Aspiring to the Immortal Path

"A Gold Immortal's legacy, 'the World Descender Mantra'?" Even someone as composed as Tang Jie couldn't help but be surprised. "Are you telling the truth?"

Jin Tianya bitterly smiled. "In my situation, how could I dare to deceive you? However, while this mantra can take you directly to Gold Immortal, it is extremely difficult and dangerous to cultivate. If it's not necessary, I don't advise attempting it."

"Deal! So long as you give me the World Descender Mantra and agree to one other request, once I confirm that the mantra is real, I will release you," Tang Jie said.

"What request?"

"You can't attack the human cultivators of this domain. I know you were imprisoned by the humans and must harbor resentment against them, but I am also a human. I wouldn't be able to accept it if the humans of this place suffered disaster because of me, so even if it means not obtaining the World Descender Mantra, I can't release you. This would destabilize my Dao Heart, so obtaining any mantra would be pointless."

Jin Tianya was surprised by this request. After a pause, he asked, "What about the fiends and demons?"

When he had entered the Blood River Domain all those years ago, he had relied on his True Immortal strength to dominate the place, offending many people. Thus, it wasn't just the humans, but the Immortals of all three races who united to seal him here. At the time, the human faction hadn't been so weak, so Jin Tianya had been sealed on human territory. But not long afterward, the number one titan of the human race, Chen Tianguan, failed in the ascension to True Immortal. Worth noting was that he had used the World Descender Mantra in this attempt. Even with the undying body of an Immortal, he was unable to overcome the danger that came from the failure and died. Humanity was instantly weakened while the fiends used this opportunity to flourish, resulting in today's situation. With no other choice, the humans used the sealed Jin Tianya as their trump card, and this along with the threat of the Demon Gate made the fiends uneasy about invading.

For Jin Tianya, while the humans were enemies, so were the fiends and demons, leading to his question.

Tang Jie laughed. "What do the fiends and demons have to do with me?"

Jin Tianya was delighted. "Great! I'll start with those two races then!"

"As you please," Tang Jie answered.

For Tang Jie, Jin Tianya had made exactly the choice he wanted.

If the battle at Thousand Autumns City was the primer to start the war, Jin Tianya's attack would completely set off the flame and make sure that there was no way to put it out.

The two exchanged oaths. Tang Jie would grant Jin Tianya his freedom, and then when Jin Tianya was free, he would not kill any humans in the Blood River Domain unless they attacked him first. In addition, Jin Tianya would pass the World Descender Mantra to Tang Jie.

With the agreement, Jin Tianya laughed and said, "Now that we've settled our alliance, I must ask my young friend to find some Rainbow Water, Verdant Wood Essence, and Locust Paste."

"What do you need those for?" Tang Jie asked.

"To break the formation, of course." He glanced at Tang Jie, inwardly grumbling, You're an Immortal, so how do you not even know this? "These five chains are all made from Mother Cloud Essence Metal and empowered by Dao Runes, so it's impossible to break them. My only way of breaking free is to gather these three items and then take them to the three formation eyes to counter the formation…"

As he was talking, Tang Jie took out the Sovereign Blade and lightly tapped one of the chains. From their toughness, he confirmed that these Dao-enhanced Mother Cloud Metal chains were difficult for even Immortals to break. But to Tang Jie, they were useless.

"Once the formation is suppressed, another formation needs to be laid down to draw away the Blueheart Demon Flame. To be honest, this formation isn't easy to lay down, and I'm not an expert, so I can only do my best to try and teach you…"

Tang Jie raised the Sovereign Blade, and the power of Slaughter flowed through his arm into the blade…

Jin Tianya was still talking. "Finally, we two will combine our strength to suppress the Dao power, allowing me to use my transformation powers and free mys–"

Before he could say "self", Tang Jie swung the Sovereign Blade.

Jin Tianya ruefully shook his head. Youths were always so impatient, never waiting for him to finish.

"Self… So? It's too tough, right…" There was a golden flash of light, and the chain around one of his arms broke away. Jin Tianya's voice died away like he was a strangled chicken. Then he said in a shrill voice, "It… it broke?"

Tang Jie raised his sword and swung several times, slicing through the remaining chains like they were cabbages, after which he gathered the chains and threw them into the diagram.

Without the five chains binding him, Jin Tianya was finally free. Because the formation was still active and the Blueheart Flame still burned, his cultivation was still being suppressed. However, now that the chains weren't binding him, he only needed to take a few steps to leave the center of the suppression area, upon which his energy immediately began to recover. Even the blazing Blueheart Demon Flame was no longer able to halt its recovery.

"Ha, ha! I've recovered! I'm free!" Jin Tianya gleefully looked at himself and shouted.

He could clearly sense the energy soaring through his body and that flame being suppressed, no longer harming him.

But he could not be considered truly free, for there was still a formation to deal with.

This formation had been designed to target him, so it was also particularly effective against him. So long as he was still underground, it would affect him. Meanwhile, Tang Jie suffered barely any effect at all.

