The Fate Candle’s reappearance made Tang Jie’s heart go cold.
This was not because Flowing Wind could fish out his Fate Candle again. He could naturally just knock it out his grip again.
The problem was that there was still just half a Fate Candle left.
This meant that the Fate Candle couldn’t be restored to full after returning to the Ocean of Fate, at least not quickly.
This meant that Flowing Wind hadn’t been working for nothing this whole time.
Tang Jie felt the danger growing.
If he couldn’t stop Flowing Wind before his candle burned down, he would perish.
But rather than be afraid, Tang Jie became pumped up with fighting spirit.
Tang Jie chuckled at Flowing Wind. “Interesting. Then do you realize that I can also grow more and more skilled the more I repeat certain tasks? Like… if I can destroy the candle once, I can destroy the candle twice.”
“Stop!”
Law Speaking activated once more, and then the blade came down.
Flowing Wind’s hand was severed, and the Fate Candle disappeared.
A moment later, the hand returned to the arm and struck Tang Jie. Tang Jie countered by slashing at Flowing Wind’s body, upon which Flowing Wind’s body came apart and then instantly came back together, his hand having already fished out the Fate Candle. A second after that, Tang Jie unleashed a powerful punch, but the Genesis Cloud promptly appeared, absorbing Tang Jie’s punch and blasting it back at his head. At the same time, Tang Jie waved the Sovereign Blade, which transformed into countless blades that pierced through Flowing Wind’s body.
Flowing Wind turned himself into wind and once more evaded a lethal blow, while Tang Jie’s head was caved in, blood gushing out. However, through the Immortal Essence of his cultivated body, he quickly recovered. Just when he was about to attack again, Flowing Wind once more dizzied Tang Jie with a strike to the back of his head. Tang Jie swiftly returned the favor, using Law Speaking to stun his foe, the Celestial Eye to find his weakness, and finally a stab with the Sovereign Blade, which blasted away almost half of Flowing Wind’s body.
The two engaged in a thunderous battle in the sky.
Other Immortals fought with numerous spell arts and Divine Connections, their divine and majestic might making the world pale, but their battle had devolved into a brawl. Gone was the splendor of a spell arts battle, leaving only that tension that came from having one’s life on the line.
In this period, Tang Jie’s Fate Candle disappeared and reappeared over and over, becoming the focus of the battle.
In the process, Tang Jie found that his Fate Candle really did slowly recover upon returning to the Ocean of Fate, which he determined from how the rate at which his candle burned had slowed. Thus, he didn’t need to worry about Flowing Wind utterly extinguishing his life. But recovery needed time, and so long as Flowing Wind kept burning the Fate Candle, it would continue to melt away.
He couldn’t resolve the danger of the Fate Candle unless he resolved the problem that was Flowing Wind.
Thus, this battle was still a contest of strength. It was just that Tang Jie had a time limit.
And he could see that his time was running out.
Realizing this, Tang Jie attacked with all his might, using the Ten Extinctions Blade, Skyrend Swordfall, and Law Speaking as if they cost him nothing.
He had already used up a significant amount of Dao power in his battle against the other two Immortals. He had recovered some after entering the hidden estate, but after this battle, he was once more running short.
Slaughter Dao power ran out first, making him unable to use Skyrend Swordfall, and then came Destruction Dao power. He was using these as his primary form of attack, so they ran out the fastest.
Following that, his Truth Dao power began to run out, meaning that he could no longer recklessly use Law Speaking. After that was Insight. Other than dispelling the Ethereal Rain Divine Connection at the start of the battle, he had also been using it to identify Flowing Wind’s weaknesses. Unfortunately, Immortals were Immortals, so while they had weaknesses, they weren’t fatal ones.
The four Dao Arts most useful in duels were now unusable, and Reflections of Floating Life was still locked in battle with the Ethereal Rain Divine Connection. While it neutralized one of Flowing Wind’s moves, it could be of no other help. As for the Infinite Palace, he hadn’t used it much, but that was because it was a defensive Dao Art, and Tang Jie needed to be on the offense—Flowing Wind was barely attacking him, only using the occasional Haunting Spirit World Strike to dizzy him.
He knew that Tang Jie, as a body cultivator, was extremely hard to kill, so he had chosen to kill him through Fate.
Finally, he didn’t have much Dao power to use Nearby Horizon.
In other words, by this point, Tang Jie had almost exhausted his eight Dao Arts.
But Flowing Wind wasn’t doing much better.
Although Tang Jie had not killed him once, he had still expended a great deal of Immortal energy, particularly in this final melee, where they had been trading blows without rest.
Tang Jie’s combat power wasn’t necessarily linked to how hard it was to kill him, but the same wasn’t true for Flowing Wind. The more he fought, the less Immortal he became.
