Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Chapter 549 The Hidden Line Enters the Sea

The target's aura, sealed within the aura token, left faint traces on the official road outside the town, pointing southeast, roughly coinciding with the wasteland area in eastern Lingzhou.

The stealth system continued to operate, advancing low into the air along the direction of the remaining traces of the aura.

The remaining scent was faint and unevenly spaced, indicating that the target had deliberately concealed itself during its journey.

However, the aura token is extremely accurate in locking onto the target's aura frequency. Combined with the fusion entry of spiritual insight and the keen ability to distinguish aura fluctuations after the permanent concealment of meridians and breath, even discontinuous traces can still be strung together into a complete route.

The tracking lasted for most of the day.

The lingering aura shifted from the hilly area in eastern Lingzhou into Jingzhou.

While tracking, the passive perception of the spatial search technique detected another fluctuation.

Extremely faint spatial fluctuations.

The fluctuation did not originate from the ground, but from the void about three feet above the dry riverbed.

Li Yuan stood up and actively released a detection wave using his Space Searching Technique at the Proficiency level.

The probe wave swept across the void above the dry riverbed, and the permanent entries for tracing the void traces operated synchronously. The historical trajectory of the vanished spatial channel faintly emerged in perception.

There was once a very brief spatial rift or passage here, which opened for an extremely short time before quickly closing and dissipating, leaving only the faintest trace of fluctuation.

Someone has used spatial techniques here.

Li Yuan closed his eyes and sensed for a moment, comparing the location and characteristics of this spatial fluctuation remnant with the spatial observation array data he had previously copied in the ruins.

The geographical locations overlap.

The analysis lasted about 35 minutes.

A panel pops up.

The conditions for permanentizing the hollow texture (blue) have been met.

【Condition: Successfully analyzed three different sources of spatial rune structures √ (3/3)】

[The deconstructed blue pattern has become a permanent term]

The fragments of the Jade Slip with Empty Pattern Analysis in the Equipment Slot have shattered and dissipated.

A scene flashed into my mind.

A monk stood in front of a huge stone wall.

The stone wall was covered with densely packed spatial runes, the patterns intertwined and overlapping, so complex as to be dazzling. The cultivator extended his right index finger, touching the tip of the rune to a specific node, and infused it with spiritual power.

As the cultivator meticulously dissected the spiritual patterns on the entire stone wall, they transformed from a chaotic whole into a series of logically clear functional modules. The purpose of each module, the flow of spiritual energy, and its connection with adjacent modules were all automatically revealed during the disassembly process.

The instinctive understanding of the underlying logic of spatial runes sank into the sea of ​​consciousness.

The image disappeared.

The effects of permanent spatial rune deconstruction take effect immediately. Disassembling spatial runes no longer requires actively activating the entry function for layer-by-layer analysis; instead, it becomes a passive, instinctive process—the basic structure of a spatial rune is automatically recognized upon sight. The learning speed of spatial spells is also permanently increased by 30%.

After organizing the information, Li Yuan continued to track the target's presence.

The aura extended southeastward from Jingzhou, crossed the border between Jingzhou and Shuizhou, and entered Shuizhou territory.

The target did not use the teleportation array.

Li Yuan continued to follow, and after entering Shuizhou, the residual aura became even thinner due to the nature of the barren land.

The intervals between lingering traces of the breath increased from several miles to more than ten miles, and some sections of the road even broke completely.

However, the frequency of the aura token's lock-on remained unchanged. As long as the search area was expanded at the break point, traces could always be recaptured within a deviation of about a thousand miles.

Starting from the eastern part of Shuizhou, the direction of the aura shifted towards the sea.

The target has entered the sea.

Li Yuan followed and entered the water.

The difficulty of underwater tracking has increased dramatically.

The currents of the seawater severely erode any remaining scent. While scent residue on land can linger for days in gravel and mud, scent residue in water is rapidly dispersed and diluted by the ocean currents. This reduces the effective detection range of the scent token's locking frequency in water by nearly half.

