Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-564

Tang Jie had seen the black cauldron before.

In the Spirit Mountains, in the garden of that underground palace, he had seen a woman picking herbs.

At the time, she had been picking a stalk of Nine Heavens Luan Grass, and she had planted that Nine Heavens Luan Grass in this little black cauldron.

The Nine Heavens Luan Grass was a divine herb, a mystical plant even in the era of the Court of Myriad Domains. Alas, in the dismantling process, Tang Jie had not seen this divine plant, and he had no idea if it had been used up or something else. But Tang Jie knew that there was also a Nine Heavens Luan Grass in the hidden realm's valley.

It stood in the very center of the valley, like a king of flowers, venerated by all the other Immortal plants of the valley.

When he first saw that Nine Heavens Luan Grass, Tang Jie expressed his admiration for the Martial Lord's power, that he was even able to get his hands on such a rare Immortal grass. It had to be understood that an existence like this grass was a concentration of the universe's essence, a miracle of nature. There were few in the world, and to get one was more difficult than fishing out a natural Dao armament from the Lustrous Treasure River.

But the moment he saw the black cauldron, Tang Jie recalled the scene of that woman picking the grass.

Could it be that the Nine Heavens Luan Grass in the valley was the same one the woman had dug out of the earth that day?

Tang Jie was dumbfounded by the thought.

If that was the case, what was the relationship between that woman and the Martial Lord?

He certainly hadn't forgotten that vision he had seen in the Martial Mirror: the Martial Lord shattering the Court of Myriad Domains with his axe.

At that moment, countless thoughts ran through his mind, his rich imagination producing countless versions of the story between the Martial Lord, the fairy and the Myriad Court, some of them romantic and some of them more conspiratorial.

Tang Jie's favorite was that of the fairy and the Martial Lord being lovers, and when the Myriad Court tried to break them, the Martial Lord reacted with violence. But there were two questions this story failed to resolve. The first was that the fairy's location was unknown, and the second was that it failed to explain why the Martial Lord had challenged the Heavenly Dao.

Unable to find the answer, Tang Jie gave up on his wild fantasies and picked the cauldron up.

This cauldron had been used to hold the Nine Heavens Luan Grass, so it was naturally a treasure on its own. Its greatest function was to preserve the spirituality of the plant while safely transplanting it.

After taking the little cauldron, Tang Jie left the island and went around the area. He found that there was nothing here except the Spirit Lake, no danger to speak of. It seemed like the danger levels were low around here.

But how to get to the next trial and get the reward for it remained a problem.

Tang Jie looked around and found no answers, so he decided to go back to the surface.

Upon returning to the surface, he found the Vermillion Bird boredly waiting for him. Upon seeing him, she asked, "Are you going back now?"

Tang Jie saw that the four pillars were still present, so after some thought, he said, "If you allow it, I would like to stay here and comprehend the four pillars."

The Martial Lord had carved Illusion Dao Runes into the pillar, and though they were used to transmit the Devil Crushing Fist, that didn't mean that they couldn't assist him with comprehending the Dao, or else there would have been no need to go through all the trouble, as a simple book would have done the job. Tang Jie naturally couldn't miss out on such an opportunity.

The Vermillion Bird was ecstatic.

She was no longer in that confused state, and now her intelligence had been restored, her greatest fear was being lonely.

If Tang Jie was willing to accompany her, that would be wonderful, and she nodded her head repeatedly. "It's fine, fine! So long as you don't touch the plants, you can stay here as long as you want."

This being the case, Tang Jie decided to follow his past strategy, the avatar leaving for the Celestial Flame Pagoda while the original body stayed to cultivate. But unlike before, if Xu Miaoran wanted to see him, she could come over through the teleportation formation.

The original body began to spend time cultivating in the Spirit Lake beneath the valley.

The cultivation of the Parting Classic required absorbing the power of the natural treasures of the world, but it didn't have to cultivate using only treasures. Actually, it was essentially like all other mantras, seizing the power of the world. It was just that the Parting Classic was simpler and more tyrannical, so tyrannical that the spiritual energy of the world was far from enough to satisfy its greedy appetite. Thus, natural treasures and various spiritual herbs needed to make up for it.

