Cultivation is just so scientific!

But after this period of investigation, no suspicious individuals were found among the powerful Foundation Establishment Cultivators and the Golden Core members.

All of Elder Baili's fury had nowhere to vent, and Li Shiming naturally became the direct target of this anger.

"Yes, I will issue the task as soon as I return to the sect!" Wei Yun was quite shocked, not expecting his master, Elder Baili, to offer such great benefits.

Even though he's a Registered Disciple, a Golden Core Elder's Registered Disciple holds a status within the sect that surpasses most Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

This is an opportunity to receive direct guidance from a Golden Core Elder, which, for the vast majority of sect cultivators, is an immense fortune.

Wei Yun was considering, after issuing such a task, how many days could Li Shiming survive?

For such a great opportunity, sect cultivators would dare to make a move near the Sky Sea Sect's nine peaks.

All that transpired within the cave dwelling was seen by Li Shiming and heard by his ears.

Shivering with rage, he never expected that Elder Baili, a mighty Golden Core strongman, would really fixate on him, a mere Qi Refining Fourth Level Cultivator.

Until now, he had not figured out whether Elder Baili had discovered the real cause of Baili Jin Yan's death, or if there were other reasons.

He had never considered that Elder Baili's reason for targeting him was largely because of Yin Shilan.

"Go die!" A chill ran through Li Shiming's heart as he connected to the formation within the cave dwelling through the undersea cable, transmitting the detonation command into the interior of the dwelling.

Elder Baili sensed a faint, strange energy fluctuation before anyone else; he looked toward the ground and, despite no signs of Spiritual Energy fluctuations, felt an extremely strong sense of threat.

"Very well, to have made arrangements here, I'd like to see which fellow it is," he said, not surprised but somewhat excited.

He had been investigating the disappearance of Baili Jin Yan for quite a while without any useful clues.

Now, with cultivators setting up traps actively, it suggested that the cultivator hidden in the shadows would soon appear.

As for danger, he, Baili Luo, being at the Golden Core Stage, had killed not less than thousands, if not tens of thousands, of cultivators; he had achieved his current accomplishments by stepping over a mount of corpses.

He was not afraid of battle in the slightest and even hoped to meet the person behind the scenes for an intense, satisfying fight.

Elder Baili saw the arrangements here as the handiwork of a peer, and this was not without reason.

Firstly, an ordinary Foundation Establishment Cultivator's setup could hardly make him feel threatened, and those daring enough to set traps for a Golden Core cultivator would certainly not be Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

As for Qi Refining Cultivators, they were not even within his considerations.

What a joke, what sort of cultivator would a Qi Refining Cultivator be, besides his own son?

A small, exquisite short sword appeared in front of him, and Wei Yun immediately retreated behind his master. With his master present, it was not his turn to act.

Yet Elder Baili and Wei Yun had not expected that the attack would come in an unknown way, one that they had never even considered.

Mundane objects cannot harm cultivators, and this cultivator was still at the Qi Refinement stage.

This is why in the mundane world, a realm guarded by just one late-stage Qi Refining Cultivator is sufficient.

And this late-stage Qi Refining guarding cultivator was there not to deal with the mundane world, but to suppress the existence of Loose Cultivators.

This shows the disdain cultivators have for the mundane world; never before had there been an incident where the mundane has injured a cultivator.

Two tons of solid explosive, meticulously prepared by Li Shiming and made according to the strictest military standards of his previous life, exploded beneath the feet of Elder Baili and Wei Yun.

Even hidden a kilometer away, within the undersea rocks, Li Shiming felt the sudden, violent tremor of earth and sky.

The rock emitted faint cracking sounds, fortunately without collapsing.

Fire and shock waves appeared within the relatively confined space of the cave dwelling following a massive blast.

Two tons of solid explosive, an amount capable of destroying a mountain peak, detonated at the feet of Elder Baili and Wei Yun.

A small exquisite short sword transformed into a giant sword in front of Elder Baili, protecting his body, while his other hand emitted a ray of light.

The beam of light cleared the exploding flames, rubble, and other debris above, forming a passage.

