Chapter 226: Surging Magic Energy

Over the next twenty-odd days, Su Che visited four different sources of fire, successfully obtaining four more types of high-grade spiritual flames.

Purple Heart Mysterious Fire: A level-6 spiritual flame with a pale purple hue inside its flames. Its nature is stable, and it is commonly used to refine spiritual pills of grade six or higher.

Deep Sea Immortal Flame: A level-6 exotic flame with a dark blue color. It can burn continuously even at the bottom of the deep sea. Being a cold flame, it is often used by those who refine fire to balance yin and yang.

Metal Forging Exotic Flame: A level-6 exotic flame said to originate from distant realms outside the sky. It has an extremely strong effect in refining metals.

Ninth Abyss Earth Core Fire: A level-7 spiritual flame originating from the deepest parts of the earth. It is the progenitor of all earth core flames, yet it is itself a cold flame.

The first three level-6 flames were obtained quite easily. Those so-called treacherous places and a few guardian monsters posed no obstacle at all to Su Che. Only the final flame, the Ninth Abyss Earth Core Fire, required him to make another trip to the underground demonic realm. To obtain it, he even engaged in a fierce battle with a mid-stage Golden Pill Asura. After repelling it, he rushed back to the surface, barely avoiding being surrounded by the earth demon army.

Overall, the process of collecting these four flames could be described as “uneventful,” far less complicated than the first time he obtained the Golden Crow Heavenly Fire.

Of course, danger often comes with rewards. These four attempts only resulted in obtaining flames; there were no other gains, unlike the time with the Golden Crow Heavenly Fire, when he received a top-grade spiritual treasure-level pill furnace after overcoming the crisis…

Things outside were going smoothly, but the two situations inside the Immortal Prison were quite problematic.

Firstly, Lao He finally confirmed that Cang Qiu’s cultivation could indeed not be restored. The Golden Pill that was blasted out of his body could only be nurtured inside him again, but he could no longer possess the combat strength expected of a mid-stage Golden Pill cultivator.

Cang Qiu survived, but he ultimately became a cripple.

“If he’s ruined, so be it. It doesn’t matter.”

Su Che wasn’t very concerned about this. That order had been blurted out in the heat of battle.

The prisoners in the Immortal Prison couldn’t be released to help him fight his opponents. Whether they were at the Golden Pill stage or the Foundation Establishment stage made no difference.

“Master, actually, the first prisoner in the Immortal Prison with Golden Pill-level strength isn’t Cang Qiu… it’s…”

Lao He summoned the mid-level third-stage Fire Crow before him and patted its head, saying, “It should be this one!”

This fire raven had long been tamed by Lao Hei into being extremely obedient and well-behaved. If Su Che had the chance to learn the art of beast control and train it into a spiritual beast, it would become another powerful fighter for the Immortal Prison Team. In fact, it would be far more useful than a human prisoner at the Golden Core stage.
“Indeed,” Su Che agreed wholeheartedly and said to Lao Hei, “We can focus on training it. Meanwhile, we can use both the Golden Crow Heavenly Fire and the Black Stone Clear Flow. If it could evolve into a Three-Legged Golden Crow one day, that would be amazing.”
“Do you hear that, Little Black? Your master has high hopes for you.”
Lao Hei rubbed the fire raven’s head and even gave it the name Little Black, seemingly quite fond of this black bird.
“Caw!”
The fire raven crowed in response to Lao Hei, though its call was rather unpleasant.
Su Che thought to himself, “The Ghost Cultivation techniques and the art of beast control—both of these need to be obtained as soon as possible… After forming a Golden Core, unlocking the third layer of the Immortal Prison will also require meeting many conditions. All these tasks must be completed one by one.”
There were many things to deal with, making him feel overwhelmed, but Su Che dared not slack off in the slightest. After all, the chaos in the cultivation world was almost certainly related to the Immortal Prison Pagoda, so he had to hurry and grow stronger. Otherwise, when crisis truly struck, he might not even have the ability to escape.
The second setback: He still hadn’t managed to subdue that furnace! The good news Lao Hei mentioned hadn’t arrived yet.
“That damned furnace—its mind is completely broken!”
Whenever this topic came up, Lao Hei would become furious: “It’s hysterical, unreasonable, and completely uncommunicative.”
Su Che nodded silently, not finding it strange. It was indeed difficult to communicate with those who lacked sanity—impossible to reason with them. The same applied to magical artifacts.
For some reason, the spirit within that furnace had turned into a ‘madman,’ making it unlikely he could subdue it. A cultivator at the Yuan Ying stage would simply erase it and create a new spirit that was obedient, loyal, and obedient to them. But right now, Su Che neither had the strength nor the knowledge to do this, nor did he have a suitable spirit to replace it.
Good luck like that with the Bronze Treasure Gourd wouldn’t happen every time. It was normal to put in effort to subdue a top-tier spiritual treasure—it was worth it.
“Maybe I should return to my sect and ask Patriarch Zi Xiao for help?” Su Che thought to himself.

