Temple

Temple

Morning at six-thirty.

Jiang Ding opened his eyes.

His limbs and knees ached slightly, but it did not affect him much.

Getting out of bed, putting on his clothes, and picking up the practice sword placed by the bedside, Jiang Ding quietly left his home.

The morning light was chilly. At this hour, working stiffs were still fast asleep, and aside from a few figures like retired seniors exercising, breakfast shop owners, and sanitation workers, the neighborhood streets were nearly deserted, let alone the park.

He found an empty flower bed.

Clang!

A flash of bright silver sword light appeared instantly, thrusting out a near-perfect circle with himself as the center.

Preparatory form... Sword Unfurling Form...

In the quiet park, inexplicable feelings welled up in Jiang Ding's heart.

The preparatory form perhaps should not be a specially emphasized sword form, but rather a state—an orderly, relaxed state during non-combat times, capable of snapping taut instantly when needed.

Arm Sword Form!

The sword form shifted. 639 muscles rotated and turned like flowing water, the force of countless small muscles converging toward the power of the large muscles, and finally merging into the sword-wielding arm. The speed of the sword light abruptly increased by a notch.

Step Sword Form!

The overly extreme convergence of force remained balanced. His left foot shifted diagonally, his body moving like a ghost, and carrying his sword with his body, he sliced a fallen leaf cleanly in half with smooth edges.

Organ Sword Form!

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

In Jiang Ding's mind, a light-blue transparent figure emerged. Each individual muscle was a mechanical formula of varying sizes, rotating and converging at different angles to finally yield a total value that constantly fluctuated. The twisting and turning of any single muscle could alter the final magnitude.

Rotate, harmonize, rush, hide...

The silver sword light retracted, its sharpness concealed within.

Much smoother?

Jiang Ding gripped the hilt of the sword, surprised and doubtful.

Although he had been diligent in the past and the teachers had pointed the way, practicing the sword had always felt separated by a layer of fog; no matter how he practiced, it was merely a mechanical imitation of the guidance provided by the Array-Spirit Computer.

Yet just now, with every single sword stroke, wisps of inspiration emerged, and the sword forms were incomparably fluid.

Clang!

Drawing the sword, the sword light danced, even producing the crisp sound of the blade tearing through the air as he completed an entire set of sword techniques.

It is not an illusion!

Jiang Ding took a deep breath and touched the rusty sword tip in his pocket.

Even without the real-time display of the training room, he could distinctly feel that his Young Eagle Takes Flight Sword Art had improved by a small margin.

A supreme treasure!

This was undoubtedly a formidable stroke of fortune!

After practicing the sword for nearly an hour, he packed up his blade and headed home.

The sky was completely bright, people bustled back and forth on the streets, and the entire city had fully regained its vitality.

When he returned home, Jiang Yuan was already awake, washing up while yawning with messy hair, and Lin Wanqiu was preparing breakfast.

Jiang Ding took a shower, changed his clothes, readied his school bag, and sat at the dining table.

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

Jiang Yuan ran back and forth with a wild mane of hair, her slippers making a clatter-clatter sound.

Jiang Ding closed his eyes to rest his mind and ignored her.

"Look at you!"

Lin Wanqiu placed the breakfast on the table, retrieved a pair of shoes from Jiang Yuan's bedroom to hand to her, and tidied her hair while saying with a helpless sigh, "Can you learn from your brother? He gets up at six-thirty every single day and has everything done."

"He's a freak."

Jiang Yuan rolled her eyes.

After finishing breakfast, the family parted ways at the bus stop, each heading to their respective destinations.

Today, a different bus driver was on duty. Without detouring, the bus drove straight through the site of yesterday's incident.

Jiang Ding's pupils contracted.

A seven-story building was sliced diagonally in half, one end crashed to the ground with cut surfaces as smooth as a mirror.

Near the severed building were deep craters several meters wide, radiating outward, with bottoms completely vitrified, and pools of faint fresh crimson occasionally visible.

It looked as if flesh and blood had been crushed flat under tens of thousands of tons of pressure; even after multiple cleanups, traces of it could still be seen.

"Such a sin!"

"Foundation Establishment cultivators..."

Passengers on the bus chattered and discussed. Blueglow Star did not have a strict separation between immortals and mortals, and much of this knowledge was open to the public.

"This kind of mark looks somewhat like the cultivators of the Outer Realm Black Tortoise Heavenly Palace. They've always been hostile toward the Immortal Sect..."

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

Bad luck?

Jiang Ding gripped his sword hilt and did not join in their discussion.

Arriving at the classroom, he placed the school bag containing his longsword and pistol into the classroom's password locker—students were not permitted to carry weapons inside the school.

Li Junhao had already arrived and was grinding through practice problems, his eyes locked onto the test paper without glancing to the side.

"The atmosphere in the class seems a bit heavy?"

