Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-768

Tang Jie sat in the very center of the valley.

Beneath him was a large formation, its countless formation lines radiating a holy light, its symbols and marks extending all the way to the valley walls. Eighteen thick chains draped down from the heavens, thickly covered in talismans. There were 18,888 talismans in total, each talisman possessing its own unique function, and all of them having been personally made by the Seven Absolutions Sect's Scholar Zhu—a feat which had exhausted him so much that he almost threw up blood. The chains themselves were forged from a combination of Deepsea Cold Iron and Divine Meteorite Essence, and they locked down the fabric of space around Heavenly Balance Mountain, melding it into a singular mass. A vast sea of resources had been formed into the formation's foundation, the five banners had each been placed in their respective corners, and in the center was a gray slab. This was Divine Genesis, which Tang Jie had obtained from the Treasure Paradise all those years ago. It had been nurturing the diagram world all this time, but Tang Jie had now called it out to serve as the core of this unique formation.

The Divine Genesis Immortal Ascension Formation!

This wasn't some ancient formation, but a formation that Tang Jie and Hong Shenji had jointly researched over the last fifty years, and its sole function was to assist someone in breaking through.

But Tang Jie hadn't come up with the idea on his own. The Seven Absolutions Sect had already had such designs.

The Seven Absolutions Sect had always been hoping to make a formation that could increase one's chances at breaking through. Hong Shenji had been researching formations for a thousand years, studying all kinds of formations, and this formation was one of the incomplete products of his research. From its name, one could see that Hong Shenji had been after a formation that could increase one's chances of ascending to Immortal Platform.

But that was far too difficult. After taking a look at it, Tang Jie discussed with Hong Shenji how they could adjust the formation to increase one's chances of reaching Violet Palace.

After fifty years and the joint efforts of a formation grandmaster and a formation prodigy, the Divine Genesis Immortal Ascension Formation was completed, just in time. According to Hong Shenji's calculations, the formation could boost his chances of reaching Violet Palace by ten percent.

Though it was only ten percent, it had to be understood that this wasn't a medicine. Once set up, the formation could be used again.

Besides that, there were two bottles of medicine and two jade boxes in front of Tang Jie.

The bottles contained the Nine Splendors Morning Dew Pill and the Supreme Imperial Jadefall Pill.

The boxes contained Triflora Divine Incense and the Nine Heavens Luan Grass.

The Nine Splendors Morning Dew Pill would keep a cultivator alive if they failed to reach Violet Palace, and the Supreme Imperial Jadefall Pill increased the chances of reaching Violet Palace by 25%. Xu Miaoran had analyzed that ten-thousand-year-old pill Tang Jie had recovered and made a new one, though it had come at an astronomical cost.

The Triflora Divine Incense, on the other hand, strengthened the Divine Soul and made condensing the soul much easier, overall increasing one's chances by about five percent. However, if one succeeded, the incense would make one's Divine Soul stronger than those of one's peers, which was a more rare effect.

As for the Nine Heavens Luan Grass, as a divine plant, it strengthened the Divine Soul on a fundamental level and made it so that one would have a 10% higher chance of ascending in all future breakthroughs.

In this way, purely through these external aids, Tang Jie had increased his chances by 50%.

Finally, his foundations were extremely solid. Someone unprepared who attempted to break into Violet Palace wouldn't have even a 10% chance, but Tang Jie's foundations were so solid that even if he had nothing else, he would have a 20% chance of success.

Thus, his chances of success were 70%, and he also had adjusted Fate so that the fortunes favored him, which increased his chances by another 10%, bringing him to 80%.

With all this, what did Tang Jie have to worry about?

Tang Jie took a few long breaths to calm himself down, and then he retrieved the Triflora Divine Incense and thrust it into a jade cauldron.

The cauldron itself was an upper-grade divine treasure that could double the effects of incense, and the sand within it was also extraordinary, Mother Sand from the Yellow Sands Vastness in the Eastern Sea mixed with Earthen Essence that Tang Jie had taken from the Celestial Flame Pagoda.

The incense was ignited, and tendrils of smoke drifted into Tang Jie's nose and circulated throughout his body. Tang Jie felt his mind clear, and his wispy Divine Soul began to come together.

This was the power of the Triflora Divine Incense: condensing the Divine Soul to make substantialization easier.

Tang Jie then took out the Nine Heavens Luan Grass and Supreme Imperial Jadefall Pill. Although he was somewhat reluctant, he swallowed them down together. The grass immediately melted into streams of pure energy that circulated through his body before finally congregating in his Sea of Cognition, where they nurtured his Divine Soul. If Tang Jie released his Divine Soul right now, one would have been able to see it glowing with a holy light.

As for the pill, one would have to wait a few moments for it to take effect.

Tang Jie waited for a while, and once he felt that the time was right, he began to circulate his mantra to push out his Divine Soul.

The moment his Divine Soul left his body, it began to moan and screech under the ravages of the sunlight and spiritual energy.

The weakness of a human's Divine Soul was on full display.

Just when his soul was about to perish, Tang Jie formed a hand sign, and a light flew out of the Divine Soul and transformed into a cover that kept out the sunlight and spiritual energy, leaving only a small door to enter and exit by. With the torrents of spiritual energy having been greatly weakened, they could no longer destroy the Divine Soul, and it began to borrow the spiritual energy to form a physical body.

The substantialized Divine Soul was called the Primal Infant, and it was why the first tier of Violet Palace was known as Infant Tending.

This was the process of advancing to Violet Palace.

The cultivator had to put all their power into this process to substantialize the Divine Soul within a limited time, but once they succeeded, their Divine Soul would no longer have to fear sunlight or spiritual energy and could run around wherever it pleased.

