Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
It was a vast underground space.
The rock ceiling was more than a hundred thousand feet from the floor, and it was impossible to see the end of the space. All around were clouds of yellow dust.
In the distance was a fiery pillar of immense size that soared upward. It was like a torch, lighting up what should have been a world of darkness.
Nobody had ever imagined that such a grandiose world would be under the Verdant Cloud Domain.
The fiends couldn't help but sigh in wonder at the sight.
"Your Majesty, where should we go now?" a fiend general asked.
Tang Jie's eyes fell on that pillar of fire. "This structure clearly isn't natural. Let's go over and see if we can find anything out."
Tang Jie threw out an item which expanded into a giant warship, none other than the Pavilion Warship.
Tang Jie blinked over to the warship's control position and sat down. Finally, he could catch his breath.
It wasn't that having the warship around made him relaxed. Rather, he could use the excuse of steering the warship to not intervene.
Although he had yet to see any danger, Tang Jie sensed that the path ahead was not going to be smooth.
The fiend kings and generals boarded the warship, which majestically flew off toward the pillar.
While the pillar of fire seemed close, it was actually extremely far away, and flying over to it took the better half of the day.
As they approached the pillar of fire, they began to hear a rumbling sound.
Everyone turned to look toward the sound.
A nearby mountain had started to move.
A large face appeared on the mountain, and then it blinked its eyes, sending rocks cascading to the ground. Finally, the mountain stood up, becoming a towering giant that swatted a hand at the warship.
The massive hand was like a moving mountain, and even Tang Jie wasn't willing to take this blow directly, so he moved the ship to evade.
The mountain giant threw out a punch.
"Fuck, you think you're impressive just because you're big?" a fiend general roared, ready to jump out of the ship and fight with the giant.
But Tang Jie said, "Let me."
While steering the warship to evade the giant's attacks, he had the ship's eighteen heavy lightning cannons turn around and begin barraging the mountain giant.
The lightning cannons were so powerful that even a Fiend Emperor couldn't ignore them. While the mountain giant was huge and intimidating, in the end, it was essentially just a stone monster, its body far inferior to that of a Fiend Emperor. At best, its skin and flesh were a little sturdier.
The warship's cannons sent countless bolts of lightning slamming into the giant. Chunks of rock were blasted off, and lightning traveled through the giant's body, scorching it black.
The fiends on the ship also used this opportunity to unleash various spell arts.
Even a mountain would be flattened by such an offensive, let alone a small-mountain-turned-stone-monster that wasn't even a hundred meters tall. The mountain giant crazily roared, but it ultimately collapsed under the terrifying assault, turning into a pile of rubble.
Everyone sighed in relief.
A crow fiend general exhaled and said, "Killing one won't cause more of them to come out, right?"
But the moment he spoke, the mountains in the distance began to rise up, turning into mountain giants that lumbered toward the ship.
While they weren't fast, their strides were large, each step triggering an earthquake.
The crow fiend was dumbfounded, and a fiend king on the side cursed, "You and your crow mouth!"
(TN: "Crow mouth" is used to insult someone who is too talkative and says something inauspicious.)
The crow fiend grumbled, "But I'm a crow."
"How could there be so many monsters?" Elder Wind questioned.
Monsters were the rarest kind of creature in the world.
Tang Jie had been through several domains, and while he had encountered countless fiends, sprites, and ghosts, he had only run into a few monsters.
Who could have known that the bowels of the Verdant Cloud Domain would have so many large stone monsters?
So many mountain giants gathered together was a strange enough sight to amaze even an Immortal Platform Titan who had traveled a thousand domains, so how could the fiends not be stunned?
But while they were shocked, there was still work that needed to be done.
The mountain giants blocked their path to the fire pillar, so whether they wanted to or not, they needed to fight this battle, and Tang Jie could only charge ahead.
As the warship shot forward like an arrow, a giant charged into its path.
If the giants were waves, the warship was a fish trying to swim through using its agility and speed.
It swam gracefully through the waves, constantly firing off balls of lightning, which would brilliantly explode on the bodies of the giants.
