Chapter 797: The Periphery of the Treasure Vault

The outer area of the Immortal Lord’s treasure vault was a desolate and ruined landscape. Of course, this desolation was different from that of the Origin Demon Realm outside—here, there were still mountains and rivers, grass and trees, as well as the sun, moon, rivers, mountains, insects, fish, birds, and beasts…

It was a desolate world devoid of advanced intelligent beings and social civilization.

The fall of the Primordial Immortal Lord had occurred billions of years ago. This treasure vault was originally part of the Immortal Lord’s residence. After its master perished, the intelligent beings within the residence gradually became extinct over time, and all ordinary buildings had long since weathered into piles of yellow soil.

What remained were surely super treasures such as immortal artifacts and magic weapons—things that had caught the eye of the Primordial Immortal Lord and were stored within the residence. Such artifacts must have been top-tier immortal weapons at the very least.

It was here that Jin Hao found several top-tier immortal weapons, which he took to the Immortal Realm and gave to the Master of the Juechen Valley.

The entire outer area covered tens of trillions of square miles. In just over a hundred years, Jin Hao couldn’t have searched every corner, so there must still be some left unexamined. Su Che estimated that at least a dozen more top-tier immortal weapons were hidden in various places across this land.

Even knowing this, Su Che didn’t have enough time to search for these scattered treasures. So, he simply decided to treat them as a treat to give to the Eight Hundred Immortal Emperors.

“This is the outer area of the Immortal Lord’s treasure vault. Aside from those dozen top-tier immortal weapons, everything else has turned to dust,” Su Che said to the Eight Hundred Immortal Emperors. “I give you fifty years to search for these immortal weapons. Whoever finds them will keep them. Fifty years from now, please gather here again, and then we’ll enter the core area of the Immortal Lord’s treasure vault together.”

“A dozen top-tier immortal weapons?”

Most of the Immortal Emperors were excited, filled with anticipation and longing.

This was because, although they were Immortal Emperors, none of them possessed a single top-tier immortal weapon; they were still using top-grade ones.

The reason was that their experience was too limited, and their resources insufficient. After becoming Immortal Emperors, they had managed to collect only two or three top-grade materials, enough to craft just two or three top-grade immortal weapons. They simply couldn’t bear to send them into the Heavenly Will Divine Furnace for transformation.

The success rate of the Heavenly Will Divine Furnace was extremely low. If those few top-grade immortal weapons failed to be transformed, they would end up with nothing. For Immortal Emperors like them, it was absolutely unacceptable to have to use lower-grade immortal weapons instead.

Only veteran Immortal Emperors like Guangzhong and Diqiu, who had been famous for a long time and accumulated great wealth, had crafted dozens of top-quality immortal artifacts in their lives, which they sent to the Heavenly Will Furnace for transformation. Even with a low success rate, each of them still possessed three to five supreme-grade immortal artifacts.

Therefore, the “treasure-hunting mission in the outer regions” mentioned by Su Che did not arouse much interest among the dozen or so Seventh Heaven Immortal Emperors and the five Eighth Heaven Immortal Emperors.

At that moment, one of the Seventh Heaven Immortal Emperors raised an objection, “Lord Arbiter, just a dozen supreme-grade immortal artifacts—there’s no need to waste fifty years on this. It’s better to leave them for those fellow cultivators with the least luck who will gain the least from them.”

His words were polite, but his meaning was clear: seize most of the treasures first, and give these trivial gains to the least fortunate as a way to soothe their wounded pride.

Logically, such a approach seemed reasonable, but Su Che immediately rejected it without hesitation. “I’m sorry, but that’s how the rules are set. We must first clear the outer regions before we can access the core area of the Immortal Lord’s Treasury.”

“I see…” The Seventh Heaven Immortal Emperor was skeptical.

“Fifty years is nothing. We can wait,” said Emperor Guangzhong in a low voice. “It’s already a great fortune for us to be able to enter the Immortal Lord’s Treasury. The more critical the moment, the more we need to stay calm and avoid impatience.”

“Exactly,” agreed another Eighth Heaven Immortal Emperor, the Thunder Dragon Emperor.

Emperor Diqiu was even more direct. Waving his hand, he said, “There’s no point competing with them over this. Let them search. We can meditate here; fifty years will pass in the blink of an eye.”

With all three Eighth Heaven Immortal Emperors expressing similar views, the Seventh Heaven Immortal Emperors had no choice but to stay silent. As Su Che gave the command to “start,” the eight hundred Immortal Emperors scattered in all directions to search for treasures.

Twenty-two Immortal Emperors remained where they were: five Eighth Heaven Emperors and seventeen Seventh Heaven Emperors.

It wasn’t that these twenty-two were uninterested in supreme-grade immortal artifacts; it was more of a display of leaving such opportunities to those who needed them more.

These veteran Immortal Emperors valued their dignity greatly. Each of them already possessed at least two or three supreme-grade immortal artifacts. Competing with lower-ranked Immortal Emperors for just one of them would have seemed overly greedy and lacking in grace.

“I’m going to rest for a while.”

Su Che took out the hall covered in isolation barriers and placed it in an open area.

