Chapter 102: The Power of the Command Flag

Boom! Boom! Boom…
Su Che, unwilling to give up, continued to attack, punching after punch with increasing force. The greater the impact, the stronger the rebound, sending him flying each time. Fortunately, he had mastered the art of flight, so he didn’t fall into the magma.
His right fist was already swollen and red, but Su Che still refused to stop, determined not to yield until he defeated it.
Lao He promptly sent a stream of life energy to heal his right hand and warned, “Master, the ancient Witch Tribe is fierce and battle-loving—they were born for war. Forcing your way against them will surely fail.”
“I know,” Su Che replied with a laugh. “I’m doing this just to prove to it that I’m no less fierce—just as fierce as it is.”
Though this seemed absurd, Su Che believed that treasures had spirits, and perhaps it was observing him silently as well!
However, the divine heat flow sent by Lao He reminded Su Che that the command flag hovered above the black boulder—there might be some connection between the two.
So, Su Che took off his shoes and touched the black boulder with his bare feet. The familiar stream of cool energy immediately flowed into his body. He then guided that energy to his arms, concentrating it in his palms, and tried to touch the command flag once more.
It worked!
This time, he approached the flag without any obstruction. After a brief hesitation, he grabbed the flagpole.
The flag was small, and the pole was only as thick as a thumb. Holding it in his palm, he immediately felt a scorching heat.
Su Che thought this heat was normal—after all, they were in an underground lava vein, where even the air temperature could cook food. The pole being metal made it reasonable for it to be hot.
As soon as this thought crossed his mind, with a loud boom, the heat in his hand intensified exponentially. Su Che felt as though he had fallen into the lava lake behind him, unprepared, and his body was instantly reduced to ashes.
Huuu~~~
His consciousness blurred, as if his soul had left his body. He was on the verge of death…
If anyone else were there at that moment, they would have seen that Su Che hadn’t fallen into the lava lake. Instead, his body emitted a blinding red light, as if engulfed in raging flames.
Su Che felt his soul separate from his body, floating through mountains and rivers, over the Gobi Desert, to lands thousands of miles away…
Time seemed endless, as if a hundred years had passed. Suddenly, the world changed, and his soul saw another scene.

On the vast plain stood a huge altar, exuding an ancient and formidable aura. The altar was built from countless giant stones, each engraved with dark red, bizarre totems; these totems seemed alive, pulsing as if the souls of countless people were attached to them, screaming, struggling, and suffering in agony. On top of the altar stood a muscular man, his face and body also covered with strange totems, holding a golden standard in his right hand. Roar! The man raised the standard high and let out a thunderous roar. Boom! Hundreds of strong men kneeling below the altar transformed into giants hundreds of feet tall, with fierce faces and terrifying presence. Their powerful bodies seemed capable of shattering the heavens. Roar~~~ The giants roared in unison, their massive voices causing mountains to crumble, rivers to flow backward, and the earth to twist, forming deep ravines and countless profound canyons. Suddenly, the sky darkened—not from clouds, but as countless cultivators flew in, so many that they covered the entire sky. In an instant, the army of cultivators engaged in a fierce battle with the giants. Countless magical artifacts and spells were thrown at the giants, but they couldn’t cause even the slightest harm. Roar! Roar! Roar… The giants kept roaring, casually lifting their hands to crush the tiny cultivators like ants or crushing them to death in their palms. One after another, the cultivators perished, their physical bodies destroyed, and their spiritual essences unable to escape, drawn up to the altar by a powerful force and transformed into new dark red totems. “Seize!” “Seize!” “Seize!” The man on the altar waved the standard, his roars echoing across the world. “Seize the creation of heaven and earth, the essence of all things, the spiritual essences of immortals, and the fate of demons…” With his cries, the giants grew even more powerful, and more and more cultivators died at their hands… Seeing this, Su Che suddenly realized he was just a spectator; his soul hadn’t left his body—only his mind was experiencing illusions, perhaps caused by that standard. Thinking this, he felt slightly relieved, but… The man on the altar suddenly turned his head this way and roared with a ferocious face, “Worms like you dare to offend our sacred relic! Die!” “Die!” “Die!” “Die!” The word “die” struck him like a mountain collapsing on his head. Su Che’s vision went black, and he fainted instantly.

At this moment, Su Che’s mental realm was utterly disrupted by some unknown force, as if the world were on the verge of collapse. This meant Su Che’s soul faced the danger of being completely erased. If a person’s soul vanished, it meant utter destruction—even the right to reincarnate would be taken away, a fate even worse than eternal suffering.

