Aspiring to the Immortal Path

The news of Tang Jie's ascension to Violet Palace and the battle between the three major sects quickly spread throughout the Rosecloud Domain.

Everyone now knew that the Basking Moon Sect had gained two Violet Palace experts in the span of two hundred years.

Although they were only at Infant Tending, moving up one tier was much easier than moving up an entire realm. Moreover, so long as one could reach Violet Palace, reaching the Soul Projection Tier was only a matter of time.

The potential strength of the Basking Moon Sect now leapt to the top of the major sects, and two Soul Projection, two Deification, and two Infant Tending cultivators formed a perfect ladder, ensuring that there were successors for each level.

While the Basking Moon Sect was ascendant, the Beast Refining Gate and Godhead Palace were in decline.

The Sanguine True Lord's fall and Shi Wunian's heavy injuries were also proof of the Basking Moon Sect's strength.

Worst of all, while the two sects had been attacking the Basking Moon Sect, the Seven Absolutions Sect had attacked Godhead Palace.

They had been even more outrageous than Beast Refining and Godhead, sending four True Lords deep into Nadir Hill and all the way to Godhead Mountain. Formation Grandmaster Hong Shenji had personally taken action, using formation to break formation and cracking open a hole in Godhead Palace's defenses. The four True Lords had joined together to plunder Godhead Palace, but then they simply left without killing a single person.

They didn't kill anyone for fear of provoking Godhead Palace's Earth Immortal ancestor. Each Earth Immortal of the six major sects had their own standards. So long as the survival of the sect wasn't on the line, they would not intervene. When Feng Muyuan had led an army of fiends against the Zephyr Mountains, the Cloud Ancestor had noticed but done nothing, and this tas well, the Cloud Ancestor was aware that Godhead Palace and the Beast Refining Gate were planning a combined attack, but he still did nothing.

According to the old ancestors, it was best if the juniors handled their own affairs themselves. If the old ancestors had to cout for everything, then what did they need all these juniors for? And at times, only when suffering a loss would one learn. Valuables and possessions could be lost and broken, for if there were no loss, how could one gain anything?

At this stage of cultivation, everyone becmuch more broad-minded, like adults who disdained to see the squabbles among children.

The six major sects had found out each other's bottom lines thousands of years ago, and none of them was going to touch it unless they had to. But they would do anything they could above that bottom line.

The Seven Absolutions Sect had charged in like a bunch of bandits, stealing everything that could be stolen and breaking everything that they could break, but they didn't say anything provocative like "Godhead Palace is nothing!" or "Everyone in Godhead Palace is a fool!" When leaving, they even repaired the hole in the formation, like a child who had knocked down another child and then helped him up, leaving the adults to only shake their heads and sigh.

When the people of Godhead Palace returned, they were greeted by a scene of devastation.

That wasn't all. The Seven Absolutions Sect had attacked the other branches of Godhead Palace in Nadir Hill as well, and here, the Seven Absolutions Sect showed no mercy, killing as many people as they could. That day, the branches were massacred. 42 branches in all had been attacked at the stime, with more than twenty being utterly annihilated, and in the rest, there were a few survivors due to a variety of reasons and factors.

Limited manpower meant that the Seven Absolutions Sect couldn't attack every base, so it attacked only the most important ones, inflicting maximum losses on Godhead Palace.

Wang Juemie also participated in this campaign, attacking the Jade River Branch. There, with seven punches, he slew one of Godhead Palace's Nine Generals, Hegemon Marquis Li Zhongji.

After King Canis He Changan, Godhead Palace had lost another Chief-level individual.

Of course, they were very fortunate compared to the Beast Refining Gate.

The loss of two Deification experts was an unbearable pain for the Beast Refining Gate, and this had con the heels of the loss of the Beast Garden. The entire sect was in mourning.

The Beast Refining Gate's decline and Tang Jie's ascendance had broken the balance of power, and a new one was in the middle of being established. Those who understood how to read the trend all knew that the current structure where the six major sects reigned over the Rosecloud Domain was going to change.

This change wouldn't happen suddenly. So long as the six Immortals at the top remained, the six major sects would be able to hold onto their statuses, but the imbalance in the upper echelons of power would have serious ramifications on the relationships between the sects. In non-strategic struggles for advantage, the stronger side was bound to have an advantage. So long as one preserved this advantage, it would slowly build up, small advantages becoming big advantages, small victories begetting big victories, until one could finally settle things once and for all.

This wasn't something particularly rare in the cultivation world.

Seizing more resources to raise more outstanding disciples, thus getting the opportunity to seize more resources and raise even more outstanding disciples, establishing a cycle of growth until one could eventually establish dominance—this was the path of development for many sects.

This was how Godhead Palace had done it, ultimately going from a small fishing village to its current form.

The change subtly affected everyone like a soft and silent drizzle. A classic example was that whenever the people of the Basking Moon Sect went out, they would speak somewhat loudly, but whenever the people of Godhead Palace or the Beast Refining Gate went out, they would be much humbler, and they began to pay more attention to the medium and small sects in their territories.

In their view, while this failure had dealt them a grievous blow, they still had their foundations, and they could recover. Conflicts between sects had their rises and falls, and a momentary disadvantage might not amount to anything in the long run.

But there were others who clearly did not share the sopinion.

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A year swiftly passed.

In Freedom Hall, Tang Jie was reading a report.

Freedom Hall had been specially built for Tang Jie after his ascension to Violet Palace. The True Lords of the Basking Moon Sect had combined their powers to raise a mountain within the Zephyr Mountains. Between the 19 Star Peaks and Starsnatch Peak were the Five True Mountains, but now, Five had becSix. Freedom Hall was located on this sixth peak, a majestic hall befitting a Celestial Sovereign.

