Chapter 479: Uniting Many to Open the Sword Dao

After resting in the sky for several days, he finally recovered somewhat.

Jiang Ding sat cross-legged, replaying his battle with Chong Chong Guang Zi frame by frame, especially the opponent's sword techniques—each move was merely basic sword control: slash, chop, thrust—but somehow possessed a natural, effortless beauty, flowing smoothly in harmony with some underlying law.

He pulled up a frame of the Great Sun Sword's strike, zoomed in, zoomed in again, and zoomed in once more.

Jiang Ding noticed the sword light twisted like thread, accompanied by thunderous sound; its trajectory curled and bent, even looping back on itself in many places, artificially adding vast distances—as if unaware that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

Yet outwardly, it appeared entirely different.

Speed.

Its speed vastly surpassed the speed Jiang Ding himself achieved with stronger soul, sword intent, and flying sword along a straight path!

"What the hell…?"

Jiang Ding scratched his head, pondering long and hard but couldn't grasp the principle.

"Could it be heavenly qi? Or wind currents? External factors?"

"No—that's something I've already considered. The Great Sun Dayang Tianchi array's core taught me to align my strikes with qi flows and wind currents. Chong Chong Guang Zi's flying sword does it even more perfectly, but not to this extreme."

When faced with a problem, his instinct was to seek his teacher.

Jiang Ding glanced at Lu Ling Master Dinghai Zhenjun, then shook his head and looked away.

"Yu Yu Qianzi… or perhaps…"

In the Immortal Sect, there were simply too few who could answer questions about sword Dao—only a handful.

"Yu Yu Qianzi."

He acted on impulse.

In his pursuit of knowledge, he maintained the Immortal Sect's characteristic directness: he sent the question directly to Yu Yu Qianzi's phone, along with the footage of Chong Chong Guang Zi's sword strike.

Yu Yu Qianzi had a phone.

—Or rather, a soul-network access permit.

Of course, her access rights were limited; she could never casually browse the library or search at will.

Ding!

Yu Yu Qianzi's reply came swiftly—just one sentence.

"I need to use the Great Sun Sword Pearl once."

Accompanying the message were faint, muffled noises: "Move, you idiot, what are you doing?" "Can't you even play? Are you a kindergarten kid?" "Don't eat my troops!"

"No problem."

Jiang Ding replied without hesitation.

The Great Sun Sword Pearl replenished every few months with just a few Spirit Stones—it wasn't precious to him at all.

"Space."

Yu Yu Qianzi muted the noisy shouts and explained: "To Nascent Soul sword cultivators, space isn't straight—it's curved. The Taiyin Sword Sect calls this phenomenon Spatial Texture."

"Below Nascent Soul, one cannot perceive space, so it's irrelevant."

"But at Nascent Soul realm, speed becomes so great that space becomes the key limiting factor—and Spatial Texture shifts constantly. Capturing its flow is extremely difficult; many Nascent Soul cultivators can't do it."

"You're no exception."

Yu Yu Qianzi added bluntly: "Only I, and sword prodigies like Chong Chong Guang Zi, stand a chance. Don't even think about it—you'll need to refine your sword into threads before you even reach the threshold."

Her tone dripped with smug delight.

"Understood."

Jiang Ding's face remained expressionless as he ended the call.

With that question resolved, he continued studying the sword techniques frame by frame, occasionally gaining new insights and integrating them into his own sword art.

Chong Chong Guang Zi was truly a treasure trove of sword techniques.

Just when he thought he'd grasped all the subtleties, after days of careful reflection, he'd uncover something new—as if the art kept refreshing itself, its mastery terrifyingly high.

The months of lessons passed in a flash.

"The Great Sun Sword Pavilion's sword heritage is truly unfathomable."

"Sword Qi and Thunder Sound—it feels close, yet distant; always on the verge of breakthrough, yet suddenly devoid of inspiration, vanishing without a trace. It requires fate… I must continue accumulating sword heritage until I can break through at will."

"Waiting and begging for fate is cowardly and unstable."

Jiang Ding compiled everything he'd learned over the past months into notes, carefully storing them in his soul, his eyes gleaming: "I need to find a way to lure Yu Yu Qianzi here to train. Studying alone, guessing and digging through texts—it's far too slow."

