Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-620

Under that large tree atop Thousand Return Mountain, Tang Jie slowly opened his eyes. A tinge of red appeared on his pale complexion while the red light in his eyes began to retreat.

Whew! He let out a long breath.

"Big Brother!" Yiyi shouted. "You did it?"

Tang Jie nodded. "If I didn't do it, you wouldn't be seeing me now… That was too close. It's thanks to this that I managed to get through."

Tang Jie turned his hand over, revealing the Fate Standard in his palm.

That final burst of light had come from the Fate Standard.

The majestic power of fate had ultimately suppressed the Heart Demons. Those former evil spirits and souls of the dead were all powerless to Fate, unable to resist, unable to argue, unable to complain.

For this reason, the Heart Demons had retreated under the light of Fate, their resentment vanishing, for this was all Fate!

Tang Jie hated this explanation, but he had to admit that it truly was something that could explain everything.

This was why the Heart Demons couldn't resist it.

Alas, the power of Fate was too ethereal, and his understanding of it was still limited, so he could only use the power of the Dao Standard a single time. This was why he had waited until the very last moment to do so.

It had been his final trump card.

Fortunately, he had managed to overcome the trial.

Tang Jie broke out in a cold sweat when he realized how tough the Heart Demon Tribulation had been even with the Wisdom Sword Mantra and the Fate Dao Standard. "The Heart Demon Tribulation truly lives up to its reputation. Fortunately, I never did anything that broke a Heart Demon Oath. Even a single incident would have killed me."

Yiyi pursed her lips. "That's because you've done so many unvirtuous things that there was no end to the Heart Demons, right? The difficulty of the Heart Demon Tribulation depends on the person. A good person wouldn't have such a hard time."

In a rare sight, Tang Jie had no defense, nodding and saying, "Yes, I've been struggling too much on the edge of life and death over the years. To survive, to progress, I've truly done some things that go against my conscience, so it's no wonder my Heart Demons were rather formidable."

"As long as you understand!" Yiyi stuck her hands on her waist and said, "In the future, pay attention to your actions and stop going overboard!"

Tang Jie smiled. "I've already passed the Heart Demon Tribulation, dispelling the evil thoughts and clearing my heart, so I'm not worried about them causing me any more trouble. That means that I can go even more overboard in the future."

"…" Yiyi was speechless.

Tang Jie laughed and gave her a big kiss. "I was joking with you!"

"Ugh!" Yiyi kicked him, though it was hard to say whether she was disgusted by Tang Jie's joke or Tang Jie kissing her.

While playing around with Yiyi, Tang Jie was also observing the changes to his body.

In his Sea of Cognition, after it finished forming, the Divine Soul had lost its human form, turning into a fog that drifted over the Sea of Cognition.

This was because the Divine Soul still lacked power and could only maintain a form for an extremely brief amount of time. Only at the Soul Transformation Tier would its form truly be fixed.

The Heart Demon Tier involved bringing the soul from nothing to something. Even though it was an ethereal body, it still represented an enormous advancement in strength.

First of all, Tang Jie now had a Divine Will.

It was a Divine Will of the thinnest level, yet this Divine Will could still extend for much farther than the Spirit Will.

Just extending it a little allowed Tang Jie to sense everything within several hundred meters around him.

It was no wonder people said that no tricks were of help against a Titan.

This ability to sense everything in one's surroundings would make it extremely difficult to ambush any cultivator at Heart Demon or above. Fortunately, while Divine Will could sense one's surroundings, it couldn't see through illusions. Tang Jie usually approached his targets under disguise, which was why he had managed to overcome them.

In addition, Divine Will sensing had to be consciously released, and as the Divine Soul's abilities were limited, the Divine Will was limited. Thus, nobody would recklessly throw out their Divine Will unless they had a purpose.

Finally, Divine Will had a strength and range limit.

Tang Jie tried to push his Divine Will to its utmost limit and found that he could get it as far as a kilometer and no more, much to his surprise and delight.

Unlike the Spirit Will, the Divine Will's range and strength would grow along with the Divine Soul.

