Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

Three days had passed,

and the nights on Golden Knife Mountain were desolate, the once brilliant lights no longer to be seen.

It was obvious that many areas had become even more dilapidated, likely due to visitors who had coveted the mountain’s remaining gold, silver, and jewels, and made quite a haul.

At the location of the Blood Pool, the blade embryo lay quietly on the bloody mud.

A number of corpses had collapsed powerlessly at the increasingly dry edge of the Blood Pool, the front halves of which had been eroded by the bloody water to the point where only white bones remained.

These were left behind by the greedy folk of Jianghu.

”This blade embryo has been nurtured well, it already has the function to protect its owner automatically,”

remarked Jiang Ding, astounded.

The drone rose into the sky and scattered in all directions, with scene after scene coming into view.

At a tea stand over ten kilometers away, a rugged warrior with strong life signals, yet dressed as an ordinary escort, kept glancing in this direction, his eyes filled with uncontrollable longing and fear.

One of the remaining two great masters in the world, with the peak combat power of Qi Practicing.

The Wolf Lord!

This was a powerful figure capable of bringing him mortal danger at close range!

”Is he guessing that Golden Knife Mountain is unoccupied or that someone has been gravely injured but doesn’t dare to make up his mind?”

Jiang Ding’s expression grew solemn as his gaze continued to stretch far into the distance, towards the direction of Yuejing.

Thankfully, there were no signs of a desolate city. The streets were sparsely populated, but there were still many lights, no signs of the slaughter he had anticipated.

It made sense, after all—this was the most suitable location in Yue Country to serve as the capital. Why would Duke Tong Wang of Zhendong damage his own foundation? Several disciples from the five major Sects with innate abilities resided here, how could they allow him to act wantonly.

Even if occasionally some soldiers lost their sanity, the five Xiantian and their disciples were entirely capable of suppressing them with iron blood.

However, continuing to refer to Tang Wang as the Zhendong Marquis might now be somewhat inappropriate.

In the palace and various brightly lit areas throughout the city, the previously hung flags of the Royal Chen Family’s Golden Dragon had been taken down, replaced by flags with a golden background and a black dragon. On many of these flags was emblazoned with a big character.

Tang!

This newly established dynasty might well be named after Tang, and could be called Tang Country, the Grand Tang Dynasty.

A hint of murderous intent flashed in Jiang Ding’s eyes, which he then concealed.

”Forget it,”

”This Tang Wang is insignificant. Whether Tang Country can establish itself depends on the outcome of the contest between the black-robed man and the forces behind that old Taoist cultivator.”

”To put myself in danger for a mere puppet on the surface is not worthwhile.”

After thoroughly searching a fifty-kilometer radius with four drones and confirming it was safe, Jiang Ding did not show himself but controlled a drone equipped with a mechanical arm the size of a palm to descend between two rocks and probe downwards.

This was exactly where the black-robed man’s two storage bags had fallen. Coming from a distinguished background and having controlled both the Wolf God Cult and the Jindao School for several years, it was highly likely that the storage bags contained a large amount of treasures.

Storage bags were common among Outer Realm Cultivators, but considered rare for Xianmen cultivators.

As high-level cultivators in Xianmen heavily relied on battleships and other large-scale artifacts for combat, the consumption of space attribute spirit mines was immense. All the space spirit mines produced by Xianmen and the twelve Small Worlds, as well as those obtained through trade with the Outer Realms, were used up in these areas.

Therefore, at least Qi Practitioners rarely possessed storage magic tools.

Soon, the mechanical arm found a piece of snow-white cloth resembling human skin, the size of a palm, picked it up, and threw it to the ground. After a while, it also found a black palm-sized bag.

These must be the spoils of the black-robed man.

The drone finally flew to a pile of dirt, dug around for a while, and unearthed a palm-sized beast skin pouch, similarly throwing it near the snow-white human skin bag.

This belonged to the withered old man who had died first.

To most, these items seemed like pieces of slightly better quality torn cloth. With a mountain full of gold, silver, gems, and secret martial arts texts, no mortal would notice these two objects.

Picking up the half-open Spirit Sealing Box, Jiang Ding used his lightfoot technique to move closer and threw it with force, traversing hundreds of meters precisely to land next to the three storage bags.

The drone’s mechanical arm picked up the two storage bags and dropped them one by one into the Spirit Sealing Box.

”Perhaps this is the most valuable thing…”

Jiang Ding glanced at the blade embryo on the dried-up bloody mud and controlled the drone to fly beside it, using the mechanical arm to pick it up.

