Chapter 281: The Art of Simmering Soup

Although they knew it was extremely dangerous for Su Che to leave the mountain gates, the ancient ancestors couldn’t stop him. After all, those who cultivate need to go through trials and hardships; they can’t be like flowers in a greenhouse, meant only for display.
If the sect or the Yuan Ying ancestors did everything for Su Che, even the best talents would end up as good-for-nothing.
Su Che understood this principle himself, so he never relied on others to do what he needed to do.
Inside the cultivation cave on the top of Xuan Yu Peak, Su Che had been in seclusion for three days. Feeling the time was right, he began to strive for the middle stage of the Golden Dan realm.
The so-called “right time” was a sense as well as confidence. Moreover, Su Che and Lao He came up with a trick to improve the quality of their true essence.
The difference between the middle stage and the initial stage of the Golden Dan realm was that the true essence at the middle stage was more refined and pure, similar to the difference between an eighth-level spiritual fire and a seventh-level one.
In simple terms, it meant finding a way to raise the level of one’s own true essence by one, which would naturally cause changes in the Golden Dan within the body.
The conventional ways to advance required various conditions: first, reaching the peak state of the initial stage of the Golden Dan realm, along with an understanding of the realm, the correct method to refine true essence, an opportunity for seclusion, luck, and so on…
The method Su Che and Lao He came up with was to take an unconventional approach—using the method of refining true essence from their last time forming a Golden Dan, along with the Nirvana Divine Wood purchased in the Floating City, to raise the level of their true essence through alchemy.
It sounded complicated, but it was actually simple!
After spending three days adjusting their true essence to its peak state, today, Su Che was ready to “simmer soup” with Lao He.
What was “simmering soup”?
It meant infusing their true essence into the Immortal Prison to form a large crimson crystal ball, which would then fall into Lao He’s hands.
Lao He summoned a precious alchemy furnace, cut off a small piece of the Nirvana Divine Wood, soaked it in their true essence, and threw it into the furnace. An eighth-level spiritual fire was lit beneath, and just like simmering soup, they began to cook the true essence and the divine wood.
The function of the Nirvana Divine Wood was to raise the level of spiritual fires below the tenth level by one.
Therefore, Su Che and Lao He deduced that logically, it should also be able to raise the level of fire-type true essence.
Of course, such a method was impossible in the normal world, as previously mentioned, in the normal world, true essence would become intangible and vanish instantly once it left the body. Only in the Immortal Prison could it coalesce into a tangible existence like a crystal ball.
Huhuuh…

The spiritual fire in the furnace was burning brightly. Old Black stood by the pill furnace, muttering softly, “Master, cooking wood with true essence—won’t it be too bland? Can we add some more seasoning?”
Was he really treating this like making soup?
“I’m afraid if you add too much salt, it’ll be so salty that I’ll have to revise my water-element cultivation techniques…” Su Che replied irritably.
Cooking wood with true essence—once such a method became known, it would surely be mocked as utter nonsense! To be honest, Su Che himself wasn’t sure either; he was just trying it out. If that didn’t work, he’d have to advance through the usual methods, and success this time was uncertain.
“No, Master,” Old Black said seriously. “Add some good ingredients. Who knows? You might be able to create a unique true essence in the history of cultivation. When you reach the middle stage of the Golden Pill phase, you could even master the supreme divine powers!”
“Your imagination is indeed commendable,” Su Che said, half-serious and half-joking. “Tell me, what do you plan to add?”
Generally, during the Golden Pill phase, cultivators could master one divine power with each advancement—three in total, for the early, middle, and late stages.
The last time he reached the early stage of the Golden Pill, Su Che mastered the “Great Fire Control Art.” This time, he would surely master another fire-related divine power, so he felt a strange sense of anticipation toward Old Black’s whimsical idea.
Could adding random ingredients really create a miracle?
“What should we add?” Old Black pondered, resting his head in his hands.
Of course, Su Che was also thinking hard.
“What about adding some growth-accelerating spiritual liquid?” Old Black asked.
In the large pot containing the Black Domain Immortal Lotus, a single lotus seed had already been planted. The spiritual liquid that could accelerate its growth could be easily prepared with the help of the Tianxuan Sect’s powers, and now it only needed to be watered once a week.
According to Yin Luo, it would take twenty years to grow a fully mature Immortal Lotus.
Old Black’s idea was that since it was a growth-accelerating liquid, maybe it could speed up Su Che’s cultivation, compressing the originally thousand-year process into just twenty years to achieve immortality…
It seemed somewhat logical, but it drew Su Che’s scolding.
“You’re really smart, aren’t you?” Su Che snapped. “I’m only twenty-two now. With this acceleration, in another twenty years I’ll be a thousand-year-old old man. You’ve really mastered the art of killing without bloodshed, haven’t you?”
“Oh right!” Old Black slapped his forehead. “I got it wrong! This thing accelerates age, not cultivation level.”

