Chapter 572: The Fifth Layer of the Immortal Prison

Just twenty minutes later, Prime Minister Zheng Yunze returned to the courtyard and appeared before Su Che.
The twenty minutes certainly didn’t include the time spent traveling back and forth; he must have spent some time talking with Emperor Hengyuan in the palace.
So, what was the result? Had he obtained the Grafted Divine Stone?
At that moment, many thoughts flashed through Su Che’s mind, filled with anxiety. His greatest fear was that the Grafted Divine Stone would be useless to Hengyuan—perhaps it had already been given away. That would be…
Fortunately, Zheng Yunze’s slightly smiling expression upon returning reassured Su Che: Everything seemed to be going well; he had likely obtained it!
Having lived for tens of thousands of years, Zheng Yunze no longer had much childishness and wouldn’t joke with Su Che about this matter. He said straightforwardly, “It’s not bad. I’ve fulfilled my mission.”
As he spoke, he flipped his wrist, and a fist-sized stone appeared in his palm. It was deep blue with faint golden patterns, and it contained a strange spiritual energy. Even an ordinary person unaccustomed to cultivation could tell at a glance that this stone was extraordinary and extremely precious!
“That’s right, it’s this very stone!” Lao He declared loudly from within the Immortal Prison.
“Thank you, brother!”
Su Che took the Grafted Divine Stone with both hands.
“I haven’t even thanked you yet. Why should you be polite with me?”
Zheng Yunze waved his hand smilingly. With his keen eyesight, he could clearly see that this stone was very important to Su Che. He was quite pleased that such an easy task could help Su Che so much.
Thus, Su Che finally met the last condition required to open the fifth layer of the Immortal Prison.
“Brother, it seems I need to retreat for a few days,” Su Che said softly.
By “retreating,” he meant preparing to open the fifth layer of the Immortal Prison. Although the previous four attempts hadn’t taken too long, given everything related to the Immortal Prison, Su Che couldn’t predict what might happen next. This time, it might take several days.
“Should I arrange a secret chamber for you?” Zheng Yunze replied through telepathy.
“That would be best,” Su Che nodded in agreement.
Half an hour later, in one of the underground secret chambers in the prime minister’s residence, Su Che sat cross-legged alone. Of course, it wasn’t for cultivation—it was to…
“All conditions are met, master. Shall we open the fifth layer of the Immortal Prison now?”
Lao He was also very excited. Unusually, he didn’t make any jokes but asked in a serious tone.
“Yes,” Su Che replied in a deep voice.

Four conditions: the Silver Power Statue Magic Artifact, the Grafted Divine Stone, Lao He reaching the Refining Void stage, and Su Che’s Great Plundering Art. Among these, Su Che’s Great Plundering Art needs to be temporarily borrowed by the Immortal Prison. However, once he goes to the Immortal Realm in the future, he can extract this great art from others and make it his skill again. What’s the difference between his own and the Immortal Prison’s? Just take it! Whoosh! In his mind, the Immortal Prison Pagoda slowly rotated, and Su Che felt dizzy. In an instant, the Great Plundering Art was borrowed by the Immortal Prison. He clearly remembered having learned this art before, but now he couldn’t recall any of its intricacies at all. It was as if he had completely forgotten it. Boom! A slight tremor appeared in the world of the first layer of the Immortal Prison, like distant thunder, but without the terrifying sense of upheaval from previous times. Su Che immediately realized that this was because there were already hundreds of billions of beings in the Immortal Prison world. To avoid causing panic among them, this expansion would proceed at an extremely slow pace, done as unnoticed as possible. “I was right. This process is likely to take several days…” Last time the fourth layer of the Immortal Prison was opened, the area of the first layer expanded fiftyfold, from 20,000 miles to 1 million miles, roughly the size of Qi Yuan Star. But such a huge change was completed in just over a minute, with an upheaval so severe it felt like the end of the world, even scaring the cultivators imprisoned in the Immortal Prison. Now, with countless ordinary people living in the Immortal Prison world, although most practiced the Path of Shadows, their mental awareness wasn’t that of cultivators, and their psychological resilience was extremely limited. If too much upheaval occurred, who knows how many people would be terrified? Therefore, this expansion proceeded at an extremely slow pace, lasting over four days. Aside from Su Che and Lao He, none of the beings in the Immortal Prison knew that such a tremendous change had taken place in the world. A planet appeared! The world inhabited by hundreds of billions of beings hadn’t changed in size—still 1 million miles in diameter, roughly the same as Qi Yuan Star before. But it was no longer in the form of massive continental plates; instead, it had curled up to form a true planet.

