Chapter 298: The Dianan Seal

After completing various tests, Su Che and Lao He spent over another day refining all the spiritual pills below the tenth rank they had.
The refined pills totaled: more than 600 seventh-rank pills, 2,700 eighth-rank pills, over 13,600 ninth-rank pills, and over 8,700 tenth-rank pills.
In future cultivation, these pills would be the main focus. The pills below the sixth rank were unnecessary for Su Che, as they were no longer useful to him.
In addition, there were 2,000 tenth-rank pills from the Spiritual Medicine Mountain’s pill treasure trove—over 7,000 in total—which could not be refined yet. It was necessary to wait until the pill-making skills on the third floor of the Immortal Prison reached the master level.
Currently, they were only at the grandmaster level.
In the future, if these over 7,000 tenth-rank pills could be refined with a 60% success rate, they could be transformed into over 4,000 profound-rank pills.
“Over 4,000 profound-rank pills? That sounds terrifying.”
Su Che was stunned even himself. He guessed that even the Sacred Gate of Pillcraft, the Spiritual Medicine Mountain, couldn’t produce that many profound-rank pills.
Lao He suggested, “Master, there are over a dozen Golden Pill Elders from the Spiritual Medicine Mountain imprisoned in the Immortal Prison. They are all eighth- or ninth-rank pill masters. Should we extract their vital spirits and feed them to the third floor of the Immortal Prison to boost its pill-making skills?”
“No need,” Su Che replied in his mind. “No matter how many eighth- or ninth-rank pills they consume, they won’t become pill-making masters. Besides, some of these Golden Pill Elders didn’t deserve death. When the Immortal Prison space develops into another cultivation realm in the future, they will need to be released.”
The people from the Spiritual Medicine Mountain could be regarded as prisoners of war between two nations. Those who deserved death would not be spared, but those who didn’t should not be killed needlessly.
Su Che had his own standards for judgment.
“Then please name the third floor of the Immortal Prison, Master,” Lao He said again.
“It’s simple,” Su Che replied. “Call it the Pill Realm.”
The second floor was the Ghost Realm, the third floor the Pill Realm. What would the fourth floor be? Su Che was filled with anticipation…
With the opening of the third floor, tremendous changes took place within the Immortal Prison, but nothing unusual happened outside. Even the guests in the room next door to the inn were not disturbed.
With the great task completed, should they return to the Tianxuan Sect?
No! Su Che still had one important thing to do.
He needed to go to the Arctic Sea in the territory of the Taiyi Gate to search for that top-tier defensive Dao artifact—Jugufu.
In over two years, it would be time to meet Tianyin at the Wuji Gate. Tianyin possessed a top-tier Dao artifact with terrifying offensive power. Without Jugufu, this ultimate defensive treasure, Su Che would lack confidence.

It is over four hundred thousand miles away from the Arctic Sea Foot. Without the Star Emperor Compass, one would need to fly continuously for two days and two nights to reach there.
Let’s set off!
Su Che was busy rushing forward, while Lao He was occupied with other matters in the Immortal Prison.
First, they had to take out the life treasure in Lu Changqing’s head. It was a medium-grade spiritual treasure-level soul-subduing artifact: the Ancient Monster Talisman.
On the surface, the talisman had simple and rough carvings; even the shape of the beast was not very clear.
“It seems to be a Bi’an, right?”
Su Che found its appearance extremely familiar. Back when he was a magistrate, there was a similar carving of such a beast on the gate of the county prison.
The Dragon has nine sons! Legend has it that Bi’an is the seventh son of the Dragon God—just and righteous, able to distinguish right from wrong, and capable of suppressing evil forces in the world. Basically, its image could be seen in every government hall or prison.
It wasn’t a demon beast but a divine beast.
As a son of the Dragon God, its lineage was even nobler than that of ordinary true dragons. At least in the secular cultivation world, its true form could never be seen.
Given this, since the term “prison” was somewhat related to it, Su Che asked, “Lao He, can’t the Immortal Prison merge it?”
Lao He chuckled and replied in a deep voice, “I deliberately didn’t say. I was waiting to see if my master could guess.”
“It can be merged?” Su Che was delighted.
“Yes!” Lao He gave a definite answer.
“Then merge it!” Su Che immediately gave the order.
“Merge this treasure!”
Lao He threw the Bi’an Talisman into the air.
Whoosh!
An unknown force appeared instantly. The talisman glowed brightly before shattering. However, instead of scattering into particles throughout the first layer of the Immortal Prison, it turned into a beam of light and flew away.
Soon after, Su Che felt two carved images of Bi’an appearing on the two double doors of the first layer of the Immortal Prison Pagoda. They looked vivid and majestic, far more detailed than the previous beast talisman.
The prison gates had originally been completely black, with no carvings or decorations. Now, two images of Bi’an appeared there.
But what use was this?
Su Che didn’t sense any new abilities in himself. His five original divine powers remained: Soul Capture, Demon Imprisonment, Annihilation, Great Fire Control, and Great Thunderstorm.
Feeling his master’s confusion, Lao He shrugged and said, “That’s all. I’m not sure about its specific functions either…”

