Chapter 523: Wangting Wangting Fudi Is My Property

"A bit of trouble... but this is my property."

Jiang Ding frowned, displeased.

Wangting Wangting Fudi — a bunch of nobodies barging into the Secret Realm, snatching opportunities, so petty and small-minded.

His plan was, after reaching Nascent Soul, to drag Wangting Wangting Fudi straight out of the void and remodel it into something like a spiritual herb garden.

And now, the Darifa Sect and the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong want to break it apart, destroy it?!!

"Really enough, day after day."

"Don't these people understand that rare resources cannot be regenerated? Always wanting to break this, destroy that, not knowing how to cherish anything at all."

Jiang Ding complained endlessly, then continued on to the next piece of intelligence.

"... Blazing Lie Yang Jianzi and Six Paths Holy Son dueled on the Black Snow Great Grassland, no victor..."

"The two of them are here?"

Jiang Ding was somewhat surprised.

The Wei family's intelligence network was too useless — anything even slightly high-end was missing — and this was the first he had heard of it.

"Blazing Lie Yang Jianzi, the Sword Son of the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong... isn't he called the Great Lie Yang Jianzi?"

Jiang Ding thought idly.

As for why they fought, it wasn't hard to understand.

A sword cultivator's growth requires the blood of enemies and of oneself, the withering of life, to feed the sword intent and spur its growth.

After ensuring they have dragon qi protecting their body and a basic measure of safety, such people will usually begin seeking out opponents, hunting them down; most risks can be brushed aside.

Even without dragon qi protection, a Nascent Soul of the Zhengmo Alliance might not necessarily dare to hunt this man.

A war lasting over two hundred years has left every great clan weary, afraid, no longer daring to speak lightly of war.

If someone deliberately provoked a dispute, they might just abandon that person's entire clan, letting the opponent wipe it out, in exchange for continued peace.

It's possible that, at a critical moment, a Nascent Soul of the Zhengmo Alliance would even shelter the Blazing Lie Yang Jianzi.

That is precisely why he dares to roam everywhere, seeking nourishment for his sword — most of the time the risk isn't enough to be fatal.

If it is fatal, and his luck is bad, he dies.

"This point does have quite the madness of a Great Sun sword cultivator... fortunately I'm not that kind of person — simple and kind, reasonable and law-abiding."

Jiang Ding shook his head slightly.

His sword intent's growth did not rely on slaughter — just natural sword practice, learning sword arts, reading sword-path Gong Fa and the like; progress was relatively slow, but as long as there was progress, that was fine — no need for any brave advancement.

He put away the jade slip and turned to leave.

"Fellow Daoist, welcome back to the Lingbao Merchant Guild next time."

Behind him, Shang Shang Sanwu cupped his hands in a bow, a smile plastered on his face, his head nearly touching the ground — for a Jin Dan Zhong Qi cultivator to humble himself so was almost the absolute pinnacle of courtesy.

The surrounding Jin Dan cultivators immediately glanced sideways, casting sympathetic looks at the black-robed man as though he were a fat sucker.

"I will."

Jiang Ding smiled, unangered.

"Thank you, Fellow Daoist."

Shang Shang Sanwu bowed once more.

As for those words, he believed them.

The Lingbao Merchant Guild was the largest merchant guild in Tushan Xiancheng and its surroundings; many high-grade heavenly materials and earthly treasures, and special items, could only be found here — nowhere else.

Perhaps once there had been merchant guilds of equal standing here, but they had long since vanished.

When it came to commercial rivalry, the Lingbao Merchant Guild was not as polite and gentle as it appeared on the surface.

A streak of invisible fleeing light, drawing no one's attention, strictly following combat regulations, carefully scoured an area of over a hundred kilometers around, confirmed no ambush, then flew toward a patch of utterly unremarkable withered yellow grassland.

"Not bad — your caution like this is very good."

