Cultivation is just so scientific! Chapter 1556 - 824: Enlightenment (2)

Li Shiming detected the thundercloud's presence. Following the Heavenly Ghost's absorption of the Heart Demon, a subtle boost had been given to the thundercloud's condition, letting it persist, with the Thunder Rules continuing to operate.

Yet, this thundercloud wasn't sustained by Spiritual Energy originally, relying instead on Spirit energy, which rendered its thunderous power quite feeble, and the Thunder Rules upholding the Grotto Heaven appeared remarkably fragile.

He moved closer to the thundercloud and started scrutinizing the Thunder Rules.

Inside a Grotto Heaven devoid of any half-step Great Power, the inner rules lack any safeguards; they seem openly displayed, permitting a full inspection of the entire Thunder Rules.

No half-step Great Power would ever permit a cultivator to scrutinize the rules inside their Grotto Heaven, since those rules stem from a lifetime's worth of study by that half-step Great Power.

Particularly, flaws in their grasp of the rules might lurk within, and should an adversary uncover them, such vulnerabilities could prove deadly in combat.

Yang Xing, the half-step Great Power who owned this Grotto Heaven, had now merged into the Heavenly Ghost, so he could no longer block Li Shiming from examining the Grotto Heaven's rules.

A fairly intact collection of Thunder Rules materialized directly before Li Shiming. He summoned his lifebound magic treasure, the IBMz15, to capture every detail of the Thunder Rules on display.

These represented the Thunder Rules of a half-step Great Power specialized in thunder cultivation, vastly more profound than Li Shiming's own.

Rather than plunging straight into comprehension, he first allowed the IBMz15 to log the information, guarding against any mishaps in this delicate Grotto Heaven.

Half-Life Cave Heaven belongs to a half-step Great Power as well, yet it houses numerous rules that interlink into a stabilizing system, ensuring the Grotto Heaven's endurance.

Furthermore, by incorporating Five Elements Treasures into the Grotto Heaven, he had refined the Five Elements Rules, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of Five Elements inside the Half-Life Cave Heaven.

By contrast, this present Grotto Heaven came across as overly basic.

Li Shiming extracted a portion of Thunder Spirit Power from within himself and channeled it into the thundercloud.

Additionally, he produced a vein-locking plate to draw Spiritual Energy from the Great Cultivator Spirit Vein, supplying it to the Grotto Heaven.

As the Heavenly Ghost's controller, the thundercloud welcomed the spirit energy he provided, and since Thunder Spirit Power greatly benefited the thundercloud, its potency surged by several folds.

When the Spiritual Energy from the Great Cultivator Spirit Vein built up to an adequate level inside the Grotto Heaven, he stopped worrying about the Spiritual Energy's status there.

The Grotto Heaven possessed the ability to draw in Spiritual Energy on its own from the void; it had simply been starved of too much before, but now with this influx, it could easily sustain itself.

Li Shiming then returned to studying the Thunder Rules, which had noticeably gained strength from the influx of Spiritual Energy, rendering the Grotto Heaven a bit more solid.

He also realized that the thundercloud formed the heart of this Grotto Heaven.

This thundercloud seemed to have evolved from a unique substance tied to thunder, qualifying it as a Thunder Treasure.

Typical thunderclouds expend their energy while producing thunder, eventually fading away.

In contrast, this one stood apart; provided with sufficient Spiritual Energy, it could endlessly produce Thunder Energy, thereby anchoring the Thunder Rules' stability.

For the first time, Li Shiming encountered a Thunder Treasure like this, feeling mere curiosity, especially since Half-Life Cave Heaven already included Thunder Rules, though those derived from Five Elements Treasures via the Five Elements Rules.

The Five Elements Treasures in Half-Life Cave Heaven outshone this Grotto Heaven's Thunder Treasure by far.

Still, given that this was an emerging Grotto Heaven, such simplicity made sense.

He directed his Divine Sense back to the Thunder Rules inside the thundercloud, slipping into a profound state of insight.

The 'Thunder Rule Imprint' upon his Nascent Soul intensified and sharpened progressively as his grasp expanded.

