Chapter 1562: The Immortal Gate Is Also an Anomaly

Intense pain, piercing deep into the bone marrow, seeping into the divine soul.

Jiang Ding's body and divine soul were continuously collapsing, flesh turning to rotting mush—utterly horrifying, like the cellular collapse and self-digestion triggered by the breakdown of a living being's primordial genes.

Rule backlash?

"Sword Son…"

Dayang Dayang Tianchi Moon Spirit's voice trembled as she spoke.

She had prepared a great many healing formations and healing talismans in advance, but she had absolutely no idea how effective they would be.

This generation's Great Sun Sword Master, the strongest Sword Master in the history of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion, had reached the absolute peak—the strongest living being of this era in this world cluster.

Once rule backlash appeared in him, there was absolutely no one who could possibly have the ability to save him.

"Hahaha!"

"Moon, how could anything possibly happen to me."

Jiang Ding laughed loudly: "This is normal. The solar rules composing my body have undergone an extremely minute change—the rules no longer match the divine soul dharma-body, so a conflict has arisen. Give it some time and it'll be fine."

"A thousand years. It only takes a thousand years for this adaptation process to end."

"When that time comes, my strength will see an enormous increase."

"The wisdom of the successive patriarchs of the Great Yin-Yang Sword Realm truly inspires boundless admiration, deeply moving…"

Jiang Ding sighed in admiration.

Only now, having truly passed through the most dangerous stage of the first Heavenly-Human step—the minute rule modification stage—did he truly understand why the Great Yin-Yang Sword Realm's inheritance insisted one must walk the Heavenly-Human path at the Void Refinement stage.

One must understand that the Dao Sons of the upper realm's Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong had incomparably deep foundations. When they advanced to the peak of Dao Merging, they were fully capable of enduring multiple instances of rule backlash without dying—not fragile like ordinary Dao Merging Divine Monarchs.

Then, why not walk the Heavenly-Human path at the peak of Dao Merging, instead of choosing to walk it at the Void Refinement stage, braving the danger of death to walk the Heavenly-Human path?

Could it merely be for the sake of being a step ahead of others?

No, that is not the correct answer.

The upper realm's Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong Dao Sons, in order to solidify their foundations, simply could not compare to other cultivators in cultivation speed—in fact, they were much slower. The speed of cultivation was fundamentally unimportant to them.

The reason for walking the Heavenly-Human path at the Void Refinement stage was naturally to forge a near-immortal foundation, to solidify the base, and… there was no danger.

Yes, for a qualified upper realm Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong Dao Son, this step held no danger whatsoever.

If one didn't even possess this much talent, how could one be called a Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong Dao Son of the Great Thousand Worlds?

The upper realm's Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong Dao Sons were future near-immortal-level powerhouses, future supreme experts of their sects—not people who came to freeload and wait for death. Such tasks were left to other powerhouses and the blood relatives of ancestors.

The rules at the Void Refinement stage were relatively simpler than those at the Dao Merging stage, making minute modification far easier—precisely the right time to lay the foundation.

For an absolute prodigy, missing this opportunity would be far too regrettable.

"Don't worry, I'm no longer in danger, Moon."

"I only need to quietly wait for time to pass. My divine soul will perfectly adapt to my own rules—the aberrant rules helped tremendously, otherwise it might have taken several thousand years of nirvana…"

Jiang Ding comforted her.

At this point, even if outside enemies invaded, he could flee first without being affected in any way.

"Sword Son is truly amazing."

Moon let out a relieved breath.

"Hmph,"

"Naturally."

Jiang Ding lifted his head, brimming with confidence.

His divine soul began connecting to the Immortal Gate's Central Array Spirit Computer to check on the events that had occurred during this period.

During his closed-door cultivation, the Central Array Spirit Computer had not been watching over him constantly—he had refused that, because he didn't quite trust its firewall. It would have to be switched to the previous version of the Central Array Spirit Computer.

