Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 879: Nearby Horizon

The hourglass in the sky was just like the Heavenly Dao Law Wheel Tang Jie had seen before, brimming with divinity.

Although it wasn't as majestic and gigantic as the Heavenly Dao Law Wheel, it was nevertheless glorious and unique in its own way.

As Tang Jie looked up at that golden hourglass, reverence and admiration appeared in his eyes. "Incredible… incredible!" he muttered.

Creating one's own Dao in one's own world, using this opportunity to ascend to the heavens and comprehend the highest secrets of the Great Stellar Chiliocosm, attaining the Heavenly Dao—was this not what every cultivator dreamed of? Was this not the end and apex of the Immortal path?

Although Tang Jie didn't know if the Immortal Emperor had gotten this far, he did know that the Immortal Emperor had created his own Heavenly Dao in his world!

A Heavenly Dao Hourglass!

It was with this as the core that this isolated dimension could exist.

Suddenly, Tang Jie reached out to take the Heavenly Dao Hourglass, but his hand ended up touching nothing.

It ended up passing right by it.

The hourglass was right there, neither close nor far, lying in a corner of this limited world, yet it seemed far beyond it.

Even with Tang Jie's divine abilities, he couldn't reach it.

This was a world ruled by time, and also a world ruled by space. It could be extremely small, and it could also be extremely big. Time could be frozen, yet it could also be passing by at a rate of ten thousand years per second.

Tang Jie arched an eyebrow.

He stopped trying to grab the hourglass, simply standing there and thinking.

Time passed as he continued to think.

In this time, Xu Miaoran and Yiyi woke up and were stunned by the "sun" in the sky.

They also tried to grab it, but were similarly unable to.

But Xu Miaoran refused to give up, even using Limitless.

At that moment, her finger penetrated through boundless spacetime and touched the hourglass in the sky.

She felt her fingertip heat up and instinctively pulled it away with a yelp.

She looked at the hourglass in shock.

Only Xu Miaoran understood just what she had felt at that moment.

It was Space!

The infinite and profound power of Space.

Comparing the power of Space possessed by this hourglass to what Xu Miaoran had was like comparing the moon to a firefly.

The pain from her finger was the backlash an infant felt from running into a giant. Although it wasn't too painful, it was so intimidating that Xu Miaoran wanted to prostrate herself in worship.

She was just about to get down on her knees when a hand pulled her up.

Looking back, she saw Tang Jie smiling at her.

"Husband!" Xu Miaoran called out.

Tang Jie said, "You did very well, but while admiration is fine, prostration is unnecessary."

"You…" Xu Miaoran looked at her husband in a daze, finding his face to be brimming with confidence.

He raised his head and proudly stared at the hourglass. "This was left behind by the Immortal Emperor, the Heavenly Dao of his small world, fixing heaven and earth, locking space and time. Once you get your hands on it, you can inherit his Great Dao of Spacetime, inherit his Heavenly Dao Will from when he created this world, inherit the supreme Dao Will that we have been seeking for countless years in this place."

Then he looked at Xu Miaoran. "But I don't want to inherit it."

He chuckled. "I have my own path, and I have no need to walk his. But I can use his experiences as a reference to study and use. This was going to be somewhat difficult, but when you used Limitless to touch the Heavenly Dao just now, I got an idea."

Tang Jie took a step forward.

With this one step, he managed to shorten the distance between him and that unreachable hourglass.

He took one step after another, crossing that short and simultaneously interminable space, somehow managing to reach that Heavenly Dao Hourglass. He then reached out and grabbed it!

"Limitless!" Xu Miaoran blurted out.

But then she realized that it wasn't. Limitless couldn't have supported Tang Jie over such a long distance. Only Xu Miaoran was able to understand just how great of a distance Tang Jie had crossed in that moment. This was a kind of transcendent speed, letting him cross through space like the Immortal Emperor had once traveled the world, with distance posing him no obstacle.

This was now true for Tang Jie. At that moment, he had gone from the earth all the way to the heavens!

Only by crossing that infinite gap between mortals and gods was he finally able to hold that hourglass.

Tang Jie stood the hourglass up.

He pointed at the hourglass, using Split-Second Youth, and the sand began to flow.

It began to go from the top to the bottom in an endless flow.

Xu Miaoran knew that time had been returned to this frozen space.

All things in this space began to change, grow, and die, all things entering their cycles. But because the Great Daos were incomplete, the vitality of this place was extremely weak. Thus, it wouldn't be long before everything here died.

The moment this place had time was the moment this place headed toward its death.

Tang Jie strode back from the horizon to Xu Miaoran's side.

Xu Miaoran came forward and hugged her husband. "Husband, congratulations on entering the Dao of Space. What sort of Dao Art did you attain that's so amazing?"

Tang Jie replied, "Your Limitless increased my understanding of spatial movement. Considering all these powerful foes in the court and how the Flame Celestial Sovereign is constantly chasing me, and also adding in my desire to reach the Heavenly Dao Hourglass, I chose an art suitable for escaping, without any other skills. This is a spatial movement technique that can contract space, allowing me to travel to any place I can see. I call it 'Nearby Horizon'."

