Chapter 701: Three Million Amateur Ninth-Dan Swordsmen

"Ding, do you want to join us..."

Nearby, several boys and girls called Jiang Ding's random name, inviting him.

They seemed to be classmates from the same university, planning to leave the shallow fishing village and go to the prefectural capital to seek immortal opportunities.

If they died, they would revive and practice cultivation, magic spells, and sword techniques.

"No, I plan to stay here for a while and complete missions to practice cultivation first."

Jiang Ding politely declined.

Inside the fishing village, one could accept various small missions to obtain white-rank Gong Fa, weapons, and techniques.

But the system only assisted in the execution of techniques; players still needed to practice and explore on their own, requiring both aptitude and effort. It was not a one-click, foolproof game.

This was a game application of the Great Void Illusion Realm's "Assisted Learning" function.

This technology originally belonged to the Immortal Sects, developed by Dean Shu Ling Master Dinghai Zhenjun of the Immortal Sect Academy. It was imperfect, but the development team of the game "Sword Dominates the World" applied it and refined various details.

Therefore, patent fees had to be paid to Dean Shu Ling Master Dinghai Zhenjun's research team, and they were very expensive.

It was only right.

According to research articles in the field of social sciences, the application of this technology increased the success rate of Immortal Sect cultivators by one to three percent.

If, after another decade of testing and refinement, no problems were found, Jiang Ding might receive the award of "Top Ten Social Practitioners of the Year in the Immortal Sects."

For a Jin Dan cultivator, this award was one of the highest honors, offering opportunities related to Nascent Soul.

"Let me see..."

Jiang Ding closed his eyes, logged into the game backend, and checked various data.

This was the owner's permission.

He could view it, but not change it arbitrarily.

This game was a launched project, regulated by the Immortal Sect's commercial laws. The owner could not do whatever he wanted; players' rights had to be protected. Only private servers were different.

The moment he logged into the backend, a dense mass of blue, glowing numbers and text appeared before Jiang Ding's eyes, rows flying past at high speed.

Every second contained megabytes of data; a normal person would be dazzled by a single glance and needed translation to understand the information within.

Jiang Ding was not interested in peerless swords, fairy grotto-heavens, or the number one fairy. He directly locked onto the number of sword cultivators and checked their backend information.

"So many, more than expected."

Jiang Ding showed a shocked expression, looking at the number of Amateur Ninth-Dan Swordsmen.

This rank represented the peak of sword techniques for mortals and low-level cultivators, meaning their skills had reached an extremely high level.

As long as magic power was pure enough, mental will was resilient enough, and one was willing to focus on the path of the sword, with all three present, it was possible to comprehend Sword Intent.

Alternatively, if one of the three was particularly outstanding, even if the other two aspects were lacking, it was still possible to comprehend Sword Intent; it depended on the total score.

At this moment, in the backend of the game "Sword Dominates the World," the number of Amateur Ninth-Dan Swordsmen was,

Three million one hundred seventy-eight thousand nine hundred seventy-two!

"Thus,"

"Such a number..."

Jiang Ding took a deep breath, his heart surging.

To know that any single Amateur Ninth-Dan Swordsman, going to a place like the Yue Kingdom, could be called a Sword Saint at the Internal Qi stage and dominate the Wu Lin.

If they advanced to the Innate realm, they would inevitably be invincible!

Even without any advantage in weapons or Internal Qi, this would be the case.

If at the Qi Refining stage, they could fight across minor realms; easily killing a mid-stage cultivator while at the early stage, or a late-stage cultivator while at the mid-stage.

Purely an advantage in technique.

If one also counted the advantages of Gong Fa and magical artifacts possessed by Immortal Sect citizens, one person could easily fight a dozen peers alone.

At the Foundation Establishment realm, it was the same.

Such people, in any sect, were undeniably geniuses and elites, destined to become the pillar strength of the sect in the future.

Yet in the Immortal Sects, such people numbered in the millions!

If the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong had a rating, perhaps the total number of all Amateur Ninth-Dan Swordsmen within its territory would not even reach five thousand.

But in the Immortal Sects, three million!

