Aspiring to the Immortal Path

The Lesser Demon Lord was dead.

Its death was justified yet unjustified.

It was justified because it had run all alone into the enemy camp, facing a force a hundred times greater than it, so coming out alive would have been a miracle—Tang Jie had had no intention of fighting a duel, instead using the advantage in numbers to crush it. The main reason for this was to hide his real strength so that the demons would know from the Lesser Demon Lord’s death that this human was a fierce and cunning fellow, but not necessarily strong.

It was unjustified because it was only imitating Tang Jie, charging into the enemy ranks to show off a little and bring down the enemy morale. Alas, things hadn’t gone according to the script at all, and it had been ganged up on the moment it showed up, not even been afforded the opportunity to make a few symbolic attacks or say a few taunts.

After finishing off that Lesser Demon Lord, Tang Jie looked up at the sky.

In this round, the Primordial Fog demons had clearly suffered a loss. The humans had an advantage only when it came to peak combatants, and in this case, they had also used their home court advantage to lure their foe into a trap. There was no denying their success, so the arrogant demons had become much quieter.

A Demon Lord had died before the main battle had even begun, a general been lost as the two armies were standing off. While this wasn’t a fatal blow, it definitely made one wince.

After a few moments of silence, a voice finally spoke up. “One who charges into the ranks of my army and kills one of my Demon Lords must be a hero among humans. Might I have your name?”

“‘Tang Jie’!” Tang Jie answered with a smile.

“Tang Jie! Tang Jie! Tang Jie! Good! Good! Good! I will remember you!” The Demon Lord repeated Tang Jie’s name three times and repeated “Good” three times before falling silent, upon which the demonic energy retreated as the demons fell back.

Everyone now knew that the humans had won a victory, and they started to cheer.

This victory didn’t mean that they had won the war, but it had neutralized much of the fear they had toward demons, raising their morale. The effect on their combat power might have even surpassed that of a True Immortal Demon Lord.

True Lord Qian Tian became the first hero of the human forces, earning everyone’s favor and acclaim. In comparison, Tang Jie didn’t draw that much attention. This wasn’t to say that he was inferior to Qian Tian, but because he already had a revered status. For people of his stature, the masses naturally demanded more. Some naive people even assumed, or at least subconsciously believed, “The Immortal Sovereign is so powerful that it’s only natural that he can go in and out of the enemy ranks as he pleases.”

At some point, Tang Jie had become the spiritual pillar of the human cultivators.

As Tang Jie returned to that small mountain in the sky, Yun Tianlan mentally communicated, “Your actions just now were very risky. If the demons hadn’t reacted as you predicted…”

“I still would have been able to come back, though the price would have been greater,” Tang Jie answered. “Moreover, I was confident that they would act that way.”

“Demons are cunning creatures and know nothing of honor.”

“But they are arrogant and conceited. Even if they care nothing for honor, if they have the opportunity to prove their power, they are happy to take it.”

After thousands of years of war with each other, each side had gained some understanding of the other. Even the most shameless existence still had a little vanity, a little pride. Nobody, whether human or devil, would give up on the chance to prove themselves.

Yun Tianlan had to admit that Tang Jie’s argument was very convincing, so he dropped the matter. “While that’s true, it’s still better to be careful. If the Rosecloud Domain loses you, then there’s no point in continuing this plan.”

Tang Jie bowed. “Ancestor, please be at ease. Tang Jie definitely will not let those devils trespass on the world of humans so easily!”

Yun Tianlan could feel an unprecedented confidence in Tang Jie’s words, surging out from his body and gradually spreading out over the world.

This majestic aura caused the confidence of all the cultivators to swell, and not even the demon hordes could make them afraid.

The fortification of Skybrink Ridge accelerated.

Mountains were raised from the earth, creating natural walls to halt the demon advance. A constant stream of puppets, pills, talismans, and art relics was sent from the rear. Formation nodes were completed one after another, creating another top-class Immortal formation to complement the Eight Ocean Mountains and join the cultivators in creating an impregnable bulwark.

This was a defensive line with the resources of an entire world behind it.

Tang Jie’s plan was actually very simple: establish defenses and hold them fast!

In the past, Primordial Fog invasions had always involved demons running rampant in the human worlds while humans used space to buy time, employing guerrilla tactics rather than taking on the demons directly. But Tang Jie was doing the exact opposite, gathering all his forces onto the front line with a determination to keep the demons out.

This had advantages and disadvantages. If it succeeded, the human world could be spared from devastation and be preserved to the maximum extent. They would have plenty of resources to use while also denying those resources to the enemy. But if they couldn’t hold and the defensive line fell, the Rosecloud Domain would be bereft of cultivators to defend it and would completely fall.

