Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

After the massacre at the market, patrols in Wulin Market became noticeably tighter.

Originally, the patrolling monks only patrolled the entrances and a few main streets, but now they have added another layer to the temporary residences on the outer perimeter and the alleyways on the west side.

When passing through the gate at night, even the rogue monks lowered their voices considerably.

However, this tension did not last long, as new information pushed the atmosphere of the entire outpost and market to an even more tense level.

Something happened on the outskirts of Ghost Mist Forest.

The message came back in the early morning. A small team of alchemists responsible for patrolling and relaying messages at the outpost was attacked on the old patrol route to the south, resulting in one death and one injury.

The Qi Refining cultivator who died instantly was the one who survived, while the other managed to escape and bring the news back to the outpost.

When Li Yuan heard the news, he was at the management office looking through the newly recorded entry and exit logs from the previous day.

The monk who came to deliver the message was pale-faced and spoke very urgently.

"On the outskirts of Ghost Mist Forest, along the old patrol route to the south, a Qi-refining squad was attacked, resulting in one death and one injury."

"The one who made the move was a Qi Refining cultivator from the Dark Abyss Society."

As soon as the last few words were spoken, the cultivators in the room who were organizing account books and array diagrams paused for a moment.

Li Yuan looked up and asked a question first.

"How can we confirm they're from the Dark Abyss Society?"

The fact that the Dark Abyss Society can operate openly is the result of some kind of deal. If the Dark Abyss Society were to exist on its own, the Yuan Yang Sect would be destroyed by a single Golden Core cultivator.

How dare they lay a hand on the cultivators of the Yuanyang Sect?

"That's what the Dark Abyss Society members said themselves."

The monk who brought the news swallowed hard.

"Before the injured man escaped back, he heard the other party leave a message saying that since the Yuanyang Sect dared to set a trap some time ago, the people on the outside should be more careful."

As soon as he said that, the faces of the people in the room all darkened.

Limited to the Qi Refining stage, this is not a formal declaration of war, but more like a retaliatory strike against the recent crackdown on the branch sects.

It's a bit of a stretch. After all, the condition for Dark Abyss to appear in the open is that it is not allowed to interfere with the ruins and spiritual veins. It is up to Yuan Yang Sect to decide whether Dark Abyss will fall for their trap.

However, Li Yuan did not know the specifics of the contract between Yuan Yang and the Dark Abyss Society, so he could not make a judgment.

Soon after, orders came from the outpost.

Patrols have been tightened in all areas, the demon-detecting arrays in the markets have been strengthened, Qi-refining cultivators are not allowed to leave the market alone unless necessary, and all dispatched operations must be carried out in pairs.

The atmosphere immediately became tense.

Chen Yi arrived at the management office that afternoon.

After entering, Chen Yi said directly, "The market's demon-detecting array needs to be reinforced with another layer."

"Let me look at the existing formation diagram first and deduce where else I can set up a formation," Li Yuan said.

"Alright," Chen Yi said. "You take the lead. Report any shortages of equipment or manpower directly."

Li Yuan looked at it for a while before looking up and asking, "How many array materials and manpower can the sect provide?"

"Prioritize your needs for the array materials," Chen Yi said. "Three array formation cultivators and ten disciples. We'll replace them if needed."

That's enough, Li Yuan nodded.

"Okay, I'll change it."

Chen Yi's expression softened a little.

"The sect said that this is considered an official mission, and the contribution will be substantial."

Li Yuan didn't bring up the topic of contributions; instead, he simply pulled the array diagram forward a bit, his fingertips slowly tracing the main thoroughfares of the market. Chen Yi didn't disturb him, standing to the side and waiting.

After a moment, Li Yuan pointed out the first place.

"The original problem wasn't with the main array eye, but with the nodes being too scattered. The entrance and exit could be scanned once, but it was easy to lose focus after entering the workshop. As long as a person wasn't clearly spotted on the first level, many subtle fluctuations would be dispersed once they blended into the crowd."

"So we first connected the four gatehouses and the three main streets to create a continuous comparison structure."

