Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Thousand Return Mountain.
This had once been a large mountain in the Treasure Paradise, but it had now moved into the Mountain River State Diagram.
This change of location had caused it to fall from a height of 6800 meters to 4200 meters, its peak having disappeared and appeared on another end of the diagram. The flat mountain head appeared like a massive plaza, and also like a person who had been cut in half at the waist.
In the center of the plaza stood a lonely tree, but despite being a single tree, its crown was so lush as to match a forest.
A single lotus lamp hung from a branch of this tree. A small fire burned at the center of the lotus, exuding a clear aroma.
Tang Jie sat meditating beneath the lamp.
He sat cross-legged on the ground, with a spirit-gathering formation carved under his feet.
His hands shifted between various signs, and as he breathed in and out, white tendrils went in and out of his nostrils, as lively as little snakes. After some time, he finally stopped cultivating. Looking up at the lotus lamp above him, he let out a long breath.
The lotus lamp was truly a fine treasure. With its help, Tang Jie clearly sensed that his cultivation speed was much faster than before. At his level of cultivation, rising an additional tier was extremely difficult, and it had been a very long time since Tang Jie had been able to so clearly feel his progress.
Two years went by in the blink of an eye, two years which Tang Jie spent cultivating within the diagram. As for the Jade Immortal Pavilion, he had the ghost guard control it.
In these two years, Tang Jie gradually progressed from the middle phase of Spirit Ring to the later phase. Attaining such a level in only two years wasn't due purely to the lotus lamp and the spirit-gathering formation. The Accumulator Divine Flow Pills had also played an extremely important role.
The lotus lamp and spirit-gathering formation were for more long-term and slow improvement, while the Accumulator Divine Flow Pills boosted him all at once in leaps.
Each pill he took would improve his cultivation by a good bit.
Without them, Tang Jie would have never been able to rise to this level of cultivation in only two years. Alas, he didn't have many of these pills. Tang Jie had taken one every two months, and he was now on his last one.
Taking out the bottle, Tang Jie dumped out the last one and looked at it while muttering, "After I eat this one, it should be just about right."
He tilted his head back and swallowed the pill.
As the pill entered his stomach, the medicinal power dispersed through him, and he once more felt that familiar rush of warmth.
Tang Jie began to methodically guide the medicinal power to the various parts of his body. Within his Spiritual Space, a deluge began to come down, throwing the Spirit Sea into turmoil. Beads of sweat began to appear on his forehead, and his body began to sway.
Even though he had already taken this pill eleven times, he was still somewhat unaccustomed to the formidable medicinal power of this pill.
Fortunately, it was still a cadence he was familiar with, and it wasn't long before he stabilized the situation.
Calm quickly returned to the Spiritual Space, and all that was left was the spiritual energy majestically surging through his body. A golden Spirit Ring began to expand outward from Tang Jie, extending all the way to the feet of the distant Yiyi while exuding power.
Whew! "Finally got it!" Tang Jie wiped the sweat off his forehead.
"Big Brother, have you reached the later phase?" Yiyi asked, blinking her large eyes.
Tang Jie nodded.
"Oh, that's great. Big Brother can go for Heart Demon now!" Yiyi waved her arms and shouted.
"No rush, no rush. Let's stabilize my cultivation level first," Tang Jie said with a smile.
He truly could make the charge at the Heart Demon Tier now, but rushing things could lead to mistakes. Tang Jie planned to first stabilize his foundations.
"Then you might be too late," Yiyi said, pursing her lips.
By "too late", she was referring to Tang Jie's desire to advance to the Heart Demon Tier before passing through the Astral Winds so as to increase his chances.
Tang Jie smiled. "Don't worry. Isn't there still half a year? That's enough. Moreover, the charge at Heart Demon Tier involves a lot of preparations that I have yet to complete. If possible, I also don't want to charge at Heart Demon in this place."
Tutu had calculated the two years based on its own speed. The Jade Immortal Pavilion was much slower than Tutu, so he had to fly another half a year to reach his chosen destination.
"Moreover, this isn't the key to passing through the Astral Winds. That is." Tang Jie pointed with his chin.
His huge original body was seated at the base of a distant mountain. Under him was a complicated formation that constantly flashed and gleamed.
Compared to the avatar, the original body had a much tougher time breaking through.
The original body had an excessive reliance on spiritual plants, and now that the supply from the Blood River Domain had been cut off, its progress had basically come to a stop.
Even though he could still grow through the spiritual energy of this world, the cultivation speed was mind-numbingly slow.
Worst of all was that the original body was currently in the critical step in his advancement into the later phase of the Diamond Body.
This was equivalent to the Soul Transformation Tier. In the past, if he could gather enough natural treasures, he could just take a bath and be done with things, but without all that, getting past this threshold became excruciatingly difficult.
No matter how hard the original body worked, even using all the spiritual herbs and plants Tang Jie had, it still wasn't enough. While the diagram world had been enriched, it was still severely lacking in natural treasures. Other than the physical matter requirements, it also just needed time. Getting things in short order just wasn't possible.
While the diagram had a teleportation formation, the distance was too great to send Tang Jie back, unless he found more resources to upgrade the teleportation formation. This was also a reason he needed to enter a world.
His original body was on the verge of a breakthrough but unable to take that final step, which made Tang Jie feel very helpless.
"It seems like later-phase Diamond Body before entering the Astral Winds won't be possible," Yiyi commented.
"That's what it means when one says that losses and gains go hand in hand," Tang Jie replied.
In these two years of cultivation, the avatar had progressed as quickly as the original body was slow.
One lost and one gained, displaying the way in which the world brought all things to balance.
After a melancholy sigh, Tang Jie sat down and continued cultivating. Yiyi didn't slack off either, joining Tang Jie in cultivating.