Right then, he set aside thoughts of the two prisoners and all else, his consciousness fully absorbed in grasping the 'Thunder Rules,' as every one of his 191 brains joined the contemplative effort.

Two days following Li Shiming's clash with Master Wang He and Yan Gao Great Cultivator, details of the confrontation leaked out from the Dongqi Continent division of Central State Commerce.

Word of Li Shiming overpowering two peak Great Cultivators single-handedly prompted cultivators across Dongqi Continent to reassess his formidable abilities.

This report traveled to other continents via intercontinental communication arrays.

At first, the major powers hadn't placed excessive weight on Li Shiming, but now they fully recognized him as the rising super genius.

Li Shiming outstripped Li Yuanba from Sword Intent Chongxiao Pavilion, claiming the title of the Cultivation World's youngest prodigy.

That said, Li Yuanba retained the top spot at Nascent Soul Middle Stage; the key factor was Li Shiming's astonishingly swift progress, with the two being roughly the same age, yet Li Shiming had already reached Great Cultivator status.

Yuqing Sect and White Emperor Sect both obtained this update; upon receiving it, White Emperor Sect swiftly pulled back its reach and revised its outward approaches.

White Emperor Sect had suffered heavy losses in Great Cultivators and ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators, leaving it incapable of holding onto its previous territories and assets.

In particular, with Yan Gao Great Cultivator's defeat and disappearance, White Emperor Sect faced a prolonged gap in elite fighting force.

Though chances for peak Great Cultivators to intervene were infrequent, their mere existence deterred rival factions.

Without that intimidating force, groups eyeing White Emperor Sect's holdings grew bold enough to encroach and claim what had been White Emperor Sect's possessions.

Even possessing Great Powers, White Emperor Sect couldn't handle every minor dispute; mobilizing a Great Power carried an exorbitant cost, rendering petty conflicts off-limits.

White Emperor Sect's recovery phase wouldn't drag on forever, and in a few hundred years, it would rebound, producing fresh Great Cultivators to stand in for Yan Gao Great Cultivator.

Yuqing Sect's recovery would stretch far longer; White Emperor Sect's leaders were aware that Yuqing Sect had dispatched Yang Xing, a half-step Great Power, but remained in the dark about the result.

Yuqing Sect couldn't offset the loss of a half-step Great Power merely by raising another peak Great Cultivator; such a downfall rattled the very roots of Yuqing Sect.

To nurture more half-step Great Powers, Yuqing Sect would have to pour extra resources into them, which meant skimping on supplies for standard Great Cultivators, gradually eroding Yuqing Sect's edge in Great Cultivators against other super forces.

Yet this step was essential; failing to bolster half-step Great Power training could shatter the Great Power lineage, demoting Yuqing Sect from super force to mere large-scale entity.

Through Central State Commerce, Yuqing Sect shelled out a fortune for deeper intel, encompassing Li Shiming's seizure of Master Wang He.

Despite this knowledge, Yuqing Sect found itself helpless to strike at Li Shiming.

With failures from both peak Great Cultivators and half-step Great Powers, deploying their Great Powers would strain them immensely across continents, drastically shortening their lives.

In Yuqing Sect's fragile state, its Great Powers couldn't afford to squander lifespan, choosing instead to conserve strength in hopes of a future Great Power heir.

Master Liu Ziyun reached the Taichu branch, aware from reports that Li Shiming hadn't gone back to Ten Thousand Beast Sect but had headed there instead.

Still, despite numerous attempts with communication methods and secret tokens, even enlisting Grandmaster Hu from Ten Thousand Beast Sect for help, he failed to reach Li Shiming.

He had taken on several alchemy commissions; postponing them typically posed little problem, since skilled Alchemy Masters often had their quirks, and holdups rarely mattered.

But the absence of solid updates left him on edge.

On top of that, directives from Central State Commerce's main office urged him to build stronger ties with Li Shiming; beyond his other skills, Li Shiming's battle prowess alone drew Central State Commerce's keen interest.

If not for past handlers betraying Li Shiming, Central State Commerce might have sought to bring him back into the fold.