Those who had just entered the Heart Demon Tier would consider two hundred meters a decent result, but Tang Jie had one thousand as his base.

In large part, this was because he had formed his Divine Soul very quickly.

There was nothing to be done about that. Tang Jie had lacked effective defenses, so even though he knew there was danger ahead, he could only push forward. The result was that his Divine Soul was unprecedentedly powerful. It had to be understood that most people couldn't reach human form during the Heart Demon Tribulation. When adding on his sturdy foundation, he had reached a height that none of his predecessors had ever achieved, even though he had just entered the Heart Demon Tier.

He didn't know how strong the Divine Souls of Xiao Biehan and others like him had been at the start, but he was sure that they weren't as strong as his.

Imperfect circumstances had led to a more glorious result. Tang Jie hadn't expected this.

Perhaps this could be considered fate.

Tang Jie inwardly grumbled as he looked at the darkened Fate Standard in his body.

Since he had overcome the Heart Demon Tribulation, it was now time to enter that azure world.

According to Tutu's analysis, one had to at least be at the Violet Palace Realm in order to penetrate those azure Astral Winds, but Tutu didn't know which tier of the Violet Palace Realm was required.

Tang Jie's merged form, defensively speaking, could be considered on par with an initial-phase Violet Palace cultivator, but if a later-phase Violet Palace cultivator was needed to break through that azure storm, then he would be throwing himself to his death.

But he would never know unless he actually went inside, so he could only man up and head in.

Tang Jie began to focus all his energy on his preparations.

Three days later, the Jade Immortal Pavilion finally reached that green world. He still couldn't see into that world, but he could feel that vast sea of green radiating heat and light, like an emerald sun.

Standing in the Jade Immortal Pavilion, Tang Jie looked at that green sun. He knew that there was no going back once he entered. Gritting his teeth, he finally took out the Mountain River State Diagram, summoning his original body.

As the two bodies merged once more, a powerful energy rippled out, pushing away the waves of heat.

Tang Jie put away the Jade Immortal Pavilion, turning it back into a small model, which he put together with the diagram in the Divine Palace within his body.

After reaching the Heart Demon Tier, one could use the Divine Will to open up a special space within the body, which could store items. It was much more convenient than a Mustard Seed Bag. But a basic Divine Soul had unstable power, so the time this space could exist was limited. Thus, most Heart Demon cultivators still brought around Mustard Seed Bags. But in special circumstances, this sort of storage space was necessary.

The current situation was such a circumstance.

The Astral Winds were too powerful, and a Mustard Seed Bag would definitely be destroyed if it were left outside, so it would need to be stored in the Divine Palace.

If he hadn't entered the Heart Demon Tier, Tang Jie would have to go in alone, leaving everything outside. Once he was in, he would have to make a teleportation formation and bring his things in that way. Not only would this take time and effort, there was also a risk. Some Titan might pass by and say, "Oh? There's some ownerless divine treasure floating around outside this domain? How lucky!" And then his precious goods would become someone else's.

In addition, by bringing his treasures with him, he could use them while pushing through the Astral Winds, which would raise his chances.

With everything ready, Tang Jie charged into the Astral Winds.

The Astral Winds swept over him like flames, and Tang Jie felt like he had returned to Holy Fire Valley. But the Domain Astral Winds were much more powerful than the flames of Holy Fire Valley, and they instantly exerted their immense might.

Tang Jie's barrier was as fragile as an eggshell before the Astral Winds, shattered with a single gust. Hurricane winds tore across Tang Jie's body, ripping up his flesh as if it was peppered with metallic sand. Even the armor made of Mother Cloud Essence Metal wasn't able to stop the infiltration of the Astral Winds, and those body parts exposed outside of the armor suffered immense damage. With each gust of Astral Wind, it was like tens of thousands of blades had cut across Tang Jie's body, each time taking away large chunks of his flesh.

If Tang Jie hadn't been in his merged state, he probably would have died to the first blast.

All Tang Jie could do was plummet downward as fast as he could, doing his best to put up barriers as soon as they were destroyed. Even if these barriers were obliterated in a single strike, just having them weaken the Astral Winds a tiny bit was enough.

