The Infinite Palace.
Tang Jie stood atop a building, surrounded by bodies.
These bodies were all those of demon cultivators, with the regular cultivators having been sent into the Mountain River State Diagram to enrich the small world. The demon cultivators would be used to strengthen the Stellar Net Astral Demon Formation, and as their demonic energy poured out, the formation grew stronger and stronger.
As these were all Soul Projection cultivators, with vast amounts of spiritual energy, Tang Jie had to let them digest for quite a while before all the “nutrients” could be absorbed.
Once all the corpses were gone, Tang Jie grabbed their treasures and put them away.
He muttered, “Ha, more treasures again. I’ve already collected 108 divine treasures for the Myriad Yin Yang Furnace, and it can’t hold any more, yet I also don’t want to shatter them for the Sovereign Blade… They’re like chicken ribs—a hassle to eat, but you don’t give up the meat either.”
Anyone who heard that these divine treasures that countless people would go crazy for were being compared to chicken ribs by Tang Jie would be so shocked that their jaws might drop off.
But that was the way of the world, the full eating to the point of bursting while the hungry starved to death. While others might be working toward their first decent art relic, Tang Jie had so many divine treasures he couldn’t count them, and even a few Dao armaments. He was so wealthy that peerless treasures became worthless in his eyes.
As Tang Jie said this, he put away the Infinite Palace and began to leave.
His original body had messaged back that the two sects chasing the Primordial Heavenly Demon had left behind an Earth Immortal each at the exit for the other members of their sects to join up with, but Tang Jie had Reflections of Floating Life, so he wasn’t afraid.
As he was flying to the exit, he spotted someone flying in the opposite direction.
He took a closer look and found that it was Huang Wuji.
At this moment, Huang Wuji had a ghastly look on his face, as if he had experienced a major scare.
Seeing this, Tang Jie quickly called out, “Big Brother Huang, why did you come back?”
Huang Wuji turned his head and spotted Tang Jie. He said in delight, “So you really are here! If my guess is correct, it must have been you who opened the Immortal Emperor’s tomb, right? You really did manage to find the secret.”
When the two had worked together, Tang Jie had believed that the Jewel Palace still had a secret, but Huang Wuji hadn’t had the patience to keep searching. For this reason, when he saw the phenomena over the Jewel Palace, he hastened back, and when he saw Tang Jie, he knew that his guess was correct.
Tang Jie smiled. “I managed to open it up, but it also ended up attracting a pack of wolves. With no other choice, I had to flee here.”
“Not just wolves, but also tigers!” Huang Wuji sighed.
Realizing something, Tang Jie said, “It seems like Big Brother Huang ran into the people from the Heaven’s Equal Sect and Stellar Net Gate?”
Huang Wuji nodded. “There was also a terrifying demon. He seemed to be at least a Demon Lord. With just a wave of his hand, he could…”
Deep shock appeared on Huang Wuji’s face.
It turned out he had run into the Primordial Heavenly Demon being chased by Whitebrow Shao and company. When Whitebrow Shao saw Huang Wuji coming, he shouted at him to stop the demon.
Huang Wuji saw that the Heaven’s Equal Sect and Stellar Net Gate were hunting this demon, and since he didn’t want to offend them, he naturally complied. But then the Primordial Heavenly Demon simply sent him flying with a wave of his hand, displaying a horrifying strength. Not only that, he had planted a demon seed within him in an attempt to turn him into a demon. Only then did he realize that this was the infamous Primordial Heavenly Demon.
When the two sects saw that a demon seed had been planted in him, they immediately wanted to kill him. Fortunately, Huang Wuji reacted quickly and fled for his life, and those cultivators prioritized chasing the Primordial Heavenly Demon and let him go.
Tang Jie was also taken aback, looking at Huang Wuji in disbelief. “Big Brother Huang, how is it that you were able to resist demonification after having a demon seed planted in you?”
“It just so happens that your big brother has some means of resisting demonification. Of course, it’s also because that Primordial Heavenly Demon was too busy fighting to deal with me, or else my little trick might not have worked. In any case, I got lucky. Sadly, the True Immortals of those two sects wouldn’t listen to me, attacking me the moment I had the demon seed planted in me, the scoundrels.”
Tang Jie grew excited. “What sort of trick?”
Because of Ice Phoenix, he was interested in all means of resisting demonification.
Huang Wuji replied, “Telling you would take a while, but we should think about getting out of here first. This place seems to be in the middle of collapsing and won’t last for long. Ha, I can’t believe I flew into the middle of this death trap.”
Huang Wuji stomped his feet in remorse.
Tang Jie smiled. “Big Brother Huang, don’t panic. I can help out on this.”
“Oh, how so?”
Tang Jie recounted how the two sects had left behind their Violet Palace cultivators here. “If we turn ourselves into them, we can sneak out.”
“But what about the actual people?”
“They wanted to kill me, so I naturally killed them,” Tang Jie coolly replied.
Huang Wuji was stunned. He could see that Tang Jie’s cultivation had experienced a huge leap, going from early-phase Soul Projection all the way to peak Soul Projection, but even with that, killing a few Violet Palace cultivators was no easy task. He was unaware that Tang Jie had been dealing with more than a hundred.
“To even dare to kill the people of the two supreme sects, my young brother is truly bold. But even if we disguise ourselves, we might not be able to fool a True Immortal.”
“Perhaps my methods can.” Tang Jie smiled. “Big Brother, please watch.”
