Aspiring to the Immortal Path - Chapter 318

The soil was pried apart, and an Earth Silkworm picked up.

Pinching open its plump body and squeezing that repulsive green liquid into his mouth, Tang Jie felt a warmth flowing through his body. Pushing through his disgust, Tang Jie felt that warmth in his body and guided it so that he could absorb every bit of energy.

The spiritual energy brought by the Earth Silkworm needed to be guided and absorbed as quickly as possible, as it would quickly dissipate.

Tang Jie only relaxed when he had absorbed the last bit of spiritual energy. He had expanded his Spiritual Space by almost ten drops of spiritual liquid just now—the equivalent of a day of cultivation. While he was still far from reaching the maximum size, Tang Jie wasn’t discouraged.

Even though he was in the Langya Blessed Land and had numerous secret methods by which to extract the essence of spiritual plants to strengthen himself, getting the items that fit the requirements still wasn’t easy.

The commonality between all plants that could increase spiritual energy was that they rarely lasted long. Even in blessed lands and paradises, they were hard to come by, and they would often be scattered about. And when Tang Jie was looking around, he didn’t pick everything, leaving some to keep growing, so he was having a hard time getting everything he needed.

Even so, Tang Jie felt his body surging with spiritual energy. The Spirit Sea in his Spiritual Space frothed, already showing signs of developing majestic waves.

In this one day, Tang Jie had increased his spiritual energy by essentially two months of cultivation. Although this wasn’t enough to achieve a qualitative change, the overall increase in spiritual energy had also boosted Tang Jie’s combat power.

In the middle of his delight, a rainbow beam of energy rose up from the distance.

Startled, Tang Jie frowned. “We’ve only entered the seventh hour, and the first treasure has already appeared?”

For him, it was naturally best if the struggle over the ten treasures in the Langya Blessed Land dragged on as long as possible. The more time that passed, the greater he could improve himself, and with greater strength came more opportunities.

This was precisely why the first treasure coming out so quickly displeased him. What displeased him even more was that he didn’t know if the treasure was the Stop Gate Banner, so he had to go over and take a look. He didn’t even have the privilege of giving up on it.

“I hate it when things are like this,” Tang Jie muttered.

Despite his reluctance, Tang Jie still rose and headed in the direction of that rainbow cloud.

In the northwestern region of the blessed land, the barechested Peng Yaolong had just torn a Mind Opening fiend wolf in half. Just as he was taking out the pellet, he saw the rainbow light in the distance. Smiling, he said, “Already getting so lively? That’s perfect. I needed an excuse to stretch my muscles.”

He pushed off the ground, rocketing into the air as the ground beneath trembled. His entire body surged with blood energy—a clear sign that he was circulating energy and blood simultaneously.

On the southern end of the blessed land, Ye Tianshang sheathed his sword and proudly stood before two students of the Seven Absolutions Sect. One had a wound on his shoulder while the other had a severe wound on his leg, and both of them were trembling in fear as they looked at Ye Tianshang.

The rainbow light soared upward, and Ye Tianshang peered into the distance before coldly saying, “I’m only letting you two bastards off because there’s no grudge between my Basking Moon Sect and the Seven Absolutions Sect. If you try this again, I won’t be so polite.”

Saying that, he threw his sword into the air, stepped on it, and flew off toward the rainbow light.

The two Seven Absolutions Sect students looked at each other and saw the shock in each other’s eyes. They had run into Ye Tianshang by accident, and when they saw that he was alone, they thought that they could win with their numbers and thus remove a formidable adversary from the Basking Moon Sect. But to their surprise, they had lost to Ye Tianshang. If not for the treasure’s rainbow light drawing Ye Tianshang’s attention, the two of them would be dead. As for Ye Tianshang’s talk about the two sects not having grudges toward each other, they didn’t believe it for a second.

One of them bitterly said, “I really didn’t think that Ye Tianshang would be hiding his strength all this time. His Galefury Sword is at least 30% stronger than it was in the arena.”

The other student replied, “This Ye Tianshang is probably the real number one of the Basking Moon Sect. I think Peng Yaolong and Tang Jie are far inferior. It’s no good. We have to hurry and tell Senior Brother Mu.”

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He took out a small compass from his Mustard Seed Bag. Once he wrote a message on it, all the Seven Absolutions Sect students would receive it at the same time.

While the Seven Absolutions Sect was weaker than the other five sects, it had always excelled when it came to the auxiliary fields. Each of their students had a special communication tool like this. This was precisely why it was very easy for them to work together.

On the eastern end of the blessed land, a large ape swung a tree trunk at Wei Tianchong. Wei Tianchong dodged to the side while shouting, “Don’t think that I can’t beat you just because you’re at Mind Opening! I don’t want to fight you.”

