Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

This third-tier entry is different from previous breakthroughs; the specific proficiency level wasn't displayed afterward, which might be because my cultivation level hasn't reached the requirements to proceed to the next step.

Li Yuan carefully put away the box containing the core of the Demonic Qi Pill Platform, then turned and walked out of the stone cave.

He didn't immediately return to the teleportation array. Now that he had arrived in Mozhou and had just broken through to the third tier of array formation mastery, he might as well take this opportunity to conduct a thorough system exploration of this unknown underground area.

The stealth effect remained active, allowing him to completely blend into the dim underground environment.

Using the Earth Escape Technique, Li Yuan's body disappeared silently into the hard rock layer, like a drop of water merging into a sponge. The dual sensory network of the Earth Vein Spiritual Pivot and the Spiritual Vein Affinity rapidly spread out in all directions.

After his affinity with the spiritual veins became permanent, his perception range doubled. In the unique underground environment, the combination of these two abilities gave him a godlike perspective, as if he could see through the earth's layers. The density of the rocks, the direction of the underground water veins, and even the fine, thread-like branches of the spiritual veins were all clearly projected into his mind.

He followed a tiny branch of the spiritual vein beneath the cave, diving deeper into the earth's strata of Mozhou.

The deeper they went, the more complex the geological structure became. At a depth of about two hundred feet underground, Li Yuan stopped.

A large area of ​​the sensing network showed obvious signs of being artificially excavated.

He walked through the rock formations for a while, then broke through a thick stone wall and entered a wide underground passage.

The passage was three zhang high and wide enough for two beast-drawn carriages to pass side by side. The surrounding rock walls had been completely melted by some kind of high-temperature magic, giving them a dark, glassy luster and making them exceptionally sturdy. Deep ruts remained on the ground, stretching all the way to the end of the darkness.

This is an abandoned old miners' tunnel.

Li Yuan walked forward along the passage. Every ten feet along both sides of the passage, a recessed stone niche was carved out, containing the remaining illumination array plates that had long since exhausted their spiritual energy. Judging from the shape of the array plates and the weathered array patterns on the rock walls, this was undoubtedly the work of the Xuan You Sect.

After walking about two miles, a huge fork in the road appeared.

Li Yuan's gaze fell on the center of the fork in the road. A large section of the ground had collapsed there, revealing the complex structure beneath.

He stepped forward, squatted down, and examined it carefully.

Below the collapse was a wide ditch constructed from a mixture of a special kind of spirit wood and bluestone. The ditch was lined with densely packed spirit-guiding copper plates, most of which had rusted and broken, but the overall framework of the loop was still clearly discernible.

This is a channel for guiding spiritual energy.

Li Yuan probed his divine sense into the remains of the guide channel, extending it towards both ends along the remaining array patterns.

One path leads to the large, sealed spiritual vein he had previously discovered, while the other connects to smaller branches scattered throughout the underground of Mozhou, even faintly pointing to the location of the teleportation array.

Li Yuan stood up and continued his exploration along the path of the spiritual energy channel.

The terrain of the passage began to gradually descend, and the traces of human excavation became increasingly dense. Along the way, he discovered several abandoned mineral sorting sites, piled high with slag, but the valuable spiritual materials had long since been removed.

After continuing for about half an hour, the passage ahead was blocked by a heavy stone door.

The stone door was tightly shut, its surface covered with dust and cobwebs. The door frame was carved with intricate array patterns, and although the luster was dim, a faint trace of spiritual energy could still be seen flowing within it.

The perception of the Earth Vein Spirit Pivot penetrated the stone gate.

Behind the door was a sizable stone chamber with several diversion channels running in different directions connected in the center, and several large boxes placed against the walls around it.

This is an old flow chamber, a pivotal node used to monitor and regulate the flow of spiritual energy.

Li Yuan stepped forward, and five lines of divine sense shot out, instantly cutting into the array patterns on the stone gate.

In the past, facing a protective formation of this level, like the Xuan You Sect's, he might have needed to spend a lot of time deducing the nodes. But now, his entry-level third-tier formation skills allowed him to see through the underlying logic of this formation at a glance.

No brute-force attack was used. Spiritual energy, guided by the lines of divine consciousness, was precisely injected into the three pivotal nodes of the array.

A dull creaking sound of mechanical friction rang out.

The array patterns on the stone door flickered twice before fading completely. The heavy stone door slowly slid open to both sides, raising a cloud of dust that had lingered for years.

Li Yuan waved his hand to disperse the dust and stepped into the stone chamber.

The air inside the stone chamber was extremely stuffy. The drainage channels on the floor were completely dry, and the central control console was broken into several pieces.

His gaze shifted to the corner against the wall.

