Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

As night deepened, the hustle and bustle of the Misty Forest Market gradually subsided.

The concealment array of the stone house was gently activated from the outside. Li Yuan opened his eyes and scanned the area outside the door with his divine sense.

It's Chen Yi.

Chen Yi opened the stone door and strode in, his face grave, without exchanging any pleasantries.

"Do you still have that illusion mask I gave you before?" Chen Yi sat down at the stone table and cut straight to the point.

What are your requirements?

Chen Yi didn't speak, but took out a dark red round bead from his storage bag and gently placed it on the stone table.

The bead was about the size of an egg, its surface covered with dark red flowing patterns, and its interior sealed with an extremely dense demonic energy. As soon as it was taken out, the temperature in the stone house seemed to drop a few degrees, and a pungent smell of blood filled the air.

"The Demonic Essence Pearl," Chen Yi explained in a deep voice.

"A high-level magical artifact developed by the sect. After breaking the outer seal, it can be carried on one's person to perfectly simulate the aura and spiritual energy fluctuations of a demonic cultivator for a period of time. In a very short time, it can even deceive the divine sense probing of a Golden Core cultivator."

He paused, his gaze fixed on the bead.

"But the cost is enormous. Demonic energy entering the body will cause continuous damage to the meridians, and the longer it is used, the more severe the damage will be. The sect's intention is to have you cooperate with Illusion Mask to infiltrate the Demonic Sect's liaison network on the western front of Liangzhou as a demonic cultivator and spy on their internal intelligence."

"The total reward is a Core Formation aid material; this is for the first mission."

Chen Yi added a sentence.

Materials used to aid in Core Formation are an irresistible temptation for any late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Li Yuan looked at the Demonic Yuan Bead on the stone table, and the perception of the terms within a three-foot radius was immediately triggered.

Blue entries.

"I'll take the mission." Li Yuan nodded.

Infiltrating the Demonic Sect's network, he didn't need to crush the Demonic Essence Pearl at all. His Illusionary Mask altered his appearance, the Dark Demon Token, combined with the Demonic Essence Technique, provided the purest demonic energy, and he had already mastered the continuous wave communication method. His entire disguise was seamless and far more effective than the Demonic Essence Pearl, which would harm the enemy a thousand while damaging himself eight hundred.

Chen Yi breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that he had accepted the money.

"The coordinates of the first infiltration target are here." Chen Yi handed over a jade slip. "Underground of an abandoned post station on the west side of Dry Bone Ridge. This is a mobile rendezvous point for the Demon Sect's western route. The sect confirmed its approximate location through previous decoy missions, but its internal structure and communication methods are completely unknown."

"Find out the contact method; it would be best if we could get the list."

"There's also information about demonic cultivators inside."

After giving his instructions, Chen Yi did not linger and got up to disappear into the night.

Li Yuan then reached out and picked up the Demonic Essence Pearl from the stone table.

The panel pops up the moment your fingertip touches it.

[Equipable item detected: Magic Orb (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Reshaping Adversity (Blue) - After a realm drop, cultivation aptitude and lifespan are permanently increased. The higher the realm at the time of the drop, the greater the increase in aptitude and lifespan. In the case of multiple drops, the calculation is based on the maximum realm at the time of the drop.]

[Permanentization condition: Break through a level (0/1)]

Looking at the panel, Li Yuan paused for a moment.

The effect is extremely unique. It doesn't directly enhance combat power, but rather gains a stronger foundation and longer lifespan through loss.

Although the entry itself will not cause him to fall in realm, this compensation will take effect if he voluntarily shatters his core in the future.

The improvement in his abilities after the fall will allow him to train faster and have a stronger foundation when he resumes his training in the future.

An extreme approach of destroying the old to build the new.

The condition for permanentization is to break through a certain realm, that is, to break through from the early stage of Golden Core to the middle stage.

Li Yuan twirled the Demonic Essence Pearl halfway through his palm. The effect of reshaping oneself from adversity was extremely powerful, and it perfectly complemented his ability to shatter his core and start anew.