Farther off, He Chong's group was diligently continuing their work of modifying the world.
Occasionally, Deng Yuqing would glance at a distant mountain, the figure of a small person dancing in his eyes.
―――――――――――
Another half a year passed.
The ghost guard informed him that they would arrive at the destination in another three days at most.
Tang Jie had come out to take a look once, and that once-distant star had become a vast world, the Domain Astral Winds forming flashing green waves that prevented anyone from seeing what was happening inside. All he could sense was that the world was brimming with vitality.
Even so, the terrifying Astral Winds couldn't be underestimated. Tutu also warned that it sensed a powerful strength from it and that Tang Jie probably wasn't strong enough to safely pass.
Tang Jie said nothing in response to this, silently returning to the diagram.
Back in the diagram, Tang Jie declared, "I'm planning to attempt the Heart Demon Tier."
Yiyi was aghast. "Didn't you say that it wasn't the right time for that?"
Tang Jie shook his head. "We can't wait."
In this half a year, the original body's progress had basically come to a standstill, and it still hadn't broken through that last threshold.
As he was unable to increase his original body's strength, Tang Jie's only option was to strengthen his avatar.
Although the avatar was at greater-attainment Spirit Ring and had theoretically been able to break into Heart Demon for a while now, Tang Jie wanted to wait for the ideal moment and prepare things as best he could.
But in reality, he couldn't prepare for everything.
There would always be something that he couldn't perfect and just had to deal with.
Even though Tang Jie understood this principle, his perfectionist heart always wanted to do things the best he could.
Today, Tang Jie had come upon the first imperfection in his life: he had to push through the most dangerous and most difficult threshold in his cultivation life yet while not amply prepared.
Was this his just desert?
Why else would he happen to run into such difficulties only with the Heart Demon Tier?
As expected, it was better to live life properly, as it wasn't that the punishment didn't come, but that the time for it had been yet to arrive.
But regardless, Tang Jie couldn't back down.
After doing some final preparations, Tang Jie prepared for the charge at Heart Demon—in actuality, there weren't many preparations, just laying down a clear mind formation, using his Triheart Pill, Mindsoothing Lumber, and other such things.
After doing all this, Tang Jie officially began his charge at the Heart Demon Tier.
The charge at Heart Demon was the tempering of the soul, its transformation into the Divine Soul.
The soul was originally formless, and tempering was needed for it to gain physicality.
In the Mortal Shedding Realm, the tier of Cognitive Creation was for the purpose of refining the Spirit Will, and the Spirit Will, the will of the soul, was actually the first step to tempering the soul.
The Spirit Ring was a manifestation of the Spirit Will's ability. The area within the Spirit Ring was a cultivator's territory, where they were much more powerful. Tang Jie's Flesh Millstone had its range based on his Spirit Ring, which was why it was so powerful. It was just that absorbing blood gems had made it even stronger, but even so, the Flesh Millstone was still strongest within the range of the Spirit Ring.
At the Heart Demon Tier, the soul would be tempered again into the Divine Soul.
The greatest difference between the Divine Soul and the soul was that it was no longer purely a conceptual existence, actually having a form. This form was still rather ethereal and couldn't be considered a physical body. But it also wasn't like the soul, which could be neither seen nor felt.
One thought was to become a god, and one thought was to become a demon.
In the condensation process, a good will would become a god and an evil will would become a demon, so in this process, one could form either Heart Gods or Heart Demons. This was why this period was called the Heart Demon Tier, but it was also referred to as the Heart God Tier, the Divine Soul Tier, and the Divine Will Tier.
Tang Jie concentrated his mind and began to circulate his mantra.
Countless thoughts immediately emerged in his mind.
His brain instantly went into overdrive as countless events from his past replayed themselves in his mind.
Tang Jie finally understood why the forgotten past could still become a Heart Demon, become nightmare creatures that could engulf a cultivator's mind. This was because as the mantra circulated and stimulated the soul, all of one's memories would be reactivated, making it so that there was no running away.
The dizzying scenes surged through Tang Jie's mind like the ocean. All sorts of cries and roars rang out in his ear as if ten thousand birds were calling out all at once, and his head felt like it was going to split apart.
Familiar faces appeared in his mind: Xu Muyang, Wei Tianchong, Shi Yue, Wei Die, Cai Junyang, Xie Fengtang… Each person represented a section of his memories, and the memories threatened to engulf him.
In this flood of memories, a few voices were particularly resounding.
They loudly shouted, "Give me back my life!"
They flailed their claws and gnashed their teeth at Tang Jie.
If he looked carefully, he could see Zhuang Shen, Gu Changqing, Shu Mingyang, Mei Huaping, Chang Mingxin, Feng Buzhi, and others. These people who had died at his hand, whether he knew them or not, lunged at him one after another. There were so many of them that it was only now, when Tang Jie could see them all, that he realized how many people he had killed. After them were people like Ji Ziqian, Shi Mo, and Lin Lang, these people whom he didn't have much of a connection to. They also appeared in this storm of memories, taking on most savage forms.
Tang Jie knew that this was the first trial he had to face in the charge to Heart Demon, the Illusion Trial. The slaughter and evil that one had committed and felt shame over would take the form of resentful spirits and shriek and howl within the mind of a cultivator, taking on various monstrous and savage forms to disturb the mind and break resolve.
At this time, these stray thoughts couldn't do anything except shriek and howl. One would be fine so long as one protected one's Origin Heart.
The Basking Moon Sect's mantras emphasized a sturdy Origin Heart, so passing this trial was the easiest. Thus, Tang Jie wasn't worried, standing firm and fortifying his mind as the torrent of shrieking souls passed over him.
Gradually, a hazy and ethereal silhouette began to form in his Sea of Cognition.
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