Chapter 767: A Citizen Dies for the Ideal of the Immortal Dao

Outside the Fire Spirit Realm, a Void Refining-level great war is underway!

The star river overturns, the Minor Thousand Worlds tremble ceaselessly; even the mere afterwaves cause the realm barrier to roll like waves, and world coordinates shift slightly.

Even within the realm, Jiang Ding seemed to hear sounds of sacrificial prayer.

Faintly, a scene of countless billions of sentient beings kneeling devoutly and offering themselves to the True God flashed before his eyes, making one involuntarily feel reverence and awe, compelled to offer everything to the immortals and gods in the Heavenly Palace.

This is the influence transmitted through the barrier of the Minor Thousand Worlds!

The density of incense faith within is terrifyingly high; mere natural diffusion can transform Foundation Establishment and Jin Dan cultivators into devout believers.

Three hundred and sixty Heavenly Palace Guardian Deity Generals!

After hundreds of thousands of years of incense faith accumulation by the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace, the final Daoist creation has, under circumstances where patience could no longer be endured, finally left the sect, crossed the star river, and arrived before the Immortal Gate fleet.

Three hundred and sixty Jin Jia deity generals, each holding weapons and sacrificial vessels, some with kind brows and gentle faces, some imposing and awe-inspiring, some breathtakingly beautiful, each commanding beneath them a hundred thousand mountain ranges, rivers, lakes, and human-world Mao Shen, forming a magnificent incense killing formation, locked in fierce combat with the Immortal Gate fleet.

Amidst the shouts and roars of countless immortals and gods, the great power of the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace sat quietly atop the golden roof of the palace; his form was blurred, as if wrapped by unknown space, making his true appearance impossible to discern.

Every time he struck, it was earth-shattering; heavy pressure spread, shattering ten thousand warships and billions of star rivers, terrifying beyond measure.

Yet, despite being this powerful, he never stepped out of the incense killing formation of the three hundred and sixty deity generals to face the Immortal Gate's fleet alone.

In the starry sky,

Centered on the Zhenjun Shenji Canghai Tianjun's flagship, the Zhenjun Shenji Star Fortress, the fluctuations of the array diffused vaguely, and a world phantom of birth and death, endless reincarnation, slowly emerged, pressing down on all four directions.

Boom!

The dark star region suddenly blazed bright as day!

Nearly a hundred star fortresses roared; billions of sky-warships and sky-fighters responded, blasting forth streams of brilliant light. Under the transformation of the military formation's world phantom, the light seemed to gain life, growing, changing, becoming more complex, more condensed, and adding some unobservable power, forming a column of destruction far more terrifying than the Great Sun True Fire!

Boom!

The power of the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace's three hundred and sixty Guardian Deity Generals' Zhou Tian Star River Heavenly Palace Killing Formation was terrifying; within it, a world phantom of countless billions of beings worshipping and devoutly offering also circulated.

However, facing it, the phantom world of countless billions of beings kneeling devoutly shattered under the destructive light column; the three hundred and sixty Guardian Deity Generals were blasted back, their Jin Jia exploded into fragments, their weapons and sacrificial vessels of axes and halberds snapped, billions of Mao Shen turned to ash and vanished, and a whole star river plunged into chaotic darkness.

The great power atop the golden palace roof twitched.

Both were military formations, yet the Heavenly Palace's hundreds of thousands of years of incense accumulation, the Dao soldiers enfeoffed and refined, were like earth chickens and clay dogs before these warships.

If faced alone, they would be annihilated within a few moves, hardly seeming like existences of the Void Refining stage.

"Foreign Demon Gates, all must be executed!"

The great power of the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace rose and said slowly.

Within the star river, a world phantom emerged, brilliant with Jin Chong Guang; a Brother Xuanwu stood heaven-high and earth-high, supporting the sky and holding up the earth, almost equal to the world itself, emitting a primordial, unfathomable chaotic aura.

Roar!

The world's Brother Xuanwu roared.

