Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

As they moved into the heart of the leaves, everyone stopped their whispered conversations, settling down obediently around a stone platform.

There was already one person here.

An amiable elder, wearing a simple gray robe, without any imposing aura, his dull expression made him seem like a wooden puppet as he stared into the sky, lost in thought.

Jiang Ding couldn’t help but hold his breath.

Without any exaggeration, the individual before him was the most outstanding figure in this domain, among the countless beings, in the past three thousand years!

With the body of Divinity Transformation, using the heritage of the predecessors as a foundation stone, he led the participation in the Refinement Void Battlefield, thus laying the groundwork for the dominance of Xianmen Sect!

As for why he was now staring blankly, Jiang Ding had a guess in his mind.

If all went as expected, he was probably deducing the path for Xianmen Sect to reach Refining Nothingness.

As a cultivator at the Peak of Hua Shen, only something like this could cause him to neglect even his own incarnations, awaking only at specific times.

Dong, dong, dong...

The melodious sound of the bell signaling the start of class echoed, with layers of sound waves spreading in all directions.

”Teacher, good morning!”

Along with Jiang Ding, all the Golden Pill and Foundation-building cultivators stood up in unison, bowing to pay their respects, just as if they were in a primary school classroom many years ago.

There was no substantial difference between the two.

”Oh, is it time for class already?”

”Where did we leave off last time?”

The elder in the gray robe recovered some liveliness from his dull expression, a look of confusion in his eyes, which cleared after a moment, ”Classmates, please open to page 7642 in the 11100 year edition of ’Infant Formation’ from the Xianmen textbooks.”

Jiang Ding hurriedly connected to the library and opened the relevant pages of ”Infant Formation”.

This was the standard textbook for doctoral students in the Cultivation Department of Xianmen.

Despite being a standard textbook, it had a very high level of confidentiality; there were no physical books, and lower-level cultivators needed to pass a knowledge storage assessment every time they read it, to prevent them from becoming possessed or exploited by outsiders.

”...The Nascent Soul of a cultivator is the highly condensed product of the combination of Spirit, Spiritual Energy, and Mana, an artificially created semi-spiritual being that cultivators throughout the ages have created in their pursuit of longevity, naturally attuned to and controlling Spiritual Energy.

Nascent Soul can exist for a long time independent of the body, which is like a hut to it, no longer essential, but at the same time one must see that the body plays an important role for the Nascent Soul, representing further hope...”

He spoke these words slowly.

His voice was soft and unhurried, starting from the principle, explaining to the surrounding cultivators the formation of the Nascent Soul, its historical background, current research, and so forth.

To each listener, the words differed, tailored to each individual’s understanding and Cultivation Method.

Often, just a few words could clarify a difficult problem.

Teachers at Xianmen Sect, including Immortal Dinghai, all learned from him; their teaching methods and attitudes toward students were the same.

He was the successor to the sixth generation of rulers, the late Wu, and his educational philosophy, achieving great success.

It could even be said that when it came to pure teaching ability, he surpassed Refining Nothingness.

His shortcoming lay in lacking the Refining Nothingness heritage.

He had to face on his own the countless millennia of Immortal Path accumulation from the Eight Great Immortal Sects, the Immortal Dao prowess of countless Great Experts, thus often at a disadvantage.

Time passed leisurely,

During the lecture, three months went by unnoticed.

”...At the Nascent Soul stage, one must pay special attention to the changes and movement patterns of Heavenly Earth Spiritual Qi to control and gather their power.”

”It is best to start this kind of training now.”

He wrapped up his lecture and asked, ”Do any of the students have questions they wish to ask?”

He generally didn’t discuss specific Cultivation Methods, Formation Methods, or Talismans; those were matters for Immortal Dinghai and others.

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However, if there are any doubts in this area, feel free to ask.

”Teacher, the Golden Pill chapter of the ’All-transforming Magnetic Origin Sutra’, the seventh section...”

Jiang Ding hastily seized the opportunity to ask about some recent difficulties he encountered in the cultivation method he had switched to, always feeling it wasn’t quite smooth, yet he couldn’t articulate anything specific.

”Here...”

In just a few words, Teacher Zhang pointed out the existing problems.

”And here, and here, and here... I don’t really understand, my comprehension isn’t enough.”

Jiang Ding showed no shame, pointing out seventeen or eighteen areas one after another where he felt his understanding fell short, and sought guidance from his teacher.

Occasionally, after several explanations, he still didn’t understand, so he asked again.

”If we consider it in terms of Sword Dao, you could think of it as a sword...”

Teacher Zhang was very accustomed to this type of teaching, expounding on the problem over and over from various angles, swiftly finding a teaching method that would make it easier for the student before him to understand.

Back and forth went the exchange between teacher and student.

Before long, another month had passed.

”Student Jiang Ding, how is the progress of your research on the Infant Formation secret technique?”

As the class was nearing its end, Teacher Zhang suddenly asked.

”Extremely difficult!”

”The progress is incredibly slow!”

Jiang Ding, his spirit lifting, looked up with great eagerness and said, ”The Great Sun Nascent Soul Art, even with part of the inheritance, is still too difficult, for both Teacher Zhang and me.”

”Our scholarly knowledge isn’t enough, the foundation in the Immortal Path is insufficient, the difficulties we’ve encountered have exceeded our expectations, and it might take entering hibernation and generations of researchers to succeed.”

This was the joint conclusion reached by Zhang Junsheng and him after several months of developing the secret technique.

The Great Sun Nascent Soul Art was already a top-tier Nascent Soul level magic within their domain, and while Zhang Junsheng was considered an elite among his peers, and quite outstanding among the Nascent Souls — managing a research direction within Xianmen, it was still not enough.

Of course, Jiang Ding did not rashly request help.

The time of cultivators is extremely precious, especially for those cultivators who have reached the peak and are facing bottlenecks. Often, being just a few hundred years away from a breakthrough could make all the difference.

Would it not be tragic to watch helplessly as your own lifespan comes to an end because you were distracted by other matters?

To impetuously ask someone to spend a large amount of time and a significant portion of their life to help oneself, that would indeed be quite impolite.

”I’ll do it.”

Teacher Zhang nodded, ”I will make some time to help you, but I’m very busy, and I won’t be stationed in the lab permanently. If you encounter related problems, come find me, and we can discuss them together.”

”Thank you, Teacher!”

Jiang Ding was overjoyed and stood up, bowing deeply, his heart filled with gratitude.

”Don’t mention it, this too is for the sake of my own path.”

Teacher Zhang waved his hand and looked up at the sky, letting out a light sigh.

”Refining Nothingness, it’s damn hard!”

He cursed out loud.

”I’ve been in meditation for thousands of years, and the Xianmen Science Institute has been stumped on this issue for thousands of years. The more we research, the more difficult we find it, the path ahead is hazy and distant, without a clear route.”

”How on earth did the predecessors of the Nine Great Immortal Sects figure this out?”

”Could it really be that there were elite geniuses beyond our imagination who managed to forge a great path through a fog of confusion?”

Jiang Ding listened earnestly.

Such topics were too distant and profound for him, beyond his understanding. Speaking up would only embarrass himself.

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