Chapter 2113: The Supreme of the Previous Eight Tribulations All Walked Toward Death

Supreme Sun Heaven Palace.

Jiang Ding was currently granting an audience to the contemporary Supreme Elder of the Shangqing Lingbao Sect.

This was an aged elder, hair grey and white, face mottled with age-spots, at the peak of the Heavenly Human realm; several years ago he had attempted a breakthrough to Supreme and failed, his lifespan drastically depleted, with perhaps a few dozen years remaining.

This was already an immense stroke of luck.

Far more Heavenly Humans perished in the attempt to ascend to Supreme, soul and spirit utterly destroyed, their bodies unable to even be interred in the sect's graveyard.

In recent years, thanks to the stable and peaceful environment of the seven great star domains including Qingfeng Qingfeng Beidou, and the policy of not restricting — even encouraging — Heavenly Humans to open their own Daos and ascend to the limit of Supreme, many Heavenly Human-grade sects had gained the chance to attempt ascension to Supreme.

The Shangqing Lingbao Sect was precisely such a typical, weak faction.

Over these several hundred thousand years they had attempted ascension to Supreme seven times, each time mustering the full strength of the sect, yet every attempt had failed — their ability to gather resources was too weak, and the peerless prodigy the sect had long awaited had never appeared.

Under the current circumstances of the seven great star domains' human race being unified and personnel movement unrestricted, peerless prodigies would generally choose more powerful sects; the more ambitious prodigies would cultivate the "Supreme Sun Sword Scripture," or at the very least enter a Supreme-level sect — the Shangqing Lingbao Sect held far too little attraction for such talents.

Unless an outstanding figure extraordinarily suited to the Shangqing Lingbao Great Dao were to appear, this sect would likely struggle to revive even in another million years.

"Boy,"

"Paying respects, Your Majesty!"

The Shangqing Lingbao Sect's Supreme Elder trembled slightly, speaking with overwhelming excitement.

Before him stood an incomparably ancient being — a being who had once been acquainted with his many patriarchs, one of the strongest beings of the human race, hegemon of the endless starry skies.

For an ant-like Heavenly Human cultivator to meet such a being was the glory of a lifetime of cultivation.

"The Supreme Elder of the Shangqing Lingbao Sect…"

Jiang Ding carefully examined this little fellow at the peak of the Heavenly Human realm.

He looked for a long while, and finally, from the Gong Fa and aura, faintly matched him to the Shangqing Lingbao Dao Child in his memories, and to the figure of a Void Refinement cultivator of the same generation as Zou Zou Xiyuan during the Nine Spirit Domain period.

That Void Refinement cultivator had cast an immense shadow over his younger self, remaining a figure of strength in his memory.

But alas, as time flowed on, that Void Refinement cultivator had not continued to grow; by the time he himself ascended, he could no longer summon any killing intent toward him — too weak — and had watched him flee into the dead starry skies, to die in some unknown corner.

However, such grudges naturally would not be dragged onto a youngster barely a hundred thousand years old.

"It has indeed been a long time since I last saw a cultivator of your sect."

"How have these years been for your sect?"

Jiang Ding asked casually.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, these years have been passable."

"Thanks to your great fortune, the lives of our sect's cultivators are far better than during the Nine Spirit Domain period and the Ancient God Domain period; the magic treasures, pills, and talismans we use are all better than then — compared to our patriarchs, we are enjoying a great blessing."

The Shangqing Lingbao Sect's Supreme Elder said respectfully: "But it is a pity that, after losing the lingering radiance of the successive patriarchs, the junior disciples are all mediocre and useless, no great talents, and to this day none have ascended to Supreme."

"We are ashamed before the Liezulie Sect."

He said shamefacedly.

"Opportunities and cultivation — there are too many unknowns."

"Do not force it; let it be as fate wills."

Jiang Ding offered a little comfort.

With a sweep of his sleeve, he bestowed two treasures that hovered before the Shangqing Lingbao Sect's Supreme Elder — a dark-gold talisman and a jade slip.

