The Nascent Soul Pill is Complete

"Hey." Su Min waved a hand in front of Xie Yingying's glazed eyes. "Did your soul depart your body, or is there just an echo bouncing around in that pretty head of yours?"

For weeks now, Xie Yingying had been drifting through their days like a ghost, her thoughts clearly consumed by that inexplicable lifespan boost. Su Min could practically see the calculations spinning behind her eyes—the unshakable cultivator's instinct that such a windfall must have come with hidden costs.

With an exasperated huff, Su Min gripped Xie Yingying's shoulders and physically lifted her until their eyes met. If thoughts had sound, this place would be echoing with Xie Yingying's mental chant: What's happening what's happening what's happening—

"Enough brooding." Su Min produced a jade-green pill between her fingers. "Here—brain medicine."

With that, Su Min took out a pill and, before Xie Yingying could react, popped it into her mouth.

"Mm—cough, cough! Su Min!"

As the pill dissolved, Xie Yingying finally snapped out of her daze and instinctively tried to spit it out. After all, pills weren't something to be taken lightly. While she knew Su Min wouldn't feed her poison, who knew what effects this one might have?

Unfortunately, the moment the pill entered her body, it dissolved into a stream of energy that flowed straight into her abdomen. The warmth spreading through her body felt... nurturing, like sunlight after a long winter.

"Relax," Su Min said, popping an identical pill into her own mouth with practiced ease. "Just a Meridian Protection Pill a high-grade Tier 4 elixir. It nurtures the meridians, increases the success rate of forming a Nascent Soul, and strengthens the meridians in the process. It's one of the few foundational pills" She sighed dramatically.

Tier 4 pills were a massive threshold. Many pills at this level were meant for consolidating one's foundation and replenishing vitality, just like the one Su Min had just refined. Although both of them were already quite strong, that didn't mean the pill was useless.

Xie Yingying opened her mouth, then closed it. The pill's effects were already smoothing the tension from her meridians, making her month-long anxiety feel suddenly... distant.

"I don't know what you're so fussing about, but cultivation is all about seizing the opportunities granted by heaven and earth. What's meant to come will come, and what can't be avoided won't be avoided."

A slow breath escaped Xie Yingying. The warmth in her abdomen pulsed gently, as if agreeing. Maybe some mysteries weren't meant to be unraveled—not yet, anyway.

"...You're insufferable," she muttered, but the ghost of a smile tugged at her lips as she finally, finally let the matter rest.

"Now that I've fully recovered, there are only a few years left before the Golden Core Avenue ends. I need to refine the Nascent Soul Pill now. As for you, you should cultivate near the Eastern Azure Wood. Once the Avenue ends, we'll return immediately to break through to the Nascent Soul stage. I suspect the Blood Puppet Sect will come after us within a hundred years."

"Understood."

Xie Yingying nodded. The once perpetually frozen, snow-covered space was now lush with vegetation. At its center stood an enormous tree, towering thirty meters high.

The Eastern Azure Wood—though not as directly combat-enhancing as Nanming Lihuo, this divine treasure of heaven and earth was by no means weak. Its strength simply lay in other areas. For instance, once refined, the Eastern Azure Wood could be placed outside the body to automatically absorb and store the essence of heaven and earth.

This essence not only accelerated cultivation but also nourished the surrounding environment. The most obvious example was the Fusang Divine Tree, which had accumulated an unfathomable amount of this essence over countless years.

That was why the little Golden Crow had been born with the power of the Divine (Soul) Transformation stage, and her cultivation journey would be smooth sailing from there. Thus, cultivating near such a divine tree—even if one wasn't its master—offered immense benefits. Moreover, unlike the Fusang Divine Tree, the Eastern Azure Wood possessed an even richer life force, and the energy it emitted was far gentler.

This made it an ideal place for cultivation. As for Su Min, she wasn't in a hurry. As the master of this divine tree, she reaped even greater benefits. Her spiritual energy was constantly growing, and by her estimates, with normal cultivation and the wine from her treasure gourd, she could reach Golden Core Perfection within thirty years.

