Chapter 504: Panda Hua Hua Xiaohua

After staying home for several weeks, Jiang Ding flew toward Immortal Capital.

Within the heart-core of his divine soul, borrowing the computing power of the Grand Void Illusion Realm, he ceaselessly deduced and comprehended the third-tier top-grade spells "Magnetic Void Flash" and "Magnetic Concealment Art," pausing from time to time to send his insights back to his main body.

Over these years, his stealth and electromagnetic-system escape arts had both been cultivated to the Minor Accomplishment Realm, and were now advancing toward Major Accomplishment.

As for his main body, it had been busy all these years cultivating and refining flying swords, occasionally practicing and comprehending sword arts seized from the Great Sun Sword Pavilion, and discussing sword arts with Yu Yu Qianzi.

His cultivation speed in this area was extremely fast, and his gains were even greater.

The only slight regret was that the sword arts of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion required the "Great Sun Sword Scripture" or its subordinate techniques to be deployed perfectly; his main body recently seemed to be working on modifying a set of electromagnetic-system sword arts of his own.

The specifics, he wasn't too clear about either.

That aspect could only be handled by himself; Zhang Zhang Junsheng was already spending a great deal of time on the secret art for forming a Nascent Soul, and he himself still needed to cultivate.

As for the others, senior students like Wu Wu Mengsha were far too inefficient compared to the two of them; they could assist, but couldn't serve as the main force — the most essential parts had to be handled by himself.

Returning to Immortal Capital,

the Sword Dao Hall skyscraper.

Jiang Ding's gaze swept downward.

This was a sapphire-blue sword-shaped skyscraper, its tip sharp as a blade, thrusting straight into the heavens.

Located outside the ninth ring of Immortal Capital, it stood nine hundred and ninety meters tall with a total of one hundred and ninety-six floors, housing a hotel, a shopping center, and most importantly, dedicated Sword Dao training grounds, specialized Sword Dao training equipment, as well as a Sword Art R&D Center, a Sword Dao Gong Fa R&D Center, and a Flying Sword Materials R&D Center—

The latter three had only rooms, no people.

Within the Immortal Sect, there simply weren't such talents; senior Wu Wu Mengsha and the others could help get things started, but they wouldn't serve as the main force — the techniques they themselves cultivated were not Sword Dao techniques.

Six years spent, costing three hundred million low-grade spirit stones.

Of which the construction cost was less than forty million low-grade spirit stones; the rest was spent on the land, the internal formations of the skyscraper, and the formations interfacing with Immortal Capital's super composite grand formation — in case of need, Immortal Capital's composite grand formation could directly control the Sword Dao Hall skyscraper's formations to repel foreign enemies.

This was what he had prepared: the center for nurturing the Immortal Sect's Sword Dao industry.

In the future, this place would become the center for flying-sword material synthesis R&D, Gong Fa R&D, sword art R&D, sword formation R&D, Sword Dao education R&D, and so on — capable of sustaining itself, even turning a profit, growing strong.

Compared to established Nascent Soul Zhenjuns, such as Moon Spirit Master Dinghai Zhenjun's Moon Stone Group, there were still many shortcomings.

For example, the Sword Dao Hall could only be situated in the ninth ring of Immortal Capital; compared to the third ring, the land cost was at least thirty times the difference, and the formation costs within were even more so.

The relevant talent, even more so — the gap was immeasurable.

"R&D in Sword Dao doesn't necessarily require sword cultivators."

Jiang Ding thought for a moment: "When I get back, I'll find Wu Wu Mengsha and my mentor, ask them to introduce some talent, and set up a seed-level framework for the preliminary Sword Art R&D Center, Sword Dao Gong Fa R&D Center, Flying Sword Materials R&D Center, and Sword Dao Education Research Center — then slowly absorb professional Sword Dao talent as they grow."

"Isn't my main body working on electromagnetic-system sword arts recently?"

"Let him subcontract a detailed sub-project over here — the Sword Art R&D Center will have its initial business, and we can use the business to slowly train the team."

"If it doesn't work out, just toss it back to him."

"Once it gets on track later, we can consider going public to raise money. If my cultivation hasn't hit a bottleneck by then, a lot of people will be interested — and we can rake in another big pile of spirit stones to develop Sword Dao."

