Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-571

The objects exploding out of the flower field were none other than the blue flowers.

Each petal was like a poisoned knife, letting off a blue glow as they whirled around in the air and shot at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie knew that he was in trouble and activated the Frost Domain spell art.

Frost and ice spread around Tang Jie, enveloping the flowers, but those flowers didn't slow down in the slightest. They rushed at Tang Jie like swarming bees, and in a multicolored explosion, they pushed Tang Jie off the rabbit's back.

There was a clang as a golden suit of armor was exposed beneath Tang Jie's tattered clothes—a suit of Godhead Armor made from Mother Cloud Essence Metal.

Without this suit of Godhead Armor, these flowers would have already turned Tang Jie's heart into a sieve. While he probably wouldn't have died, such a heavy injury would have required him to consume lifespan to recover from.

This fierce attack scared both Tang Jie and Yiyi, and then they saw even more blue flowers rise up, swiftly forming into a tornado of petals to attack Tang Jie. Yiyi waved her hand at the flowers, but the flowers continued to dance, immune to her control.

"Not good! It's the divine sword's power!" What he was seeing was none other than the might of the Yin Yang Division Sword that had been distributed throughout the Treasure Paradise.

When Reverend Celestial Hook had placed the Yin Yang Division Sword in this place, that supreme Dao armament had somehow gradually merged with this world.

The divine sword no longer existed, but the Great Dao it had embodied became a part of the Treasure Paradise's awesome might, tightly interwoven with every part of this world. For this reason, one would never know when one might suffer the might of the divine sword. Even a passing cloud or a field of grass might suddenly become the most terrifying existence in the world.

Tang Jie had run into a sea of flowers that was imbued with the might of the divine sword.

Because of the divine sword, the tender flower petals had become so sharp that they could pierce through spiritual energy barriers. These tens of thousands of petal knives howled over and threatened to devour Tang Jie.

Because Tang Jie was at Spirit Ring, the divine sword's reaction had not been too strong, but even so, Tang Jie did not dare to receive this attack.

"Retreat!" Tang Jie urgently shouted.

The rabbit immediately turned and fled, instantly bringing Yiyi and Tang Jie tens of thousands of feet away. The advantage of being on a mount now made itself apparent, as Tang Jie didn't need to worry about the retreat and could focus entirely on casting spell arts.

A vortex of spell arts collided with the petal tornado, and those blue petals shattered in a gorgeous eruption of blue light. From a distance, they seemed like blue-tinted sunset clouds. Unless one were right there, one could never have imagined that these were the aftereffects from a battle.

The tornado of petals chased Tang Jie all the way to the perimeter mountains before finally giving up and howling back the way it had come, leaving behind three dazed people.

Tang Jie and Yiyi stared at each other.

Yiyi shrugged. "'We can just go and pick them up', huh?"

Tang Jie pursed his lips. "Our luck was bad."

He patted Tutu and said, "Let's go and take another look."

"You're going back?" Tutu was alarmed.

"Of course. We need to go and properly study it while this power still isn't so strong that we can't endure it," Tang Jie replied.

The divine sword's power was connected both to a cultivator's cultivation level and to their location. The farther inside one was, the greater its power.

Tang Jie had gotten the rare chance to experience the divine sword's power on the perimeter, so he needed to use this chance. In his view, he could only take precautions against it if he understood it. If he didn't study it at its weakest, when exactly would he study it?

Helpless, the rabbit could only obey Tang Jie's command and fly back to the sea of flowers.

But everyone was much more careful this time, slowly approaching and stopping at the edge of the sea of flowers.

Tang Jie jumped down from Tutu and cautiously approached. Surprisingly, even though they had come up to the sea of flowers, there was no reaction.

Everyone looked at each other in surprise.

Suddenly, Tang Jie reached out and grabbed a blue flower.

Tutu instantly shouted, "Don't!" and flew away, traveling a thousand feet in a single leap. When it looked back, it saw that Tang Jie was just standing there, nothing having happened to him.

What was going on here?

Tutu was amazed. It closely inspected Tang Jie several times before finally working up the courage to come back.

