Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-553

High in the sky of the Blood River Domain, a jade platform floated in the clouds, like a castle in the sky.

The platform was 880 feet long, 660 feet wide, and 330 feet tall, made entirely from white jade. Upon it were eighteen dragon pillars and eighteen phoenix pillars, tall and thick. Together with the clouds drifting about, they made Tang Jie feel like he was in a fairyland.

Looking around at the platform, he couldn't help but remark, "This is the legendary Immortal-Ascending Platform of the Court of Myriad Domains?"

Standing nearby, Na Shan laughed. "The Immortal-Ascending Platform was where the Court of Myriad Domains invested Immortals. It was a supreme Dao armament in itself, and when the Myriad Court shattered, it disappeared. As for this platform, it is a divine treasure the Flame Celestial Sovereign made according to the legends of the Immortal-Ascending Platform. Although it is a copy, it still possesses a supreme Divine Connection that can protect the people on the platform, making it perfect for sparring. Tang Ran, use all your strength. Let me see the strength of a genius who was able to read all of the Infinity Codex."

Through Na Shan's words, Tang Jie finally understood how this Immortal-Ascending Platform worked.

This was a specially-made dueling platform. The Celestial Rebirth Divine Connection imbued into it allowed it to protect anyone on the platform who suffered a lethal attack, ensuring that they didn't die. It was the perfect place for sparring. To put it in Na Shan's words, one could use as much power as they had without worry of killing their opponent.

After explaining the powers of the Immortal-Ascending Platform, Na Shan pulled out his axes. "Now, let me see what Brother Tang can do. Blood Demon Classic!"

With this roar, Na Shan's blood energy swelled, red energy surging out of him in waves.

This red energy roiled in the air as a crimson fog, radiating a fierce, wild, boundless, and immense aura.

Na Shan's body grew larger and larger within the crimson fog, and in a flash, he had turned into a giant more than eighty feet tall. "This axe's name is Sky Cleaver. It is forged from Deep Sea Refined Iron and weighs 998 catties. Brother Tang, be careful!"

As he spoke, he swung the axe down.

The axe tore through the air, and Tang Jie felt like nothing in the world existed except this axe.

This simple axe swing seemed utterly undodgeable.

Tang Jie didn't dare to take on this Sky Cleaver weighing 998 catties with a sword, so he had no choice but to use the Chaoswind Step. His body blinked away and appeared on the other side.

"Eh?" Na Shan gasped, clearly not having expected his opponent to have a spatial shift spell art, and then excitement and enthusiasm gathered on his face. "As expected, you really did have more tricks!"

Tang Jie's complexion slightly darkened.

This was the first person who had forced him to use the Chaoswind Step at the very first move.

A moment later, Na Shan roared and turned around, swinging his axe in an explosive blow at Tang Jie. It appeared that he did not plan to hold back, and the movement of the axe stirred up a powerful gale.

Tang Jie unleashed his sword!

Two streams of energy, white and red, turned into two dragons and rushed at Na Shan.

The Frost Drake Sword!

The Flame Dragon Sword!

Tang Jie could no longer keep hiding his strength in the face of this powerful foe, using these two swords in his first attack. But this time, the two streams of draconic energy merged together as they surged forward, condensing into an even greater force.

The Infinity Sphere!

This was the essence of the Infinity Sphere Art, fusing Yin and Yang energies together to unleash the strongest impact. Although Tang Jie had only comprehended the first level of the Infinity Sphere Art, the Frost Drake and Flame Dragon Swords had magnified the power of his attack.

Two mighty forces slammed into each other.

Awooo!

Na Shan's enormous body flew into the air with a mighty roar, the Sky Cleaver shattering the red and white dragons with unstoppable momentum, and the axe continued to swing at Tang Jie, its force unspent.

Tang Jie couldn't help but grimace.

Na Shan's cultivation level was still at the Heart Demon Tier, but his real strength was almost at Soul Transformation. His combat power was frightening, and he lived up to his title of Asura and of being the man with the greatest hope of becoming a God Killer.

