Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-455-30041322

The punch wasn't aimed at the teleportation formation, but at the ground three hundred feet away from it.

This was on the western face of the summit, lush with trees and utterly unremarkable.

But Tang Jie's punch shook the entire mountain slope, and large numbers of trees were uprooted. The even ground suddenly bulged upward, rising higher and higher.

As the mountain slope shifted, Feng Buzhi saw the light of the teleportation formation fading.

He cried out in shock, "How did you do it?!"

Tang Jie chuckled. "It's rather simple. Just like humans, formations need the appropriate environment to work. Destroying their surroundings is the same as destroying their foundations. Why did you have to come to the summit to set up the teleportation formation rather than doing it anywhere else? Is it not because this is the most suitable location?"

Just as Tang Jie had said, the teleportation formation was set up at the summit because this was the best place to borrow the world's spiritual energy, maximizing its effects. Otherwise, he would have had no reason to wait until now to use the formation.

And the first thing Tang Jie did upon arrival was to destroy the surroundings that the formation was using to sustain itself, turning it into a spring without a source, a tree without roots. Of course, only someone proficient in formations like him could see the critical location to strike. Someone who didn't understand such things could turn the entire mountain upside down to no avail.

As the light of the teleportation formation dimmed, Feng Buzhi angrily roared, "Seeking death!"

He turned his head and shouted, "The rest of you, restore the terrain! I'll deal with this brat!"

He thrust out his palm, and a strange fireball shot toward Tang Jie.

Tang Jie wasn't rash, taking a step back and letting the ghost guard go. A claw thrust toward the fireball, and with a poof, the fireball broke apart, flames splashing in every direction. The ghost guard's body crackled as the flames burned it, but he showed no reaction.

When Feng Buzhi saw that this move had done nothing, he grunted and waved his hand, producing a blue shortsword. He threw the sword, which whistled as it shot toward the ghost guard, shedding flecks of ice.

The ghost guard did not dare to be careless and hastily retreated, flailing his claws to produce numerous claw phantoms. The blue sword bashed its way through the claw phantoms, and a moment later, layers of ice appeared on the ghost guard's body.

Fortunately, the ghost guard was able to shake off the sealing ice with a shake of his body, and then he lashed out with his claws again to fend off the blue sword.

Tang Jie and Feng Buzhi both gasped in surprise.

Tang Jie was surprised because he knew how tough the ghost guard's body was.

The ghost guard was actually a body refiner. In terms of spell arts, he only had a few, none of which could compare to those of a real True Person. Besides the Thousand Ghost Shadows, the rest were barely worth a True Person's attention. It was precisely through his tough body that he was able to match a True Person's power.

Feng Buzhi was surprised because he knew the power of his sword. This was the most valuable treasure in Feng Buzhi's collection, and it had always been under the care of the black Feng Buzhi. As the white Feng Buzhi had all the fiend beasts, the black Feng Buzhi had all the treasures.

Although he hadn't hoped for the sword to kill the ghost guard, he was surprised at how quickly the ghost guard had broken free of the sealing ice.

At this time, Xu Miaoran, Wei Tianchong, Su Xinyue, and the others arrived.

Seeing the ghost guard and Feng Buzhi in battle, Wei Tianchong excitedly said, "Finally here! Watch me!"

It sounded like he was going to attack Feng Buzhi.

But the little fox, Luo Yue, pulled him back and glared at him. "Are you trying to kill yourself?"

Wei Tianchong froze. "What's wrong?"

The fox said, "That's a Heart Demon True Person."

Wei Tianchong was instantly scared out of his wits.

Tang Jie swiftly replied, "Don't be afraid. That's only half a Heart Demon True Person."

"'Half'? What do you mean?" Everyone was confused.

Tang Jie indifferently said, "While this person is a Heart Demon True Person, he cultivates an avatar art that divided him into two. Though they're stronger than normal when together, they're much weaker when alone."

"Where's the other avatar?"

"I joined up with some others to kill it down below. In addition, fighting with us is True Person Gui, a Spirit Ring expert."

