Chapter 680: The Magnificent Life of Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun

Winding and turning, he moved more than a hundred thousand li away from the battlefield.

Jiang Ding randomly chose a desolate, uninhabited grassland and burrowed deep underground to make it his temporary dwelling.

—This was mainly to guard against possible probing by Soul Transformation cultivators passing by.

At the Nascent Soul stage, very few should be able to see through his concealment; even walking openly would be fine.

Just now, Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun's arrogant words made Jiang Ding feel uneasy, so he raised the security alert level once again.

He sat cross-legged, took out Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun's divine soul, and a dark-colored metal talisman that seemed composed of countless tiny mechanisms, with shifting, flowing light.

"I feel I can directly examine the divine soul's memories; let's try. If there are signs of collapse, I'll withdraw."

Jiang Ding pondered for a moment, did not hesitate, and split off a wisp of his divine sense to probe into Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun's sea of consciousness, using the principles of the Soul-Search Spell to investigate.

This was considered an instinct for cultivators; every year he spent vast amounts of time reading documents in the Immortal Sect library, and many minor spells and spell principles were things he knew without needing to learn.

Only those top-tier, difficult spells required him to practice for years on end.

His divine soul probed into it.

It went very smoothly; he encountered no divine soul prohibitions. Even if he accidentally touched the inheritance prohibitions of the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong, there was no reaction whatsoever.

In fact, these inheritance prohibitions even vaguely showed a tendency to cooperate with Jiang Ding's soul search, but lacking the relevant Great Sun Sword Disciple inheritance, he could not utilize this tendency.

Various memory scenes from the depths of Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun's divine soul appeared one after another before Jiang Ding's eyes.

A warm family in his childhood.

A kind mother.

The arrogance and bullying of the Yin family's legitimate branch descendants.

After becoming an adult, his first child, second child, and many children were taken away by the legitimate branch's search envoys and thrown into blood pools; the heart-wrenching grief of that time...

In these memories, one name was often mentioned.

Yin Ping'an.

This was Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun's name.

Given by his mother, wishing him to be safe and sound all his life, peaceful and stable, free from disaster and illness.

However, this did not align with Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun's thoughts.

He had an extremely strong desire to seek the Dao and achieve immortality; even under such difficult conditions, he would do everything possible to obtain Gong Fa, pills, spells, and various other resources of the Immortal Path.

Thus, Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun cultivated amidst hardship, constantly giving birth, giving birth, and paying them to the legitimate branch as blood tax.

He performed very well.

In that region back then, Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun paid the most blood tax, thereby receiving a Foundation Establishment Pill as a reward from the Yin family's legitimate branch, which started his Dao path.

Hundreds of years later, Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun advanced to the late stage of Jin Dan.

The Dao path was cut off.

This was the final bottom line set by the legitimate branch cultivators for all collateral branches; generally, Jin Dan cultivators were only allowed to advance to the mid-stage of Jin Dan; his late-stage realm was obtained only through repeatedly making Da Gong.

He was unwilling to accept it.

The Jin Dan cultivators around him had already resigned themselves to fate, beginning to indulge in pleasure, drowning themselves in beauties, fine wine, delicious food, or calligraphy and paintings; these were all encouraged by the legitimate branch.

Especially calligraphy, chess, music, and painting; every hundred years, masters in these fields were recorded in history books, their names passed down to future generations, pursued by hundreds of millions of people, receiving audiences from Master Dinghai Zhenjun, achieving another form of immortality.

But Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun still was not resigned; his longing for immortality never ceased.

Therefore, when in peril, as the storm-tossed cultivators of the Dari Sect came to woo him, he joined without hesitation, carefully chose his timing, backstabbed the Yin family's legitimate branch Jin Dan cultivators, achieved major battle results, was accepted by the Dari Sect, and was granted a Nascent Soul-level Gong Fa.

After that came hundreds of years of fighting, killing, and cultivating; countless comrades fell, countless comrades joined.

Some came from collateral branches of families, some from mere wandering cultivators, some from beyond the Northern Plains, but without exception, they were all there to seek the Dao and achieve immortality.

Their internal cohesion was terrifyingly high; they often blocked fatal attacks for each other as Dao companions, and even Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun himself was like this.

They fought and killed for hundreds of years straight.

Gradually, the powerful enemies who once seemed invincible and had caused them countless despair began to falter; the Zhengmo Alliance could no longer hold on.

Their morale soared; they advanced to the Nascent Soul stage, step by step walking toward victory.

Unfortunately, after nearing victory, the minds of the various cultivators within began to waver.

