Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 357: Stealing Fruit (2)

Tang Jie had thought that he could get a large number of valuable resources the moment he got inside, but the reality had taken him completely by surprise.

The fifth formation truly was a paradise that nurtured countless things, an Immortal Realm. But these precious resources weren’t randomly scattered about, but concentrated in this valley. As for the few spiritual items outside of the valley, they were mostly average. While they had a foundation of ten thousand years, there was nothing rare about them. And as for the valley, it was guarded by that giant bird of flame in the lava pool.

This flame bird possessed terrifying strength. Tang Jie had once tried to get He Chong to try and defeat the giant bird, but to his surprise, He Chong had taken one look before turning and leaving, knowing that he was no match.

Unable to sit back and watch tigers fight, Tang Jie relocated, as did the Godhead Palace trio.

But as this place wasn’t as desolate as the ancient battlefield, they didn’t need to worry about food. However, Tang Jie had never given up on getting something good from the valley, and today had been another attempt.

As Tang Jie died a miserable death, another two figures appeared: clearly two more Tang Jies.

Duplication!

These two Tang Jies didn’t charge at the Jade Return Grass, instead lunging to the sides.

To the left was a giant skeleton.

The skeleton was nearly one thousand feet tall and sat in a corner of the valley like a small mountain. It was covered in red vines that coiled upward, culminating in a blood-red fruit over the head of the skeleton. There were two more of these giant skeletons, making for three of the fruits in all. The skeletons belonged to members of the God Giant Race of High Antiquity, which had been known for their abundant blood energy and boundless strength.

The God Giant Blood Fruit used their bodies as nourishment, and they were superb treasures for strengthening the constitution and refining the body.

To the right was a small pool, and in the pool grew sixteen large white lotuses. In the center of each blooming lotus flower was a little bald and naked person, about the size of a finger. They sat, stood, walked, and jumped in their respective flowers. They would sometimes be silent in thought and sometimes be giggling. Sometimes, they would lie on their back, and at other times, they would sit cross-legged in meditation. They had voices like children, but their faces were old, and there were both men and women among them.

Thousand-year Whitefiend Lotus!

The little people growing in the flowers were the souls of the fiend lotuses. If one ate them, one could increase one’s lifespan, strengthen the body, liven up the meridians, and increase one’s aptitude. As a means of correcting flaws, it was an extremely valuable cultivation treasure. Three thousand years was considered the upper limit. Past this limit, a lotus would divide into two.

There were sixteen white lotuses in the pool, meaning that this formation had been put in place twelve thousand to fifteen thousand years ago, which was essentially around the time of the Martial Lord.

The two Tang Jies lunged at two different locations, and the giant firebird angrily screeched and fired two more arrows.

As these two Tang Jies were obliterated, four Tang Jies appeared, this time lunging at the Jade Return Grass, the Fiend Lotus, the God Giant Fruit, and a Lightning Fruit.

Four fire arrows appeared, accurately striking the four Tang Jies without harming any plant in the valley.

At this moment, a golden light appeared, sweeping toward the distant God Giant Blood Fruit. At the same time, another Tang Jie appeared from the feet of one of the earlier Tang Jies. It turned out that there had actually been three Tang Jies in the second wave. It was just that one of them had been hidden.

The moment this Tang Jie appeared and threw out the golden thread, the firebird screeched and launched another fire arrow, obliterating him.

But it was too late. The golden thread sliced off the blood fruit, wrapped around it, and started to fly out of the valley.

A ninth Tang Jie appeared in the air, heedlessly jumping out, grabbing the blood fruit, and then jumping back.

Another fire arrow arrived and blasted apart this Tang Jie, but it was just another illusion. As this illusion dissipated, the blood fruit was flying away, and this time, it was flying straight out of the valley.

The real Tang Jie finally appeared. Activating the Chaoswind Step, he appeared in the air, grabbed the blood fruit, and then blinked out of the valley.

Half a second later, a fire arrow slammed into where Tang Jie had been standing, creating a fierce explosion.

Outside the valley, Tang Jie swayed a little before sprinting away.

Creee! The giant firebird angrily screeched.

But for some reason, it didn’t attack Tang Jie. It simply flew in a circle and returned to the laval pool.

Tang Jie continued to madly sprint away. At the same time, a large number of duplicates ran out of the forest with him, running off in every direction.

A few moments later, three more people arrived.

Bang! Bang! One duplicate Tang Jie after another was destroyed, but none of them was the real one.

When He Chong saw that they had only killed duplicates, and the real Tang Jie was nowhere to be found, he angrily roared, “Shit, he escaped again!” Glancing at the valley, he paled. “He got the God Giant Blood Fruit.”

“With this fruit, Tang Jie’s going to get even stronger,” Deng Yuqing worriedly said.

He Chong grunted, “I’m not afraid of that. What’s more important is that he can go into hiding for a long time again. There’s no telling how long we will have to wait until he strikes again.”

“Why don’t we stand guard here?” Duan Fourth said.

Deng Yuqing bitterly smiled. “What would be the point? We’re still stuck here. If he doesn’t come over, we can never get out.”

“…” Duan Fourth was speechless.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to give Tang Jie the chance, but that if they didn’t, they would also have no chance.

The problem was that Tang Jie was very cautious. He had managed to get quite a few items from the valley so far, but they had gotten nothing.

But who could they blame but themselves for not having some sort of duplication spell?

