Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 210: Chapter 151: Exterminate the Pill_2

Li Shiming didn’t look any further, for even if this spirit-class cultivation technique was formidable, it was beyond his current reach.

In the last purple jade space he entered, his Spiritual Thought found it to contain a map.

The map depicted completely unfamiliar mountains and ocean currents, with all the labeled place names unheard of, and a marked sea route after entering the ocean, leading all the way to Seven Star Island.

It dawned on Li Shiming that this was not a map of this continent, but rather one of the lands beyond the sea.

Beyond the sea lay a place known as Ten Thousand Great Mountains. According to the map, Yun Xingyi had set sail from there, crossing expansive seas before finally reaching Seven Star Island.

The other items in the ring were some Spirit Food and such, whose value he couldn’t quite determine.

A random Spiritual Object from a Golden Core might be far more valuable than he could imagine.

However, the dearth of items in Yun Xingyi’s ring still took him by surprise.

What Li Shiming didn’t know was that Sword Cultivators rarely amassed wealth; their entire lives were dedicated to reinforcing their Lifebound Flying Swords, investing all their wealth into them.

He gathered up the clothes and shoes next to the corpse; all these Spiritual Objects were at least of Spiritual Artifact quality. As for the quality of the Spiritual Artifacts, he could not determine it yet and would have to wait until his realm improved to the Foundation Establishment Stage.

Li Shiming had emerged from the sea, collected Yun Xingyi’s corpse, and preserved it with ice-based arrays.

He was skilled in Corpse Refining, and Yun Xingyi’s corpse was definitely top-tier material for that purpose.

Likewise, due to the issue of his own realm, he dared not attempt refining a corpse of a Golden Core cultivator while lacking sufficient power.

He opted to preserve it for now, keeping it for future use.

As for this encounter, he had thought it through clearly.

The killing of Yun Xingyi could not be reported; it was not just about the ring, the three cultivation techniques within, or the Lifebound Flying Sword and Golden Core in the mechanical room space.

More importantly, he had no plausible explanation for how he could have killed a Golden Core cultivator.

No one should think the higher-ups of his sect were fools, for as Yun Xingyi had said before, no cultivator who lived for hundreds of years was simple.

Li Shiming brought out a wooden Flying Boat and let it fly on its own, his consciousness entering the mechanical room space, observing the condition of his avatar.

The avatar had been severely injured and taken into the mechanical room space.

He did not want to delay, so he chose to return to the territory of his sect immediately.

The avatar was in a terrible state; to prevent the injuries from worsening, it remained in Corpse Refining status.

The avatar’s bones were mostly broken, but thankfully it had been converted to Corpse Refining in time—such injuries would be nearly fatal for a cultivator, but not so serious for a refined corpse.

Upon returning to his cave dwelling, the environment of the ‘Netherworld Ghost Realm Array’ would allow the avatar’s injuries to recover quickly.

Once the avatar’s condition was stable, Li Shiming focused his awareness on the Lifebound Flying Sword.

Sharp was his first sensation when his consciousness connected with the Lifebound Flying Sword, reminiscent of the feeling he had when he first saw Yun Xingyi.

He could not discern the grade of the material of the Lifebound Flying Sword, as it seemed far more powerful than a Third Grade Sword Base—arguably, they might not even be comparable.

Without its master, a Lifebound Flying Sword in theory cannot be wielded by other cultivators to its full potential.

However, Li Shiming was the target of Yun Xingyi’s Body Seizing, personally handled by the latter to make the Lifebound Flying Sword compatible with Li Shiming’s body, allowing him to wield the sword.

Of course, Li Shiming dared not attempt to control the Lifebound Flying Sword now. He couldn’t sustain wielding a Super-grade Magical Artifact for long, let alone a magical treasure more advanced than a Spiritual Artifact. To attempt that would be suicidal.

Yet having the Lifebound Flying Sword in the mechanical room space gave him hope; when his realm reached the right level, he would have an extremely powerful magical treasure at his disposal.

The Golden Core beside the Lifebound Flying Sword, on the other hand, seemed very ordinary. It was still golden but had a dull color, like a dead object, covered in cracks, seemingly ready to shatter at any moment.

