After bidding farewell to Yun Tianlan and company, Tang Jie and Xu Miaoran began to travel about the Vast Wilderness Continent.
Cultivation wasn’t just about cultivating spiritual energy, but also about cultivating the mindset and experience. The size and wealth of the Vast Wilderness Continent made it the perfect place for such things.
This was a process that many cultivators who wanted to ascend to Earth Immortal had to go through. Only by experiencing all manner of human life, seeing the world in all its forms, could one see through the ways of the world and achieve Immortality.
Tang Jie wanted to reach Immortal Platform, so he needed to experience this life, cross this threshold.
Husband and wife traveled with Yiyi around the world, living a free and easy life.
Tang Jie’s ambition had always been for freedom, and to a certain degree, he already achieved this goal. At his current level of strength, ordinary people wouldn’t dare to cross him, and could do nothing to him if they did. While there had been many Immortal Platform experts in the Court of Myriad Domains, that had been because all of the Immortal Platform experts in the Vast Wilderness Continent had gathered there. Away from the court, the Earth Immortals were so scattered across the vastness of this world that one couldn’t even notice the splash they made.
When Tang Jie realized this, he suddenly had doubts, wondering if it was worth all the effort it took to keep ascending.
The moment this doubt was born, it took root in his mind.
Tang Jie knew that this was the hindrance of knowledge.
The hindrance of knowledge could not be ignored, nor could it be forcibly reversed. One could only slowly correct this understanding over a long time, understanding oneself and the world from a new and higher perspective.
Thus, Tang Jie was in no rush, continuing to travel and enjoy his life of freedom.
They wandered all around. Unlike when he was cultivating in seclusion in a single place, he made friends wherever he went. At each place, they would visit a local cultivator and discuss the Dao.
One day, Tang Jie had taken up residence in a city and was reading a book under a light.
But his way of reading books was different from the usual, as he was using a divine treasure lamp as his light, its light focusing on only one part of the page and moving with Tang Jie’s eyes, not leaking a single bit of treasure aura.
As Tang Jie was calmly reading, he suddenly heard a noise outside.
He perked his ears and found that somebody was discussing the Dao.
Tang Jie exited his house and found that an old man next door was holding a book and lecturing, “The Dao of Heaven is to lead the world with great virtue, to constantly seek self-improvement, to see the will of the heavens in the will of the people, to strive along the correct path and never go against one’s heart…”
A group of children was earnestly listening.
Tang Jie also found a place to sit down, immersed in the old man’s lecture.
After a while, the old man put down his book and said, “Today’s class ends here. You are all dismissed.”
The children all departed.
As the old man was cleaning up his things, he spotted Tang Jie and smiled. “Sir, where do you come from?”
Tang Jie replied, “From next door. I heard Sir teaching a class, transmitting the Dao, and I was so delighted that I invited myself over. Please forgive me for the offense.”
The old man said with a smile, “It’s no offense at all. This old man’s learning is too shallow and crude, unworthy of your ears.”
Tang Jie replied, “Elder, you’re being too polite. From what I heard, you have a unique understanding of the Yellow Dao Classic. I also happen to have some views on it that I hope to discuss with you.”
“Oh?” The old man grew excited. “I am willing to listen.”
Thus, Tang Jie began to discuss the Dao with the old man.
They conversed for an entire night, so immersed in the discussion that they lost track of time.
As the horizon began to lighten, the old man slapped his thigh and said, “Oh my, I’m almost late. My friend, please forgive me, but this old man has business.”
Tang Jie said, “Elder, you may leave whenever you please.”
The elder bowed and withdrew. At this moment, a ray of sunlight struck his body, and a long tail suddenly grew from his back, wagging in the air.
The old man hastily put the tail away, wiping the sweat from his forehead as he muttered, “I was almost discovered. I’d better get out of here.”
He got on all fours and turned into a mouse that scuttled into a hole in the ground.
Tang Jie remained, leaning against a tree and reading a book, occasionally taking a sip of tea.
Xu Miaoran sauntered over and sat down next to Tang Jie, teasing, “Only you have so much free time as to chat for an entire night with a mouse fiend who has only reached Mind Opening.”
This mouse fiend was able to transform without having reached Transformation thanks to a spell art, but this art had the flaw of losing effect in daylight, so he only dared to appear at night.
Tang Jie indifferently replied, “Seeking Dao makes no difference between human or fiend. All it requires is a heart that yearns for the Dao.”
“Oh?” Xu Miaoran filled Tang Jie’s tea cup and remarked, “Your mental state seems to have changed.”
“Yes, how could it not?” Tang Jie replied. “At this level of cultivation, where one’s spiritual energy is full and one’s Divine Soul no longer grows stronger, from a certain perspective, one has already cultivated to the limit. I think that, a long time ago, people thought that the highest level of cultivation wasn’t True Immortal, but Soul Projection. When you reach this level, it’s like you’ve reached the apex of life. You will find that there’s no more path to walk, and you will lose your goal in life, which leaves the mind restless, tossing and turning, rising and falling.”
