Aspiring to the Immortal Path - Chapter 1258: Father and Son (3)
“Roaming the Primordial Fog Domain is no easy task, particularly at the very beginning, when I was only a weak Transformation fiend amid the savage demons of Primordial Fog. Surviving in that land requires being constantly on your guard. You have to learn how to find food, how to watch your surroundings, how to identify enemy tracks, how to deceive others, how to be cruel and bloodthirsty… To survive in that wasteland requires turning yourself into a beast. At that time, you will discover that not becoming a demon is a truly difficult feat, for anyone who survives long enough in the Primordial Fog Domain is a demon!”
In the endless void, Wang Yao spoke in a melancholy tone.
His hands held behind his back, he gazed down at the Gigantes Domain as he reminisced about that painful time, all the inhumane suffering he had been through and all the challenges he had experienced.
Tang Jie patiently and sincerely listened.
Wang Yao continued, “It took me almost three hundred years to get from Confusionem to Nox Alba. In those three hundred years, I experienced 445 vicious battles and countless minor ones. Of those, I was defeated in 232, heavily injured in 62, and almost killed in 22, barely escaping with my life. If not for my White Tiger bloodline and my gift over Space and Time, I would have died countless times. In those 22 times, three of my opponents had the ability to interfere with Space or else pursue me through it, rendering my powers of Spacetime useless.To survive, I truly used everything I could think of. Each time I survived, I felt incredibly fortunate, and my convictions were only further reinforced!”
Tang Jie sighed. He had known that Wang Yao must have had a hard time, but he still felt shaken when he heard of all the dangers Wang Yao had been through.
In the Primordial Fog Domain, living was truly a luxury.
But in the end, Wang Yao had survived.
He had survived to reach Myriad Fiend Peak and achieve the dream of the White Tiger lineage.
Tang Jie sighed, “You’ve been through a lot these years.”
Wang Yao chuckled. “It’s nothing. Scars are a man’s glory. Only by experiencing all this can we truly mature and stand on the summit. Adoptive Father, hasn’t it been the same for you? In the Vast Wilderness, in the Nether Domain, you experienced countless fierce battles, even dying once. You’ve suffered just as much as I have, but it all became the foundation for your strength!”
Tang Jie smiled. “You really understand me.”
“I seek to flatten Rosecloud, so I naturally treated Adoptive Father as my number one enemy and kept track of your every movement.”
“Is that why you were able to so swiftly capture Xuanyu and Meng’er?”
Wang Yao was taken aback. “Adoptive Father, you already knew?”
“It’s not that hard to figure out. There aren’t many candidates in the Primordial Fog Domain who can render Xuanyu’s Dao of Space powerless and make Ice Phoenix’s searches fruitless. And the only one who would find it worth it to intervene is only you. Of course, I still had a few doubts, but those were all cleared away once I met you.”
Wang Yao roared in laughter. “Adoptive Father’s wisdom is truly peerless. I should have known I couldn’t have kept it a secret from you. You can rest easy, as they are both doing very well. They’re currently with Lin Xin.”
“‘Lin Xin’?” Tang Jie was truly surprised by this news.
He hadn’t expected Lin Xin to be with Wang Yao.
“She’s my woman now.”
“…” Tang Jie didn’t know what to say.
But wasn’t the Azure Dragon’s body male? How could she have become his woman?
Wang Yao immediately explained, “The Four Sacred Beast Ancestors were born from the world, without mother or father, so they are able to alter their sex. The Vermillion Bird and I cannot do so, but the Azure Dragon was the ancestor, so when Lin Xin possessed his body, because her soul was that of a woman, the body gradually shifted its sex to match. In addition, as all Four Sacred Beasts were born from the world, a mysterious connection exists between them. After becoming the Azure Dragon, Lin Xin followed this feeling to contact me, and I opened the Primordial Fog Domain to welcome her. I thought that I was just gaining a powerful ally, but after meeting her, I learned that she was not the Azure Dragon of the past, as well as learning about you. As the days went by, we developed an affection for each other and became a couple.”
“I see.” Tang Jie nodded. The fact that he stopped asking about Tang Xuanyu left Wang Yao rather uncomfortable.
After some thought, he said, “Adoptive Father, with regards to my little brother Xuanyu, I…”
“I know. You are still somewhat uneasy about me, so you are still unwilling to hand him over to me. That being the case, we can wait until the war is over.”
Wang Yao blushed in shame. “It’s not like that. When I captured my little brother, I had some thought of repaying your kindness.”
“Mm, if I didn’t agree, you would go on the offensive, but if you gave Tang Xuanyu some sort of benefit, you could be considered as repaying some of the debt. I can understand.”
“The problem… the problem is…” Wang Yao stammered.
Tang Jie was rather perturbed. “What happened?”
This Boundless Gold Immortal was now sweating hard, and after a while, he finally said, “I was originally sure that you would try and stop my revenge and that father would go against son, so the benefit I gave to Brother Xuanyu and Junior Sister Huangfu had some poor side effects.”
“‘Poor side effects’?”
“…the Third Life Stone… The Third Life Stone allows one to absorb the energies of both the positive and negative planes, but when it changes the constitution, it also… changes…”
Wang Yao dropped his head and fell silent.
Tang Jie grimaced. “‘Changes’ what?”
Wang Yao didn’t dare to look up. “Changes the mind!”
“What did you say?” Tang Jie’s voice grew louder. “You had them become demons?”
Wang Yao hastily explained, “Not demons, but something between humans and demons. You might call them… mutants.”
“‘Mutants’?” Tang Jie was taken aback. “Like you?”
Wang Yao nodded.
Tang Jie sighed in relief. “Then it doesn’t seem too bad.”
