Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

At dawn, a knock came from outside the stone house.

Li Yuan scanned the area with his divine sense and found it to be the manager of Yueqi Pavilion.

After the door opened, the shopkeeper bowed respectfully, his attitude more formal than before. In his left hand he held a jade tablet engraved with the Tianyue Sect's emblem, and in his right hand he carried a wooden box sealed with a talisman.

"Master Li, I apologize for bothering you." The shopkeeper got straight to the point, took out a roll of thin silk from his sleeve, and handed it over with both hands.

"This is an official letter from the External Affairs Hall of the Tianyue Sect. I would be grateful if you could take a look."

Li Yuan took the thin silk and unfolded it.

The official letter was brief. Tianyue Sect would be sending seven additional permanent staff to Wulin Market within the next month, including two late-stage Foundation Establishment weapon refiners and one talisman maker. The additional staff would be stationed at Yueqi Pavilion, with their daily operations remaining unchanged, but their purchasing and sales scale would be expanded accordingly.

The official letter was accompanied by a list. The names, qualifications, and responsibilities of the seven individuals were listed.

Theoretically, the relationship between Wulin Market and Tianyue Sect is just a buying and selling relationship, but they did send an official letter over.

"The sect is paying more and more attention to Ghost Mist Forest." The shopkeeper smiled.

"The sect believes now is a good time to expand operations and hopes that Master Li can cooperate. Regarding talismans and spiritual materials, Yueqi Pavilion is prepared to increase its purchasing efforts and offer preferential prices."

"What are you collecting?"

"Second-tier combat talismans, defensive talismans, and all kinds of refining ores and spiritual materials." The shopkeeper counted on his fingers, "As long as the quality meets the standards, we'll buy as much as we can. At the same time, Yueqi Pavilion will also significantly increase the supply of its own goods, including exploration-type magical artifacts, array consumables, and talisman-making materials."

Li Yuan put the official letter away.

"I will arrange accommodations for the stationed personnel, which Ji Wenchuan will coordinate." Li Yuan did not reveal further thoughts. "As for the acquisition price, you will liaise with Xu Zhang of Yuanmingzhai."

The shopkeeper nodded in satisfaction and handed over the wooden box.

"This is a small token of our sect's appreciation for the workshop owner. A few high-quality talisman-making materials, as a token of our sincerity in cooperating."

Li Yuan took the wooden box, but did not open it on the spot. He exchanged a few polite words and then saw the shopkeeper off.

After closing the door, Li Yuan's thoughts raced.

The Tianyue Sect has a presence in the Wulin Market and operates a sea and land trade route in the Nanyuan Market, but it has not opened a Yueqi Pavilion in the Yunyang Market of the Yuanyang Sect.

Li Yuan archived this information, put his thoughts aside, and began preparing for today's important matters.

He took out the rubbing of the animal hide map provided by Sun Shiyi from his storage bag and compared the location of the collapsed stone gate marked on it with the structural diagram of the branch hall that he knew.

When the two images are superimposed, the location of the stone gate falls on a spot marked with a small dot in the northwest area of ​​the branch hall.

An hour later, Li Yuan arrived at the valley described by Sun Shiyi.

The valley was nestled between two steep cliffs, its floor piled high with pebbles and withered branches. The fog was thicker than the surrounding area, limiting visibility to only about ten feet. Several crooked old trees grew out of the cracks in the rocks, their branches and trunks black and withered, resembling outstretched claws.

Li Yuan did not enter from the ground, but stopped five zhang underground in the rock layer and scanned the valley floor with the perception of Dark Fiend Insight.

There was nothing on the surface.

The stone gate at the base of the mountain wall had long since collapsed beyond recognition. The passage was completely buried by rubble and soil, and even the remains of the door frame had been weathered and eroded into the surrounding rocks. If it weren't for Sun Shiyi's map, no one would have noticed that there had once been a gate here.

Ordinary investigation methods should stop here.

But Li Yuan was not an ordinary cultivator.

He simultaneously activated the permanent spatial perception attribute of the storage bag and the Void Stone's Void Portable attribute.

In the instant that the two senses overlapped, Li Yuan caught a very subtle anomaly.

Spatial fluctuations.

Extremely weak. Several times weaker than the spatial aftershocks he had sensed at the core of the spiritual vein in Mozhou, like a single hair trembling in the wind. Without the assistance of the two terms, this level of fluctuation would be completely undetectable.

Li Yuan focused his mind on that fluctuation, slowly narrowing the range of his perception, inch by inch approaching the signal source.

