This was Tang Jie’s creation, and it was also the method he had employed to make up for his lack of cultivation time and strength.

This four-True-Word combination of Shake-Back-Break-Leave seemed powerful, but it was actually all just a framework meant to set the stage for the final word of “Exterminate”.

This was precisely why, in order to get the maximum amount of power, Tang Jie had given up on the specialty of the True Word Orders of quick casting. Fortunately, his opponent had been a stupid corpse horde. The five orders he had spoken had needed ten-some seconds in all, which was an absolute joke for cultivators, as a simple roar would be enough to make everything fall apart.

But it was precisely this “joke” that had allowed Tang Jie to take care of that terrifying corpse horde.

The combination of orders had allowed Tang Jie to unleash that little bit of righteous energy he had accumulated over the last four hours, magnified by the Four-Nine True Word Mantra so that it could destroy the corpse horde in one blow and leave He Chong and his two comrades utterly agape.

Even though they quickly realized the limits of this method, they were still stunned by Tang Jie’s handiwork.

He Chong asked in shock, “Did you create this yourself?”

“That’s right,” Tang Jie replied.

“That’s impossible!” He Chong shouted.

Putting aside the fact that a Spirit Platform kid had comprehended the Ninedark Mantra in three days, he had even had the time to create a method that could maximize the power of the mantra and counter the enemy. It was truly unbelievable.

Even a one-in-ten-thousand-years genius wasn’t capable of this!

But no matter how much he denied the possibility, the facts were right in front of him. The shock from this far exceeded the sense of defeat from losing the wager.

Tang Jie looked at him sympathetically. “If there’s nothing else, please stand a little farther away. I still need to find the checkpoint to the fifth formation.”

By “checkpoint to the fifth formation”, he actually meant the treasure the Martial Lord had left in the fourth formation.

Deng Yuqing and Duan Fourth weren’t fools, and their eyes brightened at his words. “There’s no corpse horde, and you still dare to act cocky in front of us? You don’t think that **ty Four-Nine True Word Mantra will do anything to us, do you? Even if we can’t kill you, we can at least seize you first!”

Deng Yuqing and Duan Fourth lunged at Tang Jie.

Seeing this, Tang Jie lightly pursed his lips, and then the sword in his right hand flashed with azure light as he stabbed it at his own chest.

It was a ruthless stab, going right into his body and piercing his heart!

At the same time, He Chong cried out, blood trickling out from the corner of his mouth.

Their lives were linked, and one stab would hurt both!

“You!” He Chong angrily glared at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie sneered, “If you dare to take another step forward, I’ll kill myself and take True Person He down with me!”

Duan Fourth’s eyes flashed with a savage light. “I don’t believe you!”

They just needed to take control of Tang Jie and not kill him. Tang Jie’s threat of murder-suicide was really just gambling that they wouldn’t want to take the greater loss. Theoretically, his chances of actually doing the deed were rather low. After all, if he were controlled, he still had a chance to survive, whereas suicide would mean that everything was over.

This was precisely why Deng Yuqing and Duan Fourth were willing to take this wager.

As Duan Fourth spoke, the two of them stepped forward.

Seeing the two of them coming forward, Tang Jie slapped the pommel of his sword.

The Azure Light Sword dug in deeper, gouging a large hole in his heart.

He Chong’s heart throbbed in pain, and he threw up blood and roared, “Bastard, don’t go over!”

He thrust out his palms, aiming at Deng and Duan.

Those two were willing to gamble, but He Chong certainly wasn’t.

The palm strikes landed, and Deng Yuqing and Duan Fourth groaned and flew up. He Chong raised his hands and formed countless signs, after which he thrust his hands at the two. Two Lightning Hand Marks flew out and severely wounded the pair.

He Chong rebuked, “Beasts! Daring to gamble with my life! If you dare to be so presumptuous again, I’ll kill you first!”

Deng Yuqing and Duan Fourth trembled in fear, and it was only now that they realized how grave was the taboo they had committed as subordinates. They did not dare to speak, but when they turned to Tang Jie, they saw him smiling. They were aghast as they thought to themselves, Could this have been part of his plan?

