Chapter 73: The Clear Stream of Black Stone

After taking the Earth-Diving Pill, Su Che used his Earth-Diving technique to penetrate into the stone wall behind him, then descended more than thirty zhang deep, bypassing the lava river from below and swimming toward the island in the lake.

Even as he passed through the bottom of the lava river, he could still feel the extremely high temperature. However, for someone like Su Che who practiced cultivation, this had no effect at all; his vital energy alone was sufficient to protect him.

Following Lao Hei’s guidance, Su Che arrived right below the black island. Just as he was about to ascend, he heard Lao Hei say, “Master, that black island is actually a single massive black rock. My detection abilities can’t penetrate it, so I’m not sure if your Earth-Diving technique will work on it. Be careful when going up.”

Su Che responded, clearly understanding that if his Earth-Diving technique failed against that black rock, he would crash into it and suffer severe injuries…

Slowing down his descent, Su Che carefully climbed upward. As the temperature underground rose sharply, he soon reached the bottom of the black rock. Reaching out to touch it, he felt its solid hardness and thickness.

“It really doesn’t work on it.”

His Earth-Diving technique could make soil and stones seem invisible, but now that he could actually touch it, it meant this black rock was extremely special—unlike ordinary natural objects in the earth.

First, Su Che took out his magic sword and dug a hole in the soil at the bottom of the rock. This way, even if the effect of the Earth-Diving Pill wore off later, he would still have enough space to move around.

Then, he used his magic sword to cut at the black rock above. With clanging sounds, not a single piece of stone chips came off, but his sword was severely damaged. Clearly, his flying sword was far less hard than this rock.

“What a treasure!”

Though his sword was damaged, Su Che was overjoyed. After all, this attempt proved that the black rock was a high-strength material for crafting—harder than finished magic swords. Its innate quality must be quite high.

Such a large rock weighed at least hundreds of thousands of jin. If it truly was high-quality crafting material, it would be a fortune!

While excited, Su Che also grew worried: “It’s so hard, and I don’t have the right tools to cut it. Do I have to take it whole?”

Sensing Su Che’s thoughts, Lao He replied, “It’s not possible, master. Such a huge rock—I can’t bring it into the Immortal Prison… At least, with my current abilities, it’s definitely unattainable.”
Unable to move it or take it away, and with the command flags and magical artifacts on top guarded by red-tailed foxes and flame monsters… Could it be that this treasure hunt would end with him getting nothing at all?
Of course, Su Che was extremely unwilling. Subconsciously, he pressed his palm against the black boulder, showing an expression of reluctance.
Unexpectedly, a cool sensation spread through his palm, refreshing him instantly. In an instant, he completely ignored the scorching heat from the magma above.
“How comfortable!”
Su Che exhaled in delight. Suddenly, he remembered the stream of life energy generated by the Immortal Prison—both the cool and warm energies were incredibly soothing… An idea struck him, and he called out, “Lao He, send some life energy over!”
“Sure, master.”
A few moments later, the life energy transformed by Lao He flowed from his forehead. Su Che consciously directed the warm stream of life energy toward his shoulders, while the cool stream from his palm also went there…
“Master, be careful!” Lao He tensed up inside the Immortal Prison, his black fur bristling, deeply worried about his master’s risky attempt.
“It’s fine. I trust my intuition.”
Often, Su Che was indeed bold and adventurous.
Finally, the cool and warm streams—two strands as thin as hair—converged at the Yunmen acupoint on Su Che’s shoulder blades… The moment they touched, they merged seamlessly, almost without any need for a reaction process.
“Cool and warm, yin and yang… I really am…”
Just as Su Che began to feel proud, the two merged energies came into contact with the true energy in his meridians, leading to something astonishing.
With a boom, the true energy in his body instantly boiled over, like a flaming torch dropped into a pond filled with kerosene—towering flames erupted, unstoppable!
“Ah!”
Su Che screamed in pain. His palm, pressed against the black stone, retracted as if shocked by electricity. Inside the Immortal Prison, Lao He also quickly stopped sending life energy…
“Master, how are you? What’s wrong?” Lao He called out in panic.
Su Che had no time to answer. He immediately sat cross-legged, striving to regulate his internal energy and control the chaotic true energy in his meridians and dantian.
“I can’t… control it!”
Whoosh whoosh whoosh…

It was as if a raging fire had ignited inside his body, with his blood and fluids boiling as well. Not only could he not control his vital energy, but he couldn’t even maintain his sitting posture. With a thud, he collapsed to the ground, his fingers completely immobile—utterly unable to move.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. I trust my intuition. It can’t be wrong…”

In such moments, Su Che endured the excruciating pain like being fried in fire, still clinging to his so-called intuition. Just now, there had been a very clear feeling—there surely couldn’t be any mistake…

But intuition is something intangible—can it really be trusted?

