Cultivation is just so scientific! Chapter 1532 - 812: Preparations (Part 2)

Earlier on, obtaining the blood for corpse refining had been fairly straightforward. Both early-stage and mid-stage Golden Corpses existed in considerable numbers across the Cultivation World.

However, late-stage Golden Corpses were a different matter entirely, as only Great Cultivators stood a chance of refining them. Yet, very few Great Cultivators bothered to invest resources into creating such advanced ones.

The primary cause lay in the alarmingly high failure rate for late-stage Golden Corpses, which led to massive resource losses. Without a solid foundation in prior corpse refining experience and a strong dependence on the corpse's fighting prowess, no one would squander rare materials on attempting a late-stage Golden Corpse.

Li Shiming had no idea how Central State Commerce managed to source these late-stage Golden Corpse blood essences, though it was clear they possessed their own secret networks.

Regardless, possessing these late-stage Golden Corpse blood essences greatly lowered the challenges of his ritual for crafting a late-stage Golden Corpse, justifying the additional costs involved.

Truth be told, resources for corpse refining played a lesser role here. Should he fail this attempt, securing five corpses from Great Cultivators of major powers in the near future would prove nearly impossible.

Great Cultivators from superpowers aren't grown on trees like common vegetables; moreover, he had picked the finest specimens among them. A failure would bring losses beyond calculation.

The late-stage Golden Corpse's golden blood got blended with various ingredients, and in the end, Li Shiming had to incorporate his own vital essence blood.

A mere thought from him summoned the Fourth-Grade Sword Foundation into his grasp. He lightly dragged the blade over his fingertip.

Something awkward happened next; the Fourth-Grade Sword Foundation scraped against his finger with a grating noise, yet it failed to draw even a drop of blood.

His body's durability matched that of a Body Refining Great Cultivator, boasting a resilience akin to a supreme Fourth-Grade Magical Treasure.

The Fourth-Grade Sword Foundation hovered around that same level of toughness, insufficient to pierce through his natural defenses.

With no other option, he infused the Fourth-Grade Sword Foundation with 'Chaos Sword Intent', then carefully sliced into his finger once more.

He feared that applying too much pressure might cause the 'Chaos Sword Intent' to sever an entire piece of his finger.

At last, empowered by 'Chaos Sword Intent', the Fourth-Grade Sword Foundation managed to open a cut on his finger.

From that cut, he squeezed out some essence blood. But after releasing just half the needed amount, the injury sealed itself shut before he could apply any aid.

Left with little recourse, he wielded the Fourth-Grade Sword Foundation laced with 'Chaos Sword Intent' again to reopen the wound, repeating the process four times in a row to gather enough essence blood.

This ordeal made him truly grasp the incredible sturdiness of his physique.

He'd learned in the past that once a body reached peak strength, injuries mended at an astonishing pace.

Yet this slash came from 'Chaos Sword Intent' itself. To ensure the 'Chaos Sword Intent' worked against his own body, he configured that portion to target anything without exception.

Even though the injury was tiny, merely a thin gash, the lingering 'Chaos Sword Intent' within it blocked any quick recovery.

As he hadn't actively dispelled the 'Chaos Sword Intent', it fully dissipated from the wound, allowing his formidable body's innate healing to take over and close it up.

Such regenerative power, paired with the might of his 'Innate Yi Wood' divine skill, meant that barring instant death, he could keep regenerating from wounds indefinitely.

Though he lacked a prize like the 'Innate Jianmu Tree Heart' that his clone Li Yuanba possessed, his cultivation had ascended to the Great Cultivator Realm, rendering his 'Innate Yi Wood' divine skill only slightly behind Li Yuanba's in effectiveness.

Li Shiming tucked away the prepared Corpse Refining Talisman Ink inside the machine room space; his mind swept over the Great Cultivator's form, while IBMz15 constructed a detailed model and examined all sorts of metrics from the corpse.

By the standards of the Cultivation World, the Great Cultivator's corpse equated to materials at the Fourth-Grade Upper Stage level; even the top five he chose didn't surpass that grade.

Once IBMz15 finished its data breakdown, it suggested a method that caught him off guard somewhat.

