Chapter 325: He Only Trusted the Sword in His Hand

A dim escape light flew from afar, landed on the ground, and revealed the figure of Wuma Kong, his face filled with a mixture of regret and fear.

His expression quickly retracted.

"Greetings, Junior Uncle!"

He hurried to the mountain peak and said respectfully.

"Haha!"

Jiang Ding laughed upon seeing his state: "What does it feel like to offend a Jin Dan cultivator who holds a grudge against every slight to the point of death?"

Within the Cultivation World, sect rules exist.

But whether they take effect depends on the status and background of both parties; otherwise, finding a pretext to accuse an elder of disrespect and slaying them on the spot is not an overly unexpected matter.

"Restless and uneasy, unable to enter meditation for cultivation."

"Fearing that at any moment a giant flaming palm will descend from the sky and crush me into dust."

Wuma Kong said bitterly.

"Not bad, an honest person."

Jiang Ding praised him and tossed him a storage bag: "Here are some Foundation Establishment cultivation pills exchanged from the sect and the Shen Hun Lao Yin you left behind when you joined the sect back then.

Go spy on the Xuetudian; I have already arranged things within the sect for you. In ten years, decide for yourself whether to return based on the situation."

That is all there is to it.

The other party already owed him a life; handling the aftermath now was merely a habit of how one conducts oneself, not a debt owed to the other person.

"Thank you, Junior Uncle!"

Wuma Kong was overjoyed and bowed deeply.

The Cultivation World is vast; simply finding a remote, desolate place to hide, even a Jin Dan cultivator with great supernatural powers, could they possibly find me?

"Let's go."

Jiang Ding waved his hand.

Wuma Kong bowed once more, did not even return to his cave dwelling, and left in haste.

"Gong Gong Caiyu also made such arrangements, with specifications one level higher."

Jiang Ding muttered to himself.

He actually intended to leave the Xiang Qiyu Sect, leaving not even a clone behind; here, constraints now outweighed protection for him.

In the outside world, a mere False Jin Dan cultivator.

"I also prepared this for Han Lin, but I cannot find him."

"I fear that at the moment the Golden Core formation phenomenon appeared at Huolong Peak, he had already fled and vanished without a trace, leaving only one or two people within the sect to report the news."

"After confirming the Golden Core formation, this messenger also cut off contact; no one knows where he is. Although basically no one paid attention to him as a Qi Refining cultivator, this was truly excessive worry."

A wisp of Shen Hun Lao Yin appeared in Jiang Ding's hand, precisely Han Lin's aura; he casually crushed it.

It was not that he wanted to undermine the Xiang Qiyu Sect.

Rather, given Zhou Zhou Kunlong's narrow-mindedness, if they continued to stay within the sect, they would all die; the two Jin Dan cultivators would not stop such a thing, but would instead be pleased to see it happen, allowing some of their anger to vent.

His divine sense tapped lightly on Jin Pei.

"Greetings, Master."

Twelve maids named Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter flew past the mountain peak in succession, their faces pale; news of a Golden Core cultivator's enemy fell upon their hearts like Mount Taishan pressing down, causing them to be restless and fearful.

"I am leaving to station myself at Lanshan Spirit Mine."

Jiang Ding said slowly.

The electromagnetic spirit gold ore and the strategic mineral mercury silver spirit gold within Lanshan Spirit Mine are extremely important to him; naturally, a mere Zhou Zhou Kunlong cannot affect them.

Of course, he would not actually go; A-25 is precisely the right hand for this kind of work.

"Master, why..."

Xia Tu and the others trembled, filled with fear.

They came to Jin Ling Mountain at seventeen or eighteen years old; twenty-five years have passed since then, and they are completely bound to Jin Ling Mountain; even if severed, no one would believe it.

"Regarding the arrangements for you,"

Jiang Ding spoke on his own: "I will personally write a letter to the Eldest Senior Brother, requesting him to take care of you a little; from now on, you will go to Tianlei Peak to work."

"Go."

