Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-672

Returning to the main hall, Tang Jie headed down the other passage and quickly reached a stone chamber.

Just by looking at the stone chamber, Tang Jie knew that this had to be where the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor really cultivated.

The entire chamber was made of Violet Crystal Jade, a variety of rare jade that was ideal for gathering spiritual energy and calming the mind, making it extravagantly expensive. For the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor to make an entire chamber out of it showed how fabulously wealthy he was.

Entering the chamber, Tang Jie saw a red bed, which he could tell was made from Deepsea Crimson Coral and processed Blood Serpent Essence. Its use was akin to the Heavenly Scent Lotus Lamp, boosting one's cultivation speed by around 10%. In tandem with the jade chamber, an effect similar to the lotus lamp could be achieved. And even better was that all three could be used together. Although they would also affect each other in various ways, the combined effect was still around 30%.

On the left side of the chamber was a row of medicines. At a glance, he could tell that these medicines were much more appealing than those in the pill refining chamber, and there were quite a few upper-grade spirit medicines.

On the other side were some books.

Tang Jie picked one up and found that the Imperial Ember Lotus Mantra had been written on it.

Tang Jie was amazed as he flipped through it.

It wasn't that this was useful for him, but it was useful for Yiyi.

Yiyi had actually never had a cultivation mantra suitable for her. What she was using to cultivate right now were parts of the Violet Jade Mantra and Five Gods Faith mantras that Tang Jie had selected for her. Besides that, there were some techniques he had gotten from the Celestial Flame Pagoda, but they were mostly low-class. She had yet to find a top-class mantra that was right for her.

The Imperial Ember Lotus Mantra was a mantra that all fiends and sprites could cultivate, and it would have different effects depending on whether it was a fiend or sprite that cultivated it.

The Imperial Ember Lotus meant nurturing a fire within one's pellet, a source of limitless vitality that could draw upon the power of the world and create a divine art. According to the mantra, if Yiyi cultivated it, she would no longer be restricted to plants, instead being able to harness wind, fire, and water as she liked, which was how a proper cultivator should be.

Tang Jie couldn't help but loudly laugh three times before continuing to browse the books. Sure enough, these were all cultivation methods, some of them rather decent. Two thirds were suitable for sprites to cultivate, and the other third were good for humans.

Tang Jie grew rather excited, but then he suddenly remembered that he had yet to see a treasury.

A treasury had to be in a place that the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor was most intimate with, and this cultivation chamber definitely met the conditions. Thus, it might be nearby.

Thinking this, Tang Jie released his Divine Will.

The Divine Will of a Heart Demon cultivator wasn't as far-reaching as that of a Violet Palace cultivator, but finding a treasury nearby was no difficult task. Sure enough, Tang Jie quickly discovered a suspicious bookcase.

Although this was also a formation mechanism, this level of trap was useless against Tang Jie. Just a little messing around had him quickly finding the way to open it. He pulled out a book, and the bookcase swung aside, revealing a stone chamber that was brimming with treasure.

These were no mortal items, but real cultivation resources and treasures.

But Tang Jie didn't go straight in, instead pushing down on an inconspicuous bulge on the wall. There was a clack, and while nothing in the treasury changed, Tang Jie knew that only now was he actually safe.

Striding in, Tang Jie stood in the center of the treasury and gawked at the treasures.

He had achieved his main goal.

With a wave of his hand, he could take away all these treasures.

But he suddenly didn't want to.

In the beginning, he truly did plan to just pretend to be the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor so that he could loot the treasury and leave.

But after yesterday's events, Tang Jie found that the identity of the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor was extremely valuable.

This personage controlled one of the five fiend factions, representing countless fiends, vast territory, and rich resources. With a single order, he would have numerous fiends giving their lives for him.

Using such an identity simply to plunder a treasury was like killing the golden goose, far too much of a waste.

Only by occupying this position for a long time could he maximize its usage.

Moreover, in the back mountain, the secret of the demon cave had yet to be uncovered. What was in there? The Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor had wanted to know, and so did Tang Jie.

Of course, this was very risky. After all, the more he lingered, the more flaws he would expose.

But this was fine. Tang Jie couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't reveal a single flaw, but unless it was a more obvious flaw like with the mountain gate, minor flaws, particularly personality flaws, wouldn't make people suspicious so long as he didn't reveal too many.

For example, if you had a friend who was in a bad mood one day, which made him more temperamental than usual, you couldn't call him a fake just because of that. Even if his temper never improved, you would just say that he wasn't like this in the past and wonder why he had become this way.

