Aspiring To The Immortal Path

The spatial fissures once more began to gather.

This time, the Jewel Immortal Sovereign was able to gather even more spatial fissures.

It was no simple net, but a giant web that covered all sides.

There was only a single opening in this giant web, enough for a person to fly up and out.

The Jewel Immortal Sovereign said, "Tang Jie, if you leave the valley and concede, you still have a chance to survive, but once I close this net, there will be no going back, and not even I will be able to save you!"

Tang Jie said nothing, staring hard at the Jewel Immortal Sovereign.

He had been through countless battles in his career, but never had the situation been so dire.

He was facing the Jewel Immortal Sovereign at her strongest, and he had nothing left to deal with her.

The best choice here was to immediately concede.

But Tang Jie stubbornly refused.

It wasn't because he didn't want to let go of the inter-domain trade, or the Martial Lord's hidden realm that had few resources left. He just didn't want to lose!

Even when facing almost certain defeat, Tang Jie still wanted to fight, still wanted to win.

He had never desired victory so much before, had never been so unafraid of sacrifice.

His eyes were afire as he stared at the Jewel Immortal Sovereign.

Jewel was rather taken aback by this gaze, and she felt like something was happening.

Tang Jie's aura was rising.

Rising without end!

The Sovereign Blade was beginning to shine with a resplendent sword light.

It was sword intent!

Long after he had comprehended saber intent, Tang Jie's sword intent had finally matured, but this was not the end.

As his sword intent was born, a cold and drab energy began to silently creep into his surroundings, giving off an eerie sensation.

"This is…" The spectating cultivators gasped in surprise.

At this moment, Tang Jie drew back his left hand and instantly formed several signs.

These were hand signs for the Nine Heavens Calamity Blade.

But why use that now?

And through this method?

Nobody understood.

But a moment later, Tang Jie's Sovereign Blade turned into a golden sword and shot into the air.

Radiating a golden light, it soared into the sky, and then a flood of sword energy descended.

This sword flood was like a river pouring down from the heavens, sweeping through the skies and toward the Jewel Immortal Sovereign, who was looking up in dumbfounded shock.

The silver river of sword energy threatened to engulf her.

The Jewel Immortal Sovereign wanted to retreat, knowing this was bad.

But at this moment, Tang Jie shouted, "Fix!"

Law Speaking!

"Fix" spoken through Law Speaking was incredibly powerful, comparable to the Jewel Immortal Sovereign's Fixlight Bottle.

The sword light swept down.

Grunting, the Jewel Immortal Sovereign continued to weave her web, but she had part of her strength instantly transform into countless defenses.

A moment later, the silver flood arrived, melting through the Jewel Immortal Sovereign's defenses like the sun's rays melting the snow.

Jewel's defenses had never seemed so fragile than at this moment, and she scowled.

With a thought, the Three Pure Bodies appeared once more, mobilizing the Three Purities World against the sword flood.

The sword flood ceaselessly poured down, its sharpness making the Three Purities World tremble. A sword river surged into that small world, shaking the earth and toppling trees, leaving devastation and destruction in its wake.

And beyond the Three Purities World, the sword flood continued, the vast energy leaving even the Three Pure Bodies strained.

The little bit of complexion the Jewel Immortal Sovereign had just regained quickly faded.

It had to be understood that while she had borrowed the Jade Ocean Lotus to recover, a Violet Palace expert using a Dao armament was essentially using something beyond their level, and each use cost them dearly. The Jade Ocean Lotus had healed the damage she had suffered, but it could not restore the vast amount of energy it had taken to use the Jade Ocean Lotus. Her impressive exterior hid a deep exhaustion, though Jewel had ensured that nobody could see it.

But the reckless Tang Jie had torn off Jewel's disguise and exposed her false bravado.

Jewel's heart trembled as she cried out, "A Dao Art! A fourth Dao Art!"

Yes, Tang Jie was clearly using a fourth Dao Art!

The Jewel Immortal Sovereign's power hadn't made Tang Jie back down. On the contrary, it had only stimulated him into another breakthrough, allowing him to complete another Dao Art.

Unlike his other Dao Arts, this was a true combat Dao Art.

Its Dao was Slaughter, and its art was the Heavenly Calamity Blade.

The Dao Art was a fusion of the Slaughter Dao with the Nine Heavens Calamity Blade and his sword intent, and Tang Jie named it: Skyrend Swordfall!

It was a true waterfall of swords, ceaseless and powerful, and even the Jewel Immortal Sovereign found herself outmatched.

Among the Twelve Great Daos, Slaughter and Destruction were the most offensively powerful. Slaughter emphasized the process while Destruction emphasized the result.

To put it another way, the attacks of the Dao of Slaughter were fierce and unstoppable while the attacks of the Dao of Destruction had the most severe and lingering consequences.