The thick spiritual energy of the hidden realm and the Spirit Lake underneath the valley were suitable for cultivating the Parting Classic. Although they didn't provide the rapid progress of the medicines, they could be used over the long term. And best of all was that Tang Jie no longer needed to find a bigger bath tub—the Spirit Lake was so large that it would be enough for Tang Jie to cultivate in until he was a 100-meter-tall giant.

Other than refining his body in the Spirit Lake, Tang Jie spent the rest of his time comprehending the four bronze pillars.

Illusion Dao Runes had been carved onto the pillars.

In terms of the Great Daos, the Illusion Dao belonged to Yin Yang, categorized under Reality and Illusion. But as the Illusion Dao could manifest all things, at greater attainment, it would also involve the other Great Daos, but it would have a different meaning depending on the Great Dao.

Yin Yang emphasized transformation, dazzling facades that mixed truth and fiction. Wisdom focused on layers of confusing plots, a thick fog where one found it hard to identify the truth. Truth turned a land of illusion into a country that seemed to have existed since time immemorial, and one would become completely lost in this world, forgetting about high and low, night and day. And Time could make a thousand years simply fly by…

For this reason, though the Illusion Dao was not one of the Twelve Great Daos, it had its own grandeur.

Tang Jie's Duplication spell was based on the Dao of Wisdom.

Tang Jie had only understood this after comprehending the Illusion Dao.

Tang Jie managed to grasp and study the Dao Runes on the pillar at an unprecedented speed, only needing around twenty days to get a basic understanding of them. The reason for this was that Tang Jie was most familiar with the Daos of Yin Yang and Wisdom, which happened to be the foundation of the Dao Runes on the pillars, and Tang Jie was actually already familiar with the principles of these Dao Runes, just not with how to use them.

Besides that, Tang Jie studying the pillars also had the advantage of speeding up his understanding of the Dao of Yin Yang.

The Illusion Dao belonged to Reality and Illusion, which was under Yin Yang, so comprehending Illusion also deepened his understanding of Yin Yang, speeding up the process of entering the Dao.

In these twenty days, Tang Jie had even managed to condense three Dao Runes, leaving him overjoyed.

Alas, after twenty days, Tang Jie had completely comprehended the pillars, so it was no longer possible to use them to hasten the entering of the Dao, which Tang Jie felt was a great pity.

Today was Tang Jie's last day, and as he comprehended the last Dao Rune, he reluctantly stroked the pillar and said, "A pity. I was only able to engrave three Dao Runes. I wonder when I will be able to get one thousand?"

The Vermillion Bird walked over and said, "Cultivation is a matter of a thousand years. You're still young, so why are you in such a rush? Rather than thinking about something so distant as condensing one thousand Dao Runes, it would be better to think about how to use what you already have."

"'What I already have'?" Tang Jie didn't get it.

"That's right!" The Vermillion Bird cocked her head and said, "You don't think that you've already reached the limits of how you can use the Dao, do you?"

Tang Jie was taken aback. "You mean there's a more profound way of using the Dao above the Great Dao Realm?"

When he said this, he suddenly realized that he had always been focused on how to comprehend more Great Daos and condense more Dao Runes, never focusing on how to master the abilities he had already comprehended.

Based on the Vermillion Bird's tone, there was clearly a lot of room to improve.

Sure enough, the Vermillion Bird said, "Daos are the supreme principles of the world. One must both understand what they are and be good at using them. But you just simply use the Dao Wills you've comprehended through spell arts, as if the wills of the Great Daos are simply used to boost their power. If that's how you use them, how are they any different from art relics?"

Tang Jie was stunned by these words. "Lady Vermillion Bird, please instruct me."

The Vermillion Bird said, "Daos are the inner principles while arts are the external manifestations. Only by bringing together the inner and outer can it be called a Dao Art! This is known as merging with the Dao!"

"'Merging with the Dao'?" Tang Jie seemed to wake from a dream. "I see; I get it now. The Dao is like cheating software. You can use it to help you, but you can also use it to make you stronger. All I knew about was to use cheats and find new cheats, but I forgot to think about how to use the cheats in a way that made sense. Actually, there are far too many limits to using cheats, so just having them is far from enough. It's far better to use the cheats to make myself stronger, turning them into a part of my ability!"

