Chapter 572: The Central Array Spirit Computer Crashed

"Cause and effect, the hundred forms of Jin Zhi, tracing back to the origin to draw forth all things…"

"Commanding yin and yang, ruling over all metals, becoming the sovereign among metals, to preside over the world…"

Jiang Ding unconsciously took the scroll from his avatar's hands, unrolled it, and a soul force more than a dozen times stronger than the avatar's poured into it. Immediately, an unceasing stream of insights was born from within.

Many difficulties he had encountered in his usual cultivation, in refining flying swords, and in developing the Great Sun Nascent Soul Secret Art were suddenly illuminated.

If developing the Great Sun Nascent Soul Secret Art had a progress bar, it had originally been estimated at three thousand seven hundred years; now it had at least advanced by a visibly noticeable segment, requiring only three thousand five hundred years.

This was something often seen in the sciences of the immortal Dao — the use of a single genius. A mere flash of inspiration was enough to equal the toil of countless research cultivators over two hundred years, two generations of mortals working day and night.

Clang!

The Annihilation Sword Intent hummed and trembled, sword light sweeping through the sea of consciousness, firmly holding certain unknown obstructions outside the soul, not permitting them to advance a single step.

"Three days have passed?"

Jiang Ding suddenly raised his head, a shock in his heart, a certain chill rising along his spine.

Clang!

Clang-clang!

"No, I must go back immediately."

Jiang Ding shouted in his heart.

……

"I really am…"

Around him stretched an endless silver-white metallic ground, mirror-like, naturally gathering the light of the sun, all of it converging here. The temperature stayed year-round around three hundred degrees; mortal-kind could not survive.

Every time, all manner of extremely important, extremely necessary, indispensable reasons floated up in his mind, preventing his divine sense from ever descending.

A youth in blue robes, blood on his face, appeared in the Silver Sky Island dormitory.

Then, a sword slashed toward the blue-robed youth's face!

Boom!

The sword-qi shield shattered. A blue-robed youth tumbled to the ground in a sorry state, spitting out a large mouthful of fresh blood midair. A sword scar appeared on his face, nearly cutting through to the corner of his eye, deep enough to reveal bone. Drops of fresh blood flowed down along his eyelid, blurring his eyeball in a sheet of crimson.

"If there were no Great Sun Nascent Soul Secret Art, in the future there is a high chance I would die at six hundred — this is the enormous limitation inherent in the path I walk…"

His divine sense was about to touch the return, hesitated, touched again, hesitated again.

"Immediately."

He did not want to keep exploring any cause and effect, any rusted sword tip he had encountered the moment his divine sense touched the high school.

"Shit!"

Slowly, the Annihilation Sword Intent was enraged, and the Taiqing Flying Sword was enraged as well. The two merged, sword light blazing brilliantly for dozens of li, sword intent pressing the void, a domain of law-shattering and dharma-annihilating separation enveloping the four directions.

"Central Array Spirit Computer, help!"

At the very last moment, he hesitated again.

Jiang Ding cursed angrily, his eyes cleared, not daring to delay any longer, and vanished in an instant.

"But this is wrong, wrong — no matter what one does, one should not be so hesitant and indecisive…"

"Just now I had an inspiration. The deduction of the Great Sun Nascent Soul Secret Art reached a critical moment, and it seems it can once again accelerate progress by several hundred years — a leap-style explosion. Such an opportunity is hard to find in all eternity…"

"Return…"

Jiang Ding shouted.

In his heart, insights into the Great Sun Nascent Soul Secret Art began to appear once more, and then a strong greed and possessiveness arose — to seal off the Silver Sky Island dormitory, to refuse the Central Array Spirit Computer entry into his personal domain, to forbid others from entering, to go into closed-door cultivation for several dozen or even a hundred years to wholeheartedly comprehend the great Dao.

"Citizen life danger alarm…"

The Central Array Spirit Computer, having received authorization, followed routine procedures, and an immense divine-sense force descended.

A moment of silence,

The wind, the clouds, the sound of breathing, even space and spiritual qi particles all completely stilled, frozen solid.

Wooo…

Wooo-woo…

"Alarm!"

"Alarm!"

"Highest-level alarm, dispatched to the Immortal Gate administration…"

A shrill alarm sounded, red and blue light flickering like an explosion, completely obscuring the Silver Sky Island's original radiance and even the light of the sun.