The only question now is whether to break through to the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm first, and then shatter the core to rebuild; or to take advantage of the current shallow cultivation level, directly shatter the existing demonic core, and try to re-condense a higher-grade spiritual golden core.

Even though his foundation in demonic arts was still shallow, he still had the opportunity to re-condense a high-grade golden core.

With more spiritual energy attributes and a stronger foundation, I am quite confident that I can push it to the highest level.

However, such things are extremely risky, and even if the success rate is not low, there is no room for carelessness.

No record of a single supreme-grade Golden Elixir has been found in any ancient texts on alchemy to date, not even within the Yuanyang Sect.

Putting aside his thoughts for the moment, Li Yuan immediately began preparations.

The illusion mask was applied to the face, and the muscles twitched slightly. After a moment, it transformed into the appearance of a demonic cultivator with sunken eyes and a sinister face.

He gathered his spiritual energy and began to circulate his Demonic Yuan Technique. The mid-grade demonic golden core within his dantian slowly rotated, and pure demonic energy overflowed from his body along his meridians. He fine-tuned the frequency of the demonic energy's fluctuations, flattening and lengthening it, precisely switching it into a constant, unsegmented continuous wave—a communication characteristic of the outer forces of the Yuan Sect.

Activating the Earth Escape Technique, Li Yuan sank into the ground and sped northwest at full speed.

With the added speed boost from Earth Escape, he arrived at the abandoned post station on the west side of Dry Bone Ridge in less than an hour.

Only a few ruins remained on the surface of the post station, overgrown with weeds.

Only a few ruins remained on the surface of the post station, overgrown with weeds.

Li Yuan stopped ten feet underground, and the Dark Fiend Insight's perception network spread out upwards and in all directions.

Twenty feet underground, there is a hollowed-out stone chamber structure.

Two clusters of demonic energy remained motionless at the entrance of the stone chamber. One of them, at the early stage of Foundation Establishment, still showed some instability, suggesting it had just broken through.

Outside the entrance, a hidden sensing array was set up. The array pattern was exactly the same as the Demon Sect's array on the northern line of Ghost Mist Forest, but it had an additional special connection port, obviously to accommodate access from specific allies.

Li Yuan quietly floated up the rock strata and arrived at the edge of the sensing array.

He removed the blood token from his waist and infused it with a wisp of demonic energy bearing the characteristics of continuous waves. A dark light emanated from the surface of the blood token, resonating with the connection point of the sensing array.

The array's light barrier silently cracked open, creating a gap just wide enough for one person to pass through.

The passage signal is correct.

Li Yuan slipped inside, fully activating the "Hidden and Unseen" skill, suppressing his figure and aura to the extreme, clinging to the wall of the passageway outside the stone chamber like a shadow.

The interior of the stone chamber is quite spacious, divided into two layers, inner and outer.

Two Foundation Establishment guards from the Demon Sect stood at the inner entrance, their eyes fixed on the stone table in the center.

A transaction was taking place at the time.

Standing to the left of the stone table was a cultivator dressed in a gray robe, in the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, with a circle of water ripples embroidered on his cuffs.

The jade slip states that this is the emblem of a collateral branch of the Lu family of Lingzhou, an outer dependent family of the Yuanzong clan.

"All three boxes of spirit herbs are here." The Lu family cultivator patted the three large wooden boxes on the table, his voice dry. "As agreed, in exchange for your demonic energy array stones and three copies of cultivation technique rubbings."

The leader of the Demon Sect on the right side of the stone table inspected the spiritual herbs in the box, nodded in satisfaction, and pushed several heavy storage bags over.

"The goods are fine. Fellow Daoist Lu, we've been instructed that the next batch of transactions may need to be scheduled earlier."

"Ahead of schedule? Why?" The Lu family cultivator frowned.

"The western front has been quite turbulent recently, and the sect urgently needs a batch of specific auxiliary materials."

