Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Over the next few days, the intensity of the monsters gradually decreased.

The howling sounds from the direction of the mountain valley could still be heard at night, but the frequency was much lower than before.

The probe array would occasionally light up, mostly with small, low-grade first-tier creatures wandering around the perimeter, leaving without even getting close to the earthen wall.

The array that He Ming reinforced worked, and the warning range was almost twice as large as before, so that any movement in the outer perimeter could be detected in advance.

Li Yuan took advantage of this relatively quiet time to begin practicing the Poison Removal Talisman, and equipped the Soul-Illuminating Mirror as soon as its cooldown period was over.

The spirit runes of the Detoxification Talisman are a combination of purification and channeling runes, belonging to the water element with a wood element component. This is completely different from the violent approach of the Fireball Talisman, and also different from the inward approach of the Concealing Breath Talisman.

However, my talisman-making skills have improved significantly compared to before.

When the fourth one was being drawn, a very faint light blue sheen appeared on the surface of the talisman, flowing slowly from the inside out before receding.

It became.

【Talisman: Detoxification Talisman - Beginner (0/200)】

Li Yuan placed the detoxification talisman on the table and touched it with his fingertips.

[Equipable item detected: Detoxification Talisman (Complete)]

[Entry Preview: Slow-Release Detoxification (White) - Slowly eliminates toxins from the body, including erysipelas, drug residue, negative energy residue, and other invasive impurities]

[Preview of Permanentization Conditions: Maintain the state of infection for 24 hours (0/24)]

[Current equipment slots are full (3/3). Replace current equipment?]

White label. Slow-release purifier.

The condition for permanentization is maintaining the body in a state of infection for 24 hours.

Li Yuan put away the detoxification talisman and left the low house.

Under the wooden shed, Manager Liu was leaning against a pillar, flipping through an old booklet.

Li Yuan sat down on the stone stool opposite him, and Steward Liu raised his eyes.

"Have you heard?" Manager Liu closed the booklet. "Both the Talisman Hall and the Pill Hall have started recruiting independent cultivators."

"Recruiting independent cultivators?"

"Yes. The kind that has been vetted."

Manager Liu placed the booklet on his lap. "Previously, to enter the Talisman Hall or the Pill Hall, one had to be a member of the Wang family or an external member with a long-term contract. Now the threshold has been lowered; as long as one passes the review, even independent cultivators can enter and work."

Li Yuan looked at him.

"So nervous?"

Manager Liu shook his head.

"I don't know. Anyway, the higher-ups are saying they need to expand manpower, and they're recruiting everywhere. As for the specific plans, I'm just a miner, how would I know that much?"

He patted the booklet and didn't say anything more.

Li Yuan hummed in agreement, did not ask any further questions, and got up to return to his residence.

Over the next few days, Li Yuan shuttled between the mine and the low house.

The Refining Spirit Talisman was tried twice more, but still failed.

The spiral path of the Concentration Rune requires an extremely high level of spiritual energy density for its gradual increase; each rotation must be precisely controlled, and his current skill level is insufficient to achieve continuous increases after the fourth rotation. Having wasted two sheets of golden talisman paper, Li Yuan did not continue wasting materials.

Making talismans is the best form of training in manipulation; it can't be rushed.

The focus of his cultivation shifted to the mine.

The "Pure Spiritual Energy" attribute was displayed, and the Spirit Guiding Technique and the Hundred Meridians Returning to Origin Technique were running alternately, steadily accumulating spiritual energy in the dantian. The cultivation level was getting closer and closer to the bottleneck of the seventh level of Qi Refining, and the speed of each cycle was also faster than before—the higher the cultivation level, the stronger the ability of the meridians to bear spiritual energy, and the efficiency of the cycle would increase accordingly.

The permanentization process of the mid-grade spirit stone has reached two hundred cycles.

[Pure Spiritual Power (Green) Permanentization Progress: 200/500]

Three hundred more.

If we continue pushing at the current pace, it won't go too far.

