Aspiring to the Immortal Path

In the Five Origins Estate, Wind Holder and the Lithos Dragon faced off against each other.

In the Yellow Court World, the Azure Dragon nervously looked at Tang Jie.

But Tang Jie's attention wasn't on him.

Through the spatial screen, Tang Jie was still observing the situation in the Five Origins Estate, his attitude that of a relaxed spectator. "Now that I think about it, we've known each other for a long time now. I've always come to you with my cultivation problems, never asking you about anything else. But it seems now that this was a big mistake. Ice Phoenix becoming a demon was a consequence of this mistake, though I didn't think that I would continue to make this mistake…"

Ice Phoenix harrumphed, not thinking that there was anything mistaken about her current state.

Tang Jie casually looked over at the Azure Dragon. "When I encountered you in the core of the Verdant Cloud Domain's formation, your original body had been sealing Immortal Ji Yao. I thought that this was the reason you had been slumbering for ten thousand years, but it now appears that I was wrong. You had some other goal—am I right?"

The Azure Dragon trembled, but he couldn't bring himself to speak.

It was strange. He was already Tang Jie's servant, so what could he hide from Tang Jie?

But not a single word came out of his trembling body.

Tang Jie didn't scold him, simply saying, "It was to break through, right? Back then, you said that ten thousand years of slumber was to break through in one day. If not for me and Lin Xin, once your True God had returned to your physical body, you would have broken through the threshold and become a Boundless Gold Immortal, right?"

The Azure Dragon was startled.

After a long while, he sighed. "Since Master already knows, this old dragon has no reason to hide it from you. Yes, I slumbered for ten thousand years to break out of True Immortal. As for suppressing Immortal Ji Yao, that was the price I had to pay so that the Immortal Emperor would use his Fake Sky, False Sun Immortal Art."

"The 'Fake Sky, False Sun Art'?" Tang Jie repeated.

"Yes," the Azure Dragon confirmed. "Master also knows that I was a Sacred Beast of High Antiquity, born with a powerful innate talent. Alas, because of my bloodline, I can never get past True Immortal. When I was an honored guest of the court, Immortal Emperor Yu Cheng personally told me that because the Azure Dragon bloodline originated from the beginning of the universe's creation, the Five Realms and Fourteen Tiers were absolute. While the Four Sacred Beasts might reign supreme, the limitations of the cosmos prevent them from advancing any further."

"The Five Realms and Fourteen Tiers are absolute for the Sacred Beasts?" Tang Jie's eyes flashed.

Meanwhile, the Lithos Dragon had started to fight with Wind Holder. While the Lithos Dragon was an Immortal beast, Wind Holder was a True Immortal, so the Lithos Dragon was no match. But he wasn't completely helpless and was doing his best to escape.

Tang Jie continued speaking with the Azure Dragon as he observed the battle.

The Azure Dragon explained, "Yes, the Four Sacred Beasts were born at the beginning of the universe, growing with the world until they reached the apex. From then on, they were stuck at True Immortal, unable to advance any further. Later on, powerful Titans were able to find an even higher level, establishing the levels of Gold Immortal and Saint Immortal. However, the Four Sacred Beasts were still limited by their bloodlines, and their statuses gradually began to fall. I racked my mind for ways to break this limit…"

"Including tempting Immortal Ji Yao into becoming a demon?" Tang Jie indifferently asked.

A hint of embarrassment appeared on the Azure Dragon's face. "This… this wasn't on purpose. As I controlled the Dao of Fate, in order to break out of True Immortal, I was constantly observing the will of the heavens to find an opportunity, but countless years went by without a single opportunity. Just when I was about to despair, one day, as I was observing Fate, I felt the will of the heavens."

"'The will of the heavens'?"

"Indeed!" the Azure Dragon confirmed. "It was an indescribable feeling. Through that feeling, I found that if I wanted to break my shackles, I would have to die and be reborn, destroy and then create."

Tang Jie nodded. "'Destroy and then create'… It makes sense. But what does that have to do with Immortal Ji Yao?"

"The Jade Lady Iceheart Mantra Immortal Ji Yao cultivates is one of the divine arts of High Antiquity, with boundless potential. The stronger the external force, the more it stimulates the self. When thinking of a way to achieve success through destruction, the Jade Lady Iceheart Mantra was the best model."

Through the old dragon's words, Tang Jie finally understood.

Immortal Ji Yao, the Iceheart Lotus Lady, had essentially reached her limit upon reaching True Immortal.

This wasn't strange. The Five Realms and Fourteen Tiers had once been the limit set by the world, and many people were never able to make it past this threshold. Everyone that had was talented to an absurd level, backed by untold amounts of effort and sacrifice.

And Immortal Ji Yao's Iceheart Mantra was an Immortal art that fell apart when one was affected by emotions, which the Dao of Fate happened to be perfect at.

Thus, in order to research a method of destruction and then creation, the old dragon started with Immortal Ji Yao.

As Immortal Ji Yao happened to be caring for the Martial Lord at the time, the dragon pulled on the strings of Fate to cause Immortal Ji Yao to ultimately drop her guard and develop affection for Li Jiuyang. The old dragon then made the Martial Lord fall in love with the Pearl Lady, dooming Immortal Ji Yao's love, causing her to go mad and breaking the Jade Lady Iceheart Mantra.

Of course, the old dragon didn't just have her art fail, but laid down many preparations beforehand so he could properly study the process.

In the end, he really did succeed. The day Immortal Ji Yao's art failed was the day she broke free of her True Immortal shackles, and also the day she became a demon.

