Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Three days later, Li Yuan arrived in Mozhou with the first batch of supplies via the teleportation array.

Two hundred spirit stones, thirty bottles of second-tier pills, and a quantity of array repair materials. The quantity wasn't large, but for the survivors who had long suffered from resource scarcity, it was an extremely generous supply.

Old Shen personally received the supplies at the entrance of the crevice. After taking inventory, he didn't say anything more and turned to wave towards the depths of the cave.

A man in his early thirties emerged from behind. He was lean and wiry, with sharp features, bright eyes, and skin that was pale from years of lack of sunlight. He possessed the cultivation level of the mid-Foundation Establishment stage. Although his spiritual energy fluctuations weren't abundant, they were extremely refined, indicating a very solid foundation.

"This is Acheng, the person in our generation who knows the underground passage best," Old Shen introduced.

Acheng nodded to Li Yuan, and without exchanging pleasantries, took out a rope wrapped with shimmering spiritual silk from his waist.

"Stay close to me. Some places are so narrow that two people can't walk side by side."

The two followed the entrance of the crack downwards, passed through a group of caves inhabited by the remnants of the ancient people, and entered a deeper natural passage.

The path gradually changed from vertical to sloping, and the humidity in the air increased. After walking for about half an hour, the sound of flowing water came from ahead.

It's not a drop of water, it's an underground river.

The passage led to an underground river. The river was about four zhang wide, its water was pitch black, and the current was slow, but occasionally one or two bubbles would rise to the surface, emitting a faint, chilly aura.

Li Yuan crouched down and extended a wisp of spiritual energy to touch the water's surface.

The water contains trace amounts of demonic energy. The concentration is extremely low, insufficient to have any effect on cultivators, but it indicates that the source of this underground river is connected to an area rich in demonic energy.

"We call this river the Blackwater River." Acheng walked forward along the narrow path on the riverbank.

The two walked along the river. Scattered on the rock walls on both sides of the river were the remains of abandoned facilities: rusted metal supports, broken conduits for guiding spirits, and several fragments of array plates embedded in the rock walls.

The style of these facilities was exactly the same as what Li Yuan had seen in the diversion system before; they were all products of the Xuan You Sect era. However, the damage was extremely severe, with most of them completely destroyed by the erosion of time and the underground river, leaving only their skeletons.

Acheng was already used to these wrecks and led the way without looking back.

After walking for about an hour, the sound of water ahead suddenly became louder.

The passage suddenly opens up, forming a huge underground cavity. The dome is over twenty feet high, and the Blackwater River converges at the end of the cavity to form a wide waterfall, cascading down from the top of an almost vertical rock wall.

Blackwater Waterfall.

The water volume isn't very large, but because of the river's dark color, the waterfall looks like a stream of ink being poured from a height, splashing up a large cloud of dark mist as it hits the pool at the bottom.

"We're here." Acheng stopped and pointed to the rock wall behind the waterfall. "There's a cave behind the waterfall that leads deeper. Our people have only gone this far; beyond that is a restricted area, and we can't go in."

Li Yuan used his divine sense to penetrate the waterfall's water curtain and probe behind him.

There was indeed a semi-circular opening in the rock wall behind the waterfall, about two zhang high and three zhang wide. The inside of the opening was covered with an extremely thick restriction, the aura of which was ancient and profound, and the complexity of the array patterns far exceeded any he had seen before in the guiding stone chamber and the core stone cave of the demonic energy alchemy platform.

Li Yuan poured all his spiritual sense, which was at the Golden Core stage, into the barrier, attempting to penetrate the restriction layer and explore its internal structure.

After advancing about an inch, the divine sense was completely blocked by an indestructible barrier.

A restriction formation at least at the mid-stage of the third tier.

With his current level of mastery in formations at the third-tier beginner level, he couldn't even analyze the underlying logic of this restriction, let alone break it.

But the ban is not monolithic.

Li Yuan shifted his attention away from the core restriction and instead scanned the rock wall structure around the cave entrance.

The main restriction covers the cave entrance itself. However, on the rock walls on both sides of the entrance, there are several auxiliary small array nodes. The function of these nodes is to provide energy support and structural stability for the main restriction. Their grade is one level lower than the main restriction, approximately between the upper second tier and the lower third tier.

One of the nodes connects to a side chamber on the right side of the entrance. The entrance to the side chamber is sealed by a separate second-order restriction, which is in parallel with the main restriction rather than in series.

Breaking the restrictions on the side chamber will not affect the operation of the main restrictions.

Li Yuan passed through the waterfall's curtain of water and arrived at the right side of the cave entrance. A-Cheng did not follow; he stood outside the waterfall waiting.

Divine sense probed into the side chamber's restrictions.

The second-tier superior level was no longer a real obstacle for him, who was only at the third-tier entry level. His divine sense lines, like a precise scalpel, peeled away layer by layer along the veins of the array. Compared to the difficulty he faced when breaking through the three nested layers in the core stone cave of the Demonic Qi Pill Platform, this process was much smoother.

In less than half an incense stick's time, the restriction collapsed.

The entrance to the side room was revealed. It was a narrow gap, just wide enough for one person to pass through sideways.

Li Yuan squeezed in from the side.

The side room was small, about two zhang square. The air was dry, without the damp smell of the underground river. The floor was covered with a layer of weathered fragments of Lingyun brocade, and in the center was a stone desk with a scroll of bamboo slips and a jade box on it.

Li Yuan first picked up the bamboo slips.

