Chapter 463: Scouring Everywhere

Meanwhile, in the Spirit Realm…
Li Jiu, Lord Lin Tian, and the others were still gathered together, but at this moment, everyone’s expression was extremely grim.
“Hundreds of subordinates have disappeared without reason. All our connections with the Cultivation Realm have been severed…” Lord Lin Tian murmured, his expression heavy.
“If my assumptions are correct, it must be the Witch God at work,” Li Jiu sighed. “I believe it was the Celestial Realm’s Star-Shifting Array that angered the Witch God, pushing him beyond his tolerance limit.”
“Yes,” another gray-haired lord nodded. “Moving the entire Witch Yellow Star to the Spirit Realm is indeed excessive. If I were the Witch God, I too would be furious and unable to tolerate it.”
“What on earth are the immortals in the Celestial Realm thinking?” Some things, Lord Lin Tian dared not say outright, so he transmitted his thoughts silently. “What kind of agreement do they have with the Witch Clan? Why do I feel that sometimes they act in grand, earth-shattering ways, while at other times they are restricted and make foolish mistakes?”
“That’s because the situation in the Celestial Realm is far more complex than we imagine,” Li Jiu replied through telepathy. “Especially the current Witch God who leads the Witch Clan—he can truly be described as ‘utterly terrifying’! Although his combat skills aren’t as strong as those of any of the Twelve Ancestral Witches from ancient times, he is skilled in strategy and planning, and his influence over both the immortal and mortal realms is greater than that of all twelve combined…”
“That’s true,” the other seemingly younger lord nodded. “Often, the power derived from wisdom is the strongest of all.”
“If it really is the Witch God involved, what should we do next?” Lord Lin Tian asked Li Jiu in a low voice.
“Wait and observe!”
Li Jiu closed his eyes, as if in deep meditation, showing no emotions at all. “That’s the only option.”
In other words, in the face of the Witch God, we are utterly insignificant. Our only hope is to wait until the immortals of the Celestial Realm and the Witch Clan are both exhausted from fighting, so that we, mere ants, might seize a slight advantage from the cracks in the situation. Though such a hope has become extremely slim…
In the vast starry sky, Heng Yi flew for ten full days without encountering any further troubles. In fact, without the pursuit from those in the Spirit Realm, his mid-stage Cultivation Realm cultivation would have progressed smoothly in the Cultivation Realm, with almost no forces capable of threatening him.

The starfield before them was also pitch black, with nothing visible. However, according to the star map provided by Tianyin, there should be another Wuguo settlement planet here, the “Wuyu Tribe.” Clearly, Wuyu Planet had also been subjected to the Five Elements Star Locking Formation set up by the Immortal Realm, making it completely invisible to the naked eye. Before landing on Wuyu Planet, Su Che joked, “Tianyin, guess what—if we stayed on Wuyu Planet for over a decade, would the Immortal Realm try to move this planet again?” Although she knew it was just a joke, Tianyin replied seriously, “I think not. Moving a planet would cross the Wugod’s tolerance limit; he would surely take measures to issue a severe warning to the immortals of the Immortal Realm. In fact, there have long been many agreements between our Wuguo and the immortals of the Immortal Realm, so they wouldn’t dare act recklessly and would still be cautious.” “That’s best,” Su Che nodded vigorously and waved his hand, saying, “Then let’s attack Wuyu Planet—search it thoroughly, plunder everything, and take it all!” Tianyin smiled faintly. The reason Grand Master Su came to Wuyu Planet was only one: to loot all kinds of cultivation materials from this primitive planet and bring them to his personal world. It was from this day that Su Che’s plan to explore the starry skies truly began. It’s just unknown how many of the hundreds of thousands of Wuguo settlement planets in the cultivation world he could visit in just a few decades. With the presence of Lord Chi Ling and Great Witch Tianyin, the Wuyu Tribe showed no less hospitality than the Wuhuang Tribe. Upon hearing that Lord Chi Ling wanted to take all kinds of materials from the planet, the several elders of the Wuyu Tribe hesitated not at all and immediately decided that the more than ten thousand warriors of the tribe would fully cooperate—without any problems! They wouldn’t feel sad about giving away things that were useless to them. Moreover, these tribal elders knew well that the combined authority of Lord Chi Ling and Great Witch Tianyin could, to some extent, represent the will of the Wugod, and it certainly couldn’t be defied. One and a half years! Su Che and Tianyin stayed on Wuyu Planet for one and a half years, almost exhausting all the cultivation materials useful for cultivation on this primitive resource planet and bringing them all into the Immortal Prison. At this rate, it would take fifteen years to plunder ten planets, thirty years for twenty, and sixty years only for forty… When would they be able to loot all the hundreds of thousands of primitive resource planets inhabited by the Wuguo? Would it really take over two hundred thousand years?

