Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Yiyi and the Vermillion Bird were dizzy from all the twists and turns of this battle.

Just like that, the mighty army of the court had lost three Immortals.

These were Boundless Gold Immortals! It took so many years to produce just a single one, yet three had fallen all at once.

Even Wang Yao excitedly roared, “Yu Cheng, let’s see you act cocky now!”

He waved his army forward.

The court’s vanguard had by now been almost totally annihilated. Only a few individuals like the Sage Mother of the West and the Bejeweled Star Lord had managed to escape the Astral Wind region and retreat to the court.

Seeing this, Wang Yao ordered his demons to charge once more.

Tang Jie’s voice rang out again. “Bao’er, be careful. Yu Cheng must have far more than just this. Look at how he killed that Boundless Immortal, ruthless without the slightest hesitation. This means that a single Gold Immortal is far from being a major loss for him. If he valued them at all, he would have shown at least some leniency.”

Wang Yao was taken aback, and then he asked, “Adoptive Father, are you saying that Yu Cheng still has more cards to play?”

Tang Jie answered, “That’s what I believe, but I don’t know what form it will take. However, I firmly believe that there is no such thing as being too cautious when dealing with an enemy like Yu Cheng.”

Wang Yao’s eyes flashed. “Adoptive Father, many thanks for your instruction. Then does Adoptive Father think I should retreat?”

Tang Jie sighed. “You can’t retreat now. There’s no taking back a loosed arrow. Since the war has begun, you have to fight until there’s an outcome. But how to fight is its own field of study. There are some risks where it’s better to let others take the burden rather than rushing into the fray yourself.”

Wang Yao understood and secretly transmitted his orders.

The fiend demons of Nox Alba slowed down a little so that the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk’s demons took the lead.

Xu Miaoran couldn’t help but ask, “Husband, didn’t you want more of Bao’er’s subordinates to die? So why did you warn him?”

Tang Jie chuckled. “I promised to let Bao’er have his revenge, so I have to let him keep some soldiers to carry out his revenge. If they all die, he’ll have no choice but to carry out his revenge personally, and wouldn’t that mean all my planning was in vain? Moreover, it was just a warning. Some warnings seem reasonable, but they might not actually have any practical value.”

“‘No practical value’?” Xu Miaoran and Yiyi said in unison.

How could having the fiend demons of Nox Alba hide behind the subordinates of Nine Disaster, letting them take on all danger, not have any value?

Tang Jie casually replied, “Just watch. You’ll see.”

Soon, both the routed vanguard of the court and the pursuing demons had emerged from the Astral Wind region.

Just as the demons entered the void, the Court of Myriad Domains suddenly resounded with the blaring of horns and the thundering of drums.

Immortal armies poured out of the court, flying upon clouds and accompanied by Immortal music.

Flowers scattered through the void, a fragrance emerged from nothingness, and the stars seemed to erupt with a dazzling radiance. Leading all these armies were the three Gold Immortals who had cast the Infinite Rain, and the Sage Mother of the West joined their ranks, thus completing the gathering of the Four Sages. Behind them were hundreds of True Immortal generals.

Wang Yao had thought that the Court of Myriad Domains were employing some other scheme, but when he saw all these armies surging out, he briefly froze, and then he and Nine Disaster both paled. “Shit!”

Indeed, they were in deep trouble.

Although the Court of Myriad Domains hadn’t used some sort of ambush, their open offensive was even scarier.

The reason was simply that the demons didn’t have the forces to deal with it!

Putting aside the fact that the Infinite Rain had killed many of the demons, it had also caused the demons to subconsciously scatter their forces.

If the Primordial Fog demons had been distributed like a large pancake, the force surrounding the vanguard had been a sesame seed on this pancake. The Infinite Rain had essentially ripped out a large chunk of the pancake centered on this sesame seed.

Though the losses had been heavy, the pancake was still there, still countless demons outside the range of the Infinite Rain.

But this had been changed by the pursuit.

To chase down the vanguard, the demons had no time to wait for more reinforcements. Worst of all was that the vanguard had retreated into the void, meaning that the Astral Winds served as a natural barrier. The demons that wanted to follow them would have to break through the Astral Winds, which was no easy task. The demons lacked the shuttles of the Rosecloud Domain or the protective clouds of the court, all escorted by numerous powerful cultivators, which allowed them to go in and out easily.

The result was that the demons able to get out of the Astral Winds numbered in the hundreds.

While these were the most elite devils, having to deal with this massive cultivator army without any cannon fodder meant a great deal of suffering. They might be able to kill hundreds of times their number in enemies, but only at a grievous price.

