Cultivation is just so scientific! Chapter 1700 - 896: Extermination (Part 2)

The Xingyi Sword thrust into the Thunder Cultivator with barely any resistance, completely destroying his body and Nascent Soul.

A second Thunder Cultivator fell under the crushing blow of the Late-stage Golden Corpse's massive hammer, suffering a far grimmer demise than the first. Forged from the White Emperor Sect's Fourth Grade Late Stage Mountain Treasure, empowered by the Golden Corpse's overwhelming might and its Yin Cold Energy, the strike erased him entirely after just a fleeting scream of agony.

"Flee separately!" The mightiest Thunder Cultivator grasped their foe's superior power and bellowed the order.

He himself shifted into Thunder Escape form, poised to speed off into the horizon.

Yet after covering only a few dozen meters in Thunder Escape, energy formations barred his path, the multilayered barriers tough to breach despite possibly forcing one.

Crucially, crossing the formation's energy drastically hampered his velocity.

"What’s happening, has the authority of the formation been seized?" Bewilderment clouded his mind; the chaos escaped his understanding.

In the Cultivation World, cultivators placed absolute faith in formations.

These formations shielded them, enabling serene cultivation inside, guarding their valuables, and concealing their hidden truths.

Grand formations especially, tested reliable across endless ages.

Even without a Grotto Heaven barrier, Yuqing Sect's great formation should theoretically block any surprise assault within its domain.

With hordes of horrifying Sword Intents surging through his consciousness, peril gripped him.

His sight and Divine Sense alike caught swarms of flying swords materializing, every one Fourth Grade caliber, each pulsing with Sword Intent that sparked instinctive terror.

Any single flying sword packed more punch than a standard Sword Cultivator's ultimate blow, he was certain.

His senses revealed over two thousand flying swords encircling him and the three leftover Thunder Cultivators.

"The enemy intends to spare none of us!" The grim truth dawned as he desperately clutched his final lifeline, a life-saving Jade Talisman.

Crafted by a Peak Great Cultivator, this Jade Talisman let him unleash Thunder Escape at Peak Great Cultivator tier.

Through it, he briefly gained the escape prowess of a pinnacle Thunder Cultivator.

He lacked any superior Jade Talisman, plain and simple.

Tragically, for all his high standing among Yuqing Sect's Great Cultivators, Great Power Luo Yuan withheld a better life-saving talisman since he hadn't attained Peak Great Cultivator status.

Activating the life-saving Jade Talisman unleashed a mighty lightning rule aura, supercharging his Thunder Escape with vastly improved speed and breaching power.

His silhouette flashed across layer after layer of formation energy barriers; at such velocity, a narrow path to survival seemed feasible against the cordon of over two thousand energy-formed flying swords.

Yet moments from shattering the energy-formed flying swords' blockade, Li Yuanba suddenly blocked his way.

Li Yuanba swung forth the Fourth-Grade Sword Foundation gripped in his hand, deploying the 'Unnamed Sword Manual's close-range Sword Cultivator secret art. Against a Thunder Cultivator clueless in melee, the duel resolved in a heartbeat up close.

Flying swords felled the other three Thunder Cultivators, with zero escapes.

Other cultivators had long detected the clash here, yet the Great Cultivators' warzone offered no entry for Nascent Soul Middle Stage Cultivators.

The fight's lightning-fast start and finish meant Nascent Soul Middle Stage Cultivators only sensed trouble once the Late-stage Golden Corpse began its rampage on them.

The formation morphed into a savage trap, stripping Nascent Soul Middle Stage Cultivators of any flight path.

Desperate wails rose as bold fighters struck back at the Late-stage Golden Corpse.

Still, their valor crumbled swiftly against utterly futile assaults.

Bedecked in gear that defied even Peak Great Cultivator max strikes, the Late-stage Golden Corpse posed an insurmountable nightmare.

Mastering the 'Speed Rule Imprint', the Late-stage Golden Corpse blurred through Nascent Soul Middle Stage Cultivators at unreal paces, its shifts mimicking spatial teleports despite being pure motion.

Li Yuanba paid no heed to the Late-stage Golden Corpse's bloodbath; its acute life detection ensured no soul slipped away undetected.

He started scavenging the battlefield, gathering the spoils off the six Thunder Cultivators. By rummaging through the mountain that served as their home, he uncovered a modest treasury too, which got fully looted amid the clash with the Late-stage Golden Corpse.

As he sorted the battlefield, contact was made with IBMz15 to wipe out every trace hinting at Sword Cultivators.

Early exposure was something he sought to avoid, steering clear of warning Yuqing Sect that he alone had wiped out their sect's cultivators.

Keeping his identity under wraps let him strike at even more Yuqing Sect cultivators, amplifying their devastating losses to the utmost.

With all Sword Cultivator signs meticulously erased, the Late-stage Golden Corpse was called back, and he vanished right from Yuqing Sect territory. Through 'Instant Leap', a quick return took him to Sword Intent Chongxiao Pavilion.

Li Yuanba made sure to show himself at Sword Intent Chongxiao Pavilion on purpose. Since his command of 'Instant Leap' remained unknown, linking the timelines would prove impossible even under scrutiny.

Truth be told, the collapse of Yuqing Sect’s branch far outstripped Li Yuanba’s own predictions.

A Thunder Cultivator heading back from Yuqing Sect stumbled upon the grim scene at their branch.

This Thunder Cultivator got lucky, being out on business and thus absent from the branch on that day.

Stepping into the formation upon his return, corpses littered the ground everywhere; every brother he knew had become a lifeless body.

No Thunder Cultivator corpses caught his eye, but the oppressive silence blanketing the branch and total lack of life force screamed the awful truth.

Fortune smiled as the Communication Array still worked, letting him relay the news straight to Yuqing Sect.

The catastrophe at Yuqing Sect’s branch spread like wildfire, impossible to hide from the superpowers for long.

Suspicions fell on Li Shiming from all superpowers, Yuqing Sect included.

Yuqing Sect’s Great Power Luo Yuan skipped seclusion, keeping a sharp eye on sect matters nonstop. Their intelligence arm burned through every ounce of effort chasing leads on Li Shiming.

His humiliating flop against one lone Great Cultivator turned into fodder for jokes across great powers, with several reaching out directly to verify the fiasco.

Firm in his resolve to nab Li Shiming, even squandering decades of Grotto Heaven reserves, Great Power Luo Yuan stood unyielding.

At dawn one morning, the freshest intel landed in his hands, straight from Yuqing Sect’s intelligence wing.

"Immediately recall all Nascent Soul Middle Stage Peak cultivators, increase resource allocations to this group!" The intel hit him hard, prompting a fierce command.

Ironically, Yuqing Sect’s Thunder Cultivators now numbered just five.

Two of those were on the brink of lifespan depletion, little more than corpses biding time in the sect.

In reality, superpower Yuqing Sect clung to only three usable Thunder Cultivators. After this disaster claimed six, their Thunder Cultivator lineup hit a historic low.

Beyond superpower exchanges, those six Thunder Cultivators posted to Central State Continent aimed to draw out Li Shiming’s phantom clone.

But the scheme never launched—all six Thunder Cultivators dropped before it could.

No options left, Great Power Luo Yuan pushed a squad of Nascent Soul Middle Stage Peak cultivators into Great Cultivator spots in desperate haste.

Forced promotions like these bring no real gains; Nascent Soul Middle Stage demands foundation strengthening, reserved for natural breakthroughs only. The untalented, jammed upward forcibly, yield Great Cultivators starved of prospects, doomed to stall at Great Cultivator Realm’s Early Stage.