Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-573

Tang Jie was filled with admiration, but there seemed to be not even the slightest shred of regret in his eyes over the escape of his foe.

He turned to Yiyi and asked, "Success?"

"Of course." Yiyi proudly nodded her little head.

She extended her hand, revealing a grass seed.

This was the seed of the Lingering Bean.

The Lingering Bean was a very ordinary plant, not even counting as a spirit plant, but it had many small hairs that let it easily stick onto things. It also exuded a special scent that lingered in the air. While ordinary people would find it very difficult to pick up this scent, Yiyi, as a sprite, could easily sense it.

After that prolonged conflict in Nadir Hill, Tang Jie had been thinking about how to develop the cultivation world's methods of pursuit and counter-pursuit, and the Lingering Bean was a method he and Yiyi had found. It was simple, safe, not easily discovered, and cheap.

When Zuo Quanming had been battling against Tang Jie, Yiyi had sprinkled beans on the old man, but this was purely out of an instinct to always prepare for the worst case. But to their surprise, the old man really had managed to escape, and in such a bizarre manner.

Upon learning that Yiyi had managed to get a bean on the old man, Tang Jie smiled and said, "Very good. Let's see how he escapes this time. Come on!"

The two of them jumped onto Tutu and flew off in pursuit of the old man.

This old man was truly crafty. After running for a bit, he had changed directions, and if it hadn't been for the Lingering Bean, they would have ended up chasing him in the wrong direction entirely.

Even so, the old man was running with everything he had, flying for an entire hour even though he had seen no pursuers before fleeing into a mountain and disappearing.

Tang Jie looked around and found that his final hiding space wasn't far from where they had battled earlier. Amusingly, the old man had seemingly made a circle.

But this old man probably hadn't circled back because of something like "the most dangerous place is the safest", which was an entirely illogical maxim that few idiots in the Great Stellar Chiliocosm believed. Thus, Tang Jie believed that this old man could have another motive. Had he found something here?

Thus, rather than immediately chasing the old man down, he cautiously approached and then hid in a cloud to secretly observe the area.

With one glance, Tang Jie could tell something was wrong.

The mountain at his feet seemed ordinary, but there was a secret hidden within the forest, the landscape in line with the principles of the Great Dao. This was clearly a naturally-formed lethal formation.

This sort of formation was not man-made, but had emerged around the area, and this emergence indicated that there was probably a great treasure within. If it wasn't a Dao armament, it had to be a divine treasure.

It was no wonder the old man had sneaked back here after being defeated. He had probably noticed that this mountain was hiding something.

This mountain had also been in Tang Jie's flight path, so Tang Jie realized that the old man had most likely appeared in order to stop him from getting close to the mountain. In truth, if he had just been passing through, Tang Jie might not have been able to see the secret of the mountain at a glance. After all, such natural formations were hidden within their surroundings and were the most difficult to detect. But Zuo Quanming's attempt to guarantee that the secret was kept had ended up with Tang Jie finding the secret while tracking him down. If he knew of this, he would definitely feel regret for his actions.

Exposing the secret of this mountain was no easy task, but Tang Jie was in no rush.

Since Zuo Quanming had discovered this place first, he had undoubtedly already studied the mountain, so Tang Jie just needed to wait.

This Zuo Quanming was also very patient. Upon his return, he chose to go into hiding. After an entire day, he finally reemerged, but he was now a middle-aged scholar with a little beard.

If not for some particular details, Tang Jie really might have failed to recognize the man.

The moment the man appeared, he looked around. Once he was sure he wasn't being followed, he stealthily flew over to the mountain.

Landing upon an outcrop, Zuo Quanming looked out upon the mountains, his hands held behind his back, as if he was surveying the clouds. But Tang Jie was a formation expert, so he immediately saw that Zuo Quanming was standing at the seat abode for this mountain region.

(TN: See Chapter 264 for a description of the seat abode and other important land locations for formations.)

The seat abode offered a complete view of one's surroundings, and it was second only to a land nexus for a formation. There was no doubt that starting from here was the superior choice.

