The ripples from the passage forced Tang Jie to give up on the pursuit. In any case, since the dragon was stuck in this world, there was no way it could escape.
Tang Jie spread out his Divine Will across the world, and a moment later, he spotted a Violet Palace cultivator standing in front of the passage. He looked around, and then, rather than leaving the passage, he went back into the Yellow Court World, where he patiently waited for the others to arrive.
Although he didn’t know much about Tang Jie, his feat of killing more than a hundred Violet Palace experts in the court was enough to mark him as someone that was not to be underestimated. Thus, this cultivator didn’t recklessly rush in. Once he found the passage, he notified the others, acting rather cautiously.
Tang Jie didn’t mind.
While this meant his enemies wouldn’t be divided, it also meant that they had lost the initiative.
Tang Jie needed only one glance to know where this passage led: a hill located in the Rainbow Meadow.
Smiling, he produced a crystal ball. Upon this crystal ball was the merged world of the Five Origins Estate and the Yellow Court World, mixed together in a fantastical and dazzling mess.
With a wave of his hand, the scene on the ball became much clearer. Tang Jie found that hill and pointed a finger at it. Thus, a giant illusory finger appeared in the air, squashing the top of the hill into a large crater.
Tang Jie waved his finger, and numerous formation lines began to weave across the sky. Tang Jie hadn’t laid down these formation lines. Rather, they were from the Five Origins Estate and had been triggered just now.
She spat at the crystal ball, sending a glass-like flame into it. A moment later, a blazing flame appeared over the crater, sinking into the lava and increasing its intensity.
Tang Jie let out a gasp of surprise. “Is this the Deicide Flame or the Pale Cloud Flame? Why did it become like this?”
The Vermillion Bird smugly said, “It’s both. I borrowed the power of these flames to advance, and while I couldn’t completely reach Void Returning, I managed to merge your Pale Cloud Flame and Deicide Flame together. This Glass Flame can burn all things like the Deicide Flame, and it also has the transformative powers of the Pale Cloud Flame. Besides that, it also possesses the mind-burning powers of my Southern Divine Fire. You could call it a minor Fire Dao Essence.”
“‘Minor Fire Dao Essence’?” Tang Jie asked.
“Yes, just like how your Sovereign Blade is actually a manifestation of the Greater Metal Dao Essence. Each of the Daos of the Five Elements has their own essence, with the core of the Sovereign Blade being the Metal Essence. This small ball of fire is the Minor Fire Essence. Although you’ve made great progress in entering the Dao of Five Elements, in the end, you borrowed power to get this far, and you have only a shallow understanding of the various minor Daos. One day, if you are able to refine the Greater Fire Dao Essence, also called the First Flame, you will have reached the Dao-Controlling level,” the Vermillion Bird explained.
“‘Dao-Controlling’…” Tang Jie muttered.
The Vermillion Bird’s casual comment had triggered something in Tang Jie. Finally, he had some concept of what it meant to control a Dao.
But it was still a little early to discuss that. The Vermillion Bird continued, “This Glass Flame is still far from reaching the First Flame, but at least you no longer need to worry about the question of controlling this flame now.”
“You’re saying I can control it?” Tang Jie said in delight.
Tang Jie found that he really could control that flame, and with a thought, the flame merged together with the earlier flame formation.
The Deicide Flame had always been too tyrannical for him to fully control, so he was delighted that this problem was finally resolved.
As he was laying down his formation, on the other end, that cultivator was completely unaware, still waiting for the others to arrive.
Mou Siming was the first to arrive. Looking at the passage, he asked the Violet Palace cultivator, “Did you go over to check?”
The Soul Projection cultivator answered, “Sir, I went over and took a look. The exit came out on top of a hill that was surrounded by grasslands. From the terrain, it appeared to be the region Tang Jie was located in.”
“Alright. Let’s see how this brat gets away this time,” he said, stepping toward the entrance.
The cultivator hastily said, “Sir, are you not going to wait for the other Immortals?”
Mou Siming sinisterly said, “A single Earth Immortal being sent to deal with one Violet Palace cultivator is already an immense honor. Do we need all four at once? This old man can’t accept that disgrace!”
Ignoring the cultivator, he stepped into the passage.
The moment he stepped through, his surroundings shifted into a sea of fire.
Mou Siming had been thrown off by that Violet Palace cultivator’s report. He had expected to appear on a hill with no traps, so he hadn’t even applied a barrier. As a result, he appeared directly in the lava, which almost instantly engulfed him.
Even with his Immortal body and ability to thoughtcast, he was so caught off guard that he was left covered in burns.
While he quickly used Immortal energy to heal these wounds, the immense pain still had him howling. Only then did he realize that these were no simple flames, and the damage they inflicted was far more serious than he had imagined. Not only had he consumed more Immortal energy than expected, even his Divine Soul had been scorched.
“Bastard! Ambushes and traps aren’t the acts of a hero!” Mou Siming roared.
He opened the passage back up and shouted, “Don’t come over; there’s an ambush!” Only then did he fly upward.
But this was a grave mistake.
If he hadn’t said anything, that Violet Palace cultivator wouldn’t have come over, but his shout made the cultivator think that the battle had already begun.
This Violet Palace cultivator was a member of the Stellar Net Gate, so when his superior was in battle, he had no excuse for standing idle. Moreover, Mou Siming hadn’t given any further detail about the battle, so he didn’t imagine that Mou Siming could be in actual danger. Thus, after some thought, he decided to go against the order and go in to show his concern. Of course, before going in, he messaged everyone else and marked the location down.
Meanwhile, as Mou Siming shouted, Tang Jie also made his move.
He hadn’t laid down this formation just to give someone a few burns. His eyes brightened as the lava surged upward, forming giant pillars of flame. In a flash, a cage of lava had been formed around Mou Siming.
Tang Jie then closed his fist, upon which the cage shrank down and plunged Mou Siming to the bottom of the lake of lava. Surges of lava battered against the barrier, attempting to get through, but Mou Siming had plenty of Immortal energy and didn’t mind such attacks. Just when he was going to break out of the cage, Tang Jie pushed his hand down, upon which the hill rumbled and began to sink underground.
Mou Siming was so angry that his eyes almost burst out of their sockets. “Tang Jie, you bastard! You would use a formation to imprison me!? You can’t kill me, and once I get out of here, you’re dead!!!”
“I didn’t plan to kill you in the first place,” Tang Jie said in scorn.
Earth specialized in defense while Fire specialized in attack, so he used Earth to imprison and Fire to torment. His goal here was to exhaust the energy of this Immortal, and he had never even considered using these two formations to kill him. It wasn’t impossible, but the costs were too high, only the best formations being able to kill an Earth Immortal. Imprisoning and wearing one down came at a much lower cost.
As Mou Siming was sinking into the ground, that Violet Palace cultivator from before appeared in the air.
But he clearly hadn’t expected to appear in the air, so he immediately began to fall.