Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Deep inside the cave, a dark red light flowed through the walls.

Li Yuan stood in front of the gap in the old mine tunnel blocked by rubble on the west wall, his feet firmly planted on the ground, and the perception of the earth vein spiritual pivot spread out in the depths.

When he first discovered this old mine tunnel, he only managed to detect an area of ​​about a hundred feet before exceeding the limits of his perception. Since then, he has been busy with other matters and has not had time to explore it further.

He came here specifically today.

He enveloped his hands in spiritual energy and pushed aside the rubble blocking the opening piece by piece. He cleared only a narrow passage for one person to pass through, leaving the overall structure of the mine tunnel intact.

He squeezed sideways into the mine tunnel.

The air inside was stuffy and damp, carrying a musty smell accumulated over the years. The walls had been polished, and the remaining spiritual energy patterns were faintly discernible when touched with a fingertip, the style of which was consistent with the array patterns in the Xuan You branch hall.

As Li Yuan moved forward, he continuously probed the rock structure ahead using the Earth Vein Spiritual Pivot. The mine tunnel was basically intact for the first hundred feet, after which sporadic collapses and cracks began to appear. He reinforced several loose sections of the roof with his spiritual power and continued to advance.

Two hundred feet.

The mine tunnel's direction shifted slightly from its initial northwest to due west. The density of the spiritual energy patterns on the walls increased, evolving from simple reinforcing patterns into more complex guiding patterns, seemingly functioning to transmit a certain spiritual energy from one end of the tunnel to the other.

Three hundred feet.

A large-scale collapse occurred ahead of the mine tunnel. The entire roof collapsed, completely blocking the passage. The pile of rubble stretched for more than ten meters, completely obscuring the view behind it.

The Earth Vein Spirit Pivot's perception penetrated the layer of rubble.

Behind the pile of rubble was a small stone chamber, mostly collapsed. The chamber was about two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) square, with three walls still standing, but the fourth wall had completely collapsed and mixed with the rubble from the mine tunnel. A huge crack had appeared in the dome, and layers of rock squeezed in through the crack, making the interior of the chamber extremely crowded.

However, the stone chamber is not a natural cave. The wall structure reflected by sensory feedback indicates that it had undergone meticulous processing, with traces of array carvings remaining on the ground.

Li Yuan carefully used his spiritual power to move the rubble away piece by piece, creating a passage just big enough for him to fit through.

The interior of the stone chamber was in complete disarray.

The foundation of a small spirit-gathering array remained on the ground. Most of the array patterns had been crushed by the collapsed rocks, with only a few intact engravings remaining in the corners. Several broken array stones were scattered around the foundation, their spiritual energy dissipated, and they had become ordinary waste stones.

Li Yuan squatted down and carefully searched through the pile of rubble.

Most things were crushed into fragments by the pressure of the rock strata. A jade bottle was flattened into a thin sheet, several bamboo slips were shattered into pieces the size of fingernails, and only half a metal rod remained of the remains of a magical artifact.

His fingers touched something hard.

Pulled out from the cracks in the rubble was a palm-sized bronze disc. The disc was round with finely engraved lines along its edge, and a very thin bronze needle was embedded in the center of its surface. The bronze disc was made of extremely tough material, and despite being buried for countless years, it only had a few shallow scratches on its surface and was otherwise well-preserved.

The copper needle trembled slightly the moment Li Yuan picked up the copper plate, pointing to the east direction at his feet.

The direction of the spiritual vein.

Spiritual Vein Guiding Plate. An ancient tool used to detect and guide the direction of spiritual veins.

A panel pops up.

[Equipable item detected: Spirit Vein Guiding Disc (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Spirit Vein Affinity (Green)]

[Effect: Doubles the range of perception of spiritual veins; increases cultivation speed by an additional 20% when near spiritual veins]

[Preview of conditions for permanentization: Cultivate for more than six hours each day for a cumulative period of thirty days (0/30)]

The range of spiritual vein perception has doubled.

The Earth Vein Spiritual Pivot has already endowed him with extremely strong underground perception abilities, but that perception focuses on the rock structure, density, and vibrations. Spiritual Vein Affinity, on the other hand, is a specific amplification of the spiritual vein itself. When the two are combined, his ability to detect underground spiritual veins will far surpass that of cultivators of the same level.

The extra 20% increase in cultivation speed near a spiritual vein is also useful to me, but since my cultivation has already reached the peak of Foundation Establishment, I have to wait until I reach the Golden Core stage before it can take effect.

The conditions for permanentization are not demanding. He cultivates for more than six hours a day, which is his daily routine. Thirty days is not a short accumulation period, but he will proceed steadily and surely.

"equipment."

[Equipped: Spirit Vein Guiding Disc (Complete)]

[Spiritual Vein Affinity (Green) in effect]

[Conditions for permanent Spiritual Vein Affinity (Green): Cultivate for more than six hours daily for a cumulative period of thirty days (August 30th)]

The moment the entry took effect, the senses beneath my feet suddenly expanded. The direction of the spiritual veins, which could only be vaguely perceived during the exploration of the earth's spiritual core, became several times clearer. The location, thickness, branching direction, and even the speed of spiritual energy flow of the main spiritual veins were all vividly imprinted in my mind.

Li Yuan examined the remaining fragments in the stone chamber again, and after confirming that nothing was missing, he returned to the cave along the original route and resealed the gap in the mine tunnel with rubble.

