Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

late at night.

Beside the array node on the outskirts of Wulinfang Market.

Li Yuan stood in front of a thick array stone pillar, his gaze fixed on the mottled spiritual patterns on the pillar's surface.

He raised his right hand, and a faint, extremely restrained gray light emanated from the tip of his index finger.

Sky-Splitting Slash is now complete.

Without touching the surface of the stone pillar, the fingertip moved slowly at a distance of half an inch. Extremely fine gray cracks extended from the fingertip, silently cutting into the hard base stone.

Stone chips fell like fine powder.

Li Yuan's divine sense was divided into twelve strands, which were locked onto every turn and intersection of the array patterns.

The micro-cutting technique of the Sky-Splitting Slash displayed terrifying precision at this moment. The slightly rough nodes in the original second-tier high-grade defensive formation, where the flow of spiritual energy was slightly sluggish, were gradually removed by him using spatial rifts to eliminate excess impurities and re-carve deeper and smoother guiding paths.

The edges of the newly carved spirit pattern are as smooth as a mirror.

As the final cut was made, spiritual energy was poured in. The entire stone pillar trembled violently, and a layer of spiritual light, far thicker than before, emanated from its surface.

The precision of the array patterns has been forcibly increased to near the third-tier level. The overall efficiency of the outer defensive array has increased by at least 20%.

Li Yuan withdrew his hand, and the gray crack at his fingertips instantly disappeared.

He turned and walked back to the market.

In the following days, Li Yuan spent most of his time in the stone house, except for going to the outer perimeter to repair the array nodes every night.

Sitting cross-legged on the futon, Li Yuan closed his eyes and formed a strange hand seal with his fingertips.

Tianyan Divination Technique.

A sliver of lifespan was drained from his body. Immediately afterward, a green light flashed in his equipment inventory.

[Celestial Residual Number (Green) in effect]

A faint life force surged back from the void, instantly replenishing the lifespan that had just been lost.

With a total lifespan of over nine hundred years, the one percent automatic offset is sufficient to cover such daily small-scale divinations. Absolutely zero loss.

The divine inspiration of heaven and earth transformed into a vague feedback and fell into the sea of ​​consciousness.

In the past few days, Li Yuan set a rule for himself: to ask himself three questions a day with low energy consumption, not about anything involving the great trends of heaven and earth, but only about trivial matters around him that would not cause too much backlash.

The goal is singular: to increase proficiency.

Divination: Beginner to Expert

Divination: From proficient to expert

With several days of continuous, uninterrupted practice, coupled with his powerful spiritual foundation, his progress in divination was extremely rapid.

Not only has spell proficiency skyrocketed, but the progress of permanentization is also steadily increasing.

[Progress of Permanentizing Celestial Residual (Green): 7/30]

Li Yuan formed the hand seal again.

This time, he focused his divination on the marketplace before him.

Are there any hidden dangers in the market area?

Divine consciousness radiated outwards. A moment later, spiritual feedback flowed back.

No specific image appeared in his mind, only a faint gray-black trend line pointing to a location in the eastern district of the market.

Li Yuan opened his eyes.

That was the location of the shop where the mole was located, which I had previously investigated.

This mole hasn't done anything underhanded in the past few months, completely cutting off contact with the demonic cultivators outside.

The trend line is weak and has not spread further, indicating that the hidden dangers objectively exist, but are currently in a dormant state and have not been activated.

Li Yuan ignored it. It was better to leave this visible weakness than to remove it and gain an unknown weakness in return.

After resting for a while, Li Yuan regulated his breathing.

Form the hand seal again.

This time, he focused his thoughts on the spiritual contract that Zhou Mingyuan had left behind.

"The Yuan Yang Sect Spiritual Contract: Which outweighs the reward or the cost?"

Lifespan was extracted again, and the remaining Heavenly Evolution number was instantly replenished.

The sensory pulse disappeared into the void.

A few breaths later, the feedback returned.

