Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery
Chapter 1043 - 1012: Sword Breaks the Eastern Sea Divine Court

The vast expanse of azure waves, the sea breeze salty and pungent.

In a flash of white light, indicative of Spatial Runes' shimmer, a green-clothed youth with a longsword at his waist appeared in the sky.

Jiang Ding unleashed his Divine Sense, calculating the surrounding cultural and geographical environments, coordinates, cross-referencing with the information obtained from the memories of Divine Guards.

"This place lies to the west of the East Sea, known locally as the Star Sea, where the water is as calm as a mirror, occasionally called Dead Sea by the mortals..."

"However, Cultivators' vessels and Flying Boats are capable of normal passage here. The resources are abundant with numerous Exotic Beasts, various Spiritual Fishes, and in the thousands of years past, there existed major and minor Sects, and clans of the Demon Race, later eradicated one by one by the God Army of the East Sea Sword Court..."

With little effort, Jiang Ding locked onto the location of the East Sea Incense Fire Sword Court and flew towards his target with his Concealment in place.

His speed wasn't fast; he maintained the peak state of his Mana, moving at a stable pace through space, occasionally casting his gaze upon the human towns peppered across the islands below and at the ocean.

In the ocean, lived merfolk, Shark Demon Clan, Turtle Race, Sea Serpent Clan, and other aquatic members of the Demon Race. Their numbers were great, thriving, and they firmly occupied ecological niches of the sea.

But they were not the sovereigns of these waters.

The true rulers were various Incense Fire Temples constructed on the seafloor, and the faithful Human Race worshippers within those temples. Serving as temple priests and attendants, they wielded the power of gods, behaving despotically towards these naval races: arbitrarily scolding and admonishing them, proclaiming the natural inferiority of the Demon Race, born to be servants and slaves.

The only chance at change was to pray earnestly to the deities, make offerings, and in their next life, they might reincarnate as humans.

This argument was believed by the vast majority of the Demon Race.

For, in the past thousands of years, those demons with a rebellious spirit, those too clever, were slain by the temple priests with their Divine Guards, segregated and indoctrinated over millennia, culled through selection over thousands of years.

In the lives of these Demon Race members, the greater their hardship, the more pious they were, longing to be reincarnated as humans after death, to live a life of happiness thereafter.

In the vast ocean, there were countless such merfolk and Sea Serpent Clan tribes, as well as the temples within those tribes, with priests shepherding on behalf of the gods, each contributing immense Incense Fire might to the Sword Court day by day, lifting the throne of the Incense Fire God to the skies, becoming gods comparably powerful to the Heavenly Monarch.

"This seems familiar..."

"The Great Sun Sword Pavilion seems to be extreme proponents of human nationalism."

Jiang Ding marveled inwardly.

This was no coincidence; as a uniquely human vocation, Sword Cultivators and the races from which they hailed naturally had strong tendencies towards extreme racial bias, the more orthodox the Jiandao School, the more this held true.

"This societal structure is an excellent sample."

Curiosity arose within Jiang Ding.

He paid no further heed to these sea demons.

There was nothing noteworthy; with Divinity Transformation powers suppressing heaven and earth, and Xi Ping'an unlike the ancient deities who fell into slumber, even if an exceptional elite emerged among the Demon Race, they could not turn the tide, quashed and slaughtered in an instant.

The rise and fall of such an extremist society hinged entirely upon the ruling race itself.

The slightest weakness could immediately invite the outcome of Destruction; there was no room for a slow demise.

Jiang Ding gazed upon the towns of the Human Race.

On an island several thousand kilometers in size, more than three hundred thousand humans lived.

It appeared they formed several states, among them a small state with its own scholar-officials, retainers, and a small group of elite warriors, evoking an image even more archaic than a feudal society.

And this was not unique—nearly every island, large or small, housed several independent states with no signs of unification. All worshipped gods and heeded the instructions of temple priests, devotedly worshiping deities.

Among these states, bucolic and tranquil, the residents led isolated lives, from birth to death without interaction.

