Aspiring to the Immortal Path

The Rainmist Mountains, the Famed Sword Mountain Manor.

What had been a cultivation sect was now a land of the dead.

Hundreds of corpses were littered across the manor, making the place seem like a hell on earth.

"Tang Jie!" A bitter howl of despair resounded through the world, carrying all the hatred and power of a True Person.

Mountain Slayer\'s eyes were full of blood as he glared at Tang Jie. That crimson figure was like a death god who had walked out of hell, brazenly reaping souls.

How was this possible?

How could he be this powerful?

Although the Famed Sword Mountain Manor was only a minor sect of Nadir Hill, it still had some reserves. Why was it that three Spirit Ring True Persons working together had still been butchered by Tang Jie like they had been dogs? Several hundred disciples had died without being able to harm a hair on his head.

Mountain Slayer\'s mind had been utterly shaken.

He roared with all his might, "Tang Jie, we weren\'t even chasing you anymore!"

"But you chased me before," Tang Jie coldly replied.

He swung the saber in his right hand, and another disciple was felled.

This had been Mountain Slayer\'s last and most cherished disciple. Mountain Slayer had placed immense hopes on him, believing that he could break free of the limits of the Famed Sword Mountain Manor and achieve Soul Transformation, taking the sect to new heights.

But now, there was nothing, all hopes bleeding away into nothing.

"Aaaagh!" Mountain Slayer threw his head back and howled, "Why?"

It was unclear why he would ask such a question. Perhaps he was asking why Tang Jie was so ruthless, or perhaps he was asking how Tang Jie was able to remain free for so long. Or perhaps he was asking how Tang Jie, a mere peak Mortal Shedding cultivator, had been able to slaughter his entire sect. In any case, this was his final question, and it would never have an answer.

As he let out this roar, he thrust forward his sword with all his might.

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This was the move he was best at, the sword intent imposing and the sword light rising to the heavens. He had pushed the intent of the sword to the maximum, already grasping a sliver of ultimate sword intent.

But before this move could be fully executed, it was cut off.

A shining saber chopped down with a biting cold and unstoppable momentum that could slice through the vault of heaven.

The sword broke.

The intent ceased.

The "Heartbreak Saber" broke this precious sword and sliced through Mountain Slayer\'s defensive barrier like it was made of butter, slicing into his body.

"Sir Slayer, I won\'t be seeing you out," Tang Jie coldly said as starlight exploded from the tip of the golden saber.

One ball, two, three… twelve balls of starlight in total exploded within Mountain Slayer\'s body. He trembled and looked down at the saber, seemingly realizing something. "It\'s… saber…"

"It\'s a saber," Tang Jie replied.

He pulled out the saber, dragging out Mountain Slayer\'s organs and exterminating the last bit of life force. Mountain Slayer toppled over onto his back.

A wispy soul flew out of his body, turning into a cloud of black smoke that funneled into a small pearl.

The Soul Refining Pearl.

Yiyi put away the pearl and looked at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie threw Mountain Slayer\'s corpse into the Mountain River Diagram and turned away. "Burn the place down."

All of the corpses here had had their souls extracted. Godhead Palace had many capable people and was bound to notice that something was wrong, so Tang Jie couldn\'t leave these corpses behind like before. He needed to burn everything and only leave burnt remains to examine. Of course, the advantage of doing this was that he could now put those higher-level corpses into the diagram and turn them into resources for the world within the diagram rather than let them go to waste.

A blazing fire lit up the night sky.

An illustrious Immortal sect was consumed by flames.

As Tang Jie watched from a distance, he muttered, "If I want enough soul weapons, I need to kill enough people. Fortunately, there\'s no lack of people to kill. Several thousand people… Exterminating a few more sects will do."

He turned and left.

————————————

Small Fortune Mountain.

A trail of smoke rose from the top of the mountain—the remnants of some raging inferno.

The All Fount Sect that had occupied this mountain no longer existed, leaving behind only ruins.

"Another sect."

Standing in front of the ruins, Xu Mingyue helplessly sighed.

In front of her, Nan Ningjiang had his hands held behind his back as he solemnly inspected the area, and farther in front, a group of Godhead Palace disciples was going through the wreckage and counting the bodies.

Zhou Fanghua, who was responsible for the count, soon reported, "The count is done. The All Fount Sect had 342 people in all, and if we exclude the 127 women and children, there were 83 corpses in all. 44 corpses are missing."

"As expected." Nan Ningjiang didn\'t find this strange. After all, this wasn\'t the first sect.

