Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-544

A saber pierced through the air, coming away with thick blood that added more red to the scarlet plains.

Tang Jie sheathed his saber and began to butcher the mutated Fire Bull with smooth proficiency, preparing to roast it.

He had already spent many days on these scarlet plains. He had yet to see a single human or other intelligent species, though he had managed to kill quite a few powerful primal beasts.

Primal beasts were an ancient type of beast that were distinct from fiends, and the Cinnabar Luan and Fire Bull both belonged to this type. Unlike fiends, they didn't cultivate and had simple minds, relying on their innate brute strength and spell arts to battle. However, this did not stop them from being quite powerful. Because the Rosecloud Domain didn't have any primal beasts, Tang Jie had mistaken them for fiends that had not reached Mind Opening. However, these last few days had gradually made him understand the difference.

Primal beasts were a remnant of High Antiquity, possessing powerful blood energy, which was why Tang Jie had encountered quite a few savage creatures. The most frightening of them had been a golden Pixiu. It had been the size of a small mountain, had a roar like thunder, and could cause mighty gales simply by breathing in and out. Simply moving its body made the world shake as if it was about to end. It scared Tang Jie so badly that he had no choice but to fly around it.

(TN: The Pixiu is a mythical Chinese creature with the head and tail of a dragon and the body of a tiger.)

This barbaric world of blood had opened Tang Jie's eyes, and he excitedly wandered these plains, consuming the flesh of primal beasts to make his blood energy grow. But he couldn't take too much each time, or else he would find it hard to take. There was a daily limit.

Today, after eating the Fire Bull, Tang Jie felt his blood energy surging once more, and he quickly sat down to recompose himself.

But for some reason, his past experience didn't apply. Several breathing cycles failed to calm his seething blood energy.

It was as if something was roiling in his body, riling up all of his blood energy.

Tang Jie was rather shaken.

This was the result of consuming too much blood energy. But Tang Jie had inspected the Fire Bull's blood energy and been careful when consuming it, ensuring that he hadn't gorged himself.

But at this moment, a thought occurred to him.

"Shit! The Black Tortoise blood!"

He finally remembered that he had swallowed that drop of Black Tortoise essence blood before entering the Blood River Domain.

It was just that he had been sucked into the Blood River Domain moments later, and in that emergency, he hadn't had the time to check his body. After that, the palm from the Lord of the Blood River had given him a jolt that paralyzed his body, causing him to subconsciously think that there was nothing special about the blood.

But now, it appeared that the Black Tortoise blood had been suppressed back then, and only now was it finally erupting.

What sort of power was contained in the Black Tortoise blood? As it erupted, when combined with his numerous meals, it became impossible to calm his blood energy. As that energy rampaged within his body, he felt like he was going to be torn apart.

It had to be understood that this was different from the White Tiger essence blood. The essence blood Bao'er had given to Tang Jie had been the most docile and easiest to absorb. Even then, Tang Jie needed the Blood Refining Spirit spell to digest it.

But the Blood Refining Spirit spell was designed for the White Tiger essence blood and had nothing to do with the Black Tortoise essence blood. No matter how Tang Jie used it, his digestion speed simply couldn't match the increasing restlessness of the blood energy.

As his blood energy surged higher and higher, Tang Jie knew that his body was going to explode.

He desperately circulated the Violet Jade Mantra, but it did nothing. He started to roll around on the ground in pain, leaving Yiyi and Tutu shocked and confused.

Tang Jie knew that he was in big trouble. If he didn't resolve this problem quickly, he would probably become the first cultivator to gorge himself to death. Since the Violet Jade Mantra didn't work, he quickly switched to the Parting Classic, but the Parting Classic didn't seem to have interest in blood energy, and the digestion speed remained extremely slow. Tang Jie then changed over to the Celestial Treasure Supreme Heart Mantra, but this still did no good. He didn't even try the Ghost Classic, going straight to the Ninedark Mantra.

To his surprise, this actually worked.

Under the circulation of the Ninedark Mantra, the seething blood energy finally calmed down, the berserk energy instantly becoming like a tamed wild horse, quietly and slowly flowing through his body.

"This is…" Tang Jie sat up in surprise. Looking at his body with inner vision, Tang Jie saw that the majestic blood energy was still present, but it was no longer as wild as before, even seemingly waiting for his orders.

This was the first time in Tang Jie's decades of cultivation that he had run into this sort of matter.

If the Violet Jade Mantra was the key to improving his cultivation, the Ninedark Mantra existed to improve his spell arts. While it didn't directly boost his strength, it made his spell casting quicker, longer-lasting, and stronger, increasing his combat power.

For this reason, Tang Jie had always considered the Ninedark Mantra to be a support mantra.

But in his desperate straits, Tang Jie had found a new use for the Ninedark Mantra.

At the same time, his Celestial Heart Dao Fruit flashed with a blinding light.

