Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 419: Pursuit

Tang Jie brazenly flew through the sky, appearing like a lightning bolt.

Three purple-colored eagles hastily circled around and then pursued him like arrows. Through secret arts unique to the Beast Refining Gate, they transmitted Tang Jie’s location.

Farther off, several dozen Beast Refining Gate disciples were giving chase.

As they were coming from all parts of the island, they were varying distances from Tang Jie, but they were all chasing at their maximum speed, creating a long trail in the sky.

The Beast Refining Gate disciple at the very front was called Bai Yue. He was only at the Hundred Refinement Tier, weaker than Tang Jie, but the area he had been guarding was closest to Tang Jie’s breakout point. Thus, he was able to give chase immediately. He was also the first to send the alarm to notify everyone else.

In this frenzied pursuit, Bai Yue pushed his Thousand Mile Eagle Feather Art to the limit. Slowly, he closed the distance between him and Tang Jie, and Bai Yue grew more and more excited.

The Beast Refining Gate had long ago decreed that anyone who killed Tang Jie would get three thousand contribution points and fifty thousand spirit coins as a reward. Anyone who captured Tang Jie alive would get five thousand contribution points and one hundred thousand spirit coins.

Bai Yue knew that he didn’t have the strength to deal with Tang Jie, but he didn’t need to kill him. Even if he could just stop him for a little, giving his fellow disciples behind him a chance, as the first disciple to intercept Tang Jie, he would receive a significant amount of contribution points and spirit coins as a reward.

This thought kept tumbling around in Bai Yue’s mind. The distance grew smaller and smaller, and Tang Jie was now in range of his spell arts. Bai Yue excitedly formed a spell, and a lightning bolt descended from the heavens.

This lightning bolt was the spell art that Bai Yue was most skilled in, Yang Lightning. It was extremely powerful, and even disciples in the sect famous for body refining did not dare to take it directly. And if Tang Jie tried to dodge, what awaited him was more and more bolts of Yang Lightning. He didn’t need to kill Tang Jie, only constantly delay him, and he would have made an enormous contribution.

This thought made Bai Yue faintly smile as he attacked. He felt like he could already see Tang Jie tiring himself out as he tried to run away from the Yang Lightning bolts, unable to hold on.

As that lightning bolt lit up the heavens, he saw Tang Jie look upward and then stop. He formed a hand sign, apparently wanting to cast a spell to resist the Yang Lightning. But before he could cast the spell, the Yang Lightning bolt crashed into Tang Jie’s head.

“Success!” Bai Yue shouted.

He had only wanted to stop Tang Jie from escaping, but he had actually managed to hit his foe. Were the heavens looking out for him, granting him a chance?

Bai Yue was so excited that he was shaking. He was already imagining how the Beast Refining Gate would welcome him as a hero and the supreme glory he would receive.

But a moment later, he saw Tang Jie turn around and smile at him.

He was fine?

Bai Yue rubbed his eyes.

How could that be?

He took a Yang Lightning spell and was completely fine?

But he clearly hadn’t used any defensive spell arts.

He then saw Tang Jie finish making hand signs and point his right hand at him.

Bai Yue’s blood went cold, and he instinctively felt like something bad was going to happen.

Eighteen Heavenly Cloud Blades appeared.

As they were already in the air, the Heavenly Cloud Blades appeared almost next to him. Instead of dropping onto his head, they sliced their way horizontally through Bai Yue’s body.

A mist of blood bloomed.

Within this cloud of blood, Bai Yue’s body had been sliced into countless pieces of meat. Tang Jie waved his hand, grabbing Bai Yue’s Mustard Seed Bag, and then he turned and left.

In the time it took to breathe, a Hundred Refinement cultivator had died.

After killing Bai Yue, Tang Jie flew off again like he had done something not even worth mentioning.

But Bai Yue’s death had let everyone else know that even trying to delay Tang Jie was an extremely risky job.

This made the scattered pursuers start to group together, and those at the very front started to slow down so that those behind could catch up.

Of course, they didn’t dare to wait for too long. After all, Tang Jie wasn’t going to wait for them.

Thus, the Beast Refining Gate disciple behind Bai Yue waited until three other disciples caught up before he finally had enough confidence to chase Tang Jie.

These four were all at Nine Revolutions, and one of them was even at a higher level than Tang Jie. This was four against one, and they were all at basically the same level, and the Beast Refining Gate disciples were also elites who had been picked out from the best and could not be compared to wandering cultivators.

The four of them pursued with all their might and slowly managed to catch up to Tang Jie.

