Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

After entering the outer area of ​​the alchemy realm, the Yuanyang Sect did not push everyone in at once, but instead separated them first.

Chen Yi stood at the entrance, glanced at the surrounding layout, and pointed to a few places.

"Search the alchemy room, medicine room, side storehouse, and side hall separately. First, look for records, jade slips, and undamaged items. Put magical artifacts and elixirs later."

"Don't touch the stove or floor tiles. Check the incantations first."

The crowd responded and quickly dispersed.

Li Yuan and the other two Foundation Establishment cultivators were assigned to a medicine and book storage room on the east side. The place was not large, with three stone rooms side by side. The medicine shelves outside were long gone, but there were still many wooden boxes and book shelves inside, though most of them were covered in thick dust.

Li Yuan first scanned the area with his divine sense to confirm that there were no obvious residual restrictions before he raised his hand and pushed open the innermost stone door.

The door hinges were dry and made a soft creaking sound.

The medicinal smell in the stone chamber had long since dissipated, leaving only a stale smell of wood and old paper. Three rows of bookshelves stood against the wall, and in the middle was a long table with several yellowed old books on it.

The Foundation Establishment cultivator next to him reached out to touch it, and the corner of the book shattered into dust.

"That's really bad." The man frowned. "Why didn't you use a jade slip?"

"Jade slips deteriorate even faster without a supply of spiritual energy, unless they are high-grade jade slips, and these are probably not worth much," another cultivator said.

Half an hour later, more than a dozen old books were piled up on the long table.

Li Yuan paused for a moment when he picked up the bottom booklet.

The cover didn't have Dan's name written on it, only two characters.

Core formation.

He turned to the first page. The first few pages were not specific methods, but a very well-organized record, clearly written by a certain alchemy cultivator, using the entry format commonly used in sect internal transmission.

Li Yuan's gaze swept downwards.

There's nothing mystical inside; it simply outlines what needs to be solidified before forming the Golden Core. One's spiritual foundation must be stable, the physical body cannot be too weak, and the spirit cannot be superficial. If these three are out of balance, even if one manages to form the Golden Core, it will likely be flawed after completion.

The following pages also specifically address several common questions.

Some people have enough spiritual power, but their physical bodies are too weak. When forming their core, they cannot withstand the back pressure of the spiritual power, resulting in a flawed core. Others have unstable spirits and lose their composure at the crucial moment of core formation, thus wasting all their previous efforts. It is mentioned later that the true superior way of alchemy does not seek the strength of any one aspect, but rather the simultaneous development of all three, with each supporting the other.

Li Yuan turned the page a little slowly.

This booklet isn't a cultivation technique or any secret manual; it's more like a basic preparation guide for the younger generation in the sect. But what's written inside aligns perfectly with his current path.

Spiritual power, physical body, and soul.

The Three Elements were forcibly twisted together, while this old book said that these three things should be leveled and stabilized as much as possible before forming the core.

Li Yuan didn't linger there. He set the booklet aside and flipped through two more. After confirming there was nothing else of importance, he put the whole stack into his temporary storage bag, intending to hand it over to Chen Yi later.

The monk next to him noticed that he had set aside a book for himself and asked, "Is it useful?"

"It looks like a preparation record for before forming the Core Formation stage," Li Yuan said. "Let's submit it first and let Fellow Daoist Chen take a look."

The other party nodded and didn't ask any further questions.

After searching through the three pharmacy rooms, the group left with their belongings and ran into another group returning from a side room.

There was some harvest over there, but it was mostly incomplete prescriptions and a few booklets recording the properties of medicinal herbs. Their value was hard to say, but it was better than having nothing at all.

Chen Yi quickly reassigned the people.

"Collect the records from the east side first, and check the side storehouse in the west side again. Don't touch the alchemy furnace and medicine shelves for now."

Li Yuan then turned around and went to Pangku.

The so-called side storehouse is actually a group of miscellaneous rooms outside the alchemy area. It is divided into several rooms, some for storing jade bottles, some for storing utensils, and two rooms that seem to be specifically for storing jade slips and spell records.

The first room you enter is littered with broken bottles and wrecked shelves; there's not much to see.

The second room was much tidier, though most of the shelves were empty. Li Yuan scanned it with his divine sense, and just as he was about to turn around, a gray jade slip lying askew next to a wooden box in the corner suddenly caught his eye.

The jade slip had little luster on its surface, as if it had been stored for a long time, and a layer of fine dust had formed on the edges.

But I sensed the entry myself.

Li Yuan remained expressionless and turned the jade slip over to take a look.

[Equipable item detected: Nameless Body Refinement Technique (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Bone Membrane Cultivation (Green)]

[Effect: Increases physical strength by 10%, up to a maximum of 30%. The more spells one cultivates, the greater the increase.]