Tang Jie smiled as he held the flower. "So it was just passing through."

"'Passing through'? The might of the divine sword can be just passing through?" the rabbit remarked in surprise.

Tang Jie nodded. "Although I don't know for sure, it seems to be the case. We were just unlucky enough to run into it. That power has already gone."

Tutu exhaled in relief upon hearing that the divine sword's power was gone, but then, Tang Jie said something even more frightening. "We can't let it escape. We need to chase it down."

He flew into the sky and began to look for traces of that power.

But it was hard to tell where it had gone. The flowers swayed in the wind, producing a scene of breathtaking beauty, bereft of that horrifying murderous intent.

Tang Jie frowned. Throwing his head back, he shouted, "Come out! I'm waiting here for you!"

"I'm waiting here for you…"

"Waiting here for you…"

"For you…"

The call echoed through the distant mountains.

This reckless and suicidal way of doing things had both Tutu and Yiyi trembling in fright.

Everyone who entered the Treasure Paradise had always avoided the divine sword's power, not challenged it.

The rabbit and sprite looked at each other and then flew off, trying to get away from Tang Jie to stay safe.

A light flashed in the distance.

Countless green streams of light rushed into the air.

Those green lights were a mixture of leaves, grass, and dirt, madly dancing to a deathly dirge. It was even possible to see a savage face within them, mournfully wailing.

Tang Jie was unmoved as he floated in the air. He took out the Mountain River State Diagram and lightly shook it.

The original body appeared.

It grew to its true enormous size.

In this period of time, his body had grown another three meters, reaching 18 meters in height, very close to the limits of the middle tier of the Diamond Body.

The original body looked at that torrent of green light and made a "simple and honest" smile.

As that green light was about to make impact, he stepped forward and thrust out a palm.

Countless "weapons" hidden within that surging green light barraged that huge hand, creating a ceaseless din.

The original body seemed unaffected, smiling and saying, "This still isn't enough."

He extended his hand into the green light.

The green light seemed to sense Tang Jie's contempt. With a furious howl, it erupted with even greater light, and a sharp sword intent emerged, carrying the entirety of the green light with it as it stabbed at the original body's palm.

Plush! The green light pierced right through the palm.

The more Tang Jie cultivated the Parting Classic, the tougher his body became, and even art relics found it difficult to hurt him now. This was the first time his palm has been so easily pierced through.

Even though the wound was already beginning to heal, Tang Jie's eyes flashed with surprise. "So it really is only strong against the strong?"

The power the divine sword had displayed was definitely greater than that used against the avatar, and this was clearly because the original body was stronger. Moreover, because the original body was still at the law cultivation tier of Nine Revolutions despite its strength, he concluded that the divine sword's power was based on actual strength and not cultivation level.

After stabbing through Tang Jie's palm, the green light grew in size, sending countless bolts of light at the original body.

But before this green radiance, the original body was unafraid, laughing as he said, "Come at me! Devil Crushing Fist!"

He sent a thunderous fist at the green light.

The Devil Crushing Fist was powerful enough to be compared to the Divine Connections of some Violet Palace Titans. The only difference was that Violet Palace cultivators could repeatedly use Divine Connections, while Tang Jie could basically only use the Devil Crushing Fist once.

But regardless, this Violet Palace–level attack was enough to totally suppress the current power being used by the divine sword.

Thus, a moment later, the blast of power unleashed by the Devil Crushing Fist obliterated the green light.

All of the green light was swept away in that surging torrent of energy, leaving only that radiant sword, which rose up from the current of fist energy like a rising moon.

At that moment, the avatar's third eye opened and stared at the sword light. The avatar focused all his mental power on the sword, with the Celestial Eye even bleeding a little.

Suddenly!

That sword of light flew into the sky, and numerous points of light began to converge upon it. Tang Jie watched as the sword grew larger and more real, growing many times more powerful.

As the light swelled, it spread into the surroundings, and the energy of Tang Jie's Devil Crushing Fist melted away like snow under the sun.

The sword light was still expanding, filling up the world and engulfing all of Tang Jie's vision.

Not good!

