Cultivation is just so scientific!

Moreover, while in the state of Life-bound Corpse Refinement, the materials needed for Corpse Refining must be at least second grade, and even those might not be sufficient.

The Life-bound Corpse had a faint white glow about it, a layer of silver light, a phenomenon that only occurred when an Iron Corpse reached its zenith.

Moving upward from the Iron Corpse required advancement to Silver Corpse, a transformation not so easily achieved, with even the 'Netherworld Ghost Realm Array' providing much less aid.

Golden Core Sword Cultivator Yun Xingyi was the mightiest Golden Core in Mingxin Sect, and using his body to create a Corpse Refinement meant Mingxin Sect must have long since departed Beishu, otherwise Li Yuanba would immediately become Mingxin Sect's most wanted.

To avoid getting Li Yuanba in major trouble, Li Shiming put the Life-bound Refinement Corpse into the space of the mechanical room and performed plastic surgery to alter its features.

However, this time he was unable to cut the bones of the Life-bound Refinement Corpse, even with a Third Grade Sword Base proving inadequate for the task.

The process of Corpse Refining is to transform a corpse into a zombie; during this process, the body is strengthened, and when the refining is successful, Yin Cold Spiritual Power naturally emerges within the body.

This Yin Cold Power was continuously enhancing the entire body of the corpse, and during its transformation, it absorbed three days' worth of Yin Cold Power from the 'Netherworld Ghost Realm Array,' all the while constantly remolding and strengthening itself.

A Third Grade Sword Base is made with third-grade materials, but in reality, he had only recently begun the Foundation Establishment part of the 'Sword Demon Secret Manual,' and it was essentially still a Spiritual Artifact made from third-grade materials.

Unless he advanced to Golden Core and cultivated the Golden Core portion of the 'Sword Demon Secret Manual,' there was no way to make the Third Grade Sword Base into an artifact-like existence.

Having no choice, Li Shiming opted to fill it, fortunate that the Iron Corpse had developed aberrant fangs and its eyes turned blood red in the process.

To prevent Yun Xingyi's acquaintances from recognizing him, Li Shiming added more bones to his facial structure to alter his original appearance.

These bones, sourced from other corpses, might have been of slightly lesser quality, but when it came to simply altering the face, their impact on the Life-bound Refinement Corpse was virtually none.

Once everything was prepared, Li Shiming looked at the Life-bound Refinement Corpse in front of him and felt a sense of oppression rising from within.

Its terrifying exterior and the aura of a Peak Iron Corpse revealed it to be nothing short of a fierce beast.

What was even more dreadful was when Li Shiming took out a Spirit Artifact Shield to test the Life-bound Refinement Corpse's attack, he was shocked to find sword intent swirling around its claw.

With a single strike, the Spirit imprint within the Spirit Artifact Shield instantly dissipated, causing him to involuntarily spew out blood and suffer a splitting headache.

Fortunately, the Life-bound Refinement Corpse was under control and did not continue with successive attacks.

Li Shiming thought of his own Nezha and then looked at Li Yuanba's Life-bound Refinement Corpse in front of him, sighing at the vast difference between them.

Of course, Nezha's potential was not small either, being a Life-bound Corpse with a Heavenly Spirit Root, and even though it was still in the early stages of Iron Corpse, given its form with thirty-six arms and the rate of growth, its future strength would likely not be inferior to Li Yuanba's Life-bound Refinement Corpse.

Li Yuanba's Life-bound Refinement Corpse simply had a higher starting point, with the body of a Golden Core Sword Cultivator being a rare material for Corpse Refining.

"Let's call it 'Jiang Chen;' it will be the king among Iron Corpses!" Li Shiming decided on a name for the Life-bound Refinement Corpse and rummaged in the mechanical room space until he found a corpse-bag to hand over.

Having a mechanical room space of his own, this corpse-bag was a spoils of war from a long time ago.

But for the Peak Iron Corpse, Jiang Chen, to be housed within such a low-quality corpse-bag was indeed a bit demeaning.

When the opportunity arises, he would replace it with a Spirit Artifact level corpse-bag for Jiang Chen.

Li Yuanba hung the corpse-bag at his waist and then stored Jiang Chen inside it.

With the emergence of Jiang Chen as a newfound powerful force, Li Shiming felt somewhat safer.

"Let's go explore the ruins of the Six-fingered Sound Demon together!" he stood up and said with a smile.

