Chapter 1298: Discovered Another of the Nine Great Immortal Sect Seeds — Youming Sword Grotto-Heaven

Clang!

Jiang Ding drew his sword and slashed toward the starry sky, leaving a pitch-black, razor-thin line several thousand kilometers long across it.

This pitch-black line simply hung suspended in the void, frozen and unmoving; no matter how the cosmic storms swayed, it never changed, as if it had existed for eternity.

"This line…"

Jiang Ding looked at it carefully.

He discovered that this pitch-black line could not be observed with divine sense — the moment his divine sense touched it, it vanished instantly, with no sign of any attack; it simply disappeared in an instant, as if it had entered a world where divine sense itself did not exist.

Therefore, he could only observe the black line with his naked eyes, and use his divine sense to observe the areas beyond the pitch-black line.

"Materialism!"

"Within this thin line, there are no rules, no spiritual energy — it has become like the mother universe. The Taiqing Flying Sword has also lost all its divine radiance, retaining only its sharpness, speed, and solidity, capable of cutting through anything…"

Jiang Ding murmured to himself.

And sharpness, and speed!

This is the very foundation of the Taiqing Flying Sword's existence — its strongest point. For thousands of years, the Void Refinement spatial treasures it had been refined with had all been reinforced in this direction: an extreme, single-minded path.

This was the ability the Materialist Solar Sword Soul had brought him.

His strength had undergone a tremendous change; perhaps Void Refinement was no longer something he could only match.

Instead, he had begun to surpass a portion of Void Refinement cultivators…

Of course, this was only speculation.

Until he truly saw the blood of a Void Refinement cultivator, nothing could be taken as certain.

……

Jiang Ding concluded a period of cultivation, swapped with his clone, shared a meal with his family, and then arrived at the deepest part of Dayang Dayang Tianchi — a terrifyingly scorching place capable of incinerating the dharma bodies of Void Refinement cultivators.

Here, Senior Jin Liu's true body's main body, Senior Wanji True Lord's clone, Zhenjun Shenji True Lord's clone, and Yuan's clone were all present, their gazes filled with anticipation.

"It truly won't do—"

"Sword Son, doing it this way won't do…"

Dayang Dayang Tianchi's Moon Spirit said listlessly: "This is where the Sword Pavilion stores its God-Slaying Arts, as well as its immortal art fragments. Apart from the Dayang Sword Son and the Dayang Sword Master, no one else should enter — they should be slain without mercy."

"Sword Son, what you're doing violates the Sword Laws."

"Zou Zou Xiyuan Sword Master's seal will not permit you to do this."

She had grown numb to this generation's Dayang Sword Son's frenzied asset-selling.

However, when the Dayang Sword Master was absent, the Dayang Sword Son was the sovereign of the Dayang Sword Pavilion, free to make any decision — and especially after bringing in a Path-Integration-level faction, there existed no obstacle whatsoever.

Yes, after hundreds of years of deciphering, the Immortal Gate now possessed the ability to bypass Zou Zou Xiyuan's seal and extract the immortal art fragments.

After all, Zou Zou Xiyuan was only at the peak of Void Refinement, while

the Immortal Gate was a Path-Integration-level faction.

If not for fear of Dayang Dayang Tianchi self-destructing, they could have extracted them back then.

"Sword Son!"

"This is a betrayal of every past Dayang Sword Master, of every past patriarch!"

"This is wrong!"

Moon's voice rose a little.

Clang!

"No, Moon."

"You are mistaken."

Jiang Ding drew his sword and gazed at her calmly: "Every past Dayang Sword Master, Zou Zou Xiyuan included — even if they were to awaken one by one, at the Soul Transformation stage I would persuade each and every one of them, make them acknowledge that this is the most correct path for the Sword Pavilion, make them admit with their own mouths that I am their most rightful inheritor."

"Moon, what do you think?"

"What answer do you suppose they would ultimately give?"

Silence fell all around.

Moon thought it over carefully. After a long while, she stopped her ceaseless chatter.

"They would fall silent, or acknowledge it."

"Sword Son."

Moon sighed softly: "The past Dayang Sword Masters would recognize the correctness of a stronger cultivator, and then attempt to surpass them — this much is indeed true."

"But, Sword Son, beyond the most important factor of strength, the Sword Pavilion also has traditions that must be passed down…" she said weakly.

At this point, she ceased her obstruction, allowing the Immortal Gate's grand formation to gradually dismantle the seals within Dayang Dayang Tianchi, layer upon layer of Solar Sword Dao prohibitions melting away like ice and snow.

"Senior Moon, there is no need for worry, no need for sorrow."