Attention all die-hard fans of the writing prodigy! The latest chapter of "Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes" has been released!

The bamboo slips are made of a kind of sacred wood and are well preserved, with the writing on the surface still clear.

He unfolded the bamboo slips and read them line by line.

This is a method. To be precise, it is an extremely unorthodox secret technique for aiding in weapon crafting.

The core of the method can be summarized in one sentence: using the Golden Elixir as a guide to temper one's natal magic weapon, which can greatly improve the quality of the magic weapon.

The specific procedure involves separating a complete golden elixir from the body and using a special technique to extract the essence, qi, and spirit contained within it, then infusing them into the core structure of the natal magic weapon. During this process, the golden elixir is completely consumed and vanishes into nothingness.

The latter half of the method elaborates on the principles and steps of operation. The quality of the Golden Elixir is not the decisive factor; the truly crucial element is the degree of condensation of the three elements—essence, qi, and spirit—within the Golden Elixir. The more condensed these three elements are, the purer the energy infused into the magical artifact, and the greater the enhancement of the artifact.

At the end of the bamboo slip was a note, the handwriting of which differed from the main text, clearly added by later generations.

The annotation only had four words: theoretically feasible.

Li Yuan put the bamboo slips back on the stone table and picked up the jade box next to him.

The jade box was opened, revealing a jade plaque the size of a palm. The plaque was completely transparent, with faintly visible flowing spiritual patterns inside.

The moment the finger touched the jade plaque, the panel popped up.

[Equipable item detected: Dan Yuan Jade Token (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Core Formation Separated from Body (Blue)]

[Effect: Increases cultivation speed by 50% during the Golden Core stage; the Golden Core can leave the body; while outside the body, it can still maintain a connection with the physical body and soul]

[Preview of conditions for permanentization: Cultivation level reaches the mid-stage of Golden Core or has used a Golden Core to forge a magic weapon]

Blue entries.

Three effects. A 50% increase in cultivation speed is already quite remarkable, but what truly caught Li Yuan's attention were the latter two.

The golden elixir can leave the body.

Even when out of the body, it can still maintain a connection with the physical body and the soul.

This means he can remove the golden core from his body and operate on it externally without causing his cultivation to collapse or his dantian to be damaged.

This is precisely the prerequisite for that method.

Normal cultivators would never use their own golden core to forge magical artifacts. The golden core is the core of cultivation; removing it means losing all cultivation, and the dantian will suffer a severe backlash due to the sudden disappearance of the golden core.

However, the term "Dan Yuan leaving the body" completely solved this problem.

Even after the golden elixir leaves the body, it remains connected to the physical body and the soul. In other words, the process of retrieving the golden elixir is controllable and safe.

Furthermore, the demonic golden core within his body was not the final form, but rather a transitional product paving the way for the core to shatter and reform.

After shattering the demonic golden core, try again to see if you can use that method to infuse the golden core into the embryonic form of your natal magic weapon, greatly improving the weapon's quality. Then, use spiritual power to re-form the golden core and attempt to reach the highest grade.

He left the side room, resealed the barrier as before, and returned to A-Cheng's side through the waterfall's curtain of water.

"Let's go."

Acheng didn't ask any more questions and led him back the way they came.

They returned to Liangzhou the following evening.

As soon as Li Yuan entered the market gate, Ji Wenchuan came to greet him, his face showing some urgency.

"Master, news has come from the outpost. The array masters of Tianyue Sect and the people of Yuanyang Sect have discovered a stone gate underground in Ghost Mist Forest. It is said to be extremely large, and the array patterns on the gate are related to Xuanyou Sect."

The main entrance to the Xuanyou Branch Hall; the one I entered earlier was through a side entrance.

Li Yuan's expression remained unchanged as he asked, "When did you discover it?"

"Yesterday morning, a late-stage Foundation Establishment array master from the Tianyue Sect, escorted by an exploration team, ventured seventy feet underground and discovered a giant stone door embedded in the rock wall. The door is covered with multiple layers of restrictions, which have not yet been broken."

What do outposts need markets for?

"Supplies," Ji Wenchuan replied. "The demand for array repair materials and high-quality spirit stones has doubled again. In addition, Elder Chen Yi asked me to tell the shop owner that he hopes the shop owner will personally deliver them; he has something to say to him in person."

Li Yuan nodded.

"We'll set off first thing tomorrow morning. All supplies will be ready tonight."

The next morning, Li Yuan arrived at the outpost with a storage bag full of supplies.

During the handover of supplies, he secretly scanned the area where the stone gate was located using his Golden Core stage perception.

Its senses penetrated the ground and dozens of feet of rock, pinpointing the exact location of the stone door.

The stone gate was about five zhang high and three zhang wide, and was made entirely of an extremely hard, dark blue stone. The surface of the gate was densely engraved with array patterns in the style of the Xuan You Sect. The complexity of the array patterns was on the same level as the entrance restriction of the Shenyuan Secret Cave that he had seen in the Youming River Valley, but on a larger scale.

This is the outer main gate of the Xuanyou Branch Hall.

The core area is even deeper. There is another array surrounding the place where the jade bead is located. Although Li Yuan failed to break the array last time, he remembered its general structure.

The array masters of Tianyue Sect are currently still working on the first level of the stone gate. Based on his skill as a third-tier array master, Li Yuan estimates that it will take at least twenty more days to completely break all the restrictions.

Li Yuan withdrew his senses and handed the last box of spirit stones to the waiting steward.