Aspiring to the Immortal Path - Chapter 453
The moment the three Transformation great fiends appeared, they assumed their fiend forms.
The green-robed scholar rolled on the ground and became a lion with green fur. The dark-faced man was a tusked boar, and the hawk-nosed man became that Ironback Eagle.
The Ironback Eagle struck first, snatching at the air with its claw. An eagle claw appeared and made for Feng Buzhi’s face.
The boar grunted and turned into a yellow light that burrowed into the ground, where it began to burrow toward the Beast Refining Gate disciples.
The green lion opened his mouth and spat out a gale. The blade-like winds instantly expanded over the summit, producing a powerful cyclone that swept toward the teleportation formation. The formation would find it difficult to emerge unscathed from such a storm.
Feng Buzhi snorted. “So there were still three hiding here. But what does it matter that you’re at Transformation? Do you not know that my Beast Refining Gate specializes in dealing with fiends?”
Feng Buzhi was completely unconcerned by the appearance of these three Transformation great fiends. He waved his sleeve, blocking the green lion’s cyclone. At the same time, he threw an item into the air. This item let out a fiery beam that struck the green lion and sent him bowling over.
The green lion yelled in pain, “It’s a Fiend-Beating Stake! Be careful!”
Feng Buzhi laughed and pointed with his left hand. The black bear phantom appeared and burrowed into the earth. A few moments later, there was a great rumbling.
The tusked boar possessed prodigious strength, but so did the black bear.
The bear and boar clashed. The bear was of greater cultivation level than the boar, but its phantom state made it weaker. Thus, in this battle, neither side had the upper hand. The frenzied roars of the boar and bear could be heard from the earth as they wrangled.
Feng Buzhi didn’t mind, pointing up at the sky. “Bring that thing down at once!”
If the white robe had been here, the white crane phantom could have dealt with the Ironback Eagle. But the black robe was far inferior in aerial combat to the white robe.
But while the white robe wasn’t around, he still had the Beast Refining Gate disciples.
While these Beast Refining Gate disciples were only at Mortal Shedding, none of these twenty-some people had a shred of fear on their face. In fact, they seemed to be excited to deal with this Transformation great fiend.
Helian Hu made the first move, forming a hand sign. “Fiend-Suppressing Pagoda, seize its soul!”
A small pagoda flew from his hand at the eagle fiend.
The other disciples also shouted, “Fiend-Suppressing Pagoda, seize its soul!”
Twenty-some Fiend-Suppressing Pagodas flew into the air.
The Beast Refining Gate relied on fiend beasts for combat power. While it was lacking in terms of other abilities, it was supreme when it came to capturing and suppressing fiends.
The Fiend-Suppressing Pagoda was a necessary treasure for the Beast Refining Gate’s disciples, a tool that excelled in restraining fiends. With this item in hand, they didn’t even need to fear high-level fiends.
The hawk fiend was a Transformation great fiend, so an ordinary Fiend-Suppressing Pagoda naturally couldn’t restrain it. But twenty-some pagodas together immediately placed a heavy weight on it, and it gradually began to falter. No matter how it screeched and flapped its wings, it was slowly brought down to earth.
The black bear dealt with the boar, the disciples dealt with the hawk fiend, and the Fiend-Beating Stake, which was an advanced form of the Fiend-Suppressing Pagoda, was dealing with the green lion.
Feng Buzhi didn’t intervene, but focused only on the teleportation formation.
The white light of teleportation grew more condensed, and there were signs that it was about to break through the hidden realm’s barrier. Suddenly, there was a grunt, and then a wind howled.
This wind seemed ordinary, but Feng Buzhi instantly became vigilant.
It was like there was some immense danger hidden in this wind.
With a strange howl, he suddenly retreated.
The three great fiends together hadn’t been able to make Feng Buzhi give up on the formation, but this gust of wind had.
