Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Wang Juemie glared at Tang Jie, his chest heaving up and down.

After a long while, Wang Juemie suddenly threw his head back and laughed. “Good! Good! Good! A fine job, Tang Jie! Beautiful work! Fooling me by selling back what was mine in the first place! You’ve got guts!”

Tang Jie coldly replied, “You’re wrong about one thing. These goods aren’t necessarily yours. I just don’t think they’re worth fighting over. You really think I ran over just to capture your juniors and play you for a fool?”

As Tang Jie spoke, several dozen streaks of light rushed out.

Upon closer inspection, this was several dozen people, some of them riding on the wind, others mounted on clouds, some on lotus flowers, and still others on flying swords.

Their leader was none other than Bei Canghan, the previous number one genius of Basking Moon Academy, asked to help by Peng Yaolong. He was the strongest person in this group.

Besides him were Peng Yaolong, Ye Tianshang, Qi Shaoming, Cai Junyang, Liu Hongyan, Ping Jingyue, and Wei Tianchong, along with twenty-some others. They far outnumbered Wang Juemie’s crew.

These people flew up to the red light of the formation outside the valley. Bei Canghan saluted Wang Juemie. “Canghan pays respects to Great Brother Wang.”

The others shouted in unison, “…Paying respects to Great Brother.”

For a moment, their voices rumbled like thunder, but their tone was meek and polite.

While they had not appeared previously, they had been observing the battle in the valley using spell arts and basically knew what had transpired.

Wang Juemie had challenged three True Persons to battle, and while it had their blood pumping, it also had their hearts quailing.

No one could have imagined Wang Juemie to be this fierce, contending against three Celestial Hearts with his Mortal Shedding body. Even if he had the assistance of a Dao armament and a formation, this in no way watered down the terror of his own body’s power. One could basically be certain that Wang Juemie was invincible against his peers.

If they had initially disapproved of Tang Jie’s cautious attitude, they now completely approved of it.

Peng Yaolong was also a body refiner, so he had the keenest understanding of the gap between himself and Wang Juemie, and he also understood the sort of painful price to reach this level. Long before they had arrived, he had told everyone else of the gap between them and him.

Wang Juemie saw that the Basking Moon Sect disciples had arrived and grunted, “Tang Jie, you think these people are enough to deal with me?”

Just like Wang Juemie, Tang Jie had not notified the Basking Moon Sect for this operation, so no True Person had come.

Without a Celestial Heart True Person, Wang Juemie really didn’t care about twenty or thirty Mortal Shedding disciples. Once he really got going, he could easily take them all down.

Tang Jie chuckled. "I\'m naturally not that naive. But Great Brother, when you challenged three elders all by yourself, despite your prodigious strength, didn\'t you still need the help of your junior disciples? Moreover, Great Brother, while you might be able to get whatever cultivation resources you seek, the same might not be true for money. This formation must have been very expensive, difficult for one person to pay for. Many people doesn\'t just mean additional combat power, but also additional support. Am I right?"

Wang Juemie paled.

In terms of strength, Mu Yi and the other sixteen disciples put together couldn\'t compare to a single Wang Juemie, but without them, there would be no spiritual energy channels. Without them, there would not be the resources needed for the formation. Without them, there wouldn\'t be a plan, and so even if he had the resources, he wouldn\'t be able to lay down the formation.

His junior disciples had been of significant assistance to him!

As Tang Jie spoke, in the distance, Peng Yaolong laughed, and a small red pearl appeared in his hand.

Others also began to reveal small red pearls.

Upon seeing these items, Wang Juemie blurted out, "Heavenbane Lightning Pearls?"

These were none other than the Heavenbane Lightning Pearls of the Heavenly Extinction Sect. These items possessed immense power, with a single one being able to sunder mountains. Several dozen being thrown out wouldn\'t just annihilate the three formations laid down, they would also pulverize Wang Juemie\'s diamond-like body.

Wang Juemie gasped. "These are the sect treasures of the Heavenly Extinction Sect. The Heavenly Extinction Sect has always been unruly and untameable. How did you manage to get so many?"