"Curse-Wraith spirit detected…"

"Immortal aura detected…"

"Highest-level danger. Connecting to the Immortal Gate Thirty-Six Heavenly Spirits orbital troop formation, connecting to the Immortal Gate Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends orbital troop formation, conscripting civilian formations from every city and county, linking into the Immortal Gate three-dimensional composite defensive grand formation. All cultivators at Jin Dan level and above are to immediately cease all production and cultivation activities and await conscription…"

As if a hornet's nest had been poked, the Central Array Spirit Computer's fur stood on end, frantically issuing one order after another.

Numerous Jin Dan, Nascent Soul, and Soul Transformation cultivators awoke from closed-door cultivation with faces full of horror, guessing whether the Badaxian Sect had gone mad, whether a great army had already arrived beyond the mother planet.

Jiang Ding's face was blank with bewilderment.

Ten thousand li of star seas churned, the world's spiritual qi swept through, waves rolling, and then an unimaginably terrifying divine sense descended, landing upon Jiang Ding, scanning him from inside out, from outside in — every strand of hair, every tooth, every muscle fiber.

Not only that, within his soul, every fluctuation of soul force, every corner of his sea of consciousness, was meticulously scanned and examined.

Storage bags, storage rings, storage jade pendants, piled into mountains, all received the same treatment at this moment. The nano liquid-metal robots were especially tossed about again and again, not a single tiniest particle overlooked.

Over and over, confirmed again and again; during the process it seemed the Immortal Gate Academy of Sciences was conscripted as a think tank to compare and verify the scan results.

"Highest-level alarm lifted."

After a long while, the Central Array Spirit Computer transmitted data once more.

The flickering red and blue light, the piercing hum of the alarm, all dispersed into nothing.

"Curse-Wraith spirit, initiate sealing and containment procedure."

"Immortal qi aura, slight contamination, has not reached extinction-crisis level, highly polluting, those below Soul Transformation must not come into contact, those above Soul Transformation may have limited contact under strict protection."

Streams of azure law-nets descended, landing on Jin-92's body, space and the Great Dao twisting without cease.

Jiang Ding only faintly sensed it; before he could truly see it, vast blank patches appeared in his divine soul, congealed and frozen, unaware of what had happened, unable to remember or look directly at it.

Laws!

Jiang Ding held his breath.

This was something unique to Refinement of the Void; he could not comprehend it, only knew the term itself, but had no idea of its specific meaning.

Jiang Ding could only observe a thing or two through the phenomena the laws produced.

"Ah…"

"Squeak squeak squeak…"

He saw countless black bugs suddenly appear on his clone, numbering in the millions, the size of ox-hair needles, with vortex-shaped mouthparts lined inside with sharp teeth, occasionally oozing sticky slime, hideous and revolting.

At this moment, these black bugs shrieked in terror, emitting eerie sounds, being dissolved and destroyed by some unknown power, unable to struggle free in the slightest, their formless, intangible bodies utterly useless.

In a short time, the vast majority of the millions of black bugs had been slain; the few remaining specimens were collected and sealed away for preservation.

Jiang Ding himself also felt his divine soul lighten, as though some kind of shackle had been removed.

Only now did he begin to recall everything from before, especially the long, repeated indecision on the wasteland, and broke out in a cold sweat.

"There's also this."

Seeing that the Central Array Spirit Computer was about to leave, Jiang Ding hurriedly raised the Golden Emperor Diagram and called out loudly.

This thing had already been sealed away in passing, and could be comprehended normally.

"The carrier is the personal property of the citizen."

The Central Array Spirit Computer answered simply: "Knowledge belongs to all citizens of the Immortal Sect; please surrender it as soon as possible."

The First Law of the Immortal Sect was this overbearing: so long as one was within Blue Glow Star, any knowledge belonged to the Immortal Sect in common, no matter whose it was or where it came from; even if an immortal himself came, the Gong Fa in his hands would be treated the same.

Of course, if one couldn't be beaten, it would trigger the survival-related temporary-avoidance law.

"I want to surrender it."

Jiang Ding said loudly, not feeling the slightest grievance.

"Uploading…"

"…ding…ding…"

It kept going ding-ding-ding, several whole minutes without any change.

"What's wrong with you? Frozen?"

Jiang Ding was greatly alarmed.

If the Central Array Spirit Computer had crashed on him, the entire Immortal Sect would suffer an extinction-level catastrophe; the great army of the Badaxian Sect would descend in an instant, slaughtering everything, granting no chance whatsoever.

(End of this chapter)