Chapter 180: Kidnapped

Inside the underground spiritual vein, Su Che had been hiding for five days, unsure of how the sudden changes at the Taiyi Gate had progressed. The spiritual vein that had just formed in the Immortal Prison had already stretched to a length of a hundred zhang. Su Che still had no clear idea of how much spiritual energy this small vein could generate.
“It’s about time to leave.”
Suppressing his greed, Su Che decided to stop when things were going well and withdraw promptly. However, after moving just a few dozen zhang inside the vein, he heard Lao He’s warning: “Master, someone is coming down—they’re getting close.”
Su Che immediately halted all movements, concealed his breath, and, with the help of the Hidden Spirit Pearl’s invisibility effect, remained motionless in the vein.
Outside the vein, in the rock layers, several Golden Core elders from the Taiyi Gate were using their earth-dwelling magic to conduct routine inspections along the vein. But unless there were special circumstances, they were not allowed to enter the vein arbitrarily—this was one of the strictest rules of the Taiyi Gate. Normally, they could only enter the vein to cultivate for a while with the approval of the sect leader. Any illegal intruders would face one outcome: their spiritual roots and cultivation levels would be destroyed, and they would be expelled from the sect, forever cut off from the path of immortality.
The rules of immortal sects did not easily take a life, but such punishment was more deterrent than outright execution.
Inside the vein, Su Che could clearly sense powerful spiritual auras passing by. Though extremely nervous, he still had to control his heart from beating even slightly. At the Foundation Establishment stage, it was fine for the heart to stop beating for several hours, as there was enough true energy in the body to sustain bodily functions. Moreover, Su Che had the Immortal Prison providing him with a continuous supply of vitality.
When those spiritual auras gradually faded, Su Che secretly rejoiced: “The Hidden Spirit Pearl that Senior Yu Qing lent me is truly useful.”
In the Immortal Prison, Lao He joked, “Why not just steal it and claim you lost it, never to return it?”
Su Che smiled inwardly but remained motionless. Sure enough, after another dozen breaths, an even more powerful spiritual aura passed by…
“Late Golden Core stage!”
Su Che was relieved, thinking his guess was correct—the Taiyi Gate’s inspection methods couldn’t be that simple. After waiting a while longer, he cautiously continued moving forward. For a long time, he encountered no more inspectors.

Following the path of the spiritual veins, Su Che moved hundreds of feet from east to west. Relying on his intuition, he believed that leaving from here would be the most appropriate choice. So, he swallowed a Earth-Diving Pill, exited the spiritual veins, and dived vertically, continuing downward until he reached depths of thousands of feet beneath the ground. Only then did he feel it was sufficient enough, and he began to move horizontally. After all, he had plenty of Earth-Diving Pills; diving hundreds of miles underground, far away from the Taiyi Mountain Gate before resurfacing should be the safest method. The idea was good, but after just moving horizontally for a few thousand feet, Su Che felt his body go numb, and his vital energy was instantly sealed off completely. “Who?” Su Che was terrified and shouted inwardly. “I don’t know, master,” replied Lao Hei, who had been sitting on the ground in the Immortal Prison. He also jumped up in fright. “There’s no one within a range of two hundred feet!” “Damn it!” Su Che had completely lost the ability to move. He knew that someone who could silently control him from deep within the underground rock layers, from a distance of two hundred feet, must at least be at the Yuan Ying stage. Whoosh… From that moment on, Su Che felt himself moving at extreme speeds deep underground—faster even than when he flew using his magical vessel. His captor was far too powerful; he had no chance of resisting. “Then, I’ll just leave it to fate!” Su Che silently calculated the time. He had been moving at high speed for nearly fifteen minutes. Normally, he should have already left the area around the Taiyi Mountain Gate. This meant that his captor was unlikely to be an elder of the Taiyi Mountain Gate at the Yuan Ying stage. If it were someone from the Taiyi Mountain Gate, they would have taken him there for interrogation. “So, who is this person?” After another while, Su Che felt his body become lighter, and the range of his consciousness returned to its normal sixty feet. He had returned to the surface and seen the light of day again! Su Che opened his eyes, but neither his consciousness nor his physical vision could detect his captor; Lao Hei couldn’t either. Bang! Someone slapped him hard on the back of the head, and a very familiar voice echoed in his ears: “You greedy brat!” “Elder Zi Xiao!” Su Che shouted in extreme delight. He had thought he had been captured by a Yuan Ying elder and was in great trouble, but it turned out to be Elder Zi Xiao! Sure enough, the figure of Elder Zi Xiao gradually appeared before his eyes, though his consciousness could not sense him.