The leader of the Demon Sect lowered his voice, "If you can get your hands on it, the price is negotiable."

Li Yuan hid in the shadows of the passageway and wrote down every word of the transaction process and conversation.

The Lu family cultivator put away his storage bag, asked no further questions, turned and hurriedly left the stone chamber, departing through another secret passage.

The transaction is complete.

One of the guards turned and walked towards a compartment deep within the stone chamber, saying to the person in charge, "I'll go and send a message to my superiors to report that the transaction is complete."

The steward nodded and casually flipped through a register on the table. A moment later, he also stood up and went to the side storeroom to count the spiritual herbs that had just been received.

There was a brief lull in the lobby.

Li Yuan slipped into the inner room like a ghost.

His gaze fell directly on the open register on the stone table.

His divine sense swept over the list, and the contents were instantly imprinted in his mind. It was a tattered page, but it contained a wealth of information. It recorded the precise coordinates of three backup rendezvous points on the western front, as well as a recent log of material dispatches.

Li Yuan's attention was focused on the last line of the material dispatch record.

Records show that the Demonic Fiend Sect has recently been collecting several special materials at any cost: remnants of ancient formations, fragments of old artifacts from the Mysterious Nether Sect, and high-grade spiritual vein crystals.

Homologous auxiliary materials.

Li Yuan's pupils contracted slightly.

These items are identical in nature to the materials he used to repair the jade bead; they are all core mediums used to repair or activate the ancient formations of the Xuanyou Sect.

The Demonic Sect's collection of these items is definitely not for daily cultivation. Combined with the previously intercepted communication jade slips and the third-tier high-grade restriction beneath the Bone Ridge, their purpose is crystal clear.

They wanted to break into the ruins of Dry Bones Ridge.

Moreover, the cooperation between the Demon Fiend Sect and the Abyss Sect has entered a substantial phase of resource exchange. The Abyss Sect provides spiritual herbs and basic supplies, while the Demon Fiend Sect provides demonic cultivation techniques and array stones, and at the same time, it uses the Abyss Sect's channels to search for relics of the Profound Nether Sect.

The direction has been fully connected.

Hearing footsteps coming from the warehouse, Li Yuan flashed back into the shadows of the passageway and quietly left through the gap in the sensor array he had come from.

When we returned to Misty Forest Market, it was almost dawn.

Li Yuan met Chen Yi in a secluded grove of trees outside the outpost.

"How was it?" Chen Yi asked, a hint of anticipation in his eyes.

Li Yuan handed over a jade slip.

"An internal structural diagram of the western rendezvous point, the triggering mechanism of the induction array, and a fragment of a contact roster. The roster contains the coordinates of three backup rendezvous points."

Chen Yi took the jade slip, probed it with his divine sense, and an undisguised joy immediately appeared on his face.

"Good! Excellent! With these three backup coordinates, we've torn a large hole in the western front's network." He carefully put away the jade slip. "The intelligence is of extremely high quality, and the sect will increase the mission reward. The Core Formation materials will be delivered to the market tomorrow."

Li Yuan remained calm.

The intelligence he handed over was precisely tailored. The location, structure, and backup coordinates of the rendezvous point were crucial for the Yuan Yang Sect's attack on the Sha Mo Sect's network. However, he deliberately withheld two core pieces of information: "The Sha Mo Sect is collecting auxiliary materials from the Xuan You Sect" and "The Lu family of Lingzhou is involved in the transaction."

These two lines are directly related to the secrets of the Xuanyou Sect ruins and the jade bead, and the Yuanyang Sect must never find out about them.

After parting ways with Chen Yi, Li Yuan returned to the stone house and activated the concealment formation.

He sat down cross-legged and focused his mind on perceiving the core of the Mo Zhou spiritual vein.

The second phase of repairs to the jade bead is ongoing. As the middle-layer circuit is gradually repaired, the information fragments sealed deep within the bead's core are beginning to unlock automatically.

