The purple-bearded cultivator’s face turned red.
But he still hadn’t realized the gap between him and Tang Jie. After all, a single dodge didn’t mean anything. They were both at Spirit Ring, so perhaps this guy was simply skilled at this sort of micro-dodging?
Thus, the purple-bearded cultivator put on an expression that said, “Not bad; it’s time to get serious,” and then he crossed his hands, made a strange hand sign, and roared:
“Heart Guiding Five Lightning Art, rise!”
A purple sword appeared in the sky, entirely made of lightning, every part of it brimming with power.
It swung around in the air and took aim at Tang Jie’s head.
As it stabbed down, the purple-bearded cultivator roared, “Kid, if you don’t surrender now, I won’t be able to stop this attack!”
Tang Jie glanced up at the brilliant sword of lightning, pulsing with power, and nodded. “This Heart Guiding Five Lightning Art is decently powerful. But it seems you can just barely use it and can’t move while casting it, right?”
The purple-bearded cultivator was so stunned that he almost threw up blood.
He hadn’t expected this young man to immediately identify his biggest weakness, so he immediately ordered that lightning sword to descend.
As the sword descended, Tang Jie laughed and said, “I just happened to want to test something I recently comprehended.”
He clenched his right fist and punched at the air in a posture akin to that of the Devil Crushing Fist, but not entirely the same. This attack was now suffused with a mysterious power.
This was very different from the simple and domineering power of the Devil Crushing Fist that blasted through all opposition no matter the cost. Now, it seemed more broad and open, infinitely vast.
As the Devil Crushing Fist collided with the lightning sword, the heavens exploded in lightning. The cultivators then witnessed that lightning sword being utterly shattered, leaving behind only aimless trails of electricity that bounced around in the air like flickering flames.
Tang Jie calmly drew back his fist, upon which that raging torrent of power in the air began to weaken. He smiled in satisfaction. “Not bad.”
He was referring to the successful modifications he had made to the Devil Crushing Fist.
Yes, it was just like how he had modified the Sun Wheel Sign into the Evil Punishing Seal.
With the perfect body that naturally fused body and arts, all Divine Connections and spell arts had the potential to change. The vast blood energy of body cultivators could be merged into spell arts, and spiritual energy could be merged into the combat techniques of body cultivators.
With his Spirit Ring cultivation, Tang Jie would have needed to expend more than half his physical power in order to use the Devil Crushing Fist once.
But through persistent research, he finally made some headway in modifying the Combat Emperor Catalog.
This was the result of upgrading the Devil Crushing Fist. It was stronger than before and had much more follow-up power.
Tang Jie had only used it at 30% strength, but it had been enough to easily destroy the lightning sword while not making him tired in the slightest. He could make one hundred more of these Devil Crushing Fists if he wanted, which would have been impossible in the past.
The purple-bearded cultivator thought that Tang Jie was mocking him, and he angrily turned his head and shouted, “What are you looking at? Go—seize him!”
It was time to attack in numbers.
Tang Jie sighed and thrust a hand out, upon which all the cultivators felt an absolute pressure render them utterly immobile. As they began to despair over the overwhelming difference in power, the pressure disappeared.
But their foe had already gone several thousand feet away, his voice resounding through the air: “This one is no deserter, but I have important business at the Great Sun Sect. Since you did not bear any hostile intentions, I will not punish you this time. Next time, do not be so impulsive.”
As the words came to an end, the speaker was already gone from their vision.
Only now did they realize just how powerful this individual was. As they all turned to the purple-bearded cultivator, they saw him with his head lowered and his face red.
The man ended up taking this lesson to heart, and he became much more composed and ended up advancing in cultivation not long afterward.
After leaving this group, Tang Jie went straight to the location of the Great Sun Sect, the Eastern Yang Mountains.
After a long journey, he finally reached the Eastern Yang Mountains, an impressive mountain range with sharp slopes that made them appear like swords stabbing into the clouds. Waters flowed from their heights and through the clouds in mighty waterfalls.
From one of these peaks, countless spiral towers rose, and above the tower at the very center was a red sun.
This red sun was no astral body. Suspended high above the tower, it radiated light and heat.