“Master, there’s no need to rush this matter,” Lao He said with a sense of realization. “I have a feeling that once you reach the Golden Pill stage and open the third layer of the Immortal Prison, such things won’t pose a challenge to us at all.”
“Alright, then let’s put it aside for now.”
Su Che agreed readily. After all, Lao He was the spirit of the Immortal Prison Pagoda, and his intuition surely had its reasons.
After that, Su Che thought, “There are still six days left in the one-month period. I might as well go pick up the source of fire provided by Senior Yu Qing on the way. Although it’s just a fourth-grade exotic fire, I can’t disappoint his kindness…”
Blood Curtain Mountains.
The source of exotic fire that Yu Qing had provided to Su Che was located deep within the Blood Curtain Mountains.
In fact, the Blood Curtain Mountains were only a little over two thousand li away from Tianxuan Sect. Five years ago, Su Che’s resurrection through borrowing a body, as well as his first encounter with Yu Qing, both took place in a valley within the Blood Curtain Mountains…
Relying on his memory, Su Che spent just over a day not only reaching the Blood Curtain Mountains but also finding that valley again.
The scenery inside the valley remained the same, but he had changed drastically.
Back then, he was just an insignificant figure; even a few outer sect disciples at the early Qi Cultivation stage could snatch a pile of bear meat from him. Now, Su Che was the top senior brother among over two hundred thousand disciples of Tianxuan Sect…
Returning to this place, Su Che was filled with emotions. He stayed in the valley for a long time before flying higher and delving deeper.
Just like the Yin Wind Gorge, the Blood Curtain Mountains were also a training ground for Tianxuan Sect’s outer sect disciples. There were no dangerous beasts to threaten Su Che, so he could move around freely without worry.
In the central area lay a graveyard of beasts. Yu Qing had seen a type of “Blood Mist Evil Flame” in one of the caves there—it was likely a fourth-grade exotic fire, with flames resembling a large mass of reddish blood mist, dense and undispersing, burning fiercely.
Su Che had researched relevant information. It was said that if one’s body came into contact with even a trace of Blood Mist Evil Flame, their blood would boil and burn, similar to the mysterious phenomenon of spontaneous human combustion in the mortal world.
The Blood Curtain Mountains weren’t large, covering only a few hundred li. It took Su Che just fifteen minutes to find that graveyard of beasts.
It was a huge valley filled with countless bones, thick with dark energy, along with a layer of light gray poisonous miasma that hung three feet above the ground and wouldn’t disperse. Surrounding the graveyard were countless beasts guarding it in layers. Without the flying ability of the later stages of Qi Cultivation, those outer sect disciples would never be able to enter.

Inside the cemetery, not a single living demon beast was in sight. Su Che descended and, using the exact coordinates provided by Senior Brother Yu Qing, identified the right cave among the dozens on the mountain cliff to enter. The cave wasn’t very deep—only over twenty zhang—and its interior was quite spacious. He had thought that once he gathered the Blood Mist Evil Flame, he could leave right away; it wouldn’t take much time. Unexpectedly, Su Che was to witness something utterly shocking. “Senior Brother!” Su Che exclaimed in shock. At the deepest part of the cave, a spacious area over three zhang high, there was no sign of the blood-red misty flame Yu Qing had described. Instead, there was only a massive swirl of black flames, as dark as ink and extremely sinister. Beneath those black flames, a person was sitting in seiza position, their body also enveloped in a sinister black mist, resembling someone with profound demonic cultivation. Although it was dark in the cave, it didn’t affect Su Che’s spiritual perception at all. Almost as soon as he entered, he recognized that the person sitting there was Yu Qing, who hadn’t returned to the sect in months. “Late stage of Foundation Building?” Yu Qing smiled through the black mist. “Fortunately, I’m not slow either. I almost got overtaken by you.” Su Che also realized that Senior Brother Yu Qing had reached the late stage of Foundation Building. However, his condition was extremely abnormal—his demonic aura was heavier than any demonic cultivator he had ever seen. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say his demonic flames were overwhelming. Without worrying about comparing their cultivation levels, Su Che rushed forward and asked urgently, “Senior Brother, what’s wrong with you?” “There’s no need to worry,” Yu Qing said with a smile. “It’s just that I entered the Demon Transformation stage ahead of schedule. For me, it was only a matter of time.” “Demon Transformation stage?” Su Che didn’t understand, having heard this term for the first time. But he could guess it must be related to some secret of his own. Yu Qing slowly explained, “After parting with you at the underground spiritual veins of Taiyi Gate and on my way back to the sect, I was unlucky enough to run into that late-stage Golden Core cultivator from Qinglan Continent’s market again…” “Feng Sha?” Su Che blurted out. “He’s Feng Sha, the chief elder of the Demon Sealing Hall.” As he spoke, Su Che thought to himself, “Linglong was right. Senior Brother has faced countless hardships. In this vast world, he even ran into that Feng Sha. It seems his experiences have been far more perilous than mine…” “Demon Sealing Hall?” Yu Qing also seemed to realize something, murmuring, “No wonder his spells could awaken the deeply buried seeds of my demonic nature.”

“Anyway, it’s fortunate that you were able to escape from Feng Sha’s grasp,” Su Che said solemnly.
“Yes, he failed to capture me.”
Yu Qing smiled lightly and added, “But to escape, I had to pay a heavy price—activating a secret technique early on, which caused me to enter the Magic Transformation phase three stages ahead of time. Normally, one would reach this state only in the later stages of the Golden Core phase.”
Su Che nodded. “Indeed. Returning to the sect in this state of overwhelming demonic energy might even lead to the sect being purged.”
“That’s why I waited for you here,” Yu Qing said with a smile. “I knew you would come here sooner or later.”