Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Li Yuan concealed his aura and was preparing to continue deducing the formation when he heard Ji Wenchuan's hurried footsteps outside the door.

"Master," Ji Wenchuan said in a low voice outside the door.

"A big customer has arrived at Yuanmingzhai. Something's not quite right."

Ji Wenchuan stood outside the stone house, his expression wary.

"A new face just left Yuanmingzhai," Ji Wenchuan reported quickly in a low voice. "He was a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, wearing a gray cloth robe, without any sect or family insignia. He entered the shop without saying a word, and immediately asked for three sets of golden armor and twenty second-tier defensive spirit talismans, all paid for with mid-grade spirit stones."

Li Yuan's eyes flickered slightly.

The Golden Body Armor is a high-quality second-tier low-grade magic weapon, and its price is considerable. Ordinary rogue cultivators would have to grit their teeth and scrape together spirit stones to buy even one piece. For someone to buy three pieces of Golden Body Armor plus twenty second-tier defensive talismans at once is definitely not for personal self-defense.

"Either some force is secretly preparing for war, or this person is buying on behalf of some gang," Ji Wenchuan offered his judgment. "The quantity is too abnormal, and the payment was made extremely quickly, unlike ordinary independent cultivators."

"Where did they go?" Li Yuan asked.

"I had someone keep an eye on us from a distance as soon as we left the south gate."

Without wasting words, Li Yuan directly extended the passive perception network of Dark Fiend Insight towards the south gate. With his Golden Core stage spiritual sense strength, combined with the sharpness of Dark Fiend Insight, he instantly locked onto a solid late-stage Foundation Establishment aura amidst the mixed crowd outside the south gate.

The gray figure was quickly leaving the surveillance range of the market.

Li Yuan's figure flashed, and he activated his Earth Escape Technique, silently sinking into the ground. He did not take the main road, but instead stayed several feet underground, maintaining a safe distance of about two miles from the gray-robed cultivator on the surface, and followed him all the way.

After leaving the market, the gray-robed cultivator immediately deviated from the trade route usually taken by the demon-hunting team and plunged into the most complex terrain deep within the Ghost Mist Forest. The opponent's counter-tracking awareness was extremely strong; he changed direction several times along the way and even set up a few simple warning arrays, but all of this was useless against Li Yuan's underground stealth and long-range perception.

After tracking for about thirty miles, the gray-robed cultivator stopped at the foot of a steep stone peak.

At the base of the stone peak was a natural cave completely hidden by vines. The gray-robed monk pushed aside the vines and slipped inside.

Li Yuan stopped beneath a giant rock a hundred feet away from the cave, concealing himself completely and then cautiously probing the cave with his Dark Fiend Insight.

The cave was equipped with a soundproof and breath-concealing array, but it was ineffective to Li Yuan.

Besides the gray-robed monk, there was another person inside the cave.

A very subtle fluctuation of demonic energy.

Li Yuan's attention immediately focused on the ball of demonic energy. The fluctuation characteristics of this demonic energy were very special. It was not the segmented pulse of the Demonic Sect, but a continuous wave with a constant frequency, stretching out like a straight line.

Unique characteristics of the peripheral forces of Yuanzong.

The gray-robed cultivator handed over a storage bag and whispered a few words. Due to the distance and the obstruction of the soundproof array, Li Yuan couldn't hear the specific content of the conversation, but the spiritual energy fluctuations and communication waves he captured through Dark Fiend Insight were enough to piece together the outline of the facts.

People on the outskirts of Yuanzong are purchasing high-level defensive magical artifacts and talismans in small batches and in a decentralized manner through unaffiliated cultivators in various markets throughout Liangzhou.

The purchase volume was small to avoid attracting the attention of the three major sects, but the types of goods were extremely concentrated, all of which were for survival and defense.

