Aspiring to the Immortal Path

The mouth became like a black hole, gathering everything in the surrounding void into it.

This terrifying suction could grind mountains to dust, drain seas, even flatten a world, but what could it do to a Boundless Gold Immortal?

Standing in the void, Tang Jie disdainfully gazed at the Void Whale’s open maw.

“An ant overestimating its capabilities and trying to shake a tree,” he said, waving his hand.

A blast of energy flew out of his finger, striking the center of the black hole, upon which the vortex immediately ceased. Using his Celestial Eyes, Tang Jie had identified the flaw in the Void Whale’s black hole and disabled it.

With a wave of his hand, Tang Jie unleashed the Skyrend Swordfall, summoning thousands of phantom swords.

Tang Jie’s cultivation level had soared to Gold Immortal, and he used this Dao Art with as much confidence as Yu Cheng had.

Any person would have been instantly slain by this barrage of swords, but for a massive creature like the Void Whale, these thousands of swords were tiny. They cleaved apart the mountains on its back and pushed back rivers, but they had little effect on its actual body. Only a few of the swords managed to pierce through the crust and land on its body, bringing a little pain.

But this minor pain was a sensation the Void Whale had not felt in eons.

It let out a furious roar, and while sound couldn’t travel through the void of space, it was able to directly influence the soul, and even as a Gold Immortal, Tang Jie was still momentarily dizzied.

The Void Whale used this moment to charge.

Its large body seemed slow, but it crossed that vast distance in a flash.

Tang Jie promptly used Nearby Horizon and just barely managed to avoid colliding with the equivalent of a world, appearing above the Void Whale’s backside. Before he could get his bearings, countless giant tentacles erupted from the Void Whale: its feelers.

There were thousands of these feelers, the shortest being ten thousand meters in length, and each of them as thick as a mountain. Being struck by one of them would have serious consequences.

Tang Jie couldn’t help but slightly frown. Just as he was about to activate the Infinite Palace, a voice rang out. “Do you only know how to fight with Dao Arts?”

It was Immortal Emperor Yu Cheng.

Tang Jie froze. “Is there a better choice than Dao Arts?”

The Immortal Emperor sighed. “Ah, forget it. In the end, you are my vessel for comprehending the Dao, focusing on the Daos and ignoring cultivation, thus not realizing how they complement each other. Today, I will teach you the difference between Daos and arts and how to use them.”

As he spoke, the majestic will of Immortal Emperor Yu Cheng once more took control of Tang Jie’s body.

It was still the same body, but the change in the controlling will made it exude a completely different aura.

Yu Cheng gazed down at those feelers and said, “Pay close attention. This Immortal will show you the path.”

He thrust out a finger.

With this finger, all of the feelers froze. At the same time, a beam of light issued from Yu Cheng’s finger, blasting through all those pillars of flesh like a bolt of lightning piercing through the clouds, a ray of light rending the darkness, punching a massive passage through the Void Whale.

It was tens of thousands of kilometers in length!

What did this mean?

Worlds that were on the smaller side had diameters of this length.

In other words, Yu Cheng’s strike had essentially punched through a world.

Even a True Immortal like Yun Tianlan was far from reaching this level. He might have been able to send the Rosecloud Domain into complete upheaval, flattening all its mountains, and perhaps he could also punch through the Rosecloud Domain, but none of these could be done in a single strike.

On the last point in particular, he would have to work at it like digging a well, boring a hole bit by bit.

But Yu Cheng had done it with one blast from his finger, leaving Tang Jie stunned.

Even though he had seen Yu Cheng cut apart Rosecloud and Blood River in one swing of his sword, that had ultimately been a projection, and Yu Cheng had been a Saint Immortal wielding the Xuanyuan Sword…

This was how the Immortal showed the path, cleaving through mountains, simply making the path wherever they pointed!

“Awoooo!” The Void Whale let out a booming roar that continued to assault Tang Jie’s soul, and after a momentary pause, the thousands of feelers renewed their assault too.

“That was an attack,” Yu Cheng said, putting down his finger and pushing out his palm. “Now, experience defense. The thatched door stubbornly remains shut.”

As he pushed out his palm, a wall of energy formed in front of him, blocking all of the feelers of the Void Whale like a solid door. No matter how those feelers pounded on the door, it stood firm, resulting in a stalemate.

Tang Jie was once more dumbfounded.

He had seen the profound spell arts and Divine Connections of many cultivators, but none of them could use them like Yu Cheng could.

Even though he had gained a part of Yu Cheng’s memories and knew that these were two techniques from the Three Celestial Past Lives Classic that Yu Cheng had studied, he had never known that they could be this powerful.

No, it wasn’t that these particular moves were powerful. They were powerful because it was Yu Cheng using them.

