Chapter 390: Keeping a Promise

After Zhe Qiu left, Su Che turned to Hao Yuan and said, “Please set up a barrier to prevent eavesdropping.”
Hao Yuan frowned slightly, thinking to himself that Wu Yi was truly annoying—overly cautious. If he was afraid others would overhear, why not simply use telepathy?
Though annoyed, he still had to consider Wu Yi’s status as his direct disciple. Since it wasn’t his own disciple, it would be inappropriate to scold him harshly.
“It’s quite rare among disciples to see Wu Yi being so cautious,” Hao Yuan said with a half-smile.
Su Che could tell he was mocking him, but he remained calm and said, “Normally, I wouldn’t be so cautious either. But this time, I’ve received some extremely shocking news by chance. If I’m not extremely careful, my life could be in danger.”
Seeing how serious he sounded, Hao Yuan’s curiosity grew even stronger. Truth be told, he was afraid of any news related to Tian Yu, yet he couldn’t help but want to know about it.
As the sect leader had said, if one couldn’t even face a few pieces of news, how could they confront the demons in their hearts?
So, Hao Yuan nodded and waved his hand to create a barrier of spiritual isolation, enveloping the hall—essentially digging his own grave.
“Wu Yi, may I hear it now?” Yuan Hao asked calmly.
“Yes.”
Su Che nodded seriously, and his words shocked Yuan Hao: “Yuan Hao, I’ve brought your Uncle Tai Wu to see you.”
What?
Yuan Hao was stunned instantly.
Swish!
Tai Wu suddenly appeared before Yuan Hao from the Immortal Prison.
“Uncle Tai Wu!”
Yuan Hao cried out in terror, as if seeing a ghost.
Soul Seizure!
Su Che sent a close-range soul-seizure attack. Yuan Hao wasn’t yet a Yuan Ying cultivator, and even though he had a spiritual treasure-level soul-calming artifact in his mind, the power of the soul-seizure still disrupted his spirit, leaving him confused for two breaths.
Tai Wu waved his hand and grabbed him, pressing Yuan Hao’s forehead into his palm.
What could possibly happen when a Golden Dan cultivator’s head fell into the hands of a Yuan Ying cultivator?
Swish!
Su Che sent Tai Wu and Yuan Hao back to the Immortal Prison. He then transformed back into Hao Yuan’s appearance, stepped out of the barrier, and used telepathy to call Zhe Qiu in.

Zheqiu entered the grand hall and stepped through a thin barrier. Looking around, he didn’t see the Wuyi from before. Yet he dared not ask further and could only suspect that Wuyi must have revealed something extremely important, which led to the GreatLord eliminating him or capturing him alive…

Just as he approached Su Che, intending to bow and say something, a blue light came toward him. Immediately, he felt his mind shake, and his entire body became light, as if he no longer had a physical form.

After that, Zheqiu actually saw his own body behind him and then realized that his soul had left his body and been pulled out by some supernatural power.

Su Che was at the Yuan Ying cultivation level, while Zheqiu was only at the mid-stage Jin Dan level. There was a significant difference in strength, and Su Che’s soul-seizing technique could unleash true power to directly capture souls!

Zheqiu’s soul was sent straight to the Netherworld of Ghosts, fulfilling Su Che’s earlier promise of eternal damnation.

Zheqiu’s soul still retained full consciousness and thought. Entering this vast realm of ghosts, he was filled with terror: “Where is this? Where on earth is this?”

He didn’t even understand why Senior Brother Haoyuan would turn on him, nor how his senior brother could possess such bizarre and powerful supernatural abilities…

At that moment, Zheqiu suddenly realized that the blue light was clearly Tian Yu’s soul-seizing technique from the Tianxuan Sect, not Senior Brother Yuanhao at all.

“It’s him! He’s here! He really attacked us. Senior Brother Haoyuan must also be in his hands…”

“If I become a demon, you shall never attain the path of immortality in this life or the next. You shall be trapped in eternal suffering, never able to enter reincarnation, becoming slaves to ghosts, without seeing sky or earth, serving as penance in the Netherworld…”

“Without seeing sky or earth, serving as penance in the Netherworld… Is this really the Netherworld he mentioned?”

Filled with endless doubts and terror, Zheqiu’s soul was summoned by the Ghost Emperor to the grand hall of the Netherworld.

“Sinner Zheqiu, do you acknowledge your crimes?” The Ghost Emperor sat majestically on his throne.

From this moment on, Zheqiu would truly regret his past actions, suffer endlessly, and be doomed to eternal punishment.

On the first level of the Immortal Prison, Lao He woke Haoyuan up, intending to interrogate this leader of the Taiyi Sect’s combat hall.

“Is it Tian Yu?”

That was the first question Haoyuan asked upon waking.

The moment he lost consciousness, he had instantly realized that the only one capable of using the soul-seizing technique—and the one who could have caused Uncle Tai Wu to disappear without a trace—could only be Tian Yu.

Bang!

