Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 857: Charging to the Next Tier

Tutu couldn't remember exactly how many fiends it ended up fighting.

All it knew was that it kept flying and kept fighting, charging at any fiend it spotted.

Seething Immortal energy was fighting to get out of its body, and it was also addling its mind, leaving it so confused that it even charged at Void Returning fiends.

Fortunately, Tang Jie still had his senses and was able to pull it away.

Finally, that energy that was about to make it burst receded.

As the power faded away, an unprecedented fatigue swept over Tutu, and it immediately fainted.

When it woke, it found itself lying in the wilderness.

Opening its eyes, it saw Tang Jie's face.

"Master!" Tutu recoiled in fear.

But the expected storm didn't come. Tutu cracked open its eyes and saw Tang Jie smiling at it.

He said, "Awake now? If you're awake, let's get going."

Eh?

Tutu blurted out in surprise, "You're not going to scold me?"

It immediately regretted these words. Wasn't this essentially asking for a beating?

Fortunately, Tang Jie was magnanimous, casually saying, "What? So you want me to give you a scolding?"

"Of course not!" Tutu laughed. "I know I was wrong, so I won't make the same mistake in the future."

"Stop being so humble. After all, you're a Divine Division great fiend now. You'll become a joke if someone sees you being so meek and servile."

"Oh," Tutu said.

And then it froze.

'A Divine Division great fiend'?

What did he mean?

Seeing that it was confused, Tang Jie indifferently said, "Hm? Have you not noticed yet?"

A light flashed behind Tutu's head, and an ethereal rabbit rose up.

This was the defining attribute of Divine Division and Violet Palace, the Divine Soul leaving the body.

For humans, it was Violet Palace, and for fiends, it was Divine Division. The two had the same meaning, that being the condensation of the Divine Soul and linking with the world, from then on possessing a second life.

Tutu also grew excited upon seeing its Divine Soul, muttering, "Divine Division… I'm at Divine Division… I'm finally at Divine Division!"

It began to weep.

Tang Jie understood what it was thinking. "Congratulations on regaining your divinity. Fortunately, you were once a Divine Division great fiend and had already had a basis on which to condense your Divine Soul, which is why the Immortal energy was able to give you that final push. Anyone else would never be able to ascend in such chaotic circumstances. Many things are much easier once you're doing them the second time around, as you have both the knowledge and the feeling."

Saying this, Tang Jie suddenly felt an idea flit through his mind, but he couldn't quite grasp what it was, leaving him baffled.

Tutu gradually calmed down.

It had once thought that there was no hope of it returning to Divine Division, yet here it was, breaking through after a series of strange circumstances. After celebrating, it prostrated to Tang Jie. "Master, it's all thanks to you that Tutu was able to get this far."

Tang Jie replied, "You're a Divine Division great fiend now, so you don't need to prostrate to me anymore. In addition, we should change that name of yours. Instead of Tutu… your name will be Shen Tu."

Tutu said in delight, "Master, thank you for this name!"

It turned into a gust of wind, whooshing here and there, even moving a little faster than its frantic pace from before.

Its race, the Heaven-Lost Rabbit Race, had always been famed for its speed, and they had even been able to cross the void. Now that it had returned to Divine Division, even though it had yet to reach the peak, its speed had been given a great boost, and not even Tang Jie was able to keep up. Xu Miaoran was able to keep up if she used Limitless, but as her Space Dao power was limited, she would lose out on long journeys.

Seeing this, Xu Miaoran happily said, "Now that Tutu has broken into Divine Division, even if its combat power is still mediocre, its speed is without parallel. It seems like even an Earth Immortal might not be able to catch it, so you could consider it another means of saving your life. Husband, why not give some of the remaining Immortal energy to Yiyi and see if she can break through too?"

Tang Jie had brought Yiyi to give her more opportunities, yet here, he shook his head. "The threshold of Divine Division isn't something so easily crossed. Tutu was able to do it mostly because it had been there before, so it didn't have to deal with a lot of the usual problems. Even then, it risked dying from combustion. Yiyi doesn't have the same conditions. If she absorbs too little, she won't have enough of a boost to go all the way, and if she takes too much, her death will be certain."

Xu Miaoran felt like this was a great pity. "Then you should use it, my dear husband."

Tang Jie nodded. "This Immortal energy is highly concentrated, so if I were to absorb it, I could go all the way to the peak of Deification, perhaps even use the opportunity to break into Soul Projection."

Xu Miaoran was delighted to hear this. If Tang Jie entered Soul Projection, they would be even safer as they made their way through the court.

Tang Jie hadn't done this earlier because he needed to wait for Tutu to wake up. Now that Tutu was awake and fine, Tang Jie looked for a quiet place to sit down so that he could absorb the energy and make the charge to Soul Projection.

To be honest, this was extremely risky.

The Court of Myriad Domains was full of danger, and if he attempted to reach Soul Projection here, he might encounter some cultivator harboring wicked motives.

But now that Tutu had reached Divine Division, Tang Jie's ability to escape received a huge boost, and he gained a little hope.

Tang Jie went and found a mountain.

