Temple

6:30 a.m.

Jiang Ding opened his eyes.

His limbs and knees were a little sore, but it did not affect him much.

He got out of bed, dressed, picked up the practice sword beside the bed, and quietly left the house.

The dawn was still faintly cool. At this hour, office workers were still sleeping soundly. Apart from retired elderly people exercising, breakfast stall owners, and the occasional sanitation worker, there were barely any figures on the neighborhood streets. The park was even more deserted.

He found an empty flower bed.

Clang!

A gleaming silver sword-light flashed out. With himself as its center, it cut an almost perfectly regular circle.

"Preparation Stance... Exhibiting Sword Style..."

In the quiet park, an inexplicable feeling rose within Jiang Ding.

Perhaps the Preparation Stance should not have been a deliberately emphasized sword style. It should have been a state—a relaxed yet orderly state outside combat, one that could tighten in an instant when needed.

"Arm Sword Style!"

The sword style changed. Six hundred and thirty-nine muscles moved and shifted like flowing water. The force of countless small muscles gathered into the force of larger muscles, finally converging in the arm gripping the sword. The sword-light's speed abruptly rose by another level.

"Step Sword Style!"

That overly extreme concentration of force did not throw him off balance. His left foot shifted diagonally, his body ghostlike as he carried the sword with his body and sliced a fallen leaf in two, leaving a smooth cut.

"Internal Organ Sword Style!"

Sword after sword, silver sword-light appeared and vanished.

A pale-blue translucent human figure appeared in Jiang Ding's mind. Each muscle was a mechanical formula of differing size. They rotated and converged at different angles, finally producing a total value that changed every moment. The twisting or shifting of any single muscle could alter the final value.

"Turn, harmonize, rush, conceal..."

The silver sword-light drew in, its sharpness hidden within.

"It's much smoother?"

Jiang Ding gripped the hilt and asked in surprise.

Though he had always been diligent, and his teachers had pointed out the direction, practicing swordsmanship had always felt as though it was separated by a layer of fog. No matter how he trained, he was merely mechanically imitating the Array Spirit Computer's guidance.

But just now, wisps of inspiration had surfaced with every sword strike, and the sword styles had flowed incomparably smoothly.

Clang!

His sword came out, sword-light dancing. There was even the hiss of the blade tearing through air. He completed a full set of Sword Moves.

"It wasn't an illusion!"

Jiang Ding took a deep breath and touched the Rusty Sword Tip in his pocket.

Even without the training room's real-time display, he could clearly sense that his Eagle's Takeoff Sword Art had improved by a small margin.

A priceless treasure!

This was absolutely an immense stroke of fortune!

After practicing his sword for nearly an hour, he sheathed it and returned home.

The sky was already fully bright. People came and went in the streets, and the entire city had completely returned to life.

By the time he got home, Jiang Yuan was already up, yawning as she washed up, her hair a complete mess. Lin Wanqiu was preparing breakfast.

Jiang Ding took a shower, changed clothes, packed his schoolbag, and sat at the dining table.

"Mom, Brother, where are my red-and-white shoes?"

Jiang Yuan ran about with her messy hair, her slippers making pattering sounds.

Jiang Ding closed his eyes to rest and ignored her.

"Look at you!"

Lin Wanqiu set breakfast on the table, found a pair of shoes in Jiang Yuan's room and handed them to her, then tidied her hair. Helplessly, she said, "Can't you learn from your brother? He gets up at six-thirty every day and gets everything done."

"He's a freak."

Jiang Yuan rolled her eyes.

After breakfast, the family parted ways at the bus stop, each heading to their own destination.

There was a different bus driver today. He did not take a detour, instead driving straight through the place where the incident had happened yesterday.

Jiang Ding's pupils contracted.

A seven-story building had been slashed diagonally into two halves. One half had collapsed to the ground, its cross-section smooth as a mirror.

Near the broken building were deep craters several meters wide, radiating outward. The ground at their bottoms had been completely vitrified, and patches of faint red could occasionally be seen.

It was as if flesh and blood had been crushed flat beneath the weight of ten thousand tons. Even after repeated cleanup, traces still remained.

"What a sin!"

"A Foundation Establishment Cultivator..."

The bus passengers discussed it one after another. On Luminous Blue Star, there was no division between immortals and mortals, and much knowledge was openly available.

"These traces look somewhat like the work of cultivators from the Outer Xuanwu Heavenly Palace. They've always been hostile toward the Immortal Sect..."

"They could only blame their bad luck..."

Bad luck?

Jiang Ding tightened his grip on the sword hilt and did not join their discussion.

When he arrived at the classroom, he put his schoolbag containing his long sword and pistol into the classroom's password locker—students were not allowed to carry weapons in school.

Li Junhao had arrived long ago and was working through problems. His eyes were fixed on the test paper, without so much as a glance to the side.

"The atmosphere in class seems a little gloomy?"

