Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

Chapter 1359: Chapter 1327: Fall of the Ancient God Realm Boundary Domain Group

After the failed attempt to silence witnesses, the Nine Great Immortal Sects quickly acknowledged the outcome.

They did not brazenly traverse unfamiliar domains, occupy Minor Thousand Worlds, or interrogate enemies. Instead, they returned to the Horned Ming Realm and began frantically building realm-channel defensive arrays and self-destructive formations with unprecedented efficiency.

The Harmonization God Monarchs of the Immortal Sects personally took action, arranging formations and refining instruments, like industrious workers, completely throwing aside any semblance of decorum or dignity.

While devoting themselves to constructing realm channels, the Nine Great Immortal Sects also began laying anti-teleportation positioning arrays across the entirety of the Horned Ming Realm, preventing enemies from breaching dimensions through teleportation and ensuring that even entities above Harmonization could not forcibly break through in a short time to descend upon the Horned Ming Realm.

This demonstrated the terrifying depth of the Immortal Sects’ legacies.

If it were some other sect at the Harmonization level with less substantial foundations, they might not even be aware of the existence of realm anti-teleportation arrays.

The entirety of the Nine Spirits Realm and Horned Ming Realm was once again plunged into frenetic preparation for war.

No, saying “again” might not be entirely correct.

It would be more accurate to say that the Nine Great Immortal Sects had always been fully prepared for war!

A mere Heavenly Dao Pact or peace treaty was essentially meaningless as a credible promise in their eyes. They had always remained vigilant, guarding against other Immortal Sects while simultaneously watching for opportunities to exploit them.

Even without an external foe, even the most optimistic cultivators believed that a large-scale civil war among the Nine Great Immortal Sects was inevitable within ten thousand years. The Heavenly Dao Pact could never prevent such occurrences.

Lasting peace was simply impossible within the Nine Great Immortal Sects.

The only difference now was that, with the emergence of an external enemy, the Nine Great Immortal Sects had collectively relaxed their vigilance against one another. Large-scale trade and Immortal Dao technology exchanges among the Nine Great Immortal Sects, which had been suspended for over a thousand years, resumed once more, utilizing every resource to bolster their strength and prepare to confront external foes.

While Harmonization combat forces safeguarded their realms, the Nine Great Immortal Sects almost unanimously dispatched large numbers of scouting cultivators into the newly-emerged domains.

The Great Expert of the Shadow Demon Abyss expressed dissatisfaction with this.

She called for the Nine Great Immortal Sects to consolidate all scouting forces and establish a unified command department under the leadership of the Shadow Demon Abyss to avoid clumsy errors or startling the enemy prematurely.

This proposal received no response.

The Eight Great Immortal Sects merely agreed to sign an intelligence-sharing pact; they showed no interest in the suggestion from the Shadow Demon Abyss Great Expert.

Influenced by external domain conditions, the Nine Spirits Realm and Horned Ming Realm enjoyed a brief period of peace. Internal commerce flourished, mutual exchanges of students and core disciples surged, granting many low-to-moderate level cultivators a rare span of tranquil days, unaware of the underlying reasons.

…

In the blink of an eye, two hundred years passed again.

Within the secret realm of the Deputy Governor’s office on Mother Star, Jiang Ding sat cross-legged beneath the Sun God Wood. For tens of thousands of kilometers, the tsunami-like Heavenly Earth Spiritual Qi and Great Sun Essence gradually dissipated.

A crimson flying sword descended from the sky, distorting space and dissolving rules along its path.

After a long while, it reverted to its bluegold sheen and exited its critical refining state.

“The refining speed is still the same as before.”

Jiang Ding inwardly observed the Taiqing Flying Sword’s interior. Two Sun Rules Divine Prohibitions revolved along fixed, three-dimensional interwoven tracks like twin astral stars composed of runes, while the third Sun Rules Divine Prohibition remained a mere hazy form, unreal and insubstantial.

“It will take approximately a thousand more years to refine the third Sun Rules Divine Prohibition. In the later stages, as refining deepens, the time requirement will only increase—possibly even doubling. Especially the final Void Refinement Perfection Rules Divine Prohibition, that one poses a threshold, requiring enormous amounts of time to polish.”

“Without cultivating the ‘Sun Sacrifice Sword Technique,’ such is the result; the speed cannot be altered.”

