Chapter 620: Intimidation

The Weakness Curse took full effect. In just a dozen breaths, Su Che was reduced to a pitiful state—like a dying man suffering from an incurable illness.
“A mere curse spell? It can’t stop me!”
Yet he stubbornly refused Lian Yi and Jue Chen’s help.
“It’s only weakness for now. If I accept their help, it might doom me forever!”
Su Che gritted his teeth and held on, his mind completely clear. He asked inwardly, “Lao Hei, since the curse’s damage has fully manifested, shouldn’t the Immortal Prison Pagoda be able to deal with it?”
“It’s not that simple, master,” Lao Hei replied with a grim face. “After all, this is also a great art, one wielded by an immortal. This is our first encounter with it. No matter how miraculous the Immortal Prison is, it still takes some time… Master, you must hold on!”
As he spoke, a large amount of life energy was infused into Su Che’s body, slowing down the progression of weakness to some extent.
In just those short dozen breaths, Su Che had lost over 80% of his life force, almost like a dead man. Now, with the influx of life energy, he suddenly felt revived. With a series of cracks, his hunched back miraculously straightened.
The Weakness Curse continued to drain Su Che’s life force, but fortunately, the Immortal Prison was abundant in life energy. In the short term, the rate of loss and replenishment could be balanced, allowing Su Che to hold on for a while.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Using this momentum, Su Che cast the Great Dispersal Spell three times in a row. A milky-white light washed over his body. Though it couldn’t completely eliminate the curse, it could mitigate its effects to some degree.
As a result, Su Che’s complexion changed dramatically—turning pale as snow one moment, then strangely rosy the next, followed by a deathly gray, and back to pale again…
It was like a masterful face-changing act on a stage, except Su Che only changed in color, his facial features remaining unchanged.
Even in such a situation, he still had the mood to joke. Looking at Lian Yi, he said, “Should I add expressions like frown, sorrow, or anger? That might make it more interesting.”
“No need,” Lian Yi replied gently, her eyes filled with compassion. “That would be too artificial. This is more natural.”

Su Che laughed heartily, tilted his head back, and said, “The Great Curse Art is truly remarkable. I must learn it!”
“If you want to learn, I can teach you,” Ripple said in a tone that resembled that of a caring older sister. “You’re so smart; you’ll definitely be able to master it.”
However, this way of speaking gave the impression that Su Che was about to die, and Ripple was comforting his departing soul, promising anything he asked…
Su Che suddenly turned his head, staring into her eyes. The faint smile on his face, combined with his pale complexion, created a rather terrifying look. Yet his tone was solemn: “Whether it’s true or not, Sister Ripple, I’ll remember your kindness toward me right now.”
Ripple certainly understood the meaning behind his words and smiled gently. “It’s nothing serious. I definitely won’t become your enemy.”
“That’s great. I don’t want to be your enemy either!”
After saying that, Su Che let out a roar, waved his hand sharply, and sent out a large ball of red light from his palm.
Ripple frowned, thinking, “You’re already in such a state, yet you still care about attacking others? What are you doing?”
The ball of red light launched by Su Che traveled at a terrifying speed—nearly a hundred times faster than light—covering thousands of miles in an instant before striking a possessed monster.
As it approached, the red light exploded into nearly ten thousand thin red threads as fine as spider silk, forming a dense fire net with a diameter of a hundred zhang, ready to envelop the monster.
Mythical-level Extreme Fire Cutting!
The last time it was used against figures like Lu Hao during the Mahayana stage, each thread was as thick as a chopstick. But this time, the threads were as thin as spider silk.
Was it because Su Che was under a curse and lacked strength?
On the contrary, this was the ultimate state of Extreme Fire Cutting—the strongest form. Su Che wanted to see what effect it would have on a celestial being.
Of course, another purpose was to show all the monsters that a mere curse couldn’t strip him of his combat abilities. If anyone wanted to take advantage of the situation, they could try!
It was just a way to intimidate them. In reality, Su Che truly didn’t want anyone to attack him at this moment.
Whoosh!
The dense fire net formed by Extreme Fire Cutting was about to cover the monster. Although the monster was possessed, its combat awareness wasn’t affected at all. On the contrary, the combat strength of possessed beings usually increased several times—this was an established rule.

