Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 108: Subduing a Tiger

Atop Tiger Roar Peak, the fiend tiger coldly glared at Tang Jie, its eyes callous.

Perhaps in its view, Tang Jie had come again to do as he always did and perform some pointless tests.

But today, Tang Jie had come to do something different.

After calling out to the tiger, Tang Jie took a few steps forward and slowly took something out.

A formation brush!

The fiend tiger’s eyes erupted with a sharp light as it stared at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie smiled and lightly waved his left hand, sprinkling around Demon-Subduing Sand.

What was ordinary sand could be nourished by spiritual liquid and transformed, allowing it to become the basis for a formation.

Tang Jie lightly thrust out the formation brush in his right hand. Threads of spiritual energy shot out and began to draw lines in the air.

He was laying a formation!

With the world as his canvas, materials as his ink, and the formation brush as his brush, he was truly laying down a formation for the first time.

The Fiend-Conquering Demon-Executing Formation!

This was also the only method of victory a student of the Spirit Spring Tier like him had against a high-grade Spirit Sensing fiend beast.

But that fiend tiger wasn’t a fool like the tree sprite. It knew something was wrong as soon as it saw spiritual energy emerging around Tang Jie.

Raaaa! It let out a furious roar and pounced at Tang Jie, the air howling past it.

Tang Jie continued to wave around his brush, spiritual light shooting out here and there as that image took form. At the same time, he produced another object from his left hand.

A formation recreation diagram!

Without even glancing at the tiger, Tang Jie pushed the formation recreation diagram forward. The diagram opened, and a wall of ice appeared.

The fiend tiger charged straight into the wall of ice, creating a dazzling explosion of light. But it had been kept out by the wall.

The Guardian Ice Wall!

A formation recreation diagram could hold a miniaturized formation, but its power was limited. It wasn’t enough to deal with the fiend tiger, but it was perfectly fine if all he needed was a defensive formation to hold off the fiend tiger’s attack for a while.

After releasing the defensive formation, Tang Jie continued to sweep around the formation brush, devoting all of his attention to the formation he was laying out. Unlike the memorization formation, the Fiend-Conquering Demon-Executing Formation was much more complex, but Tang Jie had practiced it countless times before coming. He moved his brush with confidence, spiritual energy rushing out with every stroke, and as the formation lines crept out and linked the numerous materials, a resplendent light began to emerge.

Whoosh!

Tang Jie threw out a block of Fragrant Pond Mud, which accurately landed at the Gen position. Yellow emerged on the mud, and under the guidance of Tang Jie’s formation brush, this yellow light became the Life Gate.

Earth gave birth to all things, and Fragrant Pond Mud was mud formed by the withering of countless flowers that grew on the spiritual grounds of Rosecloud. It was all about nourishment, and so when it was used as the source of the Life Gate, it stimulated growth and formation creation!

The fiend tiger saw what was going on and angrily roared, swiping at the ice wall with its sharp claws. Chunks of ice were knocked off the wall and melted on contact with the ground.

Tang Jie took out a small bottle with his left hand, sprinkling this liquid at the Kan position. This liquid was Yiyi’s urine.

Guided by his spiritual energy, the urine exuded a blue light, water rippling out and forming the Rest Gate.

The Rest Gate’s focus was operation. Water had no fixed form and could infiltrate all spaces. The urine of a flower sprite was rich in spiritual energy, so it was able to nourish and accelerate formation creation.

After finishing this gate, he took out another item, Cloudmother Essence, and threw it on the Xun position. Blue clouds emerged and were formed into the Stop Gate. 

The Stop Gate’s focus was control, and the Xun position belonged to Wind. Light and agile, it favored control and adaptability!

A bright moon hung in the sky, honed by the buffeting of the protective Ignis Astral Winds. It had attained spirituality and could change.

Three items produced three gates, and the Fiend-Conquering Demon-Executing Formation erupted with light, a spiritual gust stirring.

The fiend tiger roared even more fiercely, its giant claws striking the ice wall and blades of wind shooting out of its mouth. A giant hole was punched through the thick wall.

Intimidating power!

Tang Jie was unmoved. He took out Azure Wind Wood and placed it in the Li position. Azure light appeared, shifting around before forming the View Gate.

The View Gate’s focus was concealment, but this formation was out in the open and had no need to be hidden. Thus, the lowest value was placed on this gate, and it served only to support the other seven gates.

However, with the appearance of the View Gate, four of the eight gates were present, and the formation pulsed with even greater power.

