Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

Xu Yan’s Starry Sky Fortress was broken.

A third of it was severed by a single sword strike and fell to the ground.

It could be seen that this fortress, born of war, had pondered such a scenario, having made separations such that the destructive, scorching, forbidden Sword Intent residual at the broken end failed to follow the pipeline deep into the core of the fortress, completely igniting the Starry Sky Fortress.

Before the arrival of the Great Sun Annihilation Sword Qi, the Starry Sky Fortress had already made an autonomous severing motion, and the remaining two-thirds of the Starry Sky Fortress still maintained some functionality, not completely destroyed.

The power of the Starry Sky Fortress had considerably weakened, but it still had the strength for one more fight. If companions were around, it might be possible to push back the enemy and avoid failure.

Despair filled Xu Yan’s face.

”Back then, the wars our predecessors experienced must have been incredibly cruel,” sighed Jiang Dingyi as he walked step by step.

Around him, as the Army Formation Domain shrank, the Great Sun Destroying Sword Domain wildly expanded, squeezing the Wang Clan and Xu Clan’s one million warships within the Army Formation Domain to the point of creaking, on the verge of collapse.

The Starry Sky Fortress’s core also dimmed in Spiritual Light, its Array Pattern range shrinking.

Many warships and war machines from the Wang and Xu families, taken by surprise, were cut off from the Army Formation, instantly subsumed into the Destruction Sword Domain of tens of thousands of degrees Celsius, turning to ashes amidst the dreadful temperatures and Sword Intent, falling to the earth along with their molten battleships and Air-Space Warplanes.

Hundreds of thousands of warships amassed together surrounding the damaged Starry Sky Fortress; despite their numerical superiority and a closely Iain-out military formation all around, the pressure was intense, but compared to that diminutive figure of the youth in blue, they were like a bunch of quails huddling together faced with a giant, trembling ceaselessly.

”I’ve always been kind-hearted, not fond of slaughter,” Jiang Ding glanced over at the gathered cultivators of the two great families, and said indifferently, ”Those who surrender now will merely have their crimes increased by one grade, and it doesn’t have to mean the death penalty for all, as you know the laws of Xianmen Sect. Consider it for yourselves.”

Attacking citizens of Xianmen Sect, intending to kill.

That was an extremely serious felony!

Such a crime, even if halted midway, could not just be forgiven and certainly not, the full price had to be paid in full, regardless of how many people were involved, unless one was coerced.

”No, we should be rewarded for reversing our position...”

Many desperate Divine Senses communicated, bargaining, unsatisfied with the prospect.

Jiang Ding paid them no further attention.

Offering surrender was because of mercy.

Not because the cultivators of the two great families wielded any powerful force that necessitated sacrificing interests to secure their cooperation.

They lacked such strength.

Whether they surrendered or not was not a significant issue; there was no need to pay extra attention.

”Xu Yan, your surrender, however, I will not accept.”

Jiang Ding looked at the young man with black hair and starry eyes on the crippled Starry Sky Fortress and spoke calmly, ”I can even tell you plainly that even if you surrendered, you would still be sentenced to death under the laws of Xianmen Sect.”

”The crime is very clear - treason.”

”Monstrous beast!”

Xu Yan looked coldly at the youth in blue before him.

”What I’m telling you is to let you know.”

Jiang Ding, unangered and extremely patient, spoke gently, ”You’re going to die.”

”Before you die, please shine more brightly, let me see more of your light, and display as much of your Immortal Wisdom as possible.”

”This will make me happy.”

Clang!

Jiang Ding’s hand touched the sword handle and began to draw it out, little by little.

His words weren’t to negotiate anything with anyone.

But to inform, notify - and then to execute.

Just as Dari Swordsmen had always done to their enemies throughout the ages.

This scenario had played out countless times in this domain, and now it was happening again.

”If I had received the ultimate foundation of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion...”

”If I could become a Taoist disciple...”

Xu Yan whispered coldly.

