Aspiring to the Immortal Path

The Azure Dragon's eyes contained anger, hatred, excitement, and fear.

But after an emotional struggle, the Azure Dragon ultimately sighed. "Forget it. This old slave pays respects to his master."

While it might have made all sorts of promises for its freedom in the past, it was only now that it truly lowered its head.

The Azure Dragon took on human form, turning into a blue-faced elder with a long beard and bowing to Tang Jie.

Tang Jie waved his hand. "There's no need for the courtesy. From today on, you will follow me. Right, there's something I want to ask you."

"Master needs only to ask, and this old slave will do his best to answer," the Azure Dragon respectfully replied. Of course, Tang Jie didn't know if this respect was actually sincere.

Tang Jie didn't mind, saying, "I want to ask: do you recognize this person?"

He pointed behind him at the corpse in the stone chamber.

"This is…" The Azure Dragon walked over in shock. "Is this that old man Wind Holder?"

The Azure Dragon replied, "This man was a Lower Immortal of the Court of Myriad Domains, one of the 500 Immortal Generals. All five hundred were Earth Immortals, each possessing different abilities."

"You're wrong on that. Based on the arrangements left behind in this Five Origins Estate, Wind Holder must have reached True Immortal."

"'True Immortal'?" The Azure Dragon was startled. "That's impossible. Wind Holder ran into many mishaps in his early years of cultivation, resulting in an unstable foundation. Reaching Earth Immortal exhausted all of his potential, making it impossible for him to reach True Immortal in his lifetime. How could he have the strength of a True Immortal?"

"What?" Tang Jie was also dumbfounded.

The Azure Dragon continued, "And what's with this 'Five Origins Estate'? Are you talking about Reverend Five Origins? He was one of the 28 Star Lords, his cultivation reaching True Immortal. But Reverend Five Origins is Reverend Five Origins and Wind Holder is Wind Holder. These two people are completely unrelated."

Tang Jie said in surprise. "Then Reverend Five Origins isn't Wind Holder?"

"How could they be the same person?" the old dragon said in surprise. "While Reverend Five Origins was middle-of-the-pack when it came to True Immortals, he was a divine master of formations, the leader of the Eight Elders of the court's Immortal Formation Hall. The old man even played a major role when the Immortal Emperor created the Myriad Heavens Stellar Divine Net. For this reason, when he got into one of his moods, even the Immortal Emperor would keep his distance. He was far above the likes of Wind Holder."

"Then why is Wind Holder in the Five Origins Estate?"

"How would I know?" the old dragon protested. "If you didn't tell me, I wouldn't even know that we were inside the Five Origins Estate. That old man was very eccentric, having few friends, and he never invited anyone to his estate. Only a select few people in the court even knew where his estate in the lower world was. Who could have expected you to come across his hidden estate?"

Tang Jie's eyes gleamed. "You said that Reverend Five Origins had only a few friends. Was Immortal Ji Yao among them?"

The Azure Dragon heartily laughed. "If you said this to Reverend Five Origins, he would have been ecstatic. Despite his reclusive personality and unfriendly aura that would even ignore orders from the Immortal Emperor, there was one person that Five Origins never dared to defy: Immortal Ji Yao. It was widely known that the old man had a crush on the Iceheart Lotus Lady. If anyone in the court wanted the old man's help with a formation, they would go straight to Immortal Ji Yao, and if Immortal Ji Yao gave her approval, the old fellow would obey without the slightest objection, even providing the materials. Even so, Immortal Ji Yao never turned her eyes to the old man, and in the end, he ended up dying at her hands."

"Immortal Ji Yao killed him?" Tang Jie said in shock.

"Indeed," the Azure Dragon laughed. "When Immortal Ji Yao turned into a demon, numerous people used this as an excuse to try and kill her, but this old man refused to abandon her, continuing to cherish her like a treasure. He went so far as to disobey the court and hide Immortal Ji Yao. But that didn't save him from dying at her hands. Alas, love makes such fools of us all!"

"I see now. Then why did Immortal Ji Yao kill him?"

"What do you mean, 'why'? Those who become demons can't be judged using common sense. We kill people for our own benefits and needs, but demons kill purely because they want to kill. Of course, there could be another story, but at least I don't know about it."

Tang Jie understood.

Immortal Ji Yao held no affection or loyalty for Reverend Five Origins, but even so, the first teleportation point she chose after escaping was his estate. But she probably wouldn't have expected that this place had turned into the tomb of Wind Holder.

Tang Jie then asked, "Then was Wind Holder friends with Reverend Five Origins?"

The Azure Dragon shook his head. "Old Man Five Origins was too eccentric. In his life, he had an interest in only two things: formations and Immortal Ji Yao. And Wind Holder belonged to the Heavenly Dao Faction, so they could never have been friends."

"'The Heavenly Dao Faction'?" Tang Jie curiously asked.

The Azure Dragon explained, "It refers to one's understanding of the Heavenly Dao. You heard Immortal Ji Yao argue about how the Heavenly Dao doesn't exist, right? Don't be fooled by this sophistry. In truth, the court was plagued by arguments over whether the Heavenly Dao existed or not, and Immortal Ji Yao was just one of many. The core of this argument is that things which you can't verify the existence of can be essentially ignored, and those who adhered to this argument were the Dao Nihilist Faction. The Heavenly Dao Faction was the exact opposite, believing that the Heavenly Dao undoubtedly existed. They believed that if they kept cultivating, they would one day be able to reach it. This faction had the majority support in the court, from the Immortal Emperor all the way down to the soldiers, and I was one of them. There was also one more faction, called the Dao Traitor Faction. They believed that the Heavenly Dao existed, but that it wasn't a goal to be pursued, but an existence that suppressed cultivators. Thus, rather than seeking it out, they went against and sought to shatter the Heavenly Dao, hence their name."

Tang Jie's mind was shaken by this news. "Who belonged to this Dao Traitor Faction?"

To his surprise, the Azure Dragon shook his head. "Nobody."

What? Tang Jie was startled by this answer.

The Azure Dragon explained, "Immortal Emperor Yu Cheng was the successor of the Heavenly Dao lineage. He had swept away the demons of the Primordial Fog and established a golden age, all according to the will of the Heavenly Dao. He devoted his life to ascending to the supreme heights of the Heavenly Dao, so he could not tolerate the existence of the Dao Traitors. The arguments of the Dao Traitors had only a brief moment in the sun before the Immortal Emperor ordered them to be quashed. Thus, there was only the argument and no arguer. Or perhaps you can say that nobody publicly claimed to support it."

"I get it." Tang Jie nodded. It was clear that Dao Traitors were as unacceptable an existence to the court as demons, and anyone who supported this argument would act from the shadows. He was now certain that the Martial Lord had been a Dao Traitor, with the Parting Classic being a clear display of his stance.

Tang Jie now somewhat understood why the Martial Lord had fought with the Court of Myriad Domains.

It was a clash of ideals.

Tang Jie recalled the sight of the Martial Lord swinging his axe at the Heavenly Dao Law Wheel.

That battle that had led to the shattering of the court ten thousand years ago had been a struggle of Dao orthodoxies.

And in this battle, the Dao Traitor had both won and lost.

He had singlehandedly defeated the entire court, but he had been utterly slain by the Heavenly Dao Law Wheel.

This world had seemingly used this method to announce the existence of the Heavenly Dao, supreme and untouchable!

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