Chapter 521: A Century of Cultivation
Now, Su Che’s parents were nearly ninety years old. Though they still appeared middle-aged thanks to various longevity potions, they had already traversed half of their lives. Especially Su Che’s mother, who had little innate aptitude for cultivation—even if she had started practicing the Path of Shadows early, living to 150 would already be quite remarkable. If Su Che’s own cultivation lasted a hundred years, it would surely be impossible for him to see his mother before she passed away.
“Even if using the seeds from the Black Realm Immortal Lotus to extend life by a hundred years, it seems rather meaningless…” Old He mused. “It’s better to simply adopt the method we thought of before.”
“Mm,” Su Che nodded inwardly. “I thought the same.”
Previously, the master and servant had come up with a plan: take advantage of the laws of the Immortal Prison to transform Su Che’s parents into spirit forms after their mortal lives ended, then use the rebirth mechanism of the Second Layer of the Netherworld Ghost Realm to grant them new bodies at the Golden Core stage or even the Nascent Soul stage to be reborn in.
The Netherworld Ghost Emperor had done this many times before, so it was a well-established procedure with high success rates. For example, the over twenty plant-based bodies at the Nascent Soul stage that Su Che obtained from the Master of the Dustless Valley were all reborn through this method, with spirits inhabiting those bodies.
“Choosing the best bodies for my parents means allowing them to embark on a true path of cultivation as well. It will surely be a tremendous surprise for them,” Su Che thought. “Old He, I can’t enter the Immortal Prison. I have to rely on you to take care of this difficult task.”
“Oh, come now…” Old He’s dark golden scales seemed to stand on end as he hurriedly said, “It’s my duty. Master, please don’t be so polite. I really can’t stand it!”
Of course, despite his words, Old He understood that his master was placing such great importance on this matter, which explained why he gave such solemn instructions and entrustments.
Since Su Che’s true self couldn’t enter the Immortal Prison, he really couldn’t help much—at most, he could only watch from the sidelines as Old He and the Netherworld Ghost Emperor carried out the task.
With this matter settled, Su Che no longer had any concerns. After all, the laws of the Immortal Prison world were under his and Old He’s control, so there was no need to worry about the success rate of such a simple task.
Without worries, he could now begin his cultivation.
After reaching the Huashen stage, the difficulty of cultivation suddenly increased several times. This is because cultivators at this stage can no longer focus solely on refining their true essence and yuanying; more importantly, they must enhance the strength and realm of their yuanshen. Generally, it takes 300 to 500 years to advance from the early to the middle stage of Huashen, 500 to 1,000 years to move from the middle to the late stage, and at least 1,000 years—or even longer—to break through to the Lianxu stage. Thus, although a cultivator in the Huashen stage has a lifespan of 3,000 years, the time pressure to advance further to Lianxu is quite significant. Only the top performers in this stage can realize their dream of reaching Lianxu. This principle is the same as when advancing from the Jindan stage to the Yuanying stage—most people stop here, failing to advance even when their lifespan ends, and must pass away filled with regret. In this light, even the best among the Huashen stage cultivators need 700 to 800 years to advance from the early to the late stage. Su Che’s goal for himself is to reach the late Huashen stage within this 100-year reward period. Is just 100 years really enough? Is this goal somewhat unrealistic? For refining his true essence, Su Che still relies on consuming large amounts of auxiliary spirit pills. The advantage of this method is that it uses his endless vitality to eliminate various side effects left by the pills, a strategy that is likely effective until he ascends to the Immortal Realm. It has been this way all these years, and it is precisely this approach that has allowed Su Che to set impressive cultivation records in the Qiyuan Star’s cultivation world. “Now that I’m in the Huashen stage, taking low-grade pills is useless. I need to use grade-12 spirit pills.” Su Che asked in his mind, “Lao Hei, how many grade-12 or higher spirit pills do we still have?” “There are still over 20,000 grade-12 spirit pills, over 2,000 yellow-grade pills, and over 300 dark-grade pills…” Lao Hei replied in detail. The grade-12 spirit pills mentioned here are what was originally called “heavenly-grade” pills in the Qiyuan Star’s cultivation world. Now that the Spirit Realm and the cultivation world are connected, such a limited perspective is no longer appropriate. Spirit pills in the Spirit Realm are mainly divided into four major grades, ranked from highest to lowest as “Heaven, Earth, Dark, and Yellow”: meaning heavenly-grade pills are the best, followed by earth-grade, then dark-grade, and yellow-grade being the worst. Yet even the worst yellow-grade pills in the Spirit Realm are far superior to Su Che’s grade-12 pills. It’s just a pity that the third layer of the Immortal Prison does not yet have the capability to refine yellow-grade pills.