Five black storage boxes were neatly stacked there. The surface of the boxes was coated with a thick layer of spirit-sealing glue, a common method used by ancient cultivators to preserve supplies for a long time.

Li Yuan walked to the first box, his spiritual power transformed into a thin blade, and cut through the sealing glue on the surface, then opened the box lid.

A musty, rotten smell wafted over.

The box contained a batch of spiritual herbs. However, due to the passage of time and the development of tiny cracks in the sealing glue over the years, the spiritual essence had long since dissipated. The entire box of herbs had turned into a pool of blackened sludge, utterly worthless.

He shook his head and walked toward the second box.

Upon opening, it contained some unfinished low-level magical artifacts, most of which were rusted to the point of resembling scrap iron and crumbled into rusty slag with the slightest touch.

The third and fourth boxes were in the same bad state. The pills and talismans inside couldn't withstand the erosion of hundreds of years and had become useless junk.

Only one box remained.

This box was smaller than the other four, but its material was completely different. The box was neither gold nor wood, and its surface had faint runes shimmering. The sealing glue was also twice as thick.

Li Yuan carefully cut open the seal and lifted the lid of the box.

The inside of the box was divided into several small compartments. Most of the compartments were empty or contained some weathered powder.

But in the far left corner, a jade box lay quietly.

The jade box was extremely well preserved, and the layer of isolation barrier on its surface was still functioning.

With a light tap of his fingertip, Li Yuan dispelled the restriction on the jade box and opened it.

The box was lined with a layer of soft spiritual cloud brocade, and in the center of the brocade lay a talisman.

The talisman paper has a deep, dark gold color, and its texture is not like paper at all, but rather more like a thin sheet of metal. The array patterns on the surface of the talisman are extremely complex, with dense lines intertwined to form a pattern that resembles a miniature maze.

Although no spiritual energy fluctuations were emitted, Li Yuan felt a slight stagnation in his divine sense simply by focusing his gaze on the array patterns.

A high-level talisman. And a top-grade one specifically designed for spiritual sense.

Li Yuan held the talisman in his hand and examined it carefully.

On the edge of the talisman, three ancient seal characters were written in extremely fine strokes: Gu Shen Fu (固神符).

This is a high-end product from the Xuanyou Sect at its peak. Judging from the materials and the fineness of the array patterns, its quality is extremely high, far exceeding any second-tier talisman he has ever seen, and may even have reached the threshold of the third tier.

Unfortunately, after hundreds of years, the spiritual power contained within this talisman has completely dissipated. The array patterns that should have been radiant with spiritual light are now lifeless, like an empty shell without a soul.

Without spiritual power, this talisman cannot be activated and therefore cannot be used directly.

Li Yuan was not disappointed.

Although it cannot be used directly, this perfectly preserved Divine Protection Talisman is priceless in itself. As long as the rune structure remains intact, he can deduce its creation method through repeated observation and study. When his strength increases in the future, he can completely recreate it himself.

Moreover, the system's criteria for determining whether an item is active sometimes do not require the item to be active.

He put the talisman back into the jade box, then carefully stored it deep inside his storage bag, intending to study it more thoroughly upon returning to the market.

After thoroughly searching the stone chamber and confirming that nothing had been missed, Li Yuan turned and left the diversion stone chamber.

The gains from this underground exploration have been substantial. Not only have we uncovered part of the outline of the Xuan You Sect's underground system, but we have also obtained a physical copy of a high-level talisman.

It's time to return to Earth.

Li Yuan returned the way he came, walked along the abandoned miners' tunnel for a while, and then used earth-遁术 (earth-遁术 is a type of magic that allows one to escape into the ground) to ascend upwards.

As you pass through the thick rock layers, the surrounding pressure gradually decreases.

A moment later, he emerged from the ground.

The landscape remained the same desolate, gray-white wasteland. The sky was overcast, and a cold wind swirled across the ground, carrying with it sand and gravel.

Li Yuan determined the direction and prepared to walk towards the underground stone chamber where the teleportation array was located.

Just then, he paused slightly, even though he was completely hidden.

With his dual perception network of Dark Fiend Insight and Spirit Vein Affinity, he detected several extremely faint fluctuations of spiritual energy at the edge of the wasteland, about two miles away.

someone.

In this barren wasteland where spiritual energy is almost depleted and it is considered a dead zone, there are actually other cultivators active.

Without any hesitation, Li Yuan's figure blurred, instantly blending into the surrounding gray background. His stealth ability completely erased his aura and tracks; like an invisible wind, he silently moved towards the direction of the spiritual energy fluctuations.

Behind a severely weathered rocky hill, Li Yuan stopped and peered out.

Four people were standing in a low-lying area not far ahead.

