Chapter 525: The Survival Order

The two ferocious beasts acted like guardians on either side, accompanying Su Che as he searched through the mountains. They showed great patience, never showing any signs of impatience. Perhaps because these beasts had nothing to do all day long, their minds were simple, free from the restlessness common among humans.

As he walked, Su Che spotted a mountain with a peculiar shape—it resembled a giant beast coiled there. Moreover, this beast gave Su Che the impression of being Bi An, the guardian at the prison gates.

“This mountain is interesting.”
He felt a strange sensation toward it and knew he had to go take a look. But…

“Waah!”
A strange bird behind him cried out. Its huge wings fluttered slightly before it overtook Su Che, blocking his path and keeping crying nonstop. Clearly, it didn’t want Su Che to go there, which meant it was extremely dangerous.

“That’s right!”
Su Che’s heart stirred, reinforcing his belief: “The more dangerous it is, the more likely it is that the Survival Order was placed there by that mysterious old man.”
Isn’t survival in danger exactly what this means?

“The thing I want is likely right there!”
Su Che bypassed the strange bird and continued toward the mountain. Hearing this, the bird stopped blocking him. Though its intelligence wasn’t high, it understood that if this human failed to find what he wanted, he would die sooner or later. So, no matter how dangerous it was, he had to go.

“Waah, waah, waah…”
The bird kept crying, its meaning unclear. Su Che could only guess that it might be hesitating whether to follow him to the mountain. Without worrying about what it was thinking, Su Che quickened his pace. Soon, at the foot of the mountain, he used Lao Hei’s exploration range of eight thousand zhang to spot a huge cave at the top of the mountain, shaped like the beast’s mouth.

“Perhaps it’s right there…”
Su Che was secretly delighted but also quite nervous, as he had guessed that even if he found where the Survival Order was, obtaining it would be fraught with danger. That mysterious old man would never let the game participants get a easy way out.

In fifteen minutes, Su Che and the two beasts reached the summit. Up close, the cave entrance appeared even larger—nearly ten zhang high and almost twenty zhang wide—enough for both the strange bird and the crocodile dragon to enter easily.

This cave was indeed extraordinary. Lao Hei’s detection ability could only reach about thirty feet into the cave entrance before being blocked by a strange energy—far less effective than Su Che’s naked eye vision.
“This time, my detection ability is completely useless. Master, be very careful once you go in,” Lao Hei urged urgently.
“Yes,” Su Che replied inwardly. He took out a powerful lighting crystal, cast two spells on it, and the crystal immediately floated above his head, illuminating an area of dozens of feet in a pitch-black environment.
Hesitating for a moment at the cave entrance, Su Che stepped inside. Behind him, the Crocodile Dragon, unaware of any dangers or wonders within the cave, closely followed Su Che, refusing to leave his side, determined to keep an eye on his food provider in case he ran away.
The strange bird, however, folded its meaty wings and stood on its two claws. It no longer dared to make random noises; it circled in place a few times. After much hesitation, it still couldn’t resist the temptation to consume life energy, and ultimately, it followed Su Che into the cave as well.
Su Che had assumed that after entering the cave, there would be a downward-sloping passage leading into the mountain’s interior. To his surprise, he found that the passage sloped upward.
How could this be?
“The cave entrance is already at the top of the mountain. How could the passage inside slope upward? It makes no sense!”
After some thought, Su Che realized, “No wonder Lao Hei’s detection ability failed. After entering the cave, we must have stepped into a special space, like the interior of a magical artifact. It actually has little to do with the mountain we saw outside.”
Anyway, since he was already here, he had to find out. As always, even in the most dangerous places, he had to push forward. Without a survival order, his fate would only be a more tragic death.
The upward-sloping passage was dark and deep, its length unknown. Su Che didn’t dare to walk too fast, lest he run into danger without enough time to react.
Fortunately, after walking for over a quarter of an hour, covering a distance of about ten miles, he encountered no dangers or anomalies. Suddenly, Su Che saw a glimmer of light ahead—likely the end of the passage.
Slowing down further, Su Che moved slowly toward the light, asking himself once again, “Lao Hei, is your detection ability still useless?”

“Yes, master,” replied Lao Hei. “This place is filled with a strange energy, like an omnipresent barrier that can block the spiritual senses of cultivators, as well as my detection abilities. Now, we can only rely on your own vision. As for me, I’ve become blind.”

