Chapter 788: Water of the Deep Pool

In the blink of an eye, another five years passed, marking the eighth year. There were now 1,742 individuals on the registration list bearing the title of Immortal Emperor. Yet Su Che still hadn’t found any useful clues in the Immortal-Demon Battlefield. Moreover, no Immortal Lord had come to purchase anti-demon pills during this time. Feeling somewhat pressured, Su Che entered the Immortal-Demon Battlefield that day and headed straight to the hideout of the Origin Demon King—Lan Ling’s nominal father and also Zong Yi’s son.

“Huo Jun, come out and see me!” Su Che teleported to the entrance of the underground palace and shouted loudly into the profound darkness inside.

Huo Jun was the true name of the Origin Demon King. Likely, only the old fox Zong Yi remembered this name in this world. Before Huo Jun appeared, more than a dozen Silver-Winged Demon Generals rushed out from various directions. Since someone had dared to intrude into the Demon King’s palace, these guards must fulfill their duty to protect it.

Boom!

Su Che didn’t even need to throw a punch. By simply unleashing his amplified, formidable aura, a translucent shockwave spread out, pushing all those Silver-Winged Demon Generals back. Now, these Silver-Winged Demon Generals, who possessed the strength of Golden Immortals, could pose no threat to Su Che. Even if they fought against the Origin Demon King, who was at the later stage of Great Luo Golden Immortal, Su Che would remain unafraid. Even if he couldn’t easily defeat them, they wouldn’t be able to break through his heavenly protective barrier. Besides, this was the Immortal-Demon Battlefield under his complete control. If things went wrong, he could always teleport away instantly.

“Back off all of you,” Su Che said.

The Origin Demon King, “Huo Jun,” transformed into human form, appearing as a middle-aged man, and slowly stepped out of the darkness, ordering all his subordinates to retreat.

He first asked, “Is my father doing well?”

“Pretty well,” Su Che replied. “In a while, he should be able to ascend to a Fourth Heaven Immortal Emperor. Your daughter is even better—she has already become a Demon Emperor, her strength now on par with that of a Third Heaven Immortal Emperor.”

“Hmm…” Huo Jun murmured thoughtfully. “They’ve changed a lot.”

Su Che said, “As long as you stay trapped here, you’ll never be able to ascend to a Demon Emperor. This is due to the spatial rules of the Immortal-Demon Battlefield.”

“I guessed that already,” Huo Jun nodded slightly and then asked, “So, as the master of this space, what brings you to see me?”

Su Che replied calmly, “You have survived here for seventy million years. I need you to help me think about what might be particularly special or symbolically significant in the Immortal-Demon Battlefield.”
The Immortal-Demon Battlefield was simply too vast; it was impossible to survey every area in just ten years using only a dozen water mirrors. That’s why Su Che thought of asking Huo Jun, the Origin Demon King, for help.
“I’m very sorry, but I still don’t quite understand what you mean,” Huo Jun replied. “There are countless places with distinctive features or meaningful symbols in the Immortal-Demon Battlefield—too many to list in days or nights.”
“Let me put it this way,” Su Che said, unwilling to reveal details about the Immortal Sovereign’s treasure trove. “The Immortal-Demon Battlefield might be a fragment separated from some other space. I hope to find clues related to that other part here.”
“Oh?”
After some thought, Huo Jun nodded. “That makes more sense. Give me ten days to recall carefully. Of course, I’ll also send all my subordinates to explore everywhere.”
“Good!”
Su Che nodded in agreement and promised, “If this is accomplished, if you wish to leave the Immortal-Demon Battlefield, I’ll help you fulfill that wish as well.”
“I appreciate it.”
Unexpectedly, Huo Jun shook his head and refused. “Here, I am the king of kings of the entire world. As long as you, the ruler, don’t intend to destroy me, I will continue to exist like this. For me, there’s no danger, no pressure. I’m like the supreme ruler of the entire universe—very satisfied.”
“I see,” Su Che nodded. “Then let’s make a different promise. I’ll ensure your satisfaction lasts forever.”
“That would be best. Thank you very much.”
Huo Jun performed a gratitude ritual characteristic of the demon race, appearing quite gentlemanly.
Whoosh!
It seemed even time had learned to teleport. Ten days later, Su Che and Huo Jun stood facing each other again, in the same posture and at the same distance.
“There are three locations I consider the most likely.”
Without any wasted words, Huo Jun waved his hand in front of him, conjuring a three-dimensional map representing the entire interior space of the Immortal-Demon Battlefield.
On the map, three prominently marked red dots were clearly visible. As the ruler, Su Che could instantly grasp their exact locations.
“If none of these three are it, come to me again,” Huo Jun said calmly. “I’ll do my utmost.”
“Thank you.”
Su Che bowed and teleported off, heading straight to the first suspicious location.
The first one—no!
The second one too, no.