This light surged out like an ocean, a vast red cloud that staved off that sinister black fog in the distance.
The Flame Yang Formation!
Tang Jie could naturally see that the Eastern Yang Mountains were covered in formation lines and nodes, all of them bursting with mystery.
The Flame Yang Formation drew on the fire veins of the Eastern Yang Mountains, converting them into True Solar Flames that created a miniature sun to resist the black fog.
While it was a wondrous formation, it was ultimately no match for the endless darkness of the Nether Domain. On the way here, Tang Jie had seen the power of the sun retreating in the face of the black fog. The closer one got to the center, the stronger the power of the formation was, slowing the encroachment of the black fog and giving the humans space to breathe.
As he arrived at the gate of the Great Sun Sect, he saw no one around. Tang Jie knew that the Great Sun Sect had deployed so much of its power that it didn’t even have anyone to guard the gate.
But it wasn’t completely defenseless.
A white crane phantom appeared before Tang Jie and asked, “Who are you?”
Tang Jie realized that this white crane was the formation spirit of the Great Sun Sect’s guardian formation, so he said, “This one is Tang Jie. I have an important matter for which I seek an audience with the Great Sun Sect Master.”
“The sect master is busy and cannot see guests. If you have a message, you may tell me, and I will relay it to him.”
Tang Jie replied, “Then please tell Sect Master Yuan that Tang Jie has come to strengthen the Flame Yang Formation to push back the ghost fog.”
“You?” The white crane phantom inspected Tang Jie and let out a crow of derision. “A puny Spirit Ring dares to talk about strengthening the Great Sun Sect’s formation? Do you realize that the twelve elders of the Great Sun Sect’s Formation Hall designed the Flame Yang Formation to target the Nether Domain’s ghost fog, and that the sect master himself laid down the formation? It is not something a mere Spirit Ring can mess around with.”
Tang Jie sighed. “It is precisely because the twelve elders of the Formation Hall developed this formation to resist this invasion that it is not fully mature and still has so much room to improve. If this were one of those formations that had been passed down for thousands of years and been tested countless times, this one would never dare to speak about improving it. Crane spirit, please relay my message. It is up to the sect master to decide if he will see me or not.”
After some thought, the crane spirit shook its head. “No, no. The sect master is discussing countermeasures against the enemy with the masters of several other sects. If I relay my message but you end up not having the skill, I will be punished. You say that you can strengthen the Flame Yang Formation? If that is the case, then break through it. If you can break through the formation, I will count you as having the ability and relay your message.”
Tang Jie was so surprised by the crane spirit’s response that he didn’t respond for a few moments. After some thought, he felt that it was reasonable and nodded. “Alright! Then I will try now.”
He bowed to the crane spirit and stepped through the gate.
The crane spirit was somewhat stunned by his boldness, and then it laughed. “Someone is finally willing to try the formation. It’s been a long time since I’ve had some fun, so I’ll be sure to take my time with this kid.”
It disappeared into the formation, observing Tang Jie’s every move.
As it noticed Tang Jie making his way up the steps, it rejoiced. This was the Jade Flame Formation, which served to draw out the energy of the fire veins, which made it terrifyingly powerful. Thus, one had to walk in a certain pattern through, and any misstep would cause Earthfire to scorch the body, the formation serving as a cage that would burn intruders to death.
Since this foolish youth sought to break through the formation, he needed to experience its power.
Tang Jie reached the tenth step.
This was the formation’s first trigger point. Every disciple of the Great Sun Sect knew of its power and would jump over the step.
But the arrogant and unaware Tang Jie walked right onto it.
The crane spirit waited for the Earthfire to spew out.
But to its surprise, Tang Jie just kept on walking, with no reaction from the formation.
The crane spirit was flabbergasted as to why no flames appeared. Was there a problem with the formation? But it had full control over the formation and couldn’t sense any problems with it.
Confused, the crane spirit appeared and stared at the tenth step for a long while, but it failed to see anything strange about it.
Thus, it condensed a physical body and stepped onto that step.
Boom! Flames erupted from the earth, engulfing the white crane, which let out a terrible scream…