From this, one could see that Zuo Quanming had to be an expert in formations who understood the principles of the world, allowing him to start off with such a critical location.

As he stood at the seat abode, apparently gazing at the clouds, the hands hidden in his sleeves were already sending out streams of spiritual energy across the area to probe the formation. If Tang Jie hadn't already exchanged blows with him and learned of this habit, he would have been taken in by this act.

Tang Jie couldn't help but admire this person's cunning nature, even putting on his act while attempting to enter the formation. But this "world within a sleeve" was truly an excellent technique, and Tang Jie was learning.

After a while, the mountains trembled, and a cave opened up on a mountain on the other side.

Delighted, Zuo Quanming flew toward the cave.

Upon arriving at the cave, Zuo Quanming first laid down a small formation to hide the traces of the cave, and only then did he stride in.

It was an exquisite formation that didn't leak the slightest trace of energy, and a random passerby would find it basically impossible to notice anything. Of course, it was pointless against Tang Jie.

Once Zuo Quanming was in the cave, Tang Jie laughed and flew down from the sky. He said to Yiyi and Tutu, "You guys stand guard outside in case anything happens. I'm going to see if there's anything good inside."

He walked into the cave.

The cave was dark, and all that was in it was a tunnel leading downward.

Tang Jie activated the Celestial Eye and carefully inspected his surroundings as he pressed forward.

As he was walking, he heard a sharp cry, and then several explosions.

A few moments later, the sounds subsided.

Tang Jie cautiously walked over and saw the corpses of several dozen spiders scattered about the ground.

These spiders were as big as millstones, and Tang Jie could tell that they were venomous. They had hard carapaces that could easily shrug off blades, and their venom was extremely strong, though Tang Jie couldn't understand how they had grown to such a large size. Tang Jie saw that all of the spiders had had their armored carapaces shattered, indicating that Zuo Quanming was quite strong, possessing an armor-shattering spell alongside his bizarre flame and spatial shifting.

Besides that, Tang Jie noticed that several of the spiders were missing their venom sacs. The venom couldn't be stored for long, but Zuo Quanming had still taken some, though rather than because he had a use for them, it was probably just because he was greedy. Tang Jie found this sort of behavior rather shameless, and then he took the rest of the venom sacs.

As he moved forward, he soon heard the sounds of battle again.

Once the battle was over, Tang Jie saw that an Evil Bloom had been burned into charcoal and lay shriveled on the ground. The Evil Bloom was a fierce plant that was extremely difficult to deal with, but it had been burned black. It had probably been the same flame that had been used on Yiyi, but it was much stronger than before. Judging by the remaining roots, the flame even had corrosive effects.

Now that Zuo Quanming thought he wasn't being followed, he naturally held nothing back, but in reality, he was exposing all his secrets to Tang Jie.

It wasn't long before Tang Jie came across a pile of rubble.

Upon closer inspection, he found that one rock had what seemed very much like a human face on it, and the scattered rocks appeared to be arms and legs. It was just that the central core had been shattered, causing these pieces to come apart.

"It was a stone monster," he muttered.

This stone monster had probably been born from the surrounding mountain stone.

This tunnel didn't have any traps, but it had all sorts of strange creatures that left Tang Jie rather amazed.

It was probably no coincidence that so many creatures were in one place. It was more likely to be due to the treasure in the mountain.

Treasures exuded a special energy that would draw all sorts of creatures around them to protect them, and if it couldn't draw creatures over, it might produce creatures of its own.

If this was the case, if this treasure wasn't a Dao armament, it was a top-class divine treasure on par with the Mountain River State Diagram.

Tang Jie inwardly rejoiced at this realization, and he wanted nothing more than for Zuo Quanming to move faster.

After walking for some time, he finally saw a light in the distance.

Emerging from the tunnel, he came upon a picturesque valley.

The scenery of the valley was gorgeous, a sea of wild flowers. A little stream flowed out of the distance, terminating in a little pool in the valley.

