Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 1220: Chapter 656: Pursuit and Escape (Part 2)

Upon receiving the distress signal, Great Cultivator Duan Zhang used Thunder Escape towards this direction. At that time, Li Shiming was dealing with the third Heavenly Thunder and did not sense the situation in the distance in time.

Even his life-bound artifact IBMz15 failed to detect the approaching danger from afar due to the influence of the Artifact Tribulation.

The most critical moment was when Great Cultivator Duan Zhang got close enough to sense a trace of the ’Shenxiao Thunder Pearl’s aura.

Under normal circumstances, Li Shiming would keep the ’Shenxiao Thunder Pearl’ in his server room space, preventing its aura from leaking out.

However, at that time, Li Shiming was dealing with the Heavenly Thunder, especially the residual power of the last one was too strong. He used the ’Shenxiao Thunder Pearl’ to absorb the Thunder Energy from the Heavenly Thunder’s residual power.

At that moment, a trace of the ’Shenxiao Thunder Pearl’s aura leaked out.

Coincidentally, Great Cultivator Duan Zhang sensed this trace of the ’Shenxiao Thunder Pearl’s aura. Originally, he planned to rush over to check, but upon discovering the pearl’s aura, he changed his mind.

He had investigated the disappearance of the ’Shenxiao Thunder Pearl’ and understood deeply how cunning the cultivator who stole it was. Not only did he silence all the cultivators at that time, but he also left no clues behind.

So, he chose to ambush. As a Thunder Cultivator and a Great Cultivator, he wouldn’t usually do this as it would damage his Dao Heart, but the ’Shenxiao Thunder Pearl’ was an exception.

He had some judgment about Li Shiming’s strength. To have been able to kill Wang Yuan, who possessed the ’Shenxiao Thunder Pearl’, along with several Nascent Soul Early Stage Practitioners from the White Emperor Sect indicated that Li Shiming was very formidable.

Even though Wang Yuan was just a Nascent Soul Early Stage Practitioner, carrying a lot of life-saving treasures and the ’Shenxiao Thunder Pearl’, even a Nascent Soul Middle Stage Practitioner couldn’t leave him behind.

Therefore, Great Cultivator Duan Zhang judged Li Shiming’s strength to be close to the Great Cultivator Level. To prevent Li Shiming from detecting his stealth approach, he cast the Dark Thunder Technique from a relatively distant place.

The Dark Thunder Technique is an extremely peculiar Thunder Skill, gathering one’s internal Thunder Attribute Spiritual Power into a thunder orb. This orb has the effect of concealing itself and moves silently at a slow speed.

Great Cultivator Duan Zhang cast the Dark Thunder Technique from a relatively distant place, releasing the dark thunder orb and pushing it towards where Li Shiming was.

When the dark thunder orb reached Li Shiming’s location, it exploded, instantly engulfing that entire area.

However, Great Cultivator Duan Zhang never expected Li Shiming to be so vigilant, still focusing on the artifact in his hand and yet able to detect the explosion of the dark thunder orb immediately.

Most astonishingly, when the dark thunder orb exploded, Li Shiming executed the ’Zhi Chi Tian Ya’ faster than the speed of the dark thunder orb’s detonation.

In fact, Great Cultivator Duan Zhang was being overly cautious. If he had gotten a bit closer, putting Li Shiming within his attack range, relying on his powerful Thunder Skill might and realm suppression, it would have been very difficult for Li Shiming to handle what followed.

Of course, things didn’t develop to that point, so it’s hard to conclude what would have been the correct outcome.

Seeing Li Shiming escape, Great Cultivator Duan Zhang, knowing the ’Shenxiao Thunder Pearl’ was on him, couldn’t possibly let Li Shiming go.

His figure transformed into lightning and pursued Li Shiming.

He was a top-tier presence among Great Cultivators, using the Thunder Escape known for speed second only to Space Divine Power, achieving a frightening pace.

Li Shiming’s execution of ’Zhi Chi Tian Ya’ employed twenty brains continuously with no time intervals; otherwise, he feared he would have been caught right away.

One must know, the gulf between the Great Cultivator realm and the Nascent Soul Middle Stage is huge, evident in the status and standing of Great Cultivators.

