Chapter 297: The Functions of the Third Layer

The first change upon opening the third layer of the Immortal Prison was that the space of this layer expanded twentyfold, reaching an area of 20,000 li in all directions. Unfortunately, there was still no change in the natural spiritual energy, making it an ordinary space unsuitable for cultivation. Su Che believed he needed to find other ways to compensate for this.

The Netherworld of the Second Layer of the Immortal Prison remained unchanged, as it was already vast and boundless, with no need to grow any larger.

“The third layer is open, master. Shall we go take a look?” Old Black asked in his peculiar tone.

“Nonsense!”

Swish!

The master and his servant arrived at the third layer simultaneously. The difference was that Su Che could only enter through his mental consciousness, while Old Black could come in his physical form.

The third layer of the Immortal Prison!
It was a world filled with colorful, dazzling lights. Just like the second layer, it was also vast and boundless, with its extent unknown. In the void, various colored light ribbons flickered, resembling the auroras in the night sky. But Su Che knew they were all different kinds of spiritual flames.

Normally, only ten grades of yin and yang flames—twenty types in total—were provided for the Immortal Prison. Yet now, Su Che sensed that there were at least thousands of different spiritual flames in the void.

“What’s going on?” Su Che wondered.

As the spirit of the Immortal Prison, Old Black surely knew the answer. He replied, “We only gave the Immortal Prison twenty types of spiritual flames. But the third layer has a special ability: it can combine these twenty flames in any way to create entirely new types of spiritual flames.”

“For example, two yin flames can be combined to create a new yin flame, three yin flames, or four. Or one yin and one yang flame, or one yin and two yang flames…”

“By combining the twenty types of flames in various ways, thousands of new types of spiritual flames can be created. In the future, as we continue to collect various spiritual flames from the cultivation world and send them to the third layer, tens of thousands, or even millions of new types of spiritual flames can be created.”

Old Black added, “Master, these spiritual flames will also be of great benefit to your Fire God Technique.”

“Different combinations to create new spiritual flames? It’s amazing! I’ve never heard of such a thing!”

Excited, Su Che quickly asked, “Is this the first function of the third layer? Tell me about the second one.”

“The second function is quite simple,” Lao He replied. “It’s pill-making! From now on, we won’t need to ask others for help in making pills. We just need to gather all the necessary materials and send them to the third layer of the Immortal Prison, where we can quickly produce finished pills.”
“Just the materials, no need for the manufacturing method?” Su Che asked.
“Well, the manufacturing method…”
Lao He explained with a smile, “The Immortal Prison has consumed Lu Changqing’s original spirit, which means it has acquired all his skills in pill-making. Our third layer of the Immortal Prison is equivalent to a master pill-maker. From now on, even if we encounter pills that Lu Changqing has never made before, as long as I can learn the manufacturing method, it’s as if the third layer has mastered it.”
“I see.”
Su Che nodded inwardly. He wasn’t particularly excited about the pill-making function, as he had always thought that gathering materials was time-consuming and troublesome, and it was easier to just get finished pills directly.
Just like this mission at the Spirit Medicine Mountain—there were countless spirit pills, and the rewards were huge.
“Now, let’s talk about the third function,” Su Che said aloud.
“Huh?” Lao He scratched his forehead and asked, “How does the master know there’s a third function?”
“A place as grand as the Immortal Prison—its functions can’t be that simple. Three functions is not even much!” Su Che replied confidently.
“Alright, you’re right.”
Lao He nodded and continued, “The third function is really powerful. Simply put, it allows us to refine finished pills a second time, removing the impurities and enhancing their quality.”
“What? Enhancing the quality of finished pills?”
This time, Su Che was truly shocked.
Removing the dross and retaining the essence to improve the quality of finished pills—this was something impossible in the cultivation world. It was said that only powerful pill-makers above the Divine Transformation stage could possess such abilities, and the success rate was very low; not all pills could be refined.
Thinking of this, Su Che immediately asked, “So, what’s the success rate for refining pills?”
“It should be quite high,” Lao He guessed. “We’ll need to conduct many experiments to get accurate data.”
“Conducting experiments isn’t hard,” Su Che decided right away. “There are still over a thousand fifth- and sixth-grade spirit pills. Send them all in and start the experiments immediately.”
At present, sixth-grade spirit pills had little effect on those at the mid-Jin Dan stage, so these pills were no longer useful. Su Che had originally planned to return them to his sect to exchange for higher-grade pills, but now they were perfect for preliminary experiments.
“Don’t rush, master. I haven’t mentioned the fourth and fifth functions yet,” Lao He said with a grin.

