But behind this calm, Duan Fourth cried out in fear, “We’ve lost connection with the first formation wall…”
Hearing this, He Chong waved his hand, and the image of a wall of spiritual energy appeared in front of them. This was the location of the first formation wall.
As Godhead Palace had managed to reach all the way to the end of the second formation, they could observe all the parts of the formation up until then, barring the illusion zone, due to its special attributes.
But as this image formed, large amounts of fog rushed in, covering it up until nothing at all could be seen.
Alarmed, He Chong waved his hand again, and the sight of crashing waves appeared.
This was the Weakwater Formation.
But he once more saw white fog sweeping out, like a fog over the sea. It engulfed the ocean, and the scene was also quickly turned white.
“We’ve also lost connection to the second formation wall…” Duan Fourth stiffly said.
He Chong’s heart shivered.
Duan Fourth’s words meant that they could no longer stand here and see everything that was going on within, and that they had lost control over the situation.
Deng Yuqing had turned ghastly pale. “How? How is this possible?”
Not only had Tang Jie broken the formation, he had taken control over the illusion zone and expanded it, preventing Godhead Palace from tracking him.
Right now, any part of the formation that had been opened up before this had now been engulfed by the illusion zone. The Nine Executions Immortal Formation had changed, but it had changed in a way that was incomprehensible to them.
They didn’t even know how this change had come about.
“How could he do something that not even Immortal Platform Titans were capable of?” Even He Chong shook his head, not daring to believe his eyes.
Deng Yuqing said, “For ten thousand years, no one has ever been able to break this formation, and not even Godhead Palace mobilizing all of its strength and searching the world for information was able to do it. So how could a single Tang Jiye so quickly break through it, even take control over it? It doesn’t make sense. Is the formation actually targeted, and it was waiting for him this entire time?”
Duan Fourth angrily roared, “Buillshit! Even the wheel of the Heavenly Dao can’t see ten thousand years into the future, so how can the formation possibly be targeted toward someone? Besides, this kid is quite the schemer. Someone with that personality can’t possibly be the Martial Lord’s reincarnation, let alone be designated as his successor!”
These words made He Chong shudder. “I see now!”
Duan Fourth and Deng Yuqing both turned their heads to see He Chong trembling, his eyes glowing. He said in a shaking voice, “‘Fortune is a trap, setting you off on the wrong path’… no wonder… no wonder… Yes, we should have thought of that ages ago.”
He Chong thumped his chest and howled, “Wrong! We were completely wrong!”
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“True Person!” Duan Fourth and Deng Yuqing yelled in unison.
He Chong sat on his butt, slamming the ground with his hands as he wailed, “It was so simple! Why did I think of it earlier?”
Deng Yuqing helped up He Chong and said, “True Person, what’s wrong?”
He Chong was a Celestial Heart True Person, yet he was crying and dripping mucus like a child.
He wasn’t crying because the formation had been broken, but because of his own “stupidity”. As Deng Yuqing supported him, he cried out, “We were wrong… that formation… We shouldn’t have tried to break it that way… shouldn’t have done it that way!”
“Which formation?” Deng Yuqing asked in confusion.
He Chong sat on the mountain and pointed a trembling finger down below. “The Infinite Illusion Zone… the safe route… that wasn’t the correct path… We were on the wrong path from the very start… The formation didn’t require being broken at all!”
Deng Yuqing and Duan Fourth finally got what he was saying.
Godhead Palace had gotten into the second formation entirely by relying on the safe path, which was a flaw in the formation. But Tang Jie hadn’t taken this route, instead choosing to find his own solution.
Could it be that the correct path was only to properly find the solution to the formation?
But it had been thousands of years without anyone finding the solution to the Infinite Illusion Zone.
The two of them didn’t get it.
He Chong shouted, “Because this is an inheritance!”
Inheritance!
He Chong finally understood.
The Martial Lord’s secret ground had been left behind for someone with a goal in mind.
As an inheritance land, it had the special property of allowing in anyone who fit the requirements rather than trying to get in through brute force.
