Cultivation is just so scientific!

Watching as the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' cultivation method rune short sword inside the Gold Thunder Nascent Soul was about to be completed, the result of success or failure seemed at hand, he instead grew nervous and worried.

The Gold Thunder Nascent Soul was intended, according to his design, to be cultivated into a Sword Cultivation Nascent Soul.

And among Sword Cultivation Nascent Souls, the strongest could be said to be the Sword Cultivator Nascent Soul of the 'Sword Intent Chongxiao Pavilion'.

This was also the Sword Cultivation Nascent Soul he was most familiar with, having the Nascent Soul of his avatar, Li Yuanba, as a reference, a condition unique in the Cultivation World.

Not to mention the proud Sword Cultivation Nascent Soul, even ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators would not allow their Nascent Souls to be completely open for other cultivators to study, especially with their Nascent Soul core runes fully exposed.

Li Shiming, possessing such conditions, naturally thought to aim for creating the strongest Sword Cultivator. However, he had not previously practiced the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique'; he aimed to forcibly transform the Gold Thunder Nascent Soul into a Sword Cultivation Nascent Soul of the 'Sword Intent Chongxiao Pavilion' through this transformation.

The completion of the last stroke of the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' cultivation method rune short sword within the Gold Thunder Nascent Soul surprised him, as there was no change in the rune short sword, remaining as lifeless as before.

"How could this be?" Li Shiming murmured to himself.

Suddenly, a thought stirred within him as the insights of the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' shared from his avatar Li Yuanba surfaced in the mind of the Gold Thunder Nascent Soul.

As the insights of the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' rose within him, the rune short sword within the Gold Thunder Nascent Soul began to emit a faint glow, as if imbued with spirit.

The insights of the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' persisted, and the Gold Thunder Nascent Soul's perception of the rune short sword grew increasingly strong.

"Succeeded!" The Gold Thunder Nascent Soul opened his eyes. Although he was within a machine room space, he could still feel the imposing presence of the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' cultivation method rune short sword within him.

The Gold Thunder Nascent Soul, much like his avatar Li Yuanba, used the practice of the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' to break through to Nascent Soul, causing the rune short sword of the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' to form within his Nascent Soul.

The 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' cultivation rune short sword is the foundation of the Nascent Soul for the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique.' With the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' cultivation rune short sword, it is possible to unleash the power of the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique', and to utilize all its secret techniques.

It was hard to imagine that he managed to achieve mastery of the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' within just one year with the Gold Thunder Nascent Soul.

Of course, to enhance the power of the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique', he needed to continuously deepen his understanding of the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique'.

Enhancing the understanding of the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' did not require the main body to do so; he could share the insights of Li Yuanba's 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique,' thereby saving a lot of trouble.

Unfortunately, the cultivation progress of his avatar Li Yuanba lagged behind Li Shiming, forcing his sword cultivation level to fall behind his own realm.

However, considering the formidable offensive power of sword cultivators, even if his realm was somewhat weaker, the ability to perform all the secret techniques of the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' could still compensate for the shortcomings in his realm.

The Gold Thunder Nascent Soul opened his mouth to absorb the nearby 'Traceless Illusion Sword,' allowing it to enter his body and merge with the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' cultivation rune short sword.

He could feel the 'Traceless Illusion Sword' being nurtured by the 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' cultivation rune short sword; as long as the 'Traceless Illusion Sword' remained in this state, it would constantly be refined by the Gold Thunder Nascent Soul.

The Gold Thunder Nascent Soul exited the machine room space, glanced at the sky, and saw no anomalies, still pondering whether a heavenly tribulation might appear.

His actions this time would not be tolerated by the rules of heaven and earth; the absence of a heavenly tribulation was probably because the rules of heaven and earth had never considered that a cultivator could operate in such a manner.

Li Shiming put away the Fourth Grade Flying Sword Magical Treasures he had been refining recently. There were seventy-three Fourth Grade Flying Swords in total, of which only forty or so contained the 'Heavenly Thunder Sword Intent.'

There was no time to refine the rest of the Fourth Grade Flying Swords, as most of his mind had been focused on the rune short sword within the Gold Thunder Nascent Soul.

At this moment, he had no intention to continue refining. Having stayed in the cave for so long, he felt a restless desire to move.

