Chapter 759: First-Tier Immortal Path Ecosystem

Jiang Ding's divine sense and sword intent shone like a scorching sun upon the Xiao Shan Fa storage treasure; looking out, layer upon layer, formation arrays covered the vast divine sense space, with no end in sight, making one's scalp prickle.

Various self-destruct formation arrays showed faint signs of revival.

"I'm sorry!"

"I spoke too loudly just now..."

Jiang Ding held his breath, cautious, and subconsciously retracted his sword intent and divine sense, no longer so arrogant.

The Brother Xuanwu Tian Palace possessed formation array inheritances no less than, or even exceeding, those of the immortal sects; it was not a native world that could be casually swept aside and crushed to clear all formations.

One moment of carelessness, and the entire Xiao Shan Fa storage treasure would explode; if the self-destruct triggered, there would be no tears left to cry.

Worse, touching a divine sense formation array could severely injure the intruder's soul, shattering their spirit into the four winds...

Oh, for Jiang Ding this was not truly so; at most, it would be a minor injury.

The sword path's scorching sun hid itself, vanishing without a trace.

Amidst the complex formations like a sea of clouds, a semi-transparent flying sword appeared quietly, passing here, passing there.

Each time it released an extremely fine sword qi, probing a local section of the formation array, triggering the natural reaction of the soul formation array there, and quickly recording it from the side.

This technique is named "Peering into the Spirit to Seek Gaps," a spell used by immortal sects to break formation arrays.

This took advantage of the treasure's owner being absent, using a split divine sense to generate extremely fine divine sense fluctuations to probe the formation array's reaction, mimicking naturally occurring divine sense fluctuations in daily life so as not to immediately trigger the treasure's self-destruct formation array.

In a cultivator's life, scanning others with divine sense, or being scanned by others' divine sense, are normal situations.

Especially when encountering higher-level cultivators; if anyone set their storage treasure's formation arrays this sensitive, it would be like carrying a self-destructing bomb on their person.

Danger was secondary,

but if one moment of carelessness caused all one's life savings to vanish, that would be more painful for a cultivator than death.

The Annihilating Sword Intent poked here, poked there, extremely patient, with no aggressive moves.

After several months,

a complete divine sense imprint formation array structure appeared in Jiang Ding's sea of consciousness.

"Seventy-three thousand, eight hundred and seventy-two soul traps, and there might even be some undetected... truly cunning."

"Not a shred of martial virtue."

Jiang Ding gained a deeper understanding of the shamelessness of the Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong's Dao Son.

"Fall!"

At his thought, his divine sense and sword intent ceased concealing themselves, transforming into a brilliant great sun that shone upon heaven and earth; the terrifying aura of annihilation, breaking spells, and destruction spread out, bringing light to the eternal, silent, gloomy sea of formations that had existed since time immemorial.

Squeak, squeak, squeak...

Where the light reached, layer upon layer of divine sense formation arrays and traps melted like ice and snow, instantly clearing a vast area; the entire formation world began to dissolve under this mighty power, encountering a world-ending calamity.

Boom!

At the instant the great sun appeared, countless formation arrays were triggered, self-destruct traps were activated, countless fine cracks appeared on the Xiao Shan Fa treasure, emitting an extremely dangerous aura.

This power could instantly destroy the Nascent Souls of countless Nascent Soul cultivators, shattering their spirits; the Dao Son would be no exception.

This was a carefully prepared plan to take revenge for his own death.

"Those who are alive are this weak; what could the dead do?"

Jiang Ding shook his head.

Clang!

With a flick of his finger, nine sword lights split forth, each swift as Lei Ting, each striking in four directions, crashing onto the nine most critical nodes of the soul formation array traps.

Amidst the boom and crackle of Lei Chong Guang exploding, a vast area was cleared; no matter how ingeniously the formation array traps were designed, they were useless, destroyed directly.

The self-destruct came to an abrupt halt.

In the sky, the great sun's light continued to shine; after a few breaths, the last trace of the divine sense imprint trap vanished into nothingness, and the Xiao Shan Fa storage treasure remained in a state full of cracks, changing no further.

"Let me take a look..."

Jiang Ding's divine sense, now unobstructed, surged inside.

The moment his divine sense entered, he paused, his breath stopping.

Big,

vast,

huge!

This was Jiang Ding's first impression.

One glance could not reach the end; it was boundless; this was not a matter of cubic size, it was simply a small Secret Realm!

It was nearly one hundred kilometers in diameter!

The concentration of Qi within barely maintained the First Tier level; the strongest beings were Qi Condensation creatures.

Within it lived creatures, rivers, sky, and Shanfeng... birds flew through it, fish dwelt in the rivers, and creatures like antelopes, water buffalo, cheetahs, and lions lived here, forming a complete ecosystem that could operate independently without exchanging Qi with the outside world.

"What is this..."

Suddenly, Jiang Ding felt a shock in his heart, his instinct triggered.

"So many First Tier creatures, incredibly complex; constructing such an independently operating immortal path ecosystem would cost at least one hundred billion Mei Xia Pin spirit stones; it would require the participation of many Jin Dan and Nascent Soul cultivators... no, the Brother Xuanwu Tian Palace's immortal path industry is not developed; perhaps a considerable number of Soul Transformation Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun participated to achieve this..."

"Such a huge cost, for what reason?"

He did not look at the mountain-like pile of heavenly treasures with treasure light shooting to the sky in the center; instead, he stared fixedly at this First Tier immortal path ecosystem, clearly sensing something, like an instinct, though he did not know what it was.

This thing was important.

His soul instinct said so.

"Zhenyuanzi expended such a huge cost just to construct a Qi Condensation-level environment to carry around; is it a hobby? Like keeping fish in a fishbowl? Many high-level cultivators have strange quirks."

"No spirit beasts raised, no spirit insects raised, no spirit plants planted; just this pure First Tier immortal path ecosystem, which is of little use even to Foundation Establishment cultivators."

"At most, it earns a few thousand Mei Xia Pin spirit stones per year... is this all for a Dao Son?"

"It doesn't make sense. This is an anomaly."

Jiang Ding whispered.

"Do the Dao Sons of Qingmuxian Sect, Wuxingtian Sect, and the Ten Thousand Beasts Immortal Sect have something similar?"

He instinctively touched his brow.

Every generation of the Great Sun Sword Son bore the Great Sun Seal; he possessed an electromagnetic seal. Within it lay a special space over a kilometer in size that, whenever he cultivated, constantly drew a certain substance from the spiritual qi, greatly affecting his cultivation speed. This seemed to be the reason why the cultivation speeds of Dao Sons across the Immortal Sects were generally slow.

For now, this special space only had the function of containing the Taiyi Clear Sword and promoting its growth.

At this very moment, the space trembled slightly, showing a hint of affinity toward this small, first-rank Immortal Dao ecosystem.

Then, nothing happened.

Even this faint sense of affinity vanished, as if it had been an illusion.

"An illusion?"

"You really think I'm blind?"

Jiang Ding cursed, committing this sensation firmly to memory.

"Again, the inheritance is incomplete, lacking something!"

"Then proceed with cautious reasoning and bold speculation."

"I'll make a bold claim: this is related to breaking through to the Void Refinement stage. Am I right or not?"

Jiang Ding had a premonition that this seemingly useless first-rank Immortal Dao ecosystem, seized from the Dao Son, was very likely his greatest harvest this time, far surpassing that mountain of heavenly treasures and sea of spirit stones.

Immediately, he cast a spell, making no changes whatsoever, and gradually sealed this storage treasure that was on the verge of collapse.

(End of this chapter)