He Chong didn’t know what those conditions were, but he knew at least one: start from the beginning.
Godhead Palace’s problem was that it hadn’t gone through the proper process.
The damage to the formation had made it so that Godhead Palace had never taken the correct path.
They had skipped past it!
True, the damage to the Nine Executions Immortal Formation had given Godhead Palace the chance to take control of this Immortal land, but it had also led them down the wrong path.
“But, True Person, this Infinite Illusion Zone is dangerous and unpredictable, and nobody has ever been able to solve it. If we had insisted on solving it in the proper way, we still might not have even reached the first formation wall!” Deng Yuqing quickly said.
Some things were easier said than done.
Perhaps Godhead Palace had thought of this possibility before, but starting from the first step?
How many lives had already been lost in this first step?
He Chong thumped his chest again. “So there must be some problem in here, a problem! But alas, I don’t know what it is.”
He shouted at the valley below, “Tang Jiye, how did you see through it?”
He didn’t expect an answer.
But the fog churned, and a few moments later, Tang Jie really did reply. “All I can tell you is that the true use of the Visceral Manifestation Classic was to charge at the Jade Gate. The rest will depend on your own comprehension.”
He Chong was taken aback. “Charging at the Jade Gate?”
He sat on the ground and stroked his chin in thought, but he struggled to find anything useful.
On the other hand, Deng Yuqing frowned and said, “The reward given at the second formation wall was only a method to charge at the Jade Gate? Isn’t that too cheap? Whether it’s the Infinite Illusion Zone or the Weakwater Formation, they took a lot of work from us to get through. What’s the point in giving a simple method for charging at the Jade Gate?”
But these words made He Chong shudder, and he cried out, “I get it!”
“True Person?” Duan Fourth and Deng Yuqing looked at him.
He Chong shouted, “Think! Think! The first formation wall had the Martial Mirror, which was the key! The second formation wall gave the Visceral Manifestation Classic, which was a method for charging at the Jade Gate. What does this mean? Think about the concept of using everything to its limits and progressing step by step!”
Deng Yuqing paled, “Using everything to its limits, step-by-step progress… Could the Martial Lord have arranged things so that a mortal could reach the end of the second formation?”
“Correct!” He Chong hugged his head and wept. “We were unable to break the formation not because we weren’t strong enough, but because we weren’t weak enough!”
“Heroism welling in my chest, a tide of ghosts hidden beneath the green seas, I ride the wind while striding atop the silver waves and jade oceans!”
A giant dragonboat was sailing through an azure ocean. Around it were countless sea fiends, unleashing frenzied attacks on the dragonboat, but despite all the explosions of spiritual energy, the boat was unharmed.
Tang Jie hugged his knees and sat on the prow of the ship, loudly singing the little song he had come up with, his heart brimming with joy.
The dragonboat had been created by Tang Jie from the illusion powers of the Infinite Illusion Zone. He had brought it into the second formation, and by riding it, he could easily break through the Weakwater Formation and reach the formation wall. This was the protection conferred by the formation onto the “weak”.
If one did not discover the secret of the Infinite Illusion Zone, one would never be able to get this dragonboat, and so they would not be able to break through the Weakwater Formation in the correct manner. Error piled on error would ultimately compel one to break through by force.
But what truly left him overjoyed was the object under his feet.
Crouched at his feet was none other than a small ghost, only a foot tall and translucent. It was currently trembling in fear.
Tang Jie couldn’t help but sigh as he looked at that little ghost. “I didn’t think that the correct method to get out of the illusion zone would be you… The Martial Lord’s reputation for having an unsurpassed treasury is truly not feigned.”
In that parade of ghosts, Tang Jie truly had hit a dead end.
But this had only made his mind clearer.
Under the pressure of all these ghosts, Tang Jie’s first thought was, How is it that all these ghosts are having no effect on the formation’s spiritual energy circulation?
His second thought was, It must be that the formation’s circulation took into account the existence of these ghosts, so the means of avoiding them were implemented from the very start.
His third thought was, If a mortal really can get through this place, how could they do it?