During this semi-retreat period, besides completing the transformation of the Gold Thunder Nascent Soul's 'Sky-Surging Sword Intent Technique' cultivation rune short sword, his Fire Thunder Nascent Soul sometimes engaged in alchemy and sometimes participated in artifact refining, while the other three Nascent Souls continued with their cultivation.

Li Shiming left the cave dwelling, first casting a spell to inquire whether his master, Grandmaster Hu, was available. After receiving a positive reply, he flew towards the Four Symbols Cave Heaven.

Upon entering the Four Symbols Cave Heaven and reaching his master Grandmaster Hu's cave, he did not see the registered disciple Lu Heng or his second senior brother Yue Shan.

When he finally saw Grandmaster Hu, he realized that Grandmaster Hu was meeting him in the form of an avatar.

"Shizhen, you've emerged from your retreat!" Grandmaster Hu was very pleased to see Li Shiming.

"Yes, my realm advanced a bit too quickly before, and it took this time of cultivation to stabilize it!" Li Shiming replied with a bow.

"During this period, conflicts between the sect and the Sun Concealing Sect have been ongoing, with mutual attacks on each other's resource sites. Most of the Nascent Soul cultivators of the sect are stationed in various places. Now that you've emerged from retreat, I'll assign you a task!" Grandmaster Hu first assessed Li Shiming's realm before making a decision.

Li Shiming stood with hands folded. Having received messages from some Nascent Soul cultivators, he was aware of the recent movements in the sect, knowing that the situation was a bit tense.

However, he was not concerned, as long as he did not engage in direct combat with Great Cultivators; he was confident in his ability to protect himself when facing Nascent Soul Middle Stage practitioners.

"Your senior brother Zhong Qiang has had news, Yue Shan and Lu Heng are preoccupied, so I need you to go and retrieve him for me!" Grandmaster Hu said in a deep voice.

As he spoke, he took out a jade scroll and tossed it to Li Shiming.

Li Shiming caught the jade scroll and sent his Divine Sense into it.

This contained the findings from the intelligence system. It turned out that ever since Senior Brother Zhong Qiang went missing, Grandmaster Hu had never given up searching for him.

The sect's intelligence system recently found a clue. Senior Brother Zhong Qiang had engaged in battle with Zhao Lingyu, a Nascent Soul Middle Stage practitioner of the Sun Concealing Sect, after which Senior Brother Zhong Qiang lost contact.

According to some collateral intelligence, Senior Brother Zhong Qiang had only fled with severely injured Nascent Soul.

Judging from the fact that Senior Brother Zhong Qiang has not contacted the sect for so long, it is highly likely that he underwent body seizing after Nascent Soul, losing his memory in the process.

Nascent Soul body seizing inherently involves risks, and cultivators will avoid doing so unless absolutely necessary.

Not to mention that if the Nascent Soul was severely injured, the danger of body seizing in such a situation increases many fold.

At that time, Senior Brother Zhong Qiang had not utilized the prepared backup body. Due to the urgent circumstances, he could not return to the backup body in time and had to seize a body externally.

Li Shiming's task was to follow up on the information gathered by the intelligence system, head to Guangyang State, and find Senior Brother Zhong Qiang to bring him back.

"Is Senior Brother still alive?" Li Shiming asked uncertainly after reading the jade scroll.

The jade scroll made no mention of Senior Brother Zhong Qiang's life or death, as if it was certain that Senior Brother Zhong Qiang was still alive.

Li Shiming needed to verify this, or else, if Senior Brother Zhong Qiang had fallen, no matter how much time he spent, he could not bring him back to the sect.

"Zhong Qiang stopped his Life Lamp when he left, and his Life Lamp is still burning!" Grandmaster Hu explained.

The Life Lamp contains a fragment of a cultivator's soul imprint. As long as the cultivator is alive, the Life Lamp will remain lit. If the cultivator falls, the soul imprint will disappear, and the Life Lamp will extinguish.

Not all cultivators in the sect leave Life Lamps, only those undertaking extremely dangerous tasks do so.

Cultivators value their souls greatly. The soul imprint left behind must be reclaimed upon completion of a task.

Grandmaster Hu assigning the task of retrieving Senior Brother Zhong Qiang to Li Shiming was also a way of taking care of him. During this period of conflict between two major sects, such a low-risk task was most suitable for someone like Li Shiming, an Alchemy Master, to undertake.