Jiang Ding noticed that among the group of missiles, three were exceptionally bright.
They flew in a well-structured formation, now on the left, now on the right, sometimes suddenly accelerating beyond a hundred other missiles to scout something, at other times slowing down to fly in parallel with the other missiles, blending in with them, indistinguishable from the outside.
In less than half a second, these images disappeared, and the sky was empty, with only the sound of children's cries echoing in his ears.
Boom!
In the distance, there was first intense light, a flash bright enough to be seen even during the day, followed seconds later by a loud roar that overpowered the crying, and finally, a scorching airstream howled past.
"...A mere ninth level Qi Practitioner! I have roamed freely for more than two hundred years..."
A faint voice carried on the wind, very light, blending with the wind, easy to completely ignore, but Jiang Ding, in a special state of focus, heard it.
This voice was highly infectious, filled with intense anger and unwillingness.
After that, he heard nothing more.
The air-raid siren abruptly stopped.
He waited a good while, with no recurrence.
The panicked crowd gradually calmed down, many people still petrified, checking their phones to confirm the safety of loved ones, choosing to walk rather than take the bus, although most passengers eventually came back, as walking was too far.
Amid the sound of horns, the once stagnant flow of traffic began to move again.
The bus was quite empty, and Jiang Ding found himself a seat next to the driver.
"That's called a missile-controlling magic tool."
Seeing Jiang Ding still gazing into the distance, the driver casually said, "It can attach special magics like acceleration, flight, contraction, and sharpness to missiles. A ninth level Qi Practitioner wielding it on the missiles poses a certain threat even to foundation-building cultivators."
"The air-raid siren stopped so soon, probably means the invading cultivator from the Outer Realm has been killed, just don't know how many people died..."
Any invasion by Outer Realm cultivators resulted in hoards of civilian casualties.
Compared to mid-to-high level cultivators, mortals are just too fragile.
Jiang Ding's heart skipped a beat, and he dialed his mother and sister's phone numbers, thankful that both were far from this area and safe.
The driver deliberately took a detour.
Jiang Ding could only see that the area seemed to have added another ruin, with red amidst the rubble, but nothing more.
...
"Fulinjiayuan Station, we're here, next stop, Baizi..."
Jiang Ding, who had been dozing with his face on his knees, woke up, rubbed his eyes, wiped off the drool, and got off the bus in a daze.
Fulinjiayuan was a twenty-year-old decaying housing complex, purchased by Jiang Ding's grandparents in their youth, consisting of 7 stories—as a countermeasure to air-raid safety, except for buildings protected by arrays, most don't exceed 7 stories.
"Fairy Xiaofei, we are the best of friends..."
Getting out of the elevator, he saw a chubby-faced little girl engrossed in the television, who without turning her head, said, "Jiang Ding, the groceries are bought, they're in the kitchen."
"Don't call me by my name."
Jiang Yuan, that brat, had become impolite after starting junior high, she was cuter back in elementary school.
In the kitchen, Jiang Ding looked at the lonely three eggs and a tomato in a plastic bag.
"Jiang Yuan!"
Standing in front of the TV, Jiang Ding was speechless, "Even embezzlement has its limits, you know. Are you treating us both like birds or what?"
With their mother often working overtime and because school was close to the market, Jiang Yuan was responsible for buying groceries daily, but the kid was not trustworthy.
"That...," Jiang Yuan looked evasive, her gaze shifting everywhere, "I ran into a bully, and most of the grocery money was taken."
"Great."
Jiang Ding, expressionless, took out his phone and dialed 110, "Good. Let's call the police and have him arrested. Who is it and what's his name?"
There was no worry about not finding the person. Except for private places like bathrooms and homes, most public areas are under the surveillance of Rong City's Central Array Spirit Computer, which is one of the reasons why the previous attacks by cultivators from other realms were swiftly dealt with.
Jiang Yuan's face fell, she turned her head, "Alright, I'll admit it, I used the money and my savings to buy a Fairy Xiaofei figurine."
Jiang Ding shook his head, switched his phone to the payment QR code, presented it in front of her, and remained silent.
The little thing had the instincts of a Hippogriff, possessed a fanatical passion for saving money, and never bought anything over ten yuan since she was little. Even a Fairy Xiaofei figurine wouldn't tempt her to spend money.