On the walls of the valley, little monkeys frolicked, while Zuo Quanming looked up at them from below.

But rather than the monkeys, he was looking at an item up there.

It was a gray slab of stone, floating in the air and exuding a profound and awe-inspiring energy that made one want to get down on one's knees.

This had to be the treasure.

Though he didn't know what it did, Tang Jie could tell at a glance that it contained vast power that made it at least an upper-grade divine treasure.

Divine treasures were divided in the same way as art relics, with ultimate, upper, middle, and lower grades, with further differentiation within grades.

The three divine swords were lower-grade divine treasures, but they were in the middle of the pack among lower-grade divine treasures. Currently, Tang Jie wasn't strong enough to unleash the full power of these divine swords.

The Supreme Mystery Bell was the lower of the lower grade.

The Herding Yang Pearl was the upper of the lower grade.

The Mountain River State Diagram was the upper of the upper grade.

In truth, in terms of power, the Mountain River State Diagram could even be considered an upper ultimate-grade divine treasure.

But the diagram required a large investment to reach this level, which made it inferior to other divine treasures.

And the limitations the myriad domains had on this kind of treasure further limited its value, which was why it had ultimately been sold off for the price of a middle lower-grade treasure.

For the Seven Absolutions Sect, this was basically the price of a cabbage. If Tang Jie hadn't revealed the secret of the hidden realm and expressed a willingness to trade them rare materials at a discounted price, the Seven Absolutions Sect would have never been willing to sell the diagram, no matter how low its actual value was.

They didn't need that money.

There was also the complete set of the Eight Gates Banners. That could be considered a divine treasure, but when they were split up, they fell to the level of art relics.

As for this stone slab, it gave off the same feeling to Tang Jie as the Mountain River State Diagram, vast and profound. But Tang Jie's cultivation level had been lower then. Now that he was at Celestial Heart, he was less shaken. But from this sensation, Tang Jie was able to ascertain that this was an upper-grade divine treasure, perhaps even ultimate-grade.

Ultimate-grade divine treasures were almost as valuable as lower-grade Dao armaments.

But no, such items could no longer be bought with spirit coins. They were truly priceless.

Even in the Treasure Paradise, getting a divine treasure wasn't an easy matter. One could say that each one had a history of blood and conflict behind it.

Zuo Quanming had clearly also realized how extraordinary this item was, and he was clearly barely containing his excitement as he looked up at it. What was a priceless treasure? It meant that if he could bring it out and no one else brought out a comparable treasure, then without a need to appraise its actual value, the Eastern Heavenly King would immediately be made the winner, and as the greatest contributor to this, he would naturally be richly rewarded.

If Tang Jie knew what he was thinking, he would undoubtedly express his disdain, for Tang Jie had no thought of handing it over. He had insisted on bringing in his original body through the diagram not just to add on to his fighting power, but also to try his hand at theft—if he could smuggle things into the Treasure Paradise using the diagram, he could also smuggle things out.

Zuo Quanming was no longer able to control himself, and reached for the gray slab.

Just when the stone slab was about to fall into his grasp, a figure descended from the sky with a screech.

Alarmed, Zuo Quanming backed away and used his spatial shifting spell art. Once he had evaded this assault, he realized that the attacker was a fiend monkey with a metal cudgel. Waving around the cudgel, it howled and yowled.

"Just a monkey fiend." Zuo Quanming saw that the monkey fiend was incapable of speech and clearly hadn't reached Mind Opening, so he calmed down. His hands began to form spell arts, and a golden beam of light shot out—the golden beam spell art he had previously used on Tang Jie.

This time, he didn't hide his hands in his sleeves, so Tang Jie saw that this spell art consisted of 128 hand signs and needed three seconds to cast, making it a rather complicated spell art. It was no wonder the man resorted to deceiving words and obscuring sleeves, as his foes would not be likely to give him the time to cast this spell art.

But as Tang Jie well understood, it was quite a powerful art.

As the golden light appeared, it seemed like the monkey fiend was doomed.

