Chapter 928: Fallen Immortal Realm

Amid the collapsing array of golden light that filled the sky, Jiang Ding stepped into Wangting Wangting Fudi.

Within the reach of his gaze, within the bounds of his vision, every orderly blood-gold line within Wangting Wangting Fudi that signified a man-made object had vanished, had been severed — including the various arrays used to verify the Wang Ting bloodline.

This Secret Realm had returned to its initial undefended state; there was no longer anything that needed to be done.

Jiang Ding withdrew from this state, and the blood-gold web in his eyes faded, once again returning to a look of clear black and white.

"Wangting Wangting Fudi…"

Jiang Ding strolled through the Secret Realm, his divine sense unfurled, wandering about at will.

Many arrays had been laid out here — not only offensive and defensive ones, but also a considerable degree of automated pill-refining arrays.

This array could produce, once every thousand years, a Nascent Soul Pill that would drive Jin Dan cultivators mad; it should have been built back in the day by Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun, who had scoured the world for pill-refining inheritances, grandmasters of pill-refining, and grandmasters of arrays, expending a great deal of effort to construct it.

After this pill-refining array was built, those grandmasters of pill-refining and arrays naturally died.

In Jiang Ding's eyes, this automated pill-refining array was passable at best — its function was achieved, but the waste was considerable; at least eighty percent of the medicinal efficacy was squandered.

The surrounding spirit-herb gardens, however, had been built rather well; after nearly ten thousand years of continuous cultivation, fourth-grade spirit herbs were commonplace, and fifth-grade spirit herbs could occasionally be seen as well.

With only a few modifications and adjustments, it could serve as the main spirit-herb garden of Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting, where many rare spirit herbs could be cultivated.

At the center of the spirit-herb garden and the automated pill-refining array, Jiang Ding saw a name.

"Hua Shen Dan!"

"Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun's obsession with the continuation of his bloodline is truly stubborn…"

Jiang Ding clicked his tongue.

The ultimate purpose of this automated pill-refining array should have been to use ten thousand years of time, employing inheritances like the 'Water-Refinement Nurturing Pill Method,' to nurture a single 'Hua Shen Dan' capable of helping a peak Nascent Soul cultivator break through to Hua Shen Qi — one pill in ten thousand years — giving his descendants a certain hope of breaking through to Hua Shen Qi.

One pill in ten thousand years, and within those ten thousand years, an uninterrupted supply of massive amounts of spirit stones, heaven materials and earthly treasures, and spirit herbs had to be invested.

The efficiency was terrifyingly low.

Counting the time, it was now nearly ten thousand years; there should have been a Hua Shen Dan here.

However, there was none.

In its place was a drop of glossy jet-black blood, full of medicinal fragrance, emanating a rich scent that stirred an intense craving in anyone who sensed it.

Upon this drop of black blood, it seemed, countless wails were emanating; faintly visible were the faces of men and women struggling, weeping — their features bearing some resemblance to those of Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun and the others.

This thing should be able to extend lifespan, but its aftereffects were extremely severe.

It should have been the handiwork of Wan Zhu Canghai Tianjun; he had altered the arrays here.

"Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun,

you truly begot a fine son."

Jiang Ding shook his head.

The family system was like this — passed down generation after generation, with no competition whatsoever; the odds of producing a wastrel were almost one hundred percent.

This was humanity's inherent inertia: the desire to lie flat, to gain without labor, to bully the weak with strength, the refusal to strive.

Produce a few generations of wastrels, and no matter how strict and perfect your system, no matter how thoroughly everything was considered, it was all useless — in the end, everything would decline.

Clang!

Jiang Ding drew his sword, slashed once, and shattered this automated pill-refining array.

This array was far too inefficient, far too wasteful.

Apart from stability, it served no purpose whatsoever; moreover, it constantly drew upon the spiritual energy, earthly qi, and the medicinal qi of many rare spirit herbs of Wangting Wangting Fudi to refine pills, affecting the growth of the spirit herbs.

