Chapter 415: Mental Chains

Thousands of chains piercing Su Che’s body surely couldn’t be a good sign.
Su Che grew anxious secretly, yet he didn’t realize anything was wrong with him at first.
“Mental chains!”
Lin Feng smiled arrogantly and said, “With just a thought from me, the mental chains will erupt fully. At first, you’ll feel as if thousands of insects and snakes are gnawing at your flesh and bones. Then, your heart will be tightly wrapped by the chains, tearing your mind apart—worse than death. Later, under my control, you’ll do things against your will, like tearing off one of your arms and swallowing it whole…”
Before he could finish, Su Che felt relieved. “So it’s a mental control technique. Such techniques might work on others, but they certainly won’t work on me.”
In this regard, Su Che was fully confident. With the Immortal Prison Pagoda protecting his soul, he was least afraid of invisible attacks targeting his mind, spirit, or soul. The idea of him being controlled in this way was nothing but delusion—impossible.
“You describe this move as so terrifying. Why don’t I feel anything yet?” Su Che said calmly. “If you could control me with this move right away, why wait? Just do it.”
“No rush.”
Lin Feng smiled eerily. Instead of triggering the mental chains in Su Che’s body immediately as he had said, he rushed forward, waving the top-tier Dao weapon chain in his hand. With a whoosh, it swung toward the Giant Wealth Barrier.
His movements were as fast as lightning. If competing in speed, Su Che was at a complete disadvantage. Even though he dodged sideways with all his might for over ten zhang, he was still struck hard by the silver chain, which suddenly grew dozens of zhang long.
Snap!
The Giant Wealth Barrier emitted a blinding golden light, forming a narrow crack. The silver chain passed through the crack, its speed only slightly reduced, still heading straight for Su Che inside the barrier.
Such a casual strike could pierce the invincible Giant Wealth Barrier of the cultivation world—what terrifying power!
Was this the inevitable tragic outcome when a top-tier defensive Dao weapon faced an elite offensive Dao weapon?
“So powerful?”
Su Che was shocked. The sense of ease he had felt when hearing about the mental chains vanished instantly. Facing the incoming silver chain and trapped inside the Giant Wealth Barrier with nowhere to hide, he had no choice but…
Whoosh!
Su Che disappeared, retreating straight into the Giant Wealth Palace.

The silver chains seemed to have a life of their own, bending upward automatically as they continued to lash at the core of the Palace of Wealth.
Snap!
With a clear ringing sound, the Palace of Wealth trembled violently, emitting a low hum, as if the spirit of wealth were groaning in pain.
“How is it?”
Su Che, hiding inside the Palace of Wealth, asked anxiously.
“It hurts so much!” The spirit of wealth cried out, reporting immediately, “Master, his strike was too fierce—it almost tore me apart… Ah!”
Before it could finish speaking, snap! The silver chains struck again with force.
The spirit of wealth, like a frail girl whipped by a whip, let out a pitiful scream, “It can’t go on, Master! If he hits me a few more times, I’ll really shatter!”
“Could such an elite Dao artifact be so deadly?” Su Che was shocked. But now wasn’t the best time to reveal Fei Yun…
Snap!
Outside, the silver chains struck for the third time, their target suddenly changing—from the Palace of Wealth to the Star Emperor Compass under the barrier of the Palace of Wealth.
Just earlier, Su Che had rushed inside in haste and hadn’t had time to put away the Star Emperor Compass. And now…
Whoosh!
The Star Emperor Compass, which had served Su Che loyally, emitted the brightest light of its existence. After completely shattering, it turned into a sky full of stars, creating a dreamlike starry sky inside the cave. Countless stars twinkled, as if bidding farewell to its master with tears in their eyes.
Although Su Che was inside the Palace of Wealth, which had become his own magical artifact, allowing him to see everything outside unobstructed, his heart ached intensely, as if he were witnessing his comrades die before his eyes.
“The Star Emperor Compass… is gone…”
The pain was so vivid that not only Su Che but even Lin Feng outside could sense it. Lin Feng curled his lips into a cold smile and silently recited a few spells.
The Mental Chains erupted immediately!
This was the perfect moment to strike—destroying one’s beloved artifact and taking advantage of this pain to exploit the weakness for maximum effect.
Whoosh…
Though Su Che was inside the Palace of Wealth, he couldn’t block the eruption of the Mental Chains. He heard a rustling sound inside his body, as if countless chains were vibrating, with countless insects and snakes crawling around…
Lin Feng was right. Soon after, the intense pain of countless insects and snakes gnawing at flesh and bone struck suddenly. Although cultivators could endure pain far better than ordinary people, facing such torment during a fierce battle would surely distract them greatly, putting them in extreme danger.

Fortunately, in his daily life, whether practicing normally or using his divine powers, Su Che was constantly surrounded by “profound pain,” and his endurance had to be thousands or tens of thousands of times stronger than that of ordinary cultivators. He could endure such torment silently without showing any reaction or uttering a word.

