Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

During the battle, the three rogue cultivators in front stopped and turned to look at this side.

Seeing that the battle was over, the leader of the rogue cultivators came over.

He was in his thirties, not short, with a rugged face and a slightly crooked nose, as if it had been broken and not properly set.

He walked up to He Shou, cupped his hands in greeting, and spoke with obvious gratitude, but his words were very direct.

"Thank you all for saving us, otherwise the three of us would probably be dead here today."

"Of course." He Shou wiped the blood from his knife. "How did you run into the Crow Claw Gang?"

The rogue cultivator gave a wry smile.

"The three of us came from the south, heading to Qinghefang Market to resupply. We ran into these four people on the way."

"We couldn't win, so we had to run. Old Zhou was injured and couldn't run fast. If you hadn't arrived in time..."

The rogue cultivator paused here, then cupped his hands in a respectful gesture.

He Shou nodded and did not ask any further questions.

It took some time to clean up the battlefield, and all the belongings of the three cultivators were searched.

The three of them together found dozens of spirit stones and several bottles of pills. He Shou identified some of them as common pills, and others as pills he had never seen before.

There are several ritual implements, including the narrow-bladed short sword of the leader.

There were no storage bags, so these people were clearly not wealthy cultivators.

There were some odds and ends. A few talismans, two bottles of healing medicine, a small bag of ore scraps, a roll of rope, and some other miscellaneous items.

Li Yuan squatted on the ground, turning each item over with his fingers.

He reached for a small cloth bag, wrapped in oiled paper, and it was bulging.

Li Yuan unwrapped the oil paper, inside which were several pieces of broken ore and a jade pendant.

The jade pendant is about half the size of a palm, with a plain design, grayish-white color, and some wear on the surface.

The appearance reminded Li Yuan of Zhao Wu's jade pendant from before; the style was the same, and even the details were very similar to that one.

The panel popped up the moment the finger touched it.

[Equipable item detected: Concealing Breath Jade Pendant (Complete)]

[Entry Preview: Aura Concealment (Green) - Passively reduces the fluctuation of one's aura, lowering the probability of being detected. It has a significant concealing effect on perception methods of the same or lower rank, and some interference with higher-rank perception methods.]

[Preview of Permanent Status Conditions: Successfully conceal one detection attempt from a cultivator one level higher while in a state of aura concealment]

green.

Li Yuan's fingers paused on the jade pendant for a moment, his expression unchanged.

Conceal your aura. Passively suppresses aura fluctuations, reducing the probability of being detected.

Li Yuan discreetly gathered the jade pendant in his palm and put it back into his cloth bag along with the broken ore.

He Shou walked over and gathered all the items that had been found into one place.

The leader of the three rogue cultivators also came over, his gaze sweeping over the pile of spoils on the ground.

"Brother."

The rogue cultivator rubbed his hands together, carefully choosing his words, "The things on these Tribulation Cultivators...we also consumed their spiritual power earlier..."

He Shou looked up at him, then at Li Yuan. Seeing Li Yuan nod, he spoke.

"You are the victims, so it's only right that you get a share."

"Thank you, brother. We'll just take some spirit stones and healing pills."

He Shou squatted down and roughly divided the spoils of war.

Li Yuan took the jade pendant out of his cloth bag and placed it in front of him.

"I want this one."

He Shou glanced at it. It was a grayish-white jade pendant, of ordinary design, with a worn surface.

"OK."

He Shou took it and examined it for a while, then nodded, and the others had no objections.

Li Yuan tucked the jade pendant into his sleeve, his fingers gently stroking the edge of the pendant at the cuff.

Li Yuan tried all the remaining materials and items, but none of them had any entries. So Li Yuan only wanted spirit stones. Since Li Yuan had contributed the most, he got a total of forty-eight spirit stones, which accounted for almost all of them.

The rogue cultivators helped the wounded and left first, heading towards the market.

He Shou led the four men to continue patrolling along the route, but their pace was noticeably faster, as they had been delayed by the robbery that day.

The remaining part of the patrol route was conducted quietly.

There were no abnormalities within the detection range of the Spirit Detection Compass, except for the occasional faint fluctuation of a mortal beast.

As evening fell, the five returned to their post.

Back at their post in the evening, the group dispersed.

Li Yuan returned to the room, closed the door, and sat down on the edge of the bed.

He took out the jade pendant that concealed his breath from his sleeve, placed it on his lap, and examined it for a while.

The jade was grayish-white with rounded edges and shallow patterns, almost identical in style to Zhao Wu's piece.

Zhao Wu's jade pendant, blue entry.

This one has a green label.

The two jade pendants appeared in the hands of different people: one was on Zhao Wu, who was spying on the market's defenses, and the other was in the arms of the Crow Claw Gang's robber.

The possibility of it being a coincidence is unlikely.

