Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

If you could only read one fantasy novel in your life, it would probably be "Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes".

Li Yuan sat cross-legged in the teleportation array chamber, maintaining the passive perception network of Dark Fiend Insight at its maximum range, locking onto the five moving aura signals in the flow guidance system.

The Dark Abyss Society's team was advancing slowly. The channeling system was intricate and complex, with numerous branching paths. They were clearly unfamiliar with its internal structure, stopping at each fork to determine their direction. The late-stage Foundation Establishment demonic cultivator leading the team would occasionally release a probe-like pulse of demonic energy, using the echo to determine the direction of the passage.

Li Yuan followed for about two hours.

During this time, the team lingered for an extended period at a wide fork in the road. The team leader gathered the four mid-Foundation Establishment cultivators around him and communicated with them using telepathic communication.

Telepathic transmission is nearly impossible to intercept among cultivators of the same level. However, Li Yuan was at the early stage of the Golden Core realm, and his Dark Fiend Insight had doubled the accuracy of detecting demonic energy fluctuations. Although the content of the telepathic transmission had been compressed and encrypted, most of the information was restored word by word under the brute force of a Golden Core-level divine sense.

The first paragraph is the team leader's address to the squad.

"They said the item this time is extremely important. They didn't tell me exactly what it is, but their exact words were, 'If the treasure retrieval fails, a Golden Core cultivator will be dispatched personally.' You should weigh the weight of this matter yourselves."

The fact that a Golden Core cultivator was willing to risk entering such a remote and deadly place as Mo Zhou indicates that the value of the Demonic Qi Pill Platform core has reached the top level in their assessment.

The second paragraph describes the team leader explaining the pick-up arrangements to a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator.

"After you get back, take the northern route. Use this code to meet at the third checkpoint." The leader handed over a jade slip. "The code changes every seven days, and the new code for the next round is inside. Remember it and then destroy it."

Secret code for meeting.

The third paragraph is a discussion about supply routes.

"The supplies for the northern route come from the outer edge of Ghost Mist Forest, passing through three transfer points along the way." The leader drew a rough route on the ground with demonic energy. "This is the safest route back, as our people are everywhere along the way."

Li Yuan memorized the three pieces of intelligence one by one, without missing a single word.

The coded rendezvous and the map of the northern supply route are extremely valuable. The former can be used to infiltrate the Dark Abyss Society's communication network by disguising identities, while the latter directly exposes their logistical bottleneck on the outskirts of Ghost Mist Forest.

After resting briefly at the fork in the road, the team resumed their journey.

About an hour later, they finally found their target.

Li Yuan knew the location of that stone cave all too well. After he broke through the three layers of nested restrictions, he resealed it back to its original state, making it look exactly the same as it had hundreds of years ago.

The team leader stood in front of the cave and released a precise pulse of demonic energy for detection. The pulse bounced back upon touching the surface of the barrier, and the team leader cursed under his breath.

He turned to look at a short, mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator in the group, "You come here."

The short, mage stepped forward and took out a set of tools specifically designed for breaking restrictions from his storage bag: a metal probe, a guiding copper wire, and several black stone slabs engraved with special array patterns.

The process of breaking the seal was extremely slow. The short demonic cultivator's technique wasn't crude, but it was far inferior to Li Yuan's third-tier array mastery. It took him nearly half an hour to remove the first layer of the seal, and another incense stick's time to remove the second layer.

The third layer of destructive counterattack made him hesitate for a long time, but finally, urged by the team leader, he gritted his teeth and went for it, carefully peeling the array patterns off the stone wall.

"Click."

The entrance to the cave has been opened.

The five people filed in.

The interior of the stone cave was exactly the same as when Li Yuan left. It was a space about two zhang square, with a stone platform in the center and a black square box that was neither gold nor wood on the platform.

The team leader strode to the stone platform and yanked open the box.

empty.

There was nothing in the box.

The silence lasted for three breaths.

"How is this possible?" The leader's voice went from suppressed to furious. He flipped the empty box over and slammed it heavily on the stone platform. Then he squatted down to examine the bottom of the platform and turned to scan every corner of the cave.

There was nothing there.

"Someone beat me to it," the short demonic cultivator whispered. "The seal was broken and then resealed; their methods are far superior to mine."

The team leader's face was extremely grim. He clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking.

"Who could it be? The Yuan Yang Sect couldn't possibly know about this place. The Tian Yue Sect even less likely would."

No one can answer this question.

The team leader took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed his anger.

"Fall back and report. The higher-ups will make other arrangements once they find out. Let's go!"

The five people turned and walked out of the cave.

They didn't go out.

At the entrance to the stone cave, a gray spatial rift unfolded silently.

There were no fluctuations in spiritual energy, no leakage of aura, and not even the air in the cave was disturbed in the slightest. The leader, who was walking at the front, was still thinking about how to return and report when he had only taken half a step when the rift cut into the back of his neck and smoothly exited in front of his Adam's apple.

