Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 1897: Chapter 995: Retribution

Even though it wasn’t the first time seeing the devastation of Da Leiyin Temple’s gates being attacked, Huinan Bodhisattva still felt an impulse to vomit blood.

Previously, Li Yuanba’s long-distance flying sword attack had slain many Great Venerables and destroyed a branch hall of Da Leiyin Temple.

This time, in Li Shiming’s attack, no Great Venerable fell, but the issue was that during the time of Li Shiming’s attack, the two Great Venerables guarding the gates were within the Inheritance Cave Heaven and not present at the gates, thus escaping this calamity.

Yet the damage he caused to Da Leiyin Temple was no smaller than what Li Yuanba caused.

Huinan Bodhisattva gazed at the large stretch of ruins, buildings that had been the heritage of thousands of years—aside from their other values, they irreplaceably enhanced the understanding of Buddhism.

Rebuilding these buildings isn’t hard, but what’s difficult is regaining the Buddhist insight accumulated over millennia.

The loss of buildings was one aspect; more daunting was the staggering loss of monks.

In the gates of Da Leiyin Temple, more than sixty thousand monks perished due to the fifth-grade flames and other factors during this assault.

The stronger the power, the greater the harm to lower-level cultivators.

The monks killed directly or indirectly by the fifth-grade flames were just a portion; many monks who hadn’t reached the Venerable Level succumbed to Li Shiming’s terrifying aura, with their souls shattering due to their weaker coherence.

“Li Shizhen!” Huinan Bodhisattva muttered a name amidst the chaotic scene before him.

He didn’t need to see for himself; his imagination alone was enough to judge the identity of the attacker.

He took a step forward, moving out of the Da Leiyin Temple’s gates.

Even though Li Shiming used Space Movement to directly enter and exit Da Leiyin Temple’s gates, Huinan Bodhisattva managed to track the direction of his aura.

Huinan Bodhisattva pursued, although his main body could only leave the Inheritance Cave Heaven briefly, he was confident that as long as he found Li Shiming, he could keep him there.

Alas, when he reached the place where Li Shiming had paused, Li Shiming’s aura was already far from reach.

At that moment, he hesitated, fearing that if he pursued too far, Li Shiming might have methods to trap him.

So long as he was near the gates of Da Leiyin Temple, he could easily summon the energy from the Inheritance Cave Heaven.

But if he ventured too far away, not only would he be unable to summon the cave’s energy, but he would also have to consider his own time outside, for, once it exceeded a limit, the world would start rejecting him.

If a Half-step Great Power successfully passed the Heavenly Tribulation, they could avoid being rejected by the world, but upon reaching the Great Power level, without special methods to conceal their aura, they couldn’t survive long outside the Cave Heaven, regardless of whether they had experienced the tribulation.

Once a Great Power leaves the Cave Heaven, their cave aura starts to dissipate, and when it reaches a certain point, it can no longer hide the Great Power’s aura, and the world begins to reject them.

If a Great Power engages in combat during this period, the time until world rejection shortens further.

As for alternative methods to conceal oneself from the world’s rejection without using the Cave Heaven, at least, Li Shiming had never heard of such a thing.

Looking at the current superpowers’ Inheritor Great Ability, it was apparent those superpowers didn’t possess such capabilities either.

Deceiving the world is easier said than done; the Cave Heaven one creates is currently the only known method in the Cultivation World.

Huinan Bodhisattva stood silently for a few moments, then sighed deeply and turned back toward the gates.

This time, failing to capture Li Shiming meant it would be even less likely in the future.

He knew more than anyone that after this incident, although Da Leiyin Temple wouldn’t be on the brink of extinction like the Yuqing Sect, it would take centuries to recover.

The idea of contacting the Great Powers was now discarded as well.

Li Shiming’s actions had genuinely frightened him.

Never had Huinan Bodhisattva imagined that Li Shiming could so easily breach the Mountain Gate Formation of Da Leiyin Temple, complete his attack within a few moments, and then depart calmly.

Such techniques may not have much impact on Great Powers, but for a power, the blow is extremely severe.

Returning to the temple gates, Huinan Bodhisattva found that some of the flames below had yet to be extinguished and sensed the fifth-grade ‘Infinite Immortal Fire’.

Without the intervention of a Great Power like himself, it was impossible for other monks to extinguish the fire.

If left to burn unchecked, it was not inconceivable for the entire temple gate to be consumed in flames.

Huinan Bodhisattva began to extinguish the fire, and under his Great Power, the flames were quickly extinguished.

The Da Leiyin Temple would be busy for a long time to come; the death of so many monks meant that even the cleanup work would take a considerable time.

The news of Da Leiyin Temple being attacked again soon reached every major superpower.

This was not like the previous remote flying sword attack by Li Yuanba but a direct assault by a cultivator invading the gate of Da Leiyin Temple.

Li Shiming made an appearance at the scene, and among the surviving monks of Da Leiyin Temple, some recognized him.

This led the Great Powers of various superpowers to drastically elevate Li Shiming’s threat level, deeming him as an extreme danger, equivalent to that of Great Powers.

Of course, this wasn’t to say that Li Shiming possessed Great Power-level strength, but that the consequences of his methods combined with his attack resulted in an impact only a Great Power could achieve.