Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

Night.

It used to be time for classes in the Main World, but now that school was out, the time could naturally be used for cultivation.

”Very well, old man, you still haven’t left.”

Jiang Ding glanced at the monitor, closed his eyes to regulate his breathing, and his inner energy dispersed and surged into the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, cultivating and refining his minor meridians branches with extremely high efficiency.

The steel sword lay flat on his knees, while a Talisman Sword nearby gathered moonlight and Heavenly Earth Spiritual Qi to temper the sword body, getting ever closer to the perfection of the Talisman Sword.

The Great Sun Gathering Spirit Formation— the moon was also a great sun, and moonlight was sunlight refracted through the night.

Suddenly, Jiang Ding frowned and looked towards the courtyard wall.

”The public security in Yuejing is really too poor, this is the third time.”

...

Three figures in night clothes and masked faces approached the wall silently.

”Big brother, a man who can rent such a big shop by himself must have some tricks up his sleeve, shall we pick another target?” a slightly shorter man hesitated to speak.

”Third brother, what nonsense are you spouting!”

Before the big brother could reply, another man cursed through psychic transmission, ”Doesn’t everyone with a bit of savings have some tricks? This guy just moved here, he doesn’t know anyone, no one will care if he dies. Besides this one, can you find another ripe target for us?”

”Or are you saying you no longer have to pay back Brother Ye at Jin Zhi Gambling House?”

The man’s body shrank, and he dared not speak anymore.

All three men were skilled in Kung Fu, and managed to climb the walls of Sword Casting Manor in just a moment, especially searching the counter where the silver coins were kept in the front yard for a long time, but they found nothing, just dust on their hands.

”Bad luck! He just moved in, hasn’t set up anything!”

The three exchanged glances and silently crept towards the residential area in the backyard, stopped by the main door.

The shorter masked man caught the unspoken cue, drew out a dagger, and carefully poked it into the door crack, feeling around.

Creak~

But as soon as the dagger touched the door, it creaked open to both sides, revealing the spacious middle courtyard.

In the center, a young man with a mature appearance opened his eyes and silently watched them.

”Listen up! We’re only here for the money.”

The three were stunned for a moment; the shorter man slammed the wooden door with the back of his knife and growled fiercely, ”Be smart and hand over the silver coins in your house. Don’t make things hard for us, otherwise...”

”Whimper...”

He was only halfway through speaking when his mouth was covered.

”Great hero! Forgive us, forgive us! We’ve got the wrong door!”

The big brother and the second brother nodded and bowed profusely, covering his mouth, dragging him as they quickly retreated backward.

”Otherwise, you die.”

Jiang Ding nodded, completing the sentence for them.

Whoosh!

The Talisman Sword quietly suspended in the sky traced a beautiful arc, passing through the throats of the three men, blood splattering, and three bodies fell to the ground, lifeless.

”Why always seek to gain without working for it.”

Jiang Ding shook his head, approached the three men, and without intending to search their bodies, he tapped his foot lightly, and a massive amount of Inner Energy poured into the ground, churning the dirt and rocks into quicksand, slowly swallowing the three men.

The thieves from the previous two times, except for one who had a relatively good attitude and didn’t intend to hurt others, also lay beneath the ground somewhere in the courtyard.

Being burglarized three times in two days was a record indeed.

Yuejing really wasn’t friendly to foreigners.

The Talisman Sword vibrated, shaking off the bloodstains, and continued to hover beside him, consuming the moonlight and Heavenly Earth Spiritual Qi as Jiang Ding sat cross-legged, continuing to refine the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

...

Several days later.

The front yard of Sword Casting Manor, which used to be open for business, had been cleaned up, no longer looking like a room full of dust and long neglected.

On the table, the scent of tea wafted gently.

”Bro Liu, ’Green God Sword’ Song Qing from Qingniugong on the Dragon and Phoenix List, ranked ninth, has issued a challenge for a duel with ’Broken Bone’ Shen Tukuang from the Wolf God Cult, ranked eighth. The struggle between righteousness and evil has arisen again.”

The frail scholar, Zhang Zihou, with a sickly pallor on his face, said with a worried expression.

