Aspiring to the Immortal Path

“Come on! Let’s go and test the Five Elements Upheaval Formation!” Hong Shenji laughed as he stepped into the Cavespace Mountains.

The moment he entered, a spatial fissure shot over.

Hong Shenji didn’t try to evade, chanting something as the spatial fissure approached. Suddenly, he thrust out a finger, upon which the spatial fissure veered, brushing past Hong Shenji. If he had been just slightly off, he would have been cut in half. It had to be understood that Hong Shenji had yet to reach Immortal Platform, so if he were killed, he would truly die.

This old man was a fanatic when it came to formations.

His eyes gleamed with excitement. He scattered some Revelation Powder, which immediately painted the Cavespace Mountains in dazzling colors.

Countless formation lines flashed and twinkled in a fantastical image.

A moment later, a gust of wind blew away all the Revelation Powder, but in that instant, Tang Jie and Hong Shenji had completely memorized all the images. Tang Jie waved in the air, conjuring up the formation lines. “Condense!” The formation lines solidified, and a formation diagram fell into Tang Jie’s hands.

Tang Jie gave it a look and then said, “Vermillion Bird, take a look at the Five Elements transformations here.”

The Vermillion Bird replied, “There is life at the Kan position (north).”

Tang Jie smiled and took a step.

This step drew no spatial fissure.

Hong Shenji stroked his beard and laughed. “Good eye. Again!”

The Vermillion Bird indicated another direction, but this time, it drew the attack of two spatial fissures.

“Eh? What’s going on?” the Vermillion Bird said in surprise.

“We already said there’s upheaval in the Five Elements and chaos in Yin and Yang,” Hong Shenji chided. “This should be the correct path.”

He stepped in the opposite direction, and as expected, there was no attack.

But a moment later, Hong Shenji made a mistake, and a spatial storm barreled out and forced them out of the mountains.

The first experiment had failed.

But the trio didn’t mind, heading back into the Cavespace Mountains to continue their testing.

At first, the three were forced out after only a few steps, but as their understanding of the formation deepened, they were able to venture deeper and deeper.

The diagram depicting the Five Elements Upheaval Formation also grew increasingly complete.

On this day, the trio were once again trying to solve the formation.

Hong Shenji was at the very front, his hands constantly shifting through countless patterns and numbers as he attempted to simulate the formation.

A few moments later, he took a step forward, and there was no response from the formation.

“The 96th step, success!” Hong Shenji declared.

A red line automatically extended itself on Tang Jie’s formation diagram, shrinking the distance to the target.

At this moment, there was a rumbling, and the mountains around them began to shift toward them.

“Finally couldn’t hold back, eh?” Tang Jie chuckled.

The person in charge of the formation finally could no longer sit back and just watch as the formation was solved, choosing to alter the formation.

Altering the formation essentially changed how the entire formation operated. The Five Elements Upheaval Formation was famous for being complex precisely because it could alter itself at any time. Once one had wasted all that energy calculating the path, it could simply change itself and ruin all of one’s hard work.

But how could Tang Jie and Hong Shenji, knowing of this property, not be ready for this?

As the mountains began to move, the two exchanged a glance and laughed. “Go!”

Tang Jie shot into the sky and thrust his palm downward.

With his Gold Immortal cultivation, his singular palm strike was monstrously powerful. A powerful wave of energy instantly erupted from below, the Gigantes clearly understanding that this was no easy opponent and instantly raising the formation’s defenses to the maximum level. The wave collided with Tang Jie’s giant hand in an impact akin to a collision of stars, a shockwave tearing into the surroundings.

But this area suddenly became surrounded by a void, and no matter how powerful the impact, all of it vanished into nothingness.

The Five Elements Upheaval Formation had linked to another space to draw away all the energy.

But Tang Jie simply thrust out his palm again. “Since it’s so formidable, let’s try again!”

Normally, the Five Elements Upheaval Formation could simply alter the coordinates and bring a spatial storm on Tang Jie.

But while it was shifting, it temporarily could not alter coordinates in this way, and Tang Jie had seized this chance.

To be precise, they had been waiting for this moment the whole time.

The shifting was this formation’s strength and weakness. So long as one could seize this moment, one could stop up the formation and force this formation to deal with the intruder directly. Tang Jie had never planned to slowly solve the formation. After all, who knew how long that would take?

A Boundless Gold Immortal ought to utilize their advantages.

What kind of person was a Boundless Gold Immortal?

This was an existence that had few opponents across the entire universe. Fighting directly with another was Tang Jie’s least concern right now.

What was the Five Elements Upheaval Formation in comparison?

Today, he would have an all-out clash and see which was stronger: this formation or a Boundless Gold Immortal!

Tang Jie unleashed thirteen palm strikes in a row, each one sending ripples through the formation. There was enough power packed in here to tear a small domain apart, but this formation had to endure it all.

Hong Shenji also wasn’t sitting back.

