Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-429-30041322

When the feast was over, the Yun Clan arranged residences for the Spirit Masters to stay in so that they could rest from the long battle.

After this battle, although the Yun Clan had managed to keep Joymount Island, it had suffered major losses and urgently needed to recover its strength. Thus, Yun Danqi, on orders from the clan head, used this opportunity to form connections with the various Spirit Masters. Influenced by the kindness they were shown, some of the Spirit Masters would perhaps choose to stay.

Tang Jie was not left out. Although he had only participated in the defense of the island for one day, he was still a Nine Revolutions cultivator, and he had also made some contributions to the battle, displaying the strength expected of a wandering cultivator of his level. Moreover, Shen Ningming had also seen him use the Heavenly King Mara Incantation and knew that this "wandering cultivator" had a powerful spell art.

Thus, that night, when Shen Ningming came over with a pot of good wine, Tang Jie wasn't at all surprised.

The two of them entered his room and began to chat over wine.

After three rounds, Shen Ningming took advantage of his drunkenness to ask Tang Jie if he wanted to join the Yun Clan, at which Tang Jie simply smiled.

Shen Ningming said, "Brother Qiu, while the Yun Clan is a noble clan, you have seen for yourself that the next clan head, Yun Danqi, doesn't have any of the arrogance of a noble scion. He is open-minded, gentle, and magnanimous, a person worth following."

Tang Jie indifferently replied, "I accept Brother Shen's kind intentions, but I've only been on Joymount Island for a single day, and there are still many things I don't understand. The others have all battled alongside each other for a month and developed friendships, so it is normal if they choose to stay. As for me… let me have a look first. I still don't even understand what the situation at Joymount Island is yet."

Shen Ningming felt like his argument made sense. They had only just gotten to know each other, so asking Tang Jie to join was a little inappropriate. He smiled and said, "If Brother Qiu wants to familiarize yourself with the situation, isn't it simple? As I have nothing else to do, I will accompany Brother Qiu on a walk around the island."

This was exactly what Tang Jie wanted. The two of them went out to admire Joymount Island's nighttime scenery while also discussing Joymount Island and the origins of the Yun Clan.

The Yun Clan had been fishermen in their early years, and when they arrived at Joymount Island, they developed a fishing net that could more easily catch Shuttlefish and prospered. There were naturally many trials in the middle of all this before they were able to reach their current size. It could be considered a rags-to-riches story.

Tang Jie seemed very interested, putting a polite smile on his face as he occasionally commented "I see!", "Incredible!", and so on. But his eyes were like beams of light, slicing through the darkness of the island and taking in everything he was seeing on this stroll.

As they walked along, Tang Jie suddenly noticed that there seemed to be something rising up from the ground on the southwestern part of the island. It was too small to be a mountain and too narrow to be a building.

Tang Jie curiously pointed and asked, "What's that over there?"

Shen Ningming saw where he was pointing and said, "Oh, that's a stone pillar. It rose up from the sea floor recently. Brother Qiu, you have really good eyes to see that far."

"It only rose up recently?" Tang Jie immediately asked, "I want to go and take a look."

"There's no problem with that." Shen Ningming and Tang Jie flew toward the southwest.

As they approached, Tang Jie saw that it really was a stone pillar.

This pillar was about forty meters tall and stood all alone. There were cracks all around it, like the land had experienced a long period of drought.

"Brother Shen, you said this thing rose up from the sea floor? When did it happen?" Tang Jie asked.

"One month ago," Shen Ningming replied.

"'A month ago'?" Shock appeared in Tang Jie's eyes.

Shen Ningming replied, "I know what Brother Qiu wants to say, and we've actually also realized it. The sea fiend attack this time might not be as simple as it seems, and they are probably after this pillar. They are just so fierce that they leave nothing alive in their wake."

Shen Ningming sighed.

Just as Shen Ningming had said, no matter what purpose the sea fiends had come for, they would not leave the people on the island unscathed, or anything else on the island, for that matter. And as this island was the foundation of the clan's prosperity, the Yun Clan had no choice but to fight.

