Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The Spirit Mountains.
This was an infamous mountain range in the southwestern part of Nadir Hill.
Compared to the Transverse Range, Zephyr Mountains, and other mountain ranges of the Rosecloud Domain, it was one of the few mountain ranges which had a wild and untamed air about it. To put it simply, this was a wild and primitive region that humans had yet to penetrate.
Deep in the Spirit Mountains was a primordial jungle that humans had rarely ever reached, and within it lived countless fierce beasts. Unlike those areas under the control of the major sects, where fiends survived only by the mercy of humans, the beasts of the Spirit Mountains survived through the peculiarities of the mountain range and their own power.
The Spirit Mountains were so special because the environment was complex and constantly changing. For some unknown reason, the terrain of the Spirit Mountains would change every once in a while. Mountains would turn into canyons and valleys would turn into mountains, the land rising and falling unpredictably.
There was a rumor that the mountain range itself had gained spirituality, and each change was the Great Mountain exhibiting its divine power. As time passed, this place gradually came to be known as the Spirit Mountains. It was precisely for this reason that no sect dared to take up residence here. Nobody knew when the mountains might move, taking one from atop the mountains one day to the bottom of the ocean the next.
The terrain changed, and so did the climate.
The temperatures would fluctuate between extreme heat and extreme cold so quickly as to be absurd. In one day, one could go from the dead of winter to midsummer.
The awful climate, the ever-changing landscape, and the fierce fiends turned this place into a natural forbidden zone. Unlike those "protected regions", this was a truly free land. Although it nominally belonged to Nadir Hill, the creatures living here had never once bowed their heads to Godhead Palace.
More than a thousand years ago, Godhead Palace had tried to truly conquer this place.
They had suffered their worst defeat in history.
A massive army of more than three thousand cultivators, led by a Violet Palace True Lord, had entered the mountains, attempting to find the reason behind its constant shifting and take control of the region. But the result was that they were all trapped within the mountain range. Despite Godhead Palace's best efforts, it was not able to rescue a single cultivator. Three True Lords joined their powers together, but the bizarre power of the Great Mountain interfered with them, and none of their arts were able to do anything. In the end, it was Godhead Palace's Immortal Platform ancestor who intervened, applying his supreme divine might to the mountain range. Only then did that bizarre power pull back a little, allowing those cultivators who had gone into the range to escape, but none of them dared to enter it again.
The Spirit Mountains subsequently became famous. And the fact that Godhead Palace, despite dominating Nadir Hill, couldn't do anything to a single mountain range soon became the butt of jokes across the world. And the Spirit Mountains continued to be stubborn, looming on that land and becoming the most mysterious and dangerous forbidden zone.
Later on, it became a place where cultivators adventured. Every year, cultivators would come to explore this place, and there were often cultivators who boasted about how far they had managed to venture into this dangerous region.
Once one understood this region, it became very easy to understand why Tang Jie had chosen it as the place to stage his counterattack.
This place wasn't under the control of Godhead Palace!
This was the only place that Tang Jie could find that was in Nadir Hill but wasn't under Nadir Hill's control.
Only here would he not be surrounded on all sides and not have to worry about a constant flow of enemy reinforcements.
Besides that, the complicated and changing terrain of the Spirit Mountains was Nan Ningjiang's bane. Nan Ningjiang's map could display the world, but it could never create a map of the Spirit Mountains. Firstly, it was impossible for him to have seen the entire thing, and secondly, the terrain could change at any time and render his map useless.
Without a map to serve as a reference, the Spirit-Boiling Powder's effect was halved. At most, it could indicate Tang Jie's rough location.
Tang Jie could use the complex terrain to play cat-and-mouse with his foes.
Lastly, the Spirit Mountains were truly a land of treasure. As a place that was rarely visited by humans, it had many more precious resources than the outside world. All of these excellent materials provided Tang Jie excellent conditions for laying down formations. Of course, this was only if the shifts in terrain didn't destroy his formation.
For these various reasons, Tang Jie had chosen the Spirit Mountains. Only a fool wouldn't pick an area that presented such good conditions. Of course, as a consequence, Nan Ningjiang barely needed to think to guess that this was where Tang Jie wanted their decisive battle to be.
Today, Tang Jie finally arrived at the Spirit Mountains.
