Chapter 1460: Immortal Butterfly Disciple

"The Heavenly Dao of the Nine Spirit Domain is truly strange..."

Jiang Ding scratched his head.

This was not recorded at all in the inheritance of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion; only one who had completely mastered the power of the Heavenly Dao's rule net could truly experience this.

"Sword Disciple, this proves the glorious future of the Great Sun Sword Dao!"

"See?"

Yue, who now possessed the power of the peak of Dao Integration, made the same discovery and said excitedly, "Perhaps this place will become a site for True Immortals to attain the Dao, one of the centers of the universe, destined to be extraordinary, so this heaven and earth feels a kinship with the Great Sun Sword Dao."

"Hahaha, alright."

Jiang Ding smiled.

Having confidence is a very good thing.

Jiang Ding slightly closed his eyes, extended his divine sense, and spread the sun rule Sword Dao Heavenly Dao rule net over hundreds of thousands of kilometers around him, connecting it to the Heavenly Dao rule net of the Nine Spirit Domain.

He was clearly looking for something.

"Sword Disciple..."

Yue felt somewhat nervous.

Moments later, Jiang Ding opened his eyes, reached out, and spread his palm.

Whoosh!

Whoosh whoosh!

Not long after, three light spots appeared in the distant starry sky, flying toward him through the rule net, falling into his hand; they were three golden flying swords, three feet in size, with light flashing on them from time to time.

Hum!

The Taiqing Flying Sword trembled slightly.

These three flying swords were very similar to her, also containing Po Fa Xian Jin and Taiqing Divine Iron, but the internal smelting craftsmanship was completely different, being entirely the orthodox smelting method of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion.

"Sigh!"

Yue's small face fell.

"Confiscated."

"We'll talk about it later."

Jiang Ding showed a look of satisfaction and stored these three flying sword embryos.

These three sword embryos were naturally the hidden hand arranged by the Great Sun Sword Pavilion more than ten thousand years ago, before its destruction, the seeds of future inheritance, hoping for future revival.

If the situation was suitable, such as after the Immortal Gate and the Badaxian Sect fought a civil war and both perished or were defeated, or were severely injured and unable to possess the power of a domain hegemon for a period, these Great Sun Sword Pavilion seeds would break through the soil, absorb nutrients, grow, give birth to a new Great Sun Sword Disciple, and rebuild the Great Sun Sword Pavilion.

These three sword embryos might be useful to Jiang Ding.

If he died in battle in the future, or if his lifespan reached its end, he might consider cultivating the next generation of Great Sun Sword Disciples for the Immortal Gate to continue guarding the Immortal Gate.

Although the Great Sun Sword Dao had various risks, it was truly powerful and could make up for the Immortal Gate's lack of individual combat power.

Of course, at that time, these three sword embryos would inevitably need to be upgraded and re-smelted; at least a seventh-grade sword embryo would be presentable.

In fact, within the Immortal Gate, there were now people walking the Great Sun Sword Dao.

All inheritances were public, and the growth path of this generation's Great Sun Sword Master was clear, so naturally some people imitated it and walked the path of the "Great Sun Seed Sword Sword Smelting Method."

According to statistics, over these thousands of years, a total of 109,777 citizens had smelted weakened versions of the Great Sun Flying Sword; they were all citizens of the Immortal Gate with astonishing talent who could be called geniuses, and they could do anything they wanted to do that was in accordance with the law.

But the final result was that they all died from heart demons.

Not one remained; they all died.

Some died from qi deviation after smelting a weakened version of the Great Sun Flying Sword for a period of time; some died during the Qi Refining stage; most died during the Foundation Establishment stage.

The strongest cultivator was at the late Nascent Soul stage and died from qi deviation.

This was the terrible danger of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion's Great Sun Sword Dao.

The Great Yin-Yang Sword Realm's Pure Yang lineage was already dangerous enough; isolated yang does not grow, but the Great Sun Sword Pavilion's Sword Dao was dozens of times more dangerous, with sudden death possible at any moment.

How did the Great Sun Sword Pavilion do it?

They selected people, found people, searching among countless living beings in the entire domain for a Great Sun Sword Disciple; if one died, they replaced him; if millions died, they replaced him; if tens of millions, hundreds of millions, or billions of cultivators died, they replaced him!

According to the Great Sun Sword Pavilion's experience, in the same era, if they distributed the most basic Great Sun Sword Smelting Method, as long as enough people died for long enough, after hundreds or thousands of years of continuous death, sooner or later they would find that one suitable person.

At that time, in the same era, the flying swords of all cultivators who had ever cultivated the "Great Sun Sword Smelting Method" would become the growth nourishment for the Great Sun Sword Disciple's flying sword.

The Immortal Gate had only lost over 100,000 cultivators and wanted to find another Great Sun Sword Disciple; this was nearly a fantasy.

The "Great Sun Sword Smelting Method" was designed for such a process.

When first smelting the sword, it was not dangerous; instead, it was progressive, granting the sword smelter immense power and talent enhancement, and concealing nothing, explicitly informing them of all risks, screening true sword cultivators from countless cultivators.

Even if they died, they would inevitably have decades or centuries of brilliance, making many cultivators willing.

Jiang Ding traveled between domains, arrived at the mother star through a teleportation array, and then did not enter the mother star; instead, he broke through the atmosphere and flew toward the depths of the universe.

In space, a golden escape light flickered, like a meteor from beyond the heavens.

Jiang Ding left the moon, passed Mars, and took a look at it.

