Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 154: Chapter 123: Essence Blood_2

Li Shiming had no idea that there was a follow-up to Baili Jin Yan’s affair, as more than half a year had passed. He thought that the investigation from the Holy Ice Sect should have ended by now.

Besides, nothing had ever happened on Eagle Beak Island; all was peaceful.

At this moment, he was using his Spiritual Thought combined with his consciousness to conduct a thorough examination of his duplicate body.

The aura of the duplicate had completely transformed and bore no trace of Baili Jin Yan’s, coupled with the change in appearance, it was as if it were another person altogether.

However, whenever Li Shiming immersed his consciousness into the duplicate to practice the “Ice Heart Jade Thought Technique,” he always sensed the existence of some kind of spiritual energy within.

The duplicate had not felt this strongly when it had just recovered its Spiritual Thought, so he hadn’t paid much attention, but as the duplicate’s Spiritual Thought grew, this sensation became increasingly apparent.

Moreover, when the duplicate cultivated the “Ice Heart Jade Thought Technique,” the rate at which its Spiritual Thought strengthened seemed a bit too fast, even surpassing the rate of increase of his own true body’s Spiritual Thought.

Li Shiming divided the duplicate’s body into dozens of regions and started examining them at the micrometer level, meticulously probing each area.

He knew his realm was too low, so his search was exceedingly slow: micrometer by micrometer, his Spiritual Thought inching along in the examination.

Eventually, he found a suspicious detail—a droplet of essence blood within the heart.

He suspected this droplet because, although it seemed normal, when probed by Spiritual Thought, he discerned a hint of an abnormal aura.

If the duplicate’s aura had remained the same as before, Li Shiming would never have noticed anything peculiar about the droplet of essence blood.

The problem was that now the duplicate’s aura had completely changed, and although the aura of the essence blood was extremely faint, it didn’t fit in with the surrounding aura at all.

Aside from the aura of the essence blood, he failed to sense the special spiritual energy within it.

After some consideration, Li Shiming decided to let the duplicate cultivate the “Ice Heart Jade Thought Technique,” because every time he sensed the spiritual energy, it was when the duplicate was in the middle of cultivating the “Ice Heart Jade Thought Technique.”

At the same time, he had his true body’s Spiritual Thought and consciousness monitor this droplet of essence blood, so that he could detect any irregularities immediately should they occur.

With the operation of the “Ice Heart Jade Thought Technique,” this droplet of essence blood emitted an extremely pure spiritual energy into the duplicate’s body, enhancing the intensity of its Spiritual Thought.

Li Shiming finally understood the nature of the spiritual energy he had sensed— it was precisely this seemingly normal droplet of essence blood.

This essence blood was aiding Baili Jin Yan in cultivating the “Ice Heart Jade Thought Technique” through some unknown method.

In any case, with Li Shiming’s current realm, even with the help of his room’s space and an IBM z15, he couldn’t unravel the special nature of the essence blood.

What he didn’t know was that this was an act of a father’s selfless love. Elder Baili had used his own essence blood and a secret technique to extract it and transplanted it into his son, Baili Jin Yan’s, body.

Normally, a droplet of Golden Core Stage essence blood was enough to explode the body of a Qi Refining cultivator, and even with Baili Jin Yan’s physique refined by the “Sword Demon Secret Manual,” it made no difference.

However, Elder Baili’s secret method had altered the Golden Core Stage essence blood to a gentle nature, allowing it to remain inside Baili Jin Yan.

It was this droplet of essence blood that propelled Baili Jin Yan’s already exceptional talent to achieve a nearly insurmountable feat within the Qi Refinement Realm.

Considering Baili Jin Yan’s future path of development, if he suppressed his realm until the Spiritual Energy Vortex in his body reached its limit before breaking through, he would lay the most solid foundation for his cultivation.

Li Shiming frowned as he sensed this droplet of essence blood. He had two choices: one was to remove the droplet of essence blood and destroy it.

But he wasn’t at all certain he could manage it; he struggled just to examine the essence blood, let alone extract it. He feared that a failed extraction might cause the energy within the essence blood to destroy the duplicate or even annihilate his room’s space.

The second option was to maintain the status quo and wait for the essence blood to deplete on its own.

This could be possible, as with the operation of the “Ice Heart Jade Thought Technique,” spiritual energy would flow out of the essence blood.

