Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 49 Safety (New book, please collect!)

In the study, Li Shiming wore a blindfold, within which was a monitor refitted from an LCD display screen taken from an optical fiber fusion splicer.

Two hundred meters above the courtyard, a camouflaged drone was hovering.

This was the tenth day since the cultivator gathering had ended, and Central Capital was still enveloped in a festive atmosphere.

Over these days, Li Shiming had been highly vigilant, constantly observing his surroundings to prevent a surprise attack by fellow cultivators, which is why he hadnʼt left the city at all.

The cultivator whom he worried about hadnʼt shown up, but instead, he had managed to create a drone.

Actually, with pieces from dismantled optical fiber fusion splicers and the database from the IBM z15, building the drone was not difficult; what was challenging was the high-precision lens.

Over several days, he made the clearest glass in his electric arc furnace, and only after repeated polishing in the machine room space did it meet the design requirements.

This was only possible because he could manipulate matters at the micron level within the machine room space; otherwise, the time it would have taken is unimaginable.

Fortunately, having gained experience with this, the other lenses were crafted much more quickly.

The drone, camouflaged to look like a summer eagle from below, was revered by the Great Xia Royal Family and thus, at least within Central Capital, no one would attack a summer eagle.

The only pity was the endurance of the drone. Even with additional batteries, the longest it could stay airborne was merely twenty minutes.

However, Li Shiming no longer had to worry about someone invading his yard, for as he created the drone, he also made four camera probes. They connected wirelessly to the surveillance blindfold he wore on his head.

The blindfold currently displayed the droneʼs perspective, with four smaller windows on the side showing the footage from the four camera probes, which he could switch to the main display window at any time.

If not for the scarcity of available chips, he would have liked to make more probes, but after dismantling the optical fiber fusion splicer, there were only enough chips for these few.

Both the drone in the sky and the camera probes on the ground had two modes, one for daylight, which relied on the high-precision lenses for monitoring.

The second was the night mode with infrared thermal imaging, which yielded better monitoring effects than during the day because nobody could escape thermal tracking.

Of course, this was mainly because the world was unaware of infrared thermal imaging; otherwise, for a cultivator, concealing their thermal energy would not be difficult.

Li Shiming extended his Spiritual Power Pattern tendrils, controlling the remote to retrieve the drone.

He used the ʼObject Driving Skillʼ to control the remote and the drone, which also served as practice for the skill, killing two birds with one stone.

The drone flew in through the window, and he removed its battery to replace it with a spare one. This time, instead of letting it fly, he stored it away.

It was only with a fairly complete safety system in place that his restless heart finally calmed down.

His consciousness entered the machine room space, and the unknown Spirit Plant he had grafted, he now knew what it was.

The grafting was very successful; new shoots had sprung leaves. Though small, it was evident that they were from a tea tree.

A spirit tea tree. Li Shiming didnʼt know what circumstances had befallen the spirit tea tree to damage it so severely.

If it werenʼt for the remaining roots and two branches, if it werenʼt for grafting techniques, if it werenʼt for the sterile environment artificially created in the machine room space, if it werenʼt for the specially formulated nutrient solution, if it werenʼt for his continuous use of the ʼSpring Breeze and Rain Skill,ʼ and if it werenʼt for so many prerequisite conditions, the spirit tea tree would have long perished.

One could say, reviving the spirit tea tree was a perfect combination of past-world technology and spells from this world, which led to the spirit tea tree of today.

Although the spirit tea tree had sprouted leaves, the plant body was still too scanty for Li Shiming to dare to harvest. Only after the spirit tea tree grows new branches could he consider harvesting the spirit tea leaves.

He would not drain the pond to catch all the fish; harvesting a few tender leaves now was nothing compared to the comfort of drinking spiritual tea every day in the future.

Li Shiming took off the blindfold on his head and placed it aside, taking a deep breath to stabilize his mind.

Because he drank spiritual tea at the last gathering, the spiritual power within his body had increased significantly; he could now perform the ʼLight Body Techniqueʼ five more times every day.

In ten days, he attempted to draw the ʼBasic Light Body Talismanʼ nearly a hundred times, and likewise, had failed a hundred times.

However, the experience he summarized brought him infinitesimally close to success, understanding from the simplest ʼBasic Light Body Talismanʼ just how challenging cultivation was.

With the help of the IBM z15, he could identify the reasons for each failure; having gone through more than a hundred failures with such aid.

How many failures would a common cultivator need to endure before they could truly complete a ʼBasic Light Body Talismanʼ?

The Snow Spirit Pen was lifted, dipped in just the right amount of talismanic ink—a measure learned from four failed attempts.

Spiritual power converged within the Snow Spirit Pen, blending with the talismanic ink at the nib.

As the tip touched the talisman paper, the true essence of a sports car convertible was infused into the pen, and the Snow Spirit Pen moved measuredly over the paper.

He was utterly concentrated, his spirit wholly immersed in the art of talisman creation.

The moment the Snow Spirit Pen left the paper, the Light Body Rune on the talisman released a strong cyan glow that quickly dimmed, with the spiritual power infused in the paper contracting inward.

Li Shiming watched the changes on the talisman, a small piece of paper before him solidifying the ʼLight Body Techniqueʼ within.

It was successful, smoothly and beyond his expectations.

Sensing the spiritual power within his body, he noted the cost of one ʼLight Body Techniqueʼ and, having only performed the ʼObject Driving Skillʼ once today, he still had an abundance of spiritual power.

Encouraged by his recent success, he took out another sheet of talisman paper, dipped the Snow Spirit Pen into the ink, and began drawing another ʼBasic Light Body Talismanʼ.

The process went smoothly once again, and cyan light illuminated the study as the spiritual power was drawn into the paper.

”Isnʼt it said that the success rate of making talismans is not high?” Li Shiming put down the Snow Spirit Pen and started to ponder.

Other cultivators relied on experience to make talismans, much like Li Shiming, but their kinds of experience differed.

Their experience was a vague one; they knew how to get close to success and would attribute failures in the process to chance.

But the experience Li Shiming gained from the IBM z15 was clear; he knew the root cause of each mistake and avoided repeating the same errors by experiencing and understanding them firsthand.

After successfully crafting the third ʼBasic Light Body Talisman,ʼ he understood his own success rate.

While not daring to claim a hundred percent, his success rate was undoubtedly close to that, and it continually increased with each talisman he made as he accumulated more experience.