Su Che nodded inwardly, then turned to look. At this moment, even that carefree crocodile dragon seemed cautious, its long body moving much less erratically. The ugly, strange bird also appeared timid and furtive, which gave it a somewhat human-like appearance…

Keep moving forward!

As the light ahead grew brighter, they finally reached the end of the passage. Inside was an extremely spacious area, resembling the grand hall of an underground palace. The brightness was sufficient, so Su Che no longer needed his lighting crystals.

Inside the vast hall, dozens of thick stone pillars were arranged in a circle. They were clearly carved by humans, not natural formations. Moreover, the pillars were embedded with numerous colored crystals that shone brightly, illuminating the entire hall without any dark corners.

Surrounded by these pillars was an open space with a diameter of nearly a hundred zhang. At the very center of this space stood a circular altar, on which a blood-red token floated.

A survival token!

The token bore a large character for “life”—the same kind of survival token shown by the mysterious old man, and it was a whole piece, not half!

Was it that easy to find?

Su Che wasn’t particularly pleased. Instead, he clearly realized that things couldn’t be this simple. Although the survival token seemed within reach, stepping forward might not necessarily lead to anything good.

Su Che stood still at the end of the passage, not even entering the hall. He remained motionless, using his spiritual vision to carefully examine everything inside, including the back of each stone pillar.

The two exotic beasts behind him were extremely well-behaved at this moment, like spiritual beasts tamed by Su Che. They made no noise and didn’t cause any trouble.

Exotic beasts far surpassed humans in spiritual perception. Even without high intelligence, they could often detect things that humans couldn’t, relying solely on instinct. Even ordinary household dogs could sense natural disasters like earthquakes in advance, let alone these higher-tier beasts…

After a long time, Su Che detected no danger. Yet the lack of threats only made him more uneasy and hesitant to make a decision.

Lao He suggested, “Master, it’s better to send in a scapegoat.”
“Good!”
Su Che agreed in his heart; he actually thought the same way.
So, Su Che summoned from the Immortal Prison a heinous Golden Core cultivator, who was, of course, a soul-transformed slave.
“Go and get that red token for me,” Su Che ordered silently using telepathy.
“Yes, master,” the slave replied in kind through telepathy.
Soul slaves would never defy their master’s orders, even if they knew the task was extremely dangerous or certain death awaited them—they would carry it out without hesitation.
The slave stepped boldly into the hall as if fearless, while Su Che instinctively stepped back a few steps.
Not only Su Che but also the strange birds and crocodile dragons retreated silently, clearly showing their own extreme nervousness.
Huh…
All those previous worries weren’t out of cowardice. Sure enough, as soon as the slave entered the hall, something strange happened!
A strange wind suddenly blew through the hall. In fact, Su Che could clearly see it swirling with the naked eye—because it wasn’t transparent but a pale purple, reminiscent of a “shadow of wind.”
Whoosh!
A pale purple gust rushed forward like the fierce blade energy emitted by a cultivator.
The slave was prepared, with defensive talismans and protective auras ready, but the result was…
With a sound like a sharp blade cutting through paper, the soul slave froze instantly. His protective aura slowly dissipated, and then the defensive talismans floating in front of him crashed to the ground, splitting in two.
After that, his body was split down the middle, from head to hips, cleanly in two, killing him on the spot!
What was even stranger was that the two halves of his body, including his brain and internal organs, were exposed, yet not a drop of blood flowed—it was as if a wooden man had been cut in half, giving an extremely unreal feeling.
“What formidable cutting power!”
Su Che exhaled in awe. At this moment, he couldn’t be sure whether even top-tier defensive artifacts could withstand such cutting force.
If not, the outcome was obvious—he would die just like that slave.

He said this because Su Che saw that the golden core of this servant had also been cut in half, yet it remained intact in two pieces. There’s no need to mention how hard a golden core is; the key point is that, under normal circumstances, once a cultivator’s golden core is struck by an irresistible force, unless it explodes, it will instantly vanish—making it virtually impossible for it to be cut into two pieces while still remaining intact. “This cutting force is not only powerful but also extremely bizarre!” Faced with such an unknown force, Su Che dared not enter this hall casually anymore…