Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-661

What Silver Eyes didn't know was that Tang Jie hadn't just awakened the latent power in his body. He had also experienced something very special.

The power of Destruction.

This was the real foundation of Tang Jie's terrifying power.

The power of Destruction was a particularly frightening power. Unlike the power of Slaughter, which was only difficult to defend against and heal from, the power of Destruction annihilated.

If Slaughter was the process, Destruction was the result!

These were corresponding Daos among the Twelve Great Daos, the beginning and the end.

The power of Destruction that had entered Tang Jie's body had brought the fate of death to him.

The eruption of strength had only given him the ability to fend off the wind walls, but it couldn't drive away the power of Destruction.

Tang Jie was able to resist it entirely because he had comprehended the Dao.

Thanks to He Changan in that battle against Cang Qingfeng, Tang Jie had interacted with the power of Destruction and gained some insight into the Daos of Slaughter and Destruction. And in the Blood River Domain, all the killing he had experienced in the Celestial Flame Arena had furthered his understanding. His adventures in the Verdant Cloud Domain had also allowed him to deeply experience the power of Destruction. Although he wasn't able to completely comprehend the Dao, he had managed to gain a new level of understanding when it came to the precipice of death.

Today, Tang Jie had once more been assailed by the power of Destruction. In fact, they could already be considered old friends.

For this reason, when the power of Destruction invaded his body, Tang Jie knew that the best solution was to truly comprehend the Dao of Destruction.

Tang Jie's understanding of the Dao of Destruction before this had been far from reaching the level of comprehending the Dao, and besides, comprehending the Dao also needed the right moment, which was why there was the concept of "sudden enlightenment". But besides sudden enlightenment, he actually had another option.

For example, when Tang Jie had studied the Myriad Immortals Cauldron to enter the Dao of Yin Yang, this had not been sudden enlightenment, but studying and comprehending the principles of the world.

Studying was more systematic and convenient, and generally achieved more progress than sudden enlightenment, but there needed to be something to study.

The Great Dao could not be transmitted, and only supreme items like Dao armaments could serve as objects of study, which was far too great of a cost. Even so, understanding a Dao through study was comprehending it through someone else, so the effects were limited. Only understanding through sudden enlightenment could be considered one's own.

This was why Tang Jie hadn't obtained any great power after entering the Dao through the Myriad Immortals Cauldron. It wasn't until he had comprehended a little of Parting and Merging in the sixth layer of the Martial Lord's hidden realm that he was finally able to merge his original body with his avatar. To have entered the Dao of Yin Yang yet to have only had this little attainment was precisely because he had studied rather than been enlightened.

Sudden enlightenment was to understand something to its essence, so while it wasn't complete, one would be extremely proficient in whatever one had comprehended. A classic example of this was Insight. Tang Jie had gained enlightenment in it purely on his own, and while it was only a small branch of Wisdom rather than the entire Dao, Tang Jie had been able to create a Celestial Eye from it, attain a Dao Realm, and enter the Dao. This was because he had comprehended it entirely through his own power.

There was actually one other example: the Dao of the Martial Lord.

There was no doubt that the Dao of the Martial Lord was the Weapon Dao, under the Five Elements, belonging to Metal. It was a minor Dao.

But under the Martial Lord, this minor Weapon Dao had displayed a vast strength that could crush even the Myriad Court!

Thus, it was difficult to say which of these two methods was better. After all, just comprehending one of the Great Daos was a rare thing, and there were pros and cons to both.

And in this current situation, Tang Jie couldn't possibly choose sudden enlightenment, as this was not something that could be "chosen". Thus, he could only study, using the Destruction power in his own body as the subject of his analysis.

Thus, as the Destruction power encroached upon his body, Tang Jie studied the Dao of Destruction.

Of course, this wasn't something that could be done simply through declaration. At this time, Wisdom played a critical role.

Wisdom didn't rest in deduction, but in discovery, understanding, calculation, deconstruction, and summarization. Among these, Insight covered discovery and summarization.

For this reason, the first thing Tang Jie needed to do was to find, discover, and see the power of Destruction.

This was the easiest for him. The Dao of Insight involved seeing through illusions and distinguishing the real from the false, but it could also be used to peer into one's own body. As the power of Destruction spread through his body, Tang Jie needed to activate his Great Dao Realm so that he could find those slivers of Destruction and observe them!

He could then use the calculation powers of the Dao of Wisdom to analyze, deconstruct, and summarize them!

This was what Tang Jie needed to do.

This was an extremely dangerous course of action. If he failed, then once the power of Destruction spread completely through his body, he would be utterly dead, and nobody would be able to save him. But he had no other choice than to take this gamble.