Jiang Ding did not think much of it. After arranging his books, he asked quietly.

He considered himself diligent enough. Apart from necessary sleep, cooking, and the like, he spent all his remaining time practicing swordsmanship and thinking about related knowledge. Yet compared to Li Junhao, he still fell short.

Jiang Ding even suspected that Li Junhao slept less than four hours a day.

"A student in the neighboring class... died yesterday." Li Junhao sighed. Neither his eyes nor hands left the test paper. "We mortals are far too weak compared to cultivators."

Jiang Ding fell silent.

The morning consisted of two language classes and two mathematics classes, covering the principles of runes and cultivation methods, array structures, and the naturally occurring rune patterns between heaven and earth.

Jiang Ding was delighted to discover that he could understand part of lessons that had once sounded like heavenly scripture. He no longer had to force himself again and again just to remain focused. He naturally immersed himself in the teacher's lectures.

At noon, he ate in the school cafeteria, practiced his sword for a while, then took an hour-long nap—Jiang Ding insisted on getting enough sleep every day.

The afternoon brought geography, followed by the fixed final two cultivation classes.

As soon as school ended, Jiang Ding could not wait to rush home. He quickly cooked for Jiang Yuan, then entered his room.

He put on his helmet and checked his camouflage uniform, drone, gloves, sword, pistol... one by one, before entering the other world again.

Light and shadow shifted, and a figure silently appeared in a corner beneath a tree.

Jiang Ding vigilantly swept his gaze around but found no suspicious people or objects.

He retreated several steps and hid in the bushes nearby. The colors of his camouflage uniform shifted, quickly taking on the appearance of branches and leaves. Without close inspection, no human figure could be seen at all.

At the same time, his tactical helmet connected to the drone above him, and footage from the previous nearly twenty-four hours rapidly flashed before his eyes.

An elk appeared and disappeared. Several forest wolves followed in its footsteps, vanishing and reappearing. The sky gradually changed from scorching sunlight to dusk, then night. Even in infrared view, the land could be monitored at all times.

"Stop!"

Jiang Ding's gaze sharpened.

In the surveillance footage, the image of a woodcutter and a child carrying firewood flashed past.

"There really are people!"

Jiang Ding was uncertain. It was not merely that he had found traces of people—he realized he could actually understand the woodcutter and child's speech.

It was a language that sounded entirely different from the Immortal Sect language, difficult and awkward to the ear, yet he understood it without the slightest obstruction. He even felt that he ought to be able to speak it too. It was incredibly strange.

"A priceless treasure indeed!" Jiang Ding rejoiced inwardly.

Besides the woodcutter, several armed people had passed by the ruined temple and rested there for a while.

No matter what, he still had to collect specimens. This was currently the only stable source of visible income.

He worked his guts out for two hours beneath the blazing sun. Even now that he was more skilled, he had barely managed to excavate eight plant specimens. Turning them in would earn him eight points—still an immeasurable distance from ten thousand points.

At sixteen points a day, ten thousand Library Points would take nearly two years!

He would miss the college entrance examination.

The college entrance examination was the greatest opportunity for Immortal Sect Citizens without connections to step onto the immortal path, a chance that came only once in a lifetime.

With one step inside, if one was outstanding enough, one could even receive treatment comparable to that of a registered disciple of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

If he missed it, the immortal path would be severed. For the rest of his life, he would have to honestly shine and give off heat as a cornerstone of the Immortal Sect. Even with a priceless treasure in hand, the difficulty of walking the immortal path would increase at least tenfold.

"This won't do."

After hesitating for a moment, Jiang Ding sent the processed specimens, tactical helmet, backpack, and other items back home. He contacted Little Green Bird to retrieve them, then charged the drone that was nearly out of power.

He put on contact lenses, confirmed that he could normally receive images from the three drones in the sky, tucked his pistol into a concealed inner pocket, and changed into a wig prepared in advance.

The colors and style of Jiang Ding's camouflage uniform rapidly changed, finally becoming an ancient-style green robe. Its color then fixed in place, no longer shifting with the environment.

After one final glance around, Jiang Ding left.

Yes, he intended to make contact with the local natives.

There was risk in doing so, but if he missed the college entrance examination and failed to enter the Cultivation Department, he would still have to perform Military Service and guard the Immortal Sect's Military Bases beyond the realm. Without strength, he would face danger then as well.

It was the duty of every adult citizen. There was no escaping it.

East Spirit Mountain was steep and perilous, stretching across several provinces. Old mountain ginseng, rare medicinal herbs, and exotic beasts appeared from time to time.

This drew countless herb gatherers and martial wanderers deep into its reaches. Should they luckily find some rare treasure, the various gangs, martial schools, sects, and even the masters in the East Spirit Prefecture governor's residence would buy it at high prices, allowing them to soar to the heavens in a single step.