According to Shen Ningming, when that stone pillar had first risen from the sea floor and appeared on the surface, it was just a little rocky outcrop, so it hadn't drawn much attention. But as time passed, it grew taller and taller, basically growing a meter taller every day.

At the same time, the sea fiends began to attack the island.

When the stone pillar was ten-some meters tall, people finally began to realize that there was a problem. Yun Danqi personally led a team to investigate, but they didn't find anything strange. They tried to destroy the pillar, but there was some powerful energy attached to the pillar that made it so that even a Spirit Master couldn't move it.

As the sea fiend attack intensified, the Yun Clan was too busy defending the island to care about this stone.

In this period of time, it had grown even taller.

And this thing was growing faster and faster. At the start, it grew around half a meter every day, and then one meter per day, and now, it was growing around two meters per day. Over thirty-some days, it had already grown to forty-some meters in height, and there was no telling how tall it would eventually get.

Tang Jie clicked his tongue in wonder after hearing Shen Ningming's explanation.

The two of them talked next to the pillar until deep into the night. Shen Ningming recommended that they return, and Tang Jie indicated that he was interested in the stone pillar and wanted to keep inspecting it. Shen Ningming knew that he was a newcomer and might have some sort of expectations for this stone pillar, so he didn't try to force Tang Jie to leave and left on his own.

Once Shen Ningming was gone, Tang Jie's smiling face immediately turned grave.

He waved his sleeve and released the rabbit fiend, Tutu. "Do you recognize this pillar?"

The rabbit fiend gave it a strange look and said in confusion, "Strange—I feel a familiar energy from it, but I don't quite comprehend it."

"If you find it familiar, then it's what I'm looking for." Tang Jie flew into the sky and flew all the way to a nearby small island.

This was a deserted island of small size, but there was also a stone pillar here. Countless sea fiends were circling the stone pillar and madly howling.

Tang Jie grimaced and swiftly flew elsewhere. After flying to many other places, he finally returned to Joymount Island.

He came to the top of the stone pillar.

The top was as smooth as a mirror and tougher than steel. Yun Danqi had tried to find someone who could damage it, but he found that it was just too tough. Tang Jie stood on top of this stone pillar, but he didn't try to destroy it. He formed a hand sign, looked to the northwest, and pointed at the empty space in front of him.

As his finger came down, a ripple of spiritual power appeared in front of him.

Tang Jie's eyes narrowed. "As I expected… this is the Life Gate!"

"'The Life Gate'?" The rabbit fiend was shocked. "You're saying that this is a formation?"

"Correct." Tang Jie looked at the stone pillar. "This stone pillar is one of the foundations holding up the formation. If it's destroyed, the entire formation will collapse. But someone has used a secret art to link this stone pillar to the entire mass of earth down below. Only those at Violet Palace or above would have any hope of moving it."

"You're saying that someone has set up a formation here to kill everyone?"

Tang Jie shook his head. "It's true that someone has set down a formation, but it's not to kill everyone. Rather than kill, this formation is meant to imprison."

"'Imprison'?" The rabbit fiend asked in shock, "How do you know that?"

"Because I recognize this formation…" A strange look appeared on Tang Jie's face. "The Eight Gates Heavenseal Formation!"

The Eight Gates Heavenseal Formation!

This was the formation that Xu Muyang had been best at. On Jade Orchid Mountain, he had used this formation to battle against He Chong and push him back. Tang Jie had been Xu Muyang's disciple in formation knowledge, so he was naturally familiar with this formation.

This was exactly why he could be sure that this was the Eight Gates Heavenseal Formation after seeing only a small part of it.

Yes, only a small part of it!

This wasn't some small formation. From what Tang Jie had seen so far, this was a gigantic version of the Eight Gates Heavenseal Formation.

This stone pillar was only a corner of the Eight Gates Heavenseal Formation.

It was so big that even setting up the formation took many days. The Eight Gates Heavenseal Formation had actually spent all of these thirty-some days setting up.

