Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-770

The full-strength strike of a Soul Projection True Lord could collapse mountains, sunder the earth, reverse rivers, and deprive the sun and moon of their light.

As Shi Wunian thrust out his palm, he could already envision Tang Jie being obliterated, and he crazily laughed. "Tang Jie, you're finally dead!"

The losses and humiliation Tang Jie had inflicted on him over the last two hundred years had finally been purged. After letting go of the Martial Lord's hidden realm, Shi Wunian felt like his heart was as light as a feather.

Searching for the hidden realm for two hundred years had turned out to be a heavy burden on their hearts, and only now was this burden lifted!

Shi Wunian let out a sigh.

But as he drew back his hand, he saw something absurd.

In that crater at the bottom of the Valley of the Eight Wilds, Tang Jie was still there! He was still sitting down, still condensing his Divine Soul, completely unaffected. Even the flashing formation, the shining talismans, and the plants in the valley were unharmed.

Shi Wunian was dumbfounded.

Was it an illusion?

But this was impossible!

He was Shi Wunian!

He controlled Insight and cultivated the Celestial Eye that could see through illusions, could differentiate between truth and false, fiction and reality. There was no illusion that could escape his gaze, and at times, a simple glare would suffice to break through weaker illusions and inflict backlash onto his opponent.

The moment he appeared, he had used the Celestial Eye to look at Tang Jie, and had confirmed that it was the real Tang Jie and not a fake. How could he have turned into an illusion?

Shi Wunian was deeply confused.

Perplexed, Shi Wunian took out a jade ruler and threw it at Tang Jie. This time, Shi Wunian clearly saw the jade ruler reach Tang Jie's head, upon which water-like ripples appeared.

These ripples made Shi Wunian shudder.

With his rich experience and sharp eyes, how could he not tell what this was?

"The power of Space!" Shi Wunian cried out.

What surrounded Tang Jie was the power of Space.

Shi Wunian instantly understood that Tang Jie really wasn't using an illusion, but the power of Space.

Tang Jie really was breaking through into Violet Palace, but the power of Space had distorted Tang Jie's real location.

In other words, what he was seeing wasn't the actual location of Tang Jie's breakthrough at all! It was no wonder his attacks had had no effect.

A trap!

This was a trap targeting Godhead Palace and the Beast Refining Gate!!

This thought emerged in Shi Wunian's mind.

In a clash between Violet Palace experts, to be distracted was to concede the round!

His attack on Tang Jie and subsequent bewilderment at Tang Jie's situation allowed Xiao Biehan to attack Shi Wunian with his Sky-Parting Sword, unleashing a lethal wave of sword intent.

Shi Wunian had no time to properly block it, only having time to bellow and summon a golden light to protect him.

When it came to defense, Godhead Palace was unsurpassed, and when Shi Wunian focused all his power on defense, even someone as strong as Xiao Biehan would find it hard to break through.

But at this moment, Xiao Biehan's eyes flashed with a crafty light.

When Shi Wunian saw this, his heart turned cold.

But it was too late.

Xiao Biehan's Sky-Parting Sword exploded, unleashing a blast of sword energy at Shi Wunian.

The moment this sword energy appeared, all the world turned dark.

This sword light seemed to be the only thing in the world, imbued with infinite desolation and sorrow as it shot toward Shi Wunian.

"The God-Conquering Merak Sword!" Shi Wunian screeched in fear.

The Basking Moon Sect's number one Dao armament, the God-Conquering Merak Sword!

The Beast Refining Gate and Godhead Palace were both familiar with its powers.

If he had known that Xiao Biehan had brought the God-Conquering Merak Sword, Shi Wunian would have never chosen to directly clash with Xiao Biehan.

The God-Conquering Merak Sword was considered the strongest offensive Dao armament among the six major sects. Those struck by it were bound to die, because the God-Conquering Merak Sword directly attacked the Divine Soul.

The God Conqueror conquered the soul.

In other words, such was the power of the God-Conquering Merak Sword that even a Supreme True Immortal could have their soul obliterated by it.

It was common knowledge among the other five major sects that one could never take on the God-Conquering Merak Sword directly.

But Shi Wunian had been tricked by Xiao Biehan into doing so and thrown himself into a desperate situation.

The cold light sliced through the world and then sliced through Shi Wunian's defenses as if they weren't there.

Despair appeared on Shi Wunian's face.

At this moment, a streak of dark light appeared out of nowhere and struck the tip of the God-Conquering Merak Sword.

It was only a little dot of dark energy, but it exploded with such power that it managed to stop the God-Conquering Merak Sword.

Shi Wunian didn't know who had saved him, but he immediately seized this chance to escape, accelerating to his maximum speed with a single thought.

But he was still unable to completely break free of the God-Conquering Merak Sword's attack range. After that brief pause, the God-Conquering Merak Sword continued its attack, the grooves on the sword shining with a light that could awe souls and obliterate divinity. Shi Wunian felt like a needle had been stabbed into his brain and into his Divine Soul, threatening to burst it open.

"AAAAH!" Shi Wunian screamed as he transformed into a streak of light and flew into the distance.

"Just stay right there!" Xiao Biehan laughed as he thrust out his Sky-Parting Sword. While the Merak Sword was strong, using it even once took immense energy, which was why he only used it at key moments.

The energy from his sword transformed into a string of comets. This was the 19 Star Sword that Cai Junyang had learned before, but when Xiao Biehan used it, the power was on a completely different level. The 19 motes of light had a lethal allure, resonating with each other as they took aim at Shi Wunian's weak points.

