Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-512

The Great Mountain was still shifting.

Mountains rose and fell in one of the world's most breathtaking sights.

The original body flew amid these rising and falling mountains. Occasionally, a rising mountain would brush past him as it rose into the sky.

The tall mountains were like a collection of stone pillars. They presented a grandiose sight as they intersected and pierced through the sky, but a moment later, this majestic sight was gone.

No one who had not experienced this transformation would be able to imagine its majesty.

The original body flew past a mountain and then found a clearing to stop.

He took out a pill from his bag and put it into the avatar's mouth. The avatar swallowed with great difficulty, and the severe wound inflicted by Xi Canhen's sword finally began to recover.

The assassination was faked, but the injury was real.

If they hadn't done it this way, they would have never been able to fool all those experts from Godhead Palace.

When Tang Jie learned that Nan Ningjiang was obsessed with finding the spy among his ranks, he had drafted this plan. Xi Canhen was far too important for him, and he could not allow him to be exposed.

Even if this strike couldn't remove all of Nan Ningjiang's doubts, it might remove more than half.

Crucially, Nan Ningjiang didn't know that Tang Jie and Xi Canhen were connected through Heart Consonance. He could not have imagined that Tang Jie would be able to contact Xi Canhen in these circumstances.

Turning around, the original body saw that Godhead Palace's people were already out of sight.

Since Xu Mingyue wasn't cooperating, Godhead Palace had lost any chance of catching him.

Tang Jie chuckled. Putting down the avatar, he took stock of his surroundings.

Ever since he had entered the Nine Executions Immortal Formation, Tang Jie had essentially been in seclusion, borrowing the eyes of the avatar to see and experience the world. It was only today that he could use his own body to sense this world that he had been parted from for so long.

Perhaps because these two were fundamentally different, the original body's eyes saw everything as smaller and more fragile. Whenever Tang Jie thought from the perspective of the original body, he would instinctively consider bold and heroic actions, looking down on everyone.

This made him somewhat understand the aloof and arrogant attitudes of those high-up and illustrious figures.

As he grew stronger, this attitude was almost inevitable. It was an adaptation to one's environment, a consequence of his horizons broadening with his rise in power.

The avatar was still healing from his wounds.

As Yiyi was tending to him, she asked, "Big Brother, what are we doing next?'

Tang Jie considered his answer and said, "With the Spirit-Boiling Powder removed, we don't need to be fleeing around the clock. Now, we can get a good rest."

Yiyi grinned and nodded.

In this period where he was marked by the Spirit-Boiling Powder, while it seemed like they had been able to roam freely, they had essentially been on the run the entire time, so they were truly exhausted. Now that the problem had been resolved, they could have a good rest.

"And after that," Tang Jie went on, "we'll run circles around them in these mountains."

There was a grim tone to his voice, as if this was not going to be a very peaceful activity.

The Spirit Mountains were very complicated, and anyone would find them very difficult to control. It was a natural shelter for the weak and a place where the strong would always risk being counterattacked. Since Tang Jie was here, he wasn't going to give up on any opportunity he had to counterattack.

"Then you're not leaving, right?" Yiyi excitedly crawled up Tang Jie's body.

She was getting bigger and bigger, and the avatar was no longer the proper size to serve as her perch. This larger body was much better for it.

Tang Jie shrugged. "Nan Ningjiang has locked down these mountains, so I can't teleport out and return to the formation, so I can only stay here."

Locking down the mountain region was different from locking down Nadir Hill. As the area being locked down shrank, the sealing power increased, and the result was that Tang Jie couldn't even return to the Nine Executions Immortal Formation if he wanted to. This was also how Tang Jie knew that Nan Ningjiang had locked down the entire mountain range and why he hadn't chosen to flee outward.

"Oh, wonderful!" Yiyi seemed elated to learn that the original body wasn't able to go back.

Tang Jie pinched Yiyi's ear and smiled. "But before that, there are still some things we need to do."

"What?"

"Familiarize ourselves with this new mountain region."

"'Familiarize ourselves with the new mountain region'?" Yiyi didn't understand what Tang Jie meant.

"Yes, the Spirit Mountains have already changed, so we have to renew our understanding of the landscape. The pressure of the Great Mountain isn't completely ineffective on my original body. It's still around, though I'm much better off than other cultivators. In addition, we have too few beans. They are very useful, but they need numbers. We need more beans, so we need more places to grow them."

Tang Jie paused and said, "Thus, we need time, so the time we spend here won't be short."

"How long?" Yiyi asked.

Tang Jie thought it over and replied, "One year? Two years? Even five to ten years is possible."

Yiyi's mouth opened in shock. "That long?"

"Yes, we need to prepare for a long war," Tang Jie replied. "We will stay here, living, cultivating, killing, and getting stronger. We will grow through battle and weaken our enemies through battle."