The seething blood energy gathered into a mighty river that majestically flowed through Tang Jie's body, no longer wild and untamed. It made a complete circuit of Tang Jie's body, traveling through the spiritual energy channels, touring the meridians and acupoints.

Tang Jie was amazed.

The meridians and acupoints were for the circulation of spiritual energy, and nothing else could travel through them.

But through the Ninedark Mantra, all the blood energy, in order to release that immense pressure, was beginning to seep into the meridians. Most importantly and shockingly, it was working.

Why could this blood energy enter his acupoints to no deleterious effect?

Tang Jie suddenly had an idea and began to guide that river of blood energy to his Spirit Sea.

This was rather risky. Blood energy wasn't spiritual energy, and mixing them could lead to unknown consequences.

But Tang Jie instinctively felt this was possible, as if there was a voice telling him to do this.

Perhaps this was a kind of inspiration, or perhaps this was an anticipation that had been suppressed in his mind for too long!

Tang Jie didn't know, but now that this blood energy was acting strangely, Tang Jie wanted to try this idea out.

In any case, this was an avatar, so losing it wasn't a big deal. Tang Jie used this method to console himself, even though he knew that this avatar was no longer a simple substitute—it was an independent and powerful asset!

The blood energy flowed into the Spirit Sea.

At first, Tang Jie was careful, letting only a little bit of blood energy into the Spirit Sea.

That blood energy passed through all the barriers of the body with ease and entered the Spirit Sea.

It slipped in without the slightest reaction, like a drop of blood falling into the sea.

Tang Jie knew that it had worked!

As that blood fell in, Tang Jie's Celestial Heart flashed.

Those countless Dao Runes that had disappeared upon the condensation of the Celestial Heart all lit up in unison, and those Dao Runes symbolizing the Dao of Yin Yang began to increase in number while also radiating the brightest light of all.

Tang Jie knew that this was the reaction of his Celestial Heart to his original body comprehending the Dao Will of the Myriad Immortals Cauldron.

And when this Dao Will manifested on his Celestial Heart, it began to resonate with the Ninedark Mantra.

As if he had attained the will of the heavens, Tang Jie knew what he had to do next.

He continued to guide the blood energy into his Spirit Sea.

As it poured in, the colorless Spirit Sea began to redden, and its calm surface began to produce waves.

The iceberg of solidified spiritual energy produced through the usage of the Crystallized Sandworm also began to take on a bloody hue.

The blood energy continued to flow in until the Spiritual Space gradually couldn't hold much more.

But that was fine. He began to release it through his skin into the surroundings.

This was a Spirit Ring True Person's specialty.

That ring of spiritual energy appeared at Tang Jie's feet, spreading outward, and in the process, it began to change color.

The blue ring turned crimson.

Not only that, the Spirit Ring even expanded past the limits of his Spirit Will, ending up as a giant blood ring with a radius of more than two hundred feet.

"This is…" Yiyi and Tutu were dumbfounded.

They had no idea what had just happened.

Tang Jie gazed pensively at the blood ring.

At this time, a golden-feathered eagle flew over.

As a primal beast, the eagle was extremely powerful. Its claws could shatter stone, and not even a barrier of spiritual energy could stop it.

Tang Jie had fought against such an eagle before, and he had expended much strength to finally emerge victorious.

As the golden eagle flew over, Tang Jie suddenly stomped the ground and flew into the air.

The golden eagle let out a resounding screech as it spotted Tang Jie, beating its wings and charging at him.

Tang Jie formed a spell and pointed at his feet, upon which that blood ring erupted with light. The golden eagle dove into the blood ring, and a moment later, a powerful shockwave of blood rippled out, squeezing the golden eagle so hard that it shrieked in fear.

Blood energy surged over the golden eagle, and the golden eagle gushed out blood as if something huge was rolling over it.

Its body began to crack open as if a millstone was pressing down on it, blood flowing out from its orifices. It could no longer fly, yet it also couldn't fall. All it could do was be tossed around in the air in front of Tang Jie.

And beneath Tang Jie, the blood ring slowly turned. When the blood coming from the golden eagle fell into the blood ring, it steamed up into red vapor that lingered around Tang Jie.

The blood energy around Tang Jie thickened.

That golden eagle had a hardy life force, so it continued to struggle within the space of blood energy.

Tang Jie slightly frowned. "The power of the blood energy is still a little weak. It should be because I haven't absorbed enough… but it's fine. I can just kill some more."

He took out that blood gem that originated from the Blood River Lord's essence blood.

With a light squeeze, the blood gem turned into a mist that filled the blood ring's space.

Yiyi and Tutu saw the blood forcefield grow stronger, even beginning to rumble.

Amid the rumbling, the golden eagle finally stopped struggling, its body deforming as all of its blood was squeezed out. Ultimately, it was turned into a lump of meat that fell from the air.

"Heavens!" Yiyi and Tutu gasped in alarm.

Without any spell arts or the Sovereign Blade, only through the blood ring, Tang Jie had crushed a primal beast. There was no doubt that Tang Jie had grown stronger by leaps and bounds.

