Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-579

The moment the blood bead shattered and the mist dispersed, Tang Jie sensed it, and he knew that the Blood River Lord had noticed him. Without the slightest hesitation, he had all the blood birds explode and dissipate.

The more blood beads the Blood River Lord were allowed to obtain, the easier it would be to track him down.

At the same time, Tang Jie stood up and formed a spell, casting his Illuminating Eye. After throwing the Illuminating Eye into the clouds, Tang Jie took out a formation diagram. The moment the formation diagram unfurled, it turned into blue skies and white clouds, fusing with its surrounding environment and obscuring the Illuminating Eye.

This formation was being used just to cover up the one Illuminating Eye.

After doing this, Tang Jie patted Tutu and said, "Go!"

By now, the Blood River Lord probably knew where he was, so if he didn't leave now, it might be too late.

The rabbit leaped into the air, leaving behind a long white trail.

Not long after Tang Jie left, the first Blood River avatar appeared at his former location.

He looked around and then closed his eyes. As if he had locked onto Tang Jie's position, he suddenly turned his head in the direction Tang Jie had fled. "Over there."

He flew off in pursuit.

It wasn't long before a second, third, and fourth avatar arrived. This time, they took off in Tang Jie's direction without even stopping.

Meanwhile, Tang Jie was observing the Blood River Lord's movements—before the beginning of their battle, there first had to be a round of surveillance and counter-surveillance, pursuit and counter-pursuit.

In terms of strength, the Blood River Lord had the clear upper hand, but Tang Jie was more prepared and taking this more seriously.

When the strong clashed with the weak, what determined victory wasn't who was stronger but how much both sides invested.

In this conflict of surveillance and counter-surveillance, Tang Jie was superior.

While mounted on the rabbit, he had a glow in his eyes, and the images of the Blood River Lord appeared before him. He saw the Blood River Lord looking around, tracking, and pursuing, and he muttered, "He's able to lock onto me seemingly because he's tracking down the source of the blood, but he needs to keep tracking and confirming, indicating that it's not too reliable, so there should be a way of covering it up. When the first one found me, the others directly gave chase, meaning that these avatars can communicate with each other. In terms of speed…"

Tang Jie stared at the Blood River Lord's fleeting figure, his mind spinning and the Dao of Wisdom turning. He swiftly calculated that the Blood River Lord was actually a little slower than Tutu. Tutu was a Heaven-Lost Rabbit, and as a natural mount, it had few other abilities except its speed. Of course, this was also related to the Blood River Lord's current cultivation level. If all his avatars were brought together, he could fly with some mighty Divine Connection, and probably even Tutu wouldn't be able to outrun him at its current cultivation level.

By relying on Tutu, Tang Jie was still the winner in the contest of pursuit and counter-pursuit, which meant he had plenty of time.

He continued to stare at the Blood River Lord's figure.

When the fourth avatar passed, Tang Jie stopped seeing new ones.

"Four… He only sent four Heart Demon Tiers," Tang Jie muttered.

Is he looking down on me?

In terms of strength, four Heart Demon Tiers was enough to deal with just him.

But if that was the case, why had he assembled such a great force?

After gathering together so much of his power, he had ultimately sent only four Heart Demon avatars at him. It was like taking only a single bite from a sumptuous feast.

Tang Jie narrowed his eyes.

Regardless, this was good news. Originally, Tang Jie had been thinking that he needed to do some "divide and conquer", but it seemed like he didn't have to waste his brainpower. The Blood River Lord had sent an opportunity right to his door.

Four Heart Demon avatars could be called neither strong nor weak.

Although Tang Jie had needed five people to deal with a single avatar last time, that was because Tang Jie hadn't used his full power. If he had the Sovereign Blade and his formation diagrams, and even sent in Yiyi, he was rather confident in his ability to deal with a single Heart Demon avatar.

As for the remaining three, the original body could deal with them. While there might be a big battle, he would undoubtedly be the winner.

The only problem was that the Blood River avatars were all mind-linked. If his original body were mobilized, the remaining Blood River avatars would learn of it, and the Blood River Lord would now be able to accurately assess his strength. And four Heart Demon avatars might not even be one tenth of the strength the Blood River Lord had sent in pursuit of Tang Jie. Was exposing the original body for this little worth it? But if he didn't use the original body, how would he deal with them?

Tang Jie began to ponder this problem.

"Why don't we use shadow clones to split them and then defeat them individually?" Yiyi proposed. She had been with Tang Jie long enough to have picked up on many of his tactics, and she understood the principles behind "divide and conquer".

Tang Jie shook his head. "There's little point, even without considering that Blood River isn't that easily fooled. The minds of Blood River's avatars are all linked, so if any avatar is attacked, the others will immediately know and go to give help. Trying to split up his avatars might not work, and what might happen instead is that one of his avatars will hold us down and rob us of the chance to escape."

"Then what do we do?" Yiyi instantly grew worried. "What if… we send the original body?"

Tang Jie shook his head again. "No, that will just make the Blood River Lord take us more seriously. Next, rather than four Heart Demon avatars, it will be four Soul Transformation avatars."

