Aspiring to the Immortal Path -
Chapter 1184: Conspiracy (1)
After a session of amorous congress, Tang Jie and Xu Miaoran fell asleep in each other’s embrace. Although they were both Immortals and no longer needed sleep, they still greatly enjoyed sharing each other’s warmth in silent embrace after a vigorous session, and it was still the finest proof that they were human.
Even after becoming an Immortal, Tang Jie was unwilling to give up on some aspects of humanity, even if it ended up constricting his future vision. After all, he was a human first and Immortal second.
In this aspect, it was perhaps better to call the present-day Immortals “Human Immortals”. Only by transcending the Heavenly Dao, becoming an existence that was beyond this world, could one truly be called an Immortal.
Tang Jie didn’t know if that moment would ever come, but right now, he was very satisfied with his current state.
He did not want to see any of this destroyed.
As Tang Jie was hugging Xu Miaoran, he suddenly heard a noise outside.
Tang Jie softly sat up and peered out of the cave.
“Husband?” Xu Miaoran opened her eyes and looked at Tang Jie.
Tang Jie looked back and gave his wife a gentle pat. “Rest. I’ll go and take a look.”
Clouds churned over that dark land, demonic energy seething. It was clear that the demons were preparing their next assault.
But this was not the noise that had drawn Tang Jie’s attention.
Someone was furtively flying past the mountain.
They was flying very stealthily and using a high-level concealment art. Someone without Insight-type abilities would have had a hard time detecting them. Even Tang Jie detecting them had only been due to coincidence—that person had flown right under the cave entrance, close enough that Tang Jie’s Divine Will had noticed a slight abnormality, which had led him to discover this person.
Tang Jie expected that something was amiss and followed.
While he was no stealth expert, the massive gap in strength meant that he could ensure that he wasn’t discovered.
This person flew for a while until they reached a small mountain.
This place was far from the human camp, but that person was still uneasy, flying a circuit around the mountain before finally landing next to the spring and revealing their true form: a dark-faced man who was only at Spirit Ring.
For a Spirit Ring True Person to possess the ability to conceal themself from even Immortal Platform cultivators, it was probably thanks to some kind of divine treasure.
The man said to the spring, “Why did you summon me? Why couldn’t you just send me a message? Do you know how dangerous this is? The Eight Ocean Mountains Formation is omniscient, and if the Immortal Sovereign finds out, I’m finished!”
His voice was brimming with anxiety.
Black energy bubbled out of the spring, and then a three-horned winged devil emerged from the water. It appeared to be at the Earth Immortal level.
Tang Jie inwardly sighed when he saw this devil. Although he had already guessed at what was happening, when he saw it confirmed, he couldn’t help but feel sorrow.
Yes, this was a human cultivator who had joined the demons as a traitor!
There was no shortage of human traitors in the history of the chiliocosm’s resistance against the Primordial Fog.
There were strong and daring humans, but also greedy and glory-seeking ones.
Regardless of the reason, this particular cultivator had already betrayed humanity.
Tang Jie didn’t know how he had made contact with the demons. While the Eight Ocean Mountains could observe the entire world, Tang Jie himself couldn’t possibly receive all the information. Even though he had set up an information filtration system, he still couldn’t be all-knowing. Moreover, to save resources, he couldn’t keep the Eight Ocean Mountains always active, which gave the demons an opportunity.
This man was clearly a traitor to humanity who had cast his lot with the demons.
The devil grunted at the human traitor, “There are two hundred thousand cultivators, so why would they specifically investigate you? Moreover, you humans have just won a major victory and are all celebrating. That Tang Jie shouldn’t be in the mood for such things, no? As for you, you clearly knew about the Eight Ocean Mountains, so why didn’t you inform us?”
The cultivator immediately pleaded, “The Eight Ocean Mountains is a secret of the highest level, so how could a mere Spirit Ring cultivator like me know about it? I also only learned about it in today’s battle. If I had known earlier, I would have never…”
He didn’t continue, but the devil knew what he wanted to say, chuckling, “You would have never joined us, right?”
The Eight Ocean Mountains’ omniscient detection ability was no joke, and every time the demons contacted this cultivator was essentially a brush with death. That he had remained undetected until now was purely due to luck.
In reality, the Eight Ocean Mountains had discovered many traitors. They just hadn’t been rounded up yet.
This cultivator, having turned traitor, was naturally the craven sort. His true thoughts having been exposed, he neither dared to admit it or deny it. In the end, all he could do was stammer.
The devil didn’t push the subject, simply saying, “I’ve summoned you because I have a task for you, of course, so some risk is unavoidable. And this is a war, so who isn’t risking their life here? Relax. I am willing to promise you on my name, Primal Dark Heaven, that we demons will not trouble you with anything else.”
Hearing this, the cultivator sighed in relief.
Dark Heaven waved his hand, conjuring a tide of black energy.
This black energy was actually made of tens of millions of tiny black balls, and they gathered together into a black orb that fell into the hands of that cultivator.
Dark Heaven said, “Your mission is to take this treasure back and walk around your entire camp with it.”
The cultivator was confused. “My lord, please forgive me, but could you give a more detailed explanation?”
Dark Heaven smirked.
“Our army was defeated in large part because the Eight Ocean Mountains can counter the demonic energy of Primordial Fog. Thus, to break the humans, we must break this formation. As the primary battlefield of our two races, this place must have a control node as well as many other formation nodes linked to the Eight Ocean Mountains here. This treasure is called the Mother–Child Chaos Star Pearl, and it is able to detect and disrupt the flow of energy. Once you bring this treasure back to your camp and go around, if there are any formation nodes of the Eight Ocean Mountains nearby, try and find an opportunity to get close. This treasure will release a Chaos Star Child Pearl into the formation node. So long as the child pearls have infiltrated 36 formation nodes, they can temporarily block the detection abilities of the Eight Ocean Mountains. At that time, we won’t need to worry about you being detected when we contact you.”
