Objectively, this finger attack was quite impressive. Born from the clouds, accompanied by rains, stirring up a howling wind, it was a finger fit to intimidate all the world.
But in Tang Jie’s eyes, it was like a child play-fighting, and even its aura was laughable.
This finger had been unleashed by some Violet Palace expert.
Thus, he didn’t move, acting like it was nothing more than a puff of smoke.
At the same time, Yiyi flicked a petal.
A pink petal drifted through the air, yet as it floated before that finger, it was like a mountain, stopping it cold.
As the finger’s power dwindled, the attacker snorted. “A childish trick!”
A gray energy burst out of the finger, instantly turning the petal to ash.
The finger continued forward.
Several more petals flew out.
The True Lord continued to thrust his finger, which flashed with gray light again and again, but as those petals were obliterated, Yiyi simply sent more.
To his shock, the True Lord realized that while there was seemingly no end to this little girl’s petals, he was starting to grow tired. But now that he was on the tiger, it was hard to dismount, so he could only press forward and hope this little girl wore out first.
Yet when Yiyi saw his divine strength, she threw out hundreds of petals and laughed, “Great, great! More, more!”
As she cheered, so many petals appeared that the heavens became a sea of flowers.
This was Yiyi’s innate spell art, the Silkheaven Net, but as she had grown stronger, this spell art had become an innate Divine Connection.
There were at least ten thousand petals, gathering together into a floral dragon that had the True Lord shaking in fear. The floral dragon rammed at the finger, which was pulverized on the spot.
“Arrogant!” another furious roar rang out.
A white beam of light shot out and struck the floral dragon, so fierce that even Yiyi’s Silkheaven Net couldn’t resist it. At this moment, a slender hand emerged out of nowhere and caught the beam of light, upon which it became apparent that it was actually a white bone, glossy and exuding a supernatural aura.
“A decent treasure,” Xu Miaoran chuckled as she put away the bone.
This infuriated the attacker in the shadows.
This was a precious Nine Nether Bone that he had personally refined in the Yellow Springs of the Nether Domain. It was extremely powerful, and he had only determined to use it because that little girl had been so mighty, not expecting it to be taken away by someone else. He almost threw up blood in panic.
But this finally made him realize that these weren’t people to be trifled with, so he hollered, “Everyone, stop!”
Tang Jie sneered. “Now you realize that you can’t win, you want to be reasonable?”
As expected, several people appeared in the distance, their leader wearing a tall hat and sporting a wide belt, his face rather normal. But the people behind him were like hanged corpses, their faces pale and cold—clearly the result of cultivating some Yin art.
The leader brought his hands together in respect and said, “This one is Reverend Heartless, the master of the White Bone Gate. Has our White Bone Gate offended the three of you in some way?”
From the sound of his voice, he was the one who had thrown the bone. As for his cultivation, he was at Soul Projection, the same as Xu Miaoran and Yiyi, but in actual strength, he was clearly much weaker than them. Otherwise, his bone wouldn’t have been so easily taken by Xu Miaoran. To be honest, Xu Miaoran only appeared weak when compared to Tang Jie. In reality, with her cultivation, she could fight above her tier and was top-class among her peers. ṝâọꞖĘṡ
Tang Jie took the bone from Xu Miaoran and noticed that it was a Nine Nether Bone. Without raising his head, he said, “Since you want to act reasonable, you should be reasonable. By asking how we were offended by you, aren’t you saying that we were the ones who came looking for trouble, shifting all the blame onto us? As for who struck first and who was bullying whom around, you had no thought of considering that. Am I right?”
The cultivators of the White Bone Gate grimaced.
Tang Jie finally raised his head, looking at that Reverend Heartless.
He shook his head and said, “With your strength, as a Soul Projection cultivator, you’re average. Having personally seen Qin Chaoxuan’s abilities, I can say that even the him from several hundred years ago is stronger than the you of the present.”
Qin Chaoxuan was the master of the Star Radiant Gate and Huang Wuji’s disciple.
Reverend Heartless was startled to hear Qin Chaoxuan’s name and finally realized what was going on. And while he was enraged that he was being called weaker than Qin Chaoxuan, this person was too powerful to offend. After all, the two women were already as strong as him, and that man seemed even stronger than those two purely based on his demeanor.
Tang Jie said, “Since you are weaker than Qin Chaoxuan, and your disciples don’t seem much better than those of the Star Radiant Gate, there can be only one reason the White Bone Gate could defeat the Star Radiant Gate and become the country-level sect: an ancestor battle. Theoretically, only if your sect’s White Bone Divine Lord was stronger than Reverend Yellow Heaven could you win this battle. So where is your ancestor? I would like to see if this is truly the case.”
This was essentially saying, ‘You don’t need to fight me. Only your ancestor has the right to fight me.’