Ye Tianshang coldly said, "No matter how unruly it is, they\'re only allowed to be unruly with the permission of my Basking Moon Sect. Moreover, it\'s not like we stole them. We bought them, and at market price. What reason did they have to refuse?"

The price of a Heavenbane Lightning Pearl was difficult to calculate and would differ from person to person. In order to guarantee procurement, Tang Jie had offered a price of 25,000 spirit coins per pearl—the price of a low-grade art relic. For a one-time-use tool, it was quite the high price, so even though they had wanted a lot, the Heavenly Extinction Sect still clenched its teeth and handed them over.

Tang Jie himself wasn\'t able to buy all these Heavenbane Lightning Pearls, so he had pooled money with everyone else to afford them. Just as Tang Jie had said, the more people there were, the more resources available.

The twenty-some Basking Moon disciples had spent several hundred thousand on these Heavenbane Lightning Pearls alone, and this wasn\'t the only thing they had prepared.

It was precisely the immensity of the investment that made Tang Jie unwilling to fight with Wang Juemie here. Who would be crazy enough to make a one-million-coin investment only to get one million back in resources?

Tang Jie continued to peruse the Profound Heaven Treatise as he said, "Great Brother, the Basking Moon Sect has no enmity with the Seven Absolutions Sect. While the two sects can quarrel, it is improper for us to destroy each other. I admit that I had robbery in mind in this mission, but wasn\'t the Seven Absolutions Sect thinking the same? Thus, I think it\'s best if we let the matter drop here. Out of consideration for the two years Great Brother spent planning all this out, I am rewarding you with these resources so you don\'t go back empty-handed. You get one million in resources as compensation and can collect the many rare resources used in the unactivated Bloodbane Formation. In this way, we part without any hard feelings, and isn\'t that a good thing?"

Wang Juemie snorted. "Those are nice words, but the Stone Gate Sect had goods worth more than a hundred million. I spent two years to only get one million, but you can get all of it in one go."

Tang Jie firmly said, "Great Brother is incorrect. Shi Jingzhai and Liang Xingbang have already fled, and the location of the goods is unknown. It is still undecided who the final winner will be. Moreover, the goods of the Stone Gate Sect originally belonged to my Basking Moon Sect, so it is only right that we take it all. This is like Great Brother Wang trying to rob a merchant caravan, but the caravan manages to fend you off. It would be one thing if you had succeeded in pulling off the robbery, but to say that we stole from you after you failed? That doesn\'t make sense at all!"

In these words, he was essentially calling Wang Juemie a bandit king.

Wang Juemie didn\'t care, laughing and saying, "You would dare to say that you wouldn\'t profit if you managed to retrieve those goods?"

Tang Jie lowered his head and inspected his fingernails. "If a guard does everything he can and ensures that the goods aren\'t lost, the entire world would lose heart if his boss didn\'t give him some reward. Poor souls like us can\'t let our master be badmouthed, so we have no choice but to take on some more responsibility."

The Basking Moon Sect disciples covered their mouths and chuckled. Some of them had been brought here by Peng Yaolong and Ye Tianshang, so they weren\'t very familiar with Tang Jie. Surprised by his words, they said, "This Junior Brother Tang really knows how to talk."

Peng Yaolong chuckled. "If he didn\'t, you really think I would praise him so much even though he hasn\'t even graduated yet?"

"That\'s true," someone nearby agreed. It was Cai Junyang. He was normally running around, so finding him was truly difficult.

Wang Juemie couldn\'t help but nod his head in praise. "It\'s truly a silver tongue. Then let me ask you: you killed my junior disciple, Li Chun, several days ago. How will you settle that account?"

"\'Li Chun\'?" Tang Jie was taken aback, and then he realized what was going on and smiled. "Great Brother, are you talking about that man in black I encountered in Canglong Prefecture? This person infiltrated Sageheart and colluded with the Gu Clan, harboring ill intentions and injuring me. But he claimed to be from the White Bone Faith, and I did not kill him. If he was your junior disciple, then I truly must apologize, but then I must plead innocence out of ignorance."