Of course, that was her money. If it was Jiang Ding's money, she spent it quite generously and boldy.
The two stared down each other for a full three minutes.
"Jiang Ding!"
Jiang Yuan, indignant, still had to concede defeat in the end and scanned the code for a transfer.
Ding! 25.4 yuan!
Jiang Ding ignored her flailing about, added a bit more money, and ordered two takeouts, warning, "If you go too far like this again, I will report to mom and strip you of your right to buy groceries. If mom doesn't want her son to be malnourished all day, she'll agree."
"Got it."
Jiang Yuan replied reluctantly.
Jiang Ding got up and went to the kitchen to wash the last tomato, placing it on the cutting board, his hand on the hilt of his sword.
Clang!
A flash of bright sword-light suddenly appeared, flickering three times in succession, and then again three times, before being sheathed.
"Not bad!"
Jiang Ding spread out the still spherical tomato, into seven evenly thick slices, nodding with satisfaction, but then sighed, "I still need to make one cut in the middle before cooking. This isn't something the Body Refining Realm can achieve with one stroke, it exceeds the basic rules of mechanics... If only I had True Qi."
He may be at the bottom in subjects like language and math, but his swordsmanship was quite impressive, even stronger than the Inner Qi Realm Martial Artists in class. According to his teacher, with a few more years of hard work, he might be able to glimpse the threshold of understanding 'meaning'.
But alas, that was useless.
No matter how good his swordsmanship was, a submachine gun could shoot him down, and if that wasn't powerful enough, a heavy machine gun would open fire with a barrage, forcing even Qi Practitioners to temporarily maneuver and take cover.
```
The elective course on cold weapons primarily serves to cultivate sentiment and understand the combat methods of enemies outside the Xianmen Sect.
"Jiang Ding, have you cleaned your sword?" Jiang Yuan called out loudly, "When you practice swordsmanship, it gets coated in dust and sweat. I couldn't stomach it even if you could!"
"Don't worry, today I practiced with the school's standard-issue sword."
Soon, a dish of perfectly normal scrambled eggs with tomatoes was ready and placed on the dining table.
Jiang Yuan was still engrossed in her Fairy Xiaofei show, while Jiang Ding sat on the sofa with his eyes closed, resting. The pitch-black scabbard lay across his knees as he silently contemplated the "Soaring Eagle Sword Technique."
This cultivation method was profound and broad in scope. Although it seemed merely a sword art, it encompassed everything, including the principles of cultivation methods and talismans found in literature, the principles of formations and formation scripts from math and physics, and even the internal structures of human bones, muscles, and the meridians and flesh of spirit beasts and monsters, among other things. The better one's understanding of the related subjects, the deeper one's comprehension of the sword arts would be.
"Um, Jiang Ding..."
"Speak."
Jiang Ding didn't open his eyes.
"Dad contacted me today, just asking if I'm studying well and if I'm healthy... Should I respond to him?"
"Either way is fine, as you wish, just don't tell Mom."
Jiang Ding gave Jiang Yuan a glance as she struggled with her decision, then closed his eyes again.
Jiang Ding's father had divorced their mother not long after Jiang Yuan was born, and since then, their mother had moved the two of them into her own house.
At that time, Jiang Ding cried and screamed for his father almost every day, but as he grew up, he seldom mentioned him.
Over the years, through uncles and other relatives, he had guessed the reasons behind his parents' separation.
Apparently, his father, who had been with his mother since their childhood days through primary school, high school, university, and marriage, was suspected of having an affair. It seemed he even had a child a little older than Jiang Ding, all the while keeping it a secret from their mother.
Thump, thump, thump!
At the window on the seventh floor, a white bird the size of a palm tapped the glass lightly with its pointed beak, two light pecks following a heavy one. Its claws held a beige pouch.
"Mr. Jiang, your delivery has arrived, please sign for it. Lingshan Room thanks you for your patronage."
"Okay."
Jiang Ding stood up, opened the window, and pulled a receipt from the bird's belly to write his name on, then slipped it back in. He took the delivery bag from its claws.
"We look forward to serving you again at Lingshan Room."
The white bird flapped its wings and flew into the distance.
After eating, washing dishes, and completing the day's homework with Jiang Yuan, who later made plans to hang out with friends, Jiang Ding returned to his room.
Hesitating for a moment, Jiang Ding opened his drawer.