But the giants continued to charge in. They were like countless body refiner Tang Jies, but even more reckless and crazy, fearing no death or pain.
Hundreds of arms swung through the air, forming a vast net.
Even the warship steered by Tang Jie couldn't evade the swats of so many arms, and with a bang, a hand clapped against the warship.
The warship was sent flying like a ball, its barrier letting off an intense flash.
Through strenuous effort, Tang Jie barely managed to stabilize the ship, but then another palm sent the ship flying again, making Tang Jie want to almost throw up blood in frustration.
The warship navigating these countless mountain giants was like a butterfly trying to fly through the rain. No matter how it flapped its wings, it would inevitably be struck by raindrops. But if they wanted to reach their destination, they just had to keep going.
They could only rely on the ship's defenses and the power of the fiends on board.
But Tang Jie's real concern was that if this continued, he would be forced to intervene.
While the mountain giants were powerful, they were greatly lacking compared to a Fiend Emperor.
If the Thunder Blade Fiend Emperor himself were here, he could have used a Thundershatter Saber to cut a way through.
But Tang Jie didn't have the Thunder Blade Fiend Emperor's ability. He had the Heaven Thunder Saber, and he had practiced the Thundershatter Saber Art, but he was far from reaching the level of the real thing. If he took action, he would essentially expose himself.
The situation grew more and more troublesome. Suddenly, Tang Jie hardened his resolve and stopped firing the cannons.
The fiends looked at Tang Jie in confusion.
Tang Jie said, "There's no reason for there to be so many stone monsters. This definitely can't be natural, so it's probably related to the formation. I'm worried that these stone monsters are like the shadow creatures, getting stronger the more you kill."
As he spoke, there was a roar as a mountain giant more than three thousand feet tall rose up in the distance, much taller than the previous giants.
The fiends tensed at the sight of this giant, while Tang Jie relaxed.
It went without saying that he had guessed right.
Just like the shadow creatures, the mountain giants could constantly be reborn and get stronger and stronger in the process. Fighting with them would result in nothing good, so Tang Jie and the fiends chose to ignore them and try to push through with the warship.
Thankfully, the warship lived up to its reputation as a divine object crafted by the Thunder Blade Fiend Emperor, managing to hold out against the pursuit of so many mountain giants.
Once they got through that wide open area, the mountain giants really did stop chasing them.
The fiends said in delight, "As expected, Your Majesty was able to find the solution to this trial."
Elder Wind looked at the jungle before them and said, "Given what we've been through, this jungle is probably going to have the same dangers that only get stronger as we kill more of them."
"It's fine. Now that we've found the solution, overcoming this trial won't be difficult," the fiends commented.
The passage and mountain area had both featured monsters that started weak and grew stronger. So long as they weren't killed, they could just endure through the attacks.
But Tang Jie felt an unease, like things wouldn't be that simple.
Elder Wind saw the look on his face and asked, "Your Majesty, is there a problem?"
After thinking for a bit, Tang Jie replied, "This place… has no formation lines."
———————————
Tang Jie's original body was still working his way through the passage, followed by Yiyi, Lin Xin, Er Hu, Elders Ice and Fire, six fiend kings, and a group of fiend generals.
With the lesson from the other passage, he was able to apply the correct strategy to the Silver Eyes passage, sealing off any shadow spirits they ran into, so they ran into no dangers or surprises.
But as he was going along, Tang Jie suddenly stopped.
"Big Brother, what's wrong?" Yiyi asked.
Tang Jie didn't reply, simply staring ahead.
Because of his avatar, Tang Jie was essentially looking at these formation lines for the second time. Thanks to the Dao of Wisdom, he had extremely good memory. With each additional formation line and node, Tang Jie was able to simulate countless things and divine the significance of all these things.
Tang Jie was using this method to analyze this formation.
The avatar hadn't been able to complete the job, but the original body was finally making some headway.
The fiends gawked at him in confusion.
A shadow spirit drifted over.
Just when the fiends were about to seal it, Tang Jie suddenly grabbed the shadow spirit and carefully examined it. Raising it up to the air, he pressed it against a formation line.