With a few sentences, he had pushed off the responsibility, and Wang Juemie was left dumbfounded. After a while, he said, "Good, good! An excellent use of \'innocence out of ignorance\'. I will remember these words. Since that\'s the case, we\'ll drop the matter here!"

The Stone Gate Sect had fled, and Tang Jie had back-up plans. In the face of the Heavenbane Lightning Pearls, even if Wang Juemie\'s heaven-defying strength could let him survive, his junior disciples had no chance of creating any sort of miracle.

There was no point in arguing, so he might as well give up.

As Tang Jie still had time to read the Profound Heaven Treatise, everyone just waited.

In the meantime, Tang Jie released Lu Xiaoyu, but he kept Mu Yi to converse with. Of course, he was no longer bound up.

Neither of them was one to hold a grudge. Tang Jie hadn\'t resented Mu Yi for pulling one over on him at the Immortal Fortune Conference. On the contrary, he had praised Mu Yi and even invited Mu Yi to come to Sageheart to have his condition treated, though he had refused. And now, Mu Yi did not resent Tang Jie for capturing him. He surprisingly agreed to Tang Jie\'s invitation to look at the Profound Heaven Treatise together, and they occasionally asked each other questions.

Mu Yi\'s understanding of formations was inferior to Tang Jie\'s, but Tang Jie\'s understanding of the Seven Absolutions Sect\'s style was inferior to Mu Yi\'s. Thus, in questioning each other, they were able to make up for each other\'s flaws and raise their understanding of formations together.

Wang Juemie was happy to see this. He wanted nothing more than for them to chat up a storm so that Tang Jie would spend less time reading and more time talking.

As they were chatting away, Tang Jie smiled and said, "Conversing with you is better than reading books for ten years. If you didn\'t tell me, I would have never known that the Seven Absolutions Sect had such exquisite arts. My thanks, my thanks!"

Find the original at bit.ly/3Tfs4P4.

Mu Yi replied, "I must also thank you. I had believed that the Seven Absolutions Sect had gathered up all the secrets concerning formations, so I didn\'t think that there would be such a method to conceal formations. It is no wonder that the formation laid down by Fourth Brother and me was so easily seen through by you. In the end, we were nothing but frogs in a well. If I had discussed this matter with Senior Brother Tang beforehand, we would not have made such an error."

Tang Jie chuckled. "You have to blame yourself for that. I invited you to be a guest at my Basking Moon Academy, but you refused to come. Were you worried that I would hurt you?"

Mu Yi shook his head. "I know that Senior Brother Tang had kind intentions, but my Great Brother already expended great effort on this body of mine, and it is impossible."

"While Wang Juemie\'s True Demon Body is powerful, it is too tyrannical and the cultivation too fierce, involving injuring the body every day. He would be a great choice for killing people, but he\'s somewhat lacking if it comes to saving people."

Mu Yi was confused. "Isn\'t all body refining like that? Has Brother Tang not experienced it before?"

Tang Jie shook his head.

Mu Yi was startled.

Tang Jie took out a piece of paper and passed it to Mu Yi. "Once this matter is over, I will be returning to Basking Moon Academy. If you are interested, you can come to the academy to find me. Bring as much as you can of what\'s listed on the paper. I should be able to help you recover some of your constitution. As for how much, it\'s hard for me to say, but at least it will be better than your current feeble condition."

Mu Yi looked at what was written on the paper and found it all to be rare spiritual herbs. Tang Jie could make this sort of prescription and also claim that he had never suffered self-harm in body refining? Mu Yi was starting to believe that Tang Jie was able to help him.

"These herbs are very expensive. If you really can\'t get them together, I can help you get some," Tang Jie said.

Mu Yi looked questioningly at him. "Why do you want to help me?"

Tang Jie replied, "You know the reason."

Mu Yi was inwardly stunned. He turned to the distant Wang Juemie and the shattered stones scattered about the ground.

Tang Jie whispered like a ghost, "There are some things that I could never hide from you. Even if you don\'t see it now, if I gave you the time, you might realize it anyway. But… I hope that you can keep your mouth shut this time."

