Chapter 916: The Full-Scale War of the Northern Plains

「Sigh, but it won't do. 」

「Still have to speed up. 」

Jiang Ding sighed: 「Even if I go into hibernation, the longest is seven thousand years, no more. Before those eight madmen's lifespans run out, I'd best cultivate to Refinement of Void, otherwise both the Immortal Gate and I will fall into an extremely dangerous situation. 」

「Looking at it this way, in a certain sense, Jiao Jiao Mingyu is actually a good thing — at least it brings change. 」

Jiang Ding fell into thought.

If war against the Horned Demon Imperial Clan in the future is unavoidable, and the Immortal Gate is destined to be dragged in by those eight madmen, it would be better to strike first — find a way to ambush and kill, or capture, a being at early Refinement of Void, and obtain its inheritance.

This way, the Immortal Gate's Refinement of Void R&D progress would surely accelerate dramatically.

「Compared to my lukewarm cultivation speed, refining the flying sword has gone much more smoothly. 」

Jiang Ding reached out and beckoned.

A palm-sized blue-gold flying sword appeared in his hand. Within it, the twentieth Heavenly Gang prohibition had already been refined; the sword's spirituality was stronger, one step closer to a mid-grade Primordial Spirit treasure.

This is the terrifying boost that Dayang Dayang Tianchi gives to the Dayang Flying Sword!

In a mere dozen or nearly twenty years, a Heavenly Gang prohibition that an ordinary Soul Transformation cultivator would need several hundred years to refine had been refined.

「Twenty years, one Dayang Heavenly Gang Divine Prohibition. 」

「Another eighty years, and the Taiqing Flying Sword will advance to mid-grade Primordial Spirit treasure — its speed and sharpness rising another level. 」

Jiang Ding admired it for a moment, then tucked the Taiqing Flying Sword into his brow.

Clang!

The Taiqing Flying Sword refused, however — its tip pointed at the storage jade pendant, conveying a longing emotion.

「There's something you want? 」

Jiang Ding's heart stirred. He sensed it carefully for a moment, then took out a great axe and a set of thirty-six rings, all of a pitch-black color.

These were precisely the emperor-armament prototypes from the Horned Demon Imperial Son.

Originally there were five; some were distributed as battle merits and some were asked for by Zhenjun Shenji Canghai Tianjun, used for Teacher Gu Lin's cultivation — only these remained.

「You like this? 」

「Good eye — sixth-tier Blood Void Heavenly Dark Gold, the Horned Demon Imperial Clan's inherited divine gold. 」

Jiang Ding praised, then said in vexation: 「But we can't use it. For this sixth-tier inherited divine gold, we still haven't found a method to forge a sword. 」

「If we follow the approach of the Dayang Sword Pavilion's 【Nine Heavens Immortal Spirit Sword-Forging Art】, we'll have to wait until I break through to Soul Transformation and use heavenly tribulation to smelt it. 」

「That will take a very long time. 」

Clang!

The Taiqing Flying Sword hummed lightly again, conveying some complex emotion.

「What are you saying? 」

「I can't understand…」

Jiang Ding thought for a long while, then shook his head.

「Sword child—

?? 」

Yueling's voice immediately popped out, excited: 「She says this Blood Void Heavenly Dark Gold might help her Sword Realm space become more solid, turning the sword qi and sword intent within into something like half-living, half-spirit swords. 」

「It might just take a very, very large amount. 」

「And the Imperial Son's blood. 」

「Oh, that's normal — she's always liked the blood of Dao-child-level beings. 」

「No, I can't do it. 」

Jiang Ding rolled his eyes and put the Taiqing Flying Sword away.

The Taiqing Flying Sword flew into the Sword Realm space, took its seat high in the sky, transformed into an eternal great sun, its sword-light illuminating the earth and sky within the Sword Realm.

The three strands of Mysterious-Yellow Primordial Mother Qi were continuously absorbed by the Sword Realm space; compared to when it had just advanced to Nascent Soul, the space was somewhat more solid.

However, it was still quite far from the Sword Realm space achieving a complete cycle and birthing the power of order.

Jiang Ding flew out of Dayang Dayang Tianchi and headed for the Clearwind University conference room.

He had arranged a meeting with Pingyang Canghai Tianjun, a clone of Senior Wanji Canghai Tianjun, and a large contingent of Tianjuns from the Materials Research Institute, to establish the Immortal Gate's Military Soul Research Institute and explore the application of 【intent】 on Dayang Refined Gold.