[Preview of conditions for permanentization: Master three body-refining related spells (0/3)]

Don't miss out: Chapter 253, "Revisiting the Ruins," is available in its entirety. Click here.

[Current equipment slots are full (5/5). Replace current equipment?]

Green entries.

The exterior was indeed intact, and the spiritual energy structure was still there, but the interior was covered with a layer of extremely chaotic patterns. As soon as one's divine sense probed in, it only felt a chaotic mess, and one could not read the contents at all.

Instead of trying it himself, he took the jade slip directly to Chen Yi.

Chen Yi was standing outside the alchemy room, watching several array cultivators dismantle the restrictions on a cabinet door. Seeing Li Yuan approach, he reached out and took the jade slip, probing it with his divine sense. After a moment, his brow furrowed.

"The jade slip itself is not broken."

"Is the content messed up?" Li Yuan asked.

"The order of the records inside has been disrupted, as if something has disturbed it."

Chen Yi flipped through the jade slip and tried sending a wisp of spiritual energy into it, but in the end he shook his head.

"Unable to read normally".

After he finished speaking, he returned the jade slip to Li Yuan.

"Take it for now. It's not broken anyway, we'll see if there's another way later."

Li Yuan took it and put it away without asking any further questions.

They continued searching through the storage room and found several jade slips recording alchemy techniques and two old books. However, they still hadn't found any truly valuable magical artifacts or finished elixirs.

As evening approached, the several teams reunited at the outer hall of the Dan Dao area.

Everything was piled up in one place, and the harvest was much better than last time; at least it wasn't just pure bargain hunting anymore. There were some records, old jade slips, and medicine registers, but whether they could actually find anything useful inside remained to be seen as they were slowly sorted out later.

Afterwards, the group continued to explore deeper into the Dan Dao area.

The first part of the road has been cleared, but the rest is getting increasingly difficult to travel.

It wasn't that the road was blocked, but rather that the preserved restrictions were clearly on a higher level. The gray and white spirit patterns were more densely laid out, and many places were inlaid with later added dark patterns, making it look like the old sect's restrictions and subsequent modifications were mixed together. If you weren't careful, you might trigger two layers of mechanisms.

The spirit pattern analysis was still in effect, and Li Yuan could see the structure more easily than others, but the deeper he went, the more troublesome it became.

The restrictions on this layer are no longer simply of the first-tier superior grade.

Some of the spiritual runes were so complex that they were beyond the scope of what these Foundation Establishment cultivators could currently dismantle. In particular, at the innermost archway, the restriction was not layered on top of each other, but rather several main runes interlocked, almost as if locking the entire area into one.

Chen Yi and several array cultivators stood in front of the door for a full quarter of an hour before finally stopping.

Li Yuan was also looking at the door.

The spiritual energy behind the door was very heavy, as if there was an even larger area pressing down on it. If one were to force it open, it might not just open the door, but rather cause the entire inner barrier to collapse.

Then you really shouldn't want anything at all.

A voice nearby whispered, "The deep entrance?"

"Most likely," Chen Yi nodded, "but we can't get in now."

As soon as those words were spoken, everyone understood the situation.

This is where we'll end for now.

They can investigate the outer alchemy zone, but the truly deeper areas inside are beyond their team's reach. They'll need stronger individuals or a higher-level array master to oversee the process before they can push further.

Chen Yi made a decision quickly.

"That's it for today. The outer layer is already in place, let's not waste time here."

"Take everything you find back to the sect and organize it. Also report the details of the deep entrance and the forbidden formation."

No one objected.

On the way back, the group moved faster than they had on the way there.

Back in the market, Li Yuan pondered for a moment, then removed a piece of equipment he wouldn't need in the short term. He planned to replace it with the gray jade slip once the requirements were met. The panel vibrated slightly; as soon as the jade slip was successfully equipped, a fragmented yet remarkably clear message flooded into his mind.

That wasn't normal reading; it was more like a remnant of a method that had been forcibly inserted after the entries had been reorganized.

The spell's details were quickly formed.

This is not a cultivation technique, but a second-tier body-refining spell that focuses on refining bones and skin. When circulating it, spiritual energy is used to repeatedly wash over the outer layer of bones and the texture of the skin, not seeking instant results, but rather grinding it down day by day.

What's even more special is that this spell is also connected to the cultivation of other spells. The more spells you master, the stronger the interaction between them, and the faster this body-refining spell will progress.

However, this body-refining technique has no name.

Li Yuan didn't rush to continue cultivating; he simply sat quietly in the stone house for a while.

The outer layer of the ruins, the old books, the deep entrance, and this body-refining spell that was disrupted but still survived—what we've obtained today is far more than it appears on the surface.

Outside the stone house, all was quiet; most of the lights in the market had already been turned off.

Li Yuan closed his eyes and began to regulate his breathing.