This was also the process by which one linked the Divine Will to the world, so that the spiritual energy of the world could understand one's meaning with a single thought, this being the true essence behind casting arts with a single thought.

Finally, there was the process of linking to the Heavenly Dao Law Wheel.

Just like the breakthrough into Mortal Shedding, the breakthrough into Violet Palace also gave the cultivator a chance to comprehend the Heavenly Dao.

But only a tiny number of people were able to use this opportunity.

This was because the breakthrough into Violet Palace was incredibly dangerous in its own right. To split off some focus to try to sense the Heavenly Dao Law Wheel was basically suicide.

Perhaps one could comprehend a Dao, but one's Divine Soul might end up perishing as a result, which was death.

For this reason, few would choose to comprehend the Dao while charging at Violet Palace, but if one missed out on this opportunity, it would unsettle the mind and prevent one from comprehending the Dao for a very long time afterward.

This was why the likes of Tang Jie and Wang Juemie could already be entering Daos while many True Lords had yet to even comprehend Daos.

The process of advancing to Violet Palace was also a test of one's will. The Great Dao had no desire to satisfy those who only yearned for the Dao when not in desperate straits.

But someone who had already comprehended Daos before this wouldn't have as many problems.

At this time, as the Divine Soul absorbed spiritual energy, its wispy body began to materialize.

Everything was going smoothly.

Ling Xiao and the others, who had been nervously watching all this time, relaxed a little.

Ming Yekong even noted, "This kid only allotted 30% of his soul's power to form the Violet Palace, leaving 70% to condense the Primal Infant. It's so bold that it scared me a little."

He himself had used half of his soul to form the Violet Palace and protect the Divine Soul, and even then, he had almost perished. As for using this opportunity to comprehend the Dao, that was simply out of the question.

As for Tang Jie, from those tendrils rising toward the heavens, one could see that Tang Jie was already beginning to seek out the Heavenly Dao.

"The mighty are bold. Given his personality and this sturdy foundation he's gotten for himself, he wouldn't be him if he didn't seek a perfect breakthrough," Ling Xiao replied.

A perfect breakthrough required using only 30% of the Divine Soul's power to protect itself. In this way, the nascent Primal Infant could restore the Divine Soul power that was used up, thus achieving perfection. As for Ming Yekong, who had used 50% of his Divine Soul to create the Violet Palace, he had permanently lost a part of his Divine Soul's power, so if all else was equal, his Divine Connections would be weaker than others'.

Horizon Ocean Pavilion was said to be the strongest of the six major sects in this later period because they had a secret art that could allow one to even recover from a loss of 50% of the Divine Soul, which meant that all of its True Lords had perfect Violet Palaces. For this reason, they also had the extra strength to comprehend the Daos. This was the case for both Jade Emptiness and Jewel. Only Xu Guanghua had been a letdown, but one could see from how he treated Xu Miaoran that he had never been a particularly bold man.

It was just that Horizon Ocean Pavilion had had a very difficult time in its early days, causing it to lose many of its upper echelons. As a result, it didn't have as many True Lords.

On his end, Tang Jie was reliving his experience back in the Langya Blessed Land.

The boundless sea of stars appeared before him, the majestic Heavenly Dao Law Wheel filling his vision.

Even though this wasn't his first time seeing it, Tang Jie was still awed by its majesty. In his heart, there was nothing more holy and sacred than the Heavenly Dao Law Wheel.

But deep down, Tang Jie already had a vague feeling that the Heavenly Dao Law Wheel wasn't that impressive.

It was an inexplicable feeling, a cry that came from the depths of his soul, but Tang Jie forced it back down.

He then sent his will flying into the distance.

He was once again going to choose which Great Dao he wanted to comprehend.

It took only a moment's thought for Tang Jie to reach his answer.

Reincarnation!

It wasn't that he had a particular need for Reincarnation. Of the Twelve Great Daos, Reincarnation was perhaps the one he had the least use for, because it only took effect once one died. When a cultivator died, they would become a ghost and enter the Nether Domain, and their will would remain so that when they reincarnated, they would remember a part of their past life. Or perhaps the ghost would have a mind and be able to choose where they reincarnated. There were various directions one could take, but they all involved reincarnation and rebirth.

The Black Tortoise's Dao was Reincarnation, which was why it could preserve the memories of its past life and essentially live eternally. But it had significant flaws, for the new incarnation wouldn't carry on the bloodline, which made further advancement very difficult.

Tang Jie didn't have any need for Reincarnation, but he had comprehended ten of the Twelve Great Daos, leaving only Space and Reincarnation.

When it came to Space, he had already made a lot of progress through the teleportation formation to the Verdant Cloud Domain, and he was on the verge of comprehending it. But with Reincarnation, unless he found a corresponding Dao armament or died himself, he would find it very hard to comprehend.

Now, with the help of the Heavenly Dao Law Wheel, he had an opportunity to make up for this gap, and Tang Jie wasn't willing to let this opportunity pass.

Nobody in the world had ever been able to comprehend all Twelve Great Daos. Comprehending two or three was already an incredible feat.

Tang Jie naturally wouldn't pass up the opportunity for a complete set, so he extended his will toward the Great Dao of Reincarnation.

Countless Dao Wills rushed into Tang Jie's mind.

At the same time, Tang Jie's actual body was seated cross-legged in the middle of the Divine Genesis Immortal Ascension Formation. All of the talismans of the formation were illuminated at this moment, protecting Tang Jie's substantializing Divine Soul. Everything was going smoothly.

At this moment, laughter resounded through the heavens. "Tang Jie, you brat, you have the guts to leave the Basking Moon Sect's protected lands and charge at Violet Palace in this border region? You think so little of my Beast Refining Gate? Die!"

A giant beast head descended from the sky, seeking to devour Tang Jie.