Cultivation is just so scientific! Chapter 1500 - 796: Interest (Part 2)

Even with the Water Escape technique greatly lessening the harm from the Fourth-Grade Sword Foundation, Cultivator Lu sensed his body and Nascent Soul still suffering the corrosion of the 'Chaos Sword Intent'.

Even more horrifying, Li Shiming's silhouette wavered, placing him once more in melee proximity, which made all the protective spells and magical artifacts useless.

This power to bypass defensive spells and treasures stemmed from the spatial shift of the Divine Foot Skill merged with the hidden arts of melee sword cultivators.

Truth be told, even lacking the Divine Foot Skill, a melee sword cultivator could get close by shattering the foe's barriers through swift charges and special hidden techniques.

The melee secret art recorded in the 'Nameless Sword Manual' stands as a core skill for sword cultivators, enabling them to dive into hand-to-hand fights with ease.

It's well-known that most cultivators bolster their defenses with spells in fights, often forcing attackers to crack those barriers before striking the cultivator's flesh directly.

Yet, melee sword cultivators bypass a cultivator's protections via their secret arts to hit the exposed body straight on.

"Is this a close combat sword cultivator?" Cultivator Lu gave up any ideas of fleeing, turning his attention to fighting the 'Chaos Sword Intent' inside him, staving off the end. Right up to his final instant, he wanted to grasp Li Shiming's ways.

"Yes, it's exactly the sword cultivation texts carved into the jade scroll you handed to Li Yuanba!" Li Shiming replied calmly, lifting the Fourth-Grade Sword Foundation high.

Without giving Cultivator Lu another chance to talk, the Fourth-Grade Sword Foundation stabbed into his form, letting extra 'Chaos Sword Intent' flood in and swiftly snuff out his vital energy.

In his dying gaze, Cultivator Lu showed clear regret and sorrow.

But what he never realized was that these melee sword cultivator skills represented the most basic fighting methods Li Shiming had learned.

If he hadn't wanted to try out his different battle skills, Li Shiming could've slain Cultivator Lu with a single offhand blow.

The successive falls of two mighty cultivators left the far-off Central State Commerce convoy, which had turned on its protective formation, completely bewildered.

In this dire state, even if Li Shiming let them go, their leftover power wouldn't let them cross the oceans back to the Central State Continent in safety.

A large-scale far-off convoy like this would draw attention as a prime mark, and without mighty cultivator guards, every cultivator they met would strike for gain.

Still, the Central State Commerce group worried needlessly; Li Shiming planned to wipe them all out without mercy.

After exposing so many hidden truths, Li Shiming refused to leave any cultivator alive to leak those secrets.

On top of that, he carried old grudges against Central State Commerce; this convoy would serve as early payment on those debts.

In a blink, he applied the 'One-Step Arrival' skill to slip inside the convoy's protective formation.

With one look, he fully broke down the convoy's defensive formation. While it blocked spatial access, spotting its weak points let him breach them without trouble.

Inside the defensive formation of the convoy, he let loose his own mighty cultivator presence.

Before, higher-realm pressures had held him back, but now he could finally unleash his realm pressure on his foes.

This was a power he longed to experiment with. He started by sending out Nascent Soul stage pressure, wiping out every cultivator under Nascent Soul Stage in the convoy.

Then, he unleashed pressure matching five Nascent Souls, like five mighty cultivators using the 'Heavenly Human Technique' combining their realm forces. Every Nascent Soul cultivator in range endured five waves of crushing force.

In just two breaths, all early Nascent Soul cultivators perished, vomiting blood; in ten breaths, mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivators dropped dead one after another. At no point could any Nascent Soul cultivator fight back.

This showed the true divide between a mighty cultivator and a mid-stage Nascent Soul one. In the cultivation realm, rarities like Li Shiming and Li Yuanba could cross realms in battle even at mid-stage Nascent Soul.

Even Li Yuanba would need careful steps against a mighty cultivator's pressure. Without the 'Chaos Sword Intent' to offset realm pressure, Li Yuanba couldn't have clashed with mighty cultivators so often.

For Li Shiming, his 191 mental faculties allowed him to spread out a mighty cultivator's realm pressure among them.

With no signs of life left, Li Shiming pulled back the realm pressure.

His Divine Sense scanned the five far-off flying ships, clearing away the cultivators' bodies before storing the 'White Emperor Light Cloud Boat' and boarding the front flying ship.

This specific far-off flying ship was too big for the soul crystal ring.

Checking the five far-off flying ships, he saw they held spatial arrays, creating huge inner areas. Each ship's storage matched the soul crystal ring's capacity almost perfectly.

The cargo bays of the five ships brimmed with plentiful goods, proof of the precious load guarded by two mighty cultivators.

The Central State Continent, heart of the cultivation world, pulls in massive resources from everywhere, hauling them back to meet its huge demands.

In the flying ship's cargo area, he found not just resources for various cultivation levels but also items for making spells. Yet most room held full spirit tree trunks along with huge slabs of spiritual jade and spirit stones.

Spirit trees, spiritual jade, and spirit stones serve as key building stuff for crafting ships and cultivator dwellings.

The amount here was truly plentiful; while no single item's worth was enormous, their total value was too good for even Li Shiming to ignore.

Shaking his head, he extended his Divine Sense, assigning forty mental faculties to handle forty divine senses, guiding the far-off trade fleet to turn toward the Dongqi Continent.

He'd already chosen to handle this load once they hit the Dongqi Continent.

These far-off flying ships' pace fell short of the Fourth-Grade Top Quality 'White Emperor Light Cloud Boat'. Even fueled by his spiritual power, the speed boost stayed limited.

What should've taken over twenty days stretched to more than forty days to arrive at the Dongqi Continent.

And that was with him as a strong mighty cultivator; someone weaker could easily take at least two months for the trip.

After some thought, he freed Great Cultivator Luo Pei. His power might be low, but he remained a mighty cultivator.

Having two mighty cultivators in the trade fleet would cut down their issues a lot.

Great Cultivator Luo Pei stayed firmly under the Heavenly Ghost's control. When Li Shiming called him out, he spotted the Heavenly Ghost's aura acting a bit unsteady.

This unsteadiness meant that Li Shiming's breakthrough had lifted the Heavenly Ghost's realm caps, giving it a shot at reaching Late Stage Fourth Grade.

That said, Li Shiming didn't want the Heavenly Ghost advancing right then; it required a better setting for the breakthrough.

Not just the Heavenly Ghost—Little Feng and the Illusion Spirit Dragon also awaited chances to advance, plus the ready Corpse Refining, all vital for boosting his power.

With the Heavenly Ghost in charge, handling Great Cultivator Luo Pei proved simple. Plus, Li Shiming's rise to mighty cultivator removed the Heavenly Ghost's limits and even eliminated the need to hold back Luo Pei's cultivation.

Before, to avoid rebound from Luo Pei's strong level, his cultivation got sealed due to Li Shiming's mid-stage Nascent Soul status back then.

As a result, Luo Pei's skills stayed at rock bottom; minus the Spiritual Treasure Black Water Sword, he'd rank as the feeblest in the mighty cultivator realm.

Even after years, the Heavenly Ghost's intentional hold kept Luo Pei's cultivation from growing at all.