Chapter 197: The Art of Spending Money

Ruyi, ranked third, said, “I heard that Su Che can defeat elders in the early Jin Dan stage of the Taiyi Sect despite being of a lower rank. With such combat strength, I feel inferior to him.”
“That man is truly monstrous.”
Feng Jun, ranked fourth, who was also at the later stage of the Zhu Ji cultivation level, frankly said, “To be honest, I’ve always considered myself a genius, but I can’t help feeling jealous.”
“What’s the use of talking about this?” Song Tao was visibly anxious. “Let’s think instead about how to save our faces!”
Knowing he would surely lose yet still having to compete, Song Tao’s proud nature made it hard for him to accept this.
At that moment, Duan Tianya gave a subtle glance to Ling Yun, who ranked eighth. Ling Yun immediately understood and spoke up, “If we want to save our faces, there’s only one way. That is, make Su Che lose before it’s our turn to compete. Since this is a battle of a hundred fights, one must win all of them. If we lose even one, there’s no point continuing the competition.”
“Right!” Song Tao perked up instantly, slapping his thigh and saying to Duan Tianya, “Such an important task belongs only to the eldest senior brother.”
Duan Tianya smiled silently and nodded. “If my junior brothers and sisters all agree, I really don’t mind whether I go first or later.”
“Then thank you, eldest senior brother.”
Ling Yun gratefully bowed, then added something truly valuable: “But since Su Che has the ability to create this battle of a hundred fights, he must not be underestimated. Eldest senior brother, don’t underestimate him either! I plan to return to my family tomorrow to borrow one or two top-tier magical artifacts. Maybe they can just counter Su Che.”
“Well…” Duan Tianya pretended to ponder before saying, “It might be inconvenient to trouble your family.”
“What’s inconvenient about it?” Ling Yun waved his hand. “If I lose face, my family’s face will also be damaged. Besides, borrowing magical artifacts for a while isn’t a big deal. Are you afraid I’ll run away with them?”
“Right, right!” Song Tao nodded repeatedly. “Whether it’s magical artifacts or pills, we’ll surely find a way to counter him. I don’t believe that if we work together, we can’t defeat a disciple in the later stage of Zhu Ji cultivation!”
The other two also nodded slightly. Although Ruyi didn’t care much about winning or losing a single match, since everyone else agreed, he couldn’t be an exception.
“Then it’s settled. I’ll go borrow treasures from my uncle early tomorrow morning!” Song Tao stood up immediately.

“Don’t worry, junior brother,” Duan Tianya said in a low voice, raising his hand to suppress the tension. “There are still over twenty days left; there’s no rush to borrow the treasures. The key is to find out more about Su Che’s strengths and weaknesses, so we can borrow the right magical artifacts accordingly. Only by knowing both ourselves and our enemy can we win every battle!”
“That’s right!”
The other four nodded in agreement.
From that day on, similar small-group gatherings continued to take place atop the ten major peaks, all discussing how to deal with Su Che, this extraordinary rival who had suddenly appeared.
The Hundred Battles Arena had made Su Che a common enemy of all the legitimate disciples!
However, there are no eternal enemies in the world. If one truly managed to win every battle and claim the top position, those former rivals would surely come flocking over, smiling and trying to please that ‘top-ranked legitimate senior brother.’
Such is human nature—whether in the mortal world or the realm of cultivation, it’s the same everywhere.
At the highest point on Xuanji Peak, one of the ten major peaks, Su Che stood atop a giant rock, gazing at the layered Tianxuan Mountain Range. At this moment, his heart was filled with boundless ambition, yet also profound tranquility.
One day, when he reached the pinnacle and could look down upon all others, they would enter his immortal prison, and no more great disasters would arise in the world…
This was Su Che’s ultimate goal, even surpassing his desire for immortality.
At sunrise, Su Che sat in meditation and took out a top-grade spiritual weapon—a flying sword. Following the methods taught by his master, he began to pour his fire-type true essence into the sword frantically.
A top-grade spiritual weapon could hold the entire true essence of a cultivator in the later stages of the Foundation Establishment phase. At critical moments, it could be released and detonated using special techniques, creating an extremely terrifying destructive force through the weapon’s self-destruction.
According to Venerable Xuanji, the self-destruction of a top-grade spiritual weapon could produce the destructive power of a lower-grade treasure; that of an ultimate-grade spiritual weapon could match that of a mid-grade treasure.
This could compensate for Su Che’s weakness in attack power, but the downside was that each attack would result in the loss of one magical artifact, resulting in enormous consumption.
Top-grade spiritual weapons could not be bought in ordinary markets; they could only be obtained through special barter transactions. If priced in spirit stones, their auction price could easily reach fifty thousand spirit stones.
Each attack meant spending tens of thousands of spirit stones—no wonder Venerable Xuanji called it a ‘way of burning money.’
And it was no ordinary amount of money spent!

