Chapter 603: Advancing to the Tribulation Phase

Su Che’s impression of the bearded man improved slightly, but that didn’t mean he would allow them to set up some kind of Thunder Array that could disrupt his own tribulation process. If he failed the tribulation, who knew what impact it would have on his cultivation level? Those were unpredictable things.

Similarly, even though the five bearded men guessed that Su Che was extraordinary—possibly a reincarnated immortal—they still had to focus on self-preservation. They needed to rely on Su Che’s thunder tribulation power if they wanted to stand a chance against the Witch Tribe warriors. In other words, the conflict between Su Che and them had reached a point where it could only be resolved through force, with one side having to be subdued by violence.

Lao He said, “Master, you have to deal with both the heavenly tribulation and those five. This situation is clearly another form of self-harm. It would be better to immediately use the Witch God Order to command those three Witch Tribe warriors to drive them away—or even kill them all. That would save a lot of trouble.”

Su Che nodded inwardly, silently agreeing with Lao He’s suggestion.

In fact, once Su Che used the Witch God Order, he could issue three commands to the Witch Tribe warriors: First, drive those five cultivators away so they wouldn’t disturb his tribulation. Second, kill them outright to eliminate all future problems. Third, order the Witch Tribe warriors to leave Thunder Star immediately and not harm anyone on that planet.

He believed these three commands would be accepted by the three Witch Tribe warriors, as the “Witch God Order” represented the Witch God himself to some extent. They had no reason to offend Su Che over such a trivial matter.

However, Su Che would never use the third command. The reason was simple—mercy often led to one’s own destruction. If he ordered the Witch Tribe warriors to leave Thunder Star, those five cultivators would surely realize that the person before them was the famous “Tian Yu,” who possessed the most precious life-saving artifact at the moment—the Witch God Order.

The likely outcome would be that these cultivators, once saved by Su Che, would turn against him and join forces to seize the Witch God Order from him. Not everyone was ungrateful, but in times of crisis, many would show their cruel side. Such was human nature—nothing strange about it.

“The kindest approach is to order those three Witch Tribe warriors to drive them away and then have them guard this place. Once I’ve passed the heavenly tribulation, I won’t have to worry about anything anymore.”

Su Che had made his plans. Just as he was about to take out the Witch God Token from the Prison of Immortals, the five people across from him had already combined their powers to unleash some kind of thunder-based technique. Their target was not Su Che, but the thick calamity clouds above him.
“Don’t even think about it!”
Su Che snorted coldly. A purple glow appeared in his right hand, and as soon as his purple crystal sword emerged, nine beams of light shot out, targeting the five of them.
He sent three beams at each of the two Great Perfection-stage cultivators; for the three Calamity Crossing-stage cultivators, one beam per person was enough to hold them back.
“This is…”
The five people across were shocked. The terrifying speed of the purple crystal beams meant they had no time to dodge even over a distance of just a hundred zhang. The immense killing power rushed toward them. Without even considering its strength, the cold and merciless intent behind it alone was enough to fill people with fear and make them never underestimate it.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The five tried various methods—some relying on their own defenses to withstand the attacks, others using their own offensive techniques to counter. But no matter what they did, their attempts to strike the calamity clouds were all blocked.
“The Witch God Token is here!”
Holding the sword in his right hand and raising the Witch God Token in his left, Su Che shouted loudly at the three Witch Tribe warriors thousands of zhang away, “Witch Tribe warriors, heed my command!”
The effect of the Witch God Token was immediate!
It was a completely black token that seemed unremarkable to human cultivators. Yet, the Witch Tribe seemed to have a very direct and subtle connection to it.
As soon as Su Che took out the Witch God Token, the three thousand-zhang-tall Witch Tribe warriors shuddered violently. Before Su Che could even shout, their gazes naturally focused on his left hand.
By the time Su Che called out, “Witch Tribe warriors, heed my command!” they had already quickly knelt down with a loud thud and replied in unison, “At your service!”
“Drive those guys away. Then, you three stay here until I complete my Calamity Crossing before leaving!” Su Che shouted, holding up the token.
“As ordered!” The three warriors replied with such loud voices that they could have torn apart the atmosphere of Thunder Star itself, causing the calamity clouds above Su Che’s head to churn violently.
“That volume is too much!” Su Che trembled inwardly. “Will my thunder calamity become mutated because of their shouting?”
Fortunately, such an ironic situation did not occur. The thunder calamity sent by heaven was not that fragile. A few moments later, Su Che could still sense that the calamity clouds remained at their original level of six layers of thunder.
The first three layers had passed, and the next three layers, with increasing intensity, were about to arrive.

