The next morning was a clear day.
Waking from his meditation, Tang Jie heard a call from outside. “Big Brother Tang! Big Brother Tang!”
It was Su Hongmei.
Smiling, Tang Jie walked out of his room. “Junior Sister Su, good morning.”
Su Hongmei walked up with a smile. “Big Brother Tang has never been to Thousand Autumns City before, so I plan to take you around today.”
“Fine with me.” Tang Jie nodded.
The two of them began to make their way out of the Red Leaf Alliance.
Before they could get very far, they ran into Senior Brother Tao, Tao Tiande.
This man had been lingering around Tang Jie’s residence for some time, probably hoping to hear the shriek from Su Hongmei when she found Tang Jie’s corpse. Alas, instead of the scream, he saw Tang Jie and Su Hongmei talking and laughing, which almost made him shriek instead.
“You… you…” Senior Brother Tao gaped as he pointed a finger at Tang Jie.
Tang Jie chuckled. “Indeed, Brother Tao must still be angry over yesterday’s matter. My reaction then was a little excessive, and I feel some remorse, so let me express my apologies.”
He bowed to Senior Brother Tao.
Tao Tiande was dumbfounded, gawking at the bowing Tang Jie.
Seeing no reaction, Tang Jie patted him and said, “It seems that Brother Tao has accepted my apology. Wonderful! Oh, this one and Junior Sister Su are going to stroll around town, so we won’t keep bothering you, Brother Tao.”
He bowed and walked off, leaving a dazed Tao Tiande staring at his back.
“How could this be!? He was clearly bitten by the Goldwing Fireback centipede, so how is he still alive?” Tao Tiande had sensed very clearly that the Goldwing Fireback had bitten Tang Jie, which was why he was so certain that Tang Jie would die. He had never imagined things to turn out like this.
He couldn’t tell at all from Tang Jie’s smiling appearance if he actually knew what had happened last night, which made his mind even more of a mess.
What was he to do?
Did Tang Jie not know, or was he just pretending not to know? And if it was the latter, what was the reason?
Tao Tiande was gripped by terror.
As he watched Tang Jie leave, he suddenly made up his mind. Since he had already attempted assassination, there was no going back. He could be in the clear if Tang Jie really didn’t know, but if he did know and was not saying anything on purpose, he was probably attempting to blackmail him. He refused to be controlled by another, so the only option was to keep trying until Tang Jie was dead.
Sometimes, this was how humans were, making one mistake and following it with more.
From the moment he tried to kill Tang Jie, Tao Tiande was stuck on a path that he had to walk to the end, to kill or be killed. Thus it was said that believing in someone’s sense of right and wrong was the most foolish choice one could make. If one hundred people made a mistake, only one would come to their senses while the remaining 99 would walk the mistaken path until the end.
Tao Tiande was currently stuck in this mindset, and he proceeded to follow the pair.
Tang Jie and Su Hongmei had already left the Red Leaf Alliance and were on the road to Thousand Autumns City.
As a city on the border of human territory, it wasn’t particularly prosperous, but it had its own unique style. The mortals living here mostly served cultivators, and almost every one of them had a cultivator clan or sect they were affiliated with, the largest naturally being the Red Leaf Alliance.
The most popular products being traded in the city were naturally art relics and the like, or else combat resources. In comparison, cultivation resources were much less popular.
Tang Jie did see some resources that could be used for formations, but they were mostly on the low level and useless to him. With his current mastery of formations, just one object he needed would essentially be priceless.
But this let Tang Jie walk around with a relaxed mind. As for Su Hongmei, she appeared to rather enjoy the window shopping. Meanwhile, Tang Jie observed the city’s defensive formation, which he quickly managed to get a rough understanding of.
It wasn’t a bad defensive formation, and if a Deification cultivator was supporting it, it could stop the attacks of at least two Soul Projection cultivators. But it was helpless against Earth Immortals. Without using any Dao Arts, Tang Jie could shatter it with a single palm.
This rather disappointed Tang Jie.
As the first defensive line of humanity, this place should have had the best defenses, yet its formation couldn’t even hold off an Earth Immortal! However, if this was the case, how exactly were the humans able to fend off the Hemos?
Tang Jie didn’t believe that humanity was so shorthanded. Just like in the Rosecloud Domain, there had to be many sects that had their own unique powers such that even the Basking Moon Sect would have had to pay a price if it wanted to take them over. Back when the Basking Moon Sect and the Seven Absolutions Sect had joined together against Godhead Palace, they had only barely won, and this was because they had chosen to end the war once they had gotten what they wanted. If they had instead opted to wipe out Godhead Palace, Godhead Palace might have employed more suicidal methods.
Since the trump card of Thousand Autumns City wasn’t its formation, it was probably something else, but he didn’t know what.
Most importantly, what about the Hemos and demons?
What exactly were their trump cards?
This was what Tang Jie wanted to know the most, and to do that, he needed sufficient status among the humans, perhaps even needing to use the humans to force the other two races to show their hands. Only then could the Rosecloud Domain invasion force be ready for it.
As he was thinking, he suddenly sensed something.
Extending his Divine Will, he noticed that Tao Tiande was following them. He inwardly sneered, realizing that this stubborn fool still had the guts to mess with him, and he began to contemplate killing him.
It just so happened that they had reached a corner, so Tang Jie used Reflections of Floating Life to create a clone of Su Hongmei and himself to keep walking down the same road while he turned with the real Su Hongmei down another road. Despite his doing this out in the open, nobody noticed the switch.
