Aspiring to the Immortal Path - Chapter 496

Chapter 496: Hiding

Third Sister Zhou Fanghua finally shouted, “The 13 Demons of Mount Luo! It’s the 13 Demons of Mount Luo!”

These 13 Demons were none other than a group of infamous savages of the Mount Luo region. Although they were cultivators, their conduct confirmed them to be bandits. They wantonly attacked merchant convoys and plundered the homes of the wealthy, and had long ago been made wanted criminals by Nadir Hill. But these people were truly fierce, and they also had a formidable master, so nobody had been able to capture them yet.

These 13 people were all at the peak of Mortal Shedding, so they naturally wanted to get a medicine that could help them advance. But nobody had expected them to come out at this time to try and steal the medicine.

When Tang Jie had used the spirit-surveying formation to find the Hawk Hall’s people, Tang Jie had noticed two clumps of light. One belonged to the Hawk Hall, and the other belonged to the 13 Demons of Mount Luo. While doing his reconnaissance, Tang Jie naturally found out the purpose of that group of 13. He inadvertently discovered that they had come to steal the Five Energies Sovereign Essence Pill, so they had the misfortune of becoming a part of Tang Jie’s plan.

The 13 Demons of Mount Luo hadn’t planned to charge into Celestial Flower Pavilion, instead planning to wait for the person who had bought the Five Energies Sovereign Essence Pill to come out, and then take it from him. In order to prevent that person from escaping upon leaving the pavilion, they planned to strike at the moment that person came out. 13 people attacking a single person should have been able to succeed with a single strike. So long as they seized the Five Energies Sovereign Essence Pill and didn’t hurt anyone else, they didn’t think that anyone would make trouble for them.

But to their surprise, when the pavilion doors opened, Old Fourth Liu didn’t leave, instead going back into the pavilion. Yet by that point, the 13 Demons had already shown themselves.

This sudden development caught the 13 Demons off guard, causing their strategy for a quick and decisive battle to fail. As they couldn’t kill Old Fourth Liu in one strike, they were now caught in the vortex and unable to extricate themselves.

Nan Ningjiang shouted, “Tang Jie is mixed in with them! He wants to borrow the 13 Demons to snatch the pill! Stop them!”

It was already too late.

At this moment, the red scarf man chopped his palm down, which instantly set off the auction house, and countless cultivators attacked in response. The eleven cultivators behind the red scarf man also took action, throwing out talismans and spell arts. Celestial Flower Pavilion was swept up in a raging storm that made it shudder.

Old Fourth Liu heard Tang Jie’s voice in his ear: “Throw out the medicine!”

What?

‘Throw out the medicine’?

Old Fourth Liu was startled.

Had he mustered up all his courage and finally completed the mission Tang Jie had given him just to throw away the pill?

He knew that Tang Jie wanted him to throw the medicine for his own good. Those savages who had come out of nowhere were clearly aiming at him. If he didn’t throw out the medicine, he would probably be killed. Moreover, once he threw away the medicine, Godhead Palace might have noticed him, but it wouldn’t have the time to deal with him.

He knew that if he did as Tang Jie said, then Tang Jie had probably mixed into the crowd and would get the medicine.

And in this process, Old Fourth Liu could escape.

But at that moment, he suddenly didn’t want to do this.

As he stood there in the auction house, he even became deaf to Tang Jie’s cries of “Hurry!” He was in a daze, seemingly seeing a moment where he, too, could have his moment of glory.

Throwing away the treasure and putting his fate in the hands of others? All of a sudden, he wasn’t very willing to accept it.

All his life, he had been hiding away, but today, at this moment, perhaps because he knew that he was about to go home, he suddenly felt like being a hero.

He wanted to protect the pill and personally deliver it to Tang Jie, not be a coward that threw away the pill and retreated so that Tang Jie could fight for the pill himself.

Thus, when Old Fourth Liu saw that approaching storm, he suddenly roared and thrust his hands forward.

An enormous power erupted from his palms, slamming into the 13 Demons of Mount Luo.

“Kill!” he bellowed.

“No!” Tang Jie anxiously cried out.

As Tang Jie yelled, the two energies slammed into each other, but the other side had twelve people, so Old Fourth Liu was sent flying, slamming into a wall.

He tumbled to the ground and threw up a great mouthful of blood, unable to stand.