After a disaster,

the Dari Sect split into the Dari Sect and the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong; comrades who once could entrust their lives to each other began to attack and kill one another, facing each other in life-or-death struggles; bodies fell one by one, divine souls shattered, and corpses grew cold.

The internal atmosphere became increasingly restless, fighting over interests, killing, and engaging in magical duels.

Even within the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong, it split into the Family Faction and the Master-Disciple Faction; there was no longer the mutual trust and regard for the greater good of the past.

It was precisely against this backdrop that Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun, disheartened and dispirited, chose the path he believed would take him further on his road to immortality: he defected from the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong, returned to the Yin family that had killed his mother and family, and rejoined the Liu Dao Sect.

Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun had not let go of his hatred.

He hid his hatred deep, preparing to settle the score only after he advanced to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage; he believed that with his wisdom, he could jump back and forth, gaining the greatest benefits until reaching the shore of immortality.

In the end, he died at the hands of the current Great Sun Sword Disciple.

In his final moment, he was unwilling, resentful, still struggling with all his might, making a desperate final gamble.

After his failure, the last thing to appear in Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun's mind was his mother; the last time she saw him off when he left home to pursue the Great Dao.

Then, a Master Dinghai Zhenjun who had swept across the land ended his life.

"What a ruthless person!"

"He left self-detonation prohibitions on his own body, his divine soul, and even on his magical treasures."

Jiang Ding hastily finished reading Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun's life and sighed lightly: "It's a pity; fighting until the very last moment, he lost combat ability before he could use the self-detonation prohibition."

"His obsession with immortality was too terrifying; he would absolutely not end his life voluntarily, for any reason, which contradicts his arrogant words meant to intimidate his enemies."

"What a magnificent life for a Master Dinghai Zhenjun."

Jiang Ding shook his head.

"If, after the battle with the Zhengmo Alliance, you had hidden your name and lived honestly, then you would be a hero; whatever stains you had could be washed clean."

"If you fell into my hands, I would still let you go."

"Pity. After the war between the Zhengmo Alliance, you slaughtered hundreds of millions of innocents, satisfied only your own selfish desires, refined millions of mortals and cultivators into Blood-Poisoned Humans with pigeon blood, all to condense the Pigeon Poison Bloodline."

"A person like you is better off dead."

"As it should be."

After these reflections, Jiang Ding began to read with focus, especially searching for information related to Soul Transformation; this was the key to safety and survival, and everything had to be considered on this basis.

"None."

"Just like Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun, Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun had never encountered a Soul Transformation cultivator or a Soul Transformation faction; his previous boasts were merely tactics, not the truth."

"There is one suspected case."

"The Ten Thousand Demon Valley in the Western Desert; this is a territory ruled by the Demon Clan, where a Soul Transformation expert might exist, but there is no concrete evidence, only rumors caught from the wind and shadow."

"But regardless, it is certain that there is no Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun in the active phase of life."

Jiang Ding breathed a sigh of relief, then turned his attention to the main purpose of this visit: the Blazing Sun Spirit Iron.

He searched for several hours.

"This..."

Jiang Ding frowned at times, then relaxed, revealing joy; his expression kept changing.

"... There are inheritances for third-grade sword-forging materials such as Taiyi Taiyi Qingmu, Red Iron, Ice-Cold Jade, and Sword-Melting Stone. Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun mastered them, which could at least shorten the sect's research time for Blazing Sun Spirit Iron by fifty years."

"There are two types of fourth-grade composite sword-forging materials: Poison Blood Green Spirit Gold and Winged Cold Silver; these should be able to shorten the sect's research time for Blazing Sun Spirit Iron by a hundred years."

"Then, that's all."

Jiang Ding felt displeased in his heart: "Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun was too lazy; he only selected the two sword-forging inheritances useful for refining his own flying swords. The contribution required by the Qingse Jianzong for Blazing Sun Spirit Iron was too great, so he did not exchange for it."

"Most Nascent Soul cultivators in the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong did not exchange for it either, because it was useless."

"However,"

Jiang Ding's gaze turned cold: "Ran Gu Master Dinghai Zhenjun must have it. In Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun's memories, this person, in order to cultivate 'Sword Sprouts' in various regions, refined Blazing Sun Copper by referencing the inheritance within the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong: Blazing Sun Spirit Iron."

"I might as well go there."

"Sigh, I was born with a fate of endless toil."

Jiang Ding put away Yin Jiu Master Dinghai Zhenjun's Nascent Soul, intending to find a random place to kill it, and his figure vanished.

Present situation, continue tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)