Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

The sky, flashed with lightning, harnessing the Flying Sword to tear through space and travel swiftly.

"You..."

Jin Lingfeng was dumbfounded, "You've broken through to the second realm of the Sword Dao, the Sword Qi Thunder Sound?"

Sword Cultivators were the most terrifying and brutal enemies that Xianmen had ever encountered.

Back in the day, they nearly faced the fate of national extinction, and even today, the textbooks of Xianmen contain extensive introductions to Sword Cultivators, including how to guard against them, how to kill them, and how to distinguish their strengths and weaknesses.

An Siyan was also shaken.

Sword Intent had always been what countless Sword Cultivators ardently sought after, powerful enough to fight across different levels from the Foundation Establishment to the Qi Practicing Realm. Sword-light Diversification allowed Sword Cultivators to dominate amongst their peers in the Golden Pill stage.

And the Sword Qi Thunder Sound could threaten a Nascent Soul from within the Golden Pill level!

They weren't necessarily opponents of Nascent Soul Monks, being inferior in terms of defense and maneuverability, but a Golden Pill Sword Cultivator with the Sword Qi Thunder Sound possessed incredible speed and could breach the defenses of an Immortal of Nascent Soul!

No need for a terrifyingly powerful Divine Soul and Flying Sword; swordsmanship alone could do it!

"Hmm, you could say it was the right conditions coming together, or you could say it was a breakthrough forged in the midst of sword combat."

"No wonder every Sword Cultivator is so eager for combat with their peers; it's a shortcut that can turn one's destiny upside down."

Jiang Ding gazed at the Taiqing Flying Sword before him.

On its sword body, indistinct lightning appeared at some point, sometimes bright and sometimes hidden, due to the breakthrough that had just occurred and not yet stabilized. True Sword Qi Thunder Sound was not actual thunder, but a state of the Flying Sword.

A state between energy and matter.

"Great Sun Sword Sutra" has a line, the sword has not arrived, but the sound is already heard, the force like thunder.

This seems to go against common sense.

Shouldn't the sword arrive first, followed by the thunderous roar of sound?!

The speed of the Flying Sword has already far exceeded the speed of sound, tearing through space; only that makes sense.

Until now, Jiang Ding was muddled by it, the books didn't explain it clearly, and only after truly entering this realm did he have an epiphany.

Sword Intent.

This is the core of the Sword Cultivator's profession.

It is what distinguishes Sword Cultivators from Body Cultivators, Magic Cultivators, Puppet Cultivators, and Ghost Cultivators among others. Those without Sword Intent are not considered Sword Cultivators, just Cultivators who use swords.

The key core,

lies in interfering with matter using Sword Intent!

Understanding Sword Intent and infusing it into the Flying Sword can give the sword greater speed and sharpness.

Further, by the time one reaches the first realm of Sword Dao, Sword Intent becomes stronger and can control Heavenly Earth Spiritual Qi to diversify into nine identical Flying Swords, with the same power, greatly increasing strength.

And when Sword Intent grows stronger, or when swordsmanship is strong, that's the Sword Qi Thunder Sound!

At this time, Sword Intent can change the Flying Sword, transitioning it from a material state into a semi-material state where energy and matter coexist, greatly reducing spatial resistance.

This is not the end.

Upon reaching the Sword Qi Thunder Sound realm, Sword Intent can directly interfere with space, affect space, and change space, creating a 'spatial expressway' on the trajectory the Flying Sword is about to pass through, thus greatly increasing its speed and reaching the frightening degree of breaking the Nascent Soul shield with Golden Pill strength.

This is the true meaning of 'the sword has not arrived, but the sound is already heard, the force like thunder.'

Before the Flying Sword even arrives, it forges a spatial expressway directly between the sword and the target's Divine Soul, which would greatly increase even an ordinary Flying Sword's speed.

How the Great Sun Sword Pavilion understands it, I don't know, but Jiang Ding understands it this way regarding his Sword Qi Thunder Sound.

"It would have been better to say so earlier."

Jiang Ding complained, "Always so vague, we're all disciples of our own Sect, not outsiders."

Of course, he knew the reason.

There is something in cultivation called the barrier of conceptual knowledge; explaining it clearly is actually not beneficial and would substantially increase the difficulty for subsequent Cultivators to understand Sword Qi Thunder Sound. It is better to polish it bit by bit oneself, which differs from the cultivation philosophy of Xianmen that everything can be analyzed.