Tang Jie knew that he had thoroughly provoked the divine sword's power. His punch had caused the divine sword's power to grow to a level where it could obliterate a Violet Palace cultivator.

Fortunately, he was ready for this. As the light grew, the avatar rolled up the Mountain River State Diagram, and the original body disappeared.

A moment later, the divine sword's radiance froze, having lost its target, and then it exploded, blasting the entire area with lightning bolts.

Even though Tang Jie had expected this, the avatar was still caught up in the barrage.

He opened his hand, and the armor made of Mother Cloud Essence Metal became a wall. The sword beams slammed into it and unexpectedly pierced straight through.

At the same time, Tang Jie activated the Chaoswind Step.

The sword beams passed through the afterimage he left behind, slicing it into countless tiny chunks before vanishing into the wind with a howl.

"My god!" Tang Jie couldn't help but make a face at this sight.

If he had blindly believed in the defensive power of Mother Cloud Essence Metal, he would have been left full of holes by those swords.

Fortunately, after the original body disappeared, the divine sword's power weakened again.

Tang Jie proceeded to repeat what had happened last time, fleeing on the rabbit until the sword gave up.

The plan to capture the sword soul had failed.

"Ha, do you understand your position now?" Tutu mocked Tang Jie. "Trying to contend against the divine sword's power? Even the master of the Celestial Flame Pagoda does not dare to do that."

"I've never thought about contending against the divine sword, only about understanding it, and the best way to understand it is to fight it." Tang Jie's expression remained indifferent, as if the experience had not affected him in any way.

"'Understanding it'?" Tutu was surprised to hear this.

"Right, 'understanding it'!" Tang Jie confirmed. "Only by understanding one's opponent can one avoid them, defend against them, defeat them, or even use them."

"So what did you understand?" Yiyi asked.

"A lot," Tang Jie replied. "Look!"

His Celestial Eye reemerged and began to play back the scene. Yiyi and Tutu saw that lightning sword rising into the air and the world lighting up with mysterious points of light.

"These are…" Yiyi said in confusion.

"Sword spirits!" Tang Jie replied. "To be more precise, they are remnants of a shattered sword spirit."

Remnants of a shattered sword spirit?

Was this the real face of the divine sword's power?

When Tang Jie had unleashed the Devil Crushing Fist, while the divine sword had only exposed itself for a moment, Tang Jie's Celestial Eye had still been able to capture it and analyze it.

The Yin Yang Division Sword was a Dao armament and soul weapon.

When the sword merged with the Treasure Paradise, its body turned into the four great forbidden zones of the Treasure Paradise, but the sword spirit did not die as expected, instead becoming remnant spirits that drifted about the world.

For this reason, the divine sword's power in the Treasure Paradise fell under two categories. One category was the forbidden zones created from the divine sword's body, foremost of which were the four great forbidden zones. The essence of the divine sword had been gathered in these places, making these the places where its power was greatest and one's chances of survival were the smallest. Fortunately, they didn't move, so one simply needed to avoid those areas. The other category was the miniature zones of power created by the drifting soul remnants. While they were weaker, because they could move, nobody could say when one might run into one of them, so they were a headache to deal with.

Tang Jie had run into some of these soul remnants.

If they hid in the sea of flowers, the sea of flowers became a divine weapon. If they hid in the forest, the leaves and branches would become lethal devices. Wherever they went, the world itself would be weaponized. More importantly, it seemed to be capable of activating an even stronger power…

Yiyi looked at all those points of light that had appeared around the sword soul. "What are these, then?"

"The power of the world," Tang Jie replied. "The divine sword has already fused with the Treasure Paradise, so the Treasure Paradise is the sword and the sword is the Treasure Paradise. All that's left is the sword spirit, its thousands of remnants drifting about the world. It was once the soul of the sword, so now it is the soul of the Treasure Paradise. Unlike other weapon spirits, because it was dispersed, it no longer has a complete consciousness, possessing only instinct."

"I get it now," Yiyi said, partially understanding what had been said. "It's strong only when dealing with the strong because the sword spirit is drawing upon the power of the world when it encounters someone strong?"

