Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-426-30041322

Amidst shrieking, Yun Danqi shouted, "Together!"

He flew into the air, thrusting his hands at the Faceless Serpent.

Four of his fellow disciples took flight with him, attacking in unison.

The ten palms formed a giant white lotus flower in the air.

The Horizon Lotus Blossom Hand!

This was a famous combination Immortal spell of Horizon Ocean Pavilion. When used by five people at once, its power would multiply.

Yun Danqi and the other four clearly worked together a lot, which was why they could use this sort of combination spell. In Tang Jie's view, they were individually rather weak, comparable to an outer disciple like Shi Meng. But when working together, their power was even greater than that of Tang Jie's Heavenly Cloud Blades. He would probably have to resort to the Heavenly King Mara Incantation to fight back against it.

This lotus flower spun in the air as it flew at the Faceless Serpent, the petals appearing like blades.

The Faceless Serpent's head slammed into the lotus flower, and the spinning lotus flower began to slice chunks off the Faceless Serpent like a sharp blade slicing carrots, sending out sprays of blood and flesh.

It seemed like the Faceless Serpent was not a match for these five.

But Yun Danqi didn't seem happy at all. On the contrary, he seemed helpless and griefstricken.

The spinning lotus flower ran through the Faceless Serpent like a meat grinder, finishing off its head and beginning to grind away at the body, chunk by chunk.

After grinding away at the Faceless Serpent for thirty-some meters, the lotus flower finally dissipated. A moment later, the Faceless Serpent slammed into a wall tower. The wall tower collapsed while the Faceless Serpent hissed in triumph.

It was still the same faceless head with only that single mouth, and it still let out that same intimidating shriek.

"What's going on here?" Tang Jie was dumbfounded by the scene.

Hadn't the Faceless Serpent's head been ground down into little meat chunks by the lotus flower? Why was it still there?

Shen Ningming said, "The Faceless Serpent has no head and no face."

Hearing this, Tang Jie understood.

The so-called Faceless Serpent was so named because it didn't have a head. The grinding of the Horizon Lotus Blossom Hand had only ground down a part of its body.

The Faceless Serpent was a kind of lifeform similar to an earthworm. When it lost a part of its body, it would not die, and it wouldn't even be significantly hurt. Once the attack was over, a new head part would emerge from the wound. If it wanted, it could even use its tail as the head, and run away without even turning around.

"Doesn't that mean that you would have to grind down every part of its body in order to kill it?" Tang Jie asked.

"Indeed, which is what makes it so difficult!" Shen Ningming said with a sigh.

As he spoke, the Faceless Serpent slammed its body into the wall again.

This was a heavy blow, and the soldiers suffered ten-some casualties.

The Faceless Serpent used its mouth to suck in the slain soldiers, and then its body began to rapidly grow from its tail.

This fiend had no weaknesses, and it could even rapidly heal its damaged body.

The ten-some soldiers clearly weren't enough for it to restore its thirty-some meters of lost body, so it turned around and swallowed a large sea fiend, not even chewing.

As it consumed food, its body rapidly recovered, and just like that, the damage done with the full power of Yun Danqi's team of five was undone.

It was still more than three hundred meters long, standing tall like a pillar of heaven, the sight causing Yun Danqi and the others to despair.

If they weren't tired out from the many days of fighting, and if not for the constant attacks of the sea fiends, Yun Danqi's team might have been able to battle it out with the Faceless Serpent.

But this lethal combination meant that even stopping the Faceless Serpent was a luxury.

While the Lotus Blossom Hand was powerful, it dealt minuscule damage to the Faceless Serpent. Once it had restored its body, the Faceless Serpent restarted its frenzied offensive.

It let out a piercing shriek, and its massive body hammered at the walls. The fact that it was nearly unkillable allowed it to ignore all attacks. After all, no matter what damage was dealt to it, it could just eat a few things to recover.

In the face of this terrifying monstrosity, all counterattacks were insignificant, and the walls resounded with cries of grief and despair.

Even Tang Jie's heart couldn't help but tremble at this sorrowful and tragic sight.

He had mixed into this crowd with a fake name and appearance because he had noticed that the Beast Refining Gate's people had already infiltrated the vicinity of the island. Thus, taking on another identity was the only way he could investigate the exact location of the Beast Garden.

