Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-726

"STOP!" As Tang Jie shouted, he swung his saber at Iron Blood.

Iron Blood didn't understand what Tang Jie meant, only thinking that Tang Jie was fighting over the tower with him, angrily shouting, "Thunder Blade, you—!"

"That's not the Chaos Tower! It's an illusion. This is a spatial passage leading to the Primordial Fog Domain!" Tang Jie shouted.

What?

Everyone turned to the Chaos Tower in shock.

If this was an illusion, it was an incredible one, as it felt real if one touched it, and if one entered the tower, one would see the world within the tower, with no flaw to be seen. It was only someone who had entered Insight like Tang Jie who could see past such a realistic illusion and see the truth.

The three Fiend Emperors couldn't see the reality, and Iron Blood shouted, "Thunder Blade, what nonsense are you saying? This is clearly the Chaos Tower. Look!"

He swung his Ironblood Saber, and it released a bleak wave of energy that shook the wills of all, even Tang Jie's somewhat, but the tower was unmoved.

Iron Blood said, "Other than the Chaos Tower, what could stop a blow from my saber?"

An impressive boast!

But Tang Jie could see that the saber's energy had gone into the spatial passage and had probably killed a few demons on the other side. However, the illusion itself was utterly unharmed. He could only sigh and say, "If this wasn't the case, then where do you think these demons are coming from?"

The fiends were startled again.

At this moment, Tang Jie felt a sliver of will silently infiltrate his mind. This was a Demonic Will that was attempting to subtly alter his train of thought!

A moment later, the Blackwater Fiend Emperor said, "They're naturally just little demons left behind from the Primordial Fog Calamity. They managed to hide out here and reproduce. Thunder Blade, you've definitely taken a liking to the Chaos Tower and want to take it for yourself, so you're trying to trick us with your words."

He lunged toward the Chaos Tower.

Tang Jie inwardly cursed in anger, knowing that the Demonic Will from the passage had caused Blackwater and the others to lose their sense of judgment. The only reason it hadn't worked on Tang Jie was that he was one soul sharing two bodies. When his avatar was affected, his original body promptly realized what was wrong and corrected his train of thought.

Alas, while he could keep his mind clear, he couldn't break the illusion.

At the apex, the Dao of Insight could shatter illusions, but Tang Jie had chosen the path of weakness detection. While he could manage to see through illusions, breaking them was out of the question.

As Blackwater reached for the Chaos Tower, Tang Jie grew frantic. Hardening his heart, he shouted, "Don't even think about taking the tower!"

A blast of lightning issued from his Heaven Thunder Saber, slicing toward Blackwater's back.

Blackwater yelped and instantly turned into a blur, evading the attack. Tang Jie didn't give chase, instead turning to Aurora and saying, "I've now offended both Iron Blood and Blackwater. Aurora, are you just going to sit there and watch me die and then take them on yourself, or are you going to do something?"

The Aurora Fiend Emperor laughed. "If Little Brother Thunder Blade wants to work together with me, I'm happy to agree!"

He glared, and a beam of divine light shot out of his eyes at Iron Blood.

Aghast, Iron Blood swung his saber to block while yelling at Tang Jie, "Thunder Blade, you idiot! Working with him is suicidal!"

Of these four Fiend Emperors, Aurora was the strongest, and he had his Millepluma Guard, so the other three had to work together against him. But Thunder Blade had turned against them, leaving Iron Blood shocked and enraged. Even if Thunder Blade won, how was he going to deal with Aurora?

He had no idea that Tang Jie had no desire for the tower, only seeking chaos. Since that demon had used its Demonic Will to stir up their greed and fool everyone into removing the talisman, Tang Jie couldn't stop it, so he decided to use the greed to have everyone kill each other. As the four Fiend Emperors battled, the fiend kings and generals fought back the demons. The place fell into total mayhem, and nobody had time to take the Chaos Tower, leaving that existence behind the passage fuming.

On this side, the Blackwater Fiend Emperor opened his mouth toward Tang Jie.

An inky substance rushed out of his mouth like a black river, surging toward Tang Jie.

This was the Divine Connection he was most proud of, the Blackwater Heaven River. It was extremely toxic, eating away at everything it touched.

Tang Jie laughed. "You're a pufferfish, not a cuttlefish, so why are you spitting out so much ink? It's disgusting. This emperor is quite hygienic, so I'd rather not be around you."

He retreated from the battlefield.

"Trying to run?" The Blackwater Fiend Emperor snarled and gave chase, the Blackwater Heaven River rushing after Tang Jie like a black whip.

Tang Jie threw out his warship and commented, "You have a river, and I have a boat. Little Brother Blackwater, there's no need to send me off."

Blackwater laughed as he continued to chase. "Avoiding battle? Given your weak aura, it seems, Big Brother, that your injuries have yet to fully heal. If I don't turn you into Returned Remnants now, wouldn't I be wasting a chance given to me by the Heavenly Dao!?"

He pursued at full speed.

Tang Jie inwardly chuckled.

He hadn't joined hands with Iron Blood and Blackwater against Aurora because such a match could easily turn into a stalemate. The Aurora Fiend Emperor and his Millepluma Guard would make it difficult to win, even with the three of them working together, so he, as the weakest of the three, was bound to be exposed eventually.

