Cultivation is just so scientific! Chapter 1556 - 824: Enlightenment (2)

Li Shiming detected the thundercloud's presence. The Heavenly Ghost's consumption of the Heart Demon had mildly bolstered the thundercloud's condition, enabling it to persist, while the Thunder Rules continued their operations.

Yet, this thundercloud had been upheld initially not through Spiritual Energy, but via Spirit energy, which made its thunderous force rather feeble, and the Thunder Rules sustaining the Grotto Heaven looked incredibly fragile.

He moved closer to the thundercloud and started to scrutinize the Thunder Rules.

Inside a Grotto Heaven devoid of any half-step Great Power, the inner rules lack any safeguards; they stand openly exposed, permitting a full inspection of the entire Thunder Rules.

No half-step Great Power would ever permit a cultivator to examine the rules inside their Grotto Heaven, since those rules stem from a lifetime of dedicated study by the half-step Great Power.

Particularly, hidden within those rules could lurk gaps in their grasp of the rules, and if foes discovered such flaws, they might turn into deadly vulnerabilities in combat.

The proprietor of this Grotto Heaven, Yang Xing, that half-step Great Power, had now merged into the Heavenly Ghost, so obviously, he couldn't block Li Shiming from probing the Grotto Heaven's rules.

A fairly intact array of Thunder Rules materialized directly before Li Shiming. He summoned his lifebound magic treasure, the IBMz15, to capture every detail of the Thunder Rules displayed in front of him.

This represented the Thunder Rules from a half-step Great Power who specialized in Thunder Cultivation, vastly more profound than his personal Thunder Rules.

Rather than diving straight into comprehension, he allowed the IBMz15 to log the data initially, just in case something unexpected disrupted this delicate Grotto Heaven.

Half-Life Cave Heaven serves as the Grotto Heaven for a half-step Great Power too, yet inside it, numerous rules interweave into a stabilizing system that upholds the Grotto Heaven's very being.

Furthermore, by incorporating Five Elements Treasures into the Grotto Heaven, he enhanced the Five Elements Rules, fostering a self-perpetuating cycle of Five Elements within the Half-Life Cave Heaven.

By contrast, the present Grotto Heaven came across as overly basic.

Li Shiming extracted some Thunder Spirit Power from within himself and channeled it into the thundercloud.

He additionally retrieved a vein-locking plate to draw Spiritual Energy from the Great Cultivator Spirit Vein for the Grotto Heaven's benefit.

As the Heavenly Ghost's controller, the thundercloud welcomed the spirit energy he provided without resistance, and since Thunder Spirit Power profoundly impacted the thundercloud, its power surged by several folds.

Once the Spiritual Energy from the Great Cultivator Spirit Vein built up to a sufficient level inside the Grotto Heaven, he stopped worrying about the internal Spiritual Energy status.

The Grotto Heaven possessed the ability to draw in Spiritual Energy on its own from the void; it had simply been starved of too much Spiritual Energy before, but now with this boost, achieving self-reliance posed no challenge.

Li Shiming then returned to studying the Thunder Rules, which had noticeably grown stronger after absorbing the nourishing Spiritual Energy, rendering the Grotto Heaven a bit more solid.

He further realized that the heart of this Grotto Heaven lay in the thundercloud itself.

This thundercloud seemed to have evolved from a unique substance tied to thunder, qualifying it as a Thunder Treasure.

Typical thunderclouds would expend their energy while breeding thunder, eventually fading away at some point.

But this one stood apart; provided with ample Spiritual Energy, it could perpetually produce Thunder Energy, thereby anchoring the Thunder Rules' stability.

Li Shiming faced such a Thunder Treasure for the very first time, feeling only mild intrigue, especially since Half-Life Cave Heaven already housed Thunder Rules, though those derived from Five Elements Treasures via the Five Elements Rules.

The Five Elements Treasures in Half-Life Cave Heaven outshone this Grotto Heaven's Thunder Treasure by a wide margin.

Still, given that this was a budding Grotto Heaven, such simplicity made sense.

He redirected his Divine Sense toward the Thunder Rules inside the thundercloud, slipping into a profound state of insight.

The 'Thunder Rule Imprint' upon his Nascent Soul intensified and sharpened progressively as his comprehension expanded.