Xu Miaoran's Limitless could also be used as a spatial escape art, but it was much inferior to Tang Jie's Nearby Horizon. Tang Jie's Nearby Horizon allowed him to move to wherever his eyes could see, and not only that, he could use it repeatedly. The Dao of Space could be considered the Dao of Speed, and at its apex, one could travel almost instantly to wherever one pleased. It was the true Dao of Freedom.

Tang Jie pursued freedom, and Tang Jie was also surrounded by enemies at the moment. Thus, when comprehending the Immortal Emperor's Dao Will, influenced by Xu Miaoran, he chose Nearby Horizon without a second thought. He didn't seek to kill his enemies, only freedom to roam the world!

With the Nearby Horizon Dao Art, the Flame Celestial Sovereign would find it extremely hard to hunt him down.

"When you say 'any place you can see', do you mean your ordinary vision or your spell art vision?" Yiyi asked.

This girl was very sharp, asking a most important question. If this used spell art vision, it was extremely powerful. By activating his Celestial Eye, he could see far into the distance, and through a spell art like the Illuminating Eye, couldn't he essentially go anywhere? If that was the case, then he really could cover thousands of kilometers in an instant, perhaps even jumping between domains.

After some thought, Tang Jie replied, "Spell art vision is okay as well."

"Wonderful!" everyone cheered.

"But…" Tang Jie suddenly added.

Xu Miaoran realized what he was about to say. "But it means that the Space power required will increase by a huge amount, and if the distance is too great, it might fail, right?"

Tang Jie smiled. "You get it."

This was the rule of the world. The Great Dao did not have limits, but people did. Theoretically, the Dao of Space could let one reach any part of the world instantly, even go from the Vast Wilderness Continent to the Rosecloud Domain. But the prerequisite was that one had the ability.

There were only invincible Daos, not invincible people!

Hearing this, everyone was still happy for Tang Jie.

Only Tutu was rather glum.

He was about to lose his job!

When he was a mount, Tutu had resented his life as a mount.

Only when Tang Jie no longer needed him did he realize that the most tragic thing in the world wasn't to be someone's mount, but to lack even the right to be a mount!

Yiyi saw what he was thinking and soothed, "Don't worry. Big Brother doesn't have endless Space power. Big Brother will definitely leave you as a back-up."

Alas, from the main mount to a back-up.

Tutu wanted to cry.

Yiyi petted him and said, "If it's still no good, there's still me. You can be a mount for me or Big Sister Miaoran. We both need you."

This little girl didn't know how to comfort at all, only making Tutu angrier.

Count yourself lucky that Tang Jie is stronger than me! You entered Divine Division later than I did, and yet you're saying you'll take me in like it's an act of compassion!

But when he considered how Yiyi and Xu Miaoran had both entered Violet Palace through Tang Jie's help and might be just as strong as him in battle, he found that he really couldn't say anything.

He was at a loss, not knowing whether to be happy or sad.

Nobody else knew what Tutu was thinking and were all celebrating. Suddenly, the ground rippled, and all the flowers and grass began to wither and die.

"What happened?" Yiyi and Ice Phoenix shouted.

Tang Jie sighed. "I restarted the Heavenly Dao Hourglass, causing time to flow again, which has destroyed this place's foundation. This isolated dimension is on the road to ruin."

"It will collapse?" Yiyi paled.

If that was the case, everyone might die or be thrown into the endless void, which was no different from eternal exile. Even with Tang Jie's Nearby Horizon, crossing the void was not easy.

Tang Jie shook his head. "No, this place won't collapse. While it's an isolated dimension, it's attached to the outside dimension. Now that I've destroyed this place's Dao of Spacetime, it will start to merge with the main dimension until the two are one."

"Doesn't that mean we have to return to the Celestial Maze Formation?"

"Yes." Tang Jie nodded.

Ice Phoenix stomped her feet. "Geez, you could have done anything else, but you had to restart the Heavenly Dao Hourglass. Now those people outside are going to catch us."

She had already been exposed as a demon to the cultivators from the two sects, so those two sects would never let them go.

Tang Jie smiled. "If I didn't do this, I wouldn't have been able to truly enter the Dao."

Although he had used Nearby Horizon to reach the Heavenly Dao Hourglass, it was only during that last interaction where he had restarted the hourglass that he had made up for the last bit that he was missing. Entering a Great Dao was no easy task, and if not for the Immortal Emperor's legacy, he would have never been able to so smoothly create a powerful Dao Art. Countless people would have wanted this kind of escape art. Even the Flame Celestial Sovereign could only travel around as a streak of light, which was still far from the spatial shifting and spatial contraction of Nearby Horizon.

Ice Phoenix glared. "If that's the case, what are we still waiting for? Let's get ready to enter the diagram and run."

Tang Jie laughed. "Indeed, indeed. Please enter the diagram."

With a wave of his hand, he pulled Ice Phoenix and Yiyi into the diagram.

When it came to Xu Miaoran's turn, she refused and smiled. "I want to fight alongside my husband. I can just enter the diagram later if it's no good."

Looking into Xu Miaoran's eyes, Tang Jie smiled and said, "Okay. If that's the case, then we will deal with those people together, as husband and wife."