This place had already become another native land of the Immortal Gate, with many citizens living there, multiplying, and the number of citizens had grown to 15 trillion and was still growing, used to control the vast domains.

In the future, all nine planets of the solar system would become life planets of the Immortal Gate.

Jiang Ding did not stop, but continued flying, continued flying, flying toward the distant depths of the universe starry sky, gradually disappearing from the sight of all citizens, visible only through telescopes.

Continuing to fly, continuing to fly, heading toward the depths of the distant cosmic starry sky, gradually vanishing from the sight of all citizens, visible only through astronomical telescopes.

After spending over ten years, occasionally randomly teleporting using the Immortal Gate's military array leapfrog method, Jiang Ding finally left the solar system.

Finally, here, he could no longer sense any spiritual qi, not even the slightest trace of spiritual qi; the universe had completely entered a state of no spiritual qi.

Finally, here, not a trace of spiritual energy could be felt any longer—not even the faintest wisp of it—the cosmos had thoroughly entered a spiritless state.

"Back then, Zou Zou Xiyuan must have also chased the Immortal Gate's fleeing fleet to this place..."

"Back then, Zou Zou Xiyuan must have also pursued the Immortal Gate's fleeing fleet all the way here…"

Jiang Ding Zi said.

At this very moment, the vast magic power within him, the vast sword soul, had congealed and stagnated, circulating with great difficulty; his strength was but one in ten of what it had been, and the range of his divine sense had shrunk to around ten thousand kilometers.

Even more terrifying was that spiritual energy was constantly leaking out from within his body!

Despite using sealing spells, it was still leaking — his magic power, his divine sense, every moment was in a state of leakage; the sealing spells slowed this process, but could not stop it at all.

Because the sealing spells themselves were composed of spiritual power, and were likewise leaking away.

It was like a high-energy lifeform entering a low-entropy world — all energy drained away uncontrollably, a law of the universe that could not be stopped.

Any high-energy lifeform entering this universe would, in the end, meet the fate of losing all high-energy power, and finally transform into a being without a single trace of spiritual energy — only then would this natural law of water flowing downhill come to an end.

"This consequence…"

Jiang Ding's heart trembled with dread.

If it were a mortal, even losing all spiritual matter would be of little consequence, the impact not great.

But for a high-level cultivator — especially one who had already lived beyond a mortal's extreme lifespan — the complete loss of spiritual matter would be fatal!

The immortal Dao's eternal life, the immortal Dao's ten-thousand-year lifespan, were built upon the foundation of spiritual matter!

Once this foundation collapsed, all things of the immortal Dao would be destroyed.

"I can stay here for a thousand years."

Jiang Ding silently calculated the speed at which his spiritual power was draining away.

He did not stop, still walking forward; another dozen-plus years passed, and he finally found a planet covered in frost, orbiting around an unfamiliar star system.

This place was Immortal Gate End-Facheng Site Number One.

In bygone years, the Immortal Gate had once placed End-Facheng here; later, with the advancement of immortal Dao technology, End-Facheng had once again traveled deeper into the cosmos, used to guard against existences above Dao Merging.

Jiang Ding stopped on this frigid planet, broke through the thin atmosphere and entered it, casually chose an ice mountain, sat cross-legged, and silently gazed at his own divine soul and magic power.

Under the laws of the universe

?? high-energy matter converting toward low entropy, all power was draining away.

All power was dissipating.

One year, two years, ten years… fifty years, eighty years!

At this point, with Jiang Ding himself voluntarily releasing the seal, the spiritual power throughout his body had already drained by seventy percent; many structures of the divine soul and magic power, like a beach at low tide, were revealed of their own accord.

"So it turns out,"

"the structure of my divine soul, the foundation of my magic power structure — so this is what they look like…"

Jiang Ding stared intently at these things, committing them firmly to memory, feeling as though he had grasped something.

Unknowingly, another thirty-plus years passed.

He had already spent over a hundred years in this pitch-black starry sky; the magic power and divine soul power on his body had drained by ninety-five percent, and many of the most fundamental structures had finally been revealed.

Jiang Ding stared fixedly at his own sword soul.

Within these most primordial divine soul structures, he saw rules of destruction, law-prohibition, aberration, and so on; he saw his own flying sword; he saw many things that brought him great enlightenment, gaining a deeper level of comprehension regarding the Six Paths of Reincarnation and sword arts above the Sword Spirit Realm.

He saw once more —

A phantom butterfly!

A butterfly rooted in the deepest depths of his own divine soul, tightly entwined around his divine soul — a phantom, hazy butterfly, as if from within a dream!

In a universe completely devoid of spiritual matter, she had finally appeared!

In that instant, all the past oversights, all the lost memories, all the unanswered questions, finally became clear and bright, without a single remaining confusion.

Upper Realm Immortal-like Race, Heavenly Phantom Immortal Butterfly Race!

In that instant, Jiang Ding instantly recalled many things — that spy of the Heavenly Phantom Immortal Butterfly Race, and the Heavenly Phantom Immortal Butterfly Race existence that used the prodigies of numerous realms as puppets.

"Good."

"Not bad, truly good, really good indeed,"

"Immortal Butterfly…"

Crimson, frenzied blood surged in Jiang Ding's gaze, scalding hot, as he said in a calm tone: "I haven't even gone to find you yet, and you, you slut, already dare to make a move against me."

"Truly wonderful,"

"An honest, kind-hearted fool like me is always bullied, again and again — the Upper Realm really is a filthy world that needs to be swept clean."

"Thank you, you slut."

"This rather excellent immortal Dao puppet technique of yours — I shall appraise it thoroughly."