Aspiring to the Immortal Path - Chapter 1102: Old Acquaintance

Surrounded by a divine halo, Tang Jie advanced, the ghosts melting away before him. Only when the Dao Runes around him stopped twinkling and began to dim did he stop.

His Dao power had run out.

Even betraying the Dao had its limits.

Once he passed the limit, he would be forced back to his original state, just like with Dao Arts.

On a positive note, when Tang Jie’s absolute zone stopped working, that power that served to instigate the murderous intent of the heavens disappeared, and the world no longer targeted him.

Tang Jie didn’t know if this would change as he grew stronger, but at least for now, it was a good thing.

By now, he had already gotten past the forest of ghost beasts and could see the four ghost capitals in the distance. Withdrawing his energy, he once more concealed himself and began to approach the closest ghost capital.

Shadowhowl City.

This was the territory of the Undying Nether Emperor, Witherdark.

As he stepped into the territory of Shadowhowl City, Tang Jie immediately sensed a mysterious energy probing him.

This had most likely been set up by the Undying Nether Emperor. As one of the protectors of the Nirvana God King, this Nether Emperor was wary of all outsiders.

This indirectly proved that the Nirvana God King’s injuries were very severe, and it also strengthened Tang Jie’s desire to slay this Nether God—if he missed this chance, who knew how long he would have to wait until the next?

But he was in no rush.

He was currently entering the city as an armored corpse, his metal body covered all over in chains as it clumsily moved along. This sort of zombie had a tough body but a dull mind, and it was considered part of the lower class in Shadowhowl City.

He slowly meandered about.

He walked through the main avenues of Shadowhowl City and attempted to leave through the western gate.

Exiting the city from here would put him next to the Nether God palace.

But he was stopped.

Two ghost soldiers barred his path and rasped, “This street is closed.”

The armored corpse opened its mouth and screeched, using its own means to ask why it couldn’t leave the city from here.

The ghost soldiers didn’t want to waste time talking with an armored corpse, so they impatiently said, “You can’t go through a forbidden area. Take another gate if you want to leave the city.”

While the armored corpse was dumb, it knew not to mess with the “government”, so it staggered away.

While he hadn’t managed to get through, he wasn’t disappointed.

He already realized that not just anybody would be let through. He had just been testing their limit.

On the surface, there were only two ghost soldiers guarding the area, but just now, he had felt at least four souls scanning his body, all of them belonging to high-tier Ghost Kings. In other words, there were at least four high-tier Ghost Kings guarding this area. Even a Nether Emperor would be held up for a while if they tried to force their way through.

Of course, Tang Jie was an exception.

But Tang Jie knew that just because he could get through this checkpoint didn’t mean he could get through the others.

There was still some distance between the city and the Nether God palace, plenty of space for more dangerous and cunning traps. The Nether God palace itself was bound to be heavily guarded. Tang Jie wasn’t sure what kind of guards were inside, but he was confident that there was at least one Nether Emperor inside.

Wasn’t this the standard for a guardian?

Thus, his first priority was to understand what sort of force was garrisoned in the four cities and the palace.

This information didn’t come easily, but Tang Jie wasn’t worried, for he had already prepared for this.

First of all, he had to find a place to stay.

He found a grave in Shadowhowl City and crawled inside. This was a gathering place for the armored corpses, and many others were lying around as if they had fallen into their eternal slumber, from which they were not easily roused.

Lying there like he was actually dead, Tang Jie fell into silence.

At the start, his mind was still unsettled, stray thoughts constantly bouncing around his head, but gradually, everything settled down, and he began to meditate and ignore the outside world, as if he had truly become an armored corpse.

Tang Jie immersed himself in his own ego, listening to the voice in his heart.

This kind of listening wouldn’t advance his cultivation, but it broadened and matured his mind. It wasn’t strength, but it silently influenced the individual, akin to the Great Dao.

After spending who-knew-how-long in meditation, he was roused from his slumber by a strange sound.

As he woke up, he couldn’t help but sigh.

He had spent so long outside and been in so many battles that he rarely had such solitary moments. Only today, when he was pretending to be a corpse, did he finally get a chance to meditate.

This round of meditation made him feel refreshed.

Meanwhile, he rose up from the grave.

He saw that what had awakened him was a coffin.