Su Che arrived at the third marked location, only to find a deep pool before him. It wasn’t large in area, but its depth was astonishing. Moreover, the pitch-black water had the effect of blocking spiritual perception, acting like super metal—preventing Su Che’s spiritual sense from functioning even to one ten-thousandth of its capacity, making it impossible to detect the bottom of the pool. In other words, to find out what lay hidden at the bottom, he had to dive in. At that moment, a Silver-Winged Demon General flew down from the barren cliff and landed in front of Su Che, bowing respectfully and reporting, “The Demon King ordered me to wait here for your arrival.” Su Che gave a low response and asked, “What’s below?” “Your Majesty, there’s a stone tablet covered in strange characters, but none of our demons can understand them,” the Silver-Winged Demon General replied, conjuring a three-dimensional image of the tablet in front of him. It was a pure black tablet inscribed with dense silver-white characters, but Su Che still couldn’t recognize what kind of writing it was—neither demonic, nor celestial, nor shamanic, nor like any ancient script that had been passed down. “A black tablet?” Su Che guessed, “This black water must be caused by it, right?” “Most likely,” the Silver-Winged Demon General replied. “This water is extremely corrosive. Even our immortals find it hard to withstand. I once dived in and took decades to recover after returning.” “It seems quite interesting…” Su Che smiled silently. The Immortals of Origin possessed the ability to recover from any injury instantly, yet this water could force a Silver-Winged Demon General at the level of a Golden Immortal to recover over decades—its corrosive power was truly extraordinary. “Wait here. I’ll go down and take a look,” Su Che said. “Yes, Your Majesty,” the Silver-Winged Demon General replied respectfully. Su Che summoned his ultimate defenses and slowly sank into the deep pool. “The corrosiveness is indeed strong. The damage is like being subjected to continuous attacks from a mid-stage Great Luo Golden Immortal. A few dozen hits might not be a problem, but such relentless continuous damage would indeed be unbearable for that Silver-Winged Demon General.” Besides this, Su Che also noticed that the black water had strong buoyancy, resembling liquid metal yet not being very viscous—quite peculiar. He continued sinking until reaching a depth of nearly 100,000 feet before reaching the bottom. At such a depth, compared to the pool’s diameter, it was like a long thread plunging vertically deep into the earth.

Lao He couldn’t help but curse, “Those Immortal Lords are really twisted. What’s the point of creating such a deep pool? They must be overfed.”
“I think the same,” Su Che thought to himself with a smile.
Through his spiritual sense, he saw the stone tablet, which matched exactly the description given of the Silver-Winged Demon General.
“I can’t understand these characters at all. Then it can only be…”
Without hesitation, Su Che released a surge of energy, pulled up the entire stone tablet, and sent it into the Immortal Prison.
This action immediately caused problems—a sudden anomaly!
The moment the black stone tablet entered the Immortal Prison, the water in the deep pool instantly solidified. Without any warning, it turned into an extremely long, black crystal ten thousand zhang in length.
It was an incredibly hard crystal that completely enclosed Su Che inside.
Fortunately, Su Che was surrounded by a defensive barrier that kept the pool water at bay, creating a spherical space with a radius of two zhang centered around him. Now, Su Che could only move within this sphere.
Unperturbed, Su Che used his power amplified a hundredfold to gather a spiral beam of energy, like a giant drill, aiming to pierce through the black crystal.
Once he penetrated the crystal and reached the soil layer, he could leave using any underground escape technique.
That’s what he thought, but…
Click, click, click…
Sparks flew, but the spiral beam made no progress. Su Che stopped and took a look—the black crystal showed almost no change, only an imperceptible trace.
“So hard?”
Su Che was shocked. The hardness of these crystals was almost on par with top-tier Immortal Weapon-grade defensive artifacts.
Lao He, being purely greedy, wasn’t surprised at all. Instead, he was thrilled and shouted, “Great treasures! Dig them all up and use them to craft weapons!”
He didn’t even consider whether they could be dug up at all.
Hiss, hiss, click, click…
After drilling for a long time and checking again, there was still only a tiny trace—utterly impossible to penetrate.
“Our diamond drill isn’t hard enough,” Su Che shook his head.
“Use a knife! Cut it with a knife!”
In such a situation, Lao He’s mind suddenly became sharp.
“That’s right!”
Su Che immediately drew out his Amethyst Long Sword.
He rarely used this sword, often forgetting about it. The Amethyst Long Sword, an ancient treasure—should it be able to cut through it?
Hiss!
With one thrust, it easily pierced the crystal, with almost no resistance, as if cutting through tofu.
Su Che realized it wasn’t the Amethyst Long Sword’s hardness or sharpness that mattered—it was a manifestation of its power attribute. One thing overcomes another.
Hiss, hiss, hiss…

Su Che swung his sword fiercely, cutting off huge pieces of black crystal, which were all sent to the Immortal Prison. As Lao He said, this material was so hard that it might even be useful for crafting weapons—for example, adding it to a powerful artifact to further enhance its defensive capabilities. You see, the third layer of the Immortal Prison once contained an ancient weapon-crafting talisman, which had the unique ability to strengthen artifacts. Even fully formed artifacts could be continuously strengthened multiple times.