"Two hundred years have passed… It feels like only an instant."

Jiang Ding swept a glance at the time, somewhat surprised, then immediately began handling the various research tasks of the Immortal Gate—especially the project to advance the Central Array Spirit Computer to eighth-tier, as well as eighth-tier formations, eighth-tier military formations, and other matters concerning the Immortal Gate's very survival.

Among these projects, the fastest-progressing was the eighth-tier Central Array Spirit Computer project, in which the Ancient God Patriarch's divine soul data had been of tremendous help.

Currently, the quasi-eighth-tier, quasi-Heavenly-Human-tier project was about to be completed.

If no accidents occurred, once the previous version of the Central Array Spirit Computer finished its virus-cleansing in the depths of the spiritless universe and returned to the Immortal Gate's home star, they could begin advancing it to a quasi-eighth-tier computer.

The previous generation of the Central Array Spirit Computer had gone through the entire rise of the Immortal Gate. The data within its AI large model was extremely precious, and combined with the divine soul embers of successive sages, there would be no issues with its treasure spirituality—as long as the formations and computer hardware met the standard, the advancement could be completed.

This point, however, was something the Central Array Spirit Computer recreated by the Immortal Gate could not achieve.

Currently, the Immortal Gate could only manufacture Central Array Spirit Computers of the seventh-tier supreme grade. Wanting it to advance was completely unrealistic—the treasure spirituality did not meet the standard.

To have sufficient treasure spirituality, one needed to wait for the passage of time, to experience all manner of events, generation after generation of the Immortal Gate's morally excellent members dying and their divine souls merging into it.

It would take who knows how many tens of thousands of years before the conditions for advancement could be met.

The Immortal Gate's rise from obscurity was a miracle, an epic—this experience was extremely precious, something that could not be compensated for by mere accumulation of time.

"There's still a ways to go. Arriving at the peak of Void Refinement should be within these two or three thousand years."

"Since five thousand years ago, his cultivation has been somewhat aggressive, the cultivation speed much faster than before…"

Jiang Ding pondered.

The reason for this, he naturally knew—the Immortal Gate's politicians absolutely did not wish to place the Immortal Gate's survival on any single person's morality, and thus wanted to change this outcome.

He had once vaguely offered counsel, but Yuan merely smiled and gave no answer.

This ruler who had brought the Immortal Gate to the peak of the world cluster had his own way of thinking, his own confidence and pride—not something outsiders could change.

"After reaching the peak of Void Refinement, Yuan will immediately advance to the Dao Merging stage."

"He should be able to advance to Dao Merging."

Jiang Ding estimated for a moment, then judged.

Just like his own cultivation progress, the Immortal Gate's participating politicians had nothing to hide from one another regarding their cultivation progress, and constantly discussed the Dao, exchanging various difficulties in cultivation.

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Sometimes your teacher is me, the student; sometimes I'm the teacher and you're the student—no one feels embarrassed, or hides their shortcomings.

This is something that only happens in a Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong ruled by the dark forest law.

In the last few thousand years, Yuan has more often taken the role of student, seeking guidance from the Great Sun Sword Master; the reverse happens less often. This is decided by the height of the immortal Dao one stands upon.

Therefore, Jiang Ding is clear on how Yuan's cultivation and foundations stand.

"Dao Merging Divine Lord Yuan, a quasi-Heavenly-realm central array spirit computer, plus the immortal sect's citizen fleet whose quality keeps rising and whose Void Refining and Soul Transformation cultivators keep growing in number—constantly iterating, ever more efficient military formations…"

"If it comes to that, it seems I might not be able to win."

Jiang Ding muttered to himself.

Within the same strength realm, the immortal sect is an extremely terrifying collective—adept at copying, splitting, iterating, and even more adept at killing in encirclement, enough to make even the Dao Sons of the upper-realm Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong deeply wary.