Chapter 1315: The Wealth of the Mud Swamp True Venerable

The Mud Swamp True Venerable and the emerald toad's soul sank into the Six Realms of Rebirth, their souls clouded, endlessly cycling among humans, gods, ghosts, animals, asuras, and hell-beings, constantly transforming and descending, forever losing the possibility of regaining clarity.

Then, the Material Sun blazed overhead!

This time, it was pure destruction and prohibition light, shining upon earth and sky, meticulously and patiently erasing all traces of battle, residual rules, lingering spiritual energy, and residual divine awareness, briefly purging all sentient matter.

In this realm, all spiritual matter reverted to its state at the dawn of heaven and earth, stripped of all postnatal traces, including karmic bonds.

Jiang Ding meticulously cleaned for months, repeatedly verifying, until finally completing the inspection.

"Completed."

"With home-field advantage, I am confident that even a Dao-Union Divine Lord coming here to deduce could not uncover anything valuable—even with the aid of the Heavenly Dao's rule-net, no meaningful information could be traced back."

"Even a Dao-Union soul, without a foothold, cannot create something from nothing."

Jiang Ding confirmed once more, a hint of satisfaction crossing his face.

It wasn't that he was timid—it was that this was the Fallen Immortal Realm!

Too many strong ones, too many unknown methods, too many who could kill him—he could not afford to be anything but extra cautious.

"If it were above Dao-Union…"

Jiang Ding hesitated.

Unassessable.

This realm was still far too alien to the Immortal Sects; no valuable information could be gleaned, no judgment made.

The only certainty was that even such an existence could not ignore the erosion of vast space and time.

After such a level of cleansing, if another several thousand years passed, there was a high probability even beings above Dao-Union could not trace back anything valuable.

"That will do."

Jiang Ding last checked the souls of the numerous mundane beasts below—no anomalies appeared.

All battle had been concealed by the Human Realm, unknown to all.

Only then did Jiang Ding retrieve the Mud Swamp True Venerable's storage artifact, instantly vanishing through a pre-prepared ultra-long-range teleportation array—the moment the array activated, it self-destructed completely.

Thus, within an extremely short time, far from the battlefield, his figure vanished.

This was the final layer of protection.

To guard against possible techniques above Dao-Union, to increase the difficulty of their tracing and deduction, to provide another veil—though the Mud Swamp True Venerable likely had no such-level background.

…

Northern Plain.

Jiang Ding opened his eyes.

He did not return to the Immortal Sect—the Sect was his rear base; since childhood, he had established the principle never to bring sentient beings back to it.

Jiang Ding activated the teleportation array beneath him, transmitting toward the distant cosmic stars, far, far beyond the Northern Plain's small realm, finally arriving at a tranquil expanse of cosmic space.

Countless stars hovered above, countless more lay beneath his feet—he stood within a river of stars, a breathtaking scene exclusive to Star-Domain Void-Refining lifeforms.

The Northern Plain's small realm was his domain of order; he did not wish its people swept up in war, hence his distance.

Of course, he would never compromise under enemy threat.

"Open the treasure chest!"

"We're rich…"

Jiang Ding cheered, his divine awareness surging into the Mud Swamp True Venerable's storage artifact—a white bone shaped like a trident.

The divine awareness seals within were exquisitely crafted, filled with numerous self-destruct traps—but beneath the Material Sun Sword Soul, none could hide; the Immortal Sect's seal-breaking techniques, tested in battles against the Badaxian Sect, were beyond the reach of a lone cultivator like the Mud Swamp True Venerable.

After several days, all divine awareness seals were shattered—no further obstacles remained.

Jiang Ding's divine awareness probed inside.

"Good. No surprise—a lone cultivator's habit of carrying all his wealth on his person."

"My assets below Dao-Union are about to surge again."

Jiang Ding smiled faintly.

His divine awareness revealed mountains and seas of spirit stones, dazzling treasures, piles of fourth- and fifth-grade heavenly treasures, as common as wood and stone.

His divine awareness swiftly completed the inventory.

"Approximately three million top-grade spirit stones in wealth—not counting Void-Refining heavenly treasures."

"Additionally, one Void-Refining space artifact: a venomous snake artifact with concealment ability."

Jiang Ding retrieved a transparent, snake-shaped artifact.

Also, a small coiled-dragon jade seal—the Mud Swamp True Venerable's Ben Ming Fa; its power would plummet drastically in any other's hands.

But it didn't matter—these artifacts' ultimate purpose was always raw material extraction, for sword forging or shipbuilding; the difference was negligible.

But it doesn't matter—these treasures all ultimately serve to refine raw materials for forging swords or building ships, so the difference is negligible.

Jiang Ding pulled out a corpse of an emerald toad as large as Shanfeng.

Its entire body radiated treasure-light, emerald as glass, its flesh and blood riddled with life-rule runes—skin, bone, and flesh all held immense value, usable for pill and artifact crafting, worth slightly more than the Mud Swamp True Venerable's two artifacts.

"The famed Tianqing Diao Bao Chan of the Mud Swamp True Venerable… it could likely be forged into a powerful treasure-detecting and capturing artifact—but that is not the path of the Immortal Sect or mine."

"My Material Sun Sword Soul is superior to the Tianqing Diao Bao Chan for treasure detection."

"The Immortal Sect's specially developed detectors are likewise superior to the Tianqing Diao Bao Chan's innate ability; natural things, unless they are of Dragon or Phoenix rank, are merely ordinary Immortal industrial raw materials—not worth designing an artifact around their innate traits."

"Such crude, primitive processing is an insult to the Immortal Sect."

Jiang Ding swiftly decided the fate of the Tianqing Diao Bao Chan corpse.

It would be treated as ordinary high-grade Immortal industrial raw material—nothing special.

"Finally, forty-seven sixth-grade materials, mostly life-rule and space-rule related; two of them I can use… good."

Just ordinary high-grade immortal dao industrial raw materials, nothing remarkable about them.

"Lastly, there are forty-seven sixth-tier materials, mostly of the life-rule and space-rule type, of which two are usable by me… not bad."

"True Venerable Mud Swamp seems to be a bit on the poor side?"

Jiang Ding gave a soft sigh.

"Even setting aside his Dao Merging battle merits, his entire fortune doesn't even reach a third of mine — it's a bit beneath the title of a Refining Void True Venerable of the Upper Realm."

That was inevitable.

Jiao Jiao Mingyu might be a remote backwater, but it was still the residence of a Dao Merging-level faction. The strong ones born from it might be poor, but they weren't something just any Refining Void cultivator could brush up against.

"So be it — I won't pocket all this ill-gotten wealth. In the future, after deducting my eighty to ninety percent service fee, I'll set aside part of it to improve the living standards of the countless living beings of the Thunder Flame Domain."

"Call it taking from the people and using it for the people."

Jiang Ding swept up all the heavenly materials and earthly treasures before him.

"Right now, I'm still short two materials for refining my sword — they're called Lava Thunder Crystal and Light Sword Grass, or equivalents. The Gong Fa of the Great Yin-Yang Sword Realm is highly versatile; there are many material combinations that work."

"As long as I have the money, I should be able to buy them."

"That'll require an external trading channel — for instance, trades with the neighboring domains, or merchant guilds connected to the Qi Sect… these things, Mud Swamp should be able to tell me."

Jiang Ding gave his sleeve a sweep, and two weakened divine souls appeared before him.