Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 319: Counterattack

He heard the familiar sound of whistling wind, and his eyes turned sharp. “Chasing after me! Sure enough, he has praiseworthy courage.”

With a treasure in hand, they were bound to be encircled and attacked. When dealing with an opponent who chose to run, rather than avoiding them, they chose to attack. Tang Jie couldn’t help but admire Yun Wuji somewhat.

If Tang Jie were in Yun Wuji’s position, he would have made the same choice.

This was because in Yun Wuji’s position, he could not say for sure that the person leaving was actually leaving. Rather, it was more likely to be someone who saw how poor the situation had become and was beating a temporary retreat but could come back at any time.

In this situation, passively waiting around was worse than striking out and defeating the enemy individually before they had time to team up.

The treasure light was a rallying cry, but when and how they rallied depended on the students.

The students that gathered up first would have the advantage of waiting the opposing side out. Yun Wuji clearly wanted to exploit this advantage to the utmost.

He was taking hostages and defeating lone students to create various chances at victory for himself and also to burnish his image. Although he didn’t know that he was being watched by countless cultivators outside, he also knew that his actions and attitude were not meaningless in this contest.

When there could be as many as ten winners in a contest, the process became just as important as the result.

The person who could get first place in the most beautiful fashion while surrounded by enemies would be the closest to the ultimate victory.

This was what Yun Wuji thought, and so he strenuously worked to show himself off…

Two students swiftly pursued, rapidly closing the distance with Tang Jie.

In a flash, Tang Jie determined their level of strength.

Both at the Mortal Shedding Realm!

Tang Jie wouldn’t have been willing to take on even one of them in his current form, and even if the original body were here, he still would have found it difficult to win against the two of them.

No student who could take part in the Immortal Fortune Conference was a weakling. Back in the academy, a single outstanding student could sweep through his classmates, but at the Immortal Fortune Conference, it was a hard task to defeat two people working together. This was exactly why Yun Wuji felt confident sending two people off in pursuit. In his view, even if they ran into someone like Peng Yaolong or Lan Yu, the two of them would still be able to protect themselves.

One of the pursuing students wielded a black sword while the other held a red wheel. As they flew through the air, they saw Tang Jie running through the forest down below.

As they got closer, the two students were able to make out the face of the runner. The black sword student laughed, “So it was Tang Jie from the Basking Moon Sect! Weren’t you very cocky before this? Why are you running?”

He pointed a finger, and a beam of sword energy flew at Tang Jie’s head.

Tang Jie didn’t turn his head, but he seemed to know what was happening behind him, his right leg pushing off a tree next to him. His sprinting figure suddenly flew off to the side as the sword energy chopped into the tree trunk with a boom, splintering it apart.

The student turned red in the face after his attack missed. Next to him, the red wheel student also shot a bolt of sword energy at Tang Jie. This time, Tang Jie suddenly ducked, and the bolt of energy flew past his head, not even injuring a hair.

The two of them were both startled, and then they grew furious and swiftly gave chase. Their hands flashed as they threw out bolt after bolt, leaving a dazzling trail of explosions in Tang Jie’s wake.

Tang Jie continued to run with his head down, using the terrain as cover. Sometimes, he would run up a tree, and at other times, he would duck into a nearby bush, and still at other times, he would switch places with a tree. Of course, most of the time, he simply used the trees as shields.

He was like a desperate rat, not even turning his head yet always able to dodge most of the attacks coming from behind him. Occasionally, he couldn’t avoid one, so he would use the Formless Golden Body and Aquagel Shroud to endure the attack. As he ran, blasts occurred around him, knocking up large clouds of dust and soil. He really was like a fugitive running away in the middle of a bombardment.

But it wasn’t like everything could be the same. Even in this situation, Tang Jie wasn’t one to just let them keep attacking.

As he sprinted, Tang Jie would occasionally say a word.

“Shake”, “Back”, “Leave”, “Scatter”—with each word, his pursuers would freeze for a moment, allowing Tang Jie to create a little more distance.

This made the pursuing students even angrier.

“Tang Jie, don’t be a coward! Turn around and fight!” the black sword student furiously roared.

