Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Outside the management office, night had already fallen.

"Fellow Daoist Li, may I have a word with you in private?"

Li Yuan glanced at them, neither nodding immediately nor directly refusing, but simply led them into a quiet room in the backyard of the management office.

Once the door was closed, most of the footsteps outside were cut off.

Li Ze'an first took out a contract and placed it on the table.

"This matter involves a lot of issues, so let's make an agreement before we speak."

Li Yuan glanced down at it.

The contract was short, containing only one clause.

Don't reveal what we're going to discuss next.

This contract is not too harsh; the only restriction is confidentiality, and it does not involve any other conditions.

After reading it, Li Yuan didn't delay and immediately raised his hand to press down his spiritual power.

Li Ze'an also signed the agreement.

After the contract was signed, the atmosphere in the quiet room truly settled down.

Li Ze'an put away the contract, his expression more serious than before.

"Fellow Daoist Li, the Li family has come to you this time to ask for your help in breaking a formation."

Li Yuan didn't respond immediately, but instead asked a question first.

"Why not look for people from the Yuanyang Sect?"

As soon as he said that, the quiet room fell silent for a moment.

Li Ze'an had clearly anticipated this question, and after a moment of silence, he whispered:

"Because of this matter, we must not alarm the Yuanyang Sect."

Li Yuan looked at him but didn't urge him.

The fact that a spiritual contract was signed shows that breaking the formation was no simple matter.

They definitely won't help if you don't ask them clearly first.

Li Ze'an had no choice but to continue speaking.

"The Li family used to have some dealings with the Dark Abyss."

"Not recently, but much earlier. Back then, the Dark Abyss Society was still operating in the shadows, and many families and businesses in Liangzhou weren't completely cut off from them, including the Li family."

"But things are different now."

"Now that the Demonic Sect has fallen from grace and the Dark Abyss will make a public appearance, the Li family's past dealings will no longer be just old news, but have become a handle against them."

Li Yuan's expression remained unchanged after hearing this.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Li Ze'an directly pointed out what happened next.

"The Demonic Sect used this incident to make a request to the Li family."

"They need the Li family to help them break one of the formations."

Li Yuan then asked:

"If that's the case, why doesn't the Demonic Sect break through on its own?"

"Because that formation can sense demonic energy."

Li Ze'an said, "If the demonic sect cultivators try to break it themselves, it's easy for problems to arise."

Li Yuan's gaze narrowed slightly.

An array for sensing demonic energy.

No wonder the Demonic Sect went through a roundabout way to pin the blame on the Li family.

"Can't the Li family do it themselves?" Li Yuan asked.

"The Li family has no array cultivators," Li Ze'an said.

Li Yuan glanced at him.

"I?"

"You're quite well-known in the market, the ruins, and the formations now," Li Ze'an said, placing the reward directly on the table.

"Ten thousand spirit stones, a book on alchemy, and all you need to do is break one of the formations."

Li Yuan looked at the reward that Li Ze'an pushed towards him.

A high-grade spirit stone and a classic book on alchemy.

As soon as the high-grade spirit stone was placed on the table, the spiritual energy in the quiet room seemed to be purified. The alchemy book next to it was wrapped in an old blue cloth, clearly indicating that it had been carefully prepared.

Li Yuan's gaze first fell on the high-grade spirit stone.

The senses immediately reacted when the object was within a three-foot radius.

[Equipable item detected]

[Item Attribute Level: Blue]

[Note: Items not belonging to the user cannot be equipped, and detailed information cannot be viewed.]

Blue entries.

A slight twitch appeared in Li Yuan's eyes, but he didn't show it on his face.

The items the Li family brought out this time showed considerable sincerity; even breaking through some great formation wouldn't necessarily be worth this price.

He didn't touch the alchemy book, but only said:

"Where is the location?"

Li Ze'an immediately took out a simple diagram, placed it on the table, and pointed to one of the spots.

"here."

Li Yuan glanced down and quickly understood the situation.

This place is the branch line where the Yuanyang Sect secretly set up its formation.

However, neither the Li family nor the Demon Sect knew that the Yuan Yang Sect had set up more than one layer of formation there.

If he wasn't mistaken, what the Demon Sect was trying to break was most likely just the outer layer of the Demon-detecting warning array on the branch.

As for the traps that were actually used to trap and kill the explorers, they were still hidden inside.

Thinking about this, Li Yuan felt more at ease.

This formation can be broken.

But it can only break the outer layer.

Seeing Li Yuan remain silent, Li Ze'an added in a low voice.

"Fellow Daoist Li, this matter only requires you to make one trip to break that formation; you don't need to do anything else."

"Once the formation is broken, the reward is yours. What happens after that is none of your business."

"Moreover, it was my Li family that hired you, not the Demonic Sect or the Dark Abyss Society."

Li Yuan raised his eyes and looked at the other person.

No one spoke for a moment in the quiet room.

