Chapter 1403: The Yuanci Track Body of the Immortal Gate

Within the Tian Yuan Domain.

Jiang Ding was in the process of handing over the authority of the Ninth Starfield Army Group, distributing it to True Venerable Mie Ri and several others, and had convened a meeting of all officers of the Ninth Army Group to announce the matter.

The three True Venerables Mie Ri did not yet possess the ability to command a seventh-tier Dao Merging military formation.

Therefore, after Jiang Ding's departure, the Ninth Starfield Army Group would lose its Dao Merging field combat capability, and could only hold the fixed defensive positions at the Tian Yuan Domain's realm passage, relying on fixed formations and orbital gun platforms to maintain the existence of the Dao Merging military formation, cooperating with True Venerable Wan Ji's Second Starfield Army Group to complete the garrison of the Tian Yuan Domain.

After completing all of this, Jiang Ding turned and departed, flying toward the direction of the First Army Group's Central Army Group Cluster of the Yuan Xian Gate.

At the same time, he left behind a clone, which slowly walked toward Tianci Canghai Tianjun, who was currently at the Ninth Starfield Army Group.

This commander of the Nineteenth Army Group had recently experienced a considerable decline in his ideological and moral character, even approaching the passing line, far inferior to the ascended immigrant prodigies of the Xian Gate.

As the chief officer of the Ninth Army Group, Jiang Ding was paying close attention to this matter.

……

On the flagship of the Nineteenth Army Group, the star fortress Tianci.

This was a star fortress covered in Yuanci runes, whose comprehension of the Yuanci Dao had reached an extremely profound level, standing at the very edge of birthing a Yuanci Order.

This time, Jiang Ding's arrival drew no one's attention, as if he were merely a friend.

He ordered a cup of clear tea in the star fortress's cafeteria, sitting across from a steady, cold, and stern middle-aged cultivator, while soldiers and officers of the Nineteenth Army Group came and went around them, taking their meals.

"General Tianci."

"I have brought with me this time a transfer order from the Military Committee of the Ninth Army Group,"

Jiang Ding took out a document, handed it to Tianci Canghai Tianjun, and said calmly: "This transfer order has already been approved by the committee and takes effect immediately. You may take a look."

"Senior…"

Tianci Canghai Tianjun's face showed a bitter expression as he took the document with difficulty.

The person before him was a youth in blue robes of fifteen or sixteen, his features even somewhat childish, yet before him, he himself, who was already several thousand years old, was like a toddler just learning to speak.

When this senior had blazed with brilliant radiance within the realms, when he had laid the foundations of the Xian Gate's hegemony over the realms on the battlefields of the Nine Spirit Domain and the Jiao Ming Domain, neither he nor his grandfather had even been born yet.

Tianci Canghai Tianjun felt extremely uncomfortable in his heart as he opened the transfer order.

'Tianci Canghai Tianjun, Commander of the Nineteenth Army Group of the Ninth Starfield Army Group of the Xian Gate: your Dao heart has fluctuated tremendously and you are no longer suited to serve as Commander of the Nineteenth Army Group. You are hereby transferred to the position of Commander of the 287th Army Group. Please report for duty within three days of receiving this order.

—Military Committee of the Ninth Starfield Army Group of the Xian Gate.'

On this document were the personal signatures of military committee members such as Great Sun Canghai Tianjun, True Venerable Mie Ri, True Venerable Ni Ri, and others, as well as the review seal of the Ninth Starfield

Army Group's legion formation spirit, clearly a collective decision with no procedural flaws whatsoever—a military order beyond reproach.

The only way to revoke such an order was to appeal to the next higher military committee, namely the Xian Gate Military Committee, and obtain approval, only then could it be rescinded.

Such occurrences were extremely rare.

Unless it involved treason or serious procedural violations, the Xian Gate Military Committee would generally respect the various orders issued by subordinate army group military committees and would not exercise jurisdiction over their affairs.

"Yes, Senior!"

"Tianci, obey the order!"

Tianci Canghai Tianjun stood up and saluted.

In the Xian Gate's army groups, the numerical designation of a starfield army group's fleet directly represented the operational difficulty and importance of that unit's military formation. The smaller the army group's number, the more formation operations it had to undertake, and the more core formation nodes it involved.

