Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Chapter 493 Symbiotic Reproduction of Array Breath

In addition to the sect's own history, the jade slip also records some information related to the outside world.

No new Nascent Soul cultivators were born on Yaoguang Island during the period when the Nascent Soul Transformation Channel was maintained.

The Canglan Sect has a good relationship with the Jiaolong clan in the sea and has a long history of exchanging goods.

The cultivator who previously broke through to the Nascent Soul stage drained the spiritual veins of Yao Guang Island during his breakthrough. Therefore, after the Nascent Soul cultivator left, the source and maintenance of spiritual energy in the Yao Guang Secret Realm remained unclear.

Li Yuan compared this information with the jade slip records he had previously obtained in the secret room.

The timeline mentioned in the jade slip of the late-stage Golden Core cultivator surnamed Zhou differs significantly from the records of the Canglan Sect. The Zhou cultivator existed before the events related to the Yaoguang Island secret realm.

The secret chamber was a product of the Canglan Sect's heyday, specifically used by high-level cultivators for secluded cultivation to break through to the Nascent Soul stage. The cultivator surnamed Zhou was perhaps the last person to use this secret chamber.

Li Yuan put the jade slip away, stood up, and looked around.

Secret chambers, cave dwellings, spiritual veins, and remnants of ancient formations—everything points to the same conclusion: this is the core area of ​​the Canglan Sect.

Li Yuan checked the remaining cave dwellings but found nothing.

The Canglan Sect declined slowly, not overnight. The disciples had ample time to leave after taking their belongings.

The things left in the cave were mostly things that people were too lazy to move or even deliberately left there, with jade slips being the most numerous.

Jade slips containing cultivation techniques and spells are small and lightweight, so they should theoretically be the first to be taken away. However, in reality, most disciples have already mastered their cultivation techniques and don't need to carry jade slips with them. The truly valuable rare and secret cultivation techniques are stored in the core area of ​​the sect, while ordinary disciples' cave dwellings mostly contain copies of basic cultivation techniques and cultivation insights.

Li Yuan collected all the jade slips he could find and piled them on the open ground in the center of the rock corridor. There were quite a few, about forty or fifty in total.

Most of the jade slips had spiritual energy imprints so blurred they were unrecognizable, and the content was severely incomplete. Li Yuan sifted through them one by one, selecting only those that were still readable.

After the selection was completed, twelve pieces remained.

The contents were varied. There were cultivation tips for basic water-based techniques, summaries of experience in underwater weapon forging, precautions for setting up formations, and several miscellaneous notes recording the daily affairs of the Canglan Sect.

There are no entries for any of them.

Li Yuan carefully put away the jade slips and turned his gaze to a stone door at the end of the rock corridor.

The stone door was half-open, and three characters, now blurred and indistinct, were carved on the lintel. Li Yuan deciphered them after a moment and vaguely recognized them as the characters for "Scripture Pavilion."

Pushing open the stone door, one finds a spacious stone chamber three times larger than an ordinary cave dwelling.

The walls of the stone chamber were covered with a dense array of grids, each just large enough to hold a jade slip. Most of the grids were empty, with only a few fragments of broken jade slips remaining in a few scattered corners.

Li Yuan entered the stone chamber and spread his divine sense around.

His mastery of array formations at the third-tier minor completion level, combined with the penetrating effect of his Eye of Truth, gave him extremely high precision in using his divine sense. Every part of the stone chamber—walls, floor, and ceiling—was carefully scanned.

On the wall in the southeast corner of the stone chamber, Li Yuan's divine sense detected an extremely faint fluctuation of spiritual energy.

The fluctuation originated from inside the wall, about half a foot deep.

Li Yuan walked to the wall and placed his right hand on its surface. His spiritual energy seeped into the rock along the path marked by his divine sense, touching a tiny cavity.

Hidden compartment.

With a gentle slash, the rock face was cleanly sliced ​​open. A palm-sized groove was revealed, and inside lay a jade slip.

The jade slip was made of a different material than those outside; it was a deep blue color and had an extremely dense spiritual energy seal on its surface. Although the seal had weakened to a very low level, it was still functioning, protecting the information inside the jade slip from being eroded.

Li Yuan took out the jade slip, triggering his perception within a three-foot radius.

Blue light.

Li Yuan didn't rush to examine it. He first put the jade slip away and continued searching the rest of the scripture pavilion.

