Aspiring to the Immortal Path

"Raaaa!" A frightening energy erupted from Tang Jie's body.

This energy was similar to Aurora's five-colored rainbow light, but it also contained majestic primordial energy. This was none other than the Five Elements essence energy that Tang Jie had absorbed and converted.

As the light of the Five Elements appeared, Aurora's rainbow light was pushed back. Meanwhile, the rainbow glow around Tang Jie began an astonishing transformation.

The rays of light began to combine and weave together as if someone was painting on the sky, painting a most gorgeous and exquisite picture.

What was being drawn was a most grandiose complex, like one of those dazzling imperial palaces of the mortal world, but on an even grander and more majestic scale. It bore some similarity to that former fragment of the Court of Myriad Domains, but while each individual building stood on its own, none of them was actually an independent existence. All were linked to each other by corridors, bridges, arches, and other such architectural features, making it so that they were a single unit. This made it more similar to Horizon Ocean Pavilion, which was a giant singular building.

Tang Jie stood in the center of the painting, on the most central platform, surrounded by countless rays of light in the process of conjuring a palace from light.

And then Aurora discovered that when his attacks ran into that light, they would disappear without injuring Tang Jie in the slightest.

He cried out in shock, "What is this?"

While he was still in shock, the Azure Dragon in the distance realized what was going on. "A Dao Art? This is a Dao Art? You absorbed my Five Elements primordial energy and entered the Dao, even creating a new Dao Art… No, I won't accept this! Never!"

The Five Elements primordial energy that the Azure Dragon had spent ten thousand years nurturing for the sake of breaking out of the True Immortal Tier had all been absorbed by Tang Jie and then used to create a new Dao Art. How could he not be furious over all his work being for someone else's sake?

This was none other than the new Dao Art Tang Jie had created from the Five Elements.

Creating a Dao Art meant taking one's own spell art and merging it with the power of the Great Dao to make it even more powerful.

This was where the term "Dao Art" came from.

But Tang Jie hesitated when it came to choosing a spell art.

As he was creating it on the spot, he hadn't given this choice any proper thought, nor did he know exactly how he was going to do the merging.

It had to be understood that he hadn't been enlightened to the Dao of Five Elements on his own, but had done it through absorbing primordial energy. This was a rare opportunity, and if he made a misstep, it could end up going to waste.

But given that his life was at stake here, Tang Jie cast his apprehensions aside, thinking up what sort of Dao Art he was creating as he released Five Elements energy.

The Dao of Yin Yang represented the two sides of the world while the Dao of Five Elements represented the composition.

The Five Elements were the foundation of all things, and all arts originated from the Five Elements. Thus, it was said that the Dao of Five Elements was the most beneficial to spell arts and the most favorable to transformation.

In this aspect, one could say that the Dao of Five Elements could be matched to any spell art to create a powerful Dao Art.

But Tang Jie's limited strength meant that he wouldn't be able to use the full power of such a Dao Art, and it probably wouldn't pose much of a threat to Aurora. After all, the Ten Extinctions Blade had the power of the Dao of Destruction, but what it had done to Aurora?

The Twelve Great Daos were all very powerful, but the limitations of his cultivation meant that he couldn't use it.

He couldn't even use the full power of Divine Connections yet.

Thus, for this new Dao Art, he couldn't focus purely on strength, but rather variation and adaptability, something that could help him defeat his opponent right now and also not gradually fall out of usefulness in the future.

Countless thoughts passed through his mind in an instant, and he gradually gained an idea of what this new Dao Art would be.

The painting began to expand, and Aurora's attacks continued to be neutralized by that light.

Aurora saw that his attacks were ineffective and realized that things would get worse if he did nothing, so he hardened his resolve and flew toward Tang Jie, diving into the light.

He was bold and capable, and as he expected, the rays of light did no damage to him, simply whistling past him.

Aurora laughed and said, "As expected, it only defends from the outside and not the inside? 'Dao Art', my ass! Better if I destroy something so useless!"

He attacked Tang Jie.

Now that he was in the painting, the rays of light posed no threat to him.

But as he thrust out his palm, a light erupted within the painting, and a torrent of power swept toward him.

This inexplicable attack startled Aurora, and he hastily evaded. Looking around, he didn't see anything that could have attacked him.

As he was wondering what was going on, the Azure Dragon shouted, "Idiot, hurry and get out of there!"