Li Yuan slowed down, and his heightened spiritual awareness pushed the precision of his aura detection to the limit, meticulously sifting through the seawater for any remaining traces of the target's aura.

The tracking direction shifted southeast.

I'm very familiar with this area.

About half a day later, the seabed topography ahead changed. A series of undulating underwater mountain ranges rose from the seabed, stretching for thousands of miles.

The underwater mountain range where the Monster Alliance is located.

The traces of the remaining aura extended to the outer edge of the mountain range before suddenly disappearing.

It wasn't a natural disappearance caused by ocean currents, but rather as if it had been severed by something. After the target entered the territory of the Demon Beast Alliance, the means of concealing its aura were upgraded, or external forces intervened to help erase the traces.

Li Yuan stopped five miles outside the mountain range.

No follow-up was made.

The Demon Beast Alliance is guarded by fourth-tier demon beasts and has more than ten third-tier demon beasts, so venturing in recklessly is too risky. Moreover, the target of this mission is a specific individual in the Tianyue Sect's mission, and the objective is to ascertain their whereabouts and the communication channels between the Zhao family and the Yuan Sect, not to assassinate them.

The fact that the target entered the territory of the Monster Alliance is itself a valuable piece of intelligence, indicating that there is collusion between the Yuan Sect and the Monster Alliance.

Li Yuan paused for a moment among the coral reefs on the outskirts of the mountains, memorizing the tracking route, the location of the point where the aura broke off, and the direction the target entered the mountains.

He then turned and left.

But Li Yuan did not leave the sea area.

The intelligence gathering is too fast; it would be better to wait a while.

There are many spiritual materials circulating in several independent cultivator gathering points near the alliance's stronghold. Li Yuan spent two days acquiring a batch of auxiliary materials for third-tier pills and several uncommon refining materials. The items salvaged from the deep sea by independent cultivators in the sea area are of various kinds, but occasionally they can find rare materials that cannot be bought in inland markets.

After gathering all the materials, they transformed into a beam of light and returned to Misty Forest Market.

The stone door to the seclusion chamber was closed.

The mission information was compiled into a jade slip and sent to Xuanpu via a communication token.

Xuanpu replied quickly.

"Task completed, contribution points settled. Combined with the previously accumulated points, the exchange amount for the Nascent Soul Scripture is now sufficient."

However, the scriptures cannot be delivered by disciples; you will have to come to the sect to retrieve them yourself.

"it is good."

After receiving the message, Li Yuan sat down cross-legged.

The Burning Wood Longevity Technique is activated.

The cultivation of the third-tier wood-elemental technique lingered at the mastery stage for some time. The final hurdle between mastery and perfection lies in the complete integration of the regeneration cycle of wood-elemental spiritual power with one's own spiritual power system. The regeneration cycle at the mastery stage can automatically replenish a small amount of consumption during spiritual power circulation, but the efficiency and coverage of the replenishment have not yet reached their limit.

The perfect stage requires the regeneration cycle of wood-type spiritual energy to cover every meridian, every muscle, and every bone in the body, forming a passive recovery network without any blind spots.

The learning speed of "Ten Thousand Methods Practice True Truth" doubles, the comprehension of "Enlightenment of the Pure Tea" accelerates by 50%, and the passive improvement of "Mastery of Techniques" operates simultaneously.

The seclusion lasted for several days.

The regeneration cycle of wood-type spiritual energy gradually expands from the main meridians to the smaller branches, with the coverage area advancing little by little. With each branch that expands, the passive recovery efficiency of spiritual energy increases by one point.

The moment the last terminal meridian was covered by the wood-based regeneration cycle, the flow of spiritual energy throughout the body underwent a qualitative change.

It's no longer an active replenishment during the circulation of spiritual energy, but a passive recovery that occurs constantly throughout the body. Even without circulating the cultivation technique, the wood-type spiritual energy regenerates itself in the meridians at an extremely slow rate, like an inexhaustible forest breathing quietly within the body.

The Burning Wood Longevity Mantra is now complete.