Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 1219: Chapter 656: Pursuit and Escape

Li Shiming felt his injuries rapidly healing and focused his attention on the ’Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer’ in his hand.

Strengthened by top-grade fourth-grade refining materials, ’Thousand Thunder Tempered Gold,’ the ’Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer’ was currently undergoing a transformation of heavenly earth energy, a reward granted by heaven and earth for surviving the artifact tribulation.

On the surface of the ’Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer,’ a strange imprint appeared. With the experience from his avatar, Li Yuanba, the ’Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer’ was one of his innate treasures. Through the Wood Thunder Nascent Soul, he sensed the condition of the ’Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer’ and detected the function of the strange imprint.

This peculiar imprint was the ’Thunder Rule Imprint,’ a rule imprint generated under the influence of heaven and earth’s reward on forty million thunder attack formations and as many as 480 million thunder runes.

The original forty million thunder attack formations and 480 million thunder runes were concealed and could not be detected on the surface of the ’Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer.’

He sensed the presence of an artifact spirit inside the ’Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer.’

He transmitted the ’Yuqing Thunder Scripture’ to the artifact spirit through a mysterious connection, along with detailed explanations of the ’Yuqing Thunder Scripture.’

During this time, Li Shiming had also been studying his avatar Li Yuanba’s lifebound flying sword Xingyi, discovering details about the spirit treasure artifact spirit. With the ’Soul Control and Treasure Breeding Secret Method’ given by the Sword Elder, his research on the spirit treasure artifact spirit had reached a completely new level.

Artifact spirits possess their own innate talents, which are related to spirit treasures and rule imprints.

For instance, the sword spirit of Li Yuanba’s lifebound flying sword Xingyi possesses talents in both sword cultivation and speed.

The sword cultivation talent stems from Li Yuanba’s practice of the ’Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique,’ and Xingyi itself being Li Yuanba’s lifebound flying sword, while the speed talent is due to the ’Speed Rule Imprint,’ a heavenly reward granted when Xingyi survived the spirit treasure tribulation.

In contrast, Li Shiming’s ’Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer’ has only one talent, which is the Thunder talent.

Whether it is the ’Yuqing Thunder Scripture’ he cultivated or the ’Thunder Rule Imprint’ on the ’Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer,’ they all point to the same thunder aspect.

It cannot be said whether having more or fewer talents mastered by the artifact spirit is better, as their combat styles are completely different, making them incomparable.

Xingyi’s combat style involves long-range flying sword attacks, while the Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer is mainly used for performing thunder skills, never for striking people. Moreover, thunder skills themselves are already fast when executed. When it comes to a true comparison, it depends on the cultivation level of the cultivators using the two spirit treasures.

Li Shiming was about to absorb the ’Heavenly Strike Thunder Hammer’ into his body when his keen senses detected something amiss. Without any hesitation, he executed ’In a Blink’s Distance,’ disappearing from his spot and reappearing twelve thousand meters away.

At the location where he had stayed, a bolt of lightning was erupting, spreading rapidly in all directions. If he had been a step slower, he would have been engulfed by the lightning.

Although he didn’t sense any danger, he mobilized twenty brains to bring ’In a Blink’s Distance’ to its utmost limit, continuously executing ’In a Blink’s Distance’ without any pause.

His danger perception didn’t detect any threats, but judging from the power of the lightning that appeared at his initial position as relayed by his lifebound treasure IBMz15, the lightning power was at the Great Cultivator level.

The absence of sensed danger only highlighted the significant trouble he had encountered.

A Great Cultivator lurking nearby was far more terrifying than a Great Cultivator who made their presence known.

He didn’t even have the thought of checking the identity of the opponent; his only desire was to quickly distance himself.

”How is it possible, a mere Nascent Soul Middle Stage youngster, how could he escape my ambush!” A figure emerged from the sea, his body flickering with electric light, performing thunder escape in the sea.

Due to the sea water’s significant impact on a cultivator’s divine sense and perception, the cultivator intentionally employed a concealing secret technique. Combined with his higher level than Li Shiming, this allowed him to approach undetected by Li Shiming.

If it weren’t for Li Shiming’s reaction and the constant readiness of his lifebound treasure IBMz15’s connected brain for ’In a Blink’s Distance,’ he might not have been able to dodge the previous dark thunder attack.

When the electric light on the figure dissipated slightly, revealing his face, it was indeed Great Cultivator Duan Zhang from the Yuqing Sect.

After returning from the Dongqi Continent, the Yuqing Sect had been managing the affairs of the Beiyan Continent, aiming to quickly resolve sect matters to gather strength for counterattacking the Dongqi Continent.

This time, Great Cultivator Duan Zhang was out on a mission. Previously, the three Nascent Soul Middle Stage Thunder Cultivators, Gan Tuo, Li Gang, and Kang Miao, had come out together. This mission was substantial, involving not only these three Nascent Soul Middle Stage Thunder Cultivators but also a dozen more.

When Gan Tuo, Li Gang, and Kang Miao faced danger, they activated their distress signals.

Li Shiming hadn’t considered this at that time; it wasn’t because he was careless, but because he was in a relatively deep part of the ocean, with not much communication array coverage.

Even if the three Nascent Soul Middle Stage Thunder Cultivators did transmit a distress signal, with the aid of a communication array, by the time support from the Yuqing Sect arrived, the battle would have long been over, and he would have already left.

However, he never imagined that not only were there more Thunder Cultivators than just Gan Tuo, Li Gang, and Kang Miao near the Yuqing Sect, but even Great Cultivator Duan Zhang was present.