Chapter 101: The Golden Command Flag (Third Update Seeking Monthly Tickets)

  (Woke up in the morning, saw seven more monthly tickets and six rewards, coffee is very happy, thank you for saying too much is useless, can only use updates and more wonderful stories to repay everyone, today must be five updates.)

  Su Che returned safely and soundly to the Lingcao Medicine Garden, and Linglong and Yuqing were overjoyed.

  "The innocent are self-clearing; I have done nothing wrong, and Master will surely stand up for me."

  This was Su Che's explanation, and he didn't mention the matter of entering the Xiao Mi Xian Jing, so as to avoid Yu Qing and Ling Long worrying about themselves prematurely.

  In the following days, Su Che spent most of his time in the Transmission Hall browsing through books, and the remaining time was used to practice magic. As for cultivation, he replaced normal sleep with nighttime meditation, and when meditating, he wouldn't take any elixirs, just plain and calm, not rushed or anxious, going with the flow.

  It would be better to say that this stage is not about cultivating skills, but rather cultivating the mind. This state of being clear and calm, without desires or pursuits, should be called 'cultivating the Tao', rather than simply cultivating immortality for its own sake.

  The growth of cultivation has slowed down greatly, but Su Che is not regretful at all. The current state is definitely not a waste of time, and he can clearly feel that his mind is much clearer and purer...

  In this way, although he didn't deliberately pursue the boundary, the boundary barrier between the 9th layer of Qi Refining and the Great Perfection was somehow crossed unknowingly and silently. Even Su Che himself couldn't explain how he had crossed it.

  To this, Xuanji Zunzhe just smiled lightly: "This is right, very normal."

  Then, with more than half a year to go before the opening of the Xiaoxian boundary, Su Che quietly and naturally entered the stage of Dacheng.

  Of course, during this period of cultivating his mind and nature, the transactions with the Lei family's spiritual grass did not stop either. Su Che would also go to Wuhua Peak on time, sell some things, buy some elixirs, and accumulate enough spiritual elixirs for his future closed-door bitter cultivation.

  On this day, which was the first day of the month, Su Che went to the Xuanji Golden Temple and met with the Venerable Xuanji. This should have been the tenth time he had a face-to-face conversation with him to listen to his teachings and dispel his doubts.

  The class of one time period ended, and the mysterious Zun suddenly said: "The case of Zhēnzhēn's disappearance from Tiān Wù Fēng has been investigated. It was found that they were kidnapped by a certain Golden Elixir cultivator from the Huàn Mó Jiào (Illusory Demon Sect). However, since the Xiǎo Mí Xiān Jìng is about to open, none of the major sects of both the immortal and demon paths want to create trouble at this critical juncture. Therefore, Zhēnzhēn's case can only be resolved after some time has passed."

  "Understood, Master."

  Su's heart was calm and peaceful, like still water. To be honest, he had no interest in finding out the reason for Zhen Zhen and the other girl's disappearance, nor did he care whether they could be rescued or return to the sect.

  That afternoon, Su Che dressed up again and came to the Valley of Yin Wind. This time, it was not for closed-door cultivation, but...

  "The realm of Dacheng can control the lower-grade spiritual tools, defeating that red-tailed fox is no problem, it's time to take back that golden command flag."

  Su Che disguised himself as a outer sect disciple of Qi Gong third layer and entered the Yin Wind Gorge.

  "Master, if we had taken that command flag and only then discovered it has nothing to do with the Small Mysterious Immortal Realm..." Just as things were coming to a head, Old Black suddenly felt anxious: "Or perhaps...we simply don't have the ability to take that command flag... Half a year from now, will you still keep your promise and enter the Small Mysterious Immortal Realm as usual?"

  "Of course I'll go," Su Che said without hesitation. "No matter what, since I've promised someone else, I have to follow through, and besides, I've already acknowledged this master."

  For nearly a year, Su Che had contacted Xuanji Zun more than ten times and learned many useful things from him, which can be said to have gained a lot. Although he knew that Xuanji Zun's kindness and generosity towards himself were mostly out of selfishness, in order to let himself enter the Xiaomixian realm to obtain the treasure for him, Su Che still recognized this master.

  One day as a teacher, a lifetime as a father. As long as the respected master didn't intentionally harm himself, Su Che would be willing to treat him like his own kin and elder.

  In the Xian prison, Lao Hei let out a soft sigh, speechless. As the person who understood Su Che best in this world, Lao Hei knew that his master had an extremely stubborn side to his personality. Once he made up his mind about something, no matter how much others tried to persuade him, he would not change his mind.

  This time, he came to the lava lake of the underground fire vein. Su Che naturally didn't need to jump into the magma to swim. He stepped on a high-quality flying sword floating in the air, surrounded by top-grade artifacts, Chi Yan**, and held a small, delicate, crystal-clear spiritual flying sword in his hand.

  "Yikes"

  The red fox lying on a small island in the lake immediately discovered the intruder, stood up with a sudden movement, and let out an ear-piercing cry towards Su Che.

  Suzaku's ability to fly with his instrument made Akatora realize that the newcomer was not good, and the spiritual energy emanating from Akahono and the flying sword also made Akatora feel a great sense of danger.

  Su Che flew towards the past with his sword, slowly approaching and saying: "I've come to collect this command flag, it won't affect you, from now on, you can still live a leisurely life on this small island. However, if you don't know what's good for you and insist on blocking me, then don't blame me for being ruthless."

