Chapter 1896 - 994: Stay Behind (Part 2)

Chapter 1896: Chapter 994: Stay Behind (Part 2)

Li Shiming sent a message of safety to Grandmaster Hu, summoned the Thunder Beast and rode towards the Central State Continent.

Two days later, he arrived at the Central State Continent. First, he reached the vicinity of the Sword Intent Chongxiao Pavilion’s mountain gate, and with a thought, he summoned back the Golden Winged Dapeng.

He mounted the Golden Winged Dapeng, whose mode of transport was even faster, this time heading towards the mountain gate of Da Leiyin Temple.

After Huinan Bodhisattva’s avatar lost contact, he sensed something was wrong. Soon, he perceived that the divided soul within the avatar had been destroyed.

This greatly enraged Huinan Bodhisattva. For a Great Ability inheritor like them, an avatar is akin to an arm for an ordinary person.

Without the avatar, Huinan Bodhisattva could no longer intervene in the matters outside the mountain gate of Da Leiyin Temple.

More importantly, an avatar provides a form of safety assurance to the original body. In general, even within the mountain gate of Da Leiyin Temple, Huinan Bodhisattva would only dispatch an avatar to handle affairs.

If anything happened, the avatar could address it. If the avatar couldn’t resolve it, the original self within the Inheritance Cave Heaven would at least come to understand the enemy’s capabilities, preventing complete ignorance.

"Li Shizhen, how could he be so powerful?" Huinan Bodhisattva exclaimed in disbelief.

He had no idea that Li Shiming’s achievements were far more glorious than he imagined. It was just that the Cultivation World hadn’t spread word of Li Shiming’s exploits.

Free Great Power Leng Luo’s actual body was slain by Li Shiming, though Leng Luo had been severely injured after an ambush by numerous Great Power Avatars, allowing Li Shiming to take advantage.

Huinan Bodhisattva lamented his lost avatar, but felt even more anguished over the Inheritance Buddha Lotus.

Even though an avatar could be regrown given enough time, the Inheritance Buddha Lotus, once lost, was beyond his capability to recreate.

The Inheritance Buddha Lotus was not something he made but was a treasured heritage of Da Leiyin Temple.

The Inheritance Buddha Lotus, refined by several Buddhist Great Abilities of Da Leiyin Temple, possesses immense power. Even when confronted by a true Great Power, one could easily escape with it.

Unfortunately, Li Shiming had found a way to counter the Inheritance Buddha Lotus. The ’Beidou Formation Map,’ coupled with his formation abilities, trapped the space movement capability of the Inheritance Buddha Lotus.

Li Shiming’s own space movement and the ’Eternal Water Bear’ armor defense allowed him to entangle with Huinan Bodhisattva’s avatar, preventing it from actively breaking the formation created by the ’Beidou Formation Map.’

Huinan Bodhisattva had made up his mind to contact the other Great Powers to stir them into repeating the ambush on Leng Luo Great Power.

However, it wouldn’t be possible in the short term, because the Great Powers’ previous mobilization of avatars had depleted their resources significantly.

Though Inheritor Great Abilities possess Inheritance Cave Heavens, most energy within those realms is allocated to nurture core cultivators and produce resources for Great Cultivators, leaving little energy at the Inheritor’s personal disposal.

In urgent circumstances, Inheritor Great Abilities might borrow more energy, but to suppress Li Shiming, even if persuaded by Huinan Bodhisattva, most would not mobilize their avatars again without first replenishing their depleted energy.

Huinan Bodhisattva needed time, both to gradually liaise with the Great Powers until their energy replenishes, and to re-cultivate his own avatar.

While missing one Great Power avatar isn’t a big deal when many mobilize together, as the instigator, not participating would be questionable for him.

"Yet again, I’ll have to tap into the reserves!" Huinan Bodhisattva muttered helplessly to himself.

Although Da Leiyin Temple indeed has treasures that could restore the soul, such treasures diminish with use.

Li Shiming arrived a thousand miles from Da Leiyin Temple’s mountain gate, and since Li Yuanba’s flying swords had once reached the mountain gate, he knew its location despite the Cave Heaven Space’s barrier.