Wang Yao sweated even harder. “Mutants are guided by their nature, but they still retain their bottom line and emotions. My love for Adoptive Father has never changed, so you might not have sensed anything. But if it was anyone else, my actions… would be very different.”
“Is that how it is?” Tang Jie nodded.
Suddenly, he started to laugh.
Wang Yao was baffled by the laughter.
Tang Jie said, “At least you have a bottom line, good! I was no mutant, but people often remarked that I hardly had a bottom line.”
“…” Wang Yao was speechless.
It truly was the case that Tang Jie’s conduct was similar to that of a mutant. It was just that now that he was a venerated Domain Lord, he was no longer as unscrupulous and profit-seeking, which made one forget that he had once been a mutant that was not a mutant.
Tang Jie went on, “Xuanyu is a very honest and straightforward person, and I tried to retain that side of him and was unwilling to distort his personality. But this meant that I was never able to relax when it came to him. Now that he’s a mutant, I presume he’s much smarter?”
“Indeed. Little Brother Xuanyu is very sharp now,” Wang Yao replied as he inwardly heaved a sigh of relief.
“But this doesn’t mean I can forgive you.” Tang Jie’s tone suddenly turned harsh, and Wang Yao froze.
His instinctive reaction was to think that Tang Jie would use this as an excuse to make him give up on the attack, which would mean that this had all been a façade.
But Tang Jie didn’t even bring up the Rosecloud Domain, simply saying, “I will remember this debt and settle this account with you later. Do you have a problem with that?”
Wang Yao said in delight, “I am willing to accept Adoptive Father’s punishment!”
“Good. Then when you get back, have Lin Xin let them go,” Tang Jie casually said.
“I’ll have her do that right now!” Wang Yao answered. He had initially planned to wait until after the battle, but Tang Jie’s words had left him so ashamed and he was so elated that Tang Jie wasn’t taking the matter to heart that he immediately ordered Lin Xin to let them go.
The Nine Disaster Fiend Monk sighed. Tang Jie had a firm grasp on Wang Yao’s mind. So long as it didn’t involve his revenge, everything else was negotiable.
He wanted to stop it, but when he saw Wang Yao’s wary gaze, he knew that anything he said would be useless and shut up. He inwardly grumbled, Tang Jie, I’d like to see how long you can endure while your people are under attack from our two factions.
The battle in the Gigantes Domain was still going on, and the humans were facing the greatest pressure yet and were in grave peril. Even so, they still held on, still bringing out new art relics and formations. The Rosecloud Domain, having been through countless wars, was now taking out trump card after trump card, showing the reserves appropriate for a powerful domain.
They were managing to fend off a demonic force several dozen times their size!
But Tang Jie was still in no rush.
After chatting with Wang Yao for a little longer, Tang Jie turned to Nine Disaster.
“Nine Disaster, I know that you desperately want to go down and fight, but as I said, so long as you’re willing to answer a few of my questions, I’ll let you go.”
Nine Disaster bowed his head. “What does Domain Lord Tang wish to ask?”
“A question I asked you before: why do you want to attack the Gigantes Domain?”
After some thought, Nine Disaster answered. “Very well. Since you want to know, this old monk will tell you. The Gigantes are traitors to the Heavenly Dao, and this old monk is acting in the place of the heavens!”
The answer left Tang Jie rather speechless.
“Acting in the place of the heavens”? A devil of the Primordial Fog was acting in the place of the heavens? True, the Heavenly Dao made no distinction between good and evil, but it still sounded rather comical.
Demons were always selfish, so Tang Jie was sure that there was something in it for Nine Disaster.
So he turned to Wang Yao and asked, “Bao’er, is he telling the truth?”
Wang Yao frowned. “I’m not sure about Nine Disaster’s goal, but many Demon Lords of the Primordial Fog Domain know of his interest toward the Gigantes. Quite a few of them tried to figure out his secret and see if there was some sort of Dao armament hidden here. But after numerous invasions and digging up every inch of the Gigantes Domain excluding the Cavespace Mountains, they didn’t find any kind of treasure. Moreover, this old baldy’s attitude is also very strange. If there was some treasure here, he would be trying to keep others out, but he doesn’t. In fact, he welcomes other demons to attack this place, as if all he really seeks is simply the destruction of the Gigantes Domain.”
“Is that so?” Tang Jie fell into deep thought.
Nine Disaster sneered. “This old monk has answered your question. Can I go now?”
He was waiting for Tang Jie to say “No”, or else ask another question.
But Tang Jie nodded. “Yes! You may go.”
What?
It was Nine Disaster’s turn to be stupefied.
He gave Tang Jie a hard look and then headed down. In reality, though, he was preparing for a sneak attack from Tang Jie.
But Tang Jie simply watched him go, truly not intending to attack.
Even Wang Yao was puzzled. “Adoptive Father, are you really letting him go?”
“What? Are you worried about the Rosecloud Domain?” Tang Jie chuckled.
“Uh…” Wang Yao fell silent. After a while, he said, “Adoptive Father, I don’t believe that you would really forsake the Rosecloud Domain. Could you tell me what sort of plan you have?”
After the initial excitement and glee, Wang Yao had gradually regained his senses and realized what sort of person his father was.
Tang Jie coldly looked below and answered, “My not intervening doesn’t mean I’ve given up on the Rosecloud Domain. Bao’er, did you know? Other than Nine Disaster, there’s one other person who is very interested in the Gigantes Domain.”
“What?” Wang Yao paled. “Who would dare to meddle in the affairs of Gold Immortals?”
Tang Jie smiled. “Of course, only the Boundless can concern themselves with the Boundless, and only a peak Gold Immortal can meddle with a peak Gold Immortal.”
Finally understanding, Wang Yao cried out in shock, “Yu Cheng!”
Boom!
A light suddenly erupted in the distant void.