He laughed and said, “Watch this!”

His hands blurred between various profound runes as he quickly strode forward. Before, he needed ages to calculate each step, but now, there was barely a pause between them, and he had soon made ten-some steps.

The one overseeing the formation panicked and wanted to immediately complete the formation’s shifting to stop Hong Shenji’s intrusion. But Tang Jie was still attacking, and if the shifting continued, the formation would suffer. Meanwhile, Hong Shenji was in a frenzy, progressing in a short while a distance that would have taken half a day before.

A golden beam of sword light suddenly shot at Hong Shenji.

This wasn’t a spatial fissure, but the power of the formation itself.

The Vermillion Bird laughed. “Finally, a chance for me to do something! Back off!”

She pointed a finger, summoning a sandstorm.

The Vermillion Bird’s Daos were Yin Yang and Five Elements, and beyond her Southern Divine Fire, she was also a master of all the spell arts in the world. The spell art she had used just now was an Earth spell art, Stalwart Divine Earth Cloud.

But this sword light belonged to Metal, and it was Fire that countered Metal. Yet the Vermillion Bird had chosen an Earth spell rather than the more suitable Southern Divine Fire.

A second later, the sword dissolved into a torrent of water. It had been a Water sword, not a Metal one, and the Vermillion Bird would have fallen into the trap if she had used her Southern Divine Fire.

The Five Elements Upheaval Formation was named such because it could easily switch between the Five Elements, and one would suffer if not careful.

However, it had met its match in the Vermillion Bird, who was also an expert in the Five Elements.

The Stalwart Divine Earth Cloud expanded into a giant dam, and no matter how the water torrent raged, it could not overcome this barrier. Meanwhile, Hong Shenji had made it another three steps and Tang Jie had unleashed his 24th palm strike.

Tang Jie was the brute hammering at the door with a hammer while Hong Shenji was the thief slowly working away with the lockpick.

The Vermillion Bird was responsible for dealing with the homeowner’s counterattacks, instantly identifying and countering all Five Elements and Yin Yang attacks.

After only a few moments, the Five Elements Upheaval Formation seemed in great danger.

At this moment, a pillar of flame shot out.

The Vermillion Bird’s eyes lit up. “Pure Primal Flame? There’s Pure Primal Flame here? Wonderful!”

Rather than countering it, she began to suck it up.

This was no false flame, but in a flash, the Vermillion Bird had sucked it all up, leaving not even an ember behind.

It was another fruitless attack that had only served to delight the Vermillion Bird. “Tasty, tasty! I searched all the cosmos for the Pure Primal Flame, but I ended up finding it while on a mission. As expected, following Tang Jie always serves me well.”

Tang Jie didn’t know exactly what she needed the Pure Primal Flame for, but it was presumably for cultivation, and he was happy that she had gotten what she wanted. As a reward, he gave the formation a few more strikes.

The formation grew more and more unstable.

After consuming the Pure Primal Flame, the Vermillion Bird began to give off azure flames, her aura rising. Tang Jie could see that the Vermillion Bird’s cultivation level was increasing.

“Oh?” Tang Jie muttered in surprise.

Tang Jie knew that the Vermillion Bird could grow stronger by consuming the essences of the Five Elements, but he was rather surprised at the boost the Pure Primal Flame had given her.

She had gone from the basic level of Earth Immortal all the way to the middle level.

The Vermillion Bird fell silent, closing her eyes in meditation. And then she opened her eyes and shouted, “Breathsoil! I need Breathsoil! Big Brother, Big Brother, give me Breathsoil!”

Tang Jie immediately threw her a chunk of Breathsoil.

The Vermillion Bird swallowed it down and shouted, “More! More!”

Tang Jie threw her three more.

Breathsoil was a precious commodity of the Floating Rock Domain, and even Tang Jie only had five chunks on him, of which the Vermillion Bird had just eaten four.

But as these four chunks of Breathsoil entered her belly, her cultivation soared all the way to the high level.

Immortal Platform!

This was Immortal Platform they were talking about!

Many people had to cultivate for one thousand years to make just a tiny bit of progress, but the Vermillion Bird had soared by just consuming essences of two of the Five Elements. Even Tang Jie was stunned.

The Vermillion Bird once more closed her eyes in meditation. She then said, “This time, I need Azure Ocean Heavenwood, though I don’t know if there’s any here. If I can get my hands on it, I can reach the peak.”

“Can you reach True Immortal?” Tang Jie asked.

The Vermillion Bird nodded. “So long as the Five Elements essence I need can be found, I can reach it!”

“What do you need?” Tang Jie asked.

“I don’t know. I can only find out once I reach that step. First get me the Azure Ocean Heavenwood.”

“As you wish!” Tang Jie laughed, a dark energy gathering in his hand.

World Devourer!

“Stop!” A majestic voice rang out, accompanied by a heaven-shaking punch.