Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

Fate!

The most mysterious of the Twelve Great Daos, the most unpredictable and incomprehensible of the Great Daos, second only to the Heavenly Dao, leader of the Great Daos.

Difficult to comprehend, difficult to understand, difficult to observe, difficult to perceive.

Tang Jie had accessed the Twelve Great Daos through Wisdom, comprehending Yin Yang, learning the Five Elements, studying Slaughter, knowing of Destruction, unraveling Space and Time, understanding Life, and even gaining insight into the Dao of Karma. But despite all this, he didn't have a single link to Fate, such was the difficulty of comprehending it.

A Dao Standard was an aggregation of Dao Runes, a symbol of Dao Laws, the apex of Daoism, a physical manifestation of a Great Dao, and a supreme treasure to those who cultivated the Dao.

A Fate Standard wriggled in Tang Jie's hand.

It was like a collection of countless rays of light, solid yet not solid, and in its writhing mass, one could see Dao Runes flickering in and out, coming together and breaking apart.

Like a restless mudfish, it flopped around in Tang Jie's hand a little before burrowing into his palm and vanishing.

Everyone felt envy upon seeing this.

But as Tang Jie had risked his life to get it, they couldn't say anything.

Only Hei Yan remained excited, asking, "With the Fate Standard, doesn't that mean that you can simulate the future? Eh? Doesn't that make you a fortune teller?"

"…" Tang Jie didn't know what to say.

But in truth, Hei Yan wasn't wrong.

The most important ability of the Fate Standard was to simulate the future.

Although not even the Fate Celestial Compass could accurately predict the ever-changing future, there was meaning behind any existing possibility, and with meaning, there came a need to understand it.

Most importantly, even if it couldn't simulate one's true fate, at least it gave a point of relative reference for the ever-changing Fate when cultivating, saving a great deal of time.

But Tang Jie still replied, "While the Fate Standard does have this ability, it's still far from enough. Don't forget that even the simulation formation was limited in what it could do, so a single Dao Standard will only be less capable. But if you use it as a foundation to study Fate, becoming a diviner isn't completely impossible."

"Then I'll be finding Big Brother Tang Jie to tell some fortunes for me in the future!" Hei Yan said with a laugh. He wasn't envious like others, but he stated his demands without apprehension. It was an expression of such straightforwardness that showed that he treated Tang Jie as a true friend.

"Of course," Tang Jie replied.

As everyone had been there to see it, he couldn't hide the fact that he had obtained the Fate Standard. While he could have stubbornly refused to talk about it, that would definitely make people think that he was valuing treasure over his comrades. Doing something like this when a powerful enemy needed to be dealt with was just digging his own grave.

This was why Tang Jie had boldly revealed it, additionally explaining, "The Fate Standard has already fused with me and can't be separated. But its greatest ability is to reveal the future, both for me and for all of you. My comrades-in-arms, if we survive this battle, then what's mine will also be yours. If you need to use it, then you just need to mention it, and Tang Jie will do his best!"

Everyone's minds were set at ease by these words.

They all knew that the Fate Standard couldn't be used without limit. Tang Jie was being extremely generous with this attitude, and their envy disappeared. They now felt that Tang Jie was the ideal candidate for this treasure.

Na Shan said, "Don't you think it's still too early to talk about this? Don't forget that the battle's not over yet."

Tang Jie turned to see the eight Blood River avatars standing nearby.

The Soul Transformation avatar held the Immeasurable Sword. The sword spirit had stopped moving and had seemingly already been subdued. This meant that the attacking remnant sword spirits were also gradually withdrawing.

The seven Heart Demon avatars stood in a row, coldly smiling at them.

The Soul Transformation avatar shouted, "You all are pretty good, to have destroyed all my Bloodguards. But so what? I have subdued the sword spirit, and the Treasure Paradise is mine! From now on, I am the master of this world!"

"So what if you control this world?" Tang Jie shouted back. "It just means you can use the world's power as your own, but you have a Soul Transformation avatar and seven Heart Demon avatars. If you put them all together, you're basically half a step from Violet Palace, which is already capable of harnessing the power of the world. This little extra power probably won't be of much use to you, right?"

The Blood River Lord was taken aback, and then laughed, "Pretty good! I didn't expect you to know a little about the secrets of Violet Palace. But your knowledge is still too shallow. You think owning an independent small world is simply for the sake of borrowing a little of the world's power? Hahahaha! Wrong, wrong, wrong! In the end, your level isn't high enough. A true independent world represents one's own Dao!"

"'One's own Dao'?" Tang Jie was startled.

The Blood River Lord crowed, "What do you think the Dao is? The Dao is the foundation of a world's existence, the law by which all things operate. Since you have your own world, you must lay the foundations for this world, write its Dao and enact its law! You have your own independent world, but have you ever done such a thing?"

Stunned, Tang Jie instinctively shook his head.

The Blood River Lord laughed. "Which is why you're still an amateur who knows nothing! It's no wonder I've never sensed any independent Dao Standards from that small world of yours, because you've never merged with this world. In a world that is truly your own, you are its Heavenly Dao!"

You are its Heavenly Dao!

These words dizzied Tang Jie.

Was this the true meaning behind an independent world?

If this was true, then his understanding of the Mountain River State Diagram was truly very shallow.

