Which of Us is the Mahayana Cultivator?

At this moment, the Fulu Mountain God was utterly dumbfounded.

Between the two of them, who was the real Mahayana cultivator?

He had plenty of trump cards. First, he had abandoned his physical body to merge with the mountain range, allowing him to retreat at any time. Second, he had painstakingly refined his Five Elements Golden Body, granting him near-immunity to all elemental attacks. Third, he had spent centuries preparing countless killing formations in his lair. And finally, there was the vast Ancient Desolate City.

With such preparations, even that woman in white hadn't been able to kill him back then.

But now?

He must have run into some kind of curse.

This woman had clearly sneaked in through the "dog hole" he had prepared. A mighty expert, crawling through a dog hole where was her dignity? Did she have no pride as a powerhouse? What kind of ambush specialist was she?

Fine, so be it.

His escape route being blocked? Fine, he could accept that.

His thousands of formations being shattered by an Emperor Artifact unleashed at full power? Also fine, after all, it was an Emperor Artifact. He could swallow that loss. But what he couldn't understand was how his Five Elements Golden Body, which he had poured his life's effort into refining to resist all things, had been so easily broken by her. And that strike had been just a normal attack, how had it dealt dozens of times the expected damage?

Of course, he didn't know the truth.

This was the sheer dominance of the Five Elements Holy Body.

Most people only had one or two elemental affinities. But he had gone all out, stacking all five. So when Su Min slashed with her sword, each of his five elements was countered in sequence. Her single "normal attack" had triggered five layers of elemental suppression—naturally, the effect was spectacular.

But the Fulu Mountain God didn't know that. What really made him lose his composure was that this woman had caught his ancient city with one hand while spouting ridiculous taunts, and then charged straight at him.

In that instant, his instincts screamed at him to flee. Because he simply couldn't comprehend it. How could a mid-Unity cultivator possess such terrifying power?

He had reached the Mahayana stage by slaughtering countless Unity cultivators—but none of them had been this monstrous.

Was this woman really just a Unity cultivator?

This was downright unnatural. But unfortunately for him, escape was impossible. To be fair, despite Su Min's taunts, she wasn't having an easy time either. She was, after all, only at the mid-Unity stage.

The reason she could physically catch a Heaven-grade high-tier treasure was due to the Eastern Azure Wood and the Azure Dragon's legacy, which had tempered her body to rival that of the legendary Five-Clawed Golden Dragon—renowned for its physical might.

That was the only reason she could catch it bare-handed. But the pressure on her was still immense. That said, it didn't stop her from utterly crushing her opponent. Who told this idiot to play with the Five Elements in front of her?

"Close call. Almost got wrecked. Compared to this guy, those two Divine Beasts were downright pathetic."

Seeing the terror on the Mountain God's face, Su Min smirked coldly.

He was finally out of tricks.

These creatures were no pushovers. Their chaotic memories had one advantage—they came with a vast arsenal of techniques. Even with her ambush and preemptive strike, she had almost been overturned. If he had had any more hidden cards, she would have been in real trouble. But fortunately, it seemed he had none left.

What followed was exactly as Su Min had predicted. Under her relentless assault, the Mountain God was forced into constant retreat. As for running away?

Impossible.

Against a master of Time Laws, attempting to flee would only leave him full of holes.

So very soon—

BOOM!!!

A pitch-black Demon-Slaying Thunder flashed across the sky. The Fulu Mountain God was officially dead. At the same time, the massive ancient city lost all support and was promptly stored away by Su Min. She couldn't use it herself, but she could always melt it down for materials. It might come in handy when she next refined artifacts.

But what was even more valuable than this Heaven-grade high-tier treasure was the enormous soul fragments left behind after the Mountain God's death. This was the real prize that fascinated Su Min.

"Pity I have to purify them thoroughly before use. As for those people… Well, they're already dead."

Glancing around, Su Min confirmed that none of the captured Divine Transformation cultivators had survived. The mere aftershocks of her first clash with the Mountain God had been enough to obliterate them all. In a battle at the Mahayana level, even Divine Transformation cultivators didn't have the right to spectate.

"I need to leave. This fight caused too much commotion. The entire Fulu Mountain Range's terrain has been irreversibly altered, and my energy consumption was huge. In this world saturated with dark matter, recovery won't be easy."

When Su Min emerged from underground, the sight made her lips twitch. The once-towering mountain peaks had all collapsed. Even the sturdy Dark Continent couldn't withstand the shockwaves of a battle between two Mahayana-level existences. The landscape had been reduced to ruins. With such a disturbance, the entire continent would surely take notice. Staying here any longer would be far too dangerous.

She had expended a lot in this fight. At the Mahayana stage, strength was one thing, but trump cards were equally critical. This guy had truly been loaded with them. If she hadn't destroyed his biggest life-saving card first, she might not have made it out unscathed.

"Six more left. These six won't be simple, some might even be at the late-Mahayana stage. I'll need to take this slowly."

With that thought, Su Min transformed into a streak of light and vanished.

This world wasn't peaceful.

Mahayana cultivators fought without restraint, heedless of mortal lives. And they were vicious even among themselves. These Mahayana beings wouldn't hesitate to devour one another. The fact that these seven had survived this long meant they all had absolute life-saving methods. Until she could dismantle those, she'd avoid direct confrontation. With that in mind, Su Min departed swiftly. The next day, several shadowy figures arrived at the scene.

"That old rock was killed? And in just one day?"

