Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-478

As Tang Jie retreated from the fiend horde, applause erupted from behind him.

"Excellent work, Tang Jie. I didn't think a cultivator of my generation would be capable of such a heroic feat as slaying the enemy leader in the middle of tens of thousands of soldiers," Peng Yaolong cheered. It was moves like this that affected him the most.

"Cut the nonsense." Tang Jie used his saber as a crutch and coughed up blood as he circulated energy. Only after he managed to recover a little from the attack he had taken did he finally say, "Let's strike together!"

"Understood!" everyone said in unison.

At this moment, the bird fiends had managed to loosen the space-sealing formation through their battering.

Everyone flew up at the same time, putting away their weapons to form hand signs as they chanted, and the world rumbled in response.

If the white Bei had still been around, it would have realized that these cultivators were in the middle of casting an art.

The combined spell art of twenty-some cultivators was bound to shake the heavens. One either had to do their utmost to destroy it or do their utmost to defend.

But in this chaotic situation, the fiends were too numerous and clumsy to react. Seizing this momentary chance was just too difficult.

Peng Yaolong suddenly raised his hands up, and a palm appeared in the sky.

Twenty-some people also aimed their palms at the sky, countless streams of energy gathering in that palm and making it as big as a mountain.

Peng Yaolong laughed. "Hundred Man Attack Formation! Kill!"

"Kill!"

Everyone shouted in unison.

Peng Yaolong pressed his right hand down, and that mountain-sized palm also began to descend.

This was the famous combined lethal formation of the Blood War Hall. It was said that it could combine the power of as many as one thousand people, at which point even a Violet Palace True Lord could be fended off. Of course, there were only twenty-some of them right now, so it could only be considered a ten-man attack formation, certainly not a hundred-man attack formation.

Even so, these twenty-some people were all elites of the Basking Moon Sect, so they had quality where they lacked quantity. Moreover, the preparations they had made ahead of time had empowered the formation, which was why it had the power of a hundred-man attack formation.

Through their combined powers, the mountain-sized palm smashed down.

The fiends were aghast and began to unleash various spell arts at that mountain in the sky, causing it to tremble and explode with gouts of light.

But no matter how many attacks came from below, the mountain continued its descent, drawing closer and closer to impact.

At this moment, several dozen Transformation great fiends suddenly flew up and attacked that small mountain.

In the end, this was just a giant hand created through the hundred-man attack formation, so it couldn't take the attacks of so many Transformation fiends. Its descent was finally halted, and it crumbled away.

The fiends cheered over the fact that they had destroyed the enemy attack. But a moment later, another giant palm descended from the sky. This time, before the fiends had time to react, the giant hand slammed into them.

The Heavenly King Mara Incantation!

Tang Jie hadn't been part of the hundred-man attack formation. This formation had only been a smokescreen, and his Heavenly King Mara Incantation was the true main attack. It was only when that mountain made from the hundred-man attack formation was destroyed that the spell art hidden behind it was revealed.

Although it was much weaker than the hundred-man attack formation, it was enough to deal with weaker fiends.

It had to be understood that Tang Jie was at the peak of Mortal Shedding. When he attacked with full power, a lower-grade Mind Opening fiend was bound to die, and middle-grade fiends that didn't have innately tough bodies might not be able to take the blow.

Thus, this palm struck like it was swatting at a pile of flies, blood exploding into the air as countless fiends were squashed to death!

But he only had the chance to make this one attack. As that giant hand was drawing back to make another strike, those several dozen Transformation great fiends attacked it. With one barrage, the giant hand was destroyed.

As the giant hand was destroyed, Tang Jie threw up blood. Having the incantation forcibly broken had created a rather significant backlash.

But he didn't care about this. Once the attack was done, he shouted, "It's enough! Rise!"

He thrust his palms down, and then the ground began to shine.

"This is…" The fiends were all taken aback.

"It's the Blood Sea Formation! Retreat!" a voice shouted.

It was none other than the black-robed man.

Though the white Bei was dead, there were others among the fiends that could serve as a commander. The black-robed man hadn't initially been with the fiends. When he flew out from the rear and saw what was going on, he immediately shouted. It seemed like he had far more experience than the white Bei, as ordinary fiends couldn't possibly understand formations.

Bei Canghan remarked in surprise, "They have someone that recognizes formations?"

Tang Jie coldly glanced at the black-robed man and grunted, "I suspect that he's not even a fiend."

He raised his hands, and a red light erupted from the ground, enveloping the entire battlefield.

