Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Chapter 485 The Secret Chamber Under the Sea

The ground beneath my feet was cold stone.

The air was filled with an extremely rich aquatic spiritual energy, far exceeding the concentration of the outer sea and even surpassing the level in the stone chamber of the ruins. The spiritual energy enveloped the surroundings like an invisible water curtain, and with each breath, one could feel the pure aquatic spiritual power flowing into their lungs through their mouth and nose.

Li Yuan stood still, not in a hurry to move, and first used his divine sense to scan all directions.

A completely enclosed space.

The secret chamber was not large, about six zhang square and three zhang high. The four walls, the dome and the floor were all made of some kind of extremely hard dark blue rock, the surface of which was polished smooth as a mirror and faintly shimmered with a water-like luster.

There were no doors, no windows, and no way out.

The only way to enter and exit is through the teleportation array beneath our feet. The array's base is the same system as the one in the ruins we just visited, with identical materials and rune styles. However, this one is in much better condition, with almost no damage.

Normally, if it's damaged, it definitely can't be transmitted.

Li Yuan shifted his gaze from the teleportation array to the four walls of the secret chamber.

The walls were covered with array patterns.

Densely packed, layer upon layer, stretching from the ground to the dome, not an inch of blank space. The engraving of the array patterns is extremely fine, with smooth lines, the brushstrokes appearing as if written in one breath, and each pattern exuding an extremely ancient spiritual energy.

After a moment of observation, Li Yuan made his judgment.

This is a high-level spirit-gathering formation.

The core function of the entire formation is to draw in water-based spiritual energy from the outside, purify and compress it within the secret chamber, creating a cultivation environment with an extremely high concentration of spiritual energy. The dense water-based spiritual energy permeating the secret chamber is the result of this formation operating for countless years.

Li Yuan withdrew his gaze and turned to the center of the secret room.

A skeleton sat upright on a stone platform in the center of the secret chamber.

The remains were remarkably well-preserved, resembling a lifelike stone statue. The face was thin, the hair and beard white, and the person wore a faded dark blue robe. The hands were placed in a mudra on the knees, the posture serene, as if in deep meditation.

However, there was no trace of spiritual energy fluctuation within his body.

He has been dead for who knows how many years.

Several items were scattered on the stone platform surrounding the remains: two dull jade slips, a broken jade bottle, a fist-sized array eye crystal, and a pigeon-egg-sized, crystal-clear bead.

Li Yuan first looked at the array patterns on the four walls.

Although the formation is still functioning overall, many materials are incomplete. The auxiliary materials for three of the six key nodes have crumbled and disappeared, leaving only grooves embedded in the rock walls and traces of residual spiritual energy. The spirit stones for the other two nodes have been exhausted, and they are barely maintaining their operation due to the inertia of the formation itself.

Only one node was preserved intact.

That was the main array eye located in the center of the east wall of the secret chamber. A dark blue crystal, about the size of an infant's fist, was embedded in a groove in the rock wall, its surface shimmering with extremely pure spiritual energy. The spiritual energy pathways of all the array patterns ultimately converged on this crystal, which uniformly controlled the rhythm of the entire array's operation.

Li Yuan walked to the east wall and reached out to touch the crystal at the center of the array.

Blue light shone within a three-foot radius.

[Equipable item detected: Voidstone (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Formation Rhythm (Blue)]

[Effect: Increases the rate of increase in array proficiency by 30%, raises array mastery by one minor level (cannot be improved after reaching perfection), and greatly enhances intuitive judgment of the logical connections between array patterns when analyzing unknown arrays.]

[Preview of Permanentization Conditions: Third-Order Array Dao Reaching Minor Success]

Blue entries.

The desired effect perfectly aligns with current needs. Li Yuan's array formation cultivation is currently at the third-tier mastery level, still some distance from minor completion. However, given his rapid accumulation and the numerous array-related attribute bonuses he possesses, breaking through to minor completion is only a matter of time.

Moreover, once this array's core is permanently established, the hidden information it triggers may include information about this secret chamber.

Li Yuan didn't rush to equip himself; instead, he turned his attention to the other items on the stone platform.

The crystal-clear bead caught his attention.

The bead is completely transparent, with extremely fine spiritual energy patterns slowly flowing inside. The arrangement of these patterns is completely different from ordinary magical artifacts, presenting a radial structure that focuses inward, like a miniature eyeball.

Li Yuan reached out and picked up the bead.

Within a three-foot radius, a second blue light appeared.