Three are at the late stage of Qi Refining, and one is at the early stage of Foundation Establishment.

The four men were dressed in extremely strange attire. They wore identical Taoist robes, grayish-white in color, with intricate cloud patterns faintly visible on the cuffs and collars. However, these robes were so worn that they were covered in patches, with signs of mending everywhere, and in some places even patched with animal hides.

All four men had pale faces, as if they hadn't seen the sun for a long time, and were thin, but their eyes were as wary as those of wild beasts.

They were digging around a half-buried stone pillar in the sand, using their pickaxes and shovels to dig something.

The early Foundation Establishment cultivator stood guard to the side, a rusty longsword in his hand. His spiritual energy fluctuations were extremely unstable, clearly due to his long-term exposure to an environment lacking spiritual energy, resulting in his extremely unstable cultivation.

"Hurry up," the early Foundation Establishment cultivator urged in a low voice. "Although this spirit-gathering pillar is ruined, there might still be some lingering spiritual marrow residue in its base. If we dig it out, it'll be enough for our group for half a month."

"Boss, this place is too remote. What if we encounter an Abyss Beast?" A Qi Refining cultivator who was digging wiped the sweat from his forehead, his voice trembling slightly.

"What are you afraid of!" the Foundation Establishment cultivator snapped in a low voice. "We, the remnants of the Xuan You sect, have eked out a living underground for hundreds of years. What haven't we seen? If we can't find the spiritual marrow, going back is just waiting to die. Hurry up and dig!"

The remnants of the Xuanyou people.

Li Yuan, hiding in the shadows, keenly caught the word.

He observed the four men's clothing and demeanor: their uniform, worn-out Taoist robes, their familiarity with the underground environment, and their livelihood based on mining the remaining resources of abandoned mines.

This is an underground tribe of survivors who survived and multiplied after the destruction of the Xuanyou Sect.

Instead of fleeing Mexico, they chose to hide in the bottomless underground ruins, where they survived generation after generation by relying on abandoned resources.

Li Yuan stood quietly behind the rocky hill, without making a sound to disturb them.

These four people posed no threat to him, but their presence was an extremely valuable source of information. These survivors, who had lived in the underground ruins for many years, were far more familiar with this area than any outsider.

The Dark Abyss Society will soon arrive in Mozhou in search of treasure.

Li Yuan watched as the four men painstakingly pried out several tiny, luminous crystals, each the size of a fingernail, from under the base of the stone pillar. They quickly wrapped them in a rag, glanced around warily, and then turned and walked toward a hidden ravine deep in the wasteland.

He didn't show himself, but silently followed behind them.

Li Yuan concealed his presence the entire way, staying far behind the four Xuan You survivors.

The four of them proceeded with extreme caution, circling several times across the gloomy, rocky wasteland. Only after confirming that no one was following them did they slip into an inconspicuous crevice in the ground.

Li Yuan stopped a hundred feet outside the crack.

The Earth Vein Spirit Pivot's perception probed into the ground, extending downwards along the fissure. Deep within the fissure lay a vast natural cave system, which had been artificially excavated and reinforced, and within it, hundreds of faint spiritual energy fluctuations gathered.

This is a fairly large underground settlement.

Li Yuan noted down the precise coordinates of the settlement's entrance, but did not venture further in and alert the enemy.

After a spatial distortion, Li Yuan returned to Wulin Market.

Inside the stone house, the doors and windows were tightly closed, and the soundproofing array was activated.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged in front of the desk and placed the Spirit-Stabilizing Talisman, which he had brought back from the Diversion Stone Chamber in Mozhou, flat on the table.

The talisman paper was dark gold, and the array patterns were as intricate as a miniature maze. Although the spiritual energy had completely dissipated, turning it into a useless talisman, it was still the culmination of the Xuan You Sect's high-end talisman-making techniques during its heyday.

In the equipment slot, the Mystic Pearl (blue) is currently equipped.

Li Yuan closed his eyes, his mind stirred slightly, and he actively immersed his mind in the "Golden Core Perspective" brought by the Mysterious Nether Pearl.

The world before our eyes has once again undergone a dimensional leap.

The talisman on the table was no longer a flat piece of paper in his vision, but a sophisticated magic array composed of countless tiny spiritual energy nodes and three-dimensional folded channels.

Even though the spiritual energy of the talisman itself had dried up, the array patterns etched deep within the talisman paper were still clearly visible from this high-dimensional perspective. The subtle logic of spiritual energy flow, invisible to the naked eye, and the spatial resonance frequencies between nodes were displayed before Li Yuan without reservation.

He took out an ordinary talisman pen, dipped it in some cheap spirit ink, and picked up a stack of blank second-tier talisman paper.

The goal is not to produce a finished product, but to dissect the logic.

