Aspiring to the Immortal Path

"You're saying the Verdant Trio and the Demon Gate's Twin Devils have both taken action?" In his secret estate in the mountains, Tang Jie was leisurely sipping on a newly-brewed cup of tea.

"Mm, the human alliance pushed all the way to Heavensea Pass, wanting to take back everything, but then Verdant Yang, Verdant Wind, and Verdant Pine of the fiends as well as the Scarlet Blaze Celestial Sovereign and Violet Owl True Lord of the Demon Gate appeared together… That smells wonderful! What kind of tea is it?"

The fragrant aroma made Yiyi jump up and seize the cup to drink the tea herself.

"You drink like a bull." Tang Jie pointed at Yiyi and chuckled. "My Clearmind Tea uses hundred-year Violet Ripples and the Frost Dew that condenses on Celestial Heart Grass at dawn, while the cup is made from the skull of a Wastelands Celestial Bull. This tea can restore lifespan, increase spiritual energy, and strengthen the muscles and bones, yet you just gulp it down like a savage… How many people died?"

"Unclear, but I heard that at least two human Violet Palace True Lords died, one was heavily injured and is missing, and two more were captured, with the rest escaping… No wonder I felt so much power surging through my body after drinking it," Yiyi said, patting her belly as she began to circulate her energy to digest the benefits of the tea.

"Of course. I brewed it for myself, after all," Tang Jie answered. Something that would help out an Earth Immortal like him would naturally be even more effective on a True Lord. If a Celestial Heart cultivator drank it, they would probably explode on the spot. "To lose five out of twelve Violet Gold Beams all at once, they have no hope now."

The humans here knew their top experts as "one pillar that holds up the heavens, and twelve violet gold beams." The "pillar" referred to Earth Immortal Guang Yuan, and the "twelve violet gold beams" were the twelve Violet Palace True Lords.

While the Immortal Platform experts remained uninvolved, the Violet Palace cultivators were the strongest force. To lose five in a single battle was an unprecedented loss.

"Everything is as you predicted. The victory made the humans lose their heads and forget about the difference in strength." Xu Miaoran gracefully walked over and sat down. "Where did you get hundred-year-old Violet Ripples here? I've never even heard of it before."

Tang Jie sighed. "I had hoped that I would be wrong… They grew in my Yellow Court World. The Wuxing have recovered, and they will gather up a sample of anything rare and unusual from the Yellow Court World every year and offer it to me as tribute. The Violet Ripples and Celestial Heart Dew are part of the tribute. The Violet Ripple blooms in the Wood Season and only ripens once every one hundred years. The Celestial Heart Dew can only be gathered in Water Season, and someone has to be constantly on watch so that they don't miss out on the opportunity. In addition, the stove used to boil the water is made from the Metal Season's Windsilver, the pot used to wash the tea is made from the Earth Season's Violet Sandmud, and the fire used to roast the tea is the Viscous Jade Flame. All Five Elements are present, and the skull of a great fiend is used as a vessel. Only then was I able to achieve this effect."

The seeds he had sowed all those years ago had finally grown up, and his independent small world was finally beginning to supply him with resources.

At the Earth Immortal level, ordinary resources no longer sufficed, so Immortals had to constantly wander the myriad domains, broadening their vision, advancing their cultivation, and searching for resources.

But now, Tang Jie had many resources delivered to his door, such that he was swiftly advancing to the peak of Earth Immortal.

"Why hope that? Haven't you been waiting for the humans to lose?" Xu Miaoran took a sip of the tea and muttered, "Oh, it has some characteristics of Clarity Dew, as well as concentrated vitality, impressive spirituality, and also a rather unique penetrative aspect. If this were used in medicine, it could improve the effects of certain recovery and healing medicines."

Xu Miaoran had also been advancing as a pill refiner all this time. She was already familiar with all the old medicines and was now at the point where she was developing new ones.

Of course, developing medicines was no ordinary challenge. Not only did one have to develop new prescriptions and concoction methods, one also needed the ingredients.

This new tea instantly opened up Xu Miaoran's mind, and she had so many new ideas that she wanted to immediately start experimenting.

Tang Jie knew what she wanted and smiled. "No rush, no rush. The Yellow Court World has produced many products that I intended to have you research. You can get them once we're done here… It's mainly because of the trump cards of the fiends and demons."

Tang Jie had smoothly found humanity's hidden trump card, Jin Tianya, and then released him to make trouble for the humans. But he still hadn't found out what the trump cards of the fiends and demons were, and the humans clearly weren't strong enough to force them to use them.

Yiyi chuckled. "Is that all? That Jin Tianya isn't anything incredible. Honestly, while a hidden Earth Immortal might be very important to the human alliance, it's no threat to the Rosecloud Domain. The trump cards of the fiends and demons are probably about the same."

Tang Jie shook his head. "Jin Tianya truly isn't a threat, but not every trump card is meant to be useful for every situation. In other words, you can't think that just because your opponent has a hidden card that doesn't work on you, it means that all of them are no good against you. We can't say that because the human's card is of no threat that the cards of the fiends and demons are also of no threat. And when it comes to problems, having just one is already too much."

"So you're saying that we still need to find out what the fiends and demons have up their sleeves?" Yiyi scowled.

