Chapter 1572: The Great Sun Sword Lord Inspects the World Cluster

Jiang Ding and Yuan exchanged a glance, both at a loss for words.

The two of them were far too familiar with each other.

In the past, when True Venerable Zhenjun Shenji and the others were still around, there had always been a sense of an entire epoch separating the two of them, but now, they seemed once more to be living beings of the same era.

"Senior, how is the current situation in the immortal gate?"

Jiang Ding asked.

A large batch of veteran Void Refinement powerhouses entering slumber would surely affect various industrial production and immortal-path technical research and development; the only question was whether it remained within an acceptable range.

"It's all right."

"The impact isn't too great."

Yuan shook his head slightly: "With ten trillion citizens of the immortal gate being born and dying generation after generation, supplemented by ascension immigrants, taking a century as one generation, every generation can produce many geniuses, and every thousand years can produce outstanding heroes of the age. When Zhenjun Shenji and the others slumber, new citizen Void Refinement cultivators will step up to take their place; it won't cause too much trouble."

"It's true that the younger generation is inexperienced, and they still fall far short of Zhenjun Shenji and the others — that's correct."

"But Zhenjun Shenji and the others weren't born that strong either. They grew up through many trials, by taking charge of various immortal-gate-level research projects at the Immortal Gate Academy of Sciences, and after many missteps."

"These younger cultivators of the immortal gate will also gradually grow within an entirely new platform."

Yuan gave a self-mocking smile.

"From this angle, the slumber and retirement of us old relics is actually a good thing."

The birth of talent lies not only in innate endowment, but even more in opportunity.

Take a few people of equal aptitude: one in charge of a city-level research project, one in charge of a world-level research project, one in charge of a realm-level research project. After several thousand years of tempering, these people — originally of identical aptitude and comprehension — will display enormous differences in their foundation, reserves, and brilliance.

This is the extreme importance of platform to talent.

"You're being far too selfless and impartial."

"I don't agree."

Jiang Ding did not endorse such a view.

"I'm stronger, I'm more suited to a certain post, so naturally I should hold that post, rather than stepping aside for the sake of the younger generation's growth. That goes against the nature of living beings."

"If in the future Senior Zhenjun Shenji and the others awaken, they too should compete for their posts. Only those who are more outstanding and more politically reliable should hold the key positions of the immortal gate."

For cultivators on the immortal gate's path, immortal-path research projects are not merely a livelihood and a means of acquiring heavenly materials and earthly treasures, but are moreover the key to their own Dao — extremely important.

"What you say is right."

Yuan nodded slightly.

He held himself to a higher moral standard, yet would never forcibly impose that moral standard on others — this was precisely why he had always been able to win the support and recognition of so many.

"And you?"

"

"Why did your true self come out of seclusion this time?"

Yuan asked.

The Great Sun Sword Lord had not set foot outside Dayang Dayang Tianchi for three thousand years.

In the calculations of the immortal gate's central array-spirit computer, he had always been suppressing and sealing his own desire to kill, unwilling to let his true body come into contact with living beings.

Yet this time he had emerged in his true body!

This made Yuan keenly sense many differences.

"I'm going to enter self-sealing for a period."

"Before that,"

Jiang Ding said softly: "I plan to inspect the realms, intimidate enemies both within and without. If there are high-risk targets, I will deal with them, to ensure the immortal gate's peace for a period."

High-risk targets were naturally the Badaxian Sect, or any other beings who might be taken over by ancient god ancestors — these were enormous factors affecting the immortal gate's ruling hegemony, and had to be investigated and cleared out in advance.

He took out an application he had prepared to submit to the Immortal Gate Military Committee and handed it forward.

With the passage of time, as a new generation of immortal-gate powerhouses grew up, the Great Sun Sword Lord had finally come to possess a terrifying prestige similar to Yuan's. So long as the proposals he put forward had no obvious errors, ordinary citizens would subconsciously agree and not raise any objections.

This was the role of an ancestral elder of the sect's reserves.

"You're going into self-sealing?"

Yuan murmured to himself.

Before this, cultivators such as Jin Jin Lingfeng, An Siyan, Zhang Zhang Junsheng, Master Master Dinghai, and True Venerable Mieri had likewise entered slumber; in the immortal gate, familiar cultivators were growing fewer and fewer.

The younger generation that grew up later all had fine talent and brilliance, and their character and virtue were also good, but they simply lacked the kind of bond that came with these old friends walking together from Soul Transformation to the present.

Now, the last remaining Great Sun Sword Lord was also about to enter self-sealing.

This made him feel a touch of bleak loneliness.

"It's not slumber."

"I'll wake from time to time, and occasionally handle some key immortal-path research projects."

Jiang Ding corrected him slightly.

The two discussed the handover work to come — matters involving national defense, scientific research, internal affairs, and all manner of affairs — and then Yuan took his leave.

As the immortal gate's sole Dao-Unity Divine Monarch, even a single avatar of his was extremely busy.

Jiang Ding arrived before the super warship Great Sun.

He cast a series of Dao techniques; the azure rule-patterns at his brow blossomed with radiance, spreading into the hazy world around him, encompassing the entire dead-star warship within their range, then shrinking bit by bit, and bit by bit, until the dead-star warship was completely drawn into the rule-space at his brow.

A warship weighing as much as a planet drawn into his body, yet his form showed no change — still the slight figure of a sixteen-year-old youth.

This was what it meant to be a Realm Lord, long since inhuman.

Hum!

At that instant, Dayang Dayang Tianchi, after applying through the central array-spirit computer, broke away from its mother-star's orbit and flew outward, like a stellar body, radiating terrifying light and destructive might that rippled out in all directions.

A group-armada fleet stationed near the immortal gate's orbit came this way; the crushing pressure of several billion warships blotted out the sky, merging without any clash into the sun's radiance, becoming one with the sun, further amplifying its destructive might.

"Lord Great Sun Censor,"

"The Immortal Gate's Ninth Front Army reports to you!"

A late-stage Void Refinement cultivator saluted toward Dayang Dayang Tianchi: "An Inspector on tour, whose might presses down upon the world's communities—how could there be no guards clearing the way, to display your dignified bearing?"

"During your tour, the Ninth Front Army will stand guard at your side. Please give us your instructions."

The gaze of the Dayang Sword Lord swept over here, landing on this young commander of the Immortal Gate's front army, putting a great deal of tension in his heart.

"Good. Comrades, you've worked hard."

Jiang Ding gave a slight nod and offered words of comfort.

At this moment, he could not help but feel a touch of emotion.

The words of Yuan were not wrong—as the older generation of cultivators gradually fell into slumber, the younger generation of the Immortal Gate had also grown up.

Take this commander of the Ninth Front Army, for example—only a little over twenty thousand years old, yet already commanding the Immortal Gate's Ninth Front Army, able to wield a quasi-eighth-tier army formation. Truly a rare prodigy among outstanding talents.

Although, after nearly ten thousand years of development, the Immortal Gate's fleets had produced strong cultivators in great numbers, the auxiliary capabilities of the legion formation spirits had grown stronger, and the efficiency of army formations had increased, making the difficulty of controlling an army formation far lower than in their day—still, they could not be looked down upon, and were already capable of single-handedly suppressing vast swathes of domains, invincible wherever they went.

Amid the escort of countless Immortal Gate fleets, the radiance of the Dayang Sword Lord gradually spread out across the entire world's communities.