[Equipable item detected: Spirit Eye Bead (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Insightful Eye (Blue)]

[Effect: When using divine sense to probe, it can penetrate illusions, disguises, and concealment techniques, as well as formations, to a certain extent. The penetrating power is positively correlated with the strength of one's own divine soul. The range of divine sense probing is increased by 20%.]

[Preview of conditions for permanentization: Master a third-tier eye technique to the entry level.]

Another blue entry.

The condition for permanentization is to master a third-tier pupil technique to the basics level. I don't currently possess any pupil techniques, but such spells can occasionally be found in various markets; I can keep an eye out for them in the future.

Then, Li Yuan's gaze fell on the two dim jade slips on the stone platform.

The jade slips were made of extremely ancient materials, with a very thin layer of spiritual dust covering their surface. Li Yuan picked up the first one and probed it with his divine sense.

The information in the jade slip was well preserved.

The content is an extremely detailed annotation of array formations, recording some of the structural principles and debugging tips for the spirit-gathering array on the four walls of the secret chamber and other array formations. The writing is rigorous and the wording is concise, clearly the work of a cultivator with extremely high attainments in array formations.

Li Yuan put down the first jade slip and picked up the second one.

The contents of the second jade slip were completely different.

This is not an annotation of a formation, but a record of a personal experience.

The writing system is also ancient, and the word usage is significantly different from that of the current cultivation world, but the meaning is not difficult to understand.

The recorder identified himself as surnamed Zhou, a cultivator in the late Golden Core stage, skilled in array formations and water-based spells.

This is a secluded training ground provided by a certain sect for students to break through to the Nascent Soul stage.

The jade slip recorded his observations and judgments about the general situation of heaven and earth at that time.

Li Yuan's gaze lingered on one of the passages.

"The spiritual energy of heaven and earth is waning during the day. According to the records of our sect, there is a spatial passage between Tianyuan Continent and Yaoguang Island in the center of the sea, which constantly receives spiritual energy from the upper realm to maintain the total amount of spiritual energy in the lower realm. The time left for these two passages to be maintained is probably not long."

"Once the passage is completely closed, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth will irreversibly continue to decline. At a certain point, Golden Core cultivators may be able to barely maintain their cultivation by controlling their spiritual power with exquisite skill, but cultivators below the Foundation Establishment stage will likely find it increasingly difficult."

"The only hope lies in becoming a deity."

"I have secluded myself here, intending to break through to the Nascent Soul stage. If I succeed, I will then seek the Divine Transformation stage, perhaps giving the world a glimmer of hope. If not, my life will end here."

This concludes the record.

Li Yuan put down the jade slip and remained silent for a moment.

Tianyuan Continent.

He had never seen this name in any of the current cultivation texts. But based on the description in the jade slip, the so-called Tianyuan Continent should refer to the land he was currently on.

Two spatial passages exist, one on the Tianyuan Continent and the other on Yaoguang Island in the center of the sea. A continuous influx of spiritual energy from the upper realm maintains the total amount of spiritual energy in the lower realm.

As for whether this cultivator surnamed Zhou successfully broke through to the Nascent Soul stage, the answer is obvious from the state of his remains.

Li Yuan put the two jade slips into his personal space.

The remaining broken jade bottle on the stone platform was worthless, so Li Yuan ignored it.

He walked back to the front of the array on the east wall and took the ancient spirit-gathering array eye out of the groove. The moment the array eye left the groove, the spiritual light of the array patterns on the four walls dimmed rapidly, and the entire spirit-gathering array lost its core hub, abruptly stopping its operation.

The rich aquatic spiritual energy that filled the secret room began to slowly dissipate, but it would not completely dissipate in a short time.

Li Yuan put the array eye crystal into his equipment slot.

[Array Rhythm (Blue) in effect]

A blue light illuminated in the equipment slot.

An extremely subtle shift in perception spread through Li Yuan's sea of ​​consciousness. When his gaze swept across the array patterns on the four walls again, the logic of those patterns, which had previously seemed obscure and difficult to understand, became much more intuitive. The connections between the array patterns, the deep-seated laws governing the flow of spiritual energy, and the nested logic between nodes were all presented in a clearer way to his perception.

It's not that I understood it, but rather that my intuition became more acute.

When faced with an unfamiliar array of patterns, even if one cannot analyze its principles theoretically, one can intuitively determine the direction of the relationship between the parts.

This intuition is extremely helpful in deciphering unknown formations.

Li Yuan stayed in the secret chamber for a while longer, carefully recording the parts of the array patterns on the four walls that he could understand with his divine sense and storing them in his sea of ​​consciousness. The design concepts of these array patterns might provide inspiration for his cultivation of array techniques in the future.