Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 953: Old Friends

Wei Tianchong was no longer the Wei Tianchong of the past.

That plump youth was no more, replaced by a wide-faced, large-eared man who exuded authority, one of the supporting pillars of the sect. His face was rather aged, his body more imposing, his eyes brimming with confidence. But there were a few streaks of white in his hair.

Glee appeared in Wei Tianchong's eyes when he spotted Tang Jie.

He swiftly walked over, perhaps to embrace Tang Jie, but then he stopped and bowed. "Wei Tianchong pays respects to the Celestial Sovereign."

Tang Jie walked over, pulling Wei Tianchong close and closely inspecting him. After a long while, he sternly said, "Your lifespan has been damaged. Were you heavily injured or poisoned, or did you use a forbidden art?"

Cultivators didn't tend to grow old, but they did consume their lifespan.

They used it when living, used it when cultivating, and used it when fighting.

Luo Hanzhen had used up all his lifespan through too much fighting and had entered the Water Moon Paradise to become Returned Remnants, and when Tang Jie had been cultivating Split Second Youth, he had also consumed a considerable amount of lifespan. For this reason, nobody in the Great Stellar Chiliocosm said that if you reached a certain tier you could live for so long, because there were too many variables.

Theoretically, a Celestial Heart cultivator could live for several thousand years, but the only way to live this long was to live like a turtle, withdrawn from society, and one would also have had to not experience any tough battles beforehand.

In his cultivation journey, Tang Jie had gathered countless resources, had cultivated to the peak of Violet Palace, and had even entered the Dao of Life. All of this should have given him enough lifespan to live as long as the universe, but in reality, if he didn't reach Immortal Platform, he had only four hundred years of lifespan left. Of course, if he had another breakthrough in the Dao of Life, he could add to his lifespan, but comprehending a Dao relied on destiny, and there was no ready-made path. And while Tang Jie comprehended Daos like drinking water, already possessing eight Dao Arts, not even he had a way of growing stronger in one particular Dao.

Wei Tianchong's white hair was an indicator that he didn't have much lifespan left, which was why Tang Jie asked this question.

Wei Tianchong chuckled. "I knew I couldn't hide it from you. Thirty years ago, Nomad Venomheart caused trouble in the west, massacring three minor sects, and I was ordered to hunt him down. But this guy's poison arts were more formidable than I expected, and he took one hundred thousand civilians as hostages. I had no other choice but to use the Blazing Heaven Hand to kill him, but I was struck by his Triflora Poison in return. I had to spend three years bathing in the Heaventop Springs to fully recover."

Tang Jie had nothing to say in response.

Although the Basking Moon Sect had united Rosecloud, that didn't mean that it was free of problems.

On the contrary, because Basking Moon ruled alone, it had to deal with all of the problems of the Rosecloud Domain.

They were the ones who wanted to be the ruler, after all.

One hundred and forty years ago, Yan Changfeng attempted to break into Violet Palace and failed, dying on the spot.

From then on, Wei Tianchong assumed the post of Service Hall Master, becoming the new Celestial Chief and experiencing countless battles, big and small.

While Wei Tianchong had only brought up one matter, behind that single incident were countless stories, injuries, and exhausted lifespan, all of it culminating in that silver tinging his temples.

But Tang Jie knew that Wei Tianchong could be considered fortunate.

At least he was alive and living an exciting life. Although he had yet to reach Violet Palace, he still stood among the group that resided at the apex of the world.

Alas, some people had departed for the final time.

Tang Jie went around to see his old friends.

Peng Yaolong was also one of the supporting pillars of the Basking Moon Sect. Like Wei Tianchong, he was also a Celestial Chief, the master of the Blood War Hall.

Ye Tianshang had been assassinated on one of his travels, dying in an extremely bizarre way. Alas, even now, the Basking Moon Sect had yet to find the culprit, and it had turned into one of the sect's cold cases.

Bei Canghan and Wu Xianguang had both failed to break through into Violet Palace. Bei Canghan had died on the spot while Wu Xianguang had been able to receive timely treatment and survive. But he had lost his cultivation and become a mortal. From then on, he gave up cultivating and retired to the mountains, focusing on scholarship. He ended up becoming a famous scholar whose influence could still be felt. As he still had some foundation from his cultivation, he managed to live another one hundred and twenty years before passing on, having become a father and grandfather to many.

Another one with many descendants was Shi Meng. He possessed limited talent and knew that he had already gotten as far as he could in life. Thus, not long after Tang Jie departed, he officially retired and began to live a leisurely life. While he remained under the sect, he no longer took missions. He even bought some land near the mountains, built a house, and took on ten-some wives, living the life of a retired country squire. He had his old friends and was himself at Celestial Heart, so nobody dared to offend him. He was still living a pleasant life and was the ancestor of a major clan. At this rate, he would probably outlive Wei Tianchong.