Li Yuan stared intently at the microscopic, three-dimensional array pattern structure from the perspective of a Golden Core cultivator. Holding a pen in his right hand, he began to attempt to replicate the most crucial set of defensive nodes on a blank talisman paper.

The moment the first stroke was made and spiritual energy was infused, the talisman exploded into a cloud of ashes.

The accuracy is insufficient.

The Divine Stabilizing Talisman is a high-level talisman. The density of its array patterns and the stability requirements for spiritual energy output far exceed the limits of a second-tier talisman. On a second-tier talisman, even the slightest deviation in the thickness of the spiritual energy output will cause the array patterns to repel each other.

Li Yuan's expression remained unchanged as five lines of divine sense emerged from between his eyebrows and wrapped around his right hand, which was holding the pen.

The second talisman paper is used for writing.

The divine sense forcefully calibrated every tremor of the muscles, raising the precision of spiritual power output to a whole new level.

The tip of the brush moved across the talisman paper, outlining three intersecting arcs.

"Sizzle—"

A wisp of green smoke rose from the surface of the talisman, the spiritual ink turned black, and it was ruined once again.

The folding angle of the spiritual energy node was off by two degrees.

carry on.

The third one, the fifth one, the tenth one...

The ashes of discarded talisman paper piled up into a small mountain on the corner of the table.

For four whole hours, Li Yuan was completely immersed in the three-dimensional disassembly brought about by the Golden Core perspective.

When he had finished drawing the seventy-second talisman, Li Yuan suddenly stopped, and the tip of his pen steadily placed the last dot in the center of the talisman.

The light flickered for a moment on the rough array patterns, barely maintaining a weak cycle without exploding.

Li Yuan's eyes lit up.

The panel popped up abruptly.

[Equipable item detected: Divine Protection Charm (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Divine Sense Barrier (Green)]

[Effect: Increases spiritual defense strength by 40%]

[Preview of conditions for permanentization: Second-tier Divine Soul Cultivation Technique reaches perfection (met)]

The condition for permanentization is the completion of the second-tier Divine Soul Cultivation Technique.

Without the slightest hesitation, Li Yuan placed the Divine Protection Talisman from the table into the empty equipment slot.

"equipment."

[Equipped: Divine Protection Charm (Complete)]

[Divine Sense Barrier (Green) in effect]

[Divine Consciousness Barrier (Green) has become a permanent entry]

In the equipment slot, the dark golden talisman phantom flickered for a moment, then instantly shattered into countless points of light and disappeared, freeing up the slot.

[System notification: Same source and type of terms detected, meeting the fusion conditions]

[Divine Sense Condensation (Green) + Divine Sense Barrier (Green) begins to merge]

Divine Sense Condensation focuses on the gathering and attacking of divine sense; Divine Sense Barrier focuses on defending against divine sense attacks. One is offensive, the other defensive; both belong to the green category of the Divine Sense system, and at this moment they resonated perfectly.

Within the sea of ​​consciousness, the previously scattered spiritual energy began to collapse and reorganize wildly. The surface of those five resilient spiritual lines was rapidly covered with a layer of metallic luster that resembled a tangible substance.

[Integration Complete]

[New entry acquired: Divine Soul Iron Wall (Blue)]

[Effects: Increases the speed of spiritual energy gathering by 30%; spiritual energy attack and defense inflicts a stun effect (duration extended); spiritual energy defense strength is increased by 50%; the sea of ​​spiritual energy has a built-in passive shield that can automatically withstand one spiritual energy attack.]

Blue entries.

Li Yuan closed his eyes and quietly felt the upheaval in his sea of ​​consciousness.

The speed at which divine sense condenses is faster than before; the threads of divine sense can now be taut like steel wires with just a thought. And the most crucial change lies in the outer perimeter of the sea of ​​divine sense.

An invisible, transparent, yet indestructible shield tightly enveloped the entire sea of ​​consciousness.

He tried to thrust a line of divine consciousness fiercely into the shield.

"Buzz—"

The shield surface rippled only slightly, and the enormous recoil force directly repelled the divine sense lines, while the sea of ​​consciousness did not feel any tremor.

Automatically defends against a sudden attack of divine consciousness.

This means that in the future, when facing insidious spiritual attacks from cultivators of the same or even higher levels, he will have a margin of absolute immunity. Combined with a 50% increase in defensive strength, his soul defense has reached an extremely terrifying level.

A blue-tier Divine Soul attribute that combines offense and defense.

Li Yuan slowly opened his eyes and cleaned up the ashes of the talisman paper on the table.

With the Iron Wall of Divine Soul and the ability to remain hidden without a trace, he had more confidence in the ensuing chaos in the Ghost Mist Forest.