“I see.” The cultivator was clearly relieved.
Primal Dark Heaven continued, “If you can block up 108 formation nodes, we will be able to partially conceal the movements of our armies from that Tang Jie. In addition, there should be a main control node for this area. If you are able to release the mother pearl into the control node, we can even cripple the formation’s ability to remove demonic energy.”
“I understand now,” the cultivator said in realization.
Obviously, Dark Heaven didn’t want him to just block up a few formation nodes, but also that main control node. Only then could the Eight Ocean Mountains’ most important function be crippled.
The cultivator hesitated. “But the control node of the Eight Ocean Mountains is under the personal control of the Freedom Immortal Sovereign. I’ll probably be caught long before I can get close…”
Dark Heaven chuckled. “Did I say you needed to block the control node?”
“Eh?” The cultivator, and even Tang Jie, were taken aback.
Dark Heaven said, “Do you really think that the Eight Ocean Mountains means that humans can stop the demons? Naive! This truly is a troublesome formation, but its presence does nothing to stop our inevitable victory. The only thing that changes is how much we have to pay. Let me be honest. While you humans might have killed countless demons today, we will soon be receiving reinforcements.”
“‘Reinforcements’?”
“Correct!” Dark Heaven chuckled. He briefly paused before saying, “The Nether Domain.”
Tang Jie shivered.
While the Primordial Fog Calamity primarily involved demons, they were not the only threat.
In each Primordial Fog Calamity, there were other planes that would also attack.
The Nether Domain was the largest of them.
Although it was much smaller than the Primordial Fog Domain, and also less threatening to humanity, this was only relative to the Primordial Fog Domain. In truth, the Nether Domain was still one of the greater domains of this universe, alongside the Vast Wilderness Domain and the Primordial Fog Domain. A single Nether Emperor was enough to wipe out a small domain.
The Nether Domain’s invasions of the Stellar Chiliocosm were not fixed to once every three thousand years like the Primordial Fog Domain’s, but were instead linked to the Nether River. Because the Nether River connected life and death, the natural spatial barrier between domains was innately weaker, so the Nether Domain had much more flexibility when it came to invasions, being able to invade even when the Primordial Fog Domain could not. And when the Primordial Fog was invading, they could invade too.
Of course, the exact details depended on the mood and needs of those Titans. The majority of demons didn’t want the Nether Domain to interfere with their wars. After all, demonic energy and ghost energy were not the same, and the demons would also be affected to a certain extent if the Nether Domain invaded. Thus, the Nether Domain would normally select a small domain that the Primordial Fog didn’t want, each one fighting their own war.
But if the war went poorly, the demons would consider gathering allies.
Tang Jie and Yun Tianlan had considered this problem in their plans, but they hadn’t expected the demons to be so proactive, calling for help after losing just one battle. Although the Nether Domain was much weaker than the Primordial Fog Domain, when it came to cannon fodder, the Nether Domain was many times superior.
It was no wonder that Primal Dark Heaven didn’t care about the demonic energy that much. With the Nether Domain’s help, they could simply march an army over.
“But the Nether Domain is different from my Primordial Fog. The spatial barrier between the Primordial Fog and the Stellar Chiliocosm is thick, but every three thousand years, the barrier will greatly weaken. However, this does not apply to the Nether Domain. This makes it somewhat more difficult if they want to invade a particular domain, and a Titan must use their prodigious powers to open a passage for them.” Dark Heaven added, “His Majesty the Demon Lord has already contacted Nether God Avici of the Nether Domain, and in twelve days, he will personally create the spatial passage to the Nine Nethers to summon the Yellow Springs and bring in the Nether army. But if the Eight Ocean Mountains is surveying the entire world, the passage is bound to be destroyed the moment it is detected, which is why your help is needed.”
Tang Jie and the cultivator were both made to understand why Dark Heaven cared more about stopping the formation’s detection abilities, because the demons’ true concern was that the humans would find out about the spatial passage.
The Eight Ocean Mountains lacked direct combat power, but it was extremely strong in a supportive role. Most importantly, it could work on the entire domain. Once the spatial passage to the Nether Domain appeared, Tang Jie could use the Eight Ocean Mountains’ offensive functions to directly attack the spatial passage. The formation wasn’t strong enough to use against the demon army, but it was perfectly fine for destroying a spatial passage.
Thus, Primal Dark Heaven had called out this human traitor, trying to use him to damage the Eight Ocean Mountains’ detection abilities.
Dark Heaven said, “For this mission, just do as much as you can and try to block as many formation nodes as possible. If you block 36, you’ll be safe, but your mission will not be over, and you will receive more missions in the future. If you block 108, you will have accomplished your basic mission, and if you don’t want to do any more, I won’t bother you about it, and my Demon Lord can even pass on to you the Myriad Demon Form Art. If you manage to block up the control node, you will be rewarded a supreme demon treasure. But above all, you must be cautious. If you’re not sure of your chances, don’t risk trying to block the control node. The main objective is more important.”
The cultivator was both surprised and delighted. Hadn’t he sold out his race precisely for demonic arts and treasures? He immediately nodded. “I will serve the divine race to the end, with no regrets!”
Although it was for fame and profit, one couldn’t be so crude and blunt about it.
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