Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Chapter 558 Sea Fiend Condensing Yuan

In the later stages of their garrison duty, the frequency of attacks by monsters dropped dramatically.

The alliance strongholds sent a notification via communication runes: the demonic beast offensive has entered a clear period of decline. Golden Core cultivators stationed at various points may return to the strongholds for rotation and rest, depending on the situation.

When Li Yuan received the notice, he was meditating in seclusion at a temporary retreat point on the island.

Finish your practice and stand up.

Looking around the small island where we had been stationed for half a month, we saw rocky beaches, makeshift early warning arrays, and temporary checkpoints built with earth.

The spirit stone at the core of the early warning array still has most of its spiritual power remaining, so there is no need to retrieve it; it can remain here to continue operating.

Transforming into a beam of light, it flew towards the Alliance's stronghold.

When they landed at the stronghold, there were only the president and a Golden Core cultivator surnamed Zhao in the council hall.

"Have the monsters calmed down?" Li Yuan sat down in the empty seat.

"Things have calmed down for now," the chairman said cautiously.

"But the reason is unclear. I don't know if they were just tired from playing or if they were holding back."

"Where is the fourth-tier great demon?"

"The Dragon Abyss Pavilion reported that the last appearance of a fourth-tier aura was three days ago, and it hasn't been seen since."

The president hesitated for a moment, then said, "However, the Dragon Abyss Pavilion's formation was also attacked three days ago, and the repairs are not yet complete."

""

Li Yuan nodded without asking any further questions.

Back in the temporary seclusion room within the stronghold, the stone door closed.

He took out the monster materials he had accumulated during his nearly half-month stay in his personal space and sorted them out one by one and placed them on the stone table.

There are quite a few.

Forty-two wolffish teeth, thirty-six in good condition, and six broken. Fourteen armored crab shells, eight intact and six broken. Seven dark spiny ray tail spines, all intact. Twenty-one spiny backfish internal organs. In addition, there are scattered scales, bones, and a small amount of blood in a sealed bottle.

These are the four main types of materials.

The inner alchemy is the most valuable part.

Li Yuan arranged two thousand spiny fish inner cores in the center of the stone table.

Six of them had a very faint gray-black coating on their surface, almost invisible to the naked eye, but the Dark Fiend Insight's fusion attribute automatically gave a signal when they got close.

Residual demonic energy.

The six inner cores imbued with demonic energy were selected separately and sealed in a jade box isolated from spiritual energy.

The remaining fifteen clean inner elixir pieces were kept separately.

Then came a more detailed comparison.

Li Yuan took out the six inner cores imbued with demonic energy one by one, and used the fusion effect of Dark Insight combined with the enhanced perception of Spiritual Clarity to meticulously identify the layer of demonic energy on the surface of each inner core.

The demonic energy wasn't just attached to the surface. Within the core spiritual energy vortex of the inner core, a very fine thread of demonic energy was embedded, its characteristics even clearer than those remaining on the surface.

Li Yuan had seen this aura before.

During the final stretch of the journey in eastern Shuizhou before the Zhao family's covert agents entered the sea, the fresh traces of demonic energy on the target's body, the frequency and fluctuation pattern of the aura layer, highly matched the demonic energy threads in the core of the inner core before them.

homology.

Li Yuan put the inner elixir back into the jade box and closed it.

During their stay, they were attacked not only by second-tier monsters.

At night, the warning array suddenly issued a high-frequency alarm.

A low-grade, third-tier deep-sea iron fin shark charged straight at the island from the northeast. Its speed was extremely fast, and the spiritual energy fluctuations it generated during its underwater propulsion appeared as a white line in the divine sense.

The Ironfin Shark is five zhang long, its entire body covered in dark gray, metallic scales, with sharp, knife-like edges on its dorsal fin. Its strength, at the lower tier of the third order, is equivalent to the early Golden Core stage among cultivators.

Li Yuan got up from the reef and went into the water.

After achieving the Golden Core stage, the efficiency of spiritual power output increased by 20%, and the density of the dark golden blade light of the Sky-Splitting Slash increased significantly when it condensed in water.

The blade cut in about half an inch deep, and the bone-chilling demonic energy seeped into the wound.