The two of them were no longer as reserved with each other as when they first met.

Most of the shop owners around them were older, in their forties or fifties, mature and with households to take care of. Even though everyone was polite, he always felt out of place in their conversations.

Finding a peer at last, he naturally became more spirited, visiting every day to chat, and through this, they became familiar with each other.

”Struggle between righteousness and evil?”

Jiang Ding looked puzzled and after thinking for a moment, said, ”You mean the fights among the Jianghu people that happen every night?”

In recent days, he had also understood the main reason behind the rapid deterioration of public order—a bunch of Jianghu folks were stabbing and fighting each other, with varying levels of cultivation, rarely involving ordinary civilians.

The government seldom intervened, only taking charge of collecting the bodies and cleaning up after daybreak.

”Qingniugong and the six major sects represent the Righteous Path, and the Demon Sect represents the Wolf God Cult and the like. Why doesn’t the government intervene, deploy the army to surround and suppress them, with the Righteous Path assisting? Most of those Demon Sect monsters wouldn’t be able to escape, right?”

Jiang Ding asked, puzzled.

As far as he knew, very few of these Jianghu people were willing to talk about codes of Jianghu ethics.

Whenever possible, everyone would band together.

”Bro Liu, your words are mistaken,”

Zhang Zihou said in a lowered voice, ”It is said that the Master of the Wolf God Cult, Langzhu, once appeared outside the imperial palace, frightening His Majesty to the point of not daring to hold court for three days.”

”Think about it, if the court were to deploy a large army for a siege, a master could completely cast aside his pride and stoop to assassinations. There would be no safe place in the world, aside from the imperial palace where the guards are concentrated.”

”If it weren’t for the deterrence of the Master of Qingniugong, this world would have changed long ago.”

”That makes sense.”

Jiang Ding deeply agreed.

Not to mention a Master, even someone with the innate talents like Wan Qianyu could easily annihilate the entire family of the prefect of Chizhong Mansion if he found the right opportunity.

”Moreover, the so-called struggle between righteousness and evil is essentially just the conflict between Qingniugong and the Wolf God Cult. The Jindao School and the other six major sects are mostly sitting back and watching. Without their permission, even if His Majesty wanted to deploy troops, it might not be feasible.”

Zhang Zihou shook his head and sighed, feeling very pessimistic about the court’s situation.

”Brother Zhang seems to come from quite a background,”

Jiang Ding exclaimed in surprise. Such insight couldn’t be gained simply by listening to stories in tea houses; it required real contact with insiders, not something a mere bookstore owner would have.

”Bro Liu, what are you talking about?”

Zhang Zihou looked at Jiang Ding in surprise, ”At our age, to own a shop on the valuable Jinshi Street in the capital of Yuejing, could it be possible without our families’ support, relying solely on ourselves?”

”Don’t tell me you did it all by yourself with your abilities.”

”...Well, that’s also true.”

Jiang Ding thought for a moment. If it weren’t for the education and resources given by the Xianmen Sect, he likely would have been conscripted into the Zhendong Marquis’s army by now.

After seeing off his neighbor, Jiang Ding went over to the forge, staring at a head-sized iron ore on the hearth for quite a while.

Clang!

He drew his sword and slashed.

A diagonal sword shadow lingered for half a breath before slowly dissipating.

The iron ore remained completely unscathed.

Jiang Ding sheathed his sword and lightly touched the ore with a finger.

Bang!

With a quiet sound, the head-sized iron ore collapsed and shattered into a pile of powder, with dust scattering all around.

”Success... The martial techniques like the ’Shaking Sword Skills’ and ’Shaking Sky Hammer’ from the library also played a significant role, of course,”

Jiang Ding extended his index finger, a fleeting hint of blue disappearing from between his fingers.

”What’s most important is that after the Blue-Gold Potion, my Inner Energy underwent a qualitative change, significantly increasing in power.”

Jiang Ding refocused his mind and, after splitting a few more pieces of iron ore to fill the furnace, sprinkled a mix of powdered iron ore and charcoal into it and lit the flames.