That evening, Li Yuan returned to the low house, removed the Condensing Yuan Technique from his equipment inventory, and replaced it with a Poison Removal Talisman.

[Equipment Successfully]

[Acquired entry: Slow-Release Detoxifier (White)]

[Permanentization Condition: Maintain the state of infection for a cumulative total of 24 hours (0/24)]

After hanging the detoxification talisman, Li Yuan closed his eyes and sensed it for a moment.

There weren't any obvious changes in my body, since there weren't any toxins to eliminate right now.

But he immediately got up and went to the mine.

The malevolent energy from deep within the mine seeped out from the cracks in the rock strata, seeping into the skin in wisps. The "Mental Energy Tempering" skill automatically responded, drawing the malevolent energy into the fascia.

An hour later, the detoxification talisman started to move.

[Progress of Permanentization of Slow-Release Detoxifier (White): 1/24]

The malevolent energy has been absorbed and infiltrated.

Li Yuan opened his eyes. Although the concentration of malevolent energy in the mine wasn't high, it continuously seeped into his body as long as he stayed inside. While the Malevolent Energy Tempering technique could convert and utilize the malevolent energy, the process itself was a form of contamination.

As long as you cultivate in the mine, the process of making the detoxification talisman permanent will continue.

Twenty-four hours.

If you spend six or seven hours a day in the mine, you can accumulate enough in three or four days.

Li Yuan sat down cross-legged and continued practicing his internal energy.

The next morning, Li Yuan went into the mine again.

There were already people in the main mine tunnel. Old Zhou emerged from a side tunnel carrying mining tools, his body covered in gray-black mineral dust, with several pieces of freshly mined green stone piled on his wheelbarrow.

Li Yuan nodded to him and continued walking deeper into the mine.

As Li Yuan passed through the newly carved-out cavity, his pace suddenly slowed.

The concentration of the malevolent energy has changed.

It hasn't become thicker, it's just become...uneven.

Previously, the malevolent energy deep within the mine was like a thin mist, seeping evenly from the cracks in the rock strata, and was roughly the same density everywhere.

But now, this isn't a lost cause, it's a recommendation for the treasure book "Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes":

On the left side of the cavity, near the wall, the concentration of malevolent energy was significantly higher than the surrounding area, as if something was continuously releasing it there.

Li Yuan turned and walked towards that rock wall.

The area near the wall is a newly excavated section, where a piece of gray-black rock has been chiseled away, revealing a deeper rock surface underneath.

Several stones of different colors are embedded in the rock surface. Most of them are ordinary gray-black rocks, but one of them is darker in color, dark gray with a purplish tinge, and has a very fine luster on its surface.

The malevolent energy emanates from this stone.

Li Yuan reached out and broke the rock off the cliff.

The stone wasn't large, about the size of a fist, and felt slightly cool to the touch. It was considerably heavier than a regular rock of the same volume. The sheen on its surface rippled slightly when touched with a finger, like water being stirred.

The panel popped up.

[Equipable item detected: Demon Stone (Complete)]

[Entry Preview: Affinity to Malevolent Energy (Green) - Significantly reduces the negative impact of malevolent energy on oneself; can actively convert some impurities in the body into malevolent energy; can store a certain amount of malevolent energy in the body]

[Preview of Permanentization Conditions: Obtain and absorb a first-tier high-grade baleful aura (0/1)]

[Current equipment slots are full (3/3). Replace current equipment?]

Green entries.

Li Yuan held the evil stone and read through the information on the panel from beginning to end.

Triple effect: Reduces the negative impact of evil energy, transforms impurities into evil energy, and stores evil energy within the body.

The condition for permanentization is absorbing a first-tier, high-grade baleful aura.

Just then, footsteps sounded behind them.

Old Zhou carried his empty handcart back from the other end of the side path. He saw Li Yuan squatting by the wall with a stone in his hand and curiously came over.

"What's wrong?"

"Do you know what this stone is?" Li Yuan held up the evil stone.

