Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-410-30041322

On the deck of the Lucksnow, the Ocean Snake's corpse had been cut into pieces.

Tang Jie played around with the Ocean Snake's fiend pellet, which was in a rare state of being completely intact, energy never having been taken from it. He watched as several dozen sailors energetically skinned and dissected the large snake. The Ocean Snake's skin could be used in armor, while its flesh and gallbladder were powerful restoratives.

Killing this one Ocean Snake had made at least three thousand spirit coins for Tang Jie. The key was that its pellet was intact, making it more valuable.

But this was because he was lucky. A sea fiend whose entire body was a treasure and that was also this stupid was hard to find. Most sea fiends would have noticed that the situation was not in their favor and fled long ago. The sea floor was their world, and the moment one entered the water, the balance of power would be completely reversed. Even the disciples of Horizon Ocean Pavilion didn't dare to pursue a fiend into the water.

The old man said respectfully to Tang Jie, "Young Sir Tang, your meditation chamber is ready. If you would, please follow me."

Many people on the ship came forward to thank him for saving the ship. After conversing with them, Tang Jie had learned that this was a trading ship that belonged to the Yun Clan of Spirit Mountain Island. The old man's name was Yun Changan, and he was an elder of the Yun Clan. Yun Danming was his nephew, belonging to a side branch of the Yun Clan. They were headed toward Thousand Sail Island, and though their ultimate destination was different, they were also passing by Celestial River Island. For this reason, the old man was willing to take his savior there. Considering that Tang Jie was dry on spiritual energy, and it would be hard to find a place to rest while flying and he could end up disoriented due to storms, he agreed.

He said to the old man, "Old Sir, please accept my thanks."

Yun Changan hastily said, "Young Sir Tang is too polite. Young Sir is a cultivator of revered status, and you are also our savior. We will fulfill any task that you might require."

Tang Jie smiled when he heard the term "cultivator". "From the sound of it, it seems like you've interacted with cultivators before. An ordinary person would have called me 'Immortal' or 'Immortal Master' instead."

Yun Changan laughed. "My Yun Clan is still a clan of the Three Islands, so we retain Spirit Masters. This lowly old man has met cultivators before."

As Endsea had many islands, the clans and sects here were in a different situation to those of other kingdoms. Putting aside the continental clans, the island clans and sects had their status decided by the islands they resided on. If an island was small, then even if a clan or sect ruled that entire island, it would only amount to a village chief.

It was only those that controlled large islands with abundant resources and populations that were acknowledged as great clans.

For this reason, Endsea's islands were separated into four categories. Islands of the first category were those below 5,000 qing. These islands were called "village islands", as their limited area restricted their development. A single qing in Endsea was equivalent to a square kilometer. The second category was islands with an area of 5,000 qing to 20,000 qing. These were called "county islands". The third category was islands from an area of 20,000 qing to 100,000 qing, and these were called "prefecture islands". Those in the fourth category were islands with an area of 100,000 qing to 500,000 qing, "province islands".

(TN: The normal conversation of qing "顷" to hectares is 1 qing to 6.67 hectares. A square kilometer is 100 hectares, so Endsea's 1 qing is much larger than the standard qing that was used in China. For simplicity, "square kilometer" will be used in place of "qing" from now on.)

Endsea only had five large islands that had an area of several hundred thousand square kilometers. If one discounted two of the islands, which were resource islands, the remaining three islands were rich and prosperous. "A clan of the Three Islands" referred to one from these three particularly prosperous islands of Endsea: Spirit Mountain Island, Thousand Sail Island, and Brightshine Island.

Only clans that dominated these three islands could be called truly great clans.

Besides these three islands, there was also an extremely large island, Great Wind Island. It had an area of more than two million square kilometers, and it was surrounded by numerous smaller islands that acted like outposts. This was the location of Horizon Ocean Pavilion and was the sole island greater than one million square kilometers in area.

It was said that there were other islands of this size in the past, but the people of Horizon Ocean Pavilion had used their divine techniques to shatter and divide them so that they could be ruled.

Tang Jie had been in long-term correspondence with Xu Miaoran, so he had a rather deep understanding of Endsea. He remarked, "So you were a clan of the Three Islands. I understand now. But why does a clan of the Three Islands have such a large ship without a single Spirit Master escorting it?"

The old man's face stiffened.

From his expression, Tang Jie knew that he had probably prodded a sore point, so he quickly said, "My apologies. I asked too much."

Yun Changan sighed. "Actually, it's no big deal. It's just that the Yun Clan has recently run into some problems, and we have a manpower shortage."

Tang Jie knew that the ocean trade was very different from land trade. A Spirit Master escorting a ship could easily be occupied for several months. For this reason, Spirit Masters would normally be assigned to only large ships carrying valuable cargo. Otherwise, the money made wouldn't make up for the money used to hire them.

