Aspiring to the Immortal Path
Aspiring to the Immortal Path - Chapter 617: The Void

Tang Jie's body spun as he plummeted downward.

Howling spatial currents raged around him, enveloping him in flashing multicolored lights as they tore at his body, almost ripping him open.

Tang Jie knew that he was caught in one of a cultivator's greatest fears: spatial turbulence.

The damage to the spatial tunnel had destabilized the spatial energy, creating a vortex, and the main component of a spatial vortex was spatial turbulence.

Spatial turbulence was highly destructive, and if he hadn't been in a merged state with an extremely tough body, he would have been torn to pieces long ago.

Even so, Tang Jie couldn't last much longer. Once the spatial turbulence developed into a spatial storm… even a Violet Palace True Lord would be torn to pieces.

Realizing this, Tang Jie gritted his teeth and pressed forward, going straight toward that black hole. That was the exit to the spatial vortex. At this point, there was no point in trying to avoid anything. The only hope was to charge against the current. A moment later, Tang Jie used all the defensive methods he had.

The raging spatial turbulence swept over his body, obliterating his barriers and buffeting his tough skin, making it crack like bark and then dissolve into dust. A moment later, new flesh was generated from the damaged areas.

Relying on his powerful recovery abilities, Tang Jie finally managed to reach the hole. Just when he was about to leave through it, a black storm suddenly rushed out of it.

Tang Jie knew that spatial turbulences around the vortex exit were the most frightening of all, but he knew that there was no backing out at this point. Clenching his teeth, he unleashed all of his power into a punch at the black storm, forgoing any defense.

"Devil Crushing Fist! Break!" Tang Jie roared.

At this moment, Tang Jie had a realization. In the face of those practically unstoppable spatial turbulences, actively attacking was more meaningful than passively defending.

This was the strongest attack Tang Jie had ever made, hurtling toward that storm rushing in through the hole with world-breaking force.

With a flash of blinding light, the black storm was blasted apart, scattering into countless little vortices that Tang Jie pushed through as he charged into the exit.

The moment he broke free of the spatial vortex, the world fell silent.

All of the clamor and chaos disappeared all at once, as if it had never existed. Tang Jie found himself in an empty space, with nothing at all around him. Behind him, the black hole was collapsing inward, growing smaller and smaller. Finally, it let out an air bubble before completely disappearing.

Tang Jie knew that he was in the infinite void.

After dropping out of the spatial tunnel, Tang Jie had finally reached this place that it was said that only Immortal Platform cultivators could easily traverse.

If the infinite void was an ocean, each world of the Great Stellar Chiliocosm was like an island in this ocean. It was the infinite void and the countless islands rising up from it that made up the Great Stellar Chiliocosm.

But now, Tang Jie had jumped off a small island and entered this vast ocean.

Looking around, he saw only the void. He floated in this void with no heavens above or earth below, no east and west nor north and south. If not for a few scattered stars gleaming in the distance, Tang Jie might have believed that he was in absolute darkness.

Those stars were probably little worlds within the Great Stellar Chiliocosm.

He didn't know if the Blood River Domain was among those stars, and even if it was… he didn't know which one it was.

Fortunately, he wasn't completely without solutions.

At this moment, he thought to himself, Don't I have Tutu?

He shook the diagram, and Tutu came out from it.

Tutu was dumbfounded as it stepped into the void. How had Tang Jie run off to the infinite void all of a sudden?

Tang Jie didn't waste time joking, giving Tutu a rough explanation of what had happened.

Tang Jie asked, "Can't you orient yourself in the void? Help me see which one of those stars is the Blood River Domain or Rosecloud Domain."

The rabbit looked around and then closed its eyes for a few moments. Shaking its head, it said, "None of them are. I sense that the Blood River Domain is very, very far away from here, and returning to the Blood River Domain by traversing the void will be extremely difficult."

Tang Jie's face fell.

The Dao of Space could allow one to cross a thousand kilometers in a flash, and it was an abstruse Dao that could not be understood using common sense. There was no guarantee that because Tang Jie's teleportation had been interrupted the moment he entered, he had to be in the vicinity of the Blood River Domain. It was highly possible for the exact opposite to happen and for the spatial jump to carry him to the other side of the cosmos.

Tutu was a Heaven-Lost Rabbit, with a natural gift for spatial orientation. If it said that getting back by traversing the void was difficult, then it was probably the truth.

But at this point, Tang Jie didn't have any other choice. He said, "Then find a closer world to enter first. Tutu, sense which of these worlds is closest to us."

Tutu firmly replied, "This isn't a problem of distance. Young Master, don't forget about the Domain Astral Winds."

Tang Jie froze. He only now remembered that he also had this difficult trial to deal with.

The Domain Astral Winds served as fences for their respective worlds, and it was because of them that the spiritual energy within a world didn't flow out in the void and invaders were kept out. But it was also because of them that the people within a domain were prisoners within it, unable to leave without great effort.

Fortunately, the Domain Astral Winds weren't all the same.

Not every domain had Domain Astral Winds that only an Immortal Platform Titan could push through and leave. Some of them were rather weak, making for lower requirements for ascension. And others had higher requirements so that even Immortal Platform Titans couldn't easily get through them.

