Chapter 692: Online Game

Two years slowly passed.

"Senior Myriad Destruction, I'm leaving first."

Jiang Ding, excited in his heart, waved his hand.

"Go, go."

Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun felt somewhat depressed and continued working at his post.

These two years were quite happy for him; he chatted with someone every day, discussed tracking spells, and felt no loneliness while working or running.

It was simply happier than outside, like returning home.

For the next twenty-plus years, he would be alone.

"Senior, rest assured,"

Jiang Ding comforted him: "Last time I heard Senior Cang Hai say he would come to see you soon, it's only been a few months, and you will see him very quickly."

Every few months, Cang Hai Canghai Tianjun would come to visit the prison once, bringing some clothes, food, and a bit of money.

Jiang Ding had benefited from this several times and felt truly envious.

Hmm, he hadn't had the heart to tell An Siyan and Jin Jin Lingfeng about entering the prison, saying only that he was in seclusion.

It is quite common for a Jin Dan cultivator to remain in seclusion for two consecutive years.

"Get lost, get lost, get lost! You're annoying!"

Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun looked impatient, feeling that Jiang Ding was showing off, and urged him to leave.

Jiang Ding laughed helplessly.

He stopped teasing immediately and walked out of the prison.

Facing the sunlight outside, it was spring; greenery was abundant, flowers bloomed, the air was fresh, and it was full of the beautiful scent of freedom.

Jiang Ding concealed his form, tore through space, and vanished.

After traveling for a while, he returned to Qingfeng University; it seemed another year of new student enrollment and graduating seniors had arrived, a cycle of old and new.

The new students were enthusiastic, chattering away, big kids.

"'Sword Dominates the World: New Generation' is about to enter public beta; I heard the details are much better than the previous version, and upon launch, they will give out Golden Dragon and Golden Phoenix accessories!"

A round-faced girl said excitedly.

"They added a senior's cave dwelling adventure event; it is true that you can find a cave dwelling in the real world!"

"I heard that after someone cracked the forbidden traps, they found a storage bag, a pill furnace, and the corpse of an old man who had been dead for many years inside... Hiss, could someone really have died here?"

A group of seventeen or eighteen-year-old freshmen discussed with great interest.

"Die my foot,"

Someone rolled their eyes: "It's probably a company that contracted a wilderness camping site; it's similar to an escape room, just with a larger area. The corpse is probably a mannequin."

"It seems so; I heard that if someone broke their prop corpse, they would have to pay compensation..."

"That's still impressive; a token prop for a cave dwelling adventure can sell for tens of thousands of Spirit Coins online, and it's scarce with a high price. Only purple cave dwelling tokens are sold; golden, red, and rainbow ones are all unavailable..."

Jiang Ding paused for a moment.

Imprisoned for two years, he had almost no contact with the outside world.

However, the Sword Hall Group, as a large company, has its own organizational system and can operate independently.

Two years ago, after he issued orders and allocated ten billion low-grade Spirit Stones in funding, preparations on all fronts had already begun.

From the current situation, it seems to be operating quite well.

Jiang Ding connected his divine sense to the network, split into tens of thousands of threads, and began rapidly reading news and current events from all aspects of the Immortal Gate over the past two years, especially those related to entertainment.

"... The Sword Debate at Mount Hua, Tianwang Xia Wuqi debuted, with unprecedented popularity... won this year's Golden Person Award..."

"... The 'Sword Dominates the World' online game sword technique ranking tournament prize money increased tenfold, slots increased from one thousand to one hundred thousand, everyone receives a reward, the event lasts twenty years, with forty-nine billion registrants; many sword technique experts became wealthy, married beautiful and rich women, and reached the peak of life..."

"... Version 6.2.55 update adjustments are as follows: added cave dwelling exploration; cave dwelling tokens can drop from killing monsters in the wild, from adventures, participating in plots, auction houses, etc.; purple and above tokens can trigger further plots..."

"..."

"Not bad."

After Jiang Ding's divine sense read for a moment, he was quite satisfied.

The Sword Hall's planning team's approach was very simple: just spend huge amounts of money, throwing real gold and silver cash.

With the flow of ten billion Spirit Stones,

almost half the citizens of the Immortal Gate were attracted; Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, and Jin Dan cultivators all participated with great interest in various rewarded sword activities.

The sword atmosphere was further promoted, deeply rooted in people's hearts, becoming part of the daily life of the Immortal Gate.

According to normal reasoning, this increasingly thick sword atmosphere will accelerate the birth of Sword Intent cultivators.

Jiang Ding had once spent a lot of time thoroughly understanding the process by which the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong cultivated Sword Intent sword cultivators.

Their method was very crude: it was killing, it was death, forcing the potential of cultivators to explode between life and death; if they didn't succeed, they died.

With a base of tens of billions of mortals and massive death tolls, every few decades, a few Sword Intent sword cultivators would appear, becoming core disciples.

Of course, this was under the condition that Ran Gu Master Dinghai Zhenjun did not interfere.

This chaotic and disordered method, solely for the birth of Sword Intent sword cultivators, did not align with Jiang Ding's values.

"Breaking through between life and death, a demonic path, a wrong path."

"Death stimulation, forcing cultivators who originally could not generate Sword Intent to break through themselves; this is not what I need."

Jiang Ding thought.

"Naturally, when water is full, it overflows."

"Just like when my Sword Intent broke through back then; no stimulation is needed. It was something that was going to happen anyway. Such cultivators are the ones I want."

"Those who are not suitable simply should not walk this path."

Now, the changes appearing in the Immortal Gate are the method Jiang Ding considers more scientific and reasonable for cultivating sword cultivators.

Continuously thickening the soil of the Sword Dao, continuously screening for talented Sword Dao cultivators, granting them more favorable conditions for growth—its effects may not be as immediately dramatic as those of the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong, but it excels in being natural, endless, and capable of producing Sword cultivators continuously even without external stimulation.

His spiritual sense swept across, reviewing the Sword Dao Hall's financial reports and various documents from these years.

Overall, operations are still running well.

The Sword Dao Hall's avatar sent back feedback indicating everything was normal; over these years, he had not merely sat in stillness meditating on spells, but occasionally ventured out to inspect, and upon seeing the actual items listed in the reports, there was no large-scale deception or concealment by subordinate managers.

According to current projections, in eighteen years, the Sword Dao willpower within the Grand Void Illusion Realm should reach the quantity required by Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun, with an additional fifty percent margin of error.

"You've worked hard."

"Everyone has done well these past two years."

Jiang Ding approved.

"Distribute a bonus to everyone, and grant them a period of leave, so they may enter the next eighteen years of work challenges in better condition."

Putting aside his current work,

Jiang Ding returned to his Silver Sky Island dormitory.

Nothing had changed; the entire island remained broken and riddled with holes, damaged by the infant tribulation of the Taiqing Flying Sword—he was too lazy to repair it, letting it stand as a relic of the past.

Jiang Ding sat cross-legged; behind him, the Sun Divine Tree surged upward, blotting out sky and sun, radiant with golden light, gathering vast quantities of Great Sun essence and celestial spiritual energy into his cultivation state.

(End of Chapter)