Unity Pill

[Profound Origin Golden Puppet]

"It's successful—a puppet specifically designed to absorb heavenly lightning during pill refinement. As for its combat capability... well, never mind. It's just a tool for dealing with pill tribulation lightning; no need to worry about its fighting power."

Satisfied with the puppet before her, Su Min began making calculations.

To be honest, its combat ability wasn't bad. It should be able to handle some Dao Comprehension-stage cultivators. However, since it was a puppet and lacked laws and Su Min wasn't a specialist in puppetry, its actual combat performance was limited.

It could hold off cultivators who had just entered the Dao Comprehension stage, but anything beyond that would be difficult. Not that Su Min expected it to fight for her. Right now, she just wanted to test its effectiveness. With that thought, she waved her hand, and the massive cauldron reappeared before her.

"Come on, let me test it against single-colored pill tribulation lightning."

Muttering to herself, Su Min summoned the medicinal herbs once more. Back when she first refined an eighth-grade pill, it had nearly cost her half her life. Now, she was far from reaching that level of exhaustion.

By the next day, thunderclouds had gathered in the sky. This time, Su Min was completely calm. Though she had expended some energy, she could handle the tribulation even without Xie Yingying's emergency intervention.

Besides, she was very close to the little Golden Crow. If the puppet failed, it could rush over to assist immediately.

Boom—!

In an instant, lightning streaked across the sky, countless bolts crashing down like a furious tide. They struck the puppet violently, sending sparks flying in all directions. The metallic liquid covering the puppet's body seemed to come alive, greedily devouring the tribulation lightning.

"This thing can only handle pill tribulation lightning, not heavenly tribulation. Directly devouring heavenly lightning would be outright defiance of the Heavenly Dao."

Watching the spectacle above, Su Min mused silently. A few minutes later, the pill tribulation ended, and her puppet descended.

"Not bad. It seems to have grown stronger. It handled single-colored tribulation lightning without issue, so now I can proceed with refining the Unity Pill."

Su Min was quite pleased with the puppet and immediately set her mind to refining the Unity Pill.

With this pill's assistance, she was absolutely certain she could break through to the Unity stage in one attempt. Otherwise, she'd have to spend at least a century grinding her way there. While she had the time, there was no real need to waste it.

"I only have three chances. Gathering enough materials is just too difficult."

Su Min winced slightly at the thought. The higher the grade of the materials, the harder they were to obtain. In the past, whenever she reached a new cultivation stage, she would refine numerous pills of the corresponding rank.

But now, she only had two eighth-grade pills in her possession—both healing pills. As for other eighth-grade pills? None. After all her efforts, she had only managed to gather enough materials for three batches of Unity Pills. Anything else was beyond her reach.

"Unity Pill..."

Muttering the name, Su Min suddenly waved her hand. Over a thousand medicinal herbs flew out of her spatial ring. The value of a Unity Pill far surpassed that of a healing pill, and the materials required for its refinement were terrifyingly extensive. Nearly every herb here was incredibly rare—some so expensive that even Divine Transformation-stage cultivators would have to exhaust their entire fortunes to obtain them.

The total value of these materials was enough to make even an immortal sect, with its long-standing accumulation of wealth, feel a sting.

Of course, Su Min didn't care. Wasn't this why she had established her own sect? Besides, nearly half of these herbs had been harvested from the Medicine Master Cauldron. The legacy of the Medicine Master Buddha was just that formidable.

"Let's begin—the eighth-grade Unity Pill."

Taking a deep breath, Su Min slowly closed her eyes. In an instant, scorching heat enveloped the entire area.

Su Min sat cross-legged, her hands raised calmly as waves of flame—reaching temperatures of over a thousand degrees—washed over her. As the refinement progressed, the alternating extremes of heat and cold turned the surroundings into a lifeless wasteland.

Days passed slowly. Since this was her first time refining such a pill, Su Min's pace was far from quick—in fact, it was painstakingly slow. A low-grade eighth-grade healing pill had taken her only a day, but this was different.

The first stage alone consumed an entire week.

"Huff—"

When Su Min opened her eyes again, the temperature had returned to normal. The ground beneath her was now cracked and parched.

"Purification complete. This cauldron probably won't last much longer."

Glancing at the flames inside the cauldron, she saw they had already extinguished. Inside were the medicinal essences extracted from over a thousand herbs, each requiring a different temperature to remain active.

In other words, Su Min had to simultaneously control all the flames to maintain precise temperatures—with deviations no greater than 0.1 degrees Celsius—or the essences would be ruined.

"Time for the next step."

Taking another deep breath, Su Min manipulated the Nanming Lihuo once more. With her Five Elements Holy Body nearing completion, the flame's attributes, including controllability had been enhanced across the board.

Without this, given her current cultivation, she would never have been able to achieve such precision. She would have been trapped in a paradox:

"I need the Unity Pill to reach the Unity stage. But I need to be at the Unity stage to refine the Unity Pill."

A classic case of needing to be Kara-zan geared before running Kara-zan.

As time passed, the medicinal essences gradually merged together. This process took another full week. By the end, what lay before her was a spherical mass the size of a football.

Of course, she couldn't just swallow this pill whole, she was only human. Even as a Dao Comprehension-stage cultivator, ingesting it directly was impossible. Even if she cut open her stomach and stuffed it inside, it wouldn't work.

"Pill Condensation!!!"

At this moment, Su Min roared, and the pill began to tremble violently. Instantly, she felt her scalp tingle—a sign that her spiritual energy was nearly depleted.

