The thirteenth floor of the Spiral Flame.
A formation flashed and flickered in the vast space: the just-finished teleportation formation.
As a link to another domain, the teleportation formation was an important site, so Yuan Tianzhong had chosen to place it in his own residence so that he could oversee it and guard against any mishaps.
Yuan Tianzhong stood in front of the teleportation formation, and at his side were the bigshots from the four major sects and Tang Jie.
From their expressions, one could tell that they were all rather nervous over the activation of the teleportation formation.
Nobody knew what would be behind this teleportation formation, and even though they all trusted in Tang Jie’s skills, at this critical juncture, they just couldn’t help but be nervous.
Tang Jie knew what they were thinking, and intentionally sighed. “A pity.”
“What’s wrong?” Yuan Tianzhong asked.
Tang Jie replied, “It’s still a problem of resources. Although I’ve done everything I could, the lack of resources means that I can’t raise the level of the teleportation formation. While the current formation works, the most it can teleport is Infant Tending cultivators.”
It really was!
The limitation to Infant Tending and below was actually good for the cultivators of the Flame Yang Domain. This meant that no matter how strong the Rosecloud Domain was, the people it sent wouldn’t have an overwhelming advantage, raising their chances of protecting themselves. As for the Nether Domain invasion, the Nether Domain’s strength lay in its numbers, so the Rosecloud Domain simply needed to send enough Infant Tending and Celestial Heart cultivators.
Of course, this was because they didn’t know that True Immortals could store away their cultivation and ignore the limitations of the formation, nor did they realize that there was a True Immortal in the Rosecloud Domain. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been so relaxed at all.
A single True Immortal was truly capable of crushing all the Violet Palace experts here.
Fortunately, Tang Jie had no such plans. The Blood River Domain consisted primarily of fiends, so the Rosecloud Domain felt no moral pressure from devouring it. The Flame Yang Domain consisted primarily of humans, so both Tang Jie and Yun Tianlan were unwilling.
Intimidating them with supreme military might and peacefully exploiting them with economic measures was the best choice.
As everyone calmed down, Tang Jie smiled. “Let’s begin, then. I’ve already used a secret art to notify the Rosecloud side, and everyone is already waiting.”
He inserted the spirit stones, and the teleportation formation began to glow, a spatial gate forming.
The Rosecloud Domain had been waiting for the message from Tang Jie for some time, so the reinforcements were ready and waiting. As the teleportation formation activated, cultivators began to come in through the spatial gate.
They were led by Wei Tianchong, who embraced Tang Jie and laughed, “Big Bro is Big Bro for a reason! I didn’t think that you going out for a while would end with you bringing in such a big business deal.”
In truth, he had just seen Tang Jie’s avatar, but the avatar was at Immortal Platform, so he had to be polite. Meanwhile, the original was only at Celestial Heart, so there was no pressure stopping Wei Tianchong from giving him a hug.
But the people of the Flame Yang Domain had no idea of their relationship, so they felt dizzy when they heard an Infant Tending True Lord call a Spirit Ring True Person “Big Bro”.
But there was even more still to come.
Following Wei Tianchong was Cai Junyang. The first thing he did upon emerging from the formation was to smile at Tang Jie and ask, “How have you only reached Spirit Ring? You have to hurry and cultivate!”
Tang Jie chuckled. “I just lack resources. Did you bring everything I asked?”
“Of course,” Cai Junyang said, holding out the Mountain River State Diagram.
Before the teleportation formation, this item had been given to Xu Miaoran to safeguard. But once connection had been restored with the original through the Flame Yang Domain, he had asked for it back from Xu Miaoran. Unable to come because of her pregnancy, Xu Miaoran had given it to Cai Junyang to hand over.
Tang Jie took the diagram, and, through the mark left by the avatar, he officially took ownership over the diagram. He peered into the diagram and saw that the Sovereign Blade, Myriad Yin Yang Furnace, Sky Throne, and Eight Gates Banners were all there.
Everything in the Yellow Court World was operating normally. But because it needed to come through the teleportation formation, the Azure Dragon, Lithos Dragon, and Vermillion Bird were not within, and even the Mother Cloud combat puppet had to stay behind.
Tang Jie sighed in relief once he saw that everything was fine.
Nobody else knew that Tang Jie had gone through all this trouble primarily to get all of his treasures from his avatar. The economic exploitation was secondary.
The third to come out was Meng Shixue, followed by Qi Shaoming, Xi Canhen, and Wang Posha. Other than Liu Hongyan, who had business and couldn’t leave, all of the young talents who had advanced at the Violet Palace Sublimation Ceremony had come.
All of these people spoke respectfully to Tang Jie, leaving Yuan Tianzhong and company baffled and wondering what Tang Jie’s status was. Wang Posha in particular let out an immense wave of energy as he emerged from the teleportation formation. Even though he was at Infant Tending, he was clearly capable of fighting against Deification experts. And this man was particularly respectful to Tang Jie.
At this point, they thought that Tang Jie was some son of an Immortal Platform Titan, not even imagining that he had achieved far more than everyone assembled here.
As the Rosecloud Domain was still in a war, only these six Infant Tending True Lords had come.
Behind them were numerous Soul Transformation and Heart Demon True Persons.
As they were serving as mercenaries who would be paid on arrival, they stood to gain much more here than from Rosecloud’s war. It was best to keep fertile waters to one’s own fields, so basically all of them were members of the Basking Moon Sect. Accompanying the six Violet Palace True Lords were 24 Soul Transformation True Persons, six of them being chiefs. In addition were 67 Heart Demon True Persons and 128 Spirit Ring True Persons.
