Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Being captured by the Court of Myriad Domains was both a coincidence and an inevitability.

This was because the Court of Myriad Domains hadn’t come looking for her. They had been searching for the missing Immortal Emperor.

In the time when Li Jiuyang and his wife had secluded themselves, Immortal Emperor Yu Cheng had inexplicably vanished. The court announced to the public that the Immortal Emperor was in seclusion, but the upper echelons actually believed that he was dead. The only ones who knew the truth were the Immortal Emperor’s trusted subordinates who had also used the Fake Sky, False Sun Immortal Art and were already “dead”.

Regardless, the Immortal Emperor’s absence had the court in a panic.

They dispatched people to search for the Immortal Emperor’s traces.

And they ended up being quite capable, finding some clues. They found out that the Immortal Emperor was last spotted in the wilderness outside the 33 Heaven Star Clusters, a year’s travel from the Rosecloud Domain.

Coincidentally, the secluded paradise where the Pearl Lady was living was in the area, so when the court’s people were searching this place, they happened to run into her. Considering that the Pearl Lady was wanted by the court, they decided to capture her.

Those who captured her naturally didn’t know that they were bringing disaster upon themselves, provoking a terrifying Titan.

The Martial Lord attacked!

Wielding his Sovereign Blade in the form of an axe, he shattered all weapons and cleaved apart the court. Even the Four Sages, the strongest existences of the court, failed to defeat him.

He was an unstoppable god, singlehandedly crushing the army of the court.

On that day, he stunned all the Immortals, and he stunned the Nine Heavens Pearl Lady.

Just when she thought that she was free and about to have a new life, she saw the most painful sight in her life, one for which she would never be able to forgive herself.

The Heavenly Dao Law Wheel appeared.

Celestial music resounding through the heavens, radiating abstruse and profound Dao Runes, imbued with the greatest and most terrifying power in the universe, the source of all and venerated by all, the unsurpassable… the Heavenly Dao!

It had appeared before all the Immortals.

And then, Martial Lord Li Jiuyang raised his axe against the Heavenly Dao Law Wheel.

Tang Jie knew what happened next.

The might of the Heavenly Dao pulverized Li Jiuyang.

Everything came to an end.

Tang Jie softly sighed.

All the riddles had finally been resolved. The source of it all was simply a tantrum thrown by the Pearl Lady. The tragic end of the Court of Myriad Domains was not down to some nefarious plot, not for some struggle over the world, simply…

Those Immortals who had captured the Pearl Lady had probably been so full of remorse that they wanted to kill themselves.

Tang Jie asked, “Then, how did Martial Mother end up becoming the master of the Lustrous Jade Heaven?”

Although the Martial Lord’s hidden realm was actually the Pearl Lady’s hidden realm, what Tang Jie had inherited was undoubtedly the Martial Lord’s legacy, so Tang Jie still chose to address the Pearl Lady as his martial mother rather than his direct master.

Qingyang replied, “After the battle, the Immortals had fallen, and those that survived were either heavily injured or fleeing, so there was no power left that could stop me from leaving. But I had just seen Jiuyang die and wanted to die myself, so just when I was about to kill everyone that was left, Saintess Lustrous Jade appeared. This was an Immortal who was a master in the Daos of Karma and Fate. She had sensed that the court was about to face disaster and come to stop it, but she had been too late. When she saw me, she used her Clearheart Universal Compassion Immortal Art to awaken the kindness in me, soothing my sorrow. Even then, I was so dispirited that not even this Universal Compassion Art could make me regain my will to live and let those people go. With no other choice, Saintess Lustrous Jade decided to expend her lifespan and divulge a secret of the heavens to me, trading that secret for the lives of the survivors.”

“‘A secret of the heavens’?” Tang Jie exclaimed, realizing something.

Qingyang smiled. “Indeed, a secret regarding the disappearance of the Immortal Emperor… hmph, the Fake Sky, False Sun Immortal Art… An impressive technique, but once I knew about that, how could I let him get his way so easily? It was him who permanently separated me from Jiuyang, so he had to pay!

“Once I knew the Immortal Emperor’s secret, I requested Saintess Lustrous Jade to make another divination for me. As a price, I could not only let those people go, I was willing to serve as her disciple and never again leave the Lustrous Jade Heaven. Master agreed and used her lifespan to make another divination. Thus, I knew what to do to maximize the damage to the Immortal Emperor. I did as Master said, returning to the hidden realm and moving it over to the Rosecloud Domain, attaching it to that domain, leaving behind Jiuyang’s legacy and making many other arrangements before leaving. I didn’t know what doing all that would accomplish, but I knew that Master had expended so much lifespan to calculate this, so it could not be wrong.”

She turned to Tang Jie. “It seems that Master was right. When I saw you, I knew that you were the one selected by Fate to ruin Yu Cheng’s plans, bringing him the greatest trouble.”