The Sky-Splitting Slash, driven by the spiritual power of the Golden Core stage, is so sharp it's almost unreasonable.

The protective magical light that spontaneously formed within the body couldn't even block it for a moment; it was like a fragile piece of paper, easily split in two.

Before they even realized they had made a move, their heads were already on the ground.

The headless corpse took two more steps forward, and then the blood from its neck cavity suddenly gushed onto the top of the cave, splashing the cave walls crimson.

It wasn't until this moment that the four people behind them truly realized what had happened.

As the leader's body fell, the second and third Sky-Splitting Slashes had already cut in from different angles. The moment Li Yuan's Shadowless Form dissipated, he appeared at the entrance of the stone cave. His right index and middle fingers were joined together, and in front of his fingertips, gray cracks appeared like wounds torn open by an invisible hand—quiet, precise, and deadly.

The protective artifact on the second demonic cultivator's chest had just begun to glow with a layer of bluish-black spiritual light when the crack pierced right through it. The artifact shattered instantly, fragments exploding along with flesh and blood from his chest. He was thrown backward by the sharp force of the impact, crashing into the stone wall with a thud. A bloody hole appeared in his chest, and his body slowly slid down the rock face, leaving a glaring trail of blood.

Riding on its remaining force, the sky-splitting slash flew towards the short cultivator.

The third demonic cultivator reacted even faster, almost instinctively raising his magical weapon to try and block.

But it was only slightly faster.

A gray fissure swept across his waist and abdomen, first slicing through the magical artifact, then through flesh and bone. His upper body remained in a blocking stance, but his lower body was frozen in place. A brief moment later, his upper body slid forward, his internal organs and blood splattering all over the ground. Even the edge of the stone platform was sheared off by the residual force of the blade, leaving a clean, mirror-like cut.

After the two blows, only two people remained in the cave.

The short, broken-the-barrier demonic cultivator was the first of the four to regain his senses. The instant the leader's head hit the ground, he had already placed a defensive talisman on his chest. A dark golden shield rose up with a roar, enveloping him entirely.

The Sky-Splitting Slash struck the shield.

With a crisp "crack," the entire shield instantly cracked, and in the next instant, it shattered into countless fragments of golden light. The short demonic cultivator was struck by the aftershocks, blood gushing from his mouth and nose, and a deep, bone-revealing wound was cut into half of his shoulder, but he ultimately survived.

Taking advantage of that brief respite, he turned and fled, stumbling and falling towards the passage outside the cave entrance.

However, the fifth demonic cultivator did not retreat.

The three people in front of him died almost in the blink of an eye. The stench of blood, the lingering sound of shattered magical artifacts, and the invisible pressure of the Golden Core level that tightened his soul completely drove his last bit of rationality into ferocity.

"Go to hell!"

He let out a low growl, and with a sudden flick of his right hand, a short, jet-black hammer appeared in his grasp. The hammerhead was covered in blood-red patterns, clearly a second-tier magic weapon specifically designed to break through protective spiritual energy. There wasn't much room to maneuver in the narrow stone cave, so he poured all his demonic energy into it. The hammerhead shone with a brilliant crimson light, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound, and slammed down almost face-to-face with Li Yuan's chest.

Li Yuan made no move.

Even the protective aura wasn't released outwards.

"Bang--!"

A dull, deafening roar exploded in the cave, sending dust cascading down the rock walls and sending boulders flying. The hammerhead struck Li Yuan slightly to the left of his chest, the unique corrosive and shockwave of demonic energy traveling through his robes, flesh, and bones, powerful enough to crush the chest of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

But the result caused the ferocity on the demonic cultivator's face to gradually freeze.

Li Yuan's robes were only slightly dented.

That's it.

Even more terrifying is that the recoil force rolls back along the hammer handle.

The demonic cultivator's tiger's mouth instantly split open, his entire right arm was numb from the shock, and his finger bones made a cracking sound as if they could not bear the weight.

Li Yuan glanced down at the black short hammer pressed against his chest, his eyes calm to the point of indifference.

The next moment, he reached out and grabbed the hammer handle, his five fingers suddenly exerting force.

Click.

The hammer handle was twisted and deformed on the spot.

The murderous glint in the demonic cultivator's eyes finally vanished, replaced by an almost speechless terror. He opened his mouth to shout, but only saw Li Yuan raise his left hand and press it down on the top of his head.

boom.

The demonic energy at the Golden Core level pressed down fiercely from his palm.

Before the demonic cultivator could even scream, his skull shattered under the palm of the hand, his neck broke, and his knees slammed into the ground. He was forced to his knees as if pressed down by an invisible boulder. A crack appeared in the ground, and his body went limp, his brains and blood slowly seeping out from the cracks in the rubble.

Only then did the panel prompt pop up in view.

