He manipulated the giant hand, which showed numerous complicated runes. These runes from the giant hand penetrated into the phantom doppelganger’s body.

Only then did he release the giant hand, leaving the phantom doppelganger suspended in place, losing control of its body.

In fact, even if he did nothing, the strength of the phantom doppelganger would have no impact on him.

No matter how weak, a half-step Great Power is still a half-step Great Power, and within his Grotto Heaven, he is a god, a god who controls everything.

The phantom doppelganger is within the Grotto Heaven, and with just a thought, he can control it.

"Su Tong is truly useless!" Having done all this, the half-step Great Power Lian Lei muttered to himself angrily.

In his mind, being trapped here was entirely due to Master Su Tong.

He captured the strongest phantom doppelganger into the Grotto Heaven, with Master Su Tong as a Thunder Cultivator of Yuqing Sect, not to mention defeating the Ten Thousand Beast Sect cultivators, but how could he not even escape.

He was unaware that when Li Shiming sensed a plot against him through the phantom doppelganger, his first thought was that the enemy’s strength must be extremely formidable.

So he immediately released four late-stage Golden Corpses, which caused the half-step Great Power Lian Lei, despite capturing the phantom doppelganger, to instantly kill Master Su Tong with the strength of four late-stage Golden Corpses.

Half-step Great Power Lian Lei blamed Master Su Tong, but he was also helpless. Right now, the outside space was sealed, and even if he wanted to break it, attacking from the Grotto Heaven to the outside was through the Cave Heaven Anchor Point Carrier.

Now with the space anchor points sealed, his attacks couldn’t pinpoint the target.

Especially after he tried again and found the sealing of the space anchor points had somehow increased several times in strength.

Thus, even if he wanted to forcibly try attacking, he couldn’t do it, as the space seal nearly severed his connection with the Cultivation World outside the Grotto Heaven.

"Li Shizhen, release the space seal outside, or I won’t be polite!" Half-step Great Power Lian Lei fixed his gaze on the phantom doppelganger, threatening coldly.

The phantom doppelganger glanced back at him indifferently, showing an attitude of resignation.

Half-step Great Power Lian Lei let out a cold laugh. Despite not using his methods to torment cultivators for many years, his skills hadn’t dulled a bit.

His silhouette flashed, appearing beside the phantom doppelganger, placing a hand with lightning on the phantom doppelganger’s body.

Lightning entered the phantom doppelganger’s body, and unlike regular lightning, this type could cause pain to cultivators, a trick Lian Lei developed in his early years.

As soon as Li Shiming felt the pain, he severed the sensory connection with the phantom doppelganger.

With lightning entering the body, the phantom doppelganger trembled uncontrollably, its muscles twitching relentlessly.

Yet since Li Shiming cut off the sensory link, the phantom doppelganger only retained a sense of instinct, without real pain, its tremble and twitch were mere instinctive reactions to the lightning invasion.

Seeing the phantom doppelganger still persisted, Lian Lei intensified the lightning input, but no matter how much he increased it, he couldn’t make the phantom doppelganger utter a single scream.

"Such hard bones, I learned a few tricks from Devil Cultivators in the past, seems I can use them on you!" Half-step Great Power Lian Lei halted the lightning input, saying in a deep voice.

He unleashed a black energy that infiltrated the phantom doppelganger’s body and immediately began to erode every part.

This Devil Cultivator method brought not only pain but various unbearable suffering.

But again, his efforts were futile, as the phantom doppelganger still had no reaction.

Next, the half-step Great Power Lian Lei tried many other methods, even using soul-tormenting techniques, until eventually, he had no means left against the phantom doppelganger.

Though the phantom doppelganger was influenced, the prolonged torment inflicted significant damage on its body.

Lian Lei didn’t want the phantom doppelganger to die, so he paid attention to the degree of the torment, otherwise, it would have perished.

"Such strong will, but what good is your persistence? Yuqing Sect will definitely send cultivators over, with you here, Ten Thousand Beast Sect cannot withstand Yuqing Sect’s assault!" Seeing his punishments useless, Lian Lei resorted to verbal attacks.

Li Shiming reconnected the sensory link with the phantom doppelganger, and upon doing so, he sensed the injuries on the phantom doppelganger’s body.

Gladly, the worst pain was past, with the injury-induced pain not being intense.

"Yuqing Sect dares not come to Dongqi Continent!" The phantom doppelganger replied with certainty.

Lian Lei looked helplessly at the impassive phantom doppelganger, having no means to deal with it for the time being.

He had tried every kind of torment before, and now certainly couldn’t really kill the phantom doppelganger.

He ceased talking, waiting for Yuqing Sect’s rescue.

In his mind, Li Shiming had been captured, just for Yuqing Sect to send cultivators to take the Cave Heaven Anchor Point Carrier away.

Seeing Lian Lei no longer spoke, the phantom doppelganger took the time to carefully observe the Grotto Heaven environment.

The Grotto Heaven had undergone construction, with both intense Thunder Rules and various basic rules present, though these basic rules were of low level, merely enriching the rule system within the Grotto Heaven.

He looked at the thunderclouds in the sky, where the lightning flickered.

As a Peak Great Cultivator also mastering ’Yuqing Thunder Scripture,’ he could perceive the most while observing the Thunder Rules in this Grotto Heaven.

Of course, as a failed half-step Great Power, Lian Lei didn’t have many parts worth learning.

Nonetheless, as a case study, Lian Lei’s Grotto Heaven’s Thunder Rules still held some research value.

Time went by day by day, with Yuqing Sect waiting for Lian Lei’s news, but no information came out regarding him.

Moreover, aided by the full investigation of Ten Thousand Beast Sect, Yuqing Sect’s intelligence operatives on Dongqi Continent received heavy blows.

The ability to uncover Yuqing Sect’s operatives involved Li Shiming.

Li Shiming hired several superpowers to aid covertly by paying Alchemy rewards, far exceeding Ten Thousand Beast Sect in intelligence capabilities. Along with being superpowers, they exchanged informational intel, easily identifying Yuqing Sect’s intelligence personnel on Dongqi Continent.

Yuqing Sect couldn’t get any information from Dongqi Continent, but from Li Shiming’s continued Alchemy for Great Cultivators all over, they realized he hadn’t been attacked by the half-step Great Power Lian Lei.

Time flew by quickly, with Yuqing Sect exhausting every means over two years to investigate Master Su Tong and half-step Great Power Lian Lei, but yielded nothing.

During these two years, Li Shiming stayed in the suspended dwelling of Ten Thousand Beast Sect, living his life with Yin Shilan.

However, he separated several minds, engaging in analyzing the Thunder Rules within half-step Great Power Lian Lei’s Grotto Heaven.

Through the phantom doppelganger’s vision and perception, he referred to the Thunder Rules within Lian Lei’s Grotto Heaven clouds, improving his understanding of Thunder Rules.

Despite Lian Lei’s mistaken path, he still understood Thunder Rules better than Li Shiming.

As for possible issues within Lian Lei’s Thunder Rules, with IBMz15’s help analyzing, Li Shiming could avoid these errors, preventing Lian Lei’s fate.

Lian Lei likely never imagined that with the phantom doppelganger trapped inside the Grotto Heaven, his rules therein were continually being comprehended by Li Shiming.

Using this comprehension, Li Shiming bolstered his own understanding of Thunder Rules.

Under normal circumstances, entering a half-step Great Power’s Grotto Heaven is impossible, as it concerns their future, where any slight influence could lead to severe consequences.