Aspiring to the Immortal Path

The Soulseize Scythes swept through the air, carrying the last resolve and ferocity of the Nether Attendants.

But just when they were about to cut into Tang Jie, Tang Jie moved.

Rather than dodge, he punched.

He just punched out with both fists at the descending scythes.

As they collided, the air rippled and wavered, and one could see the blades cut into his hands. No blood spilled, but Tang Jie's hands became a deathly white.

Then there was a strange sound, like something was shattering, but it vibrated on a strange wavelength and didn't seem to belong to any known metal.

The two Soulseize Scythes unleashed a brilliant light, and then they began to shatter and dissipate, starting from the tips of their blades.

Each shard was the same size and shape, twirling in the air and gleaming with enchanting patterns as they disappeared. Countless ghosts howled, as if they were seizing this chance to escape.

And then the Soulseize scythes were no more.

"They… they shattered?" Maraju's eyes flew open as he stared at the disappearing Soulseize Scythes. He bellowed in disbelief, his eyes full of despair.

Not even the destruction of the Ghost March Ship would have had him in such despair!

"AAAHHH!!!" With terrible screeches, the two Nether Attendants reached their end, disappearing along with their scythes and leaving behind no trace.

Tang Jie threw up a small mouthful of blood. Maraju's palm had still made him pay a price for his actions.

But what shocked Tang Jie the most was still his strike against the scythes.

He had naturally used the Weapon Mantra to destroy the Soulseize Scythes.

But this peerless art that could destroy even divine treasures had a never-before-seen result when used on the scythes.

Firstly, it had failed to stop the Soulseize Scythes.

The moment the scythes touched him, the power of Death sliced into his hands, instantly severing all vitality within them. This was far more formidable than the resentful souls, and Tang Jie lost all sensation from his fingers up to his elbow, and they basically didn't exist to him. Fortunately, Maraju was still reeling from shock and didn't seize this moment to attack.

Secondly, Tang Jie saw no golden grain. The Soulseize Scythes had disappeared without a single trace after shattering, leaving behind nothing.

Tang Jie was stunned by this. This was the first time he had ever gotten this result from the Weapon Mantra. Was the Weapon Mantra ineffective against weapons of the Nether Domain? Or was there some other reason?

As he was wondering what was going on, he noticed something shiny.

It was a black mote of the same color as the surrounding world, almost unnoticeable. Tang Jie was able to see it not because he had been particularly perceptive, but because he had felt a sense of familiarity as his eyes passed over it.

Gazing in the direction of that glossy black sheen, he saw two floating black grains.

If not for that feeling, he really wouldn't have noticed them.

Black and weightless, they floated in the dark space, stealthily hidden in their surroundings. When Tang Jie gazed at them, his heart thumped as if he had run into an old friend, that sense of familiarity rushing over his entire body.

The golden grains!

While he didn't know why they were black or why they were floating, Tang Jie was certain that these were golden grains!

That sensation wouldn't lie to him, but Tang Jie also felt some coldness from these black grains.

Unable to move his arms, he decided to inhale.

Thus, the two black grains flew swiftly over to Tang Jie, almost instantly vanishing from sight.

Tang Jie hadn't expected to suck them into his body in one go and instinctively wanted to throw them back up, but he found that he could no longer sense their existence.

What was going on here?

Meanwhile, Maraju roared, "How? How is this possible? How could you destroy the Soulseize Scythes?"

Tang Jie turned to look at Maraju. "Is that strange?"

Maraju trembled all over. "What do you understand? What do you understand!? What do you understand!?"

With each repetition, his face grew more twisted and terrifying.

From his expression and what had happened just now, Tang Jie realized that there was probably something else happening here. But it was clear he wasn't going to get any answers, for Maraju now yelled, "Capture him! We have to capture him! Alive!"

Countless ghosts flew off the ship toward Tang Jie.

The effects of the Soulseize Scythes persisted, and Tang Jie couldn't move his arms, so he decided to run rather than fight.

"You're not going anywhere!" Maraju roared, once more striking with his hand.

Wind emerged under Tang Jie's feet as he used Horizon Ocean Pavilion's Oceancrosser Step.

This art was the trademark of Horizon Ocean Pavilion and was considered the fastest in the world. When Xu Miaoran had married Tang Jie, she swore an oath to not pass it to him. Tang Jie knew it right now because his avatar had recently paid a visit to Horizon Ocean Pavilion and asked for it.

Tang Jie's power had made Horizon Ocean Pavilion realize that it was better to comply rather than cling to their treasures, that cooperating voluntarily was the only way to adapt, so Tang Jie got his chance. Even so, Tang Jie was requested to not transmit it to anyone else, including his own children.

