Aspiring to the Immortal Path

After Libido finished speaking, all the devils laughed.

In their eyes, Tang Jie was a fish in a pot, with no hope of escaping.

This was understandable. With thirty-some high-level devils and Demon Lords surrounding him and the spatial vortex preventing the use of any Space Dao Arts, nobody could escape. Moreover, beyond the vortex was the vast demon army. They couldn’t think of a way that Tang Jie could possibly escape these three layers of encirclement. In truth, the devils alone would be enough to take down Tang Jie.

Demon Lord Libido was being far too cautious!

But Tang Jie seemed unafraid despite his predicament, even cracking a smile.

“I’ve heard that devils are cunning and willing to use any tricks that they can think of, but it doesn’t seem like a big deal to me.”

What?

The demons were enraged by his words.

Tang Jie remained unperturbed. “Of course, these words don’t tell the whole story. A perfect conspiracy is normally made of two parts: a grandiose objective and the methods used to realize this objective. Seeking the Eight Ocean Mountains, even willing to use a Nether army as bait to lure me into a trap—I say that the demons meet the standard when it comes to the first part.”

“The second part naturally requires preparing an intricate plan and executing on it,” Tang Jie answered.

Libido narrowed his eyes. “You’re saying…”

“It doesn’t meet the standard!” Tang Jie answered.

All the devils were stunned, even Libido.

On the surface, Tang Jie was saying that this plan wasn’t perfect, but he was implying something very important: he had been ready for it from the start.

“That’s impossible!” Primal Dark Heaven shouted.

He had been responsible for executing this plan, so he could not accept that something had gone wrong with it. Even though it appeared that everything was still under control, Tang Jie’s attitude and words made all the devils uneasy.

They could sense that there was a storm brewing beneath the serene surface.

Primal Dark Heaven said, “That Yang Yipan thought he was carrying out a mission to interfere with the formation, not realizing that our real goal was to draw you out. How could you see through it?”

Tang Jie said in scorn, “That idiot couldn’t tell, so I shouldn’t be able to? Putting aside everything else, your words alone were the greatest flaw.”

“‘My words’?” Primal Dark Heaven feared these words the most, and he wanted nothing more than to shut up Tang Jie at once.

But at this moment, Libido shot him a glance.

Primal Dark Heaven didn’t dare to make another move, but his heart continued to wildly thump.

Tang Jie continued, “Indeed, your words were the biggest flaw. Your biggest problem was that you explained things too clearly. Hmph, who is Yang Yipan? Just a mere Celestial Heart traitor. In the eyes of devils, this sort of character should just do what he’s ordered. Why would he require such a thorough explanation?”

Tang Jie was right. Primal Dark Heaven shouldn’t have told Yang Yipan about the Nether Domain invasion, as he didn’t have the right to know.

When the six major sects had ruled the Rosecloud Domain, each had planted spies in the ranks of the others, and there was no small number of conspiracies. For missions like these, subordinates were simply asked to do them without question. For more classified missions, even the function of treasures like the Mother–Child Chaos Star Pearl wouldn’t be explained. They would simply be told to go to the formation node and put the pearl inside. But Primal Dark Heaven had even told Yang Yipan about the Nether Domain invasion, as if he was worried that others wouldn’t know. Besides that, he had even added an extra detail at the end, saying that if Tang Jie found out, he could deal heavy losses to the demons and incur a backlash from the Nether Domain. This was basically a reminder to Tang Jie that this was exactly what he should do.

This point alone was enough to make Tang Jie suspicious.

Tang Jie would never have done this in their position, instead leaking the information in a subtler way. The best would be to reveal telltale clues and let the enemy find out through their own investigations.

Libido grunted, “Dark Heaven truly was a little too impatient. He should have been subtler about it. But this can still be explained as my Primordial Fog Domain being a sparsely inhabited land and thus lacking organization, which means we rarely do such things. It’s only normal to be deficient in such things.”