Su Xinyue and Meng Shixue had both gotten married. Meng Shixue was Peng Yaolong's wife, the two having secretly been friends since the academy days and marriage being the natural next step. As for Su Xinyue, she had married some other genius of the Basking Moon Sect. It was said that he was somewhat similar to Tang Jie in appearance, and Su Xinyue had only married him after being pursued for a long time.

Liu Hongyan was still unmarried. She had inherited her master's position and was now the deputy hall master of the Law Hall. She also had a stern appearance and issued punishments here and there, having become an infamous cold-faced nun of the sect. Tang Jie was stunned to hear how his classmate had turned out.

Qi Shaoming and Xi Canhen had gone to Nadir Hill. After Godhead Palace's defeat, this area had come under the Seven Absolutions Sect. But Yun Tianlan becoming a True Immortal and the great number of resources obtained from the Court of Myriad Domains caused the status of the Basking Moon Sect to rise even higher, and it began to slowly take back what it had once given away. Nadir Hill was still Nadir Hill, but the Basking Moon Sect had taken the place of the Seven Absolutions Sect. Qi Shaoming and Xi Canhen were responsible for managing its affairs. Both were at the peak of Celestial Heart, hesitant to take that final step.

Also hesitating at this final step was Cai Junyang. As the most talented Basking Moon disciple after Tang Jie, Cai Junyang had been preparing for the charge at Violet Palace this whole time. To this end, he had traveled all around Rosecloud and then gone to find Xian Tao so that he could travel to the Blood River Domain. It was said that his strength wasn't far from Violet Palace, and he had the second highest chances to reach Violet Palace among Tang Jie's friends.

Yes, "the second".

Cai Junyang had been pushed down to third place.

Er Hu had pushed him off.

The disciple Tang Jie had taken in the Verdant Cloud Domain was now at the peak of Celestial Heart, half-step Violet Palace.

But unlike everyone else, it was almost guaranteed for him to reach Violet Palace. All he lacked was time and accumulation.

This was because he was the Child of Fate!

When Tang Jie had comprehended the Dao of Fate and had to make his choice, he had given up on the entanglement of Fate and chosen to sever all the threads of Fate and attach them to Er Hu. This meant that the Heavenly Dao would no longer watch over him and also meant that Er Hu's fortune had been boosted.

Nothing was more important than this.

Tang Jie had used the same method to assist Yun Tianlan in becoming a True Immortal, and Yun Tianlan hadn't even been a Child of Fate, only momentarily favored by it.

This was why Er Hu made swift progress. He simply hadn't reached Violet Palace yet because he had progressed too quickly in his early days, and the Basking Moon Sect wanted to ensure that his potential wasn't wasted and sought to rebuild his foundations.

But it wouldn't be long before the Basking Moon Sect had another True Lord.

Although another True Lord wasn't something too special in the Basking Moon Sect, the upper echelons regarded new blood as a good thing.

As for Zuo Quanming, after Tang Jie left, he had started to stick with Cai Junyang. However, he was rather unlucky and was attacked by a Chaos Sea fiend on one of his travels, sustaining heavy injuries and almost losing his life. While he had escaped, his cultivation had fallen all the way to the Mortal Shedding Realm, so he was now like Shi Meng, settling down in some place to live out the rest of his days.

When they learned that Tang Jie had come back, these people all returned to meet Tang Jie. Given all that had happened over the last two hundred years, there was no shortage of sighing about how so many people had passed on.

While Wei Tianchong and Peng Yaolong had only tinges of silver hair, Shi Meng and Zuo Quanming were already white-haired elders and could barely speak clearly. From this, one could clearly see the difference between Immortals and mortals.

Even Tang Jie couldn't help but feel emotional.

They ended up chatting about all kinds of things, from the distant past to the present day, with no regard for their present statuses.

After they had shared drinks, Wei Tianchong found a proper moment and quietly asked Tang Jie, "She also came. Do you want to go and see her?"

"'Her'?" Tang Jie said in surprise. "Who?"

Wei Tianchong sighed. "So you had already forgotten? I suppose that's right. For you, she was ultimately nothing more than a passerby in your life."

Tang Jie seemed to realize something from this, whispering, "Shen Qingdan? She came?"

For this feast, the Rosecloud Domain had invited more than a thousand sects, with tens of thousands of sect cultivators and wandering cultivators coming from all around. The Basking Moon Sect had basically called up all of the Rosecloud Domain, with even Godhead Palace and the Beast Refining Gate dispatching people to offer their congratulations so that the Basking Moon Sect wouldn't punish them. Other than old friends of Tang Jie's like Wei Tianchong, nobody under Violet Palace even had the right to meet Tang Jie, so it wasn't surprising that he hadn't run into her.

Wei Tianchong chuckled. "Moon Embracer Peak."

He walked off.

Tang Jie was frozen for a few moments, and then he chuckled. "Fine; I'll go and see her."

He instantly blinked away.