Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-823

Darkness!

Endless darkness!

When that person appeared in the sky, they brought with them a despairing darkness.

From that night of deep black, a woman flew out, her entire body formed from mist, constantly twisting and shifting, refusing to take on a fixed form.

This was no illusion, but the truth.

When a cultivator reached the level of a Boundless Gold Immortal, their soul became a God and their body became an Immortal, undying and everlasting!

The existence before him was a manifestation of this.

With just this misty body, she was immune to most regular Divine Connections.

An entire army of Deification cultivators like Tang Jie could be sent against her, and Immortal Ji Yao could still kill them all with a single slap.

As for Tang Jie's theory that she had grown weaker from ten thousand years of imprisonment…

Maybe, perhaps it was true.

But this simply wasn't important. No matter how much weaker Immortal Ji Yao had become, so long as she remained at the Boundless Gold Immortal Realm, she could still crush Tang Jie with her finger. The chance that Tang Jie had spoken of was just an excuse to soothe others.

But both the deceiver and deceived were just pretending to believe.

Immortal Ji Yao had finally appeared.

As that ethereal body solidified, Tang Jie was finally able to get his first look at her true face.

Her body was completely cloaked in black, her hair bound up in a tall bun, her feet bare, and her face beautiful like a plum blossom in winter.

Ten thousand years had left no trace on her face, but that purple-black demonic energy had branded the corners of her eyes, making her seem like she had put on some sort of exotic makeup. Those thick lines spread out from the corners of her eyes, extending to behind her ears and down her cheeks, accentuating her beauty and evil.

It was a wicked and formidable appearance, and anyone who saw it would be shaken to the soul and would want to prostrate.

But Tang Jie didn't move, staring at Immortal Ji Yao as if he was in a daze.

"Hahaha!" Immortal Ji Yao threw her head back and laughed.

This elegant beauty now brazenly laughed like a madman.

The laughter resounded like thunder, and it was some time before it finally subsided.

Immortal Ji Yao began to walk over, her feet leaving ripples in the air.

Standing over Tang Jie, she looked down at him and proudly said, "Tang Jie, you didn't expect this, right? This venerable one still broke free in the end."

Tang Jie swallowed. "Master's… Master's Wife."

"Don't call me that! I'm not your master's wife!" Immortal Ji Yao scowled as she thrust out her hand, and an invisible hand grabbed Tang Jie by the throat and lifted him up.

Even with his Deification strength, he was powerless to resist, the immense power imbued in this hand instantly seizing control of his body.

Immortal Ji Yao raised him into the air and savagely said, "Two hundred years! To gain your trust, this venerable one acted the part of the pretty little scoundrel for two hundred years, and hated every moment of it! But even then, you weren't willing to let me go! If you had had some tact and let me out earlier, perhaps I might have spared you, but you made me stay in that lightless place for another two hundred years. This crime alone deserves one hundred deaths!"

As her grip tightened, Tang Jie struggled like a baby fighting to breathe. While he could stay in the void for a thousand days without dying of suffocation, in front of Immortal Ji Yao, all of his superpowers were gone, and he became as weak as a mortal.

He struggled out, "You… tricked me…"

"Duh! If I didn't trick you, how would I get you to make me a teleportation formation leading to the Vast Wilderness?" Immortal Ji Yao proudly answered.

Tang Jie could barely speak. "So… you came out a long time ago… used Ice Phoenix to trick me…"

"Of course," Immortal Ji Yao chuckled. "In order to properly deceive you, this venerable one restrained herself to not kill a single thing in the Verdant Cloud Domain. Ah, I so miss the taste of flesh…"

Immortal Ji Yao licked her lips.

Her tongue was as flexible as a snake's. Suddenly, the tip split into two parts and licked Tang Jie on the face, numbing his entire body.

Tang Jie shouted, "Immortal Ji Yao, this is killing the innocent!"

"Naturally. What sort of demon would this venerable one be if she didn't kill the innocent?" Immortal Ji Yao proudly replied.

Surrounded by seething black smoke that blotted out the sky, she really did seem like a demon king of darkness.

Immortal Ji Yao threw Tang Jie to the side like a used-up rag, not even applying any seals to him. It was clear that she didn't think it necessary to do anything extra for someone of his level. A single thought or glance was enough to kill.

"Deification"? "Number one Violet Palace expert"? In front of a Boundless Gold Immortal, he was just another ant.

As Tang Jie got up, Ice Phoenix flew over and bowed to Immortal Ji Yao. "Master, how should this person be dealt with?"

After some thought, Immortal Ji Yao replied, "Jiuyang was able to singlehandedly destroy the Court of Myriad Domains. If there was nothing suspicious going on behind the scenes, then he must have achieved immense progress in strength. Since he left his legacy behind, which was obtained by this child, then the secret should also be on him. Interrogate him, and we might reap a great harvest."

It turned out that this was the real reason Immortal Ji Yao hadn't killed him.

When it came to shrewdness, this person was truly on par with Tang Jie. Whether it was pretending to be the Nine Heavens Pearl Lady, deceiving Tang Jie and Ice Phoenix, or tricking Tang Jie into modifying the formation, they were all evidence of her cunning. And given her immense power as well, it wasn't strange at all for Tang Jie to lose to her.

"But, Master, this Tang Jie doesn't seem that amazing to me," Ice Phoenix said in confusion.