Alarmed, Aurora hastily retreated.

But it was already too late.

Tang Jie laughed, and those countless rays of light composing all those buildings suddenly flashed.

And then those illusory lights began to solidify.

Black streaks became bricks, tiles, dirt, and mud, the foundation that held up everything. Green streaks of light became wooden bridges, flowers, and grass, sources of vitality. Blue light became lakes, winds, and streams, flowing between the buildings and ensuring that everything was connected. Red streaks of light became flames and lanterns, fierce and brimming with explosive aggression, a symbol of variation. The golden light became various metals that fortified the buildings, symbolizing defense.

A vast complex of buildings was realized before everyone's eyes, grand and majestic.

This was the power of the Dao of Five Elements. These were the fundamental elements of the world, so Tang Jie could use their power to create an entire palace out of nothing.

The retreating Aurora crashed into a palace wall with a mighty boom, but while he could normally ram through a mountain without a problem, he could do nothing to this wall.

Atop a distant tower, Tang Jie pointed, and some lotus flowers on a recently formed pond flew up, spinning in the air and lunging at Aurora.

Aurora glared, and a blast of lightning struck the lotus flowers and obliterated them.ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ NovelEnglish.net

But a moment later, a distant grove of bamboo swayed, unleashing a barrage of leaves.

Aurora bellowed and thrust out a palm, the blast of energy obliterating the leaves. Not only that, Aurora raised a hand and sent a wave of rainbow light sweeping toward Tang Jie.

Tang Jie stood motionless on the central platform, but a wall rose up out of a ripple of golden light and blocked Aurora's attack.

Tang Jie said, "Aurora, here, my will is everything, and I, too, can cast arts with a thought."

He clapped his hands, and the decorative beasts on the eaves of the buildings came to life and began to lunge at Aurora. Dragons, tigers, phoenixes, leopards, eagles, crocodiles, turtles, snakes—a vast menagerie of fiends attacked, but they were of mediocre strength, with those phoenixes and dragons being empty shells. Even so, this cloud of them rather beleaguered Aurora. Not only that, the fish in the water, the blooming flowers, the bricks of the walls, and even the dirt itself were possible vectors of attack.

They shattered under Aurora's attacks and were restored by that primordial light, and as if some invisible hand was controlling everything, they were put back into the painting, restoring all that had been damaged or destroyed so that they could continue attacking. So long as he was in this palace, he would be constantly under attack.

"This isn't a spell art! It's a formation!"

"You finally get it?" Tang Jie crowed. "The Five Elements are the basis of all things, and with them as the foundation, one can create all things and arts, create the entire Chiliocosm. In other words, the best fit for it is my formations. With the Five Elements as my materials and the formation as the canvas, I can create a boundless palace. This is my new Dao Art… the Infinite Palace!"

The Infinite Palace was the new Dao Art Tang Jie had created, born from his understanding of formations and the power of the Five Elements.

This was why every part of this palace was dangerous.

Tang Jie could put down any formation he pleased in this place.

These formations didn't need any materials, because the Five Elements could become the materials he needed. He didn't need a formation diagram, because the Infinite Palace itself served as the diagram, but it was even larger and more convenient to carry around. And he didn't need to switch out formations, because the Infinite Palace could contain far more formations than any formation diagram.

Of course, it wasn't without flaw.

The Infinite Palace's formations could only be placed within the palace and only worked on those within.

Thus, to the outside, it was only a defensive Dao Art. It was only lethal to those within.

If Aurora had known about this property of the Infinite Palace, he would have realized that this Dao Art had its own limitations that he could work around. But he didn't know, so he had charged right in.

Thankfully, because this was Tang Jie's first time using the Infinite Palace and creating the palace had taken too much of his energy, he wasn't able to lay down any truly lethal formations, only childish attacks. Otherwise, the Infinite Palace would have obliterated Aurora.

The first time was the most important, as it was related to the Dao Art's future development and functions.

This was why Tang Jie was very careful about how he arranged the Infinite Palace. In the future, it would become one of his most important tools against powerful enemies. Tang Jie had already come up with countless ideas on how to use it.

At this moment, Tang Jie suddenly heard Yiyi shout, "Big Brother, Big Sister is about to reach her limit."

In alarm, Tang Jie looked over and saw that the Azure Dragon birthmark had faded again, and Lin Xin was grimacing in pain.

To Tang Jie's dismay, the Azure Dragon was about to escape.