Chapter 154: Doing Business

After the questioning, Tianyin said softly, “Since everything is settled now, let’s hurry back to the team.”
Up to this point, Su Che still wasn’t sure whether she had noticed any flaws in his earlier responses. This woman seemed gentle on the surface, but was actually extremely terrifying.
Yes, the impression Tianyin gave Su Che was far more frightening than the combined effect of those two Ghost Maidens of Yulan…
Next, Su Che and Yu Qing put away their respective “spirit beasts” and puppets, followed Tianyin, and returned to the entrance of the cave through the tunnel.
At the entrance, hundreds of Earth Fiends and Yakshas blocked the tunnel completely. For Su Che and Yu Qing, the simplest way to get out was to use a Hidden Earth Pill to tunnel their way out of the rock layers.
But Tianyin had an even simpler method.
“Na, duo, ho, ling…”
A series of strange sounds gently escaped Tianyin’s red lips, instantly creating a breeze that blew forward. The previously noisy Earth Fiends fell to the ground one after another, gasping heavily before falling into a deep sleep.
It was an extremely sophisticated hypnotic sound—so advanced that Su Che and Yu Qing had no idea what kind of sonic spell it was. They could only marvel inwardly: Truly worthy of the name “Tianyin”!
Not only were all the Earth Fiends hypnotized, but even the remaining twenty-some Yakshas stood unsteadily, swaying like drunkards, essentially losing their combat ability.
Su Che wanted to take this opportunity to trap all these Earth Fiends and Yakshas in the Immortal Prison, but he wisely restrained this impulse.
Although even if he used some space artifact of the spiritual treasure level, Tianyin might not care at all, anything related to the Immortal Prison wasn’t worth the risk. To capture the Earth Fiends, he could just spend some time.
Tianyin wasn’t even bothered killing these demons. She strode out of the cave with Su Che and Yu Qing, then said to the over a hundred disciples outside, “Today’s incident is likely to attract Asuras at the Golden Core stage. This training is now over—everyone return to the sect immediately.”
“Yes, Grandmaster Tianyin,” the disciples replied in unison.
Then, the group of over a hundred people flew on their mounts, following Tianyin toward an exit to the Underground Demon Realm.
But after flying just a few dozen miles, they saw two majestic figures approaching from afar.
“Asuras!”
Su Che’s heart skipped a beat: “Two of them at once.”

Without hesitation, he silently sent a message to Yu Qing: “Senior brother, I still have matters to attend to, so I’m leaving first.”
Yu Qing remained calm, smiling lightly and saying, “Go take care of your own affairs. At this stage, you don’t need to worry about my safety.”
Such words might sound unpleasant if said between ordinary friends, but Su Che knew that Yu Qing was offering this advice out of kindness, reminding him that no matter what dangerous rumors he heard about him in the future, he didn’t need to risk going to help—Yu Qing would have his own ways to handle it.
Su Che nodded with a smile. “Me too.”
“Good!” Yu Qing nodded firmly before adding, “But I won’t give you the chance to become my senior brother.”
Hearing this, Su Che felt a sense of competitiveness and replied via message, “Don’t worry. At least in words, you’ll always be my senior brother.”
Yu Qing gazed ahead, a smile on his lips.
Thus, the two brothers made an unspoken agreement to see who would progress faster in their cultivation.
Before leaving the main group, Su Che needed to inform Tian Yin as well, otherwise it would be rude. So he sent a message, “Ancestral Master Tian Yin, I still have matters to attend to, so I’m leaving…”
“Go ahead. Be careful,” Tian Yin replied softly, just as before.
She also understood that Su Che had his own reasons for coming to the Underground Demon Realm alone, and since he wasn’t part of Wuji Sect’s training group, it wasn’t a problem for him to leave now.
By the time Su Che slipped away quietly, Tian Yin had already arranged for many of her disciples. Alone, she headed toward those two asuras.
There was not a trace of worry or heaviness on her face, as if they weren’t two Golden Core-stage asuras but just ordinary nightmares.
Su Che even had the intuition that if she truly unleashed her full power, even ten or eight asuras wouldn’t be a challenge for her.
“This woman is too terrifying. The farther away from her, the better. It’s best not to meet her ever again.”
Though he thought so, Su Che felt a realization arise in his heart—perhaps Tian Yin would become his most troublesome enemy. She was even investigating the whereabouts of the Mi Xian Ling flag. The seriousness of this matter was truly unpredictable…
However, capturing the Earth Fiends wasn’t difficult at all. After spending over ten hours, Su Che managed to gather eight hundred of them.

In the Immortal Prison, eight hundred Earth Fiends were settled by Lao Hei in a small area. They behaved quite obediently, causing no chaos, and Lao Hei didn’t need to manage them one by one. The method was simple: Lao Hei controlled his Asura Demon Body and gave them any command, and they would obediently follow. The hierarchy among demons was extremely strict, even more so than humans could imagine.