From this perspective, Tang Jie was crazy.

Only someone crazy would gamble the fate of the entire world on a singular battle. But sometimes the world was just like that. A hero often had extraordinary daring, willing to go all or nothing!

Day 28, two days after the first battle.

By this time, the demons had finished sending over their troops, but the Demon Gate had not disappeared, remaining to link the two planes. Unless it were destroyed, it would persist for the rest of the one hundred years, continuing to pump demonic energy into this world.

The soil had decayed from the demonic energy, purple-black dirt covering more than half of the mountains, and only in the direction of Skybrink Ridge was its expansion halted by the white fog of Immortal energy.

Like a Nether Domain invasion, the Primordial Fog Domain preceded its attack with demonic energy contamination.

The demonic energy converted the humans’ soil into that of the Primordial Fog Domain, territory favorable to the demons.

Demons could battle with 100% of their strength on this soil while human cultivators would have to constantly fend off incursion from demonic energy, diverting some of their energy for this purpose. Otherwise, if they were contaminated too severely, they would become demons.

This was the standard invasion strategy of the Primordial Fog Domain, and the Rosecloud Domain, being no stranger to it, had already made preparations. The Immortal Spirit Fog Formation established on Skybrink Ridge was specifically meant to counter demonic energy.

The formation constantly created Immortal energy fog, turning the area between Skybrink Ridge and Heavenweave Ridge into a mystical world of white.

Opposing the Immortal fog was the dark cloud of oppressive demonic energy, the two forming a stark contrast as they vied for supremacy.

But there was a fundamental difference between the two. The black demonic energy came in through the Demon Gate while the Immortal energy fog was created through a formation, and a formation meant that something was being consumed.

The outcome of pitting the finite versus the infinite was obvious.

This was why humans, despite developing so many methods against Primordial Fog demons, were still no match for them. One needed to both have the solution and be able to execute it.

In this aspect, the humans lagged far behind the demons.

But it was mistaken to think that the demons would wait until the demonic energy had completely exhausted the white fog before they attacked. The Immortal energy fog might have consumed spirit stones, but with an entire world backing it, unless there were other priorities, the humans could easily keep it running for one hundred years. Thus, they would quickly launch their assault so as to trample over the humans.

Day 29, the third day of the invasion.

On this day, a black pillar of energy erupted from Heavenweave Ridge.

The appearance of this pillar caused the demons to cheer.

It was the energy of their fortress!

It meant that the Primordial Fog Domain had finished constructing its first fortress in the Rosecloud Domain.

With this fortress, the Primordial Fog demons had officially gained their first foothold and could no longer be easily driven out.

Gazing at that pillar of energy, Ling Xiao sighed, “I don’t understand. Why didn’t we try to attack it and destroy the fortress?”

Although Tang Jie was his disciple, he had also long since surpassed Ling Xiao in cultivation, so Ling Xiao did not put on airs when speaking to him. In truth, their relationship was more like that of friends.

“Because I wanted them to complete the fortress,” Tang Jie answered.

“Oh? Why?”

“A fortress’s purpose is to defend, to establish a base in the positive plane so that they can’t be pushed back. Now that the Primordial Fog invasion has officially begun, the spatial barrier between the planes is at its weakest, and even a Transformation demon can easily break through the barrier and attack our side. Thus, there’s no point in driving them back, so the fortress is no longer as useful as it was. On the contrary, this fortress will serve to hold down a significant portion of the demon army.”

After a brief pause, Tang Jie continued, “The Primordial Fog Domain is sparse in resources, and the demons have to maximize the use of everything they have. Even then, they find it hard to gather enough resources for formations. For this reason, the demons don’t mind killing off large numbers of low-level demons, extracting their life energy to use as materials for their formations. Thus, letting them build a fortress is letting them weaken themselves. Moreover, once the fortress is done, they can’t just leave it empty. They need to have a garrison, so the Primordial Fog demons can no longer send in their entire army, which reduces the pressure on us cultivators.”

“I see,” Ling Xiao said. “How much of their army do you think they will have to use as a garrison?”

Tang Jie shook his head. “I don’t know, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon.”

He gazed into the distance, where a great clamor was rising from the churning black demonic energy, and countless majestic auras were approaching.

Ling Xiao shivered. “They’re attacking!”

The fortress was complete, and the assault was imminent.

The Demon Lord in command clearly didn’t want to wait a second longer.

It wanted to deploy all of its army to obliterate the human cultivator army in its path so as to plunder this prosperous world and bring glory to the demons!