It was impossible for a droplet of essence blood to have an endless supply of spiritual energy. As long as he continued to cultivate Spiritual Thought and the “Ice Heart Jade Thought Technique,” he could deplete the essence blood.

However, this meant postponing taking the duplicate to the outside world once again.

“Ah, it’s another case of ‘no pain, no gain’!” he sighed with resignation.

Having realized where the problem lay, he felt a weight off his shoulders.

After obtaining the clone, he had suspected there would be trouble once he saw the treasures in the storage bracelet.

Indeed, the trouble had persisted, but fortunately, he had always been extremely cautious in his actions.

If he had really summoned the clone out into the open, it’s likely that the Holy Ice Sect would have already discovered and started to hunt him down.

In fact, that was exactly the case. As long as Li Shiming didn’t leave the continent, Elder Baili, the owner of that drop of blood, could eventually track down its location.

It was only because the machine room space was so special, isolating Elder Baili’s senses, that Li Shiming had been able to remain at large until now.

Li Shiming immersed his spirit in the state connected with the IBMz15, and a wealth of Formation knowledge emerged in his mind, with all 190 of IBMz15’s CPUs running at high load.

He hadn’t used good deeds but instead purchased a great deal of Formation knowledge through Yun’s Trading House, and although it cost him many Spirit Stones, it was still acceptable compared to using good deeds.

The Formation knowledge from Yun’s Trading House came from various sources and had no ties to Sect Formation knowledge, so there was no conflict.

He felt that in a short while, his accumulated knowledge of Formations would be sufficient for him to consider applying for the Intermediate Array Master assessment.

Of course, if he were to take the exam now, he was fairly confident he would pass, but the quick progression would draw too much attention, so he decided to wait another year or two.

The IBMz15 was researching Formation knowledge almost constantly, and then, like now, it shared its research findings with him every so often.

This allowed him to stay on top of everything while swiftly advancing in the realm of Formation knowledge.

Suddenly, the IBMz15 stopped sharing Formation knowledge and issued a warning alert to him.

He understood that the vibrating eyepatch beside him was responding to his senses through the IBMz15’s alert.

A vibrating eyepatch indicated suspicious proximity.

He didn’t need to wear the eyepatch; by sending a Spiritual Thought into it, he could then see the abnormal location outside the island through a surveillance probe.

Speaking of surveillance probes, with the advent of micro-level chips, he had made many of them, covering all directions approaching Eagle Beak Island within the surveillance range.

Infrared combined with standard mode, processed and analyzed by the chip, would automatically send a preemptive warning to the relay device, that is, the eyepatch, whenever a suspicious situation arose.

At the same time, the surveillance probes would track the movement of suspicious targets and provide real-time tracking footage to the eyepatch.

Li Shiming’s Spiritual Thought acted as his eyes, seeing the image within the eyepatch, revealing a figure in a state of Invisibility.

Cultivators possess many Invisibility Techniques, but most of them are of little use to fellow cultivators, as even a simple Qi Observation Skill could unveil them.

Even without the use of Qi Observation Skill, a cultivator’s sensitivity to fluctuations in Spiritual Energy is enough to detect an Invisibility cultivator approaching within a certain distance.

Li Shiming’s surveillance probes naturally lacked this method, but the infrared mode was equally capable of detecting the target.

What surprised him, however, was that the target’s silhouette didn’t appear red as a normal cultivator would under the infrared night vision mode, which indicated the heat the body emits.

Even as cultivators, the body continuously emits heat, with stronger cultivators radiating more intense heat.

However, the figure in the surveillance was showing a deep blue color, indicative of a body temperature far below the surrounding temperature.

Luckily, when Li Shiming wrote the judgment program, he included the possibility of a low body temperature. He had encountered a similar cultivator before, though that one was a Devil Cultivator.

This Devil Cultivator was from the Xuanming Sect, very similar to the deep blue silhouette.

“Could it be a Xuanming Sect cultivator?” Li Shiming speculated in his mind.

But why would a Xuanming Sect cultivator sneak into Eagle Beak Island so secretly? This place was a forbidden area for Xuanming Sect cultivators.

Just then, he saw a second deep blue figure appear, and the two seemed to be exchanging words. Afterward, one of them extended a hand towards the Array.