Faced with this spiderweb-like, seemingly insignificant fire net, the old monster first struck with a palm, generating a powerful thrust capable of overwhelming force, aiming to push the fire net away from himself. It could be said that this was the best way to deal with net-type magical artifacts or supernatural abilities, as other methods might only result in getting entangled and covered by them. However, such a strong pushing force was instantly shattered upon contact with the fire net, and once its energy dispersed, it became useless. The undamaged fire net continued to encroach, and only then did the old monster realize its true power: the might of this fire net had surpassed even the peak forces of the mortal world, and to counter it, one would need to employ forces equal to or greater than those of the mortal world. Roar! The old monster let out a furious cry. His remaining shred of sanity allowed him to restrain himself from revealing his true strength and attracting divine punishment, so he opted for another approach… Swish! A cone-shaped magical artifact appeared in his hand. Its design wasn’t overly elaborate, but the spiritual energy it emitted was quite peculiar, distinctly different from the top-tier Dao artifacts Su Che had seen before. “An immortal artifact!” As the spirit of the artifact, Lao He immediately exclaimed. “Is this an immortal artifact?” Su Che, who was suffering from curses and appeared pale, couldn’t help but feel curious. As soon as the immortal artifact appeared, it unleashed its full power. The cone-shaped artifact spun rapidly in the old monster’s hand, instantly creating a massive spiral-shaped vortex of energy that acted like a drill bit, colliding with the incoming fire net. Hiss! Hiss! Hiss! Hiss… The two completely different forces collided and intertwined, making it difficult to determine which was stronger. The rapidly spinning drill bit didn’t penetrate the fire net, but its powerful rotational force managed to cut through and entangle the fire net around it. The fire net tried to crush the drill bit with its cutting force, while the drill bit spun fast, attempting to obliterate the fire net with its unstoppable penetrating power. The two forces seemed evenly matched, unable to overpower each other, only able to counteract and wear each other down… The old monsters could foresee that in the end, they would both be destroyed, disappearing together. This meant that Su Che’s Extreme Fire Cutting attack had been countered by this old monster, and it could no longer cause any harm to him. Moreover, his actions wouldn’t incur any punishment from the laws of the universe.

By using immortal artifacts, magical treasures, or other objects to unleash power beyond the ordinary world does not violate the laws of heaven and earth. Such things are extremely common in the mortal cultivation realm and are not surprising at all. However, the mythic-level divine skill displayed by Su Che left everyone utterly bewildered. “I’m not mistaken, right? Is this the lowest-level Extreme Fire Cutting in the cultivation world?” Many elders who came to watch the spectacle were astonished: “That can’t be right. How could Extreme Fire Cutting have such power? Even if I were in the immortal realm and could use this skill at full strength without hesitation, I still wouldn’t achieve such results…” With their vast combat experience, they could tell just by a glance that even if they used all their strength to cast this low-level skill, its overall power might not be weaker than the fire net they saw now, but it certainly wouldn’t produce such a miraculous effect. This left them deeply puzzled: It was just a mortal spell after all, not a supreme art of the great path—how could it reach such a level? Only Su Che and Lao He understood that elevating a low-level skill to a mythic level was a supreme state of transforming the ordinary into the miraculous, utterly wonderful and full of infinite possibilities. On the other hand, even if these elders used the power of their immortal essence to cast such a skill, it would only be powerful, but that didn’t mean their understanding and mastery of the skill could reach such a supreme level. In this regard, the difference between the two could be described as “ingenious” versus “brute force.” Extreme Fire Cutting was merely the lowest-level skill in the mortal cultivation realm—even considered a worthless skill. But what if it were replaced by a supreme art of the great path that inspired endless admiration? In the future, once Su Che entered the immortal realm and captured hundreds of immortals skilled in the same supreme art, extracting and combining their skills into a mythic-level art, the power unleashed would create what kind of miracles and legends in the immortal realm? Merging three thousand supreme arts into one and elevating each of them to a mythic level! Su Che’s ambitions grew ever larger… In any case, even under the curse, a single attack launched by Su Che required one of the elders to use the power of an immortal artifact to counter it, proving that Su Che possessed strength comparable to any of them. At least in the mortal cultivation realm, bound by the laws of heaven and earth, Su Che had the right to stand on equal footing with them, not just as a mere cultivator undergoing tribulation.

From this moment on, the way all those old folks looked at Su Che truly changed. They all realized that trying to exploit and control this young man would be an extremely foolish idea; it was better to treat him as a partner on equal terms…