Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Unprocessed Soul Bewitching Grass had a dense aroma, and holding one's breath was sufficient to block out the majority of its effect.

Completely processed Soul Bewitching Incense was much more formidable. It now exuded no scent at all, and it lingered around. Formless and scentless, it was able to even ensnare prepared people, which was what made it such a formidable weapon.

As Tang Jie advanced, he ran into more and more resentful souls.

Gradually, Tang Jie found that even when he was in the middle of the thick black fog, he could still see numerous resentful souls floating here and there. Fortunately, they had all been attracted by the Soul Bewitching Grass and were caught in the illusions. They were simply mindlessly floating back and forth without any intent, but if Tang Jie got close, they would undoubtedly wake from their dream and attack him.

At some point, there were so many resentful souls that they blocked the path ahead. Tang Jie could sense that the ghosts were surrounding a bright, blooming flower, the Soul Bewitching Grass.

As time passed, the light radiating from the flower dwindled, meaning that it had already passed its peak and was in its withering phase. It wouldn't be long before it completely disappeared.

But getting through the layers of resentful souls to get the Soul Bewitching Grass wasn't easy.

Tang Jie started to draft a plan.

He soon had one, and he closed his eyes and sent off his thoughts.

On the cultivator war battlefield, Tang Jie's avatar in the Hall of Divine Conference received the thought, pondering it while silently grumbling over the trouble Tang Jie was stirring up. But in the end, he was just causing trouble for himself, so the avatar had nothing to say about it. All he did was take out the Ghost Classic that he had obtained many years ago.

Opening it up to a particular page, the avatar began to read the text, with the original body back in the Nether Domain receiving the information in real time. Reading and learning at the same time wasn't easy, but the original body had Immortal-level comprehension and a perfect body, so he managed to successfully learn this spell art.

Forming the hand signs, he went up to a resentful soul.

As he approached, the resentful soul woke up and lunged at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie didn't try to dodge, letting the resentful soul's hand touch his face. As the resentful soul touched him, Tang Jie thrust out his hand sign and chanted, "Ghost and devils, become one with me!"

The resentful soul shrieked and transformed into a puff of smoke that landed in Tang Jie's hand.

Tang Jie shifted his hand sign to the Demon Spirit King Sign, and then the Heaven Sealing Heart Sign, and finally ended with the 73 Minor Cycles Ghost Mantra. The smoke of the resentful soul gathered on Tang Jie's body, and Tang Jie gradually transformed into a resentful soul.

Not just in appearance, but also in aura.

This was the Ghost Illusion spell of the Ghost Classic, turning a living creature into a ghost to disguise oneself. This spell had no combat ability, was extremely complex to use, used up a ghost, and would also weaken the user while it was in effect, so it hadn't been particularly popular. It was only because it had such a unique effect that it was recorded in the Ghost Classic. Tang Jie had noticed it when he had first obtained the book, but he had paid it little mind.

It was only when he was thinking about how to get the Soul Bewitching Grass that he remembered this spell art.

It had been a success, and even the resentful souls couldn't recognize him.

Tang Jie boldly waltzed in, passing by those resentful souls without waking them.

Finally, Tang Jie reached the Soul Bewitching Grass. It grew on a small mound, swaying in the wind. Although there was only one, it seemed to shine with all the colors of the world.

With just one glance, Tang Jie felt his world spinning, and he realized to his dismay that the flower itself had the ability to confuse the mind. He hastily closed his eyes while reaching out for the flower.

As his hand drew closer and closer, a resentful soul suddenly floated over and grabbed at him.

Their hands touched, and Tang Jie's hand instantly went numb.

Tang Jie opened his eyes and saw that the resentful soul was still deaf to the world, still slumbering in the illusion.

But after attacking Tang Jie, the resentful soul continued to lunge at him.

Helpless, Tang Jie could only withdraw. At this moment, the Soul Bewitching Grass flashed and dimmed again, growing closer to disappearance.

Tang Jie knew that this was bad and ignored the numbness in his right hand, forming a hand sign and blasting away that resentful soul. Still in the illusion, the resentful soul was defenseless and blown to dust.

Tang Jie grabbed its Soul Fire and then moved to take the Soul Bewitching Grass, but at this moment, several more resentful souls drifted over, attacking Tang Jie while still in the illusion.

