Chapter 656: The Immortal Dao Has Only One Person

"Solar Spirit Iron, Solar Spirit Iron..."

Jiang Ding murmured the vaguely familiar term, using his spiritual sense to search his mind sea, and as expected, quickly found relevant information.

From the memories of the Lie Yang Jianzi Disciple of the Dari Sect.

During the Secret Realm of Luoxu Sect, the Lie Yang Jianzi Disciple was defeated by Jiang Ding, and as the price of survival, he surrendered memories not involving his sect's taboos.

Among them was information on Solar Spirit Iron.

It was a treasure circulated only among a few Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun within the Dari Sect, capable of accelerating the refinement of the Nascent Soul; one piece of Solar Spirit Iron equaled twenty years of arduous labor.

But the related refining Mi Fa was absent.

The Dari Sect adhered to the longstanding custom of all major sects, never allowing disciples to access Gong Fa beyond their current cultivation level, ensuring their lineage would not leak.

"Where can I find the refining Mi Fa for Solar Spirit Iron?"

Jiang Ding rubbed his brow.

"Find an excuse, uphold justice, and kill a wicked Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun of the Dari Sect?"

"Seems feasible."

The Dari Sect was neither orthodox nor evil; they didn't care about such distinctions. Finding someone with serious moral flaws wasn't hard—just claim it's the Dari Sword Pavilion acting on behalf of the ancestral masters to purge the sect.

Indeed, the previous Lie Yang Jianzi Disciple also fell within the scope of purging the sect—all for the sake of the Dari Sword Pavilion's ancestral masters.

"Of course, only under absolute safety."

"Solar Spirit Iron merely accelerates the process; life doesn't stop without it. Take your time—you can still reach peak refinement. Not a big deal."

Black Snow Steppe.

Jiang Ding awoke from a grassland, emerging from underground, using magic power to smooth the slightly raised ground, erasing all traces with the Spell of Nullifying Spirit and Magic, restoring the land to the appearance of having never been traversed by any life.

It wouldn't be too "clean," or it would seem abnormal.

The world flows; after a while, air currents, wind, pollen, earthworms, and other things from elsewhere would pass through again, bringing foreign scents to cover this pristine place.

In terms of concealment, Jiang Ding sneered at the saying, "Small concealment lies in the wild, medium concealment in the city, great concealment in the court," deeming it mere novelty-seeking or an excuse born of unwillingness to abandon worldly splendor.

The best concealment method is to bury yourself somewhere no one exists—see no one, hear nothing—isn't that superior to any small, medium, or great concealment?

After a slight directional check,

Jiang Ding concealed his form and flew toward the Dari Sect.

This journey's purpose: investigate everything about the Dari Sect, preparing for the future.

He flew steadily through the sky.

"Kill him!"

"This man is of the General Heishi bloodline!"

"This treasure belongs to me..."

Along the way, he frequently encountered people fighting and killing, corpses littering the ground, blood soaking the earth, chaos everywhere—indeed, far more chaotic and bloody than under General Heishi rule.

Such situations were commonplace.

"Bloodflow Cloud... lacks strong organizational ability."

Jiang Ding silently assessed this region.

At least in the several third-rank spiritual veins he passed through, where Jin Dan lords held sway, General Heishi's order had withdrawn, yet no new order had taken root, established production, or reorganized for war.

Regardless of the reasons—brotherly loyalty too strong to defy, too few bureaucratic officials, wandering cultivators' naturally free-spirited aversion to restraint, considerations for public sentiment... and so on.

In short, the coming Zhengmo Alliance army would not care for these excuses; they only wanted to exterminate them.

"My earlier calculation was wrong—Bloodflow Cloud may fail."

Jiang Ding said calmly.

Previously, due to the greater number of Jin Dan and Foundation Establishment cultivators, wandering cultivators had flocked to Bloodflow Cloud, whose forces swelled rapidly; coupled with the Zhengmo Alliance's weakened strength, tied down by the Dari Sect and Dari Qingse Jianzong, Jiang Ding had believed Bloodflow Cloud had a high chance of success—at least not a swift death.