Ever since the Peerless Sword Pavilion, Tang Jie\'s movements had become very different. Every attack, he now burned all the corpses. There was no doubt that he was doing this to hide something.

Nan Ningjiang didn\'t know what he was hiding, but he knew that anything Tang Jie was trying to hide represented some sort of disadvantage to Godhead Palace.

As he was thinking, three figures flew out from the distance.

The leader wore a long robe with large sleeves. He appeared very ordinary, but if one looked closely, one would sense that he exuded a formless pressure that made it almost impossible to raise one\'s head. As for the two behind him, one wore a gold robe and the other a silver robe. They each gripped a dragon-headed cane and seemed extremely old.

Nan Ningjiang sensed this pressure and looked up. He paled and immediately took a few steps forward before prostrating. "Paying respects to Lord Xuan Zhong and Elders Silver and Gold. I truly did not think that the palace would dispatch Lord Xuan Zhong."

Master Xuan Zhong was a senior Soul Transformation True Person of Godhead Palace, of revered status and immense strength. Although he was not at the Celestial Chief level, he was an illustrious figure whom even kings of countries would have to kneel to.

Hearing Nan Ningjiang\'s voice, Master Xuan Zhong grunted and said, "You think this old man wanted to come? It\'s all because Tang Jie has caused far too much of a mess lately while your group has made no progress at all. Thus, the palace thinks that sending two Heart Demon True Persons might not be enough, so they also sent me to make it a sure thing. Nan Ningjiang, let me ask you: why is it that you haven\'t captured Tang Jie even though he\'s been infected by the Spirit-Boiling Powder? On the contrary, he seems to be freely going around on killing sprees. Do you know how many sects he\'s destroyed as of late?"

Nan Ningjiang smiled and said, "Lord, there is no method in the world that is perfect. Although Tang Jie has been infected by Spirit-Boiling Powder, it does not mean that we are guaranteed to catch him. After all, Spirit-Boiling Powder also has its disadvantages."

"Oh? Tell me about them." Master Xuan Zhong said.

Nan Ningjiang took out a small bottle and sniffed it. He then waved his hand, summoning his map, and the violet point of smoke that marked Tang Jie\'s position appeared. "My Lord, please look. Spirit-Boiling Powder can be used to track someone not merely because it can mark their location. What\'s most important is that it can be used in combination with my Passing Shadow spell. Without the Passing Shadow…"

Nan Ningjiang closed his hand, and the map disappeared, leaving only the violet mark.

Nan Ningjiang pointed at the violet mark. "My Lords, please look. With only this mark, how can we confirm Tang Jie\'s location?"

Master Xuan Zhong shared a glance with Elders Gold and Silver, and all of them nodded.

It was true. With a mark, one also needed a map to make the mark useful.

Master Xuan Zhong asked, "But don\'t you have the Passing Shadow spell?"

Nan Ningjiang bitterly smiled. "The problem is that I cannot constantly maintain it."

Master Xuan Zhong finally understood. Even though Tang Jie had been infected by Spirit-Boiling Powder, Nan Ningjiang\'s group couldn\'t keep marking his location forever, as the Passing Shadow spell took far too much energy to maintain for long. Thus, Nan Ningjiang could only activate it once in a while.

"Besides that, there are other factors affecting our pursuit," Nan Ningjiang said. "While the combination of Spirit-Boiling Powder and the Passing Shadow spell can mark Tang Jie\'s location, Tang Jie is very cunning and is constantly on the move, making it very difficult for us to keep chasing him. We can only marshal the forces ahead of him to intercept him. Unfortunately, these people are too incompetent to stop Tang Jie."

"He doesn\'t get tired? If he keeps flying like this, won\'t he reach his limit?"

The fifth Hawk bitterly smiled. "He has the Cloudpiercer Shuttle, so how could he reach his limit? When this scoundrel was initially imprisoned within Nadir Hill, he went on a crime spree and looted various storehouses, and he must have accumulated many treasures by now. Transportation is a trivial problem for him. From the lists of items we\'ve checked, we\'ve already found various flying shuttles, treasure boats, and Immortal clouds. Tang Jie has several dozen of them, and countless spirit stones. If we just let him fly around, he could do so for several decades without resting."

Master Xuan Zhong fell silent.

Zhou Fanghua added, "Moreover, the Passing Shadow marks the location, but not the altitude. We know where he is, but there\'s tens of thousands of meters between the domain barrier and the ground, and we have no way of knowing what altitude he\'s at. Given cloud cover and Tang Jie\'s expertise in concealment, even if we catch up to him, if we are even the slightest bit careless, he will seize the chance and escape. After all, didn\'t he escape when we had several thousand people surrounding him once?"

