Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

May 27th,

Twenty-nine days before the college entrance exam on June 25th, less than a month away.

Students hurrying along the streets were a common sight, infected by the pervasive atmosphere of tension.

Jiang Ding, a frequent visitor to the library, noticeably found it several times more crowded than usual.

Single-person reading rooms had long been fully booked.

Elbowing his way through the crowd, Jiang Ding found an empty computer and sat down, typing in a few keywords.

”Martial will, will, sword intent.”

He could be certain that his tripled divine soul talent must be related to this; the sword-shaped phantom in his mind had yet to solidify into substance due to a lack of understanding in this area.

’Martial will is a rare spiritual soul specialization that few mortals among warriors can manifest. It can amplify the power of inner energy and true qi, and increase the speed of one’s attacks.’

’The cause of its formation is unclear; complex life experiences, extensive knowledge reserves, a certain quality of inner energy, and strength of the spiritual soul can all influence the birth of martial will.’

Beneath were listed several books, such as ”Research by Master Zheng Dayan of the Canghai Small World” and ”The Origins of Martial Masters: A Conjecture,” among various others—relatively fewer in number, with only ninety-eight pages.

”Is this the power that surpasses warriors, like Daoist Qing and other masters? My knowledge is too shallow.”

Jiang Ding was somewhat disappointed, having thought it was breakthrough martial research that could earn him a city-level scientific progress award or the like.

”Cultivators from the Outer Realm have conducted more extensive explorations on this.”

”Will can be law intention, sword intent, hammer intent, water law intention, etc., with the fundamental principle being the same. It is the degree of specialization of the cultivator’s divine soul, far surpassing that of warriors, that amplifies specific areas and attacks against divine soul and divine sense brands.”

”The reasons for its occurrence are unknown.”

”According to statistics, geniuses with firm convictions and pure spiritual souls are more likely to develop such intent; the level of one’s cultivation base is not the main factor influencing its birth.”

”Such intent is extremely rare among Xianmen Cultivators and, within the Nine Great Immortal Sects of the Outer Realm, only young cultivators with the most outstanding talent come close to the threshold of intent.”

”Among the many explorations of ’intent’ in the Immortal Path, the pure Jiandao School stands at the forefront, causing sword intent to often be singled out from the many kinds of intent.”

”Among the known sects, the now-destroyed Great Sun Sword Pavilion possessed the highest level of sword intent and Immortal Path science and technology.”

”During its heyday, the sect had ninety-nine Nascent Soul level and above sword peaks masters, often exhibiting the illogical phenomenon of lower-level challengers winning against higher-level masters.”

”The Sword Pavilion, adhering to extreme and mad principles such as ’Only sword in life, only sword in death,’ ’Outside this sword, there is nothing else,’ and ’All needs must come from the sword,’ often instigated wars against other sects for sheer battle desires, incurring the hatred of many sects including the Eight Immortal Sects.”

”History has proven that such extreme and foolish ideologies inevitably lead to self-destruction.”

”...”

Jiang Ding felt somewhat uncomfortable.

However, he had finally found a direction—searching for the keywords ’Great Sun Sword Pavilion’ and ’sword intent,’ their specialty.

There were two papers on complete cultivation methods successfully excavated and salvaged by Xianmen.

””Sword Way of Blood Slaughter”, challenge cultivators of similar strength, slay them, and repeat continuously. After slaying ninety-nine individuals whose strength always matches one’s own, there is a high likelihood to comprehend the Sword Intent of Slaughter.”

”As expected, quite insane.”

Jiang Ding shook his head.

Fighting to the death with others of similar strength, and doing this ninety-nine times no less, is akin to entering a lottery ninety-nine times in a row and winning every single time.

This is seeking death.

