Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 776: Chapter 434: Enter_2

Until now, he still did not know who was making a move against him. He mustered the last bit of spiritual power within him and condensed a bolt of lightning that he hurled at the enemy before him.

It was as if he was hallucinating—he heard the cry of a turtle, a familiar sound that made him think the one in front of him was Great Elder Sun Ao.

Then a hand with unmatched strength grabbed his neck, and Taiqing Xuan Turtle Qi surged up his neck into his head.

In the moments before his death, he saw clearly who his assailant was—it was Li Shiming, Master Li, the most famous Alchemy Master of the Beishu Continent.

Behind Master Li, the phantom of the Taiqing Xuan Turtle was roaring at him.

Li Shiming shook his head. He felt it was a pity for Elder You Xia; the Thunder Cultivation Great Elder had not had a chance to demonstrate even a fraction of his strength before he was ambushed and killed.

Li Shiming himself also practiced Thunder Skills and was well aware of the fearsome power of Thunder Cultivators.

Had he allowed Elder You Xia to go all out in a battle with him, his Divine Foot Skill might have given him a significant advantage in speed, but he would be less agile in close quarters than the Thunder Cultivation Great Elder.

Not even considering Space Divine Power, when it came to speed alone, Thunder Cultivators were unmatched. Thunder Escape utilized the speed of thunder and lightning, which moved faster than any other type of energy.

Furthermore, the attack power of Thunder Cultivators was extremely terrifying; the Thunder Cultivation Great Elder could transform an entire area into a Thunder Prison in a short amount of time.

While Li Shiming pondered these matters, it did not affect his other actions.

His first target was the Jade Scroll, which was in Elder You Xia’s hand. After taking it, his divine thought entered it.

His life-bound treasure, IBMz15, quickly memorized its content and began analysis, passing the results back to him. This was the fastest method of memorization, much quicker than reading it once and trying to remember it himself.

He also collected Elder You Xia’s Mustard Seed Ring from the corpse, which he stored in a separate space.

After completing these tasks, the information transmitted from his life-bound treasure, IBMz15, made him understand what was forming in front of him.

What Elder You Xia had just been drawing were the runes to open a Grotto Heaven entrance.

Li Shiming sensed for a moment, and the energy emanating from this entrance was already immense. If this continued, the Nascent Soul Ancestors in the heavens above would surely notice.

In haste, his life-bound treasure, IBMz15, provided a short-term solution.

It was to use a Third Grade Array Flag to lay out an obstructive formation. However, given the grand scale of the spatial fluctuations and the strength of the Grotto Heaven’s energy, the best he could manage was to block the spatial fluctuation for the time it took to drink a cup of tea.

With no time to spare for further thought, seventy-two strands of divine thought appeared simultaneously, each controlled by a brain, and seventy-two Third Grade Array Flags were precisely placed in the designated locations.

If Luo Lu, who had laid out the initial formation here, had seen Li Shiming’s method of setting up the formation, he would probably have died of shame all over again.

The seventy-two Third Grade Array Flags were perfectly placed in their respective positions, creating a stable obstructive formation.

But Li Shiming also sensed the enormous strain being put on the formation by the diffusion of spatial energy, and it would not be long before the Third Grade Array Flags would be damaged.

Luckily for him, given his current status and wealth, Third Grade Array Flags were no longer such a rare and precious commodity.

He watched as a colossal spatial gate appeared in front of him. The gate was a good ten meters high, and if he had not set up the formation in advance, the energy fluctuation leaking from the spatial gate would undoubtedly have been detected by the Nascent Soul Ancestors in the sky.

Even now, Li Shiming did not know whether the Nascent Soul Ancestors in the sky had noticed what was happening here.

Especially Elder Jin Kai; Nascent Soul Early Stage practitioners were manageable, at least Li Shiming was fairly familiar with Nascent Soul Ancestors at that stage, but judging the capabilities of Elder Jin Kai, a Nascent Soul Middle Stage practitioner, was difficult.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Li Shiming entered the spatial gate to the Grotto Heaven.

As his body passed through the spatial gate, the sensation of the space folding and shifting made his head slightly dizzy. Once his body stabilized, he felt an intense coldness.

