Cultivation is just so scientific! Chapter 1392 - 742: Spirit-Sealing (Part 2)

After a meticulous inspection of the massive entrance, he confirmed there were no hidden traps and shoved it open with a forceful heave.

The weight of the gate was immense; he realized that without his specialized training as a Sword Cultivator and his refined sword body, raw physical strength alone would have struggled to budge the wooden barrier.

Seeing the sheer thickness of the timber caused him to reconsider his earlier estimate. His initial thought that the gate could provide enough material for several dozen fourth-grade top-tier flying swords was a massive understatement; the actual yield would likely be more than double that amount.

The level of extravagance was staggering. In the Cultivation World, Nascent Soul Cultivators would engage in life-and-death struggles over a single fragment of fourth-grade top-tier material, yet here it was used merely to build a door.

Even the elite disciples of super forces, who might receive such high-grade materials from their Sects to forge magic treasures, were usually restricted to very small quantities.

Li Yuanba suppressed the urge to dismantle the gate immediately, fearing such an action might trigger a retaliatory strike from the Grotto Heaven’s Artifact Spirit.

Stepping inside the palace, he found the internal opulence far exceeded his wildest dreams.

Top-grade fourth-grade spirit jade paved the floor, and nearly every object within his line of sight was crafted from fourth-grade top-tier materials.

The palace’s arrangement indicated it served as the personal quarters of Langcai Great Power.

As a solitary powerhouse, the Grotto Heaven existed solely for his benefit. Consequently, there was no need for facilities designed for descendants, such as specialized chambers that mimicked specific environments to aid in the Cultivation of particular techniques.

Langcai Great Power lived alone, and every resource he gathered was dedicated to his own advancement.

The current layout was the result of accumulation over countless millennia.

In the eyes of Langcai Great Power, no intruder should have ever been capable of reaching this sanctum.

The exterior steps, while appearing as a path, were functionally a dead end.

Even Great Cultivators who had attained mastery over the laws of gravity would have perished on those stairs.

Li Yuanba had only succeeded because of the Spirit Treasure 'Ten Thousand Sword Peak'. Its superior gravity field had merged with and neutralized the stairs' field, granting him passage.

Furthermore, Spirit Treasures are generally beyond the reach of Nascent Soul Cultivators, especially one capable of manipulating gravity fields.

Following the Spirit Treasure Tribulation and the subsequent baptism of heavenly energy, such artifacts become incredibly complex; their true mysteries remain elusive even to their owners until they reach the Mahayana Realm.

As he moved through the palace, the sights left Li Yuanba in a state of constant shock.

He encountered a tea room, reflecting the common hobby of tea tasting shared by many high-level cultivators, including Langcai Great Power.

The furniture consisted of a table and two chairs, all carved from fourth-grade top-tier wood.

Upon the table sat a tea box fashioned from fourth-grade top-tier spirit jade, accompanied by a full set of matching teaware.

Li Yuanba observed that the palace lacked ornate decorations, which was logical given it was a private living space rather than a ceremonial hall.

Driven by curiosity regarding the quality of Spiritual Tea favored by such a powerful figure, he popped open the spirit jade box to examine the leaves.

A disdainful curl touched his lips; even a mighty Great Power drank nothing better than fourth-grade Spiritual Tea. While the quality was undoubtedly elite, it paled in comparison to the tea personally processed by Li Shiming.

Even the most powerful beings have limitations; while a Grotto Heaven grants them unique authority, that control cannot match the 0.1-nanometer precision Li Shiming achieved within the machine room space.

The machine room space, having survived the mysteries of transmigration, possessed inexplicable properties.

With the computational support of the IBMz15, the refining process of Spiritual Tea attained a level of perfection that extracted the absolute maximum quality from fourth-grade leaves.

Li Yuanba looked at the contents of the tea room with envy, fighting the temptation to loot everything.

The Alchemy Room, the study, and the Cultivation Room were all the same—every corner of the hall was packed with fourth-grade top-tier materials.

He was standing in a treasure trove the likes of which he had never imagined.

He understood, however, that while the sheer volume was impressive, the palace itself was a massive magical treasure, meaning the actual weight of materials used was less than its size suggested.

Even so, the amount of fourth-grade top-tier material present here was a hundred times greater than everything Li Yuanba and Li Shiming had ever seen combined.

Resisting the urge to start claiming treasures, he focused on searching the palace for the Cave Heaven Core.

Wandering between admiration and investigation, he navigated the various chambers before circling back to the main hall.

His attention eventually locked onto a statue within the hall, which portrayed a middle-aged man sporting a long beard.

He had overlooked it at first, as the palace was filled with various statues, suggesting Langcai Great Power had been a collector.

However, by cross-referencing his search with the detailed map generated by the IBMz15, he realized this specific statue occupied the exact geometric center of the palace.

A location of such significance would not be occupied by a mere decoration.

Approaching the figure, he activated his 'Divine Vision' and projected his Divine Sense to probe it.

The statue was cast from a rare fourth-grade top-tier metal and protected by advanced artifact refining and formation techniques designed to block all external detection.

Nevertheless, after an analysis by the IBMz15, he identified a flaw in the statue's defenses, allowing his Divine Sense to slip inside.

Despite Langcai Great Power’s mastery of formations and smithing, he was still bound by the fundamental laws of the Cultivation World.

The IBMz15 contained the collective knowledge of array inheritances from multiple continents and great Sects. Combined with Li Shiming’s status as an Array Master, there were few formations in existence they could not crack.

As his Divine Sense penetrated the statue, Li Yuanba felt the distinct rule power of metal and space vibrating at its center.

"There it is!" He confirmed the location of the Cave Heaven Core the moment his Divine Sense brushed against the internal mechanism.

The core was shaped like a heart, and upon contact, the Grotto Heaven’s Artifact Spirit manifested its presence.

"Cease your interference with the master’s rest!" the Artifact Spirit hissed.

Li Yuanba could hear a clear sense of desperation beneath the warning.

The Artifact Spirit had exhausted its options trying to stop him, but Li Yuanba possessed too many counters. Furthermore, the Grotto Heaven’s depleted energy meant many of its defensive measures lacked the power to truly harm him.

By the time he reached the palace, there were no active offensive systems left to stop him.

Li Yuanba brushed off the threat; the fact that the spirit believed Langcai Great Power was merely sleeping rather than dead proved it could not be reasoned with or reassigned.

This was a safeguard left by the Great Power to ensure the Grotto Heaven would never serve another master.

The Grotto Heaven was an extension of its creator, and its core spirit was designed to be non-transferable even after the creator's passing.

Using his Divine Sense, Li Yuanba manipulated specific array nodes on the statue, triggering the formation to open a physical path to the heart.

He produced several Forbidden Spirit Talismans and slapped them onto the statue’s heart without a second thought.

The talismans flared with energy, passing through the metallic shell to wrap around the heart.

In an instant, the heart's spirituality was suppressed, and the Artifact Spirit within was completely severed from the outside world.

The Grotto Heaven shuddered violently as it lost its connection to the core. With the Artifact Spirit no longer at the helm, the entire realm's functions began to operate on blind instinct.

Had the Grotto Heaven not been designed with such robust automated systems, the loss of the core might have caused it to collapse into total chaos immediately.