For this reason, he didn't plan to use too much of his strength, for fear of exposing himself.

But he hadn't expected the situation on the island to be this dire!

At this moment, a massacre was playing out before him. The sea fiends were crazily devouring humans, and everyone was desperately fighting to protect their homes.

That young master of the Yun Clan had never said a word to him, but Tang Jie could see that this was a brave soul who was willing to die to protect his clan.

The juniors at his side seemed like lowly outer disciples of Horizon Ocean Pavilion. They had been invited to come and help, and they could have fled at the sight of danger, but none of them was backing down.

It was precisely this sort of unity that had allowed them to push back the Faceless Serpent again and again.

But the ceaseless attacks had finally worn him down.

Tang Jie didn't know if it would be at this moment, or even today, but he knew that if he didn't act, the casualties would continue to climb.

Can I just sit back and watch all these innocent people die? Tang Jie asked himself.

In a flash, Tang Jie knew that he couldn't.

"Big Brother Xu… you were right. My bottom line truly is a little low," Tang Jie bitterly chuckled.

He needed to even think about such a thing? This was a problem all on its own.

He raised his head and looked at the Faceless Serpent.

This enormous creature was flaunting its power, smashing its massive body down again and again. With each attack, it would do immense damage to the city. Yun Danqi's team of five were barely able to keep it suppressed, but they were helpless to stop it. The Faceless Serpent shrieked in triumph.

"You're celebrating too early," Tang Jie muttered.

Slightly raising his right hand, Tang Jie started to chant, and his hands formed several dozen abstruse signs.

Earlier, he had not acted with his full strength, so Shen Ningming hadn't taken his strength very seriously.

But when he saw these hand signs, he paled. He could tell at a glance that such complex hand signs could not be for some ordinary spell art.

A moment later, an enormous figure formed on the horizon, with a face rather similar to that of Tang Jie's avatar. It was none other than the Heavenly King Mara Incantation.

Art users drew upon the power of the heavens and earth to unleash divine might!

In a duel, as both sides were vying against each other, speed was of utmost importance, and so arts were normally not used.

But in a large-scale battle, Spirit Masters had enough time to use truly powerful arts. This was also why there was always a reason to keep mortals around.

Tang Jie was currently using the complete version of the Heavenly King Mara Incantation. The manifestation was dignified and majestic, its entrance so grandiose that even Yun Danqi's group felt their hearts tremble. The Faceless Serpent sensed a shift on the battlefield, and it raised its head and angrily roared at the sky.

A moment later, the giant manifestation thrust a palm at the Faceless Serpent.

Pa!

The heavenly palm slammed the Faceless Serpent into the earth.

And then it grabbed the Faceless Serpent like it was a little snake and squeezed. Blood and flesh splattered over the earth as the Faceless Serpent was pinched into two.

Hisss! With a screech of grief and anger, the two sections of the Faceless Serpent dropped to the earth. The moment they hit the ground, they each grew a head and a mouth. There were now two of them, each a little more than one hundred meters long.

The Faceless Serpents began to charge at the walls, clearly looking for that caster in the shadows.

As they attacked, Tang Jie snorted and began to use his left hand as well. That giant also began to use both hands, each one reaching out and grabbing a Faceless Serpent.

There was another explosion of blood and flesh, and more screeches of pain. The two Faceless Serpents were severed again, becoming four. This time, before Tang Jie could attack, they instantly broke into more than three thousand small snakes that fled in all directions.

Once they became small, their intimidating presence was no more, but they became cunning and vicious, able to attack over a large area. In this sudden rush, ten-some people were instantly slain. Worst of all was that they could mix into the crowd, robbing Tang Jie of a large target and forcing him to end the Heavenly King Mara Incantation.

"Attack!" Yun Danqi shouted in excitement.

Compared to the enormous Faceless Serpent, the smaller versions were weaker and easier to deal with. Even the hide which had been immune to mortal weapons could now be pierced.

Thus, everyone now attacked those little snakes. The sky above the walls flashed with blades and swords, and the Faceless Serpents shrieked and hissed as they were slain.

Countless mouths crying out at once created the greatest din in the world. Blood descended in a rain, and the Faceless Serpents dropped from the sky like smoked-out mosquitoes.

But the counterattack of the Faceless Serpents was also fierce.

