Starsnatch Peak, the Hall of Divine Conference.
Tang Jie sat within the hall. Above him was a battlefield that encompassed an entire world, and in front of him was a formation awash with starlight. This was the central core of the entire domain-merging formation, and from here, one could see the situation of the nodes and formation eyes. The points of twinkling starlight were the formation eyes, and one of them would go dark every so often.
This meant that a formation eye had been destroyed.
Some of these stars would flicker back into existence, meaning that the formation eye had been repaired. Those that didn’t could no longer be repaired and would have to be laid down again.
The intensity of the flickering starlight was an indicator of the battle’s intensity.
The resistance from the Blood River Domain was stronger than anticipated, the frenzied counterattack of the fiends and demons initially catching the Rosecloud Domain off guard. Even with Tang Jie deploying his clones, the Wuxing, and the beans, the situation had only barely stabilized. And any Immortal besides him would have found it very hard to pull off such a task over such a vast battlefield.
Still, as the battle wore on, Rosecloud’s losses were climbing.
Just now, Tang Jie had learned that two of the Thousand Passions Sect’s Violet Palace True Lords had been slain at West Wind Ridge, and Wang Posha had been heavily injured. Fortunately, Wei Tianchong and the others had arrived in time to salvage the situation and prevent a collapse, but still, the attacking cultivators had managed to escape in time, which meant that only Rosecloud had suffered losses in that fight.
After some thought, he snapped his fingers, and there was a sound like a firecracker.
“Has there been any movement from Guang Yuan’s side?”
“Ancestor, Guang Yuan said that the humans of Blood River sustained heavy losses in the earlier war and need time to recover. They are still not fit to join the battle and ask Ancestor to give them a few more days.”
Tang Jie snorted. “Just trying to play both sides, using the fiends and demons to weaken us so that they can get more later.”
The early stages of the war were when the resistance was fiercest, and Guang Yuan was playing for time so that he could use the Rosecloud Domain as his weapon while also seeing just how strong the Rosecloud Domain was. After all, it had to have some power since it wanted to conquer Blood River.
Tang Jie didn’t mind.
Thus, Tang Jie said, “Tell them that I’ve already given them seven days. If they don’t act by tomorrow, then we don’t need them anymore.”
“As Ancestor commands,” the boy replied, and departed.
After doing this, Tang Jie gazed back at the formation core, where two more locations had issued emergency requests. It was proving almost impossible to keep up with the movements of the enemy. Tang Jie knew that this was because the Lord of the Blood River was secretly using his Blood River teleportation.
As the monsterized Blood River, he was able to teleport anyone to anywhere the Blood River touched, capable of transporting a million soldiers with a single thought. This was how the Blood River Domain’s cultivators could attack all over the place. But Yun Tianlan was personally searching for the Lord of the Blood River, and as the Lord of the Blood River constantly changed hiding spots, he would eventually expose himself. That moment would be the time for the decisive battle.
The Lord of the Blood River would have nowhere left to retreat to, and the cultivator war could be brought to a close.
The only thing that could alter the course of this war was the Lord of the Blood River’s hidden card.
This thought made Tang Jie deeply frown.
He didn’t know if Blood River had been telling the truth, but through his divining of Fate, he had found a sliver of uncertainty, sensed that Blood River was most likely not lying. He had thought about using the Wish Granting Book to find out, but then he felt that it was too much of a waste. After all, there were only eight pages left, and each one could potentially produce an Earth Immortal.
In the end, Tang Jie decided to keep waiting, and he began to draw on the air.
Light rippled through the air, and then the familiar face of the Flame Celestial Sovereign appeared before Tang Jie.
He nodded to Tang Jie in respect and then said, “For what reason has Master summoned me?”
“What’s the progress on the investigation?”
The Flame Celestial Sovereign shook his head. “Still nothing.”
Tang Jie frowned.
The Flame Celestial Sovereign saw his displeasure and nervously said, “I don’t think the Lord of the Blood River has any trump card. He was just trying to bluff. With Master’s strength, if we all go out, we can immediately kill Blood River and the others and take the entire Blood River Domain. There’s no need to go through all this trouble.” ŘἈŊỒＢЕ𝘴
Tang Jie slowly shook his head. “Not acceptable. The Lord of the Blood River wasn’t necessarily bluffing. I think he really does have something. He just hasn’t used it now because he thinks the gap between sides isn’t that great and there’s still hope. If he finds out our true strength is far greater than he imagined, he’ll despair and immediately use it. If we don’t react in time, we’ll end up in a very passive position. Thus, we have to find out where his confidence lies before he despairs, so you still need to work hard.”
