Chapter 1126: The Great Sun Sword-Bearer

"What's with all this 'as to' or 'not as to'?"

Mie Ri Canghai Tianjun was baffled.

"Just this…"

Jiang Ding pointed at the hundreds of millions of warships spread across the Immortal Gate's orbits, and at the Immortal Gate itself, which had already entered full wartime mobilization.

"This!"

"What on earth are you thinking, kid!"

Mie Ri Canghai Tianjun suddenly understood and slapped Jiang Ding's forehead: "This is a protective response measure. The great powers of the Badaxian Sect may very well be unwilling to let the Immortal Gate give birth to a Void Refinement cultivator. Although we face the threat of Jiao Jiao Mingyu, you never know which old fossil might lose his head, join forces, and come to crush the Immortal Gate's hope of transcendence."

"This possibility must be guarded against."

"These old fossils are each and every one despicable, shameless, and extraordinarily cunning. We must never relax our guard against them for even a moment. We have to stay vigilant every single second."

"In theory, even if the Immortal Gate's newly born Void Refinement cultivator is slain by the Badaxian Sect, for the sake of survival we will have no choice but to compromise. After all, the Horned Demon Imperial Clan doesn't look like the sort of being one could form an alliance with."

Mie Ri Canghai Tianjun said.

"Under the shadow of survival, any grudge, no matter how deep, must be set aside for now."

"If in the end we fall into such a state—having our teeth knocked out and swallowing them, yet still having to force a smile for them—that would be far too pathetic."

"So that's how it is!"

Jiang Ding suddenly understood.

"Wait, is Senior Yuan ascending to Void Refinement?"

Jiang Ding instantly seized the key point.

"It's him. His foundation is far too deep—it's already reached a point he can no longer control."

"Worthy of the Immortal Gate's Yuan!"

Mie Ri Canghai Tianjun wore an expression of shared honor.

The surrounding Immortal Gate Canghai Tianjun were similar. Yuan was their teacher and elder, a senior who had once instructed them; the bond between them was no small matter.

'However, you must not let your guard down either.'

Mie Ri Canghai Tianjun sent a private transmission to Jiang Ding and sighed: 'If the Immortal Gate gives birth to a Void Refinement cultivator, and if he wishes, he can break us from within. The damage caused by one unit of his strength is greater than ten or twenty units of strength from the Sect's great powers. What's more, many Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun and Soul Transformation Canghai Tianjun could possibly be turned against us.'

'Do not underestimate a Void Refinement cultivator simply because he is newly born.'

'This possibility is very small, isn't it?'

Jiang Ding asked.

Yuan was probably the person of the highest moral character in the Immortal Gate.

'Little fellow,'

'I don't know.'

Mie Ri Canghai Tianjun shook his head slightly: 'Moral character is composed of interests and a cultivator's realm of thought. You should understand this.'

'In the past, the Immortal Gate's peak Soul Transformation cultivators had little desire for resources—they had already cultivated to the very peak.'

'Compared to resources, the Immortal Gate's collective wisdom in deducing Void Refinement Gong Fa was instead more'

'important.'

'But after reaching Void Refinement, things may be different. After maintaining such a vast enterprise, the Immortal Gate will very likely only barely be able to support a Void Refinement cultivator, unable to supply him with too many resources. His cultivation may therefore become slow, unable to compare with peers of the Sect.'

'No—basically it will be far, far inferior to peers of the Sect!'

'A Sect's Void Refinement cultivator has an entire sect devoted to supporting one person. The resources he can obtain will exceed those of an Immortal Gate Void Refinement cultivator by tenfold, by dozens of times.'

'Under such circumstances, will the Immortal Gate's Void Refinement cultivator harbor disloyal thoughts? Will he be content?'

'We don't know.'

'The cornerstone of moral character is interests and emotional morality—like a person's two legs. But now one leg is crippled, and we don't know what the result will be.'

'Now, do you understand?'

'I understand, Senior.'

Jiang Ding's heart felt heavy.

"Ding!"

"Commander of the Great Sun Star Sky Fleet Special Group Army, Jiang Ding. The sixth-tier combat assistance system is now activating for you…"

At that moment, a voice appeared in Jiang Ding's divine soul.

Hum!

The Immortal Gate's massive battle formations spread across various orbits now activated, casting streams of formation patterns toward a youth in blue. They swirled around him, stretching across thousands of kilometers, resembling an enormous formation-path auxiliary rune mecha.

"Sixth-tier combat assistance system?"

Sensing the formation patterns in his divine soul waiting to be connected like data lines, Jiang Ding's face went blank.