“Unless one possesses a sword soul, or attains the Sixth Realm of Sword Dao, the Sword Spirit Realm swordsmanship. Advancing to Late Truth-Transforming Stage may also slightly accelerate the refining speed…”

Jiang Ding pondered this silently.

When it came to realm and cultivation method, he was undoubtedly inferior to the Heavenly Sword Sword Son.

Perhaps quickly advancing to the Peak of Hua Shen or Void Refinement Realm, then overpowering and defeating the Heavenly Sword Sword Son might be a more direct path.

This seemed highly plausible.

After all, the cultivation method practiced by the Heavenly Sword Sword Son undoubtedly targeted True Immortal, requiring the foundational base to be meticulously polished to its absolute limit before advancing, significantly slowing his cultivation speed.

This, however, would lead to a consequence.

The sliver of hope for True Immortal might be greatly diminished!

Because only by slaying the Heavenly Sword Sword Son at the same realm could one hold a shred of hope for ascending to Immortal.

Such a heaven-defying opportunity, a True Immortal chance—if wasted in such a mundane manner, like a cow chewing on peonies—it made Jiang Ding feel deeply regretful.

After all,

Back in the day, Xi Yuan had been impoverished to the extent of voluntarily nurturing his enemies!

Yet Jiang Ding, endowed with a True Immortal opportunity, was now choosing to squander it willingly.

If past Great Sun Sword Masters were resurrected and saw Jiang Ding wasting such a divine opportunity, their eyes would turn blood-red, and they would undoubtedly kill Jiang Ding ten thousand times over without hesitation. It was simply too outrageous.

Granted, a same-level Heavenly Sword Sword Son could annihilate them with merely a glance, rendering them inferior to Jiang Ding.

But this was faith—the faith of Sword Cultivators.

They would rather burn their essence blood and divine souls, desperately seeking the faintest shred of survival, than let such a True Immortal opportunity suffer any compromise or desecration.

“In these past two hundred years, nothing world-shattering has occurred between realms. Two matters deserve attention.”

Jiang Ding flipped through the Xianmen Sect files.

“First, the Xianmen Sect has gained a new Void Refinement True Venerable—Panda Old Ancestor Hua Lingling has advanced to Void Refinement, achieving the Void Refinement True Venerable level in the body refinement path. My avatar is presently attending the Void Refinement ceremony, congratulating this venerable senior of the sect whose level of seniority far exceeds even theirs on attaining the Void Refinement stage.”

“Two Harmonization Forces have also emerged in the Eight Great Immortal Sects, namely Dingding Venerable of Xuanwu Heavenly Palace and Qingteng Venerable of Green Wood Immortal Sect… The Immortal Gate General Staff estimates that more Void Refinement cultivators are likely to appear across the Nine Great Immortal Sects. Their talent reserves at the Peak of Hua Shen stage are extraordinarily abundant; provided resources by the Harmonization God Monarchs of their Immortal Sects, breakthroughs are almost assured.”

“After all, for Harmonization-level forces, resources of this scale are not scarce.”

“The second matter pertains to intelligence from the Tianyuan Domain.”

Jiang Ding carefully examined intelligence reports sent back by scouting Sword Cultivators and shared under the Eight Great Immortal Sects’ pact.

“The Tianyuan Domain contains only around a hundred Minor Thousand Worlds, but there is one Medium Thousand World.”

“Its strongest sect is named the Heavenly Ghost God Sect.”

“This is the sect of the now-deceased Heavenly Ghost God Monarch, whose soul returned to the Heavenly Dao. At present, scouting cultivators from the Nine Great Immortal Sects have already infiltrated the Heavenly Ghost God Sect, gradually taking control of its various divisions—including its sect array.”

“Everything the Heavenly Ghost God Sect once possessed, under the unified will of the Nine Great Immortal Sects, is astonishingly feeble. Even without Harmonization combat forces taking personal action, mere talismans are enough to breach all of the Heavenly Ghost God Sect’s defenses.”

“Currently, the Heavenly Ghost God Sect effectively belongs to the Nine Great Immortal Sects. All high-ranking cultivators within it are controlled by the Nine Great Immortal Sects, maintaining only the shell of a Heavenly Ghost God Sect.”

“From the Heavenly Ghost God Sect’s legacies, we’ve learned that around the Tianyuan Domain exists a vast cluster of realm domains called the Ancient God Domain Group—a sprawling, prosperous aggregation of Immortal Dao Worlds teeming with experts. Harmonization God Monarchs have been consistently passed down through its history, and it allegedly harbors entities beyond Harmonization…”