In that instant, he set aside the two prisoners and all else, his thoughts fully absorbed in grasping the 'Thunder Rules,' with every one of his 191 brains engaged in the contemplative process.

Two days following Li Shiming's clash with Master Wang He and Yan Gao Great Cultivator, details of the confrontation leaked from the Dongqi Continent division of Central State Commerce.

The report of Li Shiming triumphing over two peak Great Cultivators by himself prompted Dongqi Continent's cultivators to reassess his true capabilities.

This news traveled to other continents via intercontinental communication arrays.

At first, the major powers hadn't placed excessive weight on Li Shiming, but now they genuinely recognized him as the rising super genius.

Li Shiming outstripped Li Yuanba from Sword Intent Chongxiao Pavilion, claiming the title of the Cultivation World's youngest prodigy.

Nevertheless, Li Yuanba retained the top spot at Nascent Soul Middle Stage; the key factor was Li Shiming's blistering advancement rate, as the two shared comparable ages, but Li Shiming had already ascended to Great Cultivator status.

Yuqing Sect and White Emperor Sect promptly obtained this intel; upon receiving it, White Emperor Sect swiftly pulled back its reach and reshaped its outward approaches.

White Emperor Sect had suffered heavy losses in Great Cultivators and ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators, leaving it incapable of holding onto its former territories and assets.

In particular, with Yan Gao Great Cultivator's defeat and disappearance, White Emperor Sect faced a prolonged void in elite battle prowess.

Though chances for peak Great Cultivators to intervene remained scarce, their mere presence instilled caution in rival factions.

Without that intimidating force, groups eyeing White Emperor Sect's holdings grew bold enough to extend their grasp and claim resources that once belonged to White Emperor Sect.

Even with Great Powers at its disposal, White Emperor Sect couldn't handle every minor dispute; summoning a Great Power carried an exorbitant toll, barring them from meddling in petty affairs.

White Emperor Sect's recovery phase wouldn't drag on forever, and in a few hundred years, it would rebound, producing fresh Great Cultivators to stand in for Yan Gao Great Cultivator.

Yuqing Sect's recovery would stretch far longer; White Emperor Sect's leaders were aware that Yuqing Sect had dispatched Yang Xing, a half-step Great Power, yet they remained in the dark about the results.

Yuqing Sect couldn't offset this setback merely by grooming another peak Great Cultivator; losing a half-step Great Power rattled the very roots of Yuqing Sect.

To nurture more half-step Great Powers, Yuqing Sect must pour extra resources into them, which would inevitably cut back on support for standard Great Cultivators, gradually eroding Yuqing Sect's Great Cultivators relative to those in other super forces.

Yet this step proved essential; failing to bolster half-step Great Power training, or even letting the Great Power lineage falter, would relegate Yuqing Sect from super status to that of a mere large-scale entity.

Through Central State Commerce, Yuqing Sect shelled out vast sums for deeper intel, encompassing Li Shiming's capture of Master Wang He.

Even armed with this knowledge, Yuqing Sect found itself helpless to strike at Li Shiming.

Having failed with both peak Great Cultivators and half-step Great Powers, deploying their Great Powers would demand cross-continent efforts that heavily taxed those beings, drastically shortening their lifespans.

In Yuqing Sect's precarious state, its Great Powers hesitated to squander their vitality, choosing instead to conserve strength in hopes of one day passing the mantle to a successor Great Power within Yuqing Sect.

Master Liu Ziyun reached the Taichu branch, aware from reports that Li Shiming hadn't gone back to Ten Thousand Beast Sect but had headed there instead.

Still, despite dispatching various communication methods and secret contact tokens, and even enlisting Grandmaster Hu from Ten Thousand Beast Sect for help, he failed to reach Li Shiming.

He had taken on several alchemy commissions; postponing them typically raised no alarms, since skilled Alchemy Masters often followed their own rhythms, and such waits rarely mattered.

But without solid updates, unease gnawed at him.

Besides, directives from Central State Commerce's main office urged him to strengthen ties with Li Shiming; beyond his other talents, Li Shiming's sheer fighting might had captured Central State Commerce's interest.

If not for the prior handlers betraying Li Shiming, Central State Commerce might have pondered bringing him back into the fold.