When everyone heard that there was only half a Heart Demon True Person here and that they also had a True Person of one tier lower to serve as the main force, they sighed in relief. They immediately felt like a Heart Demon True Person wasn't so scary in these circumstances.

Only Xu Miaoran inwardly chuckled, knowing that Tang Jie was up to his naughty tricks again. He was clearly saying all this to raise everyone's confidence.

Feng Buzhi naturally knew what Tang Jie was trying, but he only grunted and said, "Then let's test that out!"

He waved his hand, and a red shortsword shot at Tang Jie's face.

With a sharp cry, Xu Miaoran threw out a golden ring. It slammed into the red sword, and both of them bounced off each other in a flash of flame. When it came to treasures, Young Lady Xu had just as many as Shen Qingdan. It was just that her cultivation level was too low to use too many of them. Even so, she was able to counteract that shortsword.

Feng Buzhi waved his hand again, throwing out a yellow sword.

"Let me!" Wei Tianchong shouted, his puppet charging out.

His Grade 3 combat puppet was now a Grade 4, and while it still couldn't reach a True Person's strength, it was still much stronger than before. The yellow sword clashed with the puppet, and with a great boom, the puppet was unexpectedly swept aside by the yellow sword.

From this strike, it was apparent that this yellow shortsword had the strength of a peak Mortal Shedding or initial Celestial Heart cultivator.

Wei Tianchong cried out in surprise, "Oh my goodness, this sword is powerful."

In truth, this sword couldn't be considered that powerful. The problem was their number!

A green sword flew out.

All in all, seven swords were unleashed—red, orange, yellow, green blue, indigo, and violet—and shot toward their group.

In the battle at the slope, Feng Buzhi's Dao of Reality and Illusion had been seen through and a physical body destroyed. This painful thought broke Feng Buzhi out of his obsession with Dao Wills, and he was now fighting a proper battle of spell arts.

Crushing one's opponents with cultivation level was the proper way of doing things.

The seven swords made it difficult for all of them to move. Without the ghost guard's help, these small swords would have already taken several lives.

At the same time, the Beast Refining Gate disciples busied away at restoring the terrain.

But though it was easy to flatten the mountain, the formation's power was difficult to restore.

What Helian Hu and the others didn't understand was why, despite Tang Jie's having made the teleportation formation lose effect by simply causing the ground to swell, no matter how they flattened the slope back down, the teleportation formation only regained a little of its light.

It was a maddening situation.

Tang Jie coldly laughed, "A pack of idiots, not understanding that destruction is easier than construction!"

He punched again at the ground, and shockwaves rippled out. Boom! A pit suddenly appeared on a distant slope.

As that pit appeared, the renewed light of the teleportation formation disappeared again.

Feng Buzhi's eyes turned hard. "Tang Jie, you're seeking death!"

He waved his hand, and the boar fiend charged at Tang Jie.

As the boar charged, Yiyi raised her little hand, and numerous vines burst out of the ground and wrapped around the boar.

After having its mind refined, the boar was as strong as ever, but its intelligence had dropped. It made no attempt to avoid the vines, allowing them to wrap around it and continuing to charge forward. It was extremely strong, so the vines couldn't hold it and began to snap. But every time it got one part free, more vines would emerge to endlessly entangle it.

Although the upper-grade Mind Opening Yiyi should have had no chance of dealing with this boar fiend, the boar fiend only knew to charge forward. So long as Yiyi wanted to, she could easily delay it for some time.

As the boar fiend was being entangled, Feng Buzhi vanished and reappeared behind Tang Jie.

Catch the Wind, Seize the Moon!

As he was about to grab Tang Jie's head and make it explode, Tang Jie also disappeared.

The Chaoswind Step!

The Chaoswind Step was perfect for dealing with "Catch the Wind, Seize the Moon". After that battle on the slope, Tang Jie had made up his mind that if Feng Buzhi ever disappeared from his sight, he would immediately use the Chaoswind Step.

His hand coming up empty, Feng Buzhi was stunned, and then he saw something even more shocking.

