Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

In his mind, countless muscles and tendons shifted and recombined.

Jiang Ding practiced his swordsmanship, his sword-light shining brightly like an arc.

He was practicing the ”Eagle Taking Off Sword Technique,” a foundation of martial arts. With his high aptitude, his progress was rapid, and he occasionally felt a slight tingling in his spine.

Those with lower talents or poor backgrounds did not lack opportunities to turn their fates around.

While others merely achieved proficiency in the ”Eagle Taking Off Technique,” you could reach minor, major, or even perfect mastery and catch up or even surpass those with superior talents.

The Nine Great Sword Forms passed by one after another, culminating in the Hidden Sword Style.

”Not bad.”

Zhang Dingjun watched for a while and said with interest, ”You being born in the Xianmen Sect is really burying your talents. If you were in another world, you might have become a famous hero in Jianghu.”

The ”Eagle Taking Off Technique” was only so-so, fairly similar to his classmates.

But his combat swordsmanship was somewhat terrifying—he was almost embarrassed to say that Jiang Ding’s ability to seize opportunities was fast catching up to his own, assisted by his Ninth Layer Inner Qi Divine Sense.

”You’re joking,” Jiang Ding replied without fear, unlike the other students who were wary of this instructor, ”With my five-spiritual-root talent, which place other than the Xianmen Sect would give me even a sliver of a chance?”

”You still haven’t given up on becoming an immortal? That path is too difficult...” Zhang Dingjun sighed softly.

To transition from mortal to immortal—even in the Xianmen Sect—only the most exceptional and top-notch talents were qualified. Although Jiang Ding was not completely mediocre, but...

”Keep it up! Even if you miss the college entrance exam, there have been people who succeeded in cultivation,” Zhang Dingjun encouraged.

Dingling...

Before long, at noon, the fourth end-of-class bell rang. Zhang Dingjun was the first to leave, the other students returned to school, and those who lived nearby went home.

”Here you go.”

Li Junhao, with a gloomy face, handed a campus card to Jiang Ding.

”What do you want? Do you need me to pick you up?”

Jiang Ding was not surprised; starting now, this guy’s forty kilometers would be strictly supervised by a teaching robot. As long as he didn’t want to drop out, he had to comply with the instructor’s commands.

”One duck leg, shredded pork with green peppers, and a bowl of the cafeteria’s seaweed egg drop soup. I’ll take the bus back myself.”

”Okay.”

After saying goodbye to Li Junhao, Jiang Ding and his classmates squeezed onto the bus back to school.

Eat lunch, take a nap.

After finishing two classes of Ideological and Moral Education, it was time for the practice room.

Jiang Ding stared at the light blue screen before him, a hint of joy on his face.

[Name: Jiang Ding]

[Student ID: 1246215]

[Stage: Bone-refining Peak]

[Last training subject: ”The Sixty-Eighth Set of Eagle Taking Off Sword Technique” (Proficiency 51%)]

Compared to two days ago, proficiency in the ”Eagle Taking Off Sword Technique” had surged by 19%. At this rate, he could achieve minor mastery in at most two weeks, which would speed up his Bone Refining progress and make breaking through to the Internal Qi Realm no longer a fantasy.

Keep in mind that this is not just any Jianghu martial arts but Xianmen’s Skill, which is even more difficult than most low-level cultivation magic and poses a much higher level of difficulty for mortals.

As far as Jiang Ding knew, not a single person in the class had practiced the cultivation method to minor mastery.

The reason they were ahead had two factors: firstly, their talents were better than Jiang Ding’s, and secondly, they had all sorts of supplements and even Elixirs to enhance their cultivation, naturally resulting in different progress.

”Two more vertebrae have been successfully tempered...” Jiang Ding looked again at the pale blue silhouette at the bottom of the panel.

As expected, out of the 24 vertebrae, 5 lumbar, 1 sacral, and 1 coccygeal had been tempered to completion. He only needed to finish the remaining 12 thoracic and 7 cervical vertebrae to complete his Bone Refining Realm cultivation and naturally break through to Inner Qi.

There was no such thing as a bottleneck.

The so-called bottleneck was nothing but insufficient understanding, whether in the muscles, vertebrae, internal injuries, or inadequate training without self-awareness, leading to being stuck at a certain stage.

With the cultivation of Xianmen’s Skill and the assistance of the Array Spirit computer, such a situation simply did not exist.

Calm once more, Jiang Ding drew his sword and began to cultivate under the guidance of the Array Spirit computer, his silver sword-light dancing and flickering.

This was actually a tremendous opportunity, akin to having the incarnation of an immortal of Divinity Transformation personally instruct him in cultivation. Otherwise, with the ”Eagle Taking Off Sword Technique” known for its difficulty akin to natural luck, ninety-nine percent of the youths in the world would never grasp it.

Therefore, even if there were occasional leaks of the technique, other parts of the Cultivation World couldn’t replicate it.

...

After having dinner with Jiang Yuan, Jiang Ding locked himself in his room, put on his gear, checked his medication and drone battery, and picked up his panoramic helmet.

After hesitating for a moment, he set it down and instead put on contact lenses.

”Too conspicuous...”

The light darkened and brightened, and what he saw was expansive green hills in the early morning, with the chirping of birds.

After collecting a dozen unknown plant specimens as usual, Jiang Ding continued to explore further.

He couldn’t make anything happen alone.

He needed resources to speed up his cultivation and hands to collect specimens, for which he was willing to take some risks.

In the drone’s view, the terrifying scene of nearly a hundred people searching the mountains hadn’t reappeared, and the forest had returned to its original tranquility.