But this five-masted trading ship was loaded with large amounts of cargo. For such a large ship to not have a Spirit Master protecting it could only mean that the Yun Clan was operating on such a scale that this one ship wasn't worth anything, or else that it was facing a dire shortage of manpower.

Based on Yun Changan's expression, it didn't appear like the Yun Clan was that brimming with wealth, so Tang Jie guessed that the Yun Clan had probably encountered some sort of problem.

He had no desire to take on their problems, so he indifferently said, "I see."

"Right, from Young Sir's tone, you do not seem to be an Endseanian," the old man said.

Tang Jie replied, "This Basking Moon disciple has come to Endsea on official business."

The old man was clearly scared out of his wits when he heard that this person was a Basking Moon disciple, and he no longer dared to ask any questions.

A few moments later, the two of them arrived at the cabin that had been prepared for Tang Jie. Tang Jie entered, and when he saw that the cabin was rather clean, he nodded his head in satisfaction.

The old man said, "Young Sir, please rest here. If you need anything, you only have to ask."

"Understood," Tang Jie coolly replied.

The old man saw that he had no more questions and left.

Once the old man was gone, Yiyi climbed onto Tang Jie's shoulder and asked, "Big Brother, why did you tell the old man that you were from the Basking Moon Sect, and even that you were on official business? Isn't that completely exposing our objective?"

Tang Jie replied, "That's exactly what I want."

Yiyi's eyes went wide.

Tang Jie replied, "My mission this time is to find Lin Baicang, but where in the world am I going to find him in such a vast region? While it was said that he was on Celestial River Island, that was a matter from many days ago, so we don't even know if he's still there. And even if he is, do you know how big Celestial River Island is?"

Tang Jie raised four fingers. "Forty thousand square kilometers! And all I have is this compass with a range of fifty kilometers."

Tang Jie coldly chuckled. "Searching only Celestial River Island will take me several dozen days. And this isn't even considering that we're dealing with a moving target. I might have even just missed him, which means that I could flip the entire place upside-down and still not find him. So…"

Tang Jie paused before continuing, "The best method as of right now isn't to find him, but to have him find me."

"I see," Yiyi said in understanding.

In order to quickly find Lin Baicang, Tang Jie had decided to publicly announce his presence in Endsea so as to get his attention. So long as Lin Baicang wasn't an idiot, he would understand why a Basking Moon disciple would act so conspicuously in these circumstances.

"But if you do this, the Beast Refining Gate's people will also know you're here," Yiyi said.

Tang Jie nodded. "That's inevitable. Since I'm using myself as bait, it's only natural that I attract both prey and predators. But that's fine. I'm not afraid of Cognitive Creation, and even if a Celestial Heart Spirit Ring comes, I have a plan."

Yiyi nodded.

To put it bluntly, Tang Jie dared to show himself because he had the strength to look down on cultivators below Celestial Heart.

No matter the plan or scheme, it required the support of strength. The greater one's strength, the simpler the methods could be. For a mission like this, the Tang Jie of the past would have to use everything he had to reach his goal. But now that the teleportation formation was complete and the original body and avatar had combined their power, he no longer took any ordinary opponents seriously, and his plans could be simpler and more effective.

Revealing himself and using himself as bait was the choice Tang Jie had made for this situation.

For Yiyi, this was also a great plan for her, for she no longer needed to hide. She could walk out into the sun and do anything she wanted with him.

Her eyes twinkled like little stars. "We can play in a lot of places, and wherever we go, we can write down that Tang Jie and Yiyi were here. We can also go and buy lots and lots of clothes so that everyone on the streets can see us. We can even talk loudly, telling everyone who sees us that we're from the Basking Moon Sect, free and content!"

Tang Jie broke into a sweat. "Silly girl, how long do you think it will take to make everyone know I'm here if we use this sort of method?"

Yiyi looked at Tang Jie in surprise. "Is there another way?"

"Of course," Tang Jie chuckled. "To make everyone know about you in the shortest amount of time, you have to do something earthshaking that makes everyone gasp in wonder. That's the fastest way to have your name spread far and wide."

"How do you do something earthshaking?" Yiyi asked.

"There are plenty of ways." Tang Jie profoundly smiled. "Challenging someone famous above your level and defeating them, accumulating wealth and becoming a rich man that everyone knows about, creating an incident and killing so many people that everyone hears about you… or if it suits your fancy, you can strip naked and fly around Celestial River Island. That will certainly get everyone talking about you."

Yiyi's jaw dropped. She was still a young girl, not like Tang Jie, who had seen all sorts of incidents vying for attention on the internet, so her mind was unable to keep up. All of the various methods Tang Jie had mentioned left her dizzy.

What had been a simple search mission had ended up as a grandiose solo act in Tang Jie's hands. When she thought about all the excitement that she might experience, Yiyi clapped her hands and shouted.

After doing a few somersaults on the bed, Yiyi asked, "So where are we starting from? Challenging someone above our level or making a bunch of money?"

