Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

He didn’t rush to exit his secluded cultivation.

For another two months, Jiang Ding immersed himself in the Electromagnetic Secret Realm, polishing his slightly impetuous mana over and over again until his cultivation base was completely stable.

Spatial fluctuations rippled around him,

and when he opened his eyes again, he had already arrived under the Divine Tree of Heaven.

”Electromagnetic Secret Realm, what a good place,”

Jiang Ding exclaimed.

In just two months, his cultivation base had advanced another step in the early stages of foundation building, just a little shy of the mid-stage.

He closed his eyes and felt for a moment.

”If it’s still a Second-Stage Top Class spiritual vein, then it would probably take another year to make the leap.”

A flash of surprise flickered in Jiang Ding’s eyes.

Just a little bit short, and yet it required so much time; foundation building indeed marked the extraordinary beginning for cultivators, a scale of life no longer in sync with that of mortals.

”Ding!”

”Detection confirms you have entered the Foundation Building Period. Do you want to report to the various teachers, change dormitories, and update the teaching plan?”

The voice of the Array Spirit reached him.

”Report.”

A map unfolded before Jiang Ding.

It was in the direction near the teachers’ dormitories, a collection of peaks with various terrains, all with spiritual veins of Second-Stage Top Class quality, the concentration of spiritual energy fluctuating slightly.

”Gold Attribute Spiritual Vein.”

Only about a dozen places were left to choose from.

”Mining area, cliff, valley...”

Jiang Ding flipped back and forth among these terrains on the map, occasionally enlarging it to take a closer look.

”The mining area it is. I’ve had enough of hanging out on cliffs.”

In the end, Jiang Ding chose a mining area piled high with ore.

Besides preference, it was also because the Taqing Sword-Flying Tree needed to absorb certain metallic elements for growth; it had communicated a similar desire to him before.

His body levitated dozens of meters upward and then suddenly accelerated, turning into a faint blue escape light that vanished into the horizon, much faster than before, now at a speed that was difficult for Qi Practitioners to discern with their naked eyes.

”The speed has doubled.”

Jiang Ding silently sensed the mana within his body circulating with the structure of the Magnetic Levitation Flight Technique, noting many sluggish and rough patches.

”Too slow.”

”The Magnetic Levitation Flight Technique is just a spell for the Qi Practicing Phase, and doesn’t quite suit me now. Let’s see...”

He scanned through his phone with Divine Sense for a moment.

”’Second-order Magnetic Suspension Escape Technique’, ’Minor Magnet Light Escape Art’, ’Electric Light Flying Technique’, these three are the best.”

”The most difficult one is the ’Minor Magnet Light Escape Art’, with the fastest speed and most flexible movement.”

”If cultivated to perfection, it could also consume a vast amount of mana to change one’s flesh and blood form and merge into electromagnetic waves, becoming immune to typical magical and physical attacks, vaguely hinting at the ability for short-range teleportation.”

”This one it is,”

Jiang Ding browsed on his phone with Divine Sense.

There was no need for pressing keys or anything; his Divine Sense itself was a sequence of electromagnetic signals, directly interfacing with the phone’s components, obtaining network access, and then connecting with the Central Array Spirit Computer to go online.

He opened the book ”Minor Magnet Light Escape Art.”

”Indeed difficult, but with three or four years of learning and pondering, as well as consulting Teacher Zhang, I should be able to master it.”

By the time he had snapped out of his reverie, he had arrived at the mining area.

Various ores were piled up everywhere, along with numerous deep mining pits, and some rusted engineering equipment lay on the ground. The nameplates indicated they were mining machines produced by the Xianmen Sect over a thousand years ago.

”Could this setup have been brought in en masse from a Small World by a Nascent Soul Monk?”

Jiang Ding was inwardly astonished.

After confirming the surrounding concentration of spiritual energy, he processed the dormitory checkout and check-in procedures.