As the Sky Cleaver approached, Tang Jie had no choice but to use the Chaoswind Step to evade again. At the same time, he sheathed his sword and pulled out another.

The Five Sacred Mountains Sword.

The mountain souls emerged, and the mountains fell.

Five mountains blotted out the sky, falling one after another.

Rather than being alarmed, Na Shan was delighted. "I was waiting for this."

The blood energy on his body swelled, and his body grew larger again, turning into a giant that was around two hundred feet tall.

This size was inferior to the giant that Yuan Lian had turned into, but Na Shan's giant form was clearly more tempered, solid, and weighty.

Facing the mountains, Na Shan roared:

"I am Na Shan, Mountain Taker!"

Na Shan jumped high into the air and swung his axe down on the mountains. "Starshatter Axe Art!"

Boom!

A massive shockwave swept out from the massive collision, so powerful that Tang Jie almost fell over.

At that moment, he watched in stunned disbelief as the giant Na Shan wildly hacked away at the mountains with his giant axe.

The axe flashed with a blinding light, making it seem like a sun. As the axe hewed into the mountains, it also produced numerous phenomena. Countless stars twinkled in the sky, and streaks of flame tore across the sky, slamming into the stars and obliterating them.

The Starshatter Axe Art!

This terrifying axe art allowed Na Shan to cut away at the five mountains like they were melons.

The Starshatter Axe Art was passed down from High Antiquity and was said to be able to even shatter stars, so the five mountains were nothing to it.

This was Tang Jie's first time seeing someone so easily break the Five Mountains Divine Connection. Although Tang Jie could use the Five Mountains Shift three more times, Tang Jie didn't want to reveal his casting upper limit, and he also didn't think that it would do any good against Na Shan.

The best way to deal with someone like Na Shan was the Sovereign Blade, ignoring his tough body and cutting him into several dozen chunks. But Tang Jie clearly couldn't do this, so he could only think of another idea.

The five mountains had already crumbled, and this was only the second exchange.

Na Shan spun around like a whirlwind, swinging the axe again.

Tang Jie dodged again with the Chaoswind Step.

But as he dodged, Na Shan suddenly punched out behind him.

This punch created a powerful blast of wind.

Tang Jie was caught in the blast the moment he appeared and was instantly bowled over.

Na Shan laughed. "Just dodging won't do you any good!"

His enormous body instantly turned into a streak of blood that chased after Tang Jie.

A blood movement art!

This fellow also knew a kind of spatial movement art, but while Tang Jie used his for evasion, Na Shan opted for pursuit.

The streak of blood rushed up to Tang Jie's side, where it turned back into Na Shan. The axe came chopping down once more as he roared, "Die!"

If this axe struck true, Tang Jie would be pulverized, and he wasn't sure if even the Celestial Rebirth could save him.

Tang Jie had just come out of the Chaoswind Step and was reeling from the sudden blast of wind, so he momentarily couldn't use the Chaoswind Step to dodge again. Unable to dodge this attack, Tang Jie suddenly swung the Five Sacreds Sword at Na Shan's axe.

He was choosing to block!

The sword radiated an intense light, and as sword met axe, the light actually stopped the Sky Cleaver's downward momentum. And then, the light passed through the axe as if it wasn't there and struck Na Shan in the chest.

As that light swept past, Na Shan bellowed and backed away, a bloody wound appearing on his chest.

It didn't bite too deeply into his flesh, and in a split second, the severed flesh was restored. But regardless, that fierce Na Shan had been pushed back.

That person observing from the shadows couldn't help but be surprised.

A finger dabbed the blood on the chest and delivered it to the mouth.

Na Shan viciously smiled. "Good, very good. I didn't think I would run into sword intent! You really are a capable sort!"

Tang Jie bitterly smiled.

He truly had used one of his trump cards, but it was saber intent, not sword intent.

Using saber intent to control a sword had prevented Tang Jie from unleashing the full power of his saber intent, or else Na Shan wouldn't have gotten off so lightly.

But he was too lazy to explain. Actually, when using saber intent to control the sword, he had felt a small sliver of the quintessence of sword intent.