Tang Jie ignored him and continued to run, going in circles around this forest, leaving his footprints next to the massive trees while calling out.

The black sword student pointed his sword, and a frigid energy emerged and swiftly engulfed the surrounding area. Tang Jie’s feet trembled, and he began to slow down.

At the same time, the red wheel student began to chant, his hands forming signs. Streams of spiritual energy flowed around him, gathering at his side, and his red wheel began to glow.

The red wheel student pushed out his red wheel. “Go!” The red wheel became a giant fireball that howled toward Tang Jie.

“Tang Jie, you can’t escape!” the red wheel student savagely laughed.

His Blazing Sun Wheel gave a huge boost to flame spell arts, and he had also gathered Yang energy on the flame. The fireball tumbled through the air, radiating a blinding light as if a new sun was rising. Such was its power that it instantly disintegrated a boulder that stood several dozen feet tall. This was the power of an “art”.

As the fireball approached, Tang Jie suddenly turned around and raised his left hand. The hundred ravens of the Blazeraven Ring emerged and collided with the fireball.

The air was instantly set aflame. As the hundred Blazeravens rushed at the fireball like moths to a flame, while the intense flames couldn’t destroy them, the tremendous force instantly turned them into countless motes of light.

The force was so great that the Blazeravens were almost instantly wiped out, and there was a soft crick from the Blazeraven Ring as a small crack appeared on the ring.

The hundred Blazeravens had managed to halt the fireball for a moment, and it was clearly slower and even smaller.

Tang Jie swung his saber.

This time, he used all his strength, empowered by the Formless Golden Body as he chopped at the fireball. The blade itself flashed with green fire, forming into a majestic eagle.

Boom!

There was another fierce collision, and while Tang Jie shuddered all over and the Heartbreak Saber flew from his hand, the Blazing Sun Wheel was also sent up into the air.

“My Blazing Sun Wheel!” the red wheel student yowled in pain. He had been able to clearly see that Tang Jie’s saber had taken a chunk out of his Blazing Sun Wheel.

“A soul weapon?” The black sword student had his attention on Tang Jie’s saber, a greedy glint in his eyes.

He had clearly seen that eagle unfurl its wings, unleashing green flames. Tang Jie’s saber was a soul weapon!

Not only that, even though the Blazeraven Ring had managed to weaken the Blazing Sun Wheel somewhat, Tang Jie couldn’t possibly have held off an art with a spell.

But in this clash, the Heartbreak Saber had been unharmed while the Blazing Sun Wheel had been damaged—a sign of just how powerful the Heartbreak Saber was. Although it was only a spell weapon, once it evolved into an art relic, it would undoubtedly be extraordinarily powerful!

In that moment, the two of them made completely opposite decisions.

The red wheel student charged after Tang Jie with all his strength, but the black sword student backed away, flying in the direction of the Heartbreak Saber.

He wanted to take it for himself!

As the two of them split up, Tang Jie smiled and spat out, “Change.” The war saber that the black sword student had seen abruptly disappeared.

Where’s the saber? The black sword student was stunned.

When he turned his head, he could no longer see Tang Jie and the red wheel student.

He was still in the woods, surrounded by large trees, short bushes, and the occasional rare plant. Only the target of his pursuit was missing.

“An illusion formation…” the black sword student gasped. He realized that he had fallen for Tang Jie’s trap and entered an illusion formation.

But when had Tang Jie found the time to lay down a formation while running around like this?

But when he recalled how Tang Jie had been running with his head down while softly saying something, the black sword student’s eyes flashed. “I see! He was using the True Word Mantra to fool our eyes and ears. So rather than an illusion formation, this is an illusion spell? If it’s an illusion spell, it must have some sort of spell vessel. Yes, the saber…”

As part of a major sect, the black sword student quickly realized the solution. He only needed to find the Heartbreak Saber to undo the illusion spell. The saber was probably nearby, though the illusion spell befuddled his senses and prevented him from seeing it. However, he could sense it using spiritual energy, so this illusion spell would only keep him occupied for half a minute at most.