Li Yuan received these newly unlocked information with his divine sense.

This is a detailed record of array diagrams. It records the specific node positions of the jade bead within the mist array of the branch hall, as well as the ways in which it interacts with other array components.

Li Yuan combined this new information with the previously printed diagram of the branch hall structure.

A complete diagram of the formation gradually took shape in his mind.

A third-tier formation. Using a jade bead as its core energy source, it radiates outwards through thirty-six outer nodes. The formation's main function is to absorb essence and soul, converting them into the power source for its operation. This explains the origin of the dense fog in the Ghost Mist Forest—the fog itself is the waste gas and residual energy emitted after the formation devours living beings.

But the more Li Yuan looked at it, the more he felt something was wrong.

The power of the formation described in the catalog differed significantly from the strength of the formation he actually experienced in the branch hall. The formation of the Xuan You branch hall was far more powerful than described in the catalog.

The only explanation is that the jade bead itself has an extremely high energy level. It's like an overly powerful heart, forcefully elevating an ordinary third-order formation to a level that even late-stage Golden Core cultivators find troublesome.

Composing himself, Li Yuan got up and walked out of the stone house.

Today is the monthly closing day at Yuanmingzhai.

The streets of Fangshi New District were bustling with people. There was even a small queue in front of Yuanmingzhai, indicating that business was booming.

Xu Zhang was waiting in the accounting room on the second floor. When Li Yuan came in, he immediately handed him a thick account book.

"Master, last month's revenue figures are out." Xu Zhang couldn't hide his smile.

Li Yuan opened the account book.

The three main products—Condensing Qi Pill, Golden Body Armor, and Second-Tier Spirit Talisman—virtually monopolized the high-end market for independent cultivators in the marketplace. The Golden Body Armor, in particular, sold out within half an hour of being displayed.

After deducting the Mingyuan Chamber of Commerce's 15% cut, Li Yuan's share of the profits was astonishing.

"The spirit stone reserves in the warehouse are more than enough to cover the list of third-tier materials you provided," Xu Zhang said, pointing to the last line of the ledger. "There's still a significant surplus."

"Continue to acquire second-tier top-grade medicinal herbs and refining ores, as many as you can get." Li Yuan closed the ledger. The resource reserves had reached a new high, giving him more confidence to try and deduce.

Back to the stone house.

Li Yuan sat on the futon and closed his eyes.

The entry for "distracted and multi-purpose" began to operate.

On the first line, the Xuanming Sha Gong slowly circulated within his body, refining the demonic energy.

The second method involves using the Cold Stream Technique to guide water-based spiritual energy and nourish the meridians.

The third line involves the differentiation of consciousness, simulating and improving the pharmacological formula of the Condensing Evil Pill within the sea of ​​consciousness.

The fourth line controls the talisman pen on the desktop to draw spirit detective talismans in batches.

On the fifth line, he was distracted by fine-tuning the spirit pattern parameters of the Frost Armor.

The sixth line aggregates the passive perception data transmitted back by spirit detection talismans distributed throughout the Ghost Mist Forest.

The seventh line monitors the three-layered defensive formation of the market in real time.

The eighth line, the passive scanning network of Dark Fiend Insight, radiates outwards, covering a radius of ten miles.

All eight lines of divine consciousness were activated simultaneously.

Each line operates independently, ensuring precision and stability. With prolonged multitasking, his control over parallel multitasking has become increasingly stronger, without any decrease in accuracy.

几日

Inside the dantian, a deep, dark light appeared on the surface of the mid-grade demonic energy golden pill, and the speed of the demonic energy circulation suddenly increased, with its purity rising once again.

A prompt appears on the panel.

[Mysterious Netherworld Fiend Technique: Proficient → Minor Success]

The efficiency of multi-track cultivation was extremely high, and the Xuanming Sha Gong (Mysterious Netherworld Fiend Technique) successfully broke through. The efficiency of demonic energy circulation increased noticeably.