Li Yuan frowned slightly.

The feedback in my mind was extremely vague, with a chaotic, intertwined feeling. There was neither the clear, auspicious energy nor the oppressive gloom signifying impending doom. It was like a tangled mess of threads, from which no conclusion could be drawn.

Li Yuan put away the incantation and pondered for a moment.

The most likely reason why the divination results were vague and confusing is that the event itself had very little impact on him.

Having signed the spiritual contract, the benefits offered by the Yuan Yang Sect were merely materials and a venue for Core Formation, which were of little significance to him, a cultivator who had already formed his Core. If the Yuan Yang Sect wanted to harm him, he would face no risk whatsoever with his own strength.

Neither of great benefit nor great harm occurred; the trajectory of fate in this matter did not produce any peaks or troughs that could be captured by divination.

Several more days passed.

The situation in the direction of Kugu Ridge has undergone a subtle change.

The immense pressure from those Golden Core cultivators no longer clashed as recklessly as it had in previous days. Several Golden Core elders seemed to have reached some kind of tacit understanding, retreating to the background and concealing their auras.

Instead, there were increasingly frequent frictions between Foundation Establishment stage cultivators.

Foundation Establishment disciples from various factions were dispatched in large numbers to the outer perimeter to guard, patrol, and probe. Every few days, news would come of several rogue cultivators or sect disciples dying in battles within the Ghost Mist Forest.

Even the valley where the spatial rift that Li Yuan had previously discovered was now being guarded in shifts by several unidentified Foundation Establishment cultivators.

That afternoon, the formation of the stone house was gently activated.

Li Yuan opened the door, and Zhou Mingyuan appeared outside.

He didn't bring Chen Yi with him; he was alone. He wore an ordinary blue robe, his aura concealed as if he were a common, wealthy man from the mortal world.

"Sect Leader Zhou." Li Yuan stepped aside.

Zhou Mingyuan walked into the stone house and sat down at the table.

"How's your consideration of the spirit contract we discussed last time?" Zhou Mingyuan asked directly, his tone casual.

Li Yuan thought for a moment and shook his head: "I am used to the freedom of being a rogue cultivator. The rules of the sect are strict, and I am afraid I cannot bear that spiritual contract."

Zhou Mingyuan seemed to have expected this answer, and showed no surprise at Li Yuan's obvious evasiveness.

"I knew you'd say that." He picked up the tea Li Yuan had poured and took a sip. "If you don't want to sign, then don't. However, the sect still needs your cooperation in Misty Forest Market."

Zhou Mingyuan put down his teacup, his gaze becoming serious.

"The Spirit Contract is void. The sect will grant you the title of Guest Protector of the Yuan Yang Sect. It's just a nominal position; you are not required to participate in the battle at the Bone Ridge, nor are you required to complete any tasks."

"All I need is for you to continue providing assistance in intelligence gathering and array reconnaissance."

The conditions were extremely lenient.

Li Yuan nodded slightly: "Okay."

After reaching a consensus, Zhou Mingyuan took out a storage bag from his sleeve and pushed it in front of Li Yuan.

"Now that you are a protector, there are some things I'll leave to you to keep an eye on. This bag contains several items that carry the aura of demonic cultivation. These are items left behind when the White Nether Sect was destroyed in the past."

Zhou Mingyuan tapped his fingers lightly on the table.

"Some remnants of the White Nether Sect may still be operating secretly in Liangzhou. It's not the Dark Abyss Society. The core group of demonic cultivators has always been wary of the Fiend Demon Sect that has been suppressing them."

"They've even made contact with the Yuan Sect or other demonic cultivators. This place is a gathering place for rogue cultivators, a mixed bag, and I need you to gather as much information as possible about the Bai Ming Sect."

"In addition, your skills in array formations are quite good. If you discover any unknown demonic energy array nodes around the market, report them immediately."

"clear."

After giving his instructions, Zhou Mingyuan left without lingering.

