Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

Roar!

As the Nine Aperture Golden Core emerged, accompanied by the sounds of dragons roaring and tigers howling, various specters appeared. Ancient blue trees shot up from the ground, the Blue Gold Big Sun shone brilliantly and magnificently, golden lotuses sprang from the earth, and flowers rained chaotically from the sky.

”An Extreme Grade Golden Core!”

Immortal Dinghai’s breath hitched, ”A Sword Dao Extreme Grade Golden Core, and it has reached the limit of such a grade, a feat rarely accomplished by the Taoist disciples of the Eight Great Immortal Sects, second only to the Dao Principle Golden Core.”

”Whereas the Dao Principle Golden Core is born within the Daoist Body, granted by the heavens, inherently present from birth, and cannot be achieved through human effort.”

”The Great Sun Sword Pavilion has done it.”

Zhang Junsheng chimed in solemnly, ”Recreating something akin to the Dao Principle Golden Core through acquired means, completely under one’s control, and capable of growth, surpassing the power of the original Dao Principle Golden Core.”

”Truly deserving of its reputation as the foremost in the Domain.”

”It’s just too perilous.”

He was an absolute expert and authority on the matter.

”There’s also the Internal Demon Tribulation to consider.”

Immortal Luling joined in, glancing toward the direction of the mining barracks.

For those undergoing the Internal Demon Tribulation, a myriad of lifetimes were but a moment, success or failure both decided in the blink of an eye.

...

Jiang Ding looked around.

A hazy white fog enveloped everything, obscuring the sky, allowing visibility of only a few dozen meters nearby, with the distant view blurred.

”Villain!”

”Return my life to me!”

In front of him, a black-clad bandit appeared with a bloody mark on his throat, looking at him resentfully, ”I had no feud with you, why did you kill me?”

He materialized suddenly, his question abrupt.

Yet, Jiang Ding found nothing unusual about it, feeling it was only natural, not the least bit strange. With a slight recollection, he smiled, ”You were a member of the Fierce Tiger Village of Dongling City, involved in the attack on Long San of the Sihai Business Association, weren’t you?”

This man was inconsequential, so Jiang Ding couldn’t remember his name.

But he was the first person Jiang Ding had killed in his life.

Therefore, with a bit of reflection, the details about him surfaced in Jiang Ding’s mind.

”Such a ruthless heart you have!”

”We bore no grudges against each other, why harm me? I have an eighty-year-old mother at home, and an infant that needs to be fed!”

The black-clad bandit wept blood and cried sorrowfully, ”Without me, they will surely starve to death at home.”

Somehow, Jiang Ding felt his words were true.

Through the voice, it was as if he could see a thatched cottage, within which lay a frail old woman and an infant in swaddling clothes on a pile of straw. The house was starkly empty; all possessions had been sold for food—beds, cotton clothes, pots, and pans.

Nothing was left.

The grandmother and child breathed weakly.

In another couple of days, two icy corpses would lie on the straw, one large, one small, their skin bluish-purple intermingled with pallid white.

”... I ... am directly responsible for their deaths...”

Jiang Ding said to himself.

A tinge of remorse surfaced in his heart.

”Good!”

”You’ve finally admitted it!” shouted the black-clad bandit furiously, ”Why don’t you die, why continue living in this world? Just die!”

”Just die!”

”Die!”

”Die...”

The voice echoed through the wilderness, over and over again, infiltrating his heart from all directions.

Suddenly, the tinge of remorse grew wildly like weeds, spreading throughout his heart, a thick sensation of sadness and guilt overwhelming him, filled with self-blame.

”Right, it’s all my fault.”

”Why don’t I die?”

Jiang Ding muttered to himself, drawing the blue light longsword, ”Why don’t I die?”

”Why not...”

The blue light longsword slashed a streak of sword-light, landing on the head of the hate-filled, howling black-clad bandit, cleaving him in two, and his innards spilt out.

”No, I should have killed you sooner.”

”You’re going to kill me again!”

”You’ve killed me once more!”

Still not dead, the black-clad bandit bellowed, ”You butcher, executioner, a man with sins aplenty, don’t you have a shred of compassion... ”

Whiz!

Another sword cut him down, crisscrossing, killing him.

”I am kindhearted.”

”This is beyond doubt.”

Jiang Ding sheathed his sword, his expression returning to one of indifference.

”You became a bandit, constantly ambushing and killing passing merchants, sparing neither the old nor the young, women, nor children. Now that you’ve been killed, you dare to harbor resentment?”

”It’s absurd.”

”My old mother and child starved to death...”