Tang Jie hadn't planned on this at the start, but after that battle, he had made up his mind.

It wasn't just the reasons above that had led him to make this decision. The more important one was Aspirational Power.

In the battle with Godhead Palace, Tang Jie had discovered that his aspiration had triggered some special effect, allowing him to grow stronger through killing, as if he was gaining experience by killing monsters.

Tang Jie was amazed by this discovery. Before this, he had killed quite a few Godhead Palace people, but this sort of thing had never happened.

Thus, Tang Jie was very certain that the aid of the Aspirational Power was connected to the Great Mountain.

Until he could confirm everything, the best plan was to stay in the mountains and keep killing his enemies. After all, was there anything better than getting stronger through killing?

As a result, Tang Jie had changed his mind and was no longer in a rush to leave. Instead, he chose to live in the Great Mountain and explore its secrets, and the members of Godhead Palace were the seeds he would use to plumb the secrets of the Great Mountain and Aspirational Power.

This process was bound to be long, which was why Tang Jie was in no hurry and decided to take up residence in the mountain. In any case, ten years wasn't very long.

But Godhead Palace was bound to use a significant amount of resources in order to keep the mountain locked down for ten years. Worst of all was that they couldn't stop no matter how many resources they used, for stopping would mean that everything they had done before this was pointless.

Thus, they would grit their teeth and bear the cost until they eventually couldn't take it anymore.

This was also pushing Godhead Palace toward the grave, which met the conditions for his aspiration to destroy Godhead Palace, and so it might also bring him Aspirational Power…

"I see…" Yiyi nodded in agreement. She folded her arms like an adult and said, "If that's the case, let's spend some time cultivating in these mountains. This lady also needs some time to properly communicate with the plants here."

She waved her hand, and countless green seeds sprinkled the area.

In the past, she wasn't able to integrate with the mountain, but after this massive shift, many plants had died, and new plants needed time to grow. This was the perfect time for Yiyi to get involved. When the seeds she had planted merged with the mountain, she would regain all her abilities and be able to control plants once more.

Yiyi's actions reminded Tang Jie, and he immediately sowed large numbers of beans.

The battle with Godhead Palace had let him realize that while the beans grown in the Great Mountain weren't affected by the Great Mountain, they also didn't receive any additional boost. They weren't treated the same as the true native creatures of the mountains, which enjoyed the kindness of the mountain.

One of the reasons was probably that the beans had not truly integrated with the Great Mountain.

The mountain shift had caused mass death, and it was now the moment where the Great Mountain would welcome new life and would not refuse any newcomers. It was an excellent chance for the beans to go from outsiders to natives, and if possible, Tang Jie wanted to plant all the beans he had.

In comparison, Godhead Palace, which wasn't prepared for a long war, wasn't ready and so couldn't take advantage of this ideal moment.

They were still searching the mountains, but without the Spirit-Boiling Powder guiding them, Tang Jie had basically gone up in smoke, vanishing into the mountains.

A small deer pranced through the mountains.

It warily looked around, vigilant against any possible danger, and then it cautiously ran toward the mountains.

Despite its sharpness, it didn't notice a pair of eyes watching it from a distant thicket.

A gust of wind blew a tree leaf onto the deer's buttocks.

The deer sensed nothing, continuing to run through the mountain and soon vanishing without a trace. Thus, it didn't realize that the leaf on its buttocks was flashing as if it was a person's eyes blinking…

Three days later, when the deer came out of the mountains, its demeanor had utterly transformed.

Its long antlers were as sharp as blades, and its vigorous hindlegs could shatter a boulder with a casual kick.

A middle-grade Spirit Sensing deer fiend.

Although it wasn't strong, the transformation was enough to make one's eyes widen in shock.

Gazing long at that tree leaf, Tang Jie's original body shook his head and sighed. "In only three days, it went from an ordinary deer to a deer fiend, and middle-grade Spirit Sensing. It's truly hard to imagine."

He drew a checkmark on a paper on which the words "Deer, Number 12" were written, indicating that he was done observing this deer.

"If I didn't see it for myself, I wouldn't have believed it either." Yiyi shook her head and sighed.

It had been quite a few days since the last battle.

In this period of time, Tang Jie and Yiyi had been familiarizing themselves with the Great Mountain and raising plants. The original body was primarily in charge of all this. Once the avatar had recovered, he had thrown himself into cultivation. For a very long time, it had always been the original body cultivating while the avatar did all the work, so now, it was finally time for the original body to serve the avatar. After all, in this environment, the avatar would cultivate better than the original body, as the original body relied too much on resources.

Unable to take root in the mountain and merge with it like Yiyi, one day, Tang Jie suddenly had an idea. Since he couldn't learn how to be a plant, why not learn how to be an animal instead?

