Chapter 981: Donning Armor, Marching to the Horned Underworld Realm

"A hundred years."

"The time has come…"

Jiang Ding murmured.

Behind him, the Sun Divine Wood crumbled bit by bit, revealing a blue-gold flying sword that flew into his brow.

This flying sword, through a hundred years of continuous refinement, had successfully advanced to a superior-grade Primordial Spirit treasure, possessing thirty Grand Sun Heavenly Gang Divine Prohibitions, which circled within the sword body like thirty stars, granting the flying sword even greater sharpness and speed, reaching a new level.

Countless azure electromagnetic runes flickered as the super mothership Grand Sun likewise began to contract, contract, and finally, using the capability of fifth-tier memory spiritual metal, compressed from dozens of kilometers in size down to one kilometer, and flew into his brow.

The Shadow of the Underworld Armor, refined for over a hundred years, flickered and vanished without a sound.

Don the armor, march to war.

At a certain moment, the Grand Sun Heavenly Pool, which had occupied the thirty-third Heavenly Gang orbit of the Immortal Gate for several hundred years, gradually grew hazy, then vanished completely.

……

At the gate of Qingfeng University.

Yu Yu Qianzi, Tianji Zi, Antu Zi, Brother Brother Xuanwu and four others waited silently; Teacher Gu Lin was seeing them off.

The passing teachers and students around them acted as if they didn't see them.

"Where is Jiang Ding Zi?"

Ji Liuyue said softly.

At this moment of about to step into a foreign realm, she suddenly felt a wave of panic and unease; it was her first time leaving the protection of the sect to go to a land of alien races, bewildered and helpless, not as calm and composed as she had imagined.

The surrounding Dao Sons were similar; the atmosphere was somewhat gloomy.

Taiyi Taiyi Qingmu's instinct was activated; she wanted to find stronger cultivators around her, offering abilities like assistance, healing, defense, and acceleration as the price, to let him protect her.

That person, though his character was vile, did indeed have real strength.

"Jiang Ding… Zi…"

Teacher Gu Lin was somewhat unused to this form of address; after nearly a hundred years of interacting with the Dao Sons, she had grown accustomed to calling them So-and-so Zi, which made it somewhat contradictory.

Her expression shifted slightly, then she said: "He has already arrived."

"He says he doesn't trust you, so he won't meet with you. When he feels unsafe, he won't help you either. Please be cautious yourselves, and don't expose yourselves."

The words were very direct, and quite impolite.

"Hah!"

"All the better, as if anyone wanted to see him."

Ji Liuyue scoffed.

But strangely, her heart gradually settled down.

She suddenly had an illusion.

The Grand Sun Sword Son seemed very familiar with this kind of lurking, concealment, and assassination—well-practiced, experienced—completely different from novices like them.

This was quite inconceivable; a sword cultivator, and the Shadow Demon Abyss's concealment—

A cultivator's sneaking about should be completely incompatible.

"May all of you fellow Daoists return victorious."

Teacher Gu Lin said gently: "It's just a pity that my individual strength is weak, and I have no legion at my side—I am nothing more than an ant. Otherwise, I could have gone to the foreign realm with all of you, to contribute my meager effort to the great cause of our human race, and would not have refused even ten thousand deaths."

"I am deeply ashamed, and from now on will have no face to meet any of you."

"Fellow Daoist is indeed enviable."

Ji Liuyue sighed.

As a law cultivator, she didn't want to take risks at all; she only wanted to cultivate steadily and safely until Void Refinement.

Unfortunately, fate never goes as one wishes.

"In the future, when a great war between realms breaks out, with Fellow Daoist's abilities, commanding ten thousand troops, you should still have great use."

"No need to despair."

Ji Liuyue offered a hypocritical word of comfort.

Her figure and those of the surrounding Dao Sons gradually vanished; no one knew where they had gone.

……

In the Immortal Gate's ultra-long-range teleportation array, a barely perceptible spatial ripple.

Then, countless spatial runes flickered to life.

"Is Jiang Ding Zi… here?"

Antu Zi asked curiously.

The eight of them remained connected through an array at all times; even in a concealed state they could communicate at any moment, and now he asked in a low voice using a secret technique.

The surrounding Dao Sons scanned the area repeatedly with their divine sense, finding nothing.

"He should be."

Tianji Dao Son performed a divination and said: "The teleportation array of the Eastern Extreme Demon Sect cannot be used without his permission; the eight of us don't have authorization."

"Being so cautious isn't bad either…"

The Dao Sons each had things on their minds and said no more.

Starting from the Immortal Gate teleportation array, passing through the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace star domain, the Qingmuxian Sect star domain, the Wuxingtian Sect star domain, and so on, after continuously teleporting through dozens or hundreds of teleportation arrays, the Gejiaxian Sect repeatedly inspected using sect-level grand arrays, involving divine soul, flesh and blood, karma, rules, and so on.

Such stringent measures were to ensure that the location of this realm was not leaked in advance.

Jiang Ding hid within the void of space, silently watching the ever-changing scenery in the distance.

