Chapter 573: The Laws of Skill Fusion
Su Che decided to use “chess skills” as the subject for his first attempt at skill extraction. Thus, five prisoners skilled in chess were transported to a special space on the fifth floor of the Immortal Prison. As soon as they entered, they lost consciousness, falling into a comatose state with no ability to resist.
The Immortal Prison world still maintained a special area designated for imprisoning those who committed the most heinous crimes. Although Su Che didn’t like interfering with the free development of the beings in the Immortal Prison, he often encountered despicable scum who had no humanity at all. If he didn’t capture them, he would feel uneasy.
It was better not to see such filth—unknown was fine, but once one knew or saw it, not eliminating it would be like having something stuck in one’s throat, leaving one restless until it was removed.
Therefore, those captured in the Immortal Prison world were truly evil-doers deserving of divine punishment. If the “Great Creator God” happened to catch them at the moment they were doing evil, their fate was sealed.
These prisoners were kept in isolation not only for various experiments but also as scapegoats.
The process of skill extraction was quite simple—far simpler than expected. He didn’t even need Lao He’s help. With just a thought, Su Che felt as if a stream of clarity surged from his mind and spread throughout his body in an instant…
It was a very pleasant sensation, like when one is suffering from extreme heat and suddenly a cool breeze blows, making one exclaim, “Delicious!”
Soon, Su Che naturally realized that his previously abysmal chess skills had improved hundreds or even thousands of times—the degree of improvement was indescribable.
Clearly, this wasn’t an improvement of his own; rather, a prisoner skilled in chess’s original “chess skill” had been extracted and transferred to him, becoming one of his own abilities.
Moreover, this transformation was extremely natural, without any awkwardness or strangeness. It seemed as though this skill hadn’t been taken from anyone but had been developed by him over time, just like his own skills.
“True God!”
Other than that remark, Su Che, filled with excitement, didn’t know how to express himself.
“If I only extract one person’s chess skills, what if I extracted all of these guys’ skills and fused them together? Would that make my chess even more refined, akin to combining the strengths of many masters?”
With such thoughts, Su Che boldly took action. At the same time, he extracted the chess skills of the other four prisoners and fully integrated them into his own. The reason he chose “chess skills” for his first attempt was that such life skills were relatively safe—even if something went wrong, it wouldn’t cause any real harm. But if it were powerful combat skills, that would be another matter…
Huh!
The refreshing sensation spread throughout his body once again, this time even stronger than before, as it was the result of combining four people’s skills. Afterward, Su Che silently sensed the changes in his chess skills. Before long, he came to a conclusion: “My level has indeed improved significantly. This shows that the same skill can be extracted and integrated multiple times to continuously enhance one’s expertise in that area.”
Lao He then suggested, “If that’s the case, shouldn’t we establish a grading system for the same skill, or some kind of hierarchy, to make it easier to understand and communicate?”
“Yes,” Su Che replied in his mind. “You decide.”
“Then…”
Lao He pondered for a while with interest before saying, “Let’s define them as: Beginner, Apprentice, Entry-Level, Primary, Intermediate, Advanced, Master, Grandmaster, Legendary, Mythical…”
“Hmm, let’s set ten levels for now. What do you think, master?”
“It’s good,” Su Che replied promptly. “Let’s go with that!”
Thus, the skill levels in the Immortal Prison World were established by the two creators: Beginner, Apprentice, Entry-Level, Primary, Intermediate, Advanced, Master, Grandmaster, Legendary, Mythical. There were ten levels in total, applicable to both life skills and combat skills.
Of course, skill levels couldn’t fully represent a person’s overall combat strength. Only when Su Che and Lao He reached a sufficient level of understanding and mastery of the true essence of power would they be qualified to create a power index to objectively measure everyone’s combat strength through numerical values.
“Roughly estimating, by integrating the chess skills of those five guys, my chess level should reach Grandmaster level, but it definitely won’t reach Legendary level…” Su Che thought to himself. “Next, I can try extracting the same combat skill multiple times to see if I can improve it through integration.”
He acted without hesitation—no delay!
Swish!
The five prisoners whose chess skills had been extracted were sent back to their original cells. A few breaths later, seven more prisoners appeared in the skill space on the fifth floor of the Immortal Prison.
These seven prisoners shared one common trait: although their cultivation levels ranged from the early stage of the Golden Core to the late stage of the Nascent Soul, all of them focused on fire-based cultivation and also mastered a divine technique called “Extreme Fire Cutting.”