“There’s no other spirit tool like you!” Su Che shook his head in exasperation. As a spirit tool, it always replied with: “I don’t know,” “I’m not sure,” “I don’t know for now,” “I can’t tell you…” It drove one crazy! Just fusing a mid-grade spiritual treasure meant adding two statues to the gates of the Immortal Prison—purely for decoration? Su Che knew it couldn’t be that simple; it must have some purpose. It just might not be useful in battle, which was why it hadn’t been transformed into a divine skill. Criticized by his master, Lao He was also extremely frustrated and complained to the heavens once again, “Immortal Prison, look at yourself! You’ve made me get scolded again. Being a spirit tool like this is truly humiliating!” The Immortal Prison Pagoda remained silent as ever, ignoring him completely. Aside from Lu Changqing’s mid-grade spiritual treasure, the other Golden Core elders of the Mountain of Spiritual Herbs only possessed various treasure-grade magical weapons, which Su Che didn’t even deem worth keeping—just kept them for future use. Even if those treasure-grade attack weapons were modified into one-time self-destructing devices, they wouldn’t be very useful. After all, Su Che’s two main attack skills—Destruction up close and Thunder Strike from afar—were far beyond what treasure-grade weapons could compare to. They continued on their journey! Disguised as an ordinary cultivator, Su Che flew for over ten hours using a mid-grade treasure sword, covering a distance of 200,000 miles, and had already entered the territory of the Holy Demon Sect, a sect of the demonic path. “Four days have passed. Has the Mountain of Spiritual Herbs discovered the theft of their treasure vault?” Su Che wondered silently while flying. The treasure vault of the Mountain of Spiritual Herbs wasn’t opened every day. According to the routine, it was opened once every half month to store the advanced spiritual pills refined by the sect. Based on Xiao Ling’er’s estimation, it would be another four days before it was opened again. But while Su Che was thinking this, the atmosphere in the main hall of the Mountain of Spiritual Herbs was already extremely tense and oppressive. Three days ago, the protective array of the mountain was deactivated because the consumption of spiritual stones had become unbearable. The array had to be switched back to its partially active state. Not only had they failed to catch that guy, but they also hadn’t learned anything about his whereabouts or origins. As a result, the four elders had been secretly frustrated for two days and nights. This morning, the four elders gathered in the main hall to discuss the matter once more, determined to figure out that person’s identity and origin, so they could demand an explanation from his sect or take revenge. In any case, the Mountain of Spiritual Herbs couldn’t swallow this humiliation silently and become a laughingstock in the cultivation world…

As they spoke, Patriarch Haotian suddenly said, “These past few days, I’ve been feeling uneasy, as if some major event has already occurred without me knowing. It’s a rather strange feeling.”
Cultivators already possess superior intuition compared to ordinary people, and since they are great cultivators at the Yuan Ying stage, even if they can’t predict everything, they still have some degree of psychic sensitivity.
“To be honest, brother, I feel the same way,” added Elder Hongyun in agreement.
Chen Xu and Yuan Yue didn’t experience such a sensation; they were merely mentally exhausted due to the ‘mysterious person’ incident.
“Help me think about it,” Patriarch Haotian said gravely. “What kind of thing could make me feel alarmed and worried?”
The three Yuan Ying elders nodded and began to ponder silently.
After a while, Patriarch Chen Xu analyzed, “As the leader of our sect, anything that could make you worry so much must concern the very foundation of our sect. No matter how powerful that mysterious person is, they can’t affect our sect’s legacy. After ruling out other possibilities, only one remains…”
Once Patriarch Chen Xu presented his reasoning, the other three elders were instantly shocked and exclaimed in unison, “The sect’s treasure vault!”
There were three treasure vaults in the Spirit Medicine Mountain, storing pills, magical artifacts, and cultivation techniques. As a sect focused on pill cultivation, the most important one was undoubtedly the Spirit Pill Vault.
Fifteen minutes later, the Spirit Pill Vault was opened four days ahead of schedule. Shortly after the four Yuan Ying elders entered, they heard Patriarch Haotian let out a shocked cry, followed by extreme anger and trembling all over…
After all, they were Yuan Ying elders, at the highest level of cultivation and refinement in the world of cultivation. They shouldn’t have been so enraged as to actually spit blood. Yet, facing such a disaster was nearly unbearable for the four elders.
So, an hour later, the furious four elders returned to the main hall. The atmosphere inside was naturally extremely oppressive and heavy. The hundreds of Golden Pill elders and mountain lords standing outside held their breath, suppressing their spiritual energy, not daring to make any sound, wishing they could become invisible.
Undoubtedly, at such a moment, whoever was called inside would suffer greatly.
“How is this possible!”
Boom!
Suddenly, Patriarch Haotian’s furious roar echoed through the hall, scaring the timid Golden Pill elders outside into trembling.

“How is that possible!” Ancestor Haotian’s face turned deathly pale, his beard trembling nonstop. “The treasure hall’s doors and all the seals remain intact. How could someone have sneaked in?”
Without the key to the treasure hall, even the four Yuan Ying ancestors from the Spirit Medicine Mountain lacked the ability to break through its layers of formations and barriers to enter silently.
It was utterly impossible for such a thing to happen, yet it had indeed occurred—more bizarre and unfathomable than ever.