Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Tang Jie cautiously advanced.

He moved very slowly because he had to be careful.

There were resentful souls all around him, and if any one of them noticed that he was fake, he would drown in resentful souls.

The resentful souls floated about the black wasteland, howling and screeching. It was enough to scare anyone to death.

Tang Jie slowly crept his way out of this pack of resentful souls.

He held the Soul Bewitching Grass like it was some porcelain treasure, walking among the resentful souls like he was walking on thin ice. Yet his face was composed and calm, like Jing Ke on his way to see the King of Qin. He might have been all nerves inside, but his face was confident and unperturbed.

(TN: Jing Ke is famous for his failed assassination attempt of the King of Qin, the future Qin Shi Huang who unified China. In the attempt, he entered the palace for an audience with the King of Qin to present a map, in which was hidden a poisoned dagger, but the King of Qin was able to evade the first blow and the assassination ultimately failed.)

Tang Jie gradually began to get away from the concentration of resentful souls. While there were still many around him, they weren't as dense as before, instead wandering about in groups of three to five and also slowly dispersing.

But Tang Jie also sensed his Ghost Illusion spell suddenly shifting.

He knew that this was a sign the Ghost Illusion spell was wearing off.

The Ghost Illusion spell required both spiritual energy and also refining a ghost into ghost energy to disguise oneself. This ghost energy would be consumed over time, placing the user on a timer.

Tang Jie could sense that the ghost energy was running out and he would soon be exposed, so he picked up speed.

This made him stand out among the drifting resentful souls, many of them looking over at him and some of them even getting closer, wondering why their comrade was in such a rush.

Tang Jie tensed, and he could only slow back down.

As the minutes went by and the Ghost Illusion spell's power faded, Tang Jie drew closer and closer to the outermost edge.

The dwindling number of resentful souls around him was a sign that he was almost out.

Just then, a resentful soul curiously approached him.

Tang Jie instantly had a bad feeling. His Ghost Illusion spell was in the middle of collapsing, and his vitality could leak at any time. He could only move faster to try and avoid the approaching resentful soul.

But that resentful soul seemed to be extremely interested in Tang Jie, and when Tang Jie picked up speed, it sped up as well, floating up right in front of him and floating around as if it was flirting with him.

Damn it!

Tang Jie silently cursed and tried moving to the side to get away from the resentful soul. The resentful soul let out a cry and gave chase, refusing to give up.

Tang Jie grew frantic. His Ghost Illusion was about to completely collapse, ghost energy falling off his body, the outline of a human now visible in the fog. Ignoring the resentful soul, Tang Jie began to run.

The resentful soul reached out but failed to grab Tang Jie, upon which it let out a wail of sorrow.

And then it saw that thick ghost fog falling away, revealing a human figure sprinting away, and together with it was the aroma of a living being.

The resentful soul froze, and then it threw its head back and shrieked.

"Keee!"

"Keeee!" All of the resentful souls shrieked in response.

Tens of thousands of cries arose over the wasteland, tearing through the darkness and deafening the ears.

In a surging wave of ghost fog, countless resentful souls rushed at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie's blood ran cold, but now, at least there was no more need to hide his strength.

"Ghosts and devils, collapse, retreat, disperse!"

As Tang Jie roared, a storm stirred, and Tang Jie charged forward, exuding an intimidating aura.

Several resentful souls ahead of him tried to intercept him, but Tang Jie thrust his hand forward and roared, "Out of my way!"

A shockwave erupted, sending the resentful souls into the air.

Tang Jie tore through the wasteland like a whirlwind.

But the resentful souls didn't let him go, angrily chasing him and shrieking all the while.

Some of the closer resentful souls used their ability to teleport through the fog to appear right next to him.

Above Tang Jie, a vortex appeared, and a resentful soul emerged. This was the resentful soul that Tang Jie had "deceived", and it howled as it reached for Tang Jie.

Tang Jie put away the Soul Bewitching Grass and brought his hands together, forming the Sun Wheel Sign, upon which a ball of light formed in his hand. "Break!"

The resentful soul was instantly turned to dust.

But several more resentful souls appeared right over his head.

Tang Jie could only keep using the Sun Wheel Sign.

The Sun Wheel Sign activated one's Life energy to unleash a holy and majestic power, but it wasn't something the current Tang Jie could use as he pleased. This was a Celestial Heart Realm spell art, and it was only thanks to Tang Jie's Immortal Platform experience and his perfect body that he could use it, but the effort still exhausted him.

