Cultivation is just so scientific! Chapter 1668 - 880: Righteous Path (2)

The most effective counter to the ’Thunder Cloud Skill’ lies in swiftly utilizing speed to flee beyond its striking range.

Yet the three Righteous Path great cultivators had already formed their ultimate defensive line, rendering retreat impossible now. Even if they managed it, they wouldn’t risk it, since withdrawing would shatter the intricate defense they labored to create, leaving them helpless against Li Shiming’s assaults.

"Fellow Ji, let’s unite for defense!" Great cultivator Shen Ze urged great cultivator Ji Chuan.

Great cultivator Ji Chuan originally intended a counterstrike, yet to confront the ’Thunder Cloud Skill’ overhead, he chose to bolster the collective defense.

Wearing a resigned look, great cultivator Ji Chuan recalled his poised flying sword and summoned a Fourth Grade Top Shield to shield the trio’s heads, forming the ultimate protective layer.

Li Shiming observed this move, a grin spreading across his features.

His form then flickered out of sight, just as the overhead ’Thunder Cloud Skill’ amassed enough lightning, unleashing streak after streak downward.

Combined from forty ’Thunder Cloud Skills’, the spectacle rivaled the end of days in horror.

The Formation Palace bore the initial brunt; great cultivator Liao Yi sensed the array buckling under the barrage, forcing him to release portions of its protections, letting unblockable lightning bolts slip inside to be handled by the other two.

Right then, Li Shiming materialized amid the chessboard illusion.

He swiftly kicked three pieces in succession, disrupting the formation laid by great cultivator Liao Yi.

The setup shifted from outward-facing defense to purely internal safeguarding, stripping away all external barriers and permitting strikes to pour inward.

This shift massively intensified the strain on great cultivators Shen Ze and Ji Chuan’s barriers, leaving them no chance to observe elsewhere, oblivious even to Li Shiming’s nearing presence as they poured everything into upholding their artifacts.

Only great cultivator Liao Yi glimpsed Li Shiming. He tried to bind him with the formation, but recoiled in shock as it resisted his commands.

Though the chessboard and pieces remained his treasures with unbroken links, the formation felt stiff, as if cancellation lay beyond his grasp.

This sensation marked utter defeat in mastery; great cultivator Liao Yi’s formation prowess ranked merely average among array masters, while Li Shiming’s fusion with IBMz15 elevated him to the pinnacle of cultivation world array arts.

Li Shiming positioned himself inside the formation, refraining from striking the trio below since necessity had passed.

The Formation Palace had morphed into a jail for the three Righteous Path great cultivators; escape demanded shattering it first to quit the battlefield.

It further cramped their maneuver room, already shrunk for peak defense and now just loosely encasing the three.

Confined so tightly amid ceaseless skyborne lightning, dodging became impossible.

"Fellow Liao, what’s happening? The formation’s caging us now?" Great cultivator Shen Ze, buckling under the heavenly lightning’s might, attempted evasion only to clash with the Formation Palace, questioning frantically.

"The formation’s slipped my control—Li Shiming’s inside, manipulating it!" Great cultivator Liao Yi answered grimly.

Great cultivator Ji Chuan ditched his shield. Barred from boosting his flying sword’s power via Secret Technique, he desperately hurled it at Li Shiming.

Regrettably, it clanged against the Formation Palace walls, unable to breach.

The scenario grew bizarre: a Righteous Path formation now served Li Shiming.

These three Righteous Path great cultivators resembled trapped fowl, though ’caged birds’ understated it—they were more like stewing meat with the forty ’Thunder Cloud Skills’’ lightning as the blaze.

Great cultivator Ji Chuan’s attempt yielded nothing but dire consequences.

His defensive lapse didn’t halt the lightning’s fury.

Great cultivator Shen Ze’s water curtain shield shattered first under assault, then bolts plunged into their tight confines.

Fearsome lightning flooded the confined zone instantly, with skyfall continuing to swell the charge inside.

"Alas!" Li Shiming uttered a profound sigh.

Such was the doom of these pinnacle great cultivators, though he never sought their deaths—it stemmed from their choices.

Li Shiming gestured, scattering the sky’s thunderclouds, then strode into the Formation Palace before the inner lightning faded.

Beyond generating the lightning himself, his ’Heavenly Human Technique’ physique, fortified by ’Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer’ and ’Shenxiao Thunder Pearl’s Thunder Resistance Secret Methods, let him endure its fury briefly.

The three Righteous Path great cultivators lay lifeless; like great cultivator Ji Chuan, whose Nascent Soul perished pre-entry by lightning, exposing soul crystal ring and life-bound artifact.

Li Shiming gathered the trio’s remains alongside their treasures.

He then flicked his hand, repositioning chess pieces in the Formation Palace, dissolving it.

With owner great cultivator Liao Yi’s fall, chessboard and pieces plummeted, snagged by his Divine Sense and stored.

Gazing afar, he spotted a flying boat hurtling near.

’Divine Sight’ spanned eight thousand miles, revealing incoming reinforcements he shunned battling.

By now, the whole unknown world likely hunted him.

He turned his sight elsewhere, invoking ’One Step to Reach’, vanishing instantly.

Rematerializing eight thousand miles off, he skipped further flight, opting for seldom-used Water Escape.

Grounded in ’Heavenly Human Technique’, mastering this oceanic escape proved effortless, acquired precisely for sea traversal.

His body melded into a water current, plunging oceanward, velocity plummeting far under ’One Step to Reach’ or ’Heaven and Earth’.

Yet as a water stream amid the sea, detection bordered impossibility.

Blind flight sans map risked peril without bearings.

Stumbling into a mighty one’s domain equaled suicide.

Soon after Li Shiming vanished, a medium-sized flying boat reached the site.

"Battle traces linger here, potent thunder skill residue, and Senior Brother Shen’s combat signature!" Aboard the medium-sized flying boat, a great cultivator eyed the scanning formation, alerting fellow great cultivators.

"Where’s Senior Brother Shen then?" Another great cultivator queried.

The medium-sized flying boat’s scanning formation ramped up, probing skies and seas below.

They sought great cultivator Shen Ze’s lingering aura to trace his path for pursuit.

Yet scanning results dismayed and horrified Mirror Moon Sect cultivators aboard.

Only explanation: great cultivator Shen Ze hadn’t fled. From distress call to arrival spanned little time, and with two peak great cultivators allied, what foe dispatched them so swiftly?

"Notify the sect, alert Purple Cloud Sect and Starry Lodge Sect to this disaster!" A great cultivator commanded gravely.