Aspiring to the Immortal Path

One month later, the merging of the Rosecloud Domain and Floating Rock Domain officially came to an end.

Tang Jie began to take stock of the affairs of the Floating Rock Domain.

At present, excluding Elder Tian Huang, who had died in battle, the Floating Rock Domain had three Earth Immortals and a little more than a hundred Violet Palace True Lords. As the domain had elected to submit, these Titans had almost all elected to join Rosecloud as well, accepting its arrangements. Just as Tang Jie had predicted, an army under the banner of salvation greatly reduced hostility and won hearts and minds, at the same time preserving the strength of the human cultivators.

The three Earth Immortals of the Floating Rock Domain were the Sect Master of the Cloudbreak Sect, Xiong Yuefei;

the Sect Master of the Yellow Sand Sect, Bai Wanhao;

and an outsider Immortal who had taken up residence, Fairy True Illusion. Of them, Xiong Yuefei possessed the highest cultivation level, being at the late phase of Earth Immortal and not far from reaching its peak. Most rare of all was that he was ambitious and intelligent. The Cloudbreak Sect had been a minor sect of the Floating Rock Domain, but under his leadership, it had gradually developed into one of the three great sects of the domain, second only to the Five Mountains Sect.

When Elder Tian Huang had decided on a decisive battle against the demons, Xiong Yuefei was the only person who opposed it, pointing out that the Floating Rock Domain lacked any of the conditions to engage in a decisive battle.

Alas, Elder Tian Huang rejected Xiong Yuefei’s proposal and insisted on a battle, which resulted in a terrible defeat. If not for Tang Jie’s timely arrival, the Floating Rock Domain would have been turned into a hellscape.

With this incident in mind, Tang Jie treated Xiong Yuefei very well, even personally holding a banquet to welcome him. Xiong Yuefei was shocked by this show of favor, and swore his loyalty.

From this day forward, the Rosecloud Domain had three more Immortal Platform experts.

Besides people, there were also resources.

The Floating Rock Domain’s Breathsoil, Wrathstone, and Scarlet Smoke Sand were all valuable resources of the chiliocosm, of which Breathsoil was the most valuable. In legends, Breathsoil was hailed as an endless soil, and if it were made into a dam, it could grow endlessly such that no flood could overcome it. Of course, mortals didn’t understand the principles of cultivators and tended to exaggerate. There was nothing truly endless in the world, but Breathsoil could constantly gather Earth Element energy, which made cultivating Earth Element arts much more efficient.

This treasure was extremely rare, even in the Floating Rock Domain, and only the Five Mountains Sect and a few other great sects had a small stockpile. When Tang Jie examined them, he found that Breathsoil was actually linked to the domain, most likely some kind of substance that could extract energy from the core. What was a resource for others was for Tang Jie another way to comprehend cores.

As for Wrathstone, it was a spirit stone that contained spiritual energy, but unlike regular spirit stones, it contained a particularly violent spiritual energy. If cultivators used it, it could easily make their spiritual energy go wild, which would also boost the power of spell arts for a short time.

This was essentially a spirit stone that could temporarily boost spell arts, with the boost going as high as 50%. Although it used a great deal of spiritual energy that could leave one weakened in the aftermath, and was difficult to control, it was still popular among cultivators as an explosive trump card. But for an existence of Tang Jie’s level, it was basically useless and could only serve as a trading resource.

Scarlet Smoke Sand was the most common of the three special resources of the Floating Rock Domain, and it was the one that Tang Jie needed the most. It was a formation resource, and it had the ability to emulate the properties of many other kinds of Earth Element resources and serve as their substitute. This greatly reduced the resource pressure Tang Jie faced from refining the domain.

For an individual cultivator, Breathsoil was the most important, but from an overall perspective, the most common and least valuable Scarlet Smoke Sand was the most useful.

Thus, Tang Jie quickly issued the order to limit the trading of Breathsoil and Scarlet Smoke Sand, with all production of these resources belonging to the Basking Moon Sect. Wrathstone had no limitations, but it was under wartime rules so could only be sold to the united cultivator army.

This predictably drew backlash, so Tang Jie quickly announced that the original owners of these resources could exchange them for resources of equivalent value from Rosecloud, and this would be regarded as a contribution that could be exchanged for a chance to grow stronger using the Eight Ocean Mountains.

Everyone already knew about the ability of the Eight Ocean Mountains to make a person stronger.

And when they learned that the Rosecloud Domain turned demons into fuel for their growth, the natives of the Floating Rock Domain grew even more excited.

This desire for power made those people who had once lived in fear of the demons start looking forward to the future.

A larger world with more spiritual energy also made the cultivation conditions of the Rosecloud Domain better than before.

The time it took to handle the affairs of the merged world took far more time than the actual merger. But after Tang Jie issued a series of decrees, the general situation was stabilized. Of course, there were still some small problems, like some diehard patriots who wanted to break off again now that the demons had retreated.

Tang Jie was merciless in suppressing such rebels.

