Aspiring To The Immortal Path

The garden of the Carefree House was awash with the aroma of peaches and plums and bursting with fruits and melons.

Yiyi sat on the swing in the orchard, freely swinging back and forth. Though several years had passed, the impression Yiyi gave off hadn't changed at all. Even though she was now at Mind Opening, she still looked like a little girl. As sprites originated from plants, they had long lives and extremely long maturation periods. Thus, after growing to a certain point, their growth speed would greatly slow down. For a sprite, a few years was as much time as it took to snap a finger.

In contrast, the little tiger was growing stronger and larger.

He had grown to adulthood and reached the peak of the upper grade. However, as he had yet to awaken his bloodline or enter Mind Opening, he still lived a muddleheaded life, opening his mouth whenever a meal was coming.

On the swing, Yiyi wore a flower crown she had made herself. While hanging her feet over the edge of the swing, she pointed her finger at a distant bud. Little tufts of grass sprouted out from the dirt, putting out green leaves and swiftly forming a grassy area. It appeared that she had accelerated their growth.

This was an ability Yiyi had gained after reaching Mind Opening, capable of rapidly accelerating the growth of plants. But this acceleration would come at a heavy cost to the medicinal effect of spiritual plants, and to use it on valuable spiritual plants would just ruin a good thing. It was more suitable for ordinary plants so that they could be used as fodder.

Several horned bulls immediately began to gnaw away at the newly grown grass while the little tiger hungrily looked on.

Tang Jie had hired several underclassmen to get these horned bulls from Tiger Roar Valley. He raised them here so that he could feed them to the little tiger, which was much better than buying food from the outside. After all, food with spirituality wasn't cheap, and the little tiger's appetite wasn't small. It wasn't like Tang Jie could spend all his time hunting for it, so he had to keep around a few meat sources at home. These horned bulls were rather frightened of the little tiger at first, but as the days dragged on, they grew accustomed to his presence.

What confused Tang Jie was: how had this guy still not evolved despite eating so much spirit food?

He had even made a trip to ask Wang Poguan about this, but to his surprise, Wang Poguan was elated, saying that later was better. In fact, he felt like it would be wonderful if the little tiger went a hundred years without reaching Mind Opening.

A fiend beast that couldn't reach Mind Opening after one hundred years would essentially have no future prospects, so Tang Jie was baffled at how happy Wang Poguan was. Tang Jie didn't believe that Wang Poguan was the sort of tiger that would think "let the child live a peaceful life as an ordinary tiger", and considering that the Wind Tigers of Tiger Roar Mountain were different from other tigers, Tang Jie somewhat understood what was happening.

The talents of Wang Poguan's clan most likely required a long maturation time.

Tang Jie recalled that there were some great fiends in Remote Antiquity and High Antiquity who had extremely long maturation periods, some even with juvenile stages of one hundred years. Once they matured, they would be at the Violet Palace or Immortal Platform level. He didn't have any hope that the little tiger would have this sort of bloodline, but given that this little guy had three innate spell arts before his bloodline had awoken, there was truly no telling how far he could go.

After growing the grass, Yiyi didn't stop. She had some of the grass grow longer and taller, winding it together into a grass hut.

This was a classic waste of energy. Grass grown this long had no use at all, wasting the tiny bit of spirituality it had and turning it into nothing more than a weed. Yiyi didn't care, continuing to vigorously weave the grass into a hut, and not just that. The grass spread outward into a base, as if she intended to erect an entire pavilion.

Alas, she met with failure halfway. The grass hut abruptly collapsed, sending pieces of grass flying everywhere.

Yiyi stomped her feet in anger. "Aaaagh!"

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"What, failed again?" Tang Jie said, coming out of his room.

Four years had gone by, and Tang Jie seemed more mature than before. He wore a long robe and exuded dignity with every move.

This was a dignity that came naturally when one reached a certain level of cultivation, from the same source as Lan Yu's realm pressure. Now, Tang Jie was finally manifesting his own, but compared to Lan Yu's energetic aura, Tang Jie's was much more restrained.

Tang Jie came up behind Yiyi and smiled at her as she sullenly pouted.

After reaching Mind Opening, she had developed a dream of making a palace of plants like the one the Frost Fairy had made. In this way, she could take up residence in this palace and become a queen of nature.

Alas, no matter how hard she worked, she couldn't create a palace like the Frost Fairy.

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Seeing how frustrated Yiyi was, Tang Jie smiled and said, "Each sprite has its own specialty, so why do you have to imitate her? You can't create a flower palace, but could that ice sprite have made a Silkheaven Net?"

The Silkheaven Net was a spell art Yiyi had learned after reaching Mind Opening. It was an extremely powerful offensive spell that covered a vast area, and even Tang Jie using the Matchless Slash found it hard to defend against.

"But I like flower palaces," Yiyi cutely replied. "I don't believe that I can't complete this spell art… my Jade Blossom Palace."