Tang Jie realized that the Soul Bewitching Grass was using the illusion to control the resentful souls into attacking him, unexpectedly possessing a sense of self-preservation. Tang Jie flicked his fingers twice, exterminating the two resentful souls.

But even more of them converged on his location.

Silently and mindlessly.

Once more, Tang Jie could only retreat and deal with the resentful souls, obliterating one after another.

But the Soul Bewitching Grass continued to summon more. As its control ability was limited, it could only summon ten-some resentful souls through the illusion at one time, and the resentful souls had lost their evasiveness because of the illusion. As a result, they were essentially lambs to the slaughter. However, its goal wasn't to kill Tang Jie, but to stall him until it disappeared.

In truth, it was being rather stupid. All it needed to do was release its control over the majority of resentful souls, and then when Tang Jie attacked, he would expose himself and be attacked en masse by the resentful souls and destroyed.

But it was still a plant, and while its power to delude souls gave it some intelligence, it wasn't on par with a human. The more in danger it was, the more panicked it was, and it wanted more than ever to control all the resentful souls. Releasing them had never occurred to it.

As a result, the resentful souls were massacred, their Life energies flowing into Tang Jie's body and giving him an unprecedented sense of fullness.

But Tang Jie wasn't happy at all. He could see the Soul Bewitching Grass rapidly withering and dimming, its petals beginning to close. Its resplendent light was also condensing into a ball.

It seemed like its disappearance wasn't far off, while there were still more resentful souls coming in from all sides.

Tang Jie started to panic.

He knew that if he didn't take the Soul Bewitching Grass now, he would soon miss out on his chance.

After some thought, he formed a hand sign, summoning a bolt of lightning that flew at the resentful souls, injuring all of them.

But Tang Jie held back, only injuring rather than killing the resentful souls.

Something strange happened, the resentful souls spinning around in place and not chasing after Tang Jie.

This was exactly what Tang Jie wanted to see.

He was targeting the Soul Bewitching Grass's lack of intelligence here, crippling rather than killing the resentful souls. After taking his attack, those resentful souls became unstable and difficult to control. Someone smarter would have immediately given up on these resentful souls and moved to control others. But the foolish Soul Bewitching Grass kept trying to control the same resentful souls to attack Tang Jie, with no thought of switching.

A gap finally appeared in the flood of resentful souls, and Tang Jie rushed through, getting past the resentful souls and reaching for the Soul Bewitching Grass.

The Soul Bewitching Grass intensely flashed as if making one last effort to pull Tang Jie into an illusion.

Tang Jie closed his eyes and charged.

The Soul Bewitching Grass trembled and began to draw all of its light underground, the blooming flower reduced to a flower bud. But just as it was about to disappear into the earth, Tang Jie grabbed it by the stem.

"Eeek!" The Soul Bewitching Grass let out a screech, but the resentful souls it controlled were all heavily injured and unable to help. Tang Jie pulled hard, uprooting the plant and exposing its tangle of roots, which were in the shape of head and made sounds akin to a sobbing infant.

The moment Tang Jie saw the roots, he realized that a liquid called Mind Soothing Nectar could be squeezed from the roots, which was a medicine that could break illusions. The Soul Bewitching Grass had both the ability to create illusions and to dispel them. He then thrust out a finger, silencing the sobbing.

But the moment Tang Jie pulled out the plant, ghost energy erupted from all around, and a great shrieking and howling filled the air.

The resentful souls were all crying out as they awoke from the illusion.

Tang Jie was alarmed, not having expected this result from pulling out the Soul Bewitching Grass.

The resentful souls all turned to Tang Jie.

Tang Jie wanted to immediately flee.

But he quickly composed himself, subduing all his emotions down to the very bottom of his mind as he circulated the Ghost Illusion spell. As expected, the resentful souls glanced over him and turned their gazes elsewhere.

The resentful souls had been lured here by the illusion and had no idea what had been happening or why they were even here. They had all looked in the same direction purely based on instinct.

But when they saw and felt nothing strange, they gradually lost interest, not being intelligent enough for anything else.

But just because they were ignoring him didn't mean that they would disperse. They simply began to freely wander around.

Perhaps they still had some lingering attachment to this place.

Holding the Soul Bewitching Grass, Tang Jie "floated" his way out.