Wang Yao immediately shouted, “Retreat!”

An Immortal general shouted, “You’re not getting away! Blazing Heaven Net, go!”

A gray net flew out, but rather than closing over the demons, it fell on the Astral Winds behind them.

As the net merged with the Astral Winds, they immediately turned turbulent, and then they transformed into enormous waves of flame with over twice the power. Even these devil chiefs no longer dared to venture in.

“The Blazing Heaven Net.” Tang Jie smirked. “As expected.”

All judgments had to be based on sufficient information. Tang Jie was always able to guess at Yu Cheng’s next move not because he was smarter than Yu Cheng, but because he understood Yu Cheng enough. This was information his avatar’s will had gathered over several hundred years of hibernation in Yu Cheng’s body. While Yu Cheng had his ways of sealing off its senses, he couldn’t constantly use them, nor could he stop Tang Jie from developing a deeper understanding of him.

Thus, even if Tang Jie couldn’t observe Yu Cheng’s actions, he could use his understanding of him to predict Yu Cheng’s moves.

The Blazing Heaven Net was an artificial Dao armament meant specifically for Astral Winds. It was able to increase their power, making it an excellent tool for stopping an enemy.

When the net was thrown out, the demons had been divided into two. One part consisted of the few but powerful devil titans, facing the court’s army on one side and the Astral Winds on the other. The other part was the massive army of demons on the Gigantes Domain, but their vast numbers were incapable of piercing even the ordinary Astral Winds, let alone the enhanced ones.

The Blazing Heaven Net was essentially serving the same role as the Ancient Stellar Devil’s river of starlight, but this time, it was the demons who were the unlucky ones.

“So staying in the back really was useless,” Xu Miaoran muttered.

Although Tang Jie had warned Wang Yao to be careful and to use Nine Disaster’s subordinates as the vanguard, as he had said, this warning was of no value.

When one was surrounded, it no longer mattered who was in the front and who was in the rear. Both sides would be facing down the might of the cultivator armies. Through various Immortal formations, torrents of energy howled through the void, lighting up the darkness. While it lacked the grandeur and intensity of the duel between Tang Jie and Nine Disaster, the conflict covered a far greater area, explosions erupting all across the night sky.

The demons within the domain could only look up at the stars. Only a few of the demons had the ability to go through the Astral Winds and participate in that battle, but the moment they saw the intensity of the conflict, the majority of them chose to look the other way. It just so happened that the Gigantes King chose to seize this opportunity and launch an assault on the demons.

Wang Yao was both shocked and enraged, finally roaring, “Immortal Ji Yao, just how long are you going to wait? Until we’re all dead?”

Laughter rang out.

A figure slowly strode into the battle-scarred void: Immortal Ji Yao.

But her position was off. Rather than appearing on the battlefield, she had appeared behind the Court of Myriad Domains.

Immortal Ji Yao announced, “Sovereign White Tiger, Sovereign Nine Disaster, my Confusionem is merely a small faction, unable to participate in your battle against the court. But as your ally, Immortal Ji Yao cannot stand by and watch. Let me attack the Court of Myriad Domains so as to relieve some of the pressure on you.”

She swept her hand across the void, creating a spatial fissure from which an army of demons poured out, led by Ice Phoenix. Beside her was another powerful devil, none other than the Primordial Heavenly Demon who had once rampaged in the court. At some point, Immortal Ji Yao had managed to recruit him.

The demons of Confusionem immediately charged at the court.

Wang Yao cursed, “Freeloading bastards!”

The court was currently empty of troops, and Immortal Ji Yao assaulting the court at this time was definitely with the intent of taking its treasures for herself while the two Demon Sovereigns fought for their lives. How could Wang Yao not curse her?

But Nine Disaster coldly snorted, “Hmph, suicidal.”

“Nine Disaster, what do you mean?” Wang Yao asked.

Nine Disaster calmly replied, “Immortal Ji Yao thinks that she’s going to have an easy time, but if the Court of Myriad Domains were that easy to seize, it wouldn’t be the Court of Myriad Domains. Yu Cheng put all his effort into building the Immortal court, and within it are countless formations, traps, and treasures. When nobody was there to oversee them, it was already a death trap, let alone now. Even if the court is emptied of troops, so long as one person is there, the court won’t be so easily broken.”

Hearing this, Wang Yao narrowed his eyes. “Yu Cheng?”

Indeed, if Yu Cheng was there, the Court of Myriad Domains wasn’t that easy to deal with.

Surprisingly, Nine Disaster shook his head. “Yu Cheng is currently unraveling the Heavenly Dao’s maze and temporarily poses no threat. I’m referring to… someone else.”