Chapter 231: Special Heavenly Calamity

Two wind dragons merged into one, transforming into a tornado that spun rapidly around Su Che. At this moment, countless images and faces appeared in Su Che’s mind—seeds that could give rise to inner demons. Everyone has inner demons; as long as there is guilt, regret, sorrow, or fear in life, all negative emotions can trigger them. Su Che simply had no regrets, so he couldn’t truly be free of inner demons. Yet, such demons affect a person’s thoughts, spirit, and soul—born in the mind. With the Immortal Prison guarding his mind, it was difficult for inner demons to arise. Even if something unwanted appeared, it would be captured by Lao He and thrown into the Immortal Prison. This wind-dragon calamity couldn’t provoke Su Che’s inner demons; instead, it helped refine his primordial spirit and strengthen his will. Standing firm in the wind, he hoped it would last longer so he could gain more benefits.

Huh…
The power of the wind dragons grew stronger, and a massive tornado appeared atop Mysterious Prison Peak, circling endlessly and emitting a terrifying howling sound. Su Che’s figure had long disappeared within the dragon-shaped wind column, completely out of sight.

Boom!
Suddenly, another fiery red pillar of energy descended and merged with the wind-dragon column, forming a dark red pillar. Within the wind dragons were strands of heavenly calamity fire that could strip away the passerby’s skin, flesh, and bones layer by layer, burning them all to ashes. This was the full form of the wind-fire calamity. Generally, other fire-type Golden Core cultivators had to use one or two high-grade magic artifacts to resist this wind-fire pillar, allowing them only minimal exposure to its power to strengthen their bodies and primordial spirits. But Su Che, unafraid of either inner demons or calamity fire, already possessed the traits of five types of spiritual flames within his true essence, granting him extreme resistance to the heavenly calamity fire. So, he didn’t resist at all, letting the wind-fire pillar ravage his body to enhance the strength of his physique and primordial spirit.

To others, the power of the heavenly calamity was a difficult process of rebirth through fire. But for Su Che, the power of the wind-fire calamity posed no threat to his safety—it was even too weak to be used for self-improvement.

“Too weak!”
Su Che shouted toward the sky, delivering a devastating punch upward. His reckless provocation was meant to make the heavenly calamity power stronger—otherwise, it wouldn’t be satisfying enough.

“You’re too weak. You don’t deserve to be called a heavenly calamity!”

Su Che appeared mad, standing in the pillar of wind, fire, and energy, laughing wildly.
“You’re too weak—unworthy of being called a heavenly calamity!”
These words were extremely arrogant; not just a provocation, but a clear insult. If the power of the heavenly calamity had a spirit, it would surely react.
Boom!
The black hole in the sky suddenly expanded tenfold, with terrifying pressure descending, almost crushing the entire Xuan Yu Peak into the ground.
Bang!
Unable to withstand this force, Su Che sat down hard on the ground.
Crack!
The hard ground shattered and collapsed by more than ten feet. The destructive power of the pillar of wind, fire, and energy also surged by over ten times, seemingly determined to tear everything on the top of Xuan Yu Peak to pieces.
Heaven was enraged and sought to punish such a fool who dared to despise the power of the heavenly calamity.
Su Che adjusted his posture and sat cross-legged on the ground, choosing to remain silent and focus on fighting against the power of the heavenly calamity.
“This level is about right.”
Seeing that it was sufficient, he dared not be too arrogant anymore. If he really angered heaven and attracted dozens of thunderbolts, things would get ugly.
On Xuan Ji Peak, Venerable Xuan Ji wondered secretly, “Why is Su Che’s heavenly calamity so terrifying? It’s more than ten times stronger than those of other Fire Golden Core cultivators. Could it be that the heavenly calamity adapts to the opponent?”
Venerable Xuan Ji didn’t realize that the power of the heavenly calamity was originally normal. It had become this extreme only because someone had an extreme tendency toward self-harm and deliberately provoked it with rude words.
In the main hall of the sect, the four Yuan Ying ancestors shook their heads, thinking to themselves, “This kid is too arrogant. He even dares to provoke the heavenly calamity. He really doesn’t know what death means.”
However, they also secretly admired Su Che’s actions, admiring his courage, because he had done what they wanted to do but dared not…
Cultivators generally resist the heavenly calamity, thinking, “I’m cultivating my way to immortality—why should I accept your tests? Who do you think you are?”
With oppression comes resistance—a normal mindset, though few dare to express it.
Today, Su Che not only voiced this resistance but also acted on it, showing severe contempt, provocation, and insult toward the heavenly calamity. The four ancestors felt greatly satisfied, as if they had avenged themselves.
On Xuan Yu Peak, Su Che endured the test of tenfold heavenly calamity power, suffering greatly. Yet, only then did he feel satisfied and realize it was worthwhile.
Uuuu…
The pillar of wind, fire, and energy ravaged everything, causing Su Che’s skin to crack, his muscles to atrophy, and his hair to fall out completely. But it didn’t matter!

