Aspiring to the Immortal Path

The Tribulation clouds had changed.

The lightning crackled with a sacred golden luster.

As this lightning gathered, the rest of the world seemed to darken, leaving only the light golden Tribulation cloud shining like a miniature sun, exuding light and heat.

It condensed in the heavens, growing larger and holier with every passing moment.

Tang Jie knew for certain the tribulation would be stronger.

This was natural. The royal army’s suppression of the rebels would only grow with each attempt. The only way to avoid extermination was to grow stronger and stronger!

Compared to back in the Flame Yang Domain, at least Tang Jie was now another tier higher.

Gazing up at the Heavenly Tribulation, his eyes blazing with resolve, he muttered, “Come on! Let’s see which of us is stronger!”

There was a thunderclap, as if the heavens had heard his challenge.

The Tribulation cloud had finished gathering power, and a golden lightning bolt cleaved toward Tang Jie.

“Come at me!” Tang Jie bellowed, his body rising from the lava lake, streams of power flowing around him so thickly that he seemed to be engulfed in a cloud.

Tang Jie swung his right fist at the air.

With this punch, countless ethereal fists filled the air, and though they seemed like illusions, each one had enough power to push back oceans, their majesty radiating throughout the heavens.

The ethereal fists then began to fuse, and with each merger, they became more real, and once all of them had combined into a single fist, it seemed like a heaven-holding pillar rising to meet the lightning of the heavens.

The fist and lightning collided, instantly punching a giant hole in the sky.

The energies at play were so powerful that they annihilated the fabric of space when they clashed. That hole almost instantly closed, and then that terrifying power spread outward like a thunderstorm, sweeping out into the distance.

Another lightning bolt descended.

Tang Jie’s fist was out of power, and he was no longer capable of neutralizing the lightning. The golden lightning blasted through the fist and then transformed into countless lightning snakes that lit him up in gold as they made every cell of his body taste the wrath of the heavens.

The immensity of the pain that instantly gripped his body almost made him cry out.

The punishment of the Heavenly Dao was truly terrifying, far greater than the regular lightning tribulation.

Tang Jie could only grit his teeth and bear it, pushing his body to its limit and unleashing all the power packed in each of his cells.

Still, Tang Jie was powerless to resist, his strength fading and life weakening as the wrath of the heavens wore on.

Just when it seemed like the Heavenly Tribulation might burn him to ashes, Tang Jie felt something in the depths of his body merging.

Tang Jie knew exactly what this strange feeling was.

The deeper fusion that he had dreamed of had finally succeeded.

Although it was only the fusion of two particles, it led to a heaven-shaking transformation.

A sealed door had been opened wide!

On a microscopic level, physical strength began to fuse with spiritual strength. Despite being like fire and water, they were coming together and fusing!

The energy created by this fusion was so immense that Tang Jie immediately noticed the difference.

This feeling was impossible to describe, and he felt like he could infinitely compress and accumulate energy.

And then his giant body also began to contract.

As his body contracted, his skin became tougher. Previously, the golden lightning had been able to drill straight into his body, but as he shrank, the golden lightning could no longer get through, slithering across Tang Jie’s body like snakes. While they were still dazzling and brilliant, they could no longer threaten Tang Jie.

He shrank from a thousand feet to around nine hundred before finally stopping, and by this time, the golden lightning could no longer do anything to him.

Tang Jie waved his hand, dispelling the lightning. When he looked up, there was nothing but a clear sky, as if nothing had happened.

Only Tang Jie knew just how much that lightning tribulation had affected him.

Just now, that punishment from the heavens had refined his body, finally completing the first step of a deeper fusion.

Although it was only the first step, still far from complete fusion, getting started was always the hardest part. Once this critical step had been taken, everything else became much easier.

Tang Jie’s body had been the steel, and the lightning had been the hammer, beating on him over and over until he finally overcame that threshold.

While Tang Jie was smaller, his power was even denser. Not only that, all the fiend essence in the lava lake had been absorbed, but his cultivation level had actually fallen, going from peak to late-phase Soul Projection.

Although his cultivation level had fallen, he was actually much, much stronger.

