Chapter 1580: The Million Beats of Karmic Fate

A specter, drifting above the Gold Sea Domain.

He wandered here and there, yet did nothing, never venturing deep into the very heart of the Gold Sea Domain to offend the powerful beings there—whether Harmonization Dao cultivators or even more terrifying Heavenly Being powerhouses—he was not the least bit curious.

He merely wandered about, imprinting the divine souls of one cultivator after another, reading their memories.

And so, he wandered for several decades.

"Oh?"

"The Great Yin-Yang Sword Realm's Great Sun Longsword Legion has breached the Immortal Artifact Sect's Cloud Marsh Domain, achieving a great victory…"

Jiang Ding paused while reading the memories of a Soul Transformation cultivator under the Immortal Artifact Sect: "What the heck? This thing has a duplicate name too?"

He searched through this Soul Transformation cultivator's memories for relevant intelligence, cross-referenced it with the vast database of cultivator information he had previously gathered, and extracted numerous scattered pieces of intel.

"It should be a duplicate name."

Jiang Ding concluded.

"Great Sun Longsword Legion, a unique Dao Soldier of the Great Yin-Yang Sword Realm's Blazing Sun World Cluster—108,000 strong, 108,000 Soul Transformation-grade sword cultivators. When the sword formation activates, billions of swords strike at once; its combat power is terrifying, rarely finding a match beneath the Heavenly Being realm…"

"Worthy of Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong, truly lavish."

"I want to beat them all to death."

Another target was added to Jiang Ding's list.

All non-Immortal Sect sword cultivators had a passive trait when it came to him.

Namely, as long as one was strong enough, they could be beaten to death—no questions asked about background, origin, or whether they were good or evil. Beat them all to death without exception. This was his love for sword cultivators and a special favor, granting them a unique glory.

"Next."

Jiang Ding no longer paid attention to the Soul Transformation cultivator of the Immortal Artifact Sect not far away.

This was the 879,891st cultivator whose memories he had imprinted over these several decades, and also the last one. From now on, there was no more need.

The memory data grand model had already taken shape.

The memories of 870,000 cultivators below the Void Refining realm!

Even though their cultivation was insufficient, with so many memories gathered together, the entire Gold Sea Domain held no secrets for Jiang Ding. Everything was clear in his mind, granting him a certain degree of omniscience and omnipotence.

This was the specialty of a World Cluster Overlord—one who came from a world cluster of stealthy assassination. Reconnaissance work was his forte.

Jiang Ding calmed his mind and quietly admired the constantly rotating divine soul memory data grand model within his Sea of Consciousness.

It was a hexahedron, with six worlds as its six faces. On each face, countless divine soul memory data floated and sank, with the Immortal Dao symbols of 0 and 1 constantly appearing.

—This was a unique Immortal Dao script developed by the Immortal Sect, better suited to the Immortal Sect's scientific research system. Every sect had similar unique scripts, such as the Yin-Yang Immortal Register of the Great Yin-Yang Sword Realm.

"I need to find a person, Void Refining realm,

who happens to have a need to leave the Gold Sea Domain, and whose status is high enough not to invite obstruction…"

Jiang Ding channeled his divine sense into this divine soul memory grand model, inputting his requirements.

This method was actually similar to the computational deduction of a Central Array Spirit Computer—using the memories of 870,000 cultivators as a foundation to deduce a suitable plan.

And the source of computational power supporting this divine soul memory grand model was Jiang Ding's own Materialist Solar Sword Soul.

The specialization was a perfect match, after all—it was a sword soul born within the Immortal Sect.

Jiang Ding closed his eyes and quietly performed the deduction, barely completing this thread of computation over a dozen years.

This was mainly due to the Heavenly Being powerhouses; such unknown factors greatly affected his calculations, forcing him to constantly evade many things, going around in circles, which hampered efficiency.

Otherwise, if it were just a group of Void Refining or Harmonization Dao cultivators, Jiang Ding could have completed the deduction in three seconds.

"Done."

Jiang Ding opened his eyes, countless streams of data information slowly fading from his pupils.

……

Several years later, Jiang Ding arrived at a mortal kingdom called Qiu Kingdom.

