Chapter 293: Chapter 193: Arrival
After practicing the “Vajra Body Protection Divine Skill,” Li Shiming then began to cultivate the “Sword Demon Secret Manual.”
During the Foundation Establishment Stage, the “Sword Demon Secret Manual” focuses on cultivating Sword Intent, but he could skip this step, allowing him to cultivate the manual at a deeper level, bypassing the early phase of Foundation Establishment.
The Third Grade Sword Base transformed into countless tiny short swords, merging into every part of his body.
Threads of Sword Intent emanated from the countless tiny short swords, stimulating the integration of body and Sword Intent, deepening the fusion between the body and the Third Grade Sword Base.
The “Sword Demon Secret Manual” is about using the sword to nourish the body, and the body to nourish the sword, enhancing both simultaneously.
Of course, the current focus is still on using the sword to nourish the body, as there is still a significant gap between his physical constitution and the quality of the Third Grade Sword Base.
While cultivating the “Sword Demon Secret Manual,” Li Shiming did not consume any more Monkey Wine, as his body was filled with a sense of swelling, teeming with energy.
As the cultivation progressed, the feeling of swelling in his body dissipated, and upon ending the practice, he was pleasantly surprised to find that his previously bulked-up muscles had receded, no longer as knotted as before.
Though his muscles had become smaller, his constitution had improved, and his body was transitioning toward the strength of a Second Grade Spiritual Artifact.
Once he could cultivate the “Sword Demon Secret Manual” to the pinnacle strength of a Second Grade Spiritual Artifact, he could, even without using any spells or magic artifacts, rely solely on his body to fight against any Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
Early the next morning, before the sky was fully bright, Li Shiming left his temporary cave abode.
In the following three days, he traveled cautiously, and did not encounter any Great Demons. The journey was relatively smooth, and he successfully reached the predetermined destination.
This place was where three large mountains connected. Li Shiming was on the waist of the leftmost mountain, a distance away from the location marked as the Mu Yang Three-leaf Clover on the map, which made it unnecessary to worry about being detected by powerful spirit beasts.
He released a drone. Although he had to wait and act together with Xu Chuan, he also needed to gather some intelligence in advance.
After the drone flew over the mountain peak and switched on the infrared thermal imaging, he noticed many small red dots on the target mountain.
In an area of about a hundred-meter radius, there were no small red dots, but there was an enormous red one, which must be the Guardian Spirit Beast.
This discovery reassured Li Shiming somewhat, as low-spiritual-power-fluctuation targets like the drone, when not investigating too closely to the ground, wouldn’t pose much of a problem.
What he was most worried about were spirit beasts that do not allow any wild animals within their territory; in that case, the appearance of the drone would be detected by the Guardian Spirit Beast.
If the flying drone isn’t directly observed by the Guardian Spirit Beast, it would simply be mistaken for a bird.
The drone circled nearby, and the IBMz15 rendered the entire region’s terrain into a three-dimensional map.
The only uncertainty was the strength of that Guardian Spirit Beast.
Li Shiming had Nezha dig a deep cave on the mountainside, where the thick mountain stone and soil could block the perception of powerful spirit beasts.
He also laid out multiple surveillance devices, some pointing at the target mountaintop, and others facing the other side, so that he would be aware as soon as Xu Chuan arrived.
Li Shiming had been practicing Body Refining Techniques in the cave for five days.
By the fifth day, Xu Chuan still hadn’t arrived, and Li Shiming sensed something was amiss.
Even at a slow pace, the journey shouldn’t take more than five days.
Recalling the Four Clawed Flood Dragon Demon that chased after Xu Chuan that day, Li Shiming offered a silent condolence for Xu Chuan.
Xu Chuan was a decent person, trustworthy enough to be a friend. Not every cultivator would willingly lure away a Great Demon when faced with one.
This is character, truly revealed in times of adversity.
“Brother Xu, I will do my best for the Mu Yang Three-leaf Clover, but if there’s a Great Demon guarding it, I do not have the ability to contend. Please forgive me,” Li Shiming murmured to himself as he gazed in the direction he had come from.
Over these days, he had wanted to observe the travel pattern of the powerful spirit beast through surveillance, but clearly, he had expected too much; the spirit beast had stayed put and had not moved.
Without getting close, Li Shiming was unable to make an accurate judgment of the spirit beast’s strength.
“I must first ascertain the strength of the Guardian Spirit Beast and draw it away to confirm whether the Mu Yang Three-leaf Clover is still there,” he planned in his mind.
To observe the strength of the Guardian Spirit Beast, the simplest method is to cause a significant disturbance. The Guardian Spirit Beast would surely be on alert and reveal its might, allowing him to gauge its strength.
Creating a significant disturbance was Li Shiming’s specialty.
He took out a 500-gram small bomb, a standard military-grade explosive equipped with a complete detonation device, which he adjusted to a timer with Spiritual Thought.
He then had the drone carry the small bomb toward the right side of the three mountains and controlled the drone to drop the bomb.
After the drone returned, he retracted it and concealed his presence completely, covering himself with soil, leaving only a sliver of Spiritual Thought outside.
“3,2,1!” As he counted down in his mind, an explosion erupted.
The moment the explosion resounded, the infrared thermal imaging in the surveillance picked up the solitary massive heat source from before; its temperature soared rapidly, followed by a thunderous roar.
A colossal bear engulfed in flames soared into the sky, heading towards the direction of the explosion.