This couldn't be forced.

Yu Yu Qianzi was the Dao Heir of Qingmuxian Sect, the sect's favorite child. If he didn't want to start a war with Qingmuxian Sect now, he had to show her due respect.

After class, An Siyan and Jin Jin Lingfeng didn't immediately return to their dorms to train. They landed their sky combat aircraft and approached him.

"Jiang Ding, I found the education industry manager you were looking for."

Jin Jin Lingfeng said: "My mother's company's headhunter found him—a late Qi Condensation cultivator with extensive experience, having served multiple training institutions, skilled in teaching and enrollment."

"Of course, only for mortal and Qi Condensation students."

"Thank you very much."

Jiang Ding showed a hint of delight.

This was tied to his Sword Seed Project.

He planned to establish sword academies on a semi-profit, semi-welfare basis, using scale and financial advantage to monopolize and crush all Cold Weapon training institutions across the Immortal Sects targeting Qi Condensation cultivators and mortals—then charge normal fees for knives, spears, axes, hammers, offer sword techniques at half-price, occasionally provide subsidies, and even reward top performers with profits.

Every few years, host sword competitions with prize money of several ten thousand low-grade Spirit Stones—a fortune for Qi Condensation cultivators, easily mobilizing their enthusiasm.

With multiple strategies, he aimed to make the sword the dominant cold weapon in Immortal Sect students' imperial examinations within decades.

Learning sword would effortlessly grant access to master instruction, peer sparring, mutual exchange, subsidies for the talented, faster progress under equal talent, and better exam results.

In contrast, knives, spears, axes, and hammers lacked these advantages, naturally lagging far behind.

Through this filtering process, he was certain to identify a group of students with genuine talent in sword Dao.

Of course, they might not walk the path of the sword—after all, this road is not very bright, and compared to the other paths within the immortal sect it carries many hardships; the strongest among them is only at Jin Dan Jing, and there isn't even a secret art for forming a Nascent Soul.

But once the numbers grow, there will always be some people whose other talents are ordinary, yet whose talent for the sword is exceptionally good.

People like these are the steadfast pillars of the immortal sect's sword path.

Using them as seeds, slowly, more and more people will walk this road.

"Let's go take a look."

Jiang Ding's mind stirred; strands of azure sword Qi sprang forth, wrapping around Jin Jin Lingfeng and An Siyan, and the escape light flickered unsteadily as they flew at extreme speed toward the center of Immortal City.

"Jiang Ding, is the Jin Dan industry you chose the education and training sector?"

An Siyan marveled at the scenery of space constantly receding around her and asked curiously.

After reaching Jin Dan, if an elite cultivator of the immortal sect has the conditions, they will begin to establish and cultivate their own company and industry; the immortal sect will grant certain tax incentives, entrepreneurial guidance, and the like.

The success rate is fairly high.

Compared to Foundation Establishment cultivators, high-level cultivators of the immortal sect can form an overwhelming advantage in research and development and in productive capacity; the immortal sect also has a complete set of supporting managers, and supervision is quite decent as well.

When this kind of development reaches its end, it will become a major corporation spanning the entire immortal sect, influencing the sect's industrial layout.

Panda Ancestor's Weaver Girl Group and Spirit Bamboo Industry are examples.

Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun's Master Canghai Military Industry, and so on.

Of course, if one only likes fighting and isn't good at management, that's fine too—as long as the related industries grow strong, Soul Transformation cultivators can obtain the things they want at very favorable prices, with the immortal sect's finances covering the difference.

The related companies cannot refuse.

Furthermore, cultivators who like fighting—as long as they don't die—are absolutely far wealthier than those who are good at management; they never lack money.

However, the related industries and research institutes still need to be supported; if there are no such companies, no amount of money can buy the things one wants.

"Not the education and training sector."

Jiang Ding shook his head: "I want to produce some sword cultivators for the immortal sect. On the sword path, having to do everything yourself is too painful—the further you go, the harder it gets. If only the immortal sect had many sword cultivators, many problems they could research and solve on their own, and I could just reap the benefits."

"The great power of time is inexhaustible."

"Perhaps, after sleeping and waking up, everything will be solved."

A look of longing appeared on his face.

Two