Aspiring to the Immortal Path

A pack of white ghosts was blindly roving about a wasteland.

They appeared to be the lowest of the ghosts of the Nether Domain, the solitary souls. Weak but numerous, they drifted about the wilds, occasionally letting out soft moans.

A Soul Eater Beast stalked over.

This was a rare Nether Domain creature that ate souls, with solitary souls being its favorite food.

Solitary souls were the favorite food of most creatures of the Nether Domain. They were like wheat in the fields, their existence serving as sustenance for higher-level ghosts.

This Soul Eater Beast let out a cheerful cry upon seeing so many of those white ghosts.

It strode over on its thick feet, its long tongue extending and wrapping around one of the solitary souls.

But the moment it was about to stuff the solitary soul into its mouth, it sensed that something was amiss.

The solitary soul didn’t struggle, simply quietly looking at the beast. Just as it was about to enter the beast’s mouth, it let out a piercing wail that seemed to suck away at the beast’s soul.

This wasn’t a solitary soul, but a Pale Phantom!

Pale Phantoms were extremely similar in appearance to solitary souls, but they were actually very strong, the weakest Pale Phantom possessing Mortal Shedding Realm strength.

The Pale Phantom suddenly opened its mouth wide, so big that it was larger than its head, and it bit into the Soul Eater Beast. More Pale Phantoms rushed at the best, and the Soul Eater Beast was swiftly engulfed in white, squealing and howling as it was devoured.

Once they had eaten their fill, the Pale Phantoms scattered again, once more floating about like solitary souls.

White patches of Pale Phantoms bloomed across the wilderness like flowers, a great sea that extended into the distance.

This was a plain of phantoms, a place rarely visited by other ghosts. Tens of thousands of Pale Phantoms served as a powerful defensive barrier that would challenge anyone who tried to get past them.

But one would be wrong if one thought that this was the strongest force in the region.

Deep within the plain of phantoms was a dark forest.

Many corpse beasts dwelled in this forest.

There were ghost eagles like Saros, as well many other kinds of beasts and fiends, each one a Ghost King.

If anyone got through the defense line of Pale Phantoms, once they reached the forest of ghost beasts, they would have to deal with the attacks of hundreds of Ghost Kings.

But this was not the strongest defense line.

Past the forest of ghost beasts were four cities, each occupying a corner.

These four cities were ten times larger than the Yaksha city, and each one had a vast army of ghost soldiers.

These were ghost capitals, cities that only Nether Emperors could have.

Ghost capitals normally wouldn’t be established in the same area. They usually served as principal cities of a region, with numerous ghost cities under their administration.

There was only one circumstance that would have ghost capitals being established in the same place: a more powerful existence required their service, obedience, and protection.

In the center of the four cities was a palace.

It wasn’t too large when compared to the four ghost capitals surrounding it, but it was made entirely of Soulrest Wood.

Soulrest Wood was a rare kind of wood that could nurture the Divine Soul. Long ago, Tang Jie had managed to get his hands on some, but he had used it on a formation, and he had never found any more.

This wood could only be found in large quantities in the Nether Domain, but because it was in such demand among ghosts, it was also considered a rare commodity there.

This palace was made entirely from such wood.

Other than Soulrest Wood, the palace had also employed Spiritlink Stone, Illusion Sea Metal, Moonbright Sand, and other such rare materials that nourished the soul.

A wild ghost that entered this palace would soon evolve into a higher form, and anyone who could break off a chunk of this palace would walk out a rich ghost.

A Nether God’s palace!

Outside the plain of phantoms, Tang Jie stood in front of a formation that projected an image of the palace.

Tang Chuan sat next to Tang Jie, curiously looking at his father, wondering how he had gotten so much stronger so quickly.

“In other words: that guy is hiding in here?” Tang Jie asked.

“Mm!” Tang Chuan nodded.

He had pursued that injured Nether God here and personally seen him enter the palace and lock down everything.

“Do you know the name of this Nether God?” Tang Jie asked.

“He’s called the Nirvana God King, a Burning Heaven Boa fiend that cultivated to Nether God after its death.”

“‘A Burning Heaven Boa’…” Tang Jie muttered.

He knew of this fiend. It existed in a small number of domains and was innately huge, a tyrant among snake fiends. It had an extremely hard time cultivating, but once it succeeded, it would become terrifyingly powerful, with its strongest aspects being its tough body and capacity to devour and swallow, the equivalent of a body cultivator among fiends. When dealing with this kind of savage creature, cultivators normally judged their combat power by adding half a tier to their actual level.