The gap was so large it left one staring in disbelief.

This was a Domain Hegemon.

A Domain Hegemon power, even if it did not focus on its main business, did not take the path of the sword as its primary direction of development, but only used it for entertainment and socializing in daily life.

Such a colossal entity, even if it merely moved its body casually, displayed an energy that small fish and shrimp could never hope to see in a lifetime, let alone forever.

Although not focusing on its main business,

Although developing for less than a century,

The current foundation of sword cultivation in the Immortal Sects was nearly a thousand times that of the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong!

"Three million Ninth-Dan Swordsmen!"

"Citizens, everyone, so fierce, so amazing..."

Jiang Ding was shocked, his brain buzzing.

Decades ago, seeds sown casually had grown into such a vast expanse of abundant fruits.

In such a short time, less than the lifespan of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, they had grown with a clanking sound, so many, with thick stems and leaves, and tall plants.

Jiang Ding knew this was not because he was so skilled in guidance or education.

It was purely because the Immortal Sects had a good foundation.

Even if sword cultivators were replaced by thunder cultivators, blade cultivators, or puppeteers, any profession, as long as it could be promoted within the Immortal Sects, relevant talents would emerge continuously, impossible to stop, with no difference whatsoever.

This was the extremely profound foundation of Immortal Dao education in the Immortal Sects!

Supreme-grade Gong Fa can be viewed at will.

Teachers who do not understand can provide explanations.

If the teachers do not understand, go to the great city, grab any high-level cultivator off the street, and ask respectfully and politely; the vast majority of doubts will be resolved.

Various sword embryos, materials—so long as they are excellent enough, the scholarship covers it all; online, there is no shortage of people for sword duels and mutual exchange...

Such conditions were abundant to the extreme.

The herdsmen, chieftains, and scattered cultivators on Great Sun Qingse Jianzong, though numerous, with not-so-bad spiritual root talents and no lack of will to fight bloody battles, despite having these advantages,

how could they compare to citizens of the Immortal Gate?

How many ordinary mortals on the Great Sun Qingse Jianzong grasslands, how many common souls, must equal one most ordinary Immortal Gate citizen to possess the same rate of success?

One hundred thousand, or one million?

Impossible to calculate!

"An Immortal Gate Sword Intent cultivator must be born."

"And within just a few years!"

A thought suddenly arose in Jiang Ding's heart, extremely certain, no longer doubting anything.

He knew that among these three million amateur ninth-segment swordsmen, most were merely dabbling; after all, the Immortal Gate Sword Dao had only just begun, its future dark and uncertain, while other paths were bright and wide.

Many sages had already walked the path countless times, kindly guiding the way ahead; no need to worry, just follow the predecessors step by step.

But,

this was three million amateur ninth-segment swordsmen!

With such a base, with such deep Sword Dao foundations, it would be incredibly difficult to forcibly suppress the birth of a Sword Intent cultivator; only by reversing the tide of history could there be hope.

"No,"

"Not within a few years."

In the next instant, a palpitation arose in Jiang Ding's heart, as if the primordial ancestor of the Sword Dao in the ancient chaos, a native deity, had felt some strange sensation; he looked beyond the game, toward the Qingfeng University campus.

"It is, now!"

Jiang Ding seemed to traverse the torrent of time, following some unknown power and causality; his vision pierced through layers of space, through the barrier of the Taiyi Illusion Realm, through the array preventing outsiders from spying on Qingfeng University, and landed upon a duel platform.

On the duel platform,

a short panda clad in Magma Thorn Armor, its chubby paws tightly gripping a ferocious spiked greatsword, stared with large eyes at its opponent, a sword-intent female cultivator from Qingmuxian Sect at the Foundation Establishment realm, who was vomiting blood and kneeling on the ground.

Upon the panda, the clear sound of swords echoed and spread.

The arena was torn apart by sharp sword qi radiating from the Magma Thorn Armor, then melted by the surging high heat, becoming a sea of lava.

She was clad in Magma Thorn Sword Armor; she planted her sword into the ground; she was born from the lava.

Sword Intent shot straight into the clouds!

(End of this chapter)