But if he worked with Aurora, they could each take on a Fiend Emperor, and Tang Jie could open a new battlefield—so long as conditions permitted, Tang Jie wanted to try and keep his identity hidden.

As Tang Jie flew along, he used the warship to barrage Blackwater with lightning. But the Blackwater Fiend Emperor simply moved his Blackwater Heaven River to block the attacks, and the lightning vanished without a trace.

"Thunder Blade, don't focus only on running. Fight me one-on-one if you have the guts!" Blackwater laughed.

Tang Jie said in scorn, "Piece of trash, you're only bold enough to challenge me because you know I'm still injured. If I was in my prime, you would be kissing my feet."

He slapped the lightning cannons, firing another two blasts of lightning.

Although the lightning cannons couldn't do anything to Blackwater, they made him waste power on defense. Blackwater knew that if this continued, he would be falling into Thunder Blade's trap. After all, there was no telling how severe Thunder Blade's old wounds actually were. If the injuries weren't that bad and this sort of reckless expenditure managed to bring their power levels even, he would be in a bad spot.

The Blackwater Fiend Emperor was no longer willing to delay, suddenly letting out a deep howl.

With this howl, the black river condensed into a black spear, which the Blackwater Fiend Emperor grasped in his hand.

Tang Jie's eyes immediately turned grave.

The Blackwater Fiend Emperor's Blackwater Heaven River was rather similar to the Blood River Lord's Blood River, using the self as the core upon which countless transformations could be executed. The river turning into a spear was one of Blackwater's most important moves.

As the spear thrust out, the entire world darkened.

The spear unleashed a boundless might as the Blackwater Fiend Emperor's face darkened with murderous intent. "Break!"

A beam of black energy shot from the spear, shooting toward the warship.

All light drained out of the world, as if the spear was the only thing remaining in existence.

Tang Jie paled, and he poured all his energy into the ship.

The beam of spear energy slammed into the warship's barrier.

There was a massive boom and an explosion of rainbow light, as if someone had chosen to paint a garish picture on the horizon.

Amid this light, the warship tumbled in the air.

The spear had blasted a hole through the ship and sent it crashing toward the ground.

"Shit, so powerful!" Tang Jie threw up blood as he mumbled in shock.

He had long heard that the Blackwater Fiend Emperor's Heaven River Spear was on par with the Thundershatter Saber, and it seemed like it was true. Worst of all, once the Heaven River Spear had shattered the ship's barrier, black liquid freely rained onto the ship.

All of this black liquid was highly toxic, hissing as it struck the deck, and some of it even falling on Tang Jie. Fortunately, Tang Jie repelled the liquid before it could infiltrate his body. At his current level of strength, if he let this poison take hold, he would end up gravely injured, if not dead.

The Blackwater Fiend Emperor was clearly taken aback.

He had originally believed that the Heaven River Spear shouldn't have worked against the combined might of Thunder Blade and his warship, which was why he had also prepared a series of follow-up attacks. But to his surprise, his one strike had sent the ship bowling over. It seemed like Thunder Blade wasn't able to use the full power of this divine treasure.

Were his injuries that serious? Had he been just putting on a show this entire time?

The thought delighted Blackwater, and his avarice grew.

It had to be understood that Thunder Blade was famous throughout fiend territory for his tool refining. As for Blackwater, he only knew how to refine poison, so he was much poorer than Thunder Blade. If he could kill Thunder Blade, all those treasures would be his, and he could use them in the fight against Aurora.

Blackwater laughed, "Thunder Blade, so you were just feigning strength the entire time! You're dead!"

He waved his hand, and the black water returned to his hand, turning into a bow and three black arrows.

The Blackwater Skypiercer Arrows!

The Blackwater Fiend Emperor had a cautious personality, so even at the last moment, he wasn't willing to enter close combat with Thunder Blade.

As he was about to loose his arrow, a furious roar came from the distance. "Thunder Blade!"

Turning his head, he saw another person rapidly flying over.

Blackwater was taken aback by this familiar figure, blurting out, "Silver Eyes?"

The Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor continued to charge over, shouting, "Give me back my Deathless Heaven Pearl!"

Only then did the Blackwater Fiend Emperor realize that Silver Eyes was aiming for Thunder Blade.

In that battle one hundred years ago, while Thunder Blade had been heavily injured by Silver Eyes, Silver Eyes had lost a life, so the two had become mortal foes.

Blackwater instantly relaxed, and did the same to his bowstring, saying, "So it's Big Brother Silver Eyes! With you here, there's no way Thunder Blade can escape. But I was the one who injured Thunder Blade. While I can give you his life, you're not allowed to take any of the spoils."

"Of course!" Silver Eyes laughed as he closed the distance with Blackwater.

He had changed direction so suddenly and flew so swiftly that he hardly gave Blackwater time to think, charging right at him.

Many years of combat experience made Blackwater instinctively feel uneasy, and he almost put up a barrier. But he suddenly remembered that he was the only one of the other four Fiend Emperors that Silver Eyes hadn't gotten in a conflict with. So long as Silver Eyes was still sane, he wouldn't attack him without provocation. On the other hand, putting up a barrier could put a metaphorical barrier between them as well.

It was this thought that made Blackwater hesitate.

That moment of hesitation made him lose everything!

As the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor reached him, a large fist rapidly filled Blackwater's field of vision.

"Devil Crushing Fist!"