In the study, Li Shiming wore a blindfold, within which was a monitor refitted from an LCD display screen taken from an optical fiber fusion splicer.

    Two hundred meters above the courtyard, a camouflaged drone was hovering.

    This was the tenth day since the cultivator gathering had ended, and Central Capital was still enveloped in a festive atmosphere.

    Over these days, Li Shiming had been highly vigilant, constantly observing his surroundings to prevent a surprise attack by fellow cultivators, which is why he hadn''t left the city at all.

    The cultivator whom he worried about hadn''t shown up, but instead, he had managed to create a drone.

    Actually, with pieces from dismantled optical fiber fusion splicers and the database from the IBM z15, building the drone was not difficult; what was challenging was the high-precision lens.

    Over several days, he made the clearest glass in his electric arc furnace, and only after repeated polishing in the machine room space did it meet the design requirements.

    This was only possible because he could manipulate matters at the micron level within the machine room space; otherwise, the time it would have taken is unimaginable.

    Fortunately, having gained experience with this, the other lenses were crafted much more quickly.

    The drone, camouflaged to look like a summer eagle from below, was revered by the Great Xia Royal Family and thus, at least within Central Capital, no one would attack a summer eagle.

    The only pity was the endurance of the drone. Even with additional batteries, the longest it could stay airborne was merely twenty minutes.

    However, Li Shiming no longer had to worry about someone invading his yard, for as he created the drone, he also made four camera probes. They connected wirelessly to the surveillance blindfold he wore on his head.

    The blindfold currently displayed the drone''s perspective, with four smaller windows on the side showing the footage from the four camera probes, which he could switch to the main display window at any time.

    If not for the scarcity of available chips, he would have liked to make more probes, but after dismantling the optical fiber fusion splicer, there were only enough chips for these few.

    Both the drone in the sky and the camera probes on the ground had two modes, one for daylight, which relied on the high-precision lenses for monitoring.

    The second was the night mode with infrared thermal imaging, which yielded better monitoring effects than during the day because nobody could escape thermal tracking.

    How many failures would a common cultivator need to endure before they could truly complete a ''Basic Light Body Talisman''?

    The Snow Spirit Pen was lifted, dipped in just the right amount of talismanic ink—a measure learned from four failed attempts.

    Spiritual power converged within the Snow Spirit Pen, blending with the talismanic ink at the nib.

    As the tip touched the talisman paper, the true essence of a sports car convertible was infused into the pen, and the Snow Spirit Pen moved measuredly over the paper.

    He was utterly concentrated, his spirit wholly immersed in the art of talisman creation.

    The moment the Snow Spirit Pen left the paper, the Light Body Rune on the talisman released a strong cyan glow that quickly dimmed, with the spiritual power infused in the paper contracting inward.

    Li Shiming watched the changes on the talisman, a small piece of paper before him solidifying the ''Light Body Technique'' within.

    It was successful, smoothly and beyond his expectations.

    Sensing the spiritual power within his body, he noted the cost of one ''Light Body Technique'' and, having only performed the ''Object Driving Skill'' once today, he still had an abundance of spiritual power.

    Encouraged by his recent success, he took out another sheet of talisman paper, dipped the Snow Spirit Pen into the ink, and began drawing another ''Basic Light Body Talisman''.

    The process went smoothly once again, and cyan light illuminated the study as the spiritual power was drawn into the paper.

    "Isn''t it said that the success rate of making talismans is not high?" Li Shiming put down the Snow Spirit Pen and started to ponder.

    Other cultivators relied on experience to make talismans, much like Li Shiming, but their kinds of experience differed.

    Their experience was a vague one; they knew how to get close to success and would attribute failures in the process to chance.

    But the experience Li Shiming gained from the IBM z15 was clear; he knew the root cause of each mistake and avoided repeating the same errors by experiencing and understanding them firsthand.

    After successfully crafting the third ''Basic Light Body Talisman,'' he understood his own success rate.

    While not daring to claim a hundred percent, his success rate was undoubtedly close to that, and it continually increased with each talisman he made as he accumulated more experience.