Aspiring to the Immortal Path

The day of the Violet Palace Sublimation Ceremony was one of unprecedented glory for the Rosecloud Domain.

What everyone knew was that sixteen Violet Palace True Lords had arisen on this day.

What everyone didn't know was that the Basking Moon Sect truly completed its most important evolution on this day, becoming a real major sect with limitless potential.

And it was the same person who had done these things: Tang Jie.

Using the same Dao Art!

This was the Dao of Fate in all of its infinite power!

While it couldn't kill someone with a single finger, it could achieve earthshaking effects that even Immortal Arts couldn't match.

Once this was done, Tang Jie began to prepare for his third wish!

Like a naughty child, he had no thought of saving anything for later.

Yes, he had never put his hopes on anyone else finding it.

The Open Gate Banner had been lost for many years and was basically impossible to find. Although Tang Jie had found seven and could perhaps find the eighth, those odds were too low, and Tang Jie wasn't willing to wait. After all, it had taken him seven hundred years to collect seven, so rather than trying to find it himself, it was better to use the Wish Granting Spell.

This was probably the least amount of Fate power Tang Jie would ever use on a wish, with the page lighting up almost instantly, so quickly that Tang Jie momentarily questioned his decision. If it was that easy to find, then maybe it was right under his feet? Fortunately, he managed to control himself. Being easy to find had nothing to do with distance. The Dao of Fate cared nothing about distance, only about the possibility of success.

If the Open Gate Banner wasn't around, it didn't matter how much Dao power he put in, and if it was, only a little would be needed.

The moment he used the Dao Art, Tang Jie felt like he was being guided in a certain direction.

Tang Jie followed that guide in his mind.

The Open Gate Banner ended up being much farther than he had expected, and he flew for ten-some days.

By this time, Tang Jie was on the southern seas, not a person in sight. The feeling in his mind was still guiding him forward while growing stronger and stronger. Tang Jie knew that he wasn't far from his target.

Tang Jie continued to fly forward, and finally, he saw a small island in the distance. His mental guide told him that the Open Gate Banner was on that island.

On the island was a mountain, and as Tang Jie flew around the mountain, he sensed that the banner was within it, so he used an earth movement spell and plunged into the rock.

As he descended, his surroundings grew hotter and hotter.

Several thousand meters down, the area suddenly opened up, and he found himself in a spacious subterranean cavern.

Amid broiling waves of heat, a river of lava flowed. Around it were strange rocks and fiery red crystals.

"Magmatite? An Underflame River?" Tang Jie's eyes brightened.

He hadn't expected to find such treasure in his search for the Open Gate Banner.

Magmatite was a kind of Fire Element ore that could be refined into a kind of fire crystal, and it could be used for cultivation, forging, or laying down Fire Element formations. An Underflame River was less useful, simply an underground river brimming with flames. But while others might not be able to use it, someone proficient in the Dao of Five Elements like Tang Jie could. ᚱ

The Dao of Five Elements could condense the essence of the Five Elements from the various objects of the world.

On the surface, he had to consider the rest of the Rosecloud Domain, and the resources were not solely his to take. But underground, Tang Jie didn't have these concerns. He naturally wasn't going to refuse this Underflame River. He reached out, and the entire river flew into his hand, and as it did, he began to circulate his Dao Runes. Through the power of the Fire Dao, the enormous river shrank down until all that was left was a bit of Origin Flame.

Not every flame could be condensed into an Origin Flame. An entire mountain of ordinary fire might not be able to create a single spark, but the river had created a large flame the size of a phoenix, and it could even transform.

Satisfied, Tang Jie threw it into the passage to the Mountain River State Diagram. Thus, a red cloud appeared in the Yellow Court World, and a wave of fire descended from the heavens.

In another world, this rain of fire would spell disaster, but not in the Yellow Court World. Through the Heavenly Dao, the season shifted to fire season. Most creatures retreated, and only the fire creatures emerged.

As the Origin Flame descended, it was immediately absorbed by the world, turning into Fire Elemental power that filled all the creatures of the fire season and elicited hoots and cheers.

Tang Jie then swept up all the Magmatite and sent it into the Yellow Court World as well, showering the world with fiery crystals.

Magmatite required a lot of effort to break its surface and extract the impurities, even for someone of Tang Jie's cultivation. Thus, he just tossed it all into the Yellow Court World and directly ordered the Wuxing to do it and then offer the purified crystals to him.

When the Domain Lord gave an order, the denizens of the domain had no choice but to obey.

