Chapter 633: Provocation Tactics

From the Minotaur’s earlier words, Su Che and the others could guess that there was fierce competition for territory within the Immortal-Demon Battlefield. Those floating boulders in the sky might well be the graves of fallen immortals, but they had long been occupied by powerful demons. Only lower-level demons roamed the land below.
To obtain the immortal artifacts and magical treasures in those graves, they would have to defeat these powerful demons one by one—either by killing them or driving them away.
“The question is, are those immortal artifacts and treasures still there? Could they not have been exhausted by those demons over these tens of millions of years?”
Su Che couldn’t help but wonder this, so he immediately sent a message to Lianyi to ask.
“They should still be there!” Lianyi replied right away. “As far as I know, the Origin Demons can only use the demonic artifacts they forge themselves; they can’t use the immortal artifacts created by immortals. To activate an immortal artifact, sufficient immortal energy is required. Clearly, with the overwhelming demonic energy in the Immortal-Demon Battlefield, there are no conditions for cultivating immortal energy at all.”
“I see.” Su Che nodded inwardly. “In that case, most of the immortal artifacts and magical treasures suitable for immortals should still exist.”
Immortal artifacts have almost infinite lifespans. Unless deliberately damaged, their power and effects don’t change much over time. In fact, some high-grade immortal artifacts even possess the ability to self-cultivate or grow stronger over time…
After understanding this, Su Che said to the Minotaur, “As you can see, we aren’t particularly eager to fight. If you want to defend your territory, I suggest you choose your opponent yourself. Of course, I won’t fight you—my strength is far too weak to match yours.”
“Nonsense!” the Minotaur said arrogantly. “A mere mortal like you has no right to be my opponent. You’ll just end up as food for me. But since you have some courage, I’ll reserve you as my last prey.”
“Great honor,” Su Che said with a smile, turning to point at Lin Jiu and the others. “Among our group, they are the strongest fighters. You may choose whoever you want.”
Lin Jiu and the others’ expressions changed, their gazes toward Su Che filled with hatred.
“Using others to kill?” The Minotaur wasn’t stupid at all. He laughed loudly. “Humans love to fight among themselves—that’s one of the reasons why the Origin Demons consider humans inferior races.”

Su Che said without shame or hesitation, “I see no racial distinctions in my eyes. There are only two kinds of people—friends, or enemies!”
This wasn’t an attempt to justify himself; it was the truth. As the creator of the Immortal Prison World, Su Che treated all living beings equally. Within the Immortal Prison, there were only two types of beings: subjects, or prisoners!
“Would you consider the Origin Demons as friends?”
The Minotaur seemed to be a talkative demon and asked further, “I hope you’ll answer honestly, not perfunctorily.”
“Why not?”
Su Che smiled calmly, adding in his mind, “If they enter the Immortal Prison, the Origin Demons will also become my subjects. However, I’ll need to set aside a separate area for them so they can’t harm other beings.”
At this thought, Su Che suddenly had an epiphany: Perhaps the creator of this universe shared similar views to mine, which is why he didn’t completely exterminate the Origin Demons but instead created a separate domain for them to survive in.
Then, who is the creator of this vast universe? Does he still exist today?
Thinking of these things, Su Che felt as though there were supreme eyes beyond the heavens, silently observing everything in the world—including himself.
It was similar to the feeling of looking down on the beings in the Immortal Prison…
Of course, this was a too broad topic for now. The “little demon” before him was something even he, as a mere mortal, couldn’t defeat yet.
Huh!
The Minotaur swung his trident, creating a gust of wind, and pointed at Lin Jiu and the others hundreds of feet away, roaring, “You lot are as strong as me, yet you lack the courage to fight me head-on. You send just a mortal to take on the challenge—how contemptible! Come on, if you’ve got the guts, fight me! If not, get lost right now!”
Faced with such provocation, Lin Jiu and the others naturally looked furious. To be honest, they weren’t afraid of fighting this Minotaur alone. But the problem was that they knew too little about the overall situation in the Immortal Demon battlefield. Unless forced, who would want to start a fight easily?
Everyone wanted the bold spirit of fighting to the end, but the key was having the corresponding combat strength.
“How do we fight?”
Faced with such a direct challenge, Lin Jiu and Guang Qi couldn’t pretend not to hear, so Guang Qi raised this question on their behalf.
“Roar… roar…”

The Minotaur let out a booming laugh. “If it’s a back-and-forth battle, I can take on the challenge alone. But if you try to overwhelm me in numbers, I’ll call for more allies to fight back against you all!” His tone clearly conveyed, “I may be a demon, but I’m not an idiot!”

