Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

After the group had traveled for about an hour, the spirit stones in Li Yuan's hand dimmed a little more.

The efficiency of absorbing spiritual energy during a march is indeed not high, but it's better than nothing, and one's cultivation level has improved slightly.

Moreover, as Li Yuan walked towards the mountains, he could sense that the concentration of spiritual energy around him seemed to be increasing.

Fang He, who was walking to Li Yuan's left, suddenly turned his head and lowered his voice.

"There are claw marks under that crooked pine tree in front."

Li Yuan followed Fang He's gaze. A half-dead pine tree was stuck in a crevice of shale, and the soil around its roots had been dug up, revealing several deep scratch marks.

"Ironback Hyena." Fang He glanced at it and then looked away. "There were signs of digging a burrow, but it left before finishing, which means it was scared away by something."

Li Yuan nodded but did not reply.

Fang He had been with the demon-hunting team for several years, and his ability to identify traces of demonic beasts was more refined than He Shou's.

Along the way, Fanghe had pointed out several details that Li Yuan hadn't noticed—the bark that had been rubbed off a tree trunk, the traces of slime left on the back of a rock, and the shallow pit that had been pressed into a patch of grass.

"Which area did you used to work in?" Li Yuan asked.

"The southern section of the Yuanheng Mountains is much deeper than this area." Fang He stretched his shoulders.

"The terrain over there is more complex, with more ravines and a wider variety of monsters. However, the pattern is similar: the deeper you go, the denser the spiritual energy becomes, and the higher the grade of the monsters."

As the two were talking, a short shout came from ahead.

The line stopped.

The captain of the guard didn't turn around, but simply turned slightly to the side and said something to a member of the royal family next to him.

The Wang family member nodded and, with two guards, circled around the group from the right.

A moment later, two short, muffled thuds came from the bushes on the right, followed by the roar of a monster, which quickly faded away.

The Wang family member returned with two guards, their clothes stained with blood, but their faces remained normal.

"Two of them are low-grade Tier 1, and one is mid-grade Tier 1. They've been dealt with."

The captain of the guard nodded, raised his hand and waved forward, and the team continued to advance.

It took less than twenty breaths from beginning to end.

Similar situations occurred twice more during the rest of the journey.

The first one was a lone Ironback Hyena, a mid-tier Tier 1, lying behind a large rock ahead of the route. It was discovered by the vanguard's guards, and the two of them dealt with it in less than ten breaths.

The second group consisted of four-headed lizards, all of them low-grade first-tier, huddled together in a rock crevice. A member of the Wang family unleashed a spell, and several screams echoed from the crevice as all the four-headed lizards perished.

The monster's corpse was simply dismantled; the valuable materials were taken away, and the rest were left on the spot.

In the afternoon, the team took a short rest on a high ground.

Fang He squatted down beside him and spoke indistinctly.

"Don't you feel like this trip doesn't seem like we're here to wipe out monsters?"

Li Yuan glanced at him.

Fang He swallowed what was in his mouth and gestured with his chin toward the captain of the guard team at the front of the group.

"They wouldn't take this route to exterminate monsters. The areas where monsters are concentrated are in low-lying areas and valleys, and he's been going around them. All the monsters he encountered were things he stumbled upon on the way, not things he actively sought out."

Fang He lowered his voice.

"And look at those members of the Wang family, they've been looking at the terrain the whole way, not at the monsters, they seem to be looking for something."

Li Yuan spoke with Fang He for a few more minutes, and after resting, the group continued their journey.

The afternoon's journey was more difficult than the morning's. The terrain rose abruptly, and the shale fragments underfoot transformed into solid, gray-black rock formations covered in moss, making them slippery and difficult to traverse.

The traces of the monsters are becoming increasingly dense.

Claw prints on the ground, scratches on tree trunks, and feces left in the crevices of rocks can be seen almost every few dozen steps.

Within the detection range of the spirit detection disc, the frequency of spiritual energy fluctuations is also increasing.

Sometimes, you can sense three or four clusters of energy fluctuations at the same time, distributed in different directions around the team, as if they were attracted by something.