Unexpectedly, the monkey fiend swung its cudgel at the golden light, and there was a great boom. While the monkey fiend was sent flying, the cudgel had also weakened the golden light somewhat. The monkey tumbled through the air and crashed to the ground, but then it got to its feet again, perfectly fine except that it was a little wobbly, not even throwing up some blood.

Zuo Quanming and Tang Jie were both stunned.

How could a monkey fiend that hadn't even reached Mind Opening be this formidable?

The monkey, after a momentary daze, grew furious. Picking up the cudgel, it brainlessly charged at Zuo Quanming again.

Zuo Quanming sneered. "Brute monkey, seeking death!"

He produced a silver shortsword that he stabbed at the monkey.

This sword thrust was hard to detect, and the technique was immaculate. It was much stronger than that blood saber he had used earlier. It appeared that this person was like Tang Jie, but whereas Tang Jie openly used a sword while secretly attacking with a blade, this guy openly attacked with a blade while secretly attacking with a sword. Tang Jie once more felt admiration. Sure enough, this person had a reason to be so shameless. He had not even used his real weapon in their fight.

As the sword thrust out, the monkey was enveloped in sword energy.

Zuo Quanming felt like there was no way this guy would escape, but to his surprise, the monkey fiend jumped out while smashing down his cudgel, filling the air with cudgels made of energy. Each cudgel seemed to be imbued with the mastery of a cudgel expert, leaving Zuo Quanming dumbfounded.

Although Spirit Sensing fiends had their own spell arts, natural spell arts and natural cudgel arts were two completely different things.

A fiend could let out fireballs or ice arrows without being taught how to do it, but there was no way it could use sword arts, saber arts, or cudgel arts without being taught them.

That it had this ability could only mean that someone had taught it.

But this was the Treasure Paradise. Who would come here to teach a monkey fiend cudgel arts?

Zuo Quanming saw this and instinctively shouted, "Is there a master present? This one is Zuo Quanming…"

He once more fell back on his chatterbox ways.

But all that came in reply was his echo.

The monkey continued to dance with the cudgel, blocking all the sword energy and then furiously striking at Zuo Quanming.

With no other choice, Zuo Quanming put away his sword and waved his palm, creating a screen of light that blocked the cudgel.

This was Tang Jie's first time seeing Zuo Quanming use a defensive spell. Unexpectedly, it was this monkey that had forced his hand. Since he had used a defensive spell art, Tang Jie decided to use his Insight to find this barrier's weakness.

In the past, because he was facing down an enemy, he had to use 90% of his focus on his opponent, so he found it hard to use his Eye of Insight to identify his opponent's weaknesses. But he was now a bystander, not the combatant, so he could put all his focus on Insight, which naturally resulted in much greater efficiency. It only took a few looks for him to see its flaws, and a smile of contentment appeared on his face.

Meanwhile, Zuo Quanming and the monkey fiend were locked in battle.

The monkey was agile and fast, and its afterimages were everywhere, along with its energy cudgels. Moreover, numerous monkeys were watching the battle from the cliff, chattering incessantly.

Whenever that cudgel-wielding monkey went on a particularly fierce offensive, the monkeys would roar as if they were cheering it on, and they even wildly yelled and shouted.

Tang Jie mentally translated their commentary:

"Daring to oppose my king? That's seeking death!"

"Divine Monkey Demon Cudgel Art! Kill!"

"Hmph, my great king only needs three cudgel strikes to knock down this human… five… seven… one hundred…"

"No one can save those who provoke my monkey tribe!"

Zuo Quanming had no idea that Tang Jie was making up commentary for this fight, but he had realized that this was no ordinary Spirit Sensing fiend he was dealing with, and he started to get serious. But as that monkey grew bolder and bolder, Zuo Quanming lost his patience and shouted, "Ignorant thing!"

He suddenly spread out his limbs, and an ancient gate manifested behind him.

A giant hand stretched out from the gate, grabbed the monkey, and pulled it behind the gate and out of sight.

"Eh?" Tang Jie gasped in surprise.