This was a road the human cultivators who had imprisoned him had left for themselves, and Tang Jie was simply using it.

Still, for Jin Tianya, this was the closest he had been to freedom since he was imprisoned all those years ago.

All that he needed to do was break the formation, and he would truly be free.

"I've done what I promised, so now it's time to fulfill your end of the bargain, right?" Tang Jie asked.

Jin Tianya came to his senses and turned to Tang Jie, and then he looked at the Sovereign Blade in his hand.

"What a sharp weapon!" Jin Tianya praised, greed in his eyes.

His first idea was to break the oath, kill this man, and steal his blade. Tang Jie had his ways of breaking oaths, and so did Jin Tianya.

But he quickly disposed of the idea, for he knew his own situation best. The long suppression had left him with severe injuries, and this man was still an Earth Immortal. With their cultivation levels being equal and the formation restraining him, there was no chance that he could defeat Tang Jie. Moreover, the oath was also a restraint, and while he had a secret method of breaking the oath, it required paying quite a heavy price, which would make the situation even worse for him.

With all these factors against him, Jin Tianya knew that he couldn't beat Tang Jie, so he gave up on the thought. In any case, the World Descender Mantra was extremely difficult, and it wasn't like he hadn't handed it over before, with Chen Tianguan having died because of it, so there was certainly no taboo on giving it away now.

Thus, after some thought, Jin Tianya said, "Of course. I am not someone who goes back on my word, so rest easy."

He pointed at the air and began to write.

As he wrote in the air, blue characters of dancing flames appeared. Jin Tianya was using air as his paper and the Blueheart Demon Flame as his ink!

A few moments later, he had finished writing the World Descender Mantra, after which the characters formed into a book which was titled "World Descender Mantra".

Because it had used the Blueheart Demon Flame as ink, the book had a demonic nature that could make a reader's mind waver and develop a Heart Demon. But someone who passed this trial could increase their mental will simply by reading the book once, without even considering the actual contents. Of course, for Tang Jie, this effect was just a decoration.

Jin Tianya took this newly-made World Descender Mantra and handed it to Tang Jie. "The original World Descender Mantra is destroyed, so I have rewritten it based on my memory. I swear an oath on the Heavenly Dao that all that is written on this paper is the truth."

He moved off to the side and began to recover.

Tang Jie scanned the book with his Divine Will, reading through the mantra. Meanwhile, he activated the Dao of Wisdom and began to study this mantra's secrets, simulating what would happen if he cultivated this art.

He didn't truly trust Jin Tianya. Jin Tianya thought he had hidden that greedy gaze of his, but Tang Jie had seen it very clearly.

But he did not care about or fear Jin Tianya. In his eyes, Jin Tianya was simply a tool. A tool's loyalty did not matter, only that it was useful.

As for the authenticity of the World Descender Mantra, taking Jin Tianya at his word had never been in the cards. He intended to use the simulation powers of the Dao of Wisdom. He had entered Wisdom through Insight, and he walked the path of observing spell arts and countering them to achieve victory. This meant that he could seek out the secrets and flaws of spell arts, but this could also be used to simulate arts. It was just that there had never been a need in the past, while now there was: simulating the World Descender Mantra.

Through his simulations, Tang Jie managed to find some rather interesting things.

This wasn't saying that Jin Tianya had given him a fake. There was a science to making fakes. All arts in the world had principles on which they operated, and one could not casually concoct one out of thin air. Moreover, anyone who could reach Immortal Platform had immense knowledge and experience to draw on, so random alterations would be easily found out.

The World Descender Mantra had been passed down by a Gold Immortal Titan, so even Jin Tianya wasn't capable of performing such an exquisite adjustment that Tang Jie wouldn't be able to figure it out. Doing something so crude would only make him lose face, so Jin Tianya hadn't done something so pointless.

With only a little simulation, Tang Jie confirmed that this mantra was real.

And to be honest, even if it wasn't, so long as the majority was real, Tang Jie could find the problems through cultivation and repair it.

In the Great Stellar Chiliocosm, mantras had never been good just because they were old. One generation of youths after another constantly sought to surpass the legacy of their seniors. While they did need to learn the arts of their seniors, they had never been satisfied with just that.

For cultivators, the arts of one's predecessors primarily existed to serve as a successful foundation that would save time for those who came later, letting them reach the highest heights of the past in a shorter time and continue their climb to higher levels.

This was how the Five Realms and Fourteen Tiers had become Sixteen Tiers.

After confirming that the mantra was fine, Tang Jie began to use the Contraflame Mantra to gather the flames.

The Blueheart Demon Flame, as one of the world's exotic flames, was a supreme treasure, such that even Jin Tianya wanted it, even though he had been imprisoned by it. But he had yet to recover his strength and didn't dare to fight with Tang Jie, so he could only angrily watch Tang Jie take all of the Blueheart Demon Flames while doing his best to recover.

Ignoring Jin Tianya, Tang Jie transformed into a gust of wind and left the cave.