There was no desire to let the Flame Yang Domain know that Tang Jie possessed a divine tool for transporting troops, so none of the cultivators came in through the diagram, instead directly using the formation.
This greatly increased the expenditure of spirit stones for the teleportation formation, but this was fine, since it was the Flame Yang Domain paying.
When all of these people came out of the teleportation formation, they all bowed to Tang Jie. If the avatar Tang Jie hadn’t already given strict orders to not leak his true status, many of them might have even kneeled.
Even then, Yuan Tianzhong and company were speechless. Only now did they realize that Tang Jie was very special. Some of them even began to consider that perhaps they had been a little too impolite with their words over the last few days.
As the last cultivator came through, the teleportation formation finally stopped flashing. By this point, all of the prepared spirit stones had been used up, and the spacious hall was now packed with people.
Other than people, there were also the resources that Tang Jie had requested. This could be stored in the Mountain River State Diagram—there was no need to deny that the Mountain River State Diagram was a spatial treasure, only to prevent Yuan Tianzhong and the others from realizing that this was a mature independent small world.
This large number of cultivators greatly bolstered the Flame Yang Domain’s forces.
Moreover, Tang Jie had taken note of Yuan Tianzhong’s concerns, so all of the cultivators who had come to assist, while being able to be of huge help to the Flame Yang Domain, wouldn’t present too great a threat to the native cultivators.
Yuan Tianzhong shook Tang Jie’s hand and gratefully said, “Thank you so much, Young Master Tang.”
Yuan Tianzhong was speaking with heartfelt sincerity, but it probably wouldn’t be too long until he cursed Tang Jie’s name.
Tang Jie smiled as Yuan Tianzhong shook his hand and said, “Sect Master Yuan, you’re welcome. But Sect Master, don’t forget that while you can take the resources on a loan, the mercenaries must be paid upfront. In addition, they don’t take spirit coins, only the equivalent in resources and treasures.”
“This old man remembers,” Yuan Tianzhong quickly said.
With a wave of his hand, all the prepared resources and treasures were sent into the hands of the cultivators.
The four major sects had emptied their pockets to gather this reward.
As the wealth of their sects flowed like water into the hands of outsiders, Yuan Tianzhong finally sensed something strange. At that moment, he felt like he could see the future of the Flame Yang Domain. But in the end, he said nothing. No matter what sort of debt they would have to carry in the future, they at least had to overcome this trial first.
“With Young Master Tang laying down the flow-altering formation and the allies from Rosecloud helping to hold the front, our Flame Yang should be safe,” the Flame Yang cultivators celebrated.
But Tang Jie casually said, “Perhaps, but it’s only theoretical.”
“‘Theoretical’?” everyone said in surprise.
Chang Xiran asked, “Does Young Master have some wisdom to share? Is this arrangement not enough to stop the Nether Domain?”
Tang Jie replied, “I said before that this should be enough to last until the power of the Nine Nethers River ebbs, but it is the way of the world to attack and defend, to exchange blows. There is no reason for only our side to grow stronger while our enemy remains unchanging.”
These words made everyone grimace.
Fairy Hong Luan said, “Young Master Tang, do you mean that the Nether Domain might deploy countermeasures?”
“But isn’t the Nether Domain invasion being done primarily out of instinct? How could they deploy specific countermeasures?” someone asked.
Tang Jie answered, “This would be the case in normal circumstances. But things are different if a powerful ghost is presiding.”
This Nine Nethers Feast seemed to only be three times larger than usual, but Tang Jie knew that there was a Nether Emperor presiding. It was precisely because of this Nether Emperor’s support that this Nine Nethers Feast was so large, and it was also because of the Nether Emperor that it wouldn’t be strange if the ghosts developed countermeasures.
Yuan Tianzhong’s face darkened. “Does Young Master Tang know what countermeasures might come from the ghosts?”
Tang Jie replied, “Refining formations.”
Refining formations were those formations that used countless human lives to link with the Blade of Reincarnation in the depths of the Nine Nethers River to obtain Severing Hooks.
Since this formation could link to the Yellow Springs, once it was activated, it would inevitably increase the power of the Yellow Springs, making the ghost fog even more aggressive. In this aspect, Tang Jie was correct in saying that the refining formations could serve to bolster the force of the Yellow Springs. What he didn’t say was that this was just a side effect, or that the refining formations had been active this entire time, though Tang Jie had destroyed some of them. He also didn’t mention that refining formations needed to sacrifice a lot of people, so ghosts could not increase their number at the drop of a hat.
He didn’t say any of this so that Yuan Tianzhong and the others would feel a new unease.
This new unease would make it so that they would continue to value Tang Jie and the Rosecloud Domain behind him, letting him get what he wanted. Of course, there was another extremely important reason, which was that he truly wished to save those humans who had been captured by ghosts and would soon die—while he could shamelessly seek profit, he also respected life.
Over his career of cultivation, he had gradually come to understand this principle.
He would no longer be willing to make a profit at all costs. On the contrary, if conditions permitted, he would try his best to act like a Titan, fulfilling his duty. As a cultivator, one could not only seek power and status. One also had a responsibility to those below.
Thus, Tang Jie threw out the idea of the refining formations, to frighten these people, to tell them that there was still danger lurking in the darkness. They would seek to destroy those formations for their own sakes, at the same time saving the humans in the clutches of those ghosts.
It was for themselves and for others!
“It’s time to go on the offensive,” Tang Jie declared.