A broken sword tip of red embroidery emerged before him, about the size of two fingers, miniature and with a jagged break, as if it had been forcibly snapped by some great force.
"Could this be a fragment of an artifact?"
Jiang Ding pinched the broken sword tip between his fingers, its touch warm and soft like jade, not at all metallic.
This was something he had found at a bus stop three days earlier—not by accident. At the time, while still at school, he felt a quiver in his soul, suddenly sensing something extremely important and connected by blood somewhere nearby.
Following the sensation, he eventually found it under a bus stop sign.
The moment he touched the broken piece, an instinct emerged, letting Jiang Ding know that this broken sword tip, called "Red..." would enable its owner to traverse to another world, as long as he thought about it.
Upon such a heaven-defying opportunity, Jiang Ding's initial reaction was disbelief.
There was a precedent. Over eight hundred years ago, a Nascent Soul Monk from the Outer Realm lost his Nascent Soul and body during a war, managing to escape with only his remaining soul. He disguised himself as an old man and infiltrated the sea of consciousness of Canghai Real Monarch, who was then merely a minor cultivator of Internal Qi.
The young Canghai Real Monarch almost fell victim to a body-seizing scheme, which would have allowed the enemy to infiltrate key departments of Xianmen Sect and steal its secrets.
Moral and ideological score: 137 points.
He didn't delay at all, immediately heading to Rongcheng City's library, where a Central Array Spirit Computer was stationed. Using his once-a-year student privilege, he underwent a comprehensive health check-up.
The Central Array Spirit Computer in Rongcheng City was a sub-spirit of the main Central Array Spirit Computer, and its database was connected to the core system. It was virtually equivalent to the perspective of a Divinity Transformation power. If there was any anomaly, it would surely be detected.
The check-up results showed no problems.
"I'll take a gamble," Jiang Ding reassured himself, saying, "Even if there is a problem, it's one that could deceive a Divinity Transformation power. Such high-level scheming surely couldn't erupt every hundred years, right? That wouldn't be much of a show."
"Besides, I'm just speculating. There's a high probability that no such power would be so idle as to plot against an insignificant person like myself."
Having made a decision, Jiang Ding didn't hesitate. He picked up a cardboard box almost half his height, took his ID card and medical insurance card, and went to a hotel outside the Main Hospital of Rong City to book a room.
The Main Hospital of Rong City was the best public hospital in the city, with extensive experience in treating knife and gunshot wounds, poisonings, and the like. Unless one's head was blown to pieces on the spot, even severed hands and feet or a ruptured heart could be saved.
With student medical insurance, the cost was not too burdensome either.
After taking a deep breath and not rushing to traverse immediately, Jiang Ding opened the cardboard box.
These items had cost him all the New Year's money he'd saved from childhood, as well as the money his mother had given him since high school to support his martial arts and buy supplements, totaling a little more than twenty thousand yuan.
A set of camouflage clothing, including shoes and a pair of transparent tactical gloves.
Made by Luban Arms Technology Company and constructed with bulletproof material, it could morph to fit the body and withstand point-blank handgun shots twice or more, or attacks from a Warrior of Minor Completion of Internal Qi with a sharp weapon.
One tactical panoramic helmet.
A spherical shape, like a glass basketball, it could protect against poison. Within an hour, it could supply its own oxygen, withstand several full-strength attacks from a Martial Artist of Great Achievement of Inner Qi without a scratch, and could connect to drone perspectives and communication modules to receive orders from superiors, making it one of the standard pieces of equipment for Xianmen Sect infantry combat.
If one found the helmet cumbersome, the seller also offered a pair of invisible contact lenses that could carry communication modules and connect to drone perspectives, though they offered no protection.
Additionally, there were four rotary-wing drones, each capable of flying at altitudes of two kilometers and equipped with high-definition cameras and miniature sensing radars. They could clearly identify the movements of humans and beasts within five kilometers on the ground, and if the target did not conceal their presence, they could even roughly gauge their strength.
Truly armed to the teeth.
Last of all, in his pockets he carried a variety of common medications like cold medicine and Yunnan Baiyao, and over his heart, the King's Life-saving Elixir that his mother had spent half a year's salary to purchase when he was young.
"This will do."
Resolute, Jiang Ding activated the broken sword tip. In an instant, the world spun around him.
```