Aspiring to the Immortal Path

“Bastard!” The Dark Night Ancestor crazily howled.

Staring at the site of Tang Jie’s disappearance, the Dark Night Ancestor snarled, “So what if you escaped? Ice Dragon King, since you dared to steal my treasure, I won’t hold back.”

That giant shadow began to ascend.

The underground world’s ceiling was endless stone, but this shadow passed through it all as if it didn’t exist.

Not long after the Dark Night Ancestor had departed, Tang Jie and Huangfu Meng slowly rose up from the earth, right where they had previously vanished.

They hadn’t actually fled, simply borrowing the stone man’s powers to hide themselves while continuing to watch the Dark Night Ancestor.

Now that the Dark Night Ancestor was gone, Tang Jie frowned. “Why are the fiends of this Divine Spring Domain so easy to fool?”

He had originally been very cautious toward the Divine Spring Domain. After all, it was a world with far greater combat power than the Rosecloud Domain. But he instead found that the fiends of the Divine Spring Domain all possessed a low level of intelligence. First, a large number of them had been fooled into going on the offensive, and then he had managed to fool the Dark Night Ancestor into attacking the Ice Dragon Emperor with a simple lie.

And this hadn’t even been intentional on Tang Jie’s part. One could only say that powerful cultivation didn’t necessarily mean high intelligence.

He had been so used to dealing with intelligent foes that running into a brainless one left him uncomfortable.

Huangfu Meng seemed less perturbed. “Fiends were never good at using their heads, always relying on brute strength. In the past, when they fought with the humans and had to deal with a lot of different strategies, they managed to get smarter. But human civilization perished several thousand years ago, and the fiends dominated. Without any external stimulation, their intelligence degenerated, so it’s not a surprise that they’re easy to trick. This is particularly true for an existence as strong as the Dark Night Ancestor. It’s been ages since anyone dared to trick it. And since it was already biased to think that nobody in the world except the Ice Dragon King and Tree Ancestor would dare to provoke it, it naturally fell for your lie. It seems unbelievable, but it’s actually completely expected.”

Tang Jie looked at Huangfu Meng in surprise.

Although he knew that Huangfu Meng was a smart girl, he was still stunned by how logical her analysis was. Nodding, he said, “I admit that your argument is sound, but the scariest thing in the world is to reason based on the conclusion. It’s too easy to make mistaken assumptions. After all, because the result is right there, you can always find reasons to justify it. The truly intelligent aren’t just intelligent in hindsight but are able to see what has yet to be revealed.”

“Yes, your disciple understands,” Huangfu Meng respectfully replied.

“Since you understand, let me test you. Tell me: what’s our next step?”

Huangfu Meng immediately replied, “Follow the Dark Night Ancestor.”

“Why?”

Huangfu Meng answered, “Regardless of why the Dark Night Ancestor took the bait, it’s reality that it’s gone to find the Ice Dragon Emperor. We have no reason to not go and see the show. In addition, it has the Wood Elemental on it. That old thing isn’t a complete fool, and when it found someone stealing its treasure, the first thing it did was stimulate the treasure’s growth and bring it along. Thus, we need to wait for the right opportunity to steal it.”

“How do you know that? Maybe the Dark Night Ancestor came right over to deal with the thief after finding out that its treasures were being stolen?”

Huangfu Meng calmly said, “There is such a possibility, but if that were the case, when you escaped, the first thing it should have done was to get the Wood Elemental. That it didn’t do so means that it already handled the matter. Thus, we no longer need to find the Wood Elemental, simply follow the Dark Night Ancestor, and once the Ice Dragon Emperor and the Dark Night Ancestor are both wounded from their fight, we kill them both and take everything!”

“Hahahaha!” Tang Jie couldn’t help but laugh. “Excellent! Excellent answer, my disciple!”

Tang Jie had been through countless experiences in his lifetime, but few had made him so happy.

For accomplished cultivators, taking in a talented and intelligent disciple was akin to getting a priceless treasure.

Huangfu Meng’s intelligence and clean and logical way of thinking were traits that neither Xi Canhen nor Wang Posha possessed, but they were traits that Tang Jie possessed. He felt like he could see a younger version of himself in her, and how could he not like that?

After laughing, he grabbed Huangfu Meng and said, “Then let’s do as you say and follow the Dark Night Ancestor. While the snipe and clam fight, we’ll be the fishermen who profit!”

He had the stone man once more take them through the earth. With its help, he could even reach the surface without the need for a teleportation formation.