Once one became a demon, one's memories would remain intact, but the demonic energy would greatly alter one's personality. Thus, while Ice Phoenix's understanding of Tang Jie remained the same, her evaluation of him was very different. In the past, she would have never said something like this.

But there was actually nothing wrong with this statement. While Tang Jie had managed to defeat a stronger foe in the Jewel Immortal Sovereign, it was far from the Martial Lord's momentous achievement of destroying the Court of Myriad Domains all on his own. How the Martial Lord, who hadn't even been able to defeat Immortal Ji Yao, could defeat the Court of Myriad Domains, which had been established by a Dao-Proving Saint Immortal, was a great enigma. Even Tang Jie, who had seen the battle recorded in the Martial Mirror, couldn't explain it.

This was exactly why Ice Phoenix had asked this question.

Immortal Ji Yao shook her head. "I also don't know the answer to this question. It's clearly wrong to say that this kid is too stupid to unleash the power of the arts Jiuyang left behind. Could it be that Jiuyang didn't leave behind the secret? Or perhaps he hasn't been able to get that far yet?"

Tang Jie was slightly shaken by these words.

The final trial was still waiting for him back in the Martial Lord's hidden realm.

Could this final level be hiding the real secret to the Martial Lord's conquest of the Myriad Court?

But this wasn't the time to ponder this question. Tang Jie said, "Immortal Ji Yao, I remember you saying that it was the Azure Dragon who hurt you. I have the Azure Dragon in my hands, so if you want revenge…"

He wanted to negotiate, but instead, Immortal Ji Yao crazily laughed. "Tang Jie, do you think I wanted you only to lay down a teleportation formation to the Vast Wilderness? No, through Ice Phoenix, I observed the entire process, and I was able to grasp the various details. Although this venerable one still cannot lay down a teleportation formation from scratch, altering the coordinates from the Vast Wilderness to Rosecloud is no problem at all. Starting from today, the Verdant Cloud Domain, Rosecloud Domain, and that Blood River Domain will all be under this venerable one's control. With three domains in hand, what does a puny Azure Dragon matter? When I go to the Rosecloud Domain, he won't be able to escape my grasp, no matter what corner of the world he runs off to! You don't even have the right to negotiate with me!"

Tang Jie's expression turned ashen.

Immortal Ji Yao added, "Once I unite the three domains, with their resources, I can infiltrate the Vast Wilderness. At that time, I can take on the identity of a righteous cultivator and incite internal conflict so as to kill some of those old undyings and weaken the Vast Wilderness. When the Primordial Fog invades, these three domains can serve as a base to welcome the demon horde, and then this venerable one will lead the demons in sweeping across the world. Nobody will be able to stop me!"

Immortal Ji Yao crazily laughed.

It seemed that she had already planned everything out, all for the sake of the Primordial Fog invasion.

If Immortal Ji Yao really conquered those three domains before the invasion and then sowed chaos in the Vast Wilderness, the primary anti–Primordial Fog force in the Great Stellar Chiliocosm, then the cultivators of the positive plane would truly be in great peril.

Tang Jie angrily glared at Immortal Ji Yao. "Immortal Ji Yao, you're dreaming! This teleportation formation can't take cultivators above Violet Palace. You won't be going anywhere."

Immortal Ji Yao sneered. "You think this venerable one doesn't know that? But just because the Earth Immortals of your Rosecloud Domain can't use it doesn't mean that I can't. A mere Earth Immortal finds it hard to control their Immortal power and thinks they can't use teleportation formations because they're too powerful, but that's just because they haven't learned how to restrain their might. They can be strong enough to suppress the four seas, or weak enough to be sent flying by a single slap!"

Immortal Ji Yao raised her hand, and a blast of energy shot out from her finger, striking Tang Jie and rendering him immobile.

At the same time, that terrifying cloud of energy around her began to recede and weaken. As that black smoke retreated, her dancing hair fell back down and the strange tattoos around her eyes disappeared. In a flash, she turned into a weak and docile woman.

And then, she stood on the teleportation formation.

Tang Jie was stunned!

Power was an objective existence, and all attempts to hide it only deceived the senses, not the actual reality.

Yun Tianlan could also make himself look like an ordinary person, but regardless of how he changed, he couldn't change the fact that an Earth Immortal possessed an Earth Immortal's power. When he walked into a teleportation formation, his very real power would become a weight that the teleportation formation could not bear and make it collapse, like a man weighing five hundred catties stepping onto a scale with a maximum limit of one hundred catties.

But now, Immortal Ji Yao had stepped onto the teleportation formation without destroying it. This clearly meant that this was not merely a surface deception, but a true change in power. How could he not be shocked?

Where had all her excess energy gone?

If she were killed at this moment, would it trigger any spiritual flood? Did she still possess that heaven-reaching might?

Tang Jie didn't know.

Immortal Ji Yao spoke once more. "Let this venerable one observe the Vast Wilderness and see what sort of state that place is in right now. Little Phoenix, you stay here and watch Tang Jie. I will give you orders once I return. If I do not return in a timely manner…"

After some thought, she suddenly sliced off a finger from her hand and gave it to Ice Phoenix. "Use this to deal with him."

Atop a mountain, beneath brooding dark clouds, a pure-white finger descended from the heavens to obliterate him.

This was the scene he had seen in the Elemental Simulation Formation.

That finger and this finger were exactly the same!

"As Master commands!" Ice Phoenix respectfully replied.

Immortal Ji Yao raised a hand, activating the teleportation formation and vanishing in a series of silver ripples.