Aspiring to the Immortal Path

“I really do!”

Tang Jie spoke in a chillingly calm tone, gazing at the Rootless Tree Ancestor like he was looking at a dead tree.

The Rootless Tree Ancestor realized something.

Tang Jie wasn’t lying.

A moment later, it knew what Tang Jie had up his sleeve.

Tang Jie took out a diagram.

The Mountain River State Diagram!

As he cast the diagram into the air, a world unrolled, overlapping with this world, merging realities in a fashion that seemed both natural and bizarre.

“A small world!?” the Rootless Tree Ancestor cried out in alarm.

It had never imagined that Tang Jie would possess a small world, and from the look of it, this was an extremely mature small world.

The moment this small world appeared, the Rootless Tree Ancestor knew that it was no match for Tang Jie. This was a trump card against it, for a small world was a counter to core energy.

But it still hoped that Tang Jie didn’t know this secret.

Alas, a second later, it knew that it was wrong.

As a tumor flew toward Tang Jie, it exploded before it got close.

Unlike before, the tumor didn’t erupt with core energy. Instead, it was like a gentle breeze, lightly rippling across the skies of that small world.

Yes, it had been guided into the small world, transforming into a spring shower that nourished this world.

“You… you understand how to guide core energy…” the Rootless Tree Ancestor said in shock.

“Thanks to you,” Tang Jie answered.

It truly was thanks to the Rootless Tree Ancestor. Through this battle, Tang Jie had truly comprehended domain cores. When the core energy flooded his body, he had no choice but to compress it to the limit, which had given him a thorough understanding of how it worked.

Of course, what had truly granted him understanding of core energy was the Heavenly Dao Realm.

Without the Heavenly Dao Realm, he would have never been able to compress the core energy in such a short amount of time, nor would he have been able to actually understand what core energy was about. This was a major step for Tang Jie, and becoming a Boundless Gold Immortal was now only a matter of time and resources. The threshold that would have determined success or failure had already disappeared.

As for right now, Tang Jie had also gained a deeper understanding of what it meant to own a small world.

After guiding away the core energy, Tang Jie smiled. “You should also have a taste of my core energy!”

He threw out a fireball.

It was just a simple fireball.

A fireball spell that even a Spirit Disciple could unleash!

But this fireball had the Rootless Tree Ancestor shuddering in fear.

It even wanted to turn around and run.

But its deep roots granted it endless strength while binding it to the earth in exchange.

No matter what kind of attack it faced, it could not run or dodge, only resist!

Numerous roots wove together to block the fireball.

When the fireball crashed into the roots, it exploded in an intense flame that instantly washed over a vast area. And after the flame had passed, it was shockingly revealed that all had been scourged from the area, that terrifying energy incinerating all of the Rootless Tree Ancestor’s roots.

“A core attack! It’s a core attack!” the Rootless Tree Ancestor crazily yelled.

Yes, Tang Jie had also used a core energy attack, and one on a much higher level than the Rootless Tree Ancestor’s. The core energy had been unleashed in the form of a fireball that was able to incinerate all things. Even the power of a Great Dao might not match it.

“Yes, thanks to you, I’m finally able to use core attacks,” Tang Jie coldly said. “Because I’m a Domain Lord!”

A Domain Lord!

This was the other requirement for using core energy.

As befitted the name, the Domain Lord was the true owner of a world, an existence acknowledged by the world, not like Yun Tianlan, who was a leader who had simply been acknowledged by the masses.

A true Domain Lord had complete control over a world, and it was only such an existence that could use the core energy of a world without being a Gold Immortal, even use that power more freely than a Gold Immortal.

But such situations usually only happened with small worlds. Only when one nurtured one’s own world and established its Great Daos could one become a Domain Lord. At the Domain Lord level, one could utilize core energy at the highest level, even surpassing Saint Immortals, for this world was entirely one’s own.

However, since small worlds were the results of one’s own painstaking efforts, and using core energy was using up the resources of the world, there were few Domain Lords willing to do this.

In contrast, while Gold and Saint Immortals couldn’t use the core energy of domains as freely as Domain Lords, they were pulling energy from existing domains, not their own homes, so they wouldn’t feel as much heartache from using it.

In the vast majority of circumstances, Domain Lords were unwilling to fight using the core energy of their worlds.

Tang Jie had wanted to test out his newfound power, but after he had confirmed it, he stopped using core attacks.

That was all his own property!

Of course, it wasn’t only those with small worlds that could become Domain Lords.

There were even stronger Domain Lords, those who were able to turn an entire domain into their own world. This required one to be a Gold Immortal or higher and for there to be no stronger existence in the domain who would fight for rule over the domain.

If these requirements were met, then this Titan would slowly familiarize themself with the core of that domain and how to use it, after which they could slowly influence the will of the core and make it their own.

Subduing a domain was an extremely long process, with very strict demands. But once one succeeded, one would reap an enormous harvest.

After all, this was an entire domain, many times larger than Tang Jie’s small world.

Normally, a Gold Immortal could subdue one domain while a Saint Immortal could subdue more, but no more than ten. This was a secret that Tang Jie had learned from Yu Cheng, and very few others knew of it.

