Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

”Time to change disguises again...”

Watching the panicked passerby fleeing in all directions, Jiang Ding muttered to himself.

He took several twists and turns, jumping over walls whenever possible to avoid walking on the roads, trying his best to stay clear of the public. Soon, he led his followers into the yard of a house that had been abandoned for a long time.

Whether the owner had too many properties or some other reason, the place was already covered in a thick layer of dust when he had scouted it out before, indicating it had been a long while since anyone had been there.

He tossed the object in his hand onto the ground and lifted the white cloth, revealing the unconscious Zheng Tu.

With his understanding of the human body, it was simple for him to plunge a sword into the victim, then use his inner energy as a medium to press on the brain’s nerve clusters and send the person into a coma.

In the worldview of the Xianmen Sect, there was no such thing as ”acupoints” or ”acupoint attacks,” only various nodes and organ junctions of the human body’s meridians.

Jiang Ding lifted Zheng Tu’s neck, withdrawing the inner energy pressing on his brain’s nerves while inflicting some restrictive energy on his throat, ensuring he could make sounds but couldn’t scream loudly.

”I’m not dead?”

Zheng Tu faintly awoke and said with some surprise, only to see a dull-looking youth with a longsword at his waist watching him.

”Great hero! I am with the Jindao School; if you have any requests, just ask!”

Remembering that strike, a chill went through him.

”Months ago, the ’Sea Splitting Saber’ Wei Xian stole the Heavenly Sound Stone from the Qixuan School—where is it now?”

”The Heavenly Sound Stone...”

Zheng Tu’s eyes shifted: ”I do not know, but how about this? You leave behind a deadly poison, and I will return to my school to investigate. I shall surely find its whereabouts for you within three days.”

”...”

Jiang Ding stared at him for a long time.

Zheng Tu panicked and swore: ”Great hero, except for when Brother Wei brought the item into the school, I have not seen it since. Just give me three days, and I am sure to find it—it’s not difficult!”

”His heartbeat and breathing show no changes.”

”Forget it.”

Jiang Ding sighed, ”I can’t judge the truth of your words, and I don’t want to let you go. There’s no choice but to use torture—I hope the Refining Pulse Finger will be effective.”

The Refining Pulse Finger, a torture technique with a rather ordinary name from the records of the Xianmen Library, which allowed Lin Wanqiu to formally request it through a guardian application.

”What are you trying to do...”

Zheng Tu shouted in terror.

A hand landed on his shoulder, and then his whole body’s meridians twisted, eliciting a bone-chilling scream. However, the restriction on his throat meant that the sound dissipated within a few meters and vanished without a trace.

...

After more than ten minutes, there was a contorted, unrecognizable corpse on the ground.

”That went smoothly. Such evil men who have done so many terrible things boast of loyalty and bravery, but their heads bear the scars of their true faithless and weak spirits.”

”Once tortured, he confessed right away, and despite repeated questioning, there were no discrepancies.”

Jiang Ding tapped his foot gently, and inner energy surged down, causing the ground to collapse and form a pit about a meter deep. He buried Zheng Tu in it and backfilled with soil, leaving the ground looking no different from before except for some fresher dirt.

”The Heavenly Sound Stone is in the Ancestor Temple!”

Light flashed in Jiang Ding’s eyes: ”Inner disciples of the Jindao School can worship the Ancestor Master once a month, which allows them to use the Heavenly Sound Stone to comprehend martial arts. The elders and hall masters can worship at any time.”

”But that’s manageable. It’s that person who seems to be at the peak of Qi practicing and wears a black robe—that’s the problem...”

He did not jump to conclusions based on one person’s account.

As night fell, Jiang Ding stealthily infiltrated Tianjilou, which Wu Kuang and Zhou Di took for their home, following their ’business’ for a while. He confirmed their heinous crimes, then abducted them here, interrogated each one, and buried them underground.