The red scarf man savagely laughed and grabbed at Old Fourth Liu, certainly to kill him. At this moment, someone came flying out from the side, slamming into Old Fourth Liu and sending him rolling away. It was none other than the duplicate Tang Jie.

Boom!

The red scarf man’s clawed hand brushed straight over their heads.

“What are you doing?” Tang Jie angrily roared.

Old Fourth Liu wanly smiled. “I just wanted to… to give you the medicine… myself… so you didn’t need to fight.”

Old Fourth Liu stuffed the Mustard Seed Bag into Tang Jie’s hand.

Tang Jie was startled. “That wasn’t necessary…”

Old Fourth Liu softly whispered something to Tang Jie.

The red scarf man roared and charged over, his palm thrusting at Tang Jie’s back.

Tang Jie didn’t dodge, grabbing the Mustard Seed Bag and throwing it into the air, where it instantly became the center of attention.

The blast of palm energy struck Tang Jie, and he exploded into spiritual light. The remaining power continued into Old Fourth Liu’s body, and he grunted as he was sent flying again.

He had already been heavily injured, and he was powerless against this blow. As his body tumbled through the air, his life faded away and his eyes began to dim.

He looked up at the sky and whispered, “Finally… time to leave.”

His body crashed to the ground in a plume of dust.

Phweee! There was a long whistle.

The private room on the upper floor opened, and the 12 Hawks, Huang Yue, Xu Mingyue, and True Person Liang rushed out.

“Godhead Palace’s Hawk Hall is on official business to seize the criminal Tang Jie! Anyone who resists will be killed!” Nan Ningjiang loudly shouted.

Godhead Palace’s name instantly brought order to the auction house, only the 13 Demons of Mount Luo continuing to rampage. They were wanted criminals like Tang Jie, so they naturally wouldn’t listen to Godhead Palace. In fact, rather than obeying, they even attacked Nan Ningjiang.

Nan Ningjiang blocked the strike and shouted, “Seize them! Huang Yue, check them over! Call the two elders back!”

As he spoke, a talisman flew into the air.

The talisman burst apart in the air, but as it did, black smoke began to cover the pavilion.

This smoke obscured the vision of everyone in the auction house, and Huang Yue’s eye was for seeing through illusions, not into the void, so it was immediately affected. Unable to see anyone, he shouted, “I can’t see!”

Nan Ningjiang shouted, “Use a Bright Light Talisman!”

A light erupted in the smoke, scattering part of the smoke and restoring some vision.

Light and smoke intersected, creating a patchwork in the auction grounds and making everyone’s faces flash in and out of the shadows.

In the shadows, the battle commenced.

The red scarf man’s face appeared more savage in the intersection of light and shadow. He thrust a giant palm at the cultivator that had grabbed the Mustard Seed Bag. “Die!”

That small Mustard Seed Bag immediately drew the attention of countless people.

But the Hawk Hall only cared about Tang Jie.

Huang Yue moved through the crowd like a madman, looking for the 13 Demons of Mount Luo. As his vision was limited, he needed to get up close in order to see a person’s face. Fortunately, the Hawk Hall was the strongest party here, so even without the two Heart Demon elders, the ten-some Spirit Ring True Persons were enough to hold down the fort.

They repeatedly attacked the 13 Demons of Mount Luo, bringing them up to Huang Yue for him to identify. Upon seeing each face, Huang Yue shook his head and said, “Not him.”

As the number of people dwindled, the chaotic melee intensified. As the weaker ones were killed or captured, only the truly strong were left. These people either wanted the Five Energies Sovereign Essence Pill or had some other plan. Reverend Tianchi, Leng Yuebing, the Manzu young master, and the red scarf man of the 13 Demons of Mount Luo were locked in battle against each other.

At this moment, the Mustard Seed Bag fell into the hands of Leng Yuebing. She had nimble and ethereal movement techniques, allowing her to move freely within the closed area of Celestial Flower Pavilion. She evaded the red scarf man’s attacks again and again while laughing, “I was wondering who came. So it was Boss and your brothers, come to get rich off someone else. But your luck today seems poor, running into the Hawk Hall. It seems like the 13 Demons of Mount Luo will cease to exist after today.”

“Even if we’re no more, we’ll get that pill first!” That Boss Hong jumped into the air and grabbed at Leng Yuebing.

