Aspiring to the Immortal Path
Aspiring to the Immortal Path - Chapter 677: Chaotic Battle

The one who had risen up just now was undoubtedly the only son of the Thunder Blade Fiend Emperor, the Little Thunder Emperor.

That slap had knocked him to the ground and even blasted a giant crater into the ground. It was clear that Tang Jie hadn't been holding back.

Fortunately for the Little Thunder Emperor, as a fiend, he had a tough physical body that allowed him to survive, but the impact still made him throw up blood and broke a few bones. Thus, he fainted on the spot.

Tang Jie was about to make another slap when an icy wind froze him stiff.

A figure charged out, shouting, "Your Majesty, show mercy! We can talk about this."

Upon seeing that icy figure, Tang Jie chuckled. "You're the Ice Goblin? Did you not bring back a little girl yesterday?"

The icy figure froze, but he didn't dare to get into a fight. "Yes…"

"Then there's no mistake here," Tang Jie said, smashing the Ice Goblin into the crater next to the Little Thunder Emperor.

Drawing back his fist, he asked, "Where is she?"

The Ice Goblin realized why the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor had come. Throwing up blood, he said, "She's in the Crown Prince's palace. The Crown Prince hasn't touched her yet."

Just when Tang Jie was going to save Yiyi, he heard someone call out, "Your Majesty, show mercy!" And then a powerful fiend energy began to approach him, preceded by a streak of crimson energy.

Tang Jie's Thousand Hands thrust out to suppress this crimson light.

Tang Jie immediately felt a great pressure and knew that he was in trouble. This power marked the newcomer as a late-phase Transformation great fiend.

With his strength, a mere late-phase Transformation fiend posed no problem. After all, he had been able to handle three fiend kings with just his original body, let alone his merged form. But he had dispersed his own strength to feign the fighting style of the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor, which made him unable to take this blow.

There was a boom as Tang Jie's Thousand Hands were thrown back, the shockwave causing Tang Jie to sway and take a few steps back.

"The Crown Prince was ignorant and offended Your Majesty, so please…" That fiend energy rushed to the Little Thunder Emperor's side, revealing itself to be a Violet Otter, and took on human form to protect the Little Thunder Emperor. Each late-phase Transformation fiend was made a fiend king and ruled a city, so normally, every city would have only a single late-phase Transformation fiend. But the Thunder Blade Fiend Emperor loved his son so much that he had crowned his son as a fiend king and let the fiend who should have been king serve as his bodyguard. That must have been this otter.

The Violet Otter was pleading for mercy from Tang Jie when he suddenly stopped, confusion appearing in his eyes. He was clearly confused as to how his attack had pushed Tang Jie back.

He had only struck out to hold off Tang Jie, and considering that he was attacking a Fiend Emperor, he had held nothing back. After all, he reasoned that someone of his power couldn't injure a Fiend Emperor. But to his surprise, the Fiend Emperor had been pushed back by his one strike, which shocked him so much that he was rendered speechless.

Tang Jie also knew that he was in hot water. Reflections of Floating Life only worked on lower fiends, and it would have a hard time fooling fiend kings and above.

Tang Jie could tell from the otter's expression that he was suspicious, so he could only sigh and say, "In truth, I had no intention of killing you all. I only wanted to teach a lesson and then leave with the captive. But it seems that my hand has been forced."

Tang Jie decided to drop the disguise, calling back the Thousand Hands and throwing out a single punch.

The Violet Otter fiend paled at the sight of this meteoric punch. He finally realized something and shrilly cried, "You aren't the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor! You're a fake!"

His sharp cry could be heard throughout Celestial Saber City.

Tang Jie simply snorted, "Idiot!"

Those fiends might have had some chance of surviving before, but thanks to the Violet Otter, all of their lives were forfeit—Tang Jie could never let any of them leave alive.

Tang Jie threw out a formation diagram.

The formation enveloped the city, imprisoning them in it so that no living fiend could leave.

Tang Jie reverted to his original appearance and punched down.

"So you were a human! The audacity!" The Violet Otter jumped into the air, sending another streak of crimson light at Tang Jie.

Once he knew that this wasn't the actual Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor, he grew bolder. Given that his attack had pushed back Tang Jie once, he was sure that he was stronger, so he stopped being afraid.

But this time, he didn't do so well.

As the two energies collided, Tang Jie's fist blast obliterated the crimson light and slammed into the fiend, sending him flying.

"How!?" the fiend roared in shock.

He brought his hands together, gathering whorls of energy between them into a crimson sphere, which he pushed at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie punched again—simple, direct, forceful, and majestic. Purely in terms of aura, he didn't lose to any Fiend Emperor.

This majestic fist slammed into the blood sphere, which exploded into a rain of blood that splashed onto Tang Jie's body and scorched his skin.

The Violet Otter laughed. "You're dead now! Anyone who dares to take my Decaying Blood Art will rot away to nothing!"

"Is that so?" Tang Jie casually replied.

