Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-623

The Saint Court Mountains.

Six thousand years ago, a human Titan proved his Dao and became a Saint here. Ten thousand Immortals came to congratulate him, and the Titan ascended a platform and gave a lecture on the Dao here, enlightening countless cultivators. For this reason, this region was called the Saint Court Mountains. Within the mountains was a stone platform, the Dao-lecturing platform. "Proving his Dao" referred to the level above Immortal Platform. When one reached greater attainment in controlling the Dao, one would attain the title of Saint Immortal, becoming a Dao-Proving Saint Immortal. This sort of status was even above Godhead, and only this level of person could break the Dao's law of intransmissibility to ascend the platform and lecture on the Dao.

The Verdant Cloud Domain was just a small domain with a Violet Palace–level barrier, so a small pond like this normally couldn't produce a big dragon like a Dao-Proving Saint Immortal. But if some passing Titan had been enlightened while in the area, the story made sense. Thus, it was hard to say whether this story was true or just an exaggeration, but in any case, the truth was long lost in the river of history.

The heavily-forested and large Saint Court Mountains were on one side, and on the other were the Pegasus Mountains, whose steep and narrow peaks made them appear like a flying horse. Together, these two mountains served as the dividing line between humans and fiends.

Despite this, many fiends would cross this fence every year, passing through the forests to reach human territory, where they would hunt down and kill humans.

It was said that humans were able to section off their own piece of land among all these fiends not because humans had been able to hold out against the fiends, but because the fiends treated humans as the six major sects of the Rosecloud Domain had treated fiends, cordoning them off and breeding them in the name of peace. At certain intervals, they would still come and attack the humans, but rather than destroying the country, they would seize large numbers of humans each time.

Holding his hands behind his back, Tang Jie strolled through the dense forests of the Sacred Court Mountains.

Next to him was Yiyi. Curiously looking around, she said, "Big Brother, why did we come here?"

"I want to take a look at those fiends," Tang Jie replied.

"'Look at the fiends'?" Yiyi was confused. "What's there to look at?"

"We'll see once we find one," Tang Jie replied.

Tang Jie found Er Hu's experience strange and incomprehensible, and he found a fiend pellet being able to open a Spiritual Space to be absurd. Curiosity for the unknown had brought him to this place to see if he could find any clues. Even if he didn't find anything, getting a fiend pellet would be fine too.

After reaching the later phase of the Diamond Body, Tang Jie urgently needed various kinds of nutrition for his original body. Herbs were difficult to find, but fiend pellets were easy to get. Since there were so many fiends in the Verdant Cloud Domain, with fiend territory being just on the other side of the mountain, Tang Jie naturally had to go over and stage a little raid, also contributing a little to the human race.

With this thought in mind, Tang Jie came to the Sacred Court Mountains.

The farther he went in, the more treacherous the terrain became. The thick foliage blocked out most of the light, making the forest dark and gloomy. The matted leaves rustled and cracked as he stepped on them, and in the distance, cicadas chirped and birds flew here and there.

A beautiful budgerigar flew through the forest. To amuse herself, Yiyi waved her hand and sucked it into her hand, and she played around with it for a while before finally letting it go.

The two of them found ways to amuse themselves as they walked along. Suddenly, they heard a tiger roar and then smelled a stench on the wind.

Yiyi sniffed the air and said, "One is coming—Spirit Sensing lower grade."

Tang Jie's original body was the one outside now, and it was lacking in spell arts compared to the avatar, devoid of both the Celestial Eye and Divine Will. Thus, when it came to detecting the enemy, Yiyi took charge. This was the limitation of body cultivators. While their tough bodies and immense strength made them terrors in battle, even allowing him to push through a Violet Palace–level Astral Wind barrier, it left him far inferior in other aspects.

Tang Jie shook his head upon hearing the level of this fiend. Let alone him, even Yiyi couldn't get excited over a fiend like this.

