Chapter 571: The Grace of the Heavenly Genius, Severed in Three Generations

After a few breaths,

Accompanied by the angry sound of sword ringing, the escape lights of Fang Master Dinghai Zhenjun and the other two Master Dinghai Zhenjun pursued swiftly, their divine sense sweeping dozens of kilometers, yet they discovered nothing.

The moment the opponent left the range of their divine sense, he vanished without a trace.

"This person is a sword cultivator!"

Tian Hua Master Dinghai Zhenjun spoke in a cold tone: "Could this not be a fine play staged by your Master Shuoyang Qingse Jianzong?"

"Hmph!"

Xu Fang Master Dinghai Zhenjun let out a cold snort, not even looking at him, and extended his divine sense and sword intent, riding his sword in the sky, darting back and forth, leaping up and down, scanning the sky and earth over and over again.

He saw clearly that the person was merely at the early Nascent Soul stage; his sword intent was sharp and unexpected, but if he were truly prepared, he was confident he could defeat him and reclaim the Golden Emperor Map.

For a long time, the three Master Dinghai Zhenjun searched thousands of miles frantically, finding nothing.

After a moment of mutual gazes filled with killing intent, they turned and left.

"There is also a very small possibility that some Nascent Soul mid-stage or even late-stage cultivator used a Mi Fa to disguise themselves with such means."

Lieyang Dayan Jianzi opened his eyes and said weakly, "Do you know who this old thief is? Bullying the small with the big, so shameless! Once I advance to Nascent Soul, I will definitely drag him out and beat him to death, crush him to death!"

If it were truly between peers, it would be one thing; in life and death, the victor lives, the defeated dies; this is the supreme glory of a sword cultivator.

He showed a look of headache.

"To lose is to lose."

"Junior Uncle..."

The sword-escape light was dazzling and scorching, then hid into invisibility, flying rapidly toward the direction of the Master Shuoyang Qingse Jianzong to avoid having its aura captured by Nascent Soul cultivators of the Zhengmo Alliance, who would then gather a large force of Nascent Souls to kill it.

When such things happen, pure sword dao sects basically do not pursue anything; the sect elders merely collect the corpse for burial, notify the family, and are too lazy even to send peers to seek revenge, forgetting it after a while.

It is precisely this solemnity, this treating the enemy as if facing a great foe, even when the opponent is merely a newly advanced Nascent Soul.

Lieyang Dayan Jianzi said unwillingly.

A gloomy shadow flashed across Xu Fang Master Dinghai Zhenjun's face as he rebuked, "Do not look for any excuses; I have seen the situation inside. That old monster did not enter; only a Golden Core peak puppet entered. Although it was controlled by a Nascent Soul cultivator's split soul, it cannot be regarded as a Nascent Soul!"

If not for being a direct family line, it would immediately invite dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators to surround and kill, to exterminate completely.

"If expectations hold, having struck once and retreated, he will not show his head for at least a hundred years."

But, what is hateful is,

being beaten by an old monster who pretended to be young, disguising himself as a peer!

"I do not know; he concealed his appearance and aura."

"Then I, bullied by the big against the small, am just done like this, with never a chance to get revenge?"

"Basically, that is how it is."

This is precisely why Nascent Soul cultivators hold such a ruling position in the Northern Plains; even a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, finding it easy to defeat an early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator and shatter his body, finds it as hard as reaching the sky to annihilate his Nascent Soul.

Xu Fang Master Dinghai Zhenjun said displeasedly, "The greatest characteristic of a sword cultivator is sword intent; his sword intent, which vaguely carries the meaning of breaking laws, is very special; I have never heard of it."

And as long as one escapes, possesses a body, and hides in some remote, poor countryside for a few hundred years, let alone a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, even a Nascent Soul peak cultivator would be powerless.

Sword cultivators often seek people to be beaten to death to temper their sword intent; then, if a peer is beaten to death in a sword duel, is this not a very normal thing?

There is nothing to be surprised about.