Perhaps because it didn’t sense the breath of life, it didn’t attack on its own.

All four items were thrown into the Spirit Sealing Box, the lid of the box closed, and the drone picked up the box and flew towards him, steadily landing in his hands.

He wouldn’t open this kind of trophy himself; it was too dangerous. He planned to send it to a professional company for processing.

The expense was high, but that didn’t matter.

The gains from this venture could at least cause his worth to skyrocket by tens of times.

Based on the battle footage from several days ago, he searched carefully for any Magic Arts-Breaking Steel bullets that could be found, channeling his inner energy into the ground to force them out, and collecting them into his pocket.

”Still missing 37 bullets that can’t be found,”

Jiang Ding sighed softly.

Without a cultivator’s Divine Sense, this was as far as he could go, even if he spent more time, he wouldn’t be able to find them all.

”Time to go.”

Jiang Ding stepped lightly, with the Art of Small Concealment and Optical Camouflage fully activated, quickly moving away from the area.

In his heart, he planned to return here for a thorough search once he had advanced to the Qi Practicing Phase and was absolutely sure of his safety, to ensure that the information about Xianmen firearms wouldn’t be leaked.

The key reason he was able to defeat his enemies this time was that the local cultivators were completely ignorant of Xianmen firearms, caught in a cognitive blind spot; otherwise, the moment they used an Optical Cloaking Spell, he would be at a loss.

Jindaoshan Mountain was a place where the man in black robes trained and met his death annually.

Clearly, the guy was someone with a significant background; it was better to leave quickly to avoid reappearing nearby the next time he came to this world.

If he encountered cultivators from the man in black robes’ faction, that would spell the end of him.

Silently, without stirring up even a whisper of wind or current, he moved through the treetops, and soon he was over sixty kilometers away from Jindaoshan Mountain, arriving at a deep pool in the forest that he had previously prepared, landing on a large rock.

The first-order Optical Cloaking Array had lost its inner energy supply and was no longer active; he held the main array flag and channeled Eaglet Internal Force into it.

The hazy shimmer of a rainbow flickered, hiding even the limited view of the deep pool and blending seamlessly into the surrounding jungle.

Even if Foundation-building cultivators came searching, they would absolutely be unable to find this spot as long as their Divine Sense Scanning didn’t reach here.

About to enter cultivation, Jiang Ding’s expression shifted.

From the drone’s perspective, he saw Princess Qinghechang fleeing through the mountains and forests under the protection of a Xiantian.

One chasing her was none other than the White Bone Blade Evil, a member of the eight great heroes, and another was a Xiantian from the Wolf God Cult, Dao Linshi of the ’Guard Sky God Peak’, the eighth-ranked ’Broken Bone’ Shen Tukuang’s master.

”Perhaps I could learn about the power dynamics of local cultivators from her?”

Jiang Ding mused to himself.

Up to now, his cultivation had advanced to a point where he had no more need for mundane things. If he wanted to maintain his current pace, which was far ahead of others, he had to prepare for contact with cultivator factions.

Whether to join, remain at a distance, or flee, he should make plans early.

Coming from the once ruling Royal Chen Family of this realm, they definitely had some understanding of the nearby cultivator forces; they were not completely clueless.

Normally,

If he were to ask them, it would immediately arouse suspicion, and even possibly draw the attention of the true rulers of Yue Country—Xianmen cultivators.

Now was perfect; she had lost everything, had nothing left to lose, and was in dire straits.

Furthermore, if she made any undesirable moves, he could deal with it swiftly, without attracting further trouble.

...

”Qinghe, I truly came out at a loss this time; the Longevity Pill you promised turned out to be nothing but a pipe dream,”

The old crone who had always been with Princess Qinghechang, Chen Xi, offered a wry smile but still stepped in to block Ren Tianxiao, the White Bone Blade Evil and another of the eight great heroes.

”Granny, rest assured, if Xi’er can escape to heaven and enter the Qiyu Sect, I will certainly exchange a Longevity Pill for you. If I break this promise, may I be struck by heavenly thunder and perish!”

Chen Xi bit her lip and fled deeper into the mountains without looking back.

”The Grand Tang Dynasty has nurtured its knights for three hundred years, and my loyalty is proven this very day!”

The captain of the Golden Armor Guard chanted in a low voice, lifting his two-zhang Golden Spear, and with the eighteen under his command in the Internal Qi Realm, they formed a Battle Array and charged at the Xiantian from the Wolf God Cult.