"But don\'t you have the help of True Person Huang?"

"But True Person Huang has to see him first. This bastard almost never stops, only doing so when he\'s going to kill. He\'s very fast and can use even more resources than we can, and he can flee into the skies or into the earth. Sir, how do you think we should pursue him?" the second Hawk complained.

Master Xuan Zhong had apparently come to criticize them, but when an amateur leader came to criticize expert subordinates, what often happened was that the subordinates would start to express their complaints to their superior.

Master Xuan Zhong was powerful, but when it came to tracking and capture, he was far inferior to the 12 Hawks, so he could only shut up and listen.

He felt dizzy at the words of the 12 Hawks, and he could only say, "Don\'t we also have teleportation points all over the place? So long as we know where he is, we can just teleport over and then keep chasing him, no?"

"That\'s true, but the problem is that Tang Jie also knows this. Thus, ever since this guy stole the Five Energies Sovereign Essence Pill at Celestial Flower Pavilion, he has avoided approaching any major city with a teleportation formation. If he doesn\'t get close to them, how can we teleport over to him?"

Master Xuan Zhong hissed.

In his life of cultivation, he had only concerned himself with the Great Dao, knowing nothing about the art of hunting and capturing, so all of this sounded like gobbledygook to him. His head aching, he finally waved his hand and said, "Forget it! This old man doesn\'t understand these things too well, but regardless, we can\'t let Tang Jie keep going on like this."

Tang Jie had killed far too many people as of late, and he had been so ruthless that even Godhead Palace was alarmed.

Although it mostly wasn\'t Godhead Palace\'s people that were dying, these other sects were sects that supported Nadir Hill. Godhead Palace was the main trunk and they were the branches and leaves. If all the branches and leaves were hacked off, the trunk would not fare well. Moreover, the perimeter seal was still active, and this seal effective across the entire border was extremely costly and had huge trade implications. The losses there even exceeded those caused by all of Tang Jie\'s killing.

If they spent a year like this, then Godhead Palace would be throwing up blood without Tang Jie needing to even do anything.

For this reason, Godhead Palace was anxious to capture Tang Jie.

Every extra day came at an astronomical loss.

Master Xuan Zhong had come with orders to quickly settle this matter.

Nan Ningjiang replied, "While we wish to end this speedily, we can\'t. Our first priority isn\'t to capture Tang Jie, but to wear him down. Tang Jie has an essentially limitless number of art relics, but his man power is limited. This sort of flying, fighting, and fleeing without rest is bound to run him out of power eventually. When he is utterly exhausted, we move and capture him."

Master Xuan Zhong waved his hand. "We can\'t wait that long. To prevent Tang Jie from getting away, we\'ve sealed the border, which comes at a huge loss every day this goes on. If he keeps this up, my Godhead Palace won\'t need to distribute any offerings this year. Everyone can just go and pick up farming."

Nan Ningjiang froze. "But if we make contact too early, Tang Jie won\'t have reached his limits and will have the strength to fight back."

"This is precisely why this old man is here. You can leave the battle to us. Your task is to force him out."

Nan Ningjiang nodded. "Yes."

He waved his hand, and the map reappeared.

He waved his hands again, and a mountain region appeared on the map.

Nan Ningjiang explained, "According to our analysis, while Tang Jie seems to be randomly flying, his actual destination should be here. I\'ve already sent people to make preparations, but as time is limited, there is still much that needs to be done. Now that the palace is urging us to hurry up, I\'m afraid we won\'t be able to use some of the methods I had planned. But Lord Xuan Zhong can make up for all these shortcomings. So what we need to do next is to gather all our people and strengthen the pressure, forcing him to flee to this place, where we will be waiting."

"The Spirit Mountains?" Master Xuan Zhong focused his eyes. "Why do you think he wants to go here?"

"Because this is the only place he has that will let him make a counterattack," Nan Ningjiang replied. "Based on my understanding of his personality, he won\'t give up on it."

Master Xuan Zhong gazed intently at the map. He seemed to realize something, and a sliver of fear appeared on his face.

He nodded and said, "A desperate beast will fight to the end, and this truly is a good place for that. Since that\'s the case, we will make this the place where we deal with Tang Jie."

———————————————

Whoosh!

A blade flashed, sending blood rocketing into the air.

Tang Jie swayed and looked at his chest.

A sword had passed through his body, almost cutting him in half.

His pursuers were getting stronger and stronger.

