Practicing the Sword

Jiang Ding slumped onto the chair, weak and listless, waves of pain washing over his mind.

"You've... overdrawn your divine soul?"

Li Junhao asked hesitantly, glancing at the complex and exquisite formation diagram on the table. It was clear at a glance that it wasn't a mere copy but a functional design.

Divine soul overdraft.

This was a common phenomenon among cultivators when engraving talisman formations that exceeded their abilities.

This was only when the ability was slightly exceeded. If one were to engrave high-level talismans or formations far beyond their capabilities, their divine soul could be instantly drained, turning them into a corpse.

"...Yes. I read it in the library. You have a bright future, don't follow my example."

Jiang Ding weakly extended his hand and tucked the talisman sword formation into his chest, so as not to harm Li Junhao.

Unlike himself, who was neither here nor there.

Li Junhao had a fallback of Qingfeng Beidou. Even if he couldn't enter the Cultivation Department, it was highly likely he could enter the immortal technology auxiliary research industry and perhaps embark on the path of immortality through the research institute.

Jingle jingle...

The class bell rang, and Jiang Ding staggered towards the training room.

He opened the door and, without regard for anything else, drank the Essence Condensing Bone Strengthening Soup. A warm current flowed down his throat, and he immediately felt a bit more refreshed.

He took out the talisman sword formation.

The formation script was exquisite and magnificent, possessing a sense of spatial layering that would make an ordinary person dizzy at first glance.

Jiang Ding pondered it carefully. After some practice, his understanding of the first layer of the talisman sword in the Divine Firmament Hundred Pace Flying Sword deepened.

It was centered around a sharp metal formation, combined with a divine soul rune for telepathic connection. Later, it would need to incorporate levitation formations, spirit gathering, and flight formations. When four talisman paper formation diagrams were combined, it would become a controllable talisman sword.

Levitation formations, flight formations, spirit gathering formations—each was more difficult than the last, and they were weak. Even when the talisman sword was perfected, it would only be comparable to the impact of a flying bird, and its endurance would be short.

There was a shortcut, of course.

Essence blood sacrifice.

Not only could it rely on the telepathic divine soul rune to speed up the comprehension of levitation, flight, and spirit gathering formations, but the power of the talisman sword would also be comparable to a powerful bow or crossbow. Crucially, it would be agile, allowing one to dominate among Inner Qi Realm martial artists for a time.

However, it cost one's life and ruined their future.

"Great Sun Seed Sword Refining Art, once a Dao Child-level technique of the Nine Great Immortal Sects beyond the realm..."

Jiang Ding muttered to himself, his heart filled with longing.

If he could refine a Dao Child-level Hundred Pace Flying Sword, his divine soul would undergo a qualitative change during his mortal period, giving him a huge advantage over other cultivators out of thin air, not to mention the subsequent continuous nurturing of the divine soul by this flying sword.

If successful, the Great Dao would be within reach.

He lay drowsily in the training room for two hours until the formation spirit notified him that class was over. Jiang Ding woke up and slowly ambled towards the classroom.

He picked up his schoolbag and checked the maintenance parts of his handgun.

"Teacher Guo has an announcement."

The class monitor, Hua Bing, did not immediately announce dismissal. He said, "Midterm tests will begin in a week. All students must work harder to achieve better results. The school is taking this midterm very seriously. Those who rank higher will receive substantial resource rewards."

"Meeting adjourned!"

Silence fell over the classroom, followed by a buzz of murmurs, mostly of worry.

The approaching midterm meant that half of the first semester had passed, and the college entrance examination, which determined one's fate, was not far off.

Jiang Ding and Li Junhao walked out with the crowd, their ears filled with various chattering sounds, and the roar of tank engines returning to the school in the distance.

"I've decided."

Li Junhao suddenly said, "I'm not going to practice martial arts anymore. I'll dedicate all my time to studying and aim for 800 points on the college entrance exam."

"...I wish you success."

Jiang Ding was stunned. What ambition!

800 points, and he was in the Flesh Refining Realm. This meant near-perfect scores in all academic subjects!

Such a person would be considered a prodigy even within the Immortal Sect, guaranteed special admission into the Cultivation Department and not lacking a set of pills to improve their martial arts aptitude.

In fact, if they didn't die, based on past experience, such individuals were destined to rise.

Upon returning home, just as he was about to head to his room, Jiang Ding stopped.

Lin Wanqiu and Jiang Yuan were both staring at him with stern faces.

"Criminal Jiang Ding, confess honestly!"

Jiang Yuan said seriously, "Otherwise, I'll spank you! I'll use this!"

She brandished a thin bamboo strip she had specifically picked from the garden downstairs.

"Hmm? Are you looking for a beating?"

Jiang Ding glanced at Jiang Yuan, scaring her into recoiling and hiding behind Lin Wanqiu.

"Mom, are you taking a day off today?"

He put down his schoolbag and sat down in front of Lin Wanqiu.

"Ding Ding, why..."

Lin Wanqiu hesitated, her voice filled with worry. She clearly knew what had happened in class.

"Because of desire,"

Jiang Ding replied calmly, opening his palm. The hand of the sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy was covered in calluses.

Ever since elementary school, he had practiced swordplay day and night without interruption, rain or shine, until today, reaching the limit of what the human body could absorb and process.

"You..."

Lin Wanqiu's prepared lecture and scolding words suddenly caught in her throat.

As a mother, she knew how much her son had sacrificed. But he had inherited her own poor aptitude. How desperate must he be?

"Still, be careful!" Lin Wanqiu sighed. "I know when you were little, your father..."

Shortly after Jiang Yuan was born, Jiang Ding's father had an affair with another woman who was powerful in cultivation. He had another child, older than Jiang Ding, and still harbored a lingering obsession with becoming a cultivator.

She felt her son was working so hard to prove something.

"It has nothing to do with him,"

Jiang Ding said lightly. "Mom, eternal life, a sword that traverses the world – this is every boy's dream. Moreover, it can benefit our family and forcefully improve the aptitude of those who are lacking."

"Sigh..."

Lin Wanqiu sighed, knowing how difficult it was for their family given their aptitude.

"Big brother!"

Jiang Yuan's eyes sparkled, seemingly envisioning a future where he could live a life of leisure and still become a high-level cultivator.

In the early morning, Huang Deyou knocked on the door as usual.

"Enter."

A faint voice sounded.

Huang Deyou carefully turned the doorknob and approached Jiang Ding respectfully. "Young Master, we only have less than one tael of silver left. Here is the ledger."

He handed over the ledger, which he had already checked more than ten times.

"Mm."

This time, Jiang Ding didn't look at the ledger. He tossed fifty taels of silver over. "That brother... Han Lin, how is he doing?"

"Replying to Young Master, young brother Han is doing very well," Huang Deyou said with a smile. "He's literate and knows some arithmetic. I've arranged for him to work in the accounting department, responsible for recording the specimens we've collected, so we don't acquire duplicates."

Knowing Jiang Ding valued this, he added:

"Also, ever since we started collecting animal specimens, the quantity has greatly increased. We receive over a hundred intact specimens daily."

"You've done well."

Jiang Ding glanced at the library points, which had reached 658. After all, not every specimen was an unknown new creature; it often took over a dozen specimens to yield one.

"One more thing. I need Purple Spirit Grass. Get me about forty portions. Find a few old Daoist herb collectors. I need them today."

"Yes, Young Master."

Huang Deyou respectfully withdrew.