Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-431-30041322

As Tang Jie walked through the ocean forest, his every step created ripples on the water.

The swaying image of his reflection on the water made it seem like he was walking on a mirror.

A ray of sunlight penetrated through the forest canopy, falling on the water and refracting into a multitude of different colors.

This spectrum of light fell on his body, making it seem like he was wearing rainbow clothes.

But danger was lurking deep underneath the surface of this beauty.

An enormous tiger shark swam through the giant underwater forest.

The unprecedented clarity of the water had completely exposed it, but, blissfully unaware, it "furtively" approached its target on the surface, and then it jumped. Emerging like a flying fish from the water, it opened its fanged mouth and bit down on Tang Jie.

Tang Jie lightly thrust out a finger, striking the tiger shark in the mouth and sending it hurtling into a tree.

The branches caught the tiger shark, and it clumsily struggled to break free. Without the water's support, it went from a savage creature to weak and pitiful.

It wasn't every day that one saw a shark in a tree, so Tang Jie took a few extra looks at it. Just when he was about to leave, he stopped and closely inspected the shark.

The tiger shark struggled a few more times, and then it suddenly stopped. It just stayed on the tree like it was dead. But through his Insight ability, Tang Jie could see that this tiger shark was going through a rapid transformation.

It was getting smaller, and its fins were thickening and hardening, even cracking apart and sprouting small appendages. Its smooth skin also began to grow coarser.

Tang Jie felt like he was witnessing the evolution of a sea creature into a land creature in fast forward, though the process was so bizarre and strange that it made his heart shiver.

"Becoming a fiend…" he muttered.

There was no doubt that this tiger shark was in the middle of turning from a mortal creature into a fiend. But it was using the power of this fiendification to modify its properties, which was unheard of.

This was probably the special power of this hidden realm: modifying the creatures living in it. It turned mortal creatures into fiends, made fiends even stronger, and gave them many possible choices.

The evolution continued.

The thick fins turned into rough and sharp claws that dug into the sturdy tree bark. It had a long tail dragging behind, and its body was covered with tiny scales. Only that long, pointed head retained any resemblance to a shark. Overall, it looked like a misproportioned giant ape.

It roared at Tang Jie, hatred burning in its eyes.

Still howling, it jumped down, tearing off a branch from a tree to act as a cudgel and then swinging it at Tang Jie's head.

It was now a lower-grade Spirit Sensing fiend, and its swing already contained some traces of fiend power.

Tang Jie casually grabbed the cudgel. The "shark ape" let out a strange squeal and then dived into the water.

Even though it had turned into a treeborne fiend, the shark ape had still kept its aquatic nature.

It swam through the water, working its way to Tang Jie's back. It emerged from the water and shot a water arrow at him.

Alas, the clear sea waters had completely sold it out. Without even looking back, Tang Jie brought a hand around to block the water arrow. "The heavens can give you a miracle, but you couldn't use it to modify your head."

He thrust out a palm, sending the shark ape flying.

The shark ape tumbled through the air and into the water. This time, it finally knew fear and tried to swim away.

Of course, Tang Jie wasn't going to let it have its way. He struck out, saying, "Perhaps I can find something new on this new fiend."

After casually killing the fiend, Tang Jie put it away.

As he was about to leave, he suddenly sensed something.

He looked around again. Under the sea, small tiger sharks were crawling out from the sea floor.

Yes, they were crawling on four feet like they were alligators.

They had also changed. Their bodies were covered in tough scales, but different from those of that other tiger shark.

The previous tiger shark had evolved according to its circumstances, but these tiger sharks were going through the proper process of going from the sea to the land.

A few moments later, the undersea tree trunks were crawling with little tiger sharks.

They let out strange raspy noises as they squatted on the bark, countless little eyes staring at Tang Jie. Even someone like Tang Jie couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

"The hell is this…" he muttered.

Just what could produce so many fiends in so little time?

The white fog swept back in, obscuring the ocean surface from Tang Jie's vision.

Tang Jie grimaced. "The Wave-Generating Illusion Ocean Formation!"

Tang Jie had long known that the Beast Garden had a great formation, but he didn't know which formation it was.

Only now, when the white fog illusion returned, did Tang Jie realize that he had inadvertently stepped into an illusion formation.

The Wave-Generating Illusion Ocean Formation was a rather formidable formation. Even his Dao of Insight found it difficult to see through the white fog, and putting aside the difficulty of orienting himself and advancing through the formation, the greatest problem was that this formation stimulated certain lifeforms to have certain abilities.

But the worst of all was that the Beast Garden's internal formation had no effect on fiends!

As the white fog surged, strange sounds began to come from it. Tang Jie grimaced, knowing that he was in trouble.

There was a shriek, and a figure howled out of the fog at Tang Jie.

"Damn!" Tang Jie chopped with his palm, obliterating this creature. Sure enough, it had been one of those little tree sharks, but it had changed so much that it was hardly recognizable.

As this one shark died, the others were riled up by the faint scent of blood and started shooting at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie grunted and thrust out his palm several times. Mists of blood burst out over the surface, piercing screams tearing through the sky.