The shadow spirit let out a painful hiss as it melted away, leaving behind not even the faintest gust of wind. In the end, the shadow spirit disappeared entirely, leaving behind only a translucent drop of water.
This drop of water had a little face, as well as hands and feet. The moment it appeared, this little guy flew toward the wall.
Tang Jie certainly wasn't going to let it run, grabbing the drop of water. The drop of water shifted in Tang Jie's hand, but no matter what form it took, it couldn't escape Tang Jie.
Tang Jie smiled. "So it was all the work of this thing. No wonder they kept coming and only grew stronger."
"What is it?" Yiyi asked.
"The Essence of Maternal Waters," Tang Jie replied. "One that's attained semi-intelligence."
Like the Profound Heavy Water, the Essence of Maternal Waters was a kind of special water. But its abilities were more akin to the Pale Cloud Flame, able to take on countless forms as well as scatter and come together.
It was no wonder the shadow spirits were endless. It was all the work of the Essence of Maternal Waters. The Essence of Maternal Waters was a Yin substance, and as it could transform, it could fuse with the chilling winds and mimic a shadow spirit.
Each shadow spirit was actually a drop of the Essence of Maternal Waters, and killing them would cause these drops to come together into an even stronger shadow creature.
This was the reason for their unkillable and ever-strengthening nature.
As for the formation, it wasn't producing the shadow creatures, but suppressing the Essence of Maternal Waters. It was this formation that kept the Essence of Maternal Waters split up and unable to come together. On the other hand, by killing the creatures, the fiends were helping the Essence of Maternal Waters break free of the formation.
After realizing this, Tang Jie was able to view the formation in a whole new light. Pointing ahead, he said, "All of you, go ahead and wait for me. I'll be back in a bit."
He turned and headed back into the passage.
Numerous shadow spirits came charging at him. As Tang Jie strode forward, he took out a blank formation diagram, bit his finger, and began to draw on the diagram with his blood. He was clearly drawing the formation lines of the passage, but as they were written in blood, they were rich in Yang energy.
By the time the shadow spirits reached him, Tang Jie had completed his small formation. The formation unleashed a brilliant light that engulfed the shadow spirits. As they wailed, the same scene played out, the shadow spirits shriveling into drops of water.
Tang Jie collected all of these drops of water.
He continued to do this, and he had soon collected all of the drops of Maternal Water Essence. All of the shadow spirits were dead, but no doom shadows had appeared.
Meanwhile, Tang Jie now had a water drop the size of a pigeon egg in his hand. It had little hands and feet as well as a savage expression, baring its teeth at Tang Jie. But it was restrained by the formation and unable to escape.
Tang Jie knew that this thing was basically semi-intelligent, possessing a body but still forming its mind. If it were raised properly, it could be like the firebird.
But looking at its savage display, Tang Jie knew that even if it was completely intelligent, it would be a pure brute with no humanity to speak of, completely unlike the firebird.
Raising such a thing would only bring him harm. After examining it and finding that he couldn't discover anything else from it, he squished it. With a pop, the Maternal Water Essence exploded, turning into a vast stream of Water energy that flowed into Tang Jie's body. This was primordial Water energy of the highest purity, so once Tang Jie absorbed it, he immediately gained some insight into the Dao of Water.
The Dao of Five Elements wasn't as abstruse as the Dao of Yin Yang, but Tang Jie had always had a very limited understanding of it.
Absorbing the Maternal Water Essence cleared up many principles that had previously mystified him, and he greatly increased his understanding of the Dao of Water. It was like when he had comprehended the Dao through the Myriad Immortals Cauldron, but even faster. While comprehending the Dao in this way would limit his attainments in this Dao, Tang Jie had no plans to travel very far on this Dao in the first place.
At the same time, that Archshadow was killing its way through another passage. As it killed, it gathered more drops of Maternal Water Essence around it, making itself stronger and stronger.
Suddenly, the Archshadow stopped.
It felt like a part of its life force had disappeared forever, and it instantly flew into a rage, letting out a furious screech.
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