Chapter 663: Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun

Coming out of the Nine Harmony Commerce Guild, Jiang Ding once again checked the invitation in his hand.

It was unregistered, with a faint black-dust nine-mountain pattern inside; the time was three years later, but the location was undecided, said to be revealed on the invitation when the time came.

According to past convention, the auction would be held at some inconspicuous place in Great Sun Sword City—a small house, an underground spot, or a teahouse—temporarily converted into a hidden auction venue using spatial techniques, complete with teleportation escape routes and the like.

However, even though it was called an underground auction, it was certainly under the covert supervision of the Great Sun Sword Sect.

It was simply a matter of following the governance strategy that blocking is worse than channeling, keeping it right under their noses.

"Still three years until it begins…"

Jiang Ding did not like staying in places where major powers gathered, nor did he like forming any personal connections with people—sworn brothers and the like. He flew tens of thousands of miles out of Great Sun Sword City and casually found a place to go into hiding and lie low.

He entered standby mode, doing nothing extra, contacting no one, untainted by cause or effect on either side.

……

Beneath a three-thousand-meter-tall Sun God Tree.

Jiang Ding opened his eyes, logged into the Immortal Gate website, searched keywords like "synthetic materials," "ritual refining of magic treasures," and "ritual refining of infant treasures," and read through paper after paper. After several months, he had gained a general understanding of the Immortal Gate's developments in materials science.

Of course, it was only an understanding — knowing the state of development and what cutting-edge results existed.

Going deeper, however, was not possible.

It required the lifelong effort of numerous cultivation practitioners; it was extremely complex.

Not to mention anything else, many Nascent Soul-level and Soul Transformation-level papers might not be fully read and understood even after several years.

"The highest achiever in Immortal Gate materials science is Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun."

"He is Jin Jin Lingfeng's mentor Jin Master Dinghai Zhenjun's teacher's teacher's teacher."

Jiang Ding's gaze swept past a sentence at the end of a paper in a flash: "This article need not reference any documents within the realm."

"This old senior is from the same era as Yuan, an academician of Immortal Gate materials science, at least four or five thousand years old. Almost all his friends and relatives from that era are gone. Having been in closed-door cultivation for a long time, he probably hasn't appeared in public for one or two thousand years."

"Even with an appointment to meet, it would be an honor to see the old senior once within a hundred years."

"However… I know where he is right now."

Jiang Ding waved his hand, stored the Sun God Tree, and placed it within his brow.

The branches and trunk of the divine tree vanished. Where the sky had been, only a massive steel warship remained, drawing the light of the Great Sun to temper its hull and the fourth-tier Magnetic Cloud Star-Splitting Cannon.

The spirit-particle engine's furnace ran without pause for a single moment, smelting the numerous second- and third-tier heavenly materials and earthly treasures in the fuel hold to ritually refine an electromagnetic-system Celestial Net prohibition within.

"Yunri, are you going to the library?"

Jiang Ding asked.

Within the Immortal Gate, he had granted the warship spirit of the Chaori considerable autonomous permissions, without forcing anything.

"Commander, you go yourself. I still need to go to the warship maintenance center to ritually refine the Celestial Net prohibition—one stage requires the support of your divine soul. I'll notify you when the time comes."

The warship spirit Yunri said in a crisp voice.

She was always busy within the Immortal Gate—ritually refining the Magnetic Cloud Star-Splitting Cannon, ritually refining Dai Sen solar mirror drones, ritually refining the warship hull, smelting various magic treasures and even infant treasures as materials, and so on.

"Alright then."

Jiang Ding paid her no mind. A flash of azure-blue evasion light erupted from his body, tore through space, and vanished. The evasion light faintly exuded the sharp edge of the Sword Dao, its speed slightly faster than usual.

This was the initial result of the third-tier electromagnetic-system sword evasion technique.

Several decades ago, Yu Yu Qianzi, for certain reasons, had agreed to help him perfect the research and development of the third-tier electromagnetic-system sword evasion technique. Even though relations between the two sides had dropped to freezing point in recent years, she still had not gone back on her word.

Regarding other questions—for instance, inquiries about sword arts—she did not respond, but concerning the R&D of the third-tier sword evasion technique, she could still respond in a timely manner.

Jiang Ding's choice was to fold other sword art-related matters into the sword evasion technique and ask her about them.

It was estimated that in another twenty years, the third-tier electromagnetic-system sword evasion technique would be successfully developed.

Within the Immortal Gate, this would be an unprecedented first. If successful, the R&D experience left behind would provide enormous inspiration for those who came after; much of the experience could be directly applied, sparing them the misery of starting everything from scratch.

Flying for some time, he arrived at the Immortal Capital Library.

The surroundings were bustling—old people, young people, children, teachers, farmers, soldiers, merchants, and so on. People of all ages and statuses read and moved about within the library. There was no real noise; everyone tried their best to keep quiet.

There were no priority lanes for high-level cultivators. Jiang Ding obediently followed behind a sixth-grade child, swiped his card, and hurried toward the high-level Immortal Dao knowledge reading area in the rear half of the Immortal Capital Library.

High-level Immortal Dao knowledge itself carried danger.

There were far fewer people here. Most of those coming and going were Golden Core cultivators; occasionally one or two Foundation Establishment cultivators appeared, also moving cautiously, stopping every few steps to check the library reading manual and compare it with their current behavior, lest they inadvertently come into contact with high-level knowledge and trigger qi deviation.

Going deeper still, there were even fewer people.

Most of those coming and going were Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun, and the probability of them knowing each other was greatly increased — they had occasionally crossed paths at academic conferences.

When Jiang Ding saw them, he would usually give a slight bow in silent greeting.

Finally, he arrived at an extremely deep part of the library. Even Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun were rarely seen here; when they occasionally appeared, they too were cautious and careful in appearance.

Jiang Ding stopped at the entrance of a palace entirely golden in color.

Jin Huangyu Palace!

Second sequence of the library's collection: Jin Huangyu's beautiful illustrations.

That's right!

At other times, the various Canghai Tianjun elders were scattered in all directions, engaged in closed-door cultivation or research, and rarely seen. But once Immortal Arts appeared, it flushed them all out. They spent all day with their true bodies soaking in here, very rarely going out.

If one wanted to meet people, one only needed to come here and look around.

He walked into the palace, which had strict sealing formations.

"That's not how it is!"

"You old fool gone senile? How could gold look like that? Stop goddamn misleading others and hurry up and admit your mistake to Laozi!"

"Bullshit…"

It was noisy and chaotic here, like a vegetable market. In several places they had already started fighting, clattering noisily.

Jiang Ding was not surprised by it.

These old seniors would still put on airs in front of juniors, looking Respected and Esteemed.

When encountering peers, they weren't so easy to talk to. After years of experience, they might still clearly remember wetting their pants on the battlefield as children.

But their fights weren't simple brawls either.

The two sides had differing comprehensions of immortal arts—one side thought this way, the other thought that way—so they directly used the same divine sense and magic power, and fought with their own comprehensions. Whoever won had the more correct one—

Just more correct.

Before any definitive theorems or formulas emerged, even someone pinned to the ground wouldn't concede verbally.

When they fought, the Nascent Soul Zhenjuns brought along on the side trembled and fled far away, afraid of being accidentally injured.

Jiang Ding rummaged through the various crowds for a long time before finally finding his target.

A person slightly over a meter tall, with mechanical arms on all four limbs that could extend and retract, the entire body forged from some kind of high-grade metal, and the head was... uh, there was no head—just a computer screen.

Overall, it looked like a computer screen with a body and four limbs growing out beneath it.

(End of chapter)