Chapter 2439: The First Ten Million Years of the Third Era Ends

The many debates and objections had no effect on the Immortal Sect's cultivation plan for the Great Sun Sword Heirs.

There was no compulsion; citizens were free, and no one could force an Immortal Sect citizen to do anything. Many policies were introduced in society, various swordsmanship competitions emerged, swordsmanship specialties earned bonus points, sword Dao contests were held, massive sword Dao special support scholarships were established, and the price of sword embryo forging was extremely favorable — 【3】 and so on, not exhaustive.

And so on, not exhaustive.

It can be said that if an Immortal Sect citizen wished to pursue the sword Dao in this era, merely in terms of resources, they would at least be ten years ahead of other paths.

It was a matter of life and death.

After the age of eighteen, all Immortal Sect citizens cultivating the Tai Shang Da Ri Sword Dao were required to sign a safety acknowledgment form stricter than their own personal safety, undergo prior safety training, Dao heart training, and selection of high moral and ideological cultivators, and so on. Yet even so, the number of Immortal Sect cultivators who died on this path was truly too great.

Know this: these were all Immortal Sect geniuses!

On this day, a faint sobbing sound came from the Immortal Sect governance office. Many staff members looked toward it, then silently turned their heads away.

The son of the governor, the heavenly pride of the Yang Dao body, Liu Xianyu, is dead.

He died in a qi deviation, his highest realm being Soul Transformation — the heavenly pride of the Yang Dao body are all like this, alas — this was certain to achieve supremacy, even with a slight chance of reaching the Emperor realm, gaining ten million years of lifespan. The Yang Dao body truly fits the current endless starry sky — 【11】 Many people thought with some sorrow.

Many people thought with a touch of melancholy.

Over these three million years, how could it be only one governor's son who died?

Unknown how many supreme heirs, quasi-emperor heirs, and countless youths inspired by the ancient emperor's deeds stepped onto the Great Sun Sword Dao, only to die — like meteors, brilliant and radiant, a flash and gone — making people doubt whether this path is truly a path, or merely suicide disguised as cultivation.

Nearly an entire generation of the Immortal Sect's finest talents fell on the Great Sun Sword Dao, ultimately yielding only a dozen or so supreme masters of the Great Sun Sword Dao — nothing more. The return on investment was so low it was shocking.

Does such a policy, such a cultivation plan, have sustainability?

"Immortal Sect — indeed, it is not a sword Dao sect."

"This result was long predetermined. It's a pity no one would listen to an old man's nagging foresight, although I am not an old man; they all grew old while I remain alive."

Jiang Ding watched this scene and spoke softly.

Immortal Sect citizens are stubborn; they won't listen to him. They have their own ideas.

In fact, although the Immortal Sect is not a sword Dao sect and cannot produce vast numbers of sword Dao heavenly prides, it does have a subtle probability of producing one or two absolute sword Dao heavenly prides!

The Immortal Sect's environment — freedom, leniency, research, and possessing the highest sword Dao inheritance — 【22】 This environment is actually most suited to non-action governance. Back then, the ancient emperor's appearance in the Immortal Sect carried a certain inevitability. In such an environment, a genius in some field would occasionally emerge. Deliberate cultivation, however, leads to decline, reducing the probability of absolute sword Dao heavenly prides appearing.

In such an environment, the most suitable approach is actually non-action; the ancient emperor's appearance in the immortal sect back then had a certain inevitability—occasionally, a prodigy in some aspect would emerge in such a setting, but deliberately cultivating them would instead lead to mediocrity, reducing the probability of producing an unparalleled sword-path heaven-defying genius.

Take Shi Dao Gong Ye as an example: that ancient emperor, this absolute sword Dao heavenly pride, is a natural product of the Immortal Sect's political system operating naturally, and the industrial chain that arises naturally — like rare metals, it is a minor branch on the vast Shi Dao Gong Ye industrial chain, like a duck's tongue or a pig's large intestine.

In natural production activities and industrial system operation, these things naturally appear at low cost.

