Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 797: Ambush (1)

When Tang Jie emerged from the ancestral hall, the fighting had already stopped.

The joint order from the high ancestors of the Basking Moon Sect and Godhead Palace could not be disobeyed.

Although the Seven Absolutions Sect was unwilling, they knew that they had to compromise over the Divine Will Golden Body. In the end, they had taken a rock and smashed their own foot with it.

Getting caught up in too many schemes often ended up with one hurting oneself.

Of course, they didn't stop for free. Yun Tianlan had promised to give the Seven Absolutions Sect compensation.

The cultivators of Godhead Palace began to retreat.

Led by the chiefs, they abandoned Godhead Mountain and headed to their homeland, the island once known as Tapir Hill, bringing with them only what treasures they were already carrying. On the other end, Ling Xiao followed Yun Tianlan's orders and let Jin Wuyu and Hu Xuehua go. When Shi Wunian learned that he wasn't allowed to go, a hint of sorrow appeared in his eyes, but he said nothing and committed suicide on the spot.

Under the threat of two sects, the mighty Godhead Palace had melted away.

The Jade-Cleansing Golden Sunset Formation was opened, and the cultivators of the Seven Absolutions Sect charged into Godhead Palace and began to plunder to their hearts' content.

Tang Jie walked past them as if he saw nothing, but his mind was still agitated over Chu Xitong's death.

Had he really done wrong?

This was his first time questioning himself.

The images of all those who lunged at him, resolved to die, flashed through his mind.

They had all once been outstanding cultivators who had struggled on the path of cultivation and looked to the future with endless anticipation and hope. Some of these geniuses might have even been able to reach his level if they had had the chance.

But all of this had been turned to nothing on the battlefield.

Countless lives had turned to dust, countless dreams rotted into mud.

It was all because of this cultivator battle—a battle that he had started.

Tang Jie suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of weight.

Chu Xitong's death had dealt a major blow to Tang Jie's soul.

In her, Tang Jie had seen some things that he had overlooked in the past.

On his busy path of Immortality, he had missed countless sights and sounds, had abandoned morality and conscience.

Those things he had once cast aside as burdens mystically appeared in his heart after this battle, weighing him down.

When a person reached a high place, they would begin to feel a sense of duty toward the world below.

Tang Jie felt this way now.

In the past, he hadn't realized this, but at this moment in time, he finally felt it in a way that was all too clear and complete.

He started to understand why Ling Xiao's faction was unwilling to go to war.

A cultivator's wrath could leave corpses strewn across the land.

It all sounded repressive, but behind it all were lamentations and wails that rose to the heavens.

If everyone were like that, the world would be turned into a hell!

Upon understanding this, Tang Jie sighed. "As a cultivator, I should be fighting to end wars and suffering, not create wars and battles!"

"You finally understood." A voice drifted out from the distance, falling onto Tang Jie's ears.

Raising his head, Tang Jie saw Ling Xiao and the others floating above the summit of Godhead Mountain, and Ling Xiao was smiling at him.

In truth, Ling Xiao had come to rebuke Tang Jie, but after hearing Tang Jie say that and understanding that Tang Jie had finally been enlightened, his anger dissipated.

After all, Tang Jie had achieved a great thing for the Basking Moon Sect, so he couldn't be criticized too harshly.

Xiao Biehan, on the other hand, pursed his lips and said, "Why is this kid suddenly starting to pity the people of the world? A person should live to be happy, repaying favors and avenging wrongs. There's no time to be so sentimental and sensitive."

He had been fighting all his life, had risen through battle, and placed the highest priority on combat, so he treated those compassionate sorts with disdain, maintaining a bold and heroic attitude. This was also why he had never advanced on the Great Daos of Karma and Fate and had instead comprehended much of Slaughter and Destruction. If he one day achieved a breakthrough in the Dao, it was bound to be in one of these two. In contrast, Tang Jie made the slowest progress on these two Daos, which made it evident that Tang Jie truly wasn't someone who liked Slaughter and was the sort to scheme and plot excessively.

Tang Jie flew up to them and bowed to Ling Xiao. "This disciple is guilty of deceiving Master and will accept any punishment."