The master and servant fell into deep thought once again…
The flames in the alchemy furnace roiled, and it was unclear when the “soup” inside would be ready.
“Dragon Pearl?” After a while, Lao He came up with another idea, his gaze shifting to the little dragon by Dragon Snake Lake.
“Spare it,” Su Che thought to himself.
The little dragon had already woken up and adapted to the power of the Dragon Pearl. Of course, it couldn’t evolve into a true dragon so quickly, but it already possessed the strength of a mid-level third-tier cultivator, equivalent to a human cultivator in the middle stage of the Golden Core phase.
If its Dragon Pearl were boiled, its bright future might just turn into mere soup.
“Then, boil me instead!” Lao He volunteered.
After some consideration, Su Che nodded. “That could work. If it succeeds, great. If not, it’s just a loss of a quarter of my True Energy, which I can recover after two days of cultivation…”
“Alright, boil me!”
Lao He grinned broadly.
It wasn’t really about throwing Lao He into the alchemy furnace to be boiled—what the master and servant meant was a strange energy within Lao He’s body.
Lao He was a fusion of humans, demons, and fiends—three races merged three times. Not only were the bodies of nine creatures combined, but their internal energies were also fully integrated.
Human True Energy, demon power, and fiendly aura merged together to form a very peculiar and unusual energy, exuding a primitive and ancient wildness.
Since Lao He was a vessel spirit and his true form could never leave the Immortal Prison, it remained a mystery what effect this energy would have in the normal world.
So today, these two bold “researchers”—Su Che and Lao He—decided to mix this energy with Su Che’s True Energy and boil them together to see what would happen.
Lao He spread his right claw, palm up. Soon, a dark gray energy mass took shape, turning into an energy sphere.
“It feels dirty…” Su Che muttered. “So, your inner self is truly filthy.”
“Of course,” Lao He said proudly. “Otherwise, how could it match my ugly appearance?”
Snap!
The alchemy furnace was activated, and the dark gray energy sphere was thrown in.
Let it simmer slowly…
Outside the Immortal Prison, Su Che waited patiently, resting his chin in his hand. Inside the prison, Lao He watched the furnace, also waiting patiently…
A whole day passed with no movement in the furnace. The same was true on the second day.
On the afternoon of the third day, finally, there was a reaction!
Gurgle… gurgle…
A strange sound came from the furnace, as if some fierce beast was hidden inside, roaring as a warning.

Buzz…
The pill furnace also trembled violently, as if it might explode at any moment.
“Hurry…”
Su Che only said one word, and Lao He immediately reacted. He took out the bronze treasure gourd and hurriedly extracted the eighth-level spiritual fire from the pill furnace.
There was a prisoner in the Immortal Prison—a sixth-rank alchemist named Chao Jigong. Over the past two years, Lao He had already transferred his alchemical skills and memories into his own mind. As a result, Lao He’s alchemical proficiency was now on par with that of a fifth-rank alchemist.
Once the spiritual fire was removed, the intense reactions inside the pill furnace gradually subsided. For a while, Lao He was quite anxious and dared not open the furnace again.
“What’s there to fear?”
Su Che was never short of courage. Though he couldn’t craft pills himself, using his power as the ruler of the Immortal Prison, lifting the lid of a soup pot wasn’t a problem.
Boom!
The pill furnace was opened, and a dark red column of energy shot into the sky.
“Ugh, this fire has been pent up for so long,” Lao He muttered as he stepped forward. He glanced into the furnace and then casually reached out to pull out a steaming mass of dark red liquid, suspending it in midair.
Originally, Su Che’s true essence was a semi-translucent crimson color. Now, with Lao He’s dark gray bodily energy added, its color had deepened significantly. It was unknown, however, what changes had occurred in its properties.
“Is it poisonous? Is it not?”
Before understanding the situation, Su Che certainly wouldn’t recklessly take it back into his body.
“Find a scapegoat to test it on.”
With a thought, Lao He summoned one of the heavy criminals before him.
This man was a disciple of the Xuan Sha Sect, captured by Su Che in the Xiao Mi Immortal Realm and brought to the Immortal Prison. As a cultivator of the demonic path, he had undoubtedly committed many atrocities.
“Boss Hei Mo.”
The man bowed deeply in respect before Lao He.
Having lived in the Immortal Prison for over four years, he had naturally seen the warden of the first layer, Boss Hei Mo, frequently.
Lao He didn’t waste time talking. He picked up a drop of dark red liquid and flicked it into the criminal’s body.
After a short while, he asked, “Kid, how do you feel?”
“I don’t feel anything special,” the criminal shook his head. He also conducted a mental inspection and replied, “What Lord Hei Mo gave me seems to be a highly advanced and rich true essence, with extremely powerful energy. I’ll need some time to refine it.”
This criminal also specialized in fire cultivation, but he was only at the Great Completion stage of Qi cultivation. His body contained only Qi, not true essence. It would take at least half a month to refine this mutated true essence.
“Give it back to me!”
Lao He stretched out his hand toward him.
“Yes, Boss Hei Mo.”

The prisoner obediently forced that drop of true essence out of his body and returned it to Lao Hei.
Whoosh!
Lao Hei sent him back to his original place and said to Su Che, “Master, he’s fine even at the Qi cultivation stage. It seems this mutated true essence isn’t harmful to the human body.”
Su Che responded and planned to take back that dark red mutated true essence into his body…