Chapter 1829: Chapter 961: Harvest
The Duke of Thunder approached the crystal stone bed, allowing for a clearer observation of the ancient cultivator at this distance.
The ancient cultivator was clad in a white robe, designed in a way that seemed like a single piece of cloth with a hole cut in the middle, then draped over the body, forming the current white robe.
The ancient cultivator appeared very young, a male cultivator.
However, Li Shiming didn’t consider the cultivator truly young; he judged the cultivator’s strength from the energy fluctuations of his body, identifying him as a half-step powerhouse just a hair’s breadth away from advancing to a great power.
If evaluated in terms of cultivation level, the ancient cultivator should be at the peak half-step great power stage.
His physical body was formidable; apart from a great power, the ancient cultivator’s physical body was the foremost.
As Duke of Thunder scrutinized the ancient cultivator, he remained cautious. Although he didn’t sense a soul in the ancient cultivator’s body, the techniques possessed by the ancient cultivator were beyond Li Shiming’s conjecture.
Duke of Thunder searched the ancient cultivator but found nothing.
The ancient cultivator was naked, wearing only a simple robe made from a single piece of cloth.
"Could this be the spare body of the ancient cultivator?" Suddenly, Li Shiming had a hunch.
This was judged from the habits of current Nascent Soul cultivators; once a cultivator elevates to the Nascent Soul Stage and possesses a nascent soul, they can reconstruct after the physical body’s demise using the nascent soul.
In this process, the most crucial aspect is having a spare body.
Therefore, many Nascent Soul cultivators go to great lengths to seek young cultivators of exceptional talent and matching attributes, using special secret techniques to eradicate the young cultivator’s soul, leaving only an empty shell.
During dangerous missions, cultivators prepare a spare body so that in the event of an emergency, they can seize the spare body through the nascent soul, gaining a chance for reincarnation and reconstruction.
However, for the ancient cultivator to use the body of a peak half-step great power as a spare body, the strength of this ancient cultivator must have been astonishingly formidable.
Duke of Thunder didn’t immediately touch the peak half-step great power’s body; in fact, Li Shiming was quite eager for this peak half-step great power’s body.
With experience in refining the Duke of Thunder and the Red Demon, combined with the accidental success of crafting the avatar Li Yuanba, Li Shiming considered using the peak half-step great power’s body to refine a new avatar.
Even if he couldn’t refine a new avatar, refining a corpse with the power of a peak half-step great power would significantly enhance his self-preservation capabilities.
But he planned to consider acting on this peak half-step great power’s corpse only after exploring the entire ancient remains.
Duke of Thunder began to explore the surroundings; its exploration was quite simple, needing only to discover restrictions resembling gateways.
Duke of Thunder would naturally use space movement capability to find the space beyond the restriction.
After searching for a while, it finally found a hidden portal in a corner of the space.
Using the same method, it traversed the portal via space movement.
The space it entered was a meditation chamber, with a decayed meditation mat, a small censer in front of the decayed mat, and a jade statuette of a ruyi.
The mat was presumably woven from high-quality spirit grass, but regardless of how high the quality, without special protection, it couldn’t withstand the ravages of time.
The lingering aura on the mat indicated to the Duke of Thunder that it was an excellent treasure for enhancing cultivation.
"What a pity!" Duke of Thunder shook its head and sighed.
Meditation mat-type auxiliary cultivation treasures are intrinsically challenging to create; Li Shiming himself only owns one fit for a Great Cultivator level, which he obtained from the Infinite Sect, the ’Infinite Jade Mat.’
The Duke of Thunder sensed the censer, and in that instant, it realized its judgment was incorrect.
This was not a censer but a pill furnace.
It’s not that Li Shiming, who controlled the Duke of Thunder, was inexperienced; being the top alchemy master in the cultivation world, he had seen many pill furnaces, owning five fourth-grade pill furnaces himself.
The main point was that this was an ancient pill furnace, differing in many ways from contemporary ones.
"Fifth Grade Pill Furnace!" the Duke of Thunder repeatedly confirmed and finally assured itself of the quality of this ancient pill furnace before its eyes.
Pill furnaces are entirely different from ordinary magic tools. Although Li Shiming inherited the art of refining pill furnaces, he had never crafted a high-quality furnace because the materials needed are numerous, each with different attributes.
Only a sect dedicated to crafting pill furnaces, having collected and accumulated materials over a long time, may gather everything needed for crafting a pill furnace.
Li Shiming was lazy in collecting; his current alchemy skill had already reached its peak, and even with a better pill furnace, it wouldn’t improve his alchemy.
It’s noteworthy that when he crafts Great Cultivator Spirit Pills, the ones prepared for delivery are those whose qualities he deliberately suppressed.
However, the Great Cultivator Spirit Pills he keeps for himself reached the pinnacle of Great Cultivator high-grade quality, a theoretical limit achievable only by someone with 0.05-nanometer precision control in a machine room space like him; no other alchemy master can achieve this.
So he never pursued better pill furnaces with intent.
