Chapter 353: Period of Cultivation

Su Che began to enter seclusion for cultivation, taking two Grade 8 spirit pills per day, or one Grade 9 spirit pill per day, or one Grade 10 spirit pill every two days, alternating among these three grades of pills. At this stage, he could still use Grade 8 pills; once he reached the Yuan Ying stage, only pills of Grade 10 or higher could assist in his cultivation, as those below Grade 10 would be completely ineffective. Thus, the four alchemy masters at the Spirit Medicine Mountain who were at the Yuan Ying stage had long been identified by Su Che as his top targets.

While Su Che was cultivating, Lao He was not idle either. In fact, everyone in the Immortal Prison was busy with intense activity. Lao He sent huge ore blocks measuring a hundred zhang each directly to the third layer of the Immortal Prison for refinement. There was no need for manual mining—thousands of spiritual flames in that layer could completely purify all impurities, leaving only the purest essence.

While materials could be processed this way, various spiritual stone veins could not be treated in the same manner; they required manual mining to separate the spiritual stones from the rocks. These tasks had to be done by the prisoners in the Immortal Prison.

In the cultivation world, it was usually ordinary people who couldn’t cultivate who were tasked with mining spiritual stones. This was mainly because ordinary people couldn’t absorb the pure spiritual energy within the stones nor had the means or methods to hide them. Moreover, cultivators were too busy with their own cultivation to spend their days digging in mines with hammers—even the lowest-level cultivators disdained such work.

But in the Immortal Prison, even prisoners at the Golden Dan stage had to work. Moreover, those at the Golden Dan stage were extremely efficient, with one person equivalent to hundreds or even thousands of ordinary miners.

As the ruler of the Immortal Prison, Lao He knew everything about the prisoners’ actions. If anyone dared to hide spiritual stones, he would immediately impose the harshest punishment. Under his Mind-Reading Magic, no one could hide their secrets.

There were countless low-grade and medium-grade spiritual stones, numbering in astronomical figures that were impossible to count. Seven to eight thousand low-grade spiritual stones could yield one high-grade one, but it would take millions of low-grade stones to possibly find one extremely precious top-grade spiritual stone.

This was roughly the mining ratio.

Lao He estimated that if all the spiritual stone veins in the Immortal Prison were mined out, he could obtain over eight hundred thousand high-grade spiritual stones and nearly two thousand top-grade ones.

Top-grade spiritual stones, these legendary artifacts, were almost non-existent in the cultivation world. Without the completely unexplored Wu Huang Star, it would be impossible to find primitive veins containing such stones.

In terms of the cultivation levels in the cultivation realm, there is indeed no need to use top-grade spirit stones. It is said that even in the Spirit Realm, top-grade spirit stones are rare, and only high-level cultivators at the Lingxu stage or above use them as the primary currency. Even more precious than top-grade spirit stones are Immortal Crystals, which are a type of crystal that can only be mined in the Immortal Realm and contain extremely pure Immortal Essence. Su Che only has four Immortal Crystals, which he obtained in the Xiaomi Immortal Land. There are twelve hours in a day, and prisoners in the Immortal Prison must work for six hours. However, Su Che and Lao He do not treat them unfairly; they are rewarded with a certain amount of spirit stones based on their work performance. If they do not slack off, they can use the remaining six hours for cultivation. Moreover, the natural spiritual energy in the first layer of the Immortal Prison is extremely abundant. That underground spiritual vein, stretching for thousands of miles, continuously releases spiritual energy. Even with the current number of prisoners, it would take hundreds of thousands or even millions of years to deplete this vein. Besides, as Tianyin said, in the next step, once Su Che fully sides with the Witch Clan, countless resources from hundreds of thousands of planets can be placed under his control. How many such spiritual veins are there in hundreds of thousands of unexplored planets? Even if a planet has only three or five underground spiritual veins, that number is still astonishing! Therefore, the wealthy Su Che is very generous, offering prisoners the opportunity to absorb as much natural spiritual energy as they want, with a cultivation environment in the first layer of the Immortal Prison that is guaranteed to be better than that of their original sects. But the condition is that they must work hard and not be lazy… The prisoners in the Immortal Prison are extremely satisfied with this. After becoming prisoners, they can still enjoy such a superior cultivation environment. Although their freedom is somewhat restricted, it does not hinder their progress in cultivation, as their path to immortality continues ahead. What’s more, the world of the Immortal Prison is harmonious; there is no need to worry about being plundered, oppressed, or framed by others. As long as one is willing to work, they will reap rewards. Every day, one knows clearly what they must give and what they will receive. Everything is extremely fair, with no need for worry or concern. By now, many prisoners have not only adapted to this peaceful lifestyle but also become deeply fond of it, feeling that this is the ideal state for cultivation—with a pure mind free from distractions. On Xuanju Peak, besides Su Che, there is another person in seclusion, and that is Yan Gu.

Yan Gu’s bone age was already over four hundred years, with exceptional innate talent and considerable good fortune. He reached the Infant Stage at 230 years old and advanced to the middle stage of the Yuan Ying Stage at 280 years old. However, due to his irritable temperament and poor mental state, he had remained stuck in the middle stage of the Yuan Ying Stage for 160 years, unable to progress to the later stage.

