Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

”Escaped?”

Remnants of sword intent lingered on his shoulder, he closed his eyes to sense.

At first, it was over a hundred kilometers away, then several hundred kilometers, and after multiple leaps, it vanished thousands of kilometers away, losing contact, only the general direction was known.

After that, he faintly sensed a spatial seal in the sword intent from afar, and even the general direction faded away.

This meant the opponent had set up several short-range teleportation formations nearby in advance.

”Space can block the Sword Intent of Destruction!”

”Perhaps at a closer distance, it could still be sensed, but whether that’s several tens of kilometers or just a dozen, I can’t be certain.”

”The just-born Sword Intent of Destruction is still not strong enough...”

Jiang Ding muttered to himself, stopping his pursuit.

A worry began to emerge in his heart.

In the face of Foundation-building cultivators and Qi Practitioners, the Sword Intent of Destruction was invincible, but now, stepping into the Golden Core Battlefield, some Golden Pill Monks had already mastered powers like space of this level, no longer having the overwhelming advantage.

If he wanted to become stronger,

he needed to temper his sword intent to an even higher realm!

This was also the reason why the past generations of Dari Swordsmen crazily pursued the peer Taoist disciples of the Eight Immortal Sects, wanting to hunt them down for their life and Divine Souls.

Now, he faced the same predicament.

...

Xiandu.

The headmasters of the Nascent Soul stage from the No. 12 Universities and the teachers of the Air-Space Combat System course all divided a thread of their Divine Senses to gather and watch the delayed video of the cross-realm examination.

Seeing this, all the headmasters frowned.

”Dinghai, there’s a Taoist of Five Elements from the Five Elements Heavenly Sect at Qingfeng University, right? Keep a close eye on him and add another layer to his protection magic,”

the headmaster of Beidou University, Immortal Liexing, solemnly said.

”Otherwise, if he uses some method to kill the Taoist of Five Elements, we’ll have to figure out a way to clean up for him. We can’t just offer up our own because someone else’s disciple died, can we?”

”Acting as a replacement, changing Divine Souls, and other such magic that can be kept secret from the Five Elements Heavenly Sect’s Masters of Refining Nothingness are not easy to perform.”

”Rest assured, it’s impossible!”

Immortal Dinghai, Zhang Zhen, grinned sheepishly: ”The protection standards Xianmen Sect provides for the Taoist of Five Elements are very high; a mid-stage Foundation Building cultivator can’t kill him, you can be at ease.”

”It’s better to be cautious in all matters, you can’t go wrong.”

Another headmaster reminded, as this was no joke.

According to historical records, disciples from the Great Sun Sword Pavilion from past generations have devised many cunning tricks, some of which were indeed successful.

For example, successfully bribing a Nascent Soul Monk from an extreme hawk faction of a certain Immortal Sects to be confined with a Five Elements Taoist attempting to break through Foundation Building, or trying to incite a war between the Five Elements Heavenly Sect and Xianmen Sect...

With desire, there is always a way to find a method with a glimmer of hope.

”Okay, okay, I’ll follow your advice and add another layer of protection, happy now?”

Immortal Dinghai waved his hand dismissively.

...

”A captive!”

”The captives from Liyun Sect have restrictions left by Immortal Li Hai on their bodies; their flesh is disintegrating, save them.”

”We haven’t yet interrogated intelligence from their Divine Souls!”

Jin Lingfeng’s face changed dramatically, jolting Jiang Ding awake from his deep thought.

He looked towards the intelligence coming from the scouting formation at the camp headquarters.

At the Yunzong Mountain Gate, many remaining Liyun cultivators were wailing miserably, twisting and crawling on the ground, with flesh and blood peeling off their bones, turning into light blue smoke that dissolved into the air.

”Wait a moment.”

Jiang Ding turned into a grey-blue Escaping Light, flying into the distance at a speed that far surpassed the Air-Space Warplane, even with the boost formed by the Third-rank Military Formation.

A few dozen breaths later, he arrived at the Yunzong Mountain Gate.

His sword intent and Divine Sense scanned a ten-kilometer radius.

”Between the Divine Soul, meridians, and flesh, there is a presence of Blood Soul Incense.”

Jiang Ding quickly detected the abnormality.

”Just like that small city sacrificed by blood, it is the presence of Blood Soul Incense that causes their Divine Souls and flesh to dissolve, offering sacrifices to some evil deity in the unknown.”

Soon, at the core of the Yunzong Mountain Gate Formation, he discovered something odd.

Whoosh!

A stream of light blue Sword Qi shot out from his fingertips, striking a pitch-black boulder.

