Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

An hour later, Li Yuan finished his practice and briefly assessed his surroundings.

The speed of cultivation has indeed increased.

It's not just an extra line or two; it's a speed that you can directly feel.

On the table lay the animal hide from which the Rejuvenation Talisman was made, next to a newly drawn Rejuvenation Talisman. Li Yuan reached out and picked up the talisman, his fingertips touching it.

To make the Rejuvenation Talisman's effect permanent, you need five wood-attribute pills.

He happened to have two wood-attribute pills in his hand.

But there's no rush now. We can use all five wood-attribute pills together after we've collected them all, so we don't have to take off and put on the equipment again.

Li Yuan stopped cultivating and instead picked up the talisman brush to continue making talismans.

The Rejuvenation Talisman and the Fireball Talisman follow different paths. The Fireball Talisman emphasizes compression, gathering, and explosion, while the Rejuvenation Talisman emphasizes spreading, moistening, and gathering. In the past, when he drew the Rejuvenation Talisman, the most common problem was that the wood-elemental spiritual energy was not spread evenly, and the nourishing patterns on the talisman paper would often float in the middle.

Now that the pure spiritual energy is attached, the spiritual energy at the tip of the pen is even more obedient.

Li Yuan dipped his brush in the spiritual ink and began to write.

The first healing rune was stable, and the second nourishing rune spread out well. The tip of the brush gently circled the talisman paper, and the wood-elemental spiritual energy seeped into the paper along the runes without dissipating. The final rune converged and fell into the talisman's core, and a faint green light appeared on the surface of the talisman paper before quickly receding.

It became.

Li Yuan set the talisman aside and continued drawing the second one.

In the afternoon, the two He family cultivators who were on duty guarding the garden took over here.

One was around thirty years old, with a dark complexion and an old scar on his forehead; his cultivation level was at the fourth level of Qi Refining. The other was younger, in his early twenties, thinner, at the third level of Qi Refining; he walked and spoke quickly.

The two carried the magical artifacts into the herb garden and greeted Li Yuan first.

"Fellow Daoist Li."

"Fellow Daoist Li, is it still quiet here today?"

Li Yuan nodded.

"Nothing happened during the day."

The young man breathed a sigh of relief, leaned the magical artifact in his arms against the stone railing, and squatted down to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

"It's good that nothing's happening. If it happens a few more times, the family really won't be able to hold on."

The older one glanced at him.

Stop saying such discouraging things.

The young cultivator grinned but didn't take it. Instead, he turned to look at the talisman paper and the finished Rejuvenation Talisman on the table, his eyes flickering.

"Fellow Daoist Li can also make talismans?"

"I know a little."

The older monk then took over the conversation.

"The Wang family's decision to send you here this time is a great help."

Li Yuan didn't respond to that question, but only asked one.

"Your He family's herb garden produces quite a few medicinal herbs, so why are there so few people guarding it?"

The older cultivator smiled, a hint of helplessness in his expression.

"A large supply of medicine does not necessarily mean a large population."

He walked to the edge of the herb garden and looked down at the few newly straightened medicinal plants.

"Our He family knows how to grow medicinal herbs, but we're not good at alchemy. Most of the things in the herb garden end up being sold. We don't actually keep much for our own use."

The young monk squatted by the stone railing and interjected.

"To put it bluntly, we can grow it, but we can't eat it all."

"If there really were an alchemist in the family, we wouldn't be in such a passive position."

Li Yuan listened without interrupting.

This kind of information doesn't need much asking; just follow the path and it will naturally come up.

He spoke in a flat tone, without self-deprecation or concealment.

"However, the He family still has some influence in the surrounding area."

Li Yuan glanced at him.

"Relying on formations?"

This time, it was the young cultivator's turn to smile.

"Fellow Daoist Li noticed?"

"It's easy to guess."

Although the array formation in the medicine garden last night wasn't particularly powerful, it wasn't something that could be easily created. Furthermore, given what Steward Liu had previously mentioned—that the He family could connect the Wang family with array masters—this path clearly indicated the He family's stronghold.

The older monk nodded.

"Some family members know a little about formations. They may not be very skilled, but among the small families in the area, they are quite knowledgeable. Whenever someone needs to repair a small formation, fix a key point in a formation, or hire a formation master, they often have to go through us first."

The young monk added another sentence.

"So even though our cultivation level isn't high, we can still barely make ends meet. The Wang family is willing to protect us, and other families won't easily come near us."

"Of course, things will be different if things really get chaotic."

Li Yuan asked, "Are you very close to the Wang family?"

The older monk nodded.

"It has to be close, or it won't work."

"A family like ours can't protect itself on its own. Over the years, the He family has always done things for the Wang family, selling medicinal herbs to the Wang family's market, and also doing favors for them through the formation. Several young people in the family will also go to the Wang family for a while."

The young monk took over the conversation.

"Some are there to do work, some are there to learn. It's a short-term contract. To put it bluntly, it's about letting the Wang family see our people, and also using the Wang family's place to broaden our horizons."

Li Yuan hummed in agreement.

The He family's overall cultivation level is not high, yet they are able to gain a foothold in the surrounding area. This is not because they are strong enough, but because they are needed by others and have also attached themselves to the Wang family early on.

Such families can manage under normal circumstances, but when chaos strikes, things become even more difficult.

The young cultivator picked up the magical artifact again and glanced outside the herb garden.

