Chapter 1702: The Beautiful War Has Become Filthy

"The Ancient God Ancestor did not flee."

"More than half of the Central Array Spirit Computer's computing power is invested here in monitoring, and so far no signs of the Ancient God Ancestor's escape have been detected."

Divine Mechanism God Monarch said calmly, "In fact, over the past ten thousand years, he has attempted to flee one hundred and ninety-seven times, but never once succeeded."

From many years ago, the Ancient God Ancestor could no longer maintain his lead in the Six Paths Reincarnation technology.

During the last Immortal Gate Solar System War, the Ancient God Ancestor easily infiltrated the Central Array Spirit Computer, seized control of the vast majority of its computing power, and aside from being unable to occupy the core, was virtually invincible—a single fatal strike that inflicted tremendous wounds upon the Immortal Gate.

Yet merely tens of thousands of years later, the Ancient God Ancestor's tricks amounted to nothing.

Methods once unfathomably mysterious were, in the eyes of today's Immortal Gate, merely so-so.

This was precisely why the Ancient God Ancestor wished to abandon his old lair and flee.

Yet every time he failed—or rather, just as he neared success, he shrank back into his lair. The near-instinctive premonition of danger from his divine soul was extraordinarily strong; worthy indeed of the strongest prodigy this world cluster had seen in tens of millions of years.

"I see."

"That's good."

The blood-colored light in Jiang Ding's eyes flashed and vanished. He said coolly, "Then let us summon the Central Army Group commanded by Senior Yuan to descend. The blood debts of trillions of citizens shall be settled today."

"There is no need to wait any longer."

"Oh?"

Divine Mechanism God Monarch and Ten Thousand Mechanism God Monarch exchanged a glance, each catching the surprise in the other's eyes.

The Great Sun Sword Lord had yielded his own opponent.

This was different from what he had originally insisted upon.

The Immortal Gate's original plan was for each army group to seal off the four directions, while the Great Sun Sword Lord alone charged into the Black Mist Star Sea to annihilate the Ancient God Ancestor, completing the transition between the old and new generation prodigies of this world cluster.

Divine Mechanism God Monarch and the others even had a premonition that the Great Sun Sword Lord would recommend the Central Array Spirit Computer issue a mandatory order that, even if he himself died in battle, no citizen would be permitted to rescue him.

This did not quite conform to the Immortal Gate's military discipline.

However, out of tens of thousands of years of old camaraderie, Yuan and the Immortal Gate God Monarchs were quite likely to carry it out—this was respect for the contemporary Great Sun Sword Lord, their old comrade-in-arms.

Yet now, the Great Sun Sword Lord had actually abandoned this decision?

"Why?"

After thinking together for a long while, Divine Mechanism God Monarch and Ten Thousand Mechanism God Monarch asked.

As old comrades-in-arms, they hoped the Great Sun Sword Lord's Dao path could grow watered by the enemy's blood, and were unwilling to see him sacrifice his own Dao path for the Immortal Gate.

Collective interests and individual interests should not be opposed.

This was not merely the sentiment between old comrades-in-arms, unwilling to see an old comrade suffer a loss, but also respect for the laws of social science—any relationship

in which one side gives unilaterally and suffers unilaterally will not last long.

They wished to remain old comrades-in-arms with the Great Sun Sword Lord for a hundred thousand years, for hundreds of thousands of years—not merely for the present.

"Why?"

After a moment, Divine Mechanism God Monarch asked again.

This time, his voice layered upon itself, a single utterance containing the voices of billions upon billions of Immortal Gate powerhouses—strange and terrifying, as if an incomparably vast hive-mind will were questioning in unison.

The collective will of the Immortal Gate fleet!

The collective will of the Immortal Gate fleet had descended!

At this moment, Divine Mechanism God Monarch was no longer Divine Mechanism God Monarch, but Yuan, Ten Thousand Mechanism God Monarch, Vast Sea God Monarch, Extinguishing Sun God Monarch… and countless Immortal Gate powerhouses, Immortal Gate citizens—numerous wills linked through the Army Soul Hubs and the Central Array Spirit Computer into a single entity, solemnly inquiring.

Why?

Why do you abandon the interests of your personal Dao path?