Typically, corpse refining entailed etching Refining Corpse Runes onto the corpse's outer skin, but IBMz15's scan revealed the bones as the most durable vessels for those runes.

He didn't hesitate long before launching into his initial trial.

Within the machine room space, his awareness pierced through all barriers, delving into the depths of the Great Cultivator's body. His checks confirmed that a Great Cultivator's bones fell just short of Fourth-Grade Top Quality.

This made perfect sense, given how many Devil Cultivators repurposed cultivator remains into magical treasures.

Furthermore, a refined corpse's ability to withstand attacks mirrored the original cultivator's bodily resilience. Lacking that baseline quality, piling on extra materials during refinement wouldn't yield robust protection.

Following IBMz15's blueprint, Li Shiming set about inscribing Refining Corpse Runes across the Great Cultivator's skin surface.

Employing a fineness of 0.1 nanometers, he etched one billion Refining Corpse Runes onto the Great Cultivator's skin, all while preserving the body's energetic equilibrium.

Yet that was far from finished; using the 'Traceless Illusion Sword', he punctured the Great Cultivator's frame to form an entry point, then guided the Corpse Refining Talisman Ink to the bones via his Divine Sense, and commenced rune inscription there.

For this phase, he pushed for maximum accuracy, achieving a control level of 0.05 nanometers in the machine room space. He sensed that despite his spirit's vast growth, finer control brought ever-diminishing returns.

Over the ensuing period, he mobilized one hundred and eighty brains; keeping a handful in reserve, the bulk joined the rune-etching effort.

All 206 bones in the Great Cultivator's skeleton received their share of Refining Corpse Runes.

The job appeared straightforward at first glance, but its true complexity was staggering. In the Cultivation World, even cultivators capable of micron-scale rune work couldn't replicate what he was doing.

Beyond the sheer challenge of the etching itself, upholding energy equilibrium proved the real hurdle.

The Great Cultivator's corpse formed a unified whole; as Refining Corpse Runes were added, the runes' energies throughout the body demanded constant balance.

Failing that, the refining ritual could trigger an explosive collapse of the Great Cultivator's body midway through.

The same principle held true for Artifact Refining and Alchemy, where energy harmony ensured every triumph.

Imagine the computational load of placing hundreds of millions of Refining Corpse Runes on the Great Cultivator's body while guaranteeing perfect energy symmetry among them—without IBMz15's support, no mere mortal mind could handle it.

In total, the Great Cultivator's body now hosted four billion Refining Corpse Runes, three billion of which adorned the bones.

Four billion Refining Corpse Runes marked the absolute ceiling for the body; exceeding that offered no gain and risked total structural failure.

He repeated the entire procedure on the remaining four Great Cultivator corpses.

Next, he retrieved five Heavenly Person Cave Heaven Golden Corpse Cores and implanted them into the five Great Cultivator bodies.

Ever since gaining mastery over the Heavenly Person Cave Heaven, extracting Golden Corpse Cores from the Cave Heaven's Golden Corpses had become effortless at any moment. After all, those Golden Corpses regenerated on their own, so depleting their ranks wasn't a concern.

With every preparation finalized, Li Shiming arranged the five Great Cultivator corpses within the Corpse Refining Array.

He drew in a deep breath to steady his nerves; everything hinged on what followed. A failure here would sideline his corpse refining pursuits for the next hundred years.

Then, he produced heaps of Spirit Stones along with three Vein-locking Plates, each harboring a spirit vein of Great Cultivator-grade potency, all set to fuel the Corpse Refining Array.

Bound by the constraints of the Dongqi Continent, conducting corpse refining inside a Grotto Heaven was off-limits. The Heaven and Earth Rules inside a Grotto Heaven varied subtly, which could compromise the refined corpse's quality or introduce severe flaws.

Moreover, a late-stage Golden Corpse refined successfully in a Grotto Heaven would still face Heavenly Tribulation upon exiting. Any imperfections would drastically weaken its resistance to the Heavenly Thunder.

The 'Prohibited Book of Xuan Yin Yaksha' explicitly warned against this; time-honored research deemed corpse refining within a Grotto Heaven unwise.