[The condition for permanent Body Protection (Green) has been met: withstand a full-force attack from a Tier 2 magical artifact with bare hands without taking damage]

[Protective (Green) has become a permanent entry]

In the equipment slot, the phantom of the Serpent Scale Bracers trembled slightly, then shattered into specks of green light and dissipated, freeing up a regular equipment slot.

The short, forbidden demonic cultivator had only just reached the entrance of the cave.

He had escaped to the edge of the passage, just one step away from survival.

Li Yuan didn't even chase after him.

He simply raised his hand and pointed.

The Sky-Splitting Slash skimmed along the ground, catching up with the fleeing figure from behind. It slashed diagonally into the back of the head, passing through the brow bone, and emerging from the forehead with a puff of blood mist. The remaining force of the rift cut a smooth, foot-deep gash into the rock wall of the passage.

The short demonic cultivator fell forward, his face slamming heavily into the ground. His body slid forward half a zhang due to inertia before finally stopping outside the cave entrance, completely silent.

The cave fell silent.

All that remained was the smell of blood, fragments of shattered magical artifacts, and dust falling softly from the cave ceiling.

From the first cut to the last cut, it took no more than three breaths.

All five Foundation Establishment demonic cultivators were wiped out.

There was no entanglement, no stalemate, and no exchange of trump cards.

Below the Golden Core stage, numbers simply cannot bridge this gap in level.

The panel popped up again.

[Sky-Splitting Slash: Proficient (295/400) → Master (0/800)]

The breakthrough in proficiency came naturally. The spiritual power and divine sense of the Golden Core stage provide a comprehensive boost to spatial spells. Six consecutive high-precision Sky-Splitting Slashes in actual combat filled the last bit of accumulated power in one go.

Li Yuan withdrew his spiritual power and walked to the five corpses.

They removed the storage bags from the corpse one by one; there were five in total.

Inventory of the seized items.

Over four hundred mid-grade spirit stones were scattered across five storage bags. Several bottles of demonic pills, of varying quality. A batch of materials for repairing formations and breaking restrictions, including the short demonic cultivator's professional restriction-breaking tools. Two intelligence jade slips, covered with demonic energy seals.

And a bottle of pills encased in a series of restrictions.

Li Yuan held the jade bottle in his hand.

The material of the bottle, the style of the forbidden pattern, and even the color of the sealing wax were exactly the same as the batch of Qi-gathering Pills he had previously seized from the Valley of Dry Bones.

Produced in the same batch.

Last time, when I was in the Foundation Establishment stage, it took me almost an hour to break through this series of restrictions. The strength of my divine sense at the Golden Core stage made the process much easier. My divine sense was like a nimble drill, precisely cutting into the gaps in the restrictions' patterns.

In less than the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, the chain of restrictions silently collapsed.

The cork was pulled out, and the same dark gray astringent powder, the same earthy smell, was released.

Li Yuan put the pills into his storage bag, and then picked up the two intelligence jade slips.

The demonic seal was utterly useless against a Golden Core cultivator; it shattered with a mere flick of the wrist.

The first jade slip is a compilation of internal coded communication codes within the Dark Abyss Guild. Consistent with the information mentioned in the leader's telepathic message, it contains the code replacement rules for the current cycle and the next round.

The second jade slip is a hand-drawn route map. It is the complete version of the northern supply route, marking the detailed path from the core stronghold in the northern part of Ghost Mist Forest to the three outer transit stations, including the defensive configuration and personnel composition of each transit station.

Li Yuan copied the contents of the two jade slips onto his own blank jade slip, and then destroyed the originals.

The seizure has been processed.

He turned to look at the five corpses on the ground.

He flipped his right palm, and flames of both fire and evil energy erupted forth. The crimson flames, carrying dark gray evil energy, engulfed the five corpses along with the bloodstains on the ground. Within moments, the intense heat incinerated all organic matter, even grinding the ashes into fine powder.

Finally, Li Yuan used earth-遁术 (earth-遁术, a technique that allows one to escape into the earth) to bury the remaining scorch marks and ashes into the deep rocks, and then used spiritual power to reseal the entrance to the cave back to its original three-layered state.

From the outside, the stone cave looked exactly the same as it had hundreds of years ago. There were no signs of a struggle, no smell of blood, and he had even wiped away the spiritual energy fluctuations in the air.

Five people simply vanished from the world.

The Dark Abyss will know that the treasure hunt failed, but it will not know how the team died, where they died, or who killed them.

Li Yuan collected all the spoils, used earth-遁术 (earth-遁术 is a type of magic that allows one to escape from a stone cave), and returned towards the teleportation array.

The map of the northern supply route in the storage bag weighed much more than four hundred mid-grade spirit stones.

The location, defense configuration, and personnel of the three transit stations are enough information for him to cut off Dark Abyss's logistics line on the outskirts of Ghost Mist Forest when needed.