The White Bone Divine Lord’s words were like a drop of water falling into hot oil, setting off an explosion in the minds of the spectators.
What did controlling a Dao mean?
For many cultivators, comprehending a Dao was already difficult enough, let alone controlling a Dao.
This man before them was actually a Dao-Controlling Immortal! Who could possibly afford to offend a man like this? Who could even defeat him?
For a moment, silence reigned over the world.
Tang Jie slightly raised his head, and then he shook it and replied, “No, I haven’t reached that level yet.”
The White Bone Divine Lord’s face was ashen as he said, “If you can’t control the Dao, how did you so easily destroy a Dao armament?”
Tang Jie replied, “Is being able to destroy a Dao armament the standard for controlling a Dao? I don’t think so. Daos are the rules of the world, and proficiency is divided into the stages of comprehension, entering, and controlling. To comprehend is to understand its principles, to enter is to occupy its position, and to control is to exercise its authority! Thus, the true Dao Controller can use the Dao freely and no longer have to rely solely on Dao Arts. While I was able to take away the Dao Runes just now, I wasn’t able to break through the level of Dao Arts. Thus, I have yet to use the Dao freely, so I cannot be called a Dao Controller. But I’ve gained a feeling for it, and while I’m not close, I’m also not far. So I have to thank you. If not for your Void Ghost Coffin, I wouldn’t have been able to advance so quickly in the Dao of Yin Yang.”
Tang Jie chuckled. “In the past, I thought that you had to be at Immortal Platform to use Dao armaments, but now I realize that I was terribly wrong. Immortal Platform is only sufficient to use Dao armaments normally, but if you’re not proficient in the Dao of the Dao armament, you still can’t utilize its full might. This is why I was able to take away the Dao Runes on the Void Ghost Coffin. If you had understood the Dao of Yin Yang a little more, I would have failed. It seems that if I want to advance more, I need to find more opponents like you.”
Tang Jie waved his hand. “Alright, I told you everything you want to know, so now you can tell me what’s going on with the Star Radiant Gate, right? If you’re good, I can forgive you for wanting to kill me earlier.”
In Tang Jie’s eyes, the White Bone Gate wasn’t a match for him, so there was no need to regard them as his enemy.
Helpless, the White Bone Divine Lord lowered his head and said, “This old man truly did defeat that Reverend Yellow Heaven, but he had been heavily injured before our battle.”
“Oh?” Tang Jie’s eyes flashed. “What sort of injury would be hard for even an Immortal to recover from? Moreover, if he was injured, it would have definitely been kept a secret, so how did you find out? Even if you did know, what gave you the courage to strike? Were you not afraid that he would recover and strike back? Someone must have been working from the shadows, no?”
Stunned, the White Bone Divine Lord bowed and said, “The Divine One is truly wise! There truly was someone who struck from the shadows, but as to who it was, this old man is not sure. However, I have heard that the Heaven’s Equal Sect was involved.”
“‘The Heaven’s Equal Sect’?” Tang Jie’s eyes widened.
So they really were connected to all this?
But if they had intervened, why hadn’t they simply destroyed the Star Radiant Gate? Why had the Star Radiant Gate only been driven out by the White Bone Gate?
Tang Jie didn’t understand, and it seemed like the White Bone Divine Lord had just been a tool and didn’t understand either, so there was no point in asking him. Thus, Tang Jie said, “Then do you know where the Star Radiant Gate is now?”
“I heard they went to the Small Trunk Mountains, but I don’t know their exact location.”
Tang Jie nodded. “Very good. Out of consideration for your honesty, if you do one more thing for me, then I’ll forgive all of you for attacking me.”
“Divine One, please speak.”
Tang Jie replied, “Open your books to me and let me read them.”
“What?” The White Bone Divine Lord was stunned.
A sect’s books represented all that it had accumulated over the years, all of its secrets. If those secrets were publicized, a sect would no longer have any secret or special arts, which was only slightly better than being obliterated.
Opening a sect’s books was essentially handing over one’s fatal weakness. From then on, one would be controlled by that person.
Tang Jie really only wanted the two formations. The White Bone Gate was only one tier lower than the Star Radiant Gate, and as a ten-thousand-year-old sect, it should theoretically possess this category of knowledge. But he didn’t want to let them know what he wanted. After all, if the White Bone Divine Lord knew he wanted those two formations, he would also realize that he planned to fight a cultivator war. Although everyone was aiming for such a thing, it wasn’t appropriate to publicly announce it. Moreover, he didn’t want to miss out on a free opportunity at extortion.
Those books didn’t necessarily contain some powerful divine arts, but he could use it to expand his knowledge and broaden his thinking, adding to his foundations.
Tang Jie was able to create so many of his own Divine Connections and Dao Arts because of this good habit of his.
Thus, Tang Jie coolly said, “Relax. I don’t plan to threaten you into doing anything. After this, I will fly off, and I probably won’t see your White Bone Gate ever gain. I also won’t pass on the White Bone Gate’s arts to anyone… hmph, it’s not like there’s anything good to pass on. I just want to trace the arts of the Ghost Dao back to the Great Dao it originated from. The spell arts and Divine Connections I develop from that Great Dao will be thousands of times more powerful than your paltry arts, so you really have nothing to worry about. All I seek is to understand the thought processes behind them.”