In the face of such an explosion, the fearsome Golden Core cultivator displayed extreme strength.

Of course, caught entirely off-guard by the sudden explosion, virtually all of its force initially bore down upon the huge sword.

Weapons at the Golden Core Stage were known as treasures, and Golden Core cultivators nurtured their treasures within their Golden Cores, the materials of which were at the very least third grade.

Elder Baili always believed that offense was the best defense, therefore, when faced with traps, he brought out a sword-type treasure.

While a sword-type treasure was not a defensive treasure, its formidable power could still serve a defensive purpose, albeit causing significant damage to the treasure itself.

Elder Baili, having unleashed all his might to blast through and create an escape passage, suddenly spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

The radiance on the surface of his great sword dimmed rapidly; he attempted to retrieve it, but the explosion had severely damaged the sword, destroying the engraving inside and the spiritual power of ownership.

A treasure connected to one's own breath being damaged was almost akin to a heavy blow to a Golden Core cultivator.

Feeling a tingling sensation on his scalp, Elder Baili sensed the breath of death; if he lingered, the hidden Golden Core would emerge, and he would truly be left behind here.

At this point, he could no longer be concerned about his direct disciple, Wei Yun.

Without even the time to retrieve the damaged treasure, he transformed into a streak of blood light that disappeared from the explosion using the blood he spat.

Everything happened too swiftly. When Wei Yun realized he had lost sight of his master's figure, he was already fully exposed to the explosion.

Li Shiming indeed overestimated the Foundation Establishment Cultivators, treating Wei Yun like a Foundation Establishment Stage version of Baili Jin Yan; in fact, he was wrong.

Cultivators like Baili Jin Yan were extremely rare, with Golden Core Stage fathers and the attention of their sect, enjoying the best resources and the most powerful cultivation techniques, achieving comprehensive development in physique, Spiritual Power, and spirit.

Clearly, Wei Yun was just an average Foundation Establishment Cultivator with no particular focus on Body Refinement.

This was the norm among cultivators. Body Refinement during the Qi Refinement Realm required a substantial amount of resources, and upon reaching the Foundation Establishment Stage, resources were no less precious, rather even more so.

A regular cultivator would already be quite accomplished to have sufficient resources for cultivating Spiritual Power, let alone have spare resources to consider Body Refinement.

Given Elder Baili's presence initially, Wei Yun did not even prepare his defenses; his defenses were nowhere near as strong as those casually set up by Elder Baili.

Elder Baili's Blood Escape left him utterly unguarded against the explosion.

The Spiritual Energy around his body was torn apart by the violent explosion, which simultaneously ripped through his body and his life.

Through the last glimpse, Li Shiming's split soul saw a fading blood shadow in the distance, the terrifying aura of which made the split soul tremble incessantly.

Then, the blast wave from the explosion arrived and completely shattered the split soul.

The split soul, which was supposed to exist for ten days, was destroyed in just four.

Li Shiming waited for the aftermath of the explosion to subside, then immediately burst out from behind the rocks.

He was one hundred percent certain that the fleeing figure was the Golden Core Elder Baili Luo, which meant the other Foundation Establishment Cultivator must have died in the explosion.

Even a small portion of the belongings left by a Foundation Establishment Cultivator would be an extremely considerable fortune.

He had to act quickly, for the disturbance here was not slight. Though it was a thousand miles from the Sect Formation, it was not a far distance, and the shock waves from two tons of solid explosives would soon be detected by the Sect Formation.
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The wings on his back enabled Li Shiming to reach the site of the explosion with incredible speed. The small island had long disappeared, and even parts of it had vanished into the sea.

He searched the sea relentlessly with his Spiritual Thought, hoping to find any remaining items.

He discovered the body of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, its skeleton still mostly intact, though some flesh was missing, and barely one-tenth of his robe remained.

To his surprise, a pitch-black storage bag was completely intact, which was an unexpected delight.

His Spiritual Thought also caught sight of a sword-shaped piece of metal, its fluctuations of Spiritual Energy sent tremors of fear through him, but without dwelling too much on it, he collected it as well.