Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 418: Chapter 255: Ruins_2

His Divine Thought wrapped around the corpse of the “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake,” feeling a shudder transmitted from the Divine Thought, an instinctive reaction from coming in contact with an overly powerful presence.

He did not allow his Divine Thought to remain in contact with the corpse of the “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake” for long, a thought flickered through his mind as he collected the snake’s body into his Space Ring.

When the massive “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake” corpse was stowed away, the pressure Li Shiming perceived through his Divine Thought eased, and he finally had the chance to survey his surroundings.

With the “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake” corpse taken away, the only source of light in this space was gone, plunging the area into darkness.

Li Shiming took out a high-powered LED light and hung it on the wall, brightening the space once again.

The walls were made of jade stones piled up, with patterns drawn on the surface, even after countless years had passed, the jade stones still maintained their original luster.

He reached out and touched the jade stones on the wall, sensing faint fluctuations of Spiritual Power. The patterns contained Spiritual Power, protecting both the walls and the space.

He exerted a slight force, gradually increasing his strength, but was unable to cause even the slightest damage to the wall. The patterns, seemingly devoid of much Spiritual Power, concealed their might within.

Ultimately, he concluded that the defensive power of this space was extremely strong; to break the jade stones on the wall, one would need to shatter the entire space in one blow.

Anyway, with Li Shiming’s strength, it was impossible to do so.

In an area by the shore, due to the existence of the huge “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake,” not even sizable rocks remained, likely crushed by the massive body of the “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake.”

Following the space inward, there was a jade door slightly ajar.

Li Shiming’s Divine Thought first probed inside, finding a room that was half-preserved.

In the center of the room lay a skeleton, beside which was a small Formation flashing with Spiritual Energy, and in the center of the Formation was a semi-transparent egg.

After ensuring there was no danger, he walked into the room.

The skeleton had been there for many years, its flesh and clothes having turned to dust, leaving only the jade-like bones.

The strength of the individual to whom the skeleton once belonged must have been immense, far beyond what Li Shiming could comprehend.

Li Shiming’s gaze fell on a ring that had fallen to the ground beside the skeleton, which must have been the skeleton’s Space Ring.

He used his Divine Thought to pick up the Space Ring, taking it into his hand.

He tried to enter the Space Ring with his Divine Thought, and since the owner of the Space Ring had perished many years ago, it did not obstruct his Divine Thought.

The Space Ring contained quite a few items, some unknown Spiritual Medicines and Spirit Pills. When his Divine Thought touched these, he sensed that they had long since lost their spirituality.

Even though the inside of the Space Ring could slow the loss of spirituality in the Medicines and Pills, the passage of time was too great. So much time had elapsed that even within the Space Ring, the Medicines and Pills had lost their spirituality and become useless mundane items.

The rest included two magical treasures, one a flying sword and the other an umbrella-shaped treasure. Unfortunately, both had significantly lost their spiritual essence and would need to be nurtured in a spiritually-rich environment for a long time. Perhaps they could be restored.

Li Shiming’s attention was drawn to three ancient Jade Scrolls. These ancient scrolls were not the same as the currently used ones, and one could not determine the level of content stored inside from their appearance.

He took out the three ancient Jade Scrolls and placed one of them on his forehead to perceive it with his Divine Thought.

A joy crossed his face; the first Jade Scroll contained knowledge of Formations, particularly the “Five Rhymes Qi Cultivation Technique” in its entirety.

From the Qi Refinement Realm all the way to ascension, it was not the first time he had obtained a Cultivation Technique of this caliber. Li Yuanba’s avatar cultivating the “Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique” could also cultivate to the point of ascension.

The most critical thing was that he could cultivate the “Five Rhymes Qi Cultivation Technique.”

After reviewing the Qi Refinement section of the “Five Rhymes Qi Cultivation Technique,” he discovered that it bore a great resemblance to the “Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique” he had practiced during the Qi Refinement Realm.

It seemed as if the “Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique” was modified based on the “Five Rhymes Qi Cultivation Technique,” perhaps a Cultivator had acquired part of the latter’s legacy. To create a suitable Cultivation Technique for descendants with five spirit root seeds, they had used the “Five Rhymes Qi Cultivation Technique” as a foundation and revised it into the “Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique.”