But there was no need for that. She planned to attempt the Nascent Soul breakthrough as soon as the Avenue ended. Before that, however, she needed to prepare the Nascent Soul Pill. This was a genuine Tier 5 pill, and even Su Min only had enough ingredients for three attempts.

So she had to be extremely careful. Besides, there wasn't much else to do at the moment. In fact, it wasn't just them—the tumultuous hundred-year Golden Core Avenue had entered a brief period of calm in its final stretch.

The only ones still active were the Three-Nine Heavenly Tribulation Golden Core cultivators, desperately searching for whatever scraps of opportunity remained. Meanwhile, the disciples of major sects were all preparing for one thing—ascending to the Nascent Soul stage.

This was unavoidable. No matter how powerful their sects were, they all faced the same problem: sealing crystals were limited. Sealing Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Divine Transformation cultivators was far too difficult.

Back then, these sects had only sealed two groups: the Divine Transformation ancestors and a large number of Foundation Establishment cultivators. Now, as the most talented among them, they had to advance to the Nascent Soul stage as soon as possible to replenish their sects' ranks.

After all, the energy required to seal a single Divine Transformation cultivator could instead seal dozens of Golden Core cultivators—or even tens of thousands of Foundation Establishment cultivators. Thus, most sects had only sealed one or two Divine Transformation experts and a vast number of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Among them were not just geniuses who had survived the Nine-Nine and Six-Nine Heavenly Tribulations, but also many ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators. Their purpose was to support the sects' middle and lower tiers once the world's spiritual energy recovered. And now, they were meant to fill the Nascent Soul-level gaps.

But the Blood Puppet Sect was in dire straits. Thanks to Su Min's massacre, their Nascent Soul ranks would be completely wiped out.

According to reports from their rivals, the sect likely still had one or two Divine Transformation experts left. As for Golden Core cultivators, there were probably quite a few—but most would struggle to reach the Nascent Soul stage. This meant their sect would face a generational gap.

Once those remaining elders learned the truth, they would undoubtedly spare no effort to hunt down Eastern Mulberry Land for revenge. However, that would take at least several decades. For one, no one even knew where Eastern Mulberry Land was.

Second, even if they wanted revenge, they'd need manpower. And based on what Su Min knew, the Blood Puppet Sect had a special forbidden technique—one that burned over half the user's lifespan and came with severe side effects.

The success rate was abysmally low, and even if successful, the user would remain stuck at the early Nascent Soul stage forever, with combat power weaker than an average Nascent Soul cultivator. In fact, even Su Min in her current state could defeat them.

But the real problem was numbers. If they went on a rampage, it would be a catastrophe for Eastern Mulberry Land Province. Still, it would take them decades to gather enough forces, so Su Min had plenty of time. As for those two Divine Transformation experts, Su Min wasn't worried. Even if they were both at the peak of Divine Transformation, it wouldn't matter.

With the Sun True Flame, the Eastern Divine Tree, the complete Golden Crow Divine Technique, and other legacies at her disposal, Su Min estimated she could even slay beings above the Divine Transformation stage—assuming they weren't too overpowered. Her brutal battle with Yao Xian'er had proven that the world wasn't lacking in monstrous talents.

But those two Blood Puppet Sect elders? Definitely not on that level. The little Golden Crow could handle both of them alone. And if she and Xie Yingying both reached the Nascent Soul stage, they might even be able to kill a Divine Transformation cultivator together.

At the very least, a Nascent Soul-stage Lunar Sovereign Body and Solar Sovereign Body working in tandem could hold their own against a peak Divine Transformation expert.

~

Su Min exhaled sharply as she opened her eyes, her fingers curling around three lustrous Nascent Soul Pills. "Hah—lucky me. Only one batch ruined. That's three successes." Her voice held the satisfaction of a gamble well-played. She turned the pills in her palm, their glow reflecting in her eyes, before casting a glance toward Xie Yingying, who was practically trembling with anticipation beside her.

"Here, take one," Su Min said, flicking a pill toward her with a casual grin.

