Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

The hidden array inside the stone house operated silently, isolating it from all outside sounds.

Li Yuan sat at the stone table, several spirit detection talismans he had just retrieved from outside laid out in front of him. He probed into each talisman one by one with his divine sense, reading the passive perception data stored within them.

The newly opened leather goods shop in the East District has been unusually active over the past three days.

The continuous wave transmission frequency of the dark red token appeared twice in the records of the spirit detection talisman. The direction of the transmission was directly northwest, which is the location of the Bone Ridge. At the same time, several spirit detection talismans deployed on the old road outside the Bone Ridge also detected the corresponding demonic energy echo.

Li Yuan pieced together the data on spiritual energy fluctuations from different locations and times in his mind.

A clear trajectory of movement emerged.

The continuous wave signal from the direction of Kugu Ridge is moving outwards. The Yuan Sect's outer advance team that went to explore Kugu Ridge is withdrawing.

The message sent by the fur trader was a confirmation of the evacuation route.

Judging from the direction of the trajectory and the speed of movement, this team did not choose to take the regular trade route through the Ghost Mist Forest, but instead took a large detour, attempting to cut through the gray hilly area at the border of Liangzhou and Jingzhou.

At their current pace, they will reach the middle of the border hills in about three days.

Li Yuan put away the spirit detection talisman.

Yuanzong acted faster than expected. After scouting the weak points of the Kugu Ridge formation, they immediately withdrew, clearly having obtained the data they needed and preparing to return to report.

Three days is enough time to set up a perfect pocket.

During the three days of waiting, Li Yuan did not leave the stone house, but instead turned his attention back to refining weapons.

He took out the tattered animal hide map he had found at a street stall in Baijingfang from his storage bag.

The fragment depicts a partial array pattern of a third-order forging method. Previously, he could only barely understand some of the surface structure, but with the improvement of his cultivation and array mastery, especially after witnessing the Xuan You Sect's grand arrays in the Dividing Hall and the Dry Bone Ridge, his perspective on this fragment is now completely different.

Although this fragment is incomplete and cannot be used to reconstruct any complete Tier 3 jade slip for weapon crafting, it provides a high-level design concept.

The circuit design of the third-order array pattern pursues the ultimate energy utilization rate. Within an extremely limited area, hundreds of spiritual energy nodes are perfectly interwoven, with no redundant lines.

Li Yuan stared at the incomplete map for a long time.

He took out a standard blueprint for crafting a second-tier defensive magic weapon and laid it flat on the table. Compared to the intricate, spiderweb-like structure of the third-tier blueprint, the spiritual energy circuits on the second-tier blueprint appeared rough and cumbersome.

What if we use the node folding approach of a third-order fragment graph to simplify the spiritual energy loop of a second-order magic weapon?

Li Yuan walked to the control panel and lit the refining furnace.

Flames of Fiery Fiery Intent rose up, engulfing several pieces of spirit silver ore and stardust. Instead of following the conventional steps of the second-tier blueprint, he forcibly intervened with his divine sense at the crucial moment of the spirit liquid's fusion and shaping, modifying the direction of several spirit patterns according to the folding logic of the third-tier incomplete blueprint.

The first test piece shattered the moment it cooled.

The modified spirit rune circuit caused an energy conflict, and the internal structure of the artifact could not withstand the instantaneous surge of spiritual energy.

Li Yuan remained calm as he cleaned up the waste and put the materials back in.

The second time, the third time, and the fourth time.

With each failure, he could pinpoint the crux of the circuit conflict. As the fine-tuning progressed, the redundant circuits inside the second-tier magical artifact were eliminated one by one, and the efficiency of spiritual energy circulation improved visibly.

When the seventh ritual artifact was completed, a smooth and stable spiritual light emanated from its pale blue metallic surface.

There was no cracking.

The spiritual energy flowed extremely smoothly in the modified circuit, and its defensive effectiveness was 10% higher than that of the finished product made exactly according to the original blueprints.

A panel popped up in front of me.

[Weapon Forging Skill: Tier 2 Proficient → Tier 2 Master (0/800)]

The value of the third-order fragment was completely reassessed. It was like a key handed down from a higher dimension, directly unlocking the door to the optimal solution for second-order weapon crafting. As long as he continued to optimize in reverse along this direction, complete mastery of second-order weapon crafting would be just around the corner.

After putting away the finished products, Li Yuan looked at the sky.

Three days have passed.

He pushed open the stone door, activated his earth-遁术 (earth-遁术 is a type of magic that allows one to escape into the ground without making a sound), and stealthily moved towards the border hills at full speed.

The gray hills stretched out in waves, and the air was filled with a dry and desolate atmosphere.

The spiritual energy concentration here is extremely low, so much so that even the most resilient weeds grow sparsely. High-level cultivators rarely venture here, making it a natural forbidden zone for murder and robbery.

Li Yuan stopped at the foot of a ravine in the middle of the hills.

His stealth completely erased his presence, leaving no trace, and even the surrounding soil showed no unnatural fluctuations of spiritual energy. Dark Fiend's perception network spread outwards like an invisible net, covering a range of three miles.

Half an hour later.

Four suppressed signals of demonic energy broke into the edge of the sensory network.

One is in the late stage of Foundation Establishment, and three are in the middle stage of Foundation Establishment.

Four figures moved swiftly through the hills, their movements light and agile. They wore inconspicuous clothing of rogue cultivators, but the wariness they exuded, honed by years of battlefield experience, was impossible to conceal.

When they reached the vicinity of the mountain valley, the late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator leading the group made a gesture, and the four of them stopped and rested behind a giant rock.