The fiend tiger began to grow afraid, fear mixing with its shock and anger. It raised its head back and howled, its left foot stomping on the ground. The earth quickly covered its body, forming into a spiked suit of armor.

The fiend tiger once more rammed at the ice wall, the countless spikes jamming into the ice and making the wall creak and groan as it hit its limit.

Tang Jie was still unperturbed as he once more waved his hand.

A small chunk of Electro Wood landed on the Kun position, shooting a sliver of lightning into the clouds.

The Death Gate focused on lethality, but Tang Jie had no intentions of killing his target. Thus, just like the View Gate, he had made only perfunctory arrangements. This Electro Wood was from Wei Tianchong’s shattered wolf puppet.

When the Death Gate formed, the formation began to resound with thunder!

The fiend tiger was wrathful, bloody light erupting from its body and shooting out in vicious spikes that blasted the ice wall. Under its flames of rage, large chunks of the ice wall crashed to the ground. It was clear that it wouldn’t last for much longer.

Tang Jie took out a bowl of grease and placed it in the Dui position. The oil spontaneously combusted as soon as it was in place.

Under Tang Jie’s guidance, the flames turned into a giant coiled lizard.

He had used the fat of a fire lizard to manifest endless flames that he used to form the Alarm Gate.

The Alarm Gate’s focus was on upsetting and confusing the mind. This was vital for this formation, so he had used the fat of a Mind-Opening-level fire lizard for the fire source.

With six gates formed, the formation began to radiate an intimidating aura.

The fiend tiger could feel a terrifying pressure sweeping toward it.

In shock and rage, the tiger opened its eyes wide. The rock armor formed into two black horns on its head that it used to ram the ice wall.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

After three charges, the ice wall was covered in cracks and was tottering. It was getting closer and closer to the breaking point.

Tang Jie threw out his seventh set of materials.

Starfell Stone, Soul-Suppressing Wood, Hate-Dispelling Water, Astral Wind Flame, and Azure Light Sword!

The Injury Gate focused on sealing and capture. The Fiend-Conquering Demon-Executing Formation’s primary purpose was suppression, so the Injury Gate was the most important gate of all, and Tang Jie had invested the most into it.

Starfell Stone was of the Earth element and would strengthen the Injury Gate. Soul-Suppressing Wood was of the Wood element and served to suppress the soul and unsettle the mind. Hate-Dispelling Water belonged to Water and would reduce the will to fight. Astral Wind Flames were refined from the Astral Winds that protected this domain, and only Titans were capable of producing it, so it was the most expensive and most difficult to find. This material was primarily used to exert divine might and awe. The Azure Light Sword belonged to metal. As an art relic, it had a powerful suppressive force.

All Five Elements were present to form the Injury Gate. It was the highest priority!

To deal with this fiend tiger, Tang Jie had taken out everything he had. He had spent the hair-raising price of two-thousand-some spirit coins for this venture, and even completely dismantling this fiend tiger might not be able to make back his investment.

With these five treasures as its foundation, the Injury Gate exploded with light, and Tang Jie guided it into a pillar of light that soared into the heavens.

At the same time, the fiend tiger angrily bellowed and charged a fourth time.

Pa!

Chunks of ice and colored flames flew into the air as the ice wall exploded. There were no more barriers between the fiend tiger and Tang Jie.

But at the moment the ice wall shattered, Tang Jie calmly shouted, “Yiyi!”

With this summons, that little girl hiding behind him raised her hand.

A moment later, countless green roses erupted out of the earth, coiling over like countless brambles and twining themselves around the fiend tiger. Their corollas opened up into giant mouths that bit at the tiger.

In the month that Tang Jie had visited Tiger Roar Peak, Tang Jie had had Yiyi secretly plant all these.

The green rose formation!

This was the name Tang Jie had given it.

This green rose formation that had taken more than a month to lay down was his second method of stopping the fiend tiger. After all, the formation diagram was too limited in power, and relying on it alone to keep out an upper-grade fiend beast was just asking too much, unless Tang Jie suddenly ascended to a new level in his Dao of Formations.

As the fiend tiger was pinned to the ground, Tang Jie threw out some spirit coins. As the coins landed in the Qian position, golden light erupted into a halo, forming the Open Gate.

Spirit coins were made from metal mixed with inkcloud stone. They had the Metal attribute and focused on opening the formation and activating it!

All gates were present, the Qian, Kun, Zhen, Gen, Li, Kan, Dui, and Xun positions all resonating in unison.

But this still wasn’t enough. While all eight gates were present, the eye of the formation, the formation source, was still missing.