But to everyone's confusion, rather than entering secluded cultivation to charge at Deification and prepare for his battle with Jewel, Tang Jie chose to handle sect affairs on behalf of the sect master.

In the mortal world, taking control over sect affairs might be considered a seizure of authority, but in the cultivation world, it was just taking on a very complicated and annoying task that brought no benefits no matter how well one did. Cultivators ultimately relied on their fists to do the talking. No matter how good one was at organizing, if one was too weak, one would still end up getting beaten black and blue.

Thus, Ling Xiao and Xiao Biehan were puzzled as to why Tang Jie would choose to do this.

But they trusted Tang Jie somewhat now.

After all, it was no easy task for a young man of his aptitude to get this far in only two hundred years. And the Martial Lord's hidden realm could not be used as an explanation. Ling Xiao and the others now understood the situation in the hidden realm, and they knew that the most it could do was to refine a powerful body cultivator Tang Jie, not this current Tang Jie who cultivated both laws and body, had comprehended twelve Daos, was at Violet Palace in law cultivation and Immortal Spirit in body, and who dared to challenge the Jewel Immortal Sovereign.

Yes, Tang Jie's original body had finally had a breakthrough and attained the Immortal Spirit Body.

There was a threshold between the Diamond Body and Immortal Spirit Body, but it was much easier than the Violet Palace threshold. The Parting Classic provided a long, smooth, and steady road. Each step might have required an immense sum of resources, but bottlenecks were not as prominent as the ones facing law cultivators. Moreover, after reaching Violet Palace, Tang Jie headed to the hidden realm and fought his way all the way to the seventh level, where he found a bottle of Primal Spirit Immortal Water.

This water provided support in the ascension to Immortal Spirit. By rinsing oneself in this water, one could use the nurturing Primal Immortal power within to strengthen the body and thus gain an Immortal Spirit foundation.

Alas, Tang Jie overestimated the progress he could make after reaching Violet Palace. He still couldn't overcthe Vermillion Bird, so he was unable to reach the eighth level.

Moreover, after ascension, his body's appetite grew even larger, and he devoured everything like a black hole. In the past, when he spent a hundred thousand spirit coins on herbs and medicines, he could feel a clear growth in power. But now, he could spend several hundred thousand and feel nothing. Spirit plants less than a hundred years old were now completely useless, which greatly limited the resources Tang Jie could utilize.

But this was getting off topic. In short, Tang Jie had experienced breakthroughs in both areas, so in terms of strength, he was comparable to Mystic Moon and Nine Splendors.

To this, Ming Yekong could only bitterly say, "One year ago, I was so happy that I had broken free of my status as the most junior of Basking Moon's Violet Palace experts, but now, I'm once again the most junior."

He looked at Tang Jie like he was a freak.

In these circumstances, if Tang Jie sought to handle government affairs, Ling Xiao and the others didn't feel it was right to refuse him.

They believed in Tang Jie, believed that he had a reason for doing this.

"There was a drought in the north, but not only were Li Honglin and Qu Yangzhen late in spreading rain by half a month, they only did it for half a day before running off. This is dereliction of duty. But this report mentions nothing about this, only saying that the two completed their mission. Was it because they think that I only get my information through these reports? Perhaps the writer of this report thinks that they can playfor a fool?" Tang Jie nonchalantly said, putting down the report.

The cultivator on duty down below replied, "The writer of the report is Duan Guanghai of the Service Hall. He is good friends with Li and Qu, so it's not odd if he chose to conceal this matter for them. In truth, the Basking Moon Sect has never meddled too much in administrative affairs, and even the sect master will skim over the reports and not rebuke them too harshly. Celestial Sovereign, they do not wish to fool you. It's just that they've gotten too used to this way of doing things over the years. In any case, so long as the incident is not too severe, nobody will want to raise an issue over it. Half a day of rain will be enough for those people to get by."

Tang Jie took up the report again. "Are you saying that I am meddling too much, rebuking too harshly?"

The cultivator lowered his head. "This lowly one would not dare. I am only speaking frankly."

"They do not wish to fool me, but they truly are fooling the Basking Moon Sect. Go and have those three arrested and punished according to the rules of the sect."

"Yes," the cultivator replied, and left to carry out this order.

Tang Jie lowered his head and continued to review reports.

He had been a Fiend Emperor for more than a hundred years back in the Verdant Cloud Domain, so he was extremely adept at managing a kingdom's affairs. While he had just been a beginner back in the Verdant Cloud Domain, lacking in confidence, he was an old hand now, with no fear whatsoever.

Although the cultivators of the Basking Moon Sect were confused by Tang Jie's methods, it was an objective fact that with Tang Jie's strengthened administration, shirking of duties by the Basking Moon Sect's disciples was greatly reduced, and the common people began to live better lives. Bandits were eliminated, wastelands were irrigated, hydraulic engineering projects were started, and snew agricultural tools and techniques began to spread.

This time, Tang Jie wasn't making all those tools personally, but instead using spell arts to produce them en masse and selflessly distribute them.

These fresh and useful tools crafted by an Immortal fell into the hands of farmers to much surprise and interest.

In the past, Immortals were aloof existences that they needed to nurture and feed using their own fragile bodies.

But now, the Immortals had finally put down their airs and begun to work for the sake of mortals.

The mortals were overwhelmed by this sudden show of favor.

They quickly found out that all of this was because the Basking Moon Sect had a new Immortal, the Freedom Celestial Sovereign.

Thus, many people erected shrines and began to worship idols of Tang Jie.

Tang Jie had no intention of stopping this. On the contrary, he even secretly promoted it.

Through these idols and incense, threads of Karma began to extend toward Tang Jie, forming a dense web.

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