However, most of the monsters did not approach, and avoided the group after sensing its presence from afar.

The gathering of about thirty cultivators, with their combined auras, was intimidating even to low-level demonic beasts.

Occasionally, someone would be foolish enough to run into them, but they would be dealt with quickly by the forward's guards.

The team needs to stop and rest from time to time to recover their spiritual energy.

During his break, Li Yuan drained the spiritual energy from the spirit stone in his hand and replaced it with a new one.

[Aura Gathering (White) Permanentization Progress: 4/10]

As evening approached, the group arrived at a relatively open valley.

The valley is not large, surrounded by mountains on three sides, with only a gap on the south side. The valley floor is a flat, gravelly area with a dry streambed in the middle, and several sturdy old trees growing on both sides of the streambed.

The captain of the guard stopped at the valley entrance, his gaze sweeping across the entire valley, before waving his hand behind him.

The team dispersed, each finding a spot to put down their equipment.

Li Yuan's team was assigned to a position on the east side of the valley, close to the mountain wall.

Instead of resting, the two royal family members walked along the dry streambed deeper into the valley.

The captain of the guard stood at the valley entrance, watching the two walk away, then turned and walked back to the camp, expressionless.

About half an hour later, the two members of the Wang family returned.

One of them had several pieces of gravel in his hand. The cross-section of the gravel showed some very fine lines, which did not appear to be naturally formed.

The two walked straight up to the captain of the guard team and handed him the gravel.

The captain of the guard took the rubble, examined it closely for a few moments, and his brow twitched slightly.

The three then huddled together and began to talk in hushed tones.

Li Yuan was not close enough to hear the specifics, but he could see the captain of the guard's expression change from calm to solemn, and then from solemn to a look that Li Yuan couldn't quite describe.

It didn't sound like worry, but rather like confirmation of something.

The conversation continued for a while, then the captain of the guard put the rubble into his sleeve and walked towards the camp.

He Shou squatted on the ground, hesitated for a few moments, then stood up and followed.

When he returned, his expression was somewhat ambiguous.

"What's wrong?" Li Yuan asked.

He Shou sat down next to Li Yuan and the others, lowering his voice.

"They found some traces deep in the streambed."

He Shou paused, carefully considering his words.

"Traces of an array."

Li Yuan's gaze sharpened slightly.

"Abandoned," He Shou added. "Those two members of the Wang family said that traces of the array's spiritual patterns remained in the rock strata beneath the streambed, though they had already expired, the patterns were still there."

"Judging from the remaining spiritual runes, it's not a small formation; it covers a considerable area. And there's more than one—they also found similar traces on the rock walls on both sides of the streambed, in different locations, indicating that there may be other remnants of formations nearby."

He Shou drew a circle on the ground with his finger.

"Captain Wang's idea is to split into teams to explore tomorrow. He will lead the Wang family and a small team to continue deeper into the area, while the rest of the people will split into several groups to search for other traces of formations in this area."

"Our team remains the same as before, responsible for the area from the east to the north of the valley."

Li Yuan leaned against the mountain wall and did not respond immediately.

The abandoned formation covers a considerable area and is located in more than one place.

This area has been used as a defensive formation before.

Fang He leaned over from the side, clearly having overheard as well.

"An array? Was this place inhabited before?"

He Shou shook his head.

"I don't know. The Wang family didn't say much, and Captain Wang didn't explain either."

He Shou leaned his long sword against the rock beside him and closed his eyes.

"We'll talk about tomorrow's problems tomorrow. Let's rest first."

The camp gradually quieted down, with only the guards on night duty walking back and forth at the valley entrance.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged at the foot of the mountain wall, holding a spirit stone in his hand, slowly channeling spiritual energy into the spirit-gathering ring.

The concentration of spiritual energy inside the Yuanheng Mountains is much higher than that on the outside, and the absorption speed is also faster.

With the blessing of the "Gathering of Spiritual Energy" attribute, Li Yuan felt it even more clearly.

[Aura Gathering (White) Permanentization Progress: 5/10]