The Myriad Laws Nexus.
After many years, Jiang Ding came here once again.
The place looked much the same. Many sword heirs silently fought sword duels, while many Dao Children played chess with rules as their black and white pieces. There were still several hundred of them. Some familiar faces were absent; he did not know whether they had died or simply had not come, busy as the Great Sun Sword Heir had once been.
Jiang Ding glanced around. The sword heirs' clashes of swordsmanship, fought with wisps of their souls, did not interest him. He went over to the Dao Children instead.
Some Dao Children saw him arrive and shifted aside, as though they were quite used to him.
At the moment, the Blissful Union Holy Maiden was playing against another Dao Child, a burly figure who resembled a bear.
This Dao Child had a powerful physique and wore various crudely polished bone ornaments. Some clearly carried the aura of pure-blooded dragon bone. He looked extraordinary, with a rough, natural beauty straight from the wilderness.
"Tu Shan,"
"that's the Black Heaven Barbarian King of Black Ancestor Sacred Mountain."
The Fusang Holy Maiden had appeared beside him at some point. She spoke softly. "Black Ancestor Sacred Mountain is an ancient and powerful force. Its people practice a body-tempering art drawn from heaven and earth. They dislike using magic treasures and pursue a pure physique, relying on nothing outside themselves as they unlock the treasures within the human body. They're rather like you sword cultivators."
"Just as stubborn, too."
"Treasures within the human body?"
"Do humans have such a thing?"
Jiang Ding paused in surprise.
In his experience, humans were a race with frail souls and bodies. There were no so-called treasures within them.
Humanity's strength lay in knowledge and inheritance.