Chapter 462: Great Sun Group Army

A streak of azure sword-shaped escape light pierced through the clouds, met the biting gale head-on, and landed atop a floating mountain peak.

"Mm, very pretty."

Jiang Ding's divine sense swept across this mountain peak, some seventy-plus kilometers in size; flowers, grass, and trees were all present, the vast majority being metal-attribute spirit plants, cloaking the entire peak in a silvery-white metallic sheen.

At the halfway point up the mountainside, he picked a spot resembling a cliff edge.

Whoosh!

The Taiqing Flying Sword flew out from between his brows, its sword light crisscrossing in all directions.

Beneath the sword light, rock and earth were sliced away layer by layer, forming a platform several kilometers in size, Chong Guang Hua Ru Jing, though here and there were cavities large and small—hollows left in the dirt and stone.

"Patch it up a bit."

Jiang Ding reached out with a beckoning gesture, and rocks flew in from all directions; he gave them a cursory glance.

Very heavy—clearly an extremely high-grade metallic ore, what looked to be a first-tier spirit-metal raw ore called Silver Light Iron, a rather excellent material for Qi-Training flying swords.

"Jin Dan cultivators are far, far richer than Qi-Training cultivators, even within the immortal sects."

Jiang Ding remarked with feeling.

These things—probably the entire combined wealth of tens of thousands, even a hundred or two hundred thousand Qi-Training cultivators wouldn't be enough to match—were nothing more than the floor tiles of a Jin Dan cultivator's dormitory, utterly not worth mentioning.

He exhaled a stream of azure-tinged dan fire into the gathered rocks around him; accompanied by sizzling sounds, green smoke rose up, the mountain stones melted into magma, and the molten rock dripped to the ground.

Green smoke rose from the ground; even the metal-attribute spirit plants burned under the high temperature, flames appearing, melting a great swath of the mountainside.

A basketball-sized blob of silvery-white metallic liquid was extracted, suspended in midair, with the azure dan fire burning beneath it.

Rocks from the surroundings kept flying in, kept being refined.

Soon, before Jiang Ding, a house-sized silvery-white metallic sphere took shape, spinning continuously, casting off deeper impurities for further purification.

"That's about right."

Jiang Ding's mind moved.

From the house-sized silvery-white metallic sphere, a wisp split off, fell onto the cavities of the cliff platform, filling them in without leaving the slightest trace.

One wisp, then thousands of wisps, all at once; the metallic sphere in the sky kept shrinking, sending out strand after strand of silvery-white liquid filaments that fell to the ground, patching the pitted and uneven spots, then laying down another layer on top.

In the blink of an eye, this several-kilometer cliff had been fully repaired, Chong Guang Hua Ru Jing, reflecting bright rays of sunlight under the sun, dazzling beyond compare.

"That'll do."

Jiang Ding nodded in satisfaction.

He tossed a television, a desk, a teacup, and the like out of his storage jade pendant, completing the move into his new cave dwelling.

Actually, as a proper cave dwelling, it ought to at least have a protective formation array, sealing the inside from the outside.

However, he considered it unnecessary—the dormitory formation array of Clear Wind University was already sufficient, and at the very least stronger than his own.

"Go."

Jiang Ding pointed a finger.

The Taiqing Flying Sword flew up into the sky, climbed through the clouds, then plunged down, stabbing deep into the Chong Guang Hua Ru Jing ground and leaving a Kong Dong behind.

Boom~

Then, accompanied by the rumbling of the ground churning and the crashing of dirt and rock shattering, an ancient tree of deep azure burst up from the earth, its branches and leaves spreading toward the sky, toward the four directions.

In the blink of an eye, it propped up a vast canopy of shade like an umbrella.

Fifty meters, a hundred meters, two hundred meters…

Still growing taller, expanding, ever expanding!

Jiang Ding looked up, quietly admiring the post-advancement tree-form of the Taiqing Flying Sword.

Over five hundred meters tall!

The canopy spread out for over a thousand meters—a full kilometer of shade!

Within a fifty-kilometer radius, it instantly dimmed.

Infinite Great Sun light converged here, transformed into Great Sun essence; the azure branches blazed resplendently, breathing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and the vast spiritual pressure rippled outward for hundreds of kilometers, visible to the naked eye.

Without a formation array to conceal it, Foundation Establishment cultivators' divine souls would go blank, and even Jin Dan cultivators would feel a creeping unease in their hearts, unable to enter meditation.

At this moment, it—

Truly possessed a hint of the bearing of a Divine Sun Tree standing among the heavens!

"Divine Sun Tree!"

"If a Golden Crow or a phoenix were to come here, should I welcome them, or chase them away…"

Jiang Ding fell into a reverie.

