Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

”...The power of Heaven and Earth, Heaven and Human Unity...”

Jiang Ding meticulously recalled the Cultivation Method, many of whose principles and content he had already understood and was rapidly assimilating into his own knowledge.

In fact, even if Li Qingyun, who had far less education in the Immortal Path than him, could understand it, there was no reason he couldn’t.

The principles and methods of this Cultivation Method were not difficult; the challenge lay in achieving them.

”Visualize...”

Jiang Ding muttered to himself. Following the method outlined in the Cultivation Method, he imagined himself becoming a particle of Gold Affinity Spiritual Energy in the world, his Inner Qi shifting intricately, regulating his breathing, and thus adjusting the frequency of his Divine Soul.

The difficulty lay in this very process, which was 99 percent of the challenge.

The majority of people, with average Divine Soul strength, could never adjust their Divine Soul frequencies no matter how hard they tried.

Of the remaining people with stronger Divine Souls, over ninety percent lacked the necessary sensitivity to perceive the inhalation and exhalation, the spectral frequencies, of the Spiritual Energy particles in the world.

This kind of sensitivity tended to appear only in those with exceptional talent.

In a trance, Jiang Ding saw time changing, the cycle of all things, the surrounding mountains, forests, and trees disappearing. Even the blue sky vanished without a trace, leaving behind only a hazy, extremely dim chaos where space and time no longer moved or flowed.

He could only wander aimlessly through the chaos, oblivious to the passage of years.

Suddenly, an orange glow appeared. Jiang Ding focused his gaze and saw an orange light, floating erratically just like him, flickering on and off.

An innate aversion arose within him for this little thing, and he distanced himself from it.

As time went on, he saw other light particles, green, yellow, blue, and he felt some affinity towards the blue particles, staying near them for a while.

But before long, he left, instinctively knowing that he was searching for something.

After an indeterminate amount of time, finally, a golden-white light appeared before his eyes, giving him a feeling of closeness far greater than that of any other particles.

Without hesitation, Jiang Ding flew towards it, merging with it. He lingered there for a long time, unwilling to leave, until even the fluctuating frequencies seemed identical, almost indistinguishable from one another.

Jiang Ding’s vision blurred, and he awoke from his deep meditation, overwhelmed with an intense weariness as if he had been up for seven days and nights, utterly exhausted.

”I succeeded, the influence of the Divine Soul is profound.”

Jiang Ding recalled his previous insights, changing his breathing and Divine Soul frequency bit by bit until, after a dozen minutes, it matched the frequency of the golden-white particles.

Instantly, a huge change occurred.

He could clearly sense the many Spiritual Energy particles in the air, gold, green, yellow, blue, red, five colors. Green, yellow, blue, and red particles paid him no attention, but some golden-white particles conveyed a sense of familiarity and voluntarily flew towards him, dancing and flowing around him.

Few, only about one percent of the Gold Affinity particles in the surrounding environment, were attracted.

”Cut!”

With a thought, Jiang Ding emitted a Sword Qi from his index finger, striking the ground and revealing an unfathomably deep hole.

”Indeed, it has been enhanced.”

Closing his eyes to sense for a moment, Jiang Ding concluded, ”It’s only about one percent, I suppose my imitation was too crude, attracting only one percent of Gold Affinity particles?”

”But it can still improve.”

Jiang Ding closed his eyes and sank into a state of cultivation.

For seven consecutive days, whether in class or practicing cultivation, Jiang Ding immersed himself in this intriguing exercise of imitation, making slight adjustments to the frequency of his Divine Soul, inching closer to a state of greater affinity with more Gold Affinity particles.

”Ten percent now, I’ve hit a bottleneck, and I don’t know the reason.”

Jiang Ding opened his eyes, ending the imitation game, and said with a hint of regret.

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He guessed it was probably because he lacked Divine Sense. No matter how closely a person could imitate a bird, even if their demeanor was exactly the same, the difference in appearance meant it just wouldn’t work.

Whoosh!

Jiang Ding reached out and summoned the blue-gold sapling, over a meter in height and as brilliant as the sun beneath the shade of the trees. It shrank and transformed into a foot-long Flying Sword, disappearing into his hand.

In the distance, automatic surveillance drones on patrol returned, transmitting the monitoring footage from a day ago over several tens of kilometers.

”Hmm, it’s been more than a month, and many cities in Yue Country have had their order restored.”

”Reclaiming wasteland, disaster relief, clearing wild beasts, and even preliminary treatment of the big river, the water and land management projects of the dynasty’s early years are starting.”

”Tang Wang truly has the appearance of a wise monarch. He deserves to have his body left intact.”

Jiang Ding kept talking to himself and was about to leave, to end today’s Cultivation session, when he suddenly paused.

In the direction of Yuejing which was under close surveillance, a bolt of lightning that seemed to come from nowhere struck down from the sky, blasting a hole several zhang in size through the golden roof of the palace. Through the vaporized glazed tile edges, one could vaguely see a body clad in dragon robes with only half of its overripe head left.

It was Tang Wang.

He began his rise in a remote corner of Dongling, swept across the entire land, and swallowed up the whole nation to become the founding emperor of Tang Country, its first enlightened ruler.

Beside his headless corpse, one could vaguely make out a dozen figures, all in crimson and purple robes, including gold-armored generals. Their bodies were charred black, already carbonized.

The entire palace was plunged into chaos, as countless guards and palace maids scattered in fear under the Heavenly Might.

In the sky, the lightning fell at a leisurely pace, turning the palace guards and maids with peculiar auras into carbonized bodies, while the normal ones were unharmed, regardless of their status.

A figure in black appeared out of nowhere, flying frantically in the sky. They were at least at the Late-stage Qi Practicing in Cultivation Base and fell from the sky under a strike of lightning, no different from a mortal.

In a matter of breaths, the lightning swept through the palace and then vanished.

It was suspicious that the deaths of the emperor and a large number of high-ranking ministers should have triggered chaos that swept across the entire city, and then plunged the entire world into chaos again, sparking another round of warlords fighting for supremacy.

However, in reality, the chaos was quickly quelled, and even the capital city didn’t really fall into disarray.

”Foundation building measures!”

Jiang Ding said gravely, ”It shares similarities with Master Mianshan’s Magic. Could it be that Qiyu Sect emerged victorious in the war and is now cleaning up its dominion?”

”Or is it a trap? Perhaps the death of that black-robed person with the complex identity is meant to lure me into their net.”

”Not likely,”

Jiang Ding shook his head, ”Logically, whoever killed the black-robed person in such a short time is likely at the foundation building level. I am merely a martial artist at Internal Qi Perfection, why would they use someone at the foundation building level to trap me?”

”That being the case, the Qiyu Sect’s Ascending Immortal Conference is about to begin.”

”Should I participate?”

Jiang Ding looked unsure and couldn’t make up his mind for a moment.

He collected the nearby Concealment Array Flags then vanished in a flash, heading towards the nearest Chizhong Mansion.

...

Several hours later,

Jiang Ding returned to Chizhong Mansion. The bloodstains on the city walls were not yet dry, and there were many fewer people than before, most of them relocated here following Tang Wang’s edicts from various places.

The city had become more desolate but order was still decent. Most people on the streets were in haste, as if all industries were awaiting revival.

In just one day, the great change in the capital city had not yet reached here, everything remained as it was.

Jiang Ding was not in a hurry. He casually found a corner and left, and it was not until the seventh day, when the changes that began in Yuejing finally reached this place, that he started walking in one direction.

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