Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Chapter 548 The Zhao Family's Hidden Motives

When they returned to Wulin Market, Ji Wenyuan was in the main hall processing a list of newly arrived goods.

The spiritual energy fluctuations in the early Foundation Establishment stage were stable and orderly, and his speed in processing documents was much faster than in the Qi Refining stage. Li Yuan no longer needed to worry about the daily operation of the market, as Ji Wenyuan managed the trivial matters such as resource allocation, shop leasing, and patrol scheduling in an orderly manner.

"Master, nothing major has happened lately. Another group of independent cultivators has moved into the northern new district, and the spirit material shop's inventory is being depleted 20% faster than last month. I've already asked the Mingyuan Chamber of Commerce to replenish it."

Li Yuan nodded, flipped through a few pages of accumulated documents, none of which required his personal attention.

"What about Qinghefang Market?"

"It's operating normally, and passenger flow has increased again after the second phase of expansion."

Li Yuan put down the document and turned back to his secluded room.

The three arrays in the alchemy chamber activated automatically the moment he stepped inside. The alchemy fire temperature control array, the spiritual energy purification array, and the alchemy essence stabilization array operated in sequence, and the spiritual energy circulation path was clearly visible in the perception of the array dao tian shu.

After the alchemy array's radiance became permanent, the integration between the array and alchemy reached a new level. The array's spiritual energy circulation became more sensitive to the state of the medicinal liquid within the furnace, almost achieving semi-automatic adjustment.

The condition for achieving permanent Dan Yuan condensation is to successfully refine eight batches consecutively, with each batch reaching at least the medium grade. Currently at progress level three, five more batches are needed.

Li Yuan set up the alchemy furnace and took out the materials.

First refine the Divine Detective Pill, then refine the Heavenly Origin Pill.

With all five furnaces completed, the quality of each furnace was above medium grade, and none of them failed.

A panel pops up.

The conditions for permanent Dan Yuan Condensation (Blue) have been met.

【Condition: Successfully refine eight batches consecutively, with each batch reaching at least medium quality √ (8/8)】

【The phrase "Dan Yuan Chen Ning (Blue)" has become a permanent entry.】

The Detective Pill in the personal space dissipated.

The image appeared and then disappeared.

A wealth of experience has entered my mind on the sophisticated methods for resolving conflicts between medicinal properties.

The effects of the permanent condensation of the elixir essence take effect immediately. The ability to predict the conflicting properties of medicinal ingredients, which previously required a thorough understanding of alchemy principles, becomes a semi-instinctive intuition. The spiritual energy consumption during pill refining is also permanently reduced by 20%, which, combined with the 30% reduction in consumption from the Primordial Spirit Pool, results in nearly half the spiritual energy consumption required for pill refining compared to when one first learns the third stage of pill refining.

Li Yuan cleaned the alchemy furnace, finished his cultivation, and exited seclusion.

That evening, the communication token lit up.

Xuanpu Zhenren.

"Fellow Daoist Li, there is a task. The contribution you make upon completion, combined with your existing accumulation, will be enough to exchange for a Nascent Soul cultivation manual."

Li Yuan received the message and listened to it.

"There is a Golden Core clan in Lingzhou, surnamed Zhao. We need two things: first, to infiltrate the Zhao family to gather intelligence; second, to track the movements of a specific target."

Why did you choose me?

"Two reasons." Xuanpu's tone was straightforward. "First, the Yuanyang Sect has your intelligence file, which contains records of your previous cooperation with the Yuanyang Sect in infiltrating demonic cultivator strongholds, indicating that you have infiltration experience. Second, the Nascent Soul Ceremony is still underway, and most of the sect's Golden Core cultivators are unable to leave, so there aren't many people who can be sent out."

The reasons are sufficient.

"What about the target's information?"

"The aura token will be delivered to you tomorrow. It contains the aura characteristics of the target, which can be activated with divine sense to track them once you arrive in Lingzhou. Specific family information and clues about contact channels will also be sent to you."

'

"OK."

The following morning, a disciple of the Tianyue Sect delivered an aura token and an intelligence document to the Misty Forest Market.

The aura token is a jade piece about the size of a thumb, containing the spiritual energy characteristics of the target person. After activating it with his divine sense, Li Yuan memorized the frequency and fluctuation pattern of the aura.