As they got closer to Tang Jie, a Beast Refining Gate disciple with a large build said in glee, “Tang Jie’s crescent blade spell art is too scary, so don’t try and fight him directly. Junior Brother Lu, use the Calling Wind spell to slow him down. Junior Brother Ming, let out your Lightning Leopard to chase him down. Junior Brother Lin, have your Mottled Butterfly cast spells. I’ll cast spell arts to defend the rest of you.”

He summoned a white elephant, which loudly blared and swung around its nose, releasing large amounts of mist that condensed into a wall of vapor to protect them.

This move was rather similar to Lan Yu’s Snow Frost Mist, but this Beast Refining Gate disciple had used a fiend beast to cast it.

At the same time, a fierce gale swept toward Tang Jie, so powerful that Tang Jie’s flight became unstable and he began to slow down.

A moment later, a black Lightning Leopard lunged out of the clouds at Tang Jie while a rainbow-spotted butterfly flew into the clouds. The butterfly opened its wings and sprinkled down rainbow dust, which was blown toward Tang Jie by the gale.

They were all disciples of the same sect, so the four of them worked together very well, covering both offense and defense, close range and long range. For a moment, their defense was impenetrable, and even Tang Jie couldn’t help but sigh in praise.

An ordinary opponent could only concede in such circumstances. After all, it was four versus one. Even a genius had no chance of winning. Alas, their opponent was Tang Jie.

As the spell arts from the four approached, Tang Jie suddenly whispered, “Art, Void, Fixate, Power! Intimidate!”

As he read out the Four-Nine True Words, the four of them were momentarily shaken.

Tang Jie activated the Formless Golden Body and flashed away, appearing in the vicinity of the four.

The greatest flaw of the Chaoswind Step was that, being a localized instant movement spell art, it had a distance limitation.

This restriction meant that he couldn’t instantly fly up to his opponent’s side, which gave his opponent a chance to react. And for the same reason, he was currently at the edge of the Chaoswind Step’s zone. Unless he recast the spell, he could only fly back to his previous position rather than using his current position as the center and blinking around all over the place.

But Tang Jie didn’t mind. The moment he appeared, he rushed at the Beast Refining Gate disciple who had spoken earlier.

This disciple reacted quickly, thrusting his palm and launching a blast of wind at Tang Jie’s chest. At the same time, he hid behind the white elephant, using its enormous body to cover himself.

The blast of wind struck Tang Jie in the chest, and there was a thump like it had struck something hard. Tang Jie didn’t seem to feel it, his eyes locked onto the pair of legs peeking out from under the elephant’s belly. Based on the height of those legs, he instantly estimated the position of the person behind the elephant. With a flick of his hand, a golden dagger flew out, piercing straight through the elephant’s body and making straight for that disciple’s throat.

That disciple had never imagined that Tang Jie could still attack him in this situation, but at this critical moment, a silver shield suddenly appeared in front of his neck. Upon closer inspection, this was no shield, but a small silver turtle that the disciple was using as a shield.

As that disciple released the small turtle, the disciple smugly smiled. This small turtle was his protective talisman, its shell so tough that it was like a natural breastplate, and it could move around to protect any part of his body.

It was impossible for Tang Jie to kill him with one blow.

A moment later, the golden dagger struck the silver turtle.

There was an explosion of blood and gore that splattered all over that disciple’s face.

How… was this possible?

His shock had reached maximum level.

Only then did he realize that Tang Jie wasn’t using the Heartbreak Saber that was noted in the files.

This was also his last thought.

The golden dagger stabbed into his throat and then expanded into a golden thread that sliced off his head.

The other three disciples only now reacted.

“Senior Brother Liu!” they cried out in unison.

Tang Jie snorted and shot over to that Junior Brother Lu who was using the Calling Wind spell.

Junior Brother Lu shot a bolt of wind from his finger, and an Ironwire Snake shot out of his sleeve to bite at Tang Jie. At the same time, he moved one hand to his throat, two fingers ready to catch any golden dagger that might try to take his head.

Tang Jie waved his hand, and there was a flash of golden light that sliced the Ironwire Snake in two. He then ran over, grabbed that Junior Brother Lu, and stabbed him in the abdomen.

Junior Brother Lu was taken by complete surprise. He had been defending his neck and had made no countermeasure for Tang Jie stabbing his abdomen instead.

Tang Jie pulled out the golden dagger and then stabbed Junior Brother Lu in the chest.

This Junior Brother Lu was a Nine Revolutions disciple, and he had tempered his internal organs such that ordinary damage could not kill him. It was for this reason that Tang Jie had callously given him two stabs in a row.

