Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

Severing cause and effect and evading trackers, somewhere in the Soulless Desert.

Jiang Ding concealed his figure, trekking over a hundred thousand miles without any markers, following the route mapped in his sea of divine consciousness.

After a continuous seven or eight days, he finally stopped over an unremarkable expanse of desert.

”It should be here.”

Jiang Ding pondered for a moment but did not start digging.

He spent several more days roaming another ten thousand miles around the vicinity, searching.

No one was ambushing, no covert surveillance methods were hidden.

Security confirmed.

Following this, Jiang Ding returned to the spot, sank underground, and after digging for a long time, a deep pit later, a dusty stone box appeared before his eyes.

”Divine Crow, long time no see.”

Jiang Ding greeted.

By natural deduction, this was where he had buried the sealed nascent soul of Divine Crow Immortal.

Because the God-transforming Level Soul Searching Talisman had not been delivered, and not wanting to violate his principle of bringing intelligent beings back to Xianmen Sect, he had randomly chosen a spot, buried it, and concealed it until now.

Several years had passed before a Nascent Soul Cultivator was free to casually draft a Soul Searching Talisman, list it on Rongshu Net to fulfill the order, earning some pocket money.

The price was one hundred seventy million low-grade spirit stones; the content of the fifth-order spirit coins had to exceed five percent.

Don’t complain about expense or delays.

It is already good enough for a Spirit Transformation Heavenly Monarch to spare time to serve you.

These were ancestors of ancestors... figures of patriarchal levels, each frighteningly wealthy.

To be considered as rich as a nation would be an insult to them; only being rich enough to rival the world was considered a proper way to praise others.

Click.

Jiang Ding brushed off the sand and dust, gently opening the gray box.

Inside, a palm-sized figure with a hooked nose and a sinister expression appeared before his eyes; its eyebrows occasionally furrowing, indicating some vitality still remained.

Having lived for several years in such an underground environment devoid of light and oxygen, without deteriorating.

”Nascent Soul, the gem of human Immortal Path civilization, truly miraculous.”

Jiang Ding exclaimed in admiration.

With a tap of his finger,

a faintly chaotic blue talisman emanated from between his fingers, resting on the small figure’s forehead. It was highly intelligent, emitting a trace after trace of faint blue lines, piercing into the small figure’s forehead, limbs, heart, and other places.

It seemed like a talisman but was, in fact, more akin to a one-time memory reader, brimming with a sci-fi aura.

”Ah...”

Under such a terrifying and brutal soul searching, the nascent soul of Divine Crow Immortal momentarily awoke, sharply opening its eyes and glaring hatefully at the young man in green.

Before it could speak, the spiritual light representing its rationality was destroyed, its body enveloped by layer upon layer of faint blue threads, immobilized, and gradually losing the spiritual aura that signified its existence as a living being, indistinguishable from a lifeless object.

Eventually, the blue light of the talisman faded, and the palm-sized nascent soul still retained its original appearance.

The next moment, the nascent soul collapsed into spiritual light, dissipating into nothingness, leaving no trace of its existence behind.

”Old Ding, may your journey be peaceful.”

Jiang Ding’s expression remained unchanged as he formed a mana technique with his hands, casting the Demolishing Spirit Elimination Skills sixteen times and the Superly Dharma sixteen times, eradicating any remaining aura at the original site, restoring the surrounding environment to a state as if no creature had ever passed.

”Let’s see...”

Jiang Ding picked up a cluster of faint blue spiritual light that floated above the nascent soul, reading it intently.