Tang Jie saw that those two had been scared straight, after which he slowly pulled out the Azure Light Sword. “True Person He, our collaboration ends here. As there’s no need for us to be around each other for now, I will take my leave first. The battlefield is very large, but the world is very small. Once the True Celestial Heart Curse is undone, True Person can come to kill me whenever you want.”

“And if you’ve already entered the fifth formation?” He Chong asked.

Tang Jie looked up at the sky. “The danger of the corpse horde has shown that once I obtain the Martial Lord’s legacy here, I will have to diligently cultivate before proceeding to the next formation, or else my life might be in grave peril. Thus, for the time being, I will not be entering the next formation. If True Person He is worried that I will, then you should find the method to enter the fifth formation before me. If you can find the Martial Lord’s legacy in the fourth formation before me, then I will have to come to find you on my own.”

He Chong realized that this was true.

According to what Tang Jie said before, entering a level required obtaining the treasure left in the previous level. Thus, rather than constantly hunting Tang Jie, it would be better to find the hidden treasure first. He Chong was also skilled in formations, and in terms of formation knowledge, Tang Jie was definitely inferior. Thus, there was a very high chance that he would find out where the checkpoint was before Tang Jie.

Even if he hadn’t cultivated the Ninedark Mantra and couldn’t enter the fifth formation, so long as he had the Martial Lord’s legacy, he would have the key that Tang Jie needed to enter the next formation.

He nodded. “Alright!”

Tang Jie added, “Right—don’t forget that you lost the three-day wager to me.”

He Chong’s face darkened. “You really think I’ll follow your orders?”

It was clear that he planned to go back on his word. Tang Jie chuckled. “Why not? No one can shirk my debts.”

No one can shirk my debts!

This was an open threat!

A Spirit Platform student threatening a Celestial Heart True Person!

He Chong scowled. “Fine, I’ll wait for you to collect on your debt!”

Tang Jie casually said, “That’s fine. A final reminder: there are costs to holding a loan, and repayment comes with interest!”

Tang Jie turned his head and left.

He Chong clenched his fists in anger as he watched Tang Jie leave, but he did not strike.

Deng Yuqing came over. “True… True Person.”

“What?” He Chong glared at Deng Yuqing, clearly still angry at the two.

Deng Yuqing dropped his head and said, “With the formation sealed, we have nowhere to go. We might be stuck here.”

“And what about it?” He Chong’s eyes chilled. “The Martial Lord couldn’t have laid down a formation with no way back. There should be a way out once we enter the core.”

“But that will probably take a very long time, and we…”

“What?”

Deng Yuqing said nothing, looking to Duan Fourth. Duan Fourth had no choice but to harden his resolve and say, “We don’t have that much food.”

He Chong’s face froze.

As a Celestial Heart True Person, he possessed a profound cultivation that could abstain from eating.

But even abstaining from eating meant that one used spiritual energy as one’s form of energy to keep oneself alive. Cultivation required spiritual energy, but life required more than that.

Or perhaps it was better to say that there were some things that spiritual energy couldn’t replace.

This was precisely why True Persons who had reached the level of abstinence would still bring a little food and drink with them, though much less than a normal person would. In normal circumstances, they could go ten days to half a month without touching a grain of rice.

But not even a Celestial Heart True Person could go an entire year without water or rice.

He Chong’s heart tightened at Duan Fourth’s words.

Duan Fourth asked, “True Person, what do we do?”

He Chong’s chest rose and fell, and after a while, he finally said, “Let’s wait until we undo the True Celestial Heart Curse first, and then we should focus on finding the Martial Lord’s treasure. We have to get the legacy before Tang Jie.”

Seeing how confident He Chong was, Deng Yuqing sighed, thinking to himself, What we should be doing first is keeping a close eye on Tang Jie.

Even if they couldn’t capture Tang Jie, they could at least follow him. It wasn’t like Tang Jie could commit suicide over something like that, right?

They needed to go wherever Tang Jie went. That was the best way to prevent Tang Jie from carrying out his schemes.

Alas, He Chong had been provoked by Tang Jie’s words and planned to find the Martial Lord’s treasure before Tang Jie did.