Fortunately, Su Che had reaped quite a lot recently, amassing over 150 top-grade spiritual artifacts. Among them, there were more than 80 that could be used as explosive attack artifacts, capable of delivering over 80 attacks in total. There were 23 top-tier spiritual artifacts, but most of them were defensive in nature, with only 7 being explosive attack artifacts—meaning they could only be used at the most critical moments. The value of top-tier spiritual artifacts goes without saying; using them for self-destruction would surely cause countless people great pain. Yet Su Che could regard them indifferently. They were all external possessions; once old ones were used up, new ones would appear. As long as they could save his life or prove useful at crucial moments, he wouldn’t hesitate to spend all his wealth on them. The Immortal Prison! The Immortal Prison was his foundation, more important than anything else. Without it, nothing else mattered. As in this moment, infusing true energy into a top-grade spiritual artifact should theoretically take a whole day, as it was impossible to drain one’s entire true energy at once. It required time to infuse and then more time for cultivation, so the speed couldn’t be fast. But Su Che didn’t need to go through such trouble. While infusing true energy, he could take pills to rapidly convert the two types of magical energy into true energy. It took just over an hour to complete an explosive spiritual artifact. Since artifacts filled with true energy were extremely unstable and needed to be stored carefully, Su Che put it inside a bronze gourd, suppressing it with the power of a spiritual treasure. At critical moments, he only needed to take out the gourd, point it at the enemy, and the explosive artifact would be launched… In this way, he completed over ten spiritual artifacts in a day. In just six days, he successfully crafted a total of 70 explosive artifacts, all stored in the bronze gourd. There were still over a dozen top-grade attack spiritual artifacts and three top-tier ones left in the Immortal Prison. These were the artifacts Su Che found most convenient to use under normal circumstances, as he couldn’t convert them all into explosive ones. Although Lao He was somewhat stingy, he was also very understanding about this matter. The master’s safety and future were the most important; everything else didn’t matter. What’s money for? It’s meant to be spent at critical moments to overwhelm opponents! If normal methods can’t deal with them, it doesn’t matter—just use money to defeat them! If one can’t even save their life, what’s the use of earning more money? With 20 days left until the day of a hundred battles, Su Che appeared at Wuhua Peak in his true form, wanting to buy some supplies.

Now that he had reached the later stage of the Foundation Establishment phase, and still adhered to the principle of living openly, he no longer needed to conceal his identity, no matter how large his business became. Su Che was well aware that the Hundred Battles Arena had already caused a huge sensation in the Tianxuan Sect. During this time, neither the elders of the ten main peaks nor the other Golden Core elders dared to interfere with what he was doing. Inside the Treasure Shop, Su Che met again Lei Chuang, Lei Xiao’s uncle and the shop’s manager. Su Che had entrusted him with selling a dozen or so spirit herbs, making them business partners. Several years later, he was still at the early stage of Foundation Establishment. “Su…” As soon as he saw Su Che, Lei Chuang instinctively wanted to call him by name, but quickly realized his mistake and changed his tone, saying, “I greet Senior Su.” “You’re too polite,” Su Che replied with a smile. “It’s my duty,” Lei Chuang said, his expression stiff, still somewhat dazed. Once, when they first met, Su Che was just a new disciple at the second level of Qi Cultivation. Just four years later, he had become the most prominent figure in the sect, even organizing the Hundred Battles Arena to challenge all the true disciples. Regardless of whether he could win all battles, merely qualifying for the Hundred Battles Mastery was an immense honor and glory. Even if he lost, it wouldn’t be a shame! The more people like Lei Chuang, who had dealt with the weaker Su Che in the past, the more they found it unbelievable, as if it were all illusory… “This time, I’d like to ask Uncle Lei to help me sell a batch of magical artifacts…” Su Che took out twenty top-quality defensive magical artifacts and placed them on the counter. “I don’t plan to sell these for spirit stones. Instead, I want to exchange them for some lower-grade ghost artifacts. Please help me decide how to make the exchange.” “Ghost artifacts?” Lei Chuang asked instinctively, “Senior Su, what do you need ghost artifacts for?” Only after speaking did he realize he had been distracted by the pile of top-quality magical artifacts in front of him and accidentally asked something a merchant should never inquire about. Running a business was meant to meet customers’ needs, not to question how they intended to use the items. That was a serious mistake. Before he could apologize, Su Che smiled and said, “I’ve tamed a few ghost servants, but I don’t have any suitable magical artifacts for them.” “Exactly, exactly,” Lei Chuang nodded quickly. “They definitely need ghost artifacts to fully unleash their combat power.” As for how Su Che, being a disciple of a celestial sect, could understand the ways of controlling ghosts, he didn’t dare to ask further.

Ghost artifacts are an extremely special type of magical weapon, suitable only for spirits. Generally, only demonic sects like the Myriad Ghosts Sect have the ability to forge them. However, the Tianxuan Sect is full of talented people, and surely some have killed demonic cultivators and seized similar loot. Ghost artifacts can also be obtained at Wuhua Peak, though in very small quantities. There are only four grades of ghost artifacts: lower grade, middle grade, upper grade, and supreme grade. Due to their extreme rarity, lower-grade ghost artifacts are even more expensive than upper-grade spiritual weapons; middle-grade ghost artifacts are worth as much as precious artifacts; as for upper-grade ghost artifacts, it’s impossible to obtain them—there are fewer than ten in the entire Myriad Ghosts Sect. Supreme-grade ghost artifacts are purely legendary, with rumors suggesting that only the ghost servant at the level of a Ghost Emperor, belonging to the Old Demon of the Myriad Ghosts, possesses one. Therefore, Su Che considered himself quite lucky to be able to acquire a few lower-grade ghost artifacts at Wuhua Peak.