Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

After the two geography classes in the afternoon.

"The internship list has already come out."

Hua Bing, at the podium, sent lists flying towards each desk: "Students, please check where you've been allocated for your internships. Those who have been adjusted, come see me to reselect your internship positions."

An A4 paper fluttered down.

Jiang Ding carefully examined the list and saw his own name under the internship position at Rongcheng Steel Plant, alongside two others, Hua Bing and Wu Tianli.

That's not too bad—being ninth in the class still comes with some priority.

Moreover, there were other equally prestigious companies with official Xianmen Sect backgrounds that many had chosen, such as pill refining companies and talisman making companies.

"The Yuanhe Pill Refining Co., Ltd. I chose was adjusted."

With a bitter expression, Li Junhao scribbled on the list and selected another private pill refining company for his internship.

Elixirs are the most mainstream method for improving one's aptitude.

"Good luck."

Jiang Ding was quite confident in him; with such high academic achievements, becoming an alchemy apprentice in the future would be a breeze, but his ambitions did not stop there.

He put the list away into the drawer.

Jiang Ding took a small pouch, jumped to the window below, pointed his toes, and soared to the tip of a tree, gliding away like a shadow.

The metal doors of the cultivation room slowly opened and then closed.

Jiang Ding didn't start practicing swordsmanship as usual; instead, he took out a blue-steel sword and laid it across his knees, took a deep breath, closed his eyes to nurture his spirit, and adjusted the state of his inner energy to make it as lively as possible.

The cultivation room became quiet once again, with even the lighting dimmed by the Array Spirit.

Swipe!

Jiang Ding opened his eyes, as if a bright light flashed by.

He took out talisman ink and a talisman pen from the small pouch, carefully opened and set them up, checked everything again, and then opened the box containing the first-order Golden Fire Bamboo Paper, immediately feeling a wave of heat and filling the room with a golden-red glow.

He carefully placed the talisman paper, as hard as a sheet of metal and sixty centimeters in both length and width, on the ground, which issued a crisp sound upon slight contact.

Finally, he took out a Ginseng Essence Qi-transforming Elixir and set it beside the talisman paper.

Taking a deep breath, Jiang Ding picked up the talisman pen, drew up a sufficient amount of talisman ink with his inner energy, and hovered over the Golden Fire Bamboo Paper, hesitating to start.

An involuntary nervousness arose in his heart.

If he failed, these valuable items would mean he couldn't remake the talisman sword again for a while.

After a long time.

"Why worry?"

Jiang Ding suddenly smiled: "If I fail, I'll just collect the materials and start over."

Immediately, he touched the talisman pen to the center left side of the Gold Fire Talisman Paper, marking the first stroke of the Great Sun Gathering Spirit Formation with the talisman ink.

Unexpectedly, the Golden Fire Bamboo Paper, as hard as iron, became instantly soft upon contact with the talisman ink, fitting perfectly to the pen tip and making the process very comfortable.

When the pen tip was lifted, the paper returned to its iron-like hardness, fixing the array pattern in place.

Jiang Ding's pen moved rapidly, devoid of all distractions.

The Inner Energy of the Small Circle of Vital Energy flowed freely, blending into the array diagram stroke by stroke, the patterns spreading across the left side of the Golden Fire Talisman Paper.

After more than ten minutes, the last stroke was made and the inner energy's flow ceased.

"Huh—"

"It's not that difficult after all! Besides, I've practiced countless times."

Jiang Ding smiled but did not activate the Great Sun Gathering Spirit Formation.

According to his design, he used the idea of 'dual array fusion' this time. If he activated the Great Sun Gathering Spirit Formation before scribing and connecting it with the Special Sharp Gold Array, it would ruin the combined array pattern.

He rested for another half an hour, his inner energy and spirit returning to their peak.

This time, Jiang Ding did not hesitate. He began to paint, starting from the center of the right side of the talisman paper, with the pattern of the Special Sharp Gold Array fused with inner energy emerging and spreading outwards.

More than ten minutes later, the Special Sharp Gold Array was successfully scribed.

Jiang Ding, fully focused and with a clear mind, scribed another line, partially connecting the pre-set intersecting pattern of the Special Sharp Gold Array to the Great Sun Gathering Spirit Formation.

Stroke by stroke, the two independent arrays began to intermingle, becoming one.

"Done."

Jiang Ding put down the talisman pen, his heart neither joyous nor sorrowful, without the nervous anticipation of the result one might expect.

Success was inevitable!

He held the array diagram and channeled inner energy into it.

A dazzling light suddenly burst forth, initially a fiery orange on the left and a metallic gold on the right. As time passed, the two colors gradually merged into the golden-red of the sun, stabilizing and the light slowly retracting.

"Great Sun Gathering Spirit Formation, Special Sharp Gold Array..."

Jiang Ding muttered to himself: "The fusion of the two provides a Gathering Spirits feature, especially under the sunlight, gathering the Great Sun Essence for storage, tempering itself, making it sharper and more searing."

He suddenly said:

"Array Spirit, may I request a temporary Qi Practitioner's Spiritual Energy dense environment and to open the skylight, letting the sunlight pour in?"

This actually did not conform to the regulations.

All the spiritual energy within the planet was controlled by the Xianmen Sect; only Qi Practitioners and cultivators of higher levels, or industries related to spiritual plants, were eligible to apply for spiritual energy of their respective level.