"Didn't he already send a lot this time? We've already seen ten-some Heart Demon and one Soul Transformation," Yiyi grumbled.

"They might not all be meant for me," Tang Jie replied. "There's something weird going on."

"What?"

"Blood River needed a few months to find us the first time, but that was because he didn't know where we were. After we destroyed him once, he knew where we were, so even if his avatar couldn't get to the City of Freedom in three days, given that his original body is at Immortal Platform, do you really think he wouldn't have a way of getting his avatar to the City of Freedom as quickly as possible? You have to realize that I was ready to flee with a teleportation formation at any point within those three days, but he didn't come! It was just too unbelievable."

Yiyi was startled, looking at Tang Jie in confusion.

Tang Jie continued, "Three days… those precious three days! But rather than seizing this opportunity, he only came three days later, after I had entered the Treasure Paradise, making some deal with the Celestial Flame Pagoda to get in. Don't you think that strange? He chose to forego coming early to deal with me, instead choosing to miss his chance and then pay an immense cost to come in. Once inside, he didn't even pursue me with all his strength. With so many avatars, he could have split them up, casting a net just like me, but I didn't see a single sign of him this entire time, and in the end, I was the one who found him. Once he noticed this, he didn't send all his avatars chasing after me, instead sending only four Heart Demon avatars… Did he really come inside for me? Did he really send such a strong avatar just for me?"

Yiyi gaped. "You're saying…"

Tang Jie lowered his head in thought. "I tricked He Chong into the Mountain River State Diagram because I saw some things and understood some things in my battle with him, after which I made my decision. I imprisoned He Chong because I wanted to use him. Then Blood River… What if he's doing the same thing? Perhaps he saw an opportunity. Pursuing me just became an excuse to enter the Treasure Paradise."

Tang Jie stood up and looked around, his eyes gleaming with confidence. "There must be something that he wants here. I'm just an excuse!"

"I see. What we thought was a stupid and rash bull was actually a crafty old fox!" Yiyi said in realization. "So what do we do now?"

Tang Jie replied, "No matter what his ultimate goal is, a battle between us is unavoidable. If that's the case, we don't need to go all-out. For this battle, I won't use my original body to destroy his four avatars!"

Tang Jie felt boldness welling up within him.

"How can you do it if you don't use the original body?" Yiyi asked in surprise.

Tang Jie confidently smiled. "In a battle of wits, of course. Yiyi, I once taught you about 'divide and conquer', and now, I will teach you some of the other wisdom our ancestors left to us."

Yiyi was baffled. What does this have to do with our ancestors?

The Great Stellar Chiliocosm had for eons pursued the path of longevity, the road of immortality, but its knowledge of military tactics and strategy was limited. For Immortals, this was because they didn't need it, and for mortals, it was because cultivators existed. Thus, they didn't understand not because they lacked intelligence, but because they had never been taught it. And in Tang Jie's world, there was a saying that you had to both talk the talk and walk the walk, but what if you had never even been taught how to walk?

But Tang Jie knew how.

The wars his previous world had engaged in over thousands of years had made him fundamentally different from the people of this world.

Tang Jie took out a map and looked at it. "The art of war is one of constant transformation, and the most important factor is your mind. 'Divide and conquer' is only one of many strategies. In its essence, it's just weakening the opponent by breaking them down. But breaking down isn't the only way of weakening the opponent. Another way would be to use the time, weather, and location. And defeating the opponent doesn't have to just be about weakening them. You can also seek to make yourself stronger. Thus, for this battle, we first have to select a good location…"

Tang Jie began to move his finger across the map.

Finally, his finger stopped on the corner of the map.

That was a valley marked with a fire symbol.

The Holy Fire Valley!

The Holy Fire Valley was a famous danger zone of the Treasure Paradise, one of the few that was not due to the presence of the divine sword. It was said that when the Flame Celestial Sovereign entered this place, he contended against the divine sword's might, and the endless wildfire he used left behind a devastated area. However, Na Shan privately told Tang Jie that this was because the Flame Celestial Sovereign had been caught unawares, not knowing the situation in the Treasure Paradise, and the blood from his serious wound had created this area.

The Holy Fire Valley was still ablaze, rivers of lava flowing, creating this infamous danger zone of the Treasure Paradise.

"The Blood River Lord's strongest attribute, other than his unkillability and his ability to divide and transform, is his Blood Sea. He commands the world within the Blood Sea, everything going as he wills. Even his Heart Demon Tier avatars can control a small part of the world as if they were Violet Palace, possessing terrifying power. But everything in the world has its complement and detriment. Water can counter fire, but fire can counter water. While the Blood Sea can counter fire, it also fears fire! As for me, I've recently condensed a spark and have the Vermillion Bird's essence blood, so I have no fear of fighting in fire. Thus, we…"

Tang Jie paused for emphasis. "Will fight here!

"You have your sea of blood, and I have my sea of fire!" Tang Jie firmly declared, his eyes glowing.