"It was designed by Yuan and the others."

Mie Ri Canghai Tianjun sighed softly: "They—at least at the moment they reached peak Soul Transformation—were still the Immortal Gate's leaders, the most steadfast and most reliable cultivators within the Immortal Gate."

"Yet even they themselves could not be certain whether their mindset would undergo a great change after reaching Void Refinement."

"This sixth-tier combat assistance system was designed precisely for this reason. Wherever the Immortal Gate's sixth-tier battle formation exists, it can be deployed. Its function is to enhance your divine soul reaction speed and sword-intent reaction speed, thereby allowing you to lock onto Void Refinement-level enemies with greater precision."

"Give it a try. Don't let their painstaking efforts be in vain."

There was an inexplicable melancholy in Mie Ri Canghai Tianjun's voice.

As a cultivator ascends, reaching ever higher realms, the entire person transforms toward the inhuman. Many cultivators thus become increasingly unfamiliar.

"Mm!"

Jiang Ding nodded heavily.

His divine sense and sword intent no longer hesitated. Following the prompts of the formation patterns in his sea of consciousness—patterns like data lines—he precisely connected to them, completing the linkage of over ten million divine soul data lines.

Hum!

The instant the docking was completely finished, Jiang Ding's divine soul fell into a momentary freeze.

After a moment, he gradually adapted.

At this time, Jiang Ding looked around

and discovered that many things in heaven and earth were different.

All people, all objects, had become incomparably slow—even the light had slowed considerably. Between heaven and earth appeared some faint, flickering lines—those were the rules of the cosmic starry sky…

Jiang Ding was greatly shaken.

He instinctively wanted to draw his sword and spar a bit, but discovered his body was like an old, broken-down machine—long after an order was issued did it finally respond, his hand slowly coming to rest on the sword hilt.

"This sixth-tier war assistance system still has flaws; it cannot enhance your combat ability. Your body's and magic power's reactions are too slow to keep up."

Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun's voice came through, as if separated by a vast distance, a single word popping out only after a long while.

"This war assistance system was originally meant to be brought out only after you advanced to Refining Void or possessed Refining Void-tier combat power. Right now it's still far from complete."

"However, if it's only locking onto an enemy, that can still be done with ease."

"Understood."

Jiang Ding nodded, took some time, and gradually adapted to himself in this state.

Relying on the Immortal Gate's military formation, his reaction was enhanced by dozens of times, combined with abilities like breaking concealment and super-computation. It seemed even if a Great Emperor of the Horned Demon Imperial Clan appeared before his eyes, it would no longer seem mysterious, lofty, and incomprehensible, but rather something that could be analyzed.

Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun and the other Immortal Gate generals flew off the Immortal Gate's orbit, then each dispersed, entering their own starry sky fortresses, merging as one with the Immortal Gate's military formation.

Jiang Ding himself also landed at the core area of the Immortal Gate's military formation.

The super warship Great Sun skyborne mothership instantly deployed outward tens of thousands of unmanned warships and fighters, extending formation after formation of runes, merging with the Immortal Gate's military formation, flowing into this collective—strengthening the collective while receiving the protection of this terrifying starry-sky military formation, no distinction between self and other.

The Great Sun Unmanned Starry Sky Group Army was instantly fully deployed.

Jiang Ding looked around.

Beside them were the Cang Hai Starry Sky Group Army, the Mie Ri Starry Sky Group Army, the Ping Yang Starry Sky Group Army, and other Immortal Gate forces, each composed of tens of thousands of citizens' skyborne motherships, skyborne warships, and skyborne fighters. Their loyalty was to the Immortal Gate as a common collective, not to any single Canghai Tianjun.

Hundreds of thousands of kilometers of cosmic starry sky were filled with the Immortal Gate's steel fleet.

Within the layered protection and surveillance of the military formations, a green-robed old man sat calmly in the starry sky, his demeanor serene and composed.

This was the Immortal Gate's ruler—Yuan.

Jiang Ding held his breath.

The aura on the green-robed old man gradually became vast, like Rushan, like the sea, far exceeding the limit of Soul Transformation, and the aura was still continuously intensifying.

At a certain moment.

Boom—!

In the endless starry sky, countless dark, heavy Lei Gao Jie thunderclouds rolled in, emanating an aura that made Soul Transformation cultivators tremble with fear. At such a moment, all living beings of heaven and earth went blank in mind, losing all sensation.

At such a moment, their minds went blank, losing all sensation.

The Refining Void Lei Gao Jie had arrived!