  "Yikes"

  The red fox's fur stood on end, making it look much larger. However, this was of no threat to Su Che.

  Boom

  Su Che's heart moved, and the scarlet flame rotated out, flying into the molten lava below, stirring up a dozen feet high orange-red heat wave, blasting a humanoid flame monster out of the lava.

  Every time an outsider appears, this flame monster will lurk in the magma and wait for an opportunity to launch a sneak attack. Unfortunately, it is not a match for the Red Tail Fox, let alone Su Che's current cultivation strength.

  Clap Clap Clap...

  The flame monster hadn't even landed yet, and was hit by the Crimson Flame's consecutive attacks, tumbling through the air like a punching bag, unable to find an opportunity to escape back into the magma.

  Su Che didn't plan to kill it, so he only used the Blazing Flame to continuously slap and smash, without cutting or chopping, otherwise the flame monster would have been torn into pieces.

  Clap Clap Clap...

  Continuous pounding, the flame monster had no resistance ability, it was just a low-intelligence energy-type creature that didn't understand profound magic, nor could it wield magical artifacts, and wasn't even a match for human cultivators of the same level. Moreover, Su Che's cultivation realm was far higher than its own, and the difference in overall strength was too great.

  "Yikes"

  Suddenly, the Red-tailed Fox on the small island let out a loud cry, its body flattened, and once again it deployed its special flying skills, leaping over ten or more zhang in distance, swooshing along the downstream direction of the underground fire vein and escaping.

  It was frightened by Su Che's actions and lost all its will to fight, immediately choosing to flee for its life.

  Su Che smiled in his heart: "Foxes are timid, cunning and lack fighting spirit. These characteristics are similar to those of mice..."

  Just now, Su Che raised his hand and grasped it, exerting the Qi Jin Quan Na technique to capture the flame monster that had no resistance into the Xian prison. This action was equivalent to Su Che killing the flame monster with one claw, making it die thoroughly and cleanly.

  In this underground vein of fire, the flame monster and the red-tailed fox had been fighting for who knows how many years, neither able to gain the upper hand. The red-tailed fox knew better than anyone just how thick-skinned the flame monster was, no matter how hard it hit, it couldn't kill it. But today, it was actually strangled to death by this human cultivator. It was naturally frightened out of its wits and could only flee in a panic without thinking twice.

  In the Xianyu, Laohei just made a move in his heart, and on the ground of the prison world, a man-made pool with a depth of over ten zhang appeared. Immediately after, he threw that flame monster into the pool.

  Then, Su Che took enough magma from the underground lava lake and soon filled the artificial pool in Xianyu with it. This way, Xianyu also had an extra fire pool that could be used for alchemy and artifact refinement.

  In the early days, Su Che was browsing through books in the Transmission Hall of Xuanji Peak when he stumbled upon a book that described the Flame Beast. It turned out to be a naturally formed 'Earth Fire Spirit'. Generally speaking, places where an Earth Fire Spirit can be born would have not only underground fire veins but also other heavenly treasures and earthly riches.

  The explanation in the book matches what Su Che saw: the spirit of the earth fire was born in the underground fire veins, and here there is also a mysterious treasure called 'black giant stone'.

  Xianyu Lian Dan Shi 'Luo Lian Qiao', has always been complaining about the lack of true fire, unstable firepower, resulting in a very low success rate of alchemy. Today, this problem is finally solved. With the Earth Fire Spirit, the magma in the artificial fire pool will never solidify, and it can continuously generate earth fire to meet the current needs of alchemy and equipment refinement, which is completely sufficient.

  Those annoying guys have all been sent away. Next, it's time to try and retrieve that golden command flag.

  Su Zhe landed extremely carefully on the small island in the middle of the lake, this small island, which was also the black giant stone that assisted him in his cultivation, and his feeling towards it was naturally extremely intimate.

  "How should I collect it?"

  Books related to Fa Bao have been read a lot, Su Che summarized several methods and thought they were quite suitable for today's situation.

  The true energy poured into his right hand, and Su Che carefully reached for the golden command flag. This was the most direct and gentle way to first touch it and explore whether the magic treasure's true energy would reject human cultivators.

  Slap

  He hadn't even touched Linqi, but was only a few feet away when Su Che suddenly stumbled backward several paces as if struck by lightning.

  The answer is: repulsion, extremely repulsive

  Although it was rejected, Su Che didn't think it was strange. After all, it might be a precious item of the witch tribe, and it's normal for it to produce rejection towards the cultivation energy created by humans.

  This time, Su Chu let out a genuine breath, just like an ordinary person, and his hands were clean as he reached out to touch it.

  Slap

  Still repulsive

  An inexplicable rebounding force, like a giant hammer, smashed into Su Che's right hand. His hand didn't have any true energy protection, and this time it was truly painful to the bone, almost breaking his fingers.

  Soft doesn't work, then let's go hard

  Su Cheng concentrated his true energy and swung his fist, attempting to forcefully break through the protective layer of the command flag, seize it in his hand, and then subdue it with his own internal energy.

  Boom

  Unexpectedly, the greater the force, the stronger the rebound. With just one punch, Su Che received a severe backlash, as if he had done it to himself, and was sent flying for dozens of meters, almost falling into the lava lake.

  "Good grief, so fierce!"

  Su Che shook his arm repeatedly, and this time, his arm was numb.