In that instant, he burned his Essence Blood, burned his last Life Energy, and set ablaze the Law Body he had meticulously preserved for thousands of years. Transforming into a vast force, it surged into the Heavenly Sword in his hand, and then using the Heavenly Sword as a projectile, it flowed into the main cannon of the shattered Starry Sky Fortress.

”Ah!”

”Old ancestor! No! I am your son...”

Immortal Tianfang screamed in horror, to no avail, a thread of blood-red flame appeared on his forehead, instantly burning him to ashes, and a wisp of Blood Qi Fire returned to the Starry Sky Fortress.

”Fang’er...”

Xu Yan showed a tender smile, ”You were of low innate talent, ascending to the Nascent Soul Peak only with the mass of Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure I expended on you, with no further chance to ascend to Divinity Transformation.”

”You and I are bound together with shared fortunes and misfortunes; no one will spare you.”

”Better, then, to go with me, just as it was many years ago when you were born.”

”Grandfather! No! No! I...”

Xu Jianian screamed in terror, but his Early Stage of Nascent Soul cultivation was useless; instantly ignited whole, his Divine Soul turned to ash, returning as a wisp of Blood Qi to the Starry Sky Fortress.

”Old ancestor! Mercy...”

”Old thief...”

Around him, tufts of Blood Qi flames were burning. Some were from the Wang Clan, some from the Xu Clan, some were his sons, some his grandsons, and others his great-grandsons and great-granddaughters...

Xu Yan didn’t want to know or think about any of this anymore.

Two thousand years ago, for his own path and for the prosperity of his family, he had chosen to leave Xianmen Sect, leading to the flourishing of the Xu family.

Now, everything was back to the beginning.

Tufts of Blood Fire burned; aside from the very few who had fled by chance, the tens of thousands had turned into a sky filled with flames, a spread of blood coloring the world, turning the entire universe a bright crimson.

”Cackle...”

”Jiang Ding, I have a Technique for you to appreciate.”

Xu Yan had turned into a Blood Fire Skeleton, yet he seemed undaunted, giving off a strange laugh, ”This comes from what I understood from Xuanwu’s old cur’s sneak attack on me; it’s quite simple, involving Bloodline and Divine Soul. The shadow technique prevented me from ever breaking through the mid-stage of Spirit Transformation; the computational load is small and extremely difficult to activate.”

”It requires a lot of blood, my own blood, my own life, and the lives of a great deal of my family, even my Life-span.”

”I have named this technique Blood Longevity Dye.”

In Xu Yan’s hands emerged a blood-red flame, hazy, twined with blood threads like being in a fleeting Karma, yet deeply rooted in space, never to be extinguished.

”Blood-stained lifespan?”

Jiang Ding felt a strong warning in his heart.

But he only watched, doing nothing.

”Blood Longevity Dye!”

”Bloody Longevity Dye!”

Xu Yan’s eyes revealed an excited glint, ”Do you know what this is?”

”This is the Karma Flame, the Life-span Flame. When applied to a person’s body, it has no offensive power. Instead, it clings to your bones like a chronic disease, infusing into the very origin of your Divine Soul, causing your life energy to wither away a hundredfold, a thousandfold.”

”Ha ha ha!”

”You, mongrel, have always prided yourself as a youth, haven’t you? A Great Sun Swordsman with boundless prospects!”

”Well, I’ll let you watch as your lifespan drains away a hundredfold, a thousandfold, watching yourself die bit by bit!”

”Ha ha ha...”

With the last bit of his strength, Xu Yan suddenly retreated.

This strand of blood-red flame wavered and floated towards the young man in green, moving neither fast nor slow, occasionally being blown backwards by the wind.

But Xu Yan wasn’t worried at all, his eyes wide with excitement as he watched.

Because this is the Karma Flame!

Because this is the Life-span Flame!

No matter the process, it would ultimately reach its target and take effect!

Jiang Ding’s heart was filled with an even stronger sense of alarm.