The reason Jiang Ding said this was because his thoughts and morality were nearly perfect, and the Central Array Spirit Computer would give some small preferential treatment to people like him.

"...Application approved."

After nearly half a minute's delay, the Cultivation Room Array Spirit seemed to be connecting with the Central Array Spirit Computer's database for a judgment, and finally, a mechanical voice transmitted.

The skylight above opened, and a hole formed in the ceiling of the cultivation room, through which a finger-sized banyan root had spread to this spot at some unknown time.

For a moment, Jiang Ding felt something around him was different, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was.

He stared at the array diagram in front of him.

Vast amounts of sunlight visibly converged towards the center of the array diagram, shining brightly and rapidly increasing in temperature until it stabilized at around seven or eight hundred degrees.

Protecting himself with inner energy, Jiang Ding touched the array diagram, and it was scalding hot.

"This is the limit."

Jiang Ding judged, the source energy was insufficient, and this was the highest power it could erupt to.

To reach the capability of a first-order formation method, a Qi Practitioner needed to stimulate it with mana, or the formation would have to be altered and inlaid with spirit stones.

"Temporary application finished."

The mechanical voice of the Cultivation Room Array Spirit came through as the banyan root retracted and the skylight closed.

After resting and cultivating his spirit for over twenty minutes, regaining his inner energy and mental state to their peaks, Jiang Ding immediately took out the Wind Spiritual Spell Paper and began inscribing a First Order Levitation Array and a First-Order Flight Array.

After a while, two array diagrams that appeared light enough to float away with a breath materialized before him.

"Compared to the Great Sun Gathering Spirit Formation and the Special Sharp Gold Array, these two formations are much easier."

Jiang Ding said with satisfaction.

Resting again to restore his inner energy and spirit, his expression then became solemn.

"Next, using the Gold Fire array diagram as the base, the flight and levitation formations act as wings to fold into a Talisman Sword."

Jiang Ding's expression was serious as inner energy flowed into the Gold Fire Talisman Paper, making it malleable, and then he carefully folded it into a sword shape. When it reached a certain stage, he incorporated the First Order Levitation Array diagram and the First-Order Flight Array diagram respectively.

This process could not afford a single mistake.

Each levitation array pattern and flight array pattern either corresponded to the Great Sun Gathering Spirit Formation or dovetailed with the Sharp Gold Array. The order had strict requirements, comparable to a precision electronic device—a slight mistake in connections, and all efforts would be in vain.

After more than thirty minutes.

A golden-red, hiltless shortsword appeared before Jiang Ding.

It was forty centimeters long, three and a half centimeters wide, uniformly golden-red, and resembled metal, with sheets of talisman paper closely fitted together without any gaps.

If one didn't look closely, one might subconsciously think it was a shortsword forged from metal.

"The Talisman Sword, completed."

Jiang Ding gently caressed the hiltless golden-red shortsword, feeling its heartbeat as if it were alive, and he remained speechless for a long time.

However, it was still just an object, a compound array diagram in the shape of a sword.

To bring it to life, there was only one way.

Blood sacrifice!

With Essence Blood Refining!

"There's nothing to hesitate about, I've already decided."

Jiang Ding made up his mind, turned his inner energy into a sharp point, and stabbed fiercely at his heart!

Hisss!

Jiang Ding's face instantly turned ashen, and a mouthful of blood mixed with inner energy sprayed out, covering the Talisman Sword without wasting a single drop.

The Talisman Sword gradually absorbed the blood. One particular drop of deep red blood stood out, seemingly emitting a faint glow and a delicate fragrance.

Feeling a stirring in his heart, Jiang Ding developed an inexplicable connection to this drop of blood, almost as if it were one of his own fingers detached from the body.

Exposed to the air, this connection was rapidly weakening.

Jiang Ding didn't dare to delay. His inner energy flowed through his fingers into the Talisman Sword, swiftly making contact with the drop of blood, isolating it from the air, and his connection to it became somewhat clearer.

But without the sustenance of the parent body, it still weakened bit by bit.

"Be quick!"

Jiang Ding's eyes showed determination.

The advanced Thousand Threads Traction technique split into a hundred strands, each carrying a portion of essence blood, permeating every direction. A mixture of essence blood and inner energy had to be evenly spread across every thread of the Talisman Sword's array patterns, ensuring that the essence blood penetrated the array patterns without any exposure to air at all.

His internal Small Circle of Vital Energy circulated madly, firmly protecting every strand of essence blood, spreading swiftly across all the array patterns without overlooking any corner.

The amount of inner energy required for this process was astonishing; even someone with Internal Qi Perfection might not be sufficient. It's no wonder that none of the Qixuan School's generations had successfully mastered the Hundred Step Flying Sword—if the essence blood soak was interrupted, all efforts would have been for nothing.

After ten minutes, twenty minutes...

Only after forty-two minutes, having almost exhausted all his inner energy, did a pale and dim-skinned Jiang Ding finally stop, resembling a half-dead man.

After swallowing a Ginseng Essence Qi-transforming Elixir and sensing a torrential conversion of pure Qi into inner energy within his body, Jiang Ding felt a lingering fear.

"It's a success."

He gently stroked the Talisman Sword, which now felt like an extension of his own limbs, and a warm smile crept over his face.