The intelligence document was brief but well-organized. The Zhao family had operated in central Lingzhou for over three hundred years, boasting two Golden Core cultivators, more than ten Foundation Establishment disciples, and even more Qi Refining disciples. They were a medium-sized cultivation family in Lingzhou, primarily engaged in the trade of spiritual materials and mining.

After digesting the contents of the intelligence document line by line, Li Yuan stored it in his personal space and transformed into a beam of light, flying towards Lingzhou.

The technique operates stealthily and silently, its aura suppressed to the late stage of Foundation Establishment.

In the central part of Lingzhou, the town where the Zhao family is located is called Zhaoyang Town. It is not large in scale, and it revolves around the main residence of the Zhao family and its affiliated industries. The population is mainly composed of Zhao family disciples and independent cultivators who rely on the Zhao family.

Li Yuan did not enter Zhao Yang Town directly, but landed ten miles outside the town. After adjusting his appearance and aura with the illusion mask, he disguised himself as a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator passing through the area and walked into the town.

After the Concealing Meridians and Hiding Qi became permanent, the suppression of meridian energy was extremely thorough. The Hidden and Unseen Techniques completely concealed his true cultivation level, while the Spiritual Wave Concealment and Dark Demon Concealment operated simultaneously. With Li Yuan's current combined concealment techniques, even two Golden Core cultivators wouldn't detect anything unusual when their divine senses swept over him.

After entering the town, they first stayed at an inn and spent two days wandering around the town as independent cultivators, figuring out the general layout of the Zhao family's main residence and their daily patrol routes.

At night, Li Yuan climbed out of the inn window and disappeared into the shadows.

The defensive array of the Zhao family's main residence was a second-tier high-grade array, practically useless against Golden Core cultivators. Instead of breaking the array, Li Yuan found a natural weak point in the array's spiritual energy circulation path. After precisely locating it using the perception of the Array Dao Heavenly Pivot, he transformed spiritual energy into extremely fine threads that seeped into the gaps of the weak point, creating a passage within the array that would not trigger an alarm.

The entire process was completely silent.

The layout of the Zhao family's main residence was basically consistent with the description in the intelligence documents. Two Golden Core cultivators were in secluded cultivation rooms on the east and west sides of the main residence, respectively. Their spiritual energy fluctuations were stable, indicating that they were either cultivating or resting.

Li Yuan did not approach the Golden Core cultivator, but instead moved towards the tent room on the north side of the main residence.

The accounting office is the core area where the Zhao family handles external affairs; all documents, letters, and trade records are stored here.

In the dead of night, only one disciple at the late stage of Qi Refining was on night duty in the tent.

The hallucination spell was activated, and the disciple on night duty yawned, tilted his head back in his chair, and his breathing became even.

The spiritual energy transformed into extremely fine threads, seeping in through the window cracks and prying open the inner door.

Push the door open and go inside.

The tent was piled high with bamboo slips and jade slips. Li Yuan's divine sense, with a precision at the minor completion level, simultaneously probed into several jade slips, quickly scanning their contents.

Most of them are ordinary records of the spiritual materials trade and have no value.

But in a locked wooden box in the corner of the tent, Li Yuan found several jade slips stored separately. The lock on the wooden box was a simple first-order restriction, which Li Yuan unlocked with a single use of his spiritual power.

The jade slip contains information about the exchanges between the Zhao family and Yuanzong.

However, the problem is that the information is false.

The real information was a coded booklet composed of demonic energy, which Li Yuan cracked in an hour.

Li Yuan put the jade slip back in its original place, locked the wooden box again, and after leaving the tent, he used a thread of spiritual energy to probe through the window crack, reset the door latch, and then left silently.

The disciple on night duty was still dozing off.

Li Yuan then circled the Zhao family's main residence again, activating his aura token to track the target's presence. A faint echo of the target's aura lingered in a side room of the main residence, indicating that the target had recently visited the Zhao family but was not currently present.

Li Yuan noted down the location of the side room and the intensity of the lingering aura, using this information to estimate the approximate time the target left.

No more than five days.

After leaving the Zhao family's main residence, Li Yuan returned to the inn.

The rubbings of information were of little use to him, as they couldn't be used to draw any conclusions. However, for the Tianyue Sect, these fragmented pieces of information could be cross-referenced with their existing intelligence network, and their value might far exceed what appeared to be on the surface.

Li Yuan then used his escape light to leave Zhao Yang Town.