Li Yuan carefully put away the jade pendant. Without equipment, the Concealing Qi attribute was not very useful at the moment, and the conditions for making it permanent were quite demanding. As a Qi cultivator, he needed to conceal himself from detection by Foundation Establishment cultivators.

At that moment, the door was knocked twice.

Li Yuan got up and unlatched the door. He Shou stood outside, holding a cloth bag the size of a palm.

"Deputy Captain Li, say a few words."

"Come in and speak."

He Shou slipped into the room, closed the door behind him, and instead of sitting down, leaned against the wall and placed the cloth bag on the table.

"The leader of the robbers today is someone on the Crow Claw Gang's wanted list."

Li Yuan nodded, waiting for him to continue.

He Shou didn't beat around the bush.

"Killing a cultivator who has undergone tribulation is considered a merit, and it will be recorded by the higher-ups. But since you are not part of the guard team, you can only receive contribution points and spirit stones as rewards, and you won't be promoted."

He Shou tapped the table twice with his knuckles.

"I'm the vice-captain, just one step away from becoming captain. If I were credited for the leader's achievements, I might be able to take that step."

Li Yuan looked at He Shou but did not reply.

He Shou pushed the cloth bag on the table over.

"Open it and take a look."

Li Yuan unwrapped the cloth bag, inside which was a magical artifact.

A copper tube, half a foot long, narrows at both ends. The tube is engraved with dense spiritual patterns, and a fire crystal the size of a mung bean is inlaid in the middle. The whole thing is dark red and feels slightly hot when held in the hand.

The panel pops up the moment a finger touches it.

[Equipable item detected: Flame Serpent Tube (Complete)]

[Entry Preview: Precision (White) - Improves the accuracy of ranged spells and ranged artifact attacks, and accelerates the increase in proficiency for ranged spells]

[Preview of Permanentization Conditions: Hit the target and deal damage 100 times using ranged means (0/100)]

[Current equipment slot is full (2/2). Replace current equipment?]

White entry. Precision—Improves accuracy and accelerates the increase in proficiency.

"I got this from a rogue cultivator when I was hunting demons in the mountains, but I've never used it."

"It can be infused with magic power to launch swift and rapid fire-type spiritual energy projectiles."

He Shou's voice was calm and unhurried, his tone composed.

"Give me the credit, and you can have the magic weapon. What do you think?"

Li Yuan flipped the copper tube over, but did not answer immediately.

The merit of killing the wanted robber was indeed significant, but what He Shou said was also true—he was not part of the guard team and could not qualify for promotion. No matter how great his merit was, it could only be converted into contribution points and spirit stones.

Contribution points and spirit stones can be earned through other channels, but magical artifacts with special attributes are rare.

"OK."

Li Yuan put the Flame Serpent Tube into his sleeve.

He Shou's expression relaxed, and he cupped his hands in a gesture of respect.

"Great. I'll write the report when we get back; you don't need to worry about it."

He Shou turned and walked out. After closing the door, his footsteps faded into the distance.

Li Yuan sat back on the edge of the bed, took the Flame Serpent Tube out of his sleeve, and flipped it over in his palm.

The copper tube felt slightly heavy in my hand, and the spirit patterns on it were faintly warm to the touch. The workmanship wasn't particularly refined, but the structure was solid, and the fire crystal was firmly inlaid. It didn't seem like something that would fall apart.

The white label indicates accuracy. The condition for permanent activation is hitting the target and dealing damage one hundred times.

Encountering monsters during patrols is quite frequent, so accumulating hit counts isn't difficult.

But my equipment inventory is full; I'll equip it when I need it.

Li Yuan put away the Flame Serpent Tube, sat cross-legged, and began to circulate the Spirit Guiding Technique.

Spiritual energy surged in from all directions, becoming pure and unadulterated after being filtered through it, circulating rapidly throughout the body. The effect of condensing spiritual power continued, making each wisp of spiritual energy more solid as it entered the dantian.

The spiritual energy in his dantian was already quite abundant.

After this period of accumulation, I am very close to the threshold of the fifth level of Qi Refining. The total amount of spiritual power has approached the upper limit of the fourth level of Qi Refining. The depths of my dantian are like a pool filled with water. Any spiritual power that is poured in will only circulate once in the meridians and then have nowhere to go.

But unlike when I was at the peak of the third level of Qi Refining, this time I didn't feel that stuffy feeling.

The spiritual energy filter removes impurities completely, resulting in pure spiritual energy.

In addition, the effect of spiritual energy condensation—the spiritual energy density is already higher than that of the same level, and the equivalent capacity of the dantian increases by 30%—means that even though they are both at the peak of the fourth level of Qi Refining, the spiritual energy in Li Yuan's dantian is much thicker than that of ordinary cultivators.

At the same time, the accelerated effect of the Zhou Tian Acceleration also speeds up the cultivation process.

It's just that one last bit that's missing.