Ling Xiao waved his hand. "Ah, forget it. You've made such a great achievement, so what if you deceived me? Right, did you bring back the Divine Will Golden Body?"

Tang Jie patted his Mustard Seed Bag. "I have already stored it away, but a great deal of the Divine Will was consumed, and it will take time to recover."

"Good, good." Ling Xiao heaved a sigh of relief once he learned that the golden body was fine.

"Right, how is the ancestor?" Tang Jie asked.

Mystic Moon answered, "In killing Chu Xitong, you also burdened Martial Uncle, and he suffered some backlash from the Heavenly Dao. Fortunately, he was not the one who broke the oath, and the oath was not broken too much, so the backlash was something that Martial Uncle could bear."

Tang Jie said in remorse, "It was all because I was unable to handle things properly."

"You can't be blamed for this. Who could have expected that Chu Xitong to be so unyielding? She was truly one of the talented women of the cultivation world," Ling Xiao said sadly. "War is always about pushing out the most outstanding individuals, leaving behind only the trash."

He looked down below. Several cultivators were flying out from Godhead Mountain toward them. These were Godhead Palace cultivators that the Basking Moon Sect had recruited early on. These spineless fellows had sold out Godhead Palace, but they hadn't been like the spies of the two sects, destroying the formation right before the battle, nor did they defect and try to create opportunities. Only after Godhead Palace had lost did they come out, regarding themselves as heroes as they switched sides.

Even someone of Ling Xiao's bearing was somewhat put off by these people, which was why he had said such words.

At that moment, Tang Jie said, "Since they're trash, we should treat them like trash."

Ling Xiao frowned. "No matter how shameless they might be, they are all people we bought off and who contributed information. Treating them this way is inappropriate and would make others scared of working with us."

Tang Jie shook his head. "I'm not saying we should kill them, just leave them neglected in some corner. Moreover, they're cultivators, not officials, so we don't need to be like them and can act on our natures. If they do something poorly, we can punish them. They're just trash, so nobody will stand up for them."

Ling Xiao smiled. "Tang Jie, you really have changed. You wouldn't have done this in the past."

"This disciple realized some things from this battle," Tang Jie replied. "I was a little too extreme in how I handled things in the past."

"So long as you understand." Ling Xiao smiled in satisfaction.

Tang Jie added, "But after this, this disciple might have to do another extreme thing."

"Oh?" Ling Xiao said in surprise. "What else are you going to do?"

"Go after the Beast Refining Gate, of course," Tang Jie answered. "They're already on their way here, so we can go and meet them, catching them off guard. Only then can we gain a hundred years of peace for the Basking Moon Sect. Moreover, the Basking Moon Sect needs to get something from the Beast Refining Gate to make up for what we promised to the Seven Absolutions Sect, and I need the Imperial Sky Stamp to fight against the Jewel Immortal Sovereign."

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A large group of cultivators was flying high up in the clouds.

Unlike cultivators who liked to fly on clouds, these cultivators were mostly flying on various fiend beasts.

They were cultivators of the Beast Refining Gate.

The Beast Refining Gate and Godhead Palace were tied together at the hip, so when it received Godhead Palace's emergency request for aid, it immediately sent reinforcements. They should have been able to go through teleportation formations, but Tang Jie and Hong Shenji had prepared a formation to cut off the spatial connections, making teleportation formations ineffective, so the Beast Refining Gate could only fly. The two countries were far from each other, so they were bound to be too late.

Worst of all was that they didn't know that the Basking Moon Sect's Yun Tianlan had taken action, thinking that the situation was akin to the one from one hundred and thirty years ago. As a result, they didn't think about asking their ancestor to help. Otherwise, an Earth Immortal could have taken them across the entire domain as easily as one would visit one's next-door neighbor.

It was late at night, but the Beast Refining Gate's cultivators were still flying.

Their leader was a purple-robed man seated on a white elephant. The white elephant moved at a deceptively relaxed pace, and if it weren't for the cultivators behind it, it would have arrived at Godhead Mountain long ago.

Flanking this purple-robed man were Meng Guanshan and Feng Muyuan.