As he let go, the teleportation formation’s white pillar of light dissipated. That gust of wind passed over the formation and then disappeared, but Feng Buzhi was able to sense that when the wind passed over the formation, the area became dusty as if a great deal of time had passed.
“The River of Time?” Feng Buzhi’s pupils contracted. “The Divine Time Crystal! It must be the Divine Time Crystal!”
The problem was that nobody had ever been able to control this crystal.
It was said that this item originated from the massive demon corpse being suppressed beneath the Beast Garden, and only a bloodline descendant of that corpse could use it. Even Violet Palace True Lords could only seal it away, forever unable to utilize it. This was why the demon corpse had been left there and suppressed by the stele, with the little energy leaking out being used to empower fiends, thus creating the Beast Garden.
But now, someone was clearly using the Divine Time Crystal to attack him. Feng Buzhi felt an inexplicable sense of fear.
He didn’t fear the three great fiends, for he was superior to them in both cultivation level and methods, not even mentioning the numerous disciples at his side.
But the Divine Time Crystal was a terrifying treasure. Possessing the power of time, it was a Dao armament. Wherever the River of Time went, all things would turn to dust. The only way to resist it was to have control over a Dao Will of an even higher level.
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In the middle of his shock, the wind disappeared.
It had just abruptly disappeared. Although it had no form, Feng Buzhi could still sense that it had vanished.
His eyes flashed.
“It seems like you can only barely use it. In other words, this isn’t a direct descendant of that great demon, but perhaps a branch bloodline, or even a lineage that managed to get a sliver of that bloodline by chance. No wonder it can only control the Beast Garden and the Divine Time Crystal for a short time!” Feng Buzhi chuckled.
But this time, he had little idea how wrong he was.
The little tiger truly was having a tough time controlling the Divine Time Crystal, but this had absolutely nothing to do with his bloodline. Rather, he was in the middle of absorbing the ancestral blood, in a critical moment of his evolution. He needed to put all of his focus into the endeavor.
If the three great fiends hadn’t failed to stop Feng Buzhi, he would have never intervened. This was also why the little tiger hadn’t done anything when Tang Jie had been engaged in that bitter battle with the white Feng Buzhi. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help, but that he couldn’t.
But this misunderstanding was of huge help to Tang Jie.
When the Beast Garden flew away, some people had already begun to suspect that the White Tiger’s descendant was behind this. After all, only those descendants could influence the White Tiger’s power.
The Beast Refining Gate also knew that the White Tiger’s descendants were locked up on Tiger Roar Peak. They even knew why the Basking Moon Sect had been interrogating those tigers for all these years—how could it be for anything else but the Beast Refining Gate’s White Tiger bloodline and the Divine Time Crystal?
For this purpose, the Basking Moon Sect provided for the White Tiger bloodline, and it captured tiger cubs to study bloodlines. While it was never able to obtain the principal bloodline, it managed to get a lot of mixed-bloods.
Thus, when the Beast Garden went missing, some people began to investigate. And if this matter reached the Basking Moon Sect’s ears, they might also start investigating.
When nobody was paying attention, nobody would see a problem, but once one began to diligently investigate, even the most exquisite lie would be exposed.
The Basking Moon Sect naturally didn’t know about the little tiger.
But Tang Jie was able to resist Soulscour, Tang Jie had a fiend tiger, Tang Jie had frequently visited Tiger Roar Peak for a time, the tiger had gone missing, the Beast Garden had also gone missing…
When all of this was linked together, the answer became obvious.
Even if they couldn’t be absolutely sure, they would have a healthy suspicion of Tang Jie.
But now, Feng Buzhi’s conclusion had helped Tang Jie with this problem, as this matter would no longer be connected to Tiger Roar Peak. Rather, it seemed instead to be linked to the Basking Moon Sect’s study of the mixed-blood White Tigers. It would be even better if one or two mixed-blood tigers had managed to escape the Basking Moon Sect in these last few years.