Back in the stone house, "Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes" is causing a reading frenzy on Cola Novels. Haven't you read it yet? Li Yuan took out a jade slip with annotations on the basic theory of third-order formations from his storage bag and probed it with his divine sense.

This annotation was written by a grandmaster of formations from the Xuan You Sect, and its content is extremely detailed. He had already skimmed through it once before, but limited by the ceiling of his second-order formation skills, he could only understand the literal meaning of many core concepts and could not truly grasp their internal logic.

This time, he started from the beginning, carefully reading the first three chapters word by word.

Chapter One discusses the essential differences between third-order and second-order array formations. The core of second-order array formations is the linear transmission and planar layout of spiritual energy, with the array patterns performing all functions on a two-dimensional level. In contrast, third-order array formations introduce the concept of spatial folding, where the array patterns are no longer confined to a plane but can extend into the folded spatial layers, forming a true three-dimensional array structure.

Chapter Two specifically explains the fundamental theory of spatial folding. It covers how to identify foldable spatial nodes, how to calculate the extension path of the array patterns after folding, and how to maintain the stability of spiritual energy transmission in folded space.

Chapter Three is about multi-dimensional nesting. It involves nesting multiple layers of folded space to form more complex array structures. The three-dimensional nested spatial lock at the entrance of the Xuan You Branch Hall is a typical application of this theory.

When Li Yuan initially broke the restriction, he relied on the spatial perception of the teleportation stone and the precise control of his five divine sense lines, a display of overwhelming strength. But now, after thoroughly studying the theory, he truly understood the design logic of the restriction—the three nested layers were not simply layers of locks, but rather utilized the topological structure of folded space to dynamically shift the position of the keyhole as the outer space changed.

Without the spatial perception of the teleportation stone, the hacker would have to track a constantly moving target solely by relying on spiritual touch, without being able to see the keyhole.

Exquisitely crafted.

After reading the three chapters, Li Yuan closed the jade slip and digested the information for a moment.

There has been a qualitative leap in the understanding of spatial folding and multidimensional nesting. Although there is still a considerable gap between this and true mastery of third-order arrays, the direction is now clear.

In the following days, the expansion project of the market officially started.

The continued growth in income gave Li Yuan ample financial reserves. After a bumper harvest of Soul-Slaying Grass, the sales of Soul-Gathering Pills brought in nearly a hundred mid-grade spirit stones in net profit each month. With the three major sectors of exporting Fire Soul Stones, wholesaling talismans, and exporting pills combined, Misty Forest Market had become one of the most profitable markets in the surrounding area.

This expansion is larger than the previous two. It extends eighty zhang to the south and sixty zhang to the east, and the new area is large enough to accommodate more than forty shops and residences for more than two hundred people.

He didn't plan to personally oversee the infrastructure projects. He hired three skilled civil engineers from the Yunyang market area to be responsible for foundation ramming, wall construction, and drainage ditch excavation. These tasks didn't require high cultivation levels; cultivators in the late Qi Refining stage could handle them.

The formation was set up by Li Yuan himself.

A defensive array was deployed around the perimeter of the newly expanded area, covering all possible directions of invasion. Detection arrays were embedded in the main entrances and exits of the market, automatically screening for spiritual energy fluctuations and residual demonic energy among those entering and exiting. Sensing arrays were laid beneath the ground in the new area, overlapping with the Dark Fiend Insight's perception network to form a dual monitoring system.

The Earth Vein Spirit Pivot made the formation setup extremely fast, reducing the original half-month construction time to six days.

The outline of the market town has expanded again.

The cultivation practice was not interrupted because of these matters.

With the support of various amulets, the cultivation of the Demonic Essence Technique progressed rapidly.

The final bottleneck between mastery and perfection shattered silently during a late-night cultivation session.

A panel pops up.

[Demonic Essence Technique: Perfected]

The demonic energy deep within his dantian underwent a fundamental transformation at the moment of breakthrough. The demonic energy, which previously required deliberate guidance to circulate, now became as natural as breathing.

The conditions for making the Demon Orb and the Demon Spirit Orb permanent have been met.

The condition for making both pieces of equipment permanent is to cultivate a demonic art to perfection.

[Equipable item detected: Demon Transformation Orb (Complete)]

[Effect: Demonic skill cultivation speed +30%, demonic energy absorption +30%]

[Magic Power Enhancement (Green) has become a permanent entry]

[Equipable item detected: Magic Spirit Orb (Complete)]

[Effect: Increases the effectiveness of demonic energy cultivation by 20%]

[Magic Enhancement (White) has become a permanent attribute]

The moment the effect became permanent, Li Yuan noticed a significant increase in his efficiency in drawing in and absorbing demonic energy, and the circulation of his internal demonic arts became much smoother than before. From now on, whether he was cultivating the Demonic Essence Technique or refining external demonic energy, his speed would be even faster than before.

The efficiency of refining demonic energy has also increased. The gains from each cycle of the demonic technique are greater than before. With the addition of terms such as the enhancement of demonic techniques and the condensation of demonic energy, the progress of demonic cultivation is becoming increasingly astonishing.

Li Yuan raised his hand and condensed a cone of demonic energy in his palm.

The flow of demonic energy in the meridians was no longer sluggish or obstructed, just as muddy water had transformed into a clear stream.

The completion of the Demonic Essence Technique signifies that one's demonic energy cultivation has reached the limit of the Foundation Establishment stage. At this current level, there is no further room for improvement in this technique.

To advance further, one must reach the Core Formation stage.