The day she became a Boundless Gold Immortal and a demon were the same.

She went to find the Martial Lord to try and kill this "adulterous couple".

Of course, the results of trying to do this in the Court of Myriad Domains were obvious. Even as a Gold Immortal, she wasn't invincible. Immortal Emperor Yu Cheng subdued her, but because of Reverend Five Origins' pleading, rather than kill her, he handed her over to Five Origins, whereupon she was sealed in the Eternity Sarcophagus. Later on, Immortal Ji Yao broke free, killed Five Origins, and wandered about for a time, and then attacked the court, which resulted in her being sealed in that shard of the Primordial Fog Domain.

The old dragon had thought that things would end here.

But not long afterward, Immortal Emperor Yu Cheng came to find him.

His first words were, "You were the one behind the Lotus Lady affair, no?"

The Azure Dragon had been so scared that his soul almost fled his body.

——————————

Within the Five Origins Estate, Wind Holder and the Lithos Dragon were still fighting.

The Lithos Dragon was under so much pressure that he could barely breathe, and though he tried his best to escape, he was facing a True Immortal and was thwarted at every turn. He was still only able to struggle on because Wind Holder was testing his newfound power and using the Lithos Dragon as a training dummy.

Unmoved, Tang Jie continued to observe their battle. "And then?"

The Azure Dragon sighed. "The Immortal Emperor was too sharp and easily saw through my methods, so I couldn't even try to shirk the responsibility. But after learning my purpose, the Immortal Emperor became very pensive, after which he told me that while my methods were crude, I was on the right track. However, while the Lotus Lady could advance, I wouldn't be able to."

"And why is that?" Xu Miaoran asked in surprise.

"Because the Azure Dragon's bloodline limit is even stronger than what limited Immortal Ji Yao, right?" Tang Jie said.

The Azure Dragon nodded. "The bloodline limit was too powerful and hard to break. Even if I were willing to become a demon, I still probably wouldn't be able to become a Gold Immortal. However, the Immortal Emperor offered a path for me."

"'The Immortal Emperor offered you a path'? You messed around with Immortal Ji Yao, but he offered to help you?" Yiyi said in confusion.

The Azure Dragon chuckled. "Little girl, do you not get it? For cultivators like us, what is most important? Breaking through! Constantly breaking through! Why was the Immortal Emperor able to become the Immortal Emperor, going from mortal to Saint Immortal? Isn't that because he had a heart that sought to constantly break into the next level?"

Everyone was speechless.

The old dragon was right. It went without saying that the Immortal Emperor must have had a heart set on advancement in order to become a Saint Immortal. It was precisely this persistent soul that had brought him to that lofty status, as was the case for any major figure in history.

This was why the Immortal Emperor considered the Azure Dragon's actions perhaps worthy of death, but also understandable.

Most importantly, he wanted to know the results of the Azure Dragon's research.

Thus, after that, the Immortal Emperor joined the Azure Dragon in researching this theory of attaining the Dao through destruction and creation.

The Fake Sky, False Sun Immortal Art was created at that time.

It existed to destroy and to establish anew upon the broken shackles!

When this art was used, the user would temporarily die, storing up their True God to experience countless cycles and years. In this period, they would have none of their former power, but constantly accumulate new fortune and power. Finally, they would use various methods to be reborn and break their shackles in a single step.

It sounded simple, but the actual process was unfathomably complicated, the time needed as long as ten thousand years.

One could say that one was essentially using ten thousand years to ascend a single tier.

It seemed like a huge price, but for Immortals who found their progress stymied, it might not be much at all. Take the Azure Dragon. He had already spent tens of thousand years in this world, so ten thousand years, or even more, was a price he was willing to pay for the sake of a dream.

In truth, the price others paid to advance might not be very small either.

To reach Immortal Platform, Tang Jie first had to strengthen his Yellow Court World, and to do that, he had to kill a pile of Immortals, so Tang Jie could understand.

Tang Jie was going this far just to reach Immortal Platform, so the old dragon waiting ten thousand years for True Immortal didn't seem strange.

Thus, the Azure Dragon and the Immortal Emperor reached an agreement. They would perform a ten-thousand-year experiment, using the Fake Sky, False Sun Immortal Art on the Azure Dragon so that he could break his shackles and become a Gold Immortal. At the same time, he would suppress Immortal Ji Yao and prevent her from breaking out and bringing further calamity to the world. As the Azure Dragon was a participant the entire way, he was sure that if this plan succeeded, he would be able to find an even better way to advance, perhaps even skip or shorten the ten thousand years of slumber.

The Court of Myriad Domains had been in its golden age at the time, the Immortals believing that their era would last for eternity. Nobody would have expected the court to be shattered, and the Azure Dragon certainly hadn't expected the Immortal Emperor to swindle him. After all, the Immortal Emperor had the prestige, status, strength, and power to kill him with a single strike of his palm, so he hadn't suspected anything.

Alas, everything had changed after ten thousand years, and the Immortal Emperor's arrangements had been a trap, robbing the Azure Dragon of his physical body and making him a prisoner.

To this, the Azure Dragon could only say, "Perhaps this was the late punishment for what I did to Immortal Ji Yao. The Immortal Emperor never said anything about letting me go. I just thought that I had escaped. It seems now that the old man had planned out everything, and it just so happened that it was only today that my punishment arrived."

Yiyi chuckled. "That's strange. If he was going to punish you, wouldn't he make you his servant? Why make you Big Brother's servant? Why would he go so far for the sake of someone else?"

This careless comment caused a strange light to gleam in the eyes of Tang Jie and Xu Miaoran.