This ruined temple was the final resting place before entering East Spirit Mountain. Traveling herb gatherers and martial wanderers often chose to stop here briefly.

The sound of footsteps drew a few glances from those inside the temple.

A handsome young man walked in slowly. His long black hair reached his waist, and he wore a green robe and cloth shoes. The fabric was smooth and fine, and a Black Sheathed Long Sword hung at his waist.

He was spotless from head to toe, without the slightest trace of windblown dust from travel. He had the bearing of a carefree, elegant young gentleman, completely out of place in this environment.

What family's young master had come out to sightsee?

The people in the ruined temple glanced at him once, then looked away.

When traveling outside, it was best not to meddle in unnecessary affairs.

"I..."

Jiang Ding had originally wanted to say something, but he closed his mouth again and silently found a corner to sit in.

He swept his gaze over the surroundings.

There were not many people, seven or eight in total, roughly divided into two groups.

On the left were a grandfather and grandson. They wore short hemp clothes, tattered and patched. Their faces were dark and thin, weathered by wind and frost. Two medicine baskets rested beside them.

On the right were five or six burly men, all carrying weapons and dressed uniformly in black fitted garments. The most eye-catching was the bearded man in the middle. A refined steel crescent axe lying on the ground before him gleamed coldly.

Two bonfires crackled in the open space, roasting things like dried meat and sweet potatoes.

Red light flashed several times in Jiang Ding's contact lenses.

"Three Inner Qi Realm cultivators."

Jiang Ding glanced from the corner of his eye at the bearded man and the two beside him. He lightly tightened his grip on the sword hilt, feeling a little nervous.

These were powerful figures a full realm above him.

After a brief silence, voices gradually resumed inside the ruined temple.

"Lin'er, look at these Blue Fluorescent Butterfly wings. The blue stripes must be thin, and the wings must be intact to sell for a good price. Mountain ginseng is the same—you need to dig out every single root..."

By the fire, the old farmer held a pair of butterfly wings and spoke softly. His grandson, whose little face was dark red, nodded from time to time.

On the other side, the burly men had voices like oxen and burst into loud laughter now and then.

"The Seven Profound Sect of East Spirit Prefecture was actually wiped out by the Golden Saber Sect. It was a great sect that had stood for centuries, perhaps even a thousand years. Its history might have been older than that of Bore Temple and Green Ox Temple, the current leaders of the martial world. What a pity."

"What's there to pity? What use is living long? In the martial world, strength is what speaks in the end."

"Exactly. That Golden Saber Sect truly deserves to be one of the world's six great sects. Just their chief disciple, Splitting Sea Saber Wei Xian, Ninth on the Dragon-Phoenix Ranking, could slaughter an entire sect by himself. He got to enjoy the countless gold, silver, jewels, and martial manuals accumulated by the Seven Profound Sect over many years, and even seized beautiful women into his arms to play with as he pleased. Now that is a true hero of the world!"

Amid the laughter, someone took out a gourd of wine. By the firelight, they drank mouthful after mouthful.

"Beautiful women? I heard that Flying Snow Fairy, Ninety-eighth on the Dragon-Phoenix Ranking, came from the Seven Profound Sect. They say her skin is white as snow and her temperament like an immortal's. Could it be that Wei Xian has already taken her into his chambers..."

"Not only that. I heard her mother's beauty surpasses hers by far, and she has already been captured as well."

"This... beast!"

The group of burly men revealed looks of yearning and longing.

Jiang Ding clicked his tongue inwardly.

Murdering an entire sect, taking its wives and daughters, seizing its wealth—these people actually saw nothing wrong with it. Did the authorities of this world not care?

Beep, beep!

Suddenly, several red dots appeared in his contact lenses, rapidly increasing to more than ten.

Jiang Ding's heart jolted.

Focusing his eyes, he saw a group of people entering the drones' scouting range five kilometers away, one after another. There were dozens of them, and more than ten had triggered the drone warning.

They were rapidly closing in from every direction, apparently targeting this ruined temple!

Have I been exposed?

Jiang Ding panicked. He had not done anything at all!

No! Impossible. If I had been exposed, ordinary martial artists would not be the ones sent to hunt me down.

It must simply be a coincidence.

Jiang Ding rapidly calmed down, rose to his feet, and turned toward the ruined temple's entrance.

The people inside were astonished.

This person was truly strange. He had entered without saying a word and had not even taken a sip of water.

The sweet potatoes had cooked through. The old farmer peeled back their charred black skins, revealing fragrant flesh, and handed one to his grandson. He roasted a piece of dried ration for himself and wolfed it down.

Jiang Ding paused, pity rising in his heart.

"Old sir, if something is wrong at home, you should return quickly."

Having said that, he paid no attention to how the other man might respond and swiftly left.

The old farmer was stunned.

The eyes of the burly men around him flickered. Cold gazes occasionally swept toward him, but in the end, they did nothing.