"Those goods… I see," Mu Yi muttered. He seemed to realize something, and he whispered back, "Do you realize you\'re telling me to sell out my Great Brother?"

"One: the goods were originally my Basking Moon Sect\'s. Two: even if you tell him, you\'ve got no chance of success. All that you will do is make our two sects kill each other. I only dared to make the plan because I was confident of my success. Just like how you guys only acted against the Stone Gate Sect because you felt you could deal with them. But this time, I managed to fool you. Since I was in the shadows, I had the initiative, so your loss is inevitable. At best, you can only make me pay a somewhat higher price. Three… there are some things that money can\'t buy."

Mu Yi\'s chest rose and fell. After a while, he finally said, "I will not deceive Great Brother, but I will wait a day to tell him. One month after that, I will go to Basking Moon Academy. If you can\'t treat me, you must pay compensation of at least one hundred thousand to my Great Brother. But if you can heal me, I will pay the one hundred thousand!"

"Deal!"

Time passed very quickly while they were chatting. Six hours later, Tang Jie gave the ruyi scepter back to Wang Juemie and said, "Great Brother, thank you for your generosity."

Wang Juemie pursed his lips. "Save the sarcasm. As you said, I can put aside the matter of stealing the goods, but I won\'t forget the death of Li Chun and the stealing of my love. When we next meet, one of us won\'t be walking away."

He had finally brought up the matter of his stolen love.

Tang Jie chuckled. "Great Brother, if you like Shen Qingdan, you can go and pursue her. It has nothing to do with me."

These words made Wang Juemie take another look at him.

He looked Tang Jie over and suddenly chuckled. "Kid, you\'ve got guts. I really did want to find you over Shen Qingdan once, but starting from today, my wanting to deal with you has nothing to do with her."

He looked hard at Tang Jie and sternly said, "Very little can make Wang Juemie suffer a loss, and you\'re the first one to pull it off. Remember this. One day, I, Wang Juemie, will get back everything I lost here, plus interest."

He threw his head back and laughed hard three times, and then he stomped a foot on the ground, setting off mighty tremors as he rocketed into the air.

His trajectory had him heading straight toward Peng Yaolong and company. They hastily got out of the way, and Wang Juemie flew off into the horizon, leaving a long arc in his wake.

This method of flight was simply unheard of.

The other Seven Absolutions Sect disciples were in the middle of dismantling the formation, taking whatever resources were still usable and departing.

The clamorous nameless valley had suddenly become very quiet.

Bei Canghan\'s group finally had the opportunity to fly into the valley. They went up to Tang Jie, and as it had been a long time since they had met each other, they messed around with each other for a bit, and it was only after that that they started making introductions.

Besides Bei Canghan, Wu Xuanguang and other famous former students had also come. In truth, given the method by which the Basking Moon Sect recruited disciples, those who became official disciples had to have stirred up a storm in the academy. Thus, as they introduced each other, there was frequent mention of "genius" or "elite". They had all had their moments of glory at various points in time.

When it came to Bei Canghan, Tang Jie had known about him in the past, but he had never had a chance to meet him. Now, they could finally talk with each other, and Bei Canghan would not underestimate Tang Jie in the slightest.

Even if this person was weaker than him, as someone who could make Wang Juemie retreat, he was someone who deserved attention. Besides that, Tang Jie knew how to act, never putting on airs and being very likable.

After chatting for a while and exchanging pleasantries, Peng Yaolong finally brought them back to the main topic. "This Wang Juemie is truly fierce. It\'s a good thing the Heavenbane Lightning Pearls managed to scare him off like you said they would. But now that the three Celestial Hearts have escaped and there\'s no sign of the goods, it seems like things are going to get a little tricky, no?"

But he was looking at Tang Jie as if he didn\'t think that the situation was actually that problematic.

The fact that Tang Jie had shown no reaction upon learning that those three had escaped was proof that he had a plan.

But there were still some people who didn\'t understand. Someone immediately said, "Yeah! And those three already know that we\'re onto them. They definitely won\'t dare to come back to Sageheart. In my view, they\'re going to try and run."