It was a heavy coffin of black wood, covered in scarlet chains. This was a sign that it held a Corpse King armored corpse. Four jumping corpses were carrying the coffin, hopping it forward. The sound that had woken him up was that of the chains clattering as they were dragged across the ground.

It was just a Corpse King passing by, and Tang Jie decided to ignore it, but just when he was going to lie back down, he felt a strange sensation.

“Eh?” Tang Jie gave the coffin a weird look.

He could sense a familiar feeling from the being inside the coffin.

But the sensation was too hazy for him to determine anything else.

However, that moment made Tang Jie decide to follow the coffin and see what it was up to.

Emerging from his grave, he slowly followed the coffin.

After some distance, he could no longer follow, for the coffin was heading toward the western gate of the city—toward the Nether God palace.

Tang Jie decided to just wait near the western gate.

Around eight hours later, the coffin returned.

The four jumping zombies hopped back with the coffin on their shoulders, going back the way they had come.

Seeing this, Tang Jie had an idea, conjuring a gust of wind that blew a stone into the path of one of the jumping zombies. This zombie immediately lost its footing. It should have been strong enough to avoid a fall, but when it was about to stabilize, it suddenly felt drained of strength, and in that moment of weakness, it collapsed to the ground.

The coffin tilted to one side, its corner striking the zombie in the head as the lid loosened.

“Useless thing!” the coffin’s occupant cried in fury.

The scarlet chains moved on their own, holding up the coffin like they were legs while the coffin lid closed. The unfortunate zombie’s back was given a brutal lashing by one of the chains, but as a zombie, it couldn’t feel anything, so after getting back up, it picked up the coffin, and the convoy resumed its journey.

The moment the coffin opened, Tang Jie felt that familiar energy again.

Tang Jie laughed.

After all that running around, the solution had delivered itself right to his doorstep.

Yes, if his senses were right, the being within the coffin was that remnant soul he had released so long ago.

Mei Huaping!

After releasing him into the Nether Domain, Tang Jie had attempted to borrow his senses to comprehend Reincarnation.

At the start, he truly had managed to obtain a good deal of knowledge regarding the Nether Domain from him—one of his other significant sources of Nether Domain knowledge besides the Dao Seeking Yellow Springs Scripture. But it wasn’t long before his connection to the remnant soul completely disappeared.

Tang Jie thought that he had reincarnated, and paid it no mind, simply thinking it a pity that he hadn’t gotten the precious reincarnation experience he desired, though he got his fill later on from the Blade of Reincarnation.

To his surprise, he had encountered that fugitive soul here.

From the energy signal he had felt from the coffin, he determined that Mei Huaping had not managed to remove the Divine Will implanted in him. It was just that the coffin had the ability to block Divine Will, so Tang Jie couldn’t sense him as long as he was in the coffin, which had led Tang Jie to think that he had reincarnated. It was only because he was so close this time that he could be sure. In the mortal plane, if this remnant soul were no more than a thousand feet from this coffin, Tang Jie would fail to sense him.

Clearly, though, his luck was poor, for he had run into Tang Jie.

Tang Jie decided to follow and see what this guy was up to. Being able to block his Divine Will and also achieve such a high status, Mei Huaping had definitely been living a pretty good afterlife, so perhaps he could give Tang Jie a pleasant surprise.

He followed the coffin to a cliff, upon which the four jumping zombies jumped straight off the cliff. Tang Jie carefully examined it and found it to actually be an extremely high-level formation. This was not a cliff, and those who wished to enter could not do so by merely jumping off. Anyone who did would probably face an attack from the formation. Moreover, Tang Jie sensed that he did not have the cultivation to fend off such an attack.

For there to be such a high-level formation in the resource-sparse Nether Domain, this was clearly no ordinary place.

Tang Jie grew excited, and after carefully examining the area, he stepped into the formation. With seemingly no action on his part, he needed only a few steps for the cliff to fade away, replaced by a grove of withered trees.

The coffin was waiting in a clearing in the grove.

Tang Jie hid himself and waited.

After some time, there was a gust of wind.

Three ghosts abruptly appeared in the clearing.

To Tang Jie’s shock, all three were Nether Emperors.

One of the Nether Emperors, a Preta, said in a hoarse voice, “Report on your progress.”

The coffin lid creaked open, and a golden-armored corpse walked out. The sense of familiarity Tang Jie felt from it verified for Tang Jie once more that this was Mei Huaping!

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