Chapter 65: Returning to the Bitter Wind

Su Che first went to Linglong’s residence and explained that he needed to go out for some training and would return to the Medicine Garden within forty days at most.
“Already at the third level of Qi Cultivation?”
Linglong noticed the change in his cultivation level and was slightly surprised. After all, he had a tripleattribute spiritual root and relatively average innate talent. Reaching the third level of Qi Cultivation at the age of fifteen was no easy feat.
“Yes, Senior Sister. The experience in the Sealing Demon Realm greatly influenced me. After returning, I made a concerted effort to advance to the third level,” Su Che replied vaguely.
Linglong nodded gently, knowing he had been in seclusion for over twenty days. She congratulated him and handed him a bag of spirit stones. “Every disciple who survived the ordeal in the Sealing Demon Realm will receive a reward of varying degrees. You’ll get five hundred spirit stones. My master asked me to give them to you.”
Su Che didn’t reach out to take it but asked, “Senior Sister Linglong, is this really a reward from my master?”
“Ah… yes.” Linglong’s expression stiffened, seeming a bit awkward.
Su Che shook his head and smiled. “Senior Sister, you’re too straightforward and really not good at lying.”
Linglong’s face turned slightly red as she said irritably, “I’ve given it to you—just take it. Why so many questions?”
“Alright, I’ll take it.” Only then did Su Che accept the bag of spirit stones, admitting, “But I know it’s a reward from you.”
“You little rascal, just go!” Linglong grunted and turned to enter the inner room.
Su Che shook his head with a smile and also left the exquisite little building.
The elders of the Medicine Garden had indeed said that the Supreme Elder Zi Xiao was quite satisfied with the disciples who survived the ordeal in the Sealing Demon Realm. Each disciple returning to the main peak would receive a certain reward…
However, Su Che thought that the rewards were meant for the inner sect disciples. As someone who was just part of the group, it was unlikely he would receive a reward directly from the Venerable Mysterious Insight. That’s why he had probed further.
As expected, Linglong wasn’t good at lying and revealed her true feelings after just a little probing.
The real situation was likely this: Linglong believed she had made significant contributions with the spirit talismans in the Sealing Demon Realm but hadn’t received any rewards afterward. Finding this unfair, she decided to compensate herself out of her own pocket.
In the Immortal Prison, Lao He was even more upset. Shouting loudly, he said, “Master, that Venerable Mysterious Insight is truly contemptible! Why ignore you like this? Why not give you a reward? Mu Yun from Tianji Peak said that the spirit talismans you contributed played a crucial role…”

“It doesn’t matter, Lao Hei,” Su Che said calmly, trying to reassure him. “Venerable Xuanji is only a nominal master. In his heart, he can only remember the ten true disciples, as well as inner disciples like Yu Qing and Linglong who possess both talent and noble backgrounds. There are thousands of outer disciples like me at Xuanji Peak—he simply can’t take care of all of us.”
“Anyway, anyone who looks down on you will have to answer to me!” Lao Hei still harbored resentment, muttering, “You should know that I, Lao Hei, have one-third demon blood—vindictive to the extreme! And one-third rat blood—petty and narrow-minded! Hmph…”
Su Che was amused by his words, but he kept walking, leaving the spirit herb garden behind.
The first stop on his training journey had been chosen: the Yinwind Gorge, which he had visited once before.
There were two purposes for going to the Yinwind Gorge. First, to capture another member of the Han brothers, Han Zuo Jing, so that the two brothers could be reunited in the Immortal Prison sooner. Su Che always believed that only secrets known to oneself truly were secrets. Thus, Han Zuo Jing remained a potential threat from the secret herb garden and should be eliminated as soon as possible. Since he had already reached the third level of Qi cultivation, it was time to act.
The second purpose was: one of the prisoners in the Immortal Prison, Luo Lianqiao, came from Tianlu Peak and indeed had great talent in alchemy. However, his cultivation level was too low, allowing him to only create pills of rank four or below.
The pill he currently took, the Earth Spirit Pill, was of rank five. This meant Luo Lianqiao’s alchemical skills wouldn’t be of much help to him in cultivation. But among the rank-three pills he was good at making, there was a special type called the Earthescape Pill. Within fifteen minutes after taking it, one could clearly sense the pulse of the earth, temporarily becoming a child of the earth and using earthescape magic to move freely underground.
Earthescape magic was useful for sneaking, launching surprise attacks, or escaping. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a spell but a supernatural ability, one that could only be used by cultivators at the Golden Pill stage or above. With the Earthescape Pill, it was as if he had mastered this ability in advance. Su Che was naturally very eager for it—it was an extremely practical life-saving technique for him.
However, the Earthescape Pill couldn’t be bought anywhere in the market. Even if inner disciples from Tianlu Peak produced such pills, they had to hand them all over to their sect and were not allowed to keep even one.
This meant that if Su Che wanted to obtain this pill, he had to gather the ingredients according to the recipe and then have Luo Lianqiao make it in the Immortal Prison.

The most important ingredient for refining the Earth-Stealing Elixir is the “Earth-Stealing Poison Vine,” a specialty of the Windy Gorge. The last time he went to the Windy Gorge, Lei Xiao’s task assigned by his sect was to collect the roots of ten Earth-Stealing Poison Vines.

He first went to “Wuhua Peak” to buy some spirit talismans. After leaving the sect, Su Che arrived outside Xuanji City and, using the identity of the prisoner Han Youming, sent a message jade talisman to his brother, Han Zuo Jing. Han Youming also said that his brother would never give up on the secret herb garden and would likely be lingering between two places: either Xuanji City or the Windy Gorge.

After waiting patiently for half an hour with no reply from Han Zuo Jing, it meant he wasn’t near Xuanji City, leaving only the Windy Gorge as a possibility. Su Che rushed forward, covering hundreds of miles in just one hour, and once again arrived at the supply town at the eastern end of the Windy Gorge. Another message jade talisman was sent, but still, there was no reply after half an hour.

In the Immortal Prison, Han Youming explained, “The message jade talismans we use have a range of only 300 miles. My brother might have gone deep into the gorge to capture monsters or gather spirit herbs. After all, he also needs to earn spirit stones to continue his cultivation.”

Then he would enter the gorge to gather herbs and capture people at the same time!

Su Che didn’t buy the roots of Earth-Stealing Poison Vines in the town because these spirit herbs were in high demand. Any casual cultivator there who managed to collect them could simply sell them at the market, and they would be bought at a high price by disciples from the Tianxuan Sect who came to train, turning them into substantial contribution points for their sect. Since Lao He had a great advantage in detecting spirit herbs, there was no need to spend spirit stones bidding against others.

At the entrance of the gorge, Su Che saw another warning stele set up by the Tianxuan Sect: “This is a beginner training area. Those at the third level of Qi Cultivation or above are not allowed to enter. Violators will be punished!”

Su Che was at the third level of Qi Cultivation, so he could enter. However, it was rare for someone like him to enter the Windy Gorge alone. He remembered that last time, Lei Qingxue was also at the third level of Qi Cultivation and had to wait in the town for familiar sectmates to form a temporary team before daring to enter the gorge.

But this time, Su Che came here as a battle fanatic. Once inside, he would fight monsters if he encountered them and fight people if he met others. If others didn’t come to trouble him, he would go look for trouble himself. Until he achieved enlightenment, it wouldn’t be over…