Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 328: Wisdom

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The spectators all looked at each other in confusion. This was the first time they had seen a situation like this.

By that beam of energy, they could tell that the charge at Mortal Shedding had succeeded, and that return of the energy and the fading of the light meant that the final step had been completed. But why was he suddenly howling in pain?

Usually, when a cultivator succeeded, they would feel refreshed and energetic, not suffering any side effects. Someone lucky enough to comprehend the Dao would even be meditating.

What was happening here, with Tang Jie collapsing after his success?

In Tang Jie’s mind, a golden light resplendently shone over his mental sea.

The Dao Will was like a sun over the sea, threatening to entirely consume him.

This sun-like Dao Will was a reflection of what Tang Jie had glimpsed from the countless Dao Inscriptions in that Great Dao clock hand, formed within his body. It was precisely because it wasn’t the raw Dao Will that Tang Jie hadn’t been instantly turned into ash.

Glimpsing the secrets of the heavens truly could allow one to ascend to the heavens in one step, but it could also make one die a violent death. The might of the heavens infused into that sliver of Dao Will could pulverize a cultivator and was not something any ordinary person could obtain.

Someone who wanted to comprehend a Great Dao had to at least have reached Celestial Heart, where their Origin was fortified and their soul was more tenacious. As for the next step, that was not something that even Violet Palace and Immortal Platform figures dared to mess with lightly.

But for most cultivators, what they needed to consider was whether they could ever comprehend it, not whether they were comprehending it too early. Someone like Tang Jie, who had comprehended a Dao before reaching Mortal Shedding and had even comprehended the Dao of Insight, was extremely rare. Thus, it could be said that someone comprehending a Great Dao at Mortal Shedding had never happened before, so no one had ever seen what it was like.

Even though this was a Dao Will formed in reaction to glimpsing the secrets of the heavens, this reaction was enough to leave Tang Jie half-dead. The intense light and heat radiated by the red sun wreaked havoc in Tang Jie’s mental sea, and Tang Jie felt like his entire body was evaporating.

Tang Jie would have truly died an unworthy death if he died like this.

Alas, this was something happening on the level of the soul. There was nothing he could do about this.

No, wait!

Tang Jie’s eyes suddenly lit up.

In the Nine Executions Immortal Formation, Tang Jie’s original body suddenly went stiff.

An identical red sun appeared in the mental sea of his original body, and at the same time, the temperature of the red sun Dao Will in the avatar Tang Jie’s mental sea plunged.

With the power of two minds, Tang Jie had successfully divided the Dao Will, which allowed him to finally endure this terrifying Dao Will pressure.

On the fish lip rock, Tang Jie finally stopped groaning. Lying on the rock, he gasped for breath.

And this was only the Dao Will that had formed in reaction to glimpsing the Heavenly Dao. If this feeble reflection was this powerful, how terrifying was the complete Great Dao? Tang Jie shivered, knowing that he had been too rash.

After a few moments of rest, Tang Jie had recovered enough to start inspecting himself.

He first needed to see how his charge at Mortal Shedding had gone.

The golden pagoda still stood tall in his Spiritual Space, a pillar of energy linking it to the sky. A single thought from Tang Jie was enough to cause ripples in the Spirit Sea.

The pagoda erupted with light, drawing in more energy. Spiritual energy flowed in from outside as if crossing a world-spanning bridge.

At the same time, Tang Jie cast a spell art. A breeze stirred under his feet, lifting him into the air.

The Flight spell.

Upon seeing this, everyone in the spectator stands cheered, “He succeeded!”

The Flight spell wasn’t the specialty of the Mortal Shedding Realm, and Spirit Platform Realm students could also use it. But the Flight spell consumed large amounts of spiritual energy to maintain, and the power in one’s body was far from enough. Even a Spirit Sea student wouldn’t be able to fly for long until they erected their Heaven-Earth Bridge. Thus, while Spirit Platform Realm students could fly in theory, they basically didn’t use the Flight spell.

For the same reason, the first thing a Spirit Platform student would do after advancing to Mortal Shedding was fly, as, starting from today, they truly had the ability to fly. While they could fly before, it was only for a limited time, so it was often jokingly called “gliding”.

Thus, when the spectators saw that Tang Jie made flying the first thing he did, they immediately knew that he had succeeded in shedding his mortality.

Ming Yekong chuckled and looked at Heng Wudi. “It seems like I’ve won our wager.”

Heng Wudi said nothing, only glaring at Tang Jie as if he could use his stare to bring Tang Jie back to earth and prove that he had not entered Mortal Shedding.

Alas, Tang Jie didn’t fall. He continued to casually fly through the air. As he wasn’t very familiar with the spell, he didn’t fly very quickly, but it was quite stable, and as he grew more proficient, he picked up speed.

He flew a circle around the mountain, his moon-white uniform flapping in the wind, making him seem like a proud wanderer striding through the world and leaving Xu Miaoran momentarily smitten.

Heng Wudi had nothing more to say. He only stomped his feet, took out a violet leopard cat, and gave it a few reluctant looks before throwing it to Ming Yekong. Ming Yekong grinned as he received it, after which he passed something to Xie Fengtang. “Once Tang Jie comes out, give it to him. Tell him that this is my thank-you gift for helping me win a Nightwraith Cat.”

Xie Fengtang smiled. “Master Ming, why not give it to him yourself?”

Ming Yekong shook his head. “I am about to leave soon.”

“‘Leave’?” Xie Fengtang was startled, and then he understood.

Ming Yekong was preparing to charge at Violet Palace.

Tang Jie’s successful charge at Mortal Shedding had been a massive shock to Ming Yekong. This Celestial Chief had felt Tang Jie’s courage and had finally decided to take that long-delayed step, was even impatient to.

“But that Heng Wudi…” Xie Fengtang warned.

“He is no problem. When I leave, I will drag him away with me,” Ming Yekong indifferently said.

Only then did Xie Fengtang relax.

At this time, after flying around for an hour, Tang Jie finally stopped.

Before entering Mortal Shedding, even at peak Spirit Sea, he would have only been able to fly for around fifteen minutes, but he could now fly for one hour while only using up around eight hundred drops of spiritual liquid. If he put his all into flight, he could probably keep it up for twelve hours.

Of course, this was also because Tang Jie hadn’t learned any higher-quality flight spell arts. Tang Jie recalled that there were many different kinds of flight spells back at the academy, spell arts that could make him fly faster while using less spiritual energy.

The most suitable one for him was the Wandering Celestial Peng Art. When cultivated to a high level of proficiency, it could reduce the amount of spiritual energy consumed by half and double the speed. Crucially, this art could be combined with the Violet Lightning Lunge. When used together, they could boost the overall speed by 2.4 times. If he added on the Life Breath Mantra, which could boost the recovery speed of the Minor Circuit Heaven, he could fly for three days and nights without a problem.

Wait.

Tang Jie froze. He had never learned the Wandering Celestial Peng Art before, so why did he understand it so well? It was one thing to know that it could be combined with the Violet Lightning Lunge, but to know how much it could boost it by, up to the first decimal place?

And what was this about the Life Breath Mantra?

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Tang Jie was baffled.

Could it be…

Tang Jie sent his mind into his mental sea.

At this time, the red sun had finally burned out, the heat and light dissipated. All that was left was a golden “十” character, and in the mental sea of his original body, there was a golden character in the shape of “心” (Heart).

These two characters floated in Tang Jie’s mental seas. Tang Jie didn’t need an explanation to know that these characters were originally part of the same whole. They originated from “智慧” (Wisdom).

Wisdom!

Each of the Twelve Great Daos had its own domain, each paired with another. These domains were “生命” (Life), “轮回” (Reincarnation), “因果” (Karma), “命运” (Fate), “阴阳” (Yin Yang), “五行” (Five Elements), “智慧” (Wisdom), “真理” (Truth), “杀戮” (Slaughter), “毁灭” (Destruction), “时光” (Time), and “空间” (Space).

Of these, Wisdom and Truth were paired Daos. The Dao of Insight was subordinate to Wisdom, which was why Tang Jie had ultimately obtained this Dao. It wasn’t because he had chosen Wisdom, but because Insight had found its master.

Worth noting here was that comprehending the Dao of Wisdom did not mean that someone would become smart.

In the Heavenly Dao, Wisdom did not have the narrow definition that humans had.

Wisdom had an even broader definition here. It existed for discovery, understanding, and summarization. Once summarization was complete, it created Truth. Thus, Wisdom was the origin of Truth, and once one comprehended Wisdom, one could comprehend Truth.

Wisdom was all-encompassing, including Insight, Calculation, Deconstruction, and Knowledge. But Deduction did not belong to Wisdom and had nothing to do with it.

