Chapter 1165

Boom—!

The fifth order of Lei Ting slashed down!

This Lei Ting carried destruction order so dense, so terrifying, it neared the edge of rule-force, touching upon something capable of altering cosmic laws.

"Hah!"

"Good! Exactly as it should be! What was all that hesitation before?!"

Jiang Ding laughed, hand pressing on his sword hilt.

Clang!

Boom—!

A sword cry, rivaling thunder, exploded across heaven and earth; then the starry sky darkened and flared for an instant—a rising sun was born within the stars, illuminating all of heaven and earth.

This was a great sun!

Around this radiant sun, six semi-transparent ripples of order—destruction order, law-breaking order, spell-prohibiting order, distortion order, meta-magnetism order, sword Dao order—circled it, their strength tenfold greater than at Golden Core peak.

Surrounding this radiant sun was a real, tangible sword Dao world, where countless sword qi lived, cycled, and amplified the sun's radiance at least several times over.

"Kill!"

Jiang Ding murmured.

Boom!

The rising sun!

This terrifying sword Dao radiant sun rose straight upward, striking the fifth heavenly tribulation Lei Ting dead-center, silently swallowing it; within the great sun, destruction thunder and solar light flared and flickered, their aura fluctuating wildly—sometimes collapsing abruptly, sometimes shrinking violently.

In an instant.

Boom!

Part of the great sun detonated; space dissolved, order shattered.

Amidst brilliant spiritual light, a cyan-purple divine thunderbolt broke free from the sun's grasp, emerging from the sword Dao world, about to act—when the great sun caught up again, utterly shattering the thunder.

The remaining fragments of the radiant sun, now unimpeded, slammed into the storm clouds, shattering vast swathes of thunderclouds, destroying their Lei Ting order, leaving a hollow of hundreds of kilometers in the blackened sky that lingered for a long time without fading.

The heavy pressure of the heavenly tribulation thus weakened considerably.

Clang!

In a soft sword cry, Tai Qing Flying Sword spun back and landed in the hands of the youth in green robes.

"Ahh~ Hah!"

Jiang Ding laughed, proud and self-satisfied, radiant with spirit: "True Immortal's child, true-blooded dragon-phoenix offspring—in Soul Transformation Realm, how do you compare to this Lord?"

"I truly wish to meet…"

He sighed.

"Quickly, let me encounter a true prodigy, so I may awaken from this swollen madness, this terrifying delusion of wanting to grab a Void Refinement cultivator and crush him to death."

After breaking through to Soul Transformation, Jiang Ding's magic power and spiritual sense surged over tenfold!

Especially his soul, instantly transforming from Golden Core into Primordial Spirit,

which felt unsteady, translucent and hazy in places under the torrent of heavenly spiritual energy, slightly swollen, as if about to tear open.

This was the "Five Qi Tribulation" every Soul Transformation cultivator must endure.

Primordial Spirit perceives the heart of heaven, manipulates cosmic currents—its pressure is too terrifying; the body and soul must be reinforced to bear it.

Magic cultivators and specialized variants like sword cultivators adopt the classic secret technique known as "Five Qi Chao Yuan"; no matter the sect, no Soul Transformation secret escapes this classic structure.

In simple terms, it is the cultivator's process of balancing the five elemental roots—using heavenly treasures, using Ben Ming Fa, through beast taming—methods vary.

After completing the Five Qi Chao Yuan foundation, both soul and body gain tremendous stability.

This is often a great tribulation for cultivators; over half of them die at this threshold during Soul Transformation Ascension, their bodies and souls unable to contain the massive magic power, exploding from within—single-element root cultivators face even greater peril here.

Jiang Ding, however, needed none of this.

As his magic power and spiritual sense swelled, nearly tearing him apart, the Five Qi Chao Yuan techniques of his Immortal Sect and Great Sun Sword Pavilion merely flowed through his entire body in an instant, resolving this terrifying Soul Transformation barrier.