The Vermillion Bird was confused by what he was mumbling. "'Cheating software'? What's that?"

Tang Jie laughed. "Nothing. I was just chattering nonsense!"

He went off on his way.

Starting from today, Tang Jie had an additional task: studying how to combine the Daos he knew with the arts he had learned to create his own power. In the cultivation world, this was called merging with the Dao.

Cang Qingfeng's Diagram of the Twelve Daos had been a result of Dao merging, possessing vast power and grandiose aura. But this person was too focused on the advantages of breadth and was severely lacking in depth. Although it had the all-encompassing nature of a Dao Art, it failed to plumb the depths of heaven and earth.

To merge with the Dao, one had to at least enter the Dao first.

Tang Jie had only entered the Daos of Yin Yang and Insight, and for Insight, he had only condensed a single Dao Rune, so he could basically put it aside. Thus, if he wanted to merge with the Dao, he could only look to Yin Yang.

The Dao of Yin Yang covered a vast array of things: Reality and Illusion, Black and White, Yin Yang, Parting and Merging, Life and Death. Different branches had different meanings and different uses.

The Vermillion Bird didn't know what he was doing or how he was planning to merge with the Dao, only knowing he spent every day sitting in the Spirit Lake, very focused in thought. He would suddenly go from sadness to joy, tears to laughter, sometimes spend his time with hands around his knees as he dumbly gazed at the lake, and other times, throw his head back and laugh like a madman.

He even started to ignore the difference between young and old, treat day and night as the same, reverse black and white, and even go between man and woman.

One day, while the Vermillion Bird was messing around all alone in the valley, she saw a woman coming out from the distance. As there was no one else in the hidden realm, it could only be Tang Jie, so she laughed and said, "When did you get the idea you wanted to become a woman?"

But she quickly realized that she was wrong. The one skilled in transformation was the avatar, so when did the original body get this ability? She then realized what it was and chuckled. "So it's a duplicate."

The woman suddenly rushed over and thrust a finger at the Vermillion Bird.

Duplicates didn't have any offensive power, so the Vermillion Bird didn't try to dodge. But to her surprise, that finger had a cold light upon it that exploded on the Vermillion Bird's body in a burst of light—an actual attack!

The Vermillion Bird was shocked. While this attack was so weak that it couldn't hurt, this meant that this was no longer a purely illusory spell. She let out a sharp cry, and a flame issued from her finger and struck the woman, who exploded into a cloud of smoke.

It truly was a duplicate.

But it now had an offensive ability and no longer needed some physical item to serve as a basis.

"So is this the fruit of your study into Dao merging?" the Vermillion Bird muttered. "It's rather interesting, but the illusion attacks are too weak to be useful."

"What if there were more?" came a booming chorus, and a moment later, a vast crowd rushed at the Vermillion Bird from all sides. There were people of all ages and genders in this group, each one seeming like a real person. Spiritual energy roared as countless bolts of energy issued from their fingers at the Vermillion Bird.

The power of these bolts was about the same as a Spirit Platform student, extremely weak, but tens of thousands of them unleashed together was a rain of arrows that left the Vermillion Bird stunned, even if she wasn't afraid of them. But a moment later, one of them struck her with great force, as if she had been struck by a bolt of lightning.

She shouted, "Tang Jie, you trickster!"

This attack had clearly been made by Tang Jie's original body, who had mixed in with the duplicates and given her a sneak attack.

Tang Jie's laughter came from the crowd. "The Dao of Illusion is all about confusing the mind, to display falsehood in the form of truth. The meaning of this is to use the illusions to obscure the truth. In the past, I only used the Duplication spell to escape, but this is an inferior use. To go from defensive to offensive is the better tactic. The illusory attacks are simply there to cover for the real thing."

As he spoke, his illusions appeared all over the valley. The Vermillion Bird looked around and was unable to find Tang Jie's true self. Her eyes flashed red as she said, "You're right, but you think this is enough to hide your true body? Keep dreaming! I'll burn it all!"

Sun and moon orbited in her eyes, and all those illusions began to explode into flames, but despite all the explosions, not a single grass or tree was harmed.

But while all the countless duplicates had perished, there was no sign of the true body.

