Chapter 1550: The First Step onto the Heavenly-Human Path

"Completely recovered."

"The body shattered to ash, nothing more than that…"

Jiang Ding Zi murmured.

The instant his Shen Hun He Fa fully recovered, the inspirations and epiphanies accumulated during the last battle came flooding toward him like a tide, causing sparks of inspiration to surface one by one in his Sea of Consciousness; the sparks gathered into droplets, then instantly became a vast ocean, boundless and endless…

Countless inspirations and epiphanies — he simply couldn't stop them!

In Jiang Ding's heart, many problems regarding the seventh realm of sword Dao — the Heavenly Sword realm — that he had racked his brains over in the past were instantly enlightened.

The seventh realm of sword Dao is called the Heavenly Sword realm. It is a process in which a sword cultivator uses their life-bound flying sword as a fulcrum to pry open the Heavenly Dao rules of the immortal Dao universe, modifying the world rules they grasp with extreme subtlety and transforming those world rules into rules that belong solely to themselves.

In fact, this is the Heavenly-Human Path of sword cultivators!

A Heavenly-Human Path begun from the Refinement Void stage — a path belonging solely to the Dao Sons of the upper realm's Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong — terrifying beyond compare.

One must know that, throughout the endless star rivers of the immortal Dao universe, how many peak He-Dao cultivators in this life dare not take even a single step onto the Heavenly-Human Path, nor modify even the tiniest, most ordinary thread of world rules — including the many renowned peak He-Dao cultivators of the Ancient God Domain in former times, including the peak He-Dao Divine Lords of the Jiudaxian Sect of the Ancient God Domain who possessed the inheritances of the upper realm's Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong.

Because they knew that, should they dare to take this step, certain death was inevitable.

Immortal Dao advancement is not a gacha game, not some probability of so-and-so, one in ten thousand or two in ten thousand. If a cultivator lacks the corresponding foundation and talent, and touches the Heavenly-Human Path and takes a step, the probability of death is one hundred percent — there will be no other outcome, and no miracle can possibly appear.

And the requirement of the seventh realm of sword Dao is precisely to use the life-bound flying sword as a fulcrum to modify the Heavenly Dao rules with extreme subtlety!

This realm simply does not divide into minor completion, major completion, or peak.

How much of the world rules a sword cultivator can subtly modify, to that extent the seventh realm of sword Dao advances; in theory, the progress of the seventh realm of sword Dao is infinite.

At the Refinement Void stage, modifying the world rules with extreme subtlety!

This is extremely perilous. Even the Dao Sons of the upper realm's Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong, before advancing to peak He-Dao, have absolutely no possibility of withstanding the backlash of rules and surviving.

In this sword Dao realm, one wrong step means death.

The only thing the Dao Sons of the upper realm's Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong can rely on is their own natural talent, their absolute confidence — confidence that their understanding of rules and self contains no error whatsoever.

Because they themselves will never err, therefore they will not die.

Compared to the Dao Sons of the upper realm's Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong, Jiang Ding's progress in the seventh realm of sword Dao is even more arduous.

Because his rules and path have no predecessors to reference, no predecessors who have trodden the path; everything is bewildering and unknown — like all the path-opening ancestors of the upper realm's Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong, walking with difficulty through thorns and darkness.

Therefore, Jiang Ding long hesitated to take even a single step into the seventh realm of sword Dao.

Because a single error means certain death, and he simply has no absolute certainty. He could only stop in awe before a stretch of thorns and fog, actively participating in the immortal gate's immortal Dao research, deepening his understanding of immortal Dao rules, strengthening his own foundation, hoping that one day he could tear open the thorns and fog before him.

He had originally thought that such a process would last a very, very long time — perhaps even forever unable to tear through the thorns and fog before him.

Yet the development of real history proved just how important a powerful opponent is to a sword cultivator.

A formidable enemy is a sword cultivator's heaven-defying opportunity!

"Ancient God Ancestor,"

"You are an old thing worth beating to death…"

Jiang Ding, feeling the tides of inspiration in his Sea of Consciousness, uttered words of admiration.