Both have their strengths; one cannot say that the Immortal Sects are feudal superstitions while Xianmen represents the science of the Immortal Path. They are just different methods of perceiving nature and the heavenly way.

"See you in class next year."

Jiang Ding waved his hand after tearing through space with Sword Qi Thunder Sound, sending people back.

"See you next year."

Jin Lingfeng and another rolled their eyes.

...

Back at the Silver Sky Island dormitory.

The Sun God Wood burst through the silver-white metallic ground, which resembled a mirror, and in the blink of an eye, it soared into the sky. Its bluegold branches and leaves spread across an area of about one kilometer around.

Heavenly Earth Spiritual Qi and Great Sun Essence converged, and the surrounding temperature instantly shot up to over a thousand degrees, making it unsuitable for habitation.

"Although it feels quite comfortable..."

Jiang Ding looked around and then, belatedly, realized something was off, "Looks like I'm evolving towards a non-human lifeform, with a sort of fiery elemental spirit vibe. Lower temperatures even feel uncomfortable."

"Lucky I didn't fall for any mortal girl."

"Otherwise, she would turn to ash as soon as I started to cultivate. Most of the time it's subconscious, and there's no way to react in time. That would be tragic."

"Walking the path alone, cultivators are destined to a lonely fate..."

With a light sigh, Jiang Ding envisioned a complex and delicate swordsmanship structure in his Sea of Consciousness, made up of layers upon layers, larger than a hundred-mile range of mountains.

From a distance, it looked like a divine Fusang tree housing nine suns.

But only nine suns had some substance, while the rest of the Fusang tree's trunk, branches, and leaves were all just illusions, nearly fanciful, nothing to do with actual swordsmanship.

"Found seven major flaws, the kind that would shatter with a single poke."

Recalling the previous battle, Jiang Ding was speechless, "Despite all the repeated testing with the Xianmen Science Institute's derivative instrument, which showed no flaws, in front of a real sword dao expert, it's all holes. The gap is too huge."

He knew it wasn't that Xianmen Science Institute's treasured derivative instrument had broken or was inaccurate.

Rather, the Xianmen database simply lacked related swordsmanship data; research in this area was superficial. Others might be fine, relying on sheer volume to crush any flaws.

But against the Taiyin Sword Sect's tens of thousands of years of sword dao heritage exploration, it was nowhere near enough.

"Normal, quite normal."

Jiang Ding consoled himself, "Science is about making mistakes and learning step by step. It's unavoidable, everyone goes through it. The predecessors of the Daymoon Sword Pavilion must have had such times as well. Take it slow."

The battle with Yu Qianzi was extremely enlightening.

The legacy of Sword Sects wasn't just one or two Cultivation Methods but many aspects. In retrospect, abducting her was one of the most successful things he had done over the years.

"Let's have a look at the latest scientific literature first, don't want to fall behind the times."

Jiang Ding didn't rush to modify his swordsmanship and closed his eyes slightly.

Connecting to the Xianmen Library with Divine Sense, he searched for articles using Golden Causality as the keyword.

Before long, a multitude of articles appeared, those that required extensive verification of abilities to read, not even an Immortal of Nascent Soul may qualify, with substantial risks involved.

Jiang Ding looked closely.

"Conjectures Between Golden Causality and 'Supreme True Hole-Spinning Gold Scripture'" by Shen Ji, Canghai, Xianmen Science Institute Gazette, Issue 03 Year 11279.

"Application Concepts of Golden Causality in Army Formations" by Canghai, Qingfeng University Research Team, Cultivator's Gazette, Issue 05 Year 11280.

"Promotion of Golden Causality on the Path of Body Refinement" by Hua Lingling, Count Spirit Cultivator's Gazette, Issue 001 Year 11282.

...

A heap of research was all about Golden Causality.

The vast majority of the results were done by Spirit Transformation Heavenly Monarchs.

Occasionally, an Immortal of Nascent Soul was involved as the second or third author, which was rarer. The contributions of a single Nascent Soul were often not sufficient for authorship, so they had to be credited as a team.

These articles were all produced within the last five to six years, relatively elementary, filled with conjectures and concepts, still far from application, but containing the heart and soul of many Heavenly Monarchs and the Central Array Spirit Computer, priceless in value.

Jiang Ding refreshed the page twice and noticed that within just a year, another new paper had been published. He immediately sat up straight and read carefully, absorbing the wisdom of years of research by the Heavenly Monarchs.