Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-562

As the trio disappeared into the diagram, Tang Jie exhaled, relieved that one of his most important tasks was complete.

Putting away the Mountain River Diagram, Tang Jie was about to do something else when he suddenly sensed something and turned around.

The firebird with blazing wings was floating in the air.

It was gazing at Tang Jie, the Southern Divine Fire flickering in its eyes.

The two of them stared at each other.

After a while, Tang Jie finally shouted, "You seem to have taken a prize that was rightfully mine."

As he spoke, the firebird unfurled its wings, its entire body roiling with flames.

The flames lit up the skies, sending waves of heat through the hidden realm, but not a single thing was harmed by them.

The coiling flames shifted about and gradually condensed into the figure of a woman. The flames also condensed into a gown which floated onto her body, and a young girl with fiery-red hair walked out from the flames.

She floated in the air, that gown of flames dancing in the wind. The girl of flames looked at herself as if she was seeing something new and interesting, and then a smile of unsurpassed glee appeared on her face, followed by a giggling laugh.

It was a refreshing laugh infused with an indescribable joy. It resounded through the land, filling all of the hidden realm with delight and elation.

After laughing for a while, the girl turned her head.

She looked at him like a fairy descended from the heavens looking down upon a mortal. She covered her red lips with a hand and remarked in an extremely pleasant voice, "So petty! The first thing to come out of your mouth is a demand."

Tang Jie was rather dumbfounded by this sight.

After a long daze, he finally said, "You're the firebird?"

The girl giggled and waved her hand. "So rude. 'Firebird' this, 'firebird' that! It sounds so bad, like you're calling me a turkey. I have a proper name, you know. You can call me the Vermillion Bird."

So it really was the Vermillion Bird?

Tang Jie wasn't surprised by this answer.

Ever since he learned about the White Tiger, he had thought more than a few times that the firebird imprisoned in the Martial Lord's hidden realm might be the legendary Vermillion Bird.

Now that it was finally confirmed, Tang Jie exhaled and said, "So you could transform and talk."

The only time Tang Jie had communicated with the firebird was when he had asked for instruction on the Dao of Yin Yang from the firebird in his battle with Feng Buzhi. It had communicated mentally at the time, so Tang Jie had believed this entire time that while the firebird was a great fiend, it could not speak or change form.

So the events of today were surprising.

The Vermillion Bird chuckled. "My form was sealed, so I originally couldn't speak or transform. Mentally communicating with you was my upper limit. If I hadn't obtained that Godhead Will, it would have been impossible for me to transform, and even more difficult to speak."

She looked down and admired her body, a satisfied look on her face. She was clearly extremely happy to be free of the seal. She had been a powerful great fiend, but for some reason, she could only manifest in her original form, and even her mind had been dulled. Now that she had her mind back, how could she not be happy?

"I see. So you were able to take human form because of the Godhead Will."

"Yes." The Vermillion Bird pursed her lips. "If not for that will, I would still be sealed. But there was still too little of this Divine Will, so I can only maintain this form for a little while. Hah, if only there were a little more, maybe four or five more portions."

Tang Jie's eyes brightened. "This is simple. There is more of the Divine Will on the golden statue in Godhead Palace. You just have to absorb the golden statue's Divine Will."

Tang Jie was always happy to make more trouble for Godhead Palace.

The Vermillion Bird rolled her eyes. "Are you trying to get me killed? Godhead Palace is a gathering place of many powerful experts. If I were to go over, I would be butchered up and roasted on a spit."

She was the mighty Sacred Beast of Flames, yet she was talking about how humans would roast her on a spit. It was quite amusing.

Tang Jie smiled. "The Vermillion Bird is a Sacred Beast, an existence above Immortal Platform, yet you fear the puny Godhead Palace?"

The Vermillion Bird covered her mouth and laughed. "Has your desire to destroy Godhead Palace driven you mad? If I were above Immortal Platform, would I still be imprisoned in this little world, with my mind and abilities sealed? And even if I did have that much ability, I still wouldn't be able to go to that Godhead Palace. This Godhead Will has only allowed me to speak and transform, but it's far from enough to let me break free of this prison."

It turned out that she really was imprisoned here.

Tang Jie couldn't help but ask, "Why are you imprisoned here?"

The Vermillion Bird's face darkened. She turned to that volcano and the lake of lava as she began to recall her past. "I don't know, either… From the day I gained consciousness, I was here. I vaguely recall that I was initially just an egg, lying in the magma, absorbing its heat. After numerous years, I woke up and broke out of the shell.

