Chapter 690: The Long Path of Immortal Herbs

“Brother Yun Qiu, may I ask if there is a large trading market near your sect’s entrance?” Su Che asked rather abruptly.
“Of course!” Yun Qiu immediately took out a jade compass. After inputting immortal energy, a three-dimensional map appeared on it. With a gesture of his hand, the light in the room dimmed, making the map image clearer. He then adjusted the map’s orientation and pointed to the center, saying, “This is where our sect’s entrance is located… Less than 20,000 li to the south lies a very large trading market. Its name should be…” He tapped on the location of the market, and a series of texts appeared on the map, detailing the market.
Without further explanation, Su Che saw that the market was called “Haoyuan Tian Shi” and was the largest and most famous trading place within hundreds of millions of li in the surrounding area.
Yun Qiu gently stroked the jade compass and said with a smile, “This compass is the only immortal artifact I brought into the Immortal Realm. It’s also a special treasure that helps me stay in touch with my sect in the Immortal Realm. The map attached to it covers an area of 500 million li centered around our sect’s entrance, providing quite comprehensive information.”
His words carried a hint of pride, reflecting the strong sense of belonging and honor among the sect’s disciples toward their immortal realm sect.
“Good, then it must be Haoyuan Tian Shi!” Su Che nodded. “In that case, we can make a deal. Over a decade from now, when you return to your sect, you can come to a shop called ‘Tianxuan Zhenbao Fang’ in Haoyuan Tian Shi to find me.”
“Oh?” Yun Qiu looked puzzled. “Pardon my ignorance, but I don’t quite understand what you mean.”
Su Che smiled and said, “It means I’ll arrive there before you. By the time you return to your sect, the shop I open there will have been operating for at least ten years. Hehe, do you believe me now, Brother Yun Qiu?”
Of course, Yun Qiu didn’t believe Su Che had such capabilities. A newly ascended immortal trying to open a shop in such a large market was utterly absurd!
Unless…
Yun Qiu immediately asked, “Could it be that younger brother Tian Yu, though without a sect in the Immortal Realm, still has other powerful backers?”
“Sort of,” Su Che replied vaguely. “Anyway, I can find some people to help me.”
“I see…” Yun Qiu nodded slowly, deep in thought.

Of course, Su Che didn’t say such things out of pure impulse; he just went with the flow and acted casually.
The plan that had been made long ago was this: in the first five thousand years in the Immortal Realm, he should open a shop to sell various treasures from the battles between immortals and demons. At the same time, he would acquire many small worlds raised by other immortals.
If such actions were carried out by an individual alone, it would undoubtedly draw a lot of attention and might cause unnecessary trouble.
But if it were done through a shop and operated over the long term, it would be completely normal.
Opening a shop to sell goods was surely the best approach!
For Su Che, the entire Immortal Realm was unfamiliar territory—there was no distinction between good and bad places; it didn’t matter where he opened his shop. Since he had discussed this with Yun Qiu today, he would make Haoyuan Tian Shi his first base.
As he had said earlier, meeting someone meant fate—there was a predetermined path. Moreover, Su Che could sense that Yun Qiu was kind-hearted and upright; dealing with him would surely make him a good friend.
That was it; there was no need to overthink it.
After a short while, Yun Qiu smiled and said cheerfully, “It seems I underestimated younger brother Tian Yu… This is perfect. If you open a shop at Haoyuan Market, we can keep in touch often. I’ll definitely ask the brothers in my sect to help take care of your business. But then again…”
Seeing the playful smile on his face, Su Che immediately understood and chuckled, “No problem. I’ll definitely give you a share—let’s make money together!”
The two laughed heartily. A joke dispelled much of the unfamiliarity between them.
Next, Yun Qiu even went the extra mile to create a small magic artifact on the spot, copied the map into it, and gave it to Su Che. He also patiently explained many basic facts about life in the Immortal Realm—valuable information transmitted to the mortal world by Tian Dan Ge through special means before ascension.
Although Su Che could gradually learn these basics through his three Heavenly Immortal servants, there was no need to refuse Yun Qiu’s kindness. Besides, much of the information he shared was related to the area where Haoyuan Market was located, making it extremely valuable.
A few hours later, the two stood in front of the house, saying goodbye with words of parting.
Under Yun Qiu’s watchful gaze, Su Che walked several dozen miles before continuing to weed and travel.
As the saying goes, a rabbit doesn’t eat grass from its own den—of course, he couldn’t mess up the lawn outside Yun Qiu’s house. Su Che still had some sense of decency.