He immediately calmed down. He was very confident in the red wheel student’s strength, so he didn’t think that anything would go wrong in half a minute.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the battlefield.

The red wheel student and Tang Jie had both been stripped of their weapon. The red wheel student charged forward, forming a sword sign with one hand and pointing at Tang Jie: the Energy Sword Finger.

Tang Jie didn’t dodge, activating the Formless Golden Body as he thrust out his own finger in response: Energy Needle.

The Energy Sword Finger was strong, but the defense of the Formless Golden Body was stronger.

Thud! Thud! The two attacks each struck the barrier of the other, creating flashes of light.

The two of them stopped, and then they charged at each other.

“Blaze Blade!”

“Thousand Form Hand!”

“Die! I’ve been cultivating for eight years! I’m already at Mortal Shedding Hundred Refinement, a genius among my peers! A puny Spirit Sea shouldn’t even think about fighting against me!” the red wheel student roared, fiercely unleashing Blaze Blades.

“Cut the chatter and just fight,” Tang Jie tersely replied.

The two of them exchanged several spells, locking each other in a fierce melee in which neither side could dodge.

While Tang Jie’s Divine Court Thousandshift managed to deal a heavy blow, the red wheel student’s Blaze Blade covered Tang Jie’s chest in flames. After one exchange, their bodies both erupted with dazzling light as their barriers shattered in unison.

The red wheel student hastened to apply another barrier, from an instinct born out of many years of cultivation. In his view, Tang Jie was bound to do the same.

But as he was casting, he saw Tang Jie chopping a hand at him, showing no sign of trying to protect himself.

Even though this student had tried to adapt and used the fastest defensive spell he could cast, he couldn’t move faster than Tang Jie’s sharp and fierce hand chop. Just when the barrier was about to form, Tang Jie chopped at the bridge of his nose, dizzying him and stopping the spell.

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Tang Jie then kneed the student in the stomach, leaving him in so much pain that he couldn’t stand.

But he was at Mortal Shedding Hundred Refinement, his constitution far superior to that of an ordinary human. These two heavy blows hadn’t been fatal, so he pushed through the pain and threw a knee at Tang Jie’s face, the impact making Tang Jie’s body tremble.

Tang Jie no longer had his Jewel Body, but he still had the body-refining effect of the Visceral Manifestation Classic, meaning that he had a body much stronger than the average human. As that student had the body of a Mortal Shedding Hundred Refinement cultivator, the two of them were evenly matched.

They quickly began to exchange punches and elbows. There was no time for technique, only for the combat style of gangsters and hoodlums.

Fights like this were contests in who was the most ruthless, but while this student had cultivated for many years, he was still lacking in this aspect compared to Tang Jie.

As the two of them crazily battered away and blood flowed, that student finally began to panic.

He could no longer endure this sort of battle, so he sent a hand into his Mustard Seed Bag and grabbed a talisman.

“Die!” the student howled, preparing to take out the talisman and slap it on Tang Jie.

This was the best choice when one didn’t have time to cast.

But just as he was about to take out the talisman, his hand froze. He saw that Tang Jie’s right hand had grabbed his left arm, keeping it in the Mustard Seed Bag and not letting it out.

Tang Jie stared at him and smiled. “I can’t compare to you in strength, but when it comes to killing people, you can’t compare to me.”

The student’s pupils widened.

He saw Tang Jie drop his head and headbutt him in the face.

The two of them continued to fight, Tang Jie battering with his head as if he didn’t care for his life.

“Is this all you have? You’re looking down on Mortal Shedding Realm cultivators too much. Blazing Sun Wheel, rise!” the student shouted, a white light in his eyes.

As this light emerged, the distant Blazing Sun Wheel flew up and began to spin toward Tang Jie, radiating sparks.

The red wheel student laughed, “Go and die already!”

Just when the Blazing Sun Wheel was about to slice into Tang Jie’s head, there was a brief glint of golden light.

A moment later, time seemed to stop.

Tang Jie and the red wheel student suddenly froze, and even that Blazing Sun Wheel suddenly stopped and plopped onto the grass.

The red wheel student’s eyes widened as blood began to spread out, painting his back like red ink dripping onto paper, creating a giant red curtain.