The Flame Celestial Sovereign grimaced. “I’ve already probed Blood River many times, but he’s kept his mouth shut and said nothing. He’s even kept his actual location a secret from me.”
“Take your time and keep trying. If there’s anything at all, it will eventually reveal itself. Keep an eye out. I will slow down our offensive to buy you time,” Tang Jie said.
“Yes!” The Flame Celestial Sovereign’s figure faded away.
Tang Jie fell into a deep thought.
Suddenly, he trembled, and his eyes began to shine. “Finally awake…” he murmured.
————————————————————
The Nether Domain, the Yan River.
A Blood Devil Ghost was floating over the river.
This was a mature ghost with a smoky body that was constantly shifting. Occasionally, faces twisted in pain would appear on its center, of all ages and sexes, all of them silently crying for help. These were all ghosts that it had devoured to make itself stronger.
It had no feet, so it simply floated across the river as a cloud. As a solitary soul floated past it, it reached out and seized it. This soul instinctively submitted to its powerful aura, not daring to resist and simply trembling.
Surprisingly, the Blood Devil Ghost sniffed the soul before tossing it away. The soul immediately fled while the Blood Devil Ghost continued to float along the river. Finally, after reaching a certain part of the river, it sniffed a few times and then dove into the waters.
Down beneath the pitch-black waters, Tang Jie’s original body quietly lay.
A crimson pearl was gradually seeping out of his wrist, unaffected by the waters around it. It grew larger and larger, until finally, it burst open and dissolved into the water, turning the area red.
A powerful life energy spread with it.
It made the Blood Devil Ghost go crazy in excitement.
Letting out a screech, it rushed to the bottom of the river and up to Tang Jie’s original body. Sensing the immense life energy within it, it let out a cheerful chirp.
Its body of crimson smoke gradually condensed, and a giant mouth appeared on its belly, the screams of countless resentful spirits coming from it.
Just as it was about to bite down, a transparent figure emerged from that corpse and seized the Blood Devil Ghost.
Hiss!
There was a deafening shriek as the Blood Devil Ghost desperately rolled about the bottom of the river, its misty body spreading outward to cover almost the entire riverbed. This crimson fog possessed the power to corrode and pulverize other ghosts, and while Hunter Ghosts were the bane of all ghosts, that didn’t mean they were invincible. Otherwise, the Nether Domain would have already been dominated by Hunter Ghosts. In addition, Little Three also wasn’t specialized for strength, so he was momentarily unable to subdue the Blood Devil Ghost. As the ghost was on the verge of escaping, Little Three started to panic.
The corpse suddenly moved, a hand rising and two fingers snatching up the Blood Devil Ghost.
Plush!
With a gentle press, the Blood Devil Ghost popped like a balloon, and its soul energy flowed into Tang Jie’s original body.
“Father!” Little Three emerged from the crimson fog and looked at Tang Jie in delight. “Father, you’re awake?”
“Mm,” the original body responded, the voice coming from the chest. “I’m finally able to constitute a form.”
Through that hole in the chest, one could see a human form sitting on that shattered heart. The human bore Tang Jie’s face, but his aura was as weak as that of an early-phase Spirit Disciple.
This was the reborn Tang Jie. Through Little Three’s tireless efforts, Tang Jie’s will had finally fully awakened. But the new Tang Jie was at the lowest point in life, as weak as he could possibly be. He had needed to use the power in the corpse to perform that attack just now. At this time, the original body’s corpse was like a giant golem, and he could control it because they originated from the same source. In addition, it could also be considered a treasure, tantamount to the Martial Lord’s hidden realm, and only after completely absorbing its power could Tang Jie recover his cultivation.
But even though they shared the same origin, completely absorbing its essence was a major undertaking for the new Tang Jie.
Tang Jie didn’t mind, for his true concerns lay elsewhere.
He looked down at himself and muttered, “Since I’ve died, I’ve essentially gone through the process of destruction and recreation. I wonder if this meets the conditions for the Fake Sky, False Sun Immortal Art.”
He then closed his eyes in meditation and began to communicate with his avatar far off in the Blood River Domain.