. She should be weak, dying, or already dead. Yet there she stood, whole and powerful, having just slain one of their own with contemptuous ease.
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Zhexian = Immortal-Severing