“What should I do? What’s the solution?” Lao He paced frantically in the Immortal Prison, not daring to act rashly for fear of making things worse.

Huuu~~~

After some time, Su Che faced a terrifying situation both internally and externally. Not only was his vital energy boiling to the point of explosion, but also, for some reason, the intense heat from the underground fire vein above him was drawn toward him. The scorching heat seeped in through every opening—his mouth, nostrils, sweat pores, and acupoints—flowing in effortlessly.

“It’s okay, it definitely will be okay!”

Even in such agony, Su Che still clung to his intuition, like a stubborn madman.

As the heat entered his body and grew stronger, it scorched every cell within him, including his already boiling vital energy. Waves of unbearable pain surged over him. Fortunately, the Immortal Prison Pagoda in his mind acted like an anchor, keeping his consciousness clear.

This accumulation of heat reminded Su Che of the first time he had swallowed the Earth-Dwelling Pill, when he had been training at the mid-stage of Qi Cultivation deep underground. A flash of realization struck him.

“Lao He, help me up. Press against the black stone… And the Earth Spirit Pill, my life force…”

Su Che’s thoughts were somewhat disorganized, but Lao He understood. He immediately transformed into his Heavenly Demon form, emerged from the Immortal Prison, used his power to lift Su Che up, helped him press his hands against the black stone, and took out an Earth Spirit Pill for Su Che to swallow. Then, he began to channel life force into him continuously…

The two energies—cold and warm—appeared again, converging at the “Cloud Gate Acupoint,” igniting his vital energy even more and intensifying his pain further.

What was this doing?

Was he adding fuel to the fire, trying to commit suicide?

Of course not!

When this pain reached a certain peak, surpassing a certain limit, the vital energy and fiery energy ceased to torment each other and instead merged smoothly together, beginning to burn away the original earthly traits within the vital energy. This meant that Su Che’s vital energy was once again shifting toward the fire element. At the same time, Su Che’s cultivation strength grew at an explosive rate. What used to take three days to absorb and digest with the power of one Earth Spirit Pill could now be exhausted in just three hours. Lao He had already figured out the reason behind this and, without Su Che’s orders, promptly handed him a second Earth Spirit Pill to take. Three hours later, another one… In this way, a total of twenty Earth Spirit Pills were consumed, and five days passed in the blink of an eye. In the underground cave, Su Che slowly ended his cultivation, with an orange-red flame flickering briefly in his eyes before disappearing. His cultivation level had risen significantly! After a few more such attempts, it seemed he could advance to the fifth level of Qi Cultivation… “Fire, earth, and wood elemental roots… I never expected that after all these trials, I would still end up on the path of fire, which is my strongest inclination.” Su Che smiled silently, marveling at how wonderfully fate had arranged things. Indeed, after this rather inexplicable ordeal, Su Che had successfully absorbed a large amount of fiery energy from the underground fire veins, forcibly transforming the attributes of his vital energy from earthy to fiery. From now on, practicing fire-related cultivation techniques would be even more suitable for him. Forcing such a transformation in vital energy attributes—if such a thing were to be revealed—would seem incredible even to high-level cultivators at the Yuan Ying stage. Normally, to change the attributes of one’s vital energy, one must go through the process of discarding existing cultivation and starting over; unless necessary, no one would dare to act so recklessly. But in Su Che’s case, not only was there no need to discard his cultivation, but he could also significantly enhance his strength on top of what he already had—something truly unheard of. Su Che and Lao He knew that the fundamental reason for this was, of course, those two remarkable energies—cold and warm. Since they already knew that the Warm Current of the Immortal Prison could nourish the vitality of all things, what exactly was the cool airflow coming from the black boulder?