Bumps rose all over his body, urging him to flee the intense source of danger, instinctively sensing something.

”Causality...”

Jiang Ding didn’t panic and leave; instead, he shook his head slightly, seemingly with resignation, ”Is this something extremely profound and unsolvable?”

”Hm?”

”A Loose Cultivator from the Xu Realm?”

”The development of the Immortal Gate over these years has exceeded your imagination.”

”You really think you’re just playing house.”

”A person toiling away in isolation within a mountain ravine, oblivious to the outside world, inventing nuclear weapons?”

That was the reality.

Before Jiang Ding was born, the exploration of the Immortal Path by the Xianmen Sect had already touched upon Causal Skills, and their ability to seal junior Immortal Technique clues was proof of that.

”Heh heh, you’re tough talking, keep it up...”

Xu Yan sneered coldly, and suddenly his gaze froze.

A wisp of fine gold threads appeared within the unreal flames of blood.

Then, the illusionary Bloody Longevity Flame came to a halt and stood rigid in the air.

”No!”

”This can’t be possible! Impossible!”

”Two thousand years, only two thousand years! How could such a technique be developed!”

Xu Yan could no longer remain calm, and he roared like a madman.

Those fine gold threads would not heed him, they continued to spread, instantly pervading the entire unreal blood flame.

And then, without any sign of stopping, they appeared abruptly on Xu Yan’s forehead through some mysterious connection.

It didn’t matter whether he was truly insane or feigning foolishness; the fine gold threads kept spreading over his body, infiltrating every cell, every crevice of his soul.

Jiang silencedly watched.

His hand had unknowingly left the hilt of the sword.

Because he had already struck.

His Golden Causality Skills, the first complete sword technique he had created, inspired when he slew the Heavenly Monarch Wan Zhu, refined over two years, was finally unveiled.

Gold Causeless Sword.

That was the name of this sword technique.

”No!”

”What is this thing!”

Xu Yan’s bewildered expression suddenly turned into panic, his pupils lively.

He was indeed pretending.

The fine and invisible threads, following the path of causality, had instantaneously spread throughout his entire body, throughout his entire soul, and gradually extinguished the vitality in those places, unhurried and orderly.

”Spare me!”

”I am a once-in-a-generation genius of the Domain, I am useful to the Xianmen!”

”I can spend my life as a slave for Xianmen’s scientific research in the laboratory without taking a single step outside!”

Xu Yan begged in terror.

Boom!

Desperate to live, he detonated his body, alleviating some pressure and pushing away part of the fine gold threads, as his Primordial Spirit frantically fled into the distance, in the blink of an eye covering thousands of miles.

Jiang Ding didn’t even glance over.

He shut his eyes and focused on his breathing, feeling there was nothing left worth paying attention to.

Xu Yan’s Divine Soul desperately fled, not sure how far it had gone, but in the end, it came right back.

The Gold Threads of Cause and Effect spread throughout his entire Primordial Spirit, gradually extinguishing the life force of the Divine Soul, which slowly became transparent and hazy.

”Canghai!”

”Canghai, please save me!”

”Canghai, do you remember? It was I who brought you into the laboratory, bit by bit, teaching you the most basic experimental knowledge, Cultivation Methods...”

Xu Yan knew pleading with Jiang was useless, so he came before Canghai Heavenly Monarch, desperately begging, tears and snot streaming down his face.

”Teacher,”

”It’s been a long while.”

Canghai Heavenly Monarch sighed and withdrew from the battle against Wang Chong, quietly listening to Xu Yan’s pleas and ramblings.

Without saying a word, he merely listened silently, accompanying him, his gaze going distant into memories of ages past.

Who knows how long passed.

”Please I beg you...”

Xu Yan’s Divine Soul suddenly stiffened.

Bang!

The Gold Threads of Cause and Effect expanded to their limit, extinguishing all life in his Divine Soul, unable to sustain its form any longer, with broken pieces of the Divine Soul scattering into the cosmos.