Even if he had a shocking level of attainment in the Dao of Formations, this was still a place the Martial Lord had left for his successor. Trying to get in front of Tang Jie was essentially impossible.

Tang Jie was probably already on the road to the fifth formation’s checkpoint, right?

Deng Yuqing wanted to give chase, but he was afraid of defying He Chong and also wary of Tang Jie’s schemes. He thought to himself, If I really follow, he might have some trick to use against me. After a moment of hesitation, he gave up on the idea.

What he didn’t know was that while he had been hesitating, he had lost out on the ideal opportunity to deal with Tang Jie.

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Tang Jie was standing atop a small mountain.

This had been the means by which he had entered the fourth formation from the third formation, and it was also the key for going from the fourth to the fifth.

The spiderweb of patterns once more appeared between the five boulders on the mountain top.

Compared to last time, the patterns were even more complicated and deeply carved.

There was no expected treasure in the center of the web, indicating that there was still a key step missing.

After thinking it over, Tang Jie stepped onto the center of the web.

The patterns began to light up, and countless motes of light rose out of the ground, floating around Tang Jie like a sea of stars.

Standing in the center of the stars, Tang Jie looked somewhat blankly at the countless stars flying around him.

He reached out and touched one of the stars, which cracked open. Out jumped a little man, holding a sword as it danced around. In a flash, it had reenacted an exquisite sword art.

Tang Jie’s spirit was relaxed by the sight, and he wanted to see more, but then the man and sword fused together into a mote of starlight and flew to his side.

Tang Jie realized then that if he received this ball of light, he would probably accept the legacy granted by this formation.

Unlike the Parting Classic or the Ninedark Mantra, the fourth formation’s reward was clearly a spell art that could be used in combat, and one that was selected from tens of thousands of spell arts.

Tang Jie didn’t know why the Martial Lord had done such a thing. If this person was to be his successor, shouldn’t he have passed all the spell arts to him? Why only one?

He didn’t know the answer, but he had to make a choice. He looked at the star before shaking his head in refusal.

The star circled around him once before flying back into the sea of stars.

Tang Jie couldn’t help but frown.

There were countless stars in this space, and that star going back was like a drop of water returning to the ocean, indistinguishable from the others. In other words, he could end up picking it again.

Tang Jie didn’t want to waste time on a repeat choice. He carefully glanced at that light’s position before reaching out and touching a nearby star. The star cracked open, and this time, it was a man wielding a golden spear, performing a sharp and powerful spear art.

Tang Jie shook his head, rejecting this spear art, and chose another. This one was weaponless, a barefisted practitioner unleashing a blazing palm that tore through the firmament.

It should have been the case that each combat spell art here was extremely powerful, worthy of being entered into the Divine Firmament Sword Classic.

But it was exactly for this reason that Tang Jie wasn’t satisfied.

He had more than enough secret arts from the Divine Firmament Sword Classic. His greatest worry had been time, not the number of spell arts. For Tang Jie, he needed something with higher demands on his comprehension and short cultivation time, a spell art appropriate for his current situation.

Besides, he also didn’t think that someone of the Martial Lord’s abilities would leave behind a spell that could only “be entered into the Sword Classic.”

Thus, he needed to find that most dazzling pearl hidden within this sea of stars.

He kept on picking stars, piling them up by the hundreds and thousands, but Tang Jie didn’t tire, looking through every one.

Yet no matter how he searched, Tang Jie didn’t find that “pearl” he was looking for, which left him rather dejected.

Had the Martial Lord really left only this trash in the fourth formation?

No, impossible!

As Tang Jie speculated, he selected another star.

A silver sword emerged from the star.

Tang Jie had seen this silver sword three times, for it tended to easily get lost in the crowd. Seeing it come out again, Tang Jie brusquely pushed it away with his finger, but for some reason, he inadvertently used the Weapon Mantra.

The Weapon Mantra was meant for shattering weapons, and had always done well against weapons and art relics. This silver sword had been created by a spell art’s illusion, so there was no reason for the Weapon Mantra to destroy it.

But as his finger thrust out, the silver sword shattered, fading away in countless motes of light and leaving Tang Jie stunned.

And to his disbelief, the shattering of the silver sword even left behind a little golden grain.

