Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Tang Jie sat cross-legged in the air, floating high in the heavens.

Down below, the glorious cloudscape of the Rosecloud Domain unrolled itself before his Divine Will.

But even with his limitless Divine Will, Tang Jie could only see one corner of the Rosecloud Domain. Having consumed ten-some domains, the Rosecloud Domain was no longer the small world of the past. It was growing stronger like a cultivator, the path of the stars its own kind of cultivation.

This was the relationship between the humans of the Great Stellar Chiliocosm and nature. People could grow, and so could worlds, and only worlds that were large enough could nurture cultivators that were strong enough.

Then what about the Primordial Fog Domain? Was it the same?

Was it because the Primordial Fog was the negative side of the chiliocosm, the myriad domains united into one, that it had so many terrifying Titans?

Tang Jie couldn’t help but wonder.

Furthermore, why was it that the positive plane was broken up while the negative plane was united, and why did the negative plane invade once every three thousand years?

Could this all be the will of the Heavenly Dao?

Was it for purging? Or some other reason?

After some thought, Tang Jie shook his head. “Is the world heartless and treating all things as fodder? Or is this the Dao of the world seeking balance, Yin and Yang in equilibrium? Or perhaps I can only understand when I get there.”

With a wave of his hand, he cast down sparkling golden grains of sand.

This golden sand became a desert, and as Tang Jie threw in more resources, a rich Earth Element energy began to gather, transforming the entire environment. The animals living in this golden desert began to roar as they evolved into fiends. With another wave, he drew numerous formation lines over the desert, and then he departed. This desert rich in spiritual energy was nothing more than an unremarkable node of the Eight Ocean Mountains.

As Tang Jie flew about, mountains, forests, lakes, canyons, and plains would appear across the Rosecloud Domain…

There were also even more unremarkable nodes, like featureless slopes, a remote and muddy pond, a neighbor’s house, the garden of a wealthy man, or even just a flower, a grain of sand, a drop of water…

There would also be the occasional living target, like a cat, dog, a scavenging fiend. Even a broken-down cart could serve as a formation node.

But more of the nodes were beyond human vision.

Deep in the ocean, down in the bowels of the earth, or even high up in the sky. These places, too, could serve as nodes.

These nodes were spread across the Rosecloud Domain, their numbers in the millions. Linked together by invisible formation lines, they formed a world-spanning formation that was waiting for the right moment to emerge.

Strangely, Tang Jie chose to lay down the Eight Ocean Mountains all on his own, asking for no one else’s help, including Hong Shenji.

It took ten years.

He traveled all across the Rosecloud Domain in this time, the nodes thoroughly covering the world such that he could claim a complete understanding of it.

When the last node was laid down, the entire Rosecloud Domain gave off a brilliant glow. Although it was only for a moment, everyone had the same feeling, as if their Fates had been linked to this world. The more sensitive even started to weep or sigh, and the extremely talented were instantly enlightened and immediately rose to the next level.

And Tang Jie knew all of this.

On another plane of existence, countless threads covered the world like a web of starlight. All of these threads were connected to Tang Jie, and as a result, Tang Jie could hear everything they thought, the vast flood of information instantly exploding into his mind.

Unfortunately, he did not have the Dao of Wisdom’s support. If this were the avatar who had entered the Dao of Wisdom, he could have used Wisdom to instantly analyze and digest all this information. The Dao of Formations was under Truth, which provided information, and Wisdom analyzed this information, making it the perfect partner.

Alas, the original Tang Jie couldn’t enter Daos, so this was naturally not possible.

Fortunately, he had another way.

Activating the Heavenly Dao Realm, he created a complicated web of starlight in his Sea of Cognition which replaced Tang Jie in receiving, processing, and organizing all this information, filtering it all before providing Tang Jie with a final report. He had essentially used the Heavenly Dao Realm to create a “system” for this express purpose, and even when the Heavenly Dao Realm was inactive, this system would remain, only requiring some energy to maintain. This amount was so minuscule that even a Mortal Shedding Spirit Master could do it.

With this system, Tang Jie could freely and clearly sense every existence linked to it.

Casting his mind into the distance, he soon saw Xu Miaoran in meditation. He lightly called out, “Miaoran, Miaoran!”

Xu Miaoran shivered and looked around, then questioningly called out, “Husband, is that you?”

“It’s me. I’ve finished with the Eight Ocean Mountains. Starting from now, no matter where you are, you just need to call out and I can sense you,” Tang Jie replied with a laugh.

