The Heaventopple Stamp was a famous art relic in the cultivation world. The original had been a divine treasure created after the Grand Elder of the Seven Absolutions Sect, the Bejeweled Venerable, had refined an entire Immortal Mountain, after which many replicas were created, causing art-relic-level Heaventopple Stamps to become widespread.
Tang Jie had the Blazeraven Ring, so how could Zhang Qinan not have a treasure? It was just that while his art relic was powerful, it wasn’t right for the situation. But now that he had been defeated, he no longer cared.
He threw the Heaventopple Stamp in Tang Jie’s direction.
“Dodge!” Tang Jie roared, pulling the little tiger to the side.
The little square stamp tumbled through the air, growing larger and larger until it was the size of a house.
It was just that the stamp was seemingly off, tumbling rather far away from Tang Jie.
Startled, Tang Jie quickly realized what was going on. “Oh no!”
He rushed at that giant stone.
He had been worried that the Heaventopple Stamp would hit him, and he had even dodged to the side with the little tiger, but now he was charging with all his might at the stamp as if he wanted nothing more than for the stamp to hit him.
But he was still just a little too slow, and with a boom, the golden stamp slammed into a clearing, releasing a powerful shockwave that sent Tang Jie flying.
“Bastard!” Tang Jie furiously roared.
This Heaventopple Stamp hadn’t hurt him, but it might as well have stabbed him in the heart.
“Hahaha!” Zhang Qinan heartily laughed. “The Life Gate has been blocked, causing the formation to become imbalanced. You can now only go in and not out of the Devil Crushing Path. Tang Jie, let me see what you can do now!”
The Heaventopple Stomp had been attacking not Tang Jie, but the most vital Life Gate of the Nine Palace Illusion Formation.
As the path in the Nine Palace Illusion Formation leading to the Nine Palace complex, the Devil Crushing Path did not have any sort of illusive effect, but this didn’t mean that it wasn’t a part of the formation. Rather, it stood for none other than the Life Gate of the Nine Palace Illusion Formation.
The Life Gate primarily governed defense, and it also represented the life-saving line. As the saying went, the heavens favored life, and so it left this saving line for humanity.
This was the meaning of the Life Gate. It was like the brake pad and bumper for a car. It was only because of it that the formation didn’t kill the people it wasn’t supposed to.
And in Tang Jie’s plan, the Life Gate played an extremely important role: transferral.
Although Tang Jie had planned to singlehandedly hold the pass against all comers, he had never actually planned to face down one hundred all by himself.
This wasn’t something he could do at his current level of strength, not even with Yiyi’s illusion formation—at least, not for long. His goal was to have Wei Tianchong get first place, not to show off his own strength.
Fortunately, the students didn’t all arrive at the Devil Crushing Path at the same time. For example, Zhang Qinan had gotten here first, and then Tang Jie had arrived, and there was no telling who would come next.
The fact that they didn’t come in at the same time gave Tang Jie the opportunity to defeat them individually.
He could just stand guard here and defeat each student as they came, avoiding the fate of a combined assault.
The problem was: what would he do with the defeated students?
Kill them all?
That was clearly no good. This wasn’t the Valley of No Return, and a Spirit Master was watching.
Leave them on the Devil Crushing Path? That was also no good.
That would be the same as watching everyone join together to defeat him.
And these students weren’t Zhang Qinan. Whether they were stuffed into the Nine Palace Heart Ring or kicked inside, so long as they were able to make it into the Heart Ring, they would win regardless.
This was where the Life Gate came in.
Through the operation of the Life Gate, Tang Jie could send these students out of the Devil Crushing Path and back into the Nine Palace Illusion Formation, making them go through it again.
This was Tang Jie’s real plan, and the reason he dared to take on one hundred students all by himself. But he had never dared to mention it, which was why he had constantly told Zhang Qinan that he was going to send him into the Nine Palace Heart Ring.
Yet despite his best efforts, Zhang Qinan had still seen through him.
This wasn’t too strange. If he hadn’t understood formations and had relied purely on strength to get here, he wouldn’t have gotten to the Devil Crushing Path first.
And now, this Heaventopple Stamp had struck the Life Gate position that Tang Jie needed to send the students back.
With the Life Gate blocked, the students had no way to leave the Devil Crushing Path except through the Nine Palace Heart Ring, and Tang Jie’s plan was utterly ruined.
At this moment, Tang Jie only wished that the Heaventopple Stamp had hit him, and his rage was palpable.
Zhang Qinan was still laughing, laughing brazenly and loudly.
Even if he couldn’t defeat Tang Jie, at least he had more than halfway completed the mission Nan Baicheng had given him.
Tang Jie seethed with killing intent as he looked at the smug look on Zhang Qinan’s face.
Kill him!
Kill him!
Kill him!
A voice howled in Tang Jie’s mind again and again.
Anger was surging, spurring Tang Jie onward.
But in this sea of rage, the beacon of rationality still brightly flashed.
He could not do this!
This was not some life-or-death battle, nor was it worth a deep-seated grudge!
Killing him would mean earning Nan Baicheng’s enmity!
Killing him would break the rules of Basking Moon Academy!
Killing him would turn him from the victim to the victimizer!
Killing him would mean that even if Wei Tianchong became a True Inheritor, there would be no room for negotiation between him and Nan Baicheng.
The remnants of his rationality managed to hang on against his emotions that were about to go out of control, slowly pulling them back from the brink.
Tang Jie took a deep breath and suppressed his anger.