If one were looking down from above, one would see that a giant formation diagram had been carved into the terrain. It was incredibly complex, the lines digging deep into the earth, and each of these formation lines flowed with blood.

Some of this blood had been there beforehand, while the rest had come from fiends that had died.

This was the Blood Sea Formation.

Everyone knew the materials needed for this formation. There were many times where a formation master chose a formation not just based on their opponent, but also based on the resources at hand.

Tang Jie had racked his mind for ways to deal with the fiend army, and the Blood Sea Formation served as his most important card. As for the earlier moves, they were all preparation for this formation.

As could be seen from the name, the Blood Sea Formation's core material was blood.

The greatest advantage of this formation was that it worked so long as one had blood. The quality of the blood would decide the power of the formation.

This was exactly why Tang Jie had chosen this formation. It allowed him to turn his harvests from the battle into combat power.

In battle, Tang Jie's group naturally couldn't go around harvesting fiends to strengthen themselves. Moreover, the little boosts of power they would have received wouldn't have been very useful. But the fiends slain on the battlefield could be used to power the Blood Sea Formation. It only required blood, and not even in any specific arrangement. All they needed to do was draw the formation lines, after which the blood flowing from the dead fiends would flow on its own into the formation lines.

This was the greatest advantage of the Blood Sea Formation. So long as one was sufficiently prepared, one could lay down the formation while fighting without needing to be distracted.

This was why Tang Jie's group had tried to kill as many fiends as possible from the start. Besides buying time, it also provided fuel to the Blood Sea Formation.

If the Blood Sea Formation had a weakness, it was that it consumed far too much blood, living up to its name of Blood Sea. If this hadn't been the case, then it could theoretically keep killing to form an endless loop.

But with these tens of thousands of fiends gathered, there was no better place to use the Blood Sea Formation.

The blood sea rose, a torrent of blood rushing out in all directions.

A bear fiend saw the approaching blood sea and swiped a claw at it.

The bear claw wasn't able to push back the blood sea. On the contrary, the blood sea seized this chance to engulf the bear. Thus, as the bear howled in pain, the blood sea dissolved its flesh and fur, and it was soon nothing more than a skeleton.

Other fiends joined it in this fate. The blood sea was a terrifying tide of death. Any fiend that was swept up in it would be destroyed, and it would use their power to make itself stronger. Even Transformation fiends were not spared. The fiends had no choice but to flee.

The black-robed man's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

He had come with the mission of commanding the fiends in the attack on the mountain, but while he had come ready to die with them, it should have been on the mountain, not at its base. He could have never imagined that they would face such a bitter setback before even getting onto the mountain.

The blood tide was inflicting devastating losses on the fiends, and numerous disciples had now appeared on Rally Peak.

Although Tang Jie's group hadn't been able to delay the fiends for long, being forced to use three plans in swift succession with no time to catch their breaths, this little time had been enough for Rally Peak to react and prepare.

These disciples descended from the mountain. If the space-sealing formation hadn't also hindered them, the disciples of Rally Peak might have already joined the battle.

In these circumstances, reaching the summit was now as difficult as ascending to the heavens.

But reaching the summit was a necessary objective of this battle.

The Selection Hall could survive, all the fiends could die, and even he could die, but they had to reach the summit!

Thus, as the black-robed man looked at the approaching blood sea, he furiously took out a whistle and blew on it.

The sharp whistle was like an arrow piercing through the night.

As the whistle blew, the sky rippled, and then there was a sigh.

"So in the end, you lot weren't enough?"

The voice wasn't particularly loud, but it was brimming with power. While others might have thought nothing of it, Tang Jie shuddered.

He remembered this voice!

Feng Muyuan!

The voice of the Beast Refining Gate's Wolf Lord, Feng Muyuan!

Wei Tianchong and the others who had taken part in the Beast Garden battle had also heard this voice, but as the matter had occurred more than ten years ago, none of them remembered it. Only Tang Jie had not forgotten.

The power given to him by Wisdom included memory.

Feng Muyuan was a True Lord, so how could Tang Jie ever forget his voice?

So long as he cared about something, he wouldn't forget it!

As expected, the Beast Refining Gate was behind this. Only they were capable of mobilizing so many fiends.

But why were they doing this?

Purely because of their grudge against the Basking Moon Sect?

Maybe, but there might have been another, deeper, motive.

Tang Jie felt that if an individual could use official business to handle personal matters, organizations could use personal matters to aid in official business.

As he was thinking this, a giant blue hand descended from the sky.

The giant hand was originally casting the Illusion Fog, and now that it was emerging, the fog instantly thinned.