This was why it was extremely inappropriate to take on a Slaughter Dao Art directly.

The Jewel Immortal Sovereign didn't know the Dao of the Skyrend Swordfall and hadn't expected Tang Jie's attack to embody Slaughter, so she had chosen the worst method. As a result, the Skyrend Swordfall had washed away the majority of the Three Purities World's power, and by the time that waterfall finally ended, only 30% was left.

All the spectators were stunned.

This was a small world! Yet it had been devastated to this level by a single Skyrend Swordfall.

But ultimately, this attack had failed to heavily wound Jewel, and a moment later, she brought her hands together, upon which the web of spatial fissures erupted with energy, sending vicious gales sweeping through the valley.

The spatial fissure web was complete!

But as she was about to make that giant web eviscerate Tang Jie, Tang Jie rushed forward.

Ignoring the tight web of spatial fissures around him, he charged at the Jewel Immortal Sovereign and punched.

It was a majestic punch, imbued with a profound and ancient energy. It was the last of his twelve strikes from the Combat Emperor Catalog:

The Reincarnation Strike!

A single strike to send one back into the cycle of reincarnation!

The Jewel Immortal Sovereign felt like she was engulfed by this punch, countless scenes flitting past her eyes.

She saw herself as a village girl, strolling through the countryside with a basket of flowers and a sweet smile on her face. Then suddenly, she was an intimidating man in combat robes. And then she was a butcher, and then a farmer hoeing his fields, and then a studying student…

Faces and lives appeared one after another, and Jewel suddenly realized that those were her past lives.

In the past, she had been a village girl, a general, a butcher, a farmer, a student. Some of them had been fortunate, others destitute. Some had lived long lives, and others had died violently. That happy village girl had been assaulted by a scoundrel on the way back home. The studying student ultimately hanged himself from the rafters after too many failures. That crude butcher was a drunkard and one day slipped, fell, and died. That old farmer was unfilial and lived his old age all alone. Yet it was that veteran general, someone who should have died an early death, who managed to survive all his numerous injuries and peacefully retire, living a peaceful life before dying at the age of one hundred.

All of these experiences rushed into her mind, leaving the Jewel Immortal Sovereign unstable.

It was only a few seconds, yet it felt like she had been through several lifetimes.

In that instant, the Jewel Immortal Sovereign almost fell so deep that she couldn't pull herself out.

This was the power of the Reincarnation Strike.

The six middle strikes of the Combat Emperor Catalog no longer focused on purely brute strength, attacking both the flesh and the spirit.

Before the Reincarnation Strike made contact, it attacked the soul, awakening the memories of one's past life and throwing the senses into disarray, so when the actual punch came, the opponent was powerless to resist.

This was the true essence of the Reincarnation Strike.

But the Jewel Immortal Sovereign was no mortal. As a Soul Projection Celestial Sovereign, she possessed a powerful soul. Realizing that something was wrong, she raised her head and threw up a mouthful of blood.

It was just blood, but as a Soul Projection Celestial Sovereign, she had imbued it with that little bit of Immortal Essence she had gathered when strengthening her Divine Soul. The blood instantly dispelled the illusions, revealing Tang Jie's fist flying toward her.

"Seeking death!" the Jewel Immortal Sovereign roared, her hands moving and making the spatial web close around Tang Jie.

Tang Jie didn't even try to dodge, his fist shining.

"Die!" Tang Jie bellowed, his words imbued with Law Speaking.

Through the Black Yellow Treatise, this punch contained not just the Reincarnation Strike, but all of his other spell arts and Divine Connections!

One strike to decide everything!

One of them was going to die!

Boom!

Tang Jie's fist slammed into the Jewel Immortal Sovereign's body, and those overlapping defenses were easily shattered, the surging flood of energy blasting into Jewel's body and obliterating half of it.

The Three Purities World shook and swayed, appearing on the verge of collapse, and the Three Pure Bodies merged with the original body in an attempt to neutralize the attack and heal Jewel. The Jewel Immortal Sovereign's body was constantly changing colors as if an entire world's energy was raging within her, and she spewed out mouthful after mouthful of blood.

The blood rained down over the Valley of the Eight Wilds, the nine Fireglass Snakes wailed in pain, and the Ink Jade wagon was blown to pieces, unable to absorb this energy.

Never before had the Jewel Immortal Sovereign been in so much danger. Never before had she been so heavily injured.

Everyone was stunned by this sight.

How could this be? How could this last punch be so powerful?

The Combat Emperor Catalog was truly powerful, each strike making the Jewel Immortal Sovereign pay a price, but they weren't invincible. There was no reason for one strike to injure her so badly.

They didn't understand, but Tang Jie was in no place to explain.

As the spatial fissure web sliced through him, thousands of spatial blades sliced him up evenly into tens of thousands of little pieces, turning him into a pile of meat cubes in the sky.