Xia Tu and the other maids felt uneasy but could do nothing; they bowed again by bending their knees and flew towards the direction of Tianlei Peak.

After they left, Jin Ling Mountain became completely quiet; apart from some spiritual beasts, it was empty, and somehow a sense of desolation arose out of nowhere.

"My twenty-five years of youth were spent here..."

Jiang Ding flew into the sky, took one last look at this small mountain peak, his body becoming transparent and hazy, and vanished.

Passing through the sect gate formation, he flew towards the distance without a shred of reluctance.

Tianlei Peak.

"Junior Junior Brother has left."

The white-browed old cultivator sighed: "I can still recall the scene of him coming from the mortal world of Yue Country to the sect for the first time twenty-five years ago; unknowingly, so many years have passed."

"Left?"

Zhou Zhou Sanyan was greatly alarmed: "The sect is absolutely safe; why leave? What if he encounters Zhou Kunlong or a Jin Dan cultivator from the Xuetudian?"

Regarding this Junior Junior Brother, although he did not have very deep feelings for him, he was equally pleased to see him grow.

"He says he is going to station himself at Lanshan Spirit Mine, but perhaps it is just to mislead others; in reality, no one knows where he has gone."

The white-browed old cultivator said indifferently: "It seems that although we made a promise, he still worries that things may change; he would rather trust his current sword than believe in the promises of you and me, fearing a reversal."

"Cultivators are mostly like this."

Zhou Zhou Sanyan was no stranger to such things. He sighed, "Fine, then. A dragon trapped for years, once it gains power, is bound to get a little drunk on it. Keep the two apart; after ten or twenty years of tempering, he'll come around and know what's best for himself."

"Junior Brother, we don't have ten or twenty years."

"Within at most a few years, we must borrow the power of the Demon Kingdom to drive Xuetudian back—best to chase them entirely off the soil of Yue Country, restoring the borders from our Ancestral Master's time."

A cold glint flashed in the eyes of the white-browed old cultivator.

……

The wind howled; mountains, rivers, and earth swept past before his eyes.

"First, set the teleportation array for the lair somewhere within three thousand kilometers of the Lanshan Spirit Mine."

Jiang Ding thought silently to himself.

"Somewhere near Chizhong Prefecture would be good—familiar territory. Just find any mountain forest cave nearby, dig downward. No need for any array; naturally it's a fine place for concealment."

Several days later, another time passing through the skies above Dongling Prefecture.

An invisible beam of escape light stood high in the air, looking down below.

A stretch of bare white earth, bleak and deathly still.

Years ago, the Peacock Great King had passed through this place, opened his mouth and inhaled. The several hundred thousand mortals in the city all fell into his maw; he chewed them many times before swallowing, remarking outright that the flesh was tender and delicious, far better than anything raised at home by who knows how much.

In his memory, the yellowed faces of shopkeepers, companions, and some neighbors welled up in his mind.

"Man-eating demon-kind must be killed."

Jiang Ding spoke to himself, took one more look at the spot where the old general store had been, then flew toward Chizhong Prefecture, surveying terrain among the various mountain ranges, searching for a place suitable for laying an array.

For over ten consecutive days,

He appeared in all the great mountains and caves, immortal-gate surveying spells running nonstop.

"Oh? Here?"

Jiang Ding's invisible escape light paused.

Within Lin Hai, a pool of water appeared, about a zhang across—clearly the very place where he had hidden from the war for twenty-five years. Now his divine sense swept over it; it was still unchanged, the pool water shallow.

But within the perception of his sword intent, he could clearly see a second-tier lifeform hiding several thousand meters beneath the ground.

"A natural labyrinth array?"

Jiang Ding grew a little interested and tapped a finger.

A blob of basketball-sized metallic liquid splashed into the pool, dove beneath, and shot toward the location marked by his sword intent.

A dozen or so breaths later,

The pool water churned and rolled violently; blood bloomed. A catfish several zhang long, with a single horn on its head, was dragged out by Armor-25, its body covered in dense, piercing wounds as if riddled by ten thousand silver needles.

(End of this chapter)