Chapter 767: The Future of the Mahayana Stage

On Qi Yuan Star, in front of the Tianxuan Sect’s entrance.
Those two Mahayana-stage powerhouses were still forcing the sect leaders to return to their sects to fetch their resources. To prevent anyone from hoarding them, each sect would send a practitioner at the Lianxu stage to supervise.
They led over a hundred Lianxu-stage subordinates, which was more than enough.
The Qi Yuan cultivators waited and waited but still saw no sign of their Sacred Shadow Ancestor. With their low levels of Yuan Ying and Hua Shen stages, how could they dare resist these Mahayana and Tribulation-stage cultivators?
It wasn’t a matter of pride or not—it was simply a huge disparity in strength. Any resistance would mean certain death and would bring catastrophic disaster to entire Qi Yuan Star.
When the weak are robbed by the strong, and the robbers only take wealth without caring for lives, it’s indeed wise to hand over one’s possessions obediently when unable to resist. To insist on maintaining pride and refusing to submit in such an overwhelming situation would not only cost one’s life but also result in losing one’s wealth, while dragging all disciples down with them—pure foolishness.
The more than three thousand Qi Yuan cultivators present were the elite of Qi Yuan Star. Usually dominant and powerful, they now realized that times had changed. At any moment, forceful outsiders might invade and plunder everything.
The only way to live in peace was to rapidly boost the overall strength of the cultivation community on Qi Yuan Star. Several Mahayana-stage cultivators had to emerge to protect their homeland…
Today, they finally understood these realities. Reasoning alone was nowhere near as impactful as experiencing such a crisis firsthand.
This was exactly the effect Su Che had intended—this was also the real reason he had never shown himself.
But could they really allow these foreign bandits to plunder all of Qi Yuan Star’s resources?
Of course not. Su Che wouldn’t let things go that far.
“One last warning: if anyone dares to hoard resources, their sect will be completely erased from existence. I’m not a man who craves killing, but only if you don’t force me to start slaughtering! Now, set off immediately and return to your sects…”
Just as the Triangular-Eye Mahayana cultivator uttered these threatening words, Su Che finally appeared.
To be precise, it was Su Che’s clone, possessing 50% of his true strength. It could barely be considered a Heavenly Immortal, nor did it have the amplified power of a hundredfold boost. In fact, this clone couldn’t even withstand a twofold boost in terms of endurance.

However, Tianxian’s strength is more than enough to deal with this group of mortal cultivators!
On the plain, Su Che appeared silently in front of those two Great Perfection-stage cultivators. By now, he had returned to his normal appearance, no longer the Qi Cultivation outer disciple from Tianxuan Sect.
“Master Tianyu!”
The Yuan Ying elders of Tianxuan Sect recognized him first, shouting in surprise and joy.
“The Ancestor of Sacred Shadows has returned!”
The Yuan Ying elders from other sects used a different title.
Only a few Hua Shen-level elders from Tianxuan Sect, along with a few sect leaders who still remained as soul slaves, were not surprised. They had expected him to appear at the last moment.
“The Ancestor of Sacred Shadows?”
The outsiders were also shocked, as they could not discern Su Che’s true cultivation level, which meant he was an extremely powerful opponent.
“Are you the Ancestor of Sacred Shadows from Qiyuan Star?”
The triangular-eyed Great Perfection cultivator stared at Su Che with suspicion. In just a few breaths, without time to think further, he subconsciously assumed that no one in the mortal world could possess a cultivation level beyond Great Perfection. Although this man seemed unfathomable, he probably only had some special technique to conceal his true strength. In other words, he was just trying to create mystery.
Su Che looked at them calmly, feeling no anger, because although these people seemed like bandits, they were still his people. Robbery might be wrong, but in the cultivation world, it wasn’t considered a serious crime. In the ordered society where ordinary people lived, robbery was a grave offense, but in the cultivation world, it was a common occurrence. Even those who only stole wealth and didn’t take lives were considered good among villains.
So, Su Che didn’t intend to punish them; driving them away would suffice.
“Great Perfection stage…”
Su Che asked with a smile, “Have you two ever thought about ascending to the immortal realm?”
The triangular-eyed Great Perfection cultivator wanted to say, “What’s it to you?” but for some reason, feeling inexplicably guilty, he dared not speak disrespectfully to this Ancestor of Sacred Shadows.
The tall, thin Great Perfection cultivator who rarely spoke stepped forward and replied humbly, “Decades ago, I had some sense of ascending, but for some reason, I’ve lost all such feelings recently. It seems I no longer qualify to ascend to the immortal realm.”