The firebird was extremely powerful, and not even He Chong could beat it. Rushing in was easy, but getting out was basically impossible. They had attempted to tire it out by running in and out repeatedly, but this only ended up enraging the bird so much that it even left the valley to pursue them.

They had tried every possible method, but they hadn’t been able to get anything from the valley. The only method was Tang Jie’s Duplication spell, which could fool the firebird and allow him to steal fruits and grasses.

And even this required many preparations from Tang Jie.

He was also rather unlucky in that the Martial Lord’s plan had only required deceiving the giant bird, yet Tang Jie also had to account for He Chong’s group.

This was exactly why Tang Jie did not lightly take action, only acting when he could ensure success. In these four years, he had only acted three times, and he had succeeded three times. In the first two attempts, he had cleared the area around the valley entrance, which had pushed his Jewel Body to greater attainment. This time, after all of his careful planning, he had only gotten one item, but it was one of the most valuable.

Tang Jie’s operation had seemed simple, but each step had been fraught with danger, and the slightest mistake could have ruined everything.

The Duplication spell the Martial Lord had passed down created copies that were considered objects and not living beings, and there was no upper limit to how many could exist. The real problem was that controlling all of them at once required an incredible ability to multitask.

Wisdom covered many fields, and multitasking was among them. Alas, Tang Jie had never focused on this aspect. He could do two or three things at once, but any more than that was no good. Thus, Tang Jie couldn’t control many duplicates at once and could only control them in batches. He designed his plan around this and trained himself to get used to it. The key was the two hidden duplicates. He didn’t want to trick the firebird, only to use those two hidden duplicates to create two checkpoints between the blood fruit and the valley entrance. With Tang Jie himself, that made for three checkpoints.

These three checkpoints became like three stepping stones in a pool, linking the God Giant Fruit to the outside of the valley. By passing it among his duplicates, he was able to steal the fruit.

As for that golden thread, Tang Jie had made it from shattering weapons on that ancient battlefield. Although he still couldn’t destroy those powerful art relics, he was able to break down some of the lower-level ones.

Tang Jie had prepared for this operation for two years. This seemingly very simple breakthrough was something he had practiced hundreds of times, taking into account all the possible variations and possibilities. He could not accept failure in this operation. After all, each operation came with enormous risk.

The risk didn’t come from only the firebird, but He Chong as well.

And with the taking of the God Giant Blood Fruit, the number of treasures near the valley entrance had decreased by one, increasing the danger and risk of getting any more.

Fortunately, the blood fruit was a key part in Tang Jie’s plan.

He had long ago seen through the Martial Lord’s intentions. After seeing He Chong look at the giant firebird and walk away, he had thrown aside any hopes of defeating the firebird. He still had to rely on the Parting Classic and the Duplication spell.

Since the Martial Lord had left behind everything here, he would not give away anything to those who came after. It was just that one needed to know where to find the solution.

Fortunately, Tang Jie had understood the solution many years ago: the flowers blooming like brilliant flames at the base of that blazing mountain.

They were the key to increasing his fire resistance, in the same way Tang Jie had dealt with those Thunderbirds.

The problem was that these fire flowers on the mountain weren’t easy to pick. The intense temperatures weren’t something that Tang Jie could take, even with his greater-attainment Jewel Body.

But once he consumed the God Giant Blood Fruit and cultivated to the Diamond Body, he would probably have the ability to venture onto the mountain to pick those fire flowers. He had finally endured the difficult starting period and could now look forward to the dawn.

In a dense forest twenty kilometers from the valley, Tang Jie ate the God Giant Blood Fruit. This fruit didn’t need to be used through the Parting Classic, but could be simply eaten in order to strengthen his constitution.

Warmth flowed into Tang Jie’s body, stirring up his blood energy and making him feel like he was bursting with power. Tang Jie knew that this was the power of the fruit, and he calmed down and began to guide the energy as directed by the Parting Classic, distributing the medicinal power throughout his body, moving it from inside to outside as he cleansed and refined himself.

The blood energy let out a faint red light, and his body’s jewel-like luster gradually began to seem more metallic, like the bronzed appearance of a muscular man. Moreover, all over his body, his muscles began to bulge out.

Shockingly, even the shape of Tang Jie’s body began to change. He had originally been a tall and muscular youth, though his looks hadn’t been too amazing. But now, his body was getting even taller, gradually reaching a height of about two meters. At the same time, his muscles became firm and hard, so tough that not even striking them with a hammer could move them. The shape of his face also subtly changed because of this.

If one were to put avatar Tang Jie next to original Tang Jie, one would discover that they were no longer identical, only somewhat similar. They seemed more like brothers than two bodies of the same person.

This power hidden in the body of this little giant seemed to grow with every breath he took. Even Tang Jie didn’t dare to believe the transformation his body was experiencing.

He stroked his arms and chest muscles for a while before finally saying, “And this is only the basic level of the Diamond Body. What’s going to happen when I reach the high level?”

At this point, Tang Jie understood that the previous two stages were only the foundation for a mortal to convert to a body cultivator. It was the Diamond Body that truly possessed the powerful constitution of a body cultivator.

And this was only the most basic level, yet it was already so powerful. Tang Jie couldn’t help but think of that enormous figure he had seen in the Martial Mirror. What level of ferocity had that person achieved?

At this moment, Tang Jie blurted out in surprise, “‘A mantra to advance to Violet Palace’?”

Oh no, Tang Jie is becoming a muscle bro. Now he’s going to be swole.