"You mean to tell me that entire area is now a dense, impassable jungle, and it's full of hidden dangers? That the three old masters from the Goulu Sect were all lost in there?" a wide eyed man asked, his voice a hushed whisper over the rim of his cup.
"They got what they deserved," someone else at the rough wooden table scoffed, taking a deep swig of his cheap, bitter drink. "Thinking they could just walk in and take it."
"That's not the half of it," another man added, leaning in conspiratorially and lowering his voice even further. "Even the so-called number one master of the martial world, the Sect Leader of Tianmu Gate, barely made it out alive. He lost an arm and the will to ever go back. They say the place is a demon's nest now. Even the flowers and plants will attack you, vines snapping like whips."
Inside a modest, crowded inn, heavy with the smell of stale ale and sweat, a small group huddled together, exchanging the latest, fearful rumors. It had been about a month since the golden light had first pierced the heavens, a beacon of promise and peril. By now, everyone from the lowliest beggar to the highest merchant knew a priceless treasure was hidden deep in the southern mountains, yet no one could claim to have laid eyes on it, only to have seen the deadly green wall that protected it.
Many had hired local hunters as guides, men who knew every deer trail and stream. But when they reached the specific foothills, it was like stepping into another world, a world that had moved on without them. The landscape was choked with impossibly lush, aggressive vegetation, as if decades of untamed growth had happened in a single, unnatural night. The old, familiar trails were completely gone, swallowed by roots and thorns.
More unsettling was the palpable, watchful hostility that seemed to emanate from the mountain itself. The very plants seemed to track their movement and resent their presence. A deep, primal fear had begun to settle in the stomachs of even the bravest hearts. After the news spread that a full team of three seasoned, well respected cultivators had been wiped out without leaving a single trace behind, many simply gave up, no longer daring to challenge the cursed, living peak.
"To think... that person stayed here all this time, just for that treasure," one of the wealthier merchants mused, shaking his head in a mixture of awe and disbelief. "Tsk, tsk... the patience of it."
At the headquarters of the Fuding Merchant Guild, the local branch manager sipped his tea with an air of practiced calm detachment. The tea itself was special, a subtle luxury cultivated from the bamboo leaves in Su Min's own grove, leaves that had been nourished for years by the spiritually rich discarded waste from her countless alchemical sessions.
Some of those very bamboo stalks had evolved into true spiritual herbs, and a fortunate few had even awakened as minor, sentient spirits. Grass and wood spirits were blessed that way, they seemed to intuit their own path of cultivation directly from the world itself, needing no master. Half a month ago, the manager had sent a full, detailed report to his true master, Prince Yong. The prince's response had been swift and crystal clear, he immediately withdrew all his forces from the region, deciding not to involve himself any further in a fight that was clearly beyond his current means.
"Prince Fu has given the order," the manager said to his nervous assistant, a cold, knowing chuckle escaping his lips. "We are to warmly welcome the Emperor's envoys and offer them all the information we have gathered. We are to be most helpful."
There was little need for outright deception. Other than the explosive, politically charged truth of Su Min's identity, everything else could be freely shared. Knowing who she truly was, the daughter of the purged Minister Su, had cemented his own path long ago, it was destined to be in direct opposition to the Wei Emperor and his regime.
Sure enough, that very day, three distinct and overwhelmingly oppressive auras descended upon the city like a physical weight. The once bustling, noisy streets fell into a deathly, unnatural silence. A palpable, cold fear gripped every heart. These were not ordinary cultivators, they were beings of such concentrated power that any one of them could slaughter everyone in the city without breaking a sweat. And there were three of them. Even the most greedy and reckless treasure hunters, who had been loitering for weeks, fled in a blind panic, abandoning all their gear. No one in their right mind would risk facing such overwhelming, annihilating might for a treasure they had not even seen.
The three newcomers, however, paid no mind to the chaos and terror they caused. Though the city was known to harbor fugitives and dissidents from the court, their mission was singular and absolute, retrieve the heaven sent treasure and, by any means necessary, bring the elusive alchemist back to the capital. The treasure had appeared in the Southern Frontier, and the alchemist had been hiding here for years. The connection was obvious, she must be its guardian.
Recruiting her was the most logical, beneficial move. A skilled, Tier Two alchemist was far too valuable a resource to simply kill out of hand. But if she refused, if she proved stubborn, then death was the only answer. They would not allow such a asset to remain outside the court's control. The branch manager could barely stand upright under the pressure radiating from the trio. Their killing intent was a tangible, suffocating storm, fierce and cold, unlike anything he had ever felt in his life.