Staring at the flattened mountains, the figures frowned. That old thing's combat power aside, his survival skills had been top-notch. Yet he had been slain in a single day. The thought alone was staggering.

"Was it the work of those two? Impossible. Even if they survived, they should have been severely wounded."

"Has a new player arrived? The Heavenly Continent truly breeds extraordinary talents. Pity we cannot leave the Dark Starry Sky."

"Tch."

After a brief exchange, the figures left. Tracking Su Min was impossible. She had only expended energy, she wasn't injured. There was no way she'd lose control of her aura and leave openings for them. So while they wanted answers, they found none. Moreover, none of them dared to leave their own lairs recklessly, these were just projections they had sent.

After all, their heavily fortified bases were their safest havens. If Su Min hadn't fought the Mountain God inside his lair, her energy consumption would have been much lower.

Soon, inside a modest cave.

Su Min had carved out a temporary hideout, even shabbier than Yao Xian'er's. At least Yao Xian'er had prepared a clean spirit spring for herself. Su Min didn't even have that. As for recovery resources?

Her Heaven and Earth Qiankun Gourd had evolved after absorbing those two Mahayana Dark Divine Beasts, now capable of sustaining a Mahayana cultivator. With its nectar and divine liquors, she had no worries about replenishing her energy.

A week later.

"Whew. Finally recovered."

Feeling her spiritual energy fully restored, Su Min exhaled in relief. Then, she took out the sealed soul fragments. Before leaving, she hadn't just collected the Mountain God's soul fragments, she had also taken those of the unfortunate souls he had captured. Now, she held a massive clump of them.

"Don't rush to purify them yet. Let me see if there's anything useful here."

Flipping through the fragments, Su Min frowned. She wasn't planning to absorb them directly, she wanted to read them. After all, her sole purpose in coming to the Dark Starry Sky was to find more remnants of the Solar Sovereign Body, allowing her Taiyang Qi to reach perfection.

Only then could she further develop her physique.

The Five Elements Holy Body was not her limit.

"So messy. What kind of jumbled memories are these? There must be fragments from over a thousand people here, most of them powerful cultivators. Stuffing all these conflicting thoughts together is just asking for madness."

Sighing, Su Min began sifting through the fragments. With her Unity-stage mental speed, reviewing memories spanning centuries took only minutes.

Another week passed.

Su Min retracted her gaze, expressionless.

"Too fragmented. No useful information at all."

Muttering to herself, she wasn't too surprised by the result. Since there was nothing to find, she didn't hesitate. Western Metal's Sharp Golds manifested once more. As the crystallization of Heavenly Execution, it was the natural bane of these corrupted fragments. In just a day, she refined all the resources in her hands. Though this method wasted a lot of energy, Su Min deemed it a necessary sacrifice. She would never recklessly fuse foreign soul fragments and risk destabilizing her own soul.

"Done. All purified. Now, time to absorb them. Not sure how much progress I'll make, breaking through to late-Unity is impossible, but further solidifying my soul shouldn't be an issue. And there were some interesting finds in these memories."

At this, Su Min smiled slightly.

Among the fragments, she had discovered some useful things, such as soul-based techniques. These were rare treasures. Most cultivators didn't possess them, and soul clashes were inherently dangerous. A stronger soul could outright crush a weaker one. And Su Min's soul was exceptionally powerful. Learning these techniques would only benefit her, so there was no reason to hesitate.

Time flowed quietly as Su Meditated, refining the purified essence. Yao Xian'er's rapid ascent to Mahayana had been due not only to her past-life foundations but also these soul fragments. But she had been hunting here for nearly a millennium, her accumulated resources were far beyond what Su Min, a newcomer, could match.

"Another month gone."

Opening her eyes, Su Min saw that the soul fragments had been fully depleted. She hadn't reached the late-Unity stage, but that was to be expected. Every step forward in the Unity stage was immensely difficult.

"But it's not a big deal. And I think I've been stuck in a mental rut."

Suddenly, Su Min smacked her forehead. She had just realized something, she didn't have to hunt the remaining six Mahayana cultivators. She could just target Unity-stage Dark cultivators instead. Their soul fragments might pale in comparison, but killing them would be far easier. No matter how many tricks they had, they wouldn't pose much resistance.

"But there's a problem, Unity-stage cultivators probably aren't on the Dark Continent."

Rubbing her temples, Su Min felt a headache coming on. The Dark Continent was the most densely populated region in the Dark Starry Sky, where soul fragments were most abundant, hence the concentration of powerhouses. But because of these powerhouses, the Mahayana cultivators here had no scruples.

Just look at the Fulu Mountain God, he even devoured Divine Transformation cultivators. Unity-stage experts wouldn't last long here. Most would hide in the depths of the Dark Starry Sky, striving to reach Mahayana before revealing themselves.

The Dark Continent's power hierarchy had a glaring gap—below Mahayana, there were no Unity-stage cultivators, and even Dao Comprehension-stage experts were few. Only those Divine Transformation cultivators who couldn't survive outside the continent remained. Which meant finding her targets would be extremely difficult.

"Looks like I'll have to trouble Yao Xian'er again. But at least my soul power has improved. I should be able to stably refine six-colored tribulation pills now, maybe even attempt seven-colored ones."

At this thought, Su Min's mood lifted slightly. However, the Dark Continent's thick dark matter made pill refining impossible here. So there was no point testing her skills now. She'd wait until she had accumulated enough resources, then refine a batch outside.