Tang Jie played with the jade cup in his hand as if he hadn’t heard what Flying Swallow just said.
He stared at the jade cup as if it contained some incredible secret.
After a long while, he finally said, “If that’s what you want to do, then you may do so. I can only say that people decide their own Fates. The heavens can give you an opportunity, but if you don’t cherish that opportunity, it can only be considered seeking death.”
Flying Swallow’s face darkened. “Are you trying to intimidate me?”
Tang Jie sneered. “You’ll find out once you try, no? But let me warn you that there’s no taking back your decision.”
Flying Swallow glared, wondering if she should actually do it.
She had always been a fierce and ruthless woman, so when she saw the jade cup in Tang Jie’s hand shake, she laughed and said, “You’re nervous and only pretending to act calm. You thought I couldn’t tell?”
She thrust a palm at a ghost general standing next to Tang Jie.
This was a heavy blow that instantly killed the ghost general. Flying Swallow crazily laughed. “Tang Jie, let me see what you can do!”
She cried out in shock, “You, what did you do to me?”
Tang Jie coldly stared at her. “You really have no memory at all. This isn’t even your first time experiencing this feeling.”
Tang Jie’s words reminded Flying Swallow of the method he had used on her before. It was just that she had been completely sealed by Tang Jie at the time and powerless to resist. She hadn’t expected that she still couldn’t fight back even after her cultivation had recovered.
Tang Jie sighed. “As I said, people choose their own Fates. It seems the Fate that you chose was death.”
Alarmed, Flying Swallow fell to her knees and shouted, “Don’t! I know I was wrong! Release me, and I will no longer oppose you!”
Tang Jie stood up, walked up to Flying Swallow, and callously kicked her, sending her tumbling to the ground.
He ground his foot on her face and coldly said, “There are some people in this world that you can’t ever treat well. If you treat them well, they will take all that you’ve done for granted and think that you owe them. As time goes on, if you don’t keep treating them the same way, they’ll actually start to resent you. You are this kind of person. When Sovereign Yunhai saved you, rather than thinking about how to repay him, you actually conspired against him from the shadows. And at the very end, even though Sovereign Yunhai didn’t kill you, only sealing you, you still loathed him to the bone. I saved you, and then you thought about how you could screw us over. I put aside our past grudges to let you go, but you immediately thought of a way to scam me. You really can’t treat scoundrels like this well. Only a vicious beating can make you obedient.”
He jabbed Flying Swallow with his fingers several times, and she felt streams of energy flow into her body. Although she was at Deification, the black grain made it so that even thinking was arduous, let alone resisting. She could only watch as these streams of energy burrowed into her body.
Tang Jie whispered into her ear, “This is the Heartpierce Finger, a torture technique I learned from a book I found. It will activate once every night, and when it’s active, it will feel like ten thousand ants gnawing at your heart. At your cultivation level, you should have been able to resist or even neutralize this technique, but the seal I’ve planted in your mind will automatically identify any attempts to remove the Heartpierce Finger, and if you do try, it will activate. Not only will you fail to remove the Heartpierce Finger, you will endure pain from both ends, and the Heartpierce Finger’s duration will double… Each attempt will double it again.”
Flying Swallow shivered. “You… you’re vicious.”
Tang Jie chuckled. “Don’t worry. The Heartpierce Finger will only torment you for a little while, so it won’t affect you in battle. Even if it activates when you’re fighting, you will be able to hold on. But if you keep on trying to remove it, and the time gets longer and longer, I can’t guarantee anything. And given your personality, I’m sure that you’ll still try, even after I’ve told you all this.”
Tang Jie laughed even louder. “As I said, people choose their own Fate. I’m looking forward to seeing how long the Heartpierce Finger lasts when we meet again. Remember to think of me whenever it activates. This will deepen your impression of me and let you know how you should act in front of me.”
He gave Flying Swallow a kick, sending her flying off like a ball.
In the end, he had let the woman go. The humans needed another ally too much. But he had given her a harsh lesson in repayment for her lack of gratitude.
He was sure that she would call out his name every time the technique activated.
It was just a question of whether it would be a cry of resentment or of fear.
Once Flying Swallow had been sent off, Tang Jie sat back down on his throne and began to think. “One Flying Swallow is only a cup of water on a burning cart. It doesn’t resolve the power imbalance. The real key to resolving the mortal plane’s crisis lies there…”
He looked into the distance at the black fog.
