Aspiring to the Immortal Path

A fist from beyond the heavens barreled toward Tang Jie like a primeval behemoth, unstoppable and awe-inspiring.

At that moment, that fist seemed to be the only existence in the world.

Devil Crushing Fist!

“Finally made your move? Gigantes King.” Tang Jie smiled.

The World Devourer opened its voracious stomach to greet the fist.

It had become space itself, a space that devoured all things! That tyrannical punch slammed into this space and disappeared without a sound.

It was like nothing had happened.

That wild fist had simply collided with that terrifying Divine Connection and dissipated.

It hadn’t even stirred up a gust of wind.

Drawing back his hand, Tang Jie smiled. “Is that enough? Gigantes King, you should know who I am.”

“Boy from fourteen hundred years ago, you finally came,” the Gigantes King rumbled.

As he spoke, two mountains suddenly parted, revealing a path.

“Let’s go.” Tang Jie came down. “The master has invited us in, so there’s no need to break the formation.”

“What a pity.” Both Hong Shenji and the Vermillion Bird sighed.

Hong Shenji sighed because he was a formation fanatic and loved breaking down any powerful formation he came across.

The Vermillion Bird sighed because she had wanted to see if there was any Azure Ocean Heavenwood in this formation.

Tang Jie smiled. “No rush, no rush. We’ll see if there’s any once we’re inside.”

The three of them entered through the path.

Once they were through, the mountains shifted back into place like closing doors, as if they were just blocks that could be moved around the formation.

After a while of walking, the path finally opened up.

A city appeared before them.

The walls were nearly a thousand feet tall, and the gates a hundred feet tall, grandiose and imposing.

Before the gate stood two Gigantes soldiers, each one thirty feet tall, their bodies bulging with muscle and wielding double-bladed spears.

Upon entering the city, the Vermillion Bird became like a child, often crying out, “Wow, the things here are so big!”

The Gigantes city was like a magnified world, everything much larger, whether it was the streets, houses, pedestrians, or the pots and pans they used in their daily lives.

The three of them were like children that had barged into the world of adults, always having to look up to see anything clearly while at the same time drawing the curious gazes of the Gigantes.

This made Hong Shenji rather uncomfortable.

Despite his age, he had quite the temper. With a snort, he began to reveal his true self, a massive aura radiating from his body that had quite a few passing Gigantes quivering in fear.

“There’s no need to scare the children,” Tang Jie chuckled as that majestic aura abruptly disappeared.

Hong Shenji sheepishly said, “I just wanted to compare my strength to theirs, but they ended up being weaker than I expected.”

Hong Shenji was being honest. The Gigantes were born with divine strength, and even the children who hadn’t cultivated before had more power than the average human. He assumed that this Gigantes city contained the last elites of the Gigantes Domain, so he unleashed his Violet Palace aura. But to his surprise, the strongest on this street of Gigantes was only at the Spirit Master level, none of them able to endure his pressure.

Tang Jie sighed, “This is war, not a game. The real heroes already died on the battlefield. Those who remain are often the old, young, and infirm.”

Hong Shenji was rendered speechless.

Looking around, he saw that while these Gigantes had imposing bodies, there was only panic and fear on their faces.

This was fear of the demons, fear of those that were smaller yet still possessed terrifying power.

Hong Shenji could see despair in their eyes.

“It was my mistake,” Hong Shenji sighed.

At this moment, a giant wagon came forward.

This was a giant tower wagon being pulled along by a Sixhoof Cloud Beast with a Gigantes at the reins.

Two squads of Gigantes soldiers flanked the wagon, their captain getting down on one knee and saying, “Greetings, Sir. My king wishes to see you.”

“So now you invite us in? Why didn’t you do this earlier?” Hong Shenji grunted, always ready to put on an attitude.

Tang Jie simply nodded. “Let’s go.”

He got on the wagon.

The Cloud Beast took to the air, flying toward the distant clouds.

The Gigantes city was huge, and they ended up flying for quite a while before finally arriving at a giant stone hall. It was built in a rather crude style, but it was grand nonetheless, twelve enormous stone pillars extending into the clouds.

In the center of the hall was a throne made of a stone, and upon the throne sat a Gigantes that was ten thousand feet tall and wore a crown upon his head, seemingly in slumber.

The Cloud Beast stopped in front of the hall, and Tang Jie’s group of three descended to the hall like three little flies.

The Vermillion Bird snorted when she saw that towering giant. “This Gigantes King is certainly quite pretentious. Let me go and wake him up.”

She transformed into a thousand-meter-long phoenix, unfurling her wings as she spewed flame at the Gigantes. “Wakey wakey!”