He descended from the air and landed at the edge of the mountain range. This was the law of the Great Mountain.
It was said that only those acknowledged by the Great Mountain could fly in this region. Tang Jie didn't know whether this rumor was real, as his understanding of the Spirit Mountains came mostly from hearsay. But this bizarre power was something that not even Violet Palace cultivators could resist and Immortal Platform Titans were helpless against, so believing in the rumors was the far wiser choice.
As he stood at the edge of the mountain range, Tang Jie bowed in respect. This was his habit. It didn't matter if the other side wasn't even human or didn't like him. It was still best to be polite.
After bowing, Tang Jie made his way into the mountains.
The path through the mountains was very steep, but it posed no challenge to Tang Jie.
He walked through the mountains like a sightseer.
The mountains were very beautiful, large trees extending to the sky, their crowns blotting out the sun and letting only the occasional ray of light through. The soil under his feet was a purple-red, as if it had been soaked in copious amounts of blood.
Tang Jie didn't know what sort of soil it was, but he knew that it was simply one of the special attributes of the Spirit Mountains.
The ever-changing nature of the mountains meant that all this scenery was temporary and could not be used to signify anything. Today, the soil could be purple-red, and tomorrow, it could be silver-white.
Nobody knew why this was the case, only that nothing in the Spirit Mountains could be relied upon.
As he walked through the mountains, he could sense a sliver of energy drifting in the air.
This was the power of the Great Mountain, a kind of invisible pressure.
While in the Great Mountain's territory, all cultivators would be restrained by it. The stronger the cultivator, the greater the restraining power, and the stronger the spell art, the more difficult it was to successfully cast. That Violet Palace True Lord of Godhead Palace had suffered under this very same pressure. The deeper he ventured, the more ruthless the pressure became.
Of course, this didn't mean that the strong would become like trash upon entering these mountains.
The ways of the world did not go as one willed, nor would they favor Tang Jie like this.
The pressure suffered by cultivators was still proportional. High-tier cultivators, perhaps because they were more able to sense this pressure, were more greatly affected, but that didn't mean that they would fall down to the level of low-tier cultivators.
Thus, in these mountains, those at high tiers were still at high tiers and those at lower tiers remained at lower tiers. The gap shrank a little, but in general, there wasn't too much change.
If everyone fell, it was like nobody fell.
For this reason, Soul Transformation cultivators like Master Xuan Zhong still had a purpose.
But for Tang Jie, this wasn't exactly the case.
While he also fell in power, with nothing seeming to have changed, the thing that didn't change was the proportion, not the absolute value.
If the ratio between peak Mortal Shedding and Soul Transformation was 10:300, then under the pressure of the Great Mountain, this ratio became 1:30.
The ratio remained the same, but the absolute value had changed.
There were some things that were unaffected or minimally affected by the Great Mountain.
Like the lightning pearl.
Or a refined body.
Or the golden saber.
Or maybe something else.
In this scenario, these things became boosts to his power.
Of course, these boosts were limited, but it was precisely because they were limited that Nan Ningjiang and Godhead Palace wouldn't care about them.
Battle could be considered like a game of go. One couldn't hope to beat the opponent to death with a single piece. Rather, one had to pay close attention to every detail and gain an advantage in every move, slowly shrinking the distance while seeking out the opportunity to counterattack and seal the victory.
For this reason, all of Tang Jie's plans were simple and clear. His enemies could see them, but they wouldn't care about them. The nature of a person's mind foreordained that a human could not pay attention to every single detail, instead focusing on key points. No matter how smart Nan Ningjiang was, if he could only see ten of Tang Jie's detailed steps and not one hundred, there was bound to be an opening.
This was enough. This counterattack in the Spirit Mountains relied on seizing the initiative among countless details. This time, Tang Jie was fighting a battle of patience and detail with his foe.
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There was a rustle as a foot fell onto the grass and leaves.
Tang Jie looked around. He could tell that the trees here were much shorter.
The farther he went in, the shorter and more spread out the trees became鈥攖he exact opposite of how things were in other mountain regions.
This might have been due to the ever-changing nature of the Spirit Mountains. The plants here needed to be extremely adaptive, and plants that grew too densely would be devastated by shifts in terrain. Somewhat more open environments were suitable for survival.