Tang Jie had appeared extremely close to the teleportation formation.

When Feng Buzhi used "Catch the Wind, Seize the Moon", he had inadvertently opened the way to the teleportation formation.

Of course, this was also because the teleportation formation had temporarily lost power, causing Feng Buzhi to drop his guard.

But temporary loss of power wasn't complete destruction. When Tang Jie appeared next to the teleportation formation, Feng Buzhi finally realized that he had made a grave mistake.

Sure enough, the moment Tang Jie appeared, he turned and punched at the teleportation formation.

His methods were much simpler and more violent this time.

There was no formation knowledge or terrain analysis, only brute force.

Boom!

The punch infused with destructive power slammed into the teleportation formation, and a storm ripped through the formation, sending countless materials up into the air and devastating the entire formation area.

"No!" Feng Buzhi cried out in pain.

The teleportation formation materials tossed up into the air were some of the most precious treasures in the world, and their loss stabbed right into his heart.

He hadn't expected Tang Jie to be so bold as to throw everything aside and destroy the teleportation formation.

It had to be understood that without the teleportation formation, Feng Buzhi would no longer have anything stopping him from going on a killing spree.

But the moment the teleportation formation was destroyed, a bloody mist suddenly erupted from the cave.

The moment it emerged, it rushed toward Feng Buzhi and the Beast Refining Gate disciples.

Feng Buzhi immediately had an ominous feeling and shouted, "Retreat!"

All of the Beast Refining Gate disciples moved to the side in unison, but the bloody mist gave chase like a giant python.

Feng Buzhi attacked again and again, pushing back the mist, but the mist refused to disperse, doggedly chasing them. And from this bloody mist, Feng Buzhi felt an intense death energy.

Reality quickly proved him right. In contrast to the fear felt by Feng Buzhi and the disciples, the fiend beasts under the disciples felt joy.

Finally, a fiend lost its patience and rushed into the mist. The moment it entered, large amounts of blood mist poured into its body. The fiend trembled uncontrollably, and then it exploded, large amounts of blood pouring out and thickening the mist as it continued its pursuit of Feng Buzhi's group.

Seeing this, Tang Jie smiled. He knew that this meant that the little tiger had passed through the most difficult part of absorbing the True Blood and was finally able to help out.

This was definitely good news. All they had to do now was defend the area.

Suddenly, Feng Buzhi's expression darkened.

A look of fierce resolve appeared in his eyes!

He loudly said, "Tang Jie, you think that destroying the teleportation formation solves everything? You think you can fathom the power of a True Lord? I will let you witness the true horror of the Wolf Lord!"

He suddenly howled and reached his hand out to the sky, calling the seven shortswords back to his side. As they returned, they merged back into a single white longsword.

When he saw this sword, Tang Jie's heart tightened.

At that moment, he realized that this was Feng Buzhi's real treasure. From the power of the sword when it was separated into seven, one could estimate the terrifying might of the combined object. This was something that not even the ghost guard could endure.

But Feng Buzhi didn't use it for this purpose. Rather, he gave the white sword a reluctant look, as if he was bidding farewell to a friend of many years.

This expression left Tang Jie rather stunned.

And then he saw Feng Buzhi raise his head to the sky.

He was looking at the cracked sky barrier.

Tang Jie suddenly realized something and paled. "Stop him!"

The ghost guard rushed forward at full speed to stop Feng Buzhi.

This time, he would stop Feng Buzhi even if it came at the cost of his own body.

Helian Hu and the other disciples rushed toward the ghost guard, offering up their bodies to stop him.

Behind Tang Jie, Wei Tianchong's group hesitated, clearly not understanding what was going on.

Feng Buzhi slowly raised up the white sword, forming countless hand signs and imprinting them on the sword.

The white sword grew brighter and brighter, ultimately shining with a rainbow of colors.

Feng Buzhi threw the sword up into the sky. The rainbow sword grew larger and larger as it flew off toward that sky barrier.

"Heavenly Cloud Blade!" Tang Jie shouted, twenty Heavenly Blades dropping from the sky.

