Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-71

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

Upon returning to the Carefree House, Tang Jie saw that Yiyi had already cleaned up the courtyard.

Yiyi was sitting on the ground and picking through items. When she saw Tang Jie, she excitedly said, “Big Brother, come here! Look at all these nice things!”

“What’s there to see? I’ve already experienced them all,” Tang Jie casually said.

While speaking with Zhuang Shen, Tang Jie had already looked through the contents of his Mustard Seed Bag.

Besides the antidote pill and demonblood pill, Zhuang Shen had two bottles of spirit-restoring pills, three bottles of spirit-nurturing pills, six flying sword talismans, one Clear Heaven talisman, one Primordial Chaos talisman, and several dozen spirit coins.

Besides that, there were the four spell weapons: the Violet Flame Sword, the Godhead Armor, the Immortal-Binding Rope, and the refined beast token. The Mustard Seed Bag was an auxiliary art relic that could hold five cubic meters, putting it at a value of at least six spirit jades. This alone meant that Tang Jie had made a generous profit. Sure enough, murder was the quick path to riches, though it was a very risky one.

Besides that, there was one more auxiliary art relic, the formation diagram. In truth, this was the most valuable of all of Zhuang Shen’s property.

A formation recreation diagram!

This was a formation diagram that could store a formation, not a formation diagram specifically meant for isolating Tang Jie.

The biggest problem with formations was that they needed to be laid down. One needed to either lay them down before the battle or be like Yiyi and possess a talent. It was impossible to lay them down during a battle.

This formation recreation diagram had an internal space that allowed the storage of materials, but it only allowed putting in, not taking it out. The materials placed within could create a formation through the formation diagram at a much faster speed than normal. It could be used to prepare a formation beforehand or to lay down a formation on the spot.

The sole drawback was that the formation released, regardless of the type, would be much smaller, but the materials required remained the same. Thus, while it was good for emergency use, it wasn’t proper for normal circumstances.

Even so, it was a very practical treasure. After all, it was one of the art relics that Spirit Disciples could use.

The formation recreation diagram wasn’t of a very high rank—it could only store formations of Rank 2 or below, and only a single formation, not overlapping formations. Fortunately, Tang Jie’s level was only at Rank 2. Further up, he wouldn’t be able to lay down the formations even if you gave him the materials, so he was in no rush.

Yiyi was delighted to hear this.

She had been dividing the treasures into a pile to her left, a pile to her right, and a pile in her hands, even muttering to herself, “This is yours… This is mine… This is… also mine…”

Hearing Tang Jie say this, she decided to put everything in her own pile. But she was too small to grab everything, and after tottering a few times, she ended up falling into a pile of talisman paper.

Tang Jie couldn’t help but laugh. “How can you be so young yet already so in love with treasure?”

The little lass frowned and snorted, “I don’t care! This is all mine!”

“That’s no good,” Tang Jie said as he walked over. “This is all stolen property, so we can’t use it for now.”

“Don’t care, don’t care, don’t care!” Yiyi hollered.

Tang Jie picked her out of the pile of treasure and put her in his bosom. “Yiyi, be a good girl and wait for Big Brother to change it all into money. Then Yiyi can spend every day counting money at home. How about that?”

Yiyi looked around, and then she pointed at Tang Jie’s nose and shouted, “You had better keep your word!”

Tang Jie pulled on her finger and smiled. “With this finger pull, I swear to keep this promise for a hundred years!”

Yiyi found this very funny, and wildly pulled on his finger and shouted, “Great! Great! Keep this promise for a hundred years!”

Suddenly, she thought of something and jumped out of Tang Jie’s bosom. She raised an item and asked, “What about this?”

This was clearly the Ninedark Profound Martial Mirror.

Tang Jie was scared out of his wits, and quickly snatched the mirror. “Absolutely not this one.”

The moment he touched the mirror, he felt a strange sensation from it.

It was the same sort of feeling he had gotten while Soulscouring Zhuang Shen.

“This is…” Tang Jie cried out in alarm.

A flood of information rushed into his mind, and Tang Jie was dazzled by countless images flitting past his eyes.

He saw a vast and desolate void, a giant more than one hundred thousand feet tall wiedling an enormous axe and roaring, his cries shaking the earth and resounding through the heavens.

He was surrounded by countless Immortals who were attacking him with various weapons, their various multicolored lights issuing forth and illuminating the entire world.

Above the giant was a grandiose palace complex, the jade buildings and rainbow clouds exuding a hallowed aura.