Does not the Great Sun Sword Cultivator climb step by step, using the lives of powerful enemies as his staircase?

Has something gone wrong with your Dao path?

The collective will of the Immortal Gate fleet asked thus.

"Because,"

"war should not be like this."

Jiang Ding fell into thought, calculating ceaselessly, calculating ceaselessly. After a long while, he said, "First, war should not be like this—surrounding beasts like a hunt, driving them into traps and cages, then having the Great Sun Sword Cultivator leap into the cage to fight the beast to the death… this is far too unsightly."

"Unsightly?"

The collective will of the Immortal Gate fleet asked in return.

"Yes, unsightly."

"War, the Sword Dao, and death themselves are inherently beautiful, beyond compare."

Jiang Ding said slowly, "But now, this battle is not beautiful—like a Zhenjun He Huan female cultivator disguised as a pure maiden, like a Bai Bu soaked through with filthy mud, like a flower fallen into a cesspit—no longer possessing any beauty worth looking forward to."

"This battle has already lost its honor."

"Then,"

"shall the Immortal Gate fleet retreat entirely, back to the Immortal Gate home star?"

The collective will of the Immortal Gate fleet calculated for a long while, then asked again.

Clearly, if the Great Sun Sword Lord could set aside his personal interests, the Immortal Gate could likewise set aside its collective interests—both were reciprocal.

In that case, would this be a beautiful, honorable sword duel?

"No,"

"a broken mirror cannot be made whole again, a white paper once defiled cannot return to what it was."

Jiang Ding contemplated with his own sword heart, the Great Sun Immortal Mortal Sword Soul.

"An obvious fact has emerged: at this moment, my path and the Immortal Gate's path have begun to diverge, no longer fully overlapping. This tremendous danger has

already revealed a faint trace."

"The Immortal Gate's concession of interests at this moment is nothing but covering one's ears while stealing a bell—smothering the problem once more."

"What we need to do now is solve the problem, not cover it up."

"I believe this war is the beginning of solving the problem."

Jiang Ding said solemnly.

"The Immortal Gate's Great Sun Sword Dao and the Immortal Gate have already begun to diverge…"

"Solve…"

Countless wills of the Immortal Gate muttered to themselves, countless sound waves overlapping and spreading outward into the cosmic starry sky.

"How to solve it?"

"Return to the original state."

"Perhaps, the path I took in commanding the Immortal Gate's army formations in the past was wrong."

Jiang Ding said uncertainly: "The Immortal Gate's Great Sun Sword Master should, while merging his sword soul into the army formation, take on the role of a vanguard charging into the fray — a cavalry force that hides, then suddenly strikes into the enemy's weak points to smash apart their formations. He should not be commanding the army formation, because I have no world-cluster-level talent for army formations."

This was not modesty, but fact.

Don't be fooled by the Great Sun Sword Master's formidable army formation prowess among the Dao Sons of the Fallen Immortal Realm — this was because most Dao Sons never treated army formations as an important Dao path, only cultivating them as a sideline; a master among amateurs is nothing impressive.

Even within the Immortal Gate, the Great Sun Sword Master's army formation command ability could not rank in the top three.

If both sides fought with equal divine soul computing power and troop command, the Great Sun Sword Master could not even defeat the Divine Mechanism Divine Lord or the Ten Thousand Mechanisms Divine Lord, let alone Yuan, who was a full tier above.

"This is one possibility for the brand-new path I envision."

"Everyone, are you willing to explore with me whether this possibility is correct?"

Jiang Ding asked with a smile.

The divergence between the Great Sun Sword Dao and the Immortal Gate's path had shown its first signs, and now was the beginning of exploring a solution.

The Ancient God Dao battlefield was the opening.

"Good."

"Good… good… good…"

The collective will of the Immortal Gate fleet answered thus.

One after another, the word "good" formed sound waves, spreading outward into the endless cosmic starry sky.

Amid such ripples, terrifying spatial teleportation formation fluctuations spilled out one after another; steel fleet after steel fleet descended here, and endless army formation runes spread out to cover all directions.

The Immortal Gate citizen fleet would, together with the Great Sun Sword Master, jointly attack the Ancient God Dao!