Chapter 1718: The Cunning Old Friends

Jiang Dinglue fell silent.

He looked at these nine Dao-Integration Divine Lords, childhood friends from his youth, seeing aging beings one by one, walking toward the end of their lives.

Is this birth, aging, sickness, and death?

Is this something every living being must inevitably experience?

In this moment, he understood why many ancient beings, in the end, chose not to annihilate their enemies who had fallen behind them.

Those enemies were merely the remaining marks of past times.

However...

All of this was still too deliberate.

"Fellow Daoists,"

"If you have any thoughts, speak plainly. Why such calculated schemes?"

Jiang Dinglue said calmly.

What had just happened, though all true, was far too deliberate.

Too eager to stir the Great Sun Sword Master's reluctance and attachment to bygone years.

Yet, though their methods were very ordinary, these Divine Lords had indeed succeeded; they were truly among those in the endless starry sky who knew the Great Sun Sword Master best.

The surrounding Divine Lords fell silent, exchanging glances.

"Hahaha!"

"Hahahaha..."

Unrestrained, flamboyant laughter erupted first from the Shadow Demon Dao Disciple's mouth, followed by the Heavenly Mechanism Dao Disciple, the Taiyi Taiyi Qingmu Dao Disciple, and others; one by one, they roared with laughter, leaving behind all sorrow for spring and grief for autumn.

These individuals, though their ages had not changed and their power remained the same, suddenly lost that scent of decline and decay.

This was a youthful mindset, a burning ambition, utterly different from the calm detachment of an old person who has seen through everything.

These cultivators, each with fierce ambition for the Dao path, would launch a desperate charge against the Heaven-Transcending realm even if they could live only one more day, never knowing what it means to accept fate!

"Hahaha!"

"You saw through it after all, Jiang Ding Zi."

The Heavenly Mechanism Dao Disciple laughed loudly, heroic and vigorous, daring to fight all under heaven: "Nothing major, really; we simply wish to ask how the Eastern Extreme Dongji Dongji Mo Men views our ascension to the Heaven-Transcending realm."

"If your stance is ambiguous, could you perhaps mediate a bit? After all, we are of great use."

The surrounding Dao-Integration Divine Lords all turned their gaze to the youth in blue robes.

They were now at the late stage of the Dao-Integration realm; they were expected to reach the peak of Dao-Integration between eighty thousand and ninety thousand years of age, at which point they would begin attempting their first minor rule adjustment.

Due to their fragile foundations, their first minor rule adjustment would be extremely perilous and consume a vast amount of time.

—At this moment, if the Eastern Extreme Dongji Dongji Mo Men decided to obstruct, it would not even need to deploy a grand army; merely interfering covertly would cause them to die instantly, with no path to survival.

Yet this transformation could almost never be performed outside the world, for beings undergoing rule nirvana were extremely fragile and must at all times

be protected and restored by the sect's formation arrays.

This was why they so desperately hoped to obtain the Eastern Extreme Dongji Dongji Mo Men's permission.

Otherwise, even if the Eastern Extreme Dongji Dongji Mo Men's fleet suppressed them after their ascension to the Heaven-Transcending realm, they would still choose to ascend; at worst, they would emulate their ancestral founders and flee into the endless starry sky.

Gaze after gaze, filled with expectation, even supplication, fell upon the youth in blue robes.

"Fellow old friends, your Dao hearts are indeed firm..."

Jiang Dinglue showed a faint smile.

This sent a shock through the hearts of the surrounding Divine Lords; a guess that made them ecstatic surfaced in their minds, making them almost dare not confirm it, unable to believe the Eastern Extreme Dongji Dongji Mo Men possessed such magnanimity.

The result appeared immediately.

"The Immortal Sect permits all of you to break through to the Heaven-Transcending realm."

"We will not obstruct in any way."

Jiang Dinglue made no mystery of it, handing them a document issued by the Citizens' Assembly: "This is the decision of all citizens. Please strive to ascend, adding strength to the Immortal Sect's Immortal Dao industrial system, and in return, exchange for more industrial products."