The cultivators of the White Bone Gate felt their souls leaving their bodies, and they didn’t dare to talk back.
Reverend Heartless mentally complained, Where did the Star Radiant Gate get such powerful allies? He bowed and said, “The ancestor is in seclusion and is not seeing guests. Please forgive any offense.”
Tang Jie coolly said, “If you don’t want to offend me, have him come out. Just because he’s in seclusion doesn’t mean he can’t be disturbed. I want to know what’s going on with the Star Radiant Gate and just how the White Bone Gate managed to defeat it.”
Everyone inwardly groaned.
Reverend Heartless awkwardly said, “Our lowly sect’s ancestor cultivated a secret that caused his strength to soar…”
Tang Jie impatiently waved him off. “Don’t even try that bullshit with me. The White Bone Divine Lord definitely didn’t become a True Immortal, or you wouldn’t be talking like this and would have already gotten your ancestor to come out and obliterate me. Since he’s still an Earth Immortal, dealing with Yellow Heaven is no easy task. I’ve seen Huang Wuji’s strength, and even if he’s not among the strongest group of Earth Immortals, he’s not somebody any ancestor from any old sect could defeat.”
The White Bone Gate had gone to great efforts to seize the Star Radiant Gate’s position, but they were still just “any old sect” in Tang Jie’s eyes. Alas, Tang Jie was stronger, so they could only silently bear the insult.
Just when they were considering notifying the ancestor, a voice proudly rang out. “You speak with quite the arrogant tone! Let this one see what kind of person wishes to test this one’s power.”
As this voice rang out, four White Boneguards marched out carrying a coffin.
Each of these White Boneguards were of Violet Palace cultivation, their skeletons flowing with light and their eyes burning with ghostly flames. The coffin was made of rare ten-thousand-year-old Goldwood and covered in intricate patterns which closer inspection would reveal to be profound Dao Runes. A white creature had been carved onto the coffin lid, its upper half a crowned skeleton and its lower half simply a cloud. While others might take it for a mere carving, Tang Jie knew from Little Three that this was a rare existence of the Nether Domain.
A Void Ghost!
As the golden coffin was carried out, all of the White Bone Gate cultivators dropped to their knees. “We pay respects to the ancestor!”
With a creak, the coffin lid was raised, and a man sat up. His flesh had entirely withered away, leaving him skeletal. This was the White Bone Divine Lord.
But a moment later, his face flashed red, and then blood began to pulse through his skin, gradually restoring color to his face.
That withered skeleton transformed into an elegant scholar, though his eyes still had an eerie red glow. He gazed at Tang Jie and said, “You are Huang Wuji’s friend? Did you come here for the sake of the Star Radiant Gate?”
Tang Jie shook his head. “I truly am Huang Wuji’s friend, but I haven’t come out to fight for their sect. The Vast Wilderness Continent is the land of the strong, and the customs of ten thousand years won’t change just because of me, and there is no need to change them. Thus, if your honorable sect was able to rely on your own strength to defeat the Star Radiant Gate, I have no reason to come forward.”
“So long as you understand,” the White Bone Divine Lord grunted.
“But the White Bone Gate has to prove that it’s stronger than the Star Radiant Gate first,” Tang Jie added.
The White Bone Divine Lord furiously said, “My sect has already occupied the base of the Star Radiant Gate and begun to receive the tribute of Shangyuan, becoming a country-level sect. Is this not proof enough?”
Tang Jie shook his head. “At least right now, it’s not enough.”
The White Bone Divine Lord angrily laughed. “You are nothing more than an early-phase Earth Immortal. Based on your cultivation, it hasn’t been ten years since you’ve become an Earth Immortal, yet you dare to act so audaciously!?”
The White Bone Divine Lord had sharp eyes, able to swiftly determine Tang Jie’s cultivation level and even that his foundations were still not stabilized. This was why his caution had turned to disdain.
No matter what, he didn’t believe that a new Earth Immortal like Tang Jie could be stronger than someone like him, who had been an Earth Immortal for several thousand years.
Tang Jie casually replied, “But you still have to prove yourself.”
“You’re not worthy!” the White Bone Divine Lord roared, summoning a chilling wind to assail Tang Jie.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Tang Jie chuckled.
The one thing he was afraid of was his opponent not attacking. After all, how was he going to test him if there was no attack?
This chilling wind seemed much weaker than the finger attack from before, but Tang Jie could tell that there was a corrosive power suffused in this wind that made it akin to the Domain Astral Winds. A crimson cloud immediately emerged around him: the Flesh Millstone!
His opponent had used a Divine Connection, so he would respond with a Divine Connection.
Tang Jie was going to use traditional cultivator methods against his opponent so that he could see what difference there was between him and a veteran Earth Immortal.
He was testing both his opponent and himself.