Chapter 1177: The Entire Heaven and Earth — Not a Single Person He Knows

Between Jiang Ding's fingers, spiritual light flickered unsteadily; within the sword qi, the six orders of the Dao revolved, arising and perishing, constantly arranging and recombining, seeking to find the six-path structure most suited to himself.

The sword qi's aura rose and fell, collapsing and exploding from time to time.

Only once, as if by a stroke of great fortune, did the sword qi's aura show some enhancement — but the principles and causes behind it were a complete fog, impossible to scan clearly even with a sevenfold divine soul of the same realm, a mass of chaos.

"Doing it by hand won't work."

"Need to set up a great array, or an ultra-high-standard laboratory — wonder if the Immortal Gate has anything similar…"

Jiang Ding stopped his exploratory attempts.

This was the difficulty of pioneering a breakthrough Gong Fa — going at it entirely alone simply wouldn't work; all manner of external conditions couldn't be met.

When ordinary sects encountered this kind of situation, they basically waited until their cultivation grew stronger — for instance, ascending to Refining Void, when the divine soul's computing power, observation, and scanning capabilities took a great leap forward — only then could they continue exploring. Otherwise, inspiration remained merely inspiration, with a long distance between it and true results.

As for trying to solve it with formations?

That was another difficult problem, likewise requiring waiting until he ascended to a higher realm.

This was a paradox.

In the Cultivation World, it was always the strongest cultivators who explored the road ahead — this was not without reason; various factors combined to produce it.

Even the Immortal Gate could not escape this common principle.

The difference was that the Immortal Gate had been walking this path from its weakest days, and now, the accumulated related disciplines, Immortal Dao industrial technology, and formation techniques had already been developed — no need to face the task of building numerous disciplines from scratch to solve this problem.

Jiang Ding withdrew his sword qi, spread out his divine sense, and extended it across all of Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting.

Strange.

Utterly strange.

This was the first thought in his heart.

Throughout all of Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting — from maidservants to administrative officials, to cultivators from various places coming for further study, to aged old Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun, to newly initiated cultivators… every single person, he did not recognize a single one.

In this city of his own, in the Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting he had personally established, he had become the only stranger.

These hundreds of thousands of cultivators filling the mountain — not one of them had he ever felt the slightest affection for; they were no different from strangers he had never met.

In that instant, a feeling of bleak desolation and loneliness sprouted in his heart.

Jiang Ding looked around.

It seemed as if only he alone remained between heaven and earth — lonely, desolate, without even a single companion to talk to; those low-level cultivators could hardly understand his thoughts.

"No wonder — the further cultivators go, the stranger their temperaments become…"

Jiang Ding gave a slight sigh: "After such an endless stretch of time, which of them isn't twisted, which of them isn't reclusive and cold, which of them doesn't regard all beings

as ants?"

"Of course, that doesn't include me."

"This sovereign is forever young, forever sixteen years old…"

In the great hall, a sudden silence fell.

"Someone come."

Jiang Ding said calmly.

Outside the Black Demon Palace, twelve maidservants at the peak of Nascent Soul, long swords at their waists, long skirts upon their bodies, stood quietly outside the palace, guarding their sovereign, taking turns to rest — a duty that had now continued for twelve hundred years.

For twelve hundred years, generation after generation of Nascent Soul maidservants were born, grew up, stood guard at the palace, and died, coming and going, experiencing cycle after cycle of reincarnation.

Their predecessors, their ancestors, themselves, and their descendants — all would forever guard this cold palace.

For countless years, the maidservants had treated this place as an extremely important forbidden ground.

They had subconsciously dismissed the possibility that this palace might still contain a living person.

So that when an unfamiliar voice suddenly appeared from within the palace, they all froze.

"Enemy attack!"

A maidservant of the six-tailed fox clan shrieked.

"Who!"

"Anyone entering the forbidden ground without permission dies…"

Several maidservants drew their swords with killing intent, completely overlooking the one possibility that should have been considered first.

Twelve hundred years!

That was how many lifetimes of Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun, far too long ago.

The other few maidservants, however, froze.

They pulled the sword-drawing maidservants back, and in a flurry, found a jade slip — the "Master Tushan Maidservant Handbook" — from their storage jade pendants, rummaging through it until they finally found a voice, an aura signature, a divine soul signature, and what they ought to do.

"Master?"

A maidservant ventured tentatively.

Master.

In Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting, this title was akin to "Ancestor," "Founding Patriarch," "Lineage of Ancestors" — a title placed upon the altar and offering table.

No one had ever associated it with a living, breathing person; there was no such habit.

"Master."

"Master!"

"Master!!!!!!"

Quickly, one after another, the Nascent Soul maidservants finished reading through the history and confirmed it.

A flush of color rose on their faces, their eyes shining, brighter than the stars themselves.

Without anyone needing to take the lead, one by one they whooshed into the palace.

Tushan Tian Jun!

The strongest being in the history of this realm!

The Canghai Tianjun who defeated the Upper Realm's Thunder Division's Heavenly Soldiers and Canghai Tianjun!

A Canghai Tianjun stronger than the ascended Master Shuoyang Canghai Tianjun!

The sovereign of Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting, the founder of Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting, the master of the Master Tushan maidservants, of this realm—

the most ancient among hundreds of millions of living beings!

More importantly, in the historical records, Tushan Tian Jun is famously easy to talk to, basically never takes out anger on people, as long as you don't violate Master Tushan law, safety is extremely well guaranteed.

The few of them are very likely the first people in twelve hundred years to have an audience with Tushan Tian Jun!

"Pay—pay pay respects, Master!"

Twelve maidservants of Master Tushan at the peak of Nascent Soul, pretty and charming, their little faces flushing red, looked toward the blue-robed youth on the Wang Zuo.

Time seemed to freeze upon him; no matter how many years passed, it could not change him.

They appeared very reserved and hesitant.

Because they had never seen Tushan Tian Jun.

To them, this was a stranger from a portrait; they couldn't even be sure he was a True Person, and some suspected he was an impostor.

If that were really the case, it would be far too embarrassing.

"Hello, everyone."

"This kind of situation is also my first time encountering it."

Jiang Ding smiled slightly: "A group of maidens I've never seen, telling me they are my maidservants—I too am somewhat at a loss."

"Master must be laughing at us…"

The maidservants, having their thoughts seen through, could not help but feel shy.

Being called 'maidens,' they hadn't heard that in they didn't know how long, but hearing it now, they didn't feel awkward at all; instead, they felt it should be so.

"Rise."

Jiang Ding shook his head slightly.

He connected his divine sense to the Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting formation, making it hum softly and operate, sending twelve flowers of spiritual energy toward them.

These were flowers of refined spiritual energy accumulated by the formation's spontaneous operation over countless years, very effective for refining divine soul and magic power, able to raise the success rate of Soul Transformation by a sliver—one of Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting's great treasures.

"The first meeting in a thousand years, a gift for you."

Jiang Ding waved lightly, and twelve flowers of refined spiritual energy fell upon the chests of the twelve maidservants.

"Many thanks, Master!"

The twelve maidservants at the peak of Nascent Soul completely cast aside their doubts, their voices delicate and youthful, paying homage in unison.