Lao He lifted his stone-like giant foot and stamped hard on Yuan Hao’s waist and abdomen, saying viciously, “How dare you, a prisoner, call out the master’s name!”
The hundredfold pain made Yuan Hao grunt in agony, yet he still forced a pained smile. “Tian Yu? He’s your master? Haha, I’ve ended up in his hands after all. Not bad… At least my inner demons can be eliminated.”
Everything was now settled. Without any more anxiety or worry, the concerns in his heart dissipated, and his inner demons were gone. But what the price for this was, perhaps he still hadn’t realized.
Many desperate people would say, “At worst, it’s just death. Eighteen years later, I’ll be a hero again…” Unaware that there are many things in this world that are countless times worse than death.
Su Che didn’t intend to deliberately insult and torture Yuan Hao out of hatred. Lao He’s methods of torture were simply part of his role as a jailer and his hobby; Su Che didn’t bother to get involved.
At this moment, what he wanted to know most was what kind of reason would be needed to get close to the leader of Tai Xu, and what precautions should be taken.
Faced with these questions, Lao He began to interrogate him rigorously.
It had to be said that Yuan Hao was also a tough guy. Under the torment of hundredfold pain, he gritted his teeth and remained silent, emitting only muffled grunts from within his chest.
Unfortunately, even if he stayed silent, as Lao He continued to interrogate him, answers would uncontrollably emerge from his thoughts—there was no way to hide from this interrogator who resembled a demon king.
The matter concerning that old fox from Tai Xu couldn’t be taken lightly. The interrogation lasted most of the day before finally ending. Lao He asked extremely detailed questions, refusing to allow any negligence that might lead to his master’s failure.
“Master, putting aside the matter of that old fox from Tai Xu, I’ve learned some very serious bad news,” Lao He reported. “Before being captured, Yuan Hao harbored one hope—that the messengers from the Spirit Realm would descend to this world sooner to deal with you personally.”
“What’s so bad about that?” Su Che didn’t understand but smiled inwardly. “Aren’t those people in the Spirit Realm always eager to open a passage to this world and come down sooner?”

“It’s different, master. This time it’s different,” explained Lao Hei. “Yuanhao doesn’t know many specific details, but it seems that the people in the Spirit Realm have some special methods that allow an individual to secretly descend to the mortal world, similar to smuggling, which goes against the laws of the universe. But as long as he suppresses his strength and conceals his true abilities, once he finds you, he only needs to deliver a devastating blow. Even if his strength is exposed and he’s sent back to the Spirit Realm, it will still be a great deal for him.”
“I see!”
Su Che frowned, finally realizing the seriousness of the situation.
Back on Mu Lan Star, when facing the master of Jue Chen Valley, he had been in a similar situation. To get rid of him, they would have to use forces beyond the peak levels of the cultivation world. Even if they could only unleash one or two moves, it would be enough to eliminate a Yuan Ying cultivator like him in an instant.
There is a huge gap between the Lian Xu stage and the Yuan Ying stage—just as a Yuan Ying cultivator can easily kill someone at the Zhu Ji stage, a single powerful spell could eliminate not just one person but even an entire group in one strike.
Lao Hei was right; this was indeed very bad news.
“They actually have a way to descend secretly?” Su Che felt heavy-hearted. “Even if it’s just one person, it’s still extremely terrifying. If that envoy from the Spirit Realm also has top-tier Dao artifacts, with my abilities, I’d be completely defenseless and doomed—no chance of survival!”
“That’s why, master, we must find out exactly when that envoy descended secretly, so we can avoid him in advance,” suggested Lao Hei. “The best way is to hide on Wu Huang Star. Under the protection of those Wu tribe warriors, no one from the Spirit Realm would dare to come and die.”
“Yes,” Su Che nodded. “We must figure out the exact time. We can’t just flee at the first sign of this news and never dare to stay on Qi Yuan Star again, can we?”
Speaking of the Wu tribe warriors on Wu Huang Star, when Su Che went there last time to collect various cultivation resources, he had thought about bringing all the members of the Wu tribe into the Mi Xian Realm, allowing them to live within that sacred place. That would mean he could carry around a large number of invincible Wu tribe warriors. Not to mention cultivators at the Lian Xu stage, even those at the Da Cheng stage who were about to ascend to the Immortal Realm wouldn’t pose a threat to him.
But dreams are beautiful, while reality is cruel. Before the hundred-year period ends and the Wu God returns, no Wu tribe members are allowed to enter the Mi Xian Realm. Instead, Su Che, as the master holding the decree, can enter and exit freely with one or two humans of lower strength.

The reason is that Mi Xianjing is a sacred place of the Witch Clan, hiding a major secret related to their path to divinity. When the Witch God is absent, if any high-ranking witch enters Mi Xianjing first, they might obtain the primordial power left by the Twelve Ancestral Witches and thus become a god overnight, threatening the current Witch God’s position. From this, it can be inferred that when the Witch God statue suddenly appeared on Witch Yellow Star and forcibly activated the drop of true Witch God blood within Su Che, its purpose was likely to completely transform Su Che into a member of the Witch Clan. In that case, Su Che would no longer be able to enter and exit Mi Xianjing at will and would have to hand over the Mi Xian Flag to Tian Yin. And Tian Yin is the one the Witch God trusts the most. Although Tian Yin was a high-ranking witch in her past life, she has become human in this life and will never pose a threat to the Witch God’s position. Ever since understanding this, every time Su Che thinks of the sinister smile on the Witch God statue’s face as it schemed against him, he reminds himself that the cooperation with the Witch Clan is not as close as he originally thought, and he must also be cautious of that Witch God…