But if you deliberately pursue them, abandon mass production, and specialize in producing rare metals — if a duck needs only its tongue and a pig only its large intestine, discarding the rest — then the cost of producing these rare items would become so high as to be unthinkable, and completely unsustainable.

Under the fervor of governance and numerous quasi-emperors, the Immortal Sect's current education policy is precisely making this mistake.

Those vast numbers of Immortal Sect geniuses who died were originally meant to become cornerstones of all industries, to shine and warm society, laying the foundation for future absolute sword Dao heavenly prides to grow — not to rush headlong into a nine-deaths-one-life path.

This is not the correct path.

Alas, young lives only admit error after making mistakes. Your prior advice is useless; young people always have various grand and righteous reasons to refute.

Third Era, five million years.

Fu stepped down.

He stepped down amid a chorus of opposition, due to his erroneous policies, which nearly caused the Immortal Sect to lose an entire generation of talent, while the anticipated absolute sword Dao heavenly pride failed to appear.

What kind of person is an absolute sword Dao heavenly pride?

Each sect, each force, each stage has different standards.

In the current Immortal Sect, the standard for absolute sword Dao heavenly pride is one and only one: the posture of the Sword Dao Ancient Emperor — no need for a forbidden-zone Ancient Emperor; even the posture of the Myriad Laws Ancient Emperor as a Sword Dao Ancient Emperor suffices, and actual achievement is not required — only matching the youthful era of the Myriad Laws Ancient Emperor.

Alas, this is a delusion.

This is a theory of swift victory, yet its consequence, contrary to expectation, rapidly turned into a theory of swift defeat within just five million years. Many Immortal Sect education experts published detailed research papers with data, arguing that the Immortal Sect is unsuitable for large-scale cultivation of sword cultivators, treating sword cultivation as their main profession.

Even extremist papers claimed that the Immortal Sect's path and the sword cultivator's path are in serious conflict, incompatible, and that anomalies are anomalies only because anomaly-layer flowers bloom once — completely lacking sustainable possibility.

Such extremist papers are not few, and they have gained much agreement.

Fu's policy was not his alone, but the collective consensus and decision of the Immortal Sect's upper echelons. Since failure demands accountability, this is why he stepped down.

Meanwhile, the Immortal Sect is not completely closed.

The news of the imminent birth of the Great Sun Sword Heir spread without legs, gradually circulating among many holy lands, sects, and families in the endless starry sky, stirring various undercurrents in the Immortal Dynasty. Countless sword cultivators longed for it, yearned for it — as for life and death, they were utterly unimportant. Under the starry sky, such desperadoes are not too many.

Jiang Ding calmly watched everything unfolding in the starry sky.

In the Third Era, he was not overly busy; indeed, one could say he had some leisure, constantly deducing the Sword Immortal technique, deducing the legendary Ninth Realm of Sword Dao, the Realm of the Immortal Sword, occasionally gaining a subtle insight, at which point his heart would feel great joy.

On the Dao, progress is now impossible; the current endless starry sky lacks the conditions.

On the technique, however, there is still much to be done. Sword technique and mathematics are similar — not too costly in funds, nor requiring various expensive instruments. With paper and brush, and a wooden sword, one can study. This constitutes a splash of color in his otherwise dull Third Era life, embellishing his monotonous existence.

This is a review of the Tai Shang Da Ri Sword Dao, laying a foundation for the future.

Perhaps in the future, when he slays a powerful enemy and his sword technique achieves another breakthrough, the Tai Shang Da Ri Gu Huang will recall how he studied and pondered sword technique day after day for these ten million years.

In such a dull life, the ancient emperor of the Third Era unknowingly reached the first ten million years.

Ten million years remain until the ancient emperor's final rest.

At the same time, this day marks when the Great Sun Sword Dao, the path of the Great Sun Sword Heir, begins full dissemination across the endless starry sky. In the will and blood of countless sword cultivators, the Great Sun Sword Heir will be born.

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