Less than an hour later, Tang Jie finished digesting the Life energy of the wandering soul. He could clearly sense that his essence as a living being had risen.
This wasn’t because the Yellow Springs Dao Seeking Scripture was so powerful, only because Tang Jie was too weak. He was so weak that he needed almost an hour to digest the Life energy of a single wandering soul, so weak that this Life energy had given him a huge boost.
Tang Jie could only bitterly smile at this and once more place his hopes on Little Three.
Little Three continued to lure newborn wandering souls over to Tang Jie for him to hunt and devour, and through those little bits of Life energy, Tang Jie grew stronger and stronger. One day, after devouring a ghost and meditating for a while, he suddenly felt a surging sensation within his body, and his bones creaked and groaned. With this, he had broken through the first level and attained perfected flesh and bones.
Tang Jie had never reached this level of perfection before. His first time, the only means he had of strengthening his body was the Visceral Manifestation Classic. But now, thanks to the Fake Sky, False Sun Immortal Art, he was able to cleanse and refine his body, ensuring that every muscle, bone, and piece of flesh was arranged in the ideal way, and grew and operated perfectly, becoming a cultivation genius in the true sense of the word.
At this stage, Tang Jie had recovered to the Spirit Lake Tier.
This was still a weakling, but at least he had some means of defending himself. But the biggest benefit was that Little Three no longer had to go through the trouble of picking specifically the newborn wandering souls. Tang Jie was now capable of hunting wandering souls of any level.
The broadening of his “food list” meant that Tang Jie’s rate of improvement picked up rather than slowed down. Not long after reaching perfection in the first phase, Tang Jie soon broke through the second phase, reaching the Spirit Sea Tier.
His physical body had also grown to a new level, and he could freely control the strength within it such that he could fine-tune his punches. Not only that, there was another energy settling within his body—spiritual energy. But it no longer took the form of a Spirit Sea. Instead, every cell in his body contained large amounts of spiritual energy.
At this point, not even Tang Jie was sure what was going on.
He was advancing and pioneering a path that no one had ever walked before.
This was a very dangerous path that might even end up in a dead end, but there was also the possibility of him creating a brand new future for the cultivation world.
Tang Jie didn’t know what the result would be, but he strode forward without a tinge of regret.
After a few more days, Tang Jie had advanced to Mortal Shedding.
However, this was simply a reference standard. Tang Jie had already stopped using the levels of the past to measure his strength. After all, when he had reached this level, he hadn’t felt any of the changes that came with the breakthrough to Mortal Shedding. The Heavenly Dao was extremely quiet, as if it had not noticed his existence, and he himself was not sure what his actual condition was.
All he could say was that his physical body was now midway to completion and growing increasingly stable.
At this stage, Tang Jie could finally go out and hunt ghosts himself.
Today was Tang Jie’s first time going out hunting.
He emerged from the hole in the original body and swam upward.
The black river waters were bitingly cold, and in the distance swam several bone fish, made entirely of bones that were covered by a thin membrane. They exuded an icy aura, and only on rare occasions could one see the glimmer of life energy within their skeletal structures.
The bone fish had no interest in flesh, so Tang Jie usually ignored them.
But this time, he chose to go to them. He approached cautiously, and once he was close to one, he suddenly reached out. The bone fish sensed danger and raised its head, spewing out cold and black energy at Tang Jie. РΝỖＢËŞ
Tang Jie snorted and waved his hand, causing the icy energy to flow around him. At the same time, he fired off an energy arrow from his finger at the bone fish’s head.
A hole was punched in its head.
The bone fish wagged its tail and then charged forward. It opened its mouth again, spitting out a black pearl, which floated in the water and stirred up a whirlpool. Tang Jie could feel himself being pulled to the whirlpool and knew that if he were dragged within, there would be no surviving, so he immediately spat out a ball of energy.
