Chapter 1321: The Great Sun Sword Dao of Burning Self

Great Sun Heavenly Lake, Sun Abyss.

Amid the sunlight suffused with Great Sun Destruction Sword Intent, Jiang Ding sat cross-legged, silently adjusting his state.

The "Sun Sacrifice Sword Art" is the orthodox sacrifice sword art of the Upper Realm's Great Yin-Yang Sword Realm. Its cultivation requirements explicitly state that another Lunar Sword Child must exist for normal cultivation; cultivating lone yang is extremely dangerous, and the probability of qi deviation increases enormously.

This is what is meant by "lone yin does not birth, lone yang does not grow."

Therefore, Jiang Ding would only begin cultivating this sacrifice sword art within the Immortal Gate.

As for the sealed Heavenly Phantom Immortal Butterfly, it was left at the strongest killing array of the Swamp Demon City's formation array. Should Jiang Ding fail to return for long, or should outside interference be triggered, the formation array would activate instantly and obliterate its soul and body alike.

"Lone yin does not birth, lone yang does not grow…"

"Yin and yang in harmony…"

Jiang Ding silently contemplated the complete "Lunar Sun Sacrifice Sword Art," savoring the balanced beauty of yin-yang mutual generation and yin-yang harmony within it.

Truly a sight to behold.

All manner of immortal Dao wisdom inspires admiration, leaving one ashamed of one's own inadequacy.

The inheritance of Upper Realm near-immortal-level powers, developed over millions of years or even longer and condensed from the wisdom of countless prodigies and heroes, is indeed perfect to a realm beyond alteration—unchangeable, at least achieving the ultimate pinnacle in 'technique.'

However, on the Dao…

"The First Great Sun Sword Master did not acknowledge the sword Dao of yin-yang symbiosis."

"Zou Zou Xiyuan and successive Great Sun Sword Masters did not acknowledge it."

"I…"

Jiang Ding carefully contemplated his sword-heart, ascertaining what his true heart was.

This thing called 'Dao' has no right or wrong.

It only requires one's own acknowledgment, only requires one to walk it oneself; no external additions are needed.

"I, too, do not acknowledge the yin-yang symbiotic sword Dao."

The sword intent in Jiang Ding's heart grew ever clearer, and he gradually awakened: "Yin-yang symbiosis, steady and balanced, the dual cultivation Dao of Lunar and Sun that naturally clears away many obstacles—this is the path of dharma cultivation."

"This is not the path of sword cultivation."

"Hardship and suffering, lone yang backlash, lone yin backlash—these are not risks, these are not difficulties, these are the inexhaustible provisions of the sword Dao!"

"If anything blocks my Dao, I will draw my sword and cut it down myself."

"How many sword cultivators desperately seek opponents, seeking but not finding, seeking yet unable to obtain."

"The Great Sun Sword Dao delivers them right to your door—sitting at home you have so many provisions; what a great blessing is this?"

"What a tremendous opportunity is this?"

"The dual cultivation of yin-yang sword children in the Great Yin-Yang Sword Realm—how many opportunities were missed, and it is easy to imagine that their strength is weak."

"Speaking of steadiness and balance, speaking of yin-yang symbiosis, how can the sword Dao compare with dharma cultivation?"

"This is using one's own

weakness against the enemy's strength."

Jiang Ding grew ever more enlightened regarding his own path.

"Sword Child,"

"The path of lone yang carries great risk; even in the heyday of the Sword Pavilion, people died of qi deviation every year. How would you explain this?"

"Does this mean the Great Sun Sword Dao is a flawed path?"

Yue had been monitoring the Great Sun Sword Child's cultivation and posed the question at this point.

This was not because she had lost faith in the Great Sun Sword Dao and was doubting it, but because this was part of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion's inherited experience—her duty.

"It does not."

"The Great Sun Sword Dao has no flaw or fatal defect. Just like the eternal fixed star sun in the sky, it is simply there, not dependent on the moon for existence; the moon is merely a large satellite that reflects light."

"Does this mean the sun has a flaw?"

Jiang Ding shook his head.

"What has flaws are those dead Great Sun sword cultivators."

"They were not walking the correct Great Sun Sword Dao; their ability was insufficient. When ascending further, drawing closer to the sun, transforming toward the sun, their bodies and souls turned to ash."

