Chapter 1418: Ancient God Ancestor

Jiang Ding stood perfectly still on the spot.

A long time passed.

"Enough of that. This bit of risk still has to be borne."

Jiang Ding sighed softly: "An eighth-tier treasure, after hundreds of thousands of years of erosion, and after dozens of Dao Merging cultivators attacking and restraining it in turn, many of its formations have already been broken open."

"Even so, if it still possesses power above Dao Merging, then there's nothing more to be said."

He no longer hesitated and stepped inside in a single stride.

The surrounding sky-light shifted and flickered, and another heaven appeared.

This was a dark, heavy heaven and earth. There was wind, cold wind. The sky pressed down black, and the earth was a stretch of pitch-black fog, making it impossible to see what lay ahead.

Jiang Ding's gaze fell first upon the center.

It was a spirit tablet like a black ink stone pillar, piercing through heaven and earth, thrusting straight up beyond the ninefold clouds, upon which was inscribed a line of characters, a thick sorrow spreading outward, undimmed after hundreds of thousands of years.

'Spirit Tablet of the Ancient God Ancestor.'

This was the spirit tablet of the Ancient God Dao's founding patriarch, the Ancient God Celestial — a great existence who had opened up a world-cluster where the human race could survive.

Jiang Ding bowed slightly in salute.

Beneath the Ancient God Ancestor's spirit tablet, many far smaller spirit tablets were arranged, all belonging to certain sages of the Ancient God Dao, every one of them a Dao Merging cultivator, among whom the strongest aura belonged to the second and third generation Dao Lords.

The fourth generation Dao Lord, however, had no spirit tablet at all.

It must have been that the destruction of the Ancient God Dao back then was too sudden; everything had been too late.

Jiang Ding gazed at the Ancient God Ancestor's spirit tablet, and in a fleeting moment, his vision blurred and a scene appeared before him.

A short, dwarfish cultivator, his features ugly, despised by his own clan, hunted by foreign races, yet he cared nothing for it — his happiness came from himself, and had nothing to do with anyone else.

Life had always been unfortunate. As a loose cultivator with no Gong Fa, no spells, no elixirs or dharma treasures, cultivation was exceedingly difficult, yet he paid it no mind, walking step by step.

He often suffered misfortune, being hunted by his own kind who sought to kill him for his treasures; only barely escaping with his life, gravely wounded and on the verge of death, his savings completely spent.

He did not rail against heaven or blame others, did not complain of fate's unfairness. After a minor healing, he recovered his optimism and cheer, thinking he would take revenge once his realm advanced, and if his realm never advanced, then he would never go.

Sometimes hunted by foreign races who wanted to make him a snack, he carefully evaded them.

Sometimes he became a slave to foreign races; fortunate to not die immediately, he diligently performed everything a servant ought to do, carefully gauging his master's thoughts, earning his master's favor, and when the moment was ripe, he broke free of the restraints, executed all who deserved execution, forged the false appearance of his own death, and successfully escaped.

After escaping, he once again optimistically continued cultivating…

He was undoubtedly extremely intelligent, his aptitude extremely outstanding. Even without any good

inheritance, he could constantly explore, constantly learn, and on his own lift the demon race's restraints.

He kept learning, kept growing. Even with great caution, he still often encountered life-and-death crises, because no race sheltered him.

With talent and a great deal of luck, he slowly grew into a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Finally, on this day, a certain throbbing arose in his heart; he vaguely sensed some change occurring in the depths of his bloodline. This changing thing demanded something from the universe's Heavenly Dao, and a certain heaven-shaking, earth-shaking inheritance appeared in his sea of consciousness.

It was a structure, a knowledge, a reincarnation, something involving the divine soul.

He called this knowledge obtained from his bloodline: Reincarnation!

This was not a Gong Fa, not a spell, merely a structural, essential knowledge — how to use it depended entirely on oneself.

On this day, the Ancient God Ancestor attained the Dao.

He comprehended from his bloodline something called 'Reincarnation'. Using Yi Mi Fa, he dissolved his own body, refined his divine soul into a 'Seed of Reincarnation', reincarnated into the bloodline of a nearby powerful race, extinguished the tender soul of the embryo, and took its place.