He looked again at Zhang Qinan, who was still laughing, shouting at Tang Jie, “Come on! Kill me!”
Tang Jie snorted and kicked him in the face, leaving a bootprint upon it. He grabbed Zhang Qinan by the foot and walked over to the Nine Palace Heart Ring. “I won’t kill you, but if you think that is enough to stop me, you’re looking down on me too much. I’ll let you and your master see how I manage to stop all those students!”
He dragged Zhang Qinan to the Nine Palace Heart Ring like he was dragging a dead dog.
Zhang Qinan shouted, “Tang Jie, do you really think you can still win? What does it matter that you defeated me? You think you can stop all those students forever? So long as you’re here, my master will never let Wei Tianchong break through!”
“That’s for me to worry about, not you,” Tang Jie coldy replied as he tossed Zhang Qinan inside.
His anger dissipated with this throw, and as Zhang Qinan disappeared into the Heart Ring, Tang Jie slowly turned around and made his way back to the entrance.
His gaze paused on that giant golden stone. This stone spanned the Devil Crushing Path, and it also spanned across his heart, making him feel like he was suffocating.
“Big Brother…” Yiyi softly said. “Can we not move it?”
Tang Jie shook his head.
This was the art-relic-grade Heaventopple Stamp. Moving it was easier said than done.
Of course, he might be able to do it if given enough time. The problem was that students could arrive at the Devil Crushing Path at any time, and he needed to preserve his strength and make his arrangements.
If someone saw Tang Jie shoveling away at this giant rock… not even Tang Jie wanted to ponder this any further.
“What do we do now?” Yiyi asked.
After thinking it over, Tang Jie replied, “Lay down the ilusion formation first. Others might come at any time, so we have to use our time wisely!”
“Mm!” Yiyi sternly nodded, and with a raise of her hand, a flower formation emerged.
The numerous flowers sealed off the road, linking the forests on the two ends. A mist billowed up, engulfing the region and concealing the flower formation. At this time, Tang Jie took out the formation diagram and the Alarm Gate Banner.
An Eight Desolations Illusion Formation with the Alarm Gate Banner as its core was soon formed, and it had Yiyi’s flower formation supporting it from within, granting it some offensive ability.
Once the formation was done, Tang Jie pointed at the forests on both sides. “Little tiger, go and kill all the fiend beasts in the forest.”
The fiend beasts of the Devil Crushing Path weren’t strong, but they would remain a latent problem if they were allowed to remain, and no one could say when they might cause trouble. By using this free time to exterminate them, Tang Jie removed any uncertain variables and also laid down some groundwork for the Yellow Springs Talisman. After all, this talisman required the spirits of the dead, and recently-deceased fiend beasts were the perfect material. And besides that, he could gather some Azulwind Jades.
The little tiger rushed out to execute this order.
“Yiyi, find some vines that we can use as rope.”
Since he couldn’t send the students out, he would have to tie them up. Ordinary rope was far from enough for dealing with the students, but it was better than nothing.
Tang Jie used this time to sit down and absorb spiritual energy to recover what he had lost. He had to use every minute he had and cherish every drop of strength so that he could confront the battles to come.
But deep in his heart, Zhang Qinan’s words continued to resonate.
“So long as you’re here, my master will never let Wei Tianchong break through…”
These words jabbed into Tang Jie’s heart like a needle.
In truth, he had known from the start that when Nan Baicheng saw that stopping him was ineffective, he would turn to stopping Wei Tianchong.
But there was nothing Tang Jie could do about that.
The simplest method was that if Wei Tianchong really wasn’t coming, he would find someone even worse to help him complete the mission.
Like Shi Meng!
It was a competition not of who was better, but of who was worse!
Yan Changfeng would remain without any options and would still have to pick Wei Tianchong.
But his encounter with Zhang Qinan had reminded Tang Jie of something. He realized that he might have neglected a factor.
Emotion!
Not everything could be explained through value. Humans were emotional creatures, and their actions were oftentimes prompted by their feelings rather than their rationality.
If Yan Changfeng knew what had happened in his disciple selection, what would he think?
Would he grow angry and decide to pick someone worse than Wei Tianchong?
It was entirely possible!
Tang Jie asked himself what he would do if he were standing in Yan Changfeng’s spot, and since he would be picking an awful disciple anyway, then who should he choose? You made me unhappy, so don’t even dream about getting your way!
He had realized this when he was thinking about killing Zhang Qinan.
His reason was able to defeat his emotions, but he couldn’t hope that Yan Changfeng’s would do the same.
In truth, emotion was a manifestation of a person’s desires. Why was it that people sought to achieve higher and higher positions? Wasn’t it to satisfy their needs, and didn’t this also include emotional needs?
I managed to finally make it to the big leagues, but I have to be bullied around by a little snot like you? What joke are you playing? It’s just a disciple. I’ll just take the worst one so that you won’t get your way! This mindset was probably not too strange, yes?
Tang Jie could accept that Yan Changfeng would not be happy about Wei Tianchong. That wasn’t what he was afraid of. He was confident that if Wei Tianchong could get through Yan Changfeng’s door, he had his ways of helping Wei Tianchong ascend.
But it was all for nothing if Wei Tianchong couldn’t even get a foot in the door.
On the contrary, it might breed hostility and cause him to lose more than he gained.
All these thoughts made Tang Jie warier and even more concerned about this battle.
If this was the case, he needed Wei Tianchong to get out as quickly as possible.
The problem was that he couldn’t help this along in any way.
At this moment, the jade amulet on his waist vibrated.
It was a message from Xu Miaoran.