Every time this happened, Su Che would swallow several Grade 7 spirit pills, using the Warm Current of the Immortal Prison and the Clear Flow of Black Stones to activate their effects. His vitality surged to the point of explosion, his hair grew back instantly, and his muscles and skin quickly regained their luster. However, the power of the heavenly calamity was extremely terrifying—it could drain a cultivator’s entire essence, and the effects of just a few Grade 7 spirit pills would be exhausted in no time. As a result, his muscles would shrink again, the newly grown hair would fall out and turn to ash, leaving him in a state of exhaustion once more. He would then take more pills, repeating this process over and over. For others, enduring such a rebirth once would be enough to scare them, but Su Che was insatiable, willing to endure endless pain time and again. The speed at which he consumed the pills was terrifying, yet he cared not at all, only hoping that the power of the heavenly calamity would last longer so that his physical body and spirit could be tempered into something even more solid and resilient. Of course, Su Che could achieve this only thanks to the Warm Current of the Immortal Prison and the Clear Flow of Black Stones; otherwise, he wouldn’t have time to transform the power of the pills, and his essence would have run out long ago. In that case, his fate would be failure in the calamity test, turning him to ashes. It seemed that Su Che’s earlier provocation had had some effect—this time, the intensity of the heavenly calamity test had increased by more than ten times, and its duration had also stretched by more than ten times. This was an unprecedented exception in the history of the Tianxuan Sect. Previously, no one had dared to provoke the heavenly calamity, so its intensity remained roughly the same each time, which could be seen as a manifestation of fairness and justice from the heavens. But this time, it was clearly special, strange… Su Che endured more than a dozen rebirths in silence when he suddenly felt that the strength of the wind-fire pillar was gradually weakening… Clearly, the heavenly calamity was coming to an end! Though still unsatisfied, Su Che didn’t dare to provoke further. Everything must have a limit; one must know when to stop. If one goes too far, it will be oneself who ends up looking bad. “That’s it then.” Su Che silently stood up within the wind-fire pillar. In the Immortal Prison, Old Black was sweating profusely, muttering to himself, “My master is getting crazier by the day. I wonder if it’s due to the blood of the Witch Clan?” The Witch Clan’s bravery, recklessness, and wildness were well-known; their ability to cause trouble was unmatched! Whoosh… whoosh… The howling of the wind-fire pillar grew weaker, signaling that Su Che had successfully passed this great wind-fire calamity. Whoosh… whoosh…

Until the circular black hole in the sky began to slowly close, and both the power of the wind dragon and the calamity fire ceased, as if after the rain cleared the sky. Su Che’s clothes had long turned to ashes; at this moment, just as he had put on a robe, something unexpected happened… Crack! Crack! Crack! Three bolts of calamity lightning struck simultaneously, knocking Su Che to the ground and turning him into a pile of black charcoal. Inside the black hole, dense and terrifying flashes of lightning illuminated the area, but no more lightning fell, as if mocking Su Che: “What a big deal—I just didn’t want to deal with you.” A few moments later, the pile of charcoal twitched a few times and got up. With a puff of smoke from his mouth, Su Che quickly took a healing pill. It was fine—just superficial injuries. Those three bolts of calamity lightning were merely the weakest type of fire lightning and couldn’t kill a Golden Core cultivator. Su Che said nothing, only standing beneath the black hole and bowing deeply. The black hole slowly closed, showing mercy to this arrogant boy. He had safely passed through the trial of wind and fire! Inside the main hall of the sect, the four elders smiled silently, also secretly astonished. It was the first time they had seen the power of heavenly calamity act in such a humane manner, sending down three unnecessary bolts of lightning to save Su Che. What did such a strange event mean? What did it indicate? It was truly worth pondering… On the other side, atop Xuanyu Peak, Su Che, having survived the minor heavenly calamity, had now become a true Golden Core cultivator. Thanks to more than a dozen “rebirths from fire” during the trial, his cultivation level was extremely stable, and his Golden Core had become even denser, with a much darker color. It was said that a Golden Core at the advanced perfect stage should be dark golden in color, indicating that the darker the color of the Golden Core, the higher the cultivation level. Su Che knew that a darker color was surely a good sign. The effects of tempering his physical body were very evident. He silently guessed that his physical strength was almost on par with that of his master. The strength of his spiritual essence also seemed much greater than that of ordinary early-stage Golden Core cultivators… Su Che had once captured the spiritual essences of seven or eight early-stage Golden Core cultivators. His own spiritual essence felt much more solid than theirs, almost reaching the level of Cang Qiu, a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator. Without a doubt, this was the benefit brought to him by that special heavenly calamity. “I’m now at the Golden Core stage, which means I’ve entered the ranks of experts,” Su Che mused. “But now, there are even more things to do…”

The matter of Senior Brother Yu Qing, the Golden Crow Pill Furnace, the opening of the third layer of the Immortal Prison, searching for great wealth in the Arctic Sea, and gathering more spiritual flames…
“Let’s take things one by one; there’s no need to rush.”
Su Che returned to his cave dwelling and needed to retreat for several days to stabilize his cultivation level. He also needed to thoroughly study the fire-related divine techniques he had mastered during the pill formation process.
More importantly, the conditions for opening the third layer of the Immortal Prison should be revealed in the next few days, right?