Cultivation is just so scientific! Chapter 1562 - 827: Discovery (Part 2)

Li Shiming retrieved the 'Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer', a Fourth Grade Top-level Artifact Tribulation, before calling forth the Heavenly Ghost.

The colossal form of the Heavenly Ghost materialized. Without the Formation he had arranged to seal off this zone inside the Taichu Cave Heaven, the Heavenly Ghost's intimidating aura might have terrified cultivators across other parts of the Taichu Cave Heaven.

At the pinnacle of Fourth Grade Late Stage, this spiritual being brimmed with vast spiritual energy, exerting a suppressive force on fellow Great Cultivators of equal rank, let alone those laboring in the Taichu Cave Heaven.

Most of these cultivators possessed modest strength, with only a handful reaching Nascent Soul Early Stage while the majority hovered at Golden Core level.

In the Cultivation World, Golden Core cultivators served as the primary workforce, since Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators remained fairly feeble, deficient in both spirit and Spiritual Power Pattern.

Indeed, if the supporting cultivators in the Taichu Cave Heaven got startled into errors, Grandmaster Hu could very well confront him over it.

"Try to see if you can devour the spiritual imprint inside!" Li Shiming commanded the Heavenly Ghost.

With its intelligence now sharpened, the Heavenly Ghost obeyed the order and bent down to inspect the 'Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer' up close.

Its towering body resembled a miniature mountain, making the 'Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer' appear no larger than a tiny speck before it.

The Heavenly Ghost stuck out its tongue for a light lick, then pulled it back inside.

Li Shiming's gaze brightened, for he observed how the Heavenly Ghost's soft touch caused the spiritual imprint in the 'Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer' to vanish in an astonishing manner.

The spiritual imprint in a cultivator's life-bound magic treasure proves tough to erase because, once embedded by the cultivator, it gets nurtured over extended time within the body.

In that nurturing phase, the cultivator's spiritual imprint seeps into every corner of the life-bound magic treasure, binding inseparably with it.

Even following the death of the life-bound magic treasure's owner, this spiritual bond endures indefinitely.

Maybe after a thousand years pass, the embedded spiritual imprint might slowly weaken.

Yet absent the owner's ongoing care, the life-bound magic treasure's caliber would decline over that thousand years too, so even if someone else claims it, the treasure won't recover its former might.

To purge a spiritual imprint from a life-bound magic treasure, a cultivator needs to persistently purify it using their own spirit, though that's far less beneficial than fostering one's personal life-bound magic treasure.

Clearing out the spiritual imprint from a fallen cultivator's life-bound magic treasure demands roughly a few hundred years, time enough to profoundly cultivate one's own life-bound magic treasure.

Thus, unless the treasure's excellence justifies squandering centuries, no cultivator bothers with another person's life-bound magic treasure.

Erasing a spiritual imprint from a life-bound magic treasure has long ranked among the thorniest challenges in the Cultivation World.

Nobody could imagine that such a vexing issue would turn as effortless as a casual meal for the Heavenly Ghost.

Still, given the Heavenly Ghost's extraordinary traits and formidable power, possessing this skill comes as no shock.

In the entire Cultivation World, the Heavenly Ghost stands utterly unparalleled as a spiritual entity, a rare fusion of Heavenly Demon and ghost that grants it exceptional dominance over spiritual energy.

Li Shiming felt no urge to probe the method by which the Heavenly Ghost consumed the spiritual imprint in the life-bound magic treasure. Instead, he promptly withdrew several more life-bound magic treasures, all seized after defeating Great Cultivators.

At his directive, the Heavenly Ghost gave them a couple of licks, dissolving their spiritual imprints entirely.

A grin spread across his features, since these items represented the elite life-bound treasures of those Great Cultivators, each a pinnacle artifact.

Take, for instance, the Mountain Peak Treasure wielded by Yan Gao Great Cultivator—it could be upgraded via infusion with a load of Earth-type Fourth Grade Top Material, enabling fresh spell runes to elevate the Fourth Grade Top-level Artifact Tribulation Mountain Peak Treasure.

He had witnessed Yan Gao Great Cultivator's Mountain Peak Treasure, whose superior craftsmanship surpassed even the 'Ten Thousand Sword Peak.'

Although the 'Ten Thousand Sword Peak' merged essences from various Mountain Peak Type Magical Treasures, the Artifact Refining method he used to blend those Mountain Peak essences stemmed from the White Emperor Sect.