Currently, the Immortal Gate planned to inject ten trillion low-grade spirit stones into this newly established Military Soul Research Institute for exploring intent.

Several months later, Jiang Ding returned, his face full of fatigue.

He had become one of the three vice-directors of the Military Soul Research Institute — the director was Senior Wanji Canghai Tianjun — and then began the research… actually there wasn't much research, just working for Senior Wanji Canghai Tianjun and Pingyang Canghai Tianjun, doing whatever they told him to do: testing sword intent, testing military soul, then describing it for them.

Just repeating this over and over.

Currently, a rough line of thinking had been sorted out: treat the Immortal Gate's military soul as a kind of intent, and use this intent to continuously scour Dayang Refined Gold, converting it into Dayang Refined Gold usable for the Immortal Gate's starry-sky fortress engines, cannon barrels, and cannonballs.

However, there were still many difficulties.

The Immortal Gate's military soul and Dayang sword intent differed far too greatly; roughly scouring them together was like putting two bombs side by side — there was no result but an explosion. Testing and R&D were still ongoing, and whether it would ultimately succeed was uncertain.

Still, one result had been confirmed.

If the Immortal Gate fleet could truly apply the top-tier fifth-grade supreme material of the Dayang Sword Pavilion in sword intent, the Immortal Gate's military soul would surely see a massive boost, and the Immortal Gate's battle formations would likewise gain a strength increase.

Once this result was confirmed, many Tianjuns immediately grew excited; the Immortal Gate injected more funds into the Military Soul Research Institute, and even distant clones joined in.

Jiang Ding returned to Dayang Dayang Tianchi.

His life was still the same as ever — divided attention, soul-computing power split into multiple threads, used for cultivation, refining the flying sword, teaching adult Sword Dao courses, and the Sword Dao Hall laboratory.

From time to time, he would also dash into the Sword Dao

online game to duel many Immortal Gate sword cultivators, absorbing and simulating their sword-intent approaches to fill the Sword Realm space.

To date, the Sword Realm space already contained 1,276 kinds of sword intent, from the Immortal Gate, from the Northern Plains sword cultivators.

Still relatively few — far short of the Dayang Sword Pavilion's peak-era ten-thousand-plus kinds of sword intent.

This is also because the Great Sun Sword Pavilion has not catalogued many sword intents of similar categories; otherwise, there would be hundreds of thousands of sword intents.

This also caused Jiang Ding's sword domain space to be relatively thin, but there was no helping it.

In the blink of an eye, another seven years passed.

"I need to make a trip to the Northern Plains."

"The time has come."

Jiang Ding opened his eyes; the spiritual energy of heaven and earth within a thousand li slowly calmed, and the Great Sun's radiance returned to normal.

Ten years were about to pass.

This was the final deadline given to him by Master Dinghai Zhenjun Master Dinghai Zhenjun Bingyuan Tian Jun of the Northern Plains. This person had once threatened that if her daughter was not released within ten years, she would bathe the Northern Plains human race in blood, regardless of cultivation level.

Jiang Ding's figure vanished within the Sun Abyss.

Dayang Dayang Tianchi currently had no Void-Refining level escape capability; he couldn't be bothered to bring it, and besides, there were people inside Dayang Tianchi, so he couldn't bring it along either.

……

At the peak of Yin-Yang Yuanci Jueling Mountain, within the Six Realms Liyang Array.

Jiang Ding opened his eyes, swept his divine sense across the four directions, and received all manner of intelligence from his subordinates.

The Northern Plains underwent tremendous changes over these ten years. Political reforms were basically complete, and all human-ruled territories were shrouded in the will of Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting.

Agriculture, animal husbandry, talisman crafting, and weapon refining in various regions all achieved considerable development, with total production value doubling.

The magic treasures, talismans, and pills in the hands of Jin Dan cultivators and Nascent Soul cultivators were several times more than before — it could be called strong soldiers and sturdy horses, with morale Gao Ang and an intense desire across the ranks to petition for war.

Genius disciples kept emerging everywhere; two Heavenly Spiritual Roots had even appeared, and cultivators with two or three spiritual roots yet strong comprehension were commonplace.

With basic education in place and no longer harshly suppressed, geniuses of the Northern Plains human race grew like bamboo shoots after the rain — everywhere.

The three armies of Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting — the Master Tushan Maid Brigade, Hun Yuan Fa Tiandu, and the Great Sun Long Sword Brigade — had become thoroughly skilled in military formation drills and had initially formed combat capability.

Overall, Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting had completed preparations for a full-scale war.

Good. The war begins.

(End of this chapter)