”Hmm?”

Jiang Ding’s gaze sharpened. He paused on a corner of the screen and zoomed in.

A white dot appeared on the screen and quickly enlarged to show a woman in a white dress unconscious by the riverbank. Her complexion was deathly pale, floating over from who knows where, and was stopped by the bushes at the edge of the river, not continuing to drift downstream.

Her chest was soaked in a large red stain of blood, and her dress was tattered and torn.

”Is she dead?”

Jiang Ding heaved a silent sigh, thinking that this world didn’t seem very safe.

The woman was three to four kilometers away, and she might have held her breath underwater for a long time to avoid the black-clad men’s pursuit.

Jiang Ding gripped the sword hilt and hesitated no longer.

He proceeded with great caution, constantly watching for targets the drone might have missed. Fortunately, there were no accidents.

He grabbed her skirt, easily lifting her and placing her on the ground.

He touched his forehead, feeling a cold sweat; her stomach was slightly swollen, with a terrifying wound at her waist that almost exposed her internal organs. It was black and exuded a stench of rotting flesh, clearly indicating poisoning.

But upon closer inspection, her chest was still faintly rising and falling, moving once every few seconds.

”She’s still alive!”

Jiang Ding did not hesitate any longer; he cleaned the foreign matter from her mouth and nose, found some stones to place under her stomach, and began chest compressions with medical emergency techniques, repeating the process continuously.

Every citizen of Xianmen was a potential soldier, trained in such battlefield first-aid techniques.

A few minutes later,

”Waah!”

Gong Caiyu suddenly vomited a pool of stuff, including water weeds, half-digested meat, and some gooey substances that flowed down her neck.

Barely opening her eyes, she saw a strange young man ceaselessly pressing on her chest.

”Pervert!”

Gong Caiyu’s face flushed red in an instant. Summoning the last bit of her inner energy, she grabbed a sharp stone and smashed it toward the person’s head.

Clang!

A gleaming longsword appeared out of nowhere, circling around her feeble arm and coming to rest on her throat, making her halt her movement involuntarily.

Jiang Ding looked at her indifferently, without a word.

”Young master, I’m sorry, I just...”

Gong Caiyu came to her senses, the stone falling from her hand as she stammered, ”Thank you for saving me again.”

”Hmm.”

Jiang Ding sheathed his sword, thinking that since this person was chased until nearly dead, such an extreme reaction was actually normal.

He took her hand that was put down and sensed for a moment.

”Ah...”

Gong Caiyu let out a cry but didn’t resist, turning her head away.

”Your heart, your pulse, they’re all very weak... Your physical condition is terrible,” Jiang Ding let go of her hand. ”Can your inner energy expel the toxins from your body and stop the bleeding?”

He regarded this person like an injured female classmate, without any untoward thoughts.

”No... I don’t have the strength...” Gong Caiyu tried to mobilize a bit of her inner energy, then despair shone in her eyes as she calmly said, ”My meridians are severely damaged, my inner energy is almost gone, and I’ve been poisoned by the Golden Knife School’s corpse poison. I’m going to die. Thank you for your kindness in saving me.”

”My Qixuan School’s thousand years of heritage... I don’t want it to end like this...”

”Eat this.”

Jiang Ding cut off her self-pity and threw her an orally administered version of Yunnan Baiyao. ”Try it, since you’re dying anyway.”

It was indeed a try; Yunnan Baiyao is a widely used medicine that can treat external injuries, detoxify, disinfect, and more, with a variety of effects, but all are moderate and the outcome is uncertain.

Unless it’s an elixir.

But Jiang Ding only had one, his mother’s half a year’s salary bought the Heavenly King Life Saving Pill.

If it didn’t work, that’s her fate.

”Thank you for your kindness, young master,” Gong Caiyu said softly. ”It’s just that my poison has reached my bones and blood, it’s too late for me... wooh...”

Seeing that she was still chattering as she neared death, Jiang Ding didn’t say anything but grabbed her cheek with one hand while opening the bottle of Yunnan Baiyao oral solution and pouring it down with the other.

Gong Caiyu only felt a warm current blend into her abdomen and spread throughout her limbs and bones; her numb meridians and wound at her waist unexpectedly felt a bit of tingling pain.

”What kind of divine medicine is this?” Gong Caiyu’s eyes widened, hearing of it for the first time.

Jiang Ding shook his head, pocketing the bottle with the trademark and instructions.

He guessed this might be a new type of antidote for this world, where germs had no resistance and the effect was especially good.

After all, Xianmen was associated with cultivation.

”Rest and heal.”

Seeing she wanted to say more, Jiang Ding gestured to stop her.

Gratefully glancing at him, Gong Caiyu sat down cross-legged and closed her eyes to recover her inner energy.

Jiang Ding stood up, took out a small spade, and walked towards an unfamiliar herb, carefully scraping away the soil, painstakingly extracting every single root.

After digging up one plant, he went to find another.

The sun gradually rose, its rays shining on his face, reflecting off beads of sweat.

After over three hours of continuous digging, seeing that the woman sitting cross-legged on the ground had not yet awakened, Jiang Ding walked to the shallow part of the river and stood silently.

Like a statue, he remained motionless for over ten minutes.

Clang!

Suddenly, a streak of sword-light flashed, piercing a carp as big as an arm, which struggled in vain to escape.

”The resources are so abundant.”

Jiang Ding exclaimed, flicking his sword to send the fish flying. Three streaks of sword-light later, scales, gills, and guts were scattered, and he casually scrapped off a piece of black membrane.

He skewered the carp with his sword, then dragged over a tree stump as large as a bowl.