Inside the mountain cave, a clear spring trickled down the rocky wall, forming a small pool. The excess water flowed out through a narrow channel.
At this moment, however, the pool was occupied by a completely naked girl sitting cross-legged—none other than Su Min. As the saying goes, time loses meaning in the mountains, and weather follows no schedule. Su Min had long lost track of how long she had been resting here. Right now, soaking in the water was purely for cultivation purposes.
To reach the Qi Refining stage, she needed to expel all impurities from her body.
When she first reached this stage, she hadn't paid much attention, and the expelled filth had caked her clothes into stiff clumps. With only a few garments to her name, she had to be careful—after all, washing clothes wasn't exactly convenient in the depths of the wilderness.
So now, whenever she cultivated, she did so in the water. Every person's body contained impurities—accumulated since childhood, unavoidable unless one had been raised on medicinal pills from birth. And clearly, this body had never enjoyed such luxury.
Thus, she sat submerged, circulating her spiritual energy to purge the remaining impurities. As time passed, the last traces of filth were expelled, and Su Min underwent a transformation. The acne from her adolescence faded, her skin becoming smooth and flawless, like a finely crafted work of art.
But Su Min had no time to admire these changes—her eyes snapped open in alarm. She had now fully stepped into the mid-stage of Body Refining. Both her physical constitution and the amount of spiritual energy she could wield had undergone a qualitative leap. Yet that wasn't what had startled her. A scorched smell had reached her nose.
"Sniff... What is that? Someone was camping at the foot of the mountain? But this was deep, untamed wilderness—not some tourist spot. Wolves, tigers, and leopards roamed freely here. Were they courting death?"
Though she hadn't gone hungry during this time, subsisting solely on bigu dan had left her mouth utterly tasteless. She knew she was still a wanted fugitive, so she dared not light a fire to cook—not that she had any seasonings to make decent food anyway.
She hadn't starved, but the craving for flavor was real.
Quickly dressing, she cautiously stepped out of the hidden cave halfway up the mountainside. The moment she looked out, her expression darkened. A bright ring of fire stretched across the horizon in every direction. The peculiar scent she had smelled earlier came from the animals being burned alive.
It was early autumn—no snow had fallen yet, and the air was dry. The trees and grass had withered, turning the mountain into a tinderbox. A single spark could ignite an inferno. But what was truly terrifying was how the flames advanced from all sides in an unnaturally uniform manner, as if forming a deliberate encirclement.
"Have they gone mad? Setting the mountain on fire? Do they not fear the ecological disaster this could cause? Just to capture me? I can't stay here."
Narrowing her eyes, Su Min assessed the situation. If the fire continued unchecked, her hiding spot would inevitably be exposed. If no traces of her were found in the forest, the next logical place to search would be the mountain caves. Though her current location was well-hidden, under such circumstances, it wouldn't remain so for long.
Cliffs and precipices were both natural shelters and potential death traps. If surrounded, she'd face a relentless barrage of arrows—something her current strength couldn't withstand.
"Looks like I have to break through. I can't stay here any longer. As for where to go... south is the only option. Maybe I can find refuge by the Southern Sea."
With that decision made, she considered the four cardinal directions. East led to the wealthy coastal regions—abundant in fish and salt, but also tightly controlled by the imperial court. West was similarly fortified with military strongholds. Only the south offered a sliver of hope.
From her memories, the southern lands were untamed—a miasma-ridden wilderness plagued by insects, uninhabitable for ordinary people. But for her, these obstacles were manageable. Among alchemical pills existed the Insect-Repelling Pill and the Miasma-Dispelling Pill. The former, when crushed and applied to the skin, could ward off pests. The latter, once ingested, neutralized toxic vapors.
Beyond the southern wilds lay the Southern Sea, dotted with countless islands. Hiding there to continue her cultivation would buy her ample time. Staying here meant certain death. Even remaining within the Great Wei Dynasty's territory wasn't safe.
"First, I need to break through their lines. The fire's still at the outskirts. Given the autumn winds, there might be a gap upwind."
With that thought, she swiftly descended the cliff face, landing amidst the withered underbrush. Though winter hadn't fully set in, most vegetation had already died, leaving only a few hardy trees. The moment her feet touched the ground, an involuntary shiver ran through her.
"Thankfully, reaching Body Refining has improved my resistance to both heat and cold. Otherwise, I'd be freezing to death out here. Ironically, that little cave was surprisingly warm."
Meanwhile, Outside the Mountain
The Minshan were now encircled by an overwhelming military force.
First, five thousand soldiers from Yu City had been deployed. Then, an additional hundred thousand troops were mobilized. After the autumn harvest, the court forcibly conscripted over a hundred thousand peasants, bringing the total to more than two hundred thousand—enough to blanket the entire mountain range.
~Edit and rewritten by Rikhi, Reiya_Alberich, ReiNyam~
For two or three months, the hundred thousand soldiers scoured the mountains fruitlessly. Then, as late autumn arrived—with vegetation dried and the air parched—the emperor issued a brutal decree:
"Burn it all. Even if it meant reducing Mount Min to ashes, the witch had to be captured."
Discontent simmered among the troops, but the emperor's orders were absolute, backed by extravagant rewards.
Capture the witch? Promotion and nobility.
Find her trail? A thousand gold coins.
Initially, the lavish bounties had fueled their enthusiasm. But after months of futility, morale had withered. Whispers spread that the mountain housed spirits—that such reckless burning would invite divine retribution. The soldiers muttered uneasily, and even the commanding general felt the weight of absurdity.
"What is His Majesty thinking? All this for one girl?"
General Mu Hongkun frowned as he watched the flames surge with the wind.
This was madness.
Deploying an army of this scale to hunt a so-called witch? The Su family might have once been influential, but now, with no male heirs left, they were as good as extinct. Why obsess over this last surviving daughter?