"This is a naturally occurring matter."

"The life of a Great Sun sword cultivator is a life of resisting the self's transformation into a burning sun. Before becoming an eternal fixed star, before achieving true immortality, a Great Sun sword cultivator must constantly resist the self-destructing bodily and soul instincts."

"It is like a bundle of firewood wanting to become a sun, constantly burning, radiating brilliance."

"In the end, either the Dao is achieved, or it turns to ash."

"This is the life of a Great Sun sword cultivator…"

Jiang Ding sighed.

He took out the "Lunar Sun Sacrifice Sword Art," casually tossed the "Lunar Sacrifice Sword Art" within it into a corner of the Great Sun Heavenly Lake, and said lightly: "The forefathers of the Great Yin-Yang Sword Realm warned again and again in the 'Sun Sacrifice Sword Art' that cultivating the sun or the lunar alone brings ill omens, with great likelihood of qi deviation, self-immolation, or freezing death."

"These are all words of ultimate truth, facts deduced from the concrete structural principles of immortal Dao techniques."

"However, this senior perhaps did not know…"

Jiang Ding took out the Taiqing Flying Sword, placed it in the sky at the very center of the Great Sun Heavenly Lake, and requested support connection from the Immortal Gate's quasi-seventh-rank Dai Sen Solar Fortress Cluster Mother Planet Defense Grand Array, turning this place into a terrifying realm capable of melting even rules.

"This forefather of the Great Yin-Yang Sword Realm did not know,"

"The qi deviation of lone yang began the very first time I came into contact with the Great Sun Sword Dao!"

"The bloodthirsty madness of the Great Sun Sword Dao, the thirst for strong enemy blood, is itself part of qi deviation. The First Great Sun Sword Master transformed this qi deviation into the core of the Great Sun Sword Dao."

"This sovereign has already been accompanied by qi

deviation for five thousand years!"

"Yin-yang balance wears away the edge; this should not be the path a sword cultivator walks."

"Lone yang or lone yin—this is the sword Dao!"

"I can say with certainty that the path of the Grand Yin-Yang Sword Realm has gone astray!"

The Taiqing Flying Sword sat at the center of the Dayang Dayang Tianchi and the Immortal Gate's quasi-seventh-rank Dai Sen Solar Fortress homeworld defensive grand array; under the terrifying high temperature of the melting-destruction rule, the sword body swiftly turned a glowing red, entering the critical state of sacrificial refinement.

"It's time."

Jiang Ding's tone was not fervent, merely stating one established fact after another.

With a wave of his hand, nearly a million kinds of heaven and earth spiritual materials—each radiating dazzling light and bearing terrifying auras—appeared in the sky, their spiritual pressure immensely heavy.

Among them were twenty-seven types of sixth-rank materials, including a top-grade sixth-rank No. 1 Synthetic Synthetic Gengjin, Master Tianyang Fire-Smelt Stone, Lava Iron, Yin-Yang Fire Jade, and others, in sizable quantities—some of them sufficient on their own to refine one or two standalone Void Treasures.

These sixth-rank materials alone were worth fifteen Refining Void battle merits!

And that was without factoring in the difficulty of purchasing them, with no markup.

Surrounding them were nearly a million kinds of first- through fifth-rank heavenly materials and earthly treasures, whose combinations of sovereign-minister-assistant-envoy, heavenly stems and earthly branches, and sequential order were so extraordinarily complex that even Soul Transformation-level computational power could not sort them out—only a Sword Soul possessed the threshold to refine them.

Synthesizing high-rank materials from low-rank materials also existed within Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong; it simply wasn't applied as broadly as in the Immortal Gate, where it was exaggeratedly present in virtually every trade and industry.

In fact, the original source of this pinnacle synthetic Immortal Dao technology was Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong itself!

So many sixth-rank materials, nearly a million kinds of various heavenly materials and earthly treasures, and the absolute requirement that a Sword Soul sword cultivator pour out all their heart's blood in sacrificial refinement—all for what purpose?

Beyond Dao Merging!

The potential beyond Dao Merging, the flying sword material beyond Dao Merging.

This was an indirect method of refining super-grade materials—using countless low-rank materials, countless hours, countless drops of fresh blood, and countless battles and slaughters as reaction processes to refine a heaven-and-earth divine metal beyond Dao Merging!