In space, Tang Jie was still studying the ancient Celestial Maze Formation.
He was immersed in the secrets of the formation and had completely lost track of time.
The model in the Mountain River State Diagram had already gone from a simple board to a vast canopy of stars, all of which were moving according to some sort of mysterious rule, so complex that it might make one’s mind explode.
Only when one looked at this dazzling display would one realize just how absurdly complex the Immortal Emperor had made this maze. Even with a map of the formation laid out before them, one still might not be able to find the exit.
Fortunately, Tang Jie had the Dao of Wisdom, and with its power, Tang Jie was able to slowly unravel this cocoon and find its secrets.
On this day, he was still calculating, and the star map within the diagram was approaching completion. Suddenly, a wave rippled through the space, which Tang Jie knew to be someone intruding. At this time, his connection with the original body had been almost completely cut off, and he wouldn’t communicate with it unless it was something extremely important. Thus, he didn’t know who the intruder was and took them to be the Flame Celestial Sovereign, so he ignored them.
But not long after that, Tang Jie found wave after wave of energy rippling through the space, and even from his distant position, Tang Jie could sense how terrifying the source of this energy had to be.
This was not a power an Earth Immortal could possess!
Tang Jie was astonished.
Moreover, given what was happening, it seemed they planned to use brute force to get through.
He also knew of that Remote Antiquity fiend serpent, and he was surprised that it had failed to block the intruders. Tang Jie was alarmed by the power of these intruders, and he began to speed up his calculations so that he could get through the formation before these newcomers.
As he was calculating, the Heaven’s Equal Sect was engaged in a heated battle with the Remote Antiquity serpent.
This serpent that could send an Earth Immortal flying with a single sweep of its tail no longer seemed as fierce. Fighting it were two people: the white-browed elder who had suppressed the Flame Celestial Sovereign with a palm, and a green-robed scholar. All of the Heaven’s Equal Sect were dressed in yellow except this man.
At this moment, both of them radiated a silver aura that protected them like a barrier. This silvery energy had the appearance of water, but it was actually condensed Immortal Essence.
These two used their barriers of Immortal Essence to hold off the giant serpent, but rather than attacking, they were simply blocking the serpent’s attacks. Behind them stood a row of eight Earth Immortals, each holding a Dao armament that they aimed at the fiend serpent.
This was the difference between big sects and wandering cultivators. Wandering cultivators found it excruciatingly difficult to find a single Dao armament, with the Flame Celestial Sovereign needing countless years and endless effort to find the Treasure Paradise. While he had his own organization in the Celestial Flame Pagoda, it wasn’t an actual sect, and until it was fully developed, it would be of no help to him. In the end, he was still a wandering cultivator. But the big sects actually had more Dao armaments than Earth Immortals! Ten thousand years of accumulation could not be underestimated.
The two True Immortals were the shield while the eight Earth immortals were the spear, the eight Dao armaments blasting the Epoch Behemoth and covering it in wounds. But this fiend serpent had an incredible life force, surviving even this constant barrage of Dao armaments. In comparison, that Wailing Baby that had entered the Dao of Life really was just a baby.
Even so, it howled and hissed in pain from all those blasts of energy. However, no matter how crazily it struck back, the two True Immortals would always block its attacks.
The fiend snake slowly began to lose ground, but just when it seemed like the Heaven’s Equal Sect was about to win, another wave rippled through space.
“Someone’s come in?” the two True Immortals said in shock.
The white-browed elder looked over, his eyes shining with divine light. “Damn it! It’s those bastards from the Stellar Net Gate. Everyone, faster. Don’t let them take advantage of our efforts!”
The two True Immortals began to expend their energy to attack the fiend snake, and even the Violet Palace cultivators in the rear began to attack from a distance.
But the life force of this Epoch Behemoth was just too terrifying. Even the combined might of one hundred cultivators of the Heaven’s Equal Sect couldn’t kill it so quickly.
At this moment, the cultivators of the Stellar Net Gate appeared in the rear.
The leader was a woman in a palace gown. When she saw the Heaven’s Equal Sect, she covered her mouth and chuckled. “Oh my, is that Big Brother Whitebrow? Why aren’t you finished yet? Do you want your little sister’s help?”
The white-browed elder grunted, “Yan Beiqiu, I don’t need your false sincerity. It was my Heaven’s Equal Sect that discovered and fought this Auspice Serpent. If you don’t want a war between our two sects, you’d best not interfere.”
A large man dressed in purple flew up beside Yan Beiqiu and laughed. “You speak as if our two sects haven’t fought against each other and killed each other for several thousand years already. Besides, the grudge between our two sects has a long history, so our sects decide for themselves when it’s time to fight or make peace. You think that we few can decide things like that?”
These were mighty True Immortals, but in the eyes of others, they didn’t even have the right to start a war between the two sects. It was a shocking fact, but to them, it was completely normal.
The man shot toward the Remote Antiquity fiend called the Auspice Serpent, and while the Heaven’s Equal Sect angrily bellowed, they couldn’t do anything to him.
Whitebrow Shao laughed and swatted a palm at the large man, unleashing a tsunami of energy.
Silver light flashed around the large man, blocking the attack, and the woman next to him used this chance to get close. The green-robed man immediately turned to the woman and fired off several rays of green light. The woman didn’t dare to underestimate these seemingly simple rays of light, raising up a barrier of silver energy around herself. The two sects immediately fell into combat.