“Elder Zi Xiao, how could you…”
Before Su Che could finish his question, Zi Xiao smiled wickedly: “Do you think only you are taking advantage?”
“Huh?”
Su Che was utterly astonished. Could it be that Elder Zi Xiao was also…
Zi Xiao raised his hand and tapped Su Che’s forehead again, scolding, “You lack skill but have an audacious heart… Even I, after lurking in the spiritual veins for three days, would have planned to withdraw. But you, you still aren’t satisfied! You’ve made me worry too for two days.”
Only then did Su Che realize that Elder Zi Xiao had been lurking underground, stealing from the spiritual veins just like him, and that none of his actions had gone unnoticed by him.
“Give me ten top-grade spiritual stones!” Zi Xiao suddenly reached out, unreasonably demanding spiritual stones from Su Che.
Although he didn’t understand why, Su Che readily took out ten top-grade spiritual stones.
Whoosh!
Zi Xiao caught the stones and then explained, “Do you think everyone from the Tai Yi Sect is useless? These past few days, that old fool Tai Wu has sneaked into the spiritual veins several times to inspect. If it weren’t for me covering for you, you scoundrel would have been caught a thousand times already. These ten spiritual stones are as payment for saving your life. How about that? Too expensive?”
“Not expensive, not expensive! Thank you, Elder, for saving your disciple.”
Su Che suddenly understood. No wonder things had been so smooth from start to finish—it was Elder Zi Xiao who had been hiding in the shadows to help him…
“Enough.”
Zi Xiao waved his hand. “Go back to your sect. I have other things to do.”
Su Che nodded in agreement but then asked, “Elder, what about the others in our sect?”
He meant the other reinforcements from the Tian Xuan Sect, including the ten true disciples of Xuan Ji Peak.
He asked this not out of concern for them, but simply out of curiosity.
“I’ve already taken care of those matters,” Zi Xiao said, glancing at him. “Except for you scoundrel, no one else needs me to worry so much.”
Su Che asked again, “Did any of the ancestors in that battle die?”
“Yes!”
Zi Xiao smiled faintly. “An old guy from the Blood God Sect was killed by me. The others are still alive. Ancestor Yuan Ying isn’t that easy to take down.”
“Only one died, and it was you, Elder, who killed him?” Su Che was extremely surprised, filled with admiration.
So powerful!
He truly lived up to being the super idol in the eyes of countless disciples of the Tian Xuan Sect.
“I’m good at finding loopholes to take advantage,” Zi Xiao said indifferently with a smile. “In that regard, you kid are quite like me.”
At that point, he frowned impatiently and snapped, “Why are you so talkative? I told you to leave—why are you still dawdling here?”

“But…”
Su Che looked aggrieved and hurriedly protested, “Elder Master, you still haven’t lifted the restraint on me.”
The true energy restraint cast by the Yuan Ying Ancestor was beyond Su Che’s ability to break on his own. He was now as good as useless—unable to use any true energy, aside from his spiritual sense and speech.
Zi Xiao raised an eyebrow and said unashamedly, “I really did forget…”
Snap!
The restraint was lifted. Su Che bowed respectfully. By the time he raised his head, Elder Master Zi Xiao had vanished without a trace.
Su Che flew high to determine his direction. Using a distant river and the map checked by Lao Hei in the Immortal Prison, he confirmed they were on the Luo River Plain, over two thousand li away from the Tai Yi Sect’s gates.
“It should be safe now…”
Su Che landed in a hidden place and used the advanced disguise technique taught to him by Tian Yin to change his appearance, pretending to be a cultivator in the Foundation Establishment stage before flying on his sword.
The Tian Xuan Sect was tens of thousands of li away. At his current speed, it would take at least three days to return.
After flying less than three hundred li, his original plan changed. It seemed he definitely couldn’t make it back in three days…
Because they encountered a patrol from the Tai Yi Sect on the way, seemingly hunting down any cultivators who had escaped from other sects.
“Stop!”
Six disciples from the Tai Yi Sect flew diagonally from the sky—one in the later stage of Foundation Establishment, two in the middle stage, and three in the early stage.
Su Che didn’t stop but slowed down and turned to ask, “What’s the matter?”
“Stop and be inspected.”
The disciple in the later stage of Foundation Establishment sped up to catch up.
“Why?” Su Che asked coldly.
“Because I am…” The man glared fiercely.
Soul Capture!
Buzz…
The man collapsed instantly.
Whoosh! The Immortal Prison team rushed out. Lao Hei was the fastest, having already located them precisely through his detection skills. As soon as they appeared, he delivered a devastating punch.
Bang!
The disciple falling downward was punched in the forehead and immediately lost consciousness.
Grab!
One captured.
Whoosh! In a pincer move, the Immortal Prison team surrounded the remaining five.
Soul Capture! Soul Capture! Soul Capture…
The Soul Capture technique could shake even the spiritual essence of Golden Core cultivators, let alone these Foundation Establishment cultivators. With several blue lights, the Immortal Prison team just needed to step in to finish them off.
Below the Golden Core stage, they were invincible!
Fifteen minutes later, Lao Hei in the Immortal Prison had finished interrogating them. He learned that sects like the Tai Yi Sect and the Ten Thousand Ghosts Sect had ordered that all cultivators encountered in their territory be captured and taken back for punishment…

In other words, what that person said just now about “undergoing an inspection” was just a lie; even if Su Che obediently agreed to the inspection, they would still arrest him.
“Crazy, all of them are crazy, completely disregarding consequences…”
Su Che thought to himself, “How dare they defy the entire cultivation world? What kind of benefits have those powerful figures in the Spirit Realm offered to these sects?”