With nothing to pack up, the previous dormitory automatically became available for selection, awaiting the arrival of new students in the next academic year.

```

Whoosh!

The Taiqing Flying Sword shot out from the sleeve and landed deep within a pile of ore, its branches and roots spreading out in all directions.

A Blue-gold large tree over forty meters tall burst forth from the ground, with a canopy covering more than a hundred meters. Heavenly Earth Spiritual Qi and Great Sun Essence were gathered, forming an Azure Great Sun within the shade of the tree.

Jiang Ding sat cross-legged atop the magma under the tree and entered a state of cultivation for several days, disappearing from sight.

...

Jinlingshan Mountain.

A year has passed, and the mountain peak looked the same, with many weeds growing in the wheat field after the harvest. In one corner, several dozen storage bags were piled up high.

Jiang Ding’s Divine Sense Scanning passed over them; these were all sent over by Han Lin’s orders in the past year.

The new samples were indeed scarce, barely over a thousand, and most of them seldom-seen items that could be filled into a single storage bag.

The rest of the several dozen storage bags naturally were all filled with Gray Iron Stones!

Ever since the incident at the Nine Heavens Relics four years ago, there was hardly any resistance to his actions within the Sect.

Even though the mining of Gray Iron Stones required the effort of many Sect disciples, delaying much of the routine extraction of the Lanshan Copper Mine, no one opposed it.

There was also a jade slip.

Sent up through the teleportation formation by Liu SanQi, one arrived every year with a summary of all major and minor events that happened within the Sect over the year.

”...Li Qingyun has achieved foundation building...”

”...All seven true inheritors received their Foundation Building Pills, and over these years, after emerging from seclusion, four perished while in retreat, three succeeded in foundation building. Additionally, there were four older disciples who found opportunities in the Nine Heavens Relics and successfully established their foundations, thus the Sect gained eight more Foundation-building cultivators, foreseeing a period of prosperity...”

”...Xuetu Hall launched a surprise attack on Lanshan Iron Mine a few months ago, killing one Sect Foundation-building cultivator, with over twenty Qi practitioners from their own ranks dead or wounded...”

”Xuetu Hall again?”

Jiang Ding frowned.

To him at the moment, although the cooperation with Qiyu Sect involved some twists, it remained a pleasant one, and he did not wish to see the Sect fall into crisis unless it was a matter of life and death.

”Forget it, this isn’t something I should worry about.”

”But Li Qingyun’s foundation building is something to keep an eye on; a Heavenly Water Spiritual Root and nurtured by a Golden Pill, the likelihood of him reaching the Nascent Soul is quite significant. He could be considered a future Golden Pill, capable of influencing the situation in Yue Country.”

Thought Jiang Ding.

Report to Qiyu Sect that he had already achieved foundation building?

There was no need.

At present, his status and treatment were essentially already at the level of top-tier Foundation-building cultivators, and even if his cultivation base progressed further, he was certain he wouldn’t receive the treatment reserved for a Third-tier Spiritual Vein.

A Third-tier Spiritual Vein was something fundamental to the cultivation and path of a Golden Pill Monk, not something to be given up unless absolutely necessary.

Even if it benefited the overall interests of the Sect.

Moreover, news of the Xiantian Sword Body’s foundation building might provoke some irrational actions from Xuetu Hall.

The longer it could be kept a secret, the better.

”Moreover, atop Jindaoshan Mountain, there are still thirty-seven Magic Arts-Breaking Steel bullets of the heavy machine gun that I couldn’t find when I killed the legitimate son of the Hua Xue Yu family.”

”I now have a rudimentary ability to conceal myself from Golden Pill Monks’ Divine Sense...”

Jiang Ding’s expression grew serious as he remembered some issues that had been weighing on his heart.

This was a huge latent danger.

Magic Arts-Breaking Steel bullet was a symbolic weapon of the Xianmen Sect. If the forces belonging to the previous generation’s Dari Swordsman stumbled upon them, it could lead to a catastrophic disaster.

Of course, the likelihood was slim.

The Magic Arts-Breaking Steel bullets merely appeared as small metal projectiles with a faint Magic Arts-Breaking Attribute and held not much value, noticeable by only a few.

But, if capable, it was best to deal with it as soon as possible.

”Forget it.”

After much thought, Jiang Ding decided to give up on it for the time being.

”My current Concealment ability can barely pass muster, and there’s no certainty that I can evade the detection of Golden Pill Monks. My ability to escape is even more inadequate; I must at least advance further in my cultivation, perfect the ’Minor Magnet Light Escape Art,’ and choose another Second-order Concealment Spell to cultivate.”

”The more important thing right now is to.”

”Build my own Super Airspace Warplane, the Electromagnetic Main Gun!”

Jiang Ding gathered the dozens of storage bags filled with copper-nickel alloy and vanished from sight.

```