Chapter 685: Obtaining the Technique of Refining Treasure with Blazing Sun Spirit Iron

Clean the battlefield, erase all traces of presence.

It does not need to be fully restored; general consistency is enough, but all traces of presence must be completely erased—no residual fluctuations of the divine soul, no lingering sword intent, nothing whatsoever may remain.

Put away the storage bag and flee at top speed.

Jiang Ding concealed his form, moving faster than a swift-footed runner, vanishing in a flash.

He did not linger for even a single second on the grasslands of the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong; after executing the most basic detour tactic, he reached the ultra-long-range teleportation array he had set up in a hidden spot on the Northern Plains and vanished swiftly.

The teleportation array's white light flashed repeatedly.

The mere consumption of spiritual energy amounted to hundreds of millions of low-grade spirit stones, not to mention the premium brought by the infrastructure costs involved; all told, this single teleportation consumed five to six billion low-grade spirit stones.

Of course, as the number of uses increases, the marginal cost will gradually decrease.

But that is still far off; perhaps it will take several hundred years.

Such enormous expenditure yielded equally significant results.

Within dozens of breaths, Jiang Ding nearly crossed the entire Northern Plains, returning once more to the Spiritless Desert.

Over such a vast distance, even if a Soul Transformation cultivator personally pursued him, they would be left in the dust before they could blink.

"Seal all ultra-long-range teleportation arrays for three years."

"If any anomaly is detected, destroy the teleportation array immediately; there is no need to repeatedly report the detection results. False alarms are acceptable."

Jiang Ding successively set up ultra-long-range teleportation arrays across various locations, even extracting a single array component from the one beneath his own feet, physically shutting it down; no matter how supreme one's array arts, it would be useless.

Thus, Jiang Ding felt slightly relieved, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began to recover the losses to his divine sense and magic power caused by the two great battles.

……

Great Sun Qingse Jianzong.

Several consecutive, piercing sword cries erupted from the Ancestral Master Hall, spreading to the various mountain peaks within the sect; only Nascent Soul cultivators could hear them, while lower-stage cultivators remained utterly unaware, as the sound was strictly sealed off.

Instantly, terrifying pressure appeared on countless mountain peaks within the sect.

Only a little over a hundred years had passed since the war.

The bloodshed and death in their memories had not yet faded; almost the moment the piercing sword cries rang out, beams of escape light shot forth from dozens of mountain peaks, tearing through space to arrive within the Ancestral Master Hall.

"Who died?"

Waves of divine sense, brimming with killing intent, crisscrossed within the Ancestral Master Hall.

"Who did this?"

"The Darifa Sect? The Zhengmo Alliance?"

"Only a hundred-odd years have passed, and they already cannot endure? Very well, very well, then kill, kill, kill until the heavens and earth are turned upside down!"

"The more we kill, the more our sword arts will improve; the various filth within the sect will also cease. I have long been sick of all this."

"That someone died well!"

"Our sword sect has gone a hundred years without campaigning; this is an insult! We shame our ancestors!"

Within the Ancestral Master Hall, the clanging of swords rang out continuously; various sword intents shone brilliantly together, sharp qi surged toward the heavens, and killing intent loomed grimly.

Finally,

all gazes fixed upon Xu Fang Master Dinghai Zhenjun.

There were naturally other, even stronger Master Dinghai Zhenjun present; three Master Dinghai Zhenjun had already reached the late Nascent Soul stage.

However, they had always ignored affairs, focusing solely on seeking the peak realm of Nascent Soul; thus, Xu Fang Master Dinghai Zhenjun and Ran Gu Master Dinghai Zhenjun, the leaders of the Master-Disciple Faction and the Family Faction respectively, were the ones most widely known, with whom people had interacted more frequently in the past.

Ran Gu Master Dinghai Zhenjun was absent.

Many immediately formed suspicions.

"It was Ran Gu, Ran Gu Master Dinghai Zhenjun."

Xu Fang Master Dinghai Zhenjun had a square face and large ears; although he was an enemy of Ran Gu Master Dinghai Zhenjun and wished nothing more than to kill him, he was unwilling to reveal this now, maintaining respect in his words as he spoke in a deep voice: "He is not dead, but it is nearly so; he appears to have only a final breath remaining."

He led everyone to a corner of the Ancestral Master Hall.

Above it, a soul lamp burned dimly, with only a wisp of spiritual light as fine as a hair remaining; it would occasionally extinguish completely, and after a moment, would tremble weakly back to life, even dimmer and fainter than before.

"He has been captured."

"Or he has been severely injured and is currently employing secret techniques to heal."

Seeing this, a Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun nearby spoke coldly: "I believe the former is more likely."

Nascent Soul cultivators possess extremely tenacious vitality and are not easily severely injured; yet once severely injured, they have often reached a dead end, especially here within the heartland of the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong.

"As far as I know, Ran Gu has never strayed far from the sect's heartland."

