Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Whew! “The Seawither Grass is finally ready.”

Yu Cheng floated over a vast desert, gazing down at a stalk of blue grass below as he sighed.

By coincidence or on purpose, Yu Cheng had come to an abnormally barren world.

Not every world could bring forth intelligent life, nor was every world abundant with resources. In truth, the vast majority of worlds in the Great Stellar Chiliocosm were barren, so barren that they couldn’t be called worlds, just planets.

The place Yu Cheng had come to happened to be between a world and a planet—it had intelligent life and resources, but both were rather sparse!

According to Yu Cheng’s original plan, once he found a world, he would gather up resources to make a teleportation formation and go to the Vast Wilderness Continent, where he would rebuild the court and do what he needed to do.

But this plan went off the rails, for gathering the materials for a teleportation formation in this barren world was extremely difficult.

Getting to the Vast Wilderness Continent was now out of the question, so the only option was to build a smaller teleportation formation that would take him to a somewhat more abundant world. Even that was extremely difficult amid all this desolation.

Yu Cheng had used seven whole years, doing everything he could to find resources, scouring every corner of the planet using the Reflections of Floating Life. At the end, he even pulled out one of his own ribs and ground it down to serve as a substitute for the White Death Snow this world lacked to finally gather all the materials.

As for the Seawither Grass, it was the last material he needed. This plant grew in the deep sea, and as it grew, it would absorb the surrounding sea water until the ocean had been turned into a desert. Only then would it be considered mature.

Yu Cheng had managed to find a Seawither Grass seed, but this needed a thousand years to mature. He had no choice but to water it with his own blood, and after seven years, it had finally matured, turning an entire sea into a desert as a result.

By the time it was done, Yu Cheng had spent ten whole years in this world.

Yu Cheng couldn’t help but sigh over the fact that it had taken him ten years to complete the teleportation formation.

It had been eleven years since his rebirth.

Eleven years wasn’t too long for a cultivator, but for Yu Cheng, it definitely wasn’t short.

After all, he had just been reborn and still needed to reorganize his subordinates. If he couldn’t return in time, many of his plans would be delayed, which meant that his opponents had more time to prepare.

Alas, even if he knew this, there was nothing he could do about it.

This was the arrangement of the Heavenly Dao, its resistance. Yu Cheng had never believed that his plans would go smoothly. On the contrary, the stronger the resistance from the Heavenly Dao, the greater the proof that his path was correct.

He gazed upward and muttered, “No matter how you try to stop me, you only delay the inevitable. You cannot stop my march on the Heavenly Dao!”

He stepped into the teleportation formation and disappeared.

Not long after he left, another figure appeared, pacing through the void.

It was Immortal Ji Yao.

Gazing at the teleportation formation, Immortal Ji Yao coldly said, “Tang Jie… Yu Cheng…”

She lightly walked over to the teleportation formation.

——————————————————————

Ten days later, Tang Jie arrived at the Hall of Divine Conference.

When he arrived, the hall was packed with people.

Almost all the Titans and powerhouses from the Rosecloud Domain’s seven major sects were present, with Yun Tianlan presiding over all of them.

Yun Tianlan gave Tang Jie an understanding smile. “Tang Jie, you’ve come. Sit over here.”

He pointed at the seat next to him.

Even though Tang Jie was no longer the Immortal Platform Tang Jie, Yun Tianlan had no intention to look down on him.

This wasn’t merely because of his affection toward Tang Jie. It was also because Tang Jie wasn’t necessarily weaker than when he was at Earth Immortal.

Yun Tianlan didn’t know about the Heavenly Dao Realm, but even without it, with his perfect body, Tang Jie could sweep through all experts at Violet Palace. He had lost his Earth Immortal cultivation, but he had gained even greater potential, so it was difficult to say whether he had lost or gained in this transaction.

Regardless, as a True Immortal, Yun Tianlan had long been able to look past momentary gains and losses. All he cared about was that Tang Jie was alive!

“Yes, Ancestor!” Tang Jie complied with Yun Tianlan’s summons, seating himself next to Yun Tianlan and above all the Earth Immortals.

The Immortals didn’t seem to care, all of them smiling at Tang Jie.

Huang Wuji even joked, “Tang Jie, I hear you’ve been rather lazy recently. We’re still waiting for you to return to the Immortal ranks and bring us to glory.”

Tang Jie laughed and replied, “Even when I’m not an Immortal, I can still kill my enemies and achieve great things.”

Huang Wuji was taken aback, and then he erupted in laughter. “Wonderful, wonderful! This is the daring I expect from you.”

“Right, what’s the current situation in the Divine Spring Domain?” Tang Jie asked.

Yun Tianlan had sent numerous cultivators to surveil the situation as soon as the Rosecloud Domain had begun flying toward it, and they had continued to do so for the past ten years.

Yun Tianlan smiled. “For this, we should let Yiyi give her report.”

“‘Yiyi’?” Tang Jie was taken aback.

In the ten years he had been back, Tang Jie had not seen Yiyi once. Xu Miaoran had told him that Yun Tianlan had called her over to personally train her, and that she needed to be in seclusion for ten years.

Considering that ten years of seclusion was nothing for a cultivator, Tang Jie decided to wait.

He hadn’t expected Yun Tianlan to bring up Yiyi here.

Could it be…

“Correct.” Seeing Tang Jie’s surprise, Yun Tianlan explained, “In these ten years, Yiyi has been at Planet Divine Spring.”

As he spoke, there was a cry.

“Big Brother!”

Yiyi appeared, gracefully standing before Tang Jie.