For this reason, his former master and later senior brother, the leader of the Netherworld Sect, had taught and reprimanded him countless times, but none of these efforts helped him overcome his flaws. Instead, as he aged, his personality and mental state grew worse, often making him less composed than some young people in their twenties.

Everyone has their weaknesses, and Yan Gu’s personality flaw was his fatal shortcoming that he couldn’t overcome.

But now, his personality flaw had completely disappeared. His mental state was extremely calm and steady, with all selfish thoughts eliminated. All that remained in his mind was one simple thing: to obey his master’s orders.

Before entering seclusion, Su Che had given him just four words of instruction: “Advance as quickly as possible.” So, Yan Gu also entered a state of seclusion to strive for the later stage of the Yuan Ying Stage.

In fact, as an experienced practitioner at the middle stage of the Yuan Ying Stage, Yan Gu already had sufficient accumulation in all aspects. The only thing lacking was a “calm mental state.” This current state of pure clarity, free from distractions, perfectly matched the transcendent state of a cultivator who has no desires or demands.

It’s easy to talk about having no desires or demands, but actually achieving it is extremely difficult. Forcing oneself to be without desires or demands is itself a form of coercion…

This was the miraculous effect of the soul shackles—ensuring that the enslaved had almost no desires or demands other than obeying orders. Although it was fundamentally different from true lack of desires, its state could be made infinitely similar.

Half a year passed in the blink of an eye. Su Che’s seclusion wasn’t complete isolation; he would cultivate for ten days or half a month before coming out to relax for a few days, wandering around the sect or spending time with his family.

Because he was confident in his own progress to the Infant Stage and had no concerns, Su Che’s mental state was also very good—calm and leisurely.

One day, Su Che received news from the Secret Chamber that Tian Yin of the Wuji Sect had advanced to the later stage of the Golden Dan Stage and was now striving for the state of Great Perfection.

“Indeed, quite fast.”

Upon receiving the news, Su Che smiled calmly. In fact, he didn’t really care much about the bet between him and Tian Yin.

That so-called bet was just a game. Even if he lost, so what? Even without that bet, would he refuse Tian Yin’s request?

Su Che believed that the demands put forward by Tian Yin could hardly be detrimental to him. Whether there was this bet or not, he would agree anyway. So, he didn’t insist on winning or losing; he let things take their natural course. After all, his chances of advancing to the Yuan Ying stage within three years were already extremely high. That was good enough—one should know how to be content. It was precisely this attitude of letting nature take its course that allowed Su Che to naturally reach the advanced stage of the Golden Dan realm in less than two years. According to the norms of the cultivation world, a cultivator at this advanced stage needed to seize a crucial opportunity to enter seclusion and form an embryo; otherwise, the chances of success were slim, and failure would multiply the difficulty of attempting it again. But Su Che didn’t need such an opportunity, as he possessed ten divine powers, giving him a 100% success rate. Unless he was unbelievably unlucky, failure was impossible. Half a month after reaching this advanced stage, he received news from the Hidden Hall: Tian Yin of the Wu Ji Gate had successfully reached the advanced stage of the Golden Dan realm. “She’s progressing fast—just half a month behind me,” Su Che said with a smile, thinking, “It seems Tian Yin is quite serious after all.” Less than a month later, he received another message: Tian Yin had entered seclusion to form an embryo. Meanwhile, Su Che was still leisurely sipping tea and playing chess with his master on Xuan Zhong Peak. “Master, Tian Yin has started forming her embryo!” Su Che wasn’t in a hurry, but Lao He was anxious and urged, “Master, you can enter seclusion at any time with a 100% success rate. Why delay? Why keep traveling around? Are you planning to deliberately lose to Tian Yin?” “Why the rush?” Su Che replied calmly. “Before, I was at the advanced stage of the Golden Dan, while she was only at the middle stage. Even if I won, it wouldn’t be a clean victory. Now, since we’re both entering seclusion and forming embryos at the same time, this competition is fair. I just want to see whether I, with my Immortal Prison, am stronger or weaker than her, a reincarnation of a great shaman.” Hearing this, Lao He realized that after reaching the advanced stage of the Golden Dan realm, his master’s mindset had greatly improved—he was no longer thinking like a mortal. After finishing the game, Su Che stood up and said to Xuan Zhong, “Master, I’m going to enter seclusion to form my embryo.” His tone was utterly casual, as if saying, “It’s time to go home for dinner.” Although Xuan Zhong was already a Yuan Ying cultivator, he could never approach embryo formation with such ease as Su Che. Though secretly nervous, he didn’t want to disrupt Su Che’s rare state, so he also pretended to be calm and nodded, saying, “Alright. I look forward to your emergence from seclusion soon.”

After Su Che turned and walked away, Xuan Zhong finally let out a long sigh: “Ning Ying, is it really that easy?”
Thinking back to himself in the past, how much anticipation, preparation, scheming, and effort he had put in to achieve Ning Ying…
“You can’t compare yourself to others and expect to live peacefully!”
Xuan Zhong looked at the chessboard in front of him, shook his head, and smiled: “At least on the chessboard, I can still beat him a few times.”