In fact, Su Che didn’t have such great ambitions. After all, the current Immortal Prison Realm still had its limits. There were countless cultivation materials from over fifty planets piled up before him, yet he didn’t even have the appetite to take them all. There was simply too much to fit—after all, enough living space had to be left for billions of beings. The one million li area of the first layer of the Immortal Prison Realm couldn’t all be used as a warehouse. To expand this area further, Su Che had to reach the Divine Transformation stage and successfully open the fifth layer. He had already calculated that, being only in the middle stage of the Nascent Soul phase, it would be impossible for him to reach the Divine Transformation stage in fifty years. Moreover, the various conditions required to open the fifth layer would undoubtedly be extremely difficult. Even if everything went smoothly, it would still take about sixty years before the first layer of the Immortal Prison Realm could be expanded again. Since Wu Yu Star had already been plundered clean, it was time to leave and head to the next Wu clan settlement! Guided by Tian Yin, Heng Yi still had to endure the hardship of traveling tens of millions of li over more than ten days to find another Wu clan settlement, where another round of plundering began… This process repeated itself over six years, during which time they visited four Wu clan settlements. Everything went extremely smoothly, and during this period, neither the Immortal Realm nor the Spirit Realm sent anyone to pursue Su Che. This clearly indicated that the person secretly helping Su Che must be the Wu God—no one else had such capability or influence. Counting carefully, fifteen years had passed since leaving Qi Yuan Star, and the Immortal Prison Realm had changed greatly, especially within the human kingdoms. With the strong support of numerous cultivators, tens of thousands of cities had risen, and their prosperity was now comparable to that of Qi Yuan Star. The living conditions of ordinary villagers were even better than in Qi Yuan Star’s time—there were no “refugees” at all, and almost every family lived peacefully, with no problems in meeting their basic needs… The most crucial development was that the first human cultivator to reach the Divine Transformation stage in the Immortal Prison Realm had finally appeared! Qing Xuan! The most highly accomplished Grand Elder of Tian Xuan Sect, driven by the vast amount of rare materials provided by Su Che, finally broke through the cultivation bottleneck that had constrained him for over three hundred years and took this vital step. This step was not only extremely important for him personally but also gave all those in the later stage of the Nascent Soul phase in the Immortal Prison Realm hope for advancement.

Not only that, but it also led Su Che to confirm that the laws of the Immortal Prison world had no connection with the outside world and were completely unaffected by it. Normally, once a cultivator reaches the Divine Transformation stage, they must endure the trial of the heavenly calamity. After surviving it, they would be transported to the Spirit Realm by the laws of the universe within a few days—this being the ascension to the Spirit Realm that countless cultivators in the cultivation world longed for day and night. Yet within the Immortal Prison, Qing Xuan’s advancement did not involve any heavenly calamity, nor did he feel any pull toward “ascending to the Spirit Realm.” Just like Lin Feng, Heng Yi, and Miao Li, who were all at the Void Refinement stage, he could remain in the Immortal Prison world forever. However, the newly promoted Elder Qing Xuan had no idea that his junior brother Tian Yu was actually the ruler of this world. For several days, he waited anxiously for the arrival of the heavenly calamity. But no matter how long he waited, it never came, causing Elder Qing Xuan and the other Yuan Ying ancestors of the Tian Xuan Sect who were closely following the situation to grow suspicious: Could it be that something had gone wrong with Qing Xuan’s advancement to the Divine Transformation stage, and he still wasn’t truly at that stage? Only Su Che and Lao He understood that there was no heavenly calamity because the laws of the Immortal Prison simply did not prescribe any such calamity. “Right now, there is a severe shortage of talent in the Immortal Prison. Lao He and I hope they can all advance to the Divine Transformation stage, or even rush all the way to the Void Refinement stage. Why would we arrange any heavenly calamities to trouble them?” Su Che thought. “Besides, at present, we don’t even know how to create heavenly calamities or how to use them as trials to temper them.” “Yes, master,” Lao He nodded in agreement. “These things need to be done slowly. You’re still only at the Yuan Ying stage; we simply can’t comprehend what kind of significance the heavenly calamity holds for the Divine Transformation stage.” Anyway, the first person to reach the Divine Transformation stage had finally appeared in the Immortal Prison. So, who would be next? Su Che guessed that the next one would be among Tai Xu, Feng Yi, Huan Mo, and Wan Gui. These four had already reached the peak of the late Yuan Ying stage and could potentially take that next step at any time… Outside the Immortal Prison, Heng Yi began another long journey, following the guidance of the Heavenly Voice, heading toward the Witch Wood Star, which was trillions of miles away. About one-third of the way there, they passed by a huge dark gray planet. It didn’t seem like a barren world where nothing could grow; it was likely to have some form of life on it.

For Su Che, such a planet was nothing special. Over the years, he had seen all kinds of strange planets and didn’t see any reason to pay it extra attention. Unexpectedly, today his shadow reacted strongly—suddenly separating from Su Che’s feet, it rushed toward the water mirror inside the magic artifact that allowed viewing of the outside world. The shadow raised its arm and pointed at the dark gray planet projected on the mirror, then turned back and kept waving at Su Che… These gestures made it clear: it was interested in that planet and demanded that Su Che go there immediately!