Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Bang!

A mountainous serpent corpse fell from the sky into the garden dimension.

Tang Jie and the others descended, trying and failing to not smile.

They couldn't help but smile.

A Remote Antiquity giant serpent had fallen into their hands. This was a supreme treasure for cultivation.

It hadn't been easy to kill this Epoch Behemoth. While the serpent had been heavily injured, it still had its cultivation level, and its physical body was also formidable. Ordinary attacks were of no use against it. Fortunately, thanks to the Flame Celestial Sovereign, Tang Jie had refined the Myriad Yin Yang Furnace into a semi–Dao armament. With the Infinite Palace for the defense and Tutu's cooperation, he was able to once more try out his kiting strategy. In the end, through the Deicide Flame and the Sovereign Blade, he managed to take down the serpent. Again, he had to thank the Flame Celestial Sovereign. It was only because of that battle that he had been able to make this much progress.

At the end, everyone had rushed in and barraged it with attacks, whether they worked or not, ultimately battering the serpent to death.

While fighting, they didn't hear anything from the Heaven's Equal Sect or Stellar Net Gate, so they were probably still fighting the Wandering Souls.

After killing the fiend serpent, Tang Jie dragged it into the dimension. While the serpent was big, the dimension was mysteriously able to easily accept the fiend.

Tang Jie laughed, "This is an Epoch Behemoth that even an Earth Immortal couldn't defeat. Its entire body is a treasure, so we definitely can't pass up such an opportunity."

He produced the Sovereign Blade, which was the only tool at his disposal able to cut through the snake's tough scales.

Tang Jie cut open the serpent and removed its massive fiend pellet. It was the size of a human head and translucent all over, a faint red light visible within. "With this pellet, we don't even need Immortal energy. Yiyi can advance without a problem."

Yiyi wrinkled her little nose at that huge pellet. "It's so big. How am I going to eat it?"

Xu Miaoran lightly tapped Yiyi on the forehead and smiled. "Silly, the fiend energy contained in this thing is too much for you alone to convert. It still needs to be refined. Fortunately, your sister is ready for this."

She took out a pile of herbs from her Mustard Seed Bag while Tang Jie took out the Myriad Yin Yang Furnace and tossed in the pellet. Xu Miaoran fanned the furnace, which produced its own flame. As the pellet floated in the furnace, Xu Miaoran began to throw in herbs and refine the fiend pellet.

Tang Jie continued to dismantle the serpent.

The scales of this snake could defend against all kinds of spell arts, and it was only the Sovereign Blade that could cut them off. Tang Jie asked for the Violet Sunset Robe from Xu Miaoran, after which he threw the robe and the scales together into the air and began to form countless hand signs such that the scales began to merge with the robe. The Violet Sunset Robe was a middle-grade divine treasure, and with the scales of this Epoch Behemoth added to it, it was upgraded to an upper-grade divine treasure, and it also appeared more majestic as a bonus.

As for the rest of the scales, he refined them using the Imperial Sky Stamp, creating large quantities of Immortal energy. Finally, he sent the blood and organs into the Mountain River State Diagram so that they would become part of that world's cycle.

By the time he was done, Xu Miaoran had also finished refining the pellet into a pill. The moment the pill was finished, a golden light shot out of the furnace. Xu Miaoran was caught off guard, and the golden light flew high into the sky, but then it came bouncing back. It had run into this world's wall and found it couldn't escape, so all it could do was fly about this isolated dimension.

Her eyes gleamed savagely, and Xu Miaoran roared, "You want to run? Get back here right now!"

As she reached for the golden light, she activated Limitless.

Her hand drew back a small golden pill, flying about in her palm but unable to escape.

Xu Miaoran smiled. "I've only seen this Celestial Fate Pill in a book. It said that this pill would ascend once it was complete, but it seems like rather than a cultivator's ascension, it refers to this pill gaining intelligence and actually flying up on its own. Fortunately, this world is very constrained, so it can't fly away, or else it would have escaped."

Tang Jie replied, "But no matter how far it flies, it will eventually run out of power and fall, and some random person will benefit from it. That's why it's called the Celestial Fate Pill, because it's all up to destiny. Someone who lacks sufficient destiny with this pill won't be able to enjoy it. We had sufficient destiny, so this pill is ours, and nobody can take it from us."

He took the pill from Xu Miaoran and placed it in Yiyi's mouth.

The moment the pill entered her mouth, it stopped moving, all of its spirituality transforming into medicinal power to nourish Yiyi. Tang Jie swept up Yiyi and said, "Come on. Your big brother will help you advance."