Tang Jie slowly descended back to the ground.

The blood ring retracted, regaining its original watery-blue hue, and the blood energy vanished without a trace.

Within the Spirit Sea.

The blood and water separated, the Spirit Sea going back to its colorless state as the blood energy retreated. But rather than dissipating, it congregated into red clouds.

One above and one below, clearly differentiated.

Whew! Tang Jie panted for breath.

Finally, his body had returned to normal.

"Big Brother." Yiyi saw that Tang Jie had calmed back down. She whispered, "Are you okay now?"

Tang Jie chuckled. "Mm, I'm okay now."

"Then…"

Tang Jie explained the matter of the Black Tortoise essence blood, leaving Yiyi and Tutu stunned.

This incident with the Black Tortoise essence blood had allowed Tang Jie to understand the meaning of the Ninedark Mantra.

The Martial Lord had cultivated both arts and the body, and the Ninedark Mantra he left behind had the effect of combining blood energy with spiritual energy.

The Ninedark Mantra had merged these two powers together into something even greater.

However, the traditional way was to fuse spiritual energy into the blood, with the goal of strengthening the body.

A classic example of fusing spiritual energy into blood was Wang Juemie. All of the spiritual energy he cultivated was for the sake of strengthening his physical body.

But Tang Jie went in reverse, fusing blood energy into spiritual energy, and what he strengthened was the power of his spell arts.

He was able to perform this conversion because of the Dao of Yin Yang.

The Dao of Yin Yang represented the two sides of the world, and it specialized in switching between opposites.

The original body had gained some insights while researching the Myriad Immortals Cauldron, and while they still couldn't be used in battle, they could definitely be used in a more supportive fashion.

This was why his Dao Fruit had lit up when he was using the Ninedark Mantra to pacify his blood energy. All of his insights into the Dao of Yin Yang had been used at that moment, and that seething blood energy finally began its majestic procession toward his Spirit Sea.

Fusing blood into spirit!

And the avatar fusing blood into spirit had also stimulated the original body. It was as if he had completed an experiment, and his understanding of the Dao of Yin Yang was strengthened.

"Then… what about that blood ring?" Yiyi asked, pointing at Tang Jie's feet.

If it was blood fusing into spirit, then the surge of spiritual energy could be explained.

But how could it also form that terrifying power that could squash a primal beast to death?

Tang Jie replied, "I didn't get it at first either, but later on, I realized that this should be the hidden talent power I received when breaking into Celestial Heart."

Every Celestial Heart True Person would receive a special boost in a certain aspect when breaking through into the Celestial Heart Realm, and it was called a talent power. For example, when Ming Yekong became a True Person, he received a huge boost in his control over space. This was his talent. This talent wasn't an expertise as the word was usually defined, but something that was truly unique.

For some reason, Tang Jie didn't unlock a talent power in the charge at Celestial Heart. He guessed that it was because he had done so as an avatar. In the end, he was fundamentally different from other humans, having not been born from a father and mother. Fortunately, a talent was simply a boost in a certain aspect, so Tang Jie didn't care too much.

But to his surprise, when the Black Tortoise blood activated, it inadvertently activated his talent power, which had been either hidden or overlooked. This was a power that let him restructure flesh.

"The avatar was created using the flesh of the original body, making it different from real lifeforms. This avatar started existence as a restructuring of blood and flesh. Perhaps you could say that this body has its own talent. It's just that I never had a chance to discover it. But today, thanks to the Ninedark Mantra and the Dao of Yin Yang, I was finally able to discover this talent. Rather than strengthening a certain aspect, it took the form of a natural spell art… No, it's more like a Divine Connection. There was no need for hand signs or energy circulation. A spell art that needs only a thought to manifest is known as a Divine Connection."

Tang Jie raised his hand, and that blood ring appeared.

The blood energy once more fused with spiritual energy, creating a terrifying power that was under Tang Jie's command.

Even though he wasn't targeting Yiyi and Tutu, the two of them were stricken by fear merely by standing in the blood ring, feeling like they were being crushed to death by a mountain. Besides that, Tutu felt an even greater menace, like all of its blood and flesh was pulsing and about to burst out of it.

This was the power of Tang Jie's blood ring. Within his blood ring, all existences would feel their blood energy being squeezed, and lifeforms with blood would have their blood sucked away to further empower the blood ring.

Just like Tang Jie had said, this wasn't a spell art, but a Divine Connection. It was very powerful and flexible. Its only flaw was that its range was rather small, only covering a radius of two-hundred-some feet, making it a minor Divine Connection. Even so, very few people could now fight against Tang Jie within the space around him.

One could say that Tang Jie had found his next unique ability after the Four-Nine True Words and the Heavenly Cloud Blade, this one even stronger and more terrifying.

Suffering under that immense pressure, Tutu said in a shaky voice, "What is the name of this Divine Connection?"

After some thought, Tang Jie replied, "How about calling it 'the Flesh Millstone'?"