For Tang Jie to compete purely with spell arts would be like a berserker drawing a bow, completely wasting his advantages.
In truth, the part of the Divine Firmament Sword Classic that Tang Jie had stolen had even better saber arts than the Windcleaver, but those spell arts were far too profound and vast. The Violet Lightning Lunge, Formless Golden Body, and Divine Court Thousandshift alone took far too much of his energy.
He had so far only managed to reach the first level of the Formless Golden Body and almost to the first level of the Violet Lightning Lunge. As for the Divine Court Thousandshift, it was in far worse condition.
As for the Jade Shattering Finger, it was barely at a usable state.
Thus, he didn’t have the energy to learn any more.
While the Windcleaver Saber was ordinary, it was easy to cultivate and could produce obvious results in short order.
After one year of cultivation, Tang Jie was gradually beginning to understand that things weren’t better just because they were more advanced and more profound. The more profound the spell art, the more difficult it was to cultivate and the slower it was to see an effect.
He had learned so many profound spell arts, so why had it been so difficult for him to beat Daoist Fuyu? It was precisely because he couldn’t really use those profound spell arts to their fullest extent.
Tang Jie chose another spell art in addition.
The Nullight spell.
This was a support spell that could block out light rays and momentarily turn the surroundings pitch-black. It could also be used on an item to make it so that it wouldn’t reflect light.
He was learning this spell art in preparation for future battles.
The golden needle’s luster was rather conspicuous, and with this spell, he could cover it. Moreover, if he wanted to use another spell art of the Divine Firmament Sword Classic, he could use this spell to hide it from others. In this way, Tang Jie would have much more freedom in his battles.
“Unfortunately, this spell has two drawbacks. One is that it’s easily broken, a single Dimlight spell able to undo it. The other is that I’m also affected. To resolve the former, I can only learn a profound art from the Sword Classic, and to resolve the latter, I’ll have to learn the Night Vision spell… but I don’t have the energy to learn all this,” Tang Jie muttered to himself, then shook his head, a bitter smile on his face.
He discovered that cultivating spell arts was like fabricating lies. Each new ability came with numerous requirements that you constantly had to satisfy, and there was simply no end to it.
Tang Jie’s heart shivered, and he reminded himself that he could not lose himself in the endless pursuit of perfection.
He was a student, so his first priority was to increase his cultivation level. No matter how many spell arts he learned now, they wouldn’t be that useful in the future. Without the pressure of Godhead Palace, he was no longer in a rush to increase his fighting power. Besides, with his current constitution, few average Spirit Platform Realm students could beat him.
With this thought in mind, Tang Jie left with the two spell books. He decided to not learn any more spell arts until he reached Spirit Sea.
He hadn’t gotten far from Heaven One Pavilion when he spotted Wu Xing.
Wu Xing and Tang Jie’s relationship had warmed somewhat after that gift of medicine, and he was going to call out to Wu Xing. To his surprise, Wu Xing’s face twisted, and he pretended to not see Tang Jie and walked away in the other direction.
Tang Jie froze, and then he saw Wu Xing throw something at him.
Tang Jie grabbed it and saw that it was a balled-up piece of paper. A few words had been hastily written on it: “Hurry to the third young master’s place.”
But it didn’t say why.
Tang Jie pondered these words for a few moments, and then he quickly set off for the Meditation Garden. When he arrived, he saw that the gate was ajar and there was an argument going on inside.
“No matter what, I can’t agree!” Wei Tianchong shouted.
Pushing open the gate and going in, Tang Jie saw that Wei Tianchong was shouting in the courtyard.
Across from him were Wei Tianzhi and Wei Ming.
Wei Tianchong yelled in delight, “Tang Jie, you came at the perfect time. Big Brother is talking about driving you out of the house!”
“Is that so?” Tang Jie finally understood why Wu Xing had told him to come quickly.
This appeared to be something rather serious.
Wei Tianzhi shouted, “Little brother, you still persist in your misguided ways? Tang Jie was willing to risk everything to stand out. Such extreme measures will eventually bring calamity on the Wei Clan. I’ve already written a letter to our parents. I’ve only come over to inform you so that you can keep your distance from him.”
“This is my own business. I don’t need you to interfere!” Wei Tianchong roared.
Wei Tianzhi grew furious. “This is the Wei Clan’s business, not your personal affair. If you continue to protect him like this, he will inevitably drag you down!”
The two brothers were like two red-eyed roosters, angrily glaring at each other. Wei Ming tried to mediate, saying, “Is this really necessary? Tang Jie is still Brother Chong’s servant student. Big Brother wrote a letter back home without informing him, so it’s no wonder he’s angry.”
“From how he’s acting now, do you think he would have agreed? I knew that he would be like this, so I hid it from everybody and did it first. This is for your own good!” Wei Tianzhi aimed his last words at Wei Tianchong, and then he viciously glared at Tang Jie.
Tang Jie chuckled. “It seems that the first young master is very dissatisfied with me.”
“Hmph!” Wei Tianzhi snorted. “As a servant student, you should have known your place and carried out your duties, but look at what you’ve done! Pretending to be Tang Jiye, breaking the law, and stirring up this tempest! If I let you keep this up, you’ll drag down my Wei Clan with you one day!”
“How is he dragging us down?” Wei Tianchong shouted. “The punishment has already come out, and I wasn’t implicated in the slightest.”