Though they had given up their immense power and defense, the small Faceless Serpents were agile. They dodged the humans' attacks and constantly sought out chances to strike back.

Several dozen Faceless Serpents circled in the air, and then they suddenly charged together at a single soldier, burrowing into his body and eating him up.

In the eating process, they swiftly grew larger, making up for the deaths of their comrades.

As Tang Jie saw this, his eyes narrowed.

If this continued, while it seemed like the Faceless Serpents were dwindling in number, they were actually constantly replenishing their ranks through eating, attempting to use quantity to achieve quality.

Upon realizing this, he shouted, "This won't work! Everyone who's not a cultivator has to leave. Don't give the Faceless Serpents a chance to recover!"

Yun Danqi shouted, "We know, but what about the other sea fiends?"

He turned and pointed. Beyond the walls, countless sea fiends were swimming up from the sea, howling and shouting.

Glancing at these sea fiends, Tang Jie sighed.

Did he really have to use all his strength and expose himself?

While the Heavenly King Mara Incantation was powerful, it wasn't a secret art that only Tang Jie knew. Many in the Basking Moon Sect knew it, and there were also quite a few people outside of it that understood this art. After all, this art had originally come from the outside.

But this art was not enough to stop this fierce and unkillable sea serpent.

Upon realizing this, Tang Jie reached into his Mustard Seed Bag, grabbing a handful of beans. Just when he was about to sow beans into soldiers, he suddenly noticed something and froze.

The Nine Executions Immortal Formation.

In a dark cave, Tang Jie stared at a wall, a book in his hand.

The wall in front of him had a skeleton nailed to the wall by seven nails made of white jade.

The skeleton was black and glossy, and it burned with a dark flame.

"777 days of ritual to create the Seven Demon Devil Bone. Today is finally the last step. I wonder how powerful a Heptademon Ghost Guard made from a Celestial Heart True Person will be…" Tang Jie muttered.

The book in his hand was none other than the Ghost Classic.

When Tang Jie obtained the Ghost Classic all the way back then, its various secret arts had enticed him.

Alas, in this age of orthodox supremacy, the arts of the Ghost Classic could not see the light of day.

But Tang Jie had never given up on using the Ghost Classic.

The Nine Executions Immortal Formation gave Tang Jie an opportunity to do so.

In this world cut off from the rest of the world, there were no humans besides him and He Chong's trio.

In this world, he could use any kind of forbidden art he wanted without fear of being discovered.

Thus, when Tang Jie captured Mei Huaping, he realized that he had an excellent opportunity.

The Heptademon Ghost Guard!

According to the Ghost Classic, the Seven Demon Devil Bone was one of the most fundamental and most powerful of the secret arts for raising ghosts. A ghost guard refined through this secret art would be able to use spell arts, and it would have about the same strength in death as it did in life.

It wouldn't be that great if that were all, but the Heptademon Ghost Guard was actually capable of growth, improving through slaughter, and it also had a certain level of intelligence.

It was actually because of this last point that the Heptademon Ghost Guard required so much time and effort to make. It required a long period of refinement and investment to retain as much intelligence as possible. Thus, Tang Jie had spent a lot of the resources he had gained in the last two years on this effort.

Today, the Heptademon Ghost Guard was finally complete.

As he tapped the forehead of the skeleton, the gloomy flames in the eye sockets of that ghost guard intensified.

Tang Jie raised his hand, and the seven nails flew out of the wall.

A moment later, the ghost guard lunged at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie didn't move. That ghost guard landed in front of Tang Jie and then got down on one knee.

Tang Jie muttered, "Let me see your abilities."

He punched.

With his Diamond Body, even though this punch had only 30% of his strength behind it, it would be enough to make an ordinary Mortal Shedding cultivator explode.

Immense power impacted against the ghost guard's body, and the ghost guard was blasted into the wall. The entire mountain trembled, and dust and gravel rained down from the sides.

The ghost guard came down from the wall like nothing had happened, going up to Tang Jie and getting down on one knee once more.

"Let's try this."

Tang Jie punched again, this time at 50% strength.

This savage strike finally produced a crack in the bones of the ghost guard.

But a moment later, the crack flashed and started to heal.

"As expected, the resistance is limited." Tang Jie now had a rough idea of its toughness.