After seeing Zhou Mingyuan off, Li Yuan returned to the table and emptied the contents of his storage bag.

Three items.

A broken black token, a piece of grayish-white bone, and a bronze mirror covered in cracks.

They were all old, defective products, with negligible amounts of demonic energy attached to them.

Li Yuan's gaze swept over the three items, and when it landed on the tattered black token, his perception within a three-foot radius was instantly triggered.

green.

Li Yuan reached out and picked up the token.

[Equipable item detected: Remnant Token (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Netherworld Detector (Green)]

[Effect: When worn, the detection range for residual demonic energy is doubled, and hidden nodes within demonic energy arrays are automatically marked.]

[Permanentization condition: Demonic energy cultivation reaches Foundation Establishment.]

The entry is green and directly meets the conditions for permanentization.

Li Yuan did not hesitate at all.

"Equipment. Permanentize."

The phrase "[The Demon Seeker in the Dark (Green)]" has become a permanent entry.

The phantom of the black token flashed across the equipment slot before turning into specks of green light and merging into the body.

Li Yuan closed his eyes, and the perception network of Dark Insight instantly expanded outward. The original limit of his perception of residual demonic energy was forcibly pushed forward by more than double. Several extremely faint traces of demonic energy buried deep underground at the edge of the market were clearly reflected in his sea of ​​consciousness like firelight in the darkness.

The ability to automatically mark hidden nodes of demonic energy arrays will be a great asset when cracking ancient ruins or facing demonic sect arrays.

After storing the remaining two items in his personal space, Li Yuan began to plan his next move.

The stalemate at Kugu Ridge cannot be broken in the short term.

I need to seize this window of opportunity and continue to improve my capabilities.

The second round of auctions he was organizing was about to begin. After collecting this batch of supplies and spirit stones, he prepared to head to Shuizhou again to participate in the major power trade fair jointly organized by the Kunpeng Island Alliance and the Tianyue Sect.

Such a grand event offers access to high-level resources and item attributes that are far superior to what a small, peripheral market can offer.

Before setting off, one must make up for one's own shortcomings.

Li Yuan walked to the futon in the center of the stone chamber and sat down.

He took out the dark jade slip containing the Demon Blood Substitute Technique from his personal space.

Third-tier low-grade demonic energy spell.

The divine sense probed in, revealing a complex and bloody, violent path to the technique. The core of this spell lies in instantly extracting the body's essence and demonic energy, condensing it outside the body into a substitute with an aura completely identical to the original. The substitute exists for an extremely short time, but is powerful enough to withstand a fatal blow.

Li Yuan closed his eyes, his demonic energy surging within him, and began to guide his essence and blood according to the method on the jade slip.

With the blessing of the shared origin between demons and spirits, the flow of demonic energy is incredibly smooth.

Several hours later.

[Demon Blood Substitution Technique: Beginner → Beginner]

After mastering the basics of the Blood Substitution Technique, he could barely conjure a blurry blood shadow. This was just the beginning.

In the days that followed, Li Yuan dealt with the preparations for the auction during the day and devoted all his energy to cultivation at night.

In addition to advancing the Demon Blood Substitute Technique, he also put the Demon Shadow Step, which was originally at the minor completion stage, on his agenda.

A few days later.

【Shadow Step: Minor Mastery → Major Mastery】

When the Demon Shadow Step is mastered, there is almost no leakage of demonic energy. The moment the figure merges into the shadow, it can cross a distance of dozens of feet, just like a real ghost.

While steadily improving his cultivation techniques, Li Yuan did not neglect his body-refining cultivation methods.

[Mysterious Iron Bone Forging Technique: Proficient → Minor Success]

[Golden Body Skill: Minor Success → Major Success]

A series of popping sounds, like cracking beans, came from inside his body. Li Yuan stood up and clenched his fists.

A faint golden metallic sheen appeared on the skin's surface, and the density and resilience of the bones had once again reached a new level.

Enjoy reading "Cultivating Immortals: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes".