Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 385: To the Death

In response to Shi Jingzhai’s cry, twenty-some people descended from the sky.

Bei Canghan and the others had come.

They were no longer afraid of Shi Jingzhai.

“You guys…” Shi Jingzhai looked blankly at the Basking Moon disciples, his eyes slack. Suddenly, he roared, “Was it you who stole my goods? Was it you?!”

Bei Canghan frowned. “Old Shi, have you gone crazy? If we had the goods, would we have needed to do all this?”

“Then who? Who? Who stole my goods? This was enough goods to load forty wagons and several Mustard Seed Bags! And more than half of it is gone…” Shi Jingzhai bawled. He didn’t seem to care what the arrival of the Basking Moon disciples signified, only bemoaning the loss of his fortune. He shouted, “Do you know how much those goods were worth? Twenty million! Twenty million spirit coins!”

Tang Jie softly coughed. “Actually… it was nearly seventy million.”

“What did you say?” Shi Jingzhai looked at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie went on, “Although you only sold them for 40 million, you can’t make that the value of those goods. In reality, these goods were worth around 110 million. You’ve lost about 60% of that, so your losses should be 66 million, not 20 million.”

Shi Jingzhai trembled, his mouth opening and closing. “Six… sixty-six… million?”

“No, wrong,” Tang Jie suddenly said. “It’s twenty million.”

Shi Jingzhai was confused. Blood trickled from his nose. “Why is it now twenty million?”

“Because you only sold it for forty million,” Tang Jie replied.

Shi Jingzhai’s body began to shudder even harder. Pointing at Tang Jie, he stammered out, “You… you… Just now, you said… it was worth 66 million. Why… now… why is it… and also, even if we only sold it for forty million, it should be twenty…”

He wasn’t able to finish, and he began to count with his fingers.

“Did I?” Tang Jie countered. “I clearly remember saying ‘110 million’.”

“110 million…” Blood began to flow more strongly from his nose. “You… nonsense… clearly… clearly said ‘twenty million’…”

The two of them arguing about numbers like this left everyone else confused.

Wei Tianchong said in puzzlement, “What is he doing?”

Peng Yaolong added, “What is Tang Jie playing at, here? If it were me, I would have just thrown out a Heavenbane Lightning Pearl and blasted this old man to bits.”

Bei Canghan solemnly said, “It seems like that won’t be necessary.”

“Hm? What do you mean?” Everyone looked at Bei Canghan.

Bei Canghan watched as Tang Jie continued to argue with Shi Jingzhai. “You still can’t tell? He’s already lost his mind.”

“‘Lost his mind’?” Everyone was dumbfounded.

Bei Canghan firmly nodded. "Mm. Though Liang Xingbang's Divine Will attack didn't kill him, his soul was damaged. He was then struck with the Gale Snake poison. This poison is insidious, lingering and very difficult to neutralize. If he had been able to focus, he could have rid himself of the venom, but then he was shocked by the loss of the goods. The anger attacked his heart, the venom was able to circulate into his brain, and his damaged soul could no longer take it. With the poison seeping in, he naturally lost his mind."

Everyone understood. Qi Shaoming saw that Tang Jie was still arguing with Shi Jingzhai, so he asked, "So why is he still doing all that?"

Bei Canghan replied, "I don't know, either."

Tang Jie said something else to Shi Jingzhai, and the confusion in Shi Jingzhai's eyes deepened. Holding his head, he shook it and said, "Is it 20 million or 66 million, or is it 110 million? Just how much money did I lose? How much?"

He paced around and asked himself questions, his face wrought with madness and his teeth gnashing. Unexpectedly, he started to ignore Tang Jie.

Only when Tang Jie saw him do this did he put him aside and walk over to the others. He explained, "Crazy people can easily form obsessions. At the last moment of sanity, he received the stimulation of having lost his goods, which could easily have led him to search the entire world for his goods until he died. For this exact reason, I had to switch out this obsession, so I used numbers to confuse him. Right now, his mind is full of questions about how much money in goods he actually lost, but as for where those goods are, what he actually lost, and whether he should go and find them, these have all become unimportant."

"I see." Everyone finally understood what he was doing.

Wei Tianchong still didn't quite understand. "Why not just kill him? Why go through all the trouble?"

"One: this isn't any trouble at all, only a few sentences. Two: even if he's crazy, he still has the strength of a Celestial Heart. Dealing with this sort of guy will require seven or eight Heavenbane Lightning Pearls. It's best to save what you can."

"…" Everyone was speechless.

Peng Yaolong muttered, "Ugh, it seems like we still don't have anything to do."

This novel is available on bit.ly/3Tfs4P4.

Although the distribution of rewards had already been set, with everyone getting a share regardless of what they did, this feeling of just standing around to be a spectator wasn't a pleasant one.

They had originally believed that they could at least come together at the last moment to beat down a Celestial Heart, but now that Shi Jingzhai had gone crazy, they had discovered that they couldn't even play the role of side characters.

This was exactly why someone even said, "Why don't we kill him anyway? He's such an eyesore."

Fortunately, Tang Jie rejected the idea. "Are you guys really that anxious to waste Heavenbane Lightning Pearls? Besides, I want this Shi Jingzhai."

"What do you want a madman for?" Everyone was confused.

Tang Jie casually replied, "No matter how mad he is, he's still a Celestial Heart madman. At crucial moments, he might prove useful."

So that's it. They understood what Tang Jie wanted.

"But this guy might not be that easy to control," someone worriedly said.

"You guys might not be able to control him, but I can," Tang Jie replied.

He went up to Shi Jingzhai and whispered some words to him. He then waved his hand, ordering him to come with him.

Shi Jingzhai looked up at Tang Jie, and then he suddenly made a silly smile and went to stand behind Tang Jie. Just like that, he had actually begun to blindly follow Tang Jie.

"That works?" Everyone was dumbfounded by this sight.

A disciple said, "Let me try. Maybe I can make that old guy follow me."

Everyone looked sympathetically at him, causing his hair to stand on end. "Why are you guys looking at me like that?"

Ye Tianshang explained, "It was Tang Jie who drove Shi Jingzhai into madness, so Tang Jie is probably the only person he recognizes. You going to command him… Isn't that basically seeking death?"

Only then did he understand.

It appeared that Shi Jingzhai no longer knew who anyone else was.

After walking with Shi Jingzhai a little bit, Tang Jie reached out and patted Shi Jingzhai on the hand. He said a few words as if he was praising Shi Jingzhai, and the man happily smiled.

Tang Jie walked back and said, "Alright, that's settled. We can leave now."

"'Leave'? To where?" everyone asked.

"Naturally, to get back the rest of the goods," Tang Jie replied.

"'The rest of the goods'?" The reaction was one of general shock.

Bei Canghan smiled and said, "So you're saying you know where they are?"

"Only a guess." Tang Jie smiled.

Wei Tianchong muttered, "Though it's only a guess, I'm sure you're basically certain about it."

Peng Yaolong laughed. "So you're saying that we still might have a chance to use these Heavenbane Lightning Pearls?"

Tang Jie looked up and thought for a while. "To tell the truth, the chances that you get to use them still aren't great."

———————————————

A small forest in the Mount Eternal region.

Xi Canhen was seated cross-legged, white wisps of energy curling from his nostrils like little snakes before being sucked back in.

Next to him, the little tiger looked strangely at him. He had seen people cultivate before, but he had never seen people form white wisps of energy while breathing. But now that he thought about it, his own condition hadn't been exactly normal as of late.

Ever since he had eaten that fragrant thing and had a good sleep, he felt like he was bursting with energy, and there was something roaring within him. His blood was seething, and he occasionally had an uncontrollable urge to kill.

Fortunately, he had grown familiar with Xi Canhen. If this had happened when they had just met, he might really have killed Xi Canhen.

This made the little tiger afraid.

Fiends consumed spirit treasures entirely based on instinct. Even at Mind Opening, they might not realize what they were eating.

Thus, the little tiger didn't know what exactly that ten-thousand-year-old ox bezoar really was, nor about what sort of change it had effected on him.

As he was puzzling over these changes, he suddenly trembled and looked toward the distant sky.

Over there, a person was flying over on a cloud.

A wary look appeared in his tiger eyes.

He took several steps toward Xi Canhen, putting the boy behind him. His tail lightly slapped Xi Canhen, warning him to quickly end his cultivation.

The man in the sky circled around before finally landing. It was a rather short man, about five feet tall. When he saw the human and tiger, he snorted, "So you were here? You certainly wasted a lot of my time."

This man's name was Xie Yu, and he was the one Shi Jingzhai and company had sent to hunt down Xi Canhen. He had searched for many days and had only now managed to find them, so he was bursting with excitement, as if Xi Canhen was already in his hands.

Raaa! The little tiger roared like a beast king, shaking the forests and causing all other animals to flee.

Xie Yu was unafraid, coldly laughing, "Little fiend tiger, rather than running away, you dare to act so impudently?"

At this moment, Xi Canhen finally opened his eyes. Picking up his sword, he stood up.

He had known nothing about the outside world until now. Seeing that short man with the arrogant tone and how tense the little tiger was, he felt like something was wrong and whispered to the little tiger, "Bao'er, is this guy really powerful?"

The little tiger grunted and ignored him, but Xie Yu laughed and said, "Ignorant junior, all you've been relying on this entire time is an upper-grade Spirit Sensing fiend beast. I happen to be a cultivator that's reached Nine Revolutions, two tiers higher than it. You think it would dare to compare itself to me?"

Xi Canhen paled.

In those days with Tang Jie, he had come to understand the realm hierarchy of cultivators. Nine Revolutions was one tier higher than Tang Jie. Didn't that mean that this guy was stronger than Tang Jie?

It was no wonder the little tiger was so apprehensive.

If the little tiger knew what he was thinking, the tiger would probably say in disdain, "This failure isn't even fit to carry Tang Jie's shoes! He only has the strength of a basic Nine Revolutions, so let alone Tang Jie, Peng Yaolong, Ye Tianshang, or even Qi Shaoming or Cai Junyang could beat him until his teeth were all over the floor."

Students from major sects could be said to be innately stronger than those of small sects by half to an entire tier.

In a place like the Stone Gate Sect, Nine Revolutions was equivalent to Hundred Refinement in the Basking Moon Sect.

It wasn't that their system couldn't produce geniuses, but that any geniuses would have already used various opportunities to get into a big sect by that point. Who would stick around in a small sect?

With a lack of both talent and techniques, it was very normal for such circumstances to crop up.

Even so, Nine Revolutions Xie Yu was still a huge threat to the little tiger.

For this reason, the little tiger backed up a few more steps, using his tail to swat Xi Canhen and push him back even more.

Xi Canhen was startled, and then he realized that the tiger was telling him to run.

But…

"How can I just abandon you and run?" Xi Canhen blurted out.

Raa! The little tiger turned his head and angrily roared at Xi Canhen, worry in his eyes.

Xi Canhen suddenly felt like he understood what the tiger wanted. The little tiger would hold this man down while he escaped, and only then would the little tiger have his own chance to escape.

He wasn't escaping for himself, but for the little tiger's escape.

When he understood this, Xi Canhen stopped hesitating. With a loud cry, he turned and fled into the forest.

Xie Yu snorted, "Don't even think about leaving!"

He thrust a palm at Xi Canhen's back.

As he attacked, the little tiger jumped forward with a roar, swinging a paw at Xie Yu's face. If this paw impacted, Xie Yu's face was certain to be torn open.

Xie Yu raised his left hand and thrust a shortsword of refined iron at the little tiger.

At the same time, the little tiger shot a lightning ball from his mouth. It smashed into the shortsword, knocking the sword into the air in a burst of lightning and burning Xie Yu.

Though he was at Nine Revolutions, he wasn't someone who specialized in close combat. Thus, he was at a disadvantage in a melee with the little tiger and would naturally lose.

Xie Yu was enraged, yelling, "Fiendish nuisance!"

He pressed his left hand against the ground, and several dozen earth spears emerged to stab at the tiger.

His master was Shi Jingzhai, and his greatest expertise was in Earth spell arts. Even Shi Jingzhai had praised him for his earth spears.

But the little tiger unfurled his wings and took to the skies to easily avoid the attack.

Xie Yu snorted, "You think you're fine in the air? Rise!"

He raised his hands upward, and large numbers of stones rained upward to pelt the little tiger.

It was a fierce spell art that the little tiger was helpless against. Even with his tough body, the stones battered and dizzied him, and some of the stones even managed to wound him, drawing blood.

Raaa! The little tiger angrily roared and then lunged down from the sky.

Xie Yu sneered and waved his hand. Dirt and stone crawled up his body and formed stone armor to protect him. He then pushed forward with his hands, and with another hand sign, a large pile of stone and dirt rose up and transformed into a fierce tiger that lunged at Bao'er.

The fiend tiger and stone tiger began to battle.

Xie Yu laughed. "Let's see how you do against my stone tiger!"

The stone tiger came from Xie Yu's Stone Sculpt art. Although it was a lifeless object, it had been modeled on the little tiger, so while it wasn't as strong as the little tiger, it wasn't easy to kill.

With the stone tiger blocking Bao'er, Xie Yu had an easier time casting.

His hands began to form signs as he muttered.

The little tiger saw this and knew that he was using some powerful spell art. He was anxious to stop this, but the stone tiger was doing everything it could to obstruct him, refusing to let him get even half a step past it.

A moment later, Xie Yu opened his eyes and stared at the little tiger. "Just hurry up and die!"

He pointed at the air, and countless pieces of stone began to congregate in the air, forming an enormous boulder which began to revolve as it hurtled toward Bao'er.

In front of this boulder, Bao'er seemed like a fragile infant. Bao'er flapped his wings and evaded the boulder, but the boulder continued to fly through the air, circling around before hurtling back to the little tiger.

Alarmed, the little tiger prepared to dodge again, but Xie Yu's eyes flashed as he pointed at the stone tiger. "Block!"

The stone tiger suddenly accelerated and slammed into Bao'er.

This momentary obstruction prevented Bao'er from dodging, and the boulder slammed into him and knocked him to the ground. Its force unspent, after smashing into the ground, it continued rolling over the little tiger's body…

Raooo! The tiger's sorrowful roar resounded through the forest.

"Bao'er!" Xi Canhen was shaken when he heard this roar.

The despair, sorrow, and ultimate resolve in this roar made Xi Canhen realize that the little tiger was in dire straits.

Filled with grief, he looked back and saw that Xie Yu was striding toward him in pursuit, his steps swift and his expression relaxed.

Xi Canhen, gritting his teeth, turned back around and kept running.

But there was no way he could outrun Xie Yu.

Xie Yu was in no rush. Like a cat playing with a mouse, he smiled and said, "Take your time running. I want to see just where you can run off to."

He was in a mood to play around, so he just followed Xi Canhen. He intended to tire Xi Canhen to death as payback for his many days of searching.

In a panic, Xi Canhen ran up a mountain.

Xie Yu coldly chuckled and didn't try to stop him. He just followed along, occasionally casting a spell art or two so that Xi Canhen would keep pushing himself for fear of losing speed.

The desperate sprint made Xi Canhen's lungs feel like they were on fire. He finally reached the summit, and when he saw the steep precipice before him, he realized that he had nowhere to go.

Xie Yu laughed as he walked over. "Keep running! Go on now. Or you can just jump off and save this old man the work."

Xi Canhen turned around and angrily glared at Xie Yu. "I'll kill you!"

He thrust his sword, but Xie Yu simply caught it between two fingers.

The sword tip was rendered completely immobile.

Xie Yu sneered at Xi Canhen. "Puny ant, daring to raise a sword against a cultivator? You've got guts, but you're ultimately seeking death. I had to waste several days searching for you—a grave crime!"

His face turned savage. But just when he was about to make the killing blow, he saw white energy rising from all over Xi Canhen's body.

This white luster around him alarmed and confused Xie Yu.

Xi Canhen yelled, "You're the one who should die!"

He raised his left hand and punched the hilt of his sword, like a hammer striking a nail. The sword that Xie Yu had held between his fingers thrust forward into Xie Yu's chest, penetrating through his heart.

Xie Yu was completely caught off guard. He howled and waved a palm, sending a blast of wind at Xi Canhen that sent him flying into a tree. Several ribs broke as Xi Canhen threw up blood, and this was only the result of a hasty attack from Xie Yu.

But Xi Canhen didn't care. Crazily laughing, he said, "I stabbed you! I stabbed you!"

"Seeking death!" Xie Yu's face was twisted in rage. He used his left hand to pull out the sword, and blood gushed out from the wound, instantly drenching him in red.

Xi Canhen was dumbfounded. At this moment, he could see that the heart within the wound was still calmly pulsing, completely unaffected by the sword.

"This… how?" Xi Canhen muttered in shock.

Xie Yu chuckled. "Didn't I tell you? I'm at Mortal Shedding Nine Revolutions! The Mortal Shedding Realm means that your physical body is in the process of shedding mortality. Being in Hundred Refinement means that one refines one's bones, muscles, and skin to be harder than steel. Being at Nine Revolutions means that one nurtures the nine weak points of the body—the heart, the liver, the spleen, the stomach, the kidneys, the lungs, the intestines, the gall bladder, and the head—with spiritual energy, turning them from mortal to spirit! I've already reached two revolutions, the heart and the liver. If these two points are attacked, so long as they aren't completely destroyed, you can't kill me! You're a mere mortal. Did you really think that just stabbing me with a sword would kill me? Absurd!"

"Is that how it is…" Xi Canhen looked at Xie Yu and said, "In other words, you haven't cultivated your Nine Revolutions to the head. If your head is attacked, you'll die, right?"

"Yes, but so what? Do you really think you can…" Before Xie Yu could finish, he sensed something and turned around, only to see a bloody and mangled figure approaching him at high speed.

It was Bao'er!

How? Hadn't it been crushed to death by his Flying Boulder art?

Raaa! The little tiger's roar once more resounded through the air. His eyes emitted a formidable killing intent while his entire body glowed with a bloody light.

The Blood Refining Spirit spell!

If this were an ordinary Spirit Sensing fiend tiger, that attack really might have killed it.

But Bao'er was a top-class fiend beast with a powerful bloodline. When this bloodline unleashed its true power, even the world would tremble in awe.

A moment later, the tiger shot over like a bolt of lightning, approaching Xie Yu at an inconceivable speed. Xie Yu immediately knew that he was in trouble. With a scream, he thrust out his shortsword, which was covered in a gray energy.

Plush!

The shortsword's gray sword energy stabbed into Bao'er's chest. At the same time, Bao'er lunged onto Xie Yu, a paw striking his head. Xie Yu leaned his head to the side, preventing the strike from cracking his head open, but it did tear away at half his face, causing him to howl in pain.

The inertia of the little tiger's charge carried Xie Yu over the cliff.

"Bastard!" Xie Yu shrieked. While still in the air, he stabbed at the little tiger again with his sword energy. For a cultivator, a fall was nothing to be afraid of. After all, they could fly. While descending, he would kill the little tiger first!

The sword energy punched another hole through the tiger's body, causing him to howl in pain. Opening his wings, he slammed into Xie Yu's chest and bit down on his shoulder. This time, he tightly clung to Xie Yu so that they would no longer be separated.

Not good!

Xie Yu knew he was in trouble and raised his sword again.

The shortsword penetrated through Bao'er's abdomen. At the same time, Bao'er's sharp claws stabbed into Xie Yu's eyes.

This time, he couldn't dodge.

Plush!

The five claws pierced into the eye socket and extended, penetrating deep into the head.

"Aaaaaaagh!" Xie Yu screamed.

A lethal wound!

Even so, he still didn't die.

Although he had yet to finish the revolution of the head, he was in the middle of cultivating it. Thus, he still held onto his last breath. He was currently blind in both eyes, and his brain was badly damaged, so he bitterly cried out, "We die together!"

His hands shot out, grabbing the little tiger's wings. Sssst! He tore the little tiger's wings off.

The little tiger could no longer maintain flight, and the man and tiger descended toward the earth while embracing each other…

"Bao'er, no…"

Xi Canhen bitterly wept.