Aspiring to the Immortal Path

"Hahahaha!'

Laughter rang out.

The seated woman threw her head back and laughed, her body shaking and tears appearing in her eyes.

The laughter came to an abrupt stop.

She gazed at Tang Jie and said, "Sharp eyes and a clever mind, to see through my maze of murals. As expected of someone who has been a thorn in my side from the start. When did a ghost like you appear in the Nether Domain?"

Tang Jie smiled. "It's not important how I came to be. The important thing is that the story isn't over yet."

The Heartless Ghost King curiously asked, "How is it not over?"

"Of course it's not over," Tang Jie replied. "For example, these murals don't explain how Fan Yunhai became a Sovereign."

Tang Jie looked to Flying Swallow.

The ghosts erupted.

"What a vicious woman."

"She's even more wicked than us ghosts."

"Says you. I say we're about the same, haha."

"She can't compare at all, haha."

The ghosts were all vicious sorts, and the wickedness of the woman only made them feel closer to her. But a few of the more "kindhearted" ghosts found this conduct contemptible.

One of them said, "Vicious woman, I can't believe you still have the face to act like you were acting for the sake of your man!"

Flying Swallow responded to this scolding with anger, slapping the table and saying, "What right did that lowly woman have to stand at his side? If she had read the situation and left, I wouldn't have had to go through all that trouble! Since she refused to give up on my man, why shouldn't I kill her?"

"But he didn't accept you anyway, right?" Tang Jie coldly said. "Let me guess what happened next. After killing his wife, you pretended to run into him by chance. You accompanied him, comforted him, trying to use this method to plant yourself in his heart. Alas, all that you did was ineffective, for you never had a place in his heart."

Flying Swallow smirked.

Tang Jie realized something from this reaction and immediately shook his head. "No, that's not right. How could someone like Sovereign Yunhai spend every day depressed over the loss of his wife? If I were him, I would do everything I could to find the person who killed my wife. Thus, he once more left his home, and you… you went with him."

Flying Swallow froze, and Tang Jie knew that he was right.

He nodded his head. "You stayed at the side of the man you loved, following him here and there as he looked for his wife's killer, never thinking that his constant companion was his greatest enemy. But finally, one day, he discovered the truth. I don't know exactly what happened that day, but I presume that his mind broke."

Flying Swallow trembled, and then she began to weep. "That heartless man—I treated him so well, but he was set on killing me!"

Tears rained down.

Tang Jie couldn't help but sigh. "But in the end, he didn't kill you, right?"

"That's because he was no match for me! Where do you think his cultivation came from? I taught him all of it!!!" Flying Swallow shrieked.

Long ago during that battle against Fan Yunhai's troops, she had been heavily injured, and Fan Yunhai had saved her in gratitude for how she had saved him. He had tended to her in that little hut for half a year, during which she had instructed him in cultivation and put him on the Immortal path.

She had given him everything, but this man had never showed affection for her.

Tang Jie's guess was wrong!

When Fan Yunhai found out that Flying Swallow had killed his wife, he had held nothing back. It was Flying Swallow who had shown mercy.

She couldn't kill the man she loved and ultimately departed in grief.

But she hadn't expected what came later…

Tang Jie understood.

He sighed. "After that was the story you told."

Overcome by sorrow, Flying Swallow returned to her mountain to cultivate. But no matter how she cultivated, she couldn't escape her mortal affections.

On the other end, after Flying Swallow left, Fan Yunhai wandered the world and inadvertently gained the favor of an Immortal sect. At the time, the world was in chaos, and the Immortal sect sought to return peace to the world, which gave Fan Yunhai an opportunity.

With the support of this sect, Fan Yunhai organized an army. He had started off as a general and was an expert in leading troops, and then he was further supported by this sect, so he easily beat back the invading country, even invading them back and rapidly expanding until he had established a giant empire.

Although he was now master of the country, his hatred for Flying Swallow was the same as ever.

It was then that the pursuit Flying Swallow described ensued, during which Flying Swallow broke through and forced Sovereign Yunhai to take her as his partner, after which Sovereign Yunhai drew her into a trap.

This was the sequel to the story Flying Swallow had depicted on the eighteen murals, and it worked whether the murals were read front to back or back to front. When read from front to back, the sequel became that of a woman getting revenge on a heartless and ungrateful man. When read from back to front, the sequel became that of a man enduring humiliation and finally getting revenge. Both made sense.

