Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Yu Cheng opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by gorgeous flowers.

He was in the court’s imperial gardens. Twelve flower maidens were taking care of the flowers, each one a rare plant.

Yu Cheng slightly frowned.

He said, “Yushu (Jade Tome)… Yushu… Where is Yushu?”

His voice wasn’t loud, but it was brimming with majesty and resounded through the gardens.

A purple-clothed Deification guard flew over and kneeled before Yu Cheng. “Your Majesty, the Jade Tome Divine Lord left the court to supervise the construction of the Immortal Domain.”

“Oh?” Yu Cheng was taken aback.

He Yushu was his messenger official, and his primary responsibility was to transmit his decrees. Why had he suddenly gone off to supervise the construction of the Immortal Domain?

But Yu Cheng didn’t comment on this, simply saying, “Then forget it. Go and bring me Reverend Minghong.”

The guard gave Yu Cheng a weird look before carefully replying, “Reverend Minghong led the Soaring Star Army to pacify the southern regions.”

“Then what of Scarlet Pine, the Sage Mother of the West, or Hong Beicang?”

“Marshal Pine went to supervise the Vast Wilderness Continent, the Sage Mother of the West has gone to the Buddha Domain of the Far West to try and convince them to submit, and Divine Lord Beicang has led the Sea Pacifying Army on some special mission…” the guard replied.

Yu Cheng was more and more alarmed, but thankfully, he hadn’t been reborn yesterday, so he managed to maintain his calm. He grunted, “Why are they all out? Are there any Gold Immortals present?”

“Your Majesty, they are all out.”

“Bastard!” Yu Cheng finally cursed. “Who had them go out? Is this not depriving Us of people?”

The guard said in fear, “It was Your Majesty’s order!”

“What did you say?” Yu Cheng was stunned.

The guard kowtowed. “Your Majesty, they all left on order of Your Majesty.”

Yu Cheng scowled.

After a while, he said, “Understood. We forgot. You are dismissed.”

For someone of the Immortal Emperor’s power to forget who he had dispatched was truly unbelievable, but the guard didn’t dare to question it, and withdrew.

Once the guard was gone, Yu Cheng descended into his Sea of Cognition.

The Sea of Cognition was empty, but Yu Cheng knew that the existence he was seeking was hidden in its shadows.

“Tang Jie, come out!” Yu Cheng shouted.

Nobody answered.

“Tang Jie, come out!” Yu Cheng shouted again. “I know it’s you messing around!”

“Haaa…” There was a long sigh.

Tang Jie’s voice rang out, “Since you know, why are you here? Are you really going to ask why I’m doing this, as if you don’t already know?”

Yu Cheng froze.

Yes, what was there to ask?

He had just ordered for Tang Jie’s original body to be killed, so why wouldn’t Tang Jie’s avatar counterattack?

Yu Cheng grunted. “So you canceled the order I gave to Warheaven Wolf? But then why did you send off everyone else as well?”

Black smoke gathered to form Tang Jie’s face.

He smiled at Yu Cheng. “‘Canceled’? Not at all. I didn’t cancel the order you gave to Warheaven Wolf. He’s still leading the Gale Army to the Rosecloud Domain.”

“Why?” Yu Cheng said in surprise.

“Because that would be pointless. Even if I called him back, couldn’t you just send him out again? And you could additionally order him to not accept any further commands.”

Yu Cheng narrowed his eyes. “So…”

“I sent Hong Beicang to stop Warheaven Wolf, but I didn’t give him an imperial decree,” Tang Jie chuckled.

Yu Cheng gasped. “Warheaven Wolf would never withdraw his troops on Hong Beicang’s word without an imperial decree.”

“Correct. I don’t want him to obey,” Tang Jie chuckled. “Don’t forget that Hong Beicang took the Sea Pacifying Army to stop Warheaven Wolf.”

Yu Cheng instantly understood what was going on and roared, “Bastard, you want them to kill each other!”

“You forced my hand,” Tang Jie darkly said. “This is a lesson. If you want to try again, I will issue even more absurd orders.”

Yu Cheng understood the situation he was in.

It was no wonder Tang Jie had dispatched all his Gold Immortals, because this would temporarily strip him of subordinates, and since Warheaven Wolf and Hong Beicang had both departed some time ago, even someone of Yu Cheng’s powers wouldn’t be able to notify them in time.

Hong Beicang and Warheaven Wolf were both famous in the court for their tempers, and they were normally rather hostile to each other. Given that their missions were at cross purposes, a fight was inevitable. Yu Cheng could only hope that they didn’t fight to the point where they actually killed each other—he had a keen understanding of Tang Jie’s ways.

Yu Cheng angrily glared at Tang Jie. “Tell me: how did you do it? You shouldn’t be able to control this body anymore.”

“Did you really think that in the one year I had control of this body while traversing the void, I did nothing except travel?”

“I knew that you would try something, but…”

“But you thought you had stopped them all, right?” Tang Jie smiled. “Clearly, you didn’t.”

Possession and counter-possession was an endless tug of war. Although Tang Jie was the loser most of the time, when he was patient, he could forcefully take possession at the right moment.