The Immortal Sect's taxation of subordinate civilizations and powers, compared to the methods of ordinary Immortal Sects, is more subtle: using industrially produced goods of higher technological level to exchange for agricultural products, spirit mines, and various primary Immortal Dao industrial goods and intermediate products from subordinate powers and civilizations.

Direct taxes exist as well, but they are merely symbolic, serving to proclaim sovereignty.

Is this because the Immortal Sect is kind-hearted?

Of course, it is kind-hearted.

The Immortal Sect is the light of the righteous path in the endless universe and starry sky; naturally, it is kind-hearted.

Of course, the fact that this taxation method ultimately yields far more than the trivial matter of direct taxation by ordinary Immortal Sects is not worth mentioning.

Moreover, this taxation method will not provoke resentment among the countless beings of subordinate powers and civilizations.

"Permitting us to break through to the Heaven-Transcending realm?"

The Heavenly Mechanism Dao Disciple and others were shaken.

They took the document from the Great Sun Sword Master and read it carefully, missing not a single character.

After interacting with the Eastern Extreme Dongji Dongji Mo Men for so many years, they had long understood the special nature of this Immortal Sect: the decisions of individual powerful beings might not be binding, but the decisions made by the Citizens' Assembly were certainly factual.

"It is truly real..."

"In that case, a stone in our hearts has fallen."

The Heavenly Mechanism Dao Disciple and others were overjoyed, bowing deeply: "Thank you, thank you, fellow Daoist."

"No need,"

"This is the decision of the Citizens' Assembly; why thank me?"

Jiang Dinglue shook his head slightly.

"Do you have confidence in ascending to the Heaven-Transcending realm?"

Jiang Dinglue skipped over these matters and asked.

"A chance?"

Taiyi Taiyi Qingmu's disciple Ji Liuyue and others shook their heads with bitter smiles.

"It is merely a desperate gamble."

"Having even a one-in-a-hundred chance is good; the foundation is too weak, what can be done?"

An Tuzi laughed heartily and said, "The Great Harmony is adjusted six times; each Nirvana is more perilous than the last, surviving death time and again. Only after six transformations can one ascend to the Heavenly Man."

"It is too difficult."

"Not so."

"Daoist An is too greedy."

Tianji's disciple smiled and said, "Since the founding ancestor of the First Generation Heavenly Mechanism Immortal Palace, our generation has already been the luckiest; we can advance toward the Heavenly Man and need not desire more."

"Perhaps, among us nine, one will become a Heavenly Man?"

They appeared carefree, full of hope for the future; having endured countless trials of life and death in the past, the current difficulties were not worth mentioning.

"Then I wish all Daoist friends may have their wishes fulfilled."

Jiang Ding stated his purpose: "This time I came not only to visit all Daoist friends, but to establish a quasi-ninth-rank inheritance divine metal project with you, to cooperate in discussing the crafting of quasi-ninth-rank inheritance divine metal; I wonder if all of you could offer some assistance?"

This was actually an order.

The Immortal Gate will establish this research project within the Badaxian Sect, and it will be a permanent project; if this generation of Immortal Sect Divine Lords cannot solve it, it will continue to be inherited, generation after generation, until the Immortal Gate's purpose is accomplished.

"We will certainly do our utmost!"

Tianji's disciple and others said in a deep voice, joy arising between their brows and eyes.

To debate the Dao and work alongside the current Great Sun Sword Master is a great opportunity; it will surely enhance their understanding of the rules, benefit their own cultivation, and be of great help to their future Great Harmony adjustments and Nirvana.

"Haha, that is excellent."

Jiang Ding has always been a decisive and vigorous character; he immediately pulled these few people to begin planning and designing the blueprint for the inheritance divine metal laboratory, the construction site, and so on.

After consulting experts on Shangqing Biluo meteoric iron and other aspects, and once the laboratory blueprints are fully confirmed, the Immortal Gate's construction team will arrive here to assist the Great Sun Sword Master in completing the laboratory's construction.