Tang Jie lay like a statue fallen in the mud, dumbly gazing up at the air.

His body had been sealed and rendered immobile by Immortal Ji Yao. The only thing he could move was his face.

But there was not the slightest hint of despair on his face.

His eyes shone with unprecedented brightness as they looked up at the sky, at Ice Phoenix.

This gaze made Ice Phoenix feel an inexplicable chill.

She walked over and stepped on Tang Jie’s face. “What are you looking at?”

Tang Jie looked at her and said in a gentle tone, “It was my poor treatment of you that caused you to turn into this. But one day, I will save you.”

Ice Phoenix coldly laughed. “I’m doing very well, thank you very much, and I don’t need your saving. In the past, I must have been blind, to like a piece of trash like you. But on the day you rejected me, I was enlightened, and no longer will I be lost in those boring romances. As a cultivator, I should use all my strength to advance on the Immortal path. From now on, my goal is only the Great Dao.”

Tang Jie sighed. “If you were only pursuing the Dao, I would have no complaints. But your Dao is established on the lives of tens of millions of innocents. I have no choice but to stop you.”

She kicked Tang Jie.

She seemed to hold a lot of hatred for Tang Jie, perhaps because he had rejected her, so she ended up kicking him several dozen times.

Tang Jie took her kicks like he was already a corpse, remaining motionless.

After kicking him for a while and getting no response, Ice Phoenix got bored and went to the side to cultivate.

When she cultivated, she was like before, quietly meditating and adjusting her energy, but now, a purple-black smoke engulfed her. When she breathed in and out, this smoke would go in and out of her ears, nose, and mouth, like tiny little snakes, and purple-black energy would accumulate within her body.

Seeing her, Tang Jie couldn’t help but think of the little tiger.

The little tiger had also gone to the Primordial Fog Domain. How was he doing now?

If the violet energy of Primordial Fog was this frightening, able to eat away at one’s emotions, would the little tiger also end up corrupted? When he returned, would he be cold toward Tang Jie, perhaps even want to kill him?

But the little tiger had inherited his ancestor’s memories, so he should have known what would happen before going in. Might he have made some preparations to stop himself from being invaded by demonic energy? Of course, this was possibly just wishful thinking on Tang Jie’s part.

Suddenly, Tang Jie realized that he truly had been lacking concern for Ice Phoenix. Even in these circumstances, he was thinking about others instead of her.

Mentally sighing, he stopped thinking and just quietly lay there.

Three days quickly went by.

In these three days, Ice Phoenix would beat up and torture Tang Jie whenever she had nothing else to do. When she became a demon, all her affection toward Tang Jie disappeared, and what replaced it was the profound sense of humiliation and teeth-gnashing hatred that came from being rejected. Torturing Tang Jie was a way of venting her hatred.

But Tang Jie didn’t strike back when struck or talk back when insulted, and since she couldn’t kill him either, she eventually grew bored. She stopped paying him any attention and began to patiently wait for Immortal Ji Yao’s return. As for Tang Jie, he was left to lie there. In any case, with his Violet Palace body, he just needed to breathe in the spiritual energy in the air and easily go five months without food. And besides, so what if there was a problem? Her heart certainly wouldn’t ache over it.

Yet for some reason, Immortal Ji Yao still did not return after several more days.

Ice Phoenix didn’t think much of this at first, but as the absence extended to more than ten days, she became perturbed.

These worries lingered briefly at first, Ice Phoenix telling herself that her master was a Boundless Gold Immortal with immense power, so not even the Vast Wilderness could easily deal with her. Perhaps she had not returned because she was having fun in the Vast Wilderness and was unwilling to come back. After all, anyone who had been imprisoned for ten thousand years would want to unwind for a while.

If not for luring Tang Jie into the trap, Immortal Ji Yao would have gone on a killing spree much earlier. Now that their goal had been achieved, it was naturally time for her to let loose.

Ice Phoenix was greatly soothed by such thoughts, and she continued to wait and cultivate. But she inwardly thought to herself that while it was fine for her master to be happy, she shouldn’t forget about returning, as Tang Jie was still here.