Boom!

The tree trunk swung down, and Wei Tianchong swiftly dodged again. He pointed at the ape and shouted, “You’re still fighting! Let me tell you: I have an ambush in waiting! If you keep chasing me, you’ll die!”

“Raaaa!” The giant ape bellowed at Wei Tianchong.

Wei Tianchong took another step back, and the giant ape gave chase. Just when it was about to swing that giant log at Wei Tianchong’s head, it sensed something and looked up.

There was nothing at all above it, but the giant ape felt like some enormous threat was coming. It cried out and tried to back away, but it was too late.

It felt a sudden pain at its head, and a large figure appeared out of thin air. One arm morphed into a drill was stabbed into its forehead, intending to dig straight through its head.

“Awoooo… shameless!” the ape roared. It still wanted to strike back, but that stubborn fatty who had been shrinking back this entire time had changed out his fearful expression for a murderous one.

Sword light flashed, engulfing the giant ape, and the sandwiched fiend ape died on the spot.

Sheathing his sword, Wei Tianchong laughed, “I told you there was an ambush, but you refused to believe me.”

He suddenly gasped as a rainbow light rose in the distance.

Wei Tianchong scratched his head. “The first treasure has come out. Should I go? Or not go? Ah, whatever; I’ll go and take a look first. If things look bad, I’ll just let it go.”

On the northern end of the blessed land, Lan Yu, mounted on his sword, flew over a small forest, his eyes constantly searching the trees. Unable to find anything, he frowned and shouted, “Qi Shaoming, get out here! Aren’t you the nine-cycle genius of Basking Moon Academy? It doesn’t look like it, seeing how you’re hiding like this!”

His deep voice resounded through the forest, but there was no response, leaving Lan Yu furious.

Ever since Tang Jie had made fun of him, he had had a poor impression of the Basking Moon Sect, and he was itching to unleash this pent-up anger on the Basking Moon Sect in this contest. He hadn’t been able to find Tang Jie, but he had found Qi Shaoming, so he was looking to kill him to show that he meant business.

As Qi Shaoming had yet to enter Mortal Shedding, he had felt confident in his chances, but Qi Shaoming had ended up escaping regardless.

This had happened because Qi Shaoming’s Chill Phantom Clone Slash had miraculously managed to go on for half a second longer than expected. This minor miscalculation had caused Lan Yu to be unable to dodge in that last half-second, allowing Qi Shaoming’s nine phantoms to encircle him. If not for Lan Yu’s formidable strength, he might have died on the spot, which would truly have been a most unjust death.

This mishap had made Lan Yu less bold, which in turn gave Qi Shaoming the chance to escape.

By the time Qi Shaoming had come to his senses and resumed the chase, he had already lost the best chance to kill Qi Shaoming.

Now, he had no idea if Qi Shaoming was hiding in this lush forest or had seen that his chances were poor and used the jade talisman to run.

As he was looking around, he saw a rainbow light in the distance. He harrumphed and said, “Count yourself lucky.”

He turned and flew into the distance.

Some time after he had gone, a figure appeared in the forest: Qi Shaoming.

He was no longer pure and unsullied, but rather ragged and tattered, his snow-white uniform covered in blood and one arm sagging. There was even some blood on the corner of his mouth that he hadn’t wiped away yet.

Even so, his eyes were focused and confident.

Although he was no match for Lan Yu, he had been able to escape from Lan Yu and his Oceancrosser Step. This was its own sort of glory.

Looking in the direction Lan Yu had left, Qi Shaoming muttered, “Lan Yu… One day, I’ll personally defeat you!”

The treasure light was like a gathering cry.

Within the Langya Blessed Land, the students converged from all around.

The rainbow treasure light was not fixed in place, but was constantly shifting north and south. Yet no matter how it moved, it was like a firefly in the night, drawing countless greedy gazes.

As Tang Jie got closer to the treasure light, he slowed his approach. From a distance, he saw two groups of students locked in combat, their blade flashes crossing the sky.

One side was the united forces of supreme-rulerhead Palace and the Beast Refining Gate for a total of seven people. Their leader was Yun Wuji, who was leading them in a fighting retreat.

On the other side was a motley group consisting of the Thousand Passions Sect, the Basking Moon Sect, and Horizon Ocean Pavilion. There were ten people in total, and they were pushing back the supreme-rulerhead Palace party.

Behind Yun Wuji, a student was holding a small jade cup, and the treasure light was coming from this cup.

“So it was the Taiyi Profound Clarity Cup,” Tang Jie sighed in relief.