As she muttered, grass once more began to grow.

Seeing that Yiyi was serious, Tang Jie stopped trying to persuade her.

In Tang Jie's view, Yiyi was still far from creating her own spell art, and all she was doing was wasting time. But Tang Jie also knew that some things simply couldn't be judged purely according to what was lost and gained.

When someone was focused on pursuing a goal, they would often explode with extreme passion, high focus, and deep wisdom.

Yiyi was no longer young, and the self-created spell art she sought might just have been a dream, but in this process of pursuit, she would benefit mentally. This was precisely why Tang Jie only tried to persuade her a little before letting her be.

Putting aside Yiyi, Tang Jie left his house and took a stroll around the campus. But on this walk, many familiar faces were no longer present.

Four years had gone by as quickly as lightning.

Peng Yaolong and Ye Tianshang had graduated long ago. As leadership students and as people who had put on outstanding performances at the Immortal Fortune Conference, they had naturally become official disciples of the Basking Moon Sect.

Peng Yaolong had entered the Blood War Hall of the Combat Department while Ye Tianshang had entered the Service Hall, becoming Yan Changfeng's subordinate. As for Long Dao, he had followed his father, Long Ruohai, in joining the Tribute Hall.

The Tribute Hall was the department of the Basking Moon Sect that was tasked with gathering tribute from all over.

This was different from the Service Hall, which provided protection and received payment for its services, thus functioning as a somewhat larger-scale bodyguard business. The Tribute Hall was specifically in charge of managing the tributes from various areas, especially important mining and farming areas.

The Service Hall could be described as an arms merchant, selling weapons to external parties, and the Tribute Hall could be described as the tax department. Together with the Commerce Hall, these three were the three financial pillars of the Basking Moon Sect, and the posts here were extremely lucrative.

Qi Shaoming was still studying under Li Hongyang. Two years ago, it had been announced that he had entered Mortal Shedding, and he was currently using his talent to rapidly close the distance with Tang Jie.

Wei Tianchong had only reached Mortal Shedding at the beginning of this year. Although his aptitude was average, his performance at the Immortal Fortune Conference and his status as Changfeng's True Inheritor meant that Wei Tianchong had successfully advanced within eight years, living up to the hopes of the Wei Clan. Unfortunately, his big brother, Wei Tianzhi, had not managed to reach Mortal Shedding in ten years. He had already returned home to study commerce and inherit the family business. Like Wei Tianzhi, Wu Xing had failed to shed his mortality, but he was very calm about it. He returned home with his young master to manage the Wei Estate's business. He was responsible for the trade from the Watcher River—after returning from Red Plum Ridge, Wei Tianchong had recommended that his clan set up a road between the Ling Province and Watcher River to facilitate the transport of goods.

Tang Jie was now free of his status as a servant student. He was still part of the Wei Clan, his status on par with a cousin of the Wei Clan.

Shi Meng was worse off. His aptitude was worse, and he had no resources, so he was currently in the same spot as Wei Tianzhi, between success and failure. Fortunately, Tang Jie had promised to help him get to Mortal Shedding within ten years, thus allowing him to breathe easy.

But there was no news of Cai Junyang. He rarely spent time at the academy and was always wandering about. Nobody knew exactly when he came back or whether he had even entered Mortal Shedding, But given his aptitude, he was probably fine.

As for Tang Jie himself, he had left the initial stage of Mortal Shedding and was in the Hundred Refinement Period. Every muscle and bone in his body was being refined as he went through the first conversion of a cultivator's body from mortal into spiritual.

In the cultivation world, many people thought that this was actually when a cultivator became a real cultivator. Everything before this was nothing more than pacing back and forth in front of the gate of cultivation. When a cultivator reached this stage, many problems could no longer be resolved simply by accumulating spiritual energy. Comprehension, experience, cultivation, spiritual energy, secret arts, and medicines were all required. The requirements were complicated and the changes were numerous. Ordinary methods would not suffice to solve them.

As he strolled through the little paths between the academy's forests, Tang Jie ended up at the Bounty Platform.

For a time after reaching Mortal Shedding, Tang Jie had come frequently to this place to take missions in exchange for resources.

With these resources and what he had gotten from the Immortal Fortune Conference, Tang Jie had managed to bring his constitution to the initial level of the Jewel Body. But it was at that time that Tang Jie found it was very difficult to bring his constitution any higher.

In the end, this body of his was the result of a secret art, and there were still some hidden flaws. The biggest problem was that it was difficult to strengthen the physical body any more than this, but at least this did not affect his cultivation. But now that he had entered Hundred Refinement, spiritual energy was no longer the only standard for improvement, and money could no longer solve everything. The combination of these two meant that Tang Jie gradually came less and less.

When the students saw Tang Jie, they bowed and shouted, "Great Brother!"