In any sect, even within superpowers, Great Cultivators are top-tier figures.

Yet, a mere step below in the Nascent Soul Middle Stage, one’s status drops significantly.

In terms of power, Great Cultivators are far superior to Nascent Soul Middle Stage Practitioners, otherwise why call Late-stage Nascent Soul practitioners Great Cultivators instead of Late-stage Nascent Souls?

Great Cultivators are formidable entities who have mastered certain rules, distinguishing them from lower-level practitioners.

Do not underestimate the rules; even grasping just a hint transforms one’s power dramatically.

Li Shiming had always been confident that his Divine Foot Skill, with the augmentation from his life-bound artifact IBMz15, made his speed unrivaled.

But this time, he realized he was quite ignorant. His ’Zhi Chi Tian Ya’ was indeed very fast, his figure appearing suddenly every twelve thousand meters, disappearing before even fully materializing again.

Yet, behind him, Great Cultivator Duan Zhang, whose figure turned into lightning, drew a dazzling arc in the void, with speed not significantly slower than Li Shiming’s over short periods.

Great Cultivator Duan Zhang was also going all out, utilizing his rare Thunder Rules power to achieve such terrifying speed.

This Thunder Rules power was the foundation of his ascension to the Mahayana Realm, but now he couldn’t care less about that; catching Li Shiming was the most important.

The Yuqing Sect had almost expended its entire power to pursue the ’Shenxiao Thunder Pearl’, even igniting a war with the Dongqi Continent, losing dozens of Nascent Soul Thunder Cultivators.

What use is the Dongqi Continent to the Yuqing Sect?

The Dongqi Continent, with its relatively scarce resources, could never sustain a superpower, thus lacking superpower presence.

The Yuqing Sect’s goal was to control the Dongqi Continent, investigate the disappearance of the ’Shenxiao Thunder Pearl’, and recover it.

Having poured all their resources into an unaccomplished task, capturing the Thunder Cultivator ahead could resolve the matter, so how could he abandon this?

In ordinary times, Great Cultivator Duan Zhang would never deplete his Thunder Rules power, no matter how serious the situation.

It was precisely the support of the Thunder Rules power that enabled his Thunder Escape to reach such frightening speeds.

Inwardly anxious, Li Shiming was unaware of how long Great Cultivator Duan Zhang’s Thunder Escape burst could last. All he could think of was that in this extreme-speed chase, any obstruction ahead would lead him to be caught by Great Cultivator Duan Zhang trailing behind.

So, he needed to consider how to slow down Great Cultivator Duan Zhang behind him, preventing the pursuit.

He began analyzing his own strength, recognizing not many methods to threaten a Great Cultivator.

The three ’Silver-winged Spirit Gu Insects’ in his ’Gu Wind Bag’ indeed held the power to threaten a Great Cultivator.

Back then, when Great Cultivator Zhao Qingfeng deployed the ’Silver-winged Spirit Gu Insects’, other Great Cultivators tried their hardest to repel them, unwilling to let the insects get close.

From this, it was clear that ’Silver-winged Spirit Gu Insects’ posed a significant threat to Great Cultivators, but their attack method required close proximity to launch an attack.

At the current speed, deploying ’Silver-winged Spirit Gu Insects’ would serve little purpose, so he decided to forgo them.

Li Shiming thought of the Living Dead Zhao Qingfeng and the ’Thunderous Mysterious Bow’, as these also posed a threat to Great Cultivators.

No matter how it stands, though Living Dead Zhao Qingfeng lost his Nascent Soul, the body of a Great Cultivator provides power transformed into arrow attacks via the ’Thunderous Mysterious Bow’, which cannot be ignored by any Great Cultivator.

However, sensing the Great Cultivator’s aura behind him, Li Shiming was also measuring it; the aura of Great Cultivator Duan Zhang behind was stronger than any Great Cultivator he had encountered before.

He had no confidence that the arrows shot from the ’Thunderous Mysterious Bow’ by Living Dead Zhao Qingfeng would affect Great Cultivator Duan Zhang. Even if Zhao Qingfeng were alive, achieving this would be unlikely.