While merging, the Rosecloud Domain continued on its path of the stars.

Any uninhabited planetoids, asteroids, or other domains it came across that it considered to have value were devoured.

It opened its giant maw and ate up all that it could.

The people living on this massive domain worked away, modifying, refining, and improving this domain.

Domains large and small, inhabited and uninhabited, were devoured by the Rosecloud Domain.

The Rosecloud Domain was a voracious behemoth traveling through the starry sky, growing larger and larger, stronger and stronger.

The Rosecloud Domain had started off as a medium-to-small domain, and after its first path of the stars, it had grown into a large domain.

Now, it was reaching the threshold of a super-large domain.

As the communicator and controller of the domain core, Tang Jie felt this transformation most profoundly.

Each domain merging brought along immense growth to the Rosecloud Domain’s core.

This was achieved by devouring the cores of other domains. At the same time, Tang Jie’s connection with Rosecloud’s core deepened.

The refining of the Rosecloud Domain was also progressing.

This massive engineering project was like cultivation, perhaps never having an end. The only change was that Tang Jie had greater control over the Rosecloud Domain.

Communicating with the core was controlling the insides of the domain, and the formation let him control the surface of the domain.

Controlling both at the same time signified that Tang Jie’s control over the entire Rosecloud Domain was rapidly growing.

For this reason, in just five years, Tang Jie estimated that he had accomplished what would normally take five hundred years for a Gold Immortal.

Of course, at Boundless, one’s lifespan was almost limitless, and five hundred years was still short. But not even Tang Jie could say that he was dissatisfied at achieving in five what would have needed five hundred years.

Yet for some reason, deep down, Tang Jie was worried.

A seed had taken root deep in his heart, and its budding instilled in him inexplicable terror.

One day, the Rosecloud Domain was flying through the void as usual.

The three Immortal formations of the Rosecloud Domain had finished their basic framework, and the domain was moving faster and faster.

After a long journey, this domain finally reached a region sparkling with starlight.

The two cultivators atop Starsnatch Pagoda reported:

“Domain Lord, the Rosecloud Domain is about to enter the Lustrous Jade Star Cluster!”

“Understood,” Tang Jie replied.

The Primordial Fog Domain had its 99 Demon Regions, and the Stellar Chiliocosm had the 33 Heavens.

There were two definitions of the 33 Heavens. The first was the 33 star clusters of the Great Stellar Chiliocosm. The Great Stellar Chiliocosm had 33 major star clusters, and other than that, there were some scattered domains not within these clusters. The Rosecloud Domain had belonged to a small star cluster that was not among the 33, considered part of the wilderness of the Great Stellar Chiliocosm. Finally, a barbarian had emerged from the wilderness and reached civilization.

The other definition referred to the 33 Immortal Realms of Saint Immortals, the so-called Heavens Beyond Heavens. It was said that the 33 Heavens Beyond Heavens were founded by Boundless Gold Immortals and Dao-Proving Saint Immortals.

Immortals were undying, so even though achieving Sainthood was difficult, each one that achieved this level was essentially an eternal existence.

The 33 star clusters corresponded to the 33 Heavens Beyond Heavens. The star clusters originally had no names, but once the Heavens Beyond Heavens came into being, the star clusters gained names as a method of expressing respect for these Titans.

The Court of Myriad Domains was also a Heaven Beyond Heavens. It was then known as the Saint Court Heaven, and it was located at the Vast Wilderness Continent.

The Vast Wilderness Continent was so large that it alone was considered a star cluster, the leader of the 33 Heavens.

But after Immortal Emperor Yu Cheng’s revival, the remaining Heavens Beyond Heavens refused to recognize Yu Cheng as their leader.

Most of the masters of the Heavens Beyond Heavens were ascetic cultivators who were isolated from the world. For them, there existed only the Great Dao, and it did not matter who came first and who came later. When Scarlet Pine had claimed that the Stellar Net Gate and Heaven’s Equal Sect had worked together with the 72 sects of Vast Wilderness and the 33 Heavens, he had been exaggerating. At most five of the 33 Heavens had intervened. If all 33 had joined, then Yu Cheng would have been doomed no matter how powerful he was.

The vast majority of the Heavens Beyond Heavens cared nothing for what went on outside them. Even during demon invasions, they simply closed up and defended themselves.

Of course, there were exceptions.

Like the Three Sages Ancestor who had attempted to ambush Yu Cheng.

And this one right now…

A booming voice penetrated through the endless void, arriving over the skies of the Rosecloud Domain:

“Who dares to intrude on my Lustrous Jade Heaven!”

Tang Jie answered, “Tang Jie of Rosecloud. I lead the Rosecloud Domain across the void, vanquishing demons and rescuing humans, uniting all of humanity against the Primordial Fog Calamity!”

That voice replied, “The Primordial Fog Calamity does not need your resistance. It will retreat on its own in one hundred years. You are not welcome here, so leave at once. If you dare to go any farther, you will be considered an intruder and treated without mercy!”