As expected, a few moments later, a fierce tiger appeared before them.

Before it could do anything, Yiyi waved a hand, and a vine shot toward the tiger. Just when it was about to pierce through the tiger, Tang Jie abruptly said, "Wait. Don't kill it."

The vine stopped three inches away from the tiger's forehead, and at the same time, Tang Jie released his aura.

His fierce aura had that mighty tiger instantly prostrate on the ground, not daring to move.

Tang Jie inspected the tiger. After confirming that it had no pellet, he took out the Mountain River State Diagram and said, "Put it in here."

Yiyi understood, and the vine wrapped around the tiger and sent it into the diagram.

In the past, the Mountain River State Diagram was so barren that only beings on the level of He Chong could survive, so he could only send in non-living items. But now that the environment had improved, he could send in live creatures. Of course, the diagram wasn't some imprisoning treasure, so living creatures needed to be completely suppressed before they were sent in. If they resisted even a little, he wouldn't be able to send them in. But Tang Jie didn't need any fiends that were too powerful, for that could easily break the ecological balance of the diagram world.

The value of low-level fiends having been discovered, the minor fiends within the forest suffered a calamity.

In the past, Tang Jie disdained to kill these fiends, but since there was now a purpose to them, he began to hunt them down.

As he went deeper, he would capture any fiend he came across and send them into the diagram. Tang Jie then had another realization. Since he could send in weak fiends, then he could send more than that! In addition, while there were now fiends in the diagram, there was no suitable food.

Tang Jie's actions became even more frightening, grabbing anything that was alive and throwing it into the diagram.

When he grabbed a snail and threw it into the diagram, Yiyi finally reached her limit and coughed a few times. Tang Jie embarrassedly stopped and said, "I'm just enriching the animal life."

Yiyi rolled her eyes and indicated that she wasn't believing a word he was saying.

After they plundered their way through the Saint Court Mountains, the forest was much quieter. Alas, he failed to find a fiend pellet.

Finally, upon arriving at a white cliff, he encountered a pack of rock wolves.

This pack primarily consisted of upper-grade Spirit Sensing fiends, but the wolf king was at Mind Opening. Alas, this was nothing to Tang Jie, and he slew it with a single strike of his palm, after which he dug the pellet out of its stomach and put the rest of the wolves into the diagram.

Tang Jie inspected the fiend pellet but didn't find it any different from ordinary fiend pellets, so he just absorbed it using the Parting Classic. The power from the fiend pellet was nothing more than a drop of rain in the ocean for Tang Jie, but as he absorbed it, felt something flash in his body.

It was a very strange sensation, but very weak, and Tang Jie wouldn't have even noticed it if he hadn't been looking out for something. In truth, Tang Jie even wondered whether he had just imagined it.

Since one wasn't enough to get a good feeling, he naturally needed to find more.

Tang Jie continued his search.

They quickly reached the edge of the Saint Court Mountains. Standing at the top of a mountain and looking down, they saw a vast plain, and farther off in the distance was a city.

A fiend city!

Fiend territory couldn't be treated like the fiends in the mountains. They had their own rules and laws, as well as countless powerful great fiends. They had even established their own cities.

The fiends that Tang Jie had captured and killed in the forest couldn't even be considered part of the fiend race, strictly speaking. This was because the fiend laws decreed that only fiends at Mind Opening or above were considered true fiends, with those below still considered fiend creatures.

This fiend city was made from giant black stones, and the walls were around two hundred feet high. But while they seemed impressive, there was no formation carved into them.

Walls without formations were nothing but display pieces to cultivators. The fiends who had built this city were ignorant enough to think that simply walls were enough, or were arrogant and using this method to mock the humans. The truth was probably closer to the latter than the former.

Three large words were written above the gates: "Hundred Battle City".

As it was the city closest to the human-fiend border, the meaning of this name was obvious.