The vast majority of small sharks died in Tang Jie's barrage, and the remainder passed through Tang Jie's palm blasts and landed on his body. But as their teeth gnawed on Tang Jie's Formless Golden Body, they ended up damaging themselves more than him.

But there was no end to these little things, and as the scent of blood thickened, more of the little sharks rushed out, emerging from the ocean and lunging at Tang Jie from all sides. There were various blood-sucking fishes among the sharks, and they were even joined by a few bird fiends from the sky.

The Beast Garden was also known as the Ten Thousand Beast Garden, but this was no empty moniker. The number of beasts within it never surpassed ten thousand.

But in this newborn hidden realm that occupied a vast swath of the ocean, the number of fiends in the region Tang Jie occupied had already exceeded ten thousand.

What had happened to this damned hidden realm that had made it so terrifying, turning all non-human creatures in this region into fiends? There were already so many creatures in the ocean, and after more than a month of luring in more creatures, the number of creatures here far exceeded the population of the past. When they all turned into fiends, it was absolutely horrifying.

Even Tang Jie was caught off guard. And it had to be understood that he was still in the outermost region. What would it be like farther in?

Not wanting to fight all-out so early on, Tang Jie pulled out the rabbit fiend and yelled, "Take me out of this illusion formation!"

The Beast Garden's formation had no effect on the fiends, so it should also be ineffective against the rabbit fiend.

Sure enough, the rabbit fiend looked around and then shouted, "Into the water!"

Tang Jie's feet pushed down, and he dropped into the water.

Once he was in the water, the entire world seemed to change.

On the surface, countless fish and birds had formed into a raging torrent.

These small fiends were individually feeble existences, but when gathered together, they were an enormous behemoth. The fog drifted among them, seemingly linking them together and making it seem like they had a head, hands, and feet, as if a giant were standing over the sea.

The giant looked at Tang Jie down below, let out a noiseless roar, and punched at the water.

Shit!

Down in the water, Tang Jie couldn't even curse. He could only twist his body and desperately swim forward.

The fog giant stomped across the water, each step creating huge waves.

Tang Jie wasn't skilled in moving through the water, so he was momentarily unable to throw off the giant's pursuit. Thankfully, he had the clam pearl, which he hastily took out. Using the clam pearl's ability to part water, he swiftly moved through the sea. With the guidance of the rabbit fiend, his mad sprint finally managed to bring him out of the range of the Wave-Generation Illusion Ocean Formation.

When he looked back, he saw that the giant had already disappeared.

Tang Jie wiped the sweat off his forehead. "I didn't expect this place to be so savage."

A few below-standard fiends and a formation had already had him running for his life. Although he wasn't going all-out, that this had happened meant that this wasn't a place where one could just pick up treasures. Rather, each step was brimming with danger.

But this made Tang Jie more excited.

Danger came with opportunity. The greater the danger, the greater the opportunity.

Tang Jie wasn't willing to fight those small fiends primarily because they had just transformed into fiends and couldn't provide any valuable materials, so there was no point in fighting them. But if he continued onward, the fiends would get stronger and stronger, which would make it much easier to generate a profit.

Tang Jie was happy to reap a profit while he made his way to the central region.

The only problem was that the formation and fiends formed a dual barrier that made getting to the central region a lengthy endeavor. It could take a few days, or even several dozen.

But he wouldn't be the only person to encounter this situation. Presumably, the others who had entered would be in the same state, so he was in no rush.

Tang Jie was right.

At this moment, everyone else was dealing with the same problem.

On the dragonboat, Shen Qingdan looked down at the dense forest of vines below that had grabbed onto the ship like tentacles, her complexion ashen.

This space seemed to reject all things that flew, to such an extent that the Wandering Palace's dragonboat came under attack by the giant trees moments after entering.

These attacks were much fiercer than the attacks Tang Jie had experienced. All of the giant trees in this area had extended their vines toward the dragonboat, pulling it from the sky.

The intense pull made the dragonboat creak from the stress. Shen Qingdan took in a deep breath and finally said, "In this state, it seems like there's no going forward. Aunt Ying, take eighteen Ironguards and come with me. The rest of you, stay behind and guard the ship."

There was a rumble as everyone responded to her order. Shen Qingdan flew down, and behind her were that woman called Aunt Ying and 18 Ironguards of the Wandering Palace. These people were all suicide soldiers that the Wandering Palace had nurtured for many years. All of them were at peak Nine Revolutions, and they had a combination spell art that allowed them to fight against a Celestial Heart.

The group of twenty set off for that Immortal mountain.

Compared to the others, their greatest advantage was that they had come on a ship and disembarked after entering. In this way, they were the only group that had stayed together.

At the same time, the white-robed Feng Buzhi floated in the air, a hint of confusion in his eyes. "Heaven and earth reversed, Yin and Yang in disarray, spacetime shifting within the illusion… How is this possible? Though the Beast Garden has an illusion formation, it wasn't to this level."

As a Beast Refining Gate True Person, he noticed something was wrong the moment he entered the hidden realm.