"The Azure Dragon, Lithos Dragon, and Flame Celestial Sovereign have been investigating this whole time, but they haven't found too much. Currently, the clues for the fiends point to Blood River, but there's nothing for the demons," Xu Miaoran said.

Tang Jie immediately said, "I know the Lord of the Blood River, and while he acts like he has no desires, he's got all sorts of schemes going on, which could be seen from how he even used me to get access to the Flame Celestial Sovereign's secret cave. We have to be on guard against them, and we also can't afford to be careless around the demons."

"But Grandpa Yun is already pushing us," Yiyi said.

"Mm? Why's that?" Tang Jie asked.

Xu Miaoran explained, "Yesterday, we received a message from Ancestor Yun saying that everything in the Rosecloud Domain was ready and everyone was anxious to come over, so we had only one month left."

Tang Jie's face darkened. "Why in such a rush?"

"Hong Shenji calculated that the barrier walls between the domains will be at their weakest a month from now, at which point breaking the barrier will be much easier. If we miss this chance, we will have to invest even more into breaking the barrier."

"Ruining my plans just to save on expenses?" Tang Jie unhappily said.

Xu Miaoran soothed, "I knew you wouldn't be happy, but you can't blame Ancestor Yun. Breaking a domain wall takes an enormous amount of resources. Cultivator wars aren't free, so it's best to save where we can. You have to realize that saving a few resources here actually means a total value in the hundreds of millions, maybe even enough to buy a Dao armament. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of cultivators are assembled to go to war. At times like this, the worst thing to do is wait and wait. If you wait too long, their will to fight will have been worn away."

"But this isn't enough time for us to figure out the trump cards of the fiends and demons."

Yiyi smiled. "Didn't Big Brother already find the human trump card?"

"That's different. Trump cards aren't used until the very last moment," Tang Jie said with a shake of his head. "I was able to find the human trump card because the humans are weak, so they have to show their card to intimidate the others, which means it wasn't that much of a secret at all. Besides, it's also not necessarily the ultimate last resort. On the other hand, the fiends and demons are strong, so unless they're pushed to the limit, we won't be able to see anything, which makes it all the more necessary to thoroughly probe them."

"But the result might be just another Jin Tianya, one or two hidden Earth Immortals or Dao armaments, right?" Xu Miaoran asked.

"Yes," Tang Jie replied.

Until one saw the trump card, it could be anything.

It could be devastatingly effective, or it could be useless.

For the Rosecloud Domain, a few more Earth Immortals was no problem at all.

But nobody could be sure until they saw it for themselves.

Xu Miaoran smiled. "I understand what you mean, but while caution is good, excessive caution makes it difficult to even take a step forward. In this world, there are some things that you have to take by force, not by wit, or else what would we need cultivators for?"

Tang Jie looked at his wife in surprise.

Xu Miaoran grabbed his hand and said, "When it's time to use force, you use force, and when it's time to take risks, you take risks. If the two of us were to do everything on our own, what did we amass an army for?"

Tang Jie speechlessly stared at her, until finally, he laughed. "My wife, you're right, so we'll do as you say. Tomorrow, I'll go to the Cloud City."

The Cloud City was the capital of the human race and its final fortress.

With the human alliance's defeat being certain, Tang Jie needed to appear before Guang Yuan as a savior so that the human alliance would officially request the Rosecloud Domain to save the humans of this land.

This would give them ample excuse to invade.

Although cultivator wars were extremely cruel and people rarely cared about having a righteous cause, Tang Jie knew that having a righteous cause meant having the hearts of the people, having the support of all the humans of the Blood River Domain.

As for the fiends and demons, there was no need to talk about righteousness with them.

"No, not you. I alone am enough," Xu Miaoran said, pressing Tang Jie down.

"Why is that?" Tang Jie said. "We'll need to negotiate with Guang Yuan, and with your strength…"

"It's precisely because I'm weaker that I'll be able to convince Guang Yuan," Xu Miaoran answered. "For the side being saved, the savior being strong isn't necessarily a good thing."

Tang Jie was enlightened.

Indeed, no matter how Tang Jie tried to explain it, there was no chance of concealing from Guang Yuan the fact that the Rosecloud Domain had been plotting this invasion for some time.

But with the human race in peril, he would have no other choice.

In times like this, the reinforcements not displaying overwhelming strength would make him feel more at ease. For example, if the other side had only a few more Earth Immortals, their status wouldn't be in much danger if they joined forces, and perhaps the human alliance could even stand to benefit from pitting the invading forces against each other. After all, recruiting the human alliance meant that the human invaders weren't completely confident in their victory, so if they suffered heavy losses, they would give more to native humans.

Since they had no idea what the other party was like, they could only speculate, and speculations often had a wishful side to them. Most importantly, they would often tend to favor oneself.

But if Guang Yuan saw a freakishly strong expert like Tang Jie, his mind would immediately go to the worst case.

He would realize that now was the best time to negotiate, because after that, he might not have the right.

This was why Tang Jie not appearing at the negotiations was the best choice.

Tang Jie chuckled and said, "I'll protect you from the shadows."

Xu Miaoran stopped him. "Relax. If I want to run, there are few people who can catch me. Besides, so long as that Guang Yuan hasn't gone crazy, he would never offend me. Keep cultivating and just wait for your wife to come back with the good news."

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