After comprehending the Dao, Tang Jie had a chunk of abstruse knowledge in his brain. This knowledge was immense, varied, and lacking in organization, containing all sorts of profound mysteries. This was where Tang Jie’s understanding of Wisdom and the Twelve Great Daos came from. If he had comprehended some other Dao, he might not have known what the Twelve Great Daos were. This was the Knowledge of the Wisdom Dao, as Wisdom without Knowledge was naught but false wisdom. Often was it said, “This person is so smart, but he just doesn’t want to study,” but no matter how well-developed this smartness was, it would never reach the level of Wisdom.

But the Knowledge in the Dao of Wisdom was only the most fundamental knowledge. There was even more knowledge that the cultivator needed to discover, understand, incorporate, and summarize on their own, turning it into Truth.

Besides that, Tang Jie also found that his calculative abilities were much stronger and his lines of thought much clearer. Many questions that used to take him a while to find the answer to were now easily solved.

This was the boost to calculative ability brought by Wisdom. Worth noting was that Calculation was not without limit. If there was something that he couldn’t calculate before, he still wouldn’t be able to calculate it. At best, it would be like going from needing to use an entire day to determine “I can’t calculate it” to only using ten minutes to determine “I can’t calculate it.”

Deconstruction allowed Tang Jie to more clearly analyze and comprehend the driving principles behind many things. The upper limit was the guiding principles of the world, the laws and the Great Daos, and the lower limit included divine connections, spell arts, and magical weapons. Tang Jie could deconstruct all of them, but of course, the more complicated and abstruse the target was, the more difficult it was to analyze it. This was the most important ability of Wisdom. At profound levels of comprehension, one could even sense how the Heavenly Dao operated and grasp the secrets of the heavens, possessing foresight and insight that allowed one to neutralize fate.

Of course, he wasn’t at that level yet, but this was extraordinarily helpful for formations.

Formations were a manifestation of Daos, and the Dao of Wisdom was the number one tool for deconstructing the world. Thus, Tang Jie’s mind was instantly full of knowledge concerning formations. His mind was opened, and he immediately was able to understand and put into practice many things he found incomprehensible before.

Tang Jie’s proficiency in the Dao of Formations instantly went from Grade 4 to Grade 5. So long as he had enough materials, he could make a formation that could even imprison an early-stage Celestial Heart cultivator.

In the Nine Executions Immortal Formation, Tang Jie’s original body opened its eyes and reinspected the formation.

But the most obvious improvement was still with Insight.

Tang Jie had already attained a basic comprehension of Insight before entering Mortal Shedding, but his grasp of the Dao of Insight was very scattered, and the effects were limited.

But now, everything was different.

Wanting to test the effects of Insight, Tang Jie stood atop the fish lip rock and looked around. He wanted to see if he could look through that previously impenetrable cloud layer and find the students scattered across the blessed land.

The Langya Blessed Land was dense with spiritual energy. As spiritual energy was not a substance with real form, when it was highly concentrated, it appeared like clouds or fog, a majestic sea of clouds when looked at from a distance.

While it looked nice, it provided no benefits when it came to observation. Even with the improved vision from comprehending Insight, Tang Jie still hadn’t been able to see through those clouds.

But things were different now.

With the power of Insight, he could see it all: the flow of the wind, the shifts in the clouds, the rise and fall of spiritual waves.

These were all natural movements, like water flowing downstream from its source and splashing. All Tang Jie needed to do was follow the flow back to the source, which was the location of the Dao.

In his eyes, every shift in the sea of clouds, every flow, had special significance. Tang Jie constantly analyzed the most fundamental principles that made up all of this, trying to understand them.

This was an extremely complex and vast undertaking. In normal circumstances, a cultivator could waste hundreds of years, even as many as a thousand.

But for Tang Jie, it was as simple as water flowing down a canal.

All things had their operating principles. Behind the chaos and the complexity, they all followed age-old and specific laws, and these laws were the Daos.

The Dao of Insight was for discovering them. The Dao of Calculation was for analyzing them. The Dao of Deconstruction was for comprehending them. And the Great Dao of Truth was for incorporating them, refining them, and using them.

In this process, the truths of the world were understood and its secrets uncovered. Everything else would develop naturally.

Tang Jie’s gaze moved upward, and his vision expanded more and more, gradually taking in all of the blessed land.

His eyes traveled between the clouds, going higher and higher. His mind whirred as he went higher and higher, not even stopping when he struck a rippling wall of rainbow light: the blessed land’s formation.

His gaze once more felt the edge of the world, and then he continued, breaking out of this world and observing it from an even higher point of view.

And then, he saw it.

In a backdrop of a sea of clouds and a canopy of the azure heavens, he saw an assembly of heroes gathered on Red Plum Ridge.