Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

The fifth round of foundation building transactions continued.

When Li Yuan arrived, there were already quite a few people standing in the courtyard.

There were almost half as many as last time, some new faces, and some familiar faces who didn't show up.

A quick glance revealed a group of just over thirty people, with at least ten unfamiliar faces. Most of these individuals wore slightly different clothing from the local cultivators of Liangzhou, and the storage bags hanging from their waists were also different in style, clearly indicating that they came from Yunzhou.

After the opening ceremony, there were a few routine transactions. Resources were exchanged for resources, pills for spirit stones, magical artifacts for each other, and materials were bartered. These were the usual procedures at the trade fair, and no one needed to say much. Those who were interested could simply gather together and negotiate.

Li Yuan sat down in the corner, first selling a batch of talismans and pills, and then exchanging mid-grade evil stones for several auxiliary materials he needed.

During a break in the trading, several Liangzhou cultivators surrounded a middle-aged man from Yunzhou, bombarding him with questions. The man was tall and thin, and didn't talk much, but the locals were very curious and asked very direct questions.

How many Foundation Establishment cultivators are there in Yunzhou?

The cultivator from Yunzhou thought for a moment and gave a rough estimate.

"Before the war, there were nearly a hundred independent cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage."

Upon hearing this, the expressions of the people nearby changed.

In Liangzhou, there were only about thirty Foundation Establishment cultivators in the entire region. The number of nearly a hundred was truly beyond their comprehension.

"Why are there so many?"

"The place is large." The man said calmly, "Yunzhou is much larger than Liangzhou, and it has more spiritual veins, so there are naturally more places for rogue cultivators to find cultivation resources. Besides, Liangzhou was ravaged by the Demonic Sect several times before, and its foundation was severely damaged. It also lost a lot of cultivation resources, so its development naturally can't compare."

Someone nearby asked a few more questions.

"With so many Foundation Establishment cultivators on your side, how come you still can't defeat the Demonic Sect?"

"What's the use of having more people?" The Yunzhou cultivator gave a bitter smile. "When the Qishui Sect and the Shamo Sect fight head-on, the rogue cultivators are caught in the middle. They don't even have time to run away, and many die in the chaos. Those who manage to escape are already considered lucky."

"Moreover, independent cultivators may not necessarily help the Qishui Sect; quite a few help the Demonic Sect as well."

Li Yuan sat to the side listening without interrupting.

The large number of cultivators in Yunzhou is not only due to its vast size, but also because Liangzhou was repeatedly ravaged by the Demonic Sect, resulting in the loss of many of its foundations. Once the inheritance of cultivation techniques, pill formulas, and formations is interrupted, it takes more than a few decades to make up for it later.

The trade fair continued, and the atmosphere inside the courtyard was a bit noisier than before.

With more people, the types of transactions also increased. Some people brought out uncommon materials from Yunzhou, rarely seen in Liangzhou, attracting a large crowd. Others brought broken magical artifacts and old alchemical formulas, hoping to find someone here to help repair or appraise them.

As Li Yuan was finishing his transaction, a middle-aged cultivator approached him.

"Fellow Daoist Li."

Li Yuan looked up.

The newcomer had a square face and a short beard. It was Ji Huaiyuan.

His breathing was weak but still prolonged, as if he had used some kind of longevity pill.

"Fellow Daoist Ji." Li Yuan nodded.

Ji Huaiyuan didn't beat around the bush; after sitting down, he directly stated his purpose.

"A new underground fire has been discovered near my home. It's not deep, but the outlet is unstable. I would like to ask Fellow Daoist Li to help set up a fuse array to guide the underground fire to a stable location."

Li Yuan glanced at him.

"A fuse?"

"Yes." Ji Huaiyuan nodded. "There are many small fire veins in my area, and we've set up similar formations before. It's just that the newly discovered ground fire is located in a slightly off-center position, so the original formations couldn't cover it. I have the blueprints for the ignition formation, and the materials are all ready. All I'm missing is a formation master."

"And the payment?"

Ji Huaiyuan reached into his storage bag, took out a jade slip, and placed it on the table.

"this."

Li Yuan's gaze fell on the jade slip, but he did not take it immediately.