For the same reason, shorter trees were better able to survive than tall ones.
Centuries of change had caused everything living here to evolve for the sake of survival, developing tenacious life forces. Some trees could even change their color and shape on their own鈥攏ot because they had become sprites, but because they had evolved to have this ability in this environment.
Tang Jie had already gone five hundred meters into the region. Any farther would take him past the safety line.
Heading any deeper than this "safety line" would mean encountering various unpredictable dangers. As for the outer five hundred meters, this area had been gradually created through the struggle of countless cultivators against the Great Mountain.
In this aspect, one could say that humans had still managed to get a small win, winning the right to survive in these five hundred meters from the Great Mountain.
But one could also say that they had won only these five hundred meters over all these centuries.
The Spirit Mountains region covered a vast area of more than a hundred thousand square kilometers, with the mountain range itself spanning nearly five hundred kilometers from north to south.
This was an average radius of nearly two hundred and fifty kilometers, but cultivators had only managed to make it five hundred meters, which was an indicator of just how difficult it was to conquer this mountain range.
As for Tang Jie, before he had even crossed this line between safety and danger, he had already run into a problem.
A large tiger had suddenly appeared on a nearby rock.
Curled up on the stone, it coldly stared at Tang Jie.
The safety line wasn't absolute. It was a custom, a habit, a tacit understanding, something that could be broken and even ignored.
This fiend tiger might have gotten lonely in the interior and decided to venture into the perimeter.
It looked at Tang Jie, making no attempt to hide its murderous intent.
The center of Tang Jie's forehead flashed, and with a brief glance, he knew this fiend's level.
"Middle-grade Mind Opening," he said. "Capable of speech."
The fiend tiger continued to stare, ignoring him.
Tang Jie helplessly shook his head. "I have a good impression of tigers, so I don't want to kill you. So鈥?don't block the road, friend."
As he spoke, he exposed his peak Mortal Shedding cultivation, and that tiger finally backed off.
Tang Jie strode forward.
The fiend tiger silently stared at him, its eyes glinting.
"That guy is following us," Yiyi suddenly said after a while.
She was sitting on Tang Jie's shoulder, creating a garland of flowers. Even though it had been twenty-some years, plants were naturally long-lived, so after that crazy growth spurt of her juvenile period, Yiyi's growth had slowed down significantly. Even now, she appeared like a little girl, little different from how she was before.
But her mind was gradually maturing. Without needing Tang Jie's reminder, she knew what she needed to do, so she quickly found out that the fiend tiger hadn't left.
"Did the trees tell you?" Tang Jie asked.
"No, I smelled it." Yiyi made a face. "The trees here are very strange. I can't communicate with them."
Tang Jie sighed.
A failed detail.
He had believed that engaging in guerilla warfare would be much easier in this region with Yiyi around, but while the oddities of the Spirit Mountains benefited Tang Jie, they also neutralized some of his advantages.
"What about your spell arts?" Tang Jie asked.
Yiyi waved a little hand, and some of the nearby plants began to rapidly grow, weaving themselves into a flower palace according to Yiyi's will.
This was the game that Yiyi loved to play the most, tempering her spell art while not harming the environment.
But while the flower palace grew, Yiyi started to sweat.
She said, "It's very tiring. These plants don't listen, and I need to go to great lengths to command them."
Looking at those plants, Tang Jie said, "Yiyi, there's no rush."
"But I'm about to not be able to use any of my spell arts." Yiyi was so frantic that she was on the verge of tears. "I can tell that the farther we go in, the greater the resistance from the plants will be. If we go any farther, I might not be able to command a single blade of grass."
"That will happen to everyone," Tang Jie indifferently said.
He threw out a Star Finger, and as he cast the spell, he felt the pressure around him intensify, and he needed several times the spiritual energy to overcome this pressure and release the spell.
The Star Finger landed on a nearby tree and left a small hole.
There was a gust of wind, and Yiyi suddenly yelped.
As she yelled, the flower palace she had gone to such great pains to create suddenly collapsed. Yiyi paled in fright. "It's angry!"
"Who?" Tang Jie had barely spoken when a giant face suddenly appeared on the old tree Tang Jie had struck, opening its mouth in a noiseless roar.
Huh, it was a tree sprite.