“The Witch God’s Order?”
“He actually has the Witch God’s Order?”
“Is he Tian Yu?”
The five cultivators across from them were completely stunned. They never expected that their sole hope for survival would turn out to be the legendary culprit behind the great calamity in the Spirit Realm, that extremely evil and notorious villain.
“How could it be such a coincidence to encounter this villain here during his tribulation? Anyone else would be stronger than him!”
This was merely an instinctive thought from them, but the next moment, upon further reflection, they saw a whole new chance, a brand-new hope.
“Tian Yu’s order was only to drive us away, not to order those three Witch Tribe warriors to kill us. Even better, he ordered them to stay put and protect him, so they won’t chase after us…”
All five of them were old foxes who had lived for tens of thousands of years; they had enough intelligence to quickly understand Su Che’s intention—clearly, it was: I’m letting you go; get lost!
Realizing this, the five of them showed joy on their faces. Without waiting for the Witch Tribe warriors to chase them, they immediately took off into the air and flew away at high speed.
No need for you to bother us; we’ll go on our own!
Crack!
At that moment, the first thunderbolt of the third layer struck down, seemingly aiming to give Su Che a harsh wake-up call.
Su Che used the Great Thunderfall Technique and effortlessly diverted that thunderbolt elsewhere. But as he watched the five figures disappearing into the distance, he suddenly had an intuition: “Have I done something foolish? I shouldn’t have let them go, I shouldn’t have shown mercy…”
“Yes, master,” Old Black said as well. “I also feel something’s off, but I can’t explain why… But master, if you had directly ordered the Witch Tribe warriors to kill them, it would have seemed too cruel, completely contrary to your usual style. It’s not something a ruler of the Immortal Prison should do either.”
“Yes, a cruel and heartless attitude is completely incompatible with the path I pursue. I indeed cannot act that way.”
Su Che sighed inwardly: His path, and the very reason for the existence of the Immortal Prison Pagoda, was fundamental and must not be violated!
At the same time, through intuition, Su Che could also guess that this incident was by no means a minor episode—it wouldn’t end here, and more things would happen…
Boom…

The twenty-seven thunderstorms of the latter three layers, though each more fierce than the last, were manageable for Su Che with his Great Thunderfall Technique in the absence of interference, and he was not struck by another thunderbolt.
Overcoming tribulations is no trivial matter; even if one can handle them easily, one must not deliberately slacken in mindset. In other words, one must not despise heaven’s power just because of its grace!
The same applies in life—when others are kind to you, you should be grateful, never thinking they are being foolish.
This was Su Che’s mindset at the time. Even though he was facing six layers of thunder tribulations, several times more severe than those faced by most cultivators at his level, he still felt grateful to heaven: Thank you for not sending nine layers of thunder.
And thank you for bestowing treasures like the Immortal Prison Pagoda upon me…
With such gratitude, Su Che successfully passed through the thunder tribulations and advanced to the Tribulation Stage.
During this time, the three thousand-foot-tall Witch Clan warriors stood in a triangular formation, acting as extremely loyal guardians. With them around, surely no one would dare cause trouble again…
“I’ve heard a theory that cultivation is defying heaven, that it’s an act against nature…”
After overcoming the tribulations, Su Che adjusted his clothes and spoke as if chatting casually with Lao He, “I think this theory is complete nonsense! If it truly were defying heaven, whether it’s heaven itself or the laws of nature, it would never allow something like ‘cultivators’ to exist. For every one born, one would be eliminated!”
“Take our Immortal Prison World as an example. If I were heaven, if I were the laws of nature, who would dare defy me?”
“Hmph, whoever dares defy me will be destroyed!”
“In my world, anything that exists is allowed—that means they haven’t defied me!”
“Similarly, the fact that I’m still alive in this vast universe proves that I haven’t defied heaven yet.”
“Defy heaven?”
“What boldness!”
“Those who claim to defy heaven are still alive only because they don’t have the qualifications or ability to do so. Heaven simply doesn’t bother with them.”
“The laws of nature control everything. Those who truly defied heaven are all dead, all destroyed! Even powerhouses like the Twelve Ancestral Witches met the same fate.”
These words seemed meant for Lao He, but in reality, they were a reminder to himself: Without power beyond the laws of nature, one must obediently follow their rules.
Defying heaven is nothing but seeking death!

“Yes, yes, yes!”
“Indeed, indeed!”
“The master is absolutely right!”
Lao He nodded repeatedly in the Immortal Prison, though it was purely out of formality. At that moment, he didn’t have the time to ponder whether Su Che’s words made sense—he was busy merging two mythic-level divine techniques for him.
Extreme Fire Cutting!
Glimmering Flash!
The former was an offensive technique, while the latter was a teleportation technique. One was used to kill enemies, the other to escape. With these two mythic-level techniques, what in the mortal cultivation world could stand in the way of the master?
By reaching the Tribulation Stage, Su Che finally possessed mythic-level divine spells powerful enough to defeat those at the Mahayana Stage!