Chapter 598: What’s My Fault?

It took Su Che over twenty hours—essentially a whole day—to absorb the spiritual energy of a single multicolored spiritual fruit. The result was a significant improvement in his true energy cultivation, roughly equivalent to the effect of half a year of regular practice.

An improvement achieved in just one day was equivalent to what would have taken 180 days of accumulation before. What did this mean? It meant that if he could continuously consume such spiritual fruits, his cultivation speed would increase by 180 times compared to before. This was even better than the 1:100 time acceleration in the Time Wheel of the Sky-Devouring Rat.

Another advantage was that this method of improvement would only affect Su Che personally, unlike the Time Wheel, which would also impact the World of Immortal Prison.

“Eating 200 such spiritual fruits is equivalent to 100 years of regular cultivation. This is truly…” Su Che’s excitement and astonishment were indescribable. “I originally thought it would take another 700 or 800 years before I could reach the Tribulation Phase. Now it seems that as long as I keep getting these fruits, I can advance to that phase in as little as three years, at most five!”

Undoubtedly, to accelerate his cultivation, Su Che would have to stay by this silver sphere for the next few decades. After all, the demonic energy emitted from the sphere was also an essential component. Without it, such highly effective multicolored spiritual fruits could not be created.

“This is my fate. The Witch God truly predicted it…” At this moment, Su Che couldn’t help but admire the Witch God’s predictive abilities.

Xue Yu, on the other hand, was constantly monitoring Su Che’s cultivation progress. However, with only a half-year’s improvement at the late stage of Refining Void, it was hard to detect any significant changes. She could only confirm that those multicolored spiritual fruits had a miraculous effect on cultivation, but their exact effects were hard to estimate. Only Su Che himself knew for sure.

At present, Xue Yu’s greatest concern was that Su Che might be able to produce these spiritual fruits endlessly. If that happened, his cultivation speed would reach an extremely terrifying level, quickly slipping out of her control. By then, any claim of a hundred-year struggle would become just a joke for Su Che to mock her with.

As it turned out, Xue Yu’s worries weren’t unfounded—the worst scenario indeed occurred.

Click!

With a twist of his wrist, Su Che pulled out another multicolored spiritual fruit from somewhere, smiled at Xue Yu, and bit into it.

“Another one!”

Xue Yu frowned, guessing in her heart, “So he really can continue to create such spiritual fruits!”
“The Great Transformation Technique!”
“It must be by using the Great Transformation Technique to transform the demonic energy here, combined with other conditions, that such immortal fruits capable of significantly enhancing cultivation can be created!”
Her mind at the Mahayana stage wasn’t for nothing—Xue Yu immediately understood many things. But now that it had come to this, it was too late to regret…
Su Che only took three bites before swallowing the second multicolored spiritual fruit, then smiled at Xue Yu and said, “Have you been feeling regretful these past moments?”
By regretful, he naturally meant that from her perspective, she really shouldn’t have given that nearly useless immortal talisman to him.
“I’m not regretful,” Xue Yu replied calmly. “When I learned that the Great Transformation Technique in the talisman would be used to enhance a certain function of that pagoda, I guessed it would bring you great benefits. If I couldn’t even figure that out, then these ten thousand years of my life would have been in vain.”
“Oh?”
Hearing this, Su Che became curious and asked, “Then why did you give the talisman to me? If it were me, I’d rather let that nearly useless immortal talisman rot in my stomach than give it to my enemy.”
“Hmph!” Xue Yu shot him a glance and said softly, “If your little brat could figure out my thoughts, then these ten thousand years of my life would indeed be in vain!”
“Keep bragging!” Su Che curled his lips and said proudly, “No matter what your intentions are, in my eyes, you’re just shooting yourself in the foot. It’s clearly a foolish mistake—a truly stupid and unforgivable error! Hahaha…”
“Say whatever you want,” Xue Yu snorted again, lowering her gaze and no longer looking at him.
Su Che might seem triumphant, but in reality, he was just acting that way on purpose. His vigilance never waned: Yes, with her intelligence, it was impossible for her to make such a stupid mistake… What exactly was this guy thinking? What was he plotting? What was he calculating?
From that day on, Su Che would take out a multicolored spiritual fruit in front of Xue Yu every day and swallow it, rapidly advancing his true energy cultivation.
Just after ten days, Xue Yu clearly determined that Su Che’s true energy cultivation had made significant progress. At the usual cultivation speed of late-stage Refining Void cultivators, it would take at least thirty years of seclusion to achieve such a change.
“That’s too much!”

