Cultivation is just so scientific! Chapter 1657 - 875: Contract

Upon crossing into the Divine Beast Garden, Li Shiming witnessed a complete shift in the surroundings, feeling as if he had stepped into a different world altogether.

An infinite sky loomed overhead, while the spot he occupied was an airborne platform featuring just one wooden door.

From his position on the platform, Li Shiming gazed down at the landscape below: undulating mountains, flowing rivers, a massive lake far off, and an even more distant woodland.

He held back from venturing off the platform right away. High in the sky, a Golden-winged Roc caught his eye, looking strikingly familiar—the same one he had spotted earlier outside.

Yet, given the nature of the Divine Beast Garden, that Golden-winged Roc theoretically couldn't exit. He pondered just how it had slipped out.

This Golden-winged Roc dominated the entire region. Off in the distance, a Phoenix glided across the heavens, and Li Shiming vaguely caught the roar of a dragon.

A cold shiver ran through Li Shiming's heart. True, the Ten Thousand Beast Sect and Luanyang Palace’s Grotto Heavens bred Red Gold Phoenixes, but those were specially crafted by mighty ancestors for that exact goal.

Here, though, countless divine-level spirit beasts appeared visible everywhere at once.

A tough choice lay before him now: how to form a contract with one of these divine beasts?

He figured it might demand overpowering the divine beast or employing some unique ritual, yet his knowledge of the Divine Palace remained too shallow, leaving him clueless.

His eyes turned toward the Golden-winged Roc. Truth be told, if contracting a Divine Beast, this one struck him as the ideal pick.

With its Five Elements Attribute, the Golden-winged Roc matched perfectly with his practice of the ’Heavenly Human Technique.’

He resolved to try taming the Golden-winged Roc and check if a contract could be forged.

But first, he needed to gauge what powers he could wield inside the Divine Beast Garden.

For starters, flight was definitely possible; without it, accessing the Divine Beast Garden from this platform would prove impossible.

Still harboring some doubts, Li Shiming unleashed Great Cultivator Luo Pei’s corpse, guided by the Heavenly Ghost, letting it soar away from the platform.

The moment Great Cultivator Luo Pei departed the platform, the Golden-winged Roc overhead swooped straight toward it.

"You can fly, come back!" Li Shiming had zero plans to let Great Cultivator Luo Pei meet its end. Satisfied that flying worked, he called Luo Pei back to safety.

Great Cultivator Luo Pei returned to the platform by air, and the Golden-winged Roc grudgingly backed off.

Clearly, this little platform served as a protected haven immune to divine beast assaults.

He swiftly stored Great Cultivator Luo Pei again, then drew forth the ’Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer’ and ’Ruyi Zhenyue Peak.’ He refused to take the Golden-winged Roc lightly.

His body morphed into a streak of lightning, hurtling directly at the Golden-winged Roc.

Noticing Li Shiming abandon the platform and draw near, the cunning Golden-winged Roc held its strike, waiting until he strayed farther for the perfect moment.

Past challengers had lingered too near the platform. Whenever it prepared to pounce, those cowardly foes had scurried back to safety.

While Li Shiming soared farther from the platform, nearing striking distance of the Golden-winged Roc, a sudden wave of deadly peril washed over him.

Reacting instantly without pause, he unleashed the long-ready ’A Step Away to the End of the World,’ vanishing from his position and materializing a hundred meters distant.

Right where he had stood, the Golden-winged Roc materialized, its wings slashing through the lingering Five Elements Energy from his fading form.

Li Shiming's pulse pounded fiercely. Never had he anticipated the Golden-winged Roc possessing mastery over Space Movement.

Had his response lagged by a fraction, the Golden-winged Roc's ambush might have struck true.

From even a hundred meters off, the horrifying destructive force within that Five Elements Energy chilled him.

Unlike his deployment of ’Chaotic Spiritual Power,’ despite profound studies into Five Elements Energy and shifting to the ’Heavenly Human Technique,’ his core still revolved around the Five Elements Attribute.

Yet his ’Chaotic Spiritual Power’ stood worlds apart from the Golden-winged Roc’s handling of Five Elements Energy.

His version fused Five Elements Spiritual Power with the five Five Elements Rules, whereas the Golden-winged Roc orchestrated five varieties of Five Elements Spiritual Power in harmony.

No clear winner emerged between the approaches. Li Shiming’s work on ’Chaotic Spiritual Power’ remained nascent, unable to showcase its full potential yet.

The Golden-winged Roc wielded a refined, battle-tested style with Five Elements Spiritual Power, infused not only with raw strength but a dreadfully potent edge in its Five Elements Energy.

He had no clue yet what fueled that fearsome edge, but tasting it personally held no appeal.

Divine beasts boasted far from ordinary powers.

Take the Red Gold Phoenix’s Nirvana Fire: it scorched not merely flesh but the very soul upon contact.

Hence, battling divine beasts demanded dodging their strikes at all costs, given the devastating special effects they typically packed.

Stunned by its failed assault, the Golden-winged Roc found this turn unexpected. It reigned as the most exceptional being in the Divine Beast Garden.

During its maturation, it gained command of spatial talents alien to its species, evading the Divine Beast Garden's oversight and claiming supremacy among its peers.

Through sheer force, it seized control of the zone nearest the garden’s entry point.