Whenever he grew strong enough to surpass that powerful race, he would immediately annihilate that race without leaving a trace, using Yi Mi Fa to cleanse the attachment in his heart, and restore himself.

This kind of annihilation was not done by his own hand, but by guiding internal strife within the powerful race and invasions by external powerful enemies, so that it naturally perished.

Such things were exceedingly common between realms.

Thus, constantly reincarnating, constantly growing, experiencing many dangers and many opportunities, he finally achieved Void Refinement cultivation. Gazing into the future, he believed he would certainly achieve Dao Merging.

As for more, there was no way. He could only do this much; his inheritance was too poor. Conjuring from nothing and deducing the immortal Dao was too difficult. Those above Dao Merging could already see through the reincarnated state of the Seed of Reincarnation, and he could not reincarnate into such powerful races.

However, on this day, he encountered something.

A shattered arm.

This shattered arm flew in from beyond the heavens, falling beside him. Countless distortions and mutations surged into his divine soul, countless strange and chaotic knowledge crammed into his sea of consciousness, throwing everything into disorder.

From then on, the Ancient God Ancestor began to grow even faster…

Until he became an existence above Dao Merging, the strongest in the world-cluster, no longer able to find a single person who could be called an opponent.

Then, suddenly, he died.

Jiang Ding slowly opened his eyes.

He seemed to sense a trace of goodwill from the unseen, and then intense malice, greedy desire.

"That arm…"

"Was…"

Jiang Ding had just wanted to ask something, but the next moment, everything in his divine soul was empty — he had forgotten everything related to it.

?? stood dazed on the spot.

"Back then, what happened?"

Jiang Ding thought for a moment, felt it was nothing important, and instead recalled his own purpose, asking:

"Little friend, you have the Ancient God Token, correct?"

That hoarse voice appeared once more.

"Yes."

Jiang Ding took out a token from his storage jade pendant.

This was obtained several thousand years ago when he broke through the Horn Demon Imperial Clan's seventh-tier King of Hell's Underworld Yin-Yang Reversal Grand Formation — it was part of the Ancient God Dao's inheritance.

"This is the true Ancient God Token."

"Little friend, you may be a direct disciple of the Ancient God Dao."

That hoarse voice said: "After becoming a direct disciple of the Ancient God Dao, you can master the highest inheritance of the Ancient God Dao, and easily control those war beasts and Dao soldiers, those rebellious outer disciples."

"Come, accept your inheritance…"

This voice was ethereal and formless, carrying a thick guiding temptation.

A jet-black finger emerged from the void, gently guiding itself into the brow of the blue-robed youth, pressing into it, injecting something as black as ink.

Ding!

This jet-black finger struck the tip of a flying sword, instantly pierced through, collapsing into a mass of black mist.

"May I, perhaps, try a different method?"

Jiang Ding suddenly said.

"For example, attempting a direct possession."

"Directly invading my divine soul, attempting to take control of everything?"

The collapsed black mist was taken aback.

"Gaga ga…"

"Sigh…"

The hoarse voice sighed softly: "Little friend, could it be that this old man has been trapped in the Void Spirit Abyss for so many years that my divine soul has grown so dull I can't even fool a youngster of a few thousand years…"

"Are the flaws really that big?"

He asked sincerely for guidance.

"Indeed, a little."

"Too blatant — it must be that Senior hasn't had contact with living people for so many years, you've grown a bit rusty."

Jiang Ding consoled: "A powerhouse like you actually has no need for such tricks. Just press down with an overwhelming grand momentum — who could resist?"

"Hahaha…"

The hoarse voice laughed heartily.

"Good,"

"Then we'll do it as the little friend says."

Boom!

In an instant, heaven and earth dimmed, plunging into a stretch of black light. One after another, jet-black divine-soul venomous serpents appeared between heaven and earth, carrying a terrifying aura that surpassed the net of Heavenly Dao rules, instantly enveloping the blue-robed youth.