Meteors fell; a Jin Chong Guang giant foot, like a world pillar, imprisoned ten thousand li of space, smashing down upon billions of warships and fighters with violent killing intent, possessing bestial nature, inconsistent with the holy Brother Xuanwu.

Boom!

At the critical moment, a terrifying barrage of destruction star fortress cannons roared forth, striking the Brother Xuanwu giant foot, shattering the imprisoned ten thousand li of space, forcing the world Brother Xuanwu back several steps; it stumbled, and every time the giant foot landed, a star river shattered and collapsed.

Seizing this brief opportunity, the three hundred and sixty Guardian Deity Generals quickly revived; their shattered Jin Jia, weapons, axes, and halberds regained their Jin Chong Guang, the Mao Shen resurrected, shouting and roaring as they charged forward, just as at the very beginning, truly immortal and indestructible.

Boom!

Boom!

The battle in the starry sky immediately escalated to a fever pitch; both sides fought with bloodshot eyes, yielding no ground, every move lethal.

This star river boiled, overturned, shattered, healed, and asteroid belts vanished in patches into ash.

The realm barrier protected the beings of the Minor Thousand Worlds like a mother; within the world, there were only volcanic eruptions, earth splitting, wild winds blowing everywhere, countless beings dying, yet no true destruction occurred.

"Activate the incense-blocking military formation."

"Order,"

Jiang Ding, radiating killing intent, said in a deep voice: "Split the fleet into three, each heading east, west, and south; with the utmost speed and highest efficiency, extinguish the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace's resistance in this realm; if necessary, do not spare casualties, whether enemy or own!"

This was to disregard everything.

If this so-called Fire Spirit Clan caused trouble or disrupted matters at this critical moment, then exterminate the clan; there was no time to worry about that.

Once the great army in the starry sky failed, the entire Immortal Gate expeditionary force, over seventy percent of the Immortal Gate's power, encompassing the geniuses and heroes of the Immortal Gate accumulated over countless years, except for one or two heading to the End of Dharma City, the rest would all die!

This was far from the end.

If the expeditionary force failed, the Immortal Gate's mother star, standing alone, would likely fall under siege, leading to clan extermination!

"Yes!"

Teacher Ouyang Hui, An Siyan, and other officers' eyes also began to turn red; killing intent surged, they asked nothing, and each commanded their fleet to rush in four directions.

As for the remaining north, naturally, Jiang Ding himself would go!

Hum!

A large expanse of space was wrapped in Bai Chong Guang; this was the teleportation method reserved by the star troops, now activated, causing Jiang Ding to vanish.

A few breaths later,

In the north of the Spirit Fire Realm, a turbulent pattern of space appeared, and a youth emerged within the light.

Jiang Ding looked around.

Magma, churning magma, terrifying high temperatures, thousands upon thousands of degrees Celsius; the Spirit Fire Realm was already hot enough, but here it had reached an extreme; ordinary beings touching it would die instantly.

Red Magma Sea.

This was the name of the north of the Spirit Fire Realm; this was the forbidden land of the Spirit Fire Realm in ancient legends; any Fire Spirit Clan member who entered here never returned.

In fact, this place was not desolate.

Numerous high-level fire-attribute spiritual beasts and spiritual plants grew here, breeding and living; the weakest were Foundation Establishment level, naturally adapted to fire, able to move freely within the magma without being affected.

Jiang Ding looked into the distance.

The thirty-six Brother Xuanwu Heaven Pillars drifted up and down within the sea of magma, projecting streams of power into the starry sky to serve as anchor points, supplying strength to the three hundred and sixty Protector Divine General formations and the Refinement Void great powers beyond the realm, allowing them to mobilize the power of heaven and earth with greater speed and swiftness — a major component of terrain advantage in war.