Li Yuan then pointed to several locations on the west and north sides that were originally just for auxiliary detection, explaining the problem.

After listening, Chen Yi asked a question directly.

How accurate can it be?

"If you bring demonic energy into the market, you won't be able to hide it once you pass through the formation," Li Yuan said.

"Unless the other party doesn't use any demonic energy at all, or has some high-level method to completely cleanse their aura, as long as the demonic energy is still circulating in their body, it will definitely leave an echo."

After listening, Chen Yi didn't say anything more, only saying "You make the first move" before turning around to gather people and materials.

Over the next few days, Li Yuan spent most of his time exploring the Demon Array.

With the foundation of a first-order array mastery laid out beforehand, and the mutual reflection of array symbols already becoming permanent upon array mastery, many issues that previously required repeated trial and error can now be identified simply by following the array patterns.

At the same time, Li Yuan added early warning structures to several main nodes.

This thing doesn't capture people, nor does it directly emit spiritual light. It only temporarily captures the anomaly when the demon-detecting array detects it, and then immediately transfers it to two nearby nodes. In this way, even if the target only brushes past the edge of the array, the anomaly won't disappear in a flash, but will be captured by multiple nodes simultaneously.

Once this step was completed, the entire demon-detecting array in the market was completely transformed.

The old formation was more like a single-point sweep. Now it's like a truly spread-out net; if one place shows an anomaly, two or three places will be illuminated simultaneously, and then the formation will follow the patterns all the way back to the main formation eye.

Five days later, the first round of comprehensive renovations was completed.

Chen Yi personally led a group to see the results of the trial formation.

To avoid alerting the enemy, the Yuan Yang Sect didn't actually capture any demonic cultivators for testing. Instead, they compared the array materials used to seal demonic energy with several old objects specifically designed to suppress it. The first few were fine; the sensory patterns on the main array plate lit up immediately upon passing through the array's core. However, when they switched to the old artifact that had concealed the demonic energy extremely deeply, the array plate only moved slightly upon the first scan.

Just as a formation cultivator next to him frowned, the next moment, two other auxiliary nodes also lit up at the same time.

The results from the three locations converged back to the main array eye, and the originally faint line in the center of the array plate immediately became several times clearer.

Chen Yi stared at the array plate for two breaths before slowly exhaling.

"It's done."

Li Yuan didn't say anything, but he memorized the positions of the last two spare nodes in the array diagram.

This modification is enough to increase the sensitivity of the demon-detecting array in the market several times over. In the future, if demonic cultivators still bring demonic energy into the market, unless their cultivation level and methods far exceed the current array's tolerance limit, it will be almost impossible for them to get past as easily as before.

After the formation was verified, the sect's contribution was quickly calculated.

As Chen Yi handed the ID card back, he casually remarked something.

"This contribution is enough for you to exchange for quite a few more things."

Li Yuan took the identity token, said nothing, and simply put it away.

After the formation was temporarily stabilized, the market area did not relax.

The battle between the Qishui Sect and the Shamo Sect continues to escalate, and more and more cultivators are flowing in from Yunzhou. Previously, only a few people were entering the area, but now, they are moving in large groups towards Liangzhou.

Since Fog Forest Market is located near Ghost Fog Forest and is also known as an outpost and ruins, it naturally attracts even more people.

The main street is often so crowded that even two beast-drawn carriages can hardly pass each other. The temporary accommodations on the outer perimeter have been expanded twice, but it's still not enough. With more and more outside cultivators, friction has also increased.

Some people were fighting over stalls, some were arguing over purchase prices, and some were even having disputes at their guesthouses.

There was also a disagreement between cultivators from Yunzhou and local rogue cultivators from Liangzhou, which almost led to a fight at the entrance of the town, but they were forcibly stopped by the patrolling cultivators.

As a result, the market became increasingly bustling.

Resources are circulating much faster than before, and the number of people collecting demon materials, selling pills, repairing magical artifacts, and engraving array plates has all increased. The few small shops in the market that were previously barely surviving have all lit up again recently.

Li Yuan also took some time to deliver the spirit water talismans that Ziyuan Trading Company and the Wang family wanted.

