Aspiring to the Immortal Path

“What? He wants me to bring him back?”

In God Phoenix Palace, Ice Phoenix rose from her throne in anger.

“Yes!” Amojan indignantly confirmed. “Demon Lord, Tang Jie is going too far. He was clearly the one who sent his son to hinder us and create problems, but now that something has happened to him, he’s still shameless enough to have us go look for him! Is he not going to explain why his son was in the Primordial Fog Domain in the first place?”

Ice Phoenix sat back on her throne, her face a sheet of ice. “He’s warning us.”

“‘Warning’?” Amojan was taken aback.

Ice Phoenix coldly said, “Yes, a warning. He’s warning me that he knows that I was the one behind it all, and he’s warning me that I had better not try to use his son to threaten him…”

By telling Ice Phoenix to find Tang Xuanyu, Tang Jie was actually passing on two messages to her.

1. He didn’t believe the lie that his son had been taken away by the Massacre Saber Devil. If he believed it, he would have gone straight for the Heavenly Saber Plains rather than going to Ice Phoenix.

2. Ice Phoenix had better not plan to use Tang Xuanyu to blackmail Tang Jie in any way. You want to use my son to threaten me? Then I’ll have you find him. Once you find him, we’ll see if your threats hold any weight.

In his own unique way, Tang Jie had conveyed his stance to Ice Phoenix.

And there was another hidden meaning behind this.

Just like how he wouldn’t accept threats, he wouldn’t accept any accidents happening to his son. If something really did happen to Tang Xuanyu, then Ice Phoenix, as the instigator, would pay a painful price. Bringing back Tang Xuanyu was her only way to make things right.

Tang Jie was being rather unreasonable.

Yes, I’m bullying you. What are you going to do about it?

I sent my son to make trouble for you, and now that something’s happened to him, you have to bring him back. If you do it, then we’ll let bygones be bygones, but if you can’t, death sentences for everyone!

This was the attitude of the strong, the bearing of a hegemon.

When one was strong enough, reason or planning was no longer needed. All that was needed was a thought, an order. Whether you liked it or not, you had to obey!

Ice Phoenix gnashed her teeth in anger.

But this was the nature of the world. The usual grace, elegance, and civilization were all just a fig leaf that obscured the fact that the strong ate the weak. When they needed to, those Titans would tear away that thin veneer and would reveal their savage natures, using tyranny and brute strength to solve their problems.

In the past, Tang Jie had contended against such foes with his courage and wit.

Now, he was that foe. Ice Phoenix was simply following in his footsteps.

After some thought, Ice Phoenix asked, “What is the situation of Wang Posha’s group?”

“They are still attacking the Heavenly Saber Plains.”

“They really went and attacked the Massacre Saber Devil?” Ice Phoenix was taken aback.

Wang Posha could see through Ice Phoenix’s scheme, but he still had to walk into the trap, because he could not gamble on that 1% possibility. If there was any hope at all, he had to rescue Tang Xuanyu.

But Tang Jie didn’t have this concern. Since he was sure that Ice Phoenix had done it, he had no reason not to stop Wang Posha’s actions.

Unless…

This was for Ice Phoenix.

This was Tang Jie’s compensation for his past behavior to Ice Phoenix—volunteering to help Ice Phoenix remove the enemies that threatened her.

Anyone else might think that Tang Jie was tough on the outside and soft on the inside, but Ice Phoenix, who had known Tang Jie for many years, understood that this was a settling of accounts.

Settling accounts didn’t mean going to someone to collect debts, but a mutual exchange. You have to give back what you owe, but I also have to pay back what I owe. Clearing the ledger on both sides was more Tang Jie’s style.

Ice Phoenix understood that when he acted this way, it meant he was serious.

This made her heart ache.

For that lost love.

Tang Jie, do you really plan to clear everything between us?

She melancholically thought.

“Demon Lord, what should we do now?” Amojan asked, not recognizing the situation.

“‘What do we do’?” Ice Phoenix’s face turned dark. “Isn’t it all because you useless lot couldn’t capture him that we’re in this situation?”

She thrust out a palm, sending Amojan flying. At the same time, a storm ripped through the hall, and even these items that were meant to be used by Immortals were shattered in a single strike.

Amojan threw up blood while prostrating, not daring to move as Ice Phoenix vented her rage.

But a moment later, Ice Phoenix took control of her emotions.

Her chest rising and falling, she said, “Send out the army to search for him.”

Amojan asked in confusion, “And after we find him?”

“…” Taking in a deep breath, Ice Phoenix sat down and said, “Hand him over to the humans.”

“What?”

“I said ‘hand him over to the humans’!” Ice Phoenix roared, kicking Amojan away.

If Tang Xuanyu hadn’t gone missing, Ice Phoenix would have used him to bargain with Tang Jie. But since she had failed to capture him, she had lost control over the entire affair. She was no longer worthy of discussing conditions with Tang Jie. On the contrary, if something happened to Tang Xuanyu, she would have to consider how she would deal with Tang Jie’s wrath.

You damned brat, just where are you?