The thorns and fog blocking the path before the Heavenly-Human Path were torn open sheet by sheet, revealing a path of Heavenly-Human rules — that was the resplendent Sun Rule, containing six great rules such as Law-Breaking, Law-Binding, Destruction, and Yuan Magnetism, and yet being only the Sun Rule.

This rule came from between heaven and earth, yet seemed capable of undergoing subtle changes, transforming into some special existence…

Jiang Ding saw that the various taboos and fog on the Heavenly-Human Path were swept clean in an instant. Looking ahead, it was all open road — not even a single pothole requiring a slight detour; even a three-year-old infant walking such a road would not stumble. Only in the extremely distant places did thorns and fog begin to appear once more.

This path seemed endless.

Even the legendary true immortal maidens, it seemed, walked upon this path, without end, just as the Great Dao is without end.

"Now,"

"I am already able to take a step."

Enlightenment arose in Jiang Ding's heart: "I can now, for the first time, extremely subtly alter the Sun Rule and transform it into my own rule. I have a hundred percent certainty — it will surely succeed. I even have a ten or twenty percent certainty for the second and third subtle modifications."

"I have a premonition that each time I extremely subtly modify a rule and take a step on the Heavenly-Human Path, my strength will inevitably undergo earth-shaking changes."

"My first step will surely succeed."

"Should I…"

A strong impulse arose in Jiang Ding's heart.

He wanted right now to subtly modify the rules, give birth to his own Sun Rule, and let his Great Dao undergo a Heavenly-Human metamorphosis.

However, this desire was restrained.

On the Heavenly-Human Path, one wrong step means certain death.

Such matters of life and death truly should be handled with the utmost caution — simulated and deduced countless times, confirmed foolproof before beginning. At the very least, one must confirm whether this is merely one's self-confidence running too strong, so strong that it blurs the boundary between reality and fantasy.

The world exists objectively.

Wrong is wrong, right is right.

This is not something a cultivator's hot-bloodedness can change by getting fired up. Confidence is merely one standard of self-judgment.

"No rush, no rush,"

"However you look at it, I should verify the calculations on the Central Array Spirit computer for several hundred years."

Jiang Ding pulled out a notebook from his storage jade pendant and made a schedule: "Subtly altering rules is a qualitative change, a nirvana, of a cultivator's Great Dao, and usually lasts over a thousand years. One moment of carelessness and you die."

"Before that, I need to clear up some loose ends, to ensure the nirvana won't be disturbed."

"I also need to reserve some computational margin, so that even if someone interferes and interrupts, no error will occur — only then is it safe…"

After finishing writing the nirvana plan, Jiang Ding casually flipped the notebook forward.

Page after page of leaves turned over, all filled with many plans from his past cultivation stages, and name after name dimmed and crossed out — for example: Divine Crow Master Dinghai Zhenjun, his clansmen bullied me; General Who Pacifies the East Tang Wang sent people to chase and kill me; Blood Lake Corpse Bone Mountain Old Ancestor used a clone to beat me up…

Very many names, densely packed.

If this notebook weren't somewhat a magic treasure, if the contents of this notebook were written on ordinary paper, they could almost fill an entire room.

These names share one common feature — they are all grey; the difference is that some names have lines struck through them, and some do not.

Those with lines struck through indicate they were beaten to death by the Great Sun Sword Master.

The lack of an underline indicated he was dead—either from old age or beaten to death by others, dying before the Great Sun Sword Master could even act.

This notebook was quickly flipped to its final page.

Here, names began to appear with flickering spiritual light, no longer a sea of gray.

"The Thunder Yang Heaven Sword Realm, the Longevity Turtle Divine Lord—he once hunted down this Lord during the Soul Transformation stage, utterly shameless..."

"And the Shadow Puppet Divine Lord of the Artifact Qi Sect..."

"The Ancient Divine Ancestor..."

Jiang Ding wrote and drew, reorganizing the information on these names that still flickered with spiritual light, gathering all intelligence, relationships, and backgrounds concerning these figures, and making preparations for various investigations.