Given the state of the Five Elements Spiritual Power in Li Shiming’s Spirit Lake, he could completely skip the Qi Refinement section of the “Five Rhymes Qi Cultivation Technique” and directly cultivate the Foundation Establishment section of the technique.

Moreover, the compatibility of the “Five Rhymes Qi Cultivation Technique” was extremely strong; it could be cultivated alongside other attribute techniques without any conflicts. His “Nine Heavens Thunder Strike Technique” could still be his main cultivation practice.

Once he advanced to the Golden Core stage, he would switch the “Five Rhymes Qi Cultivation Technique” to his main practice and the “Nine Heavens Thunder Strike Technique” to a complementary one.

The only trouble was that the situation recorded in the “Five Rhymes Qi Cultivation Technique” differed from the state of the Spirit Lake inside Li Shiming, where there was no phenomenon such as the “Five Elements Qi Absorption Array.”

It seemed that Li Shiming had serendipitously deviated in his practice of the “Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique,” and had instead extracted the essence of a Second Grade Five Elements Array from the Five Elements Array Materials, forming a “Five Elements Qi Absorption Array” in his Spirit Lake.

No matter how he thought about it, the situation in his Spirit Lake was now a reality, and he had no choice but to keep moving forward in the dark. He would cultivate according to the “Five Rhymes Qi Cultivation Technique” while continuing to absorb higher-grade essences from Five Elements Array Materials during his advancement.

He then took out a second ancient Jade Scroll; this Jade Scroll contained a Secret Technique called the “Nine Shao Insect Scripture,” where he saw the breeding method for the “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake.”

It turned out that the enormous “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake” was a spirit beast bred by the ancient Cultivator. The ancient Cultivator had perished first but, to protect his remains, he had released the contract of the enormous “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake” before he died.

At the same time, he placed several “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake” eggs within an Array that could preserve the essence of the eggs, set up the Array at the exit of a spirit vein, in hopes that the “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake” would continue its guard duty indefinitely.

It was unknown how the ancient Cultivator bred them, but whether it was the initial enormous “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake” or the later-born “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snakes,” none strayed from that space and continued to protect the remains of the ancient Cultivator.

Li Shiming was fortunate to have arrived now; had he come while the enormous “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake” was still alive, he would have undoubtedly perished.

Even arriving at this moment, it was the speed of his “Step by Step Lotus” movement that allowed him to escape the “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake’s” attacks again and again.

“So this is the egg of the ‘Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake’!” Li Shiming carefully observed the egg at the center of the Array, his eyes flashing with joy as he muttered to himself.

The Array held only one remaining egg. It would only hatch if the previous “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake,” before dying, came here and injected its guarding consciousness into the egg, thereby activating it.

This was a form of legacy, the legacy of protecting their master unique to the “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake.”

Li Shiming recalled the content of the “Nine Shao Insect Scripture” in his mind, took out a Third Grade Sword Base, and with a movement of his Sword Intent, deliberately restrained the Spiritual Power on his skin and made an incision on his arm with the Third Grade Sword Base.

With the defensive power of a Pure Dao Body, it would have been difficult to break the defense of his skin if he had not done so.

He forced out a drop of his essence blood, smeared it on the “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake” egg, and then drew an intricate Contract Pattern with his Spiritual Energy.

The essence blood was absorbed by the egg, and the Spiritual Energy Contract Pattern was absorbed along with it.

He then felt a connection form between the life within the egg and his own soul, almost in a state of stasis inside the egg.

With a thought, he changed the stagnant state of the egg to a normal state where it began absorbing Spiritual Energy vigorously, and slight movements occurred within the egg.

There would still be some time before the hatching of the “Absolute Spirit Illusion Snake,” so he took out a third ancient Jade Scroll.

Inside this Jade Scroll was recorded the “Five Elements Dao.” If the “Five Rhymes Qi Cultivation Technique” was a specific technique, then the “Five Elements Dao” was the overarching doctrine of the Five Elements; its profoundness was such that even with the help of an IBMz15, he could hardly comprehend much of it.