After another half day, Li Yuan thoroughly searched the entire scripture pavilion. He checked each of the compartments on the walls and carefully scanned the rock strata on the floor and ceiling with his divine sense. About two feet below the ground, he found another hidden compartment, which also contained a jade slip.

This one has no entry.

After leaving the Sutra Repository, Li Yuan returned to the cave complex along the rock corridor and re-examined several caves that he had not previously searched carefully.

In what appeared to be a relatively comfortable cave dwelling, a third hidden compartment was concealed beneath the stone bed. Inside the compartment lay a jade slip and a sealed jade bottle. The jade bottle was shattered, and its contents had long since vanished, leaving only a layer of dried medicinal residue.

The jade slip was well preserved, but contained no entries.

At this point, the search is essentially complete.

Li Yuan went to the location of the treasure vault again. The vault's doors were wide open, and the inside was completely empty; even the shelves had been removed.

Li Yuan returned to the secret chamber, placed the three jade slips in front of him, and examined them one by one.

The first one was a dark blue jade slip taken from a hidden compartment in the Sutra Repository.

Divine sense probed in.

The seal slowly broke open under the touch of spiritual power, and its contents emerged.

This is a third-tier Dharma gate called the Tide Array Heart Sutra.

Li Yuan's gaze lingered on the content for a moment.

This is neither an ordinary cultivation technique nor an ordinary formation; rather, it is a formation technique that integrates formation and cultivation.

Cultivators use their own meridians to simulate the spiritual energy circulation of an array, internalizing the array's operation as part of their cultivation. After cultivating to a certain level, the body itself becomes equivalent to a living array, capable of directly activating the array's effects with its own spiritual energy without relying on external array materials.

Li Yuan placed the jade slip in his palm.

[Equipable item detected: Tide Formation Heart Sutra (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Symbiotic Relationship (Blue)]

[Effect: When practicing array formations, both array formation mastery and skill cultivation increase simultaneously; while within an array, spiritual energy recovery speed is increased by an additional 30%; array formation speed is increased by 20%]

[Preview of conditions for permanentization: Mastery of third-tier array formation skills and complete a full closed-door breakthrough within a self-set array]

Blue entry. The simultaneous growth of formation techniques and cultivation methods is extremely valuable to oneself.

Li Yuan carefully put away the jade slip and picked up the second one.

The second one came from a hidden compartment in the cave complex.

Upon probing with divine sense, the contents were a jade slip documenting the crafting of a spatial magical artifact, detailing the entire process from material selection and pattern design to smelting and forging.

Its grade is not low, at least reaching the level of a low-grade third tier. The crafting difficulty of spatial magic artifacts far exceeds that of ordinary magic artifacts of the same tier.

The third one also came from a hidden compartment beneath the floor of the library.

The content is a third-tier body-refining technique called the Dragon Blood Tempering Body Technique. The cultivation method involves tempering the physical body with the essence blood of demonic beasts, enhancing its strength and resilience. It is a mid-grade third-tier technique, requiring very high-quality essence blood; at least the essence blood of a third-tier demonic beast is needed to produce any effect.

All three jade slips have been examined. One contains a blue-text array technique, another a method for crafting spatial magical artifacts, and the third-tier body-refining technique.

The harvest was good.

Li Yuan put the three jade slips and all the jade slips he had collected into his personal space, left the secret room through the teleportation array, returned to the underwater ruins, and then rushed out of the sea from the reefs.

After returning to Nanyuanfang, Li Yuan went into seclusion in a secret room in the backyard of Zhou He's pharmacy.

This time, the focus of my seclusion is on weapon crafting.

Li Yuan had been practicing at the third level of weapon crafting for some time now. Although he hadn't directly crafted any weapons while setting up arrays at the Bone Ridge, his improved array skills indirectly helped with the crafting process. The underlying logic of array patterns and weapon patterns is the same, and his advancement in array skills deepened his understanding of weapon patterns as well.

Li Yuan took out a large amount of refining materials from his personal space and filled the entire stone platform.

The items included: red copper essence, spirit silver ingots, sea-essence stone, fire chalcedony, and a small amount of scrap space materials previously acquired at an auction.

Begin refining.

Fifteen days later.

[Third-Tier Weapon Forging Skill: Proficient]

As his proficiency increased dramatically, Li Yuan also finished forging the last magical artifact.

A short blade about the length of a palm.

The blade is dark silver, with extremely fine spatial patterns flowing across its surface. It is made of a mixture of spatial materials and refined red copper, and is classified as a low-grade third-tier material.