These lands of the Immortal Sects, since his birth, he had never visited; this was his first time, and the scenery of many star domains opened his eyes, making him linger and forget to return.

It was a great pity that many places could only be glimpsed in passing, and he could not stop to admire them in detail.

Several years later, after continuous inspections, the few of them appeared in a dim star domain.

Looking around, there was no sky, no earth, only a stretch of chaos—no matter what feature one examined, it was impossible to deduce where this place was located.

This place was where the passage between the two domains lay.

This was also the center of the Nine Spirit Life-Death Illusion-Destruction Liangyi Microdust Array, which the Jiudaxian Sect had poured countless heaven materials and earthly treasures, countless manpower and material resources into, taking

several hundred years to initially construct, and which was claimed to be able to deal with beings above Refinement of Void.

This place held the highest secrecy classification in the entire domain; even Dao Sons were not qualified to know of it. To put it plainly, in the entire Nine Spirit Domain, only nine people knew where this place was.

At the center of this dim space, there was a constantly rotating vortex of chaos, from which came wisps and strands of netherworld qi—an aura utterly different from that of their own domain.

Beside the chaos vortex, a fisherman wearing a bamboo hat sat peacefully, extending a bamboo pole to fish for something, motionless, no one knew for how many years, or how long he had been keeping watch here.

"Greetings, Old Ancestor!"

The Brother Xuanwu Dao Son revealed his form and paid respectful obeisance.

These hundred years, it was precisely a great expert of the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace who was stationed here, guarding against changes in the domain's spatial passage; the Jiudaxian Sect rotated the duty once every nine hundred years.

While the great expert kept watch, the other Badaxian Sect also had various means to monitor this place; they had not let go entirely.

"So it's Dun'er…"

The fisherman slowly turned his head, and upon seeing that only the Brother Xuanwu Dao Son was present, he gave a slight start.

"You little brats…"

He pondered for a moment, then spread out his divine sense like ripples on water—not targeting anything in particular, just an ordinary sweep of the surroundings, like his usual flight cultivation.

"Not bad."

"Not bad."

The Brother Xuanwu great expert nodded approvingly again and again.

Under such circumstances, only the Brother Xuanwu Dao Son was still present nearby.

A mere Nascent Soul stage cultivator, yet able to achieve this.

It had to be said, if the Jiudaxian Sect truly united as one, with each side bringing out its hidden trump cards, they could indeed accomplish things normally impossible.

After the Brother Xuanwu great expert's divine sense swept the area several times, his fingers moved slightly, and he struck out an investigative dharma art.

Hum!

A ring of transparent ripples spread outward, revealing the figures of Antu Zi, Ji Liuyue, Tianji Dao Son, and others—seven people in total—each with a very disappointed little face, like children before the great expert, utterly dejected.

"We greet the Brother Xuanwu Old Ancestor!"

Antu Zi and the others bowed in great ceremony together, not daring the slightest breach of etiquette.

They were somewhat disheartened.

"Hahaha!"

"Children, don't be like this. To be able to achieve this much at the Nascent Soul stage is already extremely rare."

The Brother Xuanwu great expert smiled, then his gaze sharpened again.

Eight people.

Eight Dao Sons.

Had the East Extreme Demon Sect broken its appointment?

He struck out another dharma art; this one was clearly far more profound, with countless mysterious runes manifesting upon it, flickering between life and death unceasingly.

Just one glance was enough to make cultivators below Refinement of Void

dizzy, their minds muddled, their bodies swaying as if about to fall.

The surrounding Dao Sons hurriedly averted their gazes, not daring to look again.

At a place far away, a youth in blue robes revealed his form, watching him with extreme wariness, looking as if he would flee at any moment.

"Haha, Sword Son, it's been a long time."

The Brother Xuanwu great expert clapped his hands and laughed: "You too are an anomaly, a Great Sun Sword cultivator—your concealment arts seem to be practiced even better than the Shadow Demon Dao Son's, truly making one feel the urge to kill, to crush you completely."

"But looking at it now, anomaly, anomaly, anomaly is good."

"The Horn Demon Imperial Clan, that despicable race of alien-kind, is precisely in need of anomalies."

"This old man hopes the Sword Son will return laden with spoils from the alien domain, and make great meritorious contributions to the revival of our human race."

He looked utterly sincere.

"Greetings, Senior Brother Xuanwu."

Jiang Ding bowed respectfully.

This old monster looked affable, but he did not dare the slightest carelessness; his warning signs had been raised to the utmost—should anything be the slightest bit wrong, he would abandon everything and flee for his life at once.

"Sword Son, this is very good of you."

The Brother Xuanwu great expert nodded.

"Children, go."

"May you return victorious, and win more initiative for our domain."

With a wave of his hand, wisps of grey threads appeared on the nine Dao Sons, wrapping around them, coiling around them, forming giant chaos eggs one by one.

Then, the giant chaos eggs fell one by one into the chaotic vortex of the domain passage, and vanished without a trace.