Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 250: Chapter 171: Strength_2

Li Shiming’s true form controlled the sword light that pierced through the brow of the Foundation Establishment Cultivator, creating a hole in his head.

The battle ended, and Li Shiming, watching the life force of the Foundation Establishment Cultivator extinguish, couldn’t help but burst into loud laughter, with his clone joining in, like a pair of madmen.

All the frustrations he had bottled up for so long were vented out in this one battle.

In the Sky Sea Sect, he had not received any notice of withdrawal from the sect, only managing to escape Sky Sea Island on a rocket, and nearly became a snack for a sea beast mid-flight.

He had a lot of resentment suppressed in his heart, which was one of the reasons why he decided to confront the Foundation Establishment Cultivator head-on.

He needed a thoroughly exhilarating fight; he needed to rid himself of the pent-up grievances.

As it turned out, this was extremely effective.

He and his clone were essentially one entity, and killing this Foundation Establishment Cultivator signified that he possessed the combat strength to kill those in the early stages of Foundation Establishment.

This confidence was very important, and it would lead to a shift in his mindset.

Both he and his clone felt the Spiritual Power in their bodies becoming more active, with the clone almost unable to suppress the urge to break through.

His clone had long since reached the moment for breakthrough, but of course, one had to consider not only the possibility of the clone aiding the true form’s cultivation but also the environment for the breakthrough.

The clone needed an environment with at least standard levels of Spiritual Energy for cultivation before even considering a breakthrough.

Not just the clone—after a while, when the Spiritual Energy Vortex within Li Shiming’s true form compressed to a certain extent, he too would need to consider the cultivation environment essential for Spiritual Energy.

No longer was he someone who could satisfy his cultivation demands with a simple “Spirit Gathering Array” even in the mortal world; both he at the Ninth Level of Qi Refinement and his clone needed a considerable level of Spiritual Energy environment.

Li Shiming collected all the storage bags; the Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s storage bag was pretty good, a thirty cubic meters storage bag activated by Spiritual Thought.

As for the storage bags of the four Qi Refining Middle Stage Cultivators, he just glanced over them quickly before chucking the four bags into the mechanical room’s space to serve as a warehouse.

In the Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s storage bag, he found a compass, which showed a shining spot on it.

After some experimentation, he discovered that this compass was designed specifically for tracking the Senluo Order, and he even found the mark of the Senluo Sect on one corner of the compass.

This must have been intentionally released by the Senluo Sect to make it more difficult for those returning the Senluo Order, generating more chaos.

Fortunately, the sensing range of the compass was only a hundred miles, which explained why the three Guan brothers had hidden among the common folk earlier; the paths taken by mortals were completely different from those of Cultivators, and Cultivators would not pay attention to mortals.

However, the three Guan brothers had been targeted long ago, and that’s how they ended up being tracked and intercepted.

Li Shiming smiled, tossed the Senluo Order into the mechanical room space, and immediately, the Senluo Order that could be sensed by the compass even when it was inside a storage bag, vanished from the compass in an instant.

He was not surprised, as the mechanical room’s space was extremely effective in blocking various signals, and the fact that it could block a Golden Core Cultivator’s sense of their own essence blood was telling.

Among the other items of the Foundation Establishment Cultivator, it was the Super-grade Flying Axe that held some value, but even as a Super-grade Magical Artifact, the flying axe could only be considered ordinary.

Li Shiming was somewhat curious, as it was almost unimaginable for a Loose Cultivator to reach the status of Foundation Establishment Cultivator during his time on Sky Sea Island.

Just the Foundation Establishment Pill alone was a stumbling block for all Loose Cultivators on their path to advancement, not to mention actually having the talent and aptitude to cultivate to the Ninth Level of Qi Refinement. If that were the case, they would have likely been recruited by one of the seven sects a long time ago, and would not have remained as Loose Cultivators.

He had no intention to rest anymore. This time, the Foundation Establishment Cultivator and the four Qi Refining Middle Stage Cultivators he had encountered, according to their speech, belonged to a Cultivation Family, and he definitely didn’t want to be tracked down again.