It was a kingdom with several hundred million people. Although still a feudal society, the environment of the upper realm was too superior—even such an inefficient organizational system could give birth to a kingdom of several hundred million people, and cities of several hundred thousand or even a million people were not uncommon. Martial artists among mortals could almost be used as excavators.

Jiang Ding arrived at the imperial palace, ignoring all the Emperor's concubines and princes, his gaze falling upon a frail palace maid who had been whipped—her back a bloody mess, exposing pale white bone.

This palace maid was the daughter of a minister from an enemy nation. Her country had been destroyed by Qiu Kingdom, and she herself had been taken as a spoil of war into Qiu Kingdom's imperial palace, used as a servant.

Now, it seemed she had committed some mistake, or perhaps it was some struggle among the servants.

These struggles were naturally very serious, involving matters of life and death for individuals, not trivial at all. Jiang Ding did not look down on them, but neither would he intervene.

The reason he had come here was that this palace maid was the first symbol deduced by the divine soul memory grand model.

In the original destined fate, this palace maid would die—right here in this whipping. She had attempted to seduce the Thirteenth Prince to complete the transformation of her own destiny, but undoubtedly, she had already failed.

However, fate was not set in stone; it possessed multiple possibilities.

"Sigh,"

"This sovereign truly does not wish to disturb any karma…"

Jiang Ding murmured.

His role as an observer of the world was going perfectly well. He had no desire to change anything—not even a single strand of the finest hair. He only wanted to silently observe, wait for his strength to grow, then find Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong's Dao Child and the legitimate sons of quasi-Immortal clans to beat them to death. These tricks were not his wish.

But alas, the world was always full of helplessness.

At this pivotal node of karmic destiny, Jiang Ding gave a gentle push.

It was nothing major—just slightly altering a wisp of breeze passing by his ear, letting that wisp of breeze deflect by a small angle.

This was a very normal, very inconspicuous matter.

The breezes of the world were infinite and endless; what was the big deal if one wisp changed by a hair?

Even the powerful among Heavenly Beings would be hard-pressed to use this single wisp of breeze to pinpoint anything, because the variables capable of altering this wisp of breeze were far too numerous.

This wisp of breeze deflected by a small angle, then over the span of forty-seven breaths, changed direction over ten thousand times, ultimately triggering a gust of wind. This gust swept through the imperial palace, slightly altering some of the spiritual energy currents within.

A few more spiritual energy particles fell upon this palace maid, who was barely clinging to life, tossed into a corner like a dead dog.

These "a few more" were actually extremely minuscule—only seven or eight spiritual energy particles, far too small. A single breath cycle of a Qi Refining cultivator involved hundreds or thousands of spiritual energy particles.

At this level, even a mortal's breath could trigger it.

But it was precisely those seven or eight spiritual energy particles that changed this palace maid's fate—the distance between life and death.

She was extraordinarily outstanding, both beautiful and clever, with exceptional talent in politics, far surpassing her aptitude for cultivation. This scheme had nearly succeeded; she only lacked a bit of luck, and so she walked toward death.

This time, her luck had arrived.

Jiang Ding gently closed his eyes, did nothing further, and quietly waited.

Several decades passed in an instant.

When Jiang Ding opened his eyes, that palace maid had already become the master of the rear palace, actually wielding control over Qiu State's court. She had now begun plotting to proclaim herself emperor. In Xian Dao Shi Gao Jie, for a woman to proclaim herself emperor was far easier than in ancient times on Blue Star.

Under the influence of such a fate, a mountain-country youth obtained an opportunity; the mountain-country youth in turn changed the fate of a carp; the carp changed the fate of a fisherman… and so on, leaping several million times in succession, spanning vast distances across space, until finally, the true node began to appear.

Several hundred years later, a cultivator named Ji Guan walked toward a towering mountain peak.

This was the place of quiet cultivation for True Venerable Ji Shan, a cultivator of Jin Shi, a subordinate sect of the Immortal Artifact Sect. He was unremarkable among Void Refinement cultivators, yet his status was high, for he was the illegitimate son of a Path-Combining Divine Monarch of the Immortal Artifact Sect.

Although that dashing Path-Combining Divine Monarch might no longer remember this son, others dared not be careless.

Under Ji Guan's influence, fate leapt several more times.

In the end, True Venerable Ji Shan decided to make a trip to the Golden Sea Region.