Cultivation is just so scientific! Chapter 1547 - 820: Seal

The sealing runes on the bound Nascent Soul were crafted from Rule Power. It could be that the Half-step Great Power excelled greatly in manipulating Rule Power, or perhaps they chose not to expend excess Rule Power; the Rule Power locking down the Nascent Soul was exactly enough to hold it in place.

Breaking free from the sealing Rule Power internally would prove impossible without outside help. Yet the Rule Power forming that seal remained finite. After careful study, Li Shiming determined that in just a few days, he could harness the strength of the remaining four Nascent Souls to shatter the seal.

He remembered that finger from earlier and pondered its overwhelming force; it evoked the terror of an ant staring down a dragon, a dread he hadn't felt since reaching the Nascent Soul Realm.

Li Shiming's approach to dismantling the Rule Power in the sealing runes was simple: he kept bombarding them relentlessly with the 'Five Elements Qi Absorption Array.'

While he labored to crack the sealing rune inside himself, his attention shifted back to the jade compass.

He was certain the Half-step Great Power was fully aware of the external circumstances. Their current silence toward him suggested they felt confident he posed no threat, or they were biding time for him to draw near so they could capture him once more.

A smile crossed his face, as his natal magical artifact IBMz15 had already devised a series of formations.

He pulled out the Buddha beads, dispersing them into 108 separate ones, and with a flick of his wrist, sent the 108 beads soaring outward to encircle the jade compass.

None of the Buddha beads hit the earth; instead, they all floated a meter off the ground, radiating a golden light that triggered a unique spatial formation.

Li Shiming had planned this deliberately, fearing the Half-step Great Power would smash the Buddha beads during his setup.

So he acted with swift resolve in deploying the formation, igniting it before the beads could settle to surprise the Half-step Great Power.

With the formation now active, a bit of the tension inside him eased; facing a Half-step Great Power demanded utmost wariness, even if their abilities were somehow restricted, to avoid any sudden strikes back.

Establishing the formation successfully didn't signal the end. Li Shiming snapped his fingers, sending forth a barrage of spells that embedded themselves into the formation.

The beads started to draw inward; at first, the change was subtle, but once they shrank to a critical point, the area surrounding the jade compass began to harden like stone.

As space turned rigid, the region beyond the Grotto Heaven transformed from normal into a densely packed solid due to the formation's influence.

IBMz15's creation was meant as a spatial formation to block the Grotto Heaven's entry and exit points, though here its power had been amplified beyond the original design.

Li Shiming held deep knowledge of Grotto Heavens, owning two of his own; adding the Taichu branch's Taichu Cave Heaven, he effectively controlled three.

Half-Life Cave Heaven and Heavenly Person Cave Heaven served as his personal domains; IBMz15 had been delving into Cave Heaven studies for ages, grasping their links to the outer world.

The Half-Life Cave Heaven in particular mirrored the one belonging to the Half-step Great Power up ahead, so locking down the spatial formation of Half-Life Cave Heaven effectively sealed the one in front.

He kept unleashing spells, causing the formation to squeeze tighter and the space to solidify even more.

His efforts halted only when the 108 Buddha beads coalesced into a formation the size of a palm.

Still, Li Shiming stayed back; he called forth a late-stage Golden Corpse from nearby, then drew a talisman pen and a vial of talismanic ink from the soul crystal ring, passing them to the Golden Corpse.

Once the late-stage Golden Corpse grasped the talisman pen and talismanic ink, Li Shiming's mind seized control of the Golden Corpse's form.

To be fair, the Golden Corpse's physique offered flexibility and range much like that of an ordinary Great Cultivator, free from the rigidity typical in standard Corpse Refining.

Except for the inner Yin Cold Power that felt unfamiliar, the corpse core had taken the place of the Nascent Soul.

Yet with his prior shift into a Corpse Refining form via his clone Li Yuanba, who could switch to such a state, the sensation closely resembled what he faced now.

In particular, when channeling Yin Cold Energy, Li Yuanba had boosted Yin Cold Power by practicing Corpse Refining methods. Though he rarely pursued it, that background now helped Li Shiming swiftly adapt to wielding Yin Cold Power here.

The late-stage Golden Corpse advanced as Yin Cold Energy coursed through the talisman pen; the flow wavered at the start but steadied by the time it reached the jade compass.

The Golden Corpse crouched down, keeping its arm utterly steady.

Without delay, it inscribed the long-prepared space sealing runes onto the jade compass using the talisman pen.

The Half-step Great Power obviously grasped Li Shiming's plan and struggled to fight back from inside the Cave Heaven, but the 108 Buddha beads' spatial formation held the Cave Heaven in check.

This rendered them, for all their might, incapable of affecting the outside world from within the Cave Heaven, much less mounting any assaults.

At last, the Half-step Great Power ended their quiet, seeking to speak with Li Shiming.

"Li Shizhen, don’t push me to desperation, or I’ll forcefully employ three thousand years of cultivation to slay you!" Their voice lacked the booming intensity one might expect.

Though originating from within the Cave Heaven, it rang like a massive bell, but thanks to the space sealing formation's power, upon passing the Cave Heaven's boundary, it weakened to a mere whisper like a mosquito's hum.