Chapter 349: You Might As Well Take My Life

Zhang Zhang Junsheng stared blankly at the Nine Swords True Immortal Diagram.

Like a wooden puppet, he didn't speak for a long time; his avatar and his main body had both plunged into frenzied calculations, no longer reacting in the slightest.

"You want this?"

It wasn't until fifteen days later that his eyes regained their liveliness. He gave a bitter laugh: "Then you might as well just take my life. Although it looks the simplest, this thing is at the Soul Transformation level at the very least—squeezing your mentor here dry wouldn't be enough to produce it."

His heart was shaken to the core.

His old classmate Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun had said, when competing for research funding, that the Great Sun Sword Child might change the Immortal Gate's strategic decline.

Now that he thought about it, it was far more than just changing the decline.

Once it grew up, the Jiudaxian Sect wouldn't be able to escape even if it tried!

"I don't need the complete version."

Jiang Ding had anticipated this and said: "I was thinking, could you make an initial version—a monkey version of a monkey version—something usable at Jin Dan Jing, a sword-type drone, with a ship-spirit assisting control, a thousand and twenty-four of them would do, able to assist my life-bound flying sword in attacking."

"Do you think that's possible?"

"This…"

Zhang Zhang Junsheng fell back into a dazed, blank state. Ten days later, he said hesitantly: "There's a certain degree of certainty, it's just that the thing produced might be very difficult to control, for divine sense…"

Clang!

Jiang Ding drew his sword and slashed toward the sky. A terrifying sword intent of destruction spread out, and a sword scar over ten kilometers long was cut into the gray radiation clouds in the sky.

"Jin Dan Zhong Qi combat power!"

"This goddamn is the complete form of the Great Sun Sword Child—no, you're only at mid Foundation Establishment now, even stronger!"

Zhang Zhang Junsheng's eyes went wide, his heart shaken once more. He looked at the blue-robed youth before him: "Divine sense control is no problem, but we're still short on funds now.

The Dai Sen solar lens fortress technology—Immortal Gate Academy of Sciences is the most skilled in this area. Our funding isn't enough; we might only be able to apply for it in a hundred years. If you've advanced to Jin Dan by then, it's possible…"

"No spirit stones—how about five hundred million Library Points?"

"The Banyan Scholarship will sponsor me that much."

Jiang Ding spoke up.

This was actually points obtained from exploring unknown creatures in another world, dressed up under the name of a Banyan Scholarship, and now all of it was being thrown in.

No need to hoard it.

As long as he displayed enough value, the Immortal Gate would continue to invest more research funding afterward.

What was needed now was to get the project started first, produce some results, let the Immortal Gate officials feel this had promise, had potential, that the investment could yield great returns.

"Five hundred million Library Points?!!"

Zhang Zhang Junsheng took a light breath of cold air.

There was no exchange possible between Library Points and spirit stones; they differed enormously, used for entirely different purposes, but there was still a vague correspondence of value.

Library Points were actually the computing power of the Central Array Spirit Computer, expressed in the form of points.

One Library Point roughly corresponded to Shi Mei Xia Pin spirit stones!

A hundred billion low-grade spirit stones!

The entire fortune of ten Nascent Soul cultivators!

"You're actually the Central Array Spirit Computer's own son, aren't you?"

Zhang Zhang Junsheng couldn't help but say.

"No, thank you."

Jiang Ding's face darkened.

"Fine, now that there's money, I'll throw my own fortune in too. I have an eighty percent certainty I can get it made for you."

Zhang Zhang Junsheng took a deep breath, looking fanatically at the blue-robed youth before him: "If you little brat strike it rich in the future and dare not pull me along, I'll smash your damn head flat."

"Haha!"

"Mentor, rest assured."

Jiang Ding laughed heartily, his heart settling down.

Zhang Zhang Junsheng was rigorous in his scholarship; since he had said so, there should be a very high degree of certainty.

He left the laboratory.

Jiang Ding first went to class to make up some attendance hours, then took a sky combat craft home to cook for his mother and Jiang Yuan, visit his maternal grandparents, and stay for a few days.

Basically every few weeks he would do this; the trip was only a few hours either way anyway.

At the bottom of the deep pool.

Jiang Ding opened his eyes, routinely checked the transmission arrays in various places to ensure they operated normally, and only then began receiving information from Armor-25.

"The Cultivation World is normal. Xiang Qiyu Sect cultivators continue to be hunted and killed—those who surrender surrender, those who die die. The Tianren Sect's rule over this region has stabilized."

"Bai Gui Laozu came to Chizhong Prefecture once, stayed here for over ten days, didn't collect any aura, and left empty-handed."

"The Xiang Qiyu Jin Dan contacted me through Jin Pei… saying there's a matter of the utmost urgency."

Jiang Ding's brow furrowed.

"It's very dangerous outside right now."

He was somewhat reluctant to bother.

"Forget it, these two have been decent enough to me. I still have the face to brush them off with a perfunctory response from Armor-25."