Jiang Ding looked toward the spot, nodded slightly, and transmitted his voice.

On the grass lay prostrate a youth of plain features, draped in a withered yellow cloth bag — no one knew where he'd gotten it.

Although his own concealment arts were rather poor, with the aid of a special treasure he could still manage decent concealment — most Jin Dan cultivators would probably have a hard time spotting him.

"Forgive me for the embarrassment, Little Martial Uncle."

"My skills are meager — I could only resort to such a crude measure."

Han Lin gave a bitter smile, tucked away the withered yellow cloth bag, stood up, patted the dirt from his body, but kept his concealment arts active.

This weakened his concealment considerably, but it could still deceive the Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining cultivators — the most numerous in the Cultivation World — so it wasn't entirely useless.

"This is for you."

Jiang Ding tossed him a jade sword, palm-sized, with a wisp of Destruction Sword Intent attached — far more useful than any tracking art.

"It works even inside a storage space, but it cannot be Neng Feng Yin."

Actually, being sealed was fine too — the vast majority of sealing arts simply couldn't block the perception of Destruction Sword Intent; he was just mentioning it in passing.

Seeing Han Lin's eyes flicker, Jiang Ding added.

"Don't worry — once the trip to Luoxu Sect is over, it will dissolve on its own."

Just as he didn't entirely trust Han Lin, Han Lin wouldn't entirely trust him either.

The thought of having his whereabouts known at every moment by another person made him deeply uneasy.

This had nothing to do with morality, friendship, or harboring any shady intentions.

Many cultivators were simply like this by nature — they would never fully trust any single person in the world.

"Many thanks, Little Martial Uncle."

Han Lin secretly breathed a sigh of relief and offered the polite reply.

"For this disciple to be kept aware of by Martial Uncle at all times — that is this disciple's good fortune."

In his heart, he was already scheming about how, after the trip to the Falling Luo Xu Zong ended, he would completely bury and destroy this sword. After all, the other party had already said it would dissolve on its own, so handling it this way wouldn't hurt the relationship.

No helping it — he had too many secrets; any possible danger had to be guarded against in advance.

"Mm."

Jiang Ding neither agreed nor disagreed, and closed his eyes.

Here, for the moment, it fell quiet.

Han Lin, seeing this, opened his mouth, wanting to say something to ease the atmosphere, but try as he might, he could not think of anything. In the end, he could only close his mouth as well, drape the earth-yellow cloth bag over his body, and continue squatting in the dirt to conceal his figure, lest his clumsy skills drag others down.

The wind whistled as it blew past.

From time to time wild oxen, wild sheep, birds, and the like passed through here, but none of them noticed anything.

More than three months later.

Jiang Ding opened his eyes and took out a token from his storage jade pendant.

Upon it, the frequency of the flickering light grew higher and higher.

A moment later, it linked into a continuous sheet; the two characters "Falling Void" blazed with cyan light, and a hazy shimmer arose in the surrounding space. A pulling force came, as if wanting to send one somewhere.

"Yao Bao Zhong."

Jiang Ding said quietly.

He knew Han Lin would not come with him.

It was safe, yes, but along the way any heavenly materials and earthly treasures encountered would have no share for him at all — and for someone with poor aptitude who desperately needed heavenly materials and earthly treasures to advance his cultivation, that was hard to accept.

If he really wanted safety, he might as well not have come — wouldn't that be even safer?

This kind of Secret Realm involved far too many things; for a Jin Dan Chu Qi cultivator, dying at any moment would be nothing strange. This might be the last time they ever met.

"Little Martial Uncle, you too must take care."

Han Lin bowed sincerely, his heart not unmoved.

This concern, though only a little plain and not intense — even if he died, the other would not be especially grieved.

Yet it was sincere.

In this world, there was a person who simply hoped he would not die, that he would live — with no selfish motive mixed in.

Such a thing was exceedingly precious.

Space shattered,

And the two figures vanished.