"Having just been born, I was muddle-headed and ignorant, believing this world to be everything. But at that time, I already had the thought of protecting this land, preventing outsiders from damaging it, only allowing those who passed the test to enter… It's very strange. I'd never met anyone, yet I still understood this. But for so many years, I never saw anyone come inside. I had nothing to do except sleep and grow in the magma. Until finally… you came!"

The Vermillion Bird's eyes grew more and more confused.

"So you're like Bao'er, the descendant of a Sacred Beast," Tang Jie muttered.

Unlike the White Tiger Clan, the Vermillion Bird's descendant had been sealed in the hidden realm by the Martial Lord from the very start, and a seal had been implanted within it that turned it into the protector of this place.

Now that he thought about it, she was even more pitiful than the White Tigers. While the White Tigers had been imprisoned for generations, at least they had their own consciousness and could interact with the outside world. Meanwhile, the Vermillion Bird had been imprisoned here for more than ten thousand years, seeing almost no one else from the moment of her birth.

She could still act like a normal person entirely because, just like the White Tigers, when her bloodline awakened, the memories branded into her blood had been awakened.

But this was exactly why she knew that there was an even bigger world outside, which made her feel all the more lonely.

But the power of the seal shackled her and prevented her from leaving.

In this primitive environment devoid of anyone to communicate with and the seal affecting her mind, the Vermillion Bird became like most sprites, her mind growing unclear and dull.

Tang Jie's arrival had given the Vermillion Bird her first opportunity to interact with humans.

Still affected by the seal, the Vermillion Bird had instinctively and mechanically executed her mission.

Even so, interacting with Tang Jie again and again caused her hazy mind to clear up a little. Her hope for freedom and desire for interaction also began to reawaken.

The Vermillion Bird's mind cleared up more with each passing day. Even though she was still savage and dumb most of the time, at least she could distinguish between Tang Jie and He Chong, possessing a basic level of understanding and intelligence.

Twelve years ago, Tang Jie had attempted to speak with the Vermillion Bird, seeking guidance on the Dao of Yin Yang.

The seal had never forbidden this. The mission the seal gave her was to test, not to limit his growth.

The instinct to communicate caused the Vermillion Bird to decide to help Tang Jie.

She had been lucky. The Vermillion Bird, while still in a half-confused state, was like an amnesiac who had not forgotten how to eat. Even in her ignorant state, her understanding of the Great Dao was unaffected.

If Tang Jie had asked to chat with the Vermillion Bird, on the other hand, this would have been a difficult task. Her mind was in a confused state, and the seal did not permit her to engage in pointless conversation. But since he was asking about the Great Dao of Yin Yang, one of the principles of the world, her mind was clear, unrestrained by the seal for the first time.

What Tang Jie didn't know was that while he had richly benefited from that conversation, the conversation had also allowed the Vermillion Bird to completely open the long-shut door to her intelligence. Memories came rushing back in, and she was once more enlightened.

She began to observe, study, and ponder.

Alas, the world of the hidden realm remained monotonous.

Even with Tang Jie and He Chong around, the Vermillion Bird found herself sorely lacking for interaction. Moreover, the two were at loggerheads and had no reason to seek her out for conversation in their free time. Thus, even with humans around, the hidden realm still had a deathly stillness to it.

This meant that the Vermillion Bird was rather slow in recovering her intelligence. If this rate had kept up, she might have needed a hundred years to truly recover, and in the worst case, she might have fallen back into the darkness of ignorance.

Fortunately, Tang Jie finally stopped sitting around.

He took action.

Together with his avatar, he battled it out with He Chong.

As they sent shockwaves through the hidden realm, they also jolted the Vermillion Bird's mind, scattering the clouds of ignorance and making her mind clearer and clearer. And the Godhead Will had been the final strike against those walls of confusion, and the most powerful one.

In the short time after the Vermillion Bird swallowed the Godhead Will, her mind went through momentous transformations. Her rationality was completely restored, and she even grew a little, able to escape part of the seal to take on human form and speak. It was no wonder she was so happy.

"…Then, in other words, you will not and cannot give me back the Godhead Will?" Tang Jie finally said.

"If it weren't for me, that Godhead Will would have long ago scattered. In other words, at least half of it is mine."

"So you're saying I also deserve half?"