This was why some people said that above Saint Immortal was the Heavenly Dao, and above the Heavenly Dao was the Domain Lord.

But this Domain Lord would be that of the entire Great Stellar Chiliocosm!

In other words, anyone who comprehended the Heavenly Dao laws of the Great Stellar Chiliocosm and controlled the Heavenly Dao would become the Domain Lord of the Great Stellar Chiliocosm.

Nobody knew if that was actually the case. After all, nobody had ever gotten that far.

At least Yu Cheng believed it.

He was making his way toward that goal, seeking to comprehend all Twelve Great Daos to comprehend the Heavenly Dao and thus become the Lord of the Great Stellar Chiliocosm.

A true Domain Lord, not simply a self-proclaimed ruler like back with the Court of Myriad Domains.

Perhaps it was for this reason that the Heavenly Dao could not tolerate him.

Tang Jie’s betrayal of the Daos incited the Heavenly Tribulation, and Yu Cheng’s unification of the Daos incited the Heavenly Conspiracy!

But that was a matter for the future.

The core attack from Tang Jie hadn’t used too much core energy, yet its power rivaled around one hundred tree tumors. One could see that Tang Jie was far above his enemy when it came to using this power.

Still, Tang Jie stopped at that.

The Rootless Tree Ancestor laughed. “Can’t give it up? You might pay an even bigger price for your reluctance!”

It swayed its body, and even more tree tumors flew toward Tang Jie, sending ripples through the fabric of space, the rampant core energy exceeding what Tang Jie could guide away in time. He was only able to guide a small part of the core energy, while he had to endure the majority of it himself.

The Rootless Tree Ancestor had been right. Tang Jie’s reluctance was what allowed it to fight on, and if this continued, Tang Jie would lose more than he saved.

The Rootless Tree Ancestor wildly laughed.

In the distance, the Rosecloud Domain was being pulled along like a stellar carriage, about to devour this domain.

At this moment, this tree could only think of fighting.

Despite this, Tang Jie was extremely calm. “You think that not using core energy means I have no other way to deal with you? Or do you think that this small world is all that I have?”

The Rootless Tree Ancestor was taken aback.

Tang Jie said, “Having a small world is great, but more important is how you use this small world.”

The Rootless Tree Ancestor laughed. “You’re unwilling to use its core energy to attack, so do you plan to use the natives of this small world to attack me?”

The Yellow Court World’s world limit was still at Violet Palace, and no matter how many of such experts there were, the Rootless Tree Ancestor could sweep through them all. The gap in level was so great that numbers couldn’t make up for it.

Tang Jie shook his head. “There’s still a third choice.”

“‘A third choice’?” The Rootless Tree Ancestor was stunned.

Tang Jie began to grow larger and larger.

But this wasn’t him taking his giant form. Instead, he was growing to fill the Yellow Court World, and at the same time, all the creatures in the Yellow Court World began to worship him.

The Rootless Tree Ancestor instantly understood what was going on. “Great Dao Laws? Your small world can already influence the chiliocosm? How can that be?”

In their own world, the Domain Lord was the Heavenly Dao, able to create the Great Daos within that world. For this reason, when fighting enemies within their small world, the Domain Lord was invincible.

But Tang Jie wasn’t pulling the Rootless Tree Ancestor into the Yellow Court World to fight it.

The Rootless Tree Ancestor was too powerful. Let alone pulling it in, it would probably make the Yellow Court World explode from the inside, which made this advantage of being “invincible” rather awkward. A person that could be pulled into the small world could probably be defeated without it, and those that were too strong probably couldn’t be pulled in.

As for the Yellow Court World, it was currently in its painting form, spatially overlapping the main world.

For this reason, while Tang Jie was somewhat strengthened by his world, he couldn’t use the true power of a Domain Lord, for he remained in the Great Stellar Chiliocosm, and it was impossible for him to influence the main world.

But there was one situation in which a manifested small world could still be effective: when a world was so strong and mature that its laws could temporarily influence the main world, at least in a small range around it.

In these circumstances, the Domain Lord’s word was law.

Tang Jie’s small world was limited to Violet Palace, so there was no way it was strong enough to influence the main world. So then how had he done it?

The Rootless Tree Ancestor didn’t understand what was going on.

Only Tang Jie knew that it was because he had integrated the Heavenly Dao Realm with the Yellow Court World.

As he was the Domain Lord of the Yellow Court World, the Yellow Court World was akin to his Heavenly Dao Realm, all obeying his will, its vast size meaning that it was essentially a super-sized Heavenly Dao Realm. The flaw was that it was only true within that world, and outside it, the main world’s will prevented the Domain Lord’s will from coming to pass.

The Heavenly Dao Realm was the exact opposite. It could be used in the main world, the flaw—besides the punishment of the heavens—being that it was limited to the area around him.

But if these were integrated, they made up for each other’s weaknesses.

It was quite lucky that Tang Jie had comprehended domain cores. Otherwise, he would have needed ages to achieve this level of integration.

At that moment, Tang Jie could sense that every existence in the area covered by the Yellow Court World was under the control of his will.

He was the king of the world.

Coldly staring at the Rootless Tree Ancestor, he declared, “Now, you can die!”