“The speak-not, think-not level?” Joy appeared in Xu Miaoran’s eyes.

“Even better,” Tang Jie replied.

Speak-not, think-not was only a vague sensation, whereas Tang Jie could freely communicate, and with whoever he wanted.

He then went to see his kids.

His daughter, Tang Zixi, was cultivating within a monastery in the city of Wuyou. She had spent ten years here, acting as a normal person and immersing herself in the mortal world. But none of this could affect her mood, and she exuded the aura of an ancestor.

His son, Tang Xuanyu, was traveling the world. He was the adventurous sort, and he enjoyed exploring mountains and valleys in search of hidden realms. Alas, all the valuable hidden realms of the Rosecloud Domain had been placed under control ages ago, and finding an unexplored one was as difficult as ascending to the heavens. Even so, with his talent in Space, Tang Xuanyu had managed to find one, and he was excitedly exploring it with a few friends.

Tang Jie investigated this area, as the Eight Ocean Mountains allowed him to sense all the information of the world, not just its inhabitants, so long as he wanted it. Thus, he quickly got the lay of the land and found that there were several areas in this hidden realm that could pose a danger to Violet Palace True Lords. He wanted to warn his son to be careful, but after some thought, he decided not to. He had to face things on his own.

After seeing his kids, Tang Jie turned his mind to the Zephyr Mountains, looking to Yun Tianlan.

At that moment, Yun Tianlan sensed something and looked up at Tang Jie with a smile. Tang Jie could suddenly no longer sense Yun Tianlan, as if he had vanished from the world. But a moment later, Yun Tianlan appeared again, saying, “Is that you, Tang Jie?”

Tang Jie replied, “Ancestor is as sharp as ever. It is indeed me. The Eight Ocean Mountains is complete. I was in the middle of testing it, but alas, I couldn’t hide it from Ancestor.”

Yun Tianlan chuckled. “It was the phenomenon in the sky that hinted to me that you had completed the formation, so I was already looking out for it. This allowed me to react the moment I sensed something strange. If I were unprepared and in battle, I definitely wouldn’t have noticed.”

“In other words, there’s a chance of obscuring it from a True Immortal?”

“Mm, but it would be impossible against a Gold Immortal.”

“That’s fine,” Tang Jie indifferently said. “This formation wasn’t meant to be used against Gold Immortals anyway… It’s for raising Gold Immortals.” Follow current novels on noᴠelfire.net

Yun Tianlan laughed. “Indeed, it’s for raising Gold Immortals… I was doubtful of the Eight Ocean Mountains’ functions, but it seems that it’s working exactly as I expected. With this formation, I can sense the world’s core and successfully ascend!”

“But we’re still far from sensing the core. Many more offerings would be required,” Tang Jie replied.

Yes, this was the real function of the Eight Ocean Mountains. Its original purpose was to assist a cultivator in comprehending a world’s core, thus allowing one to become a Boundless Gold Immortal.

But this didn’t mean that one could sense the core the moment the formation was established. No such formation existed.

For a cultivator to sense the core, they needed to make numerous offerings to the formation to increase the formation’s power, expanding its powers from sensing all beings to sensing all things, and then finally stimulating the core and sensing it.

Getting the formation to sense the core meant resolving many more problems, like the offerings, the information explosion Tang Jie had just experienced, and finally stimulating the core and understanding the core.

But Tang Jie had resolved most of these problems. With the Heavenly Dao Realm, Tang Jie had established a system that both he and Yun Tianlan could use. As for stimulating the core, in his battle with the Rootless Tree Ancestor, Tang Jie had gained a much deeper understanding of cores, so stimulating the core was no longer a problem for him. He just needed the right moment.

As for offerings…

“There will be offerings,” Yun Tianlan answered, a sharp light in his eyes.

The fiends and demons of the Primordial Fog Domain would all be offerings for this formation. While the Eight Ocean Mountains wasn’t a formation meant for combat, this was a formation built on the entire world. Any fiend or demon that entered it would essentially be entering the belly of a top-class Immortal formation. All the formation needed to do was “digest” them…

Yun Tianlan was full of anticipation—anticipation for the Primordial Fog Domain’s invasion, anticipation for the arrival of the demons.

Tang Jie was also looking forward to this day.

…Not merely because this calamity was also an opportunity, but also because he was waiting for and missing that child…

Gazing up at the heavens, Tang Jie muttered, “Bao’er, it’s been a thousand years. Are you still doing well?”

Inky storm clouds were brewing on the horizon, as if announcing that winter was coming.