"Better notify the little Golden Crow. If the puppet can't hold out, she'll have to step in."

With that thought, lightning exploded across the sky once more.

"It's done."

Su Min's eyes snapped open, her gaze flickering as she observed the gathering thunderclouds.

"One color, two colors, three colors... Three-colored tribulation lightning?"

She was slightly surprised. Almost immediately, the dazzling lightning bolts shot toward her like spears.

Crackle—!

At the edge of the thunderclouds, a golden Golden Crow hovered silently. The little Golden Crow had arrived at the periphery, her golden pupils filled with astonishment.

An eighth-grade alchemist, even at the peak of the Golden Crow Clan's power, such a figure would have been treated with utmost respect and caution.

As divine beasts, their bodies were innately powerful, capable of withstanding energies that would be lethal to humans. Some pills that were poisonous to humans were perfect for them.

This meant their requirements for pill grades were lower, but even Mahayana-stage Golden Crows would still need an alchemist of this level.

And she was just a youngling who had barely entered the Unity stage—nowhere near the level of her clan's peak experts.

Boom—!

Almost instantly, the colorful heavenly lightning descended like daggers, slashing toward Su Min. But this time, it didn't reach her. She lay sprawled on the ground like a salted fish, watching the violent storm above.

Thud!

A moment later, the puppet was struck down from the sky, stopping just a dozen meters above the ground before soaring back up. It clashed with the massive lightning bolts once more, causing Su Min's eyes to gleam. The metal trembled, almost as if it were cheering—

Even as smoke rose from its surface, it seemed alive.

"It's evolving. According to the ancient puppet texts, it can advance further now. At that point, it might be able to block early Unity-stage cultivators. In the hands of a skilled puppeteer, it could become a formidable weapon with even higher potential."

Su Min narrowed her eyes. This was good news for her. While the puppet's combat ability wasn't particularly useful to her, if she were ever surrounded by Unity-stage enemies, it could buy her some time.

Though the puppet lacked laws, the unique metal she had used—combined with the tempering of the pill tribulation lightning—allowed it to store the power of thunder, one of nature's most majestic forces.

As a result, many Dao Comprehension-stage cultivators would suffer miserably against it. Of course, Su Min was an exception—even now, she was confident she could tear the puppet apart bare-handed.

"Thanks. Looks like I won't need your help after all."

Seeing this, Su Min knew the little Golden Crow's intervention was unnecessary. The latter nodded before turning to leave. She had her own matters to attend to and couldn't linger here forever.

Finally, as the last bolt of lightning struck, the thunderclouds dispersed. The puppet descended, hovering before Su Min.

"Let's see how strong you've become."

Reaching out, Su Min touched the puppet's body. Ripples spread across its azure surface, and even with her formidable physique, she couldn't suppress a slight jolt of numbness.

"Damn, not bad."

Su Min was genuinely impressed. Given her physical strength and resistance, the fact that she could feel anything at all was remarkable. Right now, she could probably grab live high-voltage wires without blinking.

Clearly, the puppet had absorbed and stored a significant amount of the Heavenly Dao's thunder—an alternative application of laws.

"If I handed this to a Unity-stage puppeteer, they could use it to fight. Unless their opponent was at the mid-Unity stage, they'd be in for a nasty surprise."

Su Min's eyes narrowed. The gap between Unity-stage cultivators was vast. Strictly speaking, even though she had killed a fallen Unity-stage cultivator before, facing a genuine Unity-stage expert was a different matter. Even now, she couldn't guarantee victory.

After all, if she had her trump cards, so would they—and they would undoubtedly be peerless geniuses.

As for that fallen cultivator? He'd just been unlucky. Both of them had the Five Elements Holy Body, so their abilities were similar, except Su Min had unlocked more attributes, while he only had one.

Even his final desperate attack had been less effective against her, and his frail body had left him vulnerable to close-quarters pummeling.

Against a true Unity-stage opponent, the outcome would be far less certain.

At this point, Xie Yingying's blood essence offered diminishing returns. As for the Imperial Artifact, while powerful, its restrictions prevented her from unleashing its full potential.

"Now, it's time for the real Unity stage."

With that thought, Su Min turned her attention back to the cauldron. At the same time—

Crack!

The Earth-grade high-tier cauldron that had accompanied her for so many years finally reached the end of its lifespan, shattering into fragments before her eyes.

She could only sigh helplessly. The flames produced during eighth-grade pill refinement were simply too intense for an Earth-grade artifact to withstand. Its destruction was inevitable.

"Guess the first thing after reaching Unity will be refining a Heaven-grade cauldron."

Muttering to herself, Su Min glanced down at her palm, where a tiny rabbit-like energy flickered.

"Unity stage, here I come."

Internally cheering, Su Min immediately sat down in meditation, circulating her cultivation technique. To take the next step, she needed to be in peak condition—her current spiritually drained state was far from ideal.

Thus, another three days passed before Su Min fully recovered her expended spiritual energy.

"It's about time to break through to the Unity stage. Should I go outside...? No, I'll just do it here."

Shaking her head, Su Min dismissed the thought. For cultivators, breakthrough seclusions were major events. In the past, she had always kept her advancements low-key, rarely announcing them even after succeeding.

Now was no different. Moreover, Su Min was acutely aware that she had killed the third seat of the Black Seal. And this hadn't happened in some isolated secret realm—they definitely knew by now.

They might already be lying in wait, looking for a chance to kill her. This wasn't some game where bosses idly waited in place for players to challenge them.

She needed to be prepared—ready to face the Skeletal Emperor at any moment.