Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

Clang!

Back at home, the Taiqing Flying Sword vibrated with a buzzing sound.

Then... it smoothly transformed into a beam of blue light, flipping up and down adeptly, cleaning, taking out the trash, cooking, stir-frying...

It handled everything effortlessly, as if it knew exactly what it was doing.

Building a foundation hadn’t made it forget its skills.

Every now and then, due to the lack of soy sauce, vinegar, salt, scallions, cilantro and the like, it would grab some Xianmen Paper Money and dart into the sky; within a dozen breaths, it would return, bringing back the items, wash them thoroughly, and add them to the still-steaming stir-fry pan.

”...After so many years, this little tree remains as capable and obliging as ever,”

Jiang Yuan watched with continued amazement, wishing he could invent a replacement right away, to live a blissful life where everything was handed to him.

After about ten minutes,

the hot and steaming five dishes and one soup, along with a pot of Wood Spiritual Wheat rice, were all carried to the dining table by the Taiqing Flying Sword. After setting the bowls and chopsticks neatly, it transformed into a small, basketball-sized blue and gold tree, lying quietly in a corner of the living room.

”The taste is still good.”

Jiang Ding picked up the chopsticks for a taste and nodded slightly.

After so many years without cooking, his skill hadn’t regressed.

In fact, due to the increasingly vast and detailed Divine Sense, it had improved quite a bit, certainly much better than what the street stall owners cooked.

”Let’s eat,”

he served rice for both of them.

After the meal, the family took their usual stroll, greeting and chatting with neighbors they hadn’t seen in many years.

Twenty years had passed, and while many people were still around, many of the elderly had already entered the cycle of reincarnation. They also got to know many new neighbors.

It felt almost as if they were in a bygone era.

After helping the food digest, the family sat down together to watch television.

The content wasn’t the cartoons of the past, but urban ethical dramas, further outside Jiang Ding’s taste. He only watched for a moment before his eyes closed slightly, and he entered the state of cultivation.

”After all these years, you still haven’t changed a bit,”

Jiang Yuan complained, exchanging a glance with Lin Wanqiu, but then continued to focus on the TV, seemingly having found a rare common interest, absorbed in the show.

”Time for bed.”

At ten o’clock at night, a long-forgotten biological clock reemerged, and Jiang Ding opened his eyes and walked towards his room.

Nothing inside had changed.

It was still the same as twenty years ago when he left for Xiandu to study; even the computer and mouse were in the same spots. The charger and data cable on the bedside table were still there.

”Twenty years...”

Jiang Ding’s gaze was distant.

It seemed as if those twenty years were just a dream, and he was still a high school student at Rongcheng No.1 Middle School, striving for the College Entrance Exam. His mom was still working at the Rongcheng Steel Plant, and his sister had just started junior high.

He had never left his hometown.

Eventually, he came back to his senses, sat on the bed, undressed, took off his shoes, pulled up the covers, and closed his eyes.

He didn’t try hard to hold onto the thought of cultivation.

He fell into a deep sleep.

At six in the morning, he awoke again, rummaged a longsword out of his Storage Jade Pendant, and went to the park for over an hour of practice with the ”Eagle Taking Off Sword Technique,” drenched in sweat when he returned home.

Lin Wanqiu was making breakfast.

Jiang Yuan had just gotten up, no longer oversleeping, but still couldn’t find his shoes. He kept calling for his mom, causing Lin Wanqiu to complain about him once again.

”Study hard.”

In the end, Jiang Ding saw them off to school and reminded them, receiving a pat on the forehead from Lin Wanqiu.

Jiang Yuan’s school paperwork was all sorted out the day before.

In any case, as long as she wanted to learn, there would always be sufficient conditions for her to study.

Time passed by day by day.

Jiang Ding, for some reason, was quite attached to this life from twenty years ago, tirelessly cooking, exercising in the morning, interspersed with cultivation, visiting his grandfather in the hospital ward – every day was fulfilling.

Unconsciously, months went by.

Unconsciously, a year passed.

Unconsciously, two years passed.

Unconsciously, three years passed.

He remained engrossed in this focused state.

”Dingding, you seem to have something on your mind, don’t you? I remember,”

Lin Wanqiu said, putting down her bowl at the dining table, looking at him quizzically.

```

”Is there any?”

Jiang Ding asked with a smile.

”There is... there isn’t... there is...”

Confusion appeared in Lin Wanqiu’s eyes as she asked Jiang Yuan, ”Did your brother forget something important?”

”I don’t think so.”

Jiang Yuan, holding a language book and eating while reading, seemed to have progressed a lot recently. She said offhand, ”What could he possibly forget? He doesn’t have to go to work, doesn’t have to go to school... go to school... school...”

She thought of something and subconsciously avoided it.

”Anyway, what could he possibly have to remember? Mom, stop worrying and come recite the language book with me.”

”That’s true.”

Lin Wanqiu thought about it, found it reasonable, and continued eating.

One month later.

Spring Festival was approaching.

My uncle’s family and my grandparents came to visit. Everyone set off firecrackers, made dumplings, posted couplets, slaughtered chickens and ducks, and worshiped ancestors, praying for everything to go well in the coming year.

Everyone had their tasks, and the atmosphere was lively.

”Why did my dad tell me to come here again?”

Lin Yuanwang was offering incense to the ancestors when he suddenly struggled and pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. However, the writing was blurred and no matter what, he couldn’t see the characters, as if a thick layer of white fog covered them.

He strained to use his Late-stage Qi Practicing Divine Sense, and finally, he made out two words.

”...study... go...”

”What does ’study go’ mean?”

Lin Yuanwang muttered to himself as a flash of spiritual light suddenly appeared in his mind: ”It’s go...”

Clang!

A sword cry rang out, and a terrifying azure brilliance overwhelmed him from above. His Divine Soul felt as if it had been struck by lightning, with a sensation of imminent death, and he suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.

The blood sprayed onto the incense, hissing as it burned.

After a long while.

”I didn’t come here for anything, just for the New Year.”

Lin Yuanwang said woodenly.

Around him, his uncle and aunt, grandparents, were all busy with their tasks, no one noticing his anomaly.

No one paid attention to the bloodstain on the ground, not even sparring it a glance.

Not until he was back to normal.

”Yuanwang, come and help pluck the duck feathers, I can’t control my Xiantian True Qi.”

Jiang Yuan called out, ignoring the blood at the corner of his mouth.

”Alright!”

Lin Yuanwang responded, staggering over and using the Wind Blade Technique to deal with the duck feathers. The sharp pain in his internal organs affected his magic, causing it to be intermittent, but he still firmly completed the entire process of plucking the duck.

Crackle! Pop!

Boom! Boom!

At midnight, opening the wealth door, the sound of firecrackers, flames and fireworks flying into the sky, continuously rising, the scent of gunpowder thick in the air.

Just like the years before, like that New Year’s Eve of the year he was about to start school.

The youth in blue clothes thought vaguely.

”Which year?”

He furrowed his brows, showing a look of struggle: ”Which year? Have I forgotten something?”

”Never mind, I haven’t forgotten anything.”

His brows smoothed out.

”It doesn’t matter which year. Right now, it’s fine. Mom’s by my side, my sister’s by my side, the people I care about are all here, just like those happy days from many years ago. What else is there to think about?”

”To accompany my mother and sister, to grow old together, grow old...”

The small blue and gold tree-shaped bonsai flickered slightly, then returned to stillness.

It had not stirred for a long time.

With no need to cook or do house chores, it was covered in dust, ignored by everyone.

Without an external enemy,

What use was the sword?

It could only remain silent.