Su Che nodded gently, thinking that this was exactly right. Decades ago, they had been in a small world kept captive by a true immortal, so they still had a fairly clear sense of the laws of the broader universe outside, allowing them to predict when they would ascend to immortality. However, whether the true immortal who kept them captive would grant them the chance to ascend was another matter entirely. After entering the Immortal Prison, all connections with the outside world were severed, and from then on, they had to obey the rules and arrangements set by the prison’s own laws. This had also been a problem Su Che had faced all along: where should the people of the Immortal Prison go once they reached the Mahayana stage? Should a new immortal realm be created within the Immortal Prison universe? The problem was that they didn’t yet have the capability to do so. The mortal universe they were in consisted of only ten million planets—how could they possibly create an immortal realm filled with spiritual energy, abundant opportunities, and a vast expanse of space? “Be patient; that day will come,” Su Che sighed softly, as if speaking to himself, but also to the two Mahayana cultivators before him. The triangular-eyed and tall, thin Mahayana cultivator both nodded obediently, as if possessed, without any resistance. At that moment, even they didn’t understand why. Anyway, standing in front of this Ancestor of Sacred Shadows, not even the slightest thought of rebellion could arise. “You may go now,” Su Che said nonchalantly, waving his hand. “From now on, try to be merciful when robbing others. Excessive killing will have a severe impact on your future ascension.” “Thank you for your teachings, elder,” the two Mahayana cultivators bowed in respect. Behind them, the disciples in the Tribulation stage and Void Refinement stage were all shocked, unable to understand why their master would treat that young man with such utmost respect. Could he be an immortal who had descended to the mortal world? That was the best they could guess. And so, under the “watchful eyes” of over three thousand Qi Yuan cultivators, this group of sudden invaders left in a most peculiar manner. The fierce battle they had expected between the Ancestor of Sacred Shadows and them never happened at all. Just a few words from the Ancestor, completely incomprehensible to everyone, scared them away? To what extent was their Ancestor of Sacred Shadows powerful, enough to intimidate those who were supposedly at the Mahayana and Tribulation stages with just a few words, forcing them not only to refrain from resistance but also to bow respectfully and address him as an elder?

Are the so-called predecessors from the Mahayana era immortals? Just as they were lost in their fantasies, Su Che slowly turned to them and said, “This is the last time I’ll take care of you. From now on, the fate of Qi Yuan Star has nothing to do with me anymore. I hope you’ll take care of yourselves.” With that, he vanished without giving them a chance to respond. Of course, these words were merely meant to scare them. He would never ignore the safety of Qi Yuan Star; he just didn’t want them to become dependent on him. After Su Che left, the plain fell into silence. The more than 3,000 cultivators of Qi Yuan Star still couldn’t recover from their shock and astonishment. A few were filled with fear: “What’s going on? Has the Ancestor of Sacred Shadows given up on us? What if another group of terrifyingly powerful people arrives soon?” Most of them felt guilty: “Our incompetence must have greatly disappointed the Ancestor of Sacred Shadows, which is why he said such things…” Among the crowd, a female cultivator who was in the later stages of the Yuan Ying phase and facing the transition to the Hua Shen phase frowned deeply, thinking to herself, “It seems he has already achieved the true immortal state. I wonder how my sister is doing. I’m not even at the Hua Shen phase yet—how can I compete with him? Is my true fate with the treasure pagoda merely to exist within its space?” “I refuse to give up!” “I’ve sacrificed so much; I really can’t let go…” In the days that followed, Qi Yuan Star returned to peace, just as it was in Su Che’s Punishment Realm Valley. Twenty thousand immortal crystals for one Xuan Xian death prisoner—this price tempted many late-stage Golden Immortals. In just one month, eleven late-stage Golden Immortals brought over 300 Xuan Xian death prisoners. Su Che, of course, accepted them all and paid promptly, not shorting them a single crystal. However, he didn’t need to appear personally for these transactions; any of his dozen or so early-stage Golden Immortals subordinates could handle them. Another month passed, and all the powerful Golden Immortals in the Punishment Realm learned of this. To earn immortal crystals, they began arresting Xuan Xian death prisoners in their territories, leaving them with nowhere to hide. For them, it was the complete end of the world. It might sound pitiful, but Su Che felt no sympathy for them at all.

Through soul enslavement, it becomes clear that every death row inmate in the Realm of Punishment deserves death beyond measure, and their sins are so grave that no number of deaths can atone for them. Some of the crimes they committed are not only evil but also extremely vile, disgusting, and perverse. No wonder the Evil Emperor said that these people don’t deserve a trial or to stand on the Execution Platform; letting them kill each other until their souls are destroyed is the most fitting punishment. In just half a year, Su Che has gathered enough Immortal Baby Fruits—far exceeding five thousand, and on track to surpass eight thousand soon. Moreover, the number increases by at least fifty per day. How many Xuanxian death row inmates are trapped in the Realm of Punishment?