"The harm of deities is thus."

Upon seeing this, Jiang Ding felt some disappointment.

To maintain the purity of their Incense Fire, the Incense Fire Gods would deliberately suppress the development of social production relations, block a wide array of external knowledge, and keep their believers in simple societies where they worked from dawn to dusk in a cyclical pastoral routine until death.

New lives would be born only to replicate the same path as their forebears without any change.

The people living in such environments were 'simple' in comparison.

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It is neither pure kindness nor goodness, but rather a simple good or a simple evil that is closer to human nature—the instinct for survival and reproduction.

Such a society will see no change, no advancements in Immortal Technology, but is nothing more than stagnant water.

Yet change is fundamental to the survival and development of the Human Race!

Humans are not members of the Demon Race.

The Demon Race, especially those at the pinnacle of their bloodlines, are naturally powerful, standing at the zenith of all beings with their long lifespans, it is destined for them to achieve Great Divine Power.

As for humans?

What do they have?

Even the most exceptional elites of the Human Race, with Daoist Bodies, Divine Bodies, and unparalleled intelligence within their Domain, are nothing without acquired cultivation, without proper legacy, without the nourishment of Immortal Path civilization—they are no different from a toiling workhorse, destined to labor their entire lives before dying old and unknown in some remote village, never achieving prominence.

The potential of human elites must draw from the fruits of Immortal Path civilization to thrive.

Where does human Immortal Path civilization come from?

From continuous change and development!

The actions of the Incense Fire Gods are undoubtedly severing the roots of the Human Race. For a mere bit of Incense Fire, they have uprooted the very foundation of the East Sea Human Race.

"All Incense Fire Gods, regardless of whether they are of the Human Race or not... should die."

Jiang Ding murmured.

Theirs is a cancerous growth on the race, and an archenemy on his path; they must be eradicated.

After months of silent flight, Jiang Ding arrived at the heart of the East Sea, the sacred land of countless East Sea believers—Heavenly Sword Maritime Domain.

Here, the maritime domain shines brilliantly, enveloped by the power of Incense Fire, with a Divine Sword of Incense Fire flowing in every location, refined continually by the waves, waiting for the sword bodies to fully solidify before ascending to the sky, returning to the Divine Court.

Jiang Ding looked up.

Without any deliberate search, he could see the dazzling star in the sky, worshiped by billions of beings—East Sea Incense Fire Sword Court.

The Incense Fire Sword Court stands tall here, radiating dazzling light, its heavy divine pressure spreading in all directions, authoritative like a prison, like an ocean.

Even Nascent Soul Cultivators would feel their hair stand on end in this place, with constant feelings of alarm arising in their hearts, their Divine Souls warning them incessantly.

This is the Divine Court of an Incense Fire God!

Any deity within their own Incense Fire Temples will see a significant boost in strength, easily escalating from the late stages of Divinity Transformation to the Peak of Hua Shen, sufficient to bury any rash Spirit Transformation Heavenly Monarch who ventures inside, when even the Divine Soul cannot escape, becoming nourishment for the Divine Court.

"Are you still there?"

Jiang Ding muttered to himself.

He completely ignored the strong sense of alarm that seemed to be arising within his Sea of Consciousness.

The reason it was 'seemed' was that his Flying Sword, his Divine Soul was always tranquil; these alarms were external, an emotional force acting upon his Divine Soul, artificially added.

Clang!

Jiang Ding drew his sword.

A Great Sun rose slowly within the Thousand-Mile Sword Domain!

And then it descended!

It hurled down towards the Sword Court star worshiped by countless beings of the East Sea, dispersing the will of the Forbidden Law of Destruction in all directions, instantly purifying all the solemn and authoritative auras of the deities, everything returning to the dominion of the sword.

The Great Sun and the star touched in the blink of an eye, maintaining a short and rigid standoff.

Boom!

Within the bursting spiritual light, the star of the East Sea Incense Fire Sword Court, the star symbolizing divine authority, shattered thunderously, breaking into countless shining fragments that plummeted to the earth.

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