More resentful souls were coming up from behind, none of them willing to let Tang Jie go.

Tang Jie was really starting to regret his decision.

The decision he regretted was not the one to get the Soul Bewitching Grass, but the one to focus only on cultivating and not on researching methods for dealing with ghosts. Now that he had need of them, he realized how few he had.

But he still kept up on the attack, throwing out the Sun Wheel Sign again and again, blasting away those resentful souls.

Sweat began to appear on his forehead as he began to suffer from using a spell art above his level.

At this moment, another resentful soul appeared in front of him, reaching its claws toward him.

Tang Jie had just used a Sun Wheel Sign and had no strength for another, so he could only throw a punch at this resentful soul.

Resentful souls were ethereal creatures, and physical strength was normally ineffective against them, which was an important reason Tang Jie had such a tough time with them. He hadn't really been able to use his full strength.

But as he punched out, Tang Jie felt something, and as his blood energy surged, a righteous energy erupted out of his body.

This torrent of energy struck the resentful soul, which screamed as it was obliterated, as if it had been struck by the Sun Wheel Sign. Tang Jie was dumbfounded.

The blood energy of a body cultivator was a righteous energy that countered ghosts to a certain extent, but the ghosts of the Nether Domain were savage creatures that blood energy alone could not deal with. If things were that simple, Wang Juemie could have waltzed through the Nether Domain. There would have been no tough battles, and no need for Little Three to ultimately save him.

So Tang Jie was baffled.

His confusion wasn't going to stop him from using it, though.

He started to throw out punches.

But the next few punches didn't have the same effect.

Rather than killing a resentful soul, he only opened himself up to it getting a few touches in. Fortunately, with his abundant blood energy, he quickly recovered.

However, his little experiment ended up getting him surrounded by resentful souls, making escape more difficult.

At this point, Tang Jie decided to calm down and consider what that first punch had felt like.

He had wanted to unleash another Sun Wheel Sign, but he didn't have time as he hadn't reached the thoughtcasting level, so he could only desperately punch. But his body seemed to instinctively be casting the Sun Wheel Sign and was still in the process. Could it be…

As Tang Jie was running and recalling what had happened, he slowly raised his arm.

A shrieking resentful soul charged at him.

Tang Jie calmly stared at it, raised his right hand, and punched.

It looked like a regular punch, but Tang Jie was bursting with confidence.

He was confident that this punch would have all the power of the first!

Blood energy flooded out in a majestic surge, slamming into the resentful soul, which melted away like snow.

Success!

Tang Jie turned around and punched at another resentful soul, and as their hands touched, the resentful soul's icy hand was vaporized by Tang Jie's abundant blood energy.

Revitalized, Tang Jie jumped up with a howl and let out several dozen punches.

These were not spell arts, just ordinary punches, but each one was imbued with immense energy, like the sun casting its rays across the earth.

The dark skies were lit up enough to see the horrified faces of the resentful souls.

They screeched and trembled in fear of Tang Jie's radiant sunlight!

Tang Jie kept punching and punching, immersed in the moment, as if he wanted to unleash all his energy and strength.

After punching for who-knows-how-long, he saw plumes of white smoke rising up.

These were indicators of dissipated resentful souls, and now they were all gathering together in a single grandiose pillar of smoke.

The resentful souls finally lost heart!

Their limited intelligence had finally come around.

Screeching and howling, they retreated and fled!

The mountain of punches, the raging sunlight, the righteous river of energy, had finally broken them!

"RAAAA!" Tang Jie punched with all his might, giving full vent to his emotions, and only after he unleashed the most frenzied punch of all, killing several dozen resentful souls with a single blow, did he finally stagger back a few steps.

He finally felt exhaustion.

But his mind was as energetic as ever.

Looking around, he saw not a single resentful soul in sight.

He let out a hearty laugh.

This wasn't just because he had gotten a treasure and won a battle, but also because he realized what had happened.

After his laugh, he swayed a little and then turned back to the Yan River.

He had gained enough from today and needed a good rest.

Not long after he had left, a white figure floated out of the distance.

It was the Infant Seed ghost.

After circling around the part of the wasteland that Tang Jie had battled in, the Infant Seed looked up to the sky and noiselessly called out.

Not long afterward, in the Yaksha estate, Maraju received the good news.