This was not his uniqueness.

Within the Immortal Sect, all powerhouses who cultivated the "Chu Ying Qi Fei Jian Jue" naturally possessed this advantage.

The vast majority of citizens support the Immortal Sect—this is no empty claim.

At Golden Core stage, Tian Ling Gen and two- to three-element root cultivators dominate the Immortal Sect's Golden Core ranks; five-element root cultivators are rare—this is fact, since five-element root mortals are born with heavy innate burdens; even with vast numbers, few among them become strong.

The strong grow stronger; the weak grow weaker.

This is the cold law of the world.

Yet at Soul Transformation stage, this situation is completely reversed!

Among Immortal Sect Soul Transformation cultivators, five-element root mortals make up over half the total!

Any Immortal Sect cultivator who reached Golden Core peak with five-element roots is a prodigy of the sect—having struggled through thorns and brambles to reach today, their chance of ascending to Soul Transformation is far greater than peers of the same stage.

This is why the vast majority of citizens support the Immortal Sect!

"Heavenly tribulation!"

"Bring it on!"

Jiang Ding pressed his sword hilt, gazing at the sky.

In an instant, he had completed body integration via the Five Qi Chao Yuan technique; though only Hua Shen Chu Qi, his cultivation was as stable as if polished for centuries.

Moreover, he ascended directly to Hua Shen Chu Qi peak!

This was the overflow of profound foundation after Tribulation Crossing,

like a flood unleashed—impossible to restrain.

In the starry sky, the Lei Ting storm clouds, once cleaved by his sword, had healed.

Amidst lightning and thunder, the Lei Ting clouds emitted deep, guttural roars; within the clouds, chaotic and illusory runes flickered, merged, transformed, radiating unfathomable energy.

Clang!

At a certain moment, within the Lei Ting, a sword hum rang out.

That sword hum exploded like the rule of thunder itself, brimming with destruction, deathly stillness, and the cold, murderous air of one who wields the heavens' punishment.

In that instant, the figure of a black-robed swordsman surfaced in everyone's mind — his face cold and aloof, a black sheathed longsword cradled in his arms, his hazy silhouette emerging within the endless Lei Gao Jie storm clouds.

"This…"

"This is…"

The green-robed youth laughing wildly beneath the storm clouds suddenly sobered, every hair on his body standing on end, a chill running down his spine.

He caught an achingly familiar scent!

A kindred spirit!

A sword cultivator!

And at Hua Shen Chu Qi, seemingly having just weathered his Lei Gao Jie as well — yet the aura he radiated brought Jiang Ding a terrifying pressure.

His very divine soul trembled, afraid and yet thrilled.

That was… a projection etched into the heavenly tribulation — the figure of some sword-dao prodigy from the endless starry sky!

In some unknowable age, when that sword-dao prodigy underwent his tribulation, his aura was etched into the heavenly tribulation; now, with the appearance of yet another transcendent sword cultivator, an ordinary heavenly tribulation could not destroy it, and so it was reflected forth.

"Might I ask your name, sir?"

Jiang Ding drew a deep breath, hand resting on his sword hilt, and asked in a tone touched with respect.

Even though it was only a phantom.

It was an instinct.

When facing a powerful foe, his divine soul had a keen premonition — as if his soul instinctively treated this phantom as a fully living cultivator, believing he would answer.

The black-robed sword-dao prodigy's phantom, standing amid the hazy Lei Gao Jie storm clouds with a black-sheathed longsword in his arms, let his gaze fall upon the green-robed youth and considered briefly.

A moment later, he decided he ought to answer the green-robed youth below.

"My name is Xuan."

"The current Heavenly Sword Sword-Son of the Lei Yang Heavenly Sword Realm — one of this world's Jiudaxian Sect, which annihilated the last generation's Jiudaxian Sect's Nine Hells Demon Abyss and Spirit Treasure Realm."