Returning to the surface, Tang Jie immediately headed toward the North Sea, and the stone man needed only a few shifts to take him to the shore. Tang Jie then called out the snow girl, who used her water movement art to carry him through the water. As a result, the two arrived at the North Sea Dragon Palace before the Dark Night Ancestor did.

They found a place to wait, and it wasn’t long before a mass of darkness appeared in the distance.

“Finally here.” Tang Jie smirked.

The Dark Night Ancestor did exactly as Tang Jie wanted, bellowing, “Old Dragon, give me back my treasures!”

The darkness descended toward the ocean.

The moment the dark cloud touched the water, the water turned as black as ink. Nothing could survive in this black sea, fish floating up to the surface and even the sea fiends dying off.

This region became one of death, and as the ink continued to seep outward, the death region grew larger and larger.

Tang Jie was rather taken aback—not because of the Dark Night Ancestor’s prodigious power, but because it was acting without any regard for the consequences.

This sort of brutish behavior of fighting the moment one arrived didn’t match its ancestor status!

One could only say that the universe was really home to all sorts, and the Dark Night Ancestor was truly an unreasonable freak. When provoked, it became extremely childish.

As the inky region expanded, so did a thick Death energy.

“Destruction…” Tang Jie muttered.

Death belonged to the Dao of Destruction, and from the current situation, it appeared that the Dark Night Ancestor had entered the Dao of Destruction and was able to control Death. As for its cultivation, Tang Jie could see that it was at the peak of Earth Immortal, a half-step True Immortal.

It was no wonder it was so domineering, even daring to fight the True Immortal Ice Dragon Emperor.

Of course, this was because the Ice Dragon Emperor was injured. The Dark Night Ancestor probably wouldn’t have been so rash if the strongest Tree Ancestor had been involved.

As the death region expanded, a flower of ice suddenly bloomed.

It was just a small flower of ice, but its appearance was like a plant budding in the middle of a drought, a sign of life in the middle of despair.

A moment later, the ice flower began to multiply, from two to four to eight to sixteen…

At first, it was unremarkable, but the exponential growth quickly turned the inky sea into a crystalline world of ice.

“What formidable ice powers,” Tang Jie sighed in praise.

This ice power clearly wasn’t the power of a Great Dao, but it had the clear signs of an Immortal Art.

This sort of evolution was sufficient to stop the expansion of that region of death, the might of a True Immortal on full display.

A furious voice came out of the ocean: “Dark Night Ancestor, what madness are you speaking of?”

“You don’t know?” the Dark Night Ancestor shouted. “Ten days ago, you sent someone to me saying that outsiders were invading and you needed Five Elementals to heal your injuries. After I refused, you sent someone to steal them, and you are trying to deny that?”

Tang Jie was startled. It seemed that the Ice Dragon Emperor had asked for the Five Elementals ten days ago and been rejected. This had played an important role in the Dark Night Ancestor not doubting that Tang Jie had been sent by the Ice Dragon Emperor. Even so, Tang Jie still felt like it was strange for the Dark Night Ancestor to immediately rush over. There had to be some other reason behind it.

In addition, it was clear that the Divine Spring Domain was not completely unprepared against the Rosecloud Domain, but its first reaction wasn’t to deal with the Rosecloud Domain, but to first recover the Ice Dragon Emperor’s injuries. To be honest, it was putting the cart before the horse.

Could it be…

Tang Jie suddenly had an idea.

Meanwhile, the Ice Dragon Emperor angrily replied, “What nonsense are you saying? When has this emperor ever done such a thing? As for you, you’ve slaughtered my kin and sowed chaos in my realm. Do you really think you can do anything you want just because I’m injured?”

Giant swords of ice erupted from the ocean.

The black cloud swept out like a giant net to oppose the ice swords.

Frost and darkness clashed, sending out terrifying shockwaves that reverberated into the surroundings.

The ice powers of the dragon emperor were more majestic and grand, an ancient force that sought to destroy the world.

But the power of darkness and death was eerie and strange, the Great Dao exerting a peerless pressure, each ray of darkness able to obliterate several ice swords.

An endless number of ice swords rose out from the sea, building up higher and higher into mountains of ice.

But the corrosive power of death constantly melted down these mountains.

The ice mountains rose and fell as the powers clashed.

Despite the strength of the darkness, the ice mountains were climbing higher bit by bit. In this aspect, the Ice Dragon Emperor had the upper hand. The sheer power of a True Immortal overwhelmed the advantages of a Dao Art with its vastness.

Yet Tang Jie shook his head at this sight.

“The old dragon is going to lose.”