Four figures radiating golden light like four suns circled constantly around the palace, occasionally unleashing beams of light down below.

In the face of these ceaseless attacks, the giant raised his head and shouted a single word.

“Weapon (兵)!”

(TN: The word “兵” has variety of military-related meanings. It can mean “weapon”, “soldier”, or “warlike”.)

Tang Jie saw the weapons of the countless Immortals instantly shatter, becoming glistening stars that flew toward the giant, attaching to his axe and making it larger.

The giant swung his axe at the celestial palace overhead. A part of this divine palace was instantly turned into countless shards. “Ah!” Tang Jie threw down the Martial Mirror and backed away, panting for breath.

“Big Brother, Big Brother, what’s wrong?” Yiyi rushed over.

“I’m fine.” Tang Jie shook his head and focused.

The scene from just now had already deeply embedded itself in Tang Jie’s mind, leaving an indelible mark.

Xu Muyang was right. The Martial Mirror really was hiding another secret, but it seemed like unlocking it would require meeting some special conditions.

Tang Jie didn’t know what sort of conditions he had met to unlock this secret, but the greatest possibility was that it was linked somehow to experiencing a Soulscour. After all, the information transfer was very much like the Soulscour spell. But the contents seemed more like a trace of Divine Will left by the Martial Lord.

Divine Will was the manifestation of the soul, so it was normal for it to come up after a Soulscour. What was far more miraculous was that this Divine Will had remained on the Martial Mirror for more than ten thousand years.

But Tang Jie felt that this alone wasn’t enough. After all, all he had done was use the Soulscour spell. Even if some traces of the spell still remained in his body, there was no reason for the Martial Mirror to unlock on its own. Tang Jie guessed that the Visceral Manifestation Classic had also played an important role.

The Visceral Manifestation Classic determined the person while the Soulscour determined the method. The correct person paired with the correct method was what truly unlocked the secret of the Martial Mirror. It was no wonder Xu Muyang had only found the mirror strange and had never been able to unlock its secrets.

If he followed this line of thought, did it mean that the Nine Executions Immortal Formation also required a specific person to gain entry?

If that was the case… Tang Jie’s gaze paused on the Martial Mirror.

He walked forward and grabbed the Martial Mirror. As light flowed across its surface, he was able to see countless words.

But when he looked carefully, Tang Jie realized that these words weren’t on the Martial Mirror. Rather, they existed in his mind.

But in normal circumstances, he couldn’t think about them at all. He could only see them through the Martial Mirror. It was like the Martial Mirror was reflecting the memories stored in his mind.

If someone else looked at the Martial Mirror, they would just see the patterned grooves. Only Tang Jie could see the words reflected upon it.

It wasn’t just words, There were also countless illusory figures jumping around and performing movements.

He didn’t recognize a single one of these characters, but he could inexplicably understand what they meant.

He raised his head to see two large golden words written in a solemn, simple, and imposing style.

Tang Jie blurted, “Parting Classic!”

The Parting Classic!

To be more precise, this was the true secret technique left by the Martial Lord, the most important mantra he had developed in his lifetime.

It was completely different from the current orthodox school.

Cultivation currently emphasized separating the human and the spirit. Spiritual energy was a weapon for cultivators, but a weapon was a weapon while a human was a human. The two could not be mixed. Even though one could refine the body after reaching the Mortal Shedding Realm, the effects would be limited.

In this aspect, the vast majority of the cultivators of this world could be called magicians.

But the Parting Classic cultivated blood energy.

Those who cultivated blood energy fused the spirit into the body to strengthen it, viewing the body as the universe that could contain the world. It was precisely because of his powerful blood energy, tough bones, and steely constitution that the Martial Lord was able to dominate the world. The most domineering of all was his fleshly body, and it was his blood energy that made him the most powerful and domineering existence of High Antiquity.

Later on, people who saw its effects called it “body cultivation”, but if one looked at its fundamentals, it was better to call it “blood cultivation”.

This was why the Parting Classic was actually much simpler than the Lesser Sea Grotto Metal Mantra. It was not divided by levels, and simply required constant circulation of the same mantra.

But it required a frightening amount of medicines to cultivate this mantra.

According to the Parting Classic, before cultivation, he would have to gather a large number of herbs for a medicinal bath. While boiling in this bath and circulating the mantra, one could absorb all the medicinal effects for the most ideal effect.