Old Zhou tilted his head and glanced at it twice, then reached out and took it, weighing it in his hand.

"A cursed stone." He flipped the stone over. "They can occasionally be found deep in the mine. A few have been found in this vein before, but not many."

He handed the evil stone back to him.

"This stuff isn't worth much. It's not very useful; most weapon refiners use it to add negative effects to magical artifacts, but the amount used is extremely small. A fist-sized piece of evil stone is only worth two or three spirit stones."

Li Yuan glanced at the evil stone again. It was worthless but had a green attribute, which showed that the level of the attribute evaluation in the system panel was quite different from the price in the cultivation world.

After Old Zhou finished speaking, he glanced at the rock wall.

"But since this piece came from a freshly cut surface, there might still be some inside."

He put down the wheelbarrow, picked up the mining tools, and chiseled a few times next to the new cut on the rock face.

Gravel fell and dust rose.

After chiseling away one layer, two dark gray-purple stones, one large and one small, were revealed on the rock surface.

Old Zhou paused for a moment, then continued chiseling.

After a few more chisels, the third and fourth pieces of evil stone were revealed.

"Quite a lot," Old Zhou muttered, patting the mineral powder off his hands.

"In the past, the only places where the evil stones were found in this vein were in the deepest, most remote corners, and you could only find a few pieces all year round. This time, however, we found a whole area with just one chisel."

Li Yuan removed the evil stones from the rock wall one by one; there were six in total, of varying sizes.

The largest was bigger than a fist, while the smallest was only the size of an egg. Each piece had a subtle dark purple sheen on its surface and felt slightly cool to the touch.

Li Yuan gathered all the evil stones except for the first one into one place.

"Keep these for now."

Old Zhou nodded and didn't ask any further questions.

Li Yuan left the mine and went to the wooden shed to find Manager Liu.

"A lot of evil stones were unearthed at the newly excavated section deep inside the mine."

Manager Liu paused for a moment.

"How many?"

"Six pieces. There might be more; that section of rock face hasn't been finished yet."

Manager Liu put down what he was holding and stood up.

"I've reported this to the family. While the evil stones aren't worth much money, a large quantity makes a difference. The weapon-refining hall should be interested."

He glanced in the direction of the mine.

Li Yuan hummed in agreement and turned to go back into the mine.

Deep inside the mine, a few pieces of rubble lay scattered beside the newly excavated section. Li Yuan didn't let Lao Zhou continue chiseling; instead, he found a spot in the corner of the cavity and sat down cross-legged.

The first piece of evil stone, about the size of a fist, was placed in front of them.

No equipment.

Li Yuan held the evil stone in his palm and guided his spiritual power to slowly draw out the evil energy from it.

The dark purple luster on the surface of the evil stone rippled slightly, and a wisp of gray-black evil energy seeped out from the stone's surface, drilling into Li Yuan's skin along his palm.

The "Fierce Qi Tempering Body" entry automatically responds, drawing this fierce qi into the fascia and bones.

The concentration was more than three times higher than the malevolent energy that naturally seeped out of the mine.

In the same amount of time, the amount of malevolent energy absorbed was several times that of his previous cultivation in the mine. The Iron Ox Technique also accelerated, and the efficiency of spiritual energy cleansing the internal organs was significantly increased by the squeezing effect of the malevolent energy.

【Technique: Iron Ox Technique - Mastery (461/800)】

One hour of cultivation is equivalent to half a day spent in the mine.

Li Yuan opened his eyes and looked at the evil stone in his palm.

The dark purple luster on the stone's surface had dimmed somewhat, indicating that some of the malevolent energy had been drawn away, but it was far from exhausted. At this rate of depletion, a fist-sized malevolent stone could last for at least several more days.

With the remaining five pieces, that should last for a while.

Li Yuan carefully put away the evil stone, closed his eyes, and continued to circulate his internal energy.

The depths of the mine were so quiet that only the distant clanging of mining sounds and the sound of one's own breathing could be heard.