Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

That day,

High-ranking members close to Princess Qinghechang Chen Xi, along with the younger generations of the Qinglong Gang and the Tianxing Association, perished. Every major official in Chizhong Mansion died, and the ancestral hall of the Prefect's Mansion and Wan You's was turned to ashes in a great fire, leaving nothing behind.

The world was in uproar.

Even now, although the signs of chaos were only just beginning, with the Zhendong Marquis carving out his own territory and plundering lands everywhere, it was still the first time a Jianghu powerhouse had ever annihilated a prefect's mansion in a fit of rage.

The Yue Country royal court was furious, labeling the Sect of Ziwei Sword and the 'Ten Flower Sword Fairy' as wanted criminals. Whoever could capture them would be granted the title of Marquis of Ten Thousand Households!

However, everyone knew that this was a futile effort.

An Xiantian warrior, unless trapped by a large army, is extremely difficult to kill. Even if several Xiantians acted together, there was always the risk that the target would manage to escape, leaving them powerless to act.

Unless a Master intervened.

Regrettably, the imperial family no longer had any Masters among their ranks, or else they wouldn't have lost control over the world.

Even the Sect of Ziwei Sword had scattered to the winds the moment Wan Qianyu came down from the mountains, vowing not to surface until the establishment of the next dynasty.

Jiang Ding silently watched the massacre unfold in the Chizhong Mansion, making no move to intervene.

For one, although he was confident he could hold his ground in a short-term confrontation against an Xiantian, overcoming and killing one was a different matter, and the slightest mistake could lead to great trouble.

Fighting above one's level was not a favorable proposition.

Besides, the prefect Chen Zheng and the main officials of Chizhong Mansion deserved their fate!

Greedy and corrupt, their incompetence led to widespread famine, forcing people to flee in all directions, selling their sons and daughters, yet they themselves holed up in the fortified city, maintaining a façade of peace with no thought of relief efforts.

Their deaths were a blessing; why should they be saved?

Unfortunately, Jiang Ding lacked the power to change Chizhong Mansion.

For that, an organization founded on principles of integrity, strict governance, and supported by a surge in technological progress was necessary.

Otherwise, it was all just a cycle of order and chaos.

Jiang Ding closed his eyes, swept away his random thoughts, and continued his cultivation.

For more than ten days,

Chizhong Mansion, which had lost all semblance of order, plunged into great chaos. Gangs fought over territories, and officials vied for power. The Wolf God Cult and the spies of the Zhendong Marquis stirred up trouble daily; it was either an assault from here or there.

At Jiang Ding's abode, however, all was calm. No one paid attention to a secluded courtyard, and he would often not leave for seven or eight days straight; whether anyone knew this place was inhabited was debatable.

On this day, he opened his eyes, and a flash of white light vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

"The refinement and nourishing of the twelve main meridians of the Large Circle of Vital Energy has been completed," he said.

Jiang Ding silently felt his Inner Energy circulating through the twelve main meridians and their twelve thousand smaller branches. The flows intertwined endlessly, creating a complex and precise system of internal energy.

However, when traversing through eight nodes of Inner Energy, the flow suddenly slowed, taking a detour that was several times longer than needed, drastically reducing the efficiency of the entire circulation system.

The Eight Extraordinary Meridians!

These are the limitations that block most people in Jianghu, preventing them from ever reaching the great achievement of Inner Energy, where their potential is exhausted!

With a thought, Jiang Ding summoned the Inner Qi from his Elixir Field, gathering the Inner Energy from various places. Like a river that converges from a myriad of streams, the Inner Energy from the twelve thousand branches of the twelve main meridians gathered into a mighty current and surged downward!

Boom!

An enormous shock seemed to resonate throughout his intangible Divine Soul as a mere single cleansing attempt caused the Governor Vessel node to quiver on the verge of collapse, trembling unstably.

A bottleneck?

In the face of such a profound foundation of Inner Qi, what constituted a bottleneck?

The second attempt.

Boom!

The node of the Governor Vessel shattered, completely blown open, as Inner Energy infiltrated each and every branch meridian, refining and nurturing with practiced ease.

Jiang Ding felt a sharp pain in his meridians and realized that it was possible to open only one node a day at most; recovery time was needed to allow the meridians to heal.