Tang Jie's eyes blazed as he gazed at the distant city.

Yiyi worriedly looked at him. "Big Brother, are you really thinking about going in?"

"Of course; why not?" Tang Jie chuckled as he looked at the fiend city. "That's the only way to make things interesting."

A hint of helplessness appeared on Yiyi's face.

A cultivator's personality was often influenced by the techniques they cultivated. Tang Jie's original body had been cultivating the Parting Classic for many years, and the Martial Lord's will had begun to subtly affect him long ago, turning him bold and courageous. While he normally still appeared like a scholar, speaking in a refined manner, when it came to battle, that battle-crazed Tang Jie would show himself.

This fiend city had to have tens of thousands of fiends, and there was no telling how many of them were at Transformation. Even if these fiends were weaker than Tang Jie, they could crush him through sheer numbers.

But Tang Jie didn't seem worried about this problem at all.

After heartily laughing, he began to stride toward the city.

Several fiend soldiers were boredly watching the gate of Hundred Battle City.

Humans would never be bold enough to attack this city, so watch duty was simple and boring.

A bear fiend paced back and forth while shouting, "This life is so boring! Ugh, I just want to go to human territory and kill to my heart's content. Just the thought of human flesh has my mouth watering."

A deer fiend shook the antlers on its head in disdain. "If you went, I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to come back."

"What did you say?" the bear fiend roared.

The deer fiend harshly said, "You think I'm afraid of you? You talk big, acting as if you could single-handedly exterminate the humans, but I'm afraid that rather than eat humans, you might end up losing your pellet that you spent so many years cultivating."

The fiends glared at each other, neither willing to back down.

At this point, a fiend pointed down below. "Look over there!"

A man and a girl holding hands were making their way over.

As they got closer, the fiends saw that it was a human holding the hand of a sprite.

The fiends were dumbfounded, the bear fiend faintly saying, "Am I seeing things? Why do I see a human and a sprite walking together?"

"You aren't seeing things," the deer fiend solemnly said. "That really is a human and a sprite."

"What's going on here?" a wolf fiend asked as it came over. "What did that human eat to make it so bold?"

An eagle fiend flew over, and after taking a look, it chuckled and said, "You idiots, can't you tell? That human is clearly the sprite's slave."

Fiends weren't very good at production, so besides eating humans, they also enslaved them, and there were currently many human slaves within Hundred Battle City.

The eagle fiend's words made the wary fiends relax, and they decided not to sound the alarm. After all, because sprites had always been few in number, they had always been under the fiend race and considered one of their own.

But the bear fiend still asked in a daze, "How do you know that the human is a slave? He's not wearing a collar."

The eagle fiend was angered. "An idiot like you might not be able to tell, but how could my eagle eyes be wrong? That sprite looks like a little girl, but she's actually at Transformation. We're far weaker than her. So why would a puny Mortal Shedding human need a spirit-sealing collar? He probably doesn't even dare to fight back."

This eagle fiend's eyes really hadn't lied. Tang Jie's original body was only at the Mortal Shedding Realm, so it was far inferior to Yiyi's cultivation level.

The fiends all nodded at this, believing Tang Jie to be Yiyi's slave.

The bear fiend asked, "Then do we still need to question them?"

The eagle fiend slapped the bear with a wing. "Go if you want to, but don't go asking me."

The likes of Transformation fiends and sprites had never had very good tempers, and they could easily kill someone if angered, so none of the fiends dared to volunteer.

The fiends fell silent and allowed Tang Jie and Yiyi to go in.

Tang Jie found it strange how easily he had been able to stroll through the gate. He asked Yiyi, "Why didn't they try to do anything to us?"

Yiyi shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe they're afraid of you."

Tang Jie stroked his chin. "I don't think I'm capable of that."

He seemed to be rather aware of his own abilities at this time.

"Then what do you think the reason is?"

"…Maybe it's because they're pacifists."