A person was always changing. Whether it was one's mood or personality, it was very difficult for them to be ever-constant, and this change grew even more obvious when looking over a large span of time. Humans were like this, and so were Mind Opening fiends. This was why Lan Ling hadn't noticed anything wrong with Tang Jie's change in attitude toward her, only thinking that he was getting worse and worse.

In addition, Fiend Emperors were different from human emperors. They spent most of their time cultivating rather than dealing with government affairs, and the palace also didn't put on as many airs as a human one. When they went out, they didn't marshal up some giant host, simply flying out.

This greatly reduced the time they spent interacting with the lesser fiends. With this increased freedom came greater inconspicuousness and lower chances of discovery.

Finally, and most unreasonably… so what if he were discovered? At his current level of strength, he was basically invincible against anyone below the Violet Palace Realm. Even if he were discovered, he would just have to fight, and without the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor around, who did he have to fear? Of course, if an entire country's worth of fiends came out, he wouldn't be able to hold, but then he could just run. With the Astral Winds above, Tang Jie could go wherever he wanted. He would love it if a great army of fiends followed him into the Astral Winds.

In short, whoever's fists were harder made the rules. With strength backing him, Tang Jie wasn't worried about being discovered and felt very comfortable playing emperor.

In the past, he had read a story about a fiend who had killed a human emperor and pretended to be the emperor for twenty years. If fiends could pretend to be humans, why couldn't humans pretend to be fiends? He had made up his mind to spend the rest of his time in the Verdant Cloud Domain pretending to be a Fiend Emperor.

Tang Jie grew a little excited at the thought.

With his plan set, Tang Jie glanced at the surrounding treasures. In a first, he didn't take them all, instead choosing a few spatial treasures before leaving.

Tang Jie returned to the main hall. Seeing that he was about to leave, an elder asked, "Your Majesty, what's to become of this little fellow?"

Only then did Tang Jie remember that he had brought a minor fiend to lead the way. As he hadn't encountered any problems, he had just left the fiend there. Tang Jie was startled by the question, and then he saw the greedy glint in that elder's eyes and realized what was going on. "You can deal with him as you please."

The two elders were delighted. They both got onto all fours and transformed into Gale Hous, which instantly ate up that little fiend, not even leaving behind bones.

(TN: The Hou is a kind of mythical Chinese beast, also known as the "denglong". It is said to be a messenger between heaven and earth.)

Tang Jie said nothing to this bloody sight, turning and leaving.

Starting from this day, Tang Jie officially lived as a Fiend Emperor.

He spent every morning handling reports sent from across the empire, while his afternoons were spent in his study reading books or finding people to talk to, using various methods to probe the secrets of the palace. During the night, he went to the meditation chamber in the back mountain to cultivate.

Given that he had decided on a long-term infiltration, Tang Jie was no longer as crude and violent as the first day, becoming much gentler.

He killed fewer fiends, but he issued more orders to gather resources, ordering a fiend king to mobilize the moment he heard of a place that might have treasure.

He no longer limited his orders to Space-type treasures, requiring all valuable treasures. It was just that Space-type treasures had priority.

Of course, these treasures didn't come for free. While they were called "tributes", he needed to give the appropriate reward. Tang Jie used official status, land, authority, money, and some low-grade resources to trade for them, trying his best to maximize his gain.

This vampiric method wouldn't seem like much at the beginning, but as time passed, it was bound to cause chaos in the empire. The Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor would never treat his own people like this, but Tang Jie was just a passing traveler, doing his utmost to squeeze this country for everything it was worth in the limited time he had, even going out of his way to weaken it.

But as Tang Jie spent more and more time in the palace and grew more familiar with the situation, the chances that he would be discovered shrank, and he grew more and more confident in his ability to stay in this position. Tang Jie even started to do some things beneficial for the country. For example, if there was a drought in the northwest, he would order several fiend kings to go and summon rain clouds. When the ghosts of the Valley of Souls in the southeast were causing trouble, Tang Jie went personally to pacify them—though he was actually taking Little Three to have a meal.

Through this method, Tang Jie tried to extend the life of his parasitized host.

It was many thin streams that created a great river. Since he wanted to bury himself in the body of the behemoth that was the fiend empire and suck its blood, Tang Jie couldn't bring it down all at once. Instead, he had to make ample use of his abilities as a national-level shit-stirrer.

A sea of treasures was being sent into the palace to support Tang Jie's cultivation. The lotus lamp was hung up in the meditation chamber so that the avatar could cultivate faster. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, except one thing:

The Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor's concubines.