But this was also not quite true. It was only when Yu Cheng was in control of this body that they were this powerful. If it were Tang Jie in this body or Yu Cheng in his past body, this might not have been possible, Tang Jie speculated.

Although he wasn’t mentally connected to Tang Jie, Yu Cheng could sense the shift in Tang Jie’s mindset. As he held off the Void Whale’s attacks, he smiled and said, “You really are a sharp person. Correct—the techniques I used just now still use the power of the Dao. Then can you tell what I was using?”

“In that ‘Immortal Shows the Path’, you used the Daos of Time, Space, Slaughter, and Destruction,” Tang Jie said. Time and space had frozen when Yu Cheng had used this technique, so there was no doubt that their respective Daos were involved. But the Dao Arts of Time and Space that Tang Jie knew did not possess this power, and he had no idea how Yu Cheng had done it. As for Slaughter and Destruction, they possessed formidable offensive and crushing properties respectively, and only the two combined could lead to such a startling effect.

Yu Cheng nodded. “Correct. Time and Space were to rob the Void Whale of the chance to defend. Even if there’s no opening, you can simply create one through brute force. Slaughter and Destruction raised the damage to the maximum. Only the four Daos merged together could create such a strike. What about Thatched Door Stubbornly Remains Shut?”

“Yin Yang, Five Elements, Life, and Reincarnation,” Tang Jie immediately said. Any slight hesitation now was completely gone.

The door created through that technique was partially similar to his Infinite Palace. This was the power of the Five Elements and Yin Yang. As for Life and Reincarnation, they made the door even more tenacious, even able to repair itself.

While the door held against the battering of the Void Whale’s feelers, it was also repairing itself. So long as Yu Cheng had enough Dao power, this defense could last until the end.

Most importantly, Yu Cheng wasn’t consuming much Dao power at all.

…Because that door was made using the Dao, but not a Dao Art!

“So, do you understand now?” Yu Cheng asked.

He wasn’t intending to take Tang Jie as a student. It was just that, in his eyes, Tang Jie was ultimately going to be obliterated, and he didn’t know that Tang Jie’s original body was still alive, so he didn’t feel that worried about his remnant soul. If he knew that the original body was still alive, he wouldn’t be thinking this. After all, everything he was teaching Tang Jie would eventually be passed on to the original.

“Yes, I think I get it now.” Tang Jie was happy to play the role of a good student, earnestly nodding. “The Great Dao is the contents, while the spell art forms the surface. Only when the two complement each other can one have a Dao Art. Solely pursuing arts and cultivation level is like only seeking to make the shell strong, forgetting to nourish the contents within, a problem that the vast majority of cultivators have. This is understandable, for most people can’t look past the surface to see the inside. And seeking the Dao is to seek the contents, which can be seen using the mind. As your vessel for comprehending the Dao, I am particularly talented in this aspect and have always been walking this path, but as a result, I inadvertently ended up taking the other extreme, one that few others take, focusing on the contents to my detriment. This is like relying on schemes for everything and thus forgetting the role of strength.”

Yu Cheng laughed. “You finally understand! The meaning of the Great Dao rests on fundamentally improving everything. If you use the Dao to do what Immortal Arts and Divine Connections can do, it is a waste! Your so-called Twelve Dao Arts are all simple tricks on the lowest level. The real core rests in the Daos themselves. Once you comprehend the true meaning of the Daos, you can merge Daos and Arts, fuse Dao Wills with spell arts, imbuing everything you do with the true meaning of the Dao!

“This is the true Great Dao!

“Dao Arts represent the most superficial understanding of the Great Daos, the laziest way to use them.”

Yu Cheng’s words were like a clap of thunder to Tang Jie, awakening him from a dream.

It wasn’t like Tang Jie didn’t understand that Daos needed to be merged with arts.

Before getting Dao Arts, he had tried this.

But the effects had been lacking for a very simple reason. At the time, he had just started to comprehend the Daos. As for forming Dao Arts, it was more direct and powerful, something that everyone who entered the Dao had to go through. It was just that few people managed to get this far, and even fewer knew what to do after that.

Tang Jie now understood that the next step was to go back to the start, fusing Daos and arts together.

Mountains were not mountains, and then mountains were mountains, and then mountains were once again not mountains, in an endless cycle. But at different realms, what one comprehended was completely different.

(TN: “Mountains are mountains, mountains are no longer mountains, mountains are once again mountains” is a Zen saying attributed to the Zen/Chan Buddhist monk Qingyuan Weixin, referring to the differing understandings one has of the world as one progresses in one’s understanding of Zen/Chan Buddhism.)

As Tang Jie was enlightened, Yu Cheng said, “Since you understand, I leave this Void Whale to you. You must handle it in three moves. The first move can’t be an attack, the second move can’t be defensive, and the third move can be neither!”