Jiang Ding thought nothing of it, set down his things, and asked softly.

He considered himself quite diligent; aside from necessary sleep and cooking, the rest of his time was spent practicing the sword and pondering sword-related knowledge, yet compared to the other boy, he still fell somewhat short.

Jiang Ding even doubted whether the other got four hours of sleep a day.

"A classmate in the next class... perished yesterday." Li Junhao sighed, neither his eyes nor his hands leaving the test paper. "We mortals are far too weak compared to cultivators."

Jiang Ding fell silent.

The morning consisted of two periods of language and mathematics, covering runes, the principles of cultivation techniques, array structures, and the rune patterns naturally existing between heaven and earth.

Jiang Ding was pleasantly surprised to find that he could understand a portion of the lectures that previously sounded like heavenly texts. Without needing to repeatedly force himself to maintain concentration, he naturally immersed himself in the teacher's lecture.

At noon, he ate in the school cafeteria, practiced the sword for a short while, and subsequently took a one-hour nap—Jiang Ding insisted on maintaining adequate sleep every single day.

The afternoon consisted of geography and the fixed final two periods of cultivation classes.

The moment school let out, Jiang Ding rushed home eagerly, swiftly cooked a meal for Jiang Yuan, and then entered his room.

Helmet on, camouflage uniform, drone, gloves, sword, pistol... after checking them one by one, he stepped back into the other world.

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

Jiang Ding vigilantly scanned his surroundings, discovering nothing suspicious in terms of people or objects.

He retreated a few steps, hiding within the bushes to the side. The colors of his camouflage uniform shifted, rapidly mimicking the appearance of bush branches. Without close inspection, no human figure could be discerned.

Simultaneously, the tactical helmet linked with the drone overhead, and the recordings from the previous twenty-four hours flashed rapidly before his eyes.

A sika deer appeared and vanished, several timber wolves followed closely in its footsteps to appear and vanish, the weather gradually transitioned from scorching sunlight to dusk, followed by night, and the infrared perspective could monitor the ground at all times.

"Stop!"

Jiang Ding's gaze locked.

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

"There really are people!"

Jiang Ding was uncertain and on edge. Not only were there signs of human presence, but he discovered that he could actually understand the speech of the two woodcutters.

It was a language that sounded completely different from the Immortal Sect language and was rather twisting to the tongue, yet he understood it without the slightest obstruction, and he could even feel that he should be able to speak it himself—quite miraculous.

A supreme treasure indeed! Jiang Ding was secretly pleased.

Aside from the woodcutter, several armed individuals had also passed by the ruined temple and rested there for a period of time.

Regardless, specimens still had to be gathered; this was the only stable income visible at present.

He toiled away laboriously for two hours under the blazing sun, and with his acquired proficiency, managed to barely unearth eight plant specimens. Upon turning them in, he would receive eight contribution points, leaving the distance to ten thousand points desperately far away.

Sixteen points a day meant that ten thousand library points would require nearly two years!

He would miss the college entrance examination.

The college entrance examination was the single greatest opportunity for Immortal Sect citizens without background to step onto the immortal path, with only one chance in a lifetime.

If one stepped right in and was sufficiently outstanding, they could even obtain treatment comparable to a registered disciple of a Nascent Soul expert.

If missed, the immortal path would be severed, leaving one to honestly burn out their remaining light and heat as the foundation of the Immortal Sect for a lifetime. Even with a supreme treasure in hand, the difficulty of the immortal path would multiply tenfold or dozens of times at the very least.

"This won't do."

Hesitating for a moment, Jiang Ding sent the processed specimens, along with the tactical helmet and backpack, back home, contacted the Little Kingfisher for recycling, and recharged the drone whose battery was nearly exhausted.

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

The color and style of Jiang Ding's camouflage uniform rapidly shifted, ultimately forming the appearance of an ancient-style cyan long robe, and the color became fixed, no longer changing with the environment.

Glancing one last time at his surroundings, Jiang Ding left the area.

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

Doing so carried risks, but if he missed the college entrance examination and failed to get admitted into the School of Dao Cultivation, he would still have to perform military service and garrison the Immortal Sect's military bases in the outer realms. Without strength at that time, he would likewise face peril.

This was the obligation of every adult citizen, inescapable.

Eastspirit Mountain was steep and perilous, spanning across several prefectures. Ginseng, aged medicinal herbs, and rare, exotic beasts haunted its depths from time to time.

This drew countless herb-gatherers and martial artists deep into its folds. If one were fortunate enough to gather rare treasures, the various gangs, martial arts halls, sects, and even the lords within Eastspirit Prefecture's prefectural office would purchase them at exorbitant prices, granting a path to ascend to the heavens in a single bound.

This dilapidated temple was the final resting place before entering Eastspirit Mountain, and passing herb-gatherers and martial artists mostly chose to rest here for a moment.