Tang Jie bitterly smiled. “‘Bringing him the greatest trouble’? It’s more like the other way around. The moment he was reborn, he took the avatar that I went to so much trouble to create. That was an avatar that had comprehended the Twelve Great Daos!”

Qingyang shook her head. “But your avatar’s will still remains in his body, no? In your view, you lost an important and powerful avatar. But in Yu Cheng’s view, his entire plan was ruined. Letting the original owner’s will survive after a possession is going to be a constant weakness in all of his future plans. You lost this avatar, but who can say if you won’t ultimately obliterate Yu Cheng’s will and take back your avatar? Perhaps your avatar might have grown much stronger by then, to your benefit.”

Tang Jie was momentarily taken aback, but he swiftly shook his head.

Qingyang painted a pretty picture, but it was a little too much. After all, Yu Cheng was no bystander. In terms of strength, Tang Jie wasn’t sure at all that he could beat Yu Cheng. Of course, he was the only Gold Immortal that he wasn’t sure he could defeat.

He now understood everything that had happened. After making those arrangements, the Pearl Lady went to the Lustrous Jade Heaven and became the disciple of Saintess Lustrous Jade, changing her name to Qingyang.

While Boundless Gold Immortals had almost infinite lifespans, Saintess Lustrous Jade, having constantly expended her lifespan to divine the secrets of Fate and Space Time, eventually ran out. Despite her strength, after divining over and over again, she died. She rather liked Qingyang, so after her death, Qingyang succeeded her position as the master of the Lustrous Jade Heaven.

“Right, Martial Mother, why does the Lustrous Jade Heaven not permit domain merging?” Tang Jie asked after the story was done.

“Do you understand what the Dao is?” Qingyang asked.

Tang Jie was surprised by the question.

After some thought, he replied, “The Daos are the rules by which all things operate.”

All things that existed had underlying principles and rules by which they operated. These rules and principles were the Daos.

In Tang Jie’s former world, these principles were called the laws of nature, but in the Great Stellar Chiliocosm, they were called the will of the Heavenly Dao.

But whatever it was called, they could all be comprehended, used, controlled, even ruled. Their only difference was in the way they manifested.

Qingyang said, “Since you know that Daos are the laws by which all things operate, let me ask you: does the Great Stellar Chiliocosm and the myriad domains within it also operate according to the laws of the world?”

Tang Jie instinctively nodded. “Yes!”

“Correct. Every domain of the Great Stellar Chiliocosm has its purpose for existing, in line with the laws of the Heavenly Dao. To merge domains is to break this law.”

Tang Jie understood Qingyang’s meaning.

She didn’t want Tang Jie to do this not out of selfish desire, but because she didn’t want Tang Jie to break the rules of the Heavenly Dao.

One domain that was constantly merging with other domains was like a cell within the body devouring other cells. It would ultimately develop into a disease.

Theoretically, if Tang Jie were allowed to keep doing this, the Great Stellar Chiliocosm would ultimately cease to exist, leaving only the Rosecloud Domain.

This universe would become the positive plane of Rosecloud and the negative plane of Primordial Fog. Both would be a single super-large continent.

Nobody knew what would happen because of this, but it was certain that this was not the original intention of the Heavenly Dao, let alone in alignment with its laws.

A Heavenly Dao that had been reversed was like a body ridden with cancer cells. The greatest possibility was the destruction of the entire universe.

Thus, the 33 Heavens did not permit domain merging.

In the past, Tang Jie had been merging domains out on the edge of the endless void, so nobody cared. But now that he was in the main star clusters of the universe, he had to deal with interference from the peak powers of the positive plane.

The masters of the Heavens Beyond Heavens, Heavenly Maiden Qingyang included, would not accept this development.

They weren’t sure if this outcome would result in annihilation, but the possibility was enough to want to stop it.

“I understand now,” Tang Jie muttered. Suddenly, he chuckled.

“Can I understand it like this? Domain merging is going against the heavens, rebelling against the Heavenly Dao?”

“Correct!”

“Then what if I insisted on going against the heavens?” Tang Jie asked. “Would Martial Mother stop me?”

Qingyang frowned. “Tang Jie, I don’t know why you would choose to go against the heavens.”

“Because that was what you arranged for me,” Tang Jie casually said.

“‘I arranged it’?” Qingyang was confused by Tang Jie’s reply.

“Yes, if not for you, I would never have obtained Master’s legacy. I am simply walking the path that Master walked. If I didn’t know that domain merging went against the heavens, I might not have cared, but now that I know, I have to do it until the very end. Because this is the destiny given to me by you and Master.”

“‘Destiny’?” Qingyang looked at Tang Jie in disbelief.

“Yes, ‘destiny’! Don’t forget how Master passed away. The Heavenly Dao is not your ultimate aim, but the enemy that killed your husband!

“Thus, this is my destiny, and it is also your destiny!

“The destiny of the Parting Classic that betrays the Dao!

“The destiny of challenging the Heavenly Dao!”