There was no such thing as an eternal seal. A seal as strong as the one suppressing Immortal Ji Yao would ultimately fade if there was no power to maintain it. That golden talisman laid down by a Dao-Proving Saint Immortal was being maintained by a formation and could not be considered eternal either. Moreover, this seal from Immortal Ji Yao had been casually applied, so its power was limited.

Twenty-some more days passed, but Immortal Ji Yao still did not return.

Ice Phoenix was starting to get nervous.

Had something really happened?

Ice Phoenix’s mind turned once more to this idea, but she quickly rejected it again. Her master was a Boundless Gold Immortal. Even the Vast Wilderness World couldn’t do much to her.

But what if the Vast Wilderness World discovered her identity and sent all its experts at her?

Or what if her master had accidentally revealed the High Antiquity teleportation formation, causing it to be destroyed, along with her way back?

Or what if her master didn’t understand how to set up the teleportation formation back?

Or maybe…

Ice Phoenix glanced at the supine Tang Jie.

Or maybe this guy hadn’t fallen for the trap and had been pretending this whole time?

If that was the case…

Ice Phoenix shivered and said to herself, “No way, absolutely not. My acting was so good that there’s no reason he wouldn’t be fooled.”

Ice Phoenix once more rejected these possibilities and calmed back down, and she continued to patiently await Immortal Ji Yao’s return.

Another month went by.

Immortal Ji Yao had vanished like a stone thrown into the ocean.

Ice Phoenix could no longer remain still.

She sensed that something was wrong.

For Immortal Ji Yao to not show up for so long was definitely abnormal.

Something must have happened!

As she worried, she turned to Tang Jie with a murderous gaze.

She considered Tang Jie to be an enormous threat right now.

Even though Tang Jie was still sealed, he would eventually break free.

What should she do?

Should she kill him right now?

But her master hadn’t given the order. What if she killed him and then her master returned?

Her master still wanted to find out the secret of the Martial Lord’s hidden realm.

Ice Phoenix grew frustrated. If she had known things would be like this, she would have kept up the act and tried to get the secret of the hidden realm out of Tang Jie, saving her all this anxiety. But considering that the Martial Lord’s hidden realm was Tang Jie’s foundation and given her own place in Tang Jie’s heart, he would probably never tell her. Otherwise, her master would not have appeared so soon.

Ice Phoenix fretted, her mind paralyzed by indecision.

Then she remembered that she still had the finger left behind by her master. Even if Tang Jie really did break the seal, what could he do?

She calmed down and continued to cultivate, anticipating seeing her master when she opened her eyes.

She continued like this for two more months, alternating between calm and anxiety, but with still no sight of Immortal Ji Yao, she went from anxiety to disappointment, and then from disappointment to despair.

She knew that she couldn’t keep waiting.

In these two months, the seal Immortal Ji Yao had left on Tang Jie could break at any time.

She went up to Tang Jie and angrily glared at him. “Master has yet to return, but you don’t seem the slightest bit surprised. Talk! You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you?”

Tang Jie looked at Ice Phoenix like he was looking at a stranger, deep sorrow and sympathy in his eyes.

He said, “Immortal Ji Yao was the most cunning opponent I have ever faced.”

Ice Phoenix was confused by this comment.

Tang Jie continued, “I have been cultivating for more than four hundred years. In these four hundred years, I have employed countless schemes and tricks, and I can say that there are only people that I’m unwilling to deceive, not people that I can’t deceive. Immortal Ji Yao… She’s the first person to beat me through deception. Excellent methods, excellent plans!”

Ice Phoenix blankly stared at him. For some reason, Tang Jie’s words struck fear into her heart.

