Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 277: Chapter 185: Harvest (Additional update for Ba Chao 4488)

Li Shiming was unaware how rare the opportunity to clean a Golden Core Mansion on his own was.

Normally, hardly any cultivators would explore a mansion alone, as it was much safer to do so in coordination with others.

It was Six-fingered Sound Demon’s intention, to lure individual cultivators here.

A true mansion would not be so easily accessible, nor would methods to unlock the formations be provided.

The first barrier was formation breaking; the formations of a Golden Core cultivator’s cave dwelling were not something a Foundation Establishment cultivator could easily break.

After that, one had to face the self-defense mechanisms left in the dwelling by the Golden Core cultivator. The fact that Six-fingered Sound Demon had not left any defenses was indicative of other schemes.

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Even if one managed to get through these challenges, the treasures left in a mansion after years of erosion were extremely limited.

Cultivators were not known for their generosity, and a mansion was often the grave of a cultivator. One could hardly expect to have their grave dug up and still be expected to present gifts.

Therefore, exploring a mansion was a task fraught with danger, and Li Shiming’s exploration this time was indeed very perilous.

The second room was a study where Li Shiming obtained a set of second-grade desks and chairs, along with a large number of jade scrolls, of which Cultivation Technique Jade Scrolls were very rare; they were mainly various travel and knowledge jade scrolls.

The third room was a storeroom filled with Spiritual Materials, sadly without any sight of Third Grade Spiritual Materials; they were all second-grade.

The storeroom did not resemble that of a Golden Core cultivator at all, leaving him extremely disappointed.

The second-grade Spiritual Materials were very disordered, not systematic at all, leading him to suspect they were just spoils of war haphazardly thrown in there.

Moreover, some Spiritual Materials were not stored properly, their spiritual essence greatly diminished, further devaluing them.

This was normal; these Spiritual Materials had been stored here for at least hundreds of years, and even with formation protection, the slow loss of their spiritual essence could not be prevented.

Later, he went to the garden and collected the lotus flower along with its roots, using a jade box specially designed for preserving Spiritual Medicines, which could greatly maintain the spiritual essence of the lotus.

For cultivators, the lotus had the effect of calming the mind, and when planted within a dwelling, it could refresh the air inside.

The fact that the environment within the dwelling had remained so well preserved after hundreds of years was due to the function of the second-grade lotus.

Li Shiming cleaned the dwelling thoroughly, taking everything that could be taken away.

The quality of the spirit veins here was unknown, whether due to time or inherently not high to begin with, the Spirit Veins at this place were only top-grade and not even as good as those at the Wei family residence.

Of course, the most likely issue was with the Spirit Veins themselves, otherwise Six-fingered Sound Demon would not have chosen this place for his dwelling.

He planned to seal up the dwelling, giving himself another place to stay.

Returning to his original room, Jiang Chen had already nearly finished cleaning it, revealing the corpse of the Six-fingered Sound Demon and the black ancient zither on the floor.

Li Shiming stepped forward to pick up the black zither, and his Spiritual Thought swept over it. The original spirit imprint inside had long since vanished, but, as a life-bound magic treasure, the traces of spirit on the black zither could still be sensed.

Such spirit traces were almost impossible to erase unless one had Six-fingered Sound Demon’s personal consent; otherwise, any cultivator using the black zither could never unleash its full potential, at best only half its might.

The life-bound magic treasure was tainted with too much of the Original Golden Core essence, which had almost merged with the magic treasure itself.

Of course, if one had the willpower to spend a few hundred years slowly dispelling it, there was a chance to enhance the magic treasure’s might.

But scarcely any cultivator did this; with that time and energy, it was better to focus on other magic treasures with greater potential.

After putting away the black zither, he turned his Spiritual Thought to Six-fingered Sound Demon’s fingers, removing the Space Ring.

While examining Six-fingered Sound Demon’s fingers, he noticed that each hand had six fingers, which explained the moniker.

The Space Ring, having lost its master, offered no resistance at all, and his Spiritual Thought invaded it.

The inside of the Space Ring was vast, a hundred meters in length, width, and height, the same size as his other Space Ring.

However, the contents were pitifully scarce, with jade scrolls naturally being Li Shiming’s first concern.

Two lonely golden jade scrolls lay in one corner, the only jade scrolls in the space.

Fortunately, the quality of the golden jade scrolls was the highest he had ever seen, compensating for the lack of quantity.

‘Immortal Turtle Breathing Technique’, it was a life-maintaining technique meant to allow cultivators to live longer in a stationary state, even potentially exceeding the constraints of their original lifespan.

This Cultivation Technique had no benefit to combat strength, and its attractiveness to ordinary cultivators wasn’t great either.

In a stationary state, it meant not eating or drinking and being unable to cultivate other techniques, only maintaining a state of being by cultivating ‘Immortal Turtle Breathing Technique’.

Practicing ‘Immortal Turtle Breathing Technique’, one’s strength would not increase at all, with lifespan being the only thing to grow during the stillness.

Thinking of Six-fingered Sound Demon’s condition, Li Shiming guessed that he likely survived by cultivating the ‘Immortal Turtle Breathing Technique’.

The second golden jade scroll did not disappoint him; ‘Heavenly Sound Secret Manual’ was exactly Six-fingered Sound Demon’s legacy.

He could only read the Foundation Establishment section of the ‘Heavenly Sound Secret Manual’, which detailed how to cultivate Heavenly Sound Spiritual Power and execute the Secret Technique called ‘Stealing Heaven’s Sound’, along with over a dozen different musical scores with varying effects.

After reading the Foundation Establishment section, he could be one hundred percent certain that the ‘Heavenly Sound Secret Manual’ was not a Demon Cultivation Technique, but a genuine Taoist Sound Cultivation Technique.