This mountain was rich in spiritual energy, and it also had a valley which was the local nexus of spiritual energy, making it a natural place to cultivate. Alas, the passage into the valley had been severed by rocks, turning it into a prison that sealed in the energy within.

But for Tang Jie, who was looking to make a breakthrough in private, this sealing effect was exactly what he wanted. He even saw a cave situated within a slope, which was a perfect place for observing the surrounding land and absorbing the Immortal energy.

Such an exquisite location seemed more artificial than natural. This made it only more necessary for Tang Jie to advance in this place, to see if there was any opportunity lying in wait.

He set up an illusion formation to conceal the entrance of this nameless small cave and obscure any signs of his breakthrough, and then he had Xu Miaoran and the puppet stand guard. Only then did he begin to absorb the Imperial Sky Stamp's Immortal energy.

Immortal energy surged into Tang Jie's body, and he guided this energy through every point in his body, baptizing every part of himself in its power.

This was the difference between Immortal Essence and ordinary Immortal energy. Even though they were made of the same substance, they manifested in different ways, regular Immortal energy being far more flexible.

When this energy entered Tang Jie's Violet Palace, it mixed with his Divine Soul, washing over it again and again. The Divine Soul howled, trembling and groaning in pain.

This was a necessary part of the Divine Soul's evolution.

Infant Tending was condensing the Divine Soul into a Primal Infant, and Deification was granting the Primal Infant all the characteristics of a human. Soul Projection completed the Divine Soul, allowing it to leave its shell—not the body, but the Violet Palace. In other words, the Divine Soul would no longer need the protection of the Violet Palace and could fly freely through the world while exhibiting all manner of powerful abilities.

But this completion required the Divine Soul to be washed over again and again by large quantities of energy, and there was a certain risk of annihilation. While the danger was much less than what was present at the Violet Palace threshold, it still couldn't be underestimated.

Tang Jie was unafraid. He had made steady progress in these years, ensuring that his foundations were solid, so one could say that any moment he picked to ascend was the right moment. Besides that, he had taken the Nine Heavens Luan Grass, which boosted his chances at all levels.

In addition to that were all the Mustard Seed Bags Xu Miaoran had stolen. These had all formerly belonged to Violet Palace cultivators, and medicines that such people brought along all generally had some effect on the Divine Soul, which meant that Tang Jie could use them. While there weren't too many, they were all quite valuable. Some of them were even medicines that could assist in the charge at Soul Projection. Now that they were Tang Jie's, he was naturally the one who would end up benefiting from them.

Finally, not only did he have this Immortal energy as a huge source of energy, the Court of Myriad Domains was also rich in spiritual energy, which made the environment optimal for ascending. All of these factors had led to Tang Jie's sudden decision.

To put it simply, any remaining danger in breaking through here wouldn't come from oneself, but from external factors.

Xu Miaoran stood guard at the cave entrance, warily observing the surroundings and occasionally looking back at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie's aura was growing stronger and stronger, which was a sign of his ever-increasing cultivation, and once he reached the peak of Deification, he could use the excess Immortal energy to break into Soul Projection.

Xu Miaoran was deeply concerned about his safety, so much so that she sometimes even hoped that there wasn't enough Immortal energy to push Tang Jie to the peak. But after some thought, she also felt like it would be terrible to miss out on such a good opportunity, and she wavered between the two options.

She could only watch Tang Jie and hope that the heavens were looking out for them so that no trouble came their way.

But alas…

Xu Miaoran spotted a group of cultivators in the distance.

Xu Miaoran nervously watched them, hoping that they would fly past rather than stop.

But to her surprise, these people landed in the valley.

Xu Miaoran then saw that these were none other than the cultivators of the Jadestone Alliance, led by Reverend Whitestone!

Why had they come here?

In the middle of her shock and surprise, that group began to walk over.

Reverend Whitestone led the way, saying, "Everyone, look here. This is a secret entrance to the Violet Firmament Palace. The Court of Myriad Domains has many traps and formations, and after the shattering, many of the formations activated, causing many of those divine palaces to be hidden within them. These palaces within the formations are the real treasure grounds. As for those exposed outside, they were mostly the residences of guards and servants, holding little value."

Xu Miaoran heard some sourness in his tone, and she wondered why he considered all the things outside to be worthless. But then she realized that Reverend Whitestone was still dejected over having found nothing in the illusion formation and was saying such things to comfort himself.

She found the thought rather amusing, but she also couldn't help but be concerned over the fact that the place they had chosen for Tang Jie to break through was located near Reverend Whitestone's so-called secret entrance.

Fortunately, the cave entrance was concealed by a formation, and Reverend Whitestone remained unaware that Tang Jie was here. He pointed at a nearby mountain wall and said that the entrance was there and one only needed to undo the formation concealing it.

The Jadestone Alliance had prepared a formation expert. Tang Jie had been counted as one, but as nobody had known how powerful he really was or how knowledgeable he was in formations, they hadn't truly placed their hopes on him. Thus, when he seemed to be lost in the formation, nobody waited for him. The Jadestone Alliance had brought a true formation master with them, one that Reverend Whitestone had personally invited so that he could open the formation over the entrance.

This cultivator, who bore the name "Truth Embracer", came forward and began to draw lines on the mountain wall in preparation to break the formation.