This was an opportunity he had gained for himself in that year traversing the void.

It was a very short time, but it had been enough for him to accomplish a lot.

Yu Cheng thought that he had control over everything, and he wasn’t wrong. He had control 99% of the time, but that 1% was enough to cause him huge problems.

Tang Jie no longer had the patience to keep up appearances with Yu Cheng.

The face of black smoke snarled, “Yu Cheng, the vast majority of this body’s time is yours, but so long as I’m willing, I can take some time for myself. Today’s events are a lesson and a warning to not try and touch me again. If there’s a next time, it won’t be as simple as all your people being dispatched. You will find that all your secrets are no longer secrets, that all your subordinates will be in disarray, that your enemies will attack you at the most unexpected moments, and that even your cultivation will have fallen into energy corruption, never to recover! Don’t provoke me—this is your last warning…”

The black smoke dissipated into the Sea of Cognition.

“Bastard!” Yu Cheng’s face was white with anger.

He was Yu Cheng, the Immortal Emperor, sovereign over the myriad domains!

Everyone was humiliated before him, and not even the Heavenly Dao could make him afraid. No one had ever made him suffer a big loss before. But this Tang Jie was able to make his temper rise whenever they interacted.

He could handle it when it happened right after he had been reborn, but this time… he was truly furious.

Nobody had ever toyed with him like this before.

“Just wait! One day, I’ll completely eradicate you,” Yu Cheng muttered as he withdrew from his Sea of Cognition.

From that day forward, he no longer discussed dealing with the Rosecloud Domain, nor did he bring up Warheaven Wolf or Hong Beicang.

————————————————————

The endless void.

A giant azure planet was flying through the void.

In the 120 years the Court of Myriad Domains was going on the offensive, the Rosecloud Domain had been developing.

Unlike Yu Cheng’s tyrannical return that stunned the world, the Rosecloud Domain’s journey through the stars was like Tang Jie’s Heavenly Dao Realm, not shocking the world in any way but still surviving and growing stronger in its own way.

After the Divine Spring Domain, the Rosecloud Domain had merged with three other small worlds, growing even larger.

This massive expansion had brought about a heaven-shaking transformation in the Rosecloud Domain. A larger world, more resources, and an ever-growing pool of experience caused more and more cultivators to break through their bottlenecks and ascend to higher levels.

This sort of breakthrough was worldwide, and while its effect wasn’t as obvious as that of Holy Soul Water, it was more widespread and persistent, raising the overall level of strength.

Of course, this sort of improvement manifested among the middle- and lower-level cultivators. For high-level cultivators, a larger world gave them room to improve, but not enough to show the effects in one hundred years.

They needed more time, more resources.

The Hall of Divine Conference.

Tang Jie was seated in meditation.

After reaching Immortal Platform, Tang Jie once more entered the Hall of Divine Conference, becoming the manager of the Rosecloud Domain. As for Yun Tianlan, he had headed back into seclusion, only appearing for cultivator wars.

Through 120 years of cultivation, Tang Jie had risen to the middle phase of Earth Immortal. It was only thanks to all the resources plundered through each cultivator war that Tang Jie was able to get this far. Otherwise, if he had to rely on annual production and the local resources, reaching the middle phase would take at least a thousand years. War had hastened this process of accumulation and allowed him to speedily develop.

Still, to reach the late phase, then the peak, and then attain True Immortal would take at least eight hundred years.

For the vast majority of cultivators, going from Earth Immortal to True Immortal in under a thousand years was absurd speed, but this was too long for Tang Jie.

He knew that the Rosecloud Domain didn’t have much time.

In the near future, a threat would emerge.

Not only from the Court of Myriad Domains, but also from the opposite side of the world…

“There’s not much time…” Tang Jie sighed.

And then he chuckled. “It’s fine. Yu Cheng sent me a gift: two Gold Immortals! If I use them properly, I can break through in just ten years.”

At this moment, a page boy knocked on the door and entered. “Celestial Sovereign!” ᴛʜs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛʀ s ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛ ʙʏ novelꞁire.net

“Yes?”

“Celestial Sovereign, the Sect Master has asked me to inform you that the tasks you assigned are all complete, and he is awaiting your next command!”

“It’s all done?” Tang Jie smiled. “Then we just need to wait for our honored guests.”

——————————————————————————————————

Author’s Note: A friend asked, “Didn’t the Immortal Emperor think that he had already killed Tang Jie last time?” Let me explain: this isn’t a “bug”, but an oversight. In my notes, Yu Cheng already knows at this time that Tang Jie is alive. The reason he knows is very simple: the cultivator wars. As the Immortal Emperor, Yu Cheng would want to know what was happening in the chiliocosm, and there is no way he would be uninterested in the Rosecloud Domain. And the Rosecloud Domain setting off on the path of the stars and growing stronger is no small affair. Thus, the Immortal Emperor learned that Tang Jie wasn’t dead.

The problem was that I forgot to emphasize this point while writing. This is my mistake. What happened was that when the Immortals were reporting on the Rosecloud Domain, the Immortal Emperor learned that Tang Jie hadn’t died. I didn’t write this out, and to make up for my error, I added this explanation and ask for your forgiveness.