In this perilous moment, his mind remained clear, and he rapidly comprehended, calculated, and deconstructed the composition and meaning of this Destruction power, at the same time comparing it with what he previously understood.

This time, the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor had given him a big hand.

In the past, he wasn't able to analyze this power. Other than his own lack of strength, another important reason was that the Astral Winds were too violent and fickle, difficult to control. But the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor had taken control of the Astral Winds and turned them into thick and sturdy walls, which meant that they were no longer so chaotic and violent. It was like rapids being turned into a waterfall. While the latter was more powerful, it was also easier to understand, to grasp its tempo.

This was why Tang Jie dared to make this choice.

It was dangerous, but it was also an opportunity.

Comprehending the Dao on the spot wasn't actually the only way to deal with Silver Eyes, but it was definitely the best and the most dangerous way.

Tang Jie had made this choice both because of his personality and also because he felt like luck was particularly good in this world and that risky gambles were more bound to succeed.

This wasn't complete nonsense. It was something he had felt in his many years in the Verdant Cloud Domain.

For example, Er Hu had managed to bumble his way through a Jade Gate Heaven Charge, even opening his Spirit Eye, and this wasn't particularly rare in the Verdant Cloud Domain.

At various minor thresholds, he himself had received the blessings of the Heavenly Dao and gottens stronger because of it.

The Ghostface King had experienced a sudden breakthrough in that battle.

And there was his own eruption of potential.

Besides that, over the last several years, Tang Jie had experienced many extremely lucky incidents, some that happened to him and some that happened to others. In short, all that he had seen and experienced told him that there was something particularly lucky about this world.

Tang Jie persisted in this choice because he wanted to prove it.

Tang Jie began to work his mind, the power of Wisdom turning it into a machine that took in and processed the nearby Astral Winds, analyzing the Destruction power within them.

The power of Destruction began to spread across his skin and into his body. Tang Jie was in a race with it, his mind instantly reaching its calculation limit, and its overloading was the real reason blood had flowed out from his orifices.

It wasn't just about buying time. His real purpose was comprehension!

As the power of Destruction penetrated and strengthened in his body, Tang Jie also understood it a little more. In the depths of his mind, a gray energy was rapidly growing, Dao Runes flashing within it. They twined together into an incomplete spider web, and as he studied the Destruction power more and more, the holes in this web were filled in, each Dao Rune serving to complete it.

When this terrifying power reached Tang Jie's neck and was on the verge of killing him, Tang Jie finished his web of Destruction.

In a place the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor couldn't see, within Tang Jie's body, an astonishing reversal was completed.

The power of Destruction stopped its advance, and what had been dying was now reborn, and Tang Jie opened his eyes.

Then, he spoke those words.

He attacked!

But what Silver Eyes didn't know was that when he attacked, Tang Jie had finished absorbing that Destruction power and added it to his Nine Extinctions Blade.

The Ten Extinctions Blade!

―――――――――――――

"Kill!"

The blazing wave of saber energy surged forth.

Silver Eyes stared in shock as that grayness appeared in the saber energy. He cried out, "Destruction power!? That's impossible!" The Thousand Hands emerged from behind his back, once more manifesting that giant orb.

This orb had his Thousand Hands as its basis, created from their various hand signs, each hand sign having a different power. It seemed simple, yet there were countless variations that could be utilized against different attacks. Even something as sharp as the Sovereign Blade could be drawn off to the side through several dozen signs. This was Silver Eyes' strongest defense and was basically impregnable.

While Destruction was powerful, its real power lay in lethality, not sheer offensive force. But if the Ten Extinctions Blade couldn't pierce through his defense, this lethality would have no place to work.

As a Fiend Emperor, Silver Eyes had a great deal of experience to draw from, and his solution couldn't be considered wrong. In this critical moment, he used his strongest defensive ability.

But when that saber wreathed in gray flames chopped down, it suddenly erupted with white light.

This white light had appeared once when Tang Jie had killed a Skyshaker and again when Tang Jie had killed the bear fiend. Each time it appeared, it had killed its target, but nobody knew what it was.

But this was Silver Eyes, and he was on a wholly different level. With one look, he saw that this was a sword radiance, and within it was an infant. Yet despite its infant form, it gave off a tyrannical aura.

It was the sword spirit of the Yin Yang Division Sword.

The Yin Yang Division Sword's spirit had merged with the Sovereign Blade, becoming its sword soul. But because it wasn't originally part of the Sovereign Blade, they were not a perfect match.

This mismatch meant that the Sovereign Blade found it very difficult to restore energy to the sword spirit, making its recovery extremely slow. If it were used repeatedly, it could even have its strength permanently fall.