"I'll go with fellow!" Li Yuanba responded with a laugh.

Packing up the Formation flags and clearing any traces they'd left behind, the two mounted their swords' light, and two streaks of Sword Escape shot toward the distance.

The Sword Escape technique Li Shiming was using now was the one from the "Ten Directions Sword Cultivation Technique," and with his Sword Intent, the effect was only slightly weaker than that of Li Yuanba's.

Indeed, he could disguise himself as a Sword Cultivator, and ordinary cultivators would find it difficult to discern the authenticity of his guise.

However, his fastest Escape Technique was not Sword Escape, but rather the Thunder Escape method from the "Nine Heavens Thunder Strike Technique" he had cultivated.

The trouble with Magic Cultivation was that it was too consuming; his meager spiritual power was insufficient for long-distance travel using Thunder Escape, unlike the more convenient Sword Escape.

Having traveled for several days, both he and Li Yuanba refrained from high-speed flight, as they were now not far from the dangerous territories marked on the map, where they needed to be wary of spirit beasts.

The terrain became more and more familiar; he had already spotted a landscape that matched the map, which he had seen on the "Earth Sound Annihilation Dao Zither."

The Six-fingered Sound Demon's Mansion was not far from here, fortunately, the Six-fingered Sound Demon did not place his mansion in a perilous region, otherwise, the risk of exploration would have greatly increased.

Li Shiming and Li Yuanba moved quickly through the mountains, stopping in front of a dense patch of low shrubs.

"There is an extremely faint fluctuation of a Formation, a very strange Formation fluctuation!" Li Shiming whispered.

His Spiritual Thought was always extended outward, and the Formations he sensed were twisting space, a kind of Formation he had never encountered before.

The low shrubs in front of him were real to the touch and even their branches could be broken; everything truly existed.

But at this location, there was another space existing, strangely, the Formation did not affect the real shrubs, yet coexisted at the same spot.

It was only now that Li Shiming realized his ignorance; the Cultivation World harbored too much knowledge that he did not know, and only by constantly improving his strength would he have a chance to access such high-end knowledge.

After thinking for a moment, he took out a drone, which was quite special with an extra package attached to its bottom.

He projected a method into the Formation at the low shrubs, making them appear ethereal, revealing an inward stone entrance.

The drone flew towards the entrance, and Li Shiming also put on an eye mask to synchronize with the drone's vision.

The cave was very austere, and the stone surfaces bore the marks of years gone by.

Just about ten meters inside the entrance, they reached the great hall of the cave abode.

Within the hall stood a set of table and chairs, which glinted with spiritual light. Despite many years, it was still discernible that they were made from Spiritual Objects of fine quality, assessed to be second-grade.

Meaning, just the Spiritual Objects used for the table and chairs in the great hall could be used to make multiple Spiritual Artifacts.
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One could imagine the level of luxury of the cave abode's owner; second-grade Spiritual Objects used to make furniture – even the mere sight stirred Li Shiming's heart.

Placed on the table was a chessboard and two boxes of black and white pieces, their spiritual light restrained, an indication they were even higher-quality Spiritual Objects.

"Could it be a magical treasure?" The tremble in Li Shiming's heart turned into a leap; he almost wanted to rush into the mansion to see the chessboard and the pieces with his own eyes, to confirm their quality.

But he managed to suppress the impulse well; if such treasures were placed just in the great hall, what then, could be inside?

These past days, he had also uncovered some information about the Six-fingered Sound Demon, who had vanished without a trace over four hundred years ago with strength at the late-stage Golden Core, and his influence in the Ten Thousand Great Mountains was not to be underestimated.

The Six-fingered Sound Demon was murderous and cruel, delighting in sweeping away lives with his zither music, a true Devil Cultivator.

Because the Six-fingered Sound Demon had killed a true disciple of the Senluo Sect, the sect dispatched cultivators to hunt him down. After severely injuring him once, he disappeared without a trace.

Rumors had it that the Six-fingered Sound Demon foresaw his own end and left a number of clues during his exile, hoping that a person with destiny could inherit his legacy.

In the Cultivation World, such rumors were abundant, and almost every missing cultivator had similar tales associated with them, so very few cultivators truly believed in the legends.

It was probably only those cultivators who had personally seen clues left by the Six-fingered Sound Demon who would believe in the existence of his mansion.