"That's only from the perspective of the wandering sword souls. For those within the Treasure Paradise, the sword soul is the spirit of the Treasure Paradise, capable of drawing upon the power of the world. In these circumstances, it's understandable why even Violet Palace and Immortal Platform cultivators can't go against it. The power of the Violet Palace Realm comes from mustering the power of the world, but opposing the sword spirit is opposing the world, so there's no chance of using the Violet Palace's power. Immortal Platform cultivators are better off. Their bodies are worlds all on their own, but it still can't compare to the world outside. Even if they could put up some stubborn resistance, they would consume so much energy that they might even experience a fall in cultivation level. For this reason, in the Treasure Paradise, Violet Palace and Immortal Platform cultivators don't need to be feared, for the world will not tolerate them!"

"It's no wonder the divine sword's power grows stronger the deeper you go in. It's because the sword spirit can more easily draw on the power of the world the closer you get to the core. That sword spirit just now can probably only muster the power of a limited area, not the entire world," Yiyi said, clapping her hands.

"Correct. That's it exactly." Tang Jie nodded. "The Treasure Paradise is vast, and the power of the entire world is many times greater than what we saw just now. But even so, there's basically no hope of beating it."

"What's the point in knowing all this?" the rabbit grumbled. "You still can't beat it, right?"

"If you can't overcome it with strength, you just outwit it," Tang Jie replied. "Since we've already seen through the essence of the divine sword, things get a lot simpler. For example, we now know that this principle of being strong against the strong isn't some Great Dao or iron law, but the instinctive judgment made by a remnant soul."

"What about it?" the rabbit asked.

"Since it's instinctive judgment, it can make wrong judgments," Tang Jie replied. "Like with my Devil Crushing Fist."

In normal circumstances, the divine sword would unleash power corresponding to the other party's cultivation level.

But Tang Jie's Devil Crushing Fist had made the sword soul take Tang Jie to be a Violet Palace cultivator and almost annihilate Tang Jie. This was something very rare.

The reason for this was that the moment Tang Jie unleashed the Devil Crushing Fist, the sword soul had felt threatened.

From this, one could see that the divine sword was not as inflexible as initially thought. On the contrary, it could adjust its power according to the situation, and this flexibility was exactly what Tang Jie needed.

The more flexible it was, the more easily it could be used!

Today, Tang Jie was able to make the sword soul judge the middle-tier Diamond Body Tang Jie as a Violet Palace cultivator, so tomorrow, Tang Jie might be able to make the sword soul think the Spirit Ring Tier Tang Jie was at Mortal Shedding, and the day after next, he might be able to make the sword soul serve him.

The problem was finding the right method.

Tutu was rather gobsmacked by what it was hearing.

It had cultivated for a thousand years, meeting many people and experiencing many things, but had never seen someone as meticulous as Tang Jie, able to find the smallest gaps to stick a needle in, or even making the gap himself.

In the cultivation world of the Great Stellar Chiliocosm, overwhelming strength was everything. While the occasional tactical ploy was expected, analyzing, studying, probing, and exploiting every single opportunity at every single moment was something that no other cultivator did.

Tang Jie's mindset was completely different from the cultivators of any domain in the universe, and Tutu just couldn't understand him.

In contrast, the behavior of the Lord of the Blood River was common throughout the Great Stellar Chiliocosm.

When it was using its own mindset to try and understand Tang Jie, Tutu felt like its head simply wasn't big enough. But its habitual stubbornness meant that it continued to argue, "I don't think you have much of a chance. You're just wasting your strength."

"You have to at least try first. You can't just give up after the first failure. In life, you have to constantly struggle and try in order to constantly advance. Failure isn't scary, and you can only make corrections when you find the mistakes. The experience of success is found in constant attempts and constant failure. Now that I think of it, you're a great fiend who has lived a thousand years, so how do you not understand something as simple as this? No wonder you can only be a mount! Principles aren't just to be used in arguments, but actually applied! Don't go understanding a thousand empty words, never acting on a single one of them!"

He mounted the rabbit and slapped it on the hindquarters, upon which the rabbit summoned a cloud and flew off.