To refine spiritual pills of the yellow grade or above, not only sufficient amounts of spiritual herb materials are needed, but also the essence of a spiritual realm alchemist of adequate skill must be consumed and integrated. At present, the nearly three thousand spiritual pills of the yellow grade or above that Su Che possesses were all obtained from his four subordinates at the Lingxu stage, including the deceased Jing Lanshan. “At this stage of cultivation, I need to take two Level 12 spiritual pills per day, and this amount is far from enough,” Su Che mused. “Even after a hundred years of continuous cultivation, hundreds of thousands of pills wouldn’t be sufficient. Moreover, I’m worried that once I reach the middle stage of Huashen, the effectiveness of Level 12 pills will greatly diminish, making them less useful…” “Yes, master, I’m also worried about this.” Lao He analyzed carefully, “Within the Immortal Prison, the sect with the strongest pill-refining ability is Lingyao Mountain. Next, if the leader of Lingyao Mountain, ‘Haotian,’ reaches the Huashen stage, his pill-refining skills will surely improve significantly. It’s estimated that he could refine about twenty Level 12 pills per month.” “Our third layer of the Immortal Prison can also refine Level 12 pills, allowing us to produce thirty to forty pills per month. Combined, these two factors can barely meet your needs during the early stage of Huashen. After reaching the middle stage, it’s hard to say.” Su Che and Lao He predicted that after reaching the middle stage of Huashen, consuming five Level 12 pills per day might not even yield good results. The ideal scenario would be: during the early stage of Huashen, take two Level 12 pills per day for essence cultivation; during the middle stage, take two yellow-grade pills per day; and during the later stage, take two dark-grade pills per day. Though the idea is good, it’s currently unfeasible, as the Immortal Prison world lacks the capability to refine spiritual pills of the yellow grade or above. “Let’s proceed as it is for now,” Su Che thought. “Take it one step at a time. A living person won’t die from holding it in.” “Exactly!” Lao He nodded firmly. “Let me handle the pill-refining matter. You don’t need to worry about anything—just focus on your cultivation.” Aside from essence cultivation, the refinement of the soul essence is the most troublesome aspect for other cultivators at the Huashen stage. There are almost no shortcuts to refining the soul essence; it can only be done step by step, with extreme caution. This is because during cultivation, the soul essence is at its most vulnerable and easily damaged. But for Su Che, the most troublesome soul essence cultivation is actually extremely simple, easy, and even very pleasant and enjoyable. The power of the shadow soul!
Relying on the power of shadow souls provided by the hundreds of billions of beings who practiced the Path of Shadows in the Immortal Prison, along with the cooperation of their own shadows, Su Che’s cultivation of his primordial spirit could be described as “making rapid progress” and “enjoying it to the fullest.” It was precisely because of this advantage that Su Che had the confidence to reach the later stage of the Transformation God phase within a hundred years. With everything ready, he began his cultivation! Su Che sat in seclusion within the spatial chamber of the Time Wheel and started an extremely tedious, lonely, and continuous cultivation process that would last for a hundred years. In the first twenty years, little changed—he simply took spiritual pills every day to cultivate his own vital energy, not rushing to enhance the strength of his primordial spirit. Time passed slowly, and twenty years flew by; the hundreds of billions of beings in the Immortal Prison world also went through twenty years… Finally, beings who practiced the Path of Shadows began to appear—those whose lifespans had ended, having completed their life journeys. Most of these beings started practicing the Path of Shadows in their sixties or seventies. Due to their poor innate cultivation aptitude, even though they practiced the Path of Shadows, their achievements were extremely limited. They were quite satisfied to live a healthy life without illness for the last thirty-odd years of their lives as centenarians, often exclaiming to their children, “We didn’t catch a good time; we started practicing too late. This is all we can do in this life. Children, you must cherish this opportunity and never be lazy…” After more than thirty years of cultivation, the power of shadow souls in their bodies was minimal and scarce, but over time, it accumulated to a considerable amount. Given the huge population of hundreds of billions in the Immortal Prison, tens of thousands of such cultivators died every day. Even if each had only a trace of soul power, tens of thousands of traces combined would be sufficient to meet the needs of a cultivator like Su Che, who was still in the Transformation God phase. And this was just the beginning—another dozen years would pass before the “fifty-year cycle of soul power surges” predicted by Su Che and Lao He arrived. This soul power would still be absorbed by shadows, transformed into pure primordial spirit energy, and given to Su Che to absorb and enjoy, allowing him to rapidly boost the strength of his primordial spirit. In this way, by the twenty-third year after entering the Time Wheel, Su Che’s primordial spirit strength had reached the level expected for the middle stage of the Transformation God phase. What did this mean? It meant that as long as Su Che’s vital energy level met the requirements of the middle stage of incarnation, he could advance smoothly—there were no barriers between realms.
After reaching the Divine Transformation stage, the original spirit becomes the foundation of an immortal cultivator. Su Che’s original spirit has already reached the middle stage of Divine Transformation, so how could there be any barriers to further advancement? There’s no need to force a breakthrough; progress happens naturally. This is precisely the magic and power of the ‘Great Illusion Art’. If an ordinary person masters a technique unique to the immortal realm in advance, what’s the difference between them and those who are said to be reincarnated immortals retraining?