Chapter 284: Reencountering Black Fiend

The Tianxuan Sect was constantly bustling with people coming in and out. Su Che’s departure didn’t arouse anyone’s suspicion, and soon he had flown thousands of miles. Far from the sect’s entrance, he could transform his appearance again. In the wilderness, he found a secluded spot and disguised himself as a cultivator at the Golden Core stage, wielding a low-grade precious weapon—a flying sword—to head toward Lingyao Mountain, twenty thousand miles to the southeast. Unwilling to let others recognize his Star Emperor Compass, Su Che used the flying sword. What should have taken just over half a day actually took more than a day before he entered Lingyao Mountain’s territory. Confident in his disguise skills, he wasn’t worried about being followed, so the journey proceeded smoothly without any complications.

Inside Lingyao Mountain, there were naturally insiders planted by the Tianxuan Sect. Thus, through the sect’s secret channels, Su Che had already gathered detailed information about the mountain and formulated a series of thorough plans. His original plan was to go to any cultivation market near Lingyao Mountain, seize an opportunity to capture a suitable target, and disguise himself as that person to infiltrate the mountain’s entrance. But as the saying goes, plans change quickly. Not long after entering Lingyao Mountain’s territory, Su Che changed his mind.

As he flew steadily on his flying sword, several streaks of light suddenly appeared behind him. Encountering cultivators flying at high altitudes was quite common, but as the distance narrowed, Su Che immediately recognized two of them. Back then, in the Jinghun Ridge Market of the Ten Thousand Ghosts Sect, someone had set up the “Ten Thousand Ghosts Covering the Sky” formation, massacring everyone in the market—leaving not a single survivor. Su Che was the only one who escaped. He later learned that it was a feint orchestrated by the Ten Thousand Ghosts Sect in collaboration with others, just the first step to chaos in the cultivation world. The two leaders at the Golden Core stage who committed the massacre were an old man with red beard who had set up the formation and the Black Fiend, who had pursued Su Che for thousands of miles.

Now, among the four who were catching up from behind, Su Che saw those two again. Three years later, they were still at the Golden Core stage, but Su Che had improved vastly since then. “The Ten Thousand Ghosts Sect is thirty thousand miles away from Lingyao Mountain. If they’ve come all this way, they must be on a mission…” As Su Che speculated, the four of them zipped past him from a hundred feet to the left and overtook him.

After all, these four were advanced cultivators belonging to a supreme sect; they would surely look down on Su Che, who was currently acting as an independent cultivator. It was unlikely they would stop out of sheer boredom just to stir up trouble. In fact, they didn’t even give Su Che a proper glance, merely scanning him with their spiritual senses in a cursory manner.

“Master, it’s just one at the late Golden Core stage and three at the middle Golden Core stage. Why spare them?”

As the saying goes, those who don’t avenge grievances are not true gentlemen. Lao He was extremely vindictive. He believed that since they had encountered them, all four members of the Ten Thousand Ghosts Sect should be captured, especially that Black Fiend Old Ghost who had once pursued the master—someone utterly unforgivable.

Now, the Immortal Prison Battle Team was incredibly powerful. Alone, the late Golden Core cultivators already possessed two Holy Demon Puppets and sixteen Ghost Kings. Handling those four earlier would surely be a breeze.

Su Che replied in his mind, “I came to the Spirit Herb Mountain this time to eliminate Lu Changqing and obtain his essence as a master alchemist. Unless necessary, we shouldn’t let other trivial matters affect the overall plan. Especially since we encountered them by chance with unclear circumstances, capturing them might alert or alert the Spirit Herb Mountain to some danger, leading to greater losses and unnecessary complications.”

“Alright,” Lao He said, scratching his head. “Then let’s spare them for now.”

Seeing his reluctant expression, Su Che smiled inwardly. “It’s not that I’m sparing them so easily. I just plan to investigate the situation thoroughly before taking action for greater safety.”

Lao He perked up and asked, “Track them?”

Su Che answered by immediately speeding up and staying far behind the four of the Black Fiend Old Ghost.

Su Che’s tracking skills were extremely sophisticated, having been personally taught by Master Mu Ye. They were undoubtedly the best in the cultivation world, and the four ahead didn’t notice anything at all.

After flying for over ten thousand miles, the four of the Black Fiend Old Ghost landed in a market town.

Without needing to check a map, Su Che knew this was one of the three largest market towns within the Spirit Herb Mountain territory—“Tianlong Waterfall Market Town.”

Less than ten miles from the market town lay a massive waterfall hundreds of feet wide, formed by the Tianlong River due to its steep drop. Its roar was thunderous, and its sight was spectacular. Even dozens of miles away, one could see thick mist rising into the sky like clouds.

“Why did they go to Tianlong Waterfall Market Town instead of the Spirit Herb Mountain sect?” Su Che wondered.

“Could they be here for trade?” Lao He guessed. “If that’s the case, we can kidnap them and steal their wealth when they leave—killing two birds with one stone.”