The golden needle silently drew back.

Even at the moment of death, this student didn’t know what had happened. He didn’t know how he had died, nor where his companion had gone. Why had he been left alone to fight with Tang Jie?

Outside the blessed land, Xie Fengtang frowned.

He whispered to Ming Yekong, “Hall Master Ming, did you see how Tang Jie killed that person just now?”

Ming Yekong stared at the student’s corpse for a while before saying, “Look at the blood.”

“Hm?” Xie Fengtang didn’t understand.

Ming Yekong casually replied, “He’s bled so much, and it’s coming from the back and spreading outward… The heart was attacked, and the wound was made in the back.”

Xie Fengtang was shaken.

The students of Godhead Palace all had Godhead Armor, and thus, unless it was that sort of high-intensity spell art bombardment that made no distinction between areas of attack, the people of Godhead Palace least feared being attacked at the chest and the back. This was also why the other sects would usually attack the limbs and the head of Godhead Palace cultivators. The most common method of death for the people of Godhead Palace was having their head cut off, so their defenses around this area were also very tight.

But now, a Godhead Palace student had died to a heart wound without his Godhead Armor being shattered.

This was very rare.

Xie Fengtang whispered, “In other words, this kid has at least one other weapon besides the Heartbreak Saber… one that can penetrate through Godhead Armor.”

Ming Yekong added, “It can’t be very large if it’s so easy to hide. Even though it’s a trump card, he’s reluctant to use it. Even in that situation, he did his best to attack from the back so that it couldn’t be seen.”

“That truly is the case.”

“But there’s something else that’s strange,” Ming Yekong hesitantly said.

“What?”

“He’s become much weaker,” Ming Yekong replied.

While Xie Fengtang and Cai Junyang had been fooled by his “clumsy act”, Ming Yekong had been able to tell that Tang Jie’s strength had truly plunged.

Fortunately, even his sharp eyes hadn’t been able to see the difference between the two Tang Jies. If a Violet Palace True Lord had been sitting there, they would have been able to see the problem so long as they had seen the two different Tang Jies before.

“This is truly rather strange. Perhaps it’s the result of a secret cultivation method, and it also might explain how he pierced through the Godhead Armor. So long as he hasn’t betrayed the sect, it’s fine to let him be. Every person has their own secrets.” His fondness for Tang Jie made Xie Fengtang try to find excuses for him, making one question into the answer to another, thus resolving both.

“Oh.” Ming Yekong nodded, agreeing with Xie Fengtang’s words. “If he keeps fighting, we might be able to see what he’s doing. But in Tang Jie’s circumstances, winning won’t be easy… Strange—what is he doing?”

Ming Yekong suddenly sat up and looked in disbelief at Tang Jie.

In the blessed land, after catching his breath, Tang Jie sat back down.

The first thing he did was grab the fallen red wheel, stuff it into the dead student’s hands, and then grab the student’s hand and punch it into his own chest.

Blood gushed out of his body, and Tang Jie swayed and collapsed into a pool of blood, lying together with the red wheel student like two corpses.

As the spectators gasped, a cry of joy resounded through the forest.

“I’m out!”

A figure swiftly flew out of the forest. It was none other than the black sword student.

Holding the black sword in his right hand and the Heartbreak Saber in his left hand, he ran out while shouting, “Tang Jie, you think your puny illusion spell can hold me… What the hell happened here?”

The black sword student was utterly stunned by the sight of the fallen red wheel student and Tang Jie.

He felt like he had only used half a minute to break out of Tang Jie’s illusion spell. Something like this shouldn’t have happened in so little time.

It appeared that the two of them had killed each other in this extremely brief amount of time.

“Junior Brother Fei!” he shouted as he ran forward. At that moment, everyone realized what was going on.

Elder Ke of Godhead Palace panicked and shouted, “Idiot! He’s playing dead!”

But the black sword student couldn’t possibly hear him.

He walked up to the red wheel student and squatted down to see if he was breathing.

Behind him, Tang Jie opened his eyes…

Alas, poor naive black sword student. You’ve got to check to make sure he’s dead first!