Aspiring to the Immortal Path

“It’s you!” Tang Jie shouted in disbelief.

This Heavenly Maiden Qingyang had the appearance of the Pearl Lady!

Tang Jie had witnessed the Pearl Lady burying plants and seen a statue of her, so he was very clear on what she looked like. While this Heavenly Maiden Qingyang seemed much more mature, there was no hiding the fact that she was identical in appearance to the Nine Heavens Pearl Lady.

‘Qingyang’…

‘Murong Qingya’, ‘Li Jiuyang’? Tang Jie suddenly recalled these two names.

(TN: I mistranslated a line in Chapter 823. When I put “pretty little scoundrel”, Immortal Ji Yao was actually saying the name of the Pearl Lady, Murong Qingya.)

The Lustrous Jade Heaven’s master was also taken aback by Tang Jie’s words. “Sir, do you know me?”

Tang Jie immediately punched the air.

Devil Crushing Fist!

As expected, the Lustrous Jade Heaven Master paled, her body trembling. “You… you…”

Tang Jie stepped forward. “Tang Jie pays respects to Martial Mother!”

As he spoke, he secretly used the Heavenly Dao Realm to examine her. No disguise could survive the Heavenly Dao Realm. Only when Tang Jie confirmed that the Lustrous Jade Heaven Master was exactly as she appeared did he sigh in relief.

He would not be fooled by the same trick twice.

Heavenly Maiden Qingyang reeled at Tang Jie’s words.

She stared at Tang Jie for a while before finally managing to say, “You… are Jiuyang’s successor?”

As expected!

Tang Jie bowed and answered, “Correct, Martial Mother. This disciple was fortunate enough to receive the Martial Lord’s legacy and step through the gate of cultivation.”

Heavenly Maiden Qingyang took in a deep breath.

She carefully examined Tang Jie for a while and then said, “Come with me. The rest of you, disperse.”

The attendants withdrew, and Heavenly Maiden Qingyang led Tang Jie to the Immortal palace.

Heavenly Maiden Qingyang led him to a garden, and in the depths of the garden was a small pavilion.

Qingyang invited Tang Jie to sit, and a tea set appeared within the pavilion. The silver teapot flew up on its own, pouring fragrant tea into a jade cup for Tang Jie.

“Please drink!” Heavenly Maiden Qingyang said.

“Many thanks, Martial Mother.” Tang Jie drained the cup without checking its contents, and he immediately felt a warmth travel through his body. Despite his already profound strength, he found that the tea somehow managed to further refine his soul.

“An excellent tea!” Tang Jie blurted out.

Heavenly Maiden Qingyang smiled. “This is Lustrous Jade Tea. I first mix the Moon Marrow and Rainbow Immortal Dew of my small world, and then I roast the leaves for 999 years with Polar Ice Flame, and all that for only a single pot’s worth. I rarely can bring myself to drink it, so it’s naturally an excellent tea.”

“Oh? Why 999 years?” Tang Jie asked.

Heavenly Maiden Qingyang replied, “The Great Dao is not complete. To go too far is just as bad as not enough.”

“‘The Great Dao is not complete. To go too far is just as bad as not enough’…” Tang Jie pondered these words, and then he bowed to Heavenly Maiden Qingyang. “Thank you for the instruction, Martial Mother.”

Heavenly Maiden Qingyang replied, “Every person has their own Dao. I speak of my own Dao, so this cannot be considered instructing you. Given that you were able to reach Boundless in less than ten thousand years, you do not need my instruction. Right, how long have you cultivated?”

“Fourteen hundred years,” Tang Jie answered.

Qingyang was shaken. “Only fourteen hundred years?”

Even with her composure as a Boundless Gold Immortal, she was still stunned by Tang Jie’s cultivation speed.

After a while, she returned to her senses and said, “Tell me how you obtained Jiuyang’s legacy.”

Tang Jie told everything he had experienced to her, holding nothing back.

When she heard that Tang Jie had seen the Martial Lord fighting against the Court of Myriad Domains within the Martial Mirror, she softly sighed, tears welling up in her eyes as she recalled the sight.

Tang Jie gave only a rough summary of his own experiences, but he was very detailed when he spoke of the Martial Lord.

He described all he had seen in the Martial Mirror, the various arrangements in the Martial Lord’s hidden realm, what he had seen in the Myriad Court shard, of the Immortal Emperor, and of course, he spoke of Immortal Ji Yao.

Heavenly Maiden Qingyang couldn’t help but shake her head. “Thinking back on it, there are still many things that seem unbelievable and absurd. Only today do I learn from you that the matter between me, Immortal Ji Yao, and Jiuyang was the scheme of that scoundrel the Azure Dragon.”

Her voice was stricken with sorrow.

Tang Jie had revived those ancient memories, and tears incessantly fell from her eyes.

Tang Jie knew that this was the time. “Martial Mother, just what in the world happened back then? Why would the Martial Lord rebel against the Court of Myriad Domains for your sake? And how did you become the master of the Lustrous Jade Heaven?”

Heavenly Maiden Qingyang sighed.

She first drained her cup of Lustrous Jade Tea, and then she gazed into the distance as if there was something there. After a while, she finally began to speak. “I was once good friends with Immortal Ji Yao, but because of Jiuyang, we gradually grew hostile to each other. In the end, even the court was dragged into it…”

Back then, the Nine Heavens Pearl Lady and Iceheart Lotus Lady could be said to have had countless fans in the court. Their break-up had essentially created a schism among the Immortals.