When it came to traversing the void, Tutu was a professional, so it immediately pointed out the flaw in Tang Jie's thinking.

If he went looking with this mindset and ended up flying straight into a world with stronger Domain Astral Winds, he would be throwing himself into the arms of death.

Tang Jie was enlightened by Tutu's words and said with a smile, "I forgot about this, but this is partially your fault. Didn't you say that you once entered through a spatial fissure?"

"Spatial fissures are things you come across, not find, so you can't rely on them," Tutu replied. "In the past, my young master had the Immeasurable Sword, which he could use to break through domain barriers. Now that the Immeasurable Sword is shattered, how can you create a spatial fissure?"

"…" Tang Jie was left speechless.

The Immeasurable Sword was a domain-breaking sword. While the Sovereign Blade was strong, it couldn't compare to the Immeasurable Sword in this aspect. It might have even played a role in Reverend Celestial Hook's ability to constantly fish items out of the Lustrous Treasure River.

With the Immeasurable Sword shattered, the world had lost a domain-breaking treasure—a true pity.

"I see. Then can you see if there's any world in the area that I can enter with my current strength?"

"I'll try!" Tutu dropped its head and closed its eyes.

After a while, it suddenly pointed at a point of light. "The Domain Astral Winds there are the weakest. You might be able to get in with your body."

"'Might be able to'?"

Tutu replied, "My expertise is in spatial orientation, not Astral Wind strength analysis. Sensing this is already my limit. A more precise answer isn't possible."

In the end, he was just lacking in cultivation level.

Tang Jie sighed.

With a True Person's strength, traversing the void was basically suicide, so it wasn't strange that the weakest world that Tutu had gone to such great lengths to find still wasn't something he was guaranteed to enter, and this was with his current body, which had a toughness comparable to a Titan.

But Tang Jie had no choice but to try.

According to Tutu, while this place seemed close, flying over would take at least two years.

The Black Tortoise had needed several decades to travel between the Heavenshade Domain and the Rosecloud Domain, so two years in this boundless void was truly incredibly short.

Since he had made up his mind, Tang Jie began to fly toward that star indicated by Tutu.

Rather than riding Tutu, he let out the Jade Immortal Pavilion.

As a rare flying palace, the Jade Immortal Pavilion was perfect for traveling through the void. While it was slower than Tutu, it was much safer. Even if he encountered some sort of turbulence in the void, the Jade Immortal Pavilion could help him endure it, allowing Tang Jie to cultivate in peace.

Yes, while flying to this unknown world, Tang Jie needed to cultivate.

There was nothing in the infinite void, not even spiritual energy, so it was normally impossible to cultivate. Not only that, when fighting in the void, as one could not draw on the outside world, one could only use one's own energy to cast spell arts. Linking to the world to harness its spiritual energy or using the Divine Soul to cast ten thousand arts with a single thought were basically impossible in the void. In this aspect, everyone became much weaker. But even if they were restricted to their own strength, Violet Palace cultivators were still far above Celestial Heart and Mortal Shedding cultivators, so one couldn't hope to win just by relying on this fall in strength. But for a body cultivator, this was excellent news, as body cultivation was completely unaffected by all this. If some cultivator who had just entered Violet Palace ran into Tang Jie in the void, they really might lose.

While it wasn't possible to cultivate in the void, Tang Jie had the Mountain River State Diagram.

After absorbing the Treasure Paradise, the Mountain River State Diagram had expanded its area, growing so large that it was now three times the size of the original maximum size of the Mountain River State Diagram.

But compared to the expansion of territory, the richness of the world was more important.

The Mountain River State Diagram had previously been a desert, everything outside of the Great Broken Stream barren.

Even after Xu Miaoran had sent in copious amounts of matter and He Chong had set up a formation, it was like pouring a cup of water on a burning cart. It was only the absorption of the Treasure Paradise that finally filled the Mountain River State Diagram's stomach. It had both expanded in size and gained the countless resources accumulated in the Treasure Paradise over the last ten thousand years.

These resources included ordinary mountains, water, grass, and soil. They all seemed unremarkable, but they were the most important and most basic parts of a world. Without them, spiritual energy would have no place to exist.

The Treasure Paradise had made up for what the Mountain River State Diagram had lacked, enriching its lands. The area around the Great Broken Stream began to have mountains, valleys, rivers, forests, and lakes. At the end of the land was a blue ocean—the fruits of He Chong's ocean-making formation—and it was continuing to expand. It was still in its formation phase, but it wouldn't be long before it circled this entire continent.

The only lack was that there was still no life on this land. Let alone intelligent lifeforms, even the lowest cellular lifeforms had yet to appear. There was life in the Great Broken Stream, but they were satisfied with their current environment and had never left that Immortal island in the center.

All this said one thing: this world finally had spiritual energy.

It was real spiritual energy, spiritual energy that was created and born in a constant cycle!

This meant that Tang Jie could cultivate inside it.

Just like with the Water Moon Paradise, after neverending investment, it was finally harvest season!