Hundreds of miles away, Yun Qiu could still see Su Che pulling weeds. As Su Che’s back left behind a long, yellow-brown tail that grew longer by the moment, Yun Qiu couldn’t help but shake his head and laugh: “This Tian Yu is truly interesting!”
“This Yun Qiu is quite alright as well.”
At the same time, Lao He also commented, “It’s rare to still have such a warm heart at an age of tens of thousands of years.”
“Yes.”
Su Che said as well, “He’s a good person worth keeping in touch with.”
……
Yun Qiu’s calculations were quite accurate—exactly five days later, Su Che reached the edge of the protected area.
At the edge, a nearly transparent barrier stood vertically, reaching into the sky, its height unknown.
This barrier was set up by the Heavenly Dao; even the most sensible immortals wouldn’t dare to desecrate or offend it. Even lower-level beasts with limited intelligence would instinctively revere it and stay far away.
As an immortal, Su Che could easily pass through this barrier. However, once he went through, he would never be able to return. This meant he would lose the protection of the heavens and face all the dangers of the outside world head-on.
Confident, Su Che didn’t hesitate to pass through.
Whoosh!
As soon as he emerged, he could clearly feel that outside the protected area lay the true Immortal Realm, where the concentration of spiritual energy between heaven and earth had increased by dozens of times.
Looking down, the plants on the ground were even more spiritual. Even those wild plants that no one paid attention to were of a much higher quality than those Su Che had picked before.
No need to say more—keep pulling weeds!
Swish!
Su Che released Yuan Ping, Jun Sheng, and Yan Qiu, his three subordinates among the immortals, from the Immortal Prison and gave an order: “Pull weeds!”
Yuan Ping and the others were clearly stunned. Although they couldn’t disobey their master’s orders, they couldn’t help but remind him, “Master, these weeds are worthless. They’re everywhere in the Immortal Realm. Is it really necessary to spend time and effort collecting them?”
“I don’t need them, and neither do you,” Su Che said calmly. “But my people do.”
Alright, then pull weeds!
When immortals take action, efficiency is naturally different. With just a wave from Yuan Ping and the others, every inch within a ten-thousand-mile radius was left completely bare of grass.
This was still under the constraints of the rules of the Immortal Realm, which weakened their powers significantly. In the mortal world, an immortal-level being could easily turn an entire planet completely bare in just a few moves.

With three subordinates handling the work, Su Che could slack off—after all, his own efficiency was negligible compared to theirs. Thus, the four of them were even more destructive than locust swarms, leaving nothing alive in their path. While this approach didn’t cause much damage to the surrounding environment—given the incredible regenerative ability of wild plants, the bare soil would quickly be covered again, so there was no need to worry about them—it brought about tremendous changes to Qi Yuan Star within the Immortal Prison. Take Lingyao Mountain, one of the ten major immortal sects, for example: in recent days, tens of thousands of various immortal herbs have appeared in its herb gardens, delighting the cultivators there, who could constantly hear the cheerful voices of those innocent and adorable herb babies. Their pure, bell-like laughter was the best reward for Su Che. Though these adorable creatures had long lifespans, their strength rarely reached the Yuan Ying stage. Even though Su Che had established a special heavenly rule to take good care of them, their progress remained difficult. This was because even the best skills require real materials to create delicious food. Now, with these immortal herbs, the life forms of the herb babies could undergo fundamental changes and improvements. The more and more diverse herbs surrounding them, the faster and greater their progress would be, ultimately leading to a real improvement in their fates. As for Lingyao Mountain’s sect treasure, the Tian Ying Dan, the difficulty of refining it dropped by nearly a hundred times. Originally, its medicinal effect could only increase the success rate of reaching the Ning Ying stage by 10%, but now it was estimated to be at least 30%. The current leader of Lingyao Mountain was still Patriarch Haotian, who had advanced from the Yuan Ying stage to the Hua Shen stage, remaining Su Che’s soul slave. Su Che ordered him to sell the Tian Ying Dan publicly from now on, without keeping any for himself, allowing all sects of varying sizes in Qi Yuan Star’s cultivation world to purchase it in different proportions. In time, Qi Yuan Star would see a surge in the number of Yuan Ying cultivators. The Tian Ying Dan was just the first example; in the future, all kinds of pills that aided in forming the Golden Dan or breaking through to the Hua Shen stage, as well as those that helped with cultivation in general, would be greatly improved and refined. In short, in the world of the Immortal Prison, Qi Yuan Star, his most beloved, must not become a despised, backward planet.

Su Che held deep, profound feelings for Qiyuan Star. If it weren’t for the limitation that his true form couldn’t enter the Immortal Prison, he would really have wanted to return to Tianxuan Sect to be with his relatives, friends, and fellow disciples, and continue to enjoy the warmth and happiness of that big family. Unfortunately, he couldn’t enter! It’s easy to imagine that without Lao He by his side at all times, his long journey in the immortal realm would surely be filled with loneliness.