Even though he had killed a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, this particular one was already the weakest among them.

He indeed had means to eliminate Foundation Establishment Cultivators, but methods like symbolic treasures were reserved for life-and-death crises, not for times like this.

He retracted his clone back into the space of the machine room, then used Sword Escape to fly towards the distance.

His direction was still towards Guanquan City, but the first place he needed to visit was a market within his route.

This was a market learned from Guan Laosan, controlled by Wei’s Immortal Family, known to be a comparatively fair and safe market nearby, with an excellent reputation. It was frequented by many Qi Refining cultivators.

Li Shiming needed to first purchase a map at the market, as the map of Golden Core Sword Cultivator Yun Xingyi, although clear, marked locations relevant to cultivators that were beyond the daring of a minor Qi Refining Cultivator like himself.

Take the markets for example, those frequented by Golden Core cultivators were definitely high-end, and whether Li Shiming could even enter them was questionable.

Not to mention entering such a market, merely revealing the intention to do so would attract the attention of interested cultivators, because those who wish to enter such high-end markets either have valuable treasures they want to sell or are harboring certain secrets.

Being at Qi Refining Ninth Level and having continuously compressed spiritual power lately had greatly increased the duration and speed with which he could use Sword Escape.

Especially the Sword Bone in his right thumb, which also provided an augmentative effect during his Sword Escape, currently allowed him to increase the speed of his Sword Escape by about ten percent.

This enhancement effect would continuously improve as his control over Sword Intent and his ability to harness the power of the Sword Bone grew.

After traveling tirelessly for half a day, he arrived at a valley that seemed ordinary, yet he sensed formation fluctuations from a great distance away.

This was the sensing ability of a high-level Array Master towards the Array Formation Starlight Sea. He took out a hooded cloak with a veil, which hid his features; found within the storage bag of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, it was likely for convenient entry and exit into markets.

Although the hooded cloak was not a magical artifact, the veil was made from some kind of spiritual material and could block the prying of Spiritual Thoughts.

Li Shiming arrived at the mouth of the valley and channeled spiritual power to cast a spell at the formation there, revealing a passageway.

In fact, the formation was not complicated, and even without the spell, he could have entered, but being discovered by a cultivator would have attracted trouble.

Stepping into the passageway, his Spiritual Thought swept over the valley’s formation, perceiving every spiritual power line within the formation very clearly.

This formation was not recorded in his Array Formation Starlight Sea, but with the computing power of an IBM z15, exploring a not too complex formation was not difficult.

He was being cautious in case something unexpected happened in the market; if so, he would be able to leave the valley easily and without being affected by the formation.

Walking into the market, which was more akin to a settlement of Wei’s Immortal Family that had carved out an area to serve as the market.

The benefit of this was that the safety of the market could be ensured, knowing that Wei’s Immortal Family, which had considerable strength in this area, had Foundation Establishment Cultivators stationed here all year round.

Of course, Wei’s Immortal Family’s settlement was naturally not a place they would allow outsiders to approach, but one could see the buildings of Wei’s Immortal Family from the market.

This market was no different from the one on Sky Sea Island, also consisting of two parts: a section for itinerant stalls and another for fixed shops.

Today was clearly not a special event day, so there weren’t many itinerant stalls or visitors in the market.

“Not many” was relative to the size of the market, with seemingly twenty to thirty customers, fewer than the number of stalls and shops.

But one must realize that the vast majority of cultivators who come here have the intention to buy, and cultivators with no such intention would have no reason to visit the market.

Li Shiming walked among the itinerant stalls, observing the Spiritual Objects for sale.

The Spiritual Objects for sale here were all necessary for Qi Refining cultivators, but comparing just the itinerant stalls, one could deduce the richness of Beishu compared to the market on Sky Sea Island.

In the market of Sky Sea Island, resources for late-stage Qi Refinement were rarely seen, as mostly early-stage and middle-stage resources were sold. Resources for late-stage Qi Refinement had to be either obtained from the sect or personally acquired by slaying sea beasts in the sea.