Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

The ceremony ended, and the photographs were all taken.

Everyone returned to their dormitories to pack up and leave.

Parties and banquets had been fully experienced beforehand; there would be no more. The familiar campus suddenly evoked many unfamiliar sensations.

Former classmates were within reach, yet now seemed as distant as the horizon.

The juniors on campus were either frolicking or walking wearily along the roads.

It seemed as though they were the true masters of the campus, while I had imperceptibly become an outsider looking in.

”My fellow Daoists, I wish you all enduring prosperity on the Immortal Path.”

An Tuzi and his two companions bowed deeply, and their escape lights did not linger.

They flew straight toward the Divine Tree of Heaven, to the direction of the super cross-border transmission array, gradually distancing themselves, shrinking to a dot, until they completely disappeared from view.

The other classmates also went their separate ways, each attending to their own matters.

”Another farewell...”

The trio walked silently through the campus.

An Siyan suddenly sighed, ”No wonder, so many high-level cultivators often display an ’off-limits’ demeanor, and many are eccentric. Presumably, they too were once lively and cheerful boys and girls, having experienced many departures and losses, with all those familiar to them either dead or gone, unable to easily accept new friendships.”

”So, that’s how they changed, isn’t it?”

”Indeed.”

Jiang Ding also gained some insight.

”We were born in the Xianmen Sect, with classmates to accompany us as we grew, while those Golden Pill Monks who rose through brutal bloody struggles within their sects—by the time they advance, those they could trust and confide in are likely all dead, and their personalities are bound to change.”

”You’re both way too somber and serious!”

Jin Lingfeng complained, ”Compared to the lifespan of cultivators, we are still tiny children, and we should be more innocent and carefree.”

”That’s true.”

Jiang Ding and An Siyan exchanged glances and both gave a wry smile.

The daughter of Immortal Yueling, with a Nascent Soul Monk as a mother and Golden Pill Monks as her usual company, how could she understand the mortals’ familial trials of birth, aging, illness, and death, along with the profound mental changes they bring?

”However, we indeed need not be too melancholic. Even as we move on to graduate studies, we will still have acquaintances to interact with.”

”I’ll be off then, I need to stop by home,” said Jiang Ding as he rose into the air, waved his hand, and became a grey-blue escaping light flying into the distance.

”See you when school starts.”

An Siyan and the other waved back, looked at each other, felt there was nothing left to discuss, and flew in the direction of their respective homes.

...

”Flight route application successful.”

”From Xiandu Qingfeng University to Rongcheng City, lasting twenty-four hours. Please strictly adhere to the flight route and comply with traffic regulations; do not deviate at will...”

Jiang Ding tapped his toes lightly and leaped into the cockpit of a silver-white great bird that had disengaged from the half-space layer.

The man merged with the super airspace warplane and once again vanished from sight.

Clang!

A flash of light crossed the tangled magnetic pattern at his brow.

A pitch-black long staff gradually emerged, growing in size. Soon, an almost thirty-meter long, several-ton heavy electromagnetic main cannon returned to its original size, accurately landing in the center of the Air-Space Warplane’s third-order magnetic field spirit power gathering formation.

Mana and divine consciousness surged in, reassembling hundreds of thousands of array patterns, seamlessly integrated.

”Third-order Spirit Element Radar Electromagnetic Interaction Array, normal.”

”Third-order Magnetic Suspended Flight Array Method, normal.”

”Third-order Electromagnetic Light Wave Stealth Technique, normal.”

”...”

The Air-Space Warplane completed a self-check in a single breath, all indicators were normal. After nearly ten years of refining, imprints of divine consciousness and mana covered every part of the warplane, making control as easy as moving a limb.

The radar waves spread out, bringing the images of people and objects within a hundred kilometers into the divine soul, allowing for a clear scan even of Golden Pill Monks using concealment spells.

The magnetic field spirit power gathering formation slowly absorbed the heavenly earth spiritual qi and the Stellar Sea engine’s transmitted energy, while the Taiqing Flying Sword inside the electromagnetic main gun trembled slightly, ready to unleash a heaven-shattering strike at any moment.

```

”Now, I should be at the peak of my combat state.”

Jiang Ding opened his eyes, a bright light in his pupils flashed past and was gone.

There was a premonition in his heart that if he locked onto a Golden Pill, he could annihilate it.

The stealth aircraft traveled through the sky, invisible to the naked eye.

Its speed far surpassed that of an ordinary Golden Pill Monk, even faster than a typical Golden Core Peak Monk, crossing several tens of kilometers in an instant.

Flying upwards, it passed through the troposphere and into the stratosphere, its tail engine ejecting a stream of air, transforming into an invisible light barely detectable by the Divine Sense of Foundation-building cultivators, flying towards Rongcheng City.

Sunlight shone brightly, the sky clear for thousands of miles.

”It’s actually quite busy.”

Using a Third-order Spirit Sonar Array, Jiang Ding’s Divine Sense scanned an area with a radius of a hundred kilometers and immediately noticed the stratosphere dotted occasionally with Air-Space Warplanes and Air-Space Battleships crossing the sky, dodging them from time to time. It wasn’t as quiet as he had imagined.

The warning from the Array Spirit about obeying traffic rules was not just an empty word.

Minutes later, the Air-Space Warplane descended, breaking through the clouds, returning to the troposphere.

Beneath, a small point that was a city appeared in view.

It grew larger and larger, filling the entire field of vision, his Divine Sense sweeping over the landscape, every brick, every street corner, filled with scenes familiar from memory.

However, the people he recognized had become fewer, and there were many people he did not know—children, teenagers, young adults.

The Air-Space Warplane halted ten kilometers above the sky, a silver-white craft with streamlined industrial beauty emerging from stealth mode.

A youth in blue clothes stepped out of the cockpit, hovering in mid-air.

The Air-Space Warplane once again faded into the Half-space Layer.

”Hometown, I see you again.”

Jiang Ding muttered emotionally.

He activated the ”Electromagnetic Light Wave Stealth Technique,” becoming an invisible ray of light diving downwards, silently landing without causing chaos in this quiet city in the west.

Divine Sense and Sword Intent swept across the area, every living thing within ten kilometers coming into view.

”Grandfather... ”

Jiang Ding’s expression changed.

An Escape Light gathered, and he flew rapidly towards Rongcheng Hospital.

...

Rongcheng No.1 Hospital.

Elder Lin Gang slowly awoke on the pure white sheets, opening his eyes groggily, immediately met with the sight of his wife and children unable to hold back their tears.

”Why are you crying?”

Lin Gang said helplessly, ”It’s just a fall, and at over ninety, it’s normal to pass out from a fall; there’s nothing to cry about. It’s like this when you get old.”

”You didn’t tell Dingding, did you?”

He asked, somewhat worried.

”No, we followed your orders.”

Lin Wanqiu wiped her tears.

Suddenly, a deep premonition surged in her, and sadness welled up within.

Perhaps,

In another decade or two, she would no longer have her parents.

She couldn’t help recalling the scene many years ago when the still boyish-looking young man handed her the Herbal Magical Fruit, anxiously watching her consume it.

His feelings then must have been like hers now, right?

”That’s good.”

Lin Gang showed a relieved expression.

”My grandson is the Top Scholar of the Xianmen Sect, the pride of the sect, destined for a long life stretching thousands of years. How could he let minor issues delay his progress on the Immortal Path and affect his studies?”

”The mortal cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death is just the way of nature, nothing to be surprised about.”