Aspiring to the Immortal Path

The ancestral records hall.

While a battle raged outside, Tang Jie casually pored through the books of the Gigantes in the ancestral records hall.

The Gigantes emphasized martial prowess over literary attainment and rarely read books. Thus, they had few of them, and most of them were historical records, with a few biographies and epics.

But this was exactly what Tang Jie needed. He wanted to understand the true history of the Gigantes.

The battle lasted for three days, and Tang Jie spent all those days reading in the records hall.

In those three days, Tang Jie read through the entire history of the Gigantes, developing a rather complete understanding of this race.

Tang Jie hadn’t expected the Gigantes to have such a glorious past.

This had been an immensely powerful race. In the distant past, every one of the Gigantes had been a supreme existence that could battle against the heavens themselves. They possessed not only invincible bodies but also powerful Divine Connections. And they also didn’t have any restriction that prevented them from leaving the Gigantes Domain. On the contrary, they traveled to every corner of the chiliocosm, conquering the stars and spreading their might to every part of the universe.

The Gigantes of that time had been invincible!

But at some point, everything began to change.

The Gigantes Domain began to crumble, and the Gigantes began to weaken and their civilization decline. Even though the Gigantes tried to reverse this trajectory, it was all futile. Their splendor was gone, their glory buried in the dust of history. In the present age, one could only find a hint of it in these history books.

The current Gigantes had long ago forgotten the power of their ancestors. Even the Gigantes King had only known that the Gigantes had been strong, not that they had once dominated the universe.

Today, Tang Jie finished reading the last Gigantes history book, the entire history of their race forming a completed puzzle in his mind. One could say that nobody else knew more about the Gigantes than him at this moment.

Closing the book, Tang Jie pensively began to drum on the desk.

At this moment, a voice came from outside. “Domain Lord, this subordinate has a matter to report.”

“Come in,” Tang Jie calmly answered.

A Violet Palace True Lord stepped into the hall.

From the moment the Rosecloud Domain began its assault, the Cavespace Mountains were open to its cultivators. At present, those cultivators tasked with delivering messages were allowed to freely go in and out of them.

The cultivator kneeled before Tang Jie. “Domain Lord, we were victorious in the initial battle, killing 740,000 demons, with five hundred thousand being low-level demons, two hundred thousand middle-level demons, around forty thousand high-level demons, and finally, we killed around a thousand high-tier devils and four Devil Chiefs. Of the Void Shuttles, two thousand, three hundred and twenty-six were lost;

seven thousand, four hundred were heavily damaged;

and forty-six thousand were lightly damaged. We lost sixty-four hundred cultivators, with eighty percent being middle- and low-tier disciples.”

“Mm,” Tang Jie casually replied. “Not bad.”

There was nowhere else in the chiliocosm that one could find a casualty differential of 6,400 to 740,000. Moreover, the number of cultivators in the Rosecloud Domain had long ago exceeded one million, with more being trained up every year. Six thousand was completely acceptable as far as losses went.

If there was anything lacking, it would be that there were too many low-level demons among the demon losses, which was practically filler. In the end, the forty-thousand-some high-level demons, one thousand high-tier devils, and four Devil Chiefs were more valuable.

One could say that the enemy had not used their full force.

“Has Nine Disaster made his move?” Tang Jie asked.

The cultivator shook his head. “Not yet. Even the Archdemon Lords under him have yet to intervene, which was what allowed us to win so easily. Of course, even if they did intervene, with the trump card Domain Lord left us, they wouldn’t fare much better.”

Those last words were a bald-faced attempt at flattery.

Tang Jie didn’t mind. After some thought, he asked, “What is the current situation?”

“Domain Lord, we have currently liberated the Trimountain Plateau region, which can support the Cavespace Mountains from a distance. Ancestor Yun has led the cultivator army in garrisoning the area, establishing a defensive system, while the Madam has begun to establish a formation to transfer demonic energy, purifying the area and bringing the power of the Eight Ocean Mountains to the Gigantes Domain.”

“‘Support from a distance’? Don’t be nonsensical. We just snatched up any territory we could get, and it’s even a wasteland that we have to spend tons of resources modifying and could even be utterly ruined if we mess it up. There’s nothing worth bragging about there.” Tang Jie gruffly pierced through the cultivator’s flowery language, causing his ears to go red in shame. Tang Jie said, “Nine Disaster is quite tolerant. He’s not taking action on purpose, even letting us massacre his subordinates and take some territory, all to lure us into his trap… He wants to gobble us up in one bite.”

If the first battle had ended in defeat, the Rosecloud Domain would probably have elected to use their own domain as their main base of operations rather than sending more troops into the Gigantes Domain.

But since they had won and even seized a territory, they would naturally garrison the area, send more soldiers, and even build a fortress, purify the area, and take stock of their resources.

The more one invested, the harder it was to leave, which would make it easier to devour them in a single bite.

As sharp as Tang Jie was, he recognized at a glance the dangers lurking behind this victory.

On the other hand, even if he recognized it, he couldn’t just give up… Retreating after victory? Then how was he going to fight the rest of the war?

Thus, Tang Jie had no choice but to walk into Nine Disaster’s open trap.

The cultivator awkwardly laughed. “Domain Lord is so wise, how could Nine Disaster possibly fool you? But on that subject, that was still 740,000 demons. So many lives thrown away all to lure Rosecloud into a trap? Even if he has an army of tens of millions, even if the losses were mostly low-level demons, this method is still a little too wasteful, no?”

