Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Chapter 519 Outpost Inspection

The eastern side alley of Wulinfang Market is the Tianyue Sect quest location.

The Tianyue Sect disciple in charge of distributing the mission verified Li Yuan's identity as a rogue cultivator and his eligibility to take on the task, and handed over the mission documents and allocated supplies together.

Two items.

One is a palm-sized, grayish-white stone with several spirit runes engraved on its surface. It is used to record spiritual energy fluctuations and sound images for collecting evidence. The other is a flat, dark brown stone containing a sample of demonic energy. It is used to identify demonic cultivators, and its surface heats up when matching frequency demonic energy appears nearby.

Li Yuan held the photo and audio record stone in his palm.

A green light appeared.

[Equipable item detected: Image and Sound Recording Stone (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Shadow and Sound Traces (Green)]

[Effect: Increases the efficiency of spiritual sense discrimination by 30%; allows for the capture of more details of spiritual energy fluctuations]

[Preview of Permanentization Conditions: Successfully recorded three different Golden Core-level spiritual power clashes using the Recording Stone (0/3)]

[Current equipment slot is full (5/5). Replace current equipment?]

The green attribute is effective. However, my equipment slots are full, and the Ink Spirit Pen's permanent upgrade is still progressing, so it's not advisable to replace it. The Recording Stone is a quest tool; once equipped, its physical form disappears, rendering it unusable for recording evidence.

Income is portable and doesn't require equipment.

After carefully storing the two supplies, Li Yuan transformed into a beam of light and left the Misty Forest Market, flying north.

Lingzhou is north of Liangzhou, separated by Yunzhou and a vast, unclaimed wasteland. After flying continuously for several days, the landscape below began to change after crossing the wasteland.

Lingzhou's area far exceeds expectations.

The entire continent spans over a thousand miles from north to south and is even wider laterally. Mountains, plains, valleys, and deserts are interspersed, creating a complex terrain. The concentration of spiritual energy is much lower than in Liangzhou, but some areas have extremely dense demonic energy, which, from a distance, resembles dark scars on the earth.

Li Yuan settled in a small town on the southern edge of Lingzhou and spent a day gathering information.

Lingzhou is a state exclusively controlled by the Yuan Sect, but it is not entirely populated by demonic cultivators.

There are many independent cultivators in the state, and quite a few people practice spiritual cultivation techniques. However, all the large-scale forces are all affiliated with the Yuan Sect.

From Golden Core families to Foundation Establishment sects, and then to the managers of various markets, the clan leaders and sect leaders are all disciples of the Yuan Sect or their designated agents.

The Yuanzong sect did not control Lingzhou through direct administration, but rather through a loose power network formed by the Golden Core families.

Yuanzong itself has no subordinate sects and does not directly manage markets and territories. It only needs to ensure that the patriarch of each Golden Core family is one of its own, and the rest of the affairs are handled by each family itself.

Lingzhou's economy is rather average.

The external demand for spiritual materials from demonic cultivators is far lower than that from spiritual cultivators, resulting in a consistently weak internal market for spiritual materials. A large quantity of spiritual materials produced in Lingzhou are sold externally through the White Mirror Market, with most ending up in the hands of the three sects of White Mirror, where prices are driven very low.

In addition, the materials needed by demonic cultivators are too scarce on land, so trade in Lingzhou has always been sluggish.

Another important piece of news: To the north of Lingzhou lies a desolate sea, and on the other side of that sea, there are also demonic cultivation forces, among which are sects that have long been enemies with the Yuan Sect. Most of the time, the Yuan Sect has the upper hand.

After compiling the information, Li Yuan set off for the mission objective area.

The target of the mission is the Zhen family, which is under the jurisdiction of Yuanzong, and the clan leader is Zhen Yuanhai, who is in the middle stage of the Golden Core realm.

The Zhen family's territory is located in a mountainous area in the south-central part of Lingzhou, with their stronghold situated in a valley surrounded by mountains on three sides.

Li Yuan did not approach directly.

He landed on a mountain peak more than thirty miles outside the stronghold, his divine sense probing far into the distance. The passive perception of the Myriad Manifestations Reversal continued to operate, taking in all the spiritual energy fluctuations around him.

The defensive array at the Zhen family stronghold was of low grade, only at the upper level of the second tier, and could not effectively shield the divine sense of a Golden Core cultivator. However, Li Yuan did not use his divine sense to probe directly, but instead adopted a more covert method.

There were fluctuations of demonic energy circulating within the stronghold.

After merging with the demon, Li Yuan's perception of demonic energy underwent a qualitative change.

The spiral structure within the dark golden core granted him a level of ability to discern the frequency, waveform, and encoding of demonic energy far exceeding that of ordinary demonic cultivators. The demonic energy transmissions circulating within the Zhen family stronghold were, in his perception, almost identical to plain text.

The message was pieced together from fragments.

The Zhen family has recently been secretly contacting an external force. This force is not in Lingzhou, but rather originates from the Liangzhou region.

Tianyue Sect.

The Zhen family is secretly contacting the Tianyue Sect to discuss the possibility of cooperation. The prerequisite for cooperation is that the Tianyue Sect's Nascent Soul Sect Master successfully ascends to the Divine Transformation realm. If the Divine Transformation is successful, the Tianyue Sect's strength will far surpass that of the Yuan Sect, and the Zhen family will directly side with the Tianyue Sect, breaking free from the Yuan Sect's control.