He closed his eyes, breathed in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and the Great Sun essence, and sank into a deep state of cultivation.

……

Three months later, Jiang Ding opened his eyes.

As a doctoral student at Clear Wind University, classes were held once every three months.

The remaining time, apart from cultivation, was spent deeply engaged in scientific research.

Moreover, the requirements for research results were explicitly stated—extremely high—and once they weren't met, graduation was impossible, and a Nascent Soul spirit item was likewise impossible.

This was also why people like Wu Wu Mengsha were overjoyed after the appearance of the Great Sun Sword-Son.

Of course, it wasn't limited to research—meritorious military service could also earn graduation.

Jiang Ding flew up into the sky, passed through the troposphere, arrived at the cloudless stratosphere, and flew toward a leaf several kilometers in size; people from all directions also arrived one after another.

Nearly two hundred people.

The majority were Jin Dan cultivators, a small portion were peak Foundation Establishment cultivators, and as for late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators, they were the fewest—three or five at most.

Each and every one of these people could be called a pride of the realm.

An Siyan and Jin Jin Lingfeng had also arrived; their escape lights curved around and followed along in flight.

"How is your Jin Dan preparation coming along?"

Jiang Ding asked in a low voice.

Both of them were at the peak of Foundation Establishment.

"Still need about twenty more years of polishing, I suppose,"

Jin Jin Lingfeng thought it over and said: "I figure another twenty years of polishing, and my magic power and divine sense will reach their limit, unable to advance even a fraction further — then I can attempt to break through to Jin Dan Jing."

"I'm about the same."

An Siyan adjusted his glasses.

The three of them landed on the leaves, walking toward the central stone platform one step at a time, leaving clear footprints, out of respect.

Compared to graduate and undergraduate students, doctoral students of the Cultivation Department at Qingfeng University had one extra course, called the Dao Rhythm Course — taken from the meaning of the rhythm of the Dao.

The instructor,

was a clone of a Soul Transformation cultivator, the seventh-generation ruler of the Immortal Gate — Yuan!

This ruler had held his position for over three thousand years. It was precisely under his leadership that the Immortal Gate, inheriting the foundation laid by its predecessors, began to step onto the stage of the realm domains and achieve the supremacy of a realm-domain hegemon.

The superior cultivation environment enjoyed by Immortal Gate cultivators today was all thanks to Yuan and his comrades-in-arms.

People gradually walked over from all around, all of them silent; the atmosphere was solemn and dignified, with no one laughing or chatting.

Of course, that was only on the surface.

Before this near-historical legendary figure, even Jin Dan cultivators several hundred years old couldn't help but treat themselves as ignorant little brats, recovering a touch of the mischievous innocence of their youth.

"Hey, Great Sun Sword Son, congratulations on forming your Dan!"

"You'll have to look out for your bros from now on — don't let me get beaten to death by the Dao Sons of Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong."

"Are you going to follow the traditional Immortal Gate Dao Son route and build your own army group? I could serve as a field officer — give your bro here some consideration…"

A circle of Jin Dan cultivators all around chattered their greetings — they'd been classmates for nearly twenty years and knew each other very well.

"Same to you, same to you…"

"Not at all, not at all…"

Jiang Ding responded warmly to his classmates' greetings, but gave no clear answer regarding the army group inquiry.

Because he wasn't sure himself!

An Immortal Gate Dao Son —

this was usually the term used by the Jiewaixian Sect; within the Immortal Gate it was called the Refining Void Training Sequence, referring to cultivators identified by the Central Array Spirit Computer as having hope of reaching Refining Void.

Of course, since the Immortal Gate had no Refining Void inheritance, in reality, their potential and hope of Refining Void were considerably inferior to people like An Tuzi.

However, at least before Soul Transformation, their combat power at the same level had reached the standard of the Dao Sons of the Badaxian Sect —

provided they had their own aerospace army group.

The Immortal Gate would specially select its heaven-blessed geniuses, specially design matching aerospace fighters, aerospace warships, and military Dao formations, expending vast resources to build such special army groups, used for intra-realm operations and future extra-realm operations.

From time to time, the officers and soldiers within would be rotated, to prevent any warlord tendencies from emerging.

Teacher Gu Lin's Qingshen Army Group was exactly this kind of special aerospace army group — under a siege, it could rival the Dao Sons of Brother Brother Xuanwu's Heavenly Palace.

As for Jiang Ding himself —

to tell the truth, his army command ability had not yet reached the Immortal Gate Dao Son standard, and the gap was quite large.

Going up there sword in hand to hack away was doable, though.

Two

(End of Chapter)