Tang Jie was currently a "Great Brother" character of Basking Moon Academy. Let alone him, even Wei Tianchong was being called "Senior Brother" when he walked around.

Tang Jie couldn't but bitterly smile and shake his head when he thought about how an ignorant kid like him who was all take and no give had somehow become a "Senior Brother". He couldn't help but sigh and say, "The vast sea has yet to turn into mulberry fields, but the affairs of humans are no longer what they once were."

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The moment these words left his mouth, Tang Jie thought about the elderly Wu couple.

When doing missions these past few years, Tang Jie had gone to see them a few times. After eating the medicine that Wu Xing had sent back, the two elders were much healthier and more energetic. But Tang Jie hadn't been able to fool the two of them, and they had actually guessed that it was Tang Jie who had bought the medicine. After spending some time in the Ling Province keeping them company, Tang Jie had gone back to continue cultivating, but in a flash, two years had gone by.

Now that he thought about them, he felt an inexplicable desire to go back and see the two.

Once this thought had a hold on him, he found it impossible to suppress. As he was at the Bounty Platform, he went up to the supervising student.

The student saw Tang Jie coming and respectfully said, "Great Brother, good day."

Tang Jie nodded in reply and then directly asked, "Are there any missions to the Ling Province?"

The student flipped through the missions and shook his head. "I'm afraid not."

The academy had set down rules for student excursions. Going out with no business was usually not allowed, and so school missions presented the perfect opportunity. Anyone who wanted to go out to see their family would essentially always take a mission first. Cai Junyang, who spent most of his time training outside, was also able to do so because he had taken missions. But this guy was quite shameless, taking these missions and not completing them, using the opportunity to go out and adventure. But the school didn't care so long as he was following the rules.

This was precisely why even Tang Jie had to take a mission in order to return home to see his family. The one day per month of vacation he had truly wasn't enough.

Tang Jie was deeply disappointed to hear that there weren't any. Just when he was planning to request an official vacation from Xie Fengtang, the student said, "But there is a C-level mission from the sect for Ling Province."

"'A C-level sect mission'?" Tang Jie immediately became excited.

C-level sect missions were missions issued by the Basking Moon Sect, and provisional disciples could take these missions. As for the higher levels, provisional disciples could not take them. As these missions came from the sect, they rewarded sect contribution points.

Ming Yekong's recommendation had made Tang Jie a provisional disciple a long time ago, and he had taken quite a few sect missions over the years, piling up some sect contribution points. As for his debt, he had paid that off long ago.

Tang Jie was delighted to hear that there was a C-level mission to Ling Province. He said, "Take it out and let me see."

The student passed a paper to Tang Jie.

Tang Jie took it and found that it was a spirit stone vein investigation mission.

In the northern part of Ling Province was a mountain called Mount Eternal.

Thirty years ago, someone found a spirit stone vein on Mount Eternal. Spirit stones were an energy resource for the cultivation world, and while their value wasn't particularly high, they were of utmost importance.

When the spirit stone vein was found, nothing like what happened with the violet gold vein in Duskland happened. The local minor sect, the Stone Gate, immediately reported it to the Basking Moon Sect.

When the Basking Moon Sect sent someone to inspect it, it confirmed that it was a small spirit stone vein. The local hall master was tasked with supervising while the Stone Gate was tasked with mining the vein. The split was 20:80, with the Basking Moon Sect getting the 80%. And this was only because the Basking Moon Sect was being generous due to how self-aware the minor sect had been.

The mine had been operating for thirty years now, and the Eternal vein was beginning to run out.

The Stone Gate had sent a messenger not too long ago to convey that the Eternal vein had basically been mined out and that someone from the Basking Moon Sect should come to confirm that this was the case. After all, the Stone Gate would have a tough time if they still needed to keep sending spirit stones.

After thirty years, it was, truthfully, about time that the vein was mined out, so there were essentially no problems. Thus, the Basking Moon Sect had made it a mission, giving the lower disciples a chance to achieve some merit. It only offered a measly two sect contribution points, but for Tang Jie, what was more important was that it gave him a chance to go home.

Mount Eternal wasn't far from Canglong Prefecture. If flying by sword, he could get there in two hours.

After looking through the mission, Tang Jie nodded and said, "I'll take this one."

"If that is the case, this junior brother will seal up this mission for Senior Brother. Senior Brother, remember that this matter must be completed before the end of next month," the student said, grinning.

Tang Jie replied, "Thank you for the reminder. Right, give me two more mission certificates. I would like to invite Wei Tianchong and Shi Meng to complete this mission with me."

Those who accepted Tang Jie's invitation to work with him would not get any contribution points, but Tang Jie only needed the certificates. Wei Tianchong and Shi Meng hadn't been home in a while, so they were probably homesick as well.

The student watched as Tang Jie left with the certificates. Suddenly, he took out a talisman, wrote "Tang Jie took the Eternal Mine mission", then burned the talisman, turning it into a puff of smoke.