He looked up at the sky and then at himself, after which he chuckled. “Who would have thought that the Heavenly Dao’s Tribulation would help me complete the deeper fusion of my perfect body. Now that I think about it, only this level of power would be able to help me with this. It’s no wonder my previous efforts came to nothing. This isn’t something a single person cultivating could accomplish. But this means that if I want to continue the fusion, I would need to take more Heavenly Tribulations.”

While that was what he said, Tang Jie was in no mood to provoke the heavens again.

From today, he could tell that the Heavenly Tribulation truly did get stronger each time, not just in quality, but in quantity as well. For the second Heavenly Tribulation to send down two bolts of lightning had caught Tang Jie by surprise, almost costing him his life.

This meant that the next would be even scarier, and Tang Jie didn’t want to provoke it until he was confident in his strength. Anything else would be playing with fire.

Fortunately, Tang Jie had made a breakthrough, so he could use other methods to continue the fusion even without the help of the Heavenly Tribulation, though the effects wouldn’t be as good as with the tribulation.

With this final task done, Tang Jie no longer had a reason to tarry in the lava lake.

As he began to step out of the lake, his body grew smaller and smaller. But this shrinking was due to a spell art, his real body remaining around nine hundred feet tall.

Once he was out of the lake, he conjured up some clothes made from spiritual energy and flew to the Zephyr Mountains.

He then went to see Yun Tianlan.

Yun Tianlan narrowed his eyes the moment he saw Tang Jie. With his cultivation, he could immediately tell that Tang Jie had changed.

His eyes flashing, he scanned Tang Jie several times before concluding, “The current you could even fight an Earth Immortal.”

Tang Jie sat in front of Yun Tianlan and said, “I dare not hide anything from Ancestor’s sharp eyes. This disciple has made some small progress in cultivating the Parting Classic.”

He told Yun Tianlan of his experiments, hiding nothing.

Yun Tianlan clapped his hands in praise, but his own path was already set, so even if Tang Jie handed him the Parting Classic and the method of fusion, he could no longer use it. In truth, Tang Jie walked such a bizarre path that no ordinary person would be able to take it.

Yun Tianlan clapped his hands and said, “Now that you can even beat an Earth Immortal, our chances of victory are even higher.”

“So when does Ancestor plan to move out?” Tang Jie asked.

He didn’t plan to be humble, nor was there a need to. This was war, and being inconspicuous and holding back was counterproductive. What was needed was to accurately judge the strength of one’s own and the enemy.

Tang Jie had been able to defeat Soul Projection cultivators at Deification and exchange blows with Earth Immortals, so now that he had achieved deeper fusion, it was very normal for him to be able to take on earth Immortals. Of course, this only applied to ordinary Earth Immortals. Peak Earth Immortals who wielded nightmarish levels of power were still beyond his abilities.

“The sooner, the better,” Yun Tianlan said.

It hadn’t been long since the battle, so even if the Divine Spring Domain had been informed by the escaped fiends, there was still not enough time to prepare for war. They might not have even started yet.

Being prepared and being unprepared were very different, particularly when it came to the lower classes. With preparation, the lower classes could take measures to protect themselves, while without preparations, they could only tremble in fear as the Titans fought and wreaked havoc. The amply prepared could even organize low-level disciples into a formidable fighting force. The ghost invasion of the Flame Yang Domain was proof of this. All the powerhouses of the Flame Yang Domain were still on the back foot against that endless army of ghosts.

Since Yun Tianlan had made up his mind, they began to discuss their plans.

After just one day, the Rosecloud Domain continued on its path of the stars, making its way to the Divine Spring Domain. While it seemed like the two domains were already close, bringing the two together would still take a hundred days of flight.

Meanwhile, Tang Jie left the Rosecloud Domain first, taking Yiyi, Tutu, and Tang Chuan with him.

His mission was very simple: destroy any attempts the fiends made to ally or develop countermeasures, and find out what sort of countermeasures they might have. Yiyi and Tutu had spent many years in the Divine Spring Domain and were familiar with the place, so they served as Tang Jie’s guides.

Tang Jie flew through the void with Yiyi and Tutu in tow, approaching that verdant planet.