"Xu Fang,"

a Master Dinghai Zhenjun with three fierce ghosts circling his body asked coldly: "Did you do this?"

This man was named San Gui Master Dinghai Zhenjun; it was said he had refined three ghost-path flying swords, and when unleashed, ten thousand swords would cry out simultaneously, with ghost qi surging toward the heavens; he was Ran Gu Master Dinghai Zhenjun's closest friend, and their paths had been intimately intertwined.

Within the heartland of the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong,

Ran Gu Master Dinghai Zhenjun was no corpse; he was always cunning and experienced. Whoever could severely injure him and prevent even a whisper of news from escaping was likely beyond the capabilities of even a late Nascent Soul cultivator.

Indeed, even a peak Nascent Soul cultivator would find it difficult to achieve.

A peak Nascent Soul cultivator could defeat Ran Gu Master Dinghai Zhenjun within dozens of exchanges and had a reasonable chance of destroying Ran Gu Master Dinghai Zhenjun's Nascent Soul, but there was absolutely no possibility of preventing him from sending any message at all.

Indeed, even the size of that chance was uncertain.

As long as one abandoned the physical body, a peak Nascent Soul cultivator might not be able to catch and kill Ran Gu Master Dinghai Zhenjun's Nascent Soul.

An ambush.

Only an ambush, with arrays and traps set in advance to seal the area, could achieve this.

And to set such traps, to lure Ran Gu Master Dinghai Zhenjun into the pot, required someone from within the sect.

Swish!

Instantly, countless Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun turned their gazes toward Xu Fang Master Dinghai Zhenjun, filled with coldness and killing intent, including many Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun from the Master-Disciple Faction.

They merely formed factions due to disputes over interests.

This does not mean the camaraderie forged in centuries of past battles has vanished; it still exists, with strict boundaries that even core disciples dare not cross in ordinary times.

Let alone the life of a Master Dinghai Zhenjun!

"First, I have not taken a single step beyond the mountain gate for five years."

"Second, Ran Gu Master Dinghai Zhenjun does not trust me,"

Xu Fang Master Dinghai Zhenjun's expression remained calm: "Even if I harbored ill intent, he would only be more vigilant and hard to deceive; my suspicion would be even smaller. If we truly calculate it, perhaps only someone he trusts could make him lower his guard."

He silently mocked San Gui Master Dinghai Zhenjun, who was a friend of Ran Gu Master Dinghai Zhenjun.

"Hehe, Ran Gu trusts no one."

San Gui Master Dinghai Zhenjun let out a cold sneer.

The expressions of the surrounding Master Dinghai Zhenjun relaxed slightly.

This matter was dropped; without concrete evidence, baseless accusations would only make the situation more chaotic.

"Stop talking."

"Forget who did it for now; focus all efforts on saving Ran Gu. We will discuss it after he returns."

An elderly Nascent Soul late-stage cultivator spoke up.

The Nascent Soul cultivators around him showed expressions of respect.

This was their senior elder; back when they were still Jin Dan, he was already a Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun. In terms of age, he was even older than Chun Jian Yang Master Dinghai Zhenjun, and he had cared greatly for the cultivators below, being a kind and honest elder.

"We humbly obey the command of Huo Chun Jian Master Dinghai Zhenjun!"

Xu Fang Master Dinghai Zhenjun, San Gui Master Dinghai Zhenjun, and others bowed their heads together.

The crowd ceased arguing and joined hands to activate the formation within the sect's Ancestral Master Hall, using Ran Gu Master Dinghai Zhenjun's soul lamp as a foundation to perform the sword- Dao tracking and locating secret technique.

Dozens of Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun acted together!

Various sword intents clanged and resonated; instantly, sand flew and stones rolled, the sinister wind roared in anger, and the celestial phenomena across hundreds of miles became utterly chaotic.

After a long while, everything settled down.

"Nothing,"

"We cannot find him."

Huo Chun Jian Master Dinghai Zhenjun's face looked extremely grim: "No matter what, we cannot locate Ran Gu's whereabouts; not even a trace, as if he has already vanished from heaven and earth."

"We can only know that his final resting place was the Li family of Bai Feng Mountain, a subordinate power of the sect."

"Let's go!"

"I want to see who dares to offend my Great Sun Qingse Jianzong!"

San Gui Master Dinghai Zhenjun roared in anger; his escape light shot forth, followed closely by the other dozens of Master Dinghai Zhenjun, each radiating murderous qi that surged toward the sky.

After an unknown length of time, the dozens of Master Dinghai Zhenjun descended upon Bai Feng Mountain. They searched furiously for a long time but found nothing. In their venting of rage, they utterly destroyed the entire Bai Feng Mountain, then searched every corner of the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong, stirring up a storm of blood and killing countless lives.

These actions immediately caused every surrounding power to feel threatened and fearful for their own safety.

Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun from various powers gathered urgently, constantly monitoring the movements of the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong's Nascent Soul cultivators, daring not to separate even a single step for several years.

(End of this chapter)