"The future still lies on our side."

Yuan said with a faint smile: "Our reconnaissance forces have already drawn near to the Ancient God Domain world cluster, where numerous Path-Integration-level factions are distributed, as well as the remnants of the Ancient God Dao at its very center."

"Among these numerous Path-Integration-level factions, there exists one called the Youming Sword Grotto-Heaven, as well as others bearing names like Tian Beast Xianzong, Star-Gazing Immortal Terrace, and Dantian Xianzong — occupying vast stretches of realms, dominating several of them."

"This junior has heard that the sect-protecting treasures of the Sun Moon Sword Pavilion can merge and grow with one another…"

Yuan slowly revealed a piece of crucial intelligence.

"Youming Sword Grotto-Heaven!"

"Youming! Sword!"

"Little Yuan, is what you're saying true?"

Moon, who had been lamenting the gradual loss of the Sword Pavilion's traditional culture, suddenly had her eyes light up.

Her choice of address was very particular.

Generally, when encountering Void Refinement cultivators — such as the great powers of the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace in the past — she would usually choose to address them as "little turtle" or "little turtle clump." Even Void Refinement cultivators could only offer a bitter smile, not daring to flare up, because she had already existed since the Dao Son's childhood, having witnessed it firsthand.

However, once the great being of the Xuantian Celestial Palace ascended to Dao Merging, she would address the great being of the Xuantian Celestial Palace as 'Senior Gui Cong,' 'God-Lord Gui Cong.'

'Senior Gui Cong,' 'God-Lord Gui Cong.'

In short, she was extremely pragmatic, with a very strong sense of hierarchy.

"Yes, Senior Moon."

"We have discovered another batch of seeds from the Jiudaxian Sect. They have fallen into the world cluster of the Ancient God Domain."

Yuan nodded with a smile, slightly worried as he said: "The good news is that they have not been able to ascend above Dao Merging—either their foundations were insufficient, or resources were scarce, or their own talent and utilization rate of resources were inadequate, their localization adaptability was not enough, and no existence above Dao Merging emerged."

"This can be confirmed: several realms of one of the Jiudaxian Sect are not enough to give birth to an existence above Dao Merging."

"The bad news is that forces like the Youming Sword Grotto-Heaven definitely have cultivators at the peak of Dao Merging. Their inheritances are not weak, exceeding the average level of the realms. We may not be able to defeat them, even at the same realm."

"Not to mention, this is an existence at the peak of Dao Merging."

Yuan sent over some concrete information, wanting to hear this extremely ancient existence's viewpoint as an important reference.

"No need to worry at all!"

"It's nothing more than slaughter and battle!"

Moon's small hand waved fiercely, full of heroic spirit: "The path of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion far surpasses the path of the Great Yin-Yang Sword Realm. Although your Jiudaxian Sect is far inferior to the Sword Pavilion, it is after all an existence capable of surrounding and attacking the Sword Pavilion.

Although an important reason is that that brat Zou Zou Xiyuan deliberately let the enemy grow stronger to temper his sword, and he himself entered the Spiritless Universe and was wounded because of it…"

"But this doesn't matter!"

"The result is that you successfully surrounded and killed Zou Zou Xiyuan. That is the result."

"So, you don't need to worry about those seeds of the Jiudaxian Sect at all. As long as they don't exceed you by a full major realm, they are completely nothing to fear—just chickens and dogs."

Moon was very confident.

She was not saddened by Zou Zou Xiyuan being surrounded and killed, because this was the enlightenment of a Great Sun Sword Cultivator. To temper one's sword with the blood of enemies, one should have such an enlightenment and accept the result.

"Right, we must rule out the situation where seeds of a certain Xianzong similarly break through the limits of their own inheritance and walk out a new path."

She thought of something and added.

"Senior Moon is so confident?"

Yuan received important advice and nodded.

Amid the casual conversation of the crowd, a scorching sword Dao seal slowly opened, and within it, a Great Sun Furnace radiating boundless light slowly revealed its form.

Within, numerous five-colored immortal art fragments emanated unfathomably vast information, distorting all things in the world.

Beside the numerous immortal art fragments, the flying swords of successive generations of Great Sun Sword Lords were smelted together under high temperatures, attempting to create the dreamlike Immortal-Slaying Art, and a very rough outline had already appeared.

Jiang Ding held his breath.

He let the numerous concealment formations of the Immortal Gate cover him,

sealing the immortal art fragments once more, to avoid being polluted by immortal arts and triggering unknown aberrations.

The unsealing of these immortal art fragments would surely drive the rapid development of the Immortal Gate's immortal Dao technology once more!

(End of this chapter)