He then saw that Netherred Wolf that had been possessed by a ghost.
When a Netherred Wolf was possessed by a ghost, the other ghosts would cease attacking it, treating it as a member of the horde.
Although it was blasted to bits a moment later by Tang Jie’s punch, at that moment, Tang Jie suddenly remembered something.
This was the time he discovered the secret of the Martial Mirror: the remaining power of Soulscour had carried his mind into the Martial Mirror.
Very early on, Tang Jie had thought of something.
If the Martial Mirror was the key, why had the key been placed behind the illusion zone?
If every level of the Nine Executions Immortal Formation had a purpose, with the Visceral Manifestation Classic serving to temper the body and the Martial Mirror serving as the formation key, what meaning did the Infinite Illusion Zone have other than serving as a blockade?
Tang Jie had never found the answer to the question.
Only when he recalled that scene with the Martial Mirror did he finally understand. Perhaps, besides serving as a barrier, the Infinite Illusion Zone did have another purpose: it told you how to use the Martial Mirror!
In other words, getting out of the illusion, using the Martial Mirror, and obtaining the inheritance as a mortal were all linked.
In normal circumstances, Tang Jie would have never been able to find the commonality.
But in the middle of this ghost parade, when that ghost-possessed wolf had attacked him, Tang Jie had seen it.
Possession by a ghost!
Yes.
Possession by a ghost!
Only ghosts could truly become accustomed to this world, and only they could bring one out of this place.
In the same vein, only weak mortals would let a ghost possess them. A cultivator would rather die than give a ghost this chance.
Finally, once one was possessed, to break free of the ghost, one would need the Martial Mirror.
Using Soulscour on the Martial Mirror was actually just sending one’s Soul Will into the Martial Mirror. From this, one could see that the Martial Mirror was a treasure that was extremely useful for the soul. The moment the possessed person reached the Martial Mirror, they would probably have the ghost take the place of the Soul Will in entering the Martial Mirror, thus removing the possession while also taking ownership over the Martial Mirror.
Of course, all of this had only been speculation for Tang Jie at the time.
If his theory had been wrong, Tang Jie’s life would have been done right there.
But Tang Jie had ultimately decided to risk it.
Of course, not just any ghost would do for possession, and Tang Jie had taken some time finding one. He felt like the Martial Lord would definitely have left a reliable method.
And then he saw that translucent little ghost.
This was a ghost he had never seen before, and the moment he saw it, he had a strange feeling.
It was like it was the key to everything.
Thus, when that little ghost came over, he intentionally opened up his blood energy barrier, letting that ghost crawl into him. He saw it… enter his heart.
An indescribable feeling instantly spread throughout his entire body.
What truly shocked him was that when this ghost entered his body, he found that he still had control over his body and could think for himself. All that changed was that his vision became black and white and his walking became somewhat unsteady.
Looking down, Tang Jie found that he could see his bones and organs, the blood flowing through his body, and all his muscles and sinews, which scared the wits out of him.
And a set of special memories appeared in his mind. The experience of wandering this world for thousands of years and the long sense of loneliness made Tang Jie break out in tears.
Besides the bleakness and loneliness as deep as the seas, there was only that most profound understanding of this world.
At that moment, he finally understood what this self that had a black-and-white vision was.
It was his soul!
It flitted about in his body, even felt like it was going to leave it.
In normal circumstances, the moment his soul left his body, it would be evaporated by the blazing Yang energy of the sun.
But in this pitch-black night, this world of ghosts, Tang Jie wasn’t worried at all.
His soul drifted around, half of it in the air while the other half remained in his body. The half in his body commanded the body to move forward like a zombie while the half in the air felt the fog around him.
He felt like he could grab it, fuse with it, command it.
Most shocking of all was that his soul could also sense some hidden energy within the Infinite Illusion Zone.
This energy entered his soul, and he could feel himself grow more powerful.
Delighted, he began to absorb this energy. At the same time, the endless ghosts followed him as if he was their king. Rather than trying to divide up Tang Jie and eat him, they were seemingly prostrating to him.