Ji Huaiyuan explained, "The Meridian Guiding Technique is a family heirloom. There are many small fire veins near my home, so my ancestors devised this technique to guide the direction of the earth's veins. It's not exactly a secret, but it's not easy to buy outside."

"Guiding the direction of the earth's veins?"

"That's right," Ji Huaiyuan said. "It's not just for fire veins; it can be used on any other veins. As long as the vein itself isn't too thick or its path isn't too deep, this spell can guide it to a certain extent."

Li Yuan's heart stirred slightly.

Guide the direction of the spiritual veins and their branches.

To others, this might just sound like a frivolous auxiliary spell. But for Li Yuan, its uses go far beyond that.

The evil mine under his command is currently producing purple evil stones due to the slight seepage of spiritual energy from a large spiritual vein along the underground stone layers. This seepage is currently occurring naturally, and its direction and flow are uncontrollable.

If there were a spell that could guide the direction of the branch veins, it would mean that the spiritual energy of the spiritual veins could be actively diverted towards the evil mines.

Li Yuan didn't reveal his thoughts on his face, but simply picked up the jade slip and glanced at it.

"Okay. When are we going?"

"It will be fine after the trade fair ends," Ji Huaiyuan said.

After the trade fair ended, Li Yuan followed Ji Huaiyuan out of the market and traveled northwest for most of the day.

Ji Huaiyuan did not bring Li Yuan to the Ji family's residence, but instead led Li Yuan to a low-lying valley entrance.

There was indeed a fire vein aura that could be felt underground, and when I stepped on the ground, the soles of my boots felt a faint warmth.

Ji Huaiyuan first took Li Yuan to see the location of the underground fire outlet.

It was a crack on the north side of the valley. The crack wasn't wide, and if you looked inside, you could occasionally see flashes of dark red light. Subterranean fire rose from here, but its direction was unpredictable, and its intensity varied. Most recently, it even burned a patch of grassland nearby.

"This is it," Ji Huaiyuan said, pointing to the crack. "If the fire outlet were a little further south, it could connect to my family's original fire-starting circuit. But the current location is more than twenty zhang away, so it's out of reach."

Li Yuan squatted down to look inside the crack, and then used his divine sense to probe a bit deeper into the ground.

The fire vein's trajectory is clear: it extends from the southeast, branching off here and rising upwards. The branch's exit point is indeed off-center and doesn't match the Ji family's original fire-ignition structure.

"Did you bring the blueprints?"

Ji Huaiyuan immediately took out a scroll of array diagrams and handed it over.

Li Yuan unfolded and read it once.

The structure of the ignition array is not complicated. The core idea is to build a guiding loop between the fire outlet and the target location, diverting the fire vein's spiritual energy from the outlet. The array's core is located in the lower middle position to anchor the flow of spiritual energy throughout the entire array.

The blueprints were drawn in great detail, with the proportions of the array materials and the locations of the nodes clearly marked. It was obvious that the Ji family had set up similar arrays before and had no shortage of experience.

Li Yuan memorized the formation diagram and then began to set up the formation.

The array materials were prepared in advance by the Ji family: Fire Yang Stone, Spirit Guiding Sand, and Solidifying Iron Powder, all of acceptable quality. Li Yuan first determined the location of the array eye, and then laid the main runes from the array eye outwards to both ends.

The ignition array itself is a first-order array, which is not difficult for Li Yuan at his current level. However, this array is meant to guide real earth fire, not ordinary spiritual energy. The temperature and scorching power of the fire vein branches are much stronger than those of the spiritual veins.

Sufficient heat dissipation spacing must be left when laying the main pattern, and the nodes cannot be arranged in a conventional close arrangement; otherwise, once the ground fire is brought up, the pattern will be burned off by the high temperature.

Li Yuan followed the formation diagram's approach, while making several minor adjustments based on his own judgment.

The distance between the two nodes was slightly increased, and an additional half-circle of stabilizing patterns was added around the array eye to prevent it from shifting during the impact of the earth fire. These adjustments were minor, but they were details that could only be seen when a first-order array master and a second-order array beginner were stacked together.

It took about half an hour to set up the fuse array.