Tang Jie placed a spirit stone on the ground, which would serve as the true driving force behind the formation.

He swept his brush downward and began to draw out the formation eye. Countless formation lines appeared, linking the eight gates and forming a complicated spider web. Winds howled within the formation space.

Bloody light once more erupted from the fiend tiger’s body, and its entire body rippled with strength. Bang! Bang! Bang! The entwining green roses snapped apart.

Yiyi saw that the green rose formation was failing to hold the tiger and commanded the remaining green roses to coil around. At the same time, she jumped around and shouted, “Hurry up! I can’t hold on much longer!”

Tang Jie appeared to not hear, but his brush moved faster and faster. All he had eyes on at this time was the formation.

The fiend tiger roared, snapping the remaining flowers and lunging at Tang Jie.

At this moment, Yiyi waved her hand again, and two figures suddenly appeared to confront the fiend tiger.

It was the puppet and the refined beast.

This was Tang Jie’s third safeguard.

Bang! Bang!

The puppet and refined beast were both blasted back.

In terms of strength, an upper-grade fiend beast, even one that didn’t specialize in strength, would still be stronger than that bear!

Raaa!

After pushing back the puppet and refined beast, the fiend tiger roared at Tang Jie and thrust a paw at the ground. An earth spike surged out of the earth in response!

Plush! Plush!

The earth spike penetrated through the sole of Tang Jie’s foot, pinning him to the ground.

Tang Jie grunted, but his brush didn’t stop. He continued to wave it around, more and more formation lines appearing in the air as the eight gates rumbled, clouds of spiritual energy gathering!

The fiend tiger saw that not even the earth spike could stop Tang Jie, so it lowered its head and began to charge at Tang Jie like a bull.

At this moment, Yiyi threw out a stack of talismans.

It was the talismans Tang Jie had bought from Shu Mingyang just yesterday.

The fiend tiger froze for a moment as Yiyi swiftly tossed out something else.

The Immortal-Binding Rope!

Talismans and the Immortal-Binding Rope!

These were Tang Jie’s fourth safeguard.

The fiend tiger was infuriated by the restraints on its body and immediately began to struggle against the Immortal-Binding Rope. But the effects of the talismans had rendered it momentarily powerless.

The refined beast pounced and bit down on the tiger’s neck.

The tiger turned its head, its sharp horns stabbing into the refined beast’s body and instantly gutting it.

But this interference had made it fail to break free of the rope a second time. The puppet ran over and grabbed the fiend tiger.

It didn’t hit. It grabbed!

It grabbed the fiend tiger and threw it into the distance.

While the fiend tiger was powerful, it wasn’t too heavy, so it was thrown far into the distance.

As it rolled on the ground, it once more exerted its strength. In an explosion of crimson light, a flood of strength swept out.

Under its berserk struggles, the spell effects began to wane, and even that Immortal-Binding Rope began to grow taut.

Finally!

Beng!

The Immortal-Binding Rope that had held it down broke into several dozen pieces.

With the last restraint gone, the fiend tiger pounced again, but it saw Tang Jie making one final flourish of his brush where all the countless formation lines intersected.

The formation eye was complete!

With this one last stroke, the Fiend-Conquering Demon-Executing Formation was complete!

Within the formation, light exploded, thunder rumbled, and spiritual might gathered together into a giant hand made of flames of light.

The fiend tiger growled in fright and tried to back away, knowing that it was no match.

Tang Jie snorted. “You really think you can run?”

Standing in the formation, he pointed at the Injury Gate. Spiritual threads flew out, the five treasures all shining with light. That giant hand in the sky extended and then suddenly descended on the fiend tiger.

With a boom, the palm suppressed the fiend tiger.

Tang Jie formed a spell, and the giant hand closed together and returned, gripping the fiend tiger like it was a chicken and throwing it into the center of the formation. The fiend tiger could no longer see its surroundings. It could only hear rumbling thunder as a giant hand pressed down on it like a mountain.

It was only now that Tang Jie had succeeded. But laying down this formation had come at an enormous cost. He had almost run out of energy just drawing out the formation.

But he had barely managed to do it.

Looking at the dying refined beast and the broken Immortal-Binding Rope, Tang Jie couldn’t help but regretfully sigh.

It was a pity that Godhead Palace wasn’t willing to give him more time, or else he could have reduced his losses.

But regardless, he had succeeded!

So long as he could reach his goal, everything was worth it.

He walked up to the suppressed fiend tiger and said, “Now we can properly talk.”