"Ship spirit, commence formation calculation…"

Jiang Ding momentarily forgot everything, his divine sense and sword intent sweeping rapidly, scanning every single formation base.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, his divine soul spun at high speed; every detail of the Xuan Wu Ding Gao Jie formation flashed into being within the Sea of Consciousness, being supplemented and perfected, forming a three-dimensional formation model; the divine soul connected to the Chaori's ship spirit, calculating something.

Silently, without a sound, a shadow surfaced in the magma beneath his feet.

A great flaming maw of blood quietly opened, fangs gleaming, glowing red like branding iron, as large as Shanfeng, lunging upward from below to swallow the youth in the sky in a single gulp.

The speed was extreme — faster than a blink could catch.

Magma streamed from the gaps between its teeth, its body plunged back into the magma, sending up a massive spray of molten waves.

The instant it leapt from the magma lake, the appearance of this colossal lava beast was revealed.

Blood-Searing Beast.

This was a beast of fearsome renown throughout the lava sea's range; although its realm was only Jin Dan peak, aided by terrain within the lava sea it feared not even a Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun, and was worshipped as a true god by many Fire Spirit clans, who willingly offered blood-sacrifice, seeking only a moment's peace.

"Roar!"

Having swallowed the delicacy in one gulp, the Blood-Searing Beast was in high spirits, roaring outward to display its overlord's majesty; the ten thousand beasts nearby bowed in submission, trembling with fear.

The next moment,

Hiss!

The Blood-Searing Beast's body stiffened, and terror appeared in its carriage-sized eyes.

"Immortal, spare me! Ignorance is no crime…"

From the mountain-peak-sized beast came a child's voice — the clear, crisp tone of a boy attendant beloved by many Heavenly Palace immortal gods.

Hiss!

A streak of blue-gold sword qi pierced through its skull, emerging from between its scales.

Hiss hiss hiss!

Then, one after another, dense blue-gold sword qi burst forth from its tail, eyeballs, limbs, back, belly — every part of its body — piercing every inch of flesh, shattering every last scrap of living blood and meat, destroying the vitality of the divine soul within, leaving nothing behind.

Within the shattered skull, a youth remained in a dazed state, unchanged, all his focus on high-speed calculation; only the sword qi's active defensive sword-qi shield had been triggered, clearing away external interference.

After a dozen or so breaths, his eyes grew a touch more alert.

"Nine greatest flaws, the node points of the realm-fixing formation…"

Jiang Ding Zi murmured.

The so-called flaws of a formation do not necessarily mean weak points; on the contrary, they may be even more reinforced, like the support pillars of a house, specially strengthened — the more sophisticated the formation, the more so.

The realm-fixing formation of the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace was sophisticated enough.

However, the regular forces of the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace had already been annihilated; the cultivators now within were far too unfamiliar, levied from various minor realms, with very limited formation skill and coordination.

"Nine, that's enough."

Clang!

Jiang Ding drew his sword.

Boom!

In the sky, the sea of clouds split apart and melted away; nine resplendent great suns rose, revealing their radiance to the heavens and earth, proclaiming their will to the world.

Destruction!

Forbidden Law! Annihilation!

Beneath the radiance of the nine great suns, even though Fire Spirit Realm creatures were generally heat-resistant, their adaptation to high temperatures was useless!

This was a terrifying attack upon the divine soul; any creature touched by it would find its soul in unbearable agony, as if cast into a realm of blazing flames, with flesh sizzling.

"Perish!"

Boom!

Boom!

The nine great suns, each along a resplendent trajectory, thunderously plunged into the Xuan Wu Ding Gao Jie formation; wherever they fell, formation patterns were surely blasted to pieces, the great suns exploding, sword qi erupting in scorching tides, destroying everything in their path like a flood.

Jin Dan and Foundation Establishment cultivators, formation bases, formation artifacts — all shattered to nothing beneath the sword qi, reduced to ash.

Again and again, the nine great suns plunged into the formation time after time, destroying all life, all things still standing upon the magma.

Crack!

Crack crack crack…

The thirty-six top-grade Brother Xuanwu Heaven Pillars collapsed one after another, shattering into pieces; the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace's anchor point in this realm lost a crucial corner.