Li Shiming’s consciousness didn’t even get close; he set up an isolated area for the Golden Core.

Because there was no need to get close, the terrifying energy within the Golden Core radiated energy fluctuations continuously from every crack.

His knowledge was still limited to the Qi Refinement Realm, and the Golden Core was too advanced for him; he could only resort to preserving it this way and needed to constantly monitor its changes, ready to eject it from the engine room space if anything unusual occurred.

As Li Shiming pondered, he entered the range of the Sect Formation, covering a thousand miles.

He took out his Lifebound Jade Disc and sent out an emergency distress signal to the sect.

Elder Yin, who had returned to the sect ahead of time with his daughter, had just emerged from seclusion. Because of the incident involving an external Golden Core cultivator at Seven Star Island, he hadn’t rested but was instead constantly monitoring sect intelligence.

A distress signal was prioritized to him; signals from important cultivators within the sect were ranked and would be transmitted first to available high-level members by the Sect Formation.

As an intermediate Array Master of the sect, and a hopeful for becoming a high-level Array Master, plus his relationship with Yin Shilan, Li Shiming had long been marked by the Sect Leader as one of the most highly regarded individuals within the sect.

Although Elder Yin harbored quite a few grievances against Li Shiming, he had to admit that Li Shiming was indeed competent, barely suitable for his daughter, Yin Shilan.

The key was that Yin Shilan was extremely fond of Li Shiming, which made Elder Yin pay great attention to him.

Upon receiving Li Shiming’s distress signal, Elder Yin’s expression changed, and his figure turned into a rainbow light flying toward the location from which the signal had been sent.

It didn’t take much effort for Elder Yin to cover the distance of a thousand miles to reach Li Shiming.

“What happened?” Elder Yin asked indifferently as he looked at Li Shiming.

Standing on the Flying Boat, Li Shiming felt a sense of relief upon seeing it was Elder Yin.

“Uncle Yin, Junior Master Zhuge has been murdered. A sword light shot out from the sea, and Junior Master Zhuge disintegrated into pieces before me. After that, I fainted and fell into the sea. When I woke up, I rushed back and sent out the signal within range of the Sect Formation!” Li Shiming said, repeating the story he had already prepared.

Elder Yin’s gaze flashed faintly. He didn’t doubt Li Shiming’s words but was assessing who might have killed Zhuge Xuan.

As for the loss of a high-level Array Master from the sect, although he felt regret, there wasn’t much emotion of sadness in him.

He had become accustomed to life and death; since beginning his cultivation, he’d seen many acquaintances die, and his attitude toward death had grown somewhat numb.

“Can you still find the place where you were attacked?” Elder Yin asked gravely.

“Yes!” Li Shiming replied affirmatively.

“I’ll take you; you guide the way!” Elder Yin continued.

Li Shiming put away the Flying Boat, and Elder Yin enveloped him with his Spiritual Power, shielding him as he pointed in a direction, and they sped off at high speed.

It didn’t take long for Li Shiming to signal that they were approaching the area.

“You wait here!” Elder Yin said cautiously as he looked ahead and let go of Li Shiming, instructing him.

The one likely to have killed Zhuge Xuan was that Golden Core Sword Cultivator.

As a cultivator at the Golden Core Middle Stage, and with the Golden Core Sword Cultivator severely injured, he was confident he could resolve the situation alone.

He arrived above the sea and, from the faint traces in the atmosphere, sensed the presence of the Sword Cultivator.

His figure dove into the water and began searching the sea bottom.

Soon, he found an underwater cave dwelling, but, unfortunately, it was empty.

“A step too late!” Elder Yin concluded from the state of the cave dwelling that it was indeed created by that Golden Core Sword Cultivator.

Judging by the smell of blood in the cave dwelling, it was evident that the Golden Core Sword Cultivator had sustained severe injuries, to the point where he hadn’t been able to keep his blood within his body.

Golden Core cultivators possess a high degree of control over their bodies; it’s normal to bleed when injured in an attack, but to continue bleeding after leaving the battlefield indicates a loss of bodily control.

Elder Yin didn’t consider that the traces of blood were from the Golden Core Sword Cultivator slain by Li Shiming.