Chapter 20: Humans, Demons, and Monsters

Before entering the secret chamber of cultivation techniques, Su Che had to swear an oath using his inner demon in front of several supervisors, vowing not to teach whatever he learned to others privately, not even to his fellow disciples.
This was one of the strictest rules of Tianxuan Sect, and no one dared to act corruptly in this regard.
Cultivators placed the greatest importance on such oaths. Bound by them, inner sect disciples like Yu Qing could not privately teach outer sect disciples like Su Che the advanced techniques they had learned; they could only instruct within the scope of outer sect techniques.
In other words, to obtain better cultivation techniques in Tianxuan Sect, there were only two ways: either by exchanging them with contribution points from the sect or by having senior sect members teach them personally—though only true disciples were entitled to such treatment.
Entering the secret chamber, Su Che faced hundreds of jade slips on the bookshelves and spent an hour carefully selecting, eventually choosing two high-quality basic techniques.
One was the “Jade Void Qi Absorption Technique,” a method for cultivating true qi, which required 1,000 contribution points to obtain. The other was the “Nebula Divine Forging Art,” a technique for cultivating mental strength. Mental strength was equally crucial for cultivators, as it was essential for alchemy, artifact crafting, talisman creation, and controlling magical weapons.
For Su Che, the mental introspection method described in the Nebula Divine Forging Art was what he needed most at the moment. Only by mastering this method could he “see” the true nature of the small tower in his mind, and perhaps establish a more direct connection with it.
Since the Nebula Divine Forging Art was a supplementary technique, its exchange price was much lower than that of similar qi cultivation methods—only 500 contribution points.
After obtaining these two jade slips, 1,500 contribution points were deducted from Su Che’s identity talisman. Even Supervisor Zheng thought to himself, “Having connections really makes a difference. It’s rare to see such generosity among new disciples.”
Unbeknownst to them, Su Che had no such connections. If it weren’t for his sudden fortune from acting as a “sparrow” in the Blood Curtain Mountains, he wouldn’t have been able to afford such extravagance.
To be honest, deducting so many contribution points at once was painful for Su Che, but he couldn’t be stingy in such matters. The quality of cultivation techniques was extremely important—it determined not only the speed of progress but also one’s strength, and even had a crucial impact on the success rate of foundation-building.

Not to mention 1,500 contribution points—if there were even better cultivation methods, Su Che wouldn’t hesitate to spend all his sect’s contribution points. After that, Su Che received several completely free spells, all of the most basic ones, such as Fireball, Flowing Sand, and Entangling spells from the Five Elements category; as well as techniques like Control of Magical Tools and Lightness Arts. “This is the advantage of joining a major sect—you can learn the most basic spells at will. As long as you have enough energy, you can learn as many as you want!” While copying these free spells by hand, Su Che thought to himself, “Back in Xuanji City, to learn these spells, I needed spirit stones. At that time, Su Che didn’t have a single spirit stone on him…” He returned with a full load—two main cultivation methods and a bunch of basic spells—back to his meditation cave… Having just embarked on his cultivation journey, there was so much to learn. Even just these most basic skills would require at least two to three years of hard study and practice. The first thing he would cultivate was definitely the mental introspection technique from the “Star Cloud Divine Forging Art,” as Su Che was eager to know what treasure lay inside the small tower in his mind. “According to the cultivation method, one with the first level of Qi cultivation already has the ability to introspect—it shouldn’t be difficult…” So, Su Che closed his cave and began practicing mental introspection. The wooden talismans on the mountain wall outside automatically displayed the word “Retreat.” Generally, no one would disturb him if there wasn’t anything urgent. Taking a fasting pill allowed him to go without eating for ten or eight days, but Su Che mastered the introspection technique in just three days. With the right method, learning such a basic technique wasn’t difficult at all. Carefully, Su Che tried to introspect his mental realm, what is commonly known as his “mind.” Whoosh~~~ A slight sense of dizziness flashed by, and he felt his consciousness entering another layer—a realm that was both very familiar and extremely strange. It was an indescribable feeling… He saw it! The mental realm was hazy, like an infinitely vast and wonderful space, with a small black tower floating quietly there. It still looked unremarkable, with nine layers visible from the outside. A nine-story-high black tower? Focusing his attention again, Su Che felt his consciousness gradually approaching the tower, as if there was a real sense of distance. As he got closer, “himself” became smaller and the tower grew larger…

When he felt extremely insignificant, the black tower seemed to tower into the sky. Su Che believed this was the true proportion between the two. At that moment, Su Che clearly saw two large doors facing each other at the base of the black tower. There was nothing above the doors—no inscriptions, no patterns, not even a doorknob. The two doors were plain and unremarkable, but on the tower base outside them stood two statues, which surprised Su Che. To call them statues wasn’t entirely accurate; rather, they were two creatures enclosed inside a layer of light purple transparent crystal, just like amber. The statue on the left contained a man. Seeing his unremarkable, ordinary face, Su Che immediately recognized him as “Chen Shi,” a disciple from the outer sect of Tianxuanzong who had been captured by the small tower in the Blood Curtain Mountains. “Chen Shi” was sealed inside the transparent crystal with his eyes tightly closed, as if dead. Yet for some reason, Su Che felt he wasn’t dead… The other statue contained a strange creature—a gray, indistinct mass whose limbs were hard to distinguish. But its head was terrifying, with demonic horns atop it and an extremely fierce, evil face. Without a doubt, it was the extraterrestrial demon he had encountered in the Fengxian Hall during his assessment and been captured by the small tower. “That’s right, neither is dead. Both the man and the demon are still alive!” For some reason, Su Che was certain of this. Then he noticed a character “human” engraved on the tower base beneath the “Chen Shi” statue, a character “demon” beneath the “demon” statue, and a character “monster” in the space between them. Human—Monster—Demon. Su Che had an epiphany. He tentatively used his consciousness to touch the two doors of the black tower, trying to push them open and take a look inside… But the doors didn’t budge at all! Although he couldn’t open them, there were other reactions! The character “monster” between the two statues suddenly began to glow with a blood-red light, eerily so. This made Su Che even more certain. He quickly thought to the black tower, “Is one monster missing? Do we need to capture another monster to open the doors?” Whoosh! The blood-red “monster” character flashed twice, clearly responding to Su Che—his guess was correct! “We have the human and the demon; one monster is still missing!” After thinking for a moment, Su Che asked again, “Is a regular monster fine? Even if it’s of a lower rank?” The “monster” character flashed twice more, and the answer was still correct.

“Mm,” Su Che replied, thinking to himself, “It should be so. After all, neither Chen Shi nor the extraterrestrial demons are very strong…” After that, Su Che’s consciousness circled the black tower several times but found no windows or back doors or other shortcuts. After a while, since there was no further response from the black tower, he exited his mental inspection state. Inside the cave dwelling, Su Che got up and moved his limbs, pondering, “Those who practice cultivation in this world belong to three races: humans, demons, and beasts. This black tower consumes all three races with great appetite—it’s truly extraordinary… Then I’ll satisfy its demands by finding another beast to capture!”