The cultivators within — surrender and live, those who refused surrendered perished along with the collapse of the Brother Xuanwu Heaven Pillars; there was no second path.

"Cloud Sun, formation diagram."

Jiang Ding commanded the Chaori to unfold the Xing Chen Ding Gao Jie formation diagram before him.

Then, without a moment's rest, he took out from his storage jade pendant engineering machine puppets as tall as buildings, numbering fully over fifty thousand.

Jiang Ding's divine sense entered these engineering machine puppets, digging deep into the magma earth, solidifying magma to build mountains, sorting out the ley lines and spiritual energy, planting formation flags one after another…

And so on — one man doing the work of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, and with great efficiency to boot.

A cultivator who is strong,

Is not only strong at fighting and killing — at work, too, he must be strong, must be fierce!

Cultivate and fight, cultivate and fight.

Must fight, and must cultivate — that is the meaning of civilization.

Whizz whizz whizz!

It was not only Jiang Ding; the Taiqing Flying Sword was also busy — born of a poor family, from childhood skilled at cooking, washing dishes, and cleaning, it now took to formation work with equal proficiency, flying back and forth, busily transporting materials, casting spells to solidify magma into mountains, temporarily refining formation flags… truly fast and well-done.

Boom!

Yun Ri wasn't idle either, using the Magnetic Cloud Star-Splitting Cannon to blast a straight deep pit at the calculated location, preventing lava from pouring back in—this was one of the array-base pedestals of the Immortal Sect's Xing Chen Ding Gao Jie formation.

One person, one sword, one warship, going mad, magic power and divine sense erupting, swiftly doing one task after another, wishing they could use every single strand of hair, speeding up the array-setting by even a ten-thousandth of a moment, contributing a little more—however slight—to the starry-sky war.

In this frantic infrastructure-building, the array-setting speed increased dramatically.

One month, completed.

This speed could be called terrifying—one person accomplished in one month what hundreds of thousands of well-trained Immortal Sect cultivators had previously needed two months to finish; even a Dao Child of Earth and Timber would be no more than this.

Jiang Ding's eyes were filled with blood vessels as he struck down the final dharma decision.

Hum!

Hum hum!

The earth trembled, the lava sea churned and boiled, and the fire-attribute demon beasts and demon insects within fled in frenzy, sensing an inexplicable pressure.

Immediately after, pillars of star-pillars, crimson all over, rose out of the lava sea, inch by inch ascending toward the sky, breaking through the cloud layer, piercing into the starry sky, and establishing contact with the Zhou Tian stars.

Hum!

Half a day late, from the other three directions came similar rumbling sounds—star-pillars thrust straight into the clouds, the four directions merging into one, communicating with the stars, firmly grasping this world in hand.

The Immortal Sect's grand formation on the starry-sky battlefield now had an entire Minor Thousand Worlds as an anchor, gaining a bit more power.

"This is all I can do…"

"I'm too weak!"

Jiang Ding took a deep breath, forcibly restraining himself from looking at the various phantoms continuously appearing in the sky, casting out the distracting thoughts in his mind, sitting cross-legged to cultivate.

In the sky, scenes of starry-sky battle were reflected and manifested from time to time—warships shattering, warcraft wailing, falling and crashing into the world barrier and the world-thunder layer, turning into fireworks and shooting stars, vanishing into ash.

The citizens were going to their deaths generously, sacrificing themselves with passionate fervor—without distinguishing between Foundation Establishment, Jin Dan, or Nascent Soul, Soul Transformation—yet he was powerless, unable to do anything, only able to wait quietly.

If at some moment Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun brought news of defeat, he would have a final farewell with An Siyan and the others, then abandon his flesh body, merge his divine soul with the Taiqing Flying Sword, and use the Mo Facheng Yin mark to escape this world, leaving behind a single seed.

Waiting for several thousand or tens of thousands of years in the future, to once again revive the citizens' Immortal Sect.

(End of this chapter)