As he spoke, the blood fell from his body, and those rotted parts of skin instantly grew back. The Decaying Blood Art this fiend was so proud of had failed to do much to Tang Jie.

This sight left the fiend dumbfounded, and he frantically shouted, "Impossible! Impossible! I even pushed you back with my earlier attack!"

The setback had the Violet Otter distrusting his own eyes. He was still immersed in the "glory" of pushing back Tang Jie.

At this moment, an icy figure shot up and shouted, "Die, human!"

It was the Ice Goblin.

Upon realizing that Tang Jie wasn't Silver Eyes, the Ice Goblin also lost his fear and sent an icy gale at Tang Jie.

All of the world froze under this gale, which covered all the buildings in a thick layer of frost.

At the same time, several fiend generals flew into the fray—the fiend generals that the Thunder Blade Fiend Emperor had tasked with protecting his son had finally come to carry out their mission.

In the past, Tang Jie would have had quite the headache dealing with several dozen fiend generals at once.

But now, Tang Jie simply chuckled. With a shake of his body, numerous blood duplicates emerged to face those fiend generals.

As they appeared, they changed appearances, becoming identical to those fiend generals that they were charging at.

The number of fiend generals quickly grew to hundreds, and those fiends were dumbfounded, unable to tell friend from foe.

And then those numerous duplicates attacked the fiend generals in unison.

Flames, frost, wind, and swords instantly blanketed the heavens.

There were both illusions and real attacks mixed among them. All the spell arts that Tang Jie knew, like the Dragonlike Hand, Matchless Slash, Hellslayer Saber, Soulchaser Saber, and Infinity Sphere Art, were put into action, and all sorts of weapons threw themselves at the fiend generals.

The mixture of real and fake left the fiends utterly baffled. Some of the more ruthless ones decided to just attack without regard for friend or foe, only looking out for themselves. There were also those who were hesitant, and when they were about to strike, a cry of "It's me" made them hesitate again, upon which multiple duplicates would blast them to bits with spell arts.

Chaos rapidly spread through the fiends, and soon, duplicates even began to appear among the fiend soldiers down below.

These duplicates disrupted the teamwork of the fiends, and it quickly turned into a melee.

"Kill the commander!" The Violet Otter realized that the situation boded ill, and he called for Tang Jie to be killed.

But was Tang Jie someone so easily slain?

Tang Jie laughed and rushed at the otter, and as he did, he took on the otter's appearance and unleashed the Decaying Blood Art.

The Violet Otter hadn't expected Tang Jie to turn into him and even use his own spell art. Not realizing that it was an illusion, he dodged, and Tang Jie quickly moved into close combat with him. The Ice Goblin returned at this point, but even he couldn't tell the real from the fake, let alone other fiends.

"Help me! He's the fake!" the Violet Otter fiend roared in fury.

"He's the fake one!" the other Violet Otter shouted.

The fiends were dumbfounded. Those skilled in Insight had already used their spell arts, but Tang Jie had entered the Dao of Yin Yang, and his illusion spell arts were now beyond the level of these lesser fiends.

The Ice Goblin was smarter. When he saw that one Violet Otter was being beaten black and blue by the other, he pointed at the winning one and said, "This one is the fake."

He had already seen Tang Jie savaging the otter, which was why he could make this comparison. All the fiends attacked on his order. That Violet Otter howled in anger, but no matter how he cursed, the other fiends were certain that he was the fake. Moreover, there were also duplicates in the mix. In his anger, the Violet Otter struck back.

This counterattack made the fiends even more certain that he was the fake, so they redoubled their assault. Even though the Violet Otter was a late-phase Transformation fiend, he couldn't last against this concerted assault. Gradually, the barrage wore him down, and his aura weakened.

Bang!

The attack of a fiend general struck the otter, and the otter howled as he plunged from the sky. Throwing up blood, he pointed at the Ice Goblin and said, "I-Idiot…"

And then he died.

The humanoid corpse turned back into its original form: a Violet Otter. The fiends were stunned.

"He was the real one," a fiend said.

Where was the fake?

Looking back, they saw that the other Violet Otter was gone, and across the city, illusory fiends were battling with real ones, spawning chaos wherever they looked.

The Ice Goblin was perplexed over what to do.

Suddenly, he had an idea and shouted, "The palace!"

He flew in the direction of the Crown Prince's palace.

Upon reaching the palace, he rushed to where Yiyi was and saw a girl standing under a tree.

The Ice Goblin gleefully grabbed at Yiyi.

Yiyi was restrained at this time, so the Ice Goblin easily caught her.

But as his claws wrapped around her, he saw Yiyi look up at him and smile.

The Ice Goblin's heart turned cold, and then he saw Yiyi grab his hand and lightly twist, snapping off his arm, and what followed was a thunderous punch.

The Ice Goblin looked at the gaping hole in his chest.

"You…" The Ice Goblin stared in disbelief.

The girl's face turned back into Tang Jie's callous expression.

"You were too late."

With a wave of his hand, Yiyi appeared on his shoulder.