The farther he fell, the fiercer the Astral Winds became.

It was like Tang Jie had fallen into a meat grinder, the savage Astral Winds crazily grinding away at every piece of flesh on his body.

From a distance, Tang Jie appeared like a shooting star, the Astral Winds burning him away, his severed flesh serving as the comet trails, leaving behind a long trail of red, the red of blood and the red of flames!

As he slowly reached his limit, he took out the Jade Immortal Pavilion, which covered him. While protected by the Jade Immortal Pavilion, he swiftly ate several pills and used the Dao of Life to restore his heavily injured body.

After he had recovered well enough, he put away the Jade Immortal Pavilion and continued his descent.

When he reached his limit again, he took out the Jade Immortal Pavilion again.

He pressed forward while continuing this cycle.

But while the Jade Immortal Pavilion was powerful, it didn't have Tang Jie's recovery ability. Each use of it wore away at it permanently.

Finally, with a boom, the Jade Immortal Pavilion broke apart, and in a flash, this divine treasure was turned to dust.

Without the protection of the Jade Immortal Pavilion, Tang Jie could only keep going down. There was no option now except to get to the bottom. Only then did he have a chance of survival.

Tang Jie clenched his teeth and continued his fall.

The storm winds obliterated his clothes, burned away his hair, tore apart his skin, blinded his eyes, and as time went on and it annihilated him layer by layer, it began to expose his bones. His powerful recovery ability was no match for the power of Destruction, and Tang Jie rapidly went from flesh to skeleton. His white bones were clearly visible, and even his organs started to be exposed to the flames of the Astral Winds. If not for his extraordinary cultivation and his Mother Cloud armor protecting his weak points, he would have already been ash in the wind.

But this was Tang Jie's limit.

There was no telling when he would finally reach the end of the Astral Wind region, but he was already at the end of his rope. Tang Jie could only bitterly smile and curse his luck. It seemed like these Astral Winds could only be passed through by a middle-phase Violet Palace cultivator.

Without the divine treasure, Tang Jie had lost his source of protection. Even if he took out the Mountain River State Diagram, he wouldn't be able to protect himself.

At this perilous moment, Tang Jie began to desperately swing his fists, unleashing all his strength and spiritual energy.

He used everything he had, whether it was the Ninedark Mantra, the Infinity Sphere Art, the Flesh Millstone, or the Nine Heavens Calamity Blade. He went berserk on the Astral Winds, imagining them as enemies and attacking them with all he could.

Even if he died, he would go down fighting!

Tang Jie suddenly thought of the Martial Lord, of that giant that stood tall in the heavens, roaring at the world.

His hands unconsciously formed a sign, the basic sign the Parting Classic used during body refining.

But there was no bath of spiritual herbs here, so there was no point to this action.

Yet a moment later, Tang Jie felt power surge into his body.

As the green Astral Wind blew over him, he felt some of it enter his body and be converted into some unknown energy that circulated through his body.

"This is…" Tang Jie was stunned.

But for some reason, he instinctively began to perform the Parting Classic.

As he plummeted from the heavens, he cultivated the Parting Classic.

With each movement, Tang Jie felt more and more power entering his body.

He was still being assailed by the Astral Winds, which were still inflicting damage on his body. But the healing and resistance from his body was rising, allowing him to hold out against the Astral Winds.

Tang Jie circulated the Parting Classic again and again, and suddenly, there was a boom as if something had exploded. Tang Jie felt like he had entered a new world, and the scene before his eyes began to change.

The sky was the same sky, the winds the same winds, but the green Astral Winds were no longer so terrifying. They were slowing down and weakening.

Tang Jie knew that he had broken through!

He was still plummeting, but the Astral Winds no longer threatened him.

Now that he was through the Astral Wind region, the world began to brighten up.

He descended into the clouds, leaving behind the roiling green Astral Winds above.

He was finally out of the Astral Wind region!

Tang Jie's eyes got a little wet.

He stared up at the green winds above him, allowing himself to fall. If anyone was watching from a distance, they would see a human falling out of the sky and smashing into the ground like an asteroid, throwing up a great plume of dust.