The serpent was no fool, immediately turning tail and running when it saw the situation.
The two sects saw this and immediately gave chase, neither of them willing to let it go. As a fiend from Remote Antiquity, the Auspice Serpent was a living treasure for a cultivator. Consuming it would greatly increase one’s Immortal Essence, which alone was priceless. Thus, while they fought against each other, they also occasionally attacked the serpent.
Multicolored explosions erupted through space, dazzling waves of light sending tremors through the stars.
These two sects were so powerful that they completely ignored the formation around them as they fought. But the Immortal Emperor’s formation was not easily ignored. As the two sects pushed in deeper and deeper, they found the space around them solidifying, slowing their movements. Fissures began to open up around them, and countless black figures poured out, keening as they rushed at the cultivators.
“Wandering Souls! This is a passage to the Nether Domain!” the white-browed elder shouted.
He could have never imagined this place to have a passage to the Nether Domain. This definitely couldn’t be a coincidence, but something arranged by the Immortal Emperor. Anyone who disobeyed his rules and tried to use brute strength had to deal with the responses from the formation.
These were responses planned by the Immortal Emperor, so even a Boundless Gold Immortal might not be able to pass them, let alone True Immortals.
Only now did they realize that this place was so dangerous, and they were both angry and remorseful. However, there was nothing they could do now that the Wandering Souls were already rushing at them except to fight back. The Wandering Souls weren’t particularly powerful, but they possessed the unique attribute of being essentially immune to spell arts, only killable through soul attacks. There were more than two hundred cultivators here, so they naturally had soul attacks, particularly the four True Immortals. With just a single thought, they could kill hundreds of Wandering Souls.
But tens of thousands of Wandering Souls were emerging from the fissures, and the Immortals had to fight with all they had to not be overwhelmed.
This flood of Wandering Souls also swept up Tang Jie. In order to survey the formation, he needed to travel every corner of it. As a result, he was at times far away from the group and at times close to them.
He was riding an asteroid back around, studying how this asteroid moved when going in reverse. This was the most important asteroid, and once he figured out this asteroid’s position, he would be able to solve the formation. What he hadn’t accounted for was a flood of Wandering Souls rushing straight at him.
Tang Jie was alarmed at this sudden rush of ghosts, wondering where they had come from. He was in a critical moment of his calculations and couldn’t let them be disturbed, so he let out Little Three to protect him.
Little Three was the bane of ghosts, and when he saw all those Wandering Souls, he laughed and turned into a giant mouth that began to suck in all the ghosts.
As those Wandering Souls were sucked into Little Three’s belly, it began to swell. Through his translucent body, one could see the Wandering Souls wriggling around like tadpoles, shrieking as they dwindled to nothing.
He lived up to the reputation of his species.
But in the end, there was only one Little Three and a sea of Wandering Souls. These ghosts were mindless and fearless, continuing to flood in, and Little Three’s belly swelled until he couldn’t eat any more. But the ghosts were still charging in, causing Little Three to wail in fear.
Tang Jie was still in the middle of his calculations, so he could only let out Xu Miaoran, Yiyi, Ice Phoenix, and the Mother Cloud combat puppet to fight. He even had Tutu join the battle. But the few of them couldn’t hold off the flood.
“Hey, hurry and think of something or we’re all going to die!” Ice Phoenix angrily shouted.
“Don’t disturb him!” Xu Miaoran stopped Ice Phoenix and glanced at her husband in concern.
No matter what, she would always believe in her husband.
As the flood of Wandering Souls drew ever closer, Tang Jie’s body began to sway from exhaustion. This extended period of calculation and the constant use of the Dao of Wisdom had put an immense burden on his body.
But Tang Jie didn’t stop, his finger moving among the asteroids, tracing the countless formation lines.
Finally, the finger came down.
There was an eruption of light from his star map.
This light illuminated the entire space such that even Whitebrow Shao and Yan Beiqiu saw it. When they turned to the light, they spotted Tang Jie and called out in surprise, “There’s someone over there!”
Whitebrow Shao’s sharp eyes even spotted Ice Phoenix. He grunted, “There’s even a demon over there!”
The two sects could see that star map rising into the air, growing smaller and smaller, ultimately condensing into a small point of light floating at the center of Tang Jie’s forehead.
Tang Jie felt an explosion in his head as all of the knowledge regarding the Celestial Maze Formation was branded into his mind.
After gaining this knowledge, Tang Jie smiled. “Ah, I understand now.”
He pointed at a certain point in space, and there was a burst of silver light. Threads of silver light came together and ultimately formed a hole of light.
“Is this the entrance into the hidden realm?” Xu Miaoran said in surprise.
It turned out that the real entrance would only appear when one solved the formation.
Not even Tang Jie had anticipated this.
“Let’s go.” Tang Jie smiled at Xu Miaoran.
Holding hands, the two of them moved toward the hole of light.
“Don’t even think about it!” Whitebrow Shao roared, his hand tearing through space to grab Tang Jie.
Tang Jie ignored him and continued moving forward.
Just when that hand was about to reach him, Tang Jie and company vanished into the hole, upon which the hole blew apart and dissipated into nothing.