At the same time, in a small hut in the Zephyr Mountains, that white-browed elder suddenly opened his eyes. He pensively looked up at the sky before heaving a sigh, shaking his head, and continuing to meditate.

That giant palm slammed into the blood sea.

The blood sea roared as if it had a mind of its own, rising up to meet the blue palm.

A moment later, the palm struck the blood sea, and then the blood that had risen up from the formation instantly dissolved into spiritual light.

The blue palm continued, striking the ground.

The palm was as weighty as a mountain, causing the earth to quake. The blue hand then lightly waved, wiping away all the formation lines.

The Blood Sea Formation disappeared!

The fissure disappeared!

Only then did the blue palm withdraw back into the sky, the Illusion Fog thickening again.

Feng Muyuan's voice boomed in the sky. "Since I have intervened, I must have alarmed the Basking Moon Sect's Cloud Ancestor. But that old man will not lightly break his promise, and he will not intervene unless the sect is in mortal danger. Yet there are others who might also have realized what is going on… You must move as quickly as you can."

"Yes!" As Feng Muyuan spoke, several more black-robed men charged out from the rear, but they were much faster and stronger than the first one.

These people had probably been lying in wait for some time, but perhaps because they didn't want to expose themselves, they had not done anything this entire time. However, the change in situation had forced them to move out.

In any case, the Beast Refining Gate and Basking Moon Sect were mortal enemies. While they had an unspoken agreement to not try and intentionally make trouble for each other, since they were already doing it, completing the mission was more important than keeping their identities a secret. Thus, they attacked with all their power, casting aside all apprehensions.

These were all at the Celestial Heart Realm, and the moment they appeared, they used the Beast Driving Mantra.

The Beast Driving Mantra was a secret art of the Beast Refining Gate, and when used, it allowed one to influence a vast number of beasts into an attack. Although it didn't allow one to command beasts like extensions of one's limbs as the Myriad Beast Union Mantra did, it was an excellent way to control large numbers of fiends in attacks on large targets.

With several Celestial Heart True Persons driving on the beasts, the fleeing fiends immediately turned back and charged at Rally Peak.

Peng Yaolong and the others paled at this sight.

"It's the Beast Refining Gate! Damn it! Tang Jie, what do we do?" everyone shouted.

Although they couldn't recognize Feng Muyuan's voice, they did recognize the Beast Driving Mantra, so they immediately knew that this was the work of the Beast Refining Gate.

With the Blood Sea Formation broken and no other back-up plans, it would be extremely difficult to stop the fiends.

Tang Jie didn't seem panicked, for the Blood Sea Formation was not actually his final card.

Nobody knew that there was a dark and fiendish plant under the ground, waving around its tentacles.

Black Sin!

This was Tang Jie's real trump card, his last play.

Yiyi had comprehended Black Sin in a dream, and she could bring it into reality. While it started small and weak, it could grow endlessly strong through consumption.

The Blood Sea Formation could be considered a professional at getting stronger in battle, but Black Sin was the ancestor of this school. Nobody was better than it at consuming its foes on the battlefield to strengthen itself.

While large amounts of blood had been offered to the Blood Sea Formation, numerous corpses had also filled Black Sin's belly.

Alas, unless it ate all of the tens of thousands of fiends, there was no way it could stand up to a True Lord. Even so, eating the corpses of thousands of fiends had pushed Black Sin's power to a terrifying level. It could be said that the only existence on the battlefield that it feared was Feng Muyuan.

But just when he was planning to use Black Sin to delay the opponent more, he suddenly thought of something and said, "The sneak attack is bound to fail, so why is the Beast Refining Gate so intent on attacking the mountain?"

Everyone was taken aback.

Yes, if the mission was to destroy the Selection Hall, then the Beast Refining Gate's plan had failed.

The reason was that Rally Peak was already prepared. Even if this preparation time wasn't enough, as they had yet to complete their formation and some of the slower disciples had yet to react, was one only considered to be prepared if one had gone all the way and convened one's officers for a pre-battle conference?

For Tang Jie's group, the most important thing was to last for the first few minutes. No matter how rushed the disciples on Rally Peak were, at least they would have time to grab their pants and pick up their weapons.

This preparation was enough. At least they wouldn't have died in complete chaos and ignorance!

So why hadn't the enemy made the rational choice and retreated?

Tang Jie continued, "They aren't here to destroy the hall. That was just a lie to fool the fiends. They must have an ulterior motive."

"What could it be?" Bei Canghan asked.

Tang Jie watched as the True Persons drove the beasts onward. "Regardless, we don't need to force ourselves anymore."

He moved to the side.