The Divine Soulmind of the Immortal of Nascent Soul had lived for over a thousand years, and his memories were too vast. Jiang Ding did not read them all but skimmed through them, looking for items of interest to him.

```

Several days later,

Jiang Ding set down the faint blue orb of light he had been holding.

”There’s some good news.”

Jiang Ding fell into thought, ”According to the memories of Divine Crow Immortal, he never encountered a Nascent Soul Cultivator in his lifetime. He never worshipped one, never met one, despite many legends, he truly never came across any.”

”This situation is quite common among the Immortals of Nascent Soul in the righteous and demonic alliance families, not unique to him alone.”

”Even many believe that after the death of that invincible being years ago, no Divinity Transformation Cultivators have been born in this realm. It’s a prime time for the ambitious... The cruel internal wars among the Northern Plains families in history are mostly related to this. The Hei Clan, for instance, lost the majority of their territories due to an internal war and are barely surviving on the fringes of the Northern Plains. They are barely maintaining their family business by relying on the last rites between the Northern Plains families.”

”Of course, it cannot be fully trusted.”

Jiang Ding mused to himself.

”The lifespan of Divinity Transformation Cultivators is too long, ten thousand years. They are mostly active before reaching three or four thousand years of age. As they get older and there are no more people in the world they recognize, they start to show a strong tendency to withdraw from society.

Nascent Soul Cultivators, Golden Pill Monks, and Foundation-building cultivators are like ants to them. The struggles, joys, and sorrows within do not attract their gaze and hold no interest to them.”

”In this respect, the Xianmen Sect fares better, with various scientific researches and projects keeping them exceedingly busy.”

”But still, there are many Heavenly Monarchs who have been in seclusion for a very long time. Without a crisis threatening the extinction of the Xianmen Sect, they are rarely seen in public.”

”Time passes to the extent that people have forgotten them. Generations die off, and except for a few individuals, no one in the world recognizes them anymore.”

”Either way, this is still good news. At least it means that there are no Divinity Transformation Heavenly Monarchs in the prime of their lives in the Northern Plains.”

A weight lifted from Jiang Ding’s heart.

Divinity Transformation Heavenly Monarchs in the prime of their lives are terrifying. They control the world, and all cultivators submit to them. Any rebellion is quelled instantly with a single palm strike, and all upheavals are pacified.

The whole world is under their dominion, with absolute power to take and demand at will.

However, such actions eventually become tiresome.

As time goes on, hundreds or thousands of years later, it becomes increasingly difficult to find traces of Heavenly Monarchs.

There’s nothing in the world that interests them anymore. The life and death struggles among Nascent Soul Monks are excessively boring to them, occurring as constantly as air, water, and sunlight.”

”What’s left of value is the intelligence between the major forces of the Northern Plains.”

Jiang Ding continued to read on.

”The righteous and demonic alliance is carrying out a ’Sect’s World’ plan, attempting to win over the collateral lineages of the Great Sun Sect and Great Sun Sword Sect by establishing a permanent alliance of Northern Plains families, each with their own domain, recognizing their ancestry and heritage, so that their bloodline and glory may live on unchanged forever.”

”This prospect is very tempting to many Nascent Soul Monks nurtured from a young age by the culture of the Northern Plains families. Many Immortals of Nascent Soul are tempted and did not kill or expel the messengers.”

”Some Nascent Soul Monks from the Great Sun Sect and Great Sun Sword Sect are tempted, and their recent behaviors have been somewhat ambiguous, causing the leaders of the two sects much agony. It is one of the largest separatist forces within their sects, involving many internal resources.”

”Among these tempted Nascent Soul Monks, a representative is True Master Yin Jiu, who defected from the Great Sun Sword Sect and joined the Liudao Sect.”

Jiang Ding saw a name.

”Originally surnamed Yin, he is from the Yin Clan’s Branch. Like many other collateral lineages during the two-hundred-year war, he harbored resentment towards the massacres and looting by the Direct Lineage. He joined the Great Sun Sect, practiced the Sword Dao, and despite many companions dying, he achieved the Nascent Soul through great opportunities and luck.”

”Now, True Master Yin Jiu has abandoned the Great Sun Sword Sect and the past familial hatred, returning to the Yin Clan. He was accepted and treated as if from the Direct Lineage, but this drew the hatred of the Iron Family and collective ostracism from other Nascent Soul Monks of the Northern Plains families.

Because True Master Yin Jiu’s hands are stained with the blood of many Direct Lineage cultivators, including a considerable number of Direct Lineage Golden Pill Monks and Immortals of Nascent Soul.”

”However, overall, True Master Yin Jiu was still accepted, inheriting the bloodline cultivation method of the Northern Plains families, receiving a vast amount of Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure, and advancing even further in his path. He’s even close to reaching the mid-stage of Nascent Soul. Divine Crow Immortal envied and resented him in secret.”

”The righteous and demonic alliance is also undergoing changes.”

Jiang Ding contemplated thoughtfully.

”Finally, in Divine Crow’s memories were the cultivation methods and magics – rigid and uncreative, far from the ingenuity of his ancestors. They are of limited value.”

”However, there was a substantial increase in understanding of the Great Sun Sword Sect – they come from the East Sea...”

”That’s all. I am close to a breakthrough in my cultivation. I should return now.”

Jiang Ding put away this orb of memories, shook his head, and left the place, vanishing from sight.