Tang Jie hadn't expected his casual attack to strike a tree sprite, and he hastened to retreat. A moment later, countless vines stabbed through the air as the tree sprite attacked.
This wasn't the first time Tang Jie had seen this sort of attack. He had been able to deal with them back when he was at the Spirit Platform Realm, and he was at the peak of the Mortal Shedding Realm now.
But as he retreated, the pressure increased again, making it difficult for him to circulate spiritual energy. Unable to adapt in time, he slowed down, and the tree sprite's vines curled around him. Thankfully, he managed to activate the Formless Golden Body in time. As the vines beat on his body, there was a golden burst of light, and he was sent flying.
At that moment, a tiger roared.
That fiend tiger from before rushed at him, swatting a paw at Tang Jie.
Pa!
As Tang Jie was struck by the paw, he thrust out his finger behind him. The fiend tiger twisted its body in the air and easily avoided it, and the attack ended up striking a tree.
Tang Jie rolled on the ground and grunted. He looked down and saw that a tiger pawprint had appeared on his chest. It wasn't too deep, and through Tang Jie's powerful life force, it quickly faded and disappeared.
But it was proof that he had been injured.
He had been injured by a mere middle-grade Mind Opening fiend tiger.
Something like this hadn't happened in many years.
"Big Brother!" Yiyi shouted in alarm.
Tang Jie stared at the fiend tiger and then at the tree sprite. "They aren't affected."
"What?" Yiyi didn't understand what he was saying.
Tang Jie repeated himself. "They aren't affected, not hindered by the Great Mountain's pressure. Not only that, they are even aided by it."
"Then doesn't that mean鈥? Yiyi gasped.
"The fiends here are stronger than those outside," Tang Jie said in Yiyi's place. "It's no wonder that fiend tiger didn't run after seeing that my cultivation level was higher than its, instead following us鈥?It wanted to kill above its level."
Yiyi's jaw dropped in shock.
She now understood what Tang Jie was saying. It turned out that the fiend tiger was following them so that it could strike once they were deep enough and affected more deeply by the Great Mountain. If the tree sprite hadn't appeared, it might have waited longer, like a hunter waiting for the prey to walk into the net.
In the Spirit Mountains, fiends and sprites were the best at killing above their level, for they were blessed by the Great Mountain.
Alas, this fiend tiger had run into Tang Jie. Although it was smart and knew to use the terrain to weaken its foe, it didn't know that Tang Jie was no average peak Mortal Shedding cultivator. This mistaken judgment made it strike early and ensured its failure.
It lunged forward, howling with the majesty of a tiger king.
Tang Jie dodged to the side, grabbing at the tiger's head as he did.
This sudden attack caught the fiend tiger off guard, allowing Tang Jie to seize it. Tang Jie immediately swung the fiend tiger around and slammed it into the ground. There was a golden flash as the golden saber left its sheath, slicing through more than half of the tree sprite's vines before resting on the tiger's throat.
The fiend tiger didn't dare to move while the tree sprite shrieked. Realizing that it had run into a tough opponent, it raised up its roots from the earth and ran off.
Yiyi shouted, "One of them escaped!"
"Let it go," Tang Jie said.
He coldly looked at the fiend tiger and said, "I don't have to kill you, but you have to stop bothering me."
"Eh?" Yiyi looked at Tang Jie in shock.
Tang Jie sheathed his saber.
The fiend tiger turned over onto its feet. It glared at Tang Jie for a while before finally leaving.
"Big Brother," Yiyi softly said.
Tang Jie patted Yiyi's little head and said, "Canhen told me that the 12 Hawks are already on their way, and the latest they will arrive is tonight鈥?We don't have much time."
"'Time'? 'Time' to do what?"
"Silly, it's naturally to turn this place into our home court."
"'Turn it into our home court'," Yiyi mumbled.
Yes, the Spirit Mountains still weren't their home court. In here, both they and Godhead Palace suffered from great restrictions.
There was no doubt that breaking free of this restriction was far more important to Tang Jie than killing a tree sprite or a tiger. Even if he couldn't do that, he had to at least avoid adding to the hostility.
"Then what do we do?" Yiyi asked.
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"First鈥?we show our reverence!" Tang Jie muttered as he gazed at the mountains in the distance.
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