Li Yuan did not disturb the two people inside the cave, but silently recorded the spiritual power characteristics of this contact person from Yuan Sect and the subtle frequency band of the continuous wave transmission.

Combining the previously intercepted western front report from the Fiend Demon Sect, and the intelligence that the Fiend Demon Sect was collecting a large amount of auxiliary materials of the same origin as the Profound Nether Sect, a vague but incomplete logical chain took shape in Li Yuan's mind.

Li Yuan slowly withdrew his senses and returned the way he came.

Instead of returning directly to Wulin City, he turned back midway and traveled to Mozhou via a hidden teleportation array.

The core node of the spiritual veins of Mozhou.

The incredibly dense spiritual energy flowed through the underground cavern as if it were a tangible substance. Li Yuan walked to the nourishing nest of the jade bead and sat down cross-legged.

He probed the nourishing nest with his divine sense and monitored the progress of the second stage of the jade bead's repair. The middle layer of the circuit was slowly and steadily healing under the influence of the spiritual vein energy.

After confirming that Yu Zhu was in good condition, Li Yuan closed his eyes and began to meditate and practice his internal energy cultivation technique.

The Earth Core Crystal Root's attributes were not yet fully permanent, but the earth vein resonance effect brought about by the equipment state had already begun to appear. Li Yuan felt as if his perception was integrated with the entire Mo Zhou spiritual vein, and every energy fluctuation and every undercurrent in the spiritual vein was clearly reflected in his sea of ​​consciousness.

In this state of heightened perception, he noticed a very subtle anomaly.

Within the vast energy fluctuations at the core of the Mo Zhou spiritual vein, there was an extremely faint yet remarkably regular periodic pulsation.

This pulsation appeared approximately every fifteen minutes, so faint that even a late-stage Golden Core cultivator would have difficulty detecting it if not for the resonance amplification of the Earth's core crystal root. Li Yuan followed the frequency of this pulsation to investigate further, and his heart suddenly trembled.

This frequency is completely consistent with the reference frequency of the Xuanyou Sect's formation recorded in the jade bead manufacturing process archives.

Li Yuan continued to extend his divine sense downwards along the direction of the spiritual vein, penetrating layers of rock walls and the undercurrents of spiritual energy.

A vast and suffocating image slowly unfolded in his mind.

The core node of the Mo Zhou spiritual vein is not a naturally formed convergence point, but a massive array base that has been artificially modified. Hundreds of years ago, the Xuan You Sect, with unimaginable scale, incorporated the entire Mo Zhou spiritual vein into their sealing system.

The energy of the spiritual veins here does not flow naturally, but is precisely drawn and guided by the massive array patterns at the bottom, and then distributed to various branch nodes.

Time passes little by little.

When the hundredth hour of meditation ended, the resonance between the spiritual power within Li Yuan's body and the earth's veins reached its peak.

[Detection of Earth Core Crystal Root (Complete) Equipment Time Required]

[Earth Vein Resonance (Green) has become a permanent term]

The phantom of the Earth Core Crystal Root transformed into specks of green light in the equipment slot and completely merged into Li Yuan's body. The equipment slot then emptied.

Li Yuan opened his eyes and could clearly feel that his efficiency in absorbing spiritual energy had increased by 30%. The surrounding rocks and the aura of the earth veins gave him a natural affinity.

Li Yuan stood up, finally completing the last piece of the puzzle in his heart.

The Mo Zhou spiritual vein is not merely a sacred place for cultivation, but the core foundation of the entire Xuan You Sect sealing system. The seabed of Luo Xia Harbor is the end point, while the Ghost Mist Forest branch hall and the Dry Bone Ridge are the intermediate nodes.

At this point, the complete outline of this giant web spanning three states was finally revealed.

The recent actions of Yuanzong and Shamozong are clearly aimed at a certain key point.

Li Yuan withdrew his gaze, turned around and stepped into the teleportation array. With a flash of light, he disappeared into the underground of Mozhou.