Hedging his bets. He'll remain loyal to the Yuanzong sect as usual, while secretly establishing ties with the Tianyue sect. He'll make a choice once the situation becomes clearer.

The message also mentioned some details. The Zhen family was not the only Golden Core family secretly contacting the Tianyue Sect; at least three or four other families within Lingzhou were doing similar things. The Yuan Sect seemed to be aware of this but took no action; pressure from hostile forces in the north might have made the Yuan Sect unwilling to engage in major internal strife.

I have enough information, but there's one thing I don't understand.

The task issued by the Tianyue Sect was to collect evidence of cooperation between the Zhen family and the Tianyue Sect. However, the Tianyue Sect itself was a party to the cooperation and should have all the communication records in its possession. Why would it need to spend contribution points to hire an outsider to collect this evidence?

Li Yuan took out the image and sound recording stone and recorded the intercepted demonic energy transmission waveforms and contents one by one. The spiritual patterns on the image and sound recording stone glowed slightly during the recording process, completely sealing the frequency and coding characteristics of the demonic energy fluctuations inside the stone.

After carefully storing the photo and audio record stone, Li Yuan sat on the mountain peak for a while.

It's possible that the Tianyue Sect isn't a monolithic entity, and the faction that issued the mission and the faction that contacted the Zhen family are not the same group of people.

Or perhaps this cooperation is still in a highly secretive stage, and Tianyue Sect needs external evidence without its own traces to provide a pretext for some kind of internal power struggle or to make the cooperation public.

This is just speculation. We don't have enough information to make a judgment.

Li Yuan got up, left the mountain peak, and flew towards the Yuanzong territory market in the southern part of Lingzhou.

The market is called Xuanxu Market. It is not large in scale, but it is the most important trading place in the southern part of Lingzhou.

The layout of the market town differs significantly from that of Liangzhou. There are fewer shops, and the shops themselves are smaller, with sparse pedestrian traffic on the streets. While demonic cultivators don't engage in frequent transactions, and most have limited external needs, spirit stones remain the universally accepted method of exchange. Since demonic energy cannot be directly used for trade, the liquidity of spirit stones is irreplaceable anywhere.

Li Yuan strolled around the market.

The general stores and spiritual material shops had far fewer items than those in Liangzhou, but occasionally one could find demonic cultivation supplies that were difficult to obtain in Liangzhou. These included materials containing malevolent energy, auxiliary materials for pills catalyzed by demonic energy, and several special tools for carving demonic runes.

A flash of white light appeared when my finger touched a thin, dark copper-colored sheet.

The copper plate, about two fingers wide, has a faint layer of malevolent energy clinging to its surface. It is priced at three spirit stones.

Li Yuan bought it and held it in his palm.

[Equipable item detected: Bane of Evil (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Aura of Deception (White)]

[Effect: Slightly improves the accuracy of identifying the direction of negative energy sources]

White entries are made permanent.

【The phrase "煞息辨向 (白)" has become a permanent entry.

The copper sheet shattered and dissipated in his palm. The permanent information depicted a cultivator orienting himself amidst dense malevolent energy; its practical value was limited.

Keep going.

In a secluded corner of a shop, a dark green jade ring caught my eye.

Green light.

Li Yuan walked into the shop and picked up the jade ring.

The jade ring is dark green all over, with extremely fine magic patterns on the surface. It is exquisitely crafted and of high quality, around the second tier.

The moment he touched her, Li Yuan sensed two things.

The text appears to be a series of unrelated phrases and sentences, possibly from different sources. A direct translation wouldn't be meaningful without the full context.

The markings were almost identical to those on the mysterious, dark-patterned spiritual artifact in Baijing Market. Faint, concealed, and virtually undetectable without active investigation. The same technique, the same aura characteristics.

Li Yuan paid with spirit stones, and a panel popped up.

[Equipable item detected: Jade Ring with Demonic Pattern (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Sharpness of Fiery Source (Green)]

[Effect: Increases the ability to trace the source of malevolent and demonic energy by 30%; allows the discernment of subtle differences between malevolent/demonic energy from different sources]

[Preview of Permanentization Conditions: Successfully tracked and identified five different sources of malevolent or demonic energy (0/5)]

[Current equipment slot is full (5/5). Replace current equipment?]

The tracking aura on his body intensified upon contact. Combined with the one from the Xuan You Dark Pattern Spiritual Artifact in Bai Jing Fang Market, he now had two tracking marks on his body, making his aura significantly stronger than before.

The same tracking method was used in Baijingfang City and Yuanzong territory in Lingzhou. The two places are more than a thousand miles apart, separated by the entire Liangzhou and Yunzhou.

There was no rush to remove it.

In another shop in the market, Li Yuan bought three jade slips containing second-tier demonic cultivation spells: one offensive, one defensive, and one supportive. The resources for demonic cultivation spells in Lingzhou were far more abundant and cheaper than in Liangzhou; these spells were very difficult to find in Liangzhou.

The three jade slips contain no entries.

Li Yuan packed up all his belongings, left Xuanxu City, and transformed into a beam of light, flying south.

The evidence for the Lingzhou mission is complete; we can now begin the second mission.