He shifted his attention to the nano-liquid robots in Chizhong Prefecture, into the quasi-divine-sense core.

Chizhong Prefecture.

In a deserted mountain somewhere, silver-white metallic particles—too fine to be seen even by Jin Dan divine sense—converged in one direction. Gradually, a silver-white metallic figure emerged; light and shadow shifted, transforming into a blue-robed youth.

Jiang Ding took out the jade pendant, and quasi-divine-sense particle radar waves surged into it.

"Junior Brother, please use the sect's Mi Fa to come inside for a chat."

The voice of the White-Browed Old Cultivator came through, leaving behind a spiritual address similar to a message jade slip—a communication space preserved by a special treasure, allowing multiple people to transmit via spiritual sense within it.

"Fortunately, it is only spiritual sense transmission."

Jiang Ding nodded slightly.

Sending him out to take risks was impossible; this was also for the sake of Xiang Qiyu Sect's future.

Spirit-substance radar waves, akin to spiritual sense, surged into it.

Instantly, his vision blurred, and he entered a gray, misty transmission space where figures stood around, their appearances simply constructed from spiritual sense signals.

They were the White-Browed Old Cultivator, Zhou Zhou Sanyan, and... a maiden in a pure white immortal skirt, her skin snow-white.

"Two senior brothers."

Jiang Ding frowned slightly, not overly shocked: "Have you defected to the Heavenly Dao?"

This woman in the white skirt,

was none other than Mu Mu Tianxue, the Blood-Slaughtering Hall's Blood-Transformation Ancestor, a late-stage Jin Dan cultivator, and the chief culprit behind the destruction of Xiang Qiyu Sect!

"Greetings, Xiang Qiyu Sword Disciple."

Mu Mu Tianxue spoke with a smile: "That day, within the Nine Heavens Ruins, you slashed my clone with a single sword strike. Fleeing up to the heavens or down to the earth was useless; even now, the memory remains vivid."

"Greetings, Blood-Transformation Ancestor."

Jiang Ding said with a smile.

Within his heart, threads of killing intent arose.

In the memory of that peak Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Blood-Slaughtering Hall, the last Yi Mei Po Fa steel bullet had been taken by her; indeed, it might even be in her storage bag.

Once she chose to hand it over to the Dari Sect, it would immediately invite catastrophic disaster; even the descent of a Soul Transformation cultivator was possible.

Jiang Ding looked at the two Xiang Qiyu Jin Dan cultivators.

"Little junior brother misunderstands."

The White-Browed Old Cultivator gave a bitter smile: "This tiny Yue Kingdom is already crowded enough to accommodate us few Jin Dan cultivators; the Heavenly Dao regards this place as a fallback route, so how could they possibly accept us brothers?"

Zhou Zhou Sanyan said nothing, gazing at this little junior brother, whom he had always regarded as a junior, with a look that was extremely unfamiliar, even fearful.

"Then why?"

Jiang Ding, regardless of what they had heard from Mu Mu Tianxue or why they believed it, spoke calmly.

"Naturally, it is to kill the Heavenly Dao's Tian Kuang Daoist!"

Mu Mu Tianxue took up the thread, her words icy: "The Liu Dao Sect is far too tyrannical; serving them as cattle and horses is one thing, but not even granting opportunities for Nascent Soul is unacceptable."

"This is the path to death!"

Fierce killing intent surged wildly, blurring the figures around them significantly.

"I recall,"

Jiang Ding smiled: "Your Blood-Slaughtering Hall does not grant opportunities for Jin Dan cultivation to those of other surnames, either?"

"How can this be the same?"

Mu Mu Tianxue asked strangely: "They are all incompetent ants; naturally, they should not aspire to Jin Dan. Even if they resist, they are easily suppressed."

"Tian Kuang Daoist lacks such ability; he deserves to die."

"Then I wish the senior brothers success, restoring a clear sky to the Yue Kingdom."

Jiang Ding remained unmoved: "This junior brother is young and weak; if things go awry, I will avenge you in the future."

He was too lazy to inquire about the truth or falsehood within this.

The decisions made by these Jin Dan cultivators are their own responsibility; there is no need for me to consider them.

The White-Browed Old Cultivator showed a strange expression and remained silent.

"Lord Xiang Qiyu Sword Disciple."

Mu Mu Tianxue smiled faintly: "Princess Princess Chiyan told me that Kong Que, the Great King; Jin Dan Zhou Kun; the Hundred-Flower Fox King; and the tens of thousands of demon beasts of Master Tushan Demon City—these Jin Dan cultivators and demon beasts each died, their deep hatred unavenged, their eyes unsealed in death, leading them to willingly submit to Tian Kuang Daoist, to be driven by him, to cultivate by draining others."

"Originally, Princess Princess Chiyan and Senior Brother Li thought it was us who acted; we, in turn, thought Senior Brother Li had acted secretly. Later, after exchanging information, we found neither side had struck."

"I wonder if you know any clues?"

(End of this chapter)