This fog was the protective barrier for the Nether Domain, the reason the ghosts couldn’t be defeated. Wherever the fog expanded, so would the forces of the Nether Domain.
Stopping the ghost fog’s expansion would resolve more than half of the problem.
Tang Jie finally muttered, “It seems I will have to take a trip to the Great Sun Sect.”
Although he had always believed that he would be able to get things done more easily while among the ghosts, it now appeared that killing was far from enough. He needed to contact the humans and help them set up a stronger defense system so that they could endure.
Tang Jie set to work without delay, ordering, “Chuan’er, stay on the ship, hunting ghost ships, saving humans, and gathering information. I need to go to the Great Sun Sect.”
He flew off, and as he flew out of the ghost fog region, he returned to his original appearance.
The land of the humans was rife with conflict and strife.
There were refugees everywhere, and the land near the ghost fog was barren from the constant advance of the ghost fog. Some people had even risen up in rebellion, so that even in places the Nether Domain had not reached, human territory was still in chaos.
Of course, large numbers of soldiers and cultivators were also being mustered. As armies retreated from the front, reinforcements emerged from the rear, their intersection like life and death brushing against each other.
As he gazed at this devastation and havoc, he was enlightened.
This enlightenment concerned the polar opposites of Life and Death, the comprehension of their ultimate principles.
In normal circumstances, Tang Jie would have awakened some Dao power from this enlightenment.
Frustratingly, despite spending some time in this enlightenment state, he ultimately gained nothing. His understanding of the Twelve Great Daos remained at the comprehension level, and he still could not use Dao power or any of its related abilities. Even the Insight that he had comprehended so early on in his career had disappeared. This perfect body seemed to innately reject all Dao power.
“The Parting Classic goes against the Dao…” Tang Jie muttered before heaving a sigh.
He wasn’t a fool. He understood what this meant.
Anyone who cultivated the Parting Classic could no longer have anything to do with the Daos.
To be more precise, he was walking in the complete opposite direction of the Great Daos. Thus, he could ignore Dao Arts, but he also couldn’t make any further progress in the Great Daos.
As he was lost in regret, a voice rang out, “Who are you?”
Tang Jie turned in the direction of the voice and saw a group of cultivators approaching, led by a dignified man with a purple beard and a large sword on his back.
After a brief pause, Tang Jie questioned, “What does it matter to you who I am?”
The purple-bearded man glared. “Nonsense! With the Nether Domain invading and humanity in crisis, we cultivators should be stepping forward to drive away the ghosts and protect our land. Look, the battle is playing out right behind you, and all the cultivators are heading there, while you are the only one who came from there. And based on how clean your clothes and energetic your expression is, you clearly haven’t been through any major battle. It’s obvious that you’re afraid of combat and chose to run so that you could live a little longer!”
“……”
So I’m being taken for a cowardly cultivator deserting from battle? Tang Jie was speechless.
The cultivator took his speechlessness to mean that his guess was right, and he angrily said, “Come with me to the front line at once!”
Tang Jie shook his head and sighed. “Apologies, but this one has an important matter to attend to at the Great Sun Sect and cannot go to the front line.”
“Impudent!” the purple-bearded cultivator bellowed. “You dare to disobey orders and flee from battle? If we weren’t in a war and needing people, I would execute you right here! But while you can escape the death penalty, you still have to serve out a punishment. You’ll be sent to the convict army where you’ll have to fight until you die!”
He moved to seize Tang Jie.
Like Tang Jie, the purple-bearded cultivator was at Spirit Ring, so he actually put all his strength into this grab. However, he considered Tang Jie to be a good-for-nothing deserter, so even if he was at Spirit Ring, how strong could he really be? He, meanwhile, had cultivated for many years and survived on the battlefield. Thus, he was certain that he would be able to seize this man.
But to his surprise, the young man simply evaded his grab with a shrug of his shoulder.
The purple-bearded cultivator was startled. This was the Dragon-Tiger Binding Claw, which possessed thirty-six possible variations that ensured that he could grasp anything within the range of his Spirit Will. It was impossible to evade it by such a narrow margin.
This was a spell art, not some ordinary attack!
But this was exactly what had happened. With a slight shrug, the young man had evaded the grab, turning his “absolute control” into a joke.