”That’s right, the Heavenly Sound Stone is indeed in the Ancestor Temple of the Jindao School!”

Jiang Ding couldn’t help but feel invigorated.

”The only issue is, is the Heavenly Sound Stone the Taiqing Spirit Iron? This is very important.”

After some thought, Jiang Ding maneuvered the drone to circle above the Ancestor Temple of the Jindao School, inching along to find a suitable angle.

Finally, after dozens of minutes, the brightly lit Ancestor Temple beamed with light captured by the drone’s camera through the windows.

Surrounded by drifting incense smoke, the magnified image on the drone appeared before his eyes.

Jiang Ding held his breath.

In the flicker of candlelight, a massive stone several meters tall and wide stood like a little mountain, black in color with the occasional white specks scattered across its surface, which under the candlelight reflected glimmers of starlight.

The description of Taiqing Spirit Iron from the Xianmen Encyclopedia surfaced in his mind.

”Taiqing Spirit Iron mines are mysterious in color and also have white spots like stars. Divine and elusive, they cannot be seen by cultivators, and mortals near them would hear faint singing, which upon listening, could help them comprehend the laws.”

”Identical! Absolutely identical!”

Jiang Ding felt a sense of affirmation; if he was initially only ten percent sure, now his confidence had at least risen to eighty percent that this was indeed his treasured Taiqing Spirit Iron!

”I really wish I could bring out a dozen self-propelled artillery pieces to give this bastard, who’s taken my Taiqing Spirit Iron, a barrage of fire.”

”A high-grade magic tool sniper rifle would also do the job, but the only problem is I can’t bring it out.”

”Let’s leave it at that for now. If this bastard dares to move my Taiqing Spirit Iron, then I won’t care about anything else. I’ll run straight to the training ground and shoot him in the forehead with an anti-materiel sniper rifle!”

The Taiqing Spirit Iron could not be stored in any storage bag.

Jiang Ding resolved fiercely to himself.

”I refuse to believe that this black-robed person will not leave Jindaoshan Mountain even once in their lifetime; just once is enough!”

Apart from the black-robed person, there were essentially no others in the Jindao School who could make him wary.

After spending a considerable amount of time, Jiang Ding finally calmed down.

”Find a place to stay, monitor 24/7. He will come out.”

...

The next day, Jiang Ding followed behind a glib broker, listening as he rattled off an introduction.

”Hero, this Sword Casting Manor used to be a famous old establishment in the capital, with countless master swordsmiths. The swords forged were in such high demand that swordsmen from other places would travel thousands of miles with their materials to request a treasured sword.”

The broker’s face beamed with pride but soon turned to a sigh.

”Alas, if only the master’s son hadn’t gone mad and decided to start the Shenjian Association, the Jindao School wouldn’t have had the excuse to ’eradicate evil and uphold morality’ by slaughtering his entire family. Years of accumulated wealth, valuable materials, and treasures were looted clean, and the many notable jianghu heroes with good relations to the manor couldn’t say much.”

”Oh? Does the Jindao School have a great thirst for valuable materials?”

A thought struck Jiang Ding as he remembered the bloody Blood Knife and the mining materials periodically merged into the blood pool next to the black-robed person by the Ancestor Temple of the Jindao School.

He had now adopted an older, more mature face, appearing to be around twenty-five or twenty-six years old.

”Absolutely. They not only offer a high price, but if they hear about someone hoarding valuable materials and refusing to sell...” The broker lowered his voice, ”You must have heard about the recent commotion with Master Qixuan’s secret domain? Qixuan School was destroyed for that very reason.”

The broker showed Jiang Ding around the Sword Casting Manor. It was spacious, with a shop at the front, a place for firing and forging swords in the center, and a large courtyard at the back. However, many places were rundown and in need of repairs.

After some bargaining, Jiang Ding rented this shop located in the capital for 1200 taels of silver with a five-year lease.