Tang Jie was telling the truth. He wanted the knowledge and mindset. With a proper foundation, he could create his own spell arts that wouldn’t be inferior in the slightest.
The White Bone Divine Lord knew that refusal wasn’t an option and could only agree.
The White Bone Gate disciples were indignant over their ancestor’s defeat. But this was how battles of the upper echelons were. Since their ancestor had lost, unless they were all of one mind to resist until the end, they could only quietly accept their fate. Worst of all was that even if they all worked together, they couldn’t defeat Tang Jie.
The gap was just too big.
An Immortal who could nearly control a Dao fighting those who hadn’t even entered a Dao? It was child’s play.
Tang Jie proceeded to take up residence in the White Bone Gate, enjoying the best treatment and studying its secret texts every day. The White Bone Gate had existed for thousands of years, and it had enough books to pack a building. Even though Tang Jie had entered the Dao of Wisdom and was able to read through multiple books at once as fast as he could flip their pages, even using Reflections of Floating Life to create more of himself, he needed quite a few days to read through them all.
Several days later, after Tang Jie had read through all the books, he filtered through all the chaff and summed it all up into a single text, the White Bone Treatise. Like the Black Yellow Treatise of the Basking Moon Sect, it was a foundational mantra. While the book contained many spell arts and Divine Connections, the most important part about it was an Immortal’s experience and understanding of the Great Daos. Using it as the foundation would make it easier for one to comprehend Great Daos.
From this aspect, Tang Jie was actually doing something the Martial Lord had done: transmitting the Dao as an art.
But in comparison to the Martial Lord, he could only transmit the mindset, which was far inferior.
The more Tang Jie tried to imitate the Martial Lord, the more powerful and terrifying the Martial Lord seemed to be.
He really couldn’t understand how the Martial Lord, who had fought against the world with pure strength, had managed to do all this.
Putting that matter to the side, after completing the White Bone Treatise, Tang Jie departed the White Bone Gate, at which the White Bone Gate sighed in relief, as if they had sent off a plague god.
After leaving the White Bone Gate, Tang Jie and Xu Miaoran headed toward the Small Trunk Mountains. Though he had already obtained information on the two major formations from the White Bone Gate, he still wanted to seek out the Star Radiant Gate. While he wasn’t sure if their misfortune had anything to do with him, this was exactly why he needed to go and confirm it. If it really was his fault, he needed to provide compensation.
Several days later, Tang Jie finally reached the Small Trunk Mountains, but after asking around, he found no information regarding the Star Radiant Gate.
This left Tang Jie with somewhat of a headache.
The White Bone Gate only knew that the Star Radiant Gate had retreated in the direction of the Small Trunk Mountains, but not if they had decided to take up residence there or continued retreating even farther south, or perhaps even begun to move in a different direction. Perhaps the threat of the Heaven’s Equal Sect had even made them change their name.
In truth, Tang Jie did have his ways of finding them, the Wish Granting Spell being the best.
But he was rather unwilling to waste one of his nine chances on finding the Star Radiant Gate.
Xu Miaoran could tell what he was thinking and said, “Husband, over the years, you have always bravely advanced on the Immortal path, expending all your resources in the pursuit of advancement, scheming and plotting in various ways, and there is nothing wrong with that. But as time has passed, you’ve focused too much on calculation and lost the impressive and grand bearing a cultivator ought to have. Your worries today are an example. When you sought out the Open Gate Banner, you didn’t hesitate in the slightest to use the Wish Granting Book. While the Open Gate Banner was linked to a Dao armament, can a single Dao armament really compare to the entire Star Radiant Gate? In the end, the real reason is that the Dao armament is yours while the Star Radiant Gate isn’t. But doing this treats friends as weights on the balance, which is rather unsightly.”
Tang Jie’s mind was given a jolt, and he deeply bowed to Xu Miaoran. “It was my mistake. Fortunately, you were there to point it out. I’ll use the Wish Granting Book right now.”
Xu Miaoran chuckled. “No need to be so hasty. Let’s look around for a few more days and then use it. We should still try to save it if we can.”
“Yes!” For the first time ever, Tang Jie was obeying Xu Miaoran’s commands.
After searching for half a month and confirming that the Star Radiant Gate wasn’t in the Small Trunk Mountains, Tang Jie used the Wish Granting Book.
Immediately after using it, Tang Jie knew what direction the Star Radiant Gate was in and flew in that direction.
He ended up flying for several months, almost back to the center of the continent. It was on a straight line with the Five Origins Estate, and if he kept on flying, he would end up at the Demon Abyss.
The feeling was very clear now, indicating that the Star Radiant Gate was in the vicinity.
This was the Violet Lightning Divine State, which neighbored the Gray Heron Divine State where the Five Origins Estate was located. It would take around a month to reach the Five Origins Estate from here.
As for the location of the Star Radiant Gate, it was in the Sky Curtain Mountains of the Violet Lightning Divine State.
When Tang Jie arrived and activated his vision, he finally spotted the name placard of the Star Radiant Gate on a distant mountain.
But the Star Radiant Gate was no longer so glorious.