Suddenly, a wall of energy appeared, blocking the Vermillion Bird’s flames.

But it was Tang Jie who had intervened, not the Gigantes King.

“Tang Jie, you!” The Vermillion Bird glared at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie replied, “Don’t be rude! His Majesty is giving us an audience even though he’s ill, so how can we be rude!?”

“He’s sick?” the Vermillion Bird said in surprise.

The Gigantes King slowly opened his eyes, gazing at Tang Jie with a thin smile. “I took the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk’s Mortal Calamity Finger, and every day, I must endure the power of the Perishing Calamity trapping me in an endless cycle of pain. Thus, I cannot rise to greet you, for which I ask your forgiveness.”

The Gigantes King patted his leg, upon which the Vermillion Bird realized that his legs were in a gradual process of decay, as if something was eating away at them. But the Gigantes King had such immense vitality that he was healing while being devoured, turning his legs into a battlefield of constant destruction and regeneration, one which brought him endless torment.

And the Gigantes King could still joke in this situation! The Vermillion Bird blushed in shame.

“But that baldy ate my Combat Emperor Fist in exchange, and he had to devour 17 high-tier devils to recover,” the Gigantes King proudly said before heaving a sigh.

The Nine Disaster Fiend Monk could devour his devils to recover, but the Gigantes King could not.

Thus, the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk was better while he was not.

Tang Jie glanced at those legs caught in a cycle of death and rebirth, and said, “This one is Tang Jie, and these are Hong Shenji and the Vermillion Bird. Fourteen hundred years ago, I was fortunate enough to have a chance meeting with Your Majesty, but it left me with some questions. During this Primordial Fog Calamity, I took the opportunity to take the path of the stars, seeking to save those in peril and also resolve these questions.”

He swiftly explained his background and purpose.

The Gigantes King said nothing, though he did briefly glance at the Vermillion Bird when she was mentioned. “‘The Vermillion Bird’… Do you mean one of the Four Sacred Beasts?”

“She is that Vermillion Bird’s descendant.” Tang Jie nodded.

“The Vermillion Bird’s descendant… the Rosecloud Domain… the Combat Emperor Fist… You really are his successor,” the Gigantes King said.

“‘His’?” Tang Jie immediately caught on to the implication.

“The senior who passed the Combat Emperor Fist to me,” the Gigantes King responded.

As he had suspected!

The Martial Lord had been here before, and he had given the Gigantes King the Combat Emperor Catalog.

Tang Jie didn’t know why he had done this, but the Martial Lord must have had a reason.

Tang Jie asked, “May I know how you came to know that senior?”

The Gigantes King shook his head. “I don’t know him.”

“What?” Tang Jie was taken aback.

The Gigantes King explained, “I’ve never met that senior. The Combat Emperor Fist was not personally passed to me, but was carved into the cliff walls of my Gigantes city’s secret ground, passed on in the form of images. Only we Gigantes Kings have the right to learn this combat technique. It has been… more than ten thousand years since then.”

It turned out that the Combat Emperor Catalog had suddenly appeared in a cave in the Gigantes Domain more than ten thousand years ago.

The ones to obtain this catalog had been a small and unremarkable tribe of Gigantes.

With this Combat Emperor Catalog, this small tribe gradually grew stronger and stronger until it united the entire Gigantes Domain and became the royal clan. And that cave containing the Combat Emperor Catalog became the secret ground of the Gigantes Kings, to be passed down only through the royal line.

For ten thousand years, the Gigantes Kings had relied on the Combat Emperor Catalog to grow stronger, and it remained the supreme divine fist of the Gigantes Kings, allowing them to achieve incredible martial feats while also causing them to develop immense admiration for the person behind it.

Back when Tang Jie and the little tiger were in the Nine Palace Illusion Formation, the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk had been attracted by the little tiger, while the Gigantes King had been attracted by Tang Jie’s Devil Crushing Fist.

“So that’s how it was…” Tang Jie couldn’t help but be a little disappointed.

Learning about the Martial Lord had ended up simpler than he thought, with no twists or turns other than having to break through the formation. The Gigantes King had basically told him everything he wanted to know on their first meeting.

He didn’t even interrogate Tang Jie’s background or just how he was saving those in peril, telling all and draining the entire matter of suspense.

Still not satisfied, Tang Jie said, “Could I take a look at the diagrams in the cave? Oh, please don’t misunderstand. I don’t seek the secret techniques depicted…”

“You may…” the Gigantes King said.

“Eh?” Tang Jie was once more taken aback by his straightforwardness. He was going to explain that he already had the complete Combat Emperor Catalog and was even willing to show it, but the Gigantes King had given no resistance.

He said, “That senior left a message on the wall that was meant for you.”