If errors occurred in such a core-node army group's fleet, it would often cause tremendous damage to the Xian Gate's military formations.

Tianci Canghai Tianjun being transferred away from the Nineteenth Army Group and reassigned as Commander of the 287th Army Group meant that the Xian Gate no longer trusted him to continue serving as commander of a core starfield fleet, believing this posed a certain risk.

—This risk did not lie in his capability.

"Tianci, do you know the reason for this transfer order?"

Jiang Ding said calmly.

"…I do…"

Tianci Canghai Tianjun said with difficulty: "In the Central Formation Spirit Computer's assessment, my ideological and moral character score has approached the passing line. Politically, I am no longer trustworthy and cannot continue to hold a core military position."

"The reason for such fluctuation in your ideological and moral character?"

"The reason?"

Tianci Canghai Tianjun's face showed pain. He closed his eyes, and only after a long while said: "Perhaps it is because of unwillingness to accept."

"Dao-body cultivators of Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong are nurtured from childhood, possessing nascent treasures refined from inherited divine metals. The entire sect's inexhaustible resources are at their beck and call. From birth, they have a profound foundation laid for them. In the future, they will certainly reach Void Refining, certainly reach Dao Merging, and even beyond Dao Merging there is some possibility."

"And I, who am also a Dao-body cultivator, after birth, had nothing!"

"No nascent treasure, no Dao protectors. Apart from the benefits available to all citizens, all resources had to be fought for by me displaying my talent and academic achievements. Yet even so, even though I was first in my class every year in elementary school, first every year in middle school, first every year in university, the resources I obtained were not even a hundred-thousandth of what a Dao-child of Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong receives."

"This is the unwillingness in my heart, Senior Great Sun."

"I am just such a mediocre and foolish common man, Senior Great Sun. I cannot control the wild thoughts in my heart."

Tianci Canghai Tianjun gave a self-mocking smile.

He admitted it outright, and held no fear toward the Great Sun

Sword Child before him, whose fearsome reputation resounded between the realms, because he was a lawful citizen of the Xian Gate, and moreover because he was merely thinking—illegal acts had not yet been committed, and his conscience was clear.

"Do you consider this unfair to Dao-body cultivators?"

Jiang Ding asked.

"No,"

"Although I think this way, in reality this is not unfair."

Tianci Canghai Tianjun sighed bitterly: "The Xian Gate belongs to its citizens. Even if the heavenly materials and earthly treasures in the national treasury piled up like mountains, on what grounds should we give them all to you alone? Just because you have good talent?"

"Your talent is good—what does that have to do with other citizens!"

"On what grounds should we use citizens' property to nurture a person who has rendered no meritorious service?"

"Everything requires military merit, everything requires meritorious service to exchange for. This is the foundation of Xian Gate citizens, and clearly something that a mere Dao-body cultivator cannot reverse."

Tianci Canghai Tianjun said dejectedly.

The reasoning—everyone understood it.

Whether one can truly do it and sincerely identify with it is another matter entirely.

"Dao Body cultivator…"

Jiang Ding silently recited this name — the title that this Tianci Canghai Tianjun was faintly proud of and took honor in — and asked, "Do you know how many Dao Body cultivators there are among the realms?"

"Setting aside the rest, within the Immortal Gate's territory alone, there are only three Dao Body cultivators. Across several hundred Minor Thousand Worlds and two Zhong Senior Qian Shi Gao Jie, with their countless populations, in five thousand years only this handful of Dao Body cultivators has appeared."

"Among them are Fire Leopard Three, you, and one other extraterritorial cultivator from the Levied Legion."

"That extraterritorial cultivator in the Levied Legion can never advance to Refining Void, because his character and virtue are only slightly better than yours — never reaching excellence — and his merits and scientific creativity also have flaws. He cannot become an Immortal Gate citizen, nor can he inherit the wisdom left behind by the Immortal Gate's many sages."

"This is the foundation accumulated only through the sacrifice and battle of the Immortal Gate's countless sages. Apart from descendants, it is never given to outsiders for no reason."

"…"

Tianci Canghai Tianjun lowered his head and fell silent.