To be honest, the fact that this ghost guard could resist 50% of Tang Jie's strength showed that it was scarily tough.

"Then, let's test your attack."

Thud!

The ghost guard thrust a clawed hand into Tang Jie's chest.

It plunged in so deeply that half the claw was buried in Tang Jie's body.

Tang Jie was very satisfied. As expected, the ghost guard had inherited the common property of all the ghosts of the Ghost Raising Sect: sharp attacks.

Next, he tested its speed and spell arts, and he was extremely satisfied.

After a series of tests, Tang Jie confirmed that the ghost guard was exactly as powerful as the Ghost Classic had described it to be.

As he looked at the black skeleton, Tang Jie sighed in praise.

It was like Wei Tianchong's puppet—tough, unyielding, loyal, and powerful—but it was more intelligent than a puppet and capable of growth. And rarest of all… it was at Celestial Heart!

It was a good ghost guard. Besides a good refinement method and significant investment, it had required one other, and most important, material.

Celestial Heart True Person Mei Huaping!

Congratulations on becoming my first authentic Celestial Heart subordinate.

Compared to the imbecile Shi Jingzhai, Mei Huaping was stronger, more useful, and smarter.

It was at this moment that Tang Jie received the information on the situation in Joymount Island from his avatar.

He smiled. "How surprising. Right after I finished refining you, a chance for you to show your ability has come."

Joymount Island.

The battle continued.

The frenzied attack from the unkillable Faceless Serpents was giving everyone a headache.

Just when Tang Jie was planning to expose his full power, he sensed what was happening within the Nine Executions Immortal Formation.

With an idea in mind, he killed a Faceless Serpent with a palm chop and then said to Yun Danqi, "Hold on for a little. I'll be back in a flash."

He flew into the city.

"Where are you going?" Shen Ningming frantically cried out.

"To piss!" Tang Jie shouted.

Pissing at a time like this? Shen Ningming felt his vision go dark.

He naturally didn't believe Tang Jie's words. In the middle of this battle, Tang Jie's behavior seemed more like someone that was running away.

But hadn't he just used the Heavenly King Mara Incantation? Why was he now running?

The Horizon Ocean Pavilion disciples were more direct with their anger, cursing, "I just knew we couldn't rely on people that were recruited on the spot."

"Coward!"

"Forget it. After all, he's not one of us and came for money. It's not strange that he would value his life more."

Tang Jie didn't know about all the bad things being said about him behind his back, though he wouldn't have cared if he did.

He swiftly flew and quickly found a deserted area, where he laid down an illusion formation.

It was a very basic formation, but it was enough to fool eyes and ears.

As the illusion formation took form, Tang Jie activated the Mountain River State Diagram.

Though Tang Jie had once feared that he had taken too little land into the diagram, now that he needed to secretly activate it, he praised himself for this decision. If he had really taken in a vast range of land, one illusion formation would never be able to hide it.

But now that he thought about it, if he could really take in a vast piece of land, would he really care if the puny Beast Refining Gate saw him?

He could just mindlessly wipe them out.

The thought was only there for a brief moment. A moment later, he threw in the materials, the teleportation formation activated, and the Heptademon Ghost Guard emerged.

When it saw Tang Jie, the ghost guard was very clearly surprised.

The ghost guard was linked with Tang Jie's soul, which was why it could recognize Tang Jie despite his different appearance, but it was surprised because the ghost guard was intelligent enough to see that these two Tang Jies varied vastly in appearance. Thus, it showed shock at this oddity that no ordinary ghost guard could ever have.

It still got down on one knee in front of Tang Jie.

Tang Jie said, "Go and kill the invading sea fiends, but make sure that nobody knows that you're a ghost guard."

This was the advantage of a ghost guard's intelligence. Tang Jie only needed to give an order for it to execute it. He did not need to be constantly controlling it.

The Heptademon Ghost Guard nodded, and then its body began to fade away.

This was a concealment spell, and an extremely high-level one.

Once the ghost guard had disappeared, Tang Jie put away the Mountain River State Diagram and headed back.

He knew that he had drawn suspicion with this move.

But it was fine. Suspicion was just suspicion. Without any firm evidence, they would not act immediately.

And all that Tang Jie needed was time—time to find out where the Beast Garden was.

Where could that damned Beast Garden be?