Chapter 637: Breakthrough to Jin Dan Zhong Qi

After quietly admiring the Taiqing Flying Sword for a long while, Jiang Ding put her back, and she fell into the Sun Divine Wood behind him.

Boom!

The Sun Divine Wood, which already blotted out the sky, swelled once more, its roots expanding, breaking through the soil and spreading outward.

In the end, it simply broke through Silver Sky Island, root after root needing no soil, extending into space, spreading its roots everywhere, glittering brilliantly under the sunlight.

The trunk rose higher, the canopy spread out, layer upon layer extending into the distance.

"So huge!"

Jiang Ding gazed in astonishment at the towering giant tree before him.

The trunk required dozens of people to encircle it, and it stood a full three thousand-plus meters tall!

The canopy spread over five thousand-plus meters, branches layered upon branches, blue-gold leaves jingling like bells in the wind — it was practically a city in the sky.

Beneath the leafy shade, however, there was not a trace of shadow.

Boundless heaven and earth spiritual energy and Great Sun essence converged from all directions, making this place dazzlingly radiant and scorching hot; viewed from afar, it was like the dwelling place of the Sun God.

The heaven and earth spiritual energy and Great Sun essence passed through the canopy and trunk, being filtered and screened layer by layer, finally transforming into tiny twinkling specks that fell down, occasionally flickering for a moment like little sprites.

These twinkling specks, if taken outside, would all be Great Sun essence that would make any yang-attribute Gong Fa cultivator's heart race; taking just a little could greatly accelerate the cultivation speed of Jin Dan cultivators.

Moreover, there were no hidden drawbacks whatsoever, and the foundation was incomparably solid.

Now, how many of these twinkling specks were there?

An endless, unceasing stream!

"With the Yingbao Taiqing Flying Sword, my cultivation speed has increased."

Jiang Ding's heart leaped.

As his life-bound flying sword, the Taiqing Flying Sword was intimately connected with him — sharing in glory and suffering alike.

After the qualitative change, he could clearly feel that his cultivation speed had increased significantly; he just didn't know whether it was double or triple.

He closed his eyes to sense for a moment, and his Gong Fa completed one Zhou Tian cycle.

Drip!

A drop of magic power fell into his dantian, adding a little more to the sea that was about to be one-third full.

"Triple!"

"My cultivation speed has tripled!"

"I'm so strong!"

Jiang Ding's expression stirred: "I'm very close to Jin Dan Zhong Qi. At most one year and I can break through. Originally the calculation was that I'd still need several years to accumulate enough magic power."

For now, forget everything else — close his eyes and cultivate.

Heaven and earth spiritual energy and Great Sun essence came roaring in, falling into his meridians like a whale swallowing, being refined. After only two Zhou Tian cycles — six months of time — with the last drop of magic power falling into his dantian:

The azure dantian sea finally accumulated to its limit, encountering a thin membrane barrier, unable to increase by even the tiniest bit.

He had reached the limit of Jin Dan Chu Qi.

When a Jin Dan cultivator encounters such a bottleneck, even with heavenly spiritual roots and exceptional aptitude, it requires painstaking effort — at least ten-plus years of repeated assaults — before the bottleneck naturally breaks through and cultivation advances another level.

"Break through."

Jiang Ding said softly.

Since beginning cultivation, except when he truly had no Gong Fa, he had never known what a bottleneck was.

Crack!

The moment the thought arose, the dantian sea churned up waves that crashed head-on into the invisible bottleneck. With just one impact, dense cracks appeared across the bottleneck; another wave washed over it, and the bottleneck shattered completely, no longer any obstruction.

Slosh, slosh…

The deep azure dantian sea surged into an entirely new realm.

Jin Dan Zhong Qi!

Jiang Ding's aura climbed steadily higher, and only after a long while did it settle down, gradually stabilizing, no longer changing.

No need for closed-door cultivation to consolidate his cultivation.

He was born in the most stable state!

Jiang Ding opened his eyes; a flash of blue-gold sharp light streaked past — soul-shattering, law-destroying — causing people's spirits to stiffen, their minds to go blank, losing all sense of the passage of time in the outside world.

