Chapter 1317: Celestial Phantom Immortal Butterfly Clan

"A heaven-bestowed opportunity, this Daoist friend Chong Guang Lei."

"This Daoist friend Chong Guang Lei needs an opponent, longs for an opponent, and I happen to be a great good person who can satisfy him... I truly am too kind."

Jiang Ding muttered to himself.

Risk?

That is something that does not exist.

This sovereign has swept invincible across heaven and earth, crushing all peers of the same realm—risk does not exist.

"However, objectively speaking, there is still some risk."

"I wonder what the professional ethics of the sword cultivators of Thunder Yang Heaven Sword Realm are like?"

Jiang Ding fell into thought.

If a Sword Son of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion were killed by someone of the same realm, they would surely heavily reward that strong one. Not to mention the treasures on his body, even a Great Sun Flying Sword could be given, plus extra rewards—truly a cause for universal celebration.

For the Great Sun Sword Lord, a future powerful enemy would appear, a delicious nourishment—what joy.

The professional conduct of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion's sword cultivators is truly this reliable!

By comparison, Thunder Yang Heaven Sword Realm seems far more petty. Not only are there no extra heavy rewards, they even 'allow one to take all treasures except the inheritance disciple's Natal Flying Sword.'

Looks quite generous, right?

Generous my ass!

Others may not know sword cultivators, but does Jiang Ding not know?

Every single one is a pauper!

Nine-tenths of their entire fortune is placed on their Natal Flying Sword. Take Jiang Ding for example—all his treasures combined are not as valuable as the Taiqing Flying Sword, not even one-tenth of it.

This is even with Jiang Ding's cultivation speed being slow, unable to cultivate the Great Sun Sword Sacrifice Art, otherwise he could end up owing you money!

In other words, if the Great Sun Sword Sacrifice Art could be cultivated normally, aside from the Natal Flying Sword, Jiang Ding's entire wealth could be in the negative!

Everything added together probably wouldn't even be enough to repay the sect's loans.

Now that the Natal Flying Sword is excluded, what money does a sword cultivator have left?

Thunder Yang Heaven Sword Realm's way of doing things is really too stingy. If you want to use someone's life to temper a sword, you should at least prepare the life-sale money properly!

Of course, this kind of unfairness is actually commonplace within the realms—the so-called law of the jungle, nothing more.

These challenged Void Refining cultivators, when they themselves bullied the weak, were hardly kind about it—calling them ants left and right, the strong are honored, slaughtering billions.

Today it is their turn, there is nothing to say.

Still, as a sword Dao immortal sect, for Thunder Yang Heaven Sword Realm to be like this is simply not generous enough.

Of course, this is the Great Sun Sword Pavilion's view.

"The current difficulty is that the professional conduct of Thunder Yang Heaven Sword Realm's sword cultivators is in doubt..."

"This makes things a bit difficult."

Jiang Ding pondered.

This means that in the sword duel, at the most

critical moment, Chong Guang Lei Canghai Tianjun's Dao protector may interfere in the battlefield, not allowing Jiang Ding to kill Chong Guang Lei Canghai Tianjun, and at the same time, will strip Jiang Ding of his most important spoils—Chong Guang Lei Canghai Tianjun's Natal Flying Sword.

This is extremely important for the Taiqing Flying Sword, immensely important!

One could say this is a divine pill that allows the Taiqing Flying Sword's potential to be greatly enhanced, possessing potential above Dao Merging—although this divine pill can only be consumed by slaying its sword master in a fair sword duel.

If victorious yet failing to obtain this opportunity, that would be more unbearable than killing Jiang Ding.

"What is the strength of an immortal sect inheritance disciple's Dao protector?"

"Dao Merging?"

"Above Dao Merging?"

Jiang Ding pondered.

He was unwilling to give up.

This is the very foundation of the Taiqing Flying Sword's potential above Dao Merging!

Who could resist such a temptation?

If it is Dao Merging, he has a way to escape—the sect's End-Law City imprint can give him room to flee. If it is above Dao Merging, perhaps he can consider choosing some natural secret realms, similar to the Yin-Yang Void Realm.

"It may not be that bad..."

"There are barriers between the various domains of the Fallen Immortal Realm!"

"Void Refining cultivators and those above Void Refining, when traversing between barriers, will surely suffer heavy injuries. Perhaps there won't be a powerhouse above Dao Merging accompanying them—such a powerhouse, once heavily injured and deliberately ambushed, would die quickly."

"This kind of loss is unacceptable for an immortal sect."

Jiang Ding slowly thought, sorting out his thoughts: "On the contrary, an inheritance disciple is not a sect's Dao Son, appearing only once every several tens of thousands of years. Risking the loss of an above-Dao-Merging powerhouse for this may not be worth it."

"Considering everything, combined with the inheritance of the Sun Moon Sword Pavilion... Chong Guang Lei Canghai Tianjun's Dao protector should be Dao Merging."

"If my guess is wrong, I'll back down and not kill Chong Guang Lei Canghai Tianjun."

"Dao Merging..."