He took Yiyi into the Mountain River State Diagram world.

After some time, they once more flew out of the diagram.

Yiyi's eyes now shone with a divine light, her aura had receded into her body, and there seemed to be a light flowing across her body.

Xu Miaoran clapped her hands and smiled. "Success!"

Yes!

Yiyi had ascended to Divine Division.

After so many years, Yiyi had finally made this step.

Of the people present, only Ice Phoenix remained at Soul Transformation.

Ice Phoenix snorted and looked away, not at all happy.

While Xu Miaoran and Yiyi celebrated, Tang Jie said, "Since Yiyi has entered Divine Division, she can cultivate together with us now."

"Mm!" Yiyi vigorously nodded.

Yiyi joined Tang Jie and Xu Miaoran in trying to comprehend the Immortal Emperor's Dao Will.

Shockingly, Yiyi again reached a completely different conclusion.

Yiyi felt that the Dao Will the Immortal Emperor had left behind was connected to Fate.

Four people had all felt something completely different from the Immortal Emperor's Dao Will. Tang Jie was left utterly perplexed.

He could only say that this Dao Will was too powerful, so powerful that one could see any principle of the world within it, with none of them truly getting to its core.

Was this like in those martial arts stories, where only someone completely ignorant of the Great Dao, perhaps who didn't even know how to read, could truly comprehend the Immortal Emperor's legacy?

Tang Jie couldn't help but laugh at the notion.

If that was the case, then all their efforts were pointless.

He had become much more openminded ever since reaching the Violet Palace Realm, so since comprehending this Dao Will seemed out of the question, he decided to just focus on growing stronger.

In this isolated dimension, advancing his cultivation should have been extremely difficult.

Fortunately, he had the serpent, which had been converted by the Imperial Sky Stamp into even more Immortal energy than had been provided by the Wailing Baby.

Thus, Tang Jie absorbed a little Immortal energy every day to increase his cultivation.

In this timeless place, he lost himself in cultivation, spending an untold amount of time.

Once Tang Jie absorbed all the Immortal energy, his cultivation level reached peak Soul Projection.

Alas, the limits of this space prevented Tang Jie from reaching Immortal Platform.

As Tang Jie awoke from his meditation, he looked around and found that everything was the same. Bound by the Time Stop, this place was unchanging. Only Xu Miaoran, Yiyi, and Ice Phoenix showed a little sign of aging.

Tang Jie knew that this was because they had spent too long here.

While this place was frozen in time, they were unaffected, and their bodies might have already experienced centuries, perhaps even a thousand years.

This was because they were not natives of this dimension.

The Dao the Immortal Emperor had left here ultimately only affected this space and what belonged to it.

Tang Jie sighed.

Suddenly, he seemed to realize something, and disbelief appeared in his eyes.

"Could it be that that's what the Immortal Emperor's Dao Will is…"

He once more began to extend his will into this space.

After a while, Tang Jie finally noticed something suspicious.

He suddenly stood up and completely emptied his mind. Just like in those martial arts stories of the past, he gave up on thinking, feeling this dimension's Dao Will with a blank mind.

In the past, Tang Jie thought that he couldn't reach the level of "not knowing how to read", but now, he knew that he could.

…Because he truly "didn't know how to read". More specifically, he didn't understand the words of this dimension!

As he emptied his mind and gave up on his old preconceptions, he found this world to seem completely different.

It was a sensation that completely melded with the soul. It was completely unique to this world, like nothing else, beyond description. Tang Jie knew that this was the Dao that the Immortal Emperor had left behind!

It wasn't one of the Twelve Great Daos!

Tang Jie didn't know what it was, but he finally understood the Immortal Emperor's purpose.

In this dimension, he had created his own Dao!

This was a level that countless people could only dream of.

It was transcendence in the truest sense.

Although Tang Jie didn't know what it was, this didn't stop him from studying it, comprehending it, experiencing what had been left by his predecessor.

He stood in the center of this "world", his Divine Will spreading into his surroundings, his empty mind experiencing the highest principles of this world, even experiencing that moment of ecstasy the Immortal Emperor had experienced at that moment.

As this comprehension reached its apex, he heard the sound of a bell.

Tang Jie saw an object appear on the horizon.

It was a golden hourglass.

The sand in this hourglass should have flowed down so as to track time.

But the golden sand did not move.

…Because it had been laid flat.

As it lay flat, all of its sand motionless, time was also stopped.

Tang Jie was awestruck.

He muttered, "A Heavenly Dao… Hourglass!"