Sabers and swords shared the same origin. Both saber intent and sword intent involved using the mind to control the blade, merging the weapon with the mind and entering a more profound state.

Tang Jie had been in this state before, but that had been in fusion with the saber. Now that he was working with a sword, though there were some differences, he had an easier time understanding it.

To go from not knowing to knowing was a learning process, but to go from saber intent to sword intent was a choosing process.

The two processes simply weren't comparable.

For this reason, if Tang Jie wanted to, he could comprehend sword intent without too much difficulty.

As he was experiencing sword intent, Na Shan's axe came howling over once more.

But he was no longer as brazen after learning that Tang Jie could use "sword intent", applying a blood barrier to himself before launching his attack. While his right hand used the Starshatter Axe Art, his left hand stirred up a sea of blood such that Tang Jie would be affected by the sea of blood no matter where he blinked to.

This was a man who had won thousands of battles, and so he had quickly realized that the Chaoswind Step was restricted to a certain area. This blood sea spell art was meant specifically to counter the move.

"Use whatever else you have!" Na Shan laughed.

At this time, Tang Jie still had the Sovereign Blade, the Soul Refining Pearl, the Flesh Millstone, and the Realm of Insight.

But Tang Jie shook his head and said, "Nothing else except this."

Countless crescent blades trailing chains dropped down from the sky—the Heavenly Cloud Blades.

Through repeated tempering, Tang Jie had rebuilt the Heavenly Cloud Blades back to 81 in number. Although they weren't as powerful as when unleashed through a formation, they still made for an extremely powerful attack.

Moreover, Tang Jie wasn't using the Heavenly Cloud Blades just once, but several times, unleashing three waves of Heavenly Cloud Blades at once.

The nearly three hundred blades pelted down in a deluge, each blade the equivalent of a Gale Blade spell art. Hundreds of Gale Blades was something that even the tough Na Shan couldn't endure.

As blade after blade fell on his body, letting out a discordant clanging, Na Shan staggered and stumbled like a giant trying to press through a hurricane.

As the blades battered him, they blasted through his blood barrier, shattered his armor, and then began to fall on his granite skin. At first, they were only able to leave faint white imprints, but as the collisions came one after the other, even this steely skin began to show cracks.

Geysers of blood erupted from Na Shan's body, one after the other.

Even then, this savage giant didn't back down, pushing against the storm of Heavenly Blades to reach Tang Jie's side. But the battering of the blades had dampened his charge to nothing. Standing next to Tang Jie, Na Shan glared, then opened his mouth and roared.

"RAAAA!!!"

This draconic roar shook Tang Jie's mind, and a second later, Na Shan's steely fist swung at his chin.

Tang Jie felt like he had been smashed by a hammer, his lower jaw pulverized.

As he flew through the air, his spiritual energy began to repair the damage done to his body, and by the time he landed, his chin was already 10% restored. Meanwhile, Na Shan was also rapidly recovering, and all of the wounds were already gone as if they had never existed.

Licking his lips, Na Shan cracked a smile and said, "Not bad, putting me in this state!"

Tang Jie's jaw was in ruins, so he couldn't speak, so he simply gave Na Shan a thumbs-up to say that he had also done rather well.

Na Shan casually laughed, but then his face suddenly darkened as he swung his axe again! "Cleave the skies and shatter the stars!"

The axe unleashed a powerful blast of light at Tang Jie. Rather than continuing with close combat, he had unleashed a powerful spell art akin to the Matchless Slash. As the axe unleashed a sky-cleaving power, Tang Jie paled and instinctively used the Chaoswind Step.

But he was a little too slow, and the blast of axe energy swept over his leg.

Boom!

Flesh exploded as half of Tang Jie's leg was obliterated.

He appeared to Na Shan's side rather than rear, but the blood sea still allowed Na Shan to detect his location, and that large body turned into a streak of blood and charged at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie had no time to resist, but thankfully, his jaw had recovered enough for him to make sounds again.

"BRAH!" he roared.

