Chapter 450: Might Waxes Within the Seas, Returning Home

Having gotten his answer, Ding Hai Master Dinghai Zhenjun left in high spirits.

He was very busy, and to show how seriously he took it, taking time out of his true body's schedule was no easy matter.

"Not bad. You haven't let the surge in strength after your promotion go to your head."

Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun praised: "This is how us cultivators should be—when we can crush with overwhelming force, we crush with overwhelming force. Don't keep thinking about fighting above your level; that's too dangerous, not the path to longevity."

He waited until the two of them had finished talking before he spoke.

Going or not going, each had its pros and cons.

A Jin Dan cultivator was already a high-level cultivator; decisions like this that touched on one's Dao should be made by oneself.

Whatever the outcome, it was best for others not to interfere.

"That's true."

"It's just that… something seems off."

Li Hai Zhen also agreed, then furrowed his brow: "But sword cultivators don't seem to be like that. This profession craves evenly matched combat, longing again and again to throw themselves into battle, because it lets their sword intent grow—and from that, they gain everything."

"You don't seem to have any such tendency at all."

"Are you sure there's nothing wrong with you being like this?"

He asked, puzzled.

On the path of the sword, he was a complete novice.

"No."

Jiang Ding said without hesitation: "The sword path should be cautious—crush with overwhelming force. Why seek an evenly matched fight?"

"That's someone who can't control their own heart, a weakling who can only break through under pressure from outside."

"I don't like that."

"As long as you're confident, it's up to you."

Li Hai Zhen didn't know if this was right or wrong either, and could only say helplessly.

After handling some important matters, the teachers and classmates quickly said their goodbyes and dispersed, leaving the time to the newly promoted Jin Dan cultivator and not disturbing him further.

Jiang Ding had nothing in particular to do either.

He went to Lianyun Air Harbor to check the construction progress of the super warship and the sword-shaped drone swarm; everything was proceeding normally.

To date, the construction of the super warship had already lasted over eighty years, and in another twenty or thirty it was expected to be completed.

"But this…"

Jiang Ding beckoned with his hand.

In the sky, a shimmer of transparency, and a hundred-plus-meter aerospace fighter appeared, coated entirely in silver-white stealth paint, with a massive electromagnetic main gun at its center gleaming with a flickering deep-blue light.

"It's starting to fall behind my strength progression."

Third-tier items, no matter how many, could no longer provide any boost to his strength, speed, stealth, or any other aspect.

Jiang Ding pinched his thumb and forefinger together and, as casually as plucking a toothpick, drew the hundred-meter, several-ton electromagnetic main gun out of the aerospace fighter. His divine sense and magic power poured into it, and in an instant he completed re-refining it.

The aura of a top-grade magic artifact vanished from the electromagnetic main gun.

The array patterns inside multiplied rapidly, the divine sense imprints grew intricate, and within a breath the electromagnetic main gun became a low-grade treasure, and after several more breaths, a mid-grade treasure.

The materials were too good!

Though it was called a top-grade magic artifact, after multiple upgrades its materials were in fact many times more expensive than those of a high-grade treasure.

"I get the feeling refining it into a high-grade treasure would only take a few years at most… still useless."

After playing with it for a while, Jiang Ding stowed away the electromagnetic main gun and aerospace fighter that had accompanied him for many years.

When he was younger, he had still planned to someday melt down the aerospace fighter, extract the materials, and recoup some of the cost.

But now, he wasn't short of this bit of spirit stone, so he'd keep it as a memento.

The cyan robe on his body was also flickering. Back then, this Electromagnetic Spirit-Concealing Robe had originally been a high-grade treasure; to let Foundation Establishment cultivators use it, part of its array had been specially sealed. Now, having naturally recovered to its peak, the seal had collapsed in an instant as magic power and divine sense poured in—utterly fragile.

A high-grade treasure robe, if one could possess it, would be enough to dominate among Jin Dan cultivators and become a trump card.

Unfortunately, for him, it was just a dispensable piece of clothing.

"There's too much to do next."

