Jiang Ding's foundation could not bear a sword soul.
It was not a question of how tough his body was. Body-refining techniques were useless.
The bodies of sword cultivators and spell cultivators were like superintelligent chips. They could greatly amplify sword intent, spell intent, magic power, the soul, and other forces, fostering their birth and growth. The body's hardness had little to do with whether it could bear a sword soul.
It was like a computer's software and hardware.
If the hardware could not load the software, replacing it with steel or some even harder material would not solve the problem. The entire hardware system had to be upgraded.
Alternatively, the software's algorithms could be streamlined so that one measure of computing power accomplished what had once taken several, lowering the demands on the hardware.
"If my swordsmanship reached the sixth realm, the Sword-Spirit Realm, that could achieve the same effect..."
Jiang Ding fell into thought.
This was what he had been doing for thousands of years.
He had studied and developed new sword techniques. Throughout that process, his swordsmanship had grown slowly but steadily. He had now reached the late stage of the fifth sword realm, the Sword Realm.
Combat and slaughter were not a sword cultivator's only paths to progress.
Studying more sword techniques, creating more of them, even immersing oneself in art could spark insight by analogy. The method did not matter. What mattered was deepening one's understanding of the sword.
Boom!
A peal of thunder sounded in Jiang Ding's ears. It resembled a Dao Integration heavenly tribulation, though it was much weaker.
The sound came from an immensely distant place. It crossed domains and reached the deputy consul stationed on the homeworld through the Central Array-Spirit Computer.
"The Citizen Ascension Heavenly Tribulation."
"The first citizen born