Tang Jie sighed before continuing. “We are both lucky and unlucky. Now, everyone knows that there’s also Immortal Platform, that Soul Projection isn’t the apex, only a small mountain. Even so, I can still feel the pain from my cultivation having reached a standstill and having no path to tread… Right now, no matter how much I cultivate, I can’t increase my spiritual energy by a sliver, or perhaps you could say that any increase is pointless.”
He spoke slowly and calmly, but there was an inexplicable sorrow in his voice.
As Xu Miaoran gazed at her husband, she somewhat understood his state of mind.
Leaning on his shoulder, she said, “According to you, isn’t a cultivator’s Fate to constantly seek out the end and then break through the end? Isn’t that a road of no return that has no end?”
“What do you think?” Tang Jie smiled. “The Immortal path has always been a path of no return. When a road exists ahead of you, you have to run with all your might. When you reach the Spirit Platform Realm, you have to sprint for the Mortal Shedding Realm, and when you reach the Mortal Shedding Realm, you have to sprint for the Celestial Heart Realm, and after that, it’s Violet Palace, and then it’s Immortal Platform, and then True Immortal, Gold Immortal, Saint Immortal! Once you finally reach the highest peak, you have to keep going, soaring into the heavens… I really wonder what Immortal Emperor Yu Cheng felt when he became a Dao-Proving Saint Immortal.”
“Perhaps he was very lonely?” Xu Miaoran replied.
“‘Lonely’?” Tang Jie smiled. “Perhaps not.”
Sipping from his tea, he said, “If there’s no path ahead, you need to make one yourself… Someone who could get that far won’t feel lonely. They always have a plan. They know what they need to do, what they’re facing, and how to deal with it.”
Xu Miaoran gazed at Tang Jie with wide eyes. She had felt something from Tang Jie’s words, but she wasn’t sure what.
Seeing her state, Tang Jie chuckled. “I’m just mouthing off. Don’t take it too seriously.”
“This isn’t some casual comment from you,” Xu Miaoran argued. “You seem to be worried about something?”
Under his wife’s concerned eyes, Tang Jie conceded. “Fine, I’ll talk. There’s just something that puzzles me.”
“Yes?”
After some thought, Tang Jie continued, “In the Martial Lord’s hidden realm, there are nine levels, with each level having some treasure for his successor. For the last level, I have to be at Soul Projection to access it.”
Xu Miaoran said in surprise, “So you can get the treasure now?”
Tang Jie nodded.
“Then why don’t…” Xu Miaoran stopped before she could finish her sentence.
She understood why Tang Jie didn’t take the treasure.
The doubt he had felt in the court had shaken his resolve.
If what he worried about was really the case, then what was in the last level was no treasure, but some kind of horrifying trap.
Tang Jie didn’t know, but he was hesitating.
This was why he said that people who “got that far” wouldn’t feel lonely, would always have a plan.
People like the Immortal Emperor and the Martial Lord were heroes among men, elites among Immortals. Everything they did had some deeper meaning that could not be ignored.
Who knew if what Tang Jie had seen in the Martial Mirror was the truth?
Perhaps that was just an illusion created by the Martial Lord!
After all, as could be seen from the Duplication spell, illusion arts were one of the Martial Lord’s strong points.
A body cultivator that knew illusion arts was something worth pondering.
Back then, the Martial Lord was able to dominate the world as a body cultivator, singlehandedly destroying the court. So why was it that Tang Jie was finding his body cultivator strength more and more difficult to use? While the Combat Emperor Catalog was formidable, it wasn’t enough for him to defeat law cultivators of the same level.
This was at odds with the impression the Martial Lord had left behind, so Tang Jie couldn’t help but have his doubts. This was why he had yet to take the last treasure left behind by the Martial Lord.
His mind was beset by contradiction.
It wasn’t about whether he wanted the treasure or not, but whether he could still trust the Martial Lord.
Although Tang Jie had never met the man, he couldn’t deny that his life was already deeply connected to the Martial Lord, and he didn’t want things to develop in the worst direction.
Thus, Tang Jie wasn’t afraid that there was a trap, but rather that the trap would shatter all the trust and affection he had.
Thus, he hesitated and faltered, his mind suffering from the hindrance of knowledge and his mindset growing unstable, changing again and again. Despite the fact that he was wandering the world and experiencing life, he couldn’t pierce through the veil of mystery, couldn’t untie this knot.
When Xu Miaoran understood the key to Tang Jie’s inner conflict, she also understood what he was thinking.
Gazing at him, she said, “If you have to face it eventually, why not do it sooner rather than later? Haven’t you always done things this way?”
“This time is different,” Tang Jie said with a shake of his head.
His voice was completely bereft of his former vigor and daring.
Xu Miaoran knew that this was a result of his cultivation being stalled and his mind being thrown into disarray. After hundreds of years of cultivation, he had abruptly run into a hard wall, setting him off balance. This together with his worries would inevitably create hesitation.
But Xu Miaoran believed that Tang Jie would untie that knot and emerge from his predicament.
Stroking Tang Jie’s face, Xu Miaoran said, “No matter what happens, I will be at your side. Even if everyone in the world might hurt you or deceive you, I will never deceive you.”
The earnest expression on Xu Miaoran’s face momentarily enchanted Tang Jie.