Ice Phoenix inwardly fumed.

——————————————————————

“AAAAAH!!!”

Tang Xuanyu sat up and found himself lying on a gilded dragon bed. This bed was made from a slab of Blood Spirit Jade and had a translucent appearance. Above the bed hung a prismatic phoenix lantern adorned with gold, around it hung a curtain of Cloud Silk, and upon it was a silk pillow. Beneath the bed was a cotton pad, a non-combat art relic that simply exuded a fragrance that could energize the mind and make it easier to focus when cultivating.

This was clearly an emperor-level bedroom, but Tang Xuanyu had grown up in a powerful family, and the bedroom his mother had prepared for him was on a similar level.

What sort of place was he in?

He was startled.

A voice trilled, “Young Master, you’re awake.”

The curtain was lifted, and a line of maidservants entered, carrying grooming tools that they began to use to clean Tang Xuanyu up.

Tang Xuanyu had cultivated for more than four hundred years, and given his experience, he remained calm in the face of the situation, sternly asking:

“Who are you people?”

A round-faced maidservant replied, “Our master has ordered us to attend on Young Master.”

“Oh?” Tang Xuanyu raised an eyebrow. “Who is your master?”

The maidservant replied, “Young Master will know soon. There is no need to be so impatient.”

Tang Xuanyu said no more on this matter, asking, “Where is my companion?”

The maidservant answered, “The miss is resting in the room adjacent. Does Young Master wish to go see her?”

Tang Xuanyu sighed in relief upon hearing that Huangfu Meng was fine. “Then I’ll go and see her.”

Not waiting for the maids, he used a cleaning spell on himself and then activated his Space Dao Art, reappearing in the room next door.

He didn’t expect to see a half-naked Huangfu Meng standing in front of a mirror.

“Eek!” Huangfu Meng gave him a harsh slap.

“Sorry!” Holding his cheek, Tang Xuanyu immediately turned around. “I heard you were next door, so I came to look.”

“Do you not know how to use your legs?” Huangfu Meng angrily replied.

“I was worried about your safety, and I also wanted to see if my Space Dao Art had recovered,” Tang Xuanyu protested.

In truth, he wanted to see if he was under any restrictions, but instead of discovering restrictions, he ended up seeing Huangfu Meng changing clothes.

“I say: you can use spell arts to change, so why go through all the trouble?” Tang Xuanyu complained.

A peak Violet Palace cultivator manually changing clothes? Wasn’t this just making work for oneself?

“You don’t understand women, so you don’t understand how good it feels to try on clothes.” Huangfu Meng ignored him, putting on the clothes in her hand. She twirled around in front of the mirror and smiled in satisfaction.

She turned to Tang Xuanyu. “You can turn around now.”

Tang Xuanyu turned to face Huangfu Meng.

She was wearing a gown of violet and gold and phoenix-head shoes, and there was a jade hairpin thrust into her hair. None of these were art relics, but they were all grandmaster works that would have been highly valuable among mortals. But because they were ordinary items, Tang Xuanyu could simply look through them if he wanted.

Fortunately, he didn’t dare to do so. He chuckled and said, “It seems that the master of this place has no ill intentions, but there’s something I find strange.”

“Do you mean the fact that everything seems like back in the human world despite the fact that we’re in the Primordial Fog Domain?” Huangfu Meng said.

Tang Xuanyu nodded.

“We’ll know once we take a look for ourselves,” Huangfu Meng said.

Tang Xuanyu was going to walk out when Huangfu Meng pulled him back, indicating that he should use his Space Dao Art.

Tang Xuanyu was confused at first, and then he realized that Huangfu Meng worried that this could all be an illusion, so she wanted him to test it with his Space Dao Art. Grabbing Huangfu Meng’s hand, he vanished, reappearing under a gloomy sky.

Around them was a vast land covered in dark clouds, the black soil radiating decay and rot.

“Still in the Primordial Fog Domain,” Tang Xuanyu muttered.

This was clearly the terrain of the Primordial Fog Domain, so why were there humans who hadn’t become demons here?

He looked down and saw numerous military tents.

Military tents were a rare sight in the cultivation world, as most powerful Titans had palace-type treasures that they could use to defend themselves and to reside in.

But these tents stretched into the distance, forming an enormous camp.

A towering mountain rose from the middle of the camp.

This mountain appeared to be floating in the air, but this was not actually the case. Tang Xuanyu, who was a master of the Dao of Space, could sense that half of the mountain simply wasn’t present.

This mountain simultaneously existed in two spaces.

They had come from that mountain just now, and he could see numerous small palaces dotting the mountainside. All of them were ordinary buildings, not art relics, displayed on the mountain like toys as people moved between them. But outside, countless demons were shouting and roaring.

Unlike the demons that Tang Xuanyu had seen before, they were all fiend demons.

Demonized fiends!

At the top of the mountain stood a statue.

A statue of a white tiger.

Tang Xuanyu was stunned at the sight of the statue. “I know what place this is.”

“Since you know, hurry and come down already,” a deep voice boomed.

A massive figure appeared on the summit of the mountain.