As she was searching, a figure suddenly charged out from the smoke behind her—none other than Tang Jie's real body. As he charged out, he swung a mighty punch at the Vermillion Bird. But just when it was about to hit, the Vermillion Bird's eyes flashed, and a disc bearing the sun and moon appeared to block him. The fist struck the disc and failed to move it. At the same time, a flame erupted from the disc and morphed into a giant hand that slapped Tang Jie like he was a leather ball.

But as he was sent flying, he exploded into dust—another duplicate.

The Vermillion Bird was taken aback, but in the middle of her surprise, the flames behind her billowed and formed into a shield. At the same time, a large figure charged into the shield. Boom! The immense force sent that large figure flying.

Tang Jie tumbled through the air, and by the time he hit the ground, his scorched skin had recovered. He bitterly smiled and said, "In the end, I still couldn't hit you."

He didn't have any delusions about defeating the peak Divine Division Vermillion Bird, but he wanted to try and wound her. Even if he couldn't do that, he at least wanted to try and get an attack in.

Alas, other than that first blow when the Vermillion Bird had been caught unprepared, the Vermillion Bird had no plans to let him even touch her.

The gap between Heart Demon and the peak of Violet Palace was just too great.

The Vermillion Bird shook her head and said, "You've already done very well. I didn't think that you could already switch between reality and illusion… So this was your true goal."

The duplicate that the Vermillion Bird had shattered wasn't actually a mistake on her part. Rather, the moment the Vermillion Bird had attacked, Tang Jie had switched places with a duplicate.

This meant that Tang Jie had reached a certain level in the ability to convert between reality and illusion, capable of using it on himself. This was a manifestation of Dao merging.

For other people, reality-illusion conversion might not have been a big deal, but for someone with the Duplication spell, it basically boosted that spell into a divine skill. So long as he was willing, he could make tens of thousands of versions of himself and then freely move between them, and this ability to confuse was multiplied further by the Chaoswind Step. Of course, Tang Jie had only made some minor progress in the field and was far from reaching the apex state.

But Tang Jie shook his head and said, "This is just a bonus. It's not my goal for now."

"This is just a bonus for you?" The Vermillion Bird looked at Tang Jie in shock. "Just what are you up to?"

Tang Jie sighed as he waved his hand. The remaining duplicates converged upon and disappeared into Tang Jie's body.

The Vermillion Bird threw her head back and laughed. "No wonder you were able to so quickly grasp reality-illusion conversion, and could use the spell without a medium and even give it offensive power. All of these illusions were made from your blood! It seems like you've begun to understand the meaning of merging with the Dao."

Tang Jie indifferently said, "'Entering the Dao' refers to condensing Dao Runes in one's body, merging the body with the will of the heavens, and if one can condense a thousand Dao Runes, one can attain the Dao Body. As for 'merging with the Dao', that means combining one's abilities with the Dao Body to make them more powerful. Each illusion here was made from my blood. Although the Dao power in my flesh is lacking, it's still enough for me to make a small breakthrough like this."

The Vermillion Bird clapped her hands and smiled. "Not bad, not bad. That's what I was waiting to hear. I didn't think you would have already reached this level of understanding. But if that's the case, didn't I just burn up a bunch of your blood?"

"It was only several hundred drops. I can afford it."

"Right, you haven't said what you were cultivating," the Vermillion Bird said.

"You still haven't seen it? What else have I shown besides reality and illusion?" Tang Jie asked. He once more sent out numerous duplicates from his body.

Seeing all those Tang Jies suddenly come together and then split off again left the Vermillion Bird confused.

At a loss, Tang Jie finally said, "To gather and disperse, to part and merge."

"So it's Parting and Merging!" the Vermillion Bird said in realization, but then she became confused again. "Why are you comprehending Parting and Merging?"

The Dao of Parting and Merging was also under Yin Yang. It emphasized gathering and dispersing in the space of a single thought. It could turn zero into the whole to gather power for a single strike, or turn the whole into zero, having everything flee in every direction, possessing a powerful transformative effect.

But for the duplicates, the Dao of Parting and Merging had little meaning. Even if all the duplicates merged together, they wouldn't make Tang Jie any stronger.

The Vermillion Bird didn't understand why Tang Jie was pursuing this Dao.

"The reason?"

Tang Jie mysteriously smiled. "I'm planning something big."