Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Li Yuan first walked back to the position of the formation at the top of the slope.

The formation had stopped; the grayish-white formation stones were scattered among the bushes, and the glow had completely faded.

The Spirit Fruit is still in the groove next to the Manifestation Stone.

The emerald green fruit sat quietly in the groove, its pale golden luster slightly dimmed than before. After the array had extracted its energy, the spiritual energy fluctuations of the Spirit Fruit had weakened slightly, but the fruit itself remained intact.

Li Yuan took the Spirit Essence Fruit out of the groove, put it back into the milky white jade box that Qu Bo had used before, closed the lid, and put it deep into the storage bag.

With Qu Bo not here, this thing cannot be left outside.

Then he walked back to Jie Xiu's corpse, squatted down, and began to search the body.

A bowl-sized hole had been blown open in the chest of the dark brown leather armor, its edges charred black and still emitting wisps of smoke. Beneath the armor was a close-fitting gray cloth undershirt, and a token was tucked into the left breast pocket, with a blurry character engraved on the back, barely legible.

The short sword at his waist was an ordinary iron weapon, without any spiritual energy fluctuations, and was worthless.

The storage bag hung on the right side of his belt; it was a coarse, grayish-brown cloth bag, and its workmanship was inferior to that of Li Yuan's own.

Li Yuan took off the storage bag, which contained quite a few items.

Several bottles of pills, unlabeled, were found. Two bottles smelled like Demon-Slaying Pills, and one was a Rejuvenating Pill. The third bottle had an unfamiliar scent; the pills were dark gold, and when brought closer, they emitted a strong mineral aroma.

More than thirty spirit stones were scattered at the bottom of the bag.

A slightly worn throwing knife, with two spirit patterns engraved on its blade, a mid-grade first-tier magic weapon.

A scroll of bamboo slips, tightly woven with ox sinew rope, was unfolded and examined; it revealed a cultivation method for earth-based magic.

He poured everything remaining from the traitor's storage bag into his own—pills, spirit stones, throwing knives, bamboo slips—leaving nothing out. Then he stood up and glanced around.

The breath imprinted a response.

It wasn't just one person.

From the northeast, several auras were rapidly approaching. Their cultivation levels ranged from the fifth to the seventh level of Qi Refining, and they were moving very fast, as if they had received some signal and were rushing over at full speed.

Li Yuan glanced northeast.

Several figures emerged from the bushes at the foot of the mountain and ran up the scree slope. The distance was about two hundred feet, and it was rapidly closing.

They were all dressed in uniform gray-blue robes, and the tokens at their waists were all the same style.

The Li family's clothing.

Of the four people, the one running in front had the highest cultivation level, at the seventh level of Qi Refining. The three behind him were two at the sixth level of Qi Refining and one at the fifth level of Qi Refining.

Without hesitation, Li Yuan turned and walked south.

His steps were neither hurried nor slow, but each stride covered twice the distance of a normal stride. The acceleration of the Swift Step was subtle; from the outside, it appeared as if he was just walking faster, but in reality, his movement speed was close to jogging.

We can't get entangled with the Li family, and Uncle Qu isn't here right now.

Li Yuan quickly descended the gravel path on the south side of the hillside. After passing two clumps of low shrubs, his view of the hillside was blocked.

Shouts came from behind, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. Footsteps moved up the hillside, but they didn't follow.

Li Yuan continued south.

After leaving the hillside, he did not return directly to the outer edge of the secret realm, but instead turned southwest for a while.

If the Li family saw the direction he left from the hillside, going straight back to the outer perimeter would expose their route. Taking a detour before returning would be safer.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, the terrain changed from a scree slope to a mixed forest. The tree canopy blocked most of the sunlight, making the forest dim.

The breath memory reacted again.

Very faint.

From the northwest, about three or four hundred feet away, a familiar aura drifted over faintly.

Qu Bo.

His aura was extremely weak, several levels lower than normal. It didn't seem like he was deliberately suppressing it; rather, it was more like the chaotic aura caused by the leakage of spiritual energy after an injury.

Li Yuan paused, facing northwest for two breaths.

Then that aura suddenly disappeared.

It didn't gradually diminish; it vanished completely from my perception in an instant. It was as if something had abruptly severed it.

Li Yuan did not take a step in that direction.

There are only two possibilities for the sudden disappearance of his aura. One is that Qu Bo deliberately used some means to conceal his aura, and the other is that something happened.

Either way, going there now would not be a wise choice for him.

If it's the first case, Qu Bo is hiding himself, and his past actions have actually exposed Qu Bo's location.

If it's the second scenario, a situation where the aura of a cultivator like Qu Bo, whose strength surpasses that of an ordinary Qi Refining Level 9 cultivator, could disappear would certainly be quite dangerous for me.

Li Yuan turned around and quickened his pace, heading south.

He activated the Divine Speed ​​Step at full power, his figure moving swiftly through the mixed forest.

After walking for about half an hour, the outline of the settlement on the outskirts of the secret realm came into view. Stone pillars, dirt roads, scattered wooden sheds and stone houses, and a few independent cultivators strolling around the stall area.

Li Yuan circled around the settlement from the east and returned to Wang's shop.

Wang Lu and Wang Zheng are not here; they seem to be busy with other matters and cannot be found.

Li Yuan circled around the settlement from the east and returned to Wang's shop.

Wang Lu and Wang Zheng are not here; they seem to be busy with other matters and cannot be found.

Old Sun was refining elixirs in the inner room when he heard footsteps and peeked out.

Seeing that it was Li Yuan, he didn't ask any more questions and went back to continue his work.

Li Yuan went into his room and closed the door.

He took out the items he had taken from Jie Xiu one by one from his storage bag and placed them on the table.

Thirty-four spirit stones.

Two bottles of Demon-Slaying Pills, five pills in each bottle. One bottle of Rejuvenating Pills, three pills in each bottle. One bottle of dark gold pills, five pills in each bottle, with an unfamiliar scent; its nature is unknown.

A throwing knife, a mid-grade first-tier magic weapon. The two spirit patterns on the blade are well preserved, and after being infused with spiritual power, the blade emits a faint blue light.

There was a bamboo scroll containing earth-based magic. After unfolding and reading it, I found it was a spell called Earth Escape Technique, similar to Fire Escape Technique, which uses earth-based spiritual power to escape underground and move quickly.

The spirit stones and pills were gathered together, while the throwing knives and bamboo slips were placed on the corner of the table.

That's a bit little for a leader of a tribulation cultivator at the ninth level of Qi Refining.

Li Yuan didn't pay too much attention to the spoils of war. After cleaning the table, he sat on the bed and began to circulate the Spirit Guiding Technique to slowly replenish the spiritual energy consumed in the battle.

The wound on my left forearm has completely healed, and the scar is almost invisible.