“Master, there’s nothing wrong with your body. The pain you feel now is fake—it’s just a mental sensation; it’s all illusion!” Lao He kept an eye on Su Che’s condition and spoke out loudly to remind him.

Hearing this, Su Che’s spirits lifted slightly, and the feeling of being gnawed by insects and snakes lessened a bit. However, the heartache grew more intense.

“The Star Emperor Compass has been with me for years, helping me achieve great things and solving my problems… Originally, I planned to keep it forever and not discard it casually. I would use other methods to endow it with a spirit and help it progress step by step, turning it into a top-tier spiritual treasure, a lower-grade Dao artifact, or an intermediate-grade Dao artifact… Until the day I entered the Immortal Realm, I would then elevate it to an Immortal Artifact…”

“I never expected that even in just the cultivation world, it would leave me so early…”

Not only was there heartache, but also a deep sense of guilt. At this moment, Su Che was overwhelmed by the negative emotions of losing his beloved treasure, failing to realize that such abnormal sensitivity must be greatly influenced by the mental chains.

“Master, the Star Emperor Compass still doesn’t have a spirit. It’s just a treasure without thoughts. If it’s destroyed, it’s just destroyed—nothing serious,” Lao He hurriedly reassured him. “After this battle, we can gather the remnants of the compass and reforge it later. There’s no need to be so upset.”

“I know, I know…” Su Che murmured. “But I just can’t control this sadness. It must be Lin Feng’s doing.”

Snap! Snap! Snap…

At this critical moment, with internal and external threats, Su Che didn’t have time to overthink things. Lin Feng was still using the silver chains to beat the wealthy man.

“Master, save me! I can’t hold on much longer…”

The wealthy man’s voice was panicked as he begged for help. After being beaten by the silver chains over a dozen times, cracks had already appeared on some of the walls of his palace. Another few strikes, and it would be shattered like the Star Emperor Compass.

“We can’t delay any longer. We have to…”

Su Che couldn’t stand by and watch the wealthy man get completely destroyed by Lin Feng. With a thought, he left the palace, appeared outside, wielded the Taiyi Youlong Sword, and roared frantically as he slashed at the silver chains.

“An intermediate-grade Dao artifact?”

Lin Feng smiled faintly, thinking that Su Che couldn’t bear the pain of being bitten by insects and snakes, nor resist the temptation of the mental chains—clearly delusional, he dared to challenge his own top-tier Dao artifact with a mid-tier one.
Bang!
The Taiyi Dragon Sword collided with the silver chains, producing a thunderous noise.
Crack, crack, crack…
Although Su Che managed to block the incoming silver chains, the price was hundreds of tiny cracks appearing on the blade of the Taiyi Dragon Sword.
Awoh…
A faint dragon roar, filled with unmistakable pain, was the cry of the dragon soul inside the Taiyi Dragon Sword.
Just this one strike left the mid-tier Dao artifact in a nearly ruined state—it could definitely not be used to fight again in the short term.
As a Dao artifact, it surely had self-repair capabilities, but such damage would take at least two to three years to heal. Its wealthy state was similar; after this battle, it also needed two to three years to recover, during which it couldn’t withstand any further blows.
Normally, if Su Che had been sane, he would have put away the Taiyi Dragon Sword to prevent it from being completely destroyed. But in his frenzied state, he kept swinging his sword, seemingly unwilling to stop until the chains were severed.
“It’s just a mid-tier Dao artifact. If you don’t care about it, why should I?”
Lin Feng still wore that mocking smile as he controlled the silver chains to bring them in front of Su Che, satisfying his desire to slash.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Whoosh…
Ignoring everything, Su Che swung his sword three times in a row, eventually exceeding the Taiyi Dragon Sword’s limit. With a crisp sound, the fine Dao artifact shattered into more than a dozen pieces, flying everywhere.
Awoh…
A dragon roar echoed, and the silver dragon soul appeared before them. Its dragon eyes stared blankly at the fragments, seemingly at a loss.
This dragon soul had been trapped inside the Taiyi Dragon Sword for tens of thousands of years. Now that the sword was completely destroyed, it was free again. Yet, having been enslaved for so long, it didn’t even have the reflexes to escape immediately.
“Go. You’re free now…”
High above, hundreds of feet away, Tai Xu hurriedly sent a thought to it: “Go and seek your new life.”
Awoh…
Only then did the silver dragon soul react. It rushed upward and fled at high speed.
Lin Feng didn’t even glance at this tiny dragon soul and didn’t try to stop it. Tai Xu and the others guarding the upper passage certainly wouldn’t stop it either, letting it escape.
“Awoh…”

Another howl like that of a beast, but it wasn’t emitted by the Dragon Soul. Instead, Su Che was holding his head and screaming in agony as he looked up at the sky.
“The mental chains have fully erupted.”
Lin Feng was secretly pleased: “A shattered mind, life worse than death—just as expected…”
At that moment, he truly thought he had completely taken care of Su Che, so he even smiled as he floated toward him.
But just as he stretched out his right hand to grab Su Che up close, something unexpected happened…