Tang Jie carried along his opponent as he continued to fly, using his body to block attacks while continuing to stab him. This was one of the drawbacks of the golden thread created by the Weapon Mantra. Although it was unbreakable, one couldn’t use spell arts with it. At best, one could attach a little spiritual energy to it so that one could call it back after throwing it out. It was basically impossible to unleash spell arts like the Matchless Slash with it.

This meant that Tang Jie’s method of killing was particularly brutal!

Large amounts of blood descended like a sudden downpour.

Only when that Junior Brother Lu was practically a beehive and unable to defend himself did Tang Jie confidently sweep the blade across his throat, cutting apart his esophagus and blood vessels in one go. Finally, with a single punch, he ended that disciple’s life.

“Lu Zhen!” The other two disciples cried out in grief at the gruesome death of their comrade.

But this was the end of the surprise attack. Tang Jie had killed the first person with the surprising sharpness of the golden dagger, but after that, the second person was prepared, forcing Tang Jie to stab him many times.

By the time the second person was dead, the other two were prepared to defend themselves. One had summoned a combat ape carrying a long staff, while the other had summoned a giant tusked boar.

This was the habit of the Beast Refining Gate’s disciples. The Myriad Beast Union Mantra only restricted their ability to control beasts, but it didn’t prevent them from having some reserves. In truth, every person had prepared different fiend beasts to deal with varying situations.

The combat beasts they had summoned had thick hides and tough flesh, precisely to counter the golden dagger, which had excellent piercing qualities but lacked power. It was clear that none of the Beast Refining Gate disciples was to be underestimated. In truth, it was only against Tang Jie that they seemed so hard-pressed. Anywhere else, they would be considered talents that could hold their own.

While new fiend beasts were being summoned, that Lightning Leopard from before turned and lunged at Tang Jie’s face.

Tang Jie grunted as he put away the golden dagger in his right hand and thrust his finger twice at those two in the distance, shooting out two stars.

The Star Finger!

The Star Fingers were only there to hold his enemy down. At the same time, he extended his left hand and formed several hand signs. By the time he had finished extending his left hand, he had finished casting, and he thrust a finger at the forehead of that Lightning Leopard.

The Jade Shattering Finger!

“How can this be?” The two of them were stunned beyond compare.

Tang Jie had cast the Star Fingers and the Jade Shattering Finger at the same time.

It had to be understood that cultivators normally could only manifest one spell art at a time. Even a Violet Palace True Lord who had cultivated a divine connection that allowed manifestation of an art with a thought had to think each art one at a time. No one had ever been able to cast two spell arts at once. Although the Flying Stars had the property of being eclipsed by other spell arts, one still had to cast these spell arts in order. It was just that the concealment property meant that it looked like two arts were being cast at once.

But Tang Jie had cast a different spell art with each hand—an actual case of two spells at once.

This was the power of the Twelve Hidden Whirlpools of the Ninedark Mantra. It allowed Tang Jie to use two spell arts at once, but he still didn’t have a good grasp on it and could only use two spell arts of the same type. Even so, the feat was shocking enough.

The power from the finger penetrated through the Lightning Leopard’s forehead like there was nothing there, leaving a large hole through which white brain matter could be seen.

Not only that, the power miraculously lingered for a few moments, punching through the Lightning Leopard like a spear, and as Tang Jie pulled back, it tore horizontally through the leopard, cutting it in half.

Violet Temple Radiance.

Tang Jie then raised his fist and punched, the force from the punch gathering into a surging torrent that slammed into the rainbow butterfly.

Obliterated in one blow.

Energy-Blood Simulflow!

The rainbow butterfly wasn’t some fiend beast with a tenacious life force, but it was skilled in poison and illusions. If it were able to use these abilities, it would pose quite the headache. Alas, against Tang Jie and his Chaoswind Step, it didn’t even have time to use it all before it was destroyed.

In terms of depth, Tang Jie naturally hadn’t mastered these techniques as much as Qi Shaoming and the others, but as the owner of the complete Ninedark Mantra, he naturally had his own advantage, which was that he received all of the improvements.

Alone, these improvements weren’t much, but when put together in one person, their power was shockingly impressive.

Tang Jie’s opponents would find that his attack speed was faster, his movement speed was faster, his defenses were tougher, and his attacks were stronger. Even his critical hit rate was higher.

This allowed Tang Jie to deal with two opponents of his level without the golden dagger or his other trump cards.

“My baby!” the two disciples groaned.