Emperor Guangzhong immediately understood and nodded in agreement, saying, “The referee may proceed as he sees fit. We’re here, so nothing unexpected will happen.”
“Thank you.”
After expressing his gratitude, Su Che turned and entered the palace gates.
Guangzhong and the others dispersed, sitting in a circle around the palace to continue fulfilling their duty of protection.
Once inside the palace, Su Che wasted no time and immediately began his seclusion cultivation. The so-called fifty years of treasure hunting were meant to give him enough time to reach the early stage of the Golden Immortal realm.
Now, at the peak of the mid-stage Dark Immortal realm, he could advance to the late stage at any time. Fifty years should be sufficient to reach the Golden Immortal realm.
Once he became a Golden Immortal, combined with a hundredfold enhancement, he might be able to match a Triple Heavens Emperor in battle. With the wealth provided by the Heavenly Guardians as well…
Hundreds of enhanced Immortal Baby Fruits had already formed on the Tree of Fate. Their size remained unchanged, but they now had a strange appearance with black and white colors interwoven and entangled with each other.
Upon closer inspection, one could see that the entanglement of black and white was profoundly mysterious, subtly conveying a sense of perfect harmony between yin and yang, like the Tai Chi.
Five years ago, Su Che had entered the Immortal Lord’s Treasury in advance and learned the method by which the original Immortal Lord mastered both immortal and demonic powers. Not only did he learn it himself, but more importantly, the Tree of Fate was greatly inspired by this, drawing analogies to create a more perfect balance between immortals and demons.
Without further delay, he swallowed the fruit and began cultivating.
While Su Che was cultivating inside, the twenty-some Emperors outside started communicating and plotting among themselves. Within a few days, they reached some kind of agreement and formed a temporary alliance.
They could ignore the dozen or so top-tier immortal artifacts scattered in the outer areas, but the true treasures in the Immortal Lord’s Treasury could not possibly be shared with others.
As days passed, just half a year later, three battles over treasures had already broken out in the outer areas.
The pattern was basically the same: two Emperors would discover a top-tier immortal artifact at the same time, refuse to yield, and start fighting. Their intense struggle would attract other Emperors nearby who were also searching for treasures.
It would turn into a battle involving five people… and soon expand into a chaotic fight involving a dozen or so people.
Fortunately, the internal space of the Immortal Lord’s residence was extremely stable. Even if eight hundred Emperors fought to the death at the same time, it wouldn’t affect the spatial stability of the Immortal Lord’s Treasury.
To cause the spatial collapse of the Immortal Lord’s residence, the Immortal Lord himself would have to intervene.

Three years later, a Second Heaven Immortal Emperor voluntarily returned to the gathering place where Su Che and the others were. He was lucky enough to quietly obtain a Heavenly-grade immortal artifact without being noticed by other Immortal Emperors. This Immortal Emperor knew how to be content, so he immediately stopped searching for more treasures and returned to the gathering place to stay with Guang Zhong and the others, quietly refining his magical artifacts—this was the safest approach. After all, Guang Zhong and the others, proud of their status, would never dare seize the Heavenly-grade artifact he had just obtained; moreover, with the Arbiter present, no one would dare act recklessly.

Another year passed, and another lucky person returned quietly. Upon seeing Guang Zhong stationed there and the Arbiter’s palace also located there, he breathed a sigh of relief and completely relaxed. Being here meant he was safe—no need to worry about being robbed, so he could focus on refining his magical artifacts in peace.

Before long, another person returned. Every time someone returned early, Guang Zhong and the others would congratulate them together. So far, relations among them seemed quite harmonious. Yet everyone knew deep down that once they entered the core treasure vault, the situation would be completely different.

Later on, Immortal Emperors with damaged vital energy began returning one after another. From their listless appearances, it was clear they were losers in the struggle for magical artifacts. Everyone was smart enough to understand one thing: this was only the outer area, and fighting over just one Heavenly-grade artifact wasn’t worth risking their lives. Preserving their lives and keeping their eligibility to enter the core treasure vault was what mattered most.

Thus, these severely injured Immortal Emperors wisely withdrew, returned to the gathering place, and used the remaining time to recover from their injuries.

Fights among Immortal Emperors rarely resulted in true deaths, and with such rational behavior at this point, no one would die.

As the controller of this entire game, Su Che had long predicted that none of the 819 Immortal Emperors entering the treasure vault would lose their lives during the outer phase. Sure enough, with just three days left before the 50-year deadline, all 819 Immortal Emperors returned unharmed.

“Brother Hong Wu, I apologize for offending you earlier.”

“It’s alright, it’s alright. In the struggle for treasures, there’s no such thing as offense—there’s no need for such formalities, fellow cultivator.”

After gathering together, many Immortal Emperors apologized to each other. They had fought fiercely over certain treasures before, but now that they were sitting together again, they needed to maintain face. Every Immortal Emperor possessed such grace and self-restraint.

During those final three days, the Immortal Emperors patiently waited, with none of them rushing to the palace to urge Su Che to come out quickly.

Everyone was speculating: What kind of situation would await them when they entered the core treasure vault in three days? How many treasures could they see? And how could they secure their own share of fortune?
Even the five most powerful Eighth Heaven Immortal Emperors were tense, unable to relax.
Outside the hall, the solemn atmosphere gathered by the eight hundred Immortal Emperors created an immense invisible magnetic field that covered an area of thousands of feet.
If any Great Luo Golden Immortal accidentally fell into this invisible magnetic field, they would likely be crushed to the ground and unable to get up, eventually dying from the pressure over time.
Huh!
Three days later, the doors of the hall opened inward, and Su Che stepped out slowly. On the surface, he still appeared at the peak of the Middle Phase of the Mysterious Immortal realm, with no change in his cultivation level.
“My goodness!”
Su Che waved his hand and said with a smirk, “The atmosphere here is too heavy; it’s almost impossible to breathe… My fellow Immortal Emperors, there’s no need to be so tense. You can relax a bit.”
“Arbitrator!”
All eight hundred Immortal Emperors stood up and bowed together once again.