Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 796: Chapter 444 Method_2

He thought for a moment and then released an unmanned drone. As it was close to the palace, there were only the two Fourth Grade Spirit Beasts in front of him, and no other spirit beasts in sight, making it safe for the drone to ascend.

Previously, he had considered releasing the drone, but the Great Demons would attack at the slightest abnormality, making it difficult for the drone to remain in the air.

The drone flew up into the sky, and though he was initially worried about whether it would be able to fly, he discovered that the rules of this place only prevented means of flight that relied on Spiritual Power.

The drone headed in the direction from whence he came, constantly gaining altitude.

Li Shiming was testing the height of this space, and the drone rose up to three thousand meters before it either reached the dome of the sky or encountered some other interference, after which it could climb no further.

At an altitude of three thousand meters, the image from the drone transmitted back to his lifebound magical artifact, the IBMz15, and when he saw the clear image, a weight was lifted from his heart.

This Grotto Heaven suppressed the Cultivators, but it had little effect on the drone’s mundane camera surveillance equipment.

He flew the drone to a safe distance from the palace, any farther and there would be Great Demons present.

At this distance and height, the drone could monitor objects up to more than five hundred li away.

With this ”pair of eyes,” Li Shiming finally understood the terror of this space. In the drone’s surveillance footage, spirit beasts were scattered across the vast area.

They did not need to eat; they merely patrolled their respective areas like guards.

In Li Shiming’s observation, these Great Demon spirit beasts did not seem like spirit beasts, but more akin to puppets.

He also saw a Fourth Grade Spirit Beast. Within a fifty-li radius of the Fourth Grade Spirit Beast, there were no other spirit beasts, making it extremely easy to distinguish.

Li Shiming’s thoughts flickered slightly, and he took out a blood-red stone and placed it on the ground.

Throughout this process, he was keeping an eye on the two big men; if they showed any strange behavior, he would have the Illusion Spirit Jiao dodge immediately, even at the cost of losing the blood-red stone, to avoid any contact with the two men.

However, clearly, the mission given to the two big men was to guard the palace, and they seemed not to be of the Dragon Clan, showing little response to the dragon lineage in the blood-red stone, so they stood motionless in their spots.

Li Shiming had a special brain monitoring the distance. The blood-red stone was a treasure of the Four-clawed Dragon, and when he put the blood-red stone into the Mustard Seed Ring, he sensed a peculiar connection coming from a distance, which is why he then placed the Mustard Seed Ring containing the blood-red stone into the machinery room space, severing that strange connection completely.

Now, he was using the blood-red stone to exploit the peculiar connection from afar, knowing that only through chaos could he find a sliver of opportunity.

As he had predicted, the drone detected a figure swiftly approaching, which turned out to be the Four-clawed Dragon frantically searching because of its connection to the blood-red stone.

Li Shiming calculated the time in his heart, and at an opportune moment, took the blood-red stone back into the Mustard Seed Ring and then deposited the Mustard Seed Ring into the machinery room space.

After sensing the blood-red stone, the Four-clawed Dragon immediately rushed in the direction of its senses.

This Four-clawed Dragon was an anomaly in this space; possibly due to its highly noble bloodline, even though the Great Power Zhai Ge had altered it, the weakening of Zhai Ge’s forbidding spell over time led to the degradation of the dragon’s lineage power.

Thousands of years ago, when the Grotto Heaven’s restrictions weakened inexplicably for a short time, the Four-clawed Dragon experienced a moment of cognitive awakening.

Upon awakening, the Four-clawed Dragon found itself in an alien environment.

A Fourth Grade member of the Dragon Clan, even as a Four-clawed Dragon, possessed profound wisdom. With the legacy of the Dragon Clan in its blood, it was more noble than the vast majority of spirit beasts.

The awakened Four-clawed Dragon used a Secret Technique to condense a portion of its dragon bloodline into a Dragon Vein Source Crystal.

The Dragon Vein Source Crystal could slowly influence the Four-clawed Dragon, allowing it to gradually escape from the state of restriction.

