Aspiring to the Immortal Path
Aspiring to the Immortal Path - Chapter 675: Reflections of the Floating Life

Lin Xin didn't know what had happened to her face, but she noticed Tang Jie's face freeze. She looked at the mirror and noticed that something wasn't right. "Eh? Your Majesty's handiwork seems to be not like usual. This lady seems much more beautiful today."

"Mm," Tang Jie simply grunted. A light suddenly appeared on the center of his forehead while a halo appeared under his feet.

He then once more tapped Lin Xin's face with his finger, upon which the face assumed its original appearance.

Lin Xin said in shock, "What… what just happened?"

This time, she had clearly seen that Tang Jie's finger had done this.

"A little trick," Tang Jie casually said. He once more touched her face with his finger, and Lin Xin transformed into that more beautiful appearance.

Putting down the eyebrow pencil, Tang Jie said, "I'm done now."

He turned and left.

No matter how beautiful this version of Lin Xin was, he couldn't linger a second longer. His mind was currently in great turmoil.

Only he knew that what had happened just now was no small trick.

It was an illusion spell!

The illusion spell of the Illusion Fox.

When Tang Jie had first touched Lin Xin with his finger, even he had been fooled by this spell. Only by using the Celestial Eye and activating his Realm of Insight did he finally see the truth.

The problem was that he had only ever been able to use this illusion spell on himself.

This was the first time he had used it on someone else, and it was obvious that it had to do with the Dao Runes.

But why could the Yin Yang Dao Runes do this?

Tang Jie quickly understood why.

The illusion spell was under the Illusion Dao, and the Illusion Dao belonged to the Dao of Yin Yang as a branch of Illusion and Reality.

In other words, the illusion spell was under Yin Yang, and now that he had attained the basic entering of the Dao, it had affected the illusion spell in the way it could be used, which included being able to use it on others.

This was the manifestation of a Dao Art, but because Tang Jie had yet to fix its form, its effects were limited.

If it were a complete Dao Art, it would probably have an even stronger effect.

At that moment, countless thoughts passed through Tang Jie's mind. Suddenly, he understood what sort of Dao Art he wanted. Letting out a loud laugh, he flew straight up into the clouds.

Reaching a high altitude, he confirmed that no one was around and then began to activate the Yin Yang Dao Runes in his body. The one hundred Dao Runes came together, black and white twining together into a single Yin Yang Standard. Tang Jie then waved his hand, sending out a spray of blood that congealed into a sphere.

Inside the ball of blood, the Yin Yang Standard roiled, ultimately dissolving into the blood. The blood ball radiated a stunning light, and then, similarly to what had happened in the Treasure Paradise, the blood ball turned into a baby, and then it split off into countless duplicates, upon which hundreds of Tang Jies were standing in the air.

Unlike the previous blood duplicates, these duplicates radiated a powerful fighting intent as they floated in the air.

Suddenly, a duplicate blinked away and appeared next to another duplicate. It had used the Chaoswind Step! And then it threw out a thunderous punch. Another duplicate proceeded to form numerous hand signs, and as the signs were formed, a storm stirred, and a giant crescent blade plunged from the heavens: a Heavenly Cloud Blade. Another duplicate ran out and unleashed a Star Finger, after which yet another duplicate used the Dragonlike Hand.

Hundreds of duplicates attacked at once, throwing this region of the skies into disarray with powerful spell arts.

These were no longer those blood duplicates that could do nothing except fly, but ones that could use actual spell arts. This made them carry an entirely different meaning.

This was the Reality application of the Dao of Reality and Illusion, turning all that was illusory into real.

Of course, this sort of real strength still had some limits and could not be considered complete duplicates of Tang Jie. Each duplicate had only enough power for one attack, a single spell art, and it couldn't be too complicated, either. The Heavenly Cloud Blade was already the limit for these duplicates. The Nine Heavens Calamity Blade, Heavenly King Mara Incantation, and Flesh Millstone were all out of the question.

Even so, hundreds of duplicates casting spell arts simultaneously was still an impressive force.

Moreover, the duplicates themselves had been improved. They were no longer so easily destroyed and had much more survivability.

In the future, he would only need to disperse these duplicates somewhat widely so that a Violet Palace cultivator couldn't kill them in a single strike, and then he could unleash spell arts at an even greater rate than a Violet Palace cultivator and their ability to cast arts with a single thought.

The realization of the duplicates had explosively increased Tang Jie's combat power.

But this wasn't the end of it. After that flood of spell arts, all of the duplicates changed their appearances, turning into men and women of various ages.

In the past, the transformative abilities of the duplicates had been on the lowest level, so it was basically pointless. But this time, even a cultivator skilled in Insight might not be able to see through the disguise. In the sky were Xu Miaoran, Wei Tianchong, Cai Junyang, Xie Fengtang, Sun Shuming, and all the other people he knew. Even Titans like the Flame Celestial Sovereign, the Blood River Lord, the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk, and the Gigantes King were present. He even went so far as to manifest fiends, ghosts, monsters, plants, trees, stones, and bugs.

