Whoosh!
Tang Jie let out a long breath.
It had been just as he had expected.
There really was no treasure, because this place itself was more valuable than any treasure—the land where Immortal Emperor Yu Cheng attained the Dao.
Tang Jie didn’t know what that enlightenment had brought Yu Cheng, but, judging from his bold proclamation of “the Heavenly Dao desires its success”, it must have been a rich harvest. Since he had left behind that memory of him proving his Dao here, Tang Jie was bound to benefit immensely if he could study this Dao.
Thus, he immediately released his Divine Will so as to experience the Dao Will the Immortal Emperor had left behind.
Xu Miaoran had also sensed the memory left behind, and while her lower cultivation level prevented her from getting as clear of a picture, she was at least able to get a glimpse. As for Yiyi and Ice Phoenix, their cultivation levels were too low for them to comprehend anything. In contrast, Tutu was able to understand a little.
They remained in this land where the Immortal Emperor had proved his Dao, experiencing its Dao to comprehend its secrets.
This land was timeless.
They felt the world around them, comprehended its will, cultivated spell arts, and discussed what they learned, merging all that they had learned together.
Although this space did not have spiritual energy to cultivate with, the Mountain River State Diagram did.
Having reached a basic level of completion, the Mountain River State Diagram had finally started to show its use. With its own cycle and system, the Mountain River State Diagram was suspended in the air, constantly releasing spiritual energy into this space.
Tang Jie and Xu Miaoran immersed themselves in cultivation.
As there was no sunrise or sunset here, they didn’t know how long they cultivated, only that they were growing stronger and stronger. Time silently passed, and Xu Miaoran rose from the initial phase of Infant Tending all the way to the later phase. It felt like she had spent one hundred years cultivating.
In these one hundred years, Tang Jie also made some small progress, nearing the middle phase of Soul Projection. It was only near the middle phase because Soul Projection required many more resources than Infant Tending, and because Tang Jie put most of his energy into comprehending this place’s Dao Will.
Strangely, Tang Jie found it impossible to truly comprehend it.
It wasn’t because of anything wrong with Tang Jie. Rather, this Dao Will was very weird, not like any Dao that Tang Jie knew.
It didn’t belong to the Twelve Great Daos!
At first, Tang Jie took this to be a Spacetime Dao Will. After all, this place was under the influence of the Dao of Time. When he realized it wasn’t, he turned to Karma and Fate, thinking that destiny must have played a role in this legacy being passed down from ten thousand years ago. But he found that this wasn’t it either, and when he searched the other Daos, he found that none of them matched.
Confirming this point took Tang Jie the equivalent of several decades.
All things in the world were guided by a Dao, yet he couldn’t find the corresponding Dao, which left Tang Jie frustrated and perplexed.
But Tang Jie wasn’t one to so easily concede, and he refused to leave empty-handed. Activating the Dao of Wisdom, he spent every day analyzing, calculating, and absorbing the Dao Will, occasionally taking breaks to discuss it with Xu Miaoran.
Another surprising fact was that Xu Miaoran had a completely different understanding of this Dao Will.
Tang Jie thought that this Dao wasn’t among the Twelve Great Daos, but Xu Miaoran believed that this land contained an aggregation of Spacetime Dao Wills, and that the Dao was the Spacetime Dao. The evidence was that this space was fixed in space and time.
Tang Jie thought that this isolation in space and time was merely proof of the Dao Art’s power, not that the Dao Will the Immortal Emperor had left behind was connected to Spacetime. The reason behind this was simple. Before those one hundred years of enlightenment, the Immortal Emperor had already controlled the Dao of Spacetime. This could be seen in how he had passed through mountains and over seas, and how he had easily severed this land from time and space after completing his Dao Will. The enlightenment that made the Immortal Emperor call himself Yu Cheng had to belong to an even higher realm.
Xu Miaoran believed that this higher realm could just be a higher level of the Dao of Spacetime. The Immortal Emperor’s actions could easily be done at the Dao-entering level, and the one hundred years of enlightenment had most likely allowed the Immortal Emperor to reach the Dao-controlling level.
Tang Jie disagreed, thinking that this wasn’t enough to match the Immortal Emperor’s bold declaration, and the two argued endlessly over the matter.
When Tutu also comprehended something, things became even more of a mess.
This was because Tutu had felt a completely different kind of Dao Will: the Dao of Reincarnation.
This was absurd.
What did any of this have to do with Reincarnation?
The Immortal Emperor controlled the Daos of Time, Space, Karma, and Fate. He was the only person in history to control four Daos, but he had never understood Reincarnation. And even if he did, why did Reincarnation deserve to be above Space, Time, Karma, and Fate? What made it worthy of the most important episode of enlightenment in the life of the Immortal Emperor?
Thus, Tutu also joined their arguments.
