Chapter 352: Ghost Head Mask

Having acquired the Illusion of Transformation, Su Che now possessed nine divine powers. He continued to select spiritual treasures.
As for why these divine powers existed within spiritual treasures, it was because powerful cultivators at the Transcendent God stage or above, when crafting treasures, would embed a divine power they no longer needed into them. This often cost them over a hundred years of cultivation strength, a highly detrimental act.
Coupled with the extremely precious materials required to craft such treasures, they became exceedingly rare in the cultivation world.
Of course, in the Spirit Realm, spiritual treasures were considered worthless and inferior, as there were countless powerful cultivators at the Transcendent God stage or above, with abundant resources. Even mid-tier Dao artifacts were not considered treasures—only high-tier Dao artifacts were regarded as the main magical weapons for guarding a region…
Next, the Supreme Patriarch led Su Che to another display shelf, picked up a scroll-shaped treasure, and unrolled it to demonstrate it to him.
The scenes depicted on the scroll were not fixed but changed continuously like a dream. One moment it showed mountain and river landscapes, the next a desert scene, then a sunrise over a grassland or a sunset at sea…
Each scene was incredibly realistic, as if viewing the real scenery through a window.
“Illusion Divine Power!”
Su Che immediately understood.
“That’s right,” nodded the Supreme Patriarch. “This scroll contains the Mirage Illusion Divine Power. In battle, it can create a fictional space favorable to the user, limiting the opponent’s Five Elements powers or spells to some extent. It can also be used to conceal one’s whereabouts. Combined with the Illusion of Transformation, it makes it difficult for enemies to pinpoint one’s true location, preventing them from attacking and putting them at a disadvantage from the start.”
“It sounds pretty good,” said Su Che, holding the scroll. He decided not to put it in the Immortal Prison for now, intending to examine other treasures first.
The main reason was that Su Che wasn’t sure if he could acquire more than ten divine powers. In the history of cultivation, no Golden Core cultivator had ever been known to possess more than ten. Thus, this next divine power might be the last one he could master before reaching the Golden Core stage, so he needed to choose carefully.
Only if he encountered a power like the Illusion of Transformation, which immediately caught his interest, would he hesitate to incorporate it.
“Let’s take a look at this next…”
The Supreme Patriarch stepped forward a few steps and picked up other treasures to explain their uses. Su Che kept those he found interesting for now, waiting to make a final decision.

Several magical artifacts in a row were all auxiliary special powers. To be honest, Su Che wasn’t very interested in them, finding them somewhat dispensable. It wasn’t until he passed by a display shelf that his gaze suddenly fell on a grotesque ghost head mask. Out of curiosity, he asked, “Ancestor, what is this mask?”
“This mask is an ancient relic, but I don’t approve of you using it, so I didn’t introduce it to you,” said the Supreme Patriarch in a gentle voice. “Since you’ve asked about it, as if it were fate, I’ll tell you. This mask contains a very strange curse power that can completely blind an enemy in a short time—covering not only physical vision but also divine perception, mental awareness, spiritual sensing, and any ability to perceive the outside world.”
“Completely blind?” Su Che was immediately excited and hurriedly said, “If one’s ability to sense the outside world is completely blocked, they’re even worse off than ordinary blind people. In that case, they can only flail around like headless flies, unable to sense their enemies and thus forced to take hits passively. Such a powerful curse power—yet the Ancestor doesn’t advise me to use it. Surely, using such a power comes at a great cost?”
“Yes, you’re indeed clever,” the Supreme Patriarch praised. “It’s a mutually destructive tactic, a suicidal measure used only in utter desperation. The cost is sacrificing 90% of one’s life force to activate it.”
At this point, the Supreme Patriarch sighed softly, “Over two thousand years ago, an ancestor used it once at the end of his life. Although he killed his enemies on the spot, after returning to the sect, he lived only two more days before passing away.”
For living beings in the world, their own life force is the most precious. If they lose just 20-30% of their life force, they might be able to recover through long-term rest. But losing 90% at once essentially means the end of life—unless they take an elixir that can truly bring them back to life. With mere mortal means, no rescue can be effective.
Conversely, if one has strong vitality, even after suffering severe injuries and being on the verge of death, timely rescue can lead to recovery.
For cultivators, being injured isn’t the worst thing; the worst is losing vital energy irreparably, forcing them to rely on pills to sustain life, which won’t allow them to live long.
In essence, life force represents a person’s fortune, vitality, and lifespan. The foundation of the path of cultivation is the pursuit of endless life force, higher levels of existence, and ultimately, immortality.

The essence of cultivation is the pursuit of immortality. Few people aim solely for greater strength to continuously defeat and kill others. Such madmen are extremely rare. Of course, such people generally don’t live long, as they will eventually encounter stronger opponents who eliminate them.

Whether it’s the path of immortals or the path of demons, though the routes differ, the goal remains the same: to live as long as possible.