The duplicate that had turned into the Flame Celestial Sovereign roared and shot out a gout of flame from its hand. The Pale Cloud Flame instantly swept over the heavens with even greater ferocity than that flood of spell arts. The Blood River Lord's duplicate summoned the endless Blood River, and while it mixed together with the flames, they didn't affect each other, countless Blood Fiends emerging from its waters. The Nine Disaster Fiend Monk summoned his lotus platform and the Gigantes King used his Devil Crushing Fist, each attack packed with heaven-shaking power.

Such a majestic display was certainly stunning, but if one looked closely, one would realize that not even the clouds had been touched. All of this was but a moon in the water, producing not a single ripple.

This was the Illusion application of the Dao of Reality and Illusion, producing extremely realistic illusions.

The Duplication spell was itself an illusion spell, as was the transformation spell, and the two combined had produced this effect. Not only could each duplicate become a realistic copy of other people, they could also have the corresponding spell arts and cultivation, at least so long as one had experienced them. Of course, all of these spell arts were illusions, not a single one real. This was why not even the clouds had been touched. But if they were using Tang Jie's own spells, then they would still be actual attacks. Besides that, they could take on other forms, but of course, they wouldn't have any spell arts to use.

Even so, there was still a realism to these duplicates, enough to intimidate the enemy on the battlefield. If this were used in the middle of some chaotic battle, all those duplicated cultivators would make it difficult to tell who was real, who was fake, and who was on one's side. Just telling the difference between friend and foe would give anyone a headache.

Turning illusion into reality, granting duplicates the ability to actually attack, Tang Jie called "All Life".

Gathering together the real to turn into illusions, allowing him to apply illusions to others and take on various forms, and unleash illusory attacks, Tang Jie called "Thousand Faces".

All Life and Thousand Faces were the two Dao Arts Tang Jie had attained through the Dao of Illusion and Reality, and they could even be combined. This meant that the duplicates could have the illusion spell applied to them, allowing them to take on the appearance of others and use corresponding illusory attacks, but they could also use real attacks. He called this "Reflections of Floating Life".

The scene that had taken place just now was "Reflections of Floating Life".

This was the first complete Great Dao Art that Tang Jie possessed.

He had established his direction in the Dao of Yin Yang. Any other direction on this Dao would now serve only a supportive function, and he would cease to have any new insights or developments. Only the path of the Reflections of Floating Life, which he had just set out on, would be without end.

He waved his sleeve, scattering the clouds.

The countless blood duplicates returned to Tang Jie's body, and the Yin Yang Dao Runes settled down within Tang Jie's body, but unlike before, these Dao Runes had come together into an image. The image had sparkling human figures dancing and singing, a manifestation of the Great Chiliocosm, a reflection of the floating life.

From then on, every additional Yin Yang Dao Rune would enrich this picture a little more, and this would in turn make his Dao Art stronger.

Now that he had Thousand Faces, Tang Jie no longer needed to worry about Yiyi being discovered.

Tang Jie proceeded to use Heart Consonance to contact Yiyi and have her come over to cultivate in the jade chamber. As for Little Three, this little guy was quite energetic, hunting ghosts and traveling freely through that spatial barrier. As it also had Tutu keeping it company, Tang Jie wasn't worried about it.

As the Inkcloud Abyss was rather far away, Yiyi would take a few days to get here, so Tang Jie returned to the palace to wait for her.

After waiting for a few days, one day, when he was in the imperial study, he suddenly heard a voice shout in his mind, "Big Brother, save me!"

Putting down a report, Tang Jie immediately stood up, his sudden action causing all the minor fiends to get on their knees.

Tang Jie called out in his mind, "Yiyi, what happened?"

"A bad guy wants to catch me!"

"Where are you?"

"I don't know. I was just flying in the direction you told me. There's only mountains…" Yiyi was so panicked as to be on the verge of tears. She had only known to fly in one direction and had no idea what places she had been going through. Asking her to tell him where she was was pointless.

"Yiyi, hold on. I'm coming over right now!"

Tang Jie charged out of the study and shot off into the sky, his heart full of regret and self-resentment. He thought that Yiyi, as a sprite, wouldn't run into any danger in fiend territory, and besides, Yiyi was in the middle phase of Transformation, so ordinary fiends wouldn't make trouble for her. But to his surprise, Yiyi had still run into trouble.

Even though he had told Yiyi to hold on, judging by how long she had been traveling for, it would take him at least four days to get to Yiyi's position. Even if they were trying to meet up midway, that would be two days, and could Yiyi hold out that long?

Tang Jie stirred up a hurricane in fiend territory as he flew forward.

Yiyi was still sending messages to Tang Jie, but Tang Jie could sense that she was getting weaker and weaker.

"They've caught up… I… I'm about to reach my limit. Big Brother," Yiyi muttered.

"No, don't give up!" Tang Jie shouted.

But this was Yiyi's last message.

Tang Jie's heart turned ice-cold.