The iron-finned shark let out a deep hiss, its body suddenly flipping over, its tail fin sweeping across. The force of the tail fin was immense; Li Yuan dodged to the side, the impact of the water causing him to sway slightly.

The second Sky-Splitting Slash followed immediately, striking the Ironfin Shark's head, causing its body to slowly turn white in the water.

Collect materials.

The Ironfin Shark's inner core was of far higher quality than that of a second-tier core, with the third-tier core gleaming with a dark silver luster. A sweep of Dark Insight revealed no residual demonic energy at the core.

This one is wild; it was attracted by the commotion on the battlefield, not driven by anyone.

The third-tier inner cores are stored separately.

Besides the attacks on the island by monsters, the intelligence sent back to the base by various parties during the garrison period also painted a larger picture.

The fourth-tier demon has made its move three more times in the past two weeks.

The first attack targeted a large island surrounding the Coral Palace, shattering its third-tier defensive array and looting its spirit ore mines. By the time the Coral Palace's Golden Core cultivators arrived, the fourth-tier demon had already departed, leaving behind only the devastated ruins of the array and the empty mine shafts.

The second instance was at another outer outpost of the Dragon Abyss Pavilion. The same pattern: destroy the formation, plunder the spirit ore and supplies.

The third operation was the largest, targeting a shared transit island between the Loose Cultivator Alliance and the Dragon Abyss Pavilion. The island contained a large amount of spiritual materials and pills temporarily stored by the alliance's cultivators. A fourth-tier demon, accompanied by more than ten third-tier demon beasts, completely overwhelmed the island's defenses, and all the supplies were looted.

The three attacks had one thing in common: none of them deliberately targeted or killed cultivators.

The fourth-tier demon's targets were always defensive formations and supply depots; as long as the stationed cultivators didn't stand in its way, the demon would even bypass them. During the three attacks, only a few cultivators were injured because they couldn't evacuate in time; no one died.

They looted the supplies but did not kill the cultivators.

This doesn't seem like the instinctive behavior of a monster.

After organizing the materials, Li Yuan sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes for a moment.

The meeting place was in the council chamber the following morning.

There were a few more Golden Core cultivators present than before Li Yuan took up his post. After the demonic beasts' offensive slowed down, some of the rogue Golden Core cultivators who had previously retreated returned.

The president's complexion was not good.

"A reply from the Kunpeng Alliance has arrived." He placed a communication jade slip on the table.

"The Nascent Soul senior said that the Heavenly Mountain Sect's Nascent Soul Ceremony is at a critical stage and cannot be returned for the time being."

The council chamber fell silent for a moment.

"How long is 'temporarily'?" someone asked.

"They didn't say that," the president shook his head. "The exact words were that it was inconvenient to leave before the ceremony ended."

The group exchanged glances and didn't press the matter further.

The president looked around, his gaze landing on Li Yuan before shifting away to continue discussing business.

"The situation has stabilized for the time being, but everyone should not let their guard down. Repairing the formations is the top priority. I have already communicated with the Dragon Abyss Pavilion and the Coral Palace, and the three parties will share the repair costs, prioritizing the repair of the core defensive formations of each stronghold."

After the meeting ended, Li Yuan did not leave immediately. He waited until everyone else had left before walking up to the chairman.

"There are a few things I'm giving to the Alliance."

Li Yuan took out the jade box containing the sealed demonic energy core from his personal space and placed it on the table. He then took out the rubbing of the encrypted talisman he had intercepted while tracking the Zhao family's secret agents.

"This jade box contains six inner cores containing remnants of demonic energy, selected from the demonic beasts killed in the past half month."

The president opened the jade box, glanced at it, and then looked at the rubbing of the encrypted talisman.

"The talisman imprints are encrypted communication records of the Yuan Sect that were intercepted earlier, involving communication information between demonic cultivators and external forces. By examining the two items together, they can be cross-verified."

The president remained silent for a moment.

"These things are quite valuable, and I'll calculate your contribution points according to the higher tier."

"OK."

Contribution points are credited to your account.

The accumulated contribution points are already quite considerable.

Li Yuan returned to his secluded room and pulled up the alliance's resource exchange list.