“This… how?” Tang Jie was dumbfounded.

How could the Weapon Mantra have an effect on a weapon created by a spell art?

He raised his hand, and the golden grain fell in and rolled around on his palm. It felt real, no different from the golden grains he had obtained in the past.

Tang Jie grew more and more shocked.

Could it be that the Weapon Mantra really did work against weapons created by spell arts?

No!

This was impossible!

Cultivating Immortality didn’t mean cultivating the unfathomable. At least in this world, all the Immortal arts followed certain rules!

0 0 could not possibly create something so real.

Tang Jie’s eyes chilled. “I don’t believe this is real!”

He flicked his finger, sending the golden grain at a nearby stone pillar.

If this golden grain was real, then even if it didn’t pierce through the pillar, at least it would leave an indent.

The golden grain slammed into the pillar, and with a pop, it turned into smoke.

Tang Jie froze for a moment, and then he laughed.

It really had been the result of an illusion!

But what level of illusion was it? After creating the assigned weapons and spell arts, it could also evolve according to the situation, creating the correct illusion.

If he didn’t know that the Weapon Mantra’s golden grains were indestructible and Tang Jie hadn’t been so confident in himself, he really would have been fooled by the illusion.

Wait!

Illusion!

Tang Jie took a new look at his surroundings.

These countless stars would automatically produce tens of thousands of spell arts once activated, and that deceiving effect that could adapt to the actions of the cultivator…

Tang Jie’s eyes brightened.

Yes!

This was what he was looking for.

This was the real treasure left behind by the Martial Lord!

But… how could he get it?

Tang Jie began to think.

A little while later…

He looked down at the pattern that covered his surroundings.

Tang Jie laughed. “So you were here all along.”

He began to inspect those formation lines, and as he looked through them, he began to get an idea.

He raised his head and once more looked at the surrounding stars.

This time, he no longer saw the spell arts represented by the stars, but the arrangement of these motes of light themselves.

They twinkled in the air, brightening and darkening according to a special tempo, forming a strange cadence with the formation lines on the ground.

Tang Jie gradually became immersed in this cadence, and his heart began to beat to the rhythm, strongly and vigorously.

Finally, after another strong pulse, Tang Jie felt like he heard something breaking.

The formation and the stars all erupted with blinding light.

A vast torrent of information surged into Tang Jie’s mind.

Paperless art transmission.

It turned out that this was paperless art transmission.

Tang Jie only had time to sigh before he became lost in the sea of information.

“It’s done.”

In the little room in the Cleansing Sword Garden, Tang Jie sighed.

“Big Brother, what’s done?” Yiyi asked as she scooted over.

“Over at the Nine Executions Formation,” Tang Jie replied. “The fourth formation’s treasure has been obtained. Only someone at the Mortal Shedding Realm can enter the fifth formation. Until I’ve mastered the spell arts left by the Martial Lord and entered the Mortal Shedding Realm, I can put aside any thoughts of going. What a pity. The fifth formation is the All-Blossom Formation. There are many natural treasures in there, but I can only look at them.”

The paradise created by the Martial Lord’s Returned Remnants only began with the third formation, but the third formation was a barren land. It was within the Immortal Realm, but it did not have soil suitable for the growth of spiritual plants, making it a complete waste of a dimension. Only by getting through the ancient battlefield and entering the All-Blossom Formation could one truly enter the Immortal Realm. Alas, Tang Jie still couldn’t enter.

“What about He Chong? Once the True Celestial Heart Curse is undone, won’t they come and make trouble for you?”

“Oh, there’s no need to worry about that,” Tang Jie chuckled. “I was actually having a headache thinking about how to deal with them. Although they don’t want to kill me because they also want to get through the formation, they can at least capture me. Thus, I had readied myself to enter the fifth formation if I had to. But now… I don’t need to worry.”

“Why?” Yiyi asked.

“What you should be asking is what I actually got in the fourth formation,” Tang Jie said, blinking.

He extended a hand, spiritual energy gathering in his palm.

As spiritual energy surged, a new “Yiyi” appeared in front of Yiyi.

Yiyi shrieked. “An illusion clone?”

“No—an illusion copy.” Tang Jie smiled.