Yiyi had completely matured into a woman, no longer the vivacious girl of yesteryear, and her figure had become much more attractive. Behind her was a trembling rabbit.

Tutu!

Well, he was meant to be called Shen Tu.

Tang Jie was delighted to see Yiyi.

But his face darkened as he turned to Yun Tianlan. “You didn’t have her go into seclusion, but instead sent her to the Divine Spring Domain?”

His tone was tinged with displeasure and suspicion.

For someone of Tang Jie’s cultivation and status to directly question Yun Tianlan had everyone getting nervous.

In the end, Yiyi walked over and grabbed Tang Jie. “Big Brother, don’t blame Grandpa Yun. The Great Balance Cloud Diagram that Grandpa taught me treats the world as its cultivation ground. So infiltration is also a kind of seclusion, and seclusion is infiltration. Grandpa didn’t lie to you.”

Yun Tianlan casually chuckled. “Indeed. The Divine Spring Domain’s land is much larger than that of Rosecloud, which is more suitable for the cultivation of the Great Balance Cloud Diagram. Moreover, Yiyi is a sprite, and while the Divine Spring Domain is practically forbidden to humans, Yiyi is not in as much danger. She can very easily mix in among them.”

Tang Jie slightly exhaled in relief, and as he turned to Yiyi, he found that she had grown all the way to Deification.

“It seems that you truly did make a lot of progress these last few years,” Tang Jie said.

“Of course,” Yiyi proudly said. “Ten years ago, Grandpa sent me to the Divine Spring Domain with his divine abilities. In these ten years, I traveled all across the Divine Spring Domain, absorbing the essence of the sun and moon and gathering the spiritual energy of the world, growing so much stronger. If Grandpa hadn’t summoned me, I wouldn’t have even wanted to come back.”

It seemed like she had been enjoying herself almost too much.

“So what’s the situation in the Divine Spring Domain?” Tang Jie asked.

Yiyi immediately turned solemn. “The Divine Spring Domain is a world of fiends, but it’s different from the Blood River Domain. While Blood River was ruled by fiends, there were also demons and humans mixed in. But the Divine Spring Domain is completely under the rule of fiends, with no other factions.”

“No humans?” Tang Jie asked in shock.

Yiyi answered, “They were all eaten.”

Everyone gasped.

Even Yun Tianlan sighed, “Back when this old man visited that world, humans were practically extinct. The few survivors were all hiding deep underground. The fiends of Divine Spring are just too powerful.”

“How many Void Returning fiends are there on Divine Spring?” someone asked.

Yiyi answered, “The strength of the fiends of the Divine Spring Domain is profound. Originally, there were forty-some great fiends at Void Returning, with three of them being True Immortal Fiend Gods.”

This number made everyone gasp again.

This strength was much greater than the Rosecloud Domain’s.

Fortunately, Yiyi continued, “But in the war against the Ocean King Domain, the Divine Spring Domain suffered heavy losses. In that assault, all of the great fiends of Divine Spring were mobilized, but only twenty-some of them returned, the rest of them falling in battle. Of the Fiend Gods, one was slain, one was heavily injured, and the last was able to retreat safely. The other survivors were all injured in various states, with quite a few falling in strength because of their wounds.”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The key was still the injured Fiend God. They had no idea of the state of his injuries or his combat capabilities.

Alas, Yiyi had failed to gather more information on this.

Other than Void Returning fiends, the Divine Spring Domain had several hundred Divine Division fiend emperors, more than the Rosecloud Domain had.

Overall, even after the losses it had suffered from the war with the Ocean King Domain, the Divine Spring Domain was still stronger than the Rosecloud Domain, though the gap was much smaller.

This was why those within the Hall of Divine Conference had to debate whether they should go to war or not.

Some people believed that the Divine Spring Domain was too strong and attacking it would be akin to striking a rock with an egg. Even if they did manage to win, it would come at a heavy cost. Thus, they wanted to give up on the Divine Spring Domain and go around it in search of another target. Once they were stronger, they could come back for the Divine Spring Domain.

Others believed that, as cultivators, they shouldn’t be so cowardly. While the Divine Spring Domain had many powerful fiends, war wasn’t purely about cultivation, or else the Blood River Domain wouldn’t have been able to resist for so long. Fiends had always relied on brute force, lacking intelligence and not understanding the concepts of formations, tactics, or teamwork. In large-scale combat, they were inferior to humans. Moreover, the Rosecloud Domain had the resources and even manpower of the Flame Yang Domain supplying them, and had been preparing for war these last ten years. These factors could cancel out the difference in strength.

But most important of all was that the Basking Moon Sect was blessed by Fate.

The protection of Fate was no joke. When Immortal Emperor Yu Cheng had wanted to destroy the Basking Moon Sect, the protection of Fate had meant that he ultimately failed, instead giving a chance to Tang Jie’s avatar, which resulted in him ceding some of his control.

This protection meant that the Rosecloud Domain was essentially undefeatable and could boldly challenge the Divine Spring Domain.

The more extreme even called to attack only the strong and ignore the weak. Of course, the majority ignored these people.

The two main sides of the debate fiercely argued back and forth.

Yun Tianlan was getting a headache from all the arguing. He turned to Tang Jie, who was smirking in disdain.

Yun Tianlan asked, “Tang Jie, what do you think?”

Tang Jie casually replied, “All these people have been talking about whether or not we should fight the Divine Spring Domain. Why has no one considered whether or not they will let us go when our Rosecloud Domain draws close to Divine Spring?”

Everyone was startled.

“You’re saying…”

Tang Jie looked upward and said, “Since the moment we stepped onto this path of stars, to fight or not is no longer our decision alone.”