Cultivation is just so scientific! Chapter 1553: 823: Devour

Li Shiming experienced a moment of bewilderment. He couldn't quite figure out the sequence of events; all he had done was pull out the Spiritual Energy from the Grotto Heaven, yet in the process, he accidentally sucked the life out of a half-step Great Power!

That half-step Great Power turned out to be far too fragile. It wasn't long before his minor interference led straight to its demise.

In truth, he had intended to take a few months to handle the matter of the half-step Great Power properly.

At this point, the sole remaining concern was that heart demon.

A heart demon confined inside the Grotto Heaven with no way out posed absolutely no threat against a Heavenly Ghost.

Li Shiming held back the Heavenly Ghost from advancing to consume the heart demon, pondering if the Grotto Heaven itself could be saved.

Regardless of its modest size, this Grotto Heaven marked a vital milestone for a Great Cultivator on the path to half-step Great Power status. Countless Great Cultivators met their end without ever forming one.

Yang Xing's Grotto Heaven as a half-step Great Power predated even Half-Life Cave Heaven, serving almost as a prototype for the initial creation of such a realm.

By studying this Grotto Heaven closely, Li Shiming stood to acquire valuable insights and resolve numerous challenges.

The details in ancient texts often diverged from actual practice, leaving many hands-on aspects unexplained in writing.

To fully command this Grotto Heaven, the matter of the heart demon had to be addressed. Would ownership of the Grotto Heaven shift to the Heavenly Ghost once the heart demon was consumed?

After some deep thought, he reached a conclusion.

Ultimately, the heart demon resided deep within the Grotto Heaven, and Li Shiming himself was barred from entering it.

This heart demon stemmed from a half-step Great Power's essence. Without the Heavenly Ghost's natural suppression over heart demons, only a true Great Power in the Cultivation World could hope to vanquish it—no lesser cultivator stood a chance.

Suddenly, Li Shiming realized that the seal on his Nascent Soul had quietly lifted without his notice.

Apparently, the death of the half-step Great Power had nullified the seal's power.

At the same time, inside a Grotto Heaven belonging to the Yuqing Sect on the West Yan Continent, a figure meditating in mid-air abruptly stirred.

With that stir, thunder and lightning erupted chaotically throughout the entire Grotto Heaven, as though he ruled over it completely, and even the tiniest shift in his state triggered a fierce backlash from the realm itself.

“Yang Xing has fallen!” He quelled the fury surging from the demise of Yang Xing the half-step Great Power, his tone laced with utter incredulity.

As a Great Power within the Yuqing Sect, he had seen innumerable cultivators rise and fall, including many who shone as geniuses of their eras.

Still, entering the half-step Great Power realm occurred far less than once every thousand years.

Reaching half-step Great Power status meant facing a deadly trial; the following stage was the Mahayana Realm, elevating one to the pinnacle of the Cultivation World, with every alternative path ending in oblivion.

Only a handful of half-step Great Powers ever progressed to the Mahayana Realm, which deterred many Great Cultivators from risking the half-step Great Power phase at all.

For a mighty force like the Yuqing Sect, their accumulated legacy far exceeded what outsiders could imagine; superpowers like them likely harbored secret reserves of power.

Yang Xing was the Yuqing Sect's most recent breakthrough to half-step Great Power. Given his brief time in that rank and the nascent phase of his Grotto Heaven's merging, assigning him a mission carried relatively little risk.

Thus, the Great Power selected Yang Xing, and following the Great Power's orders, Yang Xing had little say in the matter.

Naturally, Yang Xing gained some advantages too; upon completing the mission, the Great Power promised extra guidance to deepen his grasp of the rules, plus a share of rare resources.

From the birth of a half-step Great Power's Grotto Heaven to its full stabilization, vast quantities of resources were essential for pushing toward the Mahayana Realm. These treasures were invaluable, directly influencing a half-step Great Power's future prospects and limits.

Though Yang Xing wasn't certain of succeeding through the initial merging of his Grotto Heaven to secure its stability, he had to stockpile resources early for the demanding phases ahead.

“How could he have fallen?” The Great Power muttered under his breath.

In the Cultivation World, solely other Great Powers held the ability to kill a half-step Great Power.

Yet Yang Xing had traveled to the Dongqi Continent, a place devoid not just of Great Powers but even Peak Great Cultivators. So how exactly did he meet his end there?

He activated a transmission spell, directing the Yuqing Sect's intelligence network to probe into Master Wang He's circumstances. He hadn't detected the loss of Master Wang He's vital aura, suggesting the man remained alive.

Locating Master Wang He would reveal the full story of events.

Without solid information, he couldn't move forward, and he reflected on the many elite cultivators who had perished while pursuing the ‘Shenxiao Thunder Pearl’ for the Yuqing Sect.

Now, with half-step Great Power Yang Xing's death, the odds of the Yuqing Sect birthing a new Great Power in the coming two or three millennia had plummeted.

The emergence of a half-step Great Power always hinted at the birth of a future Great Power. Such figures arose roughly once every one or two thousand years.

Before a superpower's Great Power reached the end of their lifespan, every extra half-step Great Power bolstered the chances of generating a new one, sustaining the superpower's bloodline over extended periods until fresh Great Powers arose.

The Yuqing Sect's lineage strategy had been flawless, producing a half-step Great Power every one or two thousand years to maintain an unbroken chain of Great Powers. With so many candidates, the likelihood of success was high.

However, losing one—especially the freshest half-step Great Power—threw the Yuqing Sect's long-term plans for new Great Powers into disarray.