"Switching to cultivating the Jin Dan Jing chapter of the Wan Hua Ci Yuan Jing, using my now qualitatively transformed soul to learn fourth-tier arrays—otherwise I can't pilot the super warship. I also need to learn new third-tier electromagnetic stealth arts, new third-tier sword-flight arts… that one doesn't exist yet, it'll take time to develop. And I need to find a way to get a new Nascent Soul-grade robe…"

Jiang Ding sighed.

Many cultivation plans surfaced in his mind.

"But first, let's head home. It's been three years—I miss it terribly."

He stamped his foot, his body transforming into a streak of blue-gold sword light. With a whoosh it pierced through the sky, broke through the troposphere, and flew into the stratosphere.

His divine sense swept around; aerospace fighters and warships were taking off and landing from time to time.

The sword-shaped escape light flashed once, and at a speed far surpassing the aerospace warships, vanished into the distance.

……

Seven or eight minutes later, Rongcheng was in sight.

"This much is pretty good, at least."

Jiang Ding said cheerfully: "Although the speed still can't compare to a Nascent Soul cultivator's teleportation, traveling the ten-thousand-plus kilometers between home and school is pretty much like a stroll down the street."

In the residential compound, lanterns and bunting were hung everywhere, with a constant stream of guests coming and going.

Above hung a banner that read: Congratulations to Old Ancestor Jiang Ding on his successful Core Formation, extending his lifespan by six hundred years!

A youth in blue landed on the ground.

"Who put this up?"

"Why does this style look so familiar?"

Jiang Ding didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

After a brief recollection, a trace of sorrow rose in his heart.

Over a hundred years ago, when he had topped two subjects in the Gao Zhongsheng, his uncle and maternal grandfather had also joyfully invited relatives and friends, celebrating and showing off, throwing lavish banquets one after another, without the slightest notion of keeping a low profile.

This wisp of sorrow slowly faded away.

"Jiang Ding!"

"You're back?"

Lin Lin Yuanwang, who was in the middle of bragging with someone, had sharp eyes and immediately called out loudly.

Crash!

A large circle of people looked over in this direction.

A Jin Dan cultivator!

A real, live one—not one on the evening news.

Many people had never seen one in their entire lives; the living standards and sense of time between the two differed far too greatly.

Furthermore, unless necessary, long-lived species were unwilling to have overly intimate relationships or emotions with short-lived species, and would instinctively keep their distance.

Otherwise, once the short-lived species passed away, the cultivator's heart would be struck by too much grief, severely affecting their Dao heart.

No one wanted to go through a parting of life and death every few decades, never to meet again.

The crowd's searching gazes quickly spotted a green-robed youth of about sixteen or seventeen.

Although his appearance was no different from that of a Gao Zhongsheng at school—indeed, even more youthful—an indescribable, ineffable aura set him apart from a real Gao Zhongsheng.

"Jin Dan ancestor!"

"My grandfather saw him when he was little, and our family still has a photo together."

"My great-grandfather was a classmate of Jiang Laozu…"

The crowd buzzed with discussion, every face wearing an expression of shared honor.

We're all neighbors and relatives of the Jin Dan ancestor!

"Ahem!"

Soon, someone coughed and called out loudly: "Greetings, Jiang Senior!"

"Greetings, Jiang Senior!"

"May your blessings rival the heavens, and may you live forever!"

The surrounding people also came to their senses, bowed deeply in great ceremony, offering congratulations in their mouths—respectful and reverent, with an added air of admiring devotion.

All of this might seem like flattery and ingratiation, yet no one felt uncomfortable, felt their dignity insulted, or felt anything needed to be overcome.

Because the green-robed youth before them was someone from their great-great-grandparents' generation!

Whether child, youth, or young adult, or white-haired, wrinkled-faced elder—every single one of them, without exception, was the tiniest of babies before him.

He was a figure like an ancestor of old.

Was it not only natural for little babies to bow and offer congratulations to an ancestor of old, keeping their posture low?

"Everyone's too kind, please get up."

Jiang Ding looked at the circle of little friends around him, and instinctively revealed a kindly smile.

Let me rest one more day…

(End of this chapter)