It was no wonder the Blood River Lord was so obsessed with taking the Treasure Paradise.

This was because it was only by owning this kind of world that he had a chance to glimpse the Heavenly Dao.

Tang Jie gazed at the Blood River Lord in shock and then said, "Is that how it is? Ancestor, many thanks for unraveling Tang Jie's questions!"

He deeply bowed to the Blood River Lord.

The Blood River Lord waved his hand. "It's fine. You're going to die anyway. Tang Jie, if you have any last tricks, take them all out now. Take this opportunity to do whatever you can while I have yet to establish the rules and write the Great Dao for my new world."

He seemed very generous, but he was staring at Tang Jie like he was expecting something.

Tang Jie did nothing, simply staring at the Immeasurable Sword blade.

After some thought, he said, "I truly do have some tricks to counter the ancestor."

"Then use it. There's no point in all this extra chatter!" the Blood River Lord impatiently said.

Amusingly, the two of them were both hemming and hawing with words rather than actually attacking each other.

The Blood River Lord was being unprecedentedly generous, refusing to attack Tang Jie and urging him to use whatever he had. But Tang Jie seemed to be worried about something, constantly looking around and only talking rather than doing anything.

The two continued to exchange words until the Blood River Lord finally lost his patience. "Tang Jie, I've given you the opportunity, but since you don't want it, I won't hold back."

He threw out the Immeasurable Sword, which ascended to the sky while radiating light.

As the light shone, the sword spirit within the sword called out, and the remnant sword spirits answered its call, all of the power of the divine sword scattered about the Treasure Paradise beginning to converge. If they attacked together, they would unleash a heaven-shaking blow that nobody would be able to resist.

Na Shan paled. "This is it! This is it… This is what I saw!"

This sword light shone upon them all.

Seeing that everyone was about to die, Tang Jie sighed and said, "If Ancestor is being so magnanimous, Tang Jie would not dare to be stingy. While the Immeasurable is powerful, a sword without its sheath will always have its edge out in the open, which makes it prone to being worn down."

With his left hand, he raised a sword sheath.

The moment the sheath appeared, the Immeasurable Sword's light dimmed, and even the sword spirit cried out in protest.

Tang Jie then added, "While the sword's edge is formidable, it requires a hand holding it to give it direction. Immeasurable has no hilt, so it has no direction."

With his right hand, he presented a sword hilt.

The Immeasurable Sword fell from the sky and toward the hilt, inserting itself into the hilt and becoming a complete sword.

The Blood River Lord paled. "The sword sheath and hilt? How?"

Tang Jie raised the Immeasurable Sword high into the air, and the sword spirit let out an unwilling howl and disappeared into the sword.

Tang Jie placed the sword in its sheath and then threw it out. "Go!"

The Immeasurable Sword arced through the air and once more let out a radiant light, the sword spirit activating once more. This time, however, it was targeting the Blood River Lord.

"No!" the Blood River Lord cried out in terror.

Everyone rejoiced, except Shui Yao, who was frowning as if she felt like something was wrong.

The Immeasurable Sword, shrouded in boundless might, began to swing down, but just when it was about to strike the Blood River Lord, it suddenly froze, hovering right over his head.

"Kill him!" everyone shouted in unison.

But the Immeasurable Sword refused to descend any farther.

The fearful Blood River Lord suddenly began to laugh. "You finally took the bait! Haha, haha, HAHAHAHA!!!"

His crazed laughter resounded through the world.

The Blood River Lord's Soul Transformation avatar suddenly pointed at the sky and shouted, "Ho!"

All the light vanished, and the Immeasurable Sword ceased to exist. All of the sword light turned into crimson light that faded away, and even two of the seven Heart Demon avatars disappeared.

All that was left was the sheath and hilt, floating in the air.

The Blood River Lord reached out and grabbed them. "The sword sheath and hilt are mine!"

"So all of this…" Na Shan blurted out.

"Was an illusion!" Shui Yao finished.

It turned out that all of this had been a smokescreen on the Blood River Lord's part.

He had never been using the Immeasurable Sword, only an illusion to fool Tang Jie into taking out the hilt and sheath.

Nobody had expected this old monster to have illusion spell arts too, and they were so realistic that even Tang Jie's Dao of Insight hadn't seen through them.

Of course, to do this, the old man had sacrificed two of his Heart Demon avatars.

At the price of two Heart Demon avatars of essence blood, he had cast an incredible illusion that had fooled everyone and succeeded in getting Tang Jie to use the hilt and sheath and essentially give them to him.

He raised his hand, and the real Immeasurable Sword appeared.

He first wiped Tang Jie's mark from the hilt, and then he inserted the blade into the hilt, creating the complete Immeasurable Sword. The Blood River Lord shouted, "I have to thank you for activating the simulation formation, allowing me to peer into the future and find out your scheme so that I could prepare for it. Otherwise, this sword spirit that I wasted so much time refining would have been taken by you, and wouldn't that make me an utter laughingstock? Now, your plan has failed, so what else do you have to salvage the situation? Hahahaha, Tang Jie, just give up and die to my Immeasurable Sword already, becoming a part of this Treasure Paradise. When I write the Great Dao and establish the principles of the heavens, you will be a part of the framework of my vast universe, something to be proud of!"

He swung the sword, and countless sword lights rose up.

This time, it was no illusion!