Finally, Li Yuan embedded a Fire Yang Stone into the array's core, channeling his spiritual energy, and the entire array slowly lit up. The main runes extended from the core to both ends, guiding the circuits along the ground all the way to the crack. Moments later, the heat of the earth fire was drawn out along the circuits, no longer overflowing haphazardly from the crack, but steadily moving towards the original fire-starting structure of the Ji family to the south, following the direction set by the array.

Ji Huaiyuan watched from the side, and only after the ground fire was stabilized and diverted did a clear sense of relief appear on his face.

"It's done."

Li Yuan stood up and dusted off his hands.

At that very moment, a familiar perceptual fluctuation came from the core of the formation.

The array's core is within a three-foot radius, and a panel pops up.

[Equipable item detected: Fuse Eye (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Flame Resonance (Green)]

[Effect: When setting up a fire-type formation, the formation's power increases by 30%, and its stability increases by 20%]

[Preview of Permanentization Conditions: Master Five Different Fire-Based Formations]

Li Yuan scanned the panel, first putting the array eye into his storage bag, then replacing it with a new Fire Yang Stone to serve as the array eye, without equipping it on the spot.

After Ji Huaiyuan checked the operation of the formation and confirmed that there were no problems, he handed over the previously agreed-upon reward.

"Please keep the Meridian Guiding Method safe, Fellow Daoist Li."

Li Yuan took the jade slip, probed it with his divine sense, and its contents quickly unfolded in his mind.

The Meridian Guiding Technique is an auxiliary method, not a combat spell or a cultivation technique, but a technical spell specifically used to guide the direction of earth veins.

When performing this technique, you need to first use your divine sense to lock onto the direction of the pulse, and then slowly send spiritual power along the surface of the pulse. By using the interaction between the spiritual power and the pulse, you can gradually shift the direction of the pulse toward the target.

The spell itself isn't difficult; the key lies in having a keen sense of the earth's ley lines and a stable output of spiritual energy. The deviation cannot be too large, otherwise the ley lines will bounce back. Each deviation can only be slight, and it takes multiple attempts to truly correct the course.

And it's not just the fire veins.

As Ji Huaiyuan said, other meridians can also be used. As long as the meridian itself is not a large and robust one at the level of a main meridian, it is within the scope of this spell.

Li Yuan put the jade slip away, already planning how to use it.

On the other side of the Sha Mine, the spiritual energy from the spiritual veins is currently seeping in naturally along the underground stone layers, with neither its direction nor its flow being controlled. If a branch of the spiritual vein is guided towards the Sha Mine using the channeling method, the seepage will no longer occur randomly, but can be actively regulated.

The production of purple amber stone thus has the potential to become more stable.

However, this matter cannot be rushed. Having just acquired the Meridian Guiding Technique, I still need to practice the basics first, and then find an opportunity to actually test it and see how effective it is at guiding the branches of the spiritual meridians.

After leaving the Ji family, Li Yuan returned to the market town.

As darkness fell on the road, the warmth of the hills was somewhat diluted by the night wind.

Upon returning to the stone house, Li Yuan first gathered and stored the materials and the jade slip containing the Guiding Meridian Technique he had obtained at the trade fair that day. Then, he sat down and began to practice the Guiding Meridian Technique.

The basics of magic weren't too difficult for Li Yuan, especially since he had been attached to a large spiritual vein for a long time, giving him a far greater perception of earth veins than ordinary people. The basic content of the meridian guiding method, such as judging the direction of the vein and the way spiritual power seeps in, was almost beyond his ability to understand after just one reading.

What you really need to practice is the rhythm and intensity control of your spiritual energy output.

This isn't like combat spells where you just unleash your spiritual energy. The Meridian Guiding Technique requires spiritual energy to slowly seep into the surface of the meridians, like water soaking sand; it can't be too fast or too forceful. Too fast and the meridians will reject it; too forceful and it will directly damage the meridians.

Li Yuan simulated the spell several times in the stone house using his spiritual vein perception, and only stopped after he had figured out the basic operating logic of the spell.

To truly get started, we need to find a suitable branch near the ore vein and actually test it out.

The lights inside the stone house were dim, and the sounds of the market outside the window had faded away.

Li Yuan put the jade slip into his storage bag and sat cross-legged on the futon to continue his cultivation.

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