After a moment, Li Yuan finally spoke.

"When do we leave?"

Li Ze'an's expression relaxed slightly.

"We can do it early tomorrow morning. The Li family will lead the way, and you won't have to meet the people from the Demonic Sect directly."

Li Yuan nodded.

The next morning, Li Yuan followed several members of the Li family out of the market.

Instead of taking the main road, the group circled the Ghost Mist Forest from the outside and then cut deeper into it along several abandoned paths. By the time they arrived at their destination, Li Yuan had confirmed that it was the right place.

That's the branch.

The Li family members stopped on the outskirts and did not go any further.

The leader whispered, "It's just ahead."

Li Yuan nodded and walked over alone.

The formation wasn't deeply hidden, but it was by no means crude. From the outside, it looked like an ordinary layer of stone and broken branches. But once the protective runes were pressed down, the sensing structure inside, specifically designed to detect demonic energy, was quickly revealed.

The formation's grade isn't high; the real problem is its placement.

This place is located at a bend in the branch, and there is also a complex disguise structure set up by the Yuanyang Sect nearby.

Li Yuan didn't rush to take action. Instead, he walked around the area first, making sure he understood the flow of spiritual energy, the connection of circuits, and the range of the array's sensing before starting to dismantle it.

Before making his move, Li Yuan used the protective meridian runes to scan the surrounding spiritual energy pathways.

He quickly confirmed two things.

Firstly, what the Li family wanted to break was indeed only the outer layer of the demon-detecting warning array;

This formation was of a high level, but I could clearly sense when the Yuan Yang Sect people set it up, allowing me to target them specifically. However, the formation was still quite complex, and it took half a day to completely break it.

After the last main rune went dark, the entire formation went completely dark, and Li Yuan did not probe any further.

The outer layer of the demon-detecting array has been broken, but the deep-seated trap remains unmoved.

In other words, the door is open, but the net is still there.

Next, we'll just have to see when the Demon Sect members walk in on their own.

Li Yuan withdrew his divine sense and turned to walk outside.

There were traps and formations inside, so Li Yuan naturally wouldn't go in.

When the Li family saw him come out, they immediately came to greet him.

"Did it work?"

"It's broken," Li Yuan said.

Li Ze'an relaxed and didn't ask any further questions. He simply handed over the high-grade spirit stone and the alchemy book.

"Fellow Daoist's skill in array formations is indeed superb."

Li Yuan first accepted the high-grade spirit stone.

The panel popped up completely instantly.

[Equipable item detected: High-grade spirit stone (complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Flawless Spirit Power (Blue)]

[Effect: Significantly filters out impurities in the surrounding spiritual energy, automatically purifies and removes impurities from the body's spiritual energy, and doubles the cultivation speed]

This entry can upgrade an existing permanent entry: Pure Spiritual Power (Green) → Flawless Spiritual Power (Blue)

[Method 1: Equip a high-grade spirit stone, which will occupy an equipment slot. Existing attributes will be upgraded simultaneously and take effect immediately]

[Method 2: Temporarily equip high-grade spirit stones. This does not occupy an equipment slot, and the attributes will not take effect. It only accumulates the progress towards permanentization.]

[Method 3: Consume three high-grade spirit stones to directly upgrade the existing permanent attribute; no need to make it permanent]

[Preview of conditions for permanentization: Accumulate 5,000 cycles of cultivation, or condense a Golden Core of superior grade or higher (0/1)]

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

Li Yuan's heart stirred slightly.

Moreover, it's even stronger than the version corresponding to the mid-grade spirit stone. It doesn't simply filter spiritual energy; instead, it purifies both the surrounding spiritual energy and the spiritual power within the body to a higher level, and it directly doubles the cultivation speed.

blue.

Moreover, it's blue, which is fundamentally related to cultivation.

Li Yuan pressed down on the panel, put away the high-grade spirit stones, and then took the alchemy manual.

I haven't had time to examine the texts in detail yet, but since the Li family can use them on par with high-grade spirit stones, they can't be too bad.

The group did not linger and soon parted ways.

The Li family members walked in the other direction, while Li Yuan returned to the market along the original route.

Along the way, Li Yuan had already made up his mind.

It's not appropriate for that high-grade spirit stone to take up space in the equipment slot.

The safest approach is to use temporary equipment.

It doesn't take up an equipment slot, doesn't benefit from immediate effects, and only accumulates permanent progress.

After returning to the stone house, Li Yuan closed the door and took out the high-grade spirit stone again.

As soon as he received the spirit stone, the surrounding spiritual energy seemed to become clearer. Li Yuan didn't look at it much and directly selected the second method according to the panel prompts.

[Temporarily equipped: High-grade spirit stone (complete)]

The "Flawless Spiritual Power (Blue)" attribute is not effective.

[Permanentization progress has begun to accumulate]

Li Yuan sat down cross-legged and began to circulate his internal energy.