Chapter 1671: The Sacred Battlefield

The Materialist Solar Sword Soul was dissipating into the cold, pitch-black universe.

"How does one change it?"

Jiang Ding admired his own beautiful scene of dying with leisurely composure, thinking mildly.

The breakthrough of the sword soul must lie in the direction of destroying the Fa.

The direction was clear, but the process of achieving it remained unknown.

This process was not a breakthrough through past battles and slaughter, but rather using his own divine soul as experimental material, conducting experiment after experiment, until finally arriving at a correct result.

If he succeeded, he would live and return home.

If he failed, he would die.

Jiang Ding constantly observed the phenomenon of his divine soul and magic power gradually dissipating.

He recorded each precious piece of data, sending it into the great model for sword soul breakthrough long ago constructed in his Sea of Consciousness with the help of the central array spirit computer, continuously deducing, searching for every possible path of realization.

This process lasted for nearly a thousand years.

On this day, the space before Jiang Ding suddenly flickered uncertainly, the flow of time became disordered, and unknown changes appeared in this stretch of space.

This was a spacetime wormhole, a kind of cosmic phenomenon.

The appearance of this cosmic phenomenon followed a special pattern; according to the Immortal Sect's observations, the spacetime wormhole would emerge at this time and place, with its other end appearing near the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Jiang Ding opened his eyes, revealing weary pupils.

For nearly a thousand years, he had been observing the data of his divine soul and magic power dissipating, recording the process of his own dying, deducing various paths to achieve sword soul breakthrough, but had not gained any major harvest.

This faint weariness flashed and vanished, and Jiang Ding stepped into the spacetime wormhole.

Inside seemed to be a frozen world; the matter of the universe did not flow here at all, forming a stark contrast with other places in the universe that were in motion. Through this incomprehensible natural cosmic phenomenon, a fault in time was formed, matter collapsed, and the points of two spaces drew close to each other.

It seemed like an instant, yet also seemed like a very long time.

A cave entrance emitting faint white light dissipated; this stretch of cosmic space showed a trace of incomprehensible strangeness, then instantly returned to normal.

In this ordinary space, a youth in blue robes opened his eyes.

Jiang Ding looked into the distance.

Surrounding him were still the boundless stars, the pitch-black vacuum, without a single change.

But through pupils comparable to the observation instruments of a super civilization, looking into the distance, he saw a completely different scene from what appeared to be an entirely identical cosmic starry sky.

At a distance of six thousand nine hundred and seventy-two light-years from here, there existed a supermassive black hole, its mass approximately 4.3 million times that of the sun; its central region was a sheet of darkness, not a single ray of light, all of it swallowed.

In this region of darkness

's outer layer, orbiting were the S2 star and many other stars revolving at ultra-high speeds; from time to time, matter at light speed was ejected from the black hole, and matter was also drawn into it.

Right now, a star was being pulled into the black hole, revolving around it in circles, occasionally having parts of itself torn away, bursting forth with brilliant radiance.

This — was the Milky Way's central black hole!

That star being drawn in was revolving along the orbit of the Milky Way's central black hole, and was expected to be completely swallowed into the black hole and utterly shattered in just over four thousand years.

This scene made the heart of the Great Sun Sword Lord tremble.

Now, similarly, an Immortal Dao being whose mass was by no means much inferior to the sun was approaching the Milky Way's central black hole, heading here to meet its fate.

Was such a coincidence foreshadowing something?

"This, is this lord's battlefield."

Jiang Ding's heart stirred.

In that instant, a multitude of surging thoughts and inspirations blossomed; tens of thousands of years of accumulation, with the help of the Great Sun instinct, ignited the spark of inspiration, using a sword cultivator's lifetime as firewood, kindling a raging great blaze.

Jiang Ding finally saw a vague path ahead.

That was, his Dao lay within the Milky Way's central black hole; he would head there, like that star being drawn into the black hole's orbit by the Milky Way's central black hole, revolving around it like a celestial body, until he completed the sword soul breakthrough beyond light speed and escaped the black hole — only then could he live.

If he could not complete the breakthrough, could not possess a speed beyond light speed, then he would inevitably be unable to escape the Milky Way's black hole's gravitational pull, would inevitably perish within the black hole, becoming the most basic neutron atomic particles, and finally even these most basic particles would shatter within the black hole, becoming an unknown quantum state, a singularity.

Just like the countless stars that had perished within black holes over countless years.

Without any need for deduction, Jiang Ding knew that even a Supreme, once fallen into a black hole, would certainly die; what lay beyond that, he could not know.

If he, a mere Void Refinement cultivator, were completely swallowed by the black hole, he would be unable to escape and would certainly die.

"This way,"

"could not be better."

Jiang Ding said softly.

He took out an object — it was the broken sword tip that had profoundly altered the trajectory of his entire life's fate — and simply placed it in the void, then slowly flew toward the Milky Way's central black hole, in exactly the same manner as the trajectories of countless stars.

He did not look back, simply flying toward the galaxy's central black hole like a ray of light.

This broken sword tip quietly hovered in the void, showing no change.

Upon it was a spell personally set by the Great Sun Sword Son, which would not be triggered in a divine sword duel of the same rank.

But it was still not enough; at this moment the Great Sun Sword Son felt it was still not enough — between life and death his strength might undergo

a change, thereby breaking through the spell he had personally set.

This was a hidden danger; it would cause a fluke to arise in the sword heart, a flaw to appear, and something might happen that would make him regret for a lifetime.

Now, this hidden danger had been eliminated.

Jiang Ding and the Taiqing Flying Sword silently headed toward the Milky Way's central black hole; he would arrive there in just over six thousand years, formally throw himself in, enter the black hole's orbit, and begin his final battle.

These six thousand-plus years would be his process of accumulating and gathering data.

"Ha ha!"

"Ha ha ha!"

Jiang Ding laughed aloud.

He dispelled a trace of fear in his heart, and with infinite excitement and anticipation flew toward the Milky Way's central black hole, allowing his magic power and divine sense to dissipate bit by bit into the cosmic starry sky, precisely and elegantly recording each piece of data, conducting each pre-planned divine soul experiment.

This sun of the Immortal Dao universe traversed the starry sky, its radiance blending with that of the star now orbiting the black hole.

One thousand years,

Two thousand years...

Unknowingly, five thousand years passed; this Immortal Dao star had been traveling through the universe for five thousand years, drawing ever closer to the central black hole of the Milky Way.

At this moment, the path of retreat was already severed.

Even if he turned back now, the magic power and divine sense within the Great Sun Sword Disciple's body would be insufficient to return to the Solar System; he would surely die on the road, with no further chance to regret.