At the same time, Xu Miaoran used her Sea Anchor Stamp; Yiyi, her Silkheaven Net; and the others cast their own spell arts.

The giant rainbow sword smashed its way through them all like an unstoppable beam.

The Heavenly Cloud Blades were pulverized, the Sea Anchor Stamp was shattered, the torrent of petals turned into a drizzle, and all of the spell arts were pierced through.

The rainbow sword smashed into the barrier.

There was a brief pause, and then a crack of unprecedented size appeared in the sky.

There was only one crack at first, and then they spread out like growing branches, ultimately covering the entire sky.

Finally, with a resounding crack, the sky barrier shattered.

Sunlight pierced through, illuminating the land.

The shards of the sky barrier sparkled with a rainbow of colors in the sunlight, like pieces of crystal.

They danced in the air like butterflies before gradually dissolving into nothing.

This resplendent rain soon disappeared, leaving behind a clear sky and that giant rainbow sword.

The rainbow sword quietly floated there, and finally, a crack appeared on its blade.

More cracks appeared, and then the rainbow sword exploded into shrapnel. It was the same rainbow splendor, and while they lacked the majesty of the sky barrier shards, they lasted longer. These shards did not disappear, instead descending like comets into the sea, splashing down like drops of rain.

Feng Buzhi's face twitched, and then he exhaled.

"Regardless, I have completed the mission the Wolf Lord gave me."

The Wolf Lord's mission?

Everyone was rather confused.

Hadn't the teleportation formation been destroyed? So how had he completed the mission?

Tang Jie looked at Xu Miaoran.

Xu Miaoran said, "Father once told me that if I was in great danger, I could mentally call out to him, and no matter how far away I was, he could appear before me. When we were in the hidden realm, I couldn't sense my father, but now that the hidden realm is broken, I can call out to him again."

So it really was like that? Tang Jie sighed.

Violet Palace cultivators were so powerful that they could go where they wanted even without a teleportation formation.

A moment later, Feng Buzhi raised his hands high and began to chant. He wasn't like Xu Miaoran, who had a protective incantation from her father planted on her body that could easily call him over; he needed a special mantra to transmit his location.

Seeing Feng Buzhi do this, Xu Miaoran knew that he was summoning the Wolf Lord and quickly said, "I'll call over my father."

She closed her eyes and began to focus.

Given the connection between her and her father, she could summon Xu Guanghua much faster than Feng Buzhi could summon Feng Muyuan.

But there was no response to her calls.

After several failed calls, Xu Miaoran finally realized what was going on and stomped her feet in anger. "Father isn't willing to help me!"

Wolf Lord Feng Muyuan was currently at Horizon Ocean Pavilion's Great Wind Island.

There was no doubt that he had reached an agreement with the august figures of Horizon Ocean Pavilion. Otherwise, there would have been no point to his staying as their guest for so long.

Tang Jie hugged Xu Miaoran. He had already expected this result.

At the same time, Feng Buzhi gradually finished his incantation.

Clouds roiled, and a human face began to appear within them. Though the features were indistinct, the face was imbued with majesty.

Xu Miaoran shouted, "He's coming!"

This method of crossing vast distances did not bring the actual body, but manifested a spell art avatar through the use of supreme divine connections. Although this was far weaker than the actual body, it was no ordinary existence. But maintaining the divine connection was extremely taxing and couldn't be kept up for long. Thus, unless it was absolutely necessary, using a teleportation formation was still better.

As that giant face appeared in the sky, all the Beast Refining Gate disciples prostrated and shouted, "Paying respects to the Wolf Lord!"

At the same time, sorrow appeared in everyone else's hearts.

Everything came to a standstill. In the face of a True Lord's majesty, all schemes were futile.

Even Tang Jie simply looked up at the sky in a daze.

At this moment, Wei Tianchong suddenly spoke.

"Tsk, it's only summoning a True Lord. Is it really that special? I can do it too."

As he spoke, a bolt of lightning streaked across the heavens.