Jiang Ding Zi murmured.

As for the matter of causing his control to decline, he simply didn't care.

As long as Sword Dao developed, let others earn however much they wanted — as long as he could stand at the pinnacle of the Immortal Sect's Sword Dao, the biggest earner would definitely be him.

His figure landed atop the Sword Dao Hall skyscraper; the floor-to-ceiling windows slowly slid open to both sides, revealing the space within.

The decor was very simple — a lake-surface-like azure blue, smooth as a mirror sea.

Beyond that, nothing.

Not even a single spatial formation laid down — a simple, plain room the size of a living room.

Jiang Ding sat cross-legged at the center of the quiet chamber, his gaze looking outward, only to see fierce winds blowing outside, his sleeves fluttering, clouds rolling and unfolding at the horizon, buildings on the ground rising tier upon tier, a stream of traffic flowing ceaselessly.

"Senior."

Not far off, a landline telephone emitted a sweet female voice from the Sword Dao Hall's front desk, her tone carrying surprise: "There's a panda in her teens, a head shorter than ordinary pandas, who wishes to visit you. She says she has an appointment — may I let her in?"

"Please let her in."

Jiang Ding said helplessly.

After an interval of over a hundred years, he truly didn't know how to communicate with a child, so he could only play it by ear.

After waiting a while.

Ding-dong!

Accompanied by the sound of the elevator stopping, the elevator doors slowly slid open on both sides.

Jiang Ding's gaze looked over.

A rounded figure walked in; she was a little over a meter tall, smaller than pandas her age, her body's Mao Mao was white, her limbs and ears black, with a pair of teardrop-shaped black eye patches.

On her back, she carried a verdant bamboo basket-and-pouch, inside which were three golden-yellow bamboo shoots.

"Senior Jiang!"

The panda cub looked left and right, occasionally sniffing with her nose; her eyes suddenly lit up, and she trotted over with thump-thump-thump steps, set down the verdant pouch behind her, thought for a moment, and recited in a milky voice: "Senior Jiang, these are bamboo shoots, home-grown by my family, a gift for you, Senior. Please look after me well from now on, Senior."

"Thank you, classmate Hua Hua Xiaohua."

Jiang Ding's divine sense swept across.

Third-tier superior-grade metal-attribute spirit plant, scientific name Golden Dragon Bamboo Shoot — the Taiqing Flying Sword should like them quite a bit.

Not cheap in value.

If an ordinary student had sent them, he would certainly have refused.

Such behavior would greatly affect their Dao path; lower-realm cultivators who wished to obtain higher-realm heavenly materials and earthly treasures invariably had to pay a grievous price.

But this little tycoon was a different matter.

It was merely a casual gift — refusing would actually be the lesser choice.

Ancestor Hua Hua Lingling's strategy back then for the Soul Transformation realm had been to encourage the development of the Immortal Sect's spirit-bamboo industry; for thousands of years until now, spirit-bamboo cultivation had spread throughout every corner of the Immortal Sect and the thirteen minor realms — spirit-bamboo talisman paper, spirit-bamboo talisman brushes, spirit-bamboo Daoist robes, spirit-bamboo flying swords, spirit-b bamboo warships, and so on, all industries were involved; one could call it flourishing development, a super-tycoon.

Back then, when he was in high school, the Gold-Fire Bamboo Paper he purchased had come from a cultivation base in Shu Province.

The high-grade magic treasure Electromagnetic Spirit-Concealing Robe still worn on his main body was also woven from thunder-attribute bamboo. Spirit bamboo had already worked its way deep into the daily lives of Immortal Gate citizens, becoming an inseparable part of Immortal Gate industry.

"Classmate Hua Hua Xiaohua, why do you want to learn the sword?"

Jiang Ding asked.

He was not quite willing to give up. If the Sword Dao could welcome a panda sword cultivator, the cultivation of the Sword Dao industry would accelerate dramatically. Ancestor Hua dropping a single strand of panda fur would make him far richer than he was.

"I want to beat up Hua Hua Xiaoye!"

Hua Hua Xiaohua clenched her paw, flames burning within her teardrop-shaped black eye patches, and said furiously, "She relies on knowing magic, can drive a tank, and often bullies me, stealing my spirit bamboo. I'll make her pay!"

(End of this chapter)