Flying Swallow truly hadn't lied. Sovereign Yunhai truly had hunted her down. It was just that the misdirection of the murals meant that everyone thought Sovereign Yunhai was in the wrong.

"Why would she do all this?" The ghosts were confused.

For cultivators, reason and argument were important, but cultivation was even more important.

While being unreasonable and relying solely on one's fists was out of the question, believing that having reason on one's side allowed one to crisscross the world was simply naive.

Flying Swallow possessed a profound cultivation, and no one would object if she wanted to argue that she was a good person. But going through so much effort to mislead by making these murals, attempting to prove her righteousness, was excessive.

"It's because that's what her Dao Art requires," Tang Jie sighed. "In truth, when Sovereign Yunhai was hunting you down, you didn't experience a breakthrough in cultivation, but with a Dao Art."

Flying Swallow was stunned once more. "You…"

"A Dao Art based in the Dao of Truth, with the effect of making people do as you say and confusing the mind. Only such an ability would let you turn the tables in a single move. Otherwise, three thousand imperial guards, thirty-six Astral Generals, eight powerful cultivators… haha, I don't know what cultivation those Eight Worthies were at, but they had to at least be at Soul Transformation. After all, only someone who has overcome Heart Demon and stabilized their mind can be called a Worthy. If you had only broken into Violet Palace, those eight Soul Transformation cultivators might have been able to beat you, not even considering the soldiers specifically equipped to deal with cultivators and Sovereign Yunhai on the sidelines. A Dao Art, only a Dao Art, could help you change all this. But nothing is perfect, and in gaining a Dao Art, you also had a much more difficult time lying, forcing you to rely on other methods to mislead. Am I right?"

Flying Swallow's face shifted before she finally broke into laughter. "Good, good! You got it all right. Yes, in that battle, as I was on the verge of death, I finally broke through and attained this Enchantress Voice that can sow discord, reversing black and white, truth and fiction, turning my foes against each other while I simply sit back. But the flaw of this art is that all of my words must be backed by reality to maximize its power. Even when speaking normally, I cannot lie, or else the art will become much weaker. Thus, one must be clever with their words to use this art as a weapon, abusing language for all that it's worth."

She gazed flirtatiously at Tang Jie. "Young friend, you seem very smart, and as a Yaksha, you can also cultivate this art. Why not join me, and I will teach it to you?"

Tang Jie felt a ripple in his mind and bitterly smiled. "Senior, please do not use this Enchantress Voice on me. Your junior truly cannot take it."

So long as Flying Swallow didn't lie, her Enchantress Voice could make people believe and obey her. The ripple in Tang Jie's mind had been the Dao Art taking effect, but that was the extent of it.

This was rather strange. For some reason, her Dao Art was of no use against Tang Jie. Initially, it had been able to influence him a little, but this effect had only gotten weaker and weaker.

Flying Swallow scowled when she saw that the Enchantress Voice had had no effect, realizing that this Yaksha really could resist it. She barked in shock and anger, "Since you don't know when to give up, this empress will show no mercy!"

She had dropped the "servant" act by this point, calling herself "empress" as her body began to exude a powerful aura.

"This empress was suppressed by that heartless man for thousands of years, but now, I am finally free. For your contribution to this deed, I will give all of you a single chance. Become subjects of this empress, at my beck and call, or else be turned to dust."

She extended a hand, and a soul-shaking power erupted from it.

A power to enslave ghosts!

"So you were a successor of a Ghost Dao sect! No wonder you used so many tricks to try and lure us into a trap!" the ghosts cried out in realization.

While this Flying Swallow had a young and beautiful appearance, she was an authentic Ghost Dao cultivator, an expert in enslaving ghosts. Ironically, it had been a ghost who had ended up suppressing her here.

When she was freed and found that it was a pack of ghosts that had killed Sovereign Yunhai, she was elated and began to think of how she could trick them into being her servants. After all, she couldn't possibly enslave so many King-level ghosts at once with her spell arts. Her best chance was to use her Enchantress Voice to deceive the ghosts into willingly pledging their fealty.

Alas, while it was a good plan, Tang Jie saw through it and exposed it, forcing her to reveal her true intentions and take the ghosts by force.