Buzz…

At this critical moment, the Black Tower of the Immortal Prison slowly rotated, emitting streams of golden light and producing a melodious, otherworldly sound. Like an anchor that steadies the sea, it stabilized Su Che’s mental realm.

Bang!

On the black island in the lava lake, Su Che held the flag in his hand before collapsing face down, silent. Fortunately, his slightly rising chest indicated he was still alive.

An hour passed.

Another hour passed…

Su Che never woke up. Since entering the realm of cultivation, this was the first time he had fallen into such a deep coma, as if dead.

Inside the Immortal Prison, Old Black was also nowhere to be seen, completely silent. Only a dozen or so prisoners continued their tasks, unaware of what had just happened.

Time slowly passed. After a while, a bright red figure appeared at the other end of the lava lake—it was the red-tailed fox, back again.

A few hours earlier, the red-tailed fox had fled in terror after being scared by Su Che. Now, it guessed that the human cultivator must have taken the flag and left, so it cautiously returned to check.

First, it was relieved to see that the precious black island was still in place, untouched. Then it spotted Su Che, unconscious.

“Yiya!”

The red-tailed fox let out a cry, simply to test whether Su Che was asleep or not…

After shouting several times with no response from Su Che, the fox flew over, gliding back and forth around the island, gathering courage. It conjured a small fireball, intending to finish Su Che off.

The fox’s mouth slowly opened, and a ball of fire began to form…

With a thud, like a crow about to crow that was slapped silent, the red-tailed fox plummeted from the sky, landing beside Su Che. It thrashed its hind legs a few times before also falling unconscious.

Then, a wisp of green smoke emerged from its head and returned to Su Che’s head. Old Black’s deep voice appeared again: “Damn it, I knew you damn fox would come back to take advantage of the situation.”

It turned out Old Black had been prepared. He had transformed into the form of a Heavenly Demon, floating in midair, waiting for the red-tailed fox to come crashing into him.

These days, Lao Hei, just like Su Che, has also reached the highest level of spiritual power. It was a piece of cake for him to capture a little fox by possessing it. After that, Lao Hei trapped the red-tailed fox in the Immortal Prison, then transformed into the form of the Rat Emperor and used a mental summons to bring countless Shadow Wind Rats, surrounding the entrance to the underground fire veins to prevent any creatures from entering, ensuring that Su Che wouldn’t face any threats while unconscious. After being unconscious for nearly two days and nights, Su Che finally woke up holding his head, inevitably suffering from excruciating headaches. Seeing a bright red red-tailed fox in the Immortal Prison, Su Che guessed everything and thought to himself, “Little fox, it must have been hard for you to break free from the constraints of your lineage. I wanted to spare you, but you insisted on walking into trouble… Well, now you can continue to be neighbors with that Earth Fire Spirit.” The little fox had long been tamed by Lao Hei and had now become the assistant of alchemist Luo Lianqiao, forced to breathe exotic flames into the alchemy furnace every day. Life ahead would surely not be as carefree as it was on Black Stone Island. Lao Hei reported, “Master, there’s good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?” “The bad one!” Su Che replied, rubbing his temples. “Although this golden flag lacks an artifact spirit, it still possesses the ability to attack on its own. The strike it delivered nearly shattered your soul. Fortunately, it was suppressed by the Immortal Prison Pagoda. However, the golden flag’s fierce flames require a significant amount of energy from the pagoda to suppress, so…” “Energy consumption?” Su Che immediately realized that energy couldn’t appear out of nowhere. So, what kind of energy was the Immortal Prison using? After checking carefully, he found that the more than 50,000 spirit stones stored in the Heavenly Prison had all been gone. Usually, as a precaution, Su Che would only keep a few hundred spirit stones symbolically in his Qiankun Bag, storing all his wealth in the safer Immortal Prison. Now, the more than 50,000 spirit stones left from purchasing pills had been swallowed up by the Immortal Prison. “It’s okay, it’s okay…” Su Che comforted himself, “It’s just spirit stones. I can earn more if I lose them. After all, I have the Secret Medicine Garden and the Shadow Wind Gorge as treasures, so earning spirit stones isn’t a problem.” Lao Hei added, “Yes, master. Thankfully, so many spirit stones are stored in the Immortal Prison. Otherwise, at a critical moment, the Immortal Prison Pagoda wouldn’t have enough energy to save you.”

“That’s right, life is the most important thing; spirit stones don’t matter. This isn’t really bad news.” Su Che waved his hand vigorously, dismissing the loss of spirit stones: “Now, let’s talk about good news!”