Xie Yingying caught the pill with reverence, her eyes wide. "This… is perfect." She turned it between her fingers, marveling at the flawless glow. "Back in the Heavenly Yin Sect, even the elders would've groveled for a Tier-5 pill like this. And you just—tossed it at me?"

Su Min chuckled, reaching over to ruffle her hair. "What, you wanted me to feed it to you by hand?"

Xie Yingying batted her hand away, but leaned into the touch again. "You're insufferable," she muttered, though her voice had gone soft. She gently tucked the pill into her spatial ring, her hands moved with the tenderness of someone handling something irreplaceable.

"Now that we've got these, our breakthrough odds are sitting at… what, ninety percent?" Su Min mused aloud, stretching her arms overhead with a languid ease.

"Higher," Xie Yingying replied, her tone unusually resolute. "If we can't make it now, we might as well quit cultivation altogether."

Su Min grinned and leaned in, close enough for her breath to stir loose strands of Xie Yingying's hair. "Confident, aren't we? Good. I like that in you."

Xie Yingying's ears flushed a delicate pink, but she met Su Min's gaze without flinching. "Shut up and cultivate."

Their eyes lingered a second too long. Then, without another word, they stood in unspoken agreement.

The door to their temporary dwelling closed. The array formations lit in quiet pulses of light, dimming external noise and shielding divine sense. Even their spiritual communicators were powered down, stored away as if the world beyond no longer existed.

Su Min closed the last seal on the door. Her hand lingered against the glowing script before slowly dropping to her side. Behind her, the flickering lanterns had been dimmed to a soft amber glow. The scent of osmanthus wafted from the incense dish on the table. Neither of them had lit it. The flame had caught on its own the moment the last barrier fell into place.

Their eyes met in the hush that followed.

The battle for the Tianjiao Rankings had taken everything. Dozens of duels. Layers of deception. Blood and glory. Su Min stood at the peak now, first among the Golden Core elites. And Xie Yingying—ranked just below—had fought her way through every ambush, every arrogant contender, every obstacle had thrown in her path.

They had earned this.

Without a word, Su Min stepped closer. She reached for Xie Yingying's hand—not her waist, not her shoulder, just her hand—and their fingers slid together with practiced ease. The spiritual current between them stirred immediately, warm and familiar. Not demanding, not forceful. Just there, as if it had been waiting.

They sank into the soft cushions layered across the floor, not into lotus position, not into structured meditation. Their legs brushed, then overlapped. Hands slid beneath sleeves. Warmth pulsed where their skin touched, and qi began to flow without command.

It was not the kind of dual cultivation the manuals described—no step-by-step alignment of meridians, no rigid synchronization of breath and will. It was looser, freer, a rhythm guided by intuition and trust. A celebration of closeness, not conquest.

Su Min's Taiyang qi rose like golden mist across their bodies, and Xie Yingying's Taiyin essence welcomed it in, folding it like moonlight into the tide. Their cultivation vessels stirred, resonating in time, slower than battle, deeper than alchemy.

Fingers curled against hips.

A soft breath caught.

Robes loosened. Not all at once, and not with urgency. Just enough to allow skin to breathe, for warmth to pass more easily from one body to another. Between them, their combined essence swirled—light and shadow dancing, gold and silver twining, Yin and Yang in perfect embrace.

In that hush, without need for words, they cultivated.

Intimately. Thoroughly. Unshakably.

And when dawn filtered faintly through the sealed dwelling's windows, neither opened their eyes.

They simply stayed as they were, resting in the stillness of power newly gained.

~

Su Min had already left the Golden Core stage behind. She was about to step into the realm of Nascent Soul powerhouses.

Once there, she could focus on obtaining the Black Tortoise's legacy and the Northern Profound Water. As for the Kirin's Central Earth, that was still too far off.

First, she needed the White Tiger's inheritance—and to obtain that, she had to master Heavenly Dao Insight technique and embrace the path of slaughter. After all, the White Tiger embodied killing intent—but not mindless slaughter. It wasn't about butchering the weak, but executing fallen immortals.

But for now, she lay with Xie Yingying beneath the quiet lanternlight, her fingers twined with hers.

And the Golden Core Avenue—finally, decisively—had ended.