“Extreme Fire Cutting” was a fire-based divine technique from the mortal world. Its principle involved concentrating and compressing fire energy into a thin thread or blade, creating extremely high temperatures that could cut through any material, especially effective against metals.
This technique was quite common in the mortal world’s cultivation community. Many cultivators who specialized in fire could awaken it automatically at the Golden Core stage, making it easy to find many who were proficient in it.
These seven prisoners had varying levels of understanding and mastery of “Extreme Fire Cutting,” meaning their skills ranged from low to high. What Su Che wanted to try now was to combine the seven people’s versions of this technique to see if he could reach a higher level.
“I think the skills of the seven people in ‘Extreme Fire Cutting’ can be classified as two at the beginner level, three at the intermediate level, and two at the advanced level.”
This wasn’t something to be taken lightly. Even the usually talkative Lao He spoke seriously and gravely, “I wonder if combining them all together could reach the master level, or even the grandmaster level?”
“It should be the master level,” Su Che mused. “The grandmaster level is definitely out of reach…”
Exactly how many intermediate levels needed to be combined to reach the advanced level, or how many advanced levels needed to be combined to reach the master level—such patterns could only be determined through extensive experimentation. For now, Su Che and Lao He could only guess.
Moreover, there were undoubtedly techniques and nuances involved in extracting and combining these skills.
After a brief thought, Su Che said, “Ignore those two at the beginner level for now. First, extract the three at the intermediate level and transfer them to me.”
With that decision made, he acted accordingly on the fifth floor of the Immortal Prison.
Huh!
Every time a skill was acquired, there was a pleasant sensation of clarity, which needn’t be elaborated further.
After that, Su Che sensed carefully and concluded, “The three intermediate-level ‘Extreme Fire Cutting’ techniques can indeed be combined. I feel that my current understanding and mastery of this technique are now comparable to those of the two advanced-level ones—I should also be at the advanced level.”
Lao He understood immediately and said, “Then continue combining those two advanced-level techniques. Maybe you can reach the master level.”
“Good!”
With a thought, Su Che drew in two more advanced Extreme Fire Cutting skills, adding them to all his own advanced skills—equivalent to three advanced levels combined. Skill stacking wasn’t like piling up three bricks to triple the height; everyone’s understanding of the same divine spell would share similarities, but there were also many differences. Merging the similarities wouldn’t lead to an improvement in skill level—only by combining the differences, achieving a “synthesis of the best from various sources,” could skill levels be enhanced. After that, Su Che silently assessed it again and was almost certain: Yes, it must be master level! “Three intermediate levels combined can reach advanced; three advanced levels combined can reach master level…” Lao He guessed, “Could it be that the rule for skill fusion in the Immortal Prison is as simple as the three-three system?” Hearing this, Su Che suddenly had an epiphany and immediately said, “Then it’s the three-three system!” Lao He slapped his forehead and understood along with his master: “I was so stupid. The rules of the Immortal Prison world are determined by the master. If he says the three-three system is the rule for skill progression, then that’s how it should be. Why waste brainpower on such a simple principle?” Whoosh… The Immortal Prison Pagoda rotated slowly three times in Su Che’s mind, and thus this rule of the world was established. In other words, no matter how the outside universe defined skill levels, from now on, the Immortal Prison world would follow the laws set by Su Che, with skill progression based on the three-three system: three lower levels of the same skill combined could elevate it to a higher level. Of course, for now, only Su Che, the ruler of the Immortal Prison, could perform skill fusion. Others who wanted to improve their skills could only work hard and diligently—there were hardly any shortcuts. Su Che established this rule not only for his own convenience but also to serve the future classification of power levels in the Immortal Prison world. If this rule proved impractical or had other flaws, it could be revised at any time.
After that, Lao He said excitedly, “Master, from this perspective, even though Extreme Fire Cutting is just an ordinary fire-based divine skill, if it can be elevated to a mythic level, it would be extremely terrifying. I estimate that nothing in the mortal world could withstand such cutting power at the mythic level!”
What kind of concept is a mythic level?
According to Su Che and Lao He’s understanding, in the mortal world, even the strongest beings at the Mahayana stage cannot comprehend or master any divine skill to a mythic level; at most, they can reach only the legendary level.
Even the most ordinary divine skill, if understood to a mythic level, would undergo a fundamental transformation, transcending the ordinary to become truly mythic!
In other words, if Su Che could elevate some attack skill to a mythic level, his attacks would have the power only true immortals in the immortal realm could wield, leaving no one in the mortal world capable of matching him!