Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Yunyang Market was several times larger than Wulin Market.

When Li Yuan entered the city through the south gate, a section of the stone walls on both sides of the main street had been temporarily demolished, revealing a large open space behind it. The open space was marked with hundreds of square areas using copper pillars with array patterns, each square being a stall.

People flocked in from all directions.

Li Yuan estimated that there were nearly two hundred cultivators queuing for inspection at the south gate entrance alone. There were all sorts of people: rogue cultivators, family members, traveling merchants, and weapon refiners. Many still carried lingering spiritual energy fluctuations, clearly indicating they had rushed from other strongholds overnight.

The Yuan Yang Sect's large-scale trade fair attracted many people, and the more people there were, the more willing other cultivators were to come and trade.

In addition, the Yuanyang Sect will also release some good items at the trade fair.

His spiritual senses spread silently through the crowd.

The security measures far exceeded those of a regular market. Every twenty feet around the perimeter of the trading area stood a cultivator, all at the ninth level of Qi Refining.

In the distant high-rise buildings and dark corners he sensed, at least seven or eight Foundation Establishment stage spiritual pressures lay quietly, unassuming yet shrouding the entire trading area under tight surveillance.

The defensive array of Yunyang Market itself was also operating at full power, with the spiritual energy pulses of the sensing array sweeping across the area every ten breaths.

Li Yuan withdrew his divine sense and followed the flow of people into the trading area.

In the very center of the trading area, Yuan Yang Sect occupied an entire row of stalls by itself.

The stall displayed all kinds of sect supplies, from basic spirit stone exchanges to mid-level magic artifacts, everything was available. In the most conspicuous position, there were several white jade bottles with spirit-sealing talismans attached and vermilion labels on their bodies.

Breakthrough Pill. An auxiliary pill used by Foundation Establishment cultivators when attempting to break through a bottleneck.

There were quite a few cultivators watching. During wartime, the price of such pills would rise even further, but the sect's price was lower, so there would definitely be a round of bidding.

Li Yuan glanced at it and walked over.

He had already reached the late stage of Foundation Establishment, and since this pill did not have any equipable attributes, it was of no value to him.

He walked straight to the west side of the trading area, found the area reserved by the management office for the array masters of each market, showed the nameplate of the Misty Forest Market, and took a spot near the passage.

The stall wasn't big, but it was in a great location with a high volume of foot traffic.

Li Yuan took out the prepared pills from his storage bag and arranged them on the stall according to their categories.

The Qi-Regenerating Pills were placed in the front row, neatly arranged in cyan jade bottles, three pills in each bottle. The Qi-Gathering Pills and Healing Pills were placed on either side, while the Soul-Condensing Pills were the fewest, placed separately in a corner.

He didn't shout out his wares; he simply wrote the product names and prices on a wooden sign in front of his stall.

The price of the Renewal Pill was 30% higher than the retail price in the market, but lower than the prices quoted by other alchemists at the trade fair.

The first buyer arrived less than fifteen minutes after he finished setting up his stall.

He was a weary early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator from a family, whose family crests on his Daoist robe had faded considerably. He picked up a bottle of Meridian Renewal Pills, uncorked it, brought it to his nose, and sniffed it. His eyes suddenly lit up.

"Good quality." He looked up at Li Yuan. "Six bottles of Qi-restoring Pills and four bottles of Healing Pills, how much is that in total?"

Li Yuan gave a number.

The man didn't haggle; he simply took out spirit stones from his sleeve, counted them, and pushed them over.

This is just the beginning.

The news spread extremely quickly. In less than half an hour, Li Yuan's stall was surrounded by people.

The wartime demand for elixirs had been suppressed for far too long. The cultivators who fled from Yunzhou had spirit stones in their hands but couldn't buy anything, and the supply of elixirs in the market couldn't keep up with the influx of people. Now, a large quantity of urgently needed wartime elixirs finally appeared at the trade fair, and the prices were fairer than those of other alchemists. The cultivators practically scrambled to get to the stalls.

The Rejuvenating Pill sold the fastest.

This stuff can repair damaged meridians, making it an essential life-saving item for cultivators who suffered internal injuries while fleeing. The low-to-medium grade meridian-restoring pills that Li Yuan brought were sold out within two hours, and even the empty bottles on the stall were taken away.

The healing pills were cleared out immediately afterward.

The Gathering Essence Pill and Soul Condensing Pill sold a little slower because they were more expensive, but by the afternoon most of them had been sold.

Li Yuan put the last few bottles of Soul Condensing Pills back into his storage bag for his own use.

The stall was empty, but the spirit stones in the storage bag weighed heavily on his wrist.

Selling the pills accumulated over the past few days, a rough calculation shows that the amount of spirit stones earned in this half-day is almost equivalent to two months' revenue for a shop in the Misty Forest Market.

Li Yuan packed up his stall and walked deeper into the trading area.

With the pills sold out, it's time to get down to business.

He walked along the rows of stalls, his eyes quickly scanning each one. Most stalls displayed common goods, with the occasional magic artifact or elixir of decent quality, but none of them were what he was looking for.

When Li Yuan reached the northeast corner of the trading area, he stopped.

The stalls in this area were noticeably quieter, mostly run by elderly independent cultivators, and the items on their stalls were much more disorganized. There were broken jade slips, fragments of cultivation manuals, a corner-missing array plate, and even a few pieces of beast bones of unknown origin.