Tao Tiande continued following the fake Su Hongmei, and Tang Jie paid close attention to him to see what he was up to.
To make things easier, Tang Jie had his clone leave the city and go somewhere deserted, after which he found a reason to split up with Su Hongmei. As expected, Tao Tiande saw his chance and got close. Using that same concealment treasure from before, he approached Tang Jie up to the detection limit of a Heart Demon cultivator and then took a small square box out of his Mustard Seed Bag.
As the box was opened, Tang Jie was able to see a blue ball of flame inside. To be more precise, it was an icy flame, floating in the box, pure and aloof.
Tang Jie instantly recognized what it was.
This was the Blueheart Flame, an exotic flame like the Pale Cloud Flame and Deicide Flame. When this flame attacked a target, it would not inflict any damage on the surface, heating the target from the inside out. This was why it was known as the flame that was most difficult to defend against, not only attacking in a strange way, but also starting from the weak internal organs. Fortunately, it was much weaker than the Pale Cloud Flame or Deicide Flame, but that was not to underestimate its lethality.
Tang Jie didn’t think that Tao Tiande would actually possess this flame. From the look of it, it was probably the lowest level possible of this flame, but if it were used properly, it was enough to kill a Heart Demon cultivator.
Sure enough, he had something to back up this assassination attempt of his.
A pained look appeared on Tao Tiande’s face. He didn’t have much of this Blueheart Flame, and didn’t understand how to nurture it, so if he wanted to kill with it, he would probably have to use it all. But he bore the pain and cast the spell to use it, sending it flying toward Tang Jie, and Tang Jie had his clone accept the flame into its body.
The moment the Blueheart Flame entered his body, he enclosed it with his spiritual energy, severing its connection with Tao Tiande.
As Tao Tiande attempted to ignite the flame, he found to his shock that he had lost connection to it.
No matter what order he gave, the Blueheart Flame gave no response.
As for “Tang Chong”, who should have burned to death by now, he slowly turned around and smiled at him.
Tao Tiande was dumbfounded.
No matter how much of a fool he was, he knew that he had been discovered, so he immediately tried to escape through the earth. Bang! Tao Tiande felt like he had run into a wall of steel, and instead of escaping, his head was now drenched in blood.
Unable to escape through the earth, Tao Tiande took to the skies, but right as he jumped up, a powerful wind blew. It was so strong that Tao Tiande, a Spirit Ring True Person, was sent tumbling down and crashing into the hard earth, which caused even more blood to flow from his head.
Tang Jie’s clone slowly walked over. Although it was just a clone, after Tang Jie had become an Immortal, the Reflections of Floating Life had also grown stronger, capable enough to fight a Spirit Ring True Person. Moreover, Tang Jie’s Divine Will was also on the side, and as a God, it could lock down the surrounding area with a single thought and leave Tao Tiande with nowhere to go.
The clone sauntered over and said, “Brother Tao, since you’re here, why are you in such a rush to leave?”
Tao Tiande didn’t dare to pay him any attention, hastily taking out a Free Roaming Talisman to teleport away. This was a Divine Connection, and simply sealing off the area’s spiritual energy wasn’t enough to restrain its use.
But Tang Jie’s clone simply glanced at the talisman, which first flashed and then dimmed. Tao Tiande desperately tried to activate it, but it remained inert, much to his stupefaction.
This was his first time encountering a cultivator who could even block a Free Roaming Talisman.
What had been a simple glance had actually involved Tang Jie using the Dao of Space to remove the talisman’s power. This wasn’t a Dao Art, but a way to use the Great Dao that required a profound understanding of the Dao.
In the past, Tang Jie might not have been able to do this.
But in his battle with the White Bone Divine Lord, Tang Jie had deepened his understanding of the Daos.
He realized that spell arts were existences that were founded in the Great Daos, and there was no spell art that did not use the Dao. The difference was that while spell arts indirectly used the Daos, Dao Arts directly used them.
Comprehending, entering, and controlling were descriptions of this direct control.
Comprehending meant seeing. While one couldn’t use the Dao yet, one knew the right direction and could occasionally borrow its power.
Entering the Dao was obtaining its power. With the Dao Runes etched into one’s body, one could finally truly and directly use the power of a Dao.
But Tang Jie had never been sure as to what controlling the Dao meant. It was something one couldn’t understand until one was there, and it was only after the battle with the White Bone Divine Lord that Tang Jie began to have some idea of it.
Controlling the Dao was not merely about using the power, but about thoroughly understanding the entire system. At this level, all associated existences and spell arts would be affected.
The Free Roaming Talisman used a Divine Connection, but this Divine Connection was born from the Dao of Space. Once Tang Jie reached the Dao-Controlling level, other than breaking free of the limits of Dao Arts, he could also influence all spell arts associated with that Dao.
To put it simply, an Immortal controlling the Dao of Space could make it so that all cultivators in a certain range were unable to use Space spell arts unless they had an even deeper understanding of the Dao of Space or used Space Dao Arts.
Tang Jie had yet to reach the Dao-Controlling level in the Dao of Space, but a talisman had a specific design on it and lacked the flexibility of a human. Thus, Tang Jie’s influence and the massive gap in cultivation was enough to seal it, allowing him to get a preview of Dao Controlling.
Thus, one could say that there was a point in bullying the weak.
With his last trick rendered useless, Tao Tiande felt his soul was leaving his body.
Tang Jie’s clone walked over and knocked him out.
Just when he was about to end his life, he was suddenly inspired. A flash of insight came out of the Sea of Fate, informing him that the answer he sought could be found on this person.