””Rescue Excavation of the 59 Sword Intents within the Great Sun Sword Pavilion Sword Tomb Ruins” by Zhang Junsheng, Hu Lin, Qingfeng University Cultivators Report, Year 10829, August 1”

”The task of rescue excavating the relics of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion is fraught with difficulties, consuming much time, but fortuitously our team found direction and successfully located one of the pavilion’s most important structures from the past, the Sword Tomb.”

```

”This is the final resting place of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion Sword Cultivators from generations past, and only the peerless Sword Cultivators who have comprehended Sword Intent are qualified to be buried here.”

”According to the records excavated before, over countless years, there have been 11,972 different types of Sword Intent here, including the Sword Intent of life and death, fire, reincarnation, wind, Great Sun... and so on, in different directions, taking the specialization and scientific exploration of the Divine Soul to unimaginable levels for Xianmen Sect.”

”Being here, the disciples of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion can comprehend Sword Intent more easily and create new Sword Techniques more easily. It’s just a pity that in the end, everything was destroyed by Xianmen Sect’s taboo nuclear weapon, the ’Shooting Immortal’... I mean, of course, that’s good, but it brought us great trouble in our excavation and rescue work. If only Xianmen Sect had been stronger back then.”

”After thirty-two years of continuous work, we have excavated and restored 59 types of Sword Intent structures, such as Great Sun Sword Intent, Reincarnation Sword Intent, and fire Sword Intent... Although it’s pitifully few compared to the more than 10,000 types of Sword Intent heritage at the peak of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion, it indeed represents a huge leap forward in Xianmen Sect’s exploration of this field.”

”Appendix as follows...”

Jiang Ding’s gaze was drawn to the marvelous Divine Soul structures projected by the Array Spirit.

Intricate, beautiful, complex, they seemed to contain endless mysteries within, with faint visions of the Six Paths of Reincarnation ending in silence and the Great Sun falling from the high sky among many scenes.

It’s amazing, this top science of the Divine Soul path, something many Golden Pill Monks may not understand.

But for him, it seemed to be hardly any effort at all.

”This is the direction of my talent with thrice the Divine Soul power of my peers...”

Jiang Ding seemed to have an epiphany.

Looking at one Divine Soul structure after another, reincarnation, Great Sun, fire, wind, earth, sky, water flow... it seemed that all things in the world could be part of a sword. The Sword Dao is unfathomably mysterious, all-encompassing, everywhere.

Clang!

”No.”

A sword’s clang resounded within Jiang Ding’s Divine Soul, and a brilliant azure light spread throughout his sea of consciousness, severing reincarnation, severing the Great Sun, where earth, fire, wind, and water were successively obliterated beneath the sword.

”Sword Dao includes nothing, there’s only me, simply slaying all that obstructs the path.”

All illusions within the Divine Soul vanished, leaving only the endless radiance of Sword Dao, condensing into tangible sword shadows.

Clang!

In that instant,

Every living being with a soul within a hundred miles of Rongcheng City, regardless of their Cultivation Base, heard a clear sound of a sword’s clang in their ears, feeling a chill throughout their body, as if plunging into an ice cave.

Yet they didn’t know where it came from, looking around in bewilderment.

In the next moment, they were startled.

In the endless sky, a giant azure ancient tree rose from the ground, towering into the heavens as if to tear the sky apart. The tree’s crown rustled, leaves shattered in midair, and inexhaustible Sword Qi scattered, piercing the void, creating chaotic black holes.

”Under unknown Divine Soul attack!”

”Requesting support!”

All the Foundation-building cultivators in Rongcheng City turned pale and without hesitation started to communicate with Rongcheng City’s Array Spirit to sound the alarm, as the Air-Space Warplanes stationed at the airport began to take off, entering the highest state of wartime readiness.

Unexpectedly, there was no fast and precise response as usual.

”Array Spirit, what happened?”

As the Foundation-building cultivators grew more and more anxious from waiting, a mechanical voice finally came through.

”No foreign enemies have invaded, it is a naturally occurring Sword Dao anomaly.”

”Sword Dao anomaly? What is a Sword Dao anomaly?”

Hua Zhentian was full of confusion, yet received no further response.

”This is my Sword Intent.”

Jiang Ding closed his eyes slightly, and for the first time, his vastly powerful Divine Soul had a core—a sword shadow of azure color, carrying the essence of annihilating and shattering everything.