In the past, when the Northern Plains families completely ruled the Northern Plains, whenever a new Nascent Soul cultivator appeared, their identity had to be confirmed; this was an obligation.

"Why does each generation of sect Dayan Jianzi become worse than the last?!"

"The Dayan Jianzi of that generation aside, I dare not compare; your Dayan Jianzi from the previous few generations were all stronger than you; why is this?"

Xu Fang Master Dinghai Zhenjun grew even more angry.

Then, he sighed deeply, feeling a sense of powerlessness.

He did not need a junior to say anything; he himself knew the reason; he was merely venting the emotions in his heart.

That was the supreme sword dao legacy of the ancestors,

which, with the passage of time, gradually became scarce; in the end, if a new peerless sword dao genius does not appear, the sect will gradually fall to the level of the Northern Plains, rising at most by a head.

The various glories and brilliance recorded in the sect's annals will eventually become legends like mythical stories, rarely appearing in the world again.

For, unless one's luck reaches the heavens, a miracle in billions of years, a place like a pond or stream, narrow and cramped, where even stretching one's body is already difficult, simply cannot nurture a dragon that soars through the nine heavens.

Over ten thousand kilometers away,

in a barren grassland, Jiang Ding concealed his form, standing silently in the sky, carefully examining the Jin-92 puppet before him.

From the appearance of a youth, it shrank significantly, becoming the figure of a teenager, the same height as him.

It had not received the most important item of this trip to the Void Fall Sect, the Golden Emperor Map.

"Perform a self-check."

Jiang Ding suddenly said.

"Please wait... self-check in progress..."

Beside him, Jin-92 restored its rigid mechanical voice, its mouth opening and closing, activating the self-check program built into the factory of the nano-liquid robot.

It was originally one of the highest achievements of immortal dao technology in the immortal sect's nano-puppet technology; due to cost issues, it is currently only in the laboratory and has not yet been mass-deployed.

"Ding!"

"Self-check complete, everything is normal; please use with confidence."

After a long time, Jin-92's mouth opened and closed again, its voice loud and clear.

"..."

Jiang Ding fell silent.

His gaze was dim, staring at the green-robed youth before him.

Threads of cold black qi swirled around his mouth, nose, skin, and eyes; black insects-like things went in and out, entering through his mouth and nose, emerging from his eyes and ears, tearing open cracks on his skin, drilling into his body, occasionally raising their heads to tear off a piece of flesh and blood, swallowing it.

"Interesting…"

Jiang Ding's gaze flickered, and he suppressed some of the edge from his own Sword Intent of Destruction.

In an instant, the black mist before his eyes, the black insects, the flesh-and-blood gnawing, the swarming, crawling scene — all of it vanished, leaving only an ordinary-looking youth standing before him.

He stood there in a daze, gentle sunlight falling on his body, warm and cozy, and everything was beautiful.

Not only that — a cold, sticky sensation, following the connection between his main body and his clone, crept over little by little, soundlessly, and in the dim distance one could hear the gulping sound of swallowing saliva, as though it had encountered a supreme delicacy.

Clang!

The once-dim Will of Destruction blazed brilliant once more, its majestic will sweeping outward; only a faint shriek was heard, and every sticky sensation vanished into nothingness.

"Immortal arts… are very dangerous."

Jiang Ding's heart shuddered.

This was only a clue, yet already so bizarre — what had Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun encountered back then?

"Go back?"

"I should go back immediately. In a situation like this, I can't handle it — my abilities are insufficient, my knowledge reserves aren't enough."

A thought surfaced in Jiang Ding's mind, and then more thoughts followed: "No, precisely because it's too dangerous, I need to run more tests and confirm it's safe before sending it back. I can't endanger the Immortal Sect…

I'd best study it a bit and gain a general understanding before deciding. There's no reason that Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun, who hadn't yet ascended to Soul Transformation, could do it while I cannot…"

"Within the Immortal Sect there may be many people like Xu of Soul Transformation — I can't take the risk…"

All manner of thoughts, each one orderly and well-considered, gradually drowned out his original idea.

(End of chapter)