Having this opening in her words seized like this made her blush in shame and anger. Finally, she said, "Hey, can you not be so mean? I'm still the girl who helped you comprehend the Great Dao of Yin Yang."

"You also burned me to charcoal with your flames," Tang Jie shot back.

The Vermillion Bird frantically said, "That was the order from the seal. I had to obey!"

"In other words, even now, if I entered the valley to pick herbs, you would still burn me?" Tang Jie once more seized on the key point.

The Vermillion Bird turned red in the face as she lowered her head and replied, "Yes. This is the seal planted in my blood, and I must obey. Unless…"

"'Unless' what?"

"Unless I had a few more pieces of Godhead Will like that. I might be able to borrow their power to break the seal."

"That's impossible. Is there any other way?"

"If you pass the nine trials, I will complete my mission, and the seal will come undone on its own."

Tang Jie mentally sighed. "You might as well have not said anything. To put it simply, although you can take on human form and can speak, you don't have any other value except as a conversation partner. Moreover, if I wanted to enter the valley to pick Immortal herbs, you would attack me with no mercy, right?"

The Vermillion Bird was furious. "What do you mean, 'I don't have any other value except as a conversation partner'?"

Tang Jie shrugged. "Then tell me what you can do to make up for my lost half of the Godhead Will."

The Vermillion Bird fell silent.

She racked her mind, but she really couldn't think of any way she could help.

The seal prevented her from picking the Immortal herbs in the valley, and the seal also made her hold nothing back against Tang Jie in order to test him. Now that she thought about it, she really had no value for Tang Jie.

The Vermillion Bird grew angry at this thought. "Why should I give you half of that Divine Will? What does it matter if you deserved half? I've eaten it, and I'm not giving you anything for it! What are you going to do about it?"

She placed her hands on her hips and put on an unreasonable attitude. It's not like you can beat me, so what am I afraid of?

Tang Jie was momentarily rendered speechless from shock. After a while, he finally smiled and said, "It seems like you're quite the unreasonable little girl."

The Vermillion Bird felt embarrassed. "Who's a little girl? I've lived for eight thousand years. In terms of age, I could be your great, great ancestor."

"If that's the case, then, oh great ancestor, you can just stay there. I'll be going now, so forgive this lowly one for not keeping you company," Tang Jie retorted.

"What? Where are you going?" The Vermillion Bird was startled. She had just regained rationality and was still enjoying the idea of conversation. She was very reluctant to see Tang Jie go.

Tang Jie grunted, "You're too unreasonable, taking someone else's things and not giving anything in return, so I naturally have to keep my distance from a person like you. Venerable Ancestor, please stay here and amuse yourself in your own time."

He acted like he was going to leave.

The Vermillion Bird frantically said, "Hey, hey, let's not."

Tang Jie had struck right at her weak point. Putting aside the fact that she had just regained her intelligence and needed a partner to while away the boredom with, she needed Tang Jie to pass the trials in order for the seal to be undone. If Tang Jie became angry enough that he stopped coming, she would have no hope of gaining freedom.

Now that she had regained her intelligence, nothing was more important for the Vermillion Bird than her freedom.

As Tang Jie was about to leave, she could only mutter, "Alright, alright, I was just joking. It's just that I don't have anything I can give you."

Tang Jie stopped, looked back at the Vermillion Bird, and smiled. "There we go! It's fine if you don't have anything, because we can negotiate that. What matters here is attitude. Only when you have the right attitude can we talk. Alright, come over so we can have a proper discussion."

The Vermillion Bird shook her head. "Though you are only a little way away, I cannot step out of the valley."

As expected.

Tang Jie couldn't help but sigh for the Vermillion Bird.

The hidden realm was actually rather large, but this pitiful girl could only look at it. Unable to leave, she could only roam about between the lava lake and the valley edge, slumbering the days away. It was no wonder her mind started to descend back into ignorance after regaining its intelligence… it was a life that could truly suffocate you to death.

Tang Jie chuckled. "Then I'll come over."

He walked toward the valley.

So long as he didn't try to pick the Immortal herbs in the valley, the Vermillion Bird did not need to attack him.

As he entered the valley, the Vermillion Bird landed.

Tang Jie went up to the Vermillion Bird and smiled. "Actually, you don't have nothing. You have to realize that your body is your greatest source of wealth."

The Vermillion Bird turned nervous. "What are you thinking? I'm telling you right now: there's no chance of me becoming your servant."