After completing the task, Su Che found the ascending passage to the territory under the jurisdiction of the Wuji Gate and successfully returned to the surface world.

“The conditions required to open the second layer of the Immortal Prison are missing only one Outer Heaven Demon at the Foundation Establishment stage, that is, a Demon General,” Su Che thought. “It’s really not worth traveling hundreds of thousands of miles just for such a demon to take risks in the Demon Realm… Besides, after the incident last time, I dare not go to the Fengmo Realm of the Tianxuan Sect either. So, there’s only one option left…”

Lao Hei naturally knew that the only option was to “buy” it.

Fortunately, there were many things for sale in the Immortal Prison. Su Che planned to find a cultivation market belonging to the Wuji Gate nearby, set up a stall to sell goods, and also offer a reward for a Demon General-level Outer Heaven Demon.

“I originally wanted to go to the Taiyi Gate, but by chance, I ended up at the Wuji Gate,” Su Che shook his head secretly, filled with many thoughts.

This time, although he had faced several hardships after leaving his sect, he had survived after all, and his gains were quite substantial. Aside from various treasures worth over two million spirit stones, what satisfied Su Che the most was undoubtedly that Black Domain Immortal Lotus.

Less than three thousand li away from the Wuji Gate, on Xinghuang Mountain, there was a cultivation market that was quite large and had the best security within the Wuji Gate’s jurisdiction.

This place wasn’t like the remote, lawless areas of Jinghun Ridge. Since the market was so close to the Wuji Gate, basically no one dared to cause trouble here. So, Su Che felt quite at ease making large transactions here.

For the first transaction, he didn’t need to disguise himself. He entered the largest shop in the market, the “Wuji Merchant Alliance,” under his true identity.

The Wuji Merchant Alliance was the most powerful merchant guild in the Wuji Gate’s jurisdiction. Undoubtedly, the Wuji Gate was its largest shareholder. It was said that to join this guild, one had to at least be at the later stage of Foundation Establishment; otherwise, the Wuji Merchant Alliance would consider them incapable of managing a store.

Entering the store’s lobby, Su Che noticed that the ordinary clerks serving customers had at least the cultivation level of the later stage of Qi Training, while the shop owner behind the counter was at the initial stage of Foundation Building. But he surely wasn’t the boss—normally, he should be called the second shop owner. Without wasting time, Su Che declined the service of the ordinary clerks and went straight to the “second shop owner” to state his purpose: to sell Black Shining Ink Crystals, with a deal worth over 100,000 spirit stones. Thus, Su Che was invited into the VIP room, where he sat face to face with the second shop owner. The second shop owner appeared to be in his forties, but his actual bone age was over seventy. With three strands of beard, he had a kind appearance. “Fellow cultivator, you must have just returned from the Underground Demon Realm yesterday, right?” the second shop owner asked with a smile. Hearing this, Su Che immediately guessed what he meant and asked, “Has the news about the attack on the Ink Crystal mines spread?” “Yes, all the major markets within a thousand miles must already be aware of it. Everyone is waiting to acquire this batch of goods,” the second shop owner said, stroking his beard with a smile. “It seems your trip has been quite fruitful, then.” Su Che smiled silently. Indeed, no one else could have gained more from this trip than he and Senior Yu Qing. Those disciples from the Wuji Sect, even in their dozens, could only divide up some of the raw Ink Crystals from the mine… After chatting casually, Su Che stretched out two fingers. “There are two deals. First, I want to sell 300 pounds of Black Shining Ink Crystals. Second, I want to purchase a Demon General-level Outer Demonic Monster. If the price is right, I can leave both deals to your store.” “As for the Ink Crystals, it’s simple. The purchase price is transparent—400 spirit stones per pound. Whatever amount you have, our store will buy it. But as for a Demon General-level Outer Demonic Monster…” The second shop owner pondered for a moment before continuing, “Such monsters are not easy to obtain. It depends on luck.” Su Che knew he was telling the truth. Outer Demonic Monsters couldn’t be tamed or controlled; keeping them was useless, so most were killed outright, and few were captured alive. “Then I’ll ask your store to post a bounty for me. I can wait in the market for half a month,” Su Che said. “That would be best,” the second shop owner nodded with a smile. “Since you’re so supportive of our store’s business, there’s no need to pay a commission for the bounty. Consider it our way of thanking you.” And so, the two deals were settled. Shortly after, when Su Che left the store, there were 300 pounds fewer of Black Shining Ink Crystals in his Qiankun Bag, but 120,000 lower-grade spirit stones in place of them.

Actually, in the warehouse of the Ink Crystal Mine, Su Che harvested over 2,000 jin of sunglasses in total. However, his cultivation level was still too low; bringing out over 2,000 jin of Ink Crystal at once would surely cause quite a stir. At the Foundation Establishment stage, the maximum amount that could be handled in a single transaction was around 100,000 spirit stones, which was considered the highest limit one could bear. Any more than that would be enough to arouse the greed of certain people.