Li Yuan's gaze fell on the stall of an old cultivator with gray hair and beard.

The old cultivator was dozing off against the stone pillar behind him, with a dozen or so items sparsely arranged on the gray cloth in front of him. Several jade slips were piled up haphazardly, covered with a thin layer of dust.

Li Yuan squatted down and picked up one of the jade slips.

The jade slip was made of rough material, with a fine crack at one edge. As divine sense probed it, a flood of information rushed into his mind.

The complete second-tier body-refining technique.

It is called the Mysterious Iron Bone Forging Technique.

Li Yuan channeled his divine sense into the area, mentally reviewing the rough path of cultivation outside the restrictions.

After the spiritual energy is drawn from the dantian, it doesn't travel through the conventional meridians and peripheral channels, but instead directly permeates outward along the bone marrow channels at the center of the bones. From the bone marrow to the bone tissue, and from the bone tissue to the periosteum, it is tempered layer by layer from the inside out.

It is completely different from the muscle and flesh pathway of the Nameless Body Refining Technique.

It is also completely different from the skeletal pathway of the outer layer of the skin in the Iron Wall Body Refining Technique.

The three techniques follow their own paths and do not conflict with each other.

Li Yuan put away the jade slip and looked up at the old cultivator.

The old man was awakened by his noise and sat up straight, rubbing his eyes.

"How much is this jade slip?"

The old cultivator squinted at what Li Yuan was holding, then waved his hand.

"One thousand spirit stones."

Li Yuan bargained down the price to 800 spirit stones, then handed over the spirit stones and put the jade slip into his storage bag.

Eight hundred spirit stones. A complete second-tier body-refining technique would normally fetch at least a thousand spirit stones. However, wartime prices have collapsed, and this technique has an extremely high cultivation threshold, requiring cultivators to already possess a strong foundation in body refining to even begin learning it. For ordinary rogue cultivators, it's like a chicken bone in their hands, so naturally, it doesn't sell for a good price.

But for Li Yuan, this is the last piece of the puzzle he is missing.

Li Yuan carefully put away the jade slip and continued walking around the trading area.

For the rest of the day, he practically turned the entire trading area upside down.

Solidified copper essence. Buy it.

Steady-textured sand. Buy it.

I bought up all the low- to mid-level auxiliary medicines listed on the prescription for Shangyuan Dan.

I'll buy any body-refining pills, whether they're first-tier Qi and Blood Pills or second-tier Iron Wall Pills, as long as the price is right.

He didn't let go of the broken array plate base, the scraps from discarded weapon-refining materials, or even a few fragments of spirit-guiding stones that had been sold as scrap metal. These things could all be reused after being melted down.

Because of the concentration of goods at the trade fair and the oversupply, many cultivators were eager to sell their goods for spirit stones to save their lives, and the prices of almost all goods were 20% to 30% lower than usual.

Li Yuan made his purchases decisively, paying with spirit stones as soon as he saw something he liked, without haggling or backing out. The seller accepted the money readily, and neither party wasted much time.

In the latter half of the journey, he simply stopped spending spirit stones and instead took out the ironwood box from his storage bag and opened the lid.

Inside the box, more than twenty exquisite fire-evil stones gleamed with a dark red glow under the illumination of the array lights.

"This batch of Fire Fiend Stones has an extremely even fusion of fire-elemental spiritual power and fiendish energy, reaching the standard of second-tier weapon-refining materials." Li Yuan pushed the ironwood box in front of a rogue weapon-refining cultivator, "Exchange it for the Xuanfeng Iron and Crimson Vein Iron you have."

The rogue cultivator picked up a piece of fire-evil stone and examined it over and over for a long time. Finally, he gritted his teeth and pushed most of the refining materials on his stall over.

Li Yuan exchanged three rounds of fire-evil stones, and the refining materials he collected filled half a corner of his storage bag.

In the evening, he ran into Ji Huaiyuan at the east entrance of the trading area.

Two young members of the Ji family followed behind Ji Huaiyuan, each carrying a heavy cloth bag.

"You've come at the perfect time." Li Yuan waved and pulled Ji Huaiyuan to an empty stall to the side.

He took out the batch of refining materials he had obtained today in exchange for fire-evil stones from his storage bag and laid them out in a row on the stall.

Mystic Wind Iron, Crimson Vein Iron, Melting Spirit Sand, and Earth Marrow Stone were the items Ji Huaiyuan had listed last time. The quantity wasn't large, but the quality was all above average.

Ji Huaiyuan's gaze swept over the materials, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.

"You have all of these?"

"I acquired it at the trade fair. I plan to sell a portion of it to the Ji family."

Ji Huaiyuan did not hesitate and counted the spirit stones on the spot to complete the transaction. The two disciples put the materials into their storage bags.

A large sum of spirit stones were spent, but what was gained in return was far more valuable than the spirit stones.

Body-refining techniques, formation materials, elixir ingredients, and weapon-refining waste—each of these is a valuable commodity for future cultivation and business operations.

As dusk approached, the hustle and bustle of the first day of the trade fair gradually came to an end. Li Yuan booked a temporary room at an inn in Yunyang Market, closed the door, and sat cross-legged on the bed.

He took out the rough jade slip from his storage bag, probed it with his divine sense, and began to carefully study every detail of the Xuan Tie Bone Forging Technique.