Tang Jie chuckled. "Traveling around Celestial River with a True Lord's daughter, a potential marriage alliance between Basking Moon and Horizon Ocean—what do you think about that?"

Yiyi froze when she heard the mention of a True Lord's daughter, and then she shouted in realization, "Big Sister Xu!"

When he had been heading for Celestial River Island, Tang Jie had sent a message to Xu Miaoran, but as these two communicated often, Yiyi hadn't paid it much attention. But now, she realized that Tang Jie had been making plans at the time.

Casually sipping his tea, Tang Jie said, "She's already on Celestial River Island. We haven't seen each other in so long, and I really miss her. This is the perfect chance to satisfy both personal and public interests."

Celestial River Island.

This was a narrow island, long from east to west and narrow from north to south, appearing like a large ship.

On the eastern end of the island was a mountain called Mount Buyao. At over three thousand meters in height, it was the tallest mountain of Celestial River Island. The summit thrust out at an angle, extending a hundred meters. It appeared like a buyao thrust into the head, so it was named the Buyao Aqueduct, and the entire mountain was named Mount Buyao.

(TN: The buyao, the "step-shake", is a type of hairpin with jewels dangling from it. Its name comes from how the jewels would shake whenever one moved.)

The summit was covered by snow year-round. When the snow melted, it flowed down the Buyao Aqueduct and descended in a waterfall, like a river from the heavens. For this beautiful sight, the island was named Celestial River Island.

The Celestial River descended into a small lake at the base of the mountain called Jade Moon Pool.

There was an observation pavilion within Jade Moon Pool, the size of a small island. Despite the fact that it was made from metal and jade, it floated on the surface. This was one of Horizon Ocean Pavilion's famous Floating Palaces. When it came to building palaces, no one could match Horizon Ocean Pavilion.

It was said that the enormous Floating Palace at Horizon Ocean Pavilion's headquarters, Great Wind Island, was actually a Dao armament that possessed an unimaginably strong defense and the ability to fly. It could protect tens of thousands of people and could pierce through domain barriers to wander beyond the heavens.

For this reason, Horizon Ocean Pavilion was also called the major sect most capable of running within the Rosecloud Domain. This wasn't just because of their Oceancrosser Step, but also because of this enormous Floating Palace.

The pavilion on Jade Moon Pool naturally didn't have this ability. But it could drift atop the pool and view the Celestial River from every possible angle.

Xu Miaoran sat on the observation platform of this pavilion, her hands holding up her chin as she looked at the Celestial River. Her eyes were blank, apparently unappreciative of the scenery.

Someone tried to suppress a laugh.

Xu Miaoran said without turning her head, "Hong Yuan, are you asking for another beating?"

The red-clothed maid complained, "I was just looking at this beautiful sight and giggling in happiness. Why was the young lady angered by this?"

Xu Miaoran snorted, "You and your sharp tongue, daring to joke around but not daring to admit it!"

"Tsk!" Hong Yuan's body swayed, but she did not seem the slightest bit afraid.

The green-robed maid next to her, Xian Tao, prodded Hong Yuan's forehead. "It's all because the young lady likes you that you can mess around like this. If you've really got the guts, you should say the same in front of the master."

Hong Yuan made a face. "I'm just joking. There's no need to take it seriously. But, Young Lady, are you really planning on going around Celestial River with Tang Jie, letting everyone in the world know?"

Xu Miaoran indifferently said, "Tang Jie and I going traveling around Celestial River is our own business. I don't care what other people think about it."

"But Tang Jie clearly isn't doing this because of you," Hong Yuan indignantly said. To her, it was one thing for Tang Jie to pursue her young lady, but to mix public and personal business was truly contemptible. When pursuing a girl, one should devote one's entire being to it, not do two things at once.

There was a clear lack of sincerity in this behavior.

Xu Miaoran was nonchalant about this. "I know, but what about it? He's different from me. I come from a great clan and can get whatever resources I need, but he comes from a servant background and has a lowly status. He's only been able to get what he has today through his own hard work. The Immortal path is long, and the relationship between the two of us is only just beginning. So long as he wants to walk that path, he cannot relax. Singlemindedly seeking love is an extravagant luxury for him, an impossible existence. For this reason, doing two things at once is the proper path. In these last few years, he's never come to see me. He's only been able to come this time because he has official business. If you ask me as a girl if I liked it, I naturally don't have a reason to, but there's also no reason for me to dislike it."

Hong Yuan pursed her lips. "As a bystander, I've never seen you being so understanding of others before."

While Xu Miaoran's argument sounded very reasonable, Hong Yuan understood her young lady's temper. When she got angry, she could do all sorts of monstrous things, completely living up to the name of "fiend woman".

Xu Miaoran laughed. "I'm still a True Lord's daughter. Rather than me understanding other people, other people have to try and understand me. I just need to understand the man that I like, that's all."

As she was speaking, the jade token on her waist flashed.

She looked down, and her face bloomed into a gorgeous smile. "He's arrived."