In the Nether Domain, this art could still be considered top-class, and he shot away like a bolt of lightning, the ghosts unable to catch up.

The frantic Maraju ordered the Ghost March Ship to give chase, but no matter how fast it was, it couldn't match the speed of the Oceancrosser Step. Its real advantage was in long journeys, not short sprints.

Tang Jie used this opportunity to recover as best he could.

The effects of the Soulseize Scythes were rather severe, and Tang Jie flew for a little less than an hour before his arms finally began to recover. Even then, Tang Jie was afflicted by an almost crippling fatigue.

He knew that this was the damage inflicted on his Divine Soul by the scythes. Fortunately, the scythes hadn't penetrated too deeply, so it would recover with time.

This was something prone to happen when fighting in the Nether Domain. Because one's opponents were ghosts, many attacks targeted the soul directly.

Inspecting himself, he determined that his Divine Soul would need at least half a month to recover, which was rather dismaying news. Damage to the Divine Soul might have only manifested as mental fatigue, but it affected everything that had to do with the mind. The usage of spell arts would be severely hampered, familiar spell arts becoming new, and new spell arts becoming unusable. Even someone at the thoughtcasting level would suffer a massive drop.

In these circumstances, Tang Jie could barely keep up the Oceancrosser Step. Actually fighting was out of the question.

Suddenly, Tang Jie sensed something in his Sea of Cognition.

Tang Jie focused his attention on the Sea of Cognition and finally found two small black dots floating there: the disappeared black grains.

They had entered his Sea of Cognition?

Tang Jie was stunned.

As he recalled what had happened, he suddenly understood.

The black grains left behind by the Soulseize Scythes weren't physical entities, but some strange soul-like substance.

Tang Jie didn't know what this substance was for, and as he flew along, he inspected the black grains with his Spirit Will.

It was a good thing he had entered Cognitive Creation and had a Spirit Will, or he wouldn't have even been able to do this.

Threads of Spirit Will entered the Sea of Cognition, and as they extended toward one of the black grains and touched it, Tang Jie's Sea of Cognition quaked.

The black grain began to shatter, one into two, two into four, and so on, growing smaller and smaller until it was basically a cloud of fine dust, with no sign of the original grain.

And then the cloud began to disperse.

"No, don't!" Tang Jie panicked.

He had no desire to have this stuff occupy his Sea of Cognition until he discovered what it did.

But that cloud of black dust ignored his will, spreading out and merging with his Sea of Cognition like snow melting into water, leaving behind no trace.

To Tang Jie's surprise, as the black cloud disappeared, his flagging mind was revitalized.

He felt like he had just emerged from a good sleep, ready to greet the world.

Tang Jie also felt the effects across the rest of his body.

"It repairs the Divine Soul?" Tang Jie cried out in surprise.

This black substance had the power to repair the Divine Soul?

The dissolving black substance had restored Tang Jie's recently wounded Divine Soul.

Seeing that some of the black cloud was still there, he wanted to try and gather it up. Surprisingly, the black cloud that had been so disobedient earlier now sensed Tang Jie's thoughts and gathered up again, becoming a black grain floating in his Sea of Cognition, though much smaller than before. The damage done to Tang Jie's soul didn't require using up the entire grain.

It turned out that this black grain could be controlled, but the black grain had disobeyed because it was set on repairing his Divine Soul. It was able to sense his innermost desire, so it had ultimately refused his order and chosen to repair the Divine Soul before complying with his will.

Tang Jie clicked his tongue in wonder.

The universe was truly home to all sorts of strange and unusual things.

Who could have imagined that the Weapon Mantra shattering a Soulseize Scythe would produce this?

Tang Jie began to study the black grain to see if it could be used for anything else.

His research quickly bore fruit.

The black grain was a product of the soul, and it could do almost anything the soul could. Repairing the Divine Soul was just one of many ways to use it.

A few moments later, Tang Jie had found several other ways, one of them so useful that it could become a powerful trump card. But it was an extremely costly method, and Tang Jie didn't dare to use it lightly. Still, its existence boosted his confidence.

These black grains were excellent items, and it seemed like he would have to find more Soulseize Scythes to shatter. But it seemed from Maraju's reaction that Soulseize Scythes weren't that easy to come by. That was strange. How was it that two semi-king ghosts could possess treasures that even Yakshas could not?

Tang Jie didn't understand.

But regardless, with this new treasure, Tang Jie no longer considered Maraju a threat.