The Shangqing Lingbao Sect's Supreme Elder shuddered.

"This sovereign once had some karmic ties with your sect's last Supreme, and received his opportunity."

"Therefore, I make some return here."

Jiang Ding said slowly: "This talisman is the Shangqing Lingbao End-Law Dao-Seeking Talisman; it can seek out, within the scope of the Great Thousand Worlds, the disciple most suited to cultivating the Shangqing Lingbao Great Dao. You may send people to search Great Thousand World by Great Thousand World, once every hundred years; after several tens of thousands of years, you should find a suitable disciple."

"This jade slip contains the 'Shangqing Lingbao Scripture' deduced by this sovereign, containing scripture of the Seven-Tribulation Supreme grade."

"This is the entirety of this sovereign's return to your sect's last Supreme."

"Now return and cultivate well. The Shangqing Lingbao Great Dao is an incomparably brilliant path; its potential is by no means limited to the Seven-Tribulation Supreme. Do not betray the efforts and expectations of your forebears."

Jiang Ding looked forward to this.

In the process of refining the Supreme Purity Flying Sword and the Great Dream Sword World, he had extensively referenced the methods of the Shangqing Lingbao Realm for refining immortal artifacts, and gained much.

If the Shangqing Lingbao Realm could innovate upon this path, he would be glad to see it.

"Many thanks, Your Majesty!"

"Many thanks, Your Majesty!"

The Shangqing Lingbao Sect's Supreme Elder's eyes reddened, his heart too stirred for words, and he said in a choked voice.

After a long while, he slowly recovered, not daring to be discourteous; after bowing once more, he retreated slowly out of the palace, the finger joints of the hand gripping the gold talisman and jade slip gone white.

Having handled this matter, Jiang Ding closed his eyes and entered a state of cultivation.

Streams of spiritual energy, like long dragons, surged in from every Great Thousand World between heaven and earth.

And as each Supreme and their great armies flew off in all directions, cleansing worlds and further constructing spiritual energy relay passages through the starry skies, these spiritual energy dragons grew ever more lifelike, and transmission loss was steadily diminishing.

These spiritual energy dragons poured ceaselessly into the Supreme Sun Heaven Palace, becoming the cultivation nourishment for the Supreme Sun Sword Immortal.

The Lei Ting Zhang Yin in his chest, under constant grinding, shed a sliver of new flesh from its charred black husk with every passing moment, further compressing the range of the Lei Ting Zhang Yin.

Beyond cultivation, Jiang Ding likewise devoted great amounts of time to overseeing the research and development of the Immortal Dao Universal Constants, and to using the Immortal Dao Universal Constants empirical formulas to continuously explore outward, seeking more unknown star domains — hoping to find star domains beyond the Heavenly Horse Star Domain, to obtain more Heavenly Dao data, and more manpower and material resources.

These were all precious treasures.

Thanks to the will of the Ten Thousand Laws Ancient Emperor, the Great Dream Sword World, and the more efficient Immortal Dao Universal Constants empirical formulas, his efficiency in exploring new star domains surpassed that of many True Immortals who had only just undergone Tribulation Crossing to ascend to Supreme.

Currently, yet another hazy, indistinct star domain had yielded a faint clue to him; he had locked down a broad region and was steadily narrowing and eliminating possibilities, to deduce its true coordinates.

Time flowed like running water.

Amid such intensive cultivation, more than three thousand years slowly slipped away.

On this day, Jiang Ding opened his eyes from cultivation and research, and gazed for a while at the distant starry skies.

He saw the authority of the Yin-Yang Great Dao rule branch collapse, the authority of the Greedy Wolf Great Dao rule branch collapse, the authority of the Star-Breaker Great Dao rule branch collapse… one after another, omens of destruction arose in succession, as Supreme after Supreme, each of whom had dominated a star domain for hundreds of thousands of years, walked toward their own twilight years.

The Eight Tribulation Sovereigns of the previous generation, one after another, walked toward death.

(End of this chapter)