Moments later, the boulder crumbled into a pile of grey-white powder, revealing what was inside.

A palm-sized Guanyin statue with a weird smile on its face, with a dense aura of resentment and incense.

”Namo merciful Guanyin!”

The dissolving Divine Souls and flesh of the Liyun Sect cultivators, mixed with strands of incense, were being transmitted through it to an unknown space.

Clang!

The Taiqing Flying Sword unsheathed, slicing the figure of the Merciful Guanyin in two, with faint wisps of the Sword Intent of Destruction seeping into it.

The statue crumbled into crumbs.

”Sacrilege!”

In the obscurity, Jiang Ding saw a distant blood-red space, where countless blood souls and ghostly shadows encircled a merciful Guanyin who cast an awe-inspiring and terrifying gaze.

His breath hitched.

Power like a prison, power like the sea!

”Lay down the butcher’s knife and become a Buddha on the spot!”

”Asura, quickly convert to my Buddhism...”

”...and ascend to the ultimate bliss of the Western Paradise...”

One voice after another rang in his ears, some with commanding threats, some with kind persuasion, others with desperate entreaty, varying in their approach.

”Shut up.”

Jiang Ding’s brows furrowed.

Clang!

A flash of the Sword Intent of Destruction silenced these noises.

”Jiang Ding, this is incense heresy. Be careful!”

Jin Lingfeng flew over from a distance, landing on the ground and hurriedly said, ”It occasionally appears among the extra-terrestrial Immortal Sects. For instance, the Xuanwu Heavenly Palace seals 365 Heavenly Palace Protector Generals, all of Nascent Soul level strength.”

”Some cultivators also covet the convenience of incense for breakthroughs in cultivation, but often nine out of ten fall into devilry and die, and the remaining one loses their self, becoming an entity within the follower’s incense, a different creature.”

”Immortal Li Hai must have obtained a similar inheritance.”

”Strong they may not be, but cultivation represents the strongest, the highest achievement of Immortal Path technology, though they possess some bizarre methods, which infiltrate the Divine Soul. One careless moment could lead one astray.”

”Understood.”

Jiang Ding nodded.

However, with the Sword Intent of Destruction, he believed he should not be afraid.

”Immortal Li Hai’s rebellion has lasted three years, yet he still remains here. It should be for this reason—he has established his ’Divine Kingdom’ somewhere, a gathering place of incense.”

”While they say incense is shapeless and formless, ultimately there are traces to follow.”

An Siyan deduced.

”As long as we gather enough incense data, we can entrust the Canghai Steel Floating Island Base’s Array Spirit to deduce his location. Then we can strike, destroying it.”

Around them,

besides the Air-Space Camp led by Ou Daocheng, the others had temporarily disembarked from the Air-Space Warplane, busily going up and down the Yunzong Mountain Gate.

Setting up formation methods to measure incense data, gathering the bones of the fallen citizens, restoring the damaged Spiritual Vein, and so on.

The most important task was,

to pass judgment on the Yunzong Sect cultivators who had fortuitously survived.

One Soul Searching Talisman after another, and even the occasional use of simple soul searching magic, led to piteous screams uninterrupted, like a domain of Evil Spirits.

Some showed mercy,

others looked away,

and some had an icy demeanor.

After a long time, much intelligence gathered at the headquarters.

”Hey!”

”Found something interesting; someone had the chance to be a human but chose to be a dog, and a native’s dog, at that.”

Ou Daocheng, charged with sorting the intelligence, suddenly sneered and shared a video obtained from a Divine Soul at headquarters.

In the footage,

a young man shouted hoarsely, periodically gesturing wildly with his arms while a group of the Yunzong Sect’s foundation-building cultivators and Qi Practitioners listened attentively below.

”Equality! Equality! Equality!”

”No matter how many times, I must speak of equality!”

”The Xianmen Sect has been occupied by evil-doers, usurped, turned into a Demon School!”

”We must stand up and resist, defeat their evil forces, kill all those evil high-ups, liberate the people of Xianmen, and let Xianmen be great again...”

”Indeed interesting.”

Many classmates smiled faintly.

”Based on his appearance, check out his background information.”

As it related to a military mission, they now had extensive authority, even able to access information of other citizens involved in military missions if there was conclusive evidence.

Soon, the Canghai Steel Floating Island military base transmitted information.

”Gu Shixiong, ID number 12..., Minor Completion of Eaglet Qi, spiritless, a graduate student of the class of 27 from the Department of Social Sciences at Qingfeng University, under Professor Liu Zhiyuan. Entered the Canghai Small World seven years ago on a tourist visa...”