"Finally, we've left Liangzhou territory." A cultivator in the mid-Foundation Establishment stage let out a long breath, his voice revealing undisguised exhaustion. "We've been squatting outside that Dry Bone Ridge for more than half a month, and we haven't even caught a glimpse of a ghost."

Another person took out a water pouch from his storage bag, took a sip, and said with a hint of complaint in his voice.

"I think I've figured it out now. Those people up there were just using us as stepping stones. That desolate place, Dry Bone Ridge, is sealed off by a top-grade third-level restriction. Even a Golden Core cultivator would be helpless there, let alone us."

The leading late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator frowned.

"Stop complaining. You'll be rewarded when you get back after this errand is done."

"Boss, don't try to comfort us with those words."

The first person to speak curled his lip. "Why should we come to this remote and impoverished place to wade into troubled waters? I heard from the brothers in the inner hall that the Yuan Sect itself has no real interest in this so-called Xuanyou Sect ruins. It's just that the elders of those few lineages are messing around behind the scenes, trying to make a quick buck."

"Watch your words!" the leading cultivator hissed, his stern gaze sweeping over the three men.

"The elders' decisions are none of our business. Now that the array data has been recorded, our mission is complete. Once we return to Lingzhou and hand over the data, this matter is no longer our concern."

The other three pursed their lips, said nothing more, and sat down cross-legged to regulate their breathing.

Ten feet underground, Li Yuan heard every word of the conversation.

The Yuanzong sect itself was not interested; it was merely a private action by a few elders.

This intelligence is extremely crucial. It indicates that the Yuan Sect forces currently eyeing the Bone Ridge are not a single, colossal entity, but rather a localized power rife with internal factional infighting. Their resources will have limitations, and they will have more to consider.

After resting for about fifteen minutes, the leading cultivator stood up.

"Let's go, let's get past these hills as soon as possible."

The three of them stood up.

The instant they stepped out of the shadow of the giant rock.

Suddenly, without warning, the ground cracked open, and a chilling aura surged out from underground like a volcanic eruption.

Freeze spell.

Based on the Great Mastery of the Cold Stream Technique, and with the addition of permanent attributes such as Water Speed ​​Increase and Water Vein Overview, this second-tier low-grade control spell unleashed extremely terrifying power in Li Yuan's hands.

The azure cold air instantly condensed into solid ice crystals in mid-air.

The four outer-line cultivators of the Abyss Sect didn't even have time to make any defensive moves before the ground beneath their feet was covered by a thick layer of solid ice. The chill crept up their legs, freezing their lower bodies in place.

It's not just physical confinement.

The "Spirit Vein Slowing" attribute of the Soul-Locking Talisman took effect the instant the spell hit. The four of them felt the flow of demonic energy within their bodies suddenly slow down, and the protective spells they were about to activate were delayed by half a beat.

That fatal half-beat was enough to decide everything.

Gray cracks silently bloomed in the air.

Sky-Splitting Slash.

The first fissure sliced ​​across the ground, precisely severing the necks of three mid-Foundation Establishment cultivators. Their three heads flew into the air, the severed surfaces instantly frozen by the lingering chill of the Ice Seal Technique, without even a drop of blood escaping.

The late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator in the lead reacted a fraction faster.

He roared, and the demonic energy within his body erupted wildly, disregarding the damage to his meridians, shattering the ice on his legs. A dark red bone shield appeared in his hand, attempting to block the oncoming killing intent.

The second Sky-Splitting Slash has arrived.

The gray crack slammed into the bone shield, producing a teeth-grinding scraping sound. The mid-grade second-tier bone shield only lasted a breath before being split in two by the extremely condensed spatial blade of the Sky-Splitting Slash.

The rift, still powerful, sliced ​​straight down from the leading cultivator's brow.

His body froze on the spot, his eyes staring fixedly ahead, before splitting open in the middle and falling to either side.

The battle lasted only two breaths from its outbreak to its end.

The desolate mountain valley returned to deathly silence.

Li Yuan emerged from underground and walked calmly toward the four corpses.

He deftly removed the storage bags from the four people. Since these four had gone to the Dry Bone Ridge to investigate the weak points of the formation, they must have carried the results of their investigation.

He quickly searched through the four storage bags with his divine sense.

Besides several hundred mid-grade spirit stones and some common pills and magical artifacts, Li Yuan found a special jade slip at the very bottom of the leader cultivator's storage bag.

The material of this jade slip is neither gold nor jade, and it exudes a gloomy, deathly aura.

The material of this jade slip is neither gold nor jade, and it exudes a gloomy, deathly aura.

Li Yuan probed it with his divine sense.

A vast amount of information about the array nodes flooded into his mind. This information recorded in detail the flow of spiritual energy in the outer array of the Bone Ridge, and even included the specific location and energy accumulation of the weak point.

However, the crucial part of the formation-breaking deduction was a complete mess of gibberish.

Encrypted.

The information was locked by a special demonic energy frequency band, and there was no corresponding decryption method. Forcibly cracking it would only lead to the self-destruction of the jade slip. Li Yuan keenly perceived that this encrypted frequency band was a high-order variant of that constant, unsegmented continuous wave transmission frequency.

While the specific plan to break the formation cannot be known immediately, this jade slip itself is the best proof.

The elders of the Yuan Sect have indeed found a way to deal with the third-tier high-grade restriction, and have already entered the substantive preparation stage.

Li Yuan carefully stored the encrypted jade slip in his storage bag.

He flicked his finger and unleashed a burst of fiery flames, completely incinerating the four corpses and the remaining ice crystals on the ground, leaving not a trace of blood.

Then, the Earth Escape Technique was activated again.

Instead of returning to the market, he turned southwest and disappeared into the depths of the gray hills.