Considering the Primordial Fog’s unique environment, they usually didn’t get a chance to engage in espionage, so Libido’s argument made sense. This kind of mistake was not enough for Tang Jie to get suspicious.

Tang Jie nodded. “Precisely, so I had only a few doubts at the time. I needed another reason…”

For Tang Jie, this was not the sole source of doubt.

If this had all been a trap, how had the demons known his location and had Yang Yipan fly past it?

This question had troubled Tang Jie for more than half a day, and it was only after meeting Shen Qingdan that he finally understood.

The enemy had used a very simple method: they had kept watch on Xu Miaoran!

Libido had many ways of stealthily tracking an Earth Immortal, particularly if he had an insider in the human camp.

“Xu Miaoran is my wife and mentally linked with me, so she would know where I was. And with everyone celebrating a major victory, Xu Miaoran was bound to come and see me. Thus, if you kept an eye on her, you would find out where I was.” Tang Jie complimented, “This truly is an excellent way to find my location, and so long as you didn’t let me catch on, there’s no concern of you being found out. Most impressive of all was that you only needed half a day to draft this plan. To be defeated in the day and execute your plot at night—I must admit that you devils really live up to your reputation as cunning beings. If I hadn’t run into an old friend and inadvertently come upon a clue in our conversation, I would never have been so certain that this was a conspiracy targeted at me.”

“But you still came,” Libido sinisterly said.

Tang Jie had exposed their plan, treating their seemingly perfect arrangement like a child’s trick, which left Libido in a sour mood.

It even made him doubtful about their chance in the coming battle.

But his Demonic Will sensed no ambushers, which left him very confused.

There was no reason for the target of their conspiracy to charge right into the trap. Was Tang Jie simply being intelligent in hindsight, only discovering the trap after falling into it, and was now just trying to bluff?

As he was thinking this, Tang Jie said:

“Yes, I still came. Although this is a trap, I have to admit that it’s a trap I have to jump into. If I didn’t, the Nether army would enter the Rosecloud Domain. They might be very weak, but all those ghost soldiers could make up for the cannon fodder that you demons had lost on the battlefield. I went to great lengths to wipe out all that cannon fodder, so I couldn’t let you refill your ranks so easily.”

Libido narrowed his eyes. “So you came into the trap, knowing what it really was, because the bait was too tasty? Haha, haha, that’s truly ridiculous. I’ve never seen someone in the world so willing to give up everything for such small change. Do you understand what it means to fall into my hands?”

“Didn’t you just say? Taking control of the Eight Ocean Mountains and ascending to Boundless Gold Immortal.” Tang Jie smirked. “The Nether army truly did play a role in me jumping into the trap, but the most important reason was…”

Tang Jie suddenly looked at Libido and chuckled. “…I’m not afraid of you!”

What?

All the devils were stunned.

Tang Jie began to exude a majestic aura.

Like a shining sun, it dispelled all the black demonic energy around him.

After this majestic will came a cackle, like some wicked devil had descended, and all the devils were shaken.

Tang Jie had revealed his true form.

A terrifying giant loomed over the world, the Astral Winds blazing around his head while the earth groaned beneath his feet. Under the pressure of his monstrous will, mountains began to crumble, sandstorms howled, and demons wailed, as if the end of days had come.

“Impudent!” Libido roared.

He had exchanged blows with Tang Jie.

He could admit that Tang Jie was very strong.

But he was not strong enough to treat the demons like they were nothing. In truth, he might not even be able to defeat Libido, let alone all of the devils that had come to help him.

Through his prodigious power, he once more sent the black demonic energy surging toward Tang Jie. This time, the other devils joined in, revealing their true forms. Each one of them was a towering existence that loomed over the world, the smallest still the size of a mountain. They filled the skies, the high heavens unable to hold them all, and then they summoned dark clouds toward that giant they encircled.

The demonic might of the devil Titans filled the world.

This power was terrifying enough to obliterate a Gold Immortal, to sunder the entire domain.

But at all this, Tang Jie simply smiled.

“A futile resistance.”

He struck!