But now it seemed otherwise.

The Zhengmo Alliance faced internal and external hardship, yet Bloodflow Cloud wasn't much stronger; at least the Zhengmo Alliance still possessed a core force of tough, battle-hardened troops, with long-standing, complete lineages, anciently refined military formations and treasures, meticulously trained, tested through two centuries of bloody war against the Dari Sect.

As he flew past more than a dozen third-rank spiritual veins, all were the same.

The Jin Dan cultivators stationed there were all drunk on pleasure, taking hundreds or even thousands of concubines, allowing disciples and kin to brutally oppress wandering cultivators everywhere, recklessly amassing wealth without regard for consequences; some Jin Dan cultivators even became so addicted to this that they neglected their own cultivation.

Truly, they resembled bandit armies in their raw nature.

"The Northern Plains lack mature rebellion experience..."

Jiang Ding shook his head.

Ten thousand years had passed; relevant rebellion experience had long been lost. None of the Jin Dan cultivators shared consensus—even if Bloodflow Cloud issued orders, many would pay lip service while secretly disobeying.

After several more months, he crossed vast grasslands, passing through Chuling Xiancheng.

Here, General Heishi banners still flew, but the true rulers were no longer General Heishi; instead, they were direct heirs of Northern Plains clans, come for this fourth-rank spiritual vein.

Bloodflow Cloud dared not appear here.

The Northern Plains' dragon qi protection fails within a thousand li of a fourth-rank spiritual vein; if he showed up nearby, Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun would gladly kill him, instantly ending the chaos here without needing to dispatch troops across ten thousand li to suppress rebellion.

But this didn't mean the Northern Plains clan heirs could fully control it.

Bloodflow Cloud feared Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun, but that didn't stop him from sending subordinates; with sheer Jin Dan numbers alone, he could slaughter all these Northern Plains clan heirs.

The consequence? Naturally, the Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun would retaliate, slaughtering every soul in the city.

Gradually, a balance emerged: the city was nominally controlled by multiple Northern Plains clan heirs, but in reality, they held at most two-tenths; five-tenths were divided among Blood King Army's major generals.

The final three-tenths belonged to Tushan Master Dinghai Zhenjun!

Other Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun were only possibilities, perhaps—but this Master Dinghai Zhenjun was actively operating in this region.

His maid roamed nearby; no one dared ignore her. Currently, these three-tenths are managed by Tushan Master Dinghai Zhenjun's maid.

This is still under the condition that this Master Dinghai Zhenjun does not appear.

If this Master Dinghai Zhenjun truly appeared, there would be no need to hold the seat in person—only to slay a few active Jin Dan cultivators, and reclaiming full control would not be difficult; no Jin Dan cultivator would dare resist.

With the suppression overhead gone, Jin Dan cultivators everywhere seized power and took over the spirit veins, spirit fields, and spirit herb gardens that originally belonged to the General Heishi clan, causing wealth to circulate on a massive scale; coupled with the presence of a fourth-tier spirit vein, the place became a paradise for countless rogue cultivators.

Commerce flourished as never before.

In just over a dozen years, the population had reached nearly a million, with enormous quantities of spirit stones and heavenly materials and earthly treasures flowing through every day—more than at the General Heishi clan's peak, more prosperous and lively, truly a marvel amid the chaotic times.

"Here, there is an annual dividend of twenty million low-grade spirit stones… this is the thirty percent those Jin Dan cultivators spoke of."

"No deductions—it's used directly as the expansion fund for the Fox Mountain Maiden Corps."

Jiang Ding calculated for a moment.

He did not enter the city; concealing his form, he flew toward the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong. After roughly a year of flight, he crossed the border between the Black Snow Great Grassland and the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong's grassland, officially entering the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong's territory.

(End of chapter)