Various possibilities surfaced in Jiang Ding's mind, as he planned continuously.

Soon the outline of a battle plan emerged.

"There is a certain possibility of success."

"However, regardless of success or failure, I will definitely have to flee by then. Therefore, preferably within several hundred years, before Chong Guang Lei Canghai Tianjun arrives, I must deal with the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder True Sect and the Blood Lake Corpse Mountain, and obtain the final fragments of my immortal art."

Jiang Ding made his decision.

These two True Sects are currently at war, the Blood Lake Ancestor holds the upper hand, and opportunities are easy to find. Once the materials for the Great Sun Sword Sacrifice Art are in hand, he will directly go squat outside the mountain gates of the two True Sects, catch the Blood Lake Ancestor and kill him, then kill the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder True Sect's Ancestor.

Just that simple.

No need for complicated plans—the more complicated, the easier to go wrong.

On the contrary, this kind of spur-of-the-moment random ambush is even more

useful. After succeeding, disguise themselves as two people and enter the two sects, then take the immortal art fragments.

Ding!

Just at this moment, the soul-search of the verdant toad was also completed. The quasi-seventh-tier soul-search talisman, which had a certain automated function, emitted a crisp prompt sound, indicating that the operation procedure had been completed.

This was because the soul of a demon beast differed from that of a human, thereby affecting the search efficiency.

"There probably shouldn't be any information of much value…"

Jiang Ding's divine sense probed into it.

The verdant toad and True Venerable Mud Swamp met in their youth, rose together, and the memories between the two had enormous overlap. Jiang Ding did this only as a precaution.

As his divine sense delved deeper, sure enough, as previously expected, there wasn't much value — it was all repeated.

At this moment, within the hazy mist, a magnificent butterfly phantom flashed and vanished in the depths of the verdant toad's sea of consciousness, tucked between certain flickering scenes.

This scene was of the young verdant toad encountering a butterfly…

"This is…"

Jiang Ding suddenly froze, his soul going rigid.

This butterfly flew and flew, flew and flew, flying out from the memories of True Venerable Mud Swamp's youth, becoming manifest, and along Jiang Ding's divine sense, little by little flew into his skull.

Scene after scene appeared within the butterfly's eyes.

A youth of the Northern Plains Minor Realm, a wanderer of the Eastern Spirit Prefecture, refining the Hundred-Step Flying Sword, rising to prominence, Master Tushan…

"So he was actually born in a minor realm…"

The butterfly gave a soft exclamation of surprise.

It was very taken aback.

"Mm,"

"I am also born of a minor realm."

The dazed Jiang Ding's expression regained its liveliness as he said coldly.

"You can move?"

"Impossible!"

This seemed to greatly violate common sense. The butterfly said in horror, "This is absolutely impossible. Even a Void-Tempering sword cultivator couldn't… You have a sword soul!"

"What kind of sword soul is this? No…"

It continued looking deeper into the sea of consciousness.

Then, there, it saw a radiant materialist sun sword soul, projecting boundless dazzling light, imprisoning all spiritual energy. Especially in this sword soul's home ground — the sword soul's sea of consciousness — its might was amplified several- or ten-fold, and in an instant it sealed the butterfly on the spot, cutting it off, no longer able to read any memories.

Jiang Dingleng hardened his face. The Supreme Clarity Flying Sword flashed and vanished, taking out an amber-sealed butterfly from the sea of consciousness.

This butterfly's body was hazy and indistinct, surrounded by numerous ribbons, as if an immortal, dreamlike and incomparably beautiful, as though a fairy-spirit had been transformed into life and descended upon the mortal world.

"Foreign race!"

"Upper Realm Demon Alliance, one of the three great immortal races — the Heavenly Illusion Immortal Butterfly race!"

Jiang Ding's expression shifted.

This was one of the top powerful races of the Upper Realm, of noble bloodline, born strong, and moreover skilled in illusion arts and infiltration, always making many powerful beings of the Immortal-Falling Realm turn pale at the mere mention.

The only good news was that this Heavenly Illusion Immortal Butterfly did not seem to be the strongest bloodline Dao-child level existence within its race, nor even of the imperial bloodline. Otherwise, Jiang Ding would have sunk instantly, and absolutely wouldn't have escaped so easily.

However, since it was not,

then, this was the outcome.

The hegemon race of the endless cosmic starry sky — the human race. Within this race, internal differences were extremely vast: the weak were as ants, and among the hundreds of millions of people, some could never in their entire lives compare to even the weakest Heavenly Illusion Immortal Butterfly clansman.

And the strong among them were incomparably dazzling.

For example, the human sword Dao prodigy this Heavenly Illusion Immortal Butterfly had encountered — a prodigy possessing a sword soul — was at least equivalent to an existence second only to the prestigiously-positioned 'Immortal Butterfly Son' among the Heavenly Illusion Immortal Butterflies.

His sword soul could instantly suppress a Heavenly Illusion Immortal Butterfly that had invaded his own soul — a fierce weapon on the starry sky racial battlefield that made people turn pale at the mere mention.