The source of the fluctuation is about three zhang west of the bottom of the mountain wall, about seven zhang underground.

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The rock strata there are very dense, without any natural fissures or cavities. But right in the center of this dense rock strata, there exists an extremely tiny... crack.

It is not a rock fissure in the physical sense.

It is a spatial rift.

Li Yuan used his divine sense to very carefully probe the edge of the crack.

The moment the tip of divine sense touched the spatial distortion, an extremely strange force emanated from the crack. It was neither repulsion nor attraction, but rather an unstable oscillation somewhere in between.

Li Yuan did not act rashly.

He focused his divine sense on the edge of the crack, about three inches away, and carefully observed the information coming from inside the crack.

There is space on the other side of the crack.

It wasn't large, but it definitely existed. Divine senses could vaguely perceive a closed stone chamber structure opposite, containing extremely ancient remnants of spiritual energy. The residual attributes were of the same origin as those of the Xuan You Sect system.

This is very likely the reason why Sun Shiyi disappeared and reappeared in such a muddled way back then.

Thirty years ago, this spatial rift was probably larger and more unstable than it is now. The old cultivator accidentally touched the edge of the rift while mining nearby, and was sucked in by the unstable spatial forces. After staying inside for a while, he was spat out.

But thirty years later, the crack has shrunk to the thickness of a thumb.

Given Li Yuan's current level of mastery over spatial power, forcibly squeezing into a rift of this size would be extremely risky. He has only achieved minor mastery of the Sky-Splitting Slash and is proficient in the Teleportation Technique, but both of his spatial spells are far from perfected.

It's not the right time yet.

Li Yuan recorded the precise coordinates, fluctuation frequency, and surrounding rock structure of the spatial rift in his sea of ​​consciousness, and then carefully withdrew his divine sense.

He returned to the market along the same route he had come from, and then turned to another matter.

The second phase of the Sanzhou trade route should be launched.

The first round of trials nearly doubled net profit, validating the viability of this business model. The second round can be scaled up appropriately, and the product categories can be adjusted.

Li Yuanxian purchased the first batch of goods from the warehouses of Wulinfang Market and Yuanmingzhai.

After packing up, Li Yuan did not go directly through the teleportation array, but instead took a detour to Yunyang Market.

The trading area of ​​Yunyang Market was far more bustling than that of Wulin Market. Dozens of large shops lined both sides of the wide stone-paved street, offering everything from elixirs and magical artifacts to spiritual materials and cultivation manuals. The official shops of the Yuanyang Sect occupied the most central location, with several bright red sect flags fluttering in the wind.

Li Yuan purchased a batch of fire-type ores and metal ingots, which were in high demand in the Jingzhou region, from several spirit material shops. The purchase price at Yunyang Market was about 10% cheaper than sourcing from his own warehouse in Wulin Market, and the scale was also larger.

As Li Yuan reached the end of the trading area, he slowed his pace.

Two young monks dressed in light blue robes stood in front of a shop with a bright green flag.

The robe was embroidered with a blue pool pattern on the chest.

Bitan Sect.

The Bitan Sect is one of the three major sects in Jingzhou, with its sphere of influence located in the central and western parts of Jingzhou. Li Yuan had previously deduced from multiple clues that the righteous Golden Core cultivator who regularly infiltrated the Dry Bone Ridge to set up a monitoring array was most likely from the central and western part of Jingzhou—the territory of the Bitan Sect or the Qingyan Sect.

Now, disciples of the Bitan Sect have appeared in the directly administered market of the Yuanyang Sect.

Both disciples were at the early Foundation Establishment stage, appearing to be in their early twenties. They looked somewhat reserved, clearly not new to Yunyang Market, but not exactly familiar with the place either. They were speaking quietly with the shopkeeper, seemingly inquiring about the inventory of a certain type of goods.

Li Yuan did not approach, but merely used his passive perception of Dark Fiend Insight to scan the area from a distance.

The two of them exuded pure energy, without any demonic energy or abnormal fluctuations.

On the surface, they were just two ordinary disciples sent out by the sect to make purchases.

However, the fact that the Bitan Sect appeared in Liangzhou at this time is noteworthy in itself.

Li Yuan memorized the two people's faces and spiritual characteristics, but made no further move. He put away the supplies he had purchased at Yunyang Market and turned to leave.

As I walked out of the city gate of Yunyangfang, dusk had already fallen.

The distant horizon was shrouded in a thin layer of gray-blue clouds.

Li Yuan moved swiftly and disappeared into the twilight.