While the three Violet Palace experts argued, Yiyi and Ice Phoenix, who lacked the cultivation realm to comprehend the Dao Will, decided to play around with He Chong’s group of three. Alas, this isolated space had only so much to offer, so they soon became bored. Eventually, their impatience got to them, and they began to pester Tang Jie with requests to go out and see what was going on.
The way to exit this space was also simple. One simply had to lay down another Celestial Maze Formation to create the exit. But Tang Jie didn’t dare to agree to Yiyi’s request. After all, they were still too weak, and there were still many powerful enemies lurking outside. The danger was just too great.
But what Yiyi said was also true. Even if they could cultivate and grow stronger here, it was impossible for them to go all the way to True Immortal here.
The reason was simply the world limit.
Every world actually had its own limit. The bigger the world, the higher its limit was. The Mountain River State Diagram’s current limit was Celestial Heart. If one cultivated on one’s own, the highest one could cultivate to was Celestial Heart.
Currently, there was already one Celestial Heart “Immortal” in the central island of the diagram.
Here, Celestial Heart cultivators were the equivalent of invincible Immortal Platform Titans. One would never be able to break through to Violet Palace through one’s own efforts, and each step of Celestial Heart was extremely difficult. Compared to the natives of the Mountain River State Diagram, cultivators like Tang Jie had it much easier, with the small tiers being much easier once one had crossed into the major realms.
This was why the most Tang Jie could reach here was peak Soul Projection. He could never break into Immortal Platform, because this small world couldn’t support such a high cultivation level.
Meanwhile, Xu Miaoran actually had some hope of reaching Deification. This was partially because she had many spirit medicines with her, but more importantly, it was because Tang Jie, a Soul Projection Celestial Sovereign, was temporarily able to break the world limit.
But no matter what stage they reached, they would never be able to threaten those people on the outside.
Still, wasn’t it a good thing to take a look outside and gather information in preparation for their future escape?
Most importantly, Tang Jie felt a Thread of Fate.
Yes, a Thread of Fate!
This was an isolated dimension, and no Web of Fate existed here. All Fates and Karmas were restricted to this space.
But at this moment, Tang Jie saw a Thread of Fate passing through spacetime to link to Yiyi.
He was baffled as to why this was.
This reason alone made him want to go out and look.
He wanted to see what was trying to tempt Yiyi, connect to Yiyi.
It might be dangerous, but it could also be an opportunity.
Thus, Tang Jie began to lay out the Celestial Maze Formation.
This Celestial Maze Formation was naturally many times smaller than the one outside, a small model. The countless stars twinkling within it were made from Tang Jie’s spiritual energy.
Tang Jie chose a different position to see if this could change the location of the exit.
Once this was all done, Tang Jie activated the formation, and the scene from before replayed itself.
First, the Celestial Maze Formation condensed into a single point of light, upon which Tang Jie tapped it. The point of light exploded like it was reenacting the Big Bang before slowly transforming into a giant black hole.
“Let’s go!” Tang Jie said, pulling Yiyi into the hole.
As the dimensions were not connected, when Tang Jie passed through the black hole, he felt like he was passing through a two-dimensional crack. The only thing around him was a riot of colors, and he could feel himself being stretched out. After a long while, Tang Jie and company emerged from the crack and found themselves in that vast sea of stars.
But a moment later, Tang Jie paled. “Oh no!”
He wasn’t saying this because of the Heaven’s Equal Sect or Stellar Net Gate.
Tang Jie changing the location truly had made it so that they didn’t appear at the same location, instead appearing in the middle of the void.
But the void was a forbidden zone!
Tang Jie was clear about this rule, and he knew that the Immortal Emperor had made it so that even Boundless Gold Immortals couldn’t casually force their way through.
And now, they were standing in this void.
This meant that they could trigger the Immortal Emperor’s traps at any time.
“Not good!” Tang Jie quickly began to lay out the Celestial Maze Formation so that they could return.
At the same time, a deep roar came from the darkness, making all of them shiver.
The Remote Antiquity serpent!
It seemed that the Remote Antiquity fiend had ended up here after running off. Two lights appeared in the darkness: the eyes of that serpent.
It appeared in the void, its huge draconic body making Xu Miaoran and the others despair.
But that serpent didn’t attack, simply glaring at Tang Jie’s group and angrily roaring.
After a moment of surprise, Tang Jie examined the serpent and said in delight, “It’s heavily injured and about to reach its limit.”
Xu Miaoran happily asked, “Can we beat it?”
“It will be somewhat dangerous, but for Yiyi, it’s worth it,” Tang Jie replied.
“‘For Yiyi’?” Xu Miaoran said in surprise.
“Yes. This is a Remote Antiquity serpent! Killing it and then refining it with the Imperial Sky Stamp will give Yiyi enough of a boost to reach Divine Division.” Tang Jie smiled, looking between Yiyi and the serpent at the Thread of Fate connecting them.
This was Fate, danger, and opportunity!