Only now did he truly understand the meaning of "true strength." Compared to them, Su Min had always been remarkably, almost kindly restrained in his presence. She had never unleashed such an overwhelming, soul crushing force upon him. He answered their terse questions without holding back, his voice steady despite his trembling knees, concealing only the one critical, dangerous fact, Su Min's true name and her bloody history with the throne. If he betrayed that and she somehow found out, he knew a quick death at the envoys' hands would be a mercy compared to her wrath.
Fortunately, the three envoys had already gathered rough intelligence about a powerful female alchemist from other, less informed sources. They suspected nothing from him, allowing Su Min's most dangerous secret to remain safe, for now. As for his own Body Refining bodyguard, who stood pale and rigid against the wall, the trio did not even spare him a glance. Such low level cultivators were now common enough in the Great Wei Empire, a testament to the Demon Queen's methods. These were not the fragile, early years of cultivation secrecy anymore.
Meanwhile, deep within the heart of the transformed mountains, where the air hummed with latent power...
"So, the court has finally made its move," Su Min murmured from within her simple bamboo hut, her eyes half lidded in calm contemplation as she felt their arrival like a foul stench on the wind. "Sending out Qi Refining puppets. They do not disappoint."
She had sensed the three distinct auras the moment they entered the city, three towering, dark waves of killing intent that stained the clear sky. Even she, with all her experience and past life knowledge, had never encountered malice so pure, so overwhelming. This was not something born merely from battle or killing, it had been cultivated, nurtured through a far darker, more twisted and unnatural art.
"So they have come at last," she whispered to the quiet, listening forest around her, a forest that was now an extension of her own will. "Killing you three will not taint my karma. On the contrary, it will only add to my merit." There was a grim satisfaction in her tone.
In the game world she remembered, players were bound by similar cosmic rules. Committing atrocities against the innocent could lead to stat debuffs and even madness, while destroying true, world threatening evil could grant strange blessings and rare titles. But this was no longer a game with respawns and save points. Here, the punishments were real, permanent, and madness was a terrifying, inescapable state. Yet, the principle held, exterminating monsters like these, creatures of pure corruption, came with tangible, precious rewards. Su Min found herself looking forward to the fight, to the spoils of a righteous slaughter.
Of course, she had no intention of meeting them in an open field on their terms. That would be the height of foolish pride. Here, within her home terrain, surrounded by her countless traps and natural allies, she held every possible advantage. Victory was all but assured, and she would not waste that gift by being reckless.
"Come then," she whispered with a low, cold laugh that held no humor. "Let me see what you are made of, imperial hounds. Let me see if your training has prepared you for a forest that hates you."
She fell silent after that, conserving her strength, her own potent aura dissolving completely into the lush, waiting wilds around her, becoming one with the shadows and the leaves.
Three days later, the city at the mountain's base was eerily quiet, holding its breath. Those who had remained, too stubborn or too poor to leave, witnessed a scene they would never forget, three Qi Refining cultivators, leading several dozen eerily synchronized Body Refining soldiers, stormed the mountain range from three separate directions, their movements a blur of deadly intent.
Back in his plush office, the branch manager could only wipe cold sweat from his brow with a trembling hand. With such a force, there was nothing he, or even the powerful Prince Yong, could do to intervene. How could they have known the court would so casually, so easily dispatch such terrifying, concentrated power? The might of the throne, or rather the Demon Queen who truly pulled the strings, was simply beyond mortal comprehension, a bottomless abyss.
Such a force could crush almost any major sect or rebel army with ease, without even straining. In the old stories his grandfather told, a single Qi Refining cultivator was said to be worth ten thousand veteran soldiers on a battlefield. Now, the city's lingering, fearful curiosity turned entirely to the mysterious, unseen alchemist at the center of the gathering storm.
Yet Su Min remained an enigma, her true capabilities a closely guarded secret. She had revealed none of her core arts, not even something as basic and universally desired as a Spirit Gathering Pill recipe. For now, she was a mystery, an unknown variable in a deadly, high stakes game where the empire itself had just moved its most powerful pieces.
And soon, everyone would find out if she would kneel to that power, or if she would make her stand and become a legend against the empire itself. The mountain waited, and the world watched.