The short blade has an extremely simple design, with no handguard, no decoration, and a blade so thin it is almost transparent.

Li Yuan took the short blade in his hand.

Blue light shone within a three-foot radius.

[Equipable item detected: Spatial Short Blade (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Spatial Edge (Blue)]

[Effect: The spiritual energy possesses a slight spatial cutting attribute, which can ignore a certain degree of physical defense; the power of spatial spells is increased by 20%]

[Preview of Permanentization Condition: Kill a cultivator of the same level using spatial magic]

Blue entries.

The combination of the Spatial Slicing attribute and Sky Rift Slash will produce an extremely terrifying effect.

After completing his weapon-forging task, Li Yuan began studying the various weapon-forging classics he had previously accumulated.

The Canglan Sect's spatial artifact crafting methods, Lao Fan's explanation of the natal artifact forging strategy, and the Sea Forging Method obtained through Alliance Exchange.

Along with more than a dozen books on weapon crafting theory collected from various markets, all were laid out on the stone platform.

The twelve lines of consciousness operate simultaneously, cross-referencing, summarizing, and organizing massive amounts of information.

A few days later, Li Yuan figured out the core logic of creating his natal magic weapon.

All the classic texts on weapon crafting agree on one point: the core of a magical artifact is not its material or shape, but its patterns.

The patterns on the object determine its function.

Sword-type magical artifacts are characterized by patterns that emphasize the impact of sword energy, releasing sharp sword energy when activated. Shield-type magical artifacts are characterized by patterns that emphasize the concentration of spiritual energy, forming a sturdy defensive barrier when activated. Mirror-type magical artifacts are characterized by patterns that emphasize the refraction of light, reflecting or detecting fluctuations in spiritual energy when activated.

But this is just a conventional way of combining them.

In reality, there is no necessary correspondence between the patterns on a magical artifact and its shape. The jade slips from the Canglan Sect record an extreme example: a mirror-like magical artifact, after being inlaid with impact-type patterns, released not light when activated, but was instead launched into a collision. The mirror surface is merely the carrier; the patterns are the core that determines its function.

The role of material and shape is to support and amplify the effect of the runes. Different materials have different affinity for different types of runes, and choosing the right material can maximize the effect of the runes. The shape affects the way spiritual energy is output; a sword shape is conducive to concentrated output, a shield shape is conducive to distributed absorption, and so on.

Based on this logic, an extremely ancient book on weapon crafting proposed a bold idea.

Universal changer pattern.

The core idea is to not rigidly inscribe a single, fixed pattern within the decorative patterns of ritual implements, but rather to design a system of variable pattern loops. By altering the connection method of these loops, the same ritual implement can exhibit different functions under different modes.

By combining different shapes of ritual implements, it is theoretically possible to achieve the effect of a single ritual implement having multiple functions.

However, while the idea is one thing, the actual implementation is extremely difficult.

The universal transformation rune requires a large number of redundant loops and switching nodes to be reserved in the rune layer, which means that the size of the magic weapon and the material consumption will increase exponentially. At the same time, the loss of spiritual power when switching rune modes is also considerable, and frequent switching will seriously deplete the cultivator's spiritual power reserves.

More importantly, different types of artifact patterns have varying degrees of affinity with materials. A material might perfectly suit impact-type artifact patterns but repel defensive artifact patterns. To make the same magical artifact compatible with multiple artifact patterns, the choice of materials is extremely demanding. Either top-grade spiritual materials with extremely high affinity must be used, or a composite structure made up of multiple materials must be employed.

Regardless of the approach chosen, the cost is substantial.

Li Yuan closed all the books and pondered for a moment.

The direction of the universal changer pattern perfectly matches my needs.

My fighting style isn't confined to any one fixed pattern; I use spiritual power, demonic energy, spatial manipulation, formations, and talismans in alternating ways. A single-function natal magic weapon would limit my scope for action.

The problem of high material consumption can be solved by upgrading materials. Start with medium-grade spiritual materials to build the framework of the artifact pattern loop, and then gradually replace them with higher-grade materials later.

The issue of spiritual energy depletion is not a problem at all. The spiritual energy reserves and recovery speed of the top-grade spiritual pills far exceed those of the same level, and with permanent affixes related to spiritual energy recovery all over the body, the consumption of switching artifact rune modes is completely bearable.

Li Yuan opened his eyes; he had determined his direction.

This personal magical artifact is crafted according to the concept of the universally transforming artifact pattern.

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