Wei Tianzhi’s face darkened. “This is purely because we got lucky, but next time? If he causes more trouble, how will it end next time? Tang Jie doesn’t know his place, and someone like him is bound to bring disaster. I’ve already sent the letter, and all I’ve come here to do is inform you. That’s it! It doesn’t matter what you say!”
“You bastard!” Wei Tianchong bellowed in anger.
“Third Young Master,” Tang Jie reminded, “the first young master is your older brother. You can’t be this rude to him.”
“You’re speaking up for him!” Wei Tianchong jumped up and down in anger. “You shithead! I’ll kick you out of school myself!”
Tang Jie chuckled. “One: I’m simply speaking up for reason. You can’t treat your older brother like this, regardless of any other circumstances. Two: the master and the lady haven’t driven me out yet. The letter being sent doesn’t mean that everything will go as the first young master says.”
Wei Tianzhi snorted, clearly scornful of Tang Jie. Given his understanding of his father, he trusted that with this letter, Tang Jie would not be allowed to remain as a lurking disaster of the clan.
Tang Jie continued, “Three: the Wei Clan might no longer be able to decide if I stay or leave Basking Moon Academy now.”
Wei Tianzhi was startled. “What did you say?”
Tang Jie turned to Wei Tianzhi. “First Young Master, the major clans can decide who gets into the school, but once the students are in, the clans can no longer casually decide who can stay and who can remain. If Basking Moon Academy doesn’t want to let me go, then not even the Wei Clan will be able to drive me out.”
The major clans handled everything before the students actually entered the academy, but many of their privileges in this aspect were stripped away once the students were part of the academy.
Tang Jie was registered as a student under the Wei Clan’s name. If the Wei Clan no longer supported his studies, it did have the right to request the school that Tang Jie withdraw.
But the academy could refuse their application.
Given Tang Jie’s current situation, how could Basking Moon Academy expel him?
Thus, while Tang Jie was surprised to hear of this development, he quickly brushed it off.
When an eaglet grew up, its wings hardened. No matter how much someone didn’t want to accept this fact, this was an inevitable rule of development.
For Tang Jie, if he really did separate from the Wei Clan over this, it would also resolve all the karmic debt he owed the Wei Clan. Thus, he didn’t mind the first young master’s actions at all.
Wei Tianzhi froze for a moment, and then he harrumphed. “The academy will keep you? It looks to me like you’re dreaming. Moreover, even if the academy wants you, my Wei Clan will halt all subsidies!”
Tang Jie chuckled. “I owe the academy one hundred thousand coins, and there’s even monthly interest. First Young Master does not need to concern yourself over the tuition.”
Everyone was scared out of their wits by this sum.
Few people knew about the enormous debt Tang Jie owed, and even Wei Tianchong had only learned about it afterward.
After hearing this number, Wei Tianzhi finally understood why Tang Jie was so confident.
No one would let a debtor go this easily!
Wei Tianzhi furiously said, “My Wei Clan might not be one of the illustrious clans, but it still has some influence…”
“First Young Master!” Tang Jie’s face suddenly turned stern. “I can understand if you are unhappy about me, and if you want to drive me out, I have no complaints. But to mobilize all your resources to drive out a single servant student is not normal at all… We have no personal grudges between us, so is this really worthwhile? So long as the Wei Clan announces that I’m removed from its register, our relationship is over, and then whether the academy keeps me or not will have nothing to do with the Wei Clan!”
“You dare to speak to me this way?” Wei Tianzhi barked.
Tang Jie coldly said, “I’m on the verge of ceasing to be a Wei Clan servant student, so why do I need to be so courteous with you?”
“Youuu!” Wei Tianzhi was so angry that he couldn’t speak.
The situation had entered a stalemate.
What shocked everyone was that Tang Jie wasn’t at all afraid of Wei Tianzhi.
Wei Tianzhi suddenly howled in anger, “Tang Jie, don’t forget that you’re still a servant student of my Wei Clan!”
Tang Jie sneered, “But not yours!”
Furious, Wei Tianzhi looked at his younger brother.
Wei Tianchong straightened up and said, “Don’t even think about it! I already said that I’m not letting Tang Jie go. Without him, I would still have to take classes every day and wouldn’t be anything.”
Wei Tianchong truly had been making remarkable progress as of late.
Tang Jie’s initial plan was gradually taking effect. As Wei Tianchong honed himself on the battleground, he had begun to change from someone who was always at a loss in every battle to someone who was willing to take on any sort of challenge or danger.
Besides that, Tang Jie’s renting of the puppet had also brought Wei Tianchong a lot of benefit.
Renting had benefited both sides. While Tang Jie used the puppet to complete his plan in Tiger Roar Valley, Wei Tianchong had taken in revenue of more than one thousand coins.
These thousand-some coins could be used to buy medicine to help him cultivate or increase his strength.
A few days ago, the Wei Clan had also bought him a spell weapon, the Watersplit Sword, making him strong enough that he had finally managed to reach the top one hundred among the students of his class.
Although he still hadn’t ranked yet, if he kept this up, ranking was inevitable.
Moreover, as Tang Jie and the other outstanding students entered Spirit Lake, his competition would shrink. Wei Tianchong’s golden age was coming soon.
Tang Jie’s help had been vital to all this. How could Wei Tianchong not be grateful to him?
Wei Tianzhi felt helpless, so he pointed at Tang Jie and shouted, “Fine! Let’s see how long your arrogance can last. Once the letter from my parents gets here–”
Tang Jie cut him off. “Once the letter from the master and lady arrives, I’m afraid you’ll be even more disappointed.”