Another person added, "The world is vast, and there\'s no telling which way they\'ll run. Finding them again won\'t be easy."

Tang Jie chuckled. "Do you really think they can escape?"

Everyone froze. Wei Tianchong asked, "Tang Jie, what do you mean by that? These are still three True Persons we\'re talking about here, and they have a huge head start. Do you really think you can still catch them?"

Tang Jie replied, "Why do you think Shi Jingzhai filled these crates with rocks? Because he couldn\'t rest easy. But this uneasiness wasn\'t necessarily targeted at Wang Juemie. It might also have been targeted against us. My appearance and Wang Juemie\'s pressure both made them restless, which is why they decided to switch out the goods. But just as I said to Wang Juemie: what if none of this had happened? What if Wang Juemie was being sincere, and what if I didn\'t come? What would they do then?"

The others all looked at each other.

Bei Canghan seemed to get it. He dropped his head and began to think, finally saying, "You earlier said to Wang Juemie that the Goldite was hidden in the stone as a back-up plan. Now that I think about it, this was a trade involving more than one hundred million in goods, but it suddenly became only one million. As a back-up plan, it\'s rather weak. Could it be…"

Tang Jie laughed and saluted Bei Canghan. "Senior Brother Bei truly is sharp! This one million in resources was no back-up plan at all, only a means of buying time. If the Seven Absolutions Sect was sincere, this one million would be used to calm their anger. If I really had discovered their dealings, this one million would be used to explain things to the Basking Moon Sect… Embezzling one million is completely different from embezzling one hundred million."

"Buying time…" Bei Canghan immediately understood, shouting, "I get it! It must be that these goods were actually divided into two caravans. Shi Jingzhai was escorting the fake goods, and the real stuff was in the other caravan. Yes, if this matter weren\'t exposed, then it would just be two trades instead of one. The Goldite in the rocks would be handed over, and then they would wait until the second caravan to complete the deal and leave. If the trade didn\'t work out, then this matter would inevitably be exposed. The goods wouldn\'t be able to remain in Sageheart and would need to be taken far away. So…"

"So they must be with the other caravan," Liu Hongyan said, arching her eyebrows. "The matter has been exposed, so they\'re trying to get away with their wealth."

Cai Junyang laughed. "If that\'s the case, things are easy. That caravan should be on about the same scale as this one. We just need to check the records at Lotus Pass to know where they\'re going. While three True Persons can move quickly, a caravan can\'t. For the sake of money, they can only slowly crawl along."

The eyes of the Basking Moon disciples brightened. "What are we waiting for? To Lotus Pass!"

Tang Jie shook his head. "There\'s no need for that. Did you forget that Shi Meng is at Lotus Pass? He sent me word long ago."

Wei Tianchong said in realization, "So you already guessed that this would happen."

Tang Jie curled his lip. "It\'s just a game of \'real or fake\'. I\'ve seen plenty of those. I was just making preparations just in case."

"We just need to chase after them now, but those are still three True Persons," Ping Jingyue worriedly said.

"Three heavily injured True Persons on the verge of death," Tang Jie replied. "Of course, they still can\'t be underestimated. That\'s why I avoided fighting it out with Wang Juemie. Those Heavenbane Lightning Pearls weren\'t cheap. If our costs are too high, our profits will be too low. They have to be used at the crucial point."

Everyone sinisterly laughed.

———————

Author\'s Note: In a previous chapter, I mistakenly wrote that Tang Jie didn\'t have the money to improve his body. It should have been that his avatar\'s constitution had an upper limit that made it difficult to improve. I actually forgot about this point, and when I was writing that chapter, I looked all over and couldn\'t find where I had written it. I thought that I hadn\'t written it, so I just wrote it as-is. But yesterday, a reader pointed out that I had actually written about it in Chapter 1 (Chapter 345). I\'m now clarifying here that the combined effect of the Undying Celestial Origin Pill and the Hundred Calamities Passage fixed the problem of the lacking constitution and allowed for a breakthrough. My thanks to the friend who pointed out the problem.