"Sixteen years old, Jin Dan Zhong Qi!"

"Even true immortals are no different from me!"

Jiang Ding was overjoyed, rapidly calculating.

"The distance from me to Jin Dan Late Stage needs…"

He needed no chance encounters; even if he had them he wouldn't use them, lest they affect his foundation. Therefore, he had an accurate calculation of when he would break through, with an error of no more than three years.

"To Jin Dan Late Stage needs eighty years."

"To Jin Dan Peak needs one hundred years."

"Not fast, not slow — barely acceptable, I suppose."

Jiang Ding thought for a moment: "When I reach Jin Dan Peak, if the Great Sun Nascent Soul Secret Art still hasn't been developed, I can enter a state of deep slumber. Counting the hundred-year lifespan limit of Jin Dan, I still have three hundred and thirty-nine years to wait. The lifespan passage in the Chen Mian Mi Jing is a tenfold difference."

"That is to say, even if after Jin Dan Peak I start from zero, I still have three thousand three hundred and ninety years to wait for the Great Sun Nascent Soul Secret Art to emerge."

"Settled."

"Stable."

"This bro is destined to achieve Nascent Soul — what mere Great Sun Nascent Soul Secret Art could possibly matter?"

"What could possibly matter, ahahahaha…"

Jiang Ding stood with hands on hips and laughed wildly.

"This Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun is destined to become an immortal, mark my words!"

"Whoever dares to disobey will be beaten to death on the spot."

The broad, bright road lay just ahead; his surging emotions took a long while to settle before he resumed his inner observation of the changes within himself.

"After advancing to Jin Dan Zhong Qi, the range of my divine sense increased by twenty kilometers—now seventy kilometers, on par with a mid Nascent Soul cultivator."

Jiang Ding spread his divine sense, shrouding a radius of seventy kilometers; every wisp of airflow, every cloud appeared in perfect detail, and the range of his sword control was the same distance.

Of course, the Taiqing Flying Sword could leave his body and adapt to combat on its own, its power undiminished.

The only problem was that his main body, too far away and without protection, could easily be beaten to death.

It didn't need to be that strong—an early Nascent Soul cultivator could pin down and kill his main body without the Taiqing Flying Sword at his side; he was far too fragile, a single graze and he'd turn into a mist of blood.

"Then there's the quality and strength of the divine sense…"

Jiang Ding extended a wisp of divine sense before his eyes: "Tempered by the heavenly tribulation, the strength of my divine sense has risen dramatically—on par with a Nascent Soul cultivator. Not only is the range comparable, the strength is comparable too. My overall combat power has risen across the board; taking on several of my former selves wouldn't be a problem."

Divine sense is an important component of a cultivation practitioner.

With divine sense strength raised, everything—be it alchemy, array formation, casting spells, and so on—would be comprehensively enhanced.

Clang!

Jiang Ding drew his sword and sliced open the space before him.

The sword-trace was crooked and uneven, sometimes looping back, sometimes retreating; it looked like much wasted effort, but in truth it was following the shortest 'path of space'—between two points, the line segment is shortest in the spatial sense.

At the same speed, this single strike was several times faster than his previous one.

"Swordsmanship—greatly enhanced!"

Jiang Ding's gaze flickered.

He knew this came not only from divine sense, but also from the terrifying amplification brought by his Infant Treasure-grade Taiqing Flying Sword; the sword was far stronger than before. Even if his swordsmanship level remained the same as before, the swordsmanship he displayed would surpass what it had been.

"If Yu Yu Qianzi hasn't yet broken through Sword Qi Thunder Sound, then I can beat her up with my swordsmanship."

"Shall I try?"

Jiang Ding was somewhat tempted.

This was the traditional strong suit of a Great Sun Sword Child; being beaten up day in and day out by a counterfeit Great Yin Sword Child—though his mouth said nothing, in his heart he was very unconvinced.

"Let's go."

"I'm getting a bit carried away. If Yu Yu Qianzi has already broken through Sword Qi Thunder Sound, it'll be just the thing to sober me up."

(End of chapter)