His body continued forward while his soul flew through the fog.
His Spirit Will grew stronger and stronger, gaining a deeper and deeper understanding of the Infinite Illusion Zone.
This was a land of inheritance!
Study and research was the proper responsibility of those who entered this place.
Those who forced their way in were all intruders!
As this thought resounded in Tang Jie’s mind, the fog churned, and a giant roared…
His mind remained lost in thought until, finally, a light appeared in the distance. It was at this point that Tang Jie stopped.
The dragonboat drew closer and closer.
The scene gradually cleared up.
He finally saw that spiritual wall.
This was the second formation wall.
It was called a formation wall, but it was actually a spiritual membrane.
Though it was a membrane, it was as tough as steel, and Godhead Palace had wasted several decades without breaking through it.
The dragonboat kept going, showing no intent of stopping.
Tang Jie slowly got up, grabbed the little ghost, and stuffed it into the Martial Mirror. Chuckling, he said, “All right, since we’ve gotten the chance to know each other, you can follow me from now on. The Martial Mirror will be your home.”
Keekee! The little ghost cried out like a monkey.
As Tang Jie put away the Martial Mirror, he said, “None of that from you. I already have two companions: one a fiend tiger and the other a grass sprite. You’re the third, and you’re a ghost, so I’ll call you Little Three. Fiends, sprites, ghosts, and monsters—haha, I wonder if I can collect all four. If I do, then I might take a trip to the Primordial Fog Domain to collect a demon!”
He jumped off the dragonboat, making a long arc through the air and landing in front of that membrane. His right arm bulged with muscle, a vortex of power forming around it.
There were no pulses of spiritual energy in this vortex, only the purest and wildest strength, the most primitive and barbaric power of all.
Boom!
Tang Jie sent that power slamming at the membrane like a comet. His steely fist struck, and the membrane cracked like glass, a few barely perceivable cracks appearing.
But the membrane simply flickered, and the cracks began to heal.
“Haha, it works, so it must be right!” Tang Jie didn’t mind, laughing as he punched again.
A moment later, he began to crazily punch at the membrane, and large ripples pulsed across the membrane under his assault.
These ripples were so powerful that they could even be noticed from a distance.
Duan Fourth paled, and he cried out, “Oh no! He’s attacking the second formation wall. The formation wall… the formation wall is being damaged!”
“How?” Deng Yuqing cried out.
Not even Immortal Platform Titans had been able to break the formation wall of the Nine Executions Immortal Formation!
“If it’s the strength that the Martial Lord required, then it might work,” He Chong drily said.
“Then what are we waiting for? After him! Kill Tang Jie and take back the Martial Mirror!” Deng Yuqing roared.
At this moment, Deng Yuqing had actually already succeeded in understanding the mindset which Tang Jie used to get through the formation.
Through Tang Jie’s methods, Godhead Palace had found out what their own problems were.
Thus, all they needed to do now was get back the Martial Mirror and follow that line of thought, upon which getting through the formation would only be a matter of time.
The three of them rushed to the formation wall.
At the same time, Tang Jie began to punch at the membrane even more crazily.
The membrane seemed soft, but it had a seemingly endless power to repulse.
Tang Jie’s fists were beginning to crack and bleed under this furious barrage.
Blood splattered onto the membrane and was sucked in, and then, the membrane’s recovery speed actually began to slow.
Tang Jie madly laughed. “I’m the owner of the Martial Mirror, the inheritor of the Parting Classic! I’ve finished with the Visceral Manifestation Classic and have reached the Jewel Body of the Parting Classic, meeting the conditions of the third formation! You want strength, so I’ll give you strength! You want blood, so I’ll give you blood! Open up for me!”
He punched out with both fists, hammering at the membrane. The crack on the membrane instantly expanded with a deafening screech.
Tang Jie grabbed the edges of the crack and tore them apart as if he was tearing apart the fabric of space itself, creating a gap large enough for one person to squeeze through.
He jumped through, entering the world behind the formation wall.