The goal is clear.

Two things on the list caught his attention.

A pill formula is called the Sea Fiend Gathering Essence Pill. Its core ingredient is the inner core of a sea monster, supplemented with several kinds of spiritual plants from the sea. The resulting pill can quickly restore spiritual power.

A talisman-making recipe called the Demon-Attracting Talisman. Using materials from demonic beasts as its core, the resulting talisman has an additional power boost when attacking demonic beasts.

Both of them use monsters as their core material.

Li Yuan has no shortage of monster materials.

I redeemed these two documents with contribution points.

After obtaining the jade slip, Li Yuan first looked through the formula for the Sea Fiend Condensing Essence Pill.

The formula is not complicated. It uses the inner core of a demon beast as the main ingredient, grinds it to extract its spiritual essence, and then uses the medicinal liquid of spiritual plants from the sea as a fusion medium to slowly refine the pill in a furnace at a medium to low temperature.

The method for making the Demon-Attracting Rune is even simpler. It involves grinding the inner core of a demon beast into powder, mixing it with spiritual ink, and then drawing it on specially made talisman paper using standard offensive spiritual rune techniques. Once completed, the talisman will have an attack amplification effect from the demon beast's aura.

The two sets of materials were quickly digested thanks to Wanfa Xizhen's doubled learning speed.

Li Yuan redistributed the monster materials on the stone table.

Sea wolf fish teeth, dark spiny tail spines, and some spiny back fish inner cores are classified as alchemy materials, while ironclad crab shells, some spiny back fish inner cores, and scattered scales are classified as talisman-making materials.

After the allocation was completed, we entered the alchemy chamber.

The alchemical furnace was set up, and the alchemical fire was lit.

The Blazing Sun Bright Fire Technique was activated, lowering the temperature of the elixir fire to the medium-low temperature range required by the elixir formula.

A moment later, the first batch of Sea Fiend Condensing Essence Pills was completed.

A pale blue pill fell into the palm of his hand, its surface faintly rippling like water.

The moment Li Yuan's finger touched the pill, a green-grade fluctuation emanated from it.

[Equipable item detected: Sea Fiend Essence Condensation Pill]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Sea Fiend Essence Condensation (Green)]

[Effect: Increases spiritual energy recovery speed by 30%, and the spiritual energy imbued with the aura of a demonic beast can reduce the hostility perceived by demonic beasts.]

[Preview of Permanentization Conditions: Consume and absorb this elixir a total of fifteen times in a marine environment, with each consumption occurring during a break in combat (0/15)]

Green entry. Permanent application requires accumulating 15 uses during lulls in naval combat; the conditions aren't difficult, but it takes time.

Li Yuan put the pills into his personal space, but did not equip them.

After several more batches were fired, the quality remained stable, and all of them were stored away.

Then they moved on to making talismans.

They moved from the alchemy chamber to the talisman-making table.

Take out the talisman; the permanent inscription controlled by the spirit allows the spirit ink to maintain an extremely high level of control precision.

With a single stroke, the standard offensive spirit runes were completed on the talisman paper. The stability of the spirit rune lines and the smoothness of the spiritual energy connection between the talisman veins operated in sync, with no hesitation between the spirit runes.

Finish writing.

As the talisman took shape, a faint dark blue light could be seen flowing within the spiritual patterns on its surface—the residual aura of the demon beast's inner core powder within the spiritual ink.

Li Yuan picked up the talisman.

A fluctuation in the green grade was detected.

[Equipable item detected: Demonic Charm Talisman]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Demonic Mark (Green)]

[Effect: Talismans made with materials from demonic beasts are more powerful by 20%, and the effects of practicing demonic beast techniques are increased by 30%]

[Preview of Permanentization Conditions: Successfully injure ten Tier 2 or higher monsters in actual combat using this type of talisman (0/10)]

Green entries. The conditions for permanentization also require practical experience.

Li Yuan carefully put away the talisman and then made several more of the same type, all of uniform quality.

All the remaining monster materials on the stone table were used up.

The pills and talismans were stored in different areas of his personal space.

Li Yuan tidied the table, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes for a moment, and then finished his practice and left seclusion.