The avatar and original had not appeared together, instead being placed far apart. And no matter how he flew, he couldn't get closer to that Immortal mountain. It was clear that the entire space had been modified so much that even someone of his abilities couldn't see through it.

This was no coincidence. Clearly, this had all been premeditated!

The Beast Garden had been modified so that even True Persons faced powerful restrictions.

But Feng Buzhi didn't understand where these restrictions had come from.

It clearly wasn't the work of the formation.

A formation needed to be laid out, and it was clear that this was the first time the Beast Garden had been opened since it had left, because if it had been opened before then, someone would have already stolen the core object rather than leaving it until now.

Since this was the first time it was opened, it wasn't possible for a formation to have been laid out.

Unless… it was the suppressed object.

Feng Buzhi shivered at the thought.

Even with his status, he didn't know what the item that had been suppressed was. But if it was really the suppressed item that had thrown the space into disorder, reversing heaven and earth, then it was absurdly powerful.

I must get that item at all costs. Once that treasure is in my hands, I, Feng Buzhi, will become a True Lord of the Beast Refining Gate! Feng Buzhi mentally shouted.

Elsewhere in the hidden realm.

Yiyi sat on Xu Miaoran's shoulders, looking around. She gasped in awe, "Wow, this place is so pretty!"

Xu Miaoran frowned. "It's also very dangerous. I didn't think that this place would have danger lurking around every corner. I really wonder if Xian Tao and Hong Yuan are okay."

"Don't worry. If they don't recklessly run around, they'll be fine," Yiyi replied.

"How do you know that?"

"Because I've already spoken with them." Yiyi pointed at the trees growing out of the sea. "That one, that one, that one, and those guys over there. I've spoken with all of them and told them that if they see two pretty girls, one wearing red and the other wearing green, they shouldn't make trouble for them!"

"Them?" Xu Miaoran was taken aback. "Aren't they trees? Are they alive?"

"Of course!" Yiyi clapped her hands. "This is a world of fiends and sprites. Every plant here is alive, and every creature will turn into a fiend!"

"How do you know that?"

"Because I'm a sprite!" Yiyi shouted. "The moment we entered, I sensed that this place was brimming with energy."

"What kind of energy?"

Yiyi cocked her head and thought it over. "I don't really know how to explain it, but this energy gives me power. But it's also this energy that makes this place so formidable and scary. Time and space have been thrown into disarray, the fiends have grown stronger, and the creatures have begun to evolve. Even a True Person would find it hard to advance through here. Getting to that island will be extremely difficult."

"It's that formidable?"

"Mm!" Yiyi affirmatively nodded. "Even the most prepared person would probably need ten days to half a month to reach that island."

Xu Miaoran frowned. "That long?"

Yiyi smiled. "But we don't need to be afraid. With Yiyi, we'll very quickly get there."

She raised a small hand and tossed out a seed.

The seed hit the water and began to grow. A large number of vines coiled together into a small boat that floated on the surface.

Yiyi pointed at the vine boat. "Let's get on the boat. In at most three days, we'll reach the island."

"'Get on this boat'? 'Three days'?" Xu Miaoran looked at the boat full of holes in shock.

"Right!" Yiyi earnestly replied. "If we take this boat, we won't be attacked, though we'll have to take a few detours. Hurry up. There are a lot of tasty things on the island, so we should try and get there before those bad people take everything."

Xu Miaoran immediately realized that the tasty things Yiyi was talking about were probably the natural treasures that boosted the growth of fiends that grew in the Beast Garden.

"Okay!" Xu Miaoran jumped into the boat. "Yiyi, let's work hard. We'll definitely be the first to get to the island."

"Mm!" Yiyi nodded.

But a moment later, she grimaced. "Oh no! A tree told me that someone is even faster than us!"

"Who?"

"I don't know." Yiyi shook her head. "But…"

She suddenly shrieked. "He's about to reach the island!"

In the sky, a dark silhouette rapidly flew, ignoring the chronal and spatial obstructions, heading straight for the Immortal mountain in the center.

A dark flock of crows flew over, intercepting the dark silhouette.

There was a deep roar with the majesty of a king, and the crows scattered in fright.

The dark silhouette continued unimpeded to the island, where it landed.

The Immortal mountain had large swaths of fruit trees and was covered in rare plants. At the same time, there were also various powerful fiends.

The Faceless Serpent, this tyrant that made all of Joymount Island tremble, was among them.

It had once more grown powerful, its body an intimidating four hundred meters long.

But in this Immortal mountain, it was an ordinary existence.

At the peak of the Immortal mountain was a dark cave.

A bloody glow permeated the inside of the cave.

There were three people standing near the cave entrance.

These were no humans, but three Transformation great fiends.

They surrounded the cave entrance, their eyes filled with greed and fear. It seemed like something had drawn them here, but they did not dare approach.

That dark silhouette who landed on the island ignored all of this.

He strode into the depths of the Immortal mountain, his body emitting a bloody glow. Wherever he went, the fiends retreated.

They prostrated on the sides, their bodies trembling. It was as if their king had returned.