Leng Yuebing was fearless, laughing as she said, “While Boss Hong is skilled, it’s rather difficult to steal this pill from me. I might not be good at anything else, but I do have some means of stalling. Your people are being taken down one by one. Boss Hong, I’m afraid you won’t last.”

The red scarf man savagely laughed. “You’ll be the first one to break.”

Leng Yuebing pursed her lips and said, “Let’s see if that works out for you.”

The red scarf man whispered, “You seem to have forgotten that we’re the 13 Demons of Mount Luo. Since we’re ’13 Demons’, why are there only 12 of us?”

Leng Yuebing froze, warning bells going off in her mind.

“Strike already!” the red scarf man bellowed.

Leng Yuebing knew that she was in trouble and rapidly beat a retreat, but she was too late.

Reverend Tianchi suddenly turned around and thrust a palm at Leng Yuebing’s back. It seemed like a gentle palm, but Leng Yuebing threw up blood and felt her entire body freezing up, unable to muster a single bit of spiritual energy.

Only now did she realize that Reverend Tianchi was one of the 13 Demons of Mount Luo. She should have realized it beforehand, for how could the 13 Demons have known what time the Five Energies Sovereign Essence Pill was won if they didn’t have an insider?

Reverend Tianchi grabbed the Mustard Seed Bag.

“Haha, it’s finally ours!” The red scarf man and Reverend Tianchi exchanged a glance, joy on their faces. They called to leave, taking out an Earth Escape Talisman and breaking it.

But though the talisman shattered, its power failed to work.

“Space is sealed?” the two shouted in unison.

They hadn’t expected there to be a spatial seal, and the two of them were instantly in an awkward spot.

The battle was still going on, so the two exchanged a glance before rushing out of the pavilion.

“Stop them!” Nan Ningjiang waved his hand, and two of the 12 Hawks flew out to intercept. These two were both Spirit Ring True Persons, whereas Boss Hong and Reverend Tianchi were only at the peak of Mortal Shedding, no match for the two Hawks. Their defeat seemed imminent.

Suddenly, the earth quaked, and Celestial Flower Pavilion swayed.

“What happened?” Everyone was startled.

Xu Mingyue grimaced. “A formation has been activated, a large-scale formation!”

“What kind of formation?” Nan Ningjiang shouted. “Who is it targeting?”

Xu Mingyue didn’t reply, but the fifth brother shrieked, “It’s the two elders! Elders He and Li! They’ve been caught in the formation!”

‘Elders He and Li’?

The moment Nan Ningjiang heard that He Yueyang and Li Song were in trouble, he knew that something was wrong.

Tang Jie must have set up some other large formation on the outside to deal with those two.

He shouted, “Xu Mingyue, go and break the formation!”

“Understood!” Xu Muyang shouted, rushing out of the pavilion. She wasn’t at all surprised by this development. After all, this was what she had been ordered here to do. But Xu Mingyue couldn’t help but feel a little sad at the thought that she would have to fight Xu Muyang’s student.

“Little Brother, don’t blame me. I’m doing this for the sake of the Xu Clan,” she muttered.

Rushing out of Celestial Flower Pavilion, she was greeted by a shocking sight.

Smoke rose up from all around Ninebind City as flames burned. It was like tens of thousands of people had set fires throughout the city.

There was one particular region in the distance that stood out.

This region was circled by dark clouds that blocked visibility. Thunderous roars and a powerful killing intent came from within it, a mighty energy slamming against the clouds, but the clouds refused to scatter.

Xu Mingyue knew that Elders He and Li were there.

A stream of Divine Will swept toward Xu Mingyue.

“Is it Mingyue?” a voice said in her mind.

“It’s me. Is this Lord He? Are you still okay?”

He Yueyang grunted, “I’m fine. It’s an Earth Blast Dark Wind Formation. It’s rather troublesome, but it can’t kill us. However, we won’t be able to help you for the moment. What’s the situation on your end?”

“It’s still chaos, but Tang Jie shouldn’t be able to escape. I will help the two of you break out.”

“There’s no rush. I understand a little about the Earth Blast Dark Wind Formation, and I will need only a little time to undo the formation. But it appears that Tang Jie has laid out a formation around the entirety of Ninebind City. I don’t know what he’s planning, but we can’t let him succeed.”

“‘The entire city’?” Xu Mingyue was shocked, and she turned to the plumes of smoke rising up from the city. They no longer seemed random to her, but arranged in accordance with the principles of the world.