But this matter could be put to the side for now. With the River of Time forcing him off the teleportation formation, Feng Buzhi would need some time to activate the formation again. Meanwhile, the green lion had managed to break free of the Fiend-Beating Stake’s suppression and started to attack Feng Buzhi. The boar had also thrown off the black bear phantom, joining the green lion in attacking Feng Buzhi.
These two were still Transformation fiends, and the two of them together managed to hold Feng Buzhi fast.
Feng Buzhi’s face flashed with murderous intent. “Suicidal fiends! If that’s what you want, I’ll gladly clean you up!”
He thrust a palm at that green lion.
Once Feng Buzhi got serious, the defeat of these two fiends was only a matter of time.
——————————————
Black Sin!
Tang Jie and Xu Miaoran looked at each other, stunned by Yiyi’s words.
Yiyi had somehow managed to reproduce the illusion zone’s terrifying plant born from evil thoughts.
What was going on here?
The two of them were momentarily baffled.
Yiyi curiously asked, “What’s Black Sin?”
“You don’t know?” Tang Jie asked. “How were you able to let out this thing?”
Yiyi replied, “I don’t know. I could just do it after I woke up.”
She extended her hand, and the vines grew much longer, like one thousand flailing tentacles. Each one had sharp and savage teeth.
Tang Jie grabbed the corpse of Feng Buzhi’s fiend rat and threw it at the vines.
Although this battle had resulted in heavy losses, it wasn’t without some gains. Besides Feng Buzhi’s Mustard Seed Bag, the four fiend beast corpses were also extremely valuable. Tang Jie was rather reluctant to waste one, but this was the only way to quickly test Yiyi’s strength.
The fiend rat hadn’t flown very far before vines wrapped around it and pulled it apart. It was then thrown into the abyss, from which chewing sounds could be heard.
“It’s real,” Xu Miaoran solemnly said.
She naturally understood what Tang Jie had wanted to do. The Black Sin that Feng Buzhi had unleashed was an illusion, and only by having its illusion turned into reality could it actually kill.
But things were clearly different in Yiyi’s hands.
The Black White Dimension was no longer here to stop people from moving around, and the Black Sin was no longer an illusory existence, but a real fiend plant!
The two of them glanced at each other, clearly understanding what this meant.
Yiyi had gotten stronger!
Suddenly, Yiyi shouted, “Oh no!”
The fiend vines withdrew, the earth closed, and Black Sin disappeared.
Tang Jie frowned. “Yiyi, what’s wrong?”
“I can’t let it out anymore,” Yiyi sullenly said. “I’ve used it all up.”
“‘Used up’ all of what?” Xu Miaoran asked.
“Those annoying things!” Yiyi shouted. “That sort of stench that bad people have lots of! Only with that sort of thing can you become a horrible scoundrel!”
Evil thoughts!
Tang Jie and Xu Miaoran understood.
Feng Buzhi had said that Black Sin was born from the evil thoughts in everyone’s minds, and he clearly hadn’t been lying. Yiyi’s Black Sin also relied on evil thoughts.
But Feng Buzhi clearly didn’t have the ability to control formless evil thoughts. Thus, he needed the illusion zone to control them, for evil thoughts were fundamentally illusory things.
Yiyi was different. While she was sleeping, she seemed to develop some connection with the world. As a result, when Feng Buzhi unleashed Black Sin, Yiyi’s mind was pulled into the illusion zone.
After all, evil thoughts were thoughts, as were minds, and as illusory things, they could enter the illusory zone, fuse with Black Sin, and thus gain the power to control Black Sin. Moreover, she could now use it in reality rather than being limited like Feng Buzhi.
Of course, while it could be used in reality, Yiyi still needed evil thoughts to operate it.
There had been many people here, all of them bursting with killing intent. This was why Yiyi had been able to use Black Sin.
But now, there were only the three of them here, and they got along like a happy family. None of them had any hostility toward each other, so the evil thoughts dried up. It was only natural for Black Sin to disappear.