When this energy entered the whirlpool, it somehow calmed the waters. Once the whirlpool had ceased, Tang Jie reached for the black pearl. The bone fish wanted to stop him, but it was too late, and Tang Jie seized the pearl and crushed it. The bone fish instantly fell apart, and all that was left of it was a faint red light in the remains of the pearl.
Tang Jie opened his mouth and sucked up the red light, which was all the nutrients this bone fish could provide for Tang Jie.
Tang Jie hunted seven more bone fish, and only when he was full did he return to the original body to digest.
Once he was done digesting this power, Tang Jie went out hunting again.
After hunting a few more bone fish, he found that there was nothing else in the area and swam farther off.
Suddenly, he felt that something wasn’t right.
He was instantly overcome by a sense of ill foreboding and turned around to head back the way he had come. At this moment, a tearing sound came from behind him.
Looking back, he saw a black fog congealing in the river waters, forming into two giant crab pincers that banged together as they closed. Having failed to catch anything, the pincers dissolved back into fog.
“A Darksoul Crab!” Tang Jie’s blood turned cold.
Darksoul Crabs were ghosts of the Yan River that were much stronger than bone fish. They weren’t actually crabs, instead souls that were skilled at transformation and able to freely go between reality and illusion. Their greatest skill was in controlling fog to take the form of a terrifying crab that would seize its prey using pincers strong enough to shatter steel.
The Darksoul Crab’s formidable transformation abilities had inspired more than one ghost story in the mortal plane and gained it a reputation as one of the eeriest and most mysterious of ghosts. But for Tang Jie, these were nothing but small tricks, and he could easily see through these illusions with the Dao of Insight. While he couldn’t use the Dao Realm, he still understood the Dao.
But seeing through the illusions didn’t help him deal with the crab.
Its attack having failed, the Darksoul Crab dissolved into fog. Tang Jie swiftly recognized that it was coming from below. In its fog form, it truly left no trace, such that it seemed to flit around like a ghost. Of course, that was because it was a ghost.
Tang Jie hastily swam upward, and the crab gave chase. Tang Jie fired off blasts from his finger, but these finger blasts were utterly ineffective, only causing the crab to get faster. It suddenly appeared to Tang Jie’s left, a giant crab pincer appearing and swinging toward Tang Jie.
Tang Jie flew up to the surface, and the ghost crab gave chase, its fog form extending through the water like it was some giant shrimp.
Tang Jie inwardly groaned. Little Three had gone hunting for his own food and currently wasn’t at his side, and he still wasn’t strong enough to deal with the Darksoul Crab. Just as that fog was about to catch up, Tang Jie clenched his teeth and shot out of the river.
In doing so, his living energy began to spread outward, setting off a cacophony of shrieks and wails. A great fog descended over the river as numerous ghosts appeared to devour Tang Jie.
But what were terrifying ghosts in the eyes of others were reinforcements to the rescue in Tang Jie’s view, and he rushed toward them. These ghosts smelled the aroma of Tang Jie’s flesh and lunged at him, upon which the Darksoul Crab let out its own shriek and spread out its fog-like body, seeking to drive away all these other ghosts. No other ghost was allowed to touch its food!
The ghosts howled in anger, their wails instilling a desire to die in any who heard them. This was an attack targeting the soul, and while it was a very ordinary sonic attack, it was sufficient to deprive most people of their will to fight. Alas, it was of no use against the Darksoul Crab, and as the fog swept through, numerous ghosts dissolved into nothingness.
Tang Jie seized this chance to dive back into the water.
The Darksoul Crab was actually a ghost that dwelled on the surface of the river and didn’t like the river bottom much, so after Tang Jie dove back down, it didn’t give chase, allowing Tang Jie to escape.
After this experience, Tang Jie realized just how dangerous the Nether Domain really was. Most importantly, he realized that he was still much too weak. Without the protection of the Yan River’s waters, he would be hunted without rest by the myriad ghosts of the Nether Domain.
But Tang Jie sensed that such a day would come eventually, whether he wanted it or not.
All he could do was get stronger and stronger in preparation for that day.