Once a clear judgment was made, Xueyu could no longer stay still. In a flash, she floated in front of Su Che, less than ten zhang away, and asked seriously, “If you continue to improve like this, it will only take three to five years before you reach the Tribulation Crossing stage, right?”
“More or less.”
Su Che nodded lightly. “Your judgment is almost the same as my own prediction.”
After saying that, he countered, “What, you can’t stand by any longer? You can’t bear it and finally want to stop me?”
“Su Che, if I say that I have the absolute ability to die with you before you reach the Tribulation Crossing stage, would you believe that?” Xueyu asked seriously.
“I believe it!”
Su Che nodded without hesitation. “As I am now, I can only match you evenly. It can also be said that if we fight to the death, we might both perish, and neither of us will survive.”
Xueyu nodded and continued, “To be honest, the reason I gave you that immortal talisman wasn’t out of any ulterior motive. It was just to get a promise from you…”
“That’s impossible!”
Su Che waved his hand immediately, his tone leaving no room for doubt. “I’ve said it before—the only purpose of that immortal talisman is to allow you to be reborn after death if I kill you. Other than that, I can’t make any further promises.”
After saying this, Su Che frowned and openly showed his murderous intent. “Xueyu, apart from you, I’ve never hated anyone this much. Truly, among those in this world who must be killed, you are definitely at the top!”
Facing Su Che’s murderous intent and hatred, Xueyu simply shook her head and smiled, still calm as she explained, “The promise I need from you isn’t for me, but for my sister.”
“Oh?”
Su Che tilted his head and then nodded. “Go ahead.”
“I hope this favor can be credited to my sister,” Xueyu said seriously. “After all, she has always lived in your world, constantly under your control. If you kill her, she can’t live; if you doom her to eternal suffering, she’ll never see the light… Am I right?”
“That’s right,” Su Che nodded. “And to be honest, I already know who she is.”
Xueyu wasn’t surprised. Instead, she nodded. “I know you’re a good person and won’t drag her into this because of me. But I still hope to get a promise from you—that the favor of that immortal talisman be credited to her. Please don’t let her suffer because of my actions, okay?”

“That’s possible,” Su Che nodded. “I won’t let my family suffer. I wouldn’t do something that would harm entire clans. Besides, due to the disputes over the pagoda, she’s already died once—so it’s as if she’s atoned for her sins.”
By “atoned for sins,” Su Che obviously meant something else. Xueyu didn’t fully understand, nor did she pay much attention.
“Okay, I believe you!”
Xueyu’s expression relaxed, as if a burden had been lifted. Her tone became calmer. “As for the conflict between us, whether we win or lose, I can endure whatever outcome. To be honest, even if I lose to you in the end, you won’t have a chance to capture me alive. I don’t need any chance for reincarnation either…”
At this point, she laughed heartily. “Don’t think I can’t guess what you mean by reincarnation… Hmph, in your world, reincarnation only means being under your control, enduring the fate you’ve ordained—it’s better to die cleanly.”
“Su Che, I’m the one who knows you best in this world, because I know that pagoda best. To be fair, ask yourself—is it worth giving everything for that pagoda? Tell me, is it worth it?”
Faced with such a question, Su Che took a deep breath and could only nod in agreement. “It is!”
If he said it wasn’t worth it, it would be a disservice to the place the Immortal Prison Pagoda held in his heart. Even a lie was beyond his power to utter.
It truly was worth it!
If even a treasure like the Immortal Prison Pagoda wasn’t worth fighting for, Su Che really couldn’t think of anything that could surpass it.
Xueyu raised her face and laughed wildly, as if insane. “A treasure that should have belonged to us sisters was taken by you just because of a coincidence. I just want to take it back and save my sister. What’s my fault?”
“What’s my fault?”
“You, Su Che, why do you hate me?”
“If it were you, and you lost that pagoda along with your closest loved ones, would you give up?”
She suddenly lowered her head, staring at Su Che and asking sharply, “Su Che, I ask you—would you give up?”
Su Che stared at her for a long time before nodding and saying, “Yes. I would do everything possible to take it back and save my loved ones, just like you would.”

Yes, Su Che is telling the absolute truth. For the Immortal Prison Pagoda, Su Che values it more than his own life. Whatever the reason, if it’s lost accidentally, not getting it back would be worse than dying—he wouldn’t even be satisfied even in death. After dying, he would hate himself a hundred times, a thousand times, countless times…
“Good! You admit it! This shows you’re a good person… But no matter what, I will never give up.”
Xue Yu turned and walked away, but still shouted, “If that’s the case, why do you hate me?”
“I should hate you even more…”
Before her voice faded, she drifted out of the arch and disappeared, seemingly leaving forever.
Of course, it was just a temporary departure.
Su Che knew that, as he had said earlier, if it were him, even if he had to die ten thousand times, he would never give up. She would be the same—she would never give up either!