Tang Jie found it impossible to imagine who had set up this enormous Eight Gates Heavenseal Formation, but he at least understood what it was for.

"The Beast Garden…" he muttered. "It really was stolen for a reason."

When Lin Baicang had told him about how he had stolen the Beast Garden, Tang Jie had guessed that someone had used Lin Baicang, but he had not had any evidence. But the formation's appearance proved that everything that had happened to the Beast Garden was intentional, all for this moment.

"What does the Eight Gates Heavenseal Formation have to do with the Beast Garden?" Tutu was deeply confused.

Although it was once a Divine Division great fiend, it knew nothing about formations.

Tang Jie said with a dark expression, "Naturally, it's to form a new spatial shackle."

"'A new spatial shackle'?" Tutu was still confused at first, but quickly understood. "You're saying that they want to form a brand-new Beast Garden here?"

The Beast Garden's original form was a palace-type treasure that possessed powerful defenses and the ability to fly. However, it had only been a divine treasure.

But 1800 years ago, the Beast Refining Gate had obtained an extremely important item that could boost the strength of fiends.

The Beast Refining Gate had modified their palace-type divine treasure, converting it into a garden and setting up a formation, thus creating the Beast Garden.

The open style allowed the area of the Beast Garden to be massively expanded, no longer restricted to the original palace. And the radiating power of the formation allowed the Beast Garden to take in the surrounding soil, expanding its size even more and thus allowing it to hold more fiend beasts. Of course, while this increased the space available, it also weakened its defensive power.

Thus, the Beast Garden was actually divided into three regions: the core region, where the suppressing stele was kept; the inner region, which was the original area belonging to the Beast Garden; and the radial region, which was the expansion region created by the formation.

The radial region was the largest, and its exact size depended on how large the people of the Beast Garden wanted the garden to be. Once one decided how large an area one wanted, one would set up a sealing formation on the outside of the radial region.

But unlike the Mountain River State Diagram, this sealing formation would not harm the environment.

Only with all these things could the Beast Garden be considered the true Beast Garden.

As for what the Beast Refining Gate had been searching for all this time, it had been the Beast Garden's original form, excluding the radial region. After all, they had never imagined that the Beast Garden would take root in the territory of Horizon Ocean Pavilion.

But now, the Eight Gates Heavenseal Formation had appeared in the Joymount Island region. What this meant was obvious.

From what Tang Jie had been able to see, the Eight Gates Heavenseal Formation covered a vast area of the ocean that included Joymount Island, and even the nearby islands of Jade Cliff Island and Southern Splendor Island. If his conjectures were correct, stone pillars should have appeared there as well.

"You're saying that a brand-new, even larger Beast Garden will appear here?" Tutu stared at Tang Jie, its voice shaking.

Gazing into the distance, Tang Jie casually said, "I prefer to say that a brand-new sea fiend hidden realm is about to form."

Tutu's jaw dropped, and it didn't know what to say.

Tang Jie looked at the stone pillars and said, "In at most three days, the hidden realm will be complete. When it does appear, there will be no more hiding it."

With his understanding of the Eight Gates Heavenseal Formation, he could tell at a glance that this formation was at its final stages.

Let alone a True Person, even a Violet Palace True Lord wouldn't be able to stop the hidden realm from forming.

"But…" Tang Jie suddenly hesitated. After a while, he squeezed out, "Why is it the Eight Gates Heavenseal Formation?"

Tang Jie looked at the stone pillar in deep confusion.

There were many formations that could seal a space, and while the Eight Gates Heavenseal Formation wasn't bad, it definitely wasn't ideal.

There were some things that he could only understand when the time came.

Since he would know after three days, Tang Jie didn't mind waiting.

For the next few days, Tang Jie took up residence at Joymount Island, observing the stone pillar every day.

Shen Ningming came to try and persuade him several more times, but he dropped the matter when he saw that Tang Jie still wasn't interested. As for Yun Danqi, his focus was all on the ghost guard, spending every day diligently serving the ghost guard in an attempt to recruit this savior of Joymount Island.