Crucially, he was familiar with Da Leiyin Temple’s Mountain Gate Formation and, after extensive research, had devised a method to breach it.

Thus, from a thousand miles away, he activated a space movement ability similar to the ’A Single Step to Reach’ Secret Technique from atop the Golden Winged Dapeng. This time, his form passed through the Cave Heaven Space Barrier and the Mountain Gate Formation of Da Leiyin Temple.

He appeared above Da Leiyin Temple’s mountain gate, a site recently attacked with no trace remaining.

Upon his arrival, he unleashed one hundred and fifty fireballs towards the ground.

These hundred and fifty fireballs were prepared by using one hundred and fifty brains before entering the mountain gate of Da Leiyin Temple.

Concurrently, each magic rune was empowered by fifth-grade ’Infinite Immortal Fire.’

These were truly half-step Great Power level fireballs, and each one constituted a Fire Magic, meaning a hundred and fifty fireballs equated to a hundred and fifty Fire Magics.

The power of these was exponentially greater than large-scale Fire Magics, yet Li Shiming wielded this technique to achieve the effect of a wide-range attack spell.

The first round of fireballs rained down on various buildings at Da Leiyin Temple’s mountain gate. The power of the half-step Great Power level fireballs was immense—in an instant, even array-protected structures were demolished.

The monks within didn’t need to touch the flames; being near such fifth-grade fire could result in severe burn injuries from the heat alone.

In just one breath, half of Da Leiyin Temple’s mountain gate was destroyed, far more devastating than Li Yuanba’s last flying sword attack.

The sword light attacks of the flying swords did not demolish buildings.

Of course, that was because Li Yuanba didn’t want to expend the sword light’s energy on the structures but aimed for maximal lethality.

Li Shiming’s figure flickered, appearing elsewhere, as he prepared the second wave of fireballs within his body.

Every single fireball spell required the fifth-grade ’Infinite Immortal Fire’ for boosting, slowing the casting of fireball spells compared to norm.

He took a full two breaths to ready the hundred and fifty fireball spells once more, and attacked ground targets again.

He didn’t bother to check the outcome of the attack, for he could imagine its effectiveness.

His form flashed past the Mountain Gate Formation of Da Leiyin Temple and the Cave Heaven Space Barrier, returning to the back of the Golden Winged Dapeng.

The well-prepared Golden Winged Dapeng flew swiftly into the distance.

Li Shiming’s seemingly reckless act was actually carefully calculated—via IBMz15 precision calculations.

During Li Yuanba’s previous flying sword assault, it took five breaths for Huinan Bodhisattva to react.

Even after experiencing that attack, it was impossible for Da Leiyin Temple to maintain constant vigilance against the mountain gate, keeping Huinan Bodhisattva perpetually on alert.

As long as he completed his attack within five breaths and left Da Leiyin Temple’s mountain gate, he could ensure his safety to the greatest extent.

Originally, he planned only a single round of fireball spells as his first plan.

But since no Great Venerable rose to the air upon his entry into Da Leiyin Temple’s mountain gate, the saved time allowed him to trigger a second round of fireball spells.

This is not Da Leiyin Temple’s fault; Li Yuanba’s remote flying sword assassinations had diminished their Great Venerable ranks by half.

Additionally, because the incident had tarnished Da Leiyin Temple’s reputation, intensifying competition over resource points, they needed to station Great Venerable-level powerhouses as guards.

Moreover, Da Leiyin Temple had evaluated the possibility of Li Yuanba launching another remote flying sword attack soon, concluding it as unlikely.

Da Leiyin Temple had even offered terms to Sword Intent Chongxiao Pavilion, making it unlikely for Li Yuanba to strike again at this time.

So despite an attack on Da Leiyin Temple’s mountain gate, the defenses had not been significantly strengthened.

They could never have imagined that while Li Yuanba would not launch another assault, Li Shiming would come.

And Li Shiming was far more ruthless, causing far more severe destruction, verging tens of times greater than Li Yuanba’s assault.

Huinan Bodhisattva received word and then appeared within the mountain gate on the sixth breath, for this time he had been healing soul injuries.