Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 155: Chapter 124: Tracking

The two cultivators who arrived were Qi Refining Late Stage Cultivators from the Holy Ice Sect, and they practiced the Holy Ice Sect’s main cultivation technique, which filled their bodies with chilly spiritual power. This is why they appeared deep blue in infrared mode.

These two late-stage Qi Refining cultivators, taking advantage of the night, made their way to Eagle Beak Island as if it were a route they knew well.

The last time, it was them who came to assassinate, and this time they had come again.

One of the late-stage Qi Refining cultivators took out an Array Breaking Talisman. When the spiritual power was stimulated, the talisman emitted a beam of white light that flew into the small Mountain Protection Array.

“What’s going on? Why is the Array Breaking Talisman useless?” Seeing the white light disappear as if a stone ox had entered the sea, he asked in bewilderment.

Little did he know that the defensive formation on Eagle Beak Island had been replaced with a smaller Mountain Protection Array. Unless someone employed a powerful method to crack it, a formidable Array Master, many times more skilled than Li Shiming, would have to make a personal appearance to possibly break through the small Mountain Protection Array.

Array Breaking Talismans were precious because they could allow a cultivator with not even the slightest foundation in formation techniques the possibility of breaking through a formation.

However, Array Breaking Talismans weren’t omnipotent. Their creation involved taking the experience of an intermediate or higher level Array Master in breaking formations and gathering it onto a talisman with the aid of some spiritual objects.

Such Array Breaking Talismans could easily break lower-level formations in one strike, but for relatively high-level formations like the small Mountain Protection Array, they lost their effect.

Of course, there were different grades of Array Breaking Talismans. If one was made by a great master of formation techniques, it might still cause chaos in the small Mountain Protection Array, thereby opening a passage.

Clearly, the two late-stage Qi Refining cultivators weren’t using a great master’s Array Breaking Talisman; those wouldn’t be wasted to deal with a Qi Refining cultivator—it simply wasn’t cost-effective.

It would be like using third-grade materials for a self-destruct attack to kill a Qi Refining cultivator—the cost and the target difference were too great.

“What should we do?” One of the late-stage Qi Refining cultivators asked his companion.

“Let’s go back for now. The Array Breaking Talisman is useless; do you expect us to break the formation by force?” His companion shook his head, indicating there was nothing they could do.

Though they were only late-stage Qi Refining cultivators and the spiritual power fluctuations they could cause weren’t huge, the area was too close to the Nine Peaks, and at any moment they might draw the attention of cultivators from the Sky Sea Sect.

Without hesitation, the two late-stage Qi Refining cultivators quickly left upon realizing there was no way to succeed. It was the best choice.

As Li Shiming saw the two figures getting ready to leave, he summoned the copper corpse from within the ‘Netherworld Ghost Realm Array.’ Then, wings sprouted on his back, and he left the island through an underwater tunnel.

In the past, he wouldn’t have had the confidence to track two late-stage Qi Refining cultivators.

However, although he was still at the Qi Refining Fourth Level, his true combat power was incomparable to before.

The copper corpse’s strength had increased rapidly and already possessed the combat power equivalent to the Qi Refining Eighth Layer. The mid-grade Magic Weapon Gatling could provide the output of the Qi Refining Seventh Level. With his spiritual thought enhancing the ‘Sword Manipulation Technique’ and with the Qingyuan Wood Sword, he could also pose a threat to late-stage Qi Refining cultivators.

His shortcomings were equally clear; no matter how much he practiced the ‘Vajra Body Protection Divine Skill,’ he couldn’t withstand a single strike from a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator.

This was a major issue, yet with the Spirit Turtle Shield, the greatest shortcoming was compensated for.

Of course, all this was under the premise that the two late-stage Qi Refining cultivators weren’t too strong. Through his spiritual thought, he sensed that one was at the Qi Refining Seventh Level and the other at the Qi Refining Eighth Layer.

The two late-stage Qi Refining cultivators were fast, using a transparent flying boat-shaped flying magical tool.

The speed of Li Shiming using the ‘Black Sparrow Wing’ was slightly faster than the transparent flying boat, so he didn’t have to worry about losing them.

Even so, for added safety, he deliberately kept a greater distance, and on the ocean’s surface, without needing any other devices, with the IBMz15 processing his spiritual thought to detect directions of spiritual power fluctuations, he could track the movements of the two late-stage Qi Refining cultivators.

After following for three two-hour intervals, as the sky was about to brighten, Li Shiming confirmed through his sect’s Identity Jade Disc that they had left the sect’s territory by a thousand miles.

As he was hesitating whether to continue tracking, the figures of the two late-stage Qi Refining cultivators suddenly vanished ahead.

In the area where the two late-stage Qi Refining cultivators disappeared, he found a small island.

Such small islands were too numerous and hardly attracted the attention of cultivators.

Li Shiming descended from the sky to the sea surface, then changed into a diving suit and submerged himself in the water.

He sank all the way to the seabed, which wasn’t particularly deep, being only about thirty meters.

From the seabed, he approached the direction of the small island. This was his experience; on Eagle Beak Island, he had realized that approaching a formation from underwater greatly reduced the likelihood of being detected by the formation.

Therefore, he had also placed many surveillance probes beneath the waters surrounding Eagle Beak Island.

Extending his spiritual thought, he detected the formation set up on the small island.

As he had hypothesized, a high-level formation had been established here, its surface undetectable to the sense of spiritual power fluctuations.

But when his spiritual thought made contact, the fluctuations of spiritual power could not escape the detection of his spiritual thought.

Based on the sensations from his spiritual thought, the IBMz15 drafted a diagram of the spiritual power pattern of the formation, conjecturing the operation trajectory of the formation.

While he was investigating, he suddenly felt a tremor in his heart. He withdrew his spiritual thought and suppressed the fluctuations of spiritual power within his body as much as possible.

A figure flew out from the island, completely unaware of his presence below the surface, and soared away into the distance.

Li Shiming broke out in a cold sweat. He had not expected that there would be a Foundation Establishment Cultivator on the small island. It was fortunate that the Foundation Establishment Cultivator hadn’t discovered him; otherwise, he would’ve been in great trouble.