Tang Jie walked along, sweeping up all the Magmatite he saw. With the disappearance of the Underflame River and Magmatite, the subterranean space became much cooler.

As the heat retreated, Tang Jie began to hear a howling wind.

"Eh?" Surprised, Tang Jie picked up speed and rushed forward.

That feeling in his mind had reached its maximum, and Tang Jie knew the Open Gate Banner was right in front of him.

As he flew forward, he finally spotted a bottomless abyss, a thick sinister energy rising from it.

On the other side of the abyss was a fire brazier, into which the Underflame River flowed. Above the brazier hung a banner.

The Open Gate Banner!

Tang Jie was delighted at the sight, but then he froze.

This was clearly a formation, with that fire brazier being the energy core of the formation. The Open Gate governed the source of the formation, which meant its energy supply. The Underflame River was clearly the formation's energy supply, which was how the formation was able to sustain itself all this time. As for the Open Gate Banner, it existed to enhance the effect.

Tang Jie thought that the Open Gate Banner had been lost in that incident from more than ten thousand years ago, but now, that clearly was not the case. Someone had intentionally placed it here to boost the power of the Open Gate. And judging by the form of the formation, it was probably being used to seal this abyss.

But this formation was laid out in a very inconspicuous fashion, with no defensive abilities or apparent formation lines. Thus, Tang Jie had not recognized it as a formation at first glance, and as a result, he had taken away the Underflame River, which ended up breaking the formation.

Without a seal, the abyss had begun to exude that sinister energy.

As he expanded his senses, he found that this sinister energy was thick with the deathly aura of the Nether Domain, and he could also faintly make out the wailing of ghosts.

Startled, Tang Jie activated his Celestial Eye and found that there was a fissure at the bottom of the abyss.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The energy of the Nether Domain was leaking from this fissure.

Tang Jie immediately realized that this was like the Inkcloud Abyss of the Verdant Cloud Domain, a passage to the Nether Domain.

Unlike that one, the entrance here had been sealed by a formation.

But this was exactly what confused Tang Jie. The seal was extremely crude, so defenseless that Tang Jie had easily broken it without realizing.

But on the other hand, the formation had to have been quite powerful, primarily because it had existed for ten thousand years. After all, the Eight Gates Banners had gone missing ten thousand years ago. Anything that could seal a Nether Domain passage for ten thousand years couldn't be weak.

This was someone who could create a formation that could seal off a Nether Domain passage for ten thousand years, yet they had left it completely defenseless. Rather than saying that the formation layer was weak, it was more likely that it was intentional.

Tang Jie could think of only one explanation: the person who laid down the formation had entered the Nether Domain. Since they had gone in, they intended to come back out. To ensure that they didn't block the way back, they had made the formation extremely easy to break. So long as they could find the entrance, they could get back out. As for the ghosts, they wouldn't understand how the formation worked and would be unable to break it.

It was very easy to prove this theory.

Tang Jie summoned Little Three. "Little Three, go inside and see if there are any cultivator world marks around."

Since that person wanted to come back, they should have left something to mark the location. While it had been ten thousand years and that mark might not exist, the Nether Domain was different from the plane of the living. No matter how much time passed, very little changed. If there was a mark, so long as it hadn't been destroyed, there would still be some trace of it.

Little Three jumped in, and he soon came back. He had found a mark on the other side of the passage, an Everburning Spirit Lamp. If one inserted a bit of Divine Will into the lamp, one would be able to sense its location no matter how far away it was. A ghost would have no use for this lamp, so it was basically trash in the Nether Domain. When Little Three found it, it had been half-buried in the dirt, the ghosts nearby floating past and completely ignoring it.

"A clever idea, but alas, they didn't come back," Tang Jie sighed.

The formation layer had carefully considered how they were going to leave, but given that it had been ten thousand years, they were probably deceased.

Tang Jie had no interest in finding out who they were. He simply sent a sliver of his Divine Will through the passage and left it on the lamp with the help of Little Three, after which he withdrew.

This was just in case he ended up in the Nether Domain one day and needed a way out.

After this was done, Tang Jie laid down another formation to seal up the entrance. Like his predecessor, he didn't install any defenses. However, in terms of sealing power, it was nothing like as impressive.

This comparison made Tang Jie realize that the formation mastery he was so proud of wasn't actually the best, which left him rather depressed.

Fortunately, he had now collected all of the Eight Gates Banners.

He now had another Dao armament.