Fortunately, though the ghost guard wasn't skilled with words, it basically didn't have any such thing as impatience. No matter how one pestered it, it would never get angry.

In these three days, the stone pillar grew even faster. On the first day, it grew ten meters, and on the second day, it grew twenty-some meters.

The eighty-meter-tall stone pillar was now extremely prominent on the island.

Standing there, all alone, it drew much discussion from the island's inhabitants.

Only Tang Jie knew that this was only the foundation.

When the foundation was complete, it would reveal its true power.

On the third day, early in the morning, the entire island began to tremble as if it was experiencing an earthquake.

The people cried in alarm as they ran out of their homes, and then they saw that stone pillar surging into the sky.

This growth speed was much faster than before, like a giant dragon reaching up into the heavens. The stone pillar grew longer and longer, bringing with it tremors and furious waves.

At the same time, on seven other islands, including Jade Cliff Island and Southern Splendor Island, seven other giant stone pillars also extended into the sky.

The Eight Gates Heavenseal Formation!

Flying into the sky, Tang Jie calmly observed the eight stone pillars, and he couldn't help but recall Xu Muyang's battle with He Chong.

It had been the same scene back then, eight pillars of energy converging and forming a powerful spatial defense. With this formation, Xu Muyang had managed to push back He Chong.

And today, he once more saw this formation, on a larger and more grandiose scale. Even the energy pillars had been switched out for sturdier stone pillars.

As the eight stone pillars extended into the sky, they radiated a brilliant light that formed a tight net across the heavens.

This net pushed everyone outward, even mortals. Houses were also no exception, pushed outward and made to collapse.

At the same time, amidst surging waves, a small garden rose up from the sea.

This garden was very small, like a toy in the hands of the formation.

But as it emerged from the sea, it grew larger and larger, expanding and pushing aside the ocean. Wherever it expanded, the sea waters retreated, and large pavilions, buildings, mountains, rivers, and hills appeared.

An Immortal mountain abruptly appeared on the ocean.

This was the Beast Garden's original form.

The raging waves instantly calmed down and began to flow around this Immortal mountain.

A violet glow emerged from the Immortal mountain, engulfing the surroundings.

The waters rippled, and countless sea fiends emerged from the sea floor and howled in the direction of that Immortal mountain. Numerous plants also erupted from the sea floor, forming a forest above the ocean that protected the Immortal mountain.

Many luscious spirit plants and fruits appeared in this forest.

Finally, the heavenly net locked down by the eight islands became completely fixed, forming a defensive barrier that kept everything out.

At this moment, the Eight Gates Heavenseal Formation fused together with the Beast Garden's defenses, creating a separate dimension. The people outside could see what was happening inside, but they had no means of entering.

And on the very edge of this hidden realm, two large doors appeared in the air.

Anyone familiar with the Beast Garden would recognize these two doors as the gates of the Beast Garden.

"A sea fiend hidden realm…" Tang Jie muttered.

"The Beast hidden realm…" Chang Baimei and Feng Buzhi muttered elsewhere.

Though they called it different things, everyone knew what they were thinking.

A brand-new hidden realm.

The sea region was the radial region, the Immortal mountain was the inner region, and in the very center of the mountain was the core region, the location of the seal.

As this hidden realm appeared, a dragonhead ship flew out of the sky.

A woman dressed in palatial clothes stood at the bow of the ship: Shen Qingdan.

Gazing into the distance, Shen Qingdan muttered, "A hidden realm really did appear. That guy didn't lie."

She waved her hand and said, "Everyone, listen up! Maneuver the ship to the Qian position, due north! Prepare to break into the realm!"

Shen Qingdan had never seen the Beast Garden before, and this sea fiend hidden realm was completely different from how the Beast Garden had been described. Thus, not even in her dreams could she have imagined that she was about to break into the Beast Garden.

A beam of rainbow light illuminated the gate to the hidden realm.

A princess flew up into the air, her palm radiating a vast spectrum of colors as it flew toward that gate. In the dawn light, it created a gorgeous and magnificent sight.