"Recently, the Wang and Li families have been embroiled in a fierce conflict, and those of us caught in the middle are having the hardest time. With the arrival of the monsters, chaos ensues, and we have to guard both sides of the family, but there aren't enough people on either side."

Li Yuan glanced outside as he spoke, but didn't ask any more questions.

I already know most of what I need to know.

The herb garden fell silent for a while.

Li Yuan continued making talismans, while the two He family cultivators took turns patrolling the perimeter of the herb garden. They occasionally exchanged a few words, mostly about the He family's daily garden-guarding matters. By evening, the three of them had each taken their assigned positions.

As soon as darkness fell, there was movement again in the woods outside the herb garden.

First came a very soft snapping sound.

Then, two faint, eerie lights appeared in the woods to the west, like the eyes of a beast.

The young cultivator stood up abruptly, gripping his magical artifact tightly.

"here we go again."

Li Yuan had already come out of the stone house and glanced into the woods.

This time it's not three heads, it's four.

Two gray iguanas, one iron-spine hyena, and a badger-like monster with bristling fur, a lean build, and an aura ranging from low to mid-grade first rank. They outnumbered each other and charged more rapidly than last night.

The Ironback Hyena at the very front lunged directly at the western formation.

The light screen suddenly shuddered.

Li Yuan didn't wait for it to hit a second time before releasing the Fireball spell.

With a deafening roar, a burst of fire exploded beside the hyena, hurling it off its feet. The hyena tumbled and crashed into the rubble, and just as it struggled to its feet, a second fiery arrow arrived, piercing straight through its neck bone.

The other three demonic beasts dispersed.

One gray iguana circled northward along the edge of the formation, seemingly searching for a weak point. The other charged forward headlong, only to be deflected by a spell cast by the older cultivator.

Li Yuan moved his feet, used Fire Release Technique to close the distance, and raised his hand to unleash another fireball, blasting the gray iguana that was charging the most fiercely away.

The remaining badger-like monster didn't charge into the formation. Instead, it slithered quickly along the outer edge of the herb garden, moving more nimbly than the others, as if trying to sneak in from the side.

Li Yuan glanced at it, and that strange feeling in his heart resurfaced.

Once or twice, you could say it was a coincidence.

The fact that demonic beasts have attacked the herb garden for two consecutive nights is hardly a coincidence.

With a quick change of heart, Li Yuan didn't immediately kill the creature. Instead, he turned and dealt with the other gray iguana first. A fire arrow pierced its leg, a fireball finished it off in the head, and he was done in two breaths.

Only the last badger demon remained on the field.

Seeing its companions fall, the creature not only didn't retreat, but instead suddenly darted towards the north side of the herb garden, its speed increasing dramatically.

A flash of fire appeared beneath Li Yuan's feet, and he caught up immediately.

Fire Release techniques are incredibly fast in this short-range pursuit; in just a few leaps, Li Yuan closed in on the beast's rear. Instead of using fireballs, Li Yuan reached out with his right hand, grabbing the back of its neck, while his other hand pressed down on its spine, forcefully suppressing it with spiritual energy.

The badger struggled desperately, its four claws digging a series of deep scratches in the ground, and it let out a sharp hiss.

The young cultivator was stunned.

"Fellow Daoist Li, will you spare his life?"

"Keep it for now."

Li Yuan pinned the demonic beast to the ground, pressing his knee directly against its lower back. The older cultivator reacted quickly, immediately coming to help and using the handle of his magic weapon to hold the demonic beast's head in place.

"Tie it up."

The two hurriedly grabbed a rope and tied the badger demon up securely.

The herb garden fell silent again, with only a few monster corpses lying on the ground.

When the last monster was pinned to the ground, Li Yuan did not immediately finish it off.

He crouched down and first pried open the monster's mouth to take a look.

Its teeth were normal, there was little drool, no pill residue, and no obvious medicinal smell. Looking at its eyes, the pupils were not severely dilated, unlike the frenzied beasts driven away from the mine last night.

Li Yuan then reached out and pressed on its neck, back, and sides.

There were no needles buried under the fur, no abnormal lumps, and no traces of artificial stitching.

Give me the knife.

The older monk handed over the dagger.

Li Yuan sliced ​​open a small strip of flesh below the beast's forelimb and probed inside with his spiritual energy. The demonic energy flowing within the flesh was chaotic, but it resembled the state of someone who had been frightened or broken through an array, not someone who had planted any methods on it beforehand.

He flipped the beast over again and examined the base of its tail and the tendons and bones of its hind legs.

still none.

The young cultivator squatted nearby and couldn't help but ask a question.

"Did someone tamper with it?"

"I'm not sure yet."

Li Yuan sheathed his sword and threw the monster back onto the ground.

The badger demon's reaction, aura, and physical condition all seemed normal.

The problem is that the way these monsters are attacking the formation is very abnormal.

But when they actually checked his person, there was nothing on him.

Li Yuan stood up and patted the blood off his hands.

"Keep it locked up for now, we'll talk about it tomorrow."

The young cultivator nodded and, together with the older cultivator, dragged the demonic beast to the stone railing and re-tied it securely with rope.

Li Yuan stood outside the herb garden and glanced at the dark forest.

There was no other sound in the woods; the night wind blew, and all that could be heard was the rustling of leaves rubbing together.

The number of monsters that came was not large, and their strength was not too great.

But they come too often.

He withdrew his gaze and turned back to the stone house. The captured monster was still tied up outside, occasionally struggling, the ropes making a soft rustling sound against the stone railing.