Yes, there was no need to force themselves now. They had bought enough time for Rally Peak, which was already a huge contribution. Everyone exchanged glances and then retreated with a smile.

Sure enough, those True Persons led the fiends straight up Rally Peak, not even paying attention to Tang Jie's group. In doing this, they essentially exposed their flank.

Seeing this, Tang Jie grew even more certain of his theory.

The fiend attack on the mountain was just a smokescreen for another objective the Beast Refining Gate had.

Since they had another objective, the choice of Rally Peak couldn't have been random.

Tang Jie's mind began to work faster and faster.

Rally Peak was the principal peak of the Selection Hall, and the Selection Hall was under Ming Yekong's control. Eleven years ago, Ming Yekong had engaged in a major battle with Feng Muyuan, using that moment to grow famous throughout Rosecloud.

Now, it was none other than Feng Muyuan who had come. Was this guy resentful over what had happened eleven years ago and had finally come to settle the score?

Huh, it makes some sense.

No, wait!

This is also a smokescreen!

While the six major sects didn't get along, there were basically no sect wars for fear that someone else might take advantage of the two wounded parties. This was why the Beast Refining Gate had sent Feng Muyuan. Once he was exposed, he could use his private grudge as a cover for official business.

Thus, he had to have another plan!

Then what could there be on Rally Peak worth the Beast Refining Gate's attention?

With this question in mind, Tang Jie asked, "Senior Brother, would you happen to know if there's any sort of important person being held in Rally Peak?"

The person he was asking was Wu Xianguang, a member of the Selection Hall. Wu Xianguang smiled and said, "My Selection Hall isn't the Law Hall. We don't enforce the law or run a prison, so what prisoners would we have there? Moreover, the Beast Refining Gate's people aren't considered prisoners, and those who can be killed are killed. I don't think the Beast Refining Gate would come for this reason."

It was clear that he had realized what Tang Jie was thinking, that the Beast Refining Gate had not come for no reason.

Tang Jie nodded and then asked, "Then are there any secret codices or treasures?"

Wu Xianguang shook his head again. "Secret codices should be sought at the Canon Hall, and treasures should be found at the Storehouse Hall. It's when you want a promotion or reward that you come to us."

Tang Jie deflated. "Then what is the Beast Refining Gate aiming at Rally Peak for?"

By now, the fiends were making their way up the mountain. The Selection Hall disciples had grouped up together and were locked in battle with the fiends. Meanwhile, the other mountains had realized what was going on and dispatched reinforcements. The sounds of battle could now be heard from the mountain.

In contrast, the twenty-some of them who had been bitterly fighting at the very beginning were standing around with nothing to do. They had already killed too much and contributed too much, so there was no need to fight for those paltry contribution points. Only Yiyi was very unwilling. She was in the middle of commanding Black Sin into sneaking up the mountain to devour fiend corpses. It appeared that she wasn't going to back down unless she got to kill at least one True Person.

Tang Jie ignored her and continued to confer with everyone. Suddenly, Bei Canghan smiled and said, "It's not entirely right to say that there's no treasure, right? From what I know, didn't Master Ming leave behind a treasure for the hall?"

Wu Xianguang was rather surprised. "Your intelligence network is pretty good. You even know about that? Yes, when Master Ming left and Hall Master Xiang succeeded him, Master Ming truly did leave behind a treasure for the hall. But what it is has always been a secret, and even I don't know what it is."

"You don't know, either?" Tang Jie asked.

"Yes, no one except Hall Master Xiang and the two deputy hall masters know. We only know that the treasure is located in Rally Peak's Hall of Mystery, but we know nothing about its exact location or what it is."

Peng Yaolong grunted. "That's rather strange. Since only the three hall masters know, how did the Beast Refining Gate find out?"

Wu Xianguang unhappily said, "You say that, but we don't even have any evidence to show that the Beast Refining Gate is aiming for Master Ming's treasure. Are you trying to say that Hall Master Xiang or one of the deputy hall masters is a Beast Refining Gate spy?"

Peng Yaolong didn't dare to say that. It was true that all the sects had spies in the other sects, but no spy had ever reached the rank of Celestial Chief, or even deputy chief.

Tang Jie asked, "Then did Master Ming ever mention why he left the treasure behind?"

Wu Xianguang replied, "Oh, I know that. Master Ming said that this treasure was extremely mystical and profound. No one could use it, and even he was able to use it only for a time, unable to master it. Thus, he left it in the hall, leaving its ownership up to fate."

"'Unable to master it'?" Tang Jie was shaken.

He suddenly understood what the Beast Refining Gate was targeting.