Tang Jie went on, “But it’s precisely because Immortal Ji Yao is too focused on shrewdness that she lost to it. In truth, with her ability, she would be invincible so long as she could leave the valley, and then she could simply use her strength to crush anything, with no need to resort to schemes. But she’s so accustomed to schemes that her stratagems take priority over everything… just like the past me. She failed to realize that good swimmers often end up drowning. At times, what helps you succeed can be the cause of your defeat. Schemes are the methods of the weak, not something the strong should rely on. The strong continuing to employ schemes only give their foes opportunities to exploit. Immortal Ji Yao made this exact mistake…”

Ice Phoenix could no longer control her shaking, and she backed away as if she had seen a ghost. “You… you…”

Tang Jie looked at Ice Phoenix and smiled. “Have you thought about what the consequences would be if you failed to deceive me?”

Ice Phoenix trembled, and then she lunged over and grabbed Tang Jie by the collar, lifting him up and yelling, “What did you do?! Talk!”

Tang Jie let Ice Phoenix lift him up, lazily replying, “It wasn’t much. I just secretly altered the coordinates.”

“What?” Ice Phoenix shakily said, “Where did you send her?”

“Where else?” Tang Jie sneered. “The endless void, of course. The demon valley couldn’t hold her, so I can only have the Great Stellar Chiliocosm’s endless void be her home.”

Ice Phoenix was dumbfounded.

Tang Jie wasn’t lying this time. Immortal Ji Yao had truly been sent to the void.

This woman had won thanks to her cunning and lost thanks to her cunning.

If she hadn’t been so obsessed with her scheming and wanted to try and trick Tang Jie again, attempting to turn him into her guide to the Vast Wilderness, Tang Jie wouldn’t have had any opportunity.

But precisely because she was so enthused by her plotting, enjoying the feeling of crushing her opponents through her intelligence, she ended up giving Tang Jie that chance he wanted.

There were many such examples in history. Every successful individual had their own “insights into success”. Before they failed, they had absolute confidence in their experience and understanding.

As was often said, losers always thought that the error came from the outside and had nothing to do with themselves, while the successful always thought that success came from themselves and had nothing to do with external factors.

The same was true for Immortal Ji Yao. She had successfully tricked Tang Jie once, so she thought she could do it twice, and not only that, she considered it a pleasure and achievement. After all, she knew a lot about Tang Jie, knew that he was an outstanding youth with many tricks. To play around with this youth in her palm gave a far greater sense of achievement than defeating him through brute strength.

One could say that this attitude had sent her to her grave.

She could have never imagined that Tang Jie would already know about the Jade Lady Iceheart Mantra.

If Tang Jie still fell for her tricks after this sort of foreknowledge, then he was truly an idiot.

In that situation, Tang Jie very naturally made the choice to alter the teleportation coordinates.

On the surface, the teleportation formation seemed to lead to the Vast Wilderness World, but in truth, it led to a lonely region of space. It was a vast and empty region, a desert in the river of stars. One could fly for a few centuries and not find a single small world.

Immortal Ji Yao had essentially been exiled to the endless void, and she would have to rely on her luck to find another world.

If she had been sent to the Nether Domain, then with her Boundless Gold Immortal strength, she could have killed her way back. In the endless void, no matter how immense her powers were, getting back within a few centuries was out of the question.

Not even Tang Jie had imagined that things would be settled so easily.

“Bastard! I’ll kill you!” Ice Phoenix turned crazy from rage, throwing a punch at Tang Jie’s face.

Tang Jie’s head tilted to the side, but no mark was left on his face.

Ice Phoenix continued punching, but she gradually realized that something was wrong.

Tang Jie’s entire body gave off a crystalline sheen and showed no sign of damage. But his movements had been sealed, so how had he managed to block her attacks?

In shock, she released her grip, but Tang Jie did not fall to the ground.

He floated one foot above the ground, gazing at Ice Phoenix.

His eyes were still brimming with sympathy.

He said, “Why do you think I’m saying all this now? What do you think I was doing all this time?”

His eyes flashed with lightning, and Ice Phoenix felt a power seizing her and raising her up.

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Tang Jie had broken free!

He had been free for some time!

“NO!” Ice Phoenix shouted, her hand reaching for something.

And then, her heart turned cold.

“Are you looking for this?” Tang Jie opened his hand, revealing that elegant finger in his palm.

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