Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Upon attaining the peak middle-grade Immortal Spirit Body, Tang Jie went on a trip to the Martial Lord's hidden realm, where he unlocked the eighth level of the Nine Executions Immortal Formation.

In truth, he could have opened this at minor lower-grade Immortal Spirit Body, but as Tang Jie had been stuck at basic lower-grade Immortal Spirit Body this entire time, it had been left until now. Thus, he broke through the seal with little effort.

The eighth layer was located in the underground depths of the hidden realm.

When Tang Jie entered, he saw that he was surrounded by high walls.

Eighteen images were carved onto the walls.

The first image featured a giant stepping on the sky like a god. His hands were fitted with black gauntlets, and he was punching at the sky.

Next to it were carved the words: "Combat Emperor Catalog: Devil Crushing Strike."

Tang Jie knew that the Martial Lord had once been known as the Combat Emperor, possessing all kinds of heaven-shaking combat techniques. But when inheriting his legacy, Tang Jie had gained nothing except the Parting Classic.

It was only today that Tang Jie found a combat technique suitable for a body refiner, and he was so excited that he almost threw his head back and howled.

Only after reading it did Tang Jie realize why he had not received this Combat Emperor Catalog before now. It appeared that these battle techniques could only be used at Immortal Spirit Body.

The Devil Crushing Fist was clearly the first combat technique of this Combat Emperor Catalog.

It was no wonder Tang Jie had needed to use most of his strength to use it, because it wasn't a technique that he had been at the right level to use.

The Martial Lord had taken apart the Devil Crushing Strike and put it before this threshold primarily to keep his successor alive, giving them something they could use for one last desperate bid at survival, at the stletting them grow accustomed to the power of the Combat Emperor Catalog.

The eighteen images found at the eighth layer were the true complete Combat Emperor Technique.

Under each image was a line of small words that explained the proper way to perform each combat technique. The line under the image of the Devil Crushing Strike was no different from the Devil Crushing Fist that Tang Jie had learned, but it had added a part about how to use Immortal Spirit power, allowing the Devil Crushing Fist to no longer use all one's strength in one strike.

To be more precise, when one attained the Immortal Spirit Body and gained Immortal Spirit power, the Devil Crushing Fist began to use this new power instead.

Of course, Immortal Spirit power wasn't endless. Once it ran out, Tang Jie would end up like before, having to use his physical strength to use the Devil Crushing Fist.

The Devil Crushing Strike unleashed through Immortal Spirit power was a little weaker than the original, but it was more solid and flexible, and also better for a longer battle.

Tang Jie was delighted to obtain the Combat Emperor Catalog and began to examine the images. He found that each was extremely powerful, but they consumed astonishing amounts of Immortal Spirit power, and they demanded him to reach an extremely high cultivation level.

The eighteen images were titled: "Devil Crushing Strike", "Ring Rending Strike", "Wave Reversing Strike", "Fierce Gale Strike", "Thousand Heavens Strike", "Void Light Strike", "Heart Devouring Strike", "Blood Spirit Strike", "Corpse Soul Strike", "Spirit Tearing Strike", "Illusion Crushing Strike", "Reincarnation Strike", "Star Shattering Strike", "Moon Embracing Strike", "Sun Shooting Strike", "Heaven Breaking Strike", "Immortal Hunting Strike", and "Immortal Executing Strike".

Every six images corresponded to a tier. As Tang Jie was at the middle grade of Immortal Spirit Body, he could only learn the first twelve strikes.

Judging by the names, the eighteen strikes of the Combat Emperor Catalog were extremely powerful, particularly the last two. That they were called Immortal Hunting and Immortal Executing meant that they could kill Immortals.

Just like the gap between Soul Transformation and Infant Tending, the gap between Soul Projection and Earth Immortal was huge.

That these strikes of the Combat Emperor Catalog could kill an Immortal meant that they had to possess vast power.

In other words, once he reached greater attainment in the Immortal Spirit Body and grasped all eighteen of the strikes, he could use his body cultivator self to fight an Earth Immortal, which was much higher than his current state, where he needed his merged form to fight those above him. Of course, this was only a hypothesis, and he couldn't say for sure until he reached that point.

After memorizing the Combat Emperor Catalog, Tang Jie left.

He proceeded to spend his days cultivating the Combat Emperor Catalog and sparring with Xiao Biehan.

Xiao Biehan played his role as a measure of Tang Jie's strength well, volunteering to train and spar with Tang Jie.

At first, Tang Jie was still no match for Xiao Biehan.

As the Swordholder of the Basking Moon Sect, Xiao Biehan was domineering and vicious, and he possessed far more than just the Starlight Execution. Whether it was his Holy Starlight Sword or Star Moon Snatch, they were all enough to leave Tang Jie in tatters.

But the Parting Classic was a path of cultivation that grew stronger through battle. This sort of repeated tempering and beating was exactly what Tang Jie needed.

Through Xiao Biehan's ceaseless honing, Tang Jie's potential was unleashed, and as he grew more familiar with his new power, Xiao Biehan found it harder and harder to defeat Tang Jie.

In particular, the astounding toughness of the Immortal Spirit Body meant that even Xiao Biehan's Starlight Execution becincapable of defeating Tang Jie in one strike.

But if one strike wouldn't do, he could just make a few more.

In the last battle, Xiao Biehan had used seven Starlight Executions in a row. These had all been unleashed at full force and had sent Tang Jie from the heavens almost straight to hell, letting him keenly understand that pure resistance wasn't enough.