The spiritual field that had been cleared earlier also yielded its first harvest during this period.

Several commonly used elixirs and supporting materials were collected one after another. Although it was far from being extremely profitable, it was enough to make up for some of the needs I would have for alchemy later, so I wouldn't have to buy everything from outside.

After finishing his business in the market and trading, Li Yuan turned his attention back to body refinement.

The Nameless Body Refining Technique is already underway, and the Medicine-Based Body Strengthening Technique has been added to the equipment inventory. The next step, to permanently add the "Bone Membrane Cultivation" green attribute, is to increase the number of body refining-related spells.

Li Yuan first collected them from the market, and then used the sect contributions he had just acquired to exchange for them, thus assembling three body-refining techniques.

The first technique is a method of using the power of minerals to refine the physical body. During cultivation, specific minerals must be ground into powder and their spiritual energy drawn in, then gradually pressed into the muscles, bones, and skin according to the method. It follows the path of using external objects to grind the body.

The second method involves repeatedly cleansing the physical body by consuming one's own spiritual energy. It requires no external support and is easy to learn; as long as one has sufficient spiritual energy, one can continuously refine the technique.

The third method is the Fire Refining Technique. It uses fire-based spiritual energy to externally scorch and internally refine, specifically tempering the outer layer of skin, flesh, and bones. This method is more intense and more suitable for someone like Li Yuan, who already specializes in fire-based magic.

When Li Yuan first practiced the ore-based body-refining technique, he tried it twice to confirm that what was truly effective in the ore fragments was the heavy earth-metal spiritual energy within them, rather than simply relying on hard grinding and friction.

After that, when repairing, we directly proceeded to the most effective ore.

The difficulty of the pure spiritual energy body refinement method lies not in the method itself, but in the need to suppress the spiritual energy sufficiently so that it does not dissipate when cleansing the physical body. Li Yuan had the foundation of the Hundred Rivers Returning to the Sea and the condensation of spiritual energy, so he adapted much faster than ordinary people. After figuring out the circulation route at the beginning, his subsequent progress was very steady.

The Fire Refining Technique is the most suitable for him.

When the fire-type spiritual energy travels down along the skin and the outer layer of bones, there will be a noticeable burning sensation at first. However, the overlapping of terms such as the Blazing Sun Technique, Blazing Essence Refinement, and Three Elements Body Protection actually suppresses the part that is most likely to harm the body, leaving only the layer that can truly wear down the flesh.

Li Yuan did not break down the various spells into many complete scenarios for repeated demonstrations.

What needs to be written is the new places and key results.

Several days later, he successfully advanced to the beginner level in all three body-refining techniques.

The panel finally popped up the moment I mastered the last fire-refining spell.

The conditions for permanent periosteum repair (green) have been met.

Is it permanent?

Li Yuan stopped the method and directly confirmed it.

【Periosteal Repair (Green) has become a permanent entry】

A sense of solidity pressed inward from the skin and into the bones.

It wasn't just simple pain, nor was it obvious swelling. Rather, it felt as if the layers of the body's outer surface, which were originally separated, were being pressed even tighter by a force. The subtle flow of spiritual energy beneath the skin became more stable, and the outer edges of the bones felt like they had an extra layer of support that could withstand more force.

The changes are not exaggerated, but they are very real.

Li Yuan raised his hand and clenched his fist. When the tendons on the back of his hand tensed, the force exerted along his forearm and shoulder was more coordinated than before.

After achieving permanent periosteum cultivation, Li Yuan did not hesitate and directly took out the alchemy manuals he had previously stored in his storage bag.

[Equipped: Complete Alchemy Manual]

[Danli Tongwu (Green) is in effect]

The moment the entry was entered into the column, the layer of alchemical knowledge that was already very familiar in my mind was gently touched from within.

Li Yuan did not start the furnace immediately, but he could already sense the changes.

If you look at the prescription and ingredients again, many of the subtle changes in medicinal properties that previously required more time to observe will now be much easier to notice. This isn't about acquiring new knowledge out of thin air; rather, it's about pushing your existing alchemy skills a step further.