Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

After leaving the Jiuhes Commerce Association, Jiang Ding checked the invitation in his hands again.

It was unregistered, with a faint Black Dust Nine Mountains pattern on the inside. The time was set for three years later, but the location had yet to be determined—it would be revealed on the invitation itself when the time came.

According to past practice, the auction would take place in some inconspicuous part of the Great Sun Sword City, perhaps in a small house, underground, or in a teahouse, temporarily created by spatial manipulation as a secret auction venue, with teleportation escape routes, and so on.

However, even though it was called an underground auction, it was surely under the covert supervision of the Great Sun Sword Sect.

It was just a case of preferring to have it under close watch rather than attempting to block it outright.

”Still three years to go...”

Jiang Ding disliked staying in places where major powers congregated and was not fond of forming personal ties or brotherhoods. He flew tens of thousands of miles out of the Great Sun Sword City and found a place to live in seclusion and lay low.

He entered standby mode, not doing much of anything, not making any contact, and avoiding any entanglements of cause and effect.

...

Beneath the 3,000-meter-tall Sun God Wood.

Jiang Ding opened his eyes, logged onto the Xianmen Sect website, and searched for keywords like ’composite materials,’ ’refining treasures,’ ’refining Nascent Treasures.’ After reading article after article for several months, he gained a general understanding of the development of material science at Xianmen Sect.

Of course, it was just an understanding, knowing the situation and what the frontiers had achieved.

Going deeper, however, was not possible.

This required the lifelong efforts of many cultivators and was extremely complex.

Not to mention, many articles at the Nascent Soul level and Divinity Transformation level would take years to read and understand completely.

”The highest achiever in Xianmen Sect material science is Heavenly Monarch Wanji.”

”He is the teacher of the teacher of the teacher of the teacher of Jin Lingfeng’s mentor, Melting Gold Immortal.”

Jiang Ding’s gaze swiftly passed over a sentence at the end of an article, ’This article does not require consulting any references.’

”This senior and Yuan belong to the same era. A scholar of Xianmen Sect’s material science, he must be at least four or five thousand years old. Almost all his friends and relatives of the same generation have disappeared. After a long period of seclusion, it’s estimated that he hasn’t appeared in public for a couple thousand years.”

”Even with a scheduled appointment, it would be a great honor to meet the senior once within a hundred years.”

”But... I know where he is now.”

Jiang Ding waved his hand and put away the Sun God Wood into his third eye.

With the branches and trunk of the Divine Tree gone, there was nothing left in the space where the sky once was, except for a huge steel warship, which was refining its hull and a fourth-order Magnetic Cloud Splitting Star Cannon in the traction of the Great Sun’s light.

The Spirit Particle Engine Furnace never stopped working, smelting the many second and third-order Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures in the fuel storage, refining an electromagnetic system’s Heavenly Gang Ban within.

”Cloud Day, are you going to the library?”

Jiang Ding asked.

Within Xianmen, he granted considerable autonomy to the Ship Spirit of the Super Sun Vessel, not forcing anything on it.

”Commander, why don’t you go? I still need to go to the Warship Maintenance Center to refine the Heavenly Gang Ban. One of the stages requires your Divine Soul’s support. I will notify you when the time comes,” said Ship Spirit Cloud Day crisply.

She was always bustling about within Xianmen, refining the Magnetic Cloud Splitting Star Cannon, refining the Dyson sunglasses-faced unmanned drones, refining the warship’s hull, smelting various treasures and even Nascent Treasures as materials, and so on.

”Alright then.”

Jiang Ding did not bother with her. With a flash of azure Escape Light, his body ripped through space and vanished, the light faintly dispersing the sharpness of the Sword Dao, moving somewhat faster than usual.

This was the initial result of the third-order Electromagnetic Sword Escape.

Decades ago, due to some reasons, Yu Qianzi had agreed to help him perfect his third-order Electromagnetic Sword Escape research. Even though their relationship had dropped to rock bottom in recent years, she had not gone back on her word.

Apart from other issues, such as inquiries about swordsmanship problems for which she did not respond, when it came to the third-order Sword Escaping research, she still responded promptly.

Jiang Ding’s choice was to integrate other sword techniques into Sword Escaping and consult her.

It was estimated that in another twenty years, the third level of the Electromagnetic Sword Escape would have been successfully developed.

This would mark an unprecedented event in the Xianmen Sect. If successful, the research expertise left behind would greatly enlighten future generations, with many experiences directly transferable, sparing the need to tediously start from scratch.

Some time flew by, and they arrived at the Xiandu Library.

The place was bustling with activity. The old, the young, children, teachers, farmers, soldiers, businessmen, and more, from various ages and backgrounds, were reading and moving through the library quietly.

There were no special priority lanes for high-level cultivators. Jiang Ding honestly followed a sixth-grade child, swiped his card, and quickly headed towards the high-level knowledge area for Immortal Path at the back of the Xiandu Library.

High-level knowledge of the Immortal Path was inherently dangerous.

The number of people here was much reduced, and the ones passing through were mostly Golden Pill Monks; the occasional Foundation-building cultivator wandered carefully, halting every few steps to consult their library reading handbook, checking their current behavior to avoid unintentionally encountering high-level knowledge and triggering mental derangement.

Deeper inside, there were even fewer people.

Those coming and going were mostly Immortals of Nascent Soul, with a much higher chance of knowing each other from occasional interactions during academic conferences.

Whenever Jiang Ding saw them, he would normally bow slightly and greet them silently.

At last, he arrived deep within the library, a place where even Immortals of Nascent Soul were rarely seen and were incredibly cautious.

Jiang Ding stopped in front of a golden palace.

Golden Palace!

The second sequence in the library collection, Golden Bathing Beauties Painting.

That’s right!

Usually, elder peers like the Heavenly Monarchs would be scattered in all directions, in secluded cultivation, studying, rarely seen, but as soon as an Immortal Technique appeared, it would blast them all out, and they’d spend all day soaking themselves here, seldom leaving.

If you wanted to meet someone, you’d just flip through here.

He walked into the palace protected by strict Heavenly Gang Bans.

”That’s not right!”

”Have you gone senile, you old fool? How could gold be like this? Stop fucking leading people astray and quickly admit your mistake!”

”Bullshit...”

The place was noisy, like a vegetable market, with several spots already breaking into fights, clanging soundly.

Jiang Ding found nothing unusual there.

These elder peers would still put on airs in front of the younger generation, presenting themselves with dignity and respect.

But among their own kind, they were not so easy to speak with. After many years, they might clearly remember embarrassing moments from their childhood on the battlefield.

However, their disputes were not mere brawls.

The two sides had divergent understandings of the Immortal Technique. One side believed this, the other that, so they would directly use the same Divine Sense and mana, acting on their understandings to fight it out, with the winner’s view being deemed more correct—

Just more correct.

Before definitive theorems or formulas were established, even those who were beaten to the ground would never admit defeat verbally.

As they fought, the Immortals of Nascent Soul who were brought along trembled, fleeing from far away, fearing accidental injury.

After searching through the crowds, Jiang Ding finally found his target.

A little over one meter tall, with mechanical limbs that could extend and contract, made from some kind of high-level metal, and instead of a head... well, there was no head, just a computer screen.

Overall, it looked like a computer screen had grown a body and limbs out of the bottom.