Chapter 1537: The Terrifying Revival of the Ancient God Ancestor

Jiang Ding's face was perfectly calm.

He no longer tried to search for anything within the various rule data.

Instead, he began using his authority as a sect participant in governance to investigate all sorts of things online — not the cutting-edge Immortal Dao technology journals he usually favored, but simply bragging and chatting, cultural entertainment, and other more humanistic subjects.

In these areas, the sect, with its ten trillion citizens who had all received a complete Immortal Dao basic education, was extremely well-developed.

In film history, gaming history, developmental history, music history, and so on, many great works had emerged, and even after a thousand years, people still spoke of them with great relish.

Some works were occasionally dug back up by fans for a nostalgic revisit, conquering generation after generation of sect citizens — truly great works that had stood the test of time.

But how to put it?

Jiang Ding had never been interested in these things in the past, unable to appreciate them.

Because there was a generational gap.

The things he was interested in, the things he liked, were formed by an aesthetic sense from nearly twenty thousand years ago.

The things that current sect citizens appreciated and enjoyed, the various popular cultures — although he could understand them and knew what they meant, it was hard for him to truly feel them.

Besides, mass popular culture tended to cater to the largest demographic of citizens.

Void Refinement cultivators like them, though wielding tremendous power, numbered only in the hundreds; the vast majority of citizens did not share their long life experiences, and naturally could not create cultural products that these Void Refinement cultivators would deeply resonate with and feel immersed in.

The notion that some mortal's film or song could make an immortal fall into reverie and achieve great breakthroughs in cultivation — that was all naive fantasy.

All these reasons led to this result: the top-tier cultivators of the sect paid little attention to these cultural entertainment achievements, at most keeping an eye on public sentiment.

Here, perhaps, lay a loophole.

"Truly, a powerful and ancient adversary."

"It's their very first contact with our civilization, a completely different Immortal Dao civilization, yet they precisely found the breakthrough point…"

Jiang Ding couldn't help but sigh in heartfelt admiration at this moment.

He browsed through the sect's thousand-year classic films, and found that many sect citizens, generation after generation, had jointly recognized a list of thousand-year classic films, which had received widespread acclaim.

Some works ranked at the top of these lists, even after a thousand years, still occasionally appeared in the annual top hundred box office — truly outstanding.

Jiang Ding's gaze swept across.

"Number one on the classic film list, 'Three Thousand Years of Reincarnation, Finally Seeing You Again.'"

"Love, truly an enduring theme — although the vast majority are destined never to possess it, it seems everyone has yearned for a beautiful love…"

Jiang Ding Zi murmured.

This film,

told the story of a pair of lovers who, through countless cycles of reincarnation and rebirth, finally met again. The director was excellent, the male and female leads' acting superb, the costumes, props, supporting cast, and plot all top-tier, moving generation after generation of sect citizens.

"Number two, 'Reincarnated as an Immortal Sovereign.'"

This was that year's box office champion — not a classic, just the kind of popcorn film with busty beauties and handsome hunks, exciting and intense fight scenes, with little depth, but where even the fight choreography and plot were thrilling and intense.

Everyone is vulgar, with no particularly lofty pursuits.

"Number three, 'Heavenly and Earthly Immortal Plants.'"

This told the story of dying and being reborn as an immortal plant, then growing up within the sect, leading the sect to immortality… all manner of fantasies. The screenwriters and directors were top talents in the industry, letting the audience experience a different kind of life.

"Number four, 'Her in the Dream'…"

Fifth, sixth… ninth, ninety-ninth…

Jiang Ding swept through them, his expression gradually turning icy.

Of the hundred classic films across a thousand years, eighty-two were related to reincarnation, rebirth, and dreams — all of them exceptionally excellent.

Was this the cultural trend that had risen over the past thousand years?

He looked through the film industry, swept through the gaming industry — the classic masterpieces were "Eighteen Layers of Hell," "A Hundred Lifetimes to Become an Immortal Sovereign," "Dream," and similar themes.

Also, the dreamy, ethereal music of reincarnation, and dance, the Dance of Reincarnation…

Reincarnation!

Reincarnation!

It's all reincarnation and rebirth!

It's in novels, in TV dramas, in games, in films, in endorsement advertisements — even in the sect's Grand Void Illusion Realm, it's there!

Is this a coincidence?

Why had everyone subconsciously overlooked such an obvious coincidence?

"Coincidence, huh…"

Jiang Ding revealed a faint killing intent.

In that instant, he used his highest authority as a sect participant in governance to convene a governance council meeting — and at the sect's highest level, one concerning the sect's very survival.

In a meeting of this level, any sect participant in governance who could not arrive at the first moment, for whatever reason, would be stripped of their governance qualification and replaced by the next alternate participant.

Almost instantly, the will of the Central Array Spirit Computer arrived, and then Hou Yuan, Zhenjun Shenji Zhen Zun, and others were instantly in position.

"What happened?"

Zhenjun Shenji Zhen Zun said in alarm.

In all of history, this was the first time — the Great Sun Sword Master personally convened the sect's highest-level governance council meeting, one concerning the sect's very survival.

What terrifying, dreadful existence was about to appear?

"There is indeed something important."

"This Ancient God Ancestor is indeed a contemporary hero, with the bearing of one approaching immortality…"

"…"

Jiang Ding surveyed the crowd and said coldly: "Honored seniors, the moment of the sect's survival has arrived once again, and it is far more dangerous than before."

"In the past, if the sect lost a war, it would merely mean the Badaxian Sect destroyed our bodies — there would still be a chance for revival in the future."

"This time, if the sect loses, our souls will be devoured by others, reduced to their puppets; from then on, our lives and our Dao will no longer be our own, but entirely belong to another."

"Please look at these."

Jiang Ding said nothing more. He handed over all the materials he had gathered, along with the Immortal Sect's complete research on the reincarnation of the ancient god-path's Six Paths of Reincarnation.

The surroundings fell silent.

Yuan and the others, faces grave, leafed through the materials on the Great Sun Sword Master again and again. Their divine souls interfaced with the peak Dao-Attainment central array-spirit computer, frantically running deductions and verifications on everything in the documents, over and over, repeatedly confirming the truth of what was written.

A long, long time passed.

*Plap! *

The documents slipped from True Venerable Tao Qing's hands and fell to the ground. Her body trembled, her face deathly pale.

This was the Immortal Sect's divine-soul conference space!

Everything here was constructed by divine soul, including the documents submitted. By all reason, such a loss of composure, such absurdity, should have been absolutely impossible.

Her divine soul, her Dao heart, had suffered an immense shock in an instant.

"The Immortal Sect—"

"The vast numbers of Immortal Sect citizens, and the central array-spirit computer…"

True Venerable Tao Qing's body trembled as she said hoarsely, "They are being… being body-snatched by the ancient god patriarch?"

"Or have they already been completely… body-snatched?"

"This… this is impossible…"