Feng Muyuan was seated atop his Blue Sky Demon Wolf, while Meng Guanshan was seated on a late-phase Transformation eagle.

The three of them formed an arrowhead, and the man at the tip of the arrowhead was the master of the Beast Refining Gate, Li Nanfei.

Seated on the back of the white elephant, Li Nanfei had a hand propping up his chin as he pondered something.

He suddenly asked:

"Is there still no word from Godhead Palace?"

Feng Muyuan answered, "Sect Master, other than the few words in that first fire talisman, there has been nothing else. The area around Godhead Mountain has probably been isolated by a formation, rendering both teleportation and message transmission impossible."

"Which is exactly what confuses me," Li Nanfei said, subconsciously tapping his fingers on the back of the elephant. "I don't doubt that Hong Shenji could lay down a formation to seal space, but this sort of formation has to be a massive undertaking that isn't easily pulled off. And the area being sealed is Godhead Mountain. Not even considering Ancestor Ye, even Jin Wuyu and Shi Wunian wouldn't have just stood back and allowed him to lay down a formation around Godhead Mountain, no?"

Li Nanfei didn't doubt that the Seven Absolutions Sect could lay down such a formation, and he also didn't doubt that the Seven Absolutions Sect could penetrate the borders and reach Godhead Mountain, but for the Seven Absolutions Sect to mysteriously reach Godhead Mountain and then lay down a powerful space isolation formation? That was rather unbelievable.

Feng Muyuan considered the problem and replied, "They must have set it up during the battle. That's also the only way to explain the first fire talisman."

"So they only needed half a day to finish putting down the formation? And in this half a day, Godhead Palace was unable to send a second fire talisman?" Li Nanfei casually replied, then shook his head. "I don't believe it."

At that moment, the taciturn Meng Guanshan suddenly said in a raspy voice, "There is… one… method."

"What?" Li Nanfei looked at Meng Guanshan.

While Meng Guanshan looked brutish and cruel, he was actually an extremely smart person, or else he wouldn't have become the Stamp Holder of the Beast Refining Gate. Even Li Nanfei put a high value on his opinions.

Meng Guanshan cracked a smile, revealing a bloody maw. "Laid down… beforehand."

"'Laid down beforehand'?" Feng Muyuan frowned. "This is impossible. No formation diagram would be big enough."

"Not a formation diagram." Meng Guanshan shook his head, surprisingly speaking rather smoothly. "A person can."

Feng Muyuan was startled, and then he blurted out in realization, "You're saying…"

Li Nanfei followed up: "The Infinite Palace!"

Tang Jie's Infinite Palace had become famous across the world after the battle at Horizon Ocean Pavilion, and many of its properties had become known, such as the fact that it could hold formations.

The Infinite Palace was completely capable of holding a prepared space-sealing formation, which could be unleashed once Tang Jie arrived at the location, making it much better than a formation diagram.

"Tang Jie!" Feng Muyuan hissed.

He then realized that something was wrong. "If that's the case, then the space-sealing formation should have been present from the beginning. Why was Godhead Palace still able to ask us for help then?"

Li Nanfei instantly paled. "Shit! This is a trap! Everyone, halt!"

Li Nanfei's howl instantly brought the Beast Refining Gate's force to a stop.

As Li Nanfei was about to call to have them turn around, somebody sighed, "Daoist Friend Li is meticulous and decisive, swift to sense danger and pulling the reins right before the horse went over the cliff. An extraordinary individual indeed, though it's a shame that my lowly sect's arrangements won't be able to be used."

Someone then laughed, "I already said there's no need to resort to plots to deal with the Beast Refining Gate. This kid Tang Jie was talking about he was all enlightened and that strength was king, but when it came down to it, he returned to his original nature and laid a trap, saying that it would reduce our casualties. But see? It was all a waste. Hahahaha, but that's just how I like it. Come, come, come. Meng Guanshan, Xiao Biehan has been waiting for you for ages. Let's have a good fight!"

A blast of sword energy shot through the air toward Meng Guanshan. Heavenly Sword True Lord Xiao Biehan was here!

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