Chapter 160: The Ghost Emperor of the Netherworld

The second level of the Immortal Prison was opened, and Su Che named it the “Netherworld of Ghosts.”
It was undoubtedly astonishing and hard to believe that a cultivator at the Foundation Establishment stage could create such a realm. Though it sounded impressive, even Su Che himself didn’t know what benefits this so-called realm might bring him. Moreover, it was uncertain whether this realm was truly useful—or if it was merely a name without substance.
It was like a family of arrogants: just a small household where the husband declared himself emperor, his wife queen, their eldest son crown prince, and their youngest daughter princess… But once they stepped outside, they were nothing but ordinary farmers with hoes.
Noticing Su Che’s thoughts, Lao He laughed and said, “Since you created this Netherworld of Ghosts, its usefulness lies in what you discover and create on your own. I think the most valuable aspect of the Immortal Prison Pagoda is its infinite possibilities and creativity. Perhaps all your wishes can be fulfilled here.”
“Alright.”
Using his mental power, Su Che tapped twice on the desk engraved with the four dark gold characters “Netherworld of Ghosts” and asked, “Putting everything else aside, who is this throne meant for?”
“Well, since it’s a realm of ghosts, there must be someone to manage it,” Lao He replied with a laugh. “It’s a pity the master himself can’t enter the Immortal Prison. Otherwise, it would be quite satisfying for you to sit on that throne.”
“Are you interested in that position?” Su Che teased. “If so, sit here every day.”
“No, master,” Lao He quickly pleaded. “I’m not suited for this place. I prefer the atmosphere of the mortal world.”
Su Che smiled secretly and said, “Let’s talk about it later. After all, this Netherworld of Ghosts is just an empty shell—there aren’t even any ghosts yet, so no manager is needed for now.”
To his surprise, Lao He replied, “No, master. There’s actually one already available.”
With a casual gesture, Lao He summoned a large mass of deep purple liquid and said to Su Che, “Master, look. This is a being formed from 800 Earth Fiends and 3,000 spirits. You can give it orders to take on any form you desire.”
“Oh?”

Su Che grew curious and imagined the appearance of a mighty man. Immediately, the deep purple liquid condensed into a bearded giant with a deep purple face, thick brows, and large eyes—radiating authority even without anger, truly imposing.
Swish!
Su Che imagined a magnificent official robe for him and said, “Starting today, you shall be the Ghost Emperor of this realm, governing this space for me.”
“I shall obey my master’s orders!”
The “Ghost Emperor” knelt on the ground, bowing in gratitude.
Su Che chuckled to himself, “I’m just a minor figure at the Foundation Establishment stage, yet I can appoint someone else as the Ghost Emperor? It feels like playing house as a child—truly ridiculous!”
After mocking himself, Su Che wondered, “Lao Hei, is this guy considered a spirit vessel? Is he at your level or higher?”
“How could that be, master?”
Lao Hei mercilessly slapped the “Ghost Emperor” on the back of the head, nearly knocking him to the ground. “I’m not even in the same category as him. How could he be the spirit vessel of the Immortal Prison Pagoda? He’s just a laborer.”
“Alright, alright,” Su Che thought with a smile. “At least he holds an official position. Don’t bully him too much.”
Lao Hei chuckled and pointed at the throne, saying to the Ghost Emperor, “Sit down. Let’s take a look.”
The Ghost Emperor obediently stood up, took two steps with regal grace, and sat down solemnly.
Swish!
A dark golden light appeared out of nowhere, shining down from above into the Ghost Emperor’s forehead, as if bestowing an official title from heaven. His aura surged, making him even more majestic, truly showing signs of a ruler of a realm.
Thus, his status was recognized by the Immortal Prison, and it was officially established.
After a while, Su Che’s curiosity faded completely. He sighed, “It seems I won’t be able to figure out the specific function of the second layer of the Immortal Prison anytime soon. I’d better hurry up and consume the Immortal Lotus to improve my spiritual root potential…”
So, Su Che’s thoughts, along with Lao Hei’s, left the second layer of the Immortal Prison, leaving only the imposing “Ghost Emperor” sitting alone on the platform.
In the vast Ghost Realm, within that huge palace, he was the only living being. Who knows if he would feel lonely…
On the first layer of the Immortal Prison, alchemist Luo Lianqiao had already prepared the medicinal soup, ready for Su Che to consume at any time.