Although she wasn't too familiar with relationships, her rationality having only been recently restored, the bloodline memories contained experience left by her ancestors, and one of those lessons was "don't sell your body so easily". This lesson existed so that their juniors would not ignorantly sign a contract with a human and sell themselves off for a cheap price.

Selling was not completely out of the question. While the Four Sacred Beasts of High Antiquity were powerful, they weren't at the very highest levels of power. If they ran into some supreme Titan, they could consider selling themselves off. But never for a cheap price.

Tang Jie hadn't expected the Vermillion Bird's bloodline to contain such a valuable piece of experience, and he was momentarily taken aback at having his scheme exposed before he could even voice it. He could only throw his head back and laugh to cover up his awkwardness. His mind worked quickly, and he changed up his tone by saying, "You've misunderstood me. How could I ask for the servitude of a Sacred Beast? If I wanted that, I would need several more portions of Godhead Will at the minimum."

The Vermillion Bird nodded repeatedly, unaware that she had unwittingly given herself the price of several more portions of Godhead Will. Although this wasn't a cheap price, it was still a little lacking compared to a Vermillion Bird. Most importantly, it was not some distant goal.

Tang Jie saw that she had taken the bait and smiled. "But while all of you is no good, a part of you is not out of the question."

"What? You want to chop me up and sell off the pieces?" the Vermillion Bird angrily said.

Tang Jie chuckled. "Got you nervous, right? You misunderstand again. What I mean is that every part of a Sacred Beast's body is a treasure. If you are willing, you could give me some essence blood. That should be fine, right?"

The Vermillion Bird finally understood that this guy wanted her essence blood.

Now that she thought about it, this was actually workable.

She turned to Tang Jie and said, "That's not out of the question, but essence blood is different from ordinary blood. As the quintessence of a Sacred Beast's blood energy, even we don't have much of it."

"I won't ask for much."

"How much do you want?" The Vermillion Bird didn't know that Tang Jie was leading her by the nose.

Tang Jie smiled. "One tenth should be enough."

"What?" The Vermillion Bird's body erupted with flames, her eyebrows rising as her eyes grew thick with killing intent.

A tenth of her essence blood?

This greedy bastard! Did he understand what one tenth of her essence blood signified?

Over ten thousand years, even though the Vermillion Bird had done nothing at all, simply through her own bloodline power and the energy of the lava pool, she was able to reach the peak of Divine Division, only a step away from Void Returning. And the main reason she couldn't break through was that the Martial Lord had sealed this off, for Void Returning was equivalent to Immortal Platform, and even the Martial Lord's seal wouldn't last for long at that point.

But if she lost a tenth of her essence blood, her strength would immediately fall by a tier, which would have a huge effect on her.

Tang Jie remained composed. "Miss, don't go rushing to conclusions. Hear me out first."

"No matter what you say, it's impossible!" the Vermillion Bird angrily said. "Your demand is too unreasonable. It will take centuries for me to recover one tenth of my essence blood."

"I don't think so." Tang Jie smiled. "Think about this, Miss Vermillion Bird. If I exchanged five portions of Godhead Will to have you serve me for one hundred years, it shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"'Five portions of Godhead Will'?" The Vermillion Bird considered this.

Five portions of Godhead Will was just enough to help her break free, and if this was possible, it would be worth serving Tang Jie for one hundred years. At least it was better than being imprisoned here.

She nodded and said, "Five portions would be suitable."

Tang Jie went on, "Then since five portions of Godhead Will can buy your services, then isn't half of a portion equivalent to one tenth of your value? So I'm not just randomly asking for one tenth of your essence blood. I have solid reasoning for it."

Eh? How exactly was that calculated?

The Vermillion Bird was gobsmacked.

She cocked her head and began to think. She felt like something was wrong, but she couldn't say what.

After a while, she shouted, "I know! Haha, this doesn't add up!"

Tang Jie's heart leapt as he thought to himself, She got it rather fast. Didn't she only just regain her intelligence? Even if she has the experience from her bloodline, that can't be a replacement for her own intelligence. How did she manage to work through it so quickly?

The Vermillion Bird declared, "I already took one portion of Divine Will, and another five is six portions. Half a Divine Will should be one twelfth, not one tenth!"

"…" Tang Jie didn't know what to say.

Seeing how excited the Vermillion Bird was, he could only give a thumbs-up and say in admiration, "You're a sharp one. I just knew that I wouldn't be able to fool you. Since that's the case, give me one twelfth of your essence blood."

"……"