Life force is so precious, yet the Supreme Patriarch has no idea that the young man standing before him constantly squanders it carelessly, taking it for granted.

Even though he knew Su Che had a special talent as a spirit herb physician, he never associated it with life force…

At this moment, Su Che was secretly delighted: “Total blindness! This suicidal curse technique is perfectly tailored for me. I have plenty of life force; losing 90% of it can be quickly replenished. Blindness, soul capture, and demon imprisonment—when these three control techniques are used together, anyone will be forced to stay still and endure Xiao Hei’s axe.”

Lao Hei also shouted from the Immortal Prison, “This technique is amazing! Master, hurry up and bring in the mask to merge it immediately. This will be your tenth technique!”

Without hesitation, Su Che picked up the mask from the shelf and said to the Supreme Patriarch, “Grandmaster, rest assured. Its negative effects won’t affect me. I want this mask.”

The Supreme Patriarch didn’t doubt Su Che’s words at all. Since he said it was fine, it must be fine. He nodded and stopped trying to stop him.

Su Che then sent the ghost head mask into the Immortal Prison. Lao Hei immediately threw it into the air and shouted again, “Merge!”

The ghost head mask shattered instantly and was completely merged by the Immortal Prison. Su Che then gained an epiphany—not only did he acquire this technique, but he also realized that the so-called blindness curse was actually a minor branch of one of the three thousand great paths in the immortal realm: the Great Curse Art. The true Great Curse Art is incredibly complex, profound, and mysterious.

Among the three thousand great paths, the Great Curse Art ranks among the top 100. If it weren’t for the extremely high cost of wielding this art, based solely on its power, it should rank in the top ten.

Su Che didn’t test the blindness technique on the spot. Instead, he sent the Mirage Scroll into the Immortal Prison to see if it could still be merged.

“Impossible!”

Lao He held it in his hand and felt it for a while in silence before giving an answer: “Based on the feedback from the Immortal Prison, at this stage, the master can only handle ten types of divine powers; no more, due to the constraints of the external world’s laws. Since the master has always been in the external world, he must obey these laws at all times.”
“I understand.”
Su Che nodded inwardly, then took out the Mirage Scroll and placed it back on the shelf.
One could only handle ten types of divine powers during the Golden Core stage. Once reaching the Nascent Soul stage, this restriction disappeared, allowing one to learn or comprehend various divine powers that suited them best—this was true for all cultivators.
However, learning and mastering these divine powers required significant effort and time. No Nascent Soul cultivator would foolishly try to learn too much without focusing on quality.
It was better to excel in one area rather than be mediocre in many—this principle also applied in the cultivation world.
Moreover, having too many divine powers posed another major drawback: during the Tribulation of Transformation, the more powers one had, the heavier the tribulation would be. Thus, generally, highly advanced Nascent Soul cultivators would choose to abandon most of their powers, retaining only the most crucial ones to reduce the severity of the tribulation.
By now, Su Che had gathered ten divine powers: Soul Capture, Demon Imprisonment, Annihilation, Great Fire Control, Great Thunder Strike, Great Plundering Art, Illusion of Transformation, Blindness Curse, Heaven Splitting Slash, and Demon Claw Tear.
The last two powers were quite ordinary, and Su Che disliked them greatly. He would definitely abandon them in the future, but he didn’t yet have the ability to do so.
Having ten divine powers meant a 100% success rate in forming a Nascent Soul. Given these conditions, if forming a Nascent Soul became any more difficult, it would be better to die by crashing into Xuanjue Peak. Therefore, Su Che was extremely confident about reaching the Nascent Soul stage.
“That’s enough. No other spiritual treasures are needed for now,” Su Che explained to the Supreme Patriarch. “The disciple has already mastered ten divine powers and can no longer handle any more.”
“Oh?” The Supreme Patriarch nodded with a smile. “It seems the rumor that only ten divine powers can be mastered during the Golden Core stage is indeed true. It’s rare in the history of cultivation to find a supreme genius like you who can prove this.”
Generally, those who could master five divine powers before forming a Nascent Soul were considered super geniuses. Even the Supreme Patriarch back then had only mastered four—let alone thinking of ten.
Indeed, such vague rumors could only be verified through an exceptionally rare case like Su Che’s.

On the other hand, Yan Gu had also chosen two offensive spiritual treasures, both of which were top-grade treasures in claw form—one was “True Dragon Pierces the Clouds,” and the other was “Heavenly Lion Splits the Sky.” After all, Yan Gu still preferred claw-shaped treasures. At this moment, with giant beast claws on each of his hands, he prayed that these two top-grade spiritual treasures could work together to match his original supreme-grade spiritual treasure-level White Jade Bone Claw. With the treasure selection complete, Su Che returned to Xuan Yu Peak and began a long period of seclusion, setting himself the goal of advancing to the Yuan Ying stage within three years!