That bloody streak froze for a moment, which was just enough time for Tang Jie to thrust his finger at Na Shan's forehead.

The Jade Shattering Finger!

"Aaargh!" Na Shan howled in pain as he rammed his head into Tang Jie's belly, the two curved horns breaking through the Formless Golden Body and penetrating into Tang Jie.

At the same time, Tang Jie thrust a second finger at Na Shan's head.

It was still the Jade Shattering Finger.

This was a method he had learned from Zhu Yun's Jade Shattering Claw, but Tang Jie could only use two fingers with the Jade Shattering Finger at the same time.

Even so, the two sharp blasts of finger energy pierced through Na Shan's head, boring two large holes through that bull-like skull.

The two of them separated, flying away from each other.

Tang Jie's belly had two grisly holes, and one leg was done for, and Na Shan's head also had two new windows. The wounds weren't large, but their position was lethal. However, the tenacious life force of the Hemos showed its worth here, so even though his most fragile head had been heavily wounded, this guy still wasn't dead. and even the Immortal-Ascending Platform's Celestial Rebirth had not activated. This meant that he was still some distance from being on the verge of death.

His head swaying, he stuck a finger into the hole in his head and picked out some brains, after which he grinned. "So you're even willing to risk your life. Haha, I like it!"

Being wounded like this actually made him happy rather than angry.

Tang Jie glared at him, holding his stomach as he stood back up. In his hand, the Five Sacreds Sword began to glow.

He was wondering if he should use the Five Mountains Shift to take down Na Shan, but he wasn't sure if Na Shan had been using all his strength.

In the face of such an opponent, Tang Jie felt like he had fewer and fewer trump cards left.

Fortunately, at this time, Na Shan shouted, "There's no need to keep fighting! I acknowledge your strength!"

Tang Jie exhaled and sat down on the floor.

Na Shan shouted, "Celestial Rebirth!"

Two balls of hazy light appeared above the Immortal-Ascending Platform and fell on the two.

Their heavy wounds began to heal.

With their recovery powers, they could have quickly healed the wounds, even without the Celestial Rebirth.

But this sort of recovery would draw on their life force. Tang Jie had comprehended the Dao of Life, so he could use it to instantly heal his wounds, but he would pay for it with his lifespan.

This was why, unless one was in a bitter battle to the death, everyone would choose to rely on external items to recover.

The power of the Divine Connection quickly restored them to full health.

Na Shan stood up and said, "You truly are pretty strong, but there's something I don't understand. You don't seem to have any good sword arts."

Tang Jie bitterly smiled. "The ones I learned in the past are all too low of a level, and I didn't find any better ones…"

Tang Jie truly hadn't learned any sword arts, or anything in the sword other than the Twelve-Form Horizon Sword all the way back then.

Let alone sword arts, he hadn't even learned any decent saber arts.

This was because his real weapon was the Sovereign Blade, which could take on forms beyond sword or saber. And most importantly, in its early stage, the Sovereign Blade couldn't be used with spell arts.

The cultivation world's saber arts didn't mean some method of using the saber, but a spell art. Because of the limits of the Sovereign Blade, he had grown used to relying on spell arts for long-range attacks and weapons for close combat, so he didn't really need any saber or sword spell arts. Moreover, he had the Divine Court Thousandshift to make up for it, so he essentially didn't learn anything else.

In the end, he managed to reach Celestial Heart True Person without learning a single saber or sword art, making him quite odd.

But after this battle, he was considering filling in this gap.

Now he thought about it, he currently had the manual for the "Sword of Longevity". As for the War God Mantra and the Free Roaming Divine Connection, the former was a mantra that could only be learned at the Heart Demon Tier and the latter was a Divine Connection that could only be cultivated at Violet Palace, or at least, he would have to wait until he reached minor attainment in his Divine Will. There was no hope of learning them in the short term.

Na Shan didn't know what he was thinking. He simply laughed and said, "This is rather simple. Join us, and you can choose any text within the Celestial Flame Pagoda."

"Just who are you people?" Tang Jie asked.

"Follow me," Na Shan said, cocking his head.