Chapter 1676: The Subtle Characteristics of an Immortal

In the vast cosmos, within the central black hole of the Milky Way, an immortal-path sun truly entered the black hole, and all its light was devoured, vanishing completely—just like countless stars over the past billions upon billions of years.

This is the physical law of the universe.

However!

In the instant it vanished, another sun rose within the black hole!

He broke free of the black hole's shackles, he transcended the speed of light, and appeared once more between heaven and earth!

A blazing sun rose in orbit around the galactic-center black hole, blooming with resplendent radiance, illuminating the four corners of the cosmos, displaying its glory once again.

This blazing sun was a youth in blue robes.

Though only the size of a grain of rice, holding a long sword in his hand, as tiny as a speck of dust in the cosmos, with hardly any mass, his aura was no different from the many stars orbiting the surrounding black hole.

Equally radiant across the ages, as if it would never be extinguished, destined to endure through the birth and death of countless civilizations without itself perishing.

This blazing sun broke free of the black hole at superluminal speed, revolving in the black hole's orbit, and the spirit-dispersal phenomenon that had always clung to it was now nearly gone.

This is precisely the key to immortality.

Is this… one of the subtle characteristics of an immortal?

"This moment's self…"

Jiang Ding stood in the black hole's orbit, his heart giving a sudden jolt.

At this moment, he was shocked to discover that his lifespan had suddenly increased tenfold!

Tenfold!

Never once had his lifespan abruptly increased by so much; in the past, even breaking through a major realm had never extended his lifespan by this much.

"Right now, I can still live for one hundred and seventy thousand years!"

"A tenfold increase!"

Jiang Ding drew a deep breath: "And this is absolutely not a one-time opportunity obtained by chance—it is an essence that will accompany this sovereign for life!"

"This means that if I break through to Dao Merging, this sovereign will have a lifespan of at least five hundred thousand years!"

"If I break through to Supreme, my lifespan will also be several times that of other Supremes. I cannot estimate it precisely now, but it will surely allow me to live far, far longer than an ordinary Supreme."

"This must be one of the subtle characteristics of an immortal!"

"The subtle characteristics of an immortal!"

Jiang Ding's eyes welled with hot tears.

He had cultivated the Dao for tens of thousands of years, researching again and again, engaging in sword-Dao battles again and again—though he quite enjoyed it and did not find it bitter or tormenting, he had truly put in a great deal of effort, through despair upon despair.

Many times in the past, he had felt certain he would die, certain he would live out a mediocre life forever unable to truly touch the path of immortality.

Now!

【28】 Now!

He had truly set foot upon this path.

Inheriting the wisdom of the immortal sect's countless predecessors and the Great Yin-Yang Sword Realm's countless predecessors, today he had finally stepped onto this

path, truly touching the edge of eternal life and deathlessness!

"I possess the subtle characteristics of an immortal!"

"This is the factor that defies common reason."

Jiang Ding spent a long time calming the surging emotions within his heart, steadied his spirit and held his breath, and examined his sword soul at this moment.

In this state, he was almost nothing but soul; the remaining flesh and blood of his Dharma body was extremely, extremely scant, basically reduced to a few cellular seeds, leaving only a tiny sword-soul seed—nearly equivalent to a beam of light rather than a living being with a body. His condition was extremely frail.

If not for the fact that his sword soul at this moment possessed extremely strong resistance to the spirit-dispersal phenomenon of the spiritless cosmos, he would be dying now.

"My current appearance…"

Jiang Ding carefully examined his brand-new sword soul, the size of a grain of rice.

It took the form of a youth in blue robes, a tiny hand gripping the Taiqing Flying Sword; the Taiqing Flying Sword was part of the sword soul, and so was the warship phantom on the sword hilt that resembled a tassel.

This sword soul possessed a natural Law-Destroying majesty, as if merely by existing in the world it could inherently bind all laws.

Law-Destroying was an instinct for this sword soul, not an ability that needed to be deliberately invoked, as if it inherently represented certain branches of the rules.

This sword soul possessed two utterly distinct pupils.

The left pupil blazed with brilliant radiance; deep within it reflected a constantly rotating rune-sun, as if it could inherently command all spiritual energy and rules under heaven, gathering them into one's hand.

The right pupil, by contrast, was pitch-black and deathly still, devouring all light like a black hole.

This black-hole-like pupil possessed the innate ability to forbid laws, able to designate one living being or many living beings to lose all magic power and divine sense, reduced to mere mortals!

Of course, the target's strength, their magic treasures, whether they possessed the subtle characteristics of an immortal, and other such factors would influence the final outcome.

The black-and-white twin pupils resembled a constantly revolving Six Paths Reincarnation sun, expressing two characteristics in their most extreme form.

When the Six Paths Reincarnation sun devoured all light, it manifested the ability to forbid laws.

When the Six Paths Reincarnation sun unleashed all its radiance, it manifested the characteristic of commanding all rules and spiritual energy under heaven.

Under a single sword—obey and become an immortal, defy and become a mortal!

This was the Great Sun Immortal-Mortal Sword Soul!

"The beginning of transcendence…"

Jiang Ding murmured.

From this moment forth, he possessed the subtle characteristics of an immortal, and everything was no longer the same.

Jiang Ding carefully savored his current state, using his sword soul to circulate the Gong Fa "Six Paths Solar Scripture."

He still could not obtain any spiritual energy in the spiritless cosmos.

This stretch of heaven and earth simply contained no soil of spiritual energy whatsoever—no spirituality, no power of rules—utterly incompatible with the immortal Dao's scriptures, sharing nothing in common.

The only good news was that the spirit-dispersal phenom

enon was greatly suppressed.

Here, Jiang Ding could barely sense his own divine sense and magic power ebbing away, no longer needing to worry that he would perish in the dead, silent starry sky due to insufficient spiritual energy.

Additionally, after losing his Dharma Body, his strength dropped by an enormous margin.

The Taiqing Flying Sword and the super warship Great Sun were similar — within the black hole, they had both lost the vast majority of their matter, leaving only certain things adapted to the Law-Destroying substance.

These remaining things lay between matter and energy, with extremely low spatial resistance; this was also an important foundation for Jiang Ding reaching superluminal speed in an instant.

"If I possessed a body and the Taiqing Flying Sword recovered its full mass, superluminal speed probably couldn't be reached…"

Jiang Ding silently considered.

His current state was very special — he had practically cast off all other matter and become a living being like a beam of sunlight, without a physical body in the ordinary sense.

While possessing speed, his strength had been greatly weakened.

"In the future, when my Dharma Body and flying sword are reconstructed, I should take this current state as reference and draw closer to light…"

Jiang Ding planned his Great Dao.

Without a Dharma Body and a physical sword body, it simply wouldn't work — cultivation couldn't advance further, and he couldn't continue climbing the Immortal Path.

"However,"

"These are matters for after I return."

Jiang Ding calculated the various directions in his mind and burst into laughter: "Now, it's time to head back to the Solar System — I miss so many people back home terribly!"

"I wonder if they've advanced to Dao Merging?"

Clang!

The Taiqing Flying Sword hummed softly.

Jiang Ding merged man and sword; his humanoid body disintegrated, revealing his true essence — a beam of Primordial Law-Destroying Light manifested amid the star river, instantly reaching light speed, piercing through the constraints of the Galactic Center black hole's orbit and flying toward the Solar System.

After maintaining light speed for several instants, this beam of Primordial Law-Destroying Light surged in speed once more, surpassing the speed of light!