But as Tang Jie killed the rainbow butterfly, that combat ape roared and jumped, swinging the staff at Tang Jie with rock-shattering force, and the tusked boar also began to charge at Tang Jie. This boar was dumb and clumsy, but it had a thick hide and tremendous strength, making it perfect for leading the charge.

Tang Jie flipped his wrist, revealing the Heartbreak Saber. With a wave of his hand, he unleashed a dazzling wave of saber energy.

The Matchless Slash managed to push back the giant combat ape. At the same time, Tang Jie took out the golden dagger with his left hand and stabbed it at the boar.

The boar simply snorted after being stabbed and continued to charge. Its sharp tusks pierced through the Formless Golden Body and into Tang Jie’s abdomen, causing him to groan in pain as he staggered back.

“He’s injured!” The two Beast Refining Gate disciples cheered.

Before this point in the battle, Tang Jie had appeared like an almighty god, going one versus four and even killing two, causing the other two to despair. Now, these two had finally seen some hope.

As Tang Jie was injured, his eyes suddenly flashed. “Shake!”

He drew back the golden dagger and thrust a palm at the boar’s face. A powerful force traveled through his palm, pushing back the boar as it wailed.

Using the force of this counterattack, Tang Jie began to form signs with his hands. Eighteen Heavenly Cloud Blades formed, rushing at the boar, the ape, and the two Beast Refining disciples.

At the same time, the two of them released a tiger and leopard, speed-type beasts.

But these fiend beasts were rather unfortunate, for before they even had time to attack, the eighteen Heavenly Blades flew at them.

These two fiend beasts were almost immediately sliced into several places, and following them, the boar was cleaved in two. This big guy still refused to die, but it no longer had the strength to fight or protect its master. Thus, a moment later, the Beast Refining Gate disciple who had been controlling the boar was sliced in two by the remaining Heavenly Cloud Blades.

“Junior Brother!” the remaining Beast Refining Gate disciple howled in grief. At this moment, Tang Jie had already appeared behind him.

After a long interval, he had finally used the Chaoswind Step again. He had believed that this long break was enough to catch this disciple off-guard, but to his surprise, the disciple suddenly turned around, the black scimitar in his hand slicing at Tang Jie’s chest.

This sudden attack caught Tang Jie off guard, and he was thrown back while vomiting blood.

The disciple snarled, “You want to use that move on me? With an Alarm Cicada around, no one can think about ambushing me!”

Only now did Tang Jie see a small cicada perched on that disciple’s shoulder.

The Alarm Cicada was a warning-type fiend insect. Tang Jie hadn’t expected his foe to have this sort of fiend.

Because the Beast Refining Gate’s disciples normally manifested their abilities through their fiend beasts, they could possess all kinds of abilities. Only when one knew what fiend beasts they had could one know what sort of tricks they could use.

For this reason, even Tang Jie had fallen prey to this disciple’s sudden attack.

The disciple rushed up at Tang Jie to follow up, and that combat ape also jumped into the fray, swinging its staff at Tang Jie’s head.

Tang Jie raised his hands to block, the Heartbreak Saber stopping the staff. But the ape’s immense strength was like that of a body refiner, and the pressure from the staff rendered Tang Jie immobile, even cracking the Heartbreak Saber.

The Beast Refining Gate disciple seized this chance and stabbed his scimitar at Tang Jie.

He savagely laughed. “Tang Jie, you can die now!”

“Keep dreaming!” Tang Jie coldly shot back.

His body erupted with red light, and energy surged through him. He pushed back the staff and kneed the disciple in the belly.

The Blood Refining Spirit spell!

Energy-Blood Simulflow!

Frenzied strength slammed into that disciple’s belly, causing him to bend over in pain. But he was also quite the tenacious fellow, pushing through the pain and continuing to stab with the saber, leaving a fourth hole in Tang Jie’s body.

At the same time, the ape threw away its staff and punched at Tang Jie’s face.

This punch hit Tang Jie right on the nose, causing blood to flow out. Tang Jie struck back with his saber, stabbing the ape. The power of the Matchless Slash erupted, punching a large hole through the ape’s body. At the same time, the disciple swung his shining scimitar, and blood gushed into the air.

Tang Jie threw his head back and howled in pain. Without turning his head, he punched out with his left hand, straight through that disciple’s chest.

The immense force annihilated that disciple’s life. After a few moments, that disciple’s body started to grow heavy, and he dropped from the sky together with his combat ape.

Tang Jie coughed, threw up some blood, and then flew off.

One disciple can’t stop Tang Jie, nor can four, but they can slow him down…