Tang Jie had always emphasized the wisdom of the masses, so his subordinates were bold enough to offer their own thoughts on the matter, without fear of saying anything wrong.

Tang Jie fell silent for a few moments.

He then said, “This bait truly is a little too big. Such extravagance… Does he have some other kind of unknown power?”

“I think he does. This wouldn’t be strange. Everyone has their trump cards, as the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk is one of the Nine Demon Sovereigns and long ago subjugated his Demon Region. It wouldn’t be strange at all for him to have some hidden demon army,” the cultivator replied.

Normally, Archdemon Lords found it hard to have absolute control over their Demon Regions. For example, Libido had never managed to unite Confusionem, and there were many factions still within it that only showed surface-level respect to the Archdemon Lord, refusing to take direct orders. This was why Libido had to go to each of them to seek their assistance and even sent some of them to their deaths.

But Demon Sovereigns were different. They had complete control over their Demon Region, and any other faction within it owed them absolute loyalty. Those who could not do this did not deserve the title of Sovereign.

In such circumstances, it wouldn’t be strange for the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk to be hiding some other armies besides his main one.

Tang Jie nodded in agreement. “That’s entirely possible. Remind the Elder Council to pay attention to this and prepare some back-up plans.”

The environment determined one’s attitude. If one had more resources, one would usually be more liberal with them.

Whether unconsciously or consciously, the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk had revealed that he had more power under his control than he showed, putting Tang Jie and his men on their guard.

Nobody could say how important or what sort of consequences this vigilance would bring about.

When lacking information, it was difficult to pass judgment on many things. Tang Jie was no longer the Tang Jie of the past who could hide in the shadows and scheme against others. Now, he was the one standing in the light and being schemed against. As intelligent as he was, it was still impossible for him to analyze every possibility, so he hadn’t considered that this hidden force was equal to or even stronger than the force out in the open.

All he could do was have everyone strengthen their vigilance.

Until more information was made apparent, he couldn’t do more, for shrinking back at the slightest suspicion ceased to be caution and instead became cowardice.

After giving this order, Tang Jie added, “Right, I’m rather interested in this Nine Disaster Fiend Monk. Go and gather some information on this man and deliver a report to me.”

The cultivator smiled. “We do have information on Nine Disaster. The madam ordered us to gather it, and I have it here.”

“Oh?” Tang Jie was very satisfied by this answer.

After being with Tang Jie for so long, Xu Miaoran had grown more and more meticulous. After learning that their foe was Nine Disaster, she had started gathering information on him. As a veteran Archdemon and one of the Nine Demon Sovereigns, the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk was a known figure who had a rather complete background.

This demon was originally a cultivator of the positive plane, a Golden Arhat of the Western Heaven Buddha Kingdom, which belonged to the Sumeru Heaven Cluster. The Sumeru Heaven Cluster was the closest star cluster to the Gigantes Domain, on the opposite side of it from the Vast Wilderness Continent.

The Sumeru Heaven Cluster venerated the Buddhas, and all of the domains of Sumeru worshiped Buddha Ancestors. The master of the Sumeru Heaven, the Western Heaven Buddha ancestor, was the supreme existence of the cluster and was at the Dao-proving level.

The Western Heaven was the largest domain in the Sumeru Cluster and was also known as the Nation of Buddhas. It had one hundred thousand temples and ten million monks, with many of them being cultivators. Golden Arhats were rather high up in the hierarchy, comparable to Violet Palace True Lords and entrusted with great authority.

The Nine Disaster Fiend Monk had started off as an ordinary monk in the Thousand Sorrows Temple of the Western Heaven Buddha Kingdom, cultivating in the day and reading sutras at night. He had possessed average aptitude for cultivation, but he was a talent in the Zen school of Buddhism, able to hold his own in debates on the dharma at only thirteen and able to hold lectures at sixteen, drawing the admiration of countless monks.

Unlike other kinds of cultivation, Buddhism emphasized both cultivation and Buddhist philosophy. At times, an erudite Buddhist scholar could draw more respect than someone that was strong. Thus, while those possessing immense power were called Titans, those with profound knowledge of Buddhism were known as “Bhantes”.

At the time, the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk had shown the potential to be a Bhante.

But at the age of eighteen, he had some kind of lucky encounter that caused his cultivation level to soar, and he quickly rose from Mortal Shedding to Celestial Heart. His rapid progress continued, and on his 200th birthday, he officially reached Violet Palace—a speed that even outpaced Tang Jie.

Three years later, there was a massacre in the Mahayana Prefecture, where Thousand Sorrows Temple was located. A village of three-hundred-some people had been completely wiped out. Stunned, Thousand Sorrows Temple dispatched experts to investigate, but in the course of the investigation, many similar incidents occurred, and even the monks investigating the matter were slain.

The entire Buddha Kingdom was alarmed, and even a Soul Projection Bodhisattva was dispatched.

After a thorough investigation, the culprit was found to be Nine Disaster.

At that time, the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk suddenly erupted with a power far beyond that of a fresh Violet Palace cultivator, and that Bodhisattva two tiers higher than him was caught off guard and heavily injured. Fortunately for them, a Vidyaraja intervened and was able to save their life, but the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk seized this moment to escape.

After that incident, Nine Disaster vanished from the Western Heaven Buddha Kingdom.

One thousand years later, when the Primordial Fog Calamity arrived, someone saw Nine Disaster in the armies of the Primordial Fog.

At that time, he was just a high-tier devil, leading a division on the battlefield.