Of course, after that battle, Xiao Biehan flailed his hand and said, "Shit, he's getting tougher and tougher. I almost overexerted myself."

But he wouldn't say that in front of Tang Jie.

In the process, Tang Jie gradually grasped the gap in strength, understanding the strengths and unique attributes of Soul Projection cultivators.

Soul Projection was actually a transition period between Deification and Immortal Platform.

In the past, people thought that Deification was the limit of cultivation.

They were both right and wrong.

Deification truly was a limit.

It was the limit of a spirit cultivator.

A limit to how one could use spiritual energy.

But cultivators who refused to stop exploring and progressing were not satisfied with their current state.

They constantly sought out a chance to grow stronger.

They found that there was another possibility above spirit cultivation: Immortality!

Soul Projection was the phase that led from Deification to Earth Immortal.

In this phase, a cultivator grasped the trick to becoming an Immortal, and their power also began to change. All Divine Connections and spell arts began to shift from using spiritual energy to using Immortal Essence, achieving even greater heights.

For this reason, the Divine Connections and spell arts of Soul Projection cultivators all had a little sliver of true Immortal power, which was exactly what made them so scary.

That was the true apex of power, and Tang Jie had experienced it once before—Jewel's eleven fingers had shattered the Infinite Palace, her physical body breaking the Dao!

Other than sparring with Xiao Biehan, Tang Jie also took classes from Ling Xiao every day.

As his master, Ling Xiao naturally had to teach him sthings. It was just that Tang Jie had had too many lucky encounters and had dabbled in too many things, so limiting his study material wasn't ideal. Thus, Ling Xiao had let his disciple do whatever he wanted. It was only now that the battle with Jewel was imminent that he changed his attitude and began to teach Tang Jie.

Even so, he didn't teach spell arts or Divine Connections. Tang Jie had such things and didn't need more.

He taught Tang Jie how to comprehensively utilize his powers.

Tang Jie currently had a mishmash of moves at his disposal.

He had three Dao Arts—Reflections of Floating Life, the Infinite Palace, and Law Speaking—and four Divine Connections—the Combat Emperor Catalog, the Ten Extinctions Blade, the Flesh Millstone, and the Longevity Sword. In addition, he had the Nine Heavens Calamity Blade and the Pale Cloud Flame.

The three Dao Arts were not offensive in nature, so while they were flexible and formidable on the defensive, they had limited use when attacking. Of the four Divine Connections, the Combat Emperor Catalog was naturally the strongest, outpacing the others by several city blocks. But these techniques required a lot of Immortal Spirit power, and while they wouldn't leave him weak and helpless like before, they couldn't be used for too long. With Tang Jie's peak middle-grade Immortal Spirit power, he had just enough to use the twelve strikes of the Combat Emperor Catalog from start to finish, no more and no less.

Such was the fierce nature of the Martial Lord, leaving no margin for error, no retreat when using this set of combat techniques.

Of the remaining three Divine Connections, the Ten Extinctions Blade was the strongest, and it was currently the Divine Connection Tang Jie used the most. The Flesh Millstone and Longevity Sword lacked the explosiveness of the Ten Extinctions Blade, but they outdid it when it cto persistence, making up for the Ten Extinctions Blade's weakness.

Upon understanding the moves Tang Jie had available to him, Ling Xiao began to design a strategy for Tang Jie, at the stmarveling at the Martial Lord's might.

When it cto explosiveness, the Combat Emperor Catalog was definitely enough. This had already been made evident in Tang Jie's duels with Xiao Biehan. Whenever Tang Jie used the twelve strikes of the Combat Emperor Catalog, even Xiao Biehan had to keep his distance. In terms of reactivity, the three Dao Arts could basically handle the vast majority of situations. It was only in regular combat that Tang Jie was much weaker than Jewel.

Xiao Biehan's victories against Tang Jie all cfrom regular combat. A Celestial Star Cycle Sword Art was a basic attack for Xiao Biehan, but Tang Jie felt like he was facing a looming mountain and had no choice but to use his strongest moves to deal with it. Thus, when Xiao Biehan used his strongest attacks, he didn't have much left to use.

For example, when Xiao Biehan had used his seven Starlight Executions in a row, it was because Tang Jie had finished using his twelve Combat Emperor strikes, so he had nothing left for Xiao Biehan to be afraid of. Perhaps if Tang Jie had still had one or two moves left, he might have been able to fend off those seven Starlight Executions. Of course, Xiao Biehan might have just followed up with an eighth.

Thus, Ling Xiao suggested that Tang Jie cultivate the Black Yellow Treatise.

The Black Yellow Treatise was not a combat art, nor was it a cultivation art. Its real use lay in its ability to link together Tang Jie's moves, making them even more useful and powerful.

Merging together was always easier said than done. Otherwise, Tang Jie wouldn't have needed so much tto cultivate the Ten Extinctions Blade, nor would he have needed the Heavenly Tribulation to merge his original body and avatar together. The Black Yellow Treatise was one of the suprsecret texts of the Basking Moon Sect and was personally kept by Yun Tianlan. Even Ling Xiao hadn't learned it, but he still went to Yun Tianlan to request it for Tang Jie.

When Yun Tianlan learned that Tang Jie needed it, he passed it over without a word.

In this way, sproblems that had always troubled Tang Jie were finally resolved. Through the Black Yellow Treatise, Tang Jie began to merge together all the various things he had learned, making them shine more brilliantly in new ways.

Meanwhile, the day of his battle with Jewel drew closer and closer.