After hearing Yiyi say this, Tang Jie and Xu Miaoran understood what had happened, and they both felt like Yiyi was very lucky.
Not even considering that she had gone from lower grade to upper grade just by sleeping, she had even managed to gain control of a terrifying fiend plant.
It was very difficult to categorize Black Sin’s strength. When it was just born, its strength was average.
But it would get stronger and stronger as time passed, and there was no limit to its growth. Once it grew to a certain point, it could even devour those at Violet Palace or Immortal Platform—if course, things would change if it were killed before that.
Suppressing their excitement, Tang Jie and Xu Miaoran asked Yiyi, “Besides Black Sin, can you control anything else?”
“Yes, I can!” Yiyi clapped her hands. “Big Brother, look!”
Large numbers of plants grew out of the ground and intertwined, forming a giant platform in the air. On the sides, vines weaved themselves into nets, and four staircases made from tree branches and vines descended all the way to the ground.
And the hundreds of vines emerged from that giant platform in the center, twisting together and forming a three-floor building.
Flowers of various colors bloomed, each trying to beat out the others in beauty, exuding a fragrant aroma. Butterflies and birds were drawn toward this building, flitting around and filling it with song.
“The Jade Blossom Palace!” Tang Jie muttered.
This little guy had actually managed to complete it!
“How beautiful…” Xu Miaoran mumbled.
The flower palace was so beautiful that one couldn’t help but want to go in.
“Pretty, right?” Yiyi said, clapping her hands. “I did a lot of research to finally get it like this.”
She placed one hand on her hip and admired her handiwork, the other hand under chin as she cutely said, “It’s so pretty!”
Tang Jie asked, “What can it do?”
“I can live in it,” Yiyi replied. She gestured her hand at the palace, and more vines grew within it, turning into chairs, tables, a bed, and other such things.
A small bean crawled onto the table and began to crazily grow. Finally, its insides caved in, turning it into a cup.
Several creepers crawled up the walls and drooped down like curtains.
“…I’m saying, ‘What use does it have in battle?’” Tang Jie was rather speechless.
Yiyi rolled her eyes unhappily. “What else do you think it could do? It’s just like that ice palace.”
It seemed like Yiyi wasn’t happy that he had no appreciation for beauty, so Tang Jie tactfully changed the topic. “Do you have anything else?”
Yiyi tossed her head to the side. “If I did, I wouldn’t tell you!”
Great. It seems I got her angry.
But after sneaking a glance at Tang Jie, Yiyi grunted and suddenly pointed into the distance. A tree seed landed on the ground.
In a gust of wind, the tree seed buried itself in the earth.
Yiyi thrust out her finger, but nothing seemed to happen.
Yiyi remained silent, continuing to gesture at the air. After a while, a green bud finally sprouted from the ground.
It was the tree seed from earlier.
Tang Jie didn’t get it at first, but then he realized. “Growth acceleration?”
Yiyi gave him a smug look.
While this tree seed hadn’t grown quickly, that was only when compared to its actual growth time.
Any plant that had its growth accelerated by spell arts would no longer be able to reproduce and would not exist for very long. Thus, this method was normally only used in battle.
But Yiyi was truly able to rapidly grow a plant.
This was rather similar to the effects of watering with her urine, though the urine only worked on a limited number of plants and had limited effect.
Her new rapid growth spell was entirely different.
It could be used on a field to rapidly grow a large number of plants. It was even more valuable than Black Sin.
At that moment, Tang Jie understood why Yiyi had gained this ability.
“Bao’er,” he said.
There was no doubt that this rapid growth spell art was actually a spell art that could control time, though it could only be used on plants and could only be cast by a sprite.
It was only with Bao’er’s help that Yiyi had been able to obtain this spell.
Otherwise, Yiyi would have never been able to comprehend such a priceless spell.
“Oh?” Yiyi said in surprise. “How did you know that I dreamed about Little Brother Bao?”
“You dreamed of him?” Tang Jie was stunned by this revelation.