At the same time, the aura around him fluctuated wildly, at moments dazzling and powerful, at others weak and insubstantial, before eventually becoming nearly imperceptible.

Art of Small Concealment mastered!

"Finally mastered, now relying on the top-grade Scout Camouflage Magic Tool, I should be able to shield myself from the scans of many Cultivators' Divine Sense and radar waves."

"Additionally, breaking through the bottleneck and nourishing the 8,000 major and minor branches of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians will need just over two months, and advancing to the Large Circle of Vital Energy will require a little more than two months."

Jiang Ding silently thought.

It wasn't too long.

Furthermore, there were a few days left, and once I get the Blue-Gold Potion, the speed of my cultivation will change again.

But now is the time for sleep, tomorrow there are final exams.

...

Ding-dong ding-dong...

"The exam begins, please candidates start answering the questions..."

Classroom one was quiet, with only the sounds of pen tips skating across paper and the rustling of flipping test papers.

Jiang Ding's Inner Energy spontaneously circulated throughout his body, constantly tempering and nourishing the branches of the Governor Vessel, yet his mind was focused on the Chinese language exam paper, with Spiritual Scripts being written down from time to time.

Working through each question, he gradually felt more certain.

Besides math, where his grade had noticeably improved due to the Talisman Sword, the performance in other subjects was expected to have only progressed a little since the midterms, not by much—as that required the accumulation of time.

Unless one advanced to Xiantian.

After reaching Xiantian, not only would Inner Energy turn into a True Qi state similar to Mana, but the Divine Soul would also undergo a qualitative change driven by the body, just like when Cultivators step from Mortals into the Qi Practicing Phase.

At that time, the abilities for learning, memory, logical thinking, and so forth would all rise significantly—as would the grades.

The final exams lasted three days, during which time subjects like Chinese, Mathematics, Moral Education, Biology, and Heavy Machine Gun Shooting were tested in succession. Hua Bing, the class president, gathered the excited students under his watchful gaze.

"It's 10:05 am now, and in one more hour, the Air-Space Battleship of the Golden Core Monk from the Department of Education will arrive and hover over several cities including Rongcheng City, providing us with the Tai Xu Fantasy Realm technology support."

"The combat assessment will last from three to seven days. You have ten minutes to inform your families."

"By 10:30 am at the latest, everyone must be in place in the equipment cabins, or you'll be scored zero in the combat assessment."

Hua Bing looked over everyone, making sure they heard him clearly.

"Golden Core Predecessor!"

Many exclaimed in wonder, asking curiously, "Class president, will we get to meet the Golden Core Predecessor? I've never seen a living Golden Pill Monk in my life."

"You probably won't be able to," Hua Bing shook his head, "The Air-Space Battleship will remain tens of thousands of meters above ground, and it will leave as soon as the exam is over."

"Oh!"

Everyone heaved a disappointed sigh.

Jiang Ding made a call to Lin Wanqiu to explain the situation with the exam and walked with his classmates towards the Tai Xu Fantasy Realm login room near the Cultivation Room.

The heavy metal doors slowly opened, revealing rows of metallic equipment cabins over two meters in length. Students from the second and third classes, like Gongsun Ling, had also arrived, but their equipment cabins were in other rooms.

"Looks like metal coffins, not very nice to look at."

"Indeed."

Li Junhao complained, earning agreement from many others.

"If you all can live and work in first- or second-tier big cities in the future, it is possible to purchase and decorate your own Tai Xu Fantasy Realm equipment cabin," Hua Bing explained. He then demonstrated how to enter the equipment cabin, how to check if the equipment was functioning correctly, and if there were damages, to report them immediately to the invigilating teacher.

Human Divine Souls are fragile and complex; entering the Tai Xu environment requires the protection of Golden Pill Monks, something only big cities can afford.

A few Golden Pill Monks, with the help of equipment, can care for many people.

Of course, it's not that you can't use the Tai Xu Fantasy Realm equipment cabins without the presence of Golden Pill Monks, but you'd have to be willing to accept a mortality risk of five or six per thousand.

That's what many Cultivators protected in Small Worlds of Xianmen do.

Any abnormal deaths of individuals, both Mortals and Cultivators, within any Xianmen, would trigger a rigorous investigation process.

Copying Hua Bing's demo, Jiang Ding stepped into the equipment cabin.