CHAPTER 977: CHAPTER 535: BLACK SHIELD

Li Shiming left his clone, Li Yuanba, in the cave dwelling. Before, he didn’t let Li Yuanba leave his side, primarily because the cultivation environment of Dongqi Continent is excellent, but the danger is also higher.

Li Yuanba, as a late-stage Golden Core sword cultivator, needs to retreat for rigorous cultivation, and presently doesn’t require additional resources.

This time, having found a safe place to cultivate, Li Yuanba finally parted with his main body, Li Shiming.

Li Shiming employed the ’Across the Heavens’ technique to leave the cave dwelling, watching the pool below from the air. If he hadn’t experienced it personally, he wouldn’t believe this pool connected to a cave dwelling with astonishing defenses.

On departure, he also set up a concealment formation at the stone lion, ensuring that even if cultivators find the place, they wouldn’t discover anything.

His goals differ from the original owner, the Netherworld Emperor. He completely wants no other cultivators to find it, whereas the Netherworld Emperor deliberately left clues for cultivators to find the cave dwelling following the map.

Flying in the air, Li Shiming took out the Netherworld Emperor’s Mustard Seed Ring and entered it with his Divine Sense.

There weren’t many items in the Mustard Seed Ring; a pitch-black fourth-grade flying sword, whose style slightly differed from ordinary flying swords, can entirely be used as a handheld sword by cultivators.

This pitch-black fourth-grade flying sword carried an aura similar to the black skeleton associated with corpse refining.

Upon seeing this flying sword artifact, Li Shiming first thought whether it was prepared by the original owner for corpse refining.

Corpse refining isn’t incapable of using weapons; close-combat artifacts can be wielded by corpse refining.

In fact, the most suitable for corpse refining are demon artifacts, creating wicked techniques making artifacts most compatible with Yin Cold Energy, hugely powerful in corpse refiner’s hands.

Li Shiming lacked means to refine demon artifacts, different from ordinary artifact refining methods.

Of course, even if he had the method to refine demon artifacts, he wouldn’t do it.

Demon artifacts typically require extremely cruel means, sacrificing the life or soul of living beings for refinement. Though his actions aren’t bothered much, he still holds moral standards.

He took out the pitch-black fourth-grade flying sword. In hand, he confirmed it was indeed a fourth-grade demon sword.

Once the corpse refiner ascends to a Golden Corpse, it can wield this fourth-grade demon sword.

As it wasn’t a fourth-grade demon sword he refined himself, using it didn’t burden him psychologically.

He also discovered a dark golden jade scroll. As it turns out, the Netherworld Emperor didn’t lie; he indeed possessed the Sun Concealing Sect’s inheritance techniques.

Contrary to his words, this technique was within the Mustard Seed Ring, requiring no need for recopying.

The Netherworld Emperor seemingly held some intention back then, perhaps planning to tamper with the cultivation technique.

Li Shiming’s Divine Sense entered the jade scroll. With his Nascent Soul Stage realm, he could view all its contents.

Momentarily, contents were copied into his life artifact, the IBMz15, which began analyzing the ’Sun Concealing Corpse Refining Technique.’

He didn’t feel secure in directly learning the cultivation technique, not knowing if it hid traps.

Even after the IBMz15 analysis, he would only extract valuable portions, not focusing solely on this cultivation technique.

There was nothing else in the Mustard Seed Ring worth his attention; likely over an extended period, everything usable had been consumed, leaving only these items.

Li Shiming summoned the corpse refiner, sensing the technique he applied on it couldn’t persist much longer.

"I truly am fated with the heavenly tribulation!" He sighed gently, shaking his head.

He lifted the spell placed on the corpse refiner and then fed it a Golden Corpse Core.

This corpse refiner was exceedingly strong, hoping upon advancing to Golden Corpse, it inherits the speed of Cave Heaven Golden Corpse, like Golden Corpse Nanming.

The bottleneck originally relaxing within the corpse refiner intensified upon consuming the Golden Corpse Core.

But unlike Golden Corpse Nanming, unable to fully absorb the Golden Corpse Core energy then, eventually relying on Golden Corpse Core energy against heavenly tribulation.

This corpse refiner’s main body was far stronger, rapidly consuming the Golden Corpse Core’s energy.

Only after two hours, it devoured more than half of the Golden Corpse Core’s energy.

At this moment, the bottleneck within the corpse refiner dissipated entirely, transforming the corpse pill into a corpse core, its whole becoming gold from silver.

Upon the corpse core within, appeared a somewhat mutated refining corpse rune, a universal variant rune for all Golden Corpses, his first encounter, also speed runes inherited from Golden Corpse Core.

Additionally, there was a bizarre black rune, inherited from the demonic cultivation of the corpse refiner’s main body.

Li Shiming saw it, not recorded within the ’Sun Concealing Corpse Refining Technique,’ although the corpse refiner was forged using that technique, the main body’s demonic cultivation unrelated to the technique.

Presumably, the mutated refining corpse rune was a unique rune manifestation of the ’Sun Concealing Corpse Refining Technique.’

Three runes represented three capabilities, similar to Golden Corpse Nanming.

However, the crucial moment is not now, but rather the forthcoming heavenly tribulation.

The corpse refiner ultimately ascended to Golden Corpse, shimmering with golden brilliance, its aura even surpassing Golden Corpse Nanming, advanced for some time, by several folds.

This was a difference of main body; Golden Corpse Nanming’s strength wasn’t its realm, being a fusion of Qi Refinement cultivator into Nascent Soul, its realm merely deemed Qi Refinement.