The Taiyi Profound Clarity Cup was a pretty decent treasure. It was said that when the cup was presented to the morning dew, one could get a cup of liquid every day. This liquid had the effect of restoring blood and spiritual energy, so it was an excellent treasure when it came to healing. At present, the Taiyi Profound Clarity Cup even had half a cup of clear dew swishing around inside it.

Looking at the situation, Tang Jie knew that although the supreme-rulerhead–Beast-Refining party was outnumbered, they didn’t really have their backs to the wall. Meanwhile, the joint party on the other side had more numbers, but they were all worried about their party members having ulterior motives, so a long battle would be to their disadvantage.

It was hard to blame them. The Thousand Passions Sect was sworn enemies with Horizon Ocean Pavilion, and it was rare to see them fighting alongside each other rather than the opposite. And how much energy could they really devote to actual combat in this battle? It might be that one third would be devoted to attacking the enemy while the other two thirds of it was devoted to defending oneself against one’s purported allies. Those two Basking Moon Sect students were, on the other hand, completely fearless and putting their all into attacking. But just the two of them wouldn’t be able to alter the situation.

As the seven people in the supreme-rulerhead Palace party were pushed back and seemed on the verge of falling, Yun Wuji suddenly laughed coldly. Sheathing his sword, he formed a sword sign with his left hand pointed forward. At the same time, three supreme-rulerhead Palace students behind them thrust their palms at his back.

A powerful shockwave emitted from Yun Wuji’s finger, sweeping up all the students that were attacking him.

Those students were powerless to stop this furious wave, their barriers shattering as they were sent flying.

The three Beast Refining Gate students charged into the fray. Although there were only three of them, they had two refined beasts each, meaning that they had a force of nine. Those ten people on the other end were too injured to fight back and were utterly defeated.

Tang Jie was just about to intervene when he noticed that these people didn’t strike to kill, so he drew back into hiding. The three Beast Refining Gate students charged around, quickly scattering the joint force. On the other end, the four supreme-rulerhead Palace students took out Immortal-Binding Rope and tied up the wounded students.

Is that what they were doing? It wasn’t a bad idea.

Tang Jie understood what was happening.

The emergence of the treasure had filled the heavens with a rainbow glow, which was certain to draw many attackers. Trying to hold the treasure for twelve hours under these circumstances wouldn’t be easy.

While they had chosen to work together, an even better idea was to take hostages.

Among students that came from the same sect, some of them had to have good friends among the rest. So long as they controlled some, they would be able to control the rest.

Yun Wuji’s group had intentionally acted weak precisely for this moment.

This sudden attack had half of the ten students tied up in the blink of an eye. The remainder saw that the situation wasn’t good and immediately moved to retreat.

Yun Wuji coldly laughed. “Where do you think you’re going!?”

He thrust out his palm twice, bringing down two more. Three managed to escape in panic, leaving the remainder to be captured alive.

The supreme-rulerhead Palace students celebrated with the three Beast Refining Gate students. “Congratulations, Senior Brother Yun, for successfully taking hostages. This will buy us a lot of time.”

Yun Wuji chuckled. He first took the Taiyi Profound Clarity Cup from the student behind him and then said, “It is all thanks to the help from you junior brothers, and I must also thank the junior brothers from the Beast Refining Gate for faithfully helping us out.”

A Beast Refining Gate student said, “So long as Senior Brother Yun does not forget the reward you promised us.”

“Of course.” Yun Wuji smiled. His face suddenly went white, and he plopped to the ground.

Two supreme-rulerhead students quickly went to help him up. “Senior Brother Yun, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Yun Wuji shook his head. “The joint attack just now put a lot of burden on me, and I was somewhat unable to take the strain. I’ll be fine after a little rest. Forget about me and watch the hostages.”

He walked off to the side and found a place to meditate. He placed the Taiyi Profound Clarity Cup on his palm, and it flashed with an alluring light.

As the other students were watching the hostages, there was no one at Yun Wuji’s side. If someone made their way around and made a sneak attack, it might succeed.

Tang Jie stared at the jade cup. The water in the cup rippled.

He chortled. “I’m already discovered? Interesting.”

He took a few steps back, and then ran off without looking back.

In the forest clearing, the meditating Yun Wuji suddenly opened his eyes. Looking into the distance, he muttered, Not taking the bait… Someone so wary can only be a problem later on. Should I take this chance to remove him?”

His eyes flashed with killing intent.

“Senior Brother.” Several students saw that Yun Wuji had opened his eyes and went over to see how he was doing.

Yun Wuji said, “Someone was watching from the woods. Two of you, go over and take a look. Capture him if you can, and if you can’t… kill him!”