Lin Jiu and Guang Qi exchanged a glance, both understanding immediately: this was a battlefield between immortals and demons, filled with intense Origin Magic Energy. For demons, this meant endless endurance, allowing them to fight against opponents of equal strength for as long as needed. On the other hand, although they, the immortals, had comparable powers, they couldn’t sustain such battles in this environment. Thus, even a one-on-one duel would be disadvantageous for them!

Seeing that they hesitated to engage, Su Che smirked mockingly at Lin Jiu and said, “Envoy Lin, is your arrogance only effective against the weak? You immediately shrink back when faced with an equal opponent, right?”

The purpose of provocation was to force the other party to fall for the trap despite knowing it was one—unless they were shameless scoundrels who cared nothing for dignity.

“I’ll do it!”

Sure enough, under the gaze of so many eyes, Lin Jiu couldn’t bear to lose face and stepped forward. After all, as one of the three strongest members of the treasure-seeking team, it was only fitting for him to take on the challenge.

Boom!

This time, the Minotaur showed the wildness and directness expected of a demon. Without hesitation, he covered hundreds of feet in an instant and swung his stone-column-thick trident downward.

Watching this, Su Che, as an observer, couldn’t help but comment, “This fighting style is somewhat similar to that of the Witch Clan—they both prefer close combat…” The moment this thought crossed his mind, Su Che realized he had been wrong…

Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh…

Hundreds of Minotaur figures appeared atop the floating rocks, all raising their halberds and preparing to strike downward. It seemed they had sealed off all of Lin Jiu’s escape routes, as he hadn’t yet entered battle. Unless he could use some divine technique like Instant Transmigration to dodge instantly to a distance of tens of thousands of feet.

Instant Transmigration was originally a divine skill of the immortal realm. As a Dark Immortal, it wouldn’t be strange for Lin Jiu to master it. Other than that, Su Che really couldn’t think of any other way for him to escape.

It turned out that the combat awareness and abilities of a Xuanxian in the immortal realm were indeed beyond the comprehension of a mere mortal like Su Che. Although Lin Jiu was caught off guard, he remained calm. With a wave of his left hand, a deep blue energy shield appeared above his head. With a loud crash, it withstood the monstrous Minotaur’s fierce attack.

In a fraction of a second, hundreds of the Minotaur’s phantom clones converged and delivered hundreds of heavy blows in rapid succession, like hammer strikes, onto the energy shield.

The speed was so fast that, based solely on the sound, those hundreds of blows seemed like a single strike, with no discernible sequence.

That small energy shield managed to block all those blows completely, and it showed no signs of weakening or collapsing.

Whoosh! Lin Jiu immediately counterattacked. With a wave of his right hand, a dark black crescent blade shot forth, slashing at the last figure of the Minotaur that appeared before him.

“Great Clone Technique!”
“Great Defense Technique!”
“Great Slash Technique!”

Su Che was amazed as he witnessed three supreme techniques in an instant—this was the way immortals fought, using powerful techniques rarely seen in the mortal world.

The hundreds of phantom clones of the Minotaur were, of course, a variation of the Great Clone Technique. Although both involved creating clones, each person had their own unique method.

This was the mystery of supreme techniques—for the same technique, everyone understood it differently, resulting in varying effects.

The energy shield created by Lin Jiu’s left hand was a unique manifestation of the Great Defense Technique. Perhaps he could even generate more shields in an instant to protect himself completely, leaving no gaps.

The Great Defense Technique could also take the form of a light barrier, merging with the protective barriers of defensive magic artifacts to create an even stronger shield. It could be considered the strongest defense technique among the three thousand supreme arts.

As for the Great Slash Technique used by Lin Jiu at that moment, Su Che could also use it. The difference was that as a Xuanxian, Lin Jiu had reached an advanced level of mastery over this technique, while Su Che was not even at the beginner stage.

Elevating one’s mastery level in divine skills is extremely difficult. Even if Su Che reached the level of a Xuanxian through normal means, he might not be able to achieve an advanced level of mastery in the Great Slash Technique.

Because this requires sufficient time, enough combat experience, deep insights into the realm, and a wealth of accumulated knowledge in various aspects. Fortunately, Su Che possesses the Immortal Prison Pagoda, which has an incredibly miraculous skill extraction function. As long as he captures someone like Lin Jiu alive, he can immediately acquire advanced killing techniques. Of course, there’s also the Great Defense Technique he just used… “Minotaur, go for it! Beat him hard!” Lao He shouted loudly in the Immortal Prison, cheering for the enemy of his enemy: “Only by crippling him can we find a chance to capture him alive!” Su Che smiled to himself: “I share that desire too, but I don’t have the boldness to shout it out like you do.” Lao He laughed heartily: “I guess I’m more straightforward than you, master!”