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

A delicate-looking young man walked in slowly. His pitch-black hair reached his waist, and he wore a green robe and cloth shoes. The fabric was smooth and fine, and a long sword with a black scabbard was tied around his waist.

His entire body was spotless, without the slightest trace of the dust and wind-frost of travel. He cut a dashing and romantic figure, utterly out of place with the environment here.

Which noble young master was out strolling for pleasure?

The crowd inside the dilapidated temple glanced over once and withdrew their gazes.

When traveling far from home, mind your own business.

I...

Jiang Ding originally wanted to say something, but closed his mouth instead and silently found a corner to sit down.

He scanned his surroundings.

There weren't many people—seven or eight in total, roughly divided into two factions.

On the left were a grandfather and grandson wearing coarse hemp short-daggers that were ragged and patched. Their faces were dark and thin, weathered by the elements, and two medicine baskets sat beside them.

On the right were five or six burly men, all armed and dressed in uniform black fitted garments. Most eye-catching was the bearded man in the center, before whose feet on the ground a fine steel crescent axe flickered with cold light.

Two bonfires crackled and burned in the open space, roasting things like jerky and sweet potatoes.

Red light flashed in the contact lenses several times.

"Three Internal Qi realm."

Jiang Ding cast a sidelong glance at the bearded man and the two men beside him, tightening his grip on his sword hilt slightly as he felt a bit nervous.

These were powerful figures superior to him by a whole realm.

After a moment of silence, human voices returned to the dilapidated temple.

"Lin'er, look at these Blueglow Butterfly wings. With their blue-striped fine lines, they must be completely intact to sell for a good price. The ginseng is the same; you have to dig the roots out bit by bit..."

By the bonfire, the old farmer held a pair of butterfly wings and spoke in a low voice, while his red-and-black-faced grandson nodded from time to time.

On the other side, the burly men's voices were as loud as oxen, bursting into loud laughter from time to time.

"Eastspirit Prefecture's Seven Profound Sect was actually wiped out by the Golden Saber Sect! This was a grand sect with a history of hundreds, if not thousands of years. Its history might even be longer than the current martial arts leaders, Prajna Temple and Azure Ox Monastery. What a pity."

"What's so pitying? What's the use of living long? Jianghu people ultimately rely on strength to speak."

"Quite right. Take the Golden Saber Sect—they truly live up to their name as one of the six great sects under heaven. Just their eldest disciple, the 'Sea-Splitting Saber' Wei Xian who ranks ninth on the Dragon-Phoenix Ranking, acted alone to slaughter an entire sect. He sits back to enjoy the countless gold, silver, jewelry, and martial arts manuals accumulated by the Seven Profound Sect over the years, and even captured a beauty in his embrace to fondle at will. Now that is a true hero under heaven!"

amidst the roar of laughter, someone produced a flask of wine, riding the firelight as they took turns drinking sip by sip.

"A beauty? I heard that the Flying Snow Fairy, who ranks ninety-eighth on the Dragon-Phoenix Ranking, hails from the Seven Profound Sect. I hear her skin is white as snow and her temperament is like an immortal. Could she already have been taken into Wei Xian's chambers..."

"More than that. I heard her mother's peerless beauty is even greater, and she has already been captured as well."

"This... beasts!"

A wave of yearning and longing appeared in the eyes of the rough men.

Hearing this, Jiang Ding clicked his tongue inwardly.

To slaughter and destroy a sect, seize their wives and daughters, and tyrannically take their family wealth—there was not the slightest sense of wrongdoing in the eyes of these people. Did the officials of this world not care at all?

Drip, drip!

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

Jiang Ding's heart shook.

Focusing his gaze, five kilometers away, a group of people successively entered the drone's reconnaissance range. There were several dozen people in total, and more than ten of them triggered the drone's alarm.

They were rapidly surrounding the area from all directions, and their target appeared to be precisely this dilapidated temple!

Have I been exposed?

Jiang Ding's heart panicked. He hadn't done anything at all!

No! Impossible. If I were exposed, it wouldn't just be mortal martial artists coming to hunt me down.

It should just be a coincidence.

Jiang Ding quickly calmed down, stood up, and turned toward the door of the dilapidated temple.

The people in the temple were surprised.

This fellow was exceedingly strange; he came in without saying a word, nor did he drink a single sip of water.

The sweet potato was thoroughly baked. The old farmer peeled away the charred black outer skin, revealing the fragrant flesh to hand to his grandson, while he roasted a piece of dry ration himself and swallowed it whole.

Jiang Ding's footsteps paused, a sense of compassion rising in his heart.

"Old man, if you have matters at home, you ought to return swiftly."

With that, regardless of how the other party might respond, he quickly left the place.

The old farmer was stunned.

The surrounding burly men flickered their gazes, casting cold glances over from time to time, but in the end, they did nothing.