But being strong in life didn’t mean being strong in death. Upon death, the fiend would lose their flesh, leaving only the soul. Boa fiends weren’t famous for their strong souls, so for one to reach Nether God was rather absurd and was most likely thanks to some lucky encounter. Such a foundation, however, made further advancement extremely difficult, which was why he had tried to get the Blade of Reincarnation, hoping that a natural Dao armament would be able to give him the boost he needed.

Even if it wasn’t enough, he could have comprehended the Dao and improved his potential, paving the way for future advancement.

Alas, natural Dao armaments, particularly Dao armaments like the Blade of Reincarnation, which served as the foundation of the world, were not easily obtained. Those who coveted the possessions of the heavens would receive their wrath, and the Nirvana God King was no exception. He had not only failed to get the Blade of Reincarnation, but his Divine Soul had also been injured, forcing him to retreat to his palace to heal.

He had been able to reach Nether God in large part because of this palace that nurtured the soul, which he had originally managed to obtain through various chance encounters and opportunities. But this time, his wounds were so severe that even this palace could not heal him quickly, and he had to fall into slumber.

He knew that he was bound to encounter many dangers while in slumber, like someone else having designs on his palace, so he had ordered his most trusted four Nether Emperors to move over their ghost capitals at all costs to protect him, even moving his palace to this area.

Even so, this was not enough for him to evade Tang Chuan’s pursuit.

Using his spatial abilities, Tang Chuan was unsurpassed when it came to tracking. Of course, this was also because the Nirvana God King was heavily injured. At full strength, even if he hadn’t comprehended Space, his Divine Soul was so powerful that he could sense anyone observing him and trace it back to their hiding spot.

“Father, let’s go and kill that God King,” Tang Chuan excitedly said, clearly not understanding what it meant to fight a God.

In his mind, there was no opponent that his father couldn’t handle. Of course, more important was that this God King represented a huge harvest. If he could devour it, then even if he couldn’t reach Nether God, he could still easily deal with high-tier Nether Emperors.

“Patience,” Tang Jie replied. “Nirvana might be heavily injured, but there’s still a lot that we don’t know about him, like how bad his injuries are, whether he can still fight, what trump cards he has, and how him getting desperate might affect us.”

“Father, what do you plan?”

Tang Jie lowered his head in thought, and then he chuckled. “It’s simple. We find some chum to test the waters. Let’s do this…”

He began to whisper to Tang Chuan, whose eyes began to gleam in excitement.

“Your child understands and will go do it now.” With this shout, Tang Chuan blinked away.

Once Tang Chuan was gone, Tang Jie began to walk toward the plain of phantoms.

With each step, his form and aura began to change, and he gradually became identical to a Pale Phantom.

The increase in cultivation level to Deification greatly increased the methods at his disposal. Full imitation was now possible, but this could only fool those at Ghost King or below. A Nether Emperor would still be able to find him out.

It was unfortunate that he couldn’t use Dao Arts, as even a Nether God wouldn’t have been able to see through Reflections of Floating Life.

In the end, betraying the Daos wasn’t as convenient as uniting the Daos.

Yes, it made sense. If uniting the Daos was like a noble trying to seize the throne, betraying the Daos was a peasant uprising, and rebel armies naturally didn’t have the same comforts as nobles and high officials.

But it shouldn’t entirely be this way. At least in his own territory, he should have the ability to set the rules. Tang Jie started to ponder the problem as he made his way through the plain of phantoms.

As he thought this, he was suddenly inspired.

His own territory…

He fell into even deeper thought.

While one who wanted to unite the Daos would gain many advantages from comprehending the Twelve Great Daos, the betrayer of the Daos should have absolute authority over their own domain.

Didn’t that mean that there was some other means of growing stronger for betrayers of the Daos?

But what was it?

Tang Jie racked his brain for clues.

He recalled that he was missing the final step of achieving the Great Dao Body.

Perhaps that lacking step was this one?

He was now at Deification, and his days of advancing without bottlenecks were about to come to an end. Once he reached Soul Projection, he would be facing the same problem.

How was he going to solve it?

What exactly was that absolute territory?

How should the betrayer of the Daos manifest this aspect?

This string of questions left him baffled.

But then, a thought arced like lightning across his mind.

“The Martial Lord!” Tang Jie cried out.

In the Martial Mirror, he had seen the Martial Lord shatter countless weapons with a single shout.

His body shuddered all over as he shouted, “I get it now!”

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