Shi Wunian's head was on the verge of breaking apart, so he was in no place to defend himself. Just then, another dark mote of light flew out from the distance, striking the Sky-Parting Sword and interfering again with Xiao Biehan's attack.

"Meng Guanshan!" Xiao Biehan roared in fury over having been obstructed twice.

With this roar, a figure emerged from the void: an imposing man with red brows. But most astonishing of all was the long tail extending from his back.

The Half-Fiend Divine Lord, Meng Guanshan, the Master of the Beast Refining Gate, and the strongest person in that sect besides its Earth Immortal.

The greatest difference between this man and the other True Lords of the Beast Refining Gate was that he had no fiends.

To be more precise, he had fiends before, but he had refined all of the fiends he had raised into his body, turning himself into a half-fiend, half-human. This had made him tremendously powerful and turned him into the Beast Refining Gate's strongest combatant.

Meng Guanshan said nothing, only letting out a roar of extreme discontent.

He had been lying in ambush so that he could kill either Xiao Biehan or Ling Xiao, but instead of killing, he had been saving instead. A perfectly fine ambush had been turned into a covering action, so he was naturally unhappy.

With this bestial roar, Meng Guanshan began to sprout thick black fur along his body, and claws began to sprout from his fingers—as it turned out, those dark motes of light had been his fingernails. With fiendish energy howling around him, he swiped a claw at Xiao Biehan.

Five fingers tore through space!

At the same time, Shi Wunian retreated at full speed. The God-Conquering Merak Sword had greatly injured his Divine Soul, and he was no longer fit for battle. Just when he was about to leave the battlefield, he saw Tang Jie down below, on the verge of substantializing his Divine Soul.

Beneath a dome of violet energy, a little Primal Infant was solemnly floating in the air, radiating light as it melded with the surrounding environment.

The divine linking to the world, the mind connecting to the universe.

Now, Tang Jie only needed to bring the Violet Palace and Primal Infant back into his body to be considered as having successfully reached the next realm. By this stage, there was really no danger left.

At this moment, Shi Wunian saw slight ripples appearing around Tang Jie. These were ripples of Space power.

From these ripples, Shi Wunian suddenly realized that this Space power was not particularly strong.

He analyzed that this was only Space power derived from a most basic comprehension of the Space Dao.

If this was the case, the space that Tang Jie had distorted couldn't be too far away.

In other words… Tang Jie was nearby.

The moment he thought this, Shi Wunian began to look around.

Where?

Just where was Tang Jie hiding?

Shi Wunian examined the mountains around him, looking here and there but finding nothing. All of Heavenly Balance Mountain had become a battlefield, and there was no place for Tang Jie to hide.

If he was charging at Violet Palace, there were bound to be heavenly phenomena.

But any heavenly phenomena had been scattered by the battle or covered up by all the spell arts flying here and there.

As Shi Wunian was frantically looking around, he suddenly realized something and looked at Tang Jie again.

Tang Jie was still sitting there, his surroundings peaceful, showing no signs of being disturbed.

But Shi Wunian noticed that even the plants around Tang Jie were undisturbed.

They didn't move in the slightest, as if they were dead.

Shi Wunian focused his vision.

Illusion!

Through the Celestial Eye, Shi Wunian saw that all of the plants and soil around Tang Jie were illusory.

He wasn't on the ground!

Shi Wunian looked up at the sky in realization.

But the battle was taking place on both the sky and the ground. Just where in the sky could he be?

Any higher was the Domain Astral Winds.

An unbelievable idea appeared in his mind, one that made Shi Wunian shiver.

He couldn't have run off to the Domain Astral Winds to make the breakthrough into Violet Palace, could he?

To be honest, this was the most likely possibility.

Because only a place free of obstructions like the sky could allow Tang Jie to maximize the Space power under his control, allowing him to stay far away enough from the battlefield to be unaffected. At the same time, Godhead Palace and the Beast Refining Gate would never think that he would go into the Astral Winds.

Although Tang Jie wasn't strong enough to head into the depths of the Astral Winds, if it was just the much weaker Astral Winds on the edge, and if there was a Violet Palace Titan protecting him, it was entirely possible, and it just so happened that two of the Basking Moon Sect's True Lords were not present.

Shi Wunian shivered all over.

By this time, Tang Jie's ascension was entering its final phase.

Shi Wunian put aside all his worries and charged into the clouds.

He flew straight upward, right into the outer edges of the Astral Wind Zone. And just as he expected, Tang Jie was here.

He was seated on a ship.

The Crimson Glow Pavilion Warship.

All of his arrangements had actually been performed on the warship, with Yiyi creating plants on the deck.

The warship was surrounded by a giant defensive barrier that kept out the Astral Winds.

The one who had created this defensive barrier was none other than the Mystic Moon True Lord.

Being only at Deification, keeping out the Astral Winds, even those only of the outer perimeter, was taking all of his power, and he had no time for anything else.

Shi Wunian was elated, raising up his Measure Heaven Ruler and swinging it at the barrier. If he could destroy this barrier, he could kill two Violet Palace experts of the Basking Moon Sect.

"Tang Jie, you're dead!" Shi Wunian howled.

The Measure Heaven Ruler struck the barrier, but then those familiar ripples reappeared.

What was going on here?

Shi Wunian said in shock, "This is… the power of Time!"

He cried out, instantly realizing that he was in trouble.

A giant fist barreled out of the Astral Winds and crashed into Shi Wunian's body.

"Devil Crushing Fist!"

"Aaaaah!" Shi Wunian screamed, half of his body obliterated by the fist.

With this punch, Tang Jie emerged.

Shi Wunian was wrong.

What Tang Jie had distorted wasn't just space, but also time.

He was already at Violet Palace!