This was why Tang Jie was unwilling to use the sword spirit in his attacks.

Tang Jie had already used it to kill the bear fiend, and using it a second time was the limit. The sword spirit would need a long period of rest to recover. But even if the sword spirit was left weakened because of this, killing a Fiend Emperor was worth it.

Although the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor didn't know that this was the sword spirit of a natural Dao armament, he instinctively felt immense danger from this sword spirit.

He knew that he couldn't evade, so he hardened his heart, his silver eyes flashing as thoughts became arts. A sword made of Astral Winds appeared and stabbed toward Tang Jie.

Boom!

The Ten Extinctions Blade slammed into the Thousand Hands Orb.

The sword spirit flashed, and the orb trembled before exploding like a popped balloon. This greatest defensive ability of the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor had been instantly destroyed by the sword spirit of the Yin Yang Division Sword, after which the Thousand Hands also exploded, leaving behind the original two hands.

The Ten Extinctions Blade bit into the body of the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor, gouging out a massive wound that almost cut him in two. Gray death energy appeared on the wound and rapidly spread through his body.

At the same time, the Astral Wind sword stabbed into Tang Jie's body. It was a powerful blow, and Tang Jie threw up blood, both sides coming away heavily injured.

But the eyes of Silver Eyes were filled with more shock than terror as he cried out, "A Dao Art… You've already managed to merge the Dao into your arts? How?"

Dao Arts were a fusion of the Dao with one's arts, a method above Divine Connections. Only one who had entered the Dao could do this, and only at this level could one truly use the Dao, could one truly be considered to have entered the Dao.

Cang Qingfeng's Twelve Dao Diagrams had been a Dao Art, but his flaw meant that he couldn't enter the Dao, so it was considered a pseudo–Dao Art.

Tang Jie's was also a pseudo–Dao Art. As he had yet to truly enter the Dao, he had simply stacked the Dao onto his art rather than actually merging them, but even so, it was immensely powerful.

The Nine Extinctions Blade was simply a conglomeration of spell arts. While it was powerful, its level was limited. But with the power of Destruction laid over it, the new Ten Extinctions Blade experienced a massive boost in level. One could even say that the tenth held more meaning than all of the previous nine put together.

The first nine extinctions were just quantity, with the last one providing a qualitative improvement.

"All thanks to you," Tang Jie said from between clenched teeth.

If Silver Eyes hadn't been here, he really might not have been able to do this.

This was the first Dao Art he had grasped in his cultivation life.

With this, he had a real ultimate move.

The power of Destruction was still infiltrating the body of Silver Eyes. If this continued, Silver Eyes would die without any further intervention from Tang Jie.

The Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor roared, "You think you can kill me with this? I won't die!"

This guy was quite the fierce sort. With a chop of his hand, he severed the half of his body infected by Destruction energy, preventing its further intrusion.

He shot Tang Jie a venomous glare and said, "Let's see what else you can do!"

Silver Eyes was worse off in terms of injuries, but he also had more abilities. The ability to cast arts with a thought wasn't affected by the state of one's physical body. On the other hand, Tang Jie was a body cultivator, so the inability to move meant that he could no longer fight.

This was why Silver Eyes was confident that he would be the ultimate winner of this battle.

He shouted, "As I said, a Celestial Heart has never been able to beat a Divine Division!"

As he spoke, he readied a Divine Connection to destroy Tang Jie, but then he realized that there was no fear in Tang Jie's eyes, only a tinge of derision.

Startled, the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor realized something. He looked down and then cried out in fear, "NO!"

At some point, the Imperial Ember Lotus protecting his body had disappeared, and now the Astral Winds were tearing away at his body.

The pain and shock from all that had transpired had slowed his reaction, and it was only Tang Jie's reminder that made him realize that he had lost his resistance to the Astral Winds.

The terrifying Astral Winds howled over the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor.

When the two of them couldn't move, Silver Eyes had the advantage.

When the two of them were facing the Astral Winds, it was Tang Jie who had the advantage.

Tang Jie coldly watched as the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor howled, struggled, and shrieked within the Astral Winds.

This unfortunate Fiend Emperor had endured the Ten Extinctions Blade, endured the power of Destruction, even endured the attack of the Yin Yang Division Sword's sword spirit, but in the end, he couldn't endure the Astral Winds.

Although he tried his best to plunge downward and escape the Astral Winds, they were in too deep.

Tang Jie also let his body descend in a freefall. As he saw the Fiend Emperor wither in the Astral Winds, he sighed, "It's true that I couldn't beat you. I only killed you."