With planets existing, there must be a universe sky. Within the first layer of the Immortal Prison, there appeared as well a sky with a diameter of two hundred billion li. Within this sky, ninety giant planets of the same scale, with natural environments highly suitable for life, floated in the air. Additionally, ten suns burning with fierce flames were evenly distributed, illuminating the entire sky.

Every nine habitable planets rotated slowly around one sun, forming a small galaxy. Thus, within the first layer of the Immortal Prison, there were ten identical small galaxies.

A total of one hundred planets!

It was impossible to estimate how much the total area of the first layer of the Immortal Prison had expanded. The area of just the habitable planets alone must have increased by ninety times. More importantly, the Immortal Prison world had initially taken on the form of a small universe, truly confirming Su Che’s previous guesses: if this continued, it would inevitably form a true large universe world.

“Just like that large universe world outside, but this is a large universe that belongs entirely to me!”

At this moment, Su Che’s emotions had long settled from excitement to a state of boundless longing, anticipation, satisfaction, and a sense of achievement!

Su Che closed his eyes slightly, his breathing barely perceptible. Although his appearance remained unchanged, his overall aura underwent a subtle transformation—a kind of elevation. Compared to powerhouses at the Mahayana stage like Zheng Yunze, he now possessed a sense of divinity and transcendence.

As the creator of a world, as a creator god, he was undoubtedly incomparable to those ordinary people in many ways.

“Master, there’s something that’s really giving me a headache,” Lao He suddenly said.

“What is it?” Su Che replied indifferently. He knew this guy too well and was well aware that even if it were a serious matter, he wouldn’t express it properly.

“Look, we already have ninety planets suitable for living beings, but only the Qiyuan Planet is inhabited; the rest are all empty,” Lao He muttered. “What should we do to make the other planets vibrant and flourish as soon as possible?”

Su Che’s heart stirred, not because of what Lao He said, but because of the term “Qiyuan Planet” he used.

“Yes, the Qiyuan Planet in that large universe outside has been destroyed. But in this small universe I possess, there can also be a Qiyuan Planet. In other words, I’ve revived the Qiyuan Planet too!”

Thinking of this, Su Che said to the drop of Star Tear in his heart, “I’ve found you a brand new body. You can be revived.”
Whoosh!
The Star Tear moved out of Su Che’s heart without any resistance. After being taken into the Immortal Prison, it disappeared into that planet, home to hundreds of billions of beings—beings originally from Qi Yuan Star.
The mother who had given birth to these beings was revived and had returned!
After the Star Tear disappeared into the planet, Su Che and Lao He could faintly sense that something was different, though they couldn’t pinpoint what it was. It might just be their own imagination…
After finishing this, Su Che thought to himself, “There’s no rush. I believe we should relocate some of the beings from Qi Yuan Star to other planets, allowing them to reproduce on their own, instead of plundering populations from the greater universe.”
“You know, I’m now at the Refining Void stage. After opening the fifth layer of the Immortal Prison, I’ll soon have to open the sixth. If all conditions are met and the sixth layer is successfully opened, this small universe will expand by at least 200 times, maybe even 300 times. By then, there will be at least 20,000 uninhabited planets. Relying solely on plundering from outside will exhaust us, and it’s impossible to bring all these planets to life.”
Su Che understood that the formation of a large universe took trillions of years of development before it could move beyond the barren phase and enter a prosperous one—it wasn’t something that could happen overnight.
“I know all that too,” Lao He said, scratching his head. “But guarding such a universe feels like having an empty house—nothing at all. It makes me anxious.”
“Anxiety won’t help,” Su Che thought with a smile. “Do you think it’s easy to be a Creator God? The greater the power, the greater the responsibility, and the heavier the burden on one’s shoulders. There are too many things to do next, and we can only solve them step by step. But for me, in these next tens of thousands of years while in the outer universe, it’s most important to grow quickly and protect my own life.”
As a human, tens of thousands of years of growth is but a blink of an eye, an instant, when it comes to the formation of a universe.
This issue could be put aside for now. What Su Che was more concerned about at this moment was whether the long-awaited “skill extraction” function had truly appeared now that the fifth layer of the Immortal Prison had been successfully opened.
“Of course!” Lao He laughed. “The Immortal Prison will never disappoint us.”
Whoosh!

The true form of Lao He guided Su Che’s thoughts, instantly transporting him into the space of the fifth layer of the Immortal Prison. The space wasn’t very large, roughly a spherical area with a diameter of nearly a hundred miles. It was completely empty, with nothing to be seen, hardly anything worth describing. However, Su Che didn’t care much about this. The quality of something didn’t lie in whether it was flashy or beautiful, but rather in whether its function was useful. So, of course, he needed to personally test whether the skill extraction function was as miraculous and wonderful as he had imagined…