As a top-tier Great Cultivator from the White Emperor Sect, Yan Gao Great Cultivator commanded resources beyond Li Shiming's wildest dreams.

This shone clear from Yan Gao Great Cultivator's soul crystal ring, revealing him as a supreme specialist in life-bound treasures who poured nearly every refining resource into enhancing this Mountain Peak Treasure.

Naturally, the 'Ten Thousand Sword Peak's core function lay not in suppression but in deploying thousands of flying swords, with enhanced gravitational pull only added later through the 'Gravity Gold Brick.'

Since he had assigned the 'Ten Thousand Sword Peak' to his avatar Li Yuanba, who wielded it effectively to amplify his battle prowess, Li Shiming had no desire to take it back.

On this occasion, he aimed not to designate the Mountain Peak Type Magical Treasure as a life-bound one but to refine it as an ordinary magic treasure.

His available slots for life-bound magic treasures were scarce, and he refused to let the Mountain Peak Treasure claim two of them.

Back when he lacked his present Great Cultivator standing, reworking a non-life-bound magic treasure would have posed a real hurdle, but now as a Great Cultivator—particularly after mastering the 'Heavenly Human Technique'—his Spiritual Power Pattern and spirit had surged in potency, turning once-daunting tasks into simple affairs.

Li Shiming began by binding the Mountain Peak Treasure to himself, and upon applying the Master Recognition Technique, he learned its name as 'Ruyi Zhenyue Peak.'

Once he controlled 'Ruyi Zhenyue Peak,' his Divine Sense delved into its core, gradually mapping out the fullest details of 'Ruyi Zhenyue Peak.'

Drawing on that information, the life-bound magic treasure IBMz15 would overhaul the spell runes for 'Ruyi Zhenyue Peak.'

Building on the prior work with 'Ten Thousand Sword Peak,' crafting the blueprint for 'Ruyi Zhenyue Peak' presented little difficulty.

In the meantime, he stationed five Fourth Grade Pill Furnaces in the machine room space to kick off parallel alchemy sessions.

Given his expertise, he no longer fretted over alchemy timelines, and should the Central State Commerce discover his knack for brewing five furnaces of Great Cultivator Spirit Pills at once, they'd praise him gladly rather than entertain suspicions.

Much like his avatar Li Yuanba, backed by solid support, he trusted in his personal might.

With the machine room space in use and constrained, the blueprint for 'Ruyi Zhenyue Peak' finalized after a few days, though refinement remained pending.

He stayed calm, swallowing five high-grade Great Cultivator spirit pills before retreating to the Treasure Lotus Hall in the Heavenly Person Cave Heaven for cultivation.

Meanwhile, in the Ten Thousand Beasts Cave Heaven of the Ten Thousand Beast Sect, inside a dedicated nurturing zone teeming with spirit beasts, Little Feng and the Illusion Spirit Dragon behaved unusually docile, sprawled on the floor while drawing in the area's unique energy.

Li Shiming had compelled both Little Feng and the Illusion Spirit Dragon to surge to Fourth Grade Middle Stage through heaps of spirit pills and supplies, leaving their bases a bit shaky.

Consider the standard development of a Red Gold Phoenix: advancing from youth to maturity alone spans hundreds of years, and even piling on spirit pills shortens that merely to decades.

Yet Little Feng had not just grown up but hit Fourth Grade Middle Stage as well.

What might consume nearly a millennium for other Red Gold Phoenixes, Little Feng accomplished in mere decades.

Upon his return to the Ten Thousand Beast Sect, where he delved into the sect's vast archives, Li Shiming decided to leave Little Feng and the Illusion Spirit Dragon here to solidify their foundations.

To stay by his side indefinitely, his spiritual pets needed sufficient aptitude; a weak base would hinder them from matching his pace.

He could supply boundless resources to his spiritual pets, but they had to transform those into real power and advancement levels; without that, endless resources wouldn't unlock their true worth.

The Ten Thousand Beast Sect lavished care on Li Shiming's pair of spiritual pets, carving out a dedicated spot in the Ten Thousand Beasts Cave Heaven and boosting the special energy flow there just for them.

All this unfolded without Li Shiming needing to direct it, for his rank in the Ten Thousand Beast Sect towered supreme. Even without chasing positions of authority, any wish he voiced would spur the sect to act with utmost vigor, a testament to the sway of sheer power.