What was love? Love meant that you liked someone, that you were willing to plunge into danger for their happiness. In the court, there were many Immortals willing to serve as loyal soldiers for these two women.

The love triangle at its most extreme had truly been on the verge of turning the Court of Myriad Domains upside-down.

But the ultimate loser of this struggle could only be Immortal Ji Yao.

There was only the Nine Heavens Pearl Lady in the heart of Li Jiuyang. No matter how Immortal Ji Yao struggled, she could never win, fighting a battle that was always going to end in defeat.

At the climax, Immortal Ji Yao became a demon.

Using the power of the Demon Dao, Immortal Ji Yao broke into the Boundless and caused chaos in the Court of Myriad Domains. At this point, her mind had become completely twisted, and she swore to kill Li Jiuyang and the Pearl Lady. The two were no match and fled, at the same time prompting many Immortals to come to their aid.

But Immortal Ji Yao had entered the Dao of Space, and with her rise in cultivation, she was even harder to deal with. Not only did they fail to capture her, she managed to kill many Immortals. Only when the Sage Lord of Cosmic Origin and the Omnidragon Ancestor, two of the court’s Four Sages, intervened, were they able to capture her. The Immortal Emperor had been traveling at the time, and when he returned and learned of what had happened, he was furious.

The Immortal Emperor believed that while Immortal Ji Yao was guilty, Li Jiuyang was the culprit behind the Lotus Lady’s rebellion, so he ordered for Li Jiuyang to be executed along with her.

The Pearl Lady wanted to protect her love and desperately sought support, but in the end, she could only get the sentence reduced to imprisonment in the Primordial Fog Demon Jail.

“‘The Primordial Fog Demon Jail’?” Tang Jie was taken aback.

What was that? What relationship did it have to the Primordial Fog Domain?

Heavenly Maiden Qingyang explained, “When the Immortal Emperor charged into the Primordial Fog, he was only able to clear out some demons before retreating, after which he established the Myriad Heavens Stellar Divine Net, restructuring the cosmos. Since he was the one who had laid down this formation, he could create holes in it. One of the nodes of the Stellar Divine Net was located in the court, and from there, one could go to the Primordial Fog Domain. The Immortal Emperor had already isolated that region of the Primordial Fog Domain, so it became the Demon Jail of the Court of Myriad Domains, used to hold those God Immortals who had committed great crimes but not enough to be executed. It was at that time that Jiuyang and Immortal Ji Yao were thrown into the Demon Jail. When the Immortal Emperor threw them in, he said, ‘Since you three have such deep affection for each other, We shall judge you three together. As a human, you and the Pearl Lady were husband and wife. As a demon, you are partners with Immortal Ji Yao…'”

Tang Jie was stunned.

The Pearl (Yao) Lady as the human wife, Immortal Ji Yao as the demon wife… Yu Cheng was truly creative.

But things didn’t go as he expected. Not only did Li Jiuyang not become a demon, instead he grew stronger and even escaped the Demon Jail, returning to the humans’ plane and shattering the Court of Myriad Domains.

His way of escaping was very simple.

The Demon Jail was originally part of the Primordial Fog Domain, so he did everything he could to break the Immortal Emperor’s isolation seals and create a path for himself, entering the greater Primordial Fog Domain. From there, he could find a way back into the humans’ plane.

But this man was rather ruthless, backstabbing Immortal Ji Yao as he escaped. Apparently, it was Immortal Ji Yao and Li Jiuyang who had worked together to make the passage. Moreover, Immortal Ji Yao, as the Boundless Gold Immortal, had contributed much more than Li Jiuyang. But after the passage was opened, Immortal Ji Yao had let Li Jiuyang go first, and when Li Jiuyang escaped, he restored the seal and closed the passage, ending any hope of Immortal Ji Yao’s escape and leaving her heartbroken.

The Court of Myriad Domains had learned all of this after the fact by interrogating Immortal Ji Yao.

After learning what had happened, to prevent Immortal Ji Yao from escaping again, Yu Cheng severed the Demon Jail from the Primordial Fog Domain and found a place in the chiliocosm to put it, which ended up being the Verdant Cloud Domain.

At the same time, the Pearl Lady’s life became difficult.

Yu Cheng believed that since Li Jiuyang hadn’t become a demon, then if he could endure for three thousand years until the next Primordial Fog Calamity, he would come back to find the Pearl Lady. Thus, he decided to use the Pearl Lady as bait to capture him.

Fortunately, the Pearl Lady still had many supporters who had crushes on her. When they learned of the Immortal Emperor’s decision, they secretly informed the Pearl Lady, who chose to escape.

Before leaving, she picked the Nine Heavens Luan Grass that she had planted.

After leaving the Court of Myriad Domains, she wandered the cosmos, trying to evade the court.

Until one day, she arrived at a secluded paradise.

The Pearl Lady was taken by its beauty.

She took up residence there, raising this hidden realm like it was a small world. She planted the Immortal herbs she had brought with her in that valley, and then she cast the egg of a Sacred Beast she had stolen into a pool of lava, and then she created a lake of spiritual energy and laid down a top-class Immortal formation…

Tang Jie trembled.

He stared at Heavenly Maiden Qingyang in shock. “You… That hidden realm…”

“I was the one who left behind that hidden realm, as well as the Martial Mirror, the arts, the statue, and the pill,” Heavenly Maiden Qingyang replied. “That was never the Martial Lord’s hidden realm, but the Pearl Lady’s hidden realm.”