Tang Jie was getting injured in almost every battle now. If he hadn\'t comprehended the Dao of Life, those accumulated injuries might have brought him down. Initially, to preserve his life force, Tang Jie had been unwilling to use that method and instead chose to rely on self-recovery. But as the battles intensified, his severe injuries meant that Tang Jie had to recover on the spot or else die a second later.

Even his original body had been in danger several times.

Amid all the vicious bloodshed, Tang Jie gained a deeper understanding of the meaning behind battle.

His saber intent grew more refined and proficient in the process, and he even began to gain some insights into the Dao of Slaughter, feeling like he was only a step away from stepping through the threshold.

All of this battle also let him gather many souls, with each soul becoming a soul weapon.

Tang Jie had never imagined that he would be killing so many people, nor had he imagined that he would be making so many soul weapons.

The soul weapons made using the Soul Refining Pearl were much worse in quality than the swords of the Sword Mound, with several soul weapons not even matching one sword. But the Sword Mound also didn\'t have the immense quantity he could produce.

Tang Jie made soul weapon after soul weapon, and then he shattered them.

The scrap metal was sent into the diagram, where it formed a mountain of scrap metal on that wasteland.

The golden grains were merged with the golden blade, rapidly increasing its spirituality.

In just a few days, the golden blade\'s spirituality had increased by another level.

On the fourth day after the destruction of the Peerless Sword Pavilion, Tang Jie destroyed four minor sects and created one thousand soul weapons. The golden blade\'s spiritual efficiency rose from 50% to 60%.

On the seventh day, Tang Jie destroyed three more sects, one of them being a medium sect with a Soul Transformation True Person. Tang Jie used the same method as in the Peerless Sword Pavilion to destroy that sect. All in all, Tang Jie created fifteen hundred soul weapons and raised the golden blade\'s spiritual efficiency to 75%.

On the tenth day, Tang Jie brought the spiritual efficiency to 82%. By this time, he had already destroyed more than twenty sects of various sizes and killed more than ten thousand people, throwing all of Nadir Hill into an uproar.

Tang Jie\'s savagery, madness, and audacity had left everyone stunned.

At the same time, just as Tang Jie had expected, the Seven Absolutions Sect began to move.

The provocations from the Seven Absolutions Sect on Nadir Hill\'s northern border suddenly intensified. Numerous cultivators suddenly appeared in that wasteland buffer region between the two countries, openly moving in Nadir Hill\'s direction.

A grudge that had lasted for a thousand years finally had an avenue to be vented, and it was slowly burning its way toward Nadir Hill.

At the same time, the Basking Moon Sect began to apply pressure on the Beast Refining Gate. They weren\'t willing to officially turn against Godhead Palace, as this would only render the wager null and void and disadvantage Tang Jie. Thus, they applied maximum pressure on the Beast Refining Gate so that it wouldn\'t have the energy to help Godhead Palace.

On the other hand, unexpectedly, Horizon Ocean Pavilion also began to move.

Xu Miaoran had entered Nadir Hill.

Despite being "hunted" by the numerous men sent by her father, she had miraculously escaped Horizon Ocean Pavilion.

Almost all of the six major sects of the Rosecloud Domain had been stirred up by Tang Jie, and a storm was brewing.

Meanwhile, Tang Jie was continuing to attempt to escape his pursuers.

There was one thing that Nan Ningjiang was right about. Tang Jie really did want to reach the Spirit Mountains.

For that was the only place where he could launch a counterattack.

All of his work, his fighting, his patience, had been for that counterattack at the Spirit Mountains. All he had done was simply building up his power for the decisive battle.

Nan Ningjiang had seen this.

Tang Jie didn\'t care.

This was exactly why Nan Ningjiang had asked for only two additional Heart Demon True Persons, for he knew that if he called for too many reinforcements, and if Tang Jie really did have his means of learning the situation on their end, then Tang Jie would probably choose to give up on the decisive battle.

Master Xuan Zhong\'s arrival truly had made Nan Ningjiang very concerned.

Fortunately, Tang Jie\'s confidence had surpassed Nan Ningjiang\'s expectations. Though Tang Jie knew about this new arrival, he did not intend to give up.

On this day, Tang Jie finally stopped his killings and flew toward the Spirit Mountains.

All of the preparations were complete, and it was finally time for the decisive battle.

On one side were the elites of the Hawk Hall, with formidable strength, a mighty backer, and an endless stream of manpower. On the other side was the Basking Moon prodigy who had spent all this time patiently building up power for this very moment.

This was a clash between the police and a bandit, between an organization and an individual, between elites and a genius.

Nobody could predict who the ultimate victor would be.