Thus, he started to run short of the Immortal energy that powered his Divine Connections, and his injuries healed slowly rather than instantly.
Tang Jie had clearly realized this and attacked with all his might. Alas, his body cultivator powers were countered by the Genesis Cloud, or else one Combat Emperor punch would have broken Flowing Wind.
The Fate Candle still burned. The one who broke first would be the loser.
Knowing this, both of them clenched their teeth and held on for dear life.
Flowing Wind suddenly howled, and the surrounding winds rushed in.
These winds sliced into the bones like the Astral Winds, imbued with a destructive power.
But Tang Jie could even endure the Domain Astral Winds, so he wasn’t afraid of some Immortal’s Divine Connection.
His body grew larger, seemingly stimulated by the wind rather than weakened.
However, Flowing Wind’s goal wasn’t to kill Tang Jie, simply to push him away.
Seeing this, Tang Jie bellowed and unleashed another punch.
Flowing Wind sneered. “Idiot, don’t you know that doesn’t work by now?”
The Genesis Cloud rushed up and absorbed the punch.
The Genesis Cloud had played a pivotal role in this battle, essentially disabling all of Tang Jie’s Divine Connections and even his Combat Emperor punches. If not for the eight Dao Arts, he would have lost long ago. Still, because he had been forced to rely only on Dao Arts, he was now running out of Dao power, and Flowing Wind was still standing tall.
As the Genesis Cloud absorbed the punch, Tang Jie snorted. “Of course, but that doesn’t matter.”
As he spoke, he suddenly divided into his original body and avatar.
The original body flew toward the Genesis Cloud and began to unleash punch after punch.
The Genesis Cloud spat out the punch it had absorbed, and there was a great rumbling as the two exchanged blows, the original body throwing punch after punch at the cloud like a madman.
Yet this frenzy made Flowing Wind grimace, for he knew Tang Jie had realized the Genesis Cloud’s limitation.
While powerful, the Genesis Cloud had a limitation in the rate at which it could absorb and convert.
By unleashing that onslaught against the cloud, the original body was forcing the cloud to use all its strength, leaving it helpless to deal with the other Tang Jie.
Just like how Flowing Wind had gradually developed an understanding of Tang Jie over the course of the battle, Tang Jie had gradually understood Flowing Wind. He saw that the key to this battle wasn’t the Fate Candle, but the Genesis Cloud.
This Dao armament had rendered all of his spell arts ineffective, forcing him to use Dao Arts.
Thus, Tang Jie had decided to use his original body to draw away the Genesis Cloud.
Meanwhile, the avatar Tang Jie charged at Flowing Wind.
Flowing Wind’s eyes glinted with a savage light. “Let’s see what other tricks you have.”
With a wave of his hand, the howling Astral Winds blew at Tang Jie.
Without his cultivator body, Tang Jie was no longer so resistant to the Astral Winds.
In certain aspects, Tang Jie’s trade of his original body to tie down the Genesis Cloud to get more powerful attacks wasn’t a great deal. But for Tang Jie, who was short on time, it was definitely the correct choice.
As the Astral Winds rushed out, Tang Jie grunted and charged in, a crimson cloud appearing around him: the Flesh Millstone!
After comprehending Skyrend Swordfall and the Ten Extinctions Blade, he had rarely used this Divine Connection. After all, Dao Arts were superior. It was just that he was out of Dao power now, which made the Flesh Millstone the best substitute. It was no Dao Art, but in terms of power, it wasn’t much weaker.
As the Flesh Millstone clashed with the Astral Winds, something shocking happened.
Flowing Wind’s Astral Winds failed to stop the Flesh Millstone, instead being sucked into the crimson cloud and vanishing.
“How could this be?” Flowing Wind said in shock.
“What’s so surprising?” Tang Jie indifferently replied.
In truth, as a Violet Palace expert facing an Immortal Platform expert, in order to win against someone with so many lives, he needed to be superior to his foe in certain aspects, just like when he had been at Celestial Heart trying to defeat a Violet Palace expert.
At that time, how had Tang Jie managed to win against a True Lord’s thoughtcasting and greater energy reserves? He had relied on the power of his spirit arts and incredibly tough body, his punch counting for ten of his opponent’s, which balanced out the fact that his enemy could attack ten times faster.
The same was true now. Even without Dao Arts, Tang Jie had never been a weakling.
He was having such a hard time now because his opponent was a top-class Earth Immortal.
But after this bitter battle, Flowing Wind had grown much weaker, and though Tang Jie had exhausted his Dao power, he had plenty of spiritual energy. When he went all-out, even a child could make an adult stagger, let alone one who had already been weakened. With this, Tang Jie had naturally managed to take back the initiative.