He pointed at Huang Wuji and activated Thousand Faces, upon which Huang Wuji turned into one of the deceased cultivators. Huang Wuji projected his Primal Divinity and observed himself, and he found that he couldn’t find a single flaw, as if this was just how he had been born. Surprised and delighted, he said, “It’s a Dao Art! No wonder you’re sure that even Immortals will be fooled. Only an Insight-type Dao Art would be able to see through it.”
Tang Jie said to himself, I have one of those, and I truly can see through it.
Huang Wuji laughed, “With this, we can sneak out, but how do we explain our numbers?”
Tang Jie had Xu Miaoran, Yiyi, and Tutu come out from the diagram. All three were at Violet Palace and could be disguised. As for Ice Phoenix, he had the Mother Cloud combat puppet and He Chong keep an eye on her.
But Huang Wuji’s attention was drawn to the Mountain River State Diagram as a result.
“A small… a small world…” Huang Wuji’s eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets. Just who is this kid, with so many Dao Arts and treasures!? No wonder he’s so confident. Good thing it’s me here. Anyone else would have already thought about killing him for his treasure.
Of course, he didn’t know that ever since Tang Jie had comprehended the method of using Dao Arts in combination, he no longer feared Earth Immortals. Even if he couldn’t beat them, he could just run away. And if he merged with his original body, used the Sovereign Blade, and perhaps used Immortal Ji Yao’s finger, he could even kill an Earth Immortal. In other words, after creating the miracle of a Soul Transformation cultivator defeating a Violet Palace cultivator, he was on the verge of creating another one, that of a Soul Projection cultivator defeating an Earth Immortal.
It was for this reason that he wasn’t afraid to show off in front of Huang Wuji, at the same time once more testing his character.
As expected, Huang Wuji was a reliable sort, his eyes showing only admiration and no greed. He commented, “Young Brother, you are proficient in formations, so you must have been to many well-protected treasure grounds. It’s no wonder you have so much. Alas, as for me, even though I’ve wandered the myriad domains and been to countless secret grounds, my lack of experience has limited my harvests.”
He gave a melancholy sigh.
Tang Jie chuckled. “If that’s the case, then I’ll go together with Big Brother Huang, revisiting those old places and searching for treasure so you can grow stronger. How about it?”
Huang Wuji was ecstatic. “Great! With Young Brother’s understanding of formations and Dao Arts, the entire world is ours for the taking.”
The two looked at each other and laughed.
Tang Jie turned Xu Miaoran, Yiyi, and Tutu into cultivators and nodded in satisfaction. “We’re missing a few, but this should be enough to get us through.”
Huang Wuji had no idea that they were missing at least a hundred people and thought that they had enough, so he nodded. “Great; let’s go back.”
He glanced at this collapsing space and sighed. “It’s a pity. This is the Immortal Emperor’s tomb, but I have to leave before I really got a chance to see anything.”
Tang Jie replied, “Big Brother Huang, you should be happy with what you have. Most people don’t even get the chance to peep inside. Moreover, this is just a fake tomb, and there was nothing in it at all.”
“Oh? Young Brother, did you find anything?” Huang Wuji’s eyes widened in surprise.
Tang Jie revealed his findings, since the place was empty anyway. He told Huang Wuji that the place of Dao Proving had been within, which left Huang Wuji speechless. After a while, he said, “No wonder the two sects want to kill you.”
“Indeed. Fortunately, while the place of Dao Proving had no treasure, it did have a Dao Will, and I was able to richly benefit by studying it, my strength soaring. This allowed me to kill them one by one.”
“I was wondering how Young Brother had grown so strong so quickly despite our brief parting. Young Brother, you are being very honest with me.”
“It’s because Big Brother Huang is a righteous person that I don’t need to hide anything from,” Tang Jie indifferently replied, mentally adding, except for the stuff that I accidentally left out.
The group of five talked as they flew to the exit.
As expected, two Earth Immortals were standing guard there.
Tang Jie and Huang Wuji glanced at each other and then flew to the exit, Huang Wuji suppressing his cultivation to Soul Projection so that he didn’t seem suspicious.
The two Earth Immortals saw five people flying toward them, and one of them said, “Zhou Ke, why is it only the five of you? Where are the rest?”
Tang Jie had been too immersed in killing to get anyone’s names. There had been more than one hundred people, and who would go around asking them all? Not knowing which one was Zhou Ke, he came forward and said, “Honored Immortals, they’re still battling with the demonified cultivators of our sect. The five of us came out first to take a look at the situation and make sure everything was alright.”
The Earth Immortal frowned. “I didn’t ask you. Zhou Ke, why aren’t you answering me?”
He cast his gaze at Huang Wuji.
Only then did Huang Wuji realize that he was the one being questioned, so he replied, “Honored Immortal, the situation is as he said.”
To his surprise, the two Earth Immortals scowled and shouted, “You aren’t Zhou Ke! Just who are you?”
The Earth Immortal who had questioned thrust a palm at the surprised Huang Wuji, who had no choice but to respond, the massive shockwave from their colliding attacks pushing both of them away from each other.
The Earth Immortal shouted, “It’s you! That Earth Immortal who ran away! You didn’t turn into a demon?”
Then his face twisted in anger. “Whoever you are, since you dared to disguise yourself as my nephew, you must have already taken his life, so die!”
The two Earth Immortals attacked.