The space he found himself in was filled with a yin cold power, and he couldn’t help but think of the information about the Grotto Heaven contained within the Jade Scroll transmitted by his natal artefact, the IBM z15.

Regarding the Grotto Heaven of the Great Power Zhai Ge, the Skywalk Trading Company only had conjectures, which were based on the analyses and studies of Grotto Heaven data collected by the company, and they possessed accurate methods for entering and leaving a Grotto Heaven.

However, they couldn’t provide much valuable information about the interior of a Grotto Heaven; most of what they had were reference materials about the explorations of other Grotto Heavens.

The Grotto Heaven of a Great Power was the greatest secret of a Great Power, concerning the very foundations of their cultivation. It wasn’t until after the fall of a Great Power, leaving some Grotto Heavens behind, that other cultivators had the chance to come into contact with them.

Such Grotto Heaven materials were considered extremely precious knowledge within any faction.

If Li Shiming hadn’t obtained this knowledge from the Jade Scroll belonging to Elder You Xia, he could have stayed in the Beishu Continent for a thousand years and still remain ignorant of these things.

A Grotto Heaven is another world opened by a Great Power, existing independently of the main world.

When a cultivator ascends to the Mahayana Realm, they must carve out their own Grotto Heaven.

The laws of the main world are too powerful and not conducive to the cultivators’ understanding and control, but once one’s own Grotto Heaven is established, one gains the ability to control its laws.

Although a Grotto Heaven is not like the main world, it has the capacity to grow, and Great Powers may even leverage the laws of their Grotto Heavens to briefly affect the laws of the main world.

Of course, the Jade Scroll didn’t mention much of this knowledge, and it was too profound for Li Shiming.

The ’Divine Foot Skill,’ ’Divine Eyes Skill,’ ’Telepathy,’ ’Nanming Leaving Fire,’ and the ’Sky Splitting’ Divine Skill cultivated by Li Yuanba that he practiced were all manifestations of the laws; however, these Divine Skills were just ways of applying laws and were far from a true understanding of them.

Entering the space of the Grotto Heaven reminded Li Shiming of the Corpse Refining space. According to the analysis of his natal artefact, the IBM z15, if he placed the Silver Corpse here, there was no need to lay out any Corpse Refining Array at all, which would allow the Silver Corpse to rapidly enhance its strength in this place.

The rich yin cold power here was a great supplement for the Silver Corpse.

While he was thinking this, the hair on his entire body stood on end. His ’Divine Eyes Skill’ exerted its power, allowing him to see ghosts flying towards him in the void.

With just a glance, he immediately operated the ’Taiqing Xuan Turtle Technique,’ fortifying himself with the strongest defense.

The appearing ghosts each had the strength of Third Grade, and their number was incalculable, for within the realm of his ’Divine Eyes Skill,’ more ghosts continued to emerge.

This space greatly limited his ’Divine Eyes Skill,’ as if some force was affecting its use; nevertheless, it still reached much further than normal vision.

His normal vision here could only see clearly within fifty meters, but ’Divine Eyes Skill’ allowed him to see everything within five hundred meters.

Such a number of ghosts outside would make even the Nascent Soul Ancestors take a detour.

Ghosts are an extremely peculiar lifeform, impervious to harm without specific methods.

The assault of a ghost is not a physical one, but targets the spirit and soul; cultivators who haven’t practiced spiritual cultivation techniques would likely be unable to even defend themselves.

Especially in the current environment, which was most suitable for the existence of ghosts, it allowed them to exhibit their strength to the fullest extent.

Li Shiming originally thought that the Grotto Heaven was simply a place to store treasures, to be taken and then left behind. The current situation was the worst outcome imaginable.

”This is trouble!” he couldn’t help but sigh and murmured to himself reluctantly.

It seemed impossible to take treasures from the Grotto Heaven within the timeframe of brewing tea; he needed to consider how to make a choice.

Whether to retreat immediately or continue further in was a decision that related to his life and the future of his cultivation.

”I’m going for it!” He gritted his teeth and made the decision; regardless, the chance of encountering such an opportunity a second time was close to impossible.

In the Beishu Continent, where there wasn’t even a Nascent Soul Middle Stage, the thought of finding another Mahayana Great Power’s Grotto Heaven was out of the question.