“Speak!” Su Che also silently recited a calming mantra to force himself to calm down.
“The fourth function is quite simple too—it’s about refining and purifying various materials,” Lao He explained. “Our advantage is that we already have thousands of spiritual flames within the third layer, so refining or purifying any raw materials will be extremely simple, highly efficient, and yield excellent results.”
“Now, let’s talk about the fifth function.” Su Che thought the fourth function was rather ordinary and something that should be available anyway. Having devoured a spiritual pill furnace, it would be wrong not to be able to do this.
“The fifth function is…” This time, Lao He’s tone became more serious. “By conducting extensive pill-making and material purification in the third layer of the Immortal Prison, certain benefits can be obtained.”
“What benefits?” Su Che asked urgently. Anything that could bring benefits to the Immortal Prison needed to be taken seriously.
“I don’t know for now,” Lao He shrugged. “The Immortal Prison only hinted very vaguely that I should encourage you to make more pills and purify more materials. This will definitely be of great benefit in the future.”
“Oh?” Su Che nodded inwardly. “Alright, I must give great importance to the Immortal Prison’s hints. I understand.”
Pill-making and material purification weren’t difficult for him. The methods were simple. After returning to the mountain gate, he could take on some of these tasks for the sect, contributing to it while meeting the Immortal Prison’s requirements—why not?
Anyway, once all the materials were sent to the Immortal Prison, Lao He would handle the rest, so it wouldn’t take up his time for cultivation.
As for the so-called “benefits for the Immortal Prison” mentioned by Lao He, even if they weren’t evident now, he would surely benefit from them in the future. Su Che had this realization.
Now, it was time to conduct the experiment.
There were over a thousand spiritual pills of grade six or lower, classified into more than twenty categories.
As soon as they entered the third layer of the Immortal Prison, these pills dispersed automatically, never mixing with each other, just as clearly distinct as red beans and mung beans.
Without any instructions from Su Che or Lao He, more than twenty different spiritual flames floated over. For pills with different attributes, the most suitable spiritual flame would envelop them and begin the slow process of refinement.
No matter what grade the spiritual flame was or how fierce it was under normal conditions, at this moment, it gently caressed those pills like a tender hand, with not a single pill being destroyed.
Su Che and Lao He watched carefully, waiting patiently…
After about fifteen minutes, rustling sounds…

A faint sound was heard, and dozens of spirit pills turned to ashes—clearly a failure in the refining process. However, the other pills were still being refined, and their quality could be seen changing noticeably; they seemed more rounded and vibrant. After some time, another few dozen pills turned to ashes. Su Che remained calm, showing great patience. In total, half an hour passed before the more than twenty spirit flames suddenly retreated, floating away to a distance. “Is it done?” Su Che was surprised. “Is it that simple?” He had imagined that such a refining technique could only be mastered by powerful cultivators at the Transcendent Spirit stage or above, and it should be extremely complex and mysterious. How could it work just by burning the spirit flames? “It’s done. These are the refined spirit pills,” replied Lao He with a smile. “The simpler it is, the more it proves the uniqueness of the Immortal Prison Pagoda.” Whoa! The remaining pills returned from the third floor of the Immortal Prison to the first floor. Su Che and Lao He confirmed that their grades had indeed increased by one level: those that were originally fifth-grade became sixth-grade, and those that were originally sixth-grade became seventh-grade spirit pills. Less than a hundred pills failed, giving a success rate of over 90%. Of course, the refined pills couldn’t be refined again endlessly—there was only one chance. “What an extraordinary refining ability!” Su Che couldn’t help but exclaim. “This is a huge gain!” Just think—if ninth-grade spirit pills were used, they could all be upgraded to tenth-grade. Even tenth-grade pills could be elevated another level to become mystic-grade spirit pills. In the future, if perfect mystic-grade spirit pills could be obtained and further upgraded, they would become the most precious heavenly-grade spirit pills in the cultivation world… The sect’s treasure, the “Heavenly Infant Pill” from the Mountain of Spiritual Herbs, was the legendary heavenly-grade spirit pill. There were no more than ten of them in the entire sect, each kept by one of the four founding elders. Of course, this was just Su Che’s aspiration. Whether the third floor of the Immortal Prison could refine super spirit pills of the mystic-grade or higher still needed further verification. For now, Su Che only had tenth-grade spirit pills, not a single mystic-grade one. “Test ninth-grade pills again!” At Su Che’s command, Lao He sent ten different types of ninth-grade pills, one of each, to the third floor of the Immortal Prison for refining. Since ninth-grade pills were being used for testing, they couldn’t be rushed and all put in at once. It was better to use a smaller amount each time, gather enough experience and patterns, before proceeding with large-scale refining. Another half an hour passed. Two of the ten pills were destroyed, leaving eight. Six of them were upgraded to tenth-grade, while the grades of the other two barely changed, barely qualifying as nine-and-a-half-grade.

The success rate for this attempt can be estimated at 70%.
“It seems that the lower the grade of the elixir, the higher the success rate; conversely, the higher the grade, the lower the success rate,” Su Che concluded in his mind. “That’s probably how it is, right?”
The experiments continued…
After two days, Su Che and Lao He initially determined that the success rate for refining a Grade 7 elixir was 90%, for a Grade 8 elixir it was 80%, and for a Grade 9 elixir it was 70%.
Grade 10 elixirs could not be refined because Lu Changqing’s master-level Yuan Shen level was not high enough to qualify him for crafting profound-grade elixirs, and thus he could not elevate Grade 10 elixirs to the profound grade.
Elixirs above the profound grade could only be created by top masters of Suoyao Mountain’s Yuan Ying ancestors.
Clearly, his alchemy skills at the third level of the Immortal Prison still needed improvement—he could continue to devour more alchemists’ souls or Yuan Shens.
Could devouring ten masters make him a master?
That question also needed to be verified.