Jiang Ding wandered about for a while, visiting the Treasure-Refining Mountain, the Pill Tower, and other places, indulging the various fantasies he had harbored about Wangting Wangting Fudi since childhood.

Back then he had considered coming here, but later abandoned the idea due to the risks involved.

In the end, Jiang Ding came to the Scripture Pavilion.

Gathered here were the various inheritances of the great families of the Northern Plains, as well as the inheritances of many sects from before the era of the Northern Plains families — for instance, the inheritances of Luoxu Sect and Liu Dao Sect.

Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun had considered everything, making backups for his descendants; should anything be lost in the outside world, it could be replenished from here, so the inheritance would never be lost.

Originally, there had been various bloodline-verification arrays here; only those of the direct bloodline could enter, or else they would be blasted to death by the arrays.

However, now all the defensive, self-destructing, and killing arrays had vanished, allowing anyone to walk right in.

Jiang Ding's divine sense unfurled, splitting into tens of thousands, reading jade slip after jade slip at tremendous speed — in nearly the blink of an eye, several hundred thousand volumes of books had been read.

Many of the Gong Fa jade slips here were duplicates — the collections contributed by the great families of the Northern Plains, which he had already read before.

From the start of his cultivation, Jiang Ding had always maintained the habit of reading.

In the immortal gate, he read the various Gong Fa, documents, and latest immortal-path research findings in the immortal gate's library.

In the Northern Plains, he read the Northern Plains' collections, never slackening; in terms of accumulated immortal-path knowledge, he far surpassed many Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong Canghai Tianjun.

This had given him a profound foundation in the immortal path; some spells and arrays, so long as he wished, he could create a set of inheritances with similar functions in minutes — the kind that could be used as Nascent Soul-grade sect inheritances.

Soon, a pile of books he had never read before was laid out before Jiang Ding, forming a small mountain.

Jiang Ding's divine sense unfurled; jade slips, jade stones, beast-hide and stone-tablet books circled around him like dancing butterflies, being read and contemplated bit by bit.

One month, two months, three months…

Time passed silently, bit by bit.

This was not inputting information, but a process of enjoying reading, relaxing and entertaining oneself.

With the extension of his lifespan, Jiang Ding had gradually begun to adapt to the rhythm of time of long-lived species; when it was unnecessary, he no longer raced against the clock, and could spend several years doing something he liked, without pursuing any particular meaning.

Of course, no matter what, cultivation continued as usual — it sufficed to allocate a portion of his divine soul's computing power to it.

During this period, Duoxian Sect Sect Master Chun Chun Sanwa arrived here with a large number of Nascent Soul True Persons and Jin Dan True Persons.

They bowed respectfully in this direction, not daring to disturb, and tiptoed as they began transplanting and tending the spirit herbs in Wangting Wangting Fudi, allowing these rare spirit herbs — long deprived of careful nurturing — to be reborn, promoting branching and tillering, and bearing fruit.

Over the course of these many years, quite a number of mutant spirit insects had been born in the spirit-herb gardens, causing no small damage to spirit-herb yields and being very troublesome to deal with.

However, Da Ai Master Dinghai Zhenjun was quite fond of this; he volunteered to come handle it, purchasing these mutant spirit insects at a very favorable price.

Unknowingly, a year passed.

The last beast-skin scroll hovering around Jiang Ding fell and flew back to its original place on the bookshelf.

"A great harvest."

"I have gained much knowledge previously unknown to me about this Minor Thousand World."

Jiang Ding closed his eyes and opened them again, his pupils filled with brilliance: "This world, tens of thousands of years ago, when Soul Transformation peak cultivators could still be born, before the world barrier was completely broken, allowed for ascension... ascension to the Upper Realm."

"A Soul Transformation peak cultivator may not necessarily ascend to the Upper Realm, but such a possibility exists."

"The Upper Realm, the name of the Upper Realm is,"

"Xian Gao Jie."

(End of this chapter)