There were herbs like the Nineheaven Luan Grass, Ten Thousand Year Fire Essence, Dragonslug Phoenix Blood, Hundred-Refined Fiend Pills… Tang Jie almost fainted from all these ingredients.

These were all earthly treasures. Any one of them would have the six major sects at each other’s throats. Where was he going to get them? And there was even a note: “The more the better, never ending!”

My ass!

In this aspect, the Martial Lord’s Immortal art was extremely valuable and also extremely worthless.

This was because it required far too much, more than any normal person could possibly satisfy.

If he were really able to gather all these treasures, he might dominate the world even if he went and cultivated some other mantra.

This mantra was far less valuable than he had expected, and Tang Jie couldn’t help but be disappointed.

Forget it, forget it.

Why should I take a different path?

Since I have the Martial Lord’s mantra, I might as well take the path he laid down.

At least it gives me a direction in life.

It wasn’t like he absolutely needed all those herbs.

There was another note in the Parting Classic saying that if it really was no good, he could find herbs with similar functions to serve as replacements. If he couldn’t find ten-thousand-year essence, he could get one-thousand-year essence, and perhaps even essence that was only several hundred years old.

There was even a list that described various herbs together with their traits and functions.

Tang Jie went straight to the bottom of the list, which was five-hundred-year Violet Wolfiporia. Tang Jie made some calculations and determined that he couldn’t buy it. With all his assets, he could buy a fifty-year one, and if he wanted the whole set, he could only buy a five-year one.

Five years is five years. It’s still better than nothing.

Without my eating anything, the Visceral Manifestation Classic still got me steely skin and bones, Tang Jie remarked to himself.

But he then recalled that despite cultivating the Visceral Manifestation Classic for three years, he could barely block a low-rank spell and was evaluated as having a rather sturdy constitution. Thus did Tang Jie’s attempt at self-consolation fail.

Fortunately, besides the Parting Classic, there was an art.

The Weapon Mantra!

(TN: The actual name is the “兵 Character Mantra”)

This was the shout the Martial Lord had made that shattered all weapons, the art that grasped the origin of the Martial Dao!

This Weapon Mantra claimed that once it was cultivated, one would be able to shatter all weapons in the world, extract their essences, and refine them into a divine weapon.

In the Martial Mirror, Tang Jie had seen the Martial Lord shout “Weapon”, which was the ultimate manifestation of the Weapon Mantra. With a single command, all weapons shattered!

Compared to that mantra which required a sea of resources to cultivate, the Weapon Mantra had a much lower threshold. One simply needed to refine one’s body to a certain level and then unleash one’s blood energy according to the mantra to manifest the art.

Tang Jie circulated his blood energy according to the instructions of the art, but he felt all his blood energy seethe unpleasantly.

Tang Jie gritted his teeth and persevered. Gradually, the blood energy calmed down. A bloody light appeared on Tang Jie’s body. The light flowed around and gradually congregated on the tip of Tang Jie’s right index finger.

This is the blood power gathered by the Weapon Mantra? I can use it to shatter all weapons in the world?

Tang Jie didn’t quite believe it.

Yiyi was still hugging the Violet Flame Sword while staring at him.

Tang Jie pointed his finger at it, wanting to see how powerful it really was.

Considering that this was his first try, there was no way he could destroy a spell weapon. But to his surprise, with his one finger, the Violet Flame Sword let out a soft cling.

A light burst out of the sword, and then, boom! The sword erupted into shards.

“How could this be?” Tang Jie was dumbfounded.

How could a light thrust from his finger be this powerful?

Although he had already seen the supreme power of the Weapon Mantra, Tang Jie had never imagined that he could imitate the Martial Lord and destroy a weapon with a single thought.

Although this spell weapon wasn’t some big treasure, it wasn’t something that should have broken apart just because he impulsively thrust at it with his finger, right?

Yiyi was dumbfounded.

But her reaction was different from Tang Jie’s.

She looked at the bits of sword scattered around the air, then her lips pouted and she plopped on her butt and began to cry, “My treasure…”

“Yiyi, I’m sorry.” Tang Jie was just about to comfort her when he suddenly felt sweetness in his mouth, and then blood erupted from his mouth. His body went limp, and he dropped to the ground.

Only now did he realize that he didn’t have the strength to move.

Countless dazzling stars were dancing in front of his eyes.

This was an illusion produced by severe weakness.

“Stimulating all my blood energy… shit!” Tang Jie muttered, and then his eyes rolled over as he fainted.