“You’re really vindictive…”

Su Che smiled inwardly and also descended into the market. Since cultivators were extremely sensitive to others’ mental scans, from this moment on, the task of detecting Black Fiend and the others fell to Lao Hei. Su Che had conducted countless experiments; although Lao Hei’s detection range was only four hundred zhang, even several Nascent Soul elders within their sect could not detect his surveillance. Moreover, after his third fusion, Lao Hei had reached the Golden Core stage, and his detection ability could even penetrate most isolation barriers. Thus, he was the perfect candidate for this espionage task. “They’ve entered a VIP room in ‘Heavenly Pill Pavilion.’ The attendants are dressed in Lingyao Mountain’s robes—there are six of them, all at the Golden Core stage.” As he spoke, Lao Hei transmitted this mental image to Su Che. Heavenly Pill Pavilion belonged to Lingyao Mountain’s merchant alliance, mainly dealing in pills and purchasing spiritual herbs, though it also took on various other businesses. Su Che guessed that when the two groups started discussing serious matters, they would surely set up an isolation barrier. Therefore, if Lao Hei wanted to penetrate the barrier to spy, the closer the better. So, Su Che disguised himself as a customer buying spiritual herbs and entered Heavenly Pill Pavilion openly. Under the pretext of a large transaction, he was led by the staff to another VIP room, just one room away from where Black Fiend and the others were, separated only by two brick walls. “Is this okay?” Su Che asked himself. “No problem,” Lao Hei replied. “They’ve already activated the isolation barrier, but I’m very familiar with this kind of barrier—it’s easy to penetrate.” While Su Che started talking with a shop owner, Black Fiend and his four companions, along with Lingyao Mountain’s group, had already gotten down to business. The leader of Black Fiend’s group was naturally that Golden Core late-stage cultivator, with long, thick eyebrows that slanted neatly toward his temples. It was he who was speaking now. The bearded cultivator said to the leader of Lingyao Mountain, “Brother Gehua, for this transaction, we’ve brought not only two hundred top-quality spiritual stones but also a ‘Spiritual Herb Doll.’ Is this good news for your sect?” “A Spiritual Herb Doll?” The Lingyao Mountain cultivator, whose Dao name was Gehua and who was also at the Golden Core late stage, showed obvious excitement. He quickly asked, “Is this really true, Brother Hanlin?” “How could it be false!”

The long-browed cultivator nodded with a smile, then took out a crystal box over four feet long, inside which was sealed a fair and delicate little girl who looked like a human child of two or three years old. However, instead of hair, she had a tuft of soft green leaves on her head, resembling pigtails, making her look charming and cute.

The little girl was sealed and asleep, wrapped in a large leaf like a baby’s underskirt.

Seeing this spirit herb doll, Su Che and Lao He also felt deeply moved.

Su Che already knew quite a lot about spirit herbs and naturally understood what kind of treasure this spirit herb doll was. Simply put, it was a top-quality spirit herb with at least ten thousand years of medicinal history that had become sentient and taken on a human form; it could also be classified as belonging to the demon race.

The value of this spirit herb doll lay not in its own medicinal value as a top-quality herb of ten thousand years, but in its ability to control countless spirit herbs, making it the finest herb gardener in the world. With it around, even a ten-thousand-mu herb garden would thrive with vibrant growth.

A sect like Lingyao Mountain, which specialized in alchemy, surely had numerous herb gardens within its premises, and their demand for such a spirit herb doll would undoubtedly be the greatest.

The Tianxuan Sect’s secret archives contained records on this matter—Lingyao Mountain already had eleven such spirit herb dolls. The oldest one, it was said, was a spirit herb doll with over fifty thousand years of medicinal history and already possessed the strength of a late-stage Golden Core cultivator.

After lengthy negotiations between the long-browed cultivator and Daoist Ge Hua, the spirit herb doll was priced at 420 high-grade spirit stones. Adding the 200 mentioned earlier, the total value of this transaction exceeded 600 high-grade spirit stones.

Su Che wasn’t too concerned about the spirit stones. What really caught his interest was the fact that the four Black Fiend demons had purchased 5,000 eighth-grade spirit pills and 2,000 ninth-grade spirit pills from Lingyao Mountain.

Su Che was undoubtedly extremely eager for this batch of spirit pills.

Only a sect as renowned in the cultivation world as Lingyao Mountain could produce such a large quantity of spirit pills of such high quality all at once.

Although the Tianxuan Sect could supply Su Che with an unlimited amount of pills, his demand was so huge and he consumed so many of the sect’s resources that he inevitably felt guilty.

Especially since ninth-grade spirit pills could only be crafted by alchemists of ninth grade or above, and the Tianxuan Sect had few such alchemists, producing 2,000 ninth-grade spirit pills at once would be extremely difficult.

“First, deal with those four Black Fiend demons. If there’s time left, then find an opportunity to take care of Lingyao Mountain’s people!” Su Che immediately made up his mind.

“Master, that spirit herb doll is quite cute. It would be so fun to keep one in the Immortal Prison! It would be perfect for her to take care of the Black Realm Immortal Lotus.”
Lao He seemed to feel a fatherly affection and wanted to raise that spirit herb doll as his own daughter in the Immortal Prison.
“Have her take care of the Black Realm Immortal Lotus?”
Su Che suddenly had an idea: “What would happen if a supreme-grade spirit herb met a spirit herb doll?”