The bandit’s corpse fell to the ground, mouth moving as devilish sounds of confusion spread, with a strong impact and empathy, making others feel as if they were experiencing their sorrow and crying for the mother and child.

```

”This is not my fault.”

”It is your fault.”

”It is also the fault of the rulers of Dongling City, the Zhendong Marquis, and in the larger sense, the fault of the cultivators of this world, but most certainly not mine.”

Jiang Ding said calmly, ”My only fault is that I did not kill all of you sooner to restore order to this Small World, so that the widowed and orphaned would no longer die of hunger in their own homes.”

”So that people like your mother and child could get help.”

”As for your mother and son, if they seek revenge again and truly act on it, I shall cut them down with one stroke of my sword.”

Having said that, he felt much more relaxed in his heart, without the slightest sense of guilt, righteous and justified.

On the ground, the corpse of the bandit dressed in black transformed into light blue smoke and dissipated.

The sky whirled and white fog spread out, covering everything, then dispersed again.

This was a small backyard of a sundry goods shop.

”Jiang Ding!”

”You cut off my arm for a trivial offense!”

A one-armed man holding his severed limb said with resentment, ”Is this the law of the Xianmen Sect? Did I ever break any law of the Immortal Sects?”

The Wild Wolf Knife, Long Shi!

Who knows how many decades ago, the leader of the small Lanban Street gang—the Wild Wolf Gang—under the steward of the Marquis’ mansion, tested a young man who had thousands of silver. He paid a certain price for it.

”Long Shi, long time no see.”

Jiang Ding nodded.

With one stroke of his sword, he beheaded the man, the head flew off, and the one-armed corpse fell.

”You are not a citizen of the Xianmen Sect, you are not governed by nor protected by Xianmen law.”

”What you need to follow is the local justice and righteousness that I acknowledge, the laws and regulations.”

The white fog surged and then dispersed again.

”Jiang Ding, you...”

This was from the civilians of Fierce Tiger Village, their faces blistered and charred, burned by a fierce fire, resembling an evil ghost, dozens, hundreds of them, were pure innocents. They were victims of the leaderless looting by the villagers of the Fierce Tiger Village following a fire.

And he was the cause of their leaderlessness.

With one sword strike, the clustered charred corpses shattered.

”Indeed.”

Jiang Ding said succinctly.

This did not stir any ripples in his heart.

”Jiang Ding...”

”Why don’t you just die...”

The scene changed, one by one, everywhere, the overseers of the Marquis’ estate whose names he could no longer recall, Dao Linshi of the Wolf God Cult at the Xiantian level, Qi Practitioners of the Hua Xue Palace...

All of them, each person who had once died at his hand, revived and berated him from various angles, criticizing his lack of righteousness, benevolence, loyalty, and the lack of any necessity to continue existing in this world.

To them, he gave the slash of a longsword, death once more.

Jiang Ding glanced briefly at the legitimate heir of the Hua Xue Palace.

This was the first opponent he had met in his life whom he had deemed worthy of attention, ultimately dying under a barrage from a heavy machine gun.

Drawing his sword, he struck him down.

Scenes flashed by, dying under his sword time after time, without leaving any ripples in his heart, unable to be revived again.

A vision, a pause.

”Immortal envoy.”

A middle-aged cultivator stepped forward. It was the Seventh Level of Qi Practicing he had met for the first time, who said calmly, ”How is it different for us, cultivators from the Liyun Sect who come from a Small World? Simply because we are born in a Small World, are we naturally subject to your enslavement, to face the risk of death for a playful exam of yours.”

”In the end, all of our sect perished.”

”Is this also your Dao Heart?”

Qian Tongyi, a Taoist soldier of the Liyun Sect.

Jiang Ding fell silent, lost in thought.

”No, this is not my Dao Heart.”

”Indeed, there is an imperfection in the Dao Heart, it is not flawless.”

Jiang Ding said with regret.

He actually admitted it.

”What?”

Qian Tongyi was startled, a trace of extreme delight flashed in his eyes, and with a hint of seduction, he said, ”The Immortal Sect lacks the Dao, goes against human ethics...”

His throat stiffened.

His body collapsed softly to the ground, disintegrating.

Jiang Ding slowly sheathed his sword.

”Why?”

An angry voice came from the emptiness.

”This is indeed a flaw in your Dao Heart, there is no mistake!”

”Are you done pretending?”

”Internal Demon, heh.”

Jiang Ding smiled slightly, ”A flaw in the Dao Heart exists, but you have to be able to grasp it. Come on, continue, I will actively cooperate with you to forget, to check and patch up the gaps, to search for the true self.”

The angry voice fell silent.