The animals of the Spirit Mountains were also beings that enjoyed the kindness of the Great Mountain, so how exactly did they receive this kindness?

Thus, Tang Jie began to observe the fiends in the mountains.

Initially, nothing came of it.

But one day, Tang Jie spotted a leopard entering the mountains. The leopard was missing a patch of skin on its face, giving it a unique face that Tang Jie remembered.

Several days later, when Tang Jie saw the leopard again, he discovered that it had become a middle-grade fiend.

This left Tang Jie shocked.

From then on, he began to watch the ordinary creatures. Finally, he discovered that all the creatures that became fiends did so after entering the depths of the mountains.

The infamous eccentricities of the Spirit Mountains had kept Tang Jie from venturing into the depths of the Great Mountain until now.

He simply watched from the perimeter, keeping track of when each creature went in and if they came out alive. For this purpose, he placed a mark on these creatures.

Around one third of them ultimately came out as fiends. As for the remaining two thirds, Tang Jie couldn't be sure whether they were alive or dead. Maybe they had died, or maybe they had left through another direction. After all, the mountain range was vast, and Tang Jie couldn't be watching everywhere.

The observation was still ongoing, and Tang Jie was in no rush to venture deeper into the mountains to explore its secrets.

The lessons learned by Godhead Palace had already taught him that the Great Mountain was not to be underestimated.

In this way, Tang Jie took up residence in the Great Mountain.

He spent every day cultivating, observing, and playing cat-and-mouse with Godhead Palace, his life becoming simple and boring, with the occasional excitement.

When he was bored, Tang Jie would chat with Xi Canhen through Heart Consonance, using the chance to understand what was going on outside.

The death of He Yueyang and the exposure of the original body's strength had deeply shaken Godhead Palace, so much so that they had dispatched King Canis.

Long ago, Feng Buzhi had suggested dispatching this Celestial Chief–level figure of Godhead Palace, but Godhead Palace had rejected the proposal, thinking that it would be using a bull knife to slaughter a chicken. But now, Feng Buzhi had been proved to be correct.

"In other words, Nan Ningjiang is no longer in charge of the pursuit against me?" While standing at one of the paths into the Great Mountain, Tang Jie kept watch while he communicated with Xi Canhen through Heart Consonance.

"He's still in charge, but only when He Changan hasn't said anything."

"I've heard that King Canis He Changan is an expert in scent tracking."

"Yes. He's comprehended the Dao of Breath and is extremely sensitive to all odors in the world, remembering any scent after interacting with it a single time. No matter how you transform yourself, your odor won't change, so even if you have a Dao-Controlling-level transformation ability, it will be of no use against him. As an expert in scent tracking, he is Godhead Palace's number one tracking expert, and he himself is extremely strong. But in the Spirit Mountains, the Great Mountain is suppressing him, preventing him from fully utilizing his abilities, or else you would be in trouble."

Tang Jie chuckled. "They even had the Spirit-Boiling Powder before, but they still didn't manage to catch me."

"You must not be careless. When He Changan arrived, I met with him. Back then, I was concealed on the side, and it would be one thing if he could see through my stealth with a glance. The key here was that gaze… That gaze immediately deprived me of any ability to resist, scaring me so badly that I almost fell over. Young Master, he's no average peak Celestial Heart. He's a Celestial Chief, the peak of the peak, half a step into Violet Palace!"

"But he can't stay here forever, right?" Tang Jie coolly said. "He's a very important man."

Xi Canhen was startled. "You're saying…"

"He Changan won't linger for too long. I can't beat him in battle, but in a contest of patience, I have a little more confidence."

"……"

"Right, there's something I need you to help me with."

"What is it?"

"It's rather lonely all by myself in some mountains. Could you help get me a few books to read?"

"You want to read books?" Xi Canhen was stunned. "What sort of books?"

"Any will do. Random cultivation manuals, the history of Nadir Hill, tales of the Spirit Mountain region… I'll take anything you can find."

Xi Canhen seemed to understand. "I'll go and find some for you."

"Thanks." Tang Jie grinned.

Ending the spell art, Tang Jie turned back to the path into the Great Mountain. A butterfly fluttered out, glowing with an ethereal light as it danced in the air.

Another fiend had been born.

He didn't even have a record of this one.

As if sensing Tang Jie's power, the newborn fiend didn't dare to get close. It circled around Tang Jie a few times before flying off.

As he watched the butterfly fly off, Tang Jie suddenly felt as if something had touched his heartstrings, but he didn't know where the sensation had come from.

At this moment, the jade amulet on his waist turned hot.

This heat made Tang Jie shudder.

He looked down and saw several words appear on the amulet:

"I'm in the mountains."