The more Xu Mingyue saw, the more shocked she was. “The nature method! This is my little brother’s method of using nature to make formations! It really is him! It really is him!”

She hadn’t expected this boy to reach such a high level in formations, apparently even more capable than she was. If He Yueyang hadn’t pointed it out, she wouldn’t have even realized that the fire and smoke throughout the city were formation nodes that created an even larger formation.

“I’ll go and handle it now,” Xu Mingyue shouted. She flew out and began to fire spell arts from her hand, gathering information from the various parts of the city so that she could break the formation.

As the formation was large enough to cover the entire city, Xu Mingyue was having a rather hard time calculating everything. Spirit lines appeared in her mind, a city-sized formation taking form. In this process, she failed to notice a pair of eyes watching her.

As the formation diagram clarified, Xu Mingyue’s mind began to clear. “I see. This formation’s purpose is offensive, gathering all its power to attack a single point… Where is that point…”

Xu Mingyue calculated and searched. Finally, she shouted, “Found it!”

She looked toward that point and paled. “Oh no!”

As she cried out in alarm, a lightning bolt descended from the sky, striking a very special part of Ninebind City…

———————————————

Whoosh!

A silver flash of light passed over the red scarf man, cutting him in half.

The man roared, and the two halves of his body merged back together. Upon attaining a spiritual body, a cultivator wouldn’t die no matter what injury they received. The only limit was of how much life force they could consume.

But a moment later, those two halves couldn’t fully heal. A steely palm struck the red scarf man, jolting him into pieces that were impossible to put back together.

“Old Hong!” Reverend Tianchi cried out in grief at the death of his rival and partner in crime, and he struck with even greater ferocity.

But he was no match for Godhead Palace, and the fifth Hawk shattered his head with a single palm strike.

“This isn’t the one, either.”

“Nor this one.” The fifth brother and eighth brother looked at each other and sighed.

If it were Tang Jie, he would have never died this easily.

The smoke in the auction house dispersed, and as vision was restored, the fighting ceased. Only the blood flowing on the ground was left to indicate the tragedy that had occurred here.

The infamous 13 Demons of Mount Luo had had disastrous luck, running into a trap made to capture Tang Jie, and they had been completely wiped out, either dead or captured.

Huang Yue once more inspected the corpses and survivors.

Not just the 13 Demons, but everyone else as well.

“This doesn’t make sense.” Huang Yue shook his head, confusion in his eyes.

“What’s going on?” Nan Ningjiang had already lost his patience.

Huang Yue replied, “I didn’t find Tang Jie.”

“What?” The irascible True Person Liang roared, “Tang Jie was clearly here. He mixed in with the 13 Demons of Mount Luo, and now, all of the 13 Demons are here. Why can’t you confirm which one is Tang Jie yet?”

There was confusion in Huang Yue’s eyes. “I don’t know, either. Everyone here is wearing their real face. Nobody is using an illusion spell or some other spell art to disguise themselves.”

“That’s not possible. How could that happen?”

“How would I know?” Huang Yue angrily retorted. “I’ve looked five times now, and I swear that they’re all their real selves.”

Everyone was stunned by these words.

The chaos might have prevented Huang Yue from making a proper identification, but now that the battle was over, with no one having run off, and Godhead Palace in control of the situation, there was no reason for Huang Yue to not be able to find Tang Jie.

The third sister shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense. Elders He and Li clearly saw a dead man in the tunnel, and there was no 13th point of light. Tang Jie had to have disguised himself as one of them.”

“Wait!” Nan Ningjiang shouted. “That dead man…”

Everyone looked at Nan Ningjiang.

Nan Ningjiang pensively said, “That dead man was placed in the excavated tunnel? But the tunnel had a Breath Restraint spell applied to it, so even a living person wouldn’t show a light, right?”

Everyone froze as they tried to digest this observation.

The third sister was the first to realize, her eyes widening as she covered her mouth and gasped, “Oh, heavens! Tang Jie didn’t kill one of the 13 Demons! He disguised himself as one of the 13 Demons and then pretended to be a corpse hidden in the tunnel… We brushed right past him!”

A scene played out in everyone’s minds.

Right after Elders He and Li left the tunnel, that corpse came to life.

He stood off, brushed off the dirt on his body, and turned back into Tang Jie. He gazed at the distant elders and the 12 Demons, an enigmatic smile appearing on his face…