For safety’s sake, Lao He summoned that heinous sixth-rank alchemist before him again and pointed at the Black Domain Immortal Lotus, asking, “Are you sure that to improve one’s spiritual root aptitude, it’s sufficient to pick just one petal?”
“The Black Domain Immortal Lotus…”
Chao Jigong, who had been extremely listless earlier, now saw the Black Domain Immortal Lotus and his eyes gleamed green; he almost rushed at it.
Slap!
Lao He slapped him to the ground and then stepped on his lower back. Despite having reached the later stage of the Foundation Establishment phase, Chao Jigong had no chance to resist.
By merging the abilities of beings from the Foundation Establishment phase in the realms of humans, demons, and monsters, Lao He possessed strength equivalent to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment. Moreover, inside the Immortal Prison, his power could be amplified a hundredfold, while the prisoners suffered a hundredfold greater pressure. Under his feet, Chao Jigong was as weak as an old man on his deathbed.
Lao He repeated his earlier question and obtained a definite answer from Chao Jigong’s mind.
Thus, relying solely on the power of the Immortal Prison’s ruler, Lao He effortlessly plucked a petal from the Black Domain Immortal Lotus without even lifting a hand.
The Black Domain Immortal Lotus seemed to have pain receptors; it trembled violently, clearly in agony.
Lao He immediately injected it with a large amount of life energy, calming it down, and its overall life force showed no abnormalities.
Outside the Immortal Prison, Su Che watched all this and felt relieved. It would indeed be a great loss if just one petal caused severe damage to the entire immortal herb, or even its death.
He put a pure black petal in his mouth, followed by a bowl of dark medicinal soup. Sitting cross-legged in a room of the inn, Su Che waited quietly for changes in his spiritual root aptitude.
During the wait, Su Che was anxious, as improving one’s spiritual root carried some risk—namely, it wasn’t guaranteed that a certain type of spiritual root would be dissolved.
If the fire-type spiritual root were dissolved, the Fire God Art and fire-type essence he had cultivated would be wasted. Although this “waste” wouldn’t cause his cultivation level to drop, allowing him to retain the early Foundation Establishment stage, he would still have to choose another attribute’s cultivation method and start over.
As he waited, Su Che felt his eyelids grow heavy and drowsiness set in. He realized that the effects of the medicine were taking hold, and he shouldn’t resist them.
“Please don’t destroy my fire-type spiritual root. Otherwise, such a rare and excellent cultivation method as the Fire God Art will be wasted…”
Before falling asleep, Su Che silently prayed.

The miraculous effects of the immortal lotus petals, activated by the medicinal ingredients, silently transformed Su Che’s spiritual root aptitude… It would, based on its own criteria, determine that one of Su Che’s spiritual roots was unnecessary, then completely dissolve that redundant root into nutrients to nourish the other two types of spiritual roots. In this way, not only was an extra spiritual root removed, but the remaining roots could also be strengthened—this was the principle behind improving spiritual root aptitude. Logically speaking, the immortal lotus petals were equivalent to a deadly poison for the Heavenly Spiritual Root; they would dissolve even this unique-type root, turning a genius into a worthless person with no spiritual roots at all. However, no practitioner with a Heavenly Spiritual Root had yet dared to try this—it was merely a speculation. Moreover, the immortal lotus petals were only effective when taken for the first time; even if Su Che still had eight petals left, they would be useless to him. If he wanted to further improve his spiritual root aptitude in the future, he would need to find other methods. After sleeping for over ten hours, Su Che finally woke up with a jolt. Filled with extreme tension, he immediately conducted an internal inspection. “It’s okay… it’s okay…” Su Che let out a long sigh. “The Wood-type spiritual root has been removed. Only the Fire-type and Earth-type remain.” “Congratulations, master! You now have a dual-type Earthly Spiritual Root,” Old Black said happily. “With such aptitude, forming a Golden Core should be no problem for you.” “With the Immortal Prison at hand, if I can’t even reach the Golden Core stage, I might as well just die,” Su Che thought to himself with a smile. “I have another good news for you,” Old Black said eagerly. “While you were sleeping, I kept trying to figure out the functions of the Netherworld of Ghosts…” “Oh?” Su Che became interested and asked, “What did you discover?” Old Black explained, “When opening the second layer, the Immortal Prison only captured three thousand ordinary spirits. We still had quite a number of ghost soldiers and guards left. So I tried sending six of those ghost soldiers into the Netherworld of Ghosts.” Su Che nodded in agreement. “Since they’re spirits, they should all be sent to the ghost world.” “Yes, that’s what I thought too,” Old Black continued. “As soon as those six ghost soldiers entered the ghost world, they were summoned by our Netherworld Ghost Emperor. He first judged their good and bad deeds from their past lives and assigned them different punishments and rewards…”

“But since there is a palace in the Ghost Realm yet no accompanying punishment or reward facilities, the Ghost Emperor can only ask you to have these facilities completed as soon as possible.”
At this point, Lao He chuckled and said, “At that time, you were sleeping, and I deliberately ignored him, just to see how capable this Ghost Emperor really was… After that, he sent you requests three times in a row without receiving any reply, so he took matters into his own hands and changed those previous judgments…”
“The rest of what happened, I’ve turned into mental images—take a look for yourself.”
With that, Lao He transmitted a long sequence of mental images to Su Che.