The Four-clawed Dragon’s awakening did not last long; shortly after it used the Secret Technique to create the Dragon Vein Source Crystal, the Grotto Heaven’s restrictions were restored, and it fell back into a stupor.

However, the Four-clawed Dragon instinctively clung to the Dragon Vein Source Crystal, knowing innately that it was of utmost importance to it.

But it had lost the Dragon Vein Source Crystal, and when it sensed its presence again, it rushed over, heedless of the space’s constraints that it should only move within its own territory.

This action also showed from another aspect that the Dragon Vein Source Crystal was partly liberating it from the influence of the restrictions.

The Four-clawed Dragon suddenly lost its sense of the Dragon Vein Source Crystal when it was still fifty miles away from it.

Although it could no longer sense the Dragon Vein Source Crystal, it would not stop moving; it wanted to go and find its precious dragon vein source crystal.

Especially when it discovered the self-propelled cannon on its way, it felt confident it was on the right track, that the Dragon Vein Source Crystal was right here.

Such an odd thing as a self-propelled cannon was not common in Grotto Heaven.

As the Four-clawed Dragon flew over the self-propelled cannon, it breathed a flame towards the cannon, turning it into a puddle of molten iron.

The Illusion Spirit Jiao had long left its original position and moved closer to the palace from the side.

The Four-clawed Dragon let out a dragon’s roar and flew to the spot where Li Shiming had placed the Dragon Vein Source Crystal before.

Its eyes were full of rage, as it saw the pair of strong men.

If it were still under the constraints of the grotto heaven, perhaps it would not go after the pair of Fourth Grade spirit beasts guarding the palace, but its anger now allowed it to briefly break free from the influence of this space.

It lunged at the two Fourth Grade spirit beasts, emanating a dragon’s roar from its mouth; if Li Shiming understood the dragon’s language, he would hear that it was demanding the Dragon Vein Source Crystal from the two spirit beasts.

But the two Fourth Grade spirit beasts, far from having taken the Dragon Vein Source Crystal, lacked the wisdom to respond to the Four-clawed Dragon’s demand even if they had it.

However, as the Four-clawed Dragon approached the red palace, the two spirit beasts moved and launched an attack on the dragon in unison.

As guardians of the palace, they would attack any life that approached the palace.

The Four-clawed Dragon, a spirit beast of the space itself, each fulfilling its own duties, would not come here.

The human-shaped Fourth Grade spirit beasts, far removed from human-like when in battle.

They let out roars, their bodies rapidly expanding.

Through the eyes of the Illusion Spirit Jiao, Li Shiming observed their peculiar manner of fighting, completely different from the way cultivators fought with their Nascent Soul Dharma Forms.

The two unidentifiable Fourth Grade spirit beasts, in human form with swollen muscles and skin transformed into spiky armors.

On a pair of hands, claws elongated, gleaming menacingly.

All this happened as they pounced towards the Four-clawed Dragon; by the time they launched their attack, they had assumed their battle forms.

What caught Li Shiming’s attention was that he sensed the presence of the Nascent Soul in this form.

Yes, the two Fourth Grade spirit beasts were harnessing the power of the Nascent Soul to transform themselves into such forms.

The Four-clawed Dragon spat out a breath of fire, and the two spirit beasts, midair, used their hands to block the flames, forcefully enduring the dragon’s fiery breath.

Their arms glowed red under the fiery burn, yet it did not affect the speed at which they advanced.

As they closed in on the Four-clawed Dragon, Li Shiming almost thought the dragon would be at a major disadvantage.

The dragon’s body was long but slender, lacking the robust strength of the two Fourth Grade spirit beasts.

But he misconceived; the dragon’s tail lashed out with incredible speed.

With a ”boom,” one of the Fourth Grade spirit beasts was sent flying by the dragon’s sweeping tail.

The other spirit beast clashed directly with the dragon’s claws, and both the Four-clawed Dragon and the spirit beast were sent flying backward, neither gaining an advantage.

Li Shiming was astonished; with his discerning eye, he could tell that the Four-clawed Dragon was of the same rank as the two spirit beasts, and in a one-versus-two battle, the dragon managed to fight the two to a draw.