Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Chapter 563 The Aftermath of the Remnant People

Before handing the three spies over to the Tianyue Sect, Li Yuan first went to check the two hideouts obtained during the interrogation.

Deer Cry Ridge, located on the eastern edge of Liangzhou, is a continuous range of low hills. Li Yuan, using the technique of Concealment, suppressed his aura and conducted a long-range scan within a five-mile radius of Deer Cry Ridge. His master-level spatial detection technique, combined with the demonic energy identification of Dark Insight, detected extremely faint demonic energy fluctuations in an underground cave deep within the hills. The frequency and characteristics of these fluctuations were identical to the demonic energy concealment techniques used by the three scouts.

There are people inside, but not many, and their auras are all at the Foundation Establishment stage.

The Kuhe Valley is located southeast of Liangzhou, and the situation is similar. There are faint traces of demonic energy remaining in a crevice beneath a dried-up riverbed. The degree of decay of the remaining energy is greater than that of Luming Ridge, indicating that this foothold has not been used frequently recently and may be a backup location.

There was no aura of a Golden Core level cultivator in either place.

Li Yuan recorded the locations, underground structures, and aura information of the two hideouts in a jade slip and sent it to Xuan Pu via a communication token, handing them over along with the three survivors.

We didn't alert them.

After dealing with the affairs of Yuanzong's spies, Li Yuan turned to Mozhou.

As the light swept across the southern part of Liangzhou and entered the edge of Mozhou, the concentration of spiritual energy on the ground plummeted. The desolation of Mozhou remained unchanged, with the gray-brown stone wasteland stretching to the horizon.

It landed outside that familiar crack entrance on the edge of the rocky wasteland.

The guards outside the rift were no longer two survivors, but four. The two extra men looked young, representing a new generation that had grown up in the settlement.

Upon seeing Li Yuan's presence, the four did not stop him; one of the older guards turned and went to report.

After waiting for a while, it wasn't Old Shen who came up.

He was a middle-aged male cultivator at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage. Li Yuan had met him a few times. He was one of the main leaders of the settlement, and his surname was Zhou.

The person in charge, Zhou, bowed with his hands clasped in greeting, his expression calm.

"Senior Li, Elder Shen passed away three days ago."

His tone was flat, as if he were talking about something he had planned long ago.

"End of life?"

"He died of old age." Zhou, the person in charge, nodded. "Old Shen remained lucid for the last few days, and closed his eyes only after finishing his work on the settlement's affairs. He passed away peacefully."

Li Yuan remained silent for a moment.

My relationship with Mr. Shen was not deep. It began with the accidental discovery of a settlement of remnants of the ancient people while exploring the Stone Wasteland of Mozhou. Subsequent interactions amounted to nothing more than a few instances of providing supplies and brief conversations. Mr. Shen's dedication and perseverance towards the settlement are worthy of respect, but there was no personal relationship between the two that went beyond the scope of cooperation.

"Are the funeral arrangements complete?"

"It has been taken care of according to Mr. Shen's instructions before his death."

Li Yuan nodded.

"I brought some supplies to leave for the settlement. There are also a few other things that need to be arranged."

With Zhou, the person in charge, leading the way, Li Yuan followed him down into the crevice.

The settlement was larger than when I last visited. Several newly built stone houses stood close to the old ones, and the population had increased by about 20%. The cultivators in the settlement were mainly at the Qi Refining stage, with no more than five at the Foundation Establishment stage.

Li Yuan then took out a communication jade piece.

"The Mingyuan Chamber of Commerce is our communication channel. Whenever the settlement needs to replenish supplies, we can order directly through this channel. It will be done quarterly; you can decide the types and quantities yourself, and the Chamber of Commerce will arrange for delivery to the handover point on the edge of Mozhou."

Steward Zhou took the jade piece and carefully put it away.

"Thank you, Senior Li."

"You can manage the affairs within the settlement yourselves; I won't interfere."

"clear."

Having finished explaining the situation, Li Yuan didn't linger and returned to the surface along the crack.

They transformed into streaks of light and left Mozhou, flying towards the sea.

It was already evening when they arrived at the stronghold of the Loose Cultivator Alliance.

The atmosphere inside the stronghold was much calmer than before they left. The monster attacks continued to slow down, the alarm frequency of the monster detection array remained low, and there were no new sightings of monsters of rank three or above from any direction.

After reporting to the stronghold, Li Yuan began a new round of inspections and maintenance of the twelve demon-detecting arrays the following day.

The erosion of spirit runes by seawater is continuous. The grooves in the spirit runes of underwater nodes will gradually become shallower under long-term immersion in seawater, thus reducing the efficiency of spirit energy conduction. Nodes in deeper locations or those subject to stronger currents will wear out faster and require periodic re-engraving.

Li Yuan started from point number one and checked each seat one by one.

After the inspection, Li Yuan returned to the base and retrieved the complete early warning records of the twelve demon-detecting arrays since their deployment.

Records show that location number four has the highest cumulative number of warnings. Located in the southeast, directly facing the Monster Alliance's activity area, location four consistently has the highest warning frequency of all locations.

With the two formations combined with the cumulative number of warnings from previous attacks on demonic beasts, Number Four has conducted over forty reconnaissance missions.

A panel pops up.

The conditions for making the Demon Mirror (Green) permanent have been met.

[Condition: Successfully trigger warnings for 40 monster events using the detection formation centered around this formation's core √ (40/40)]

The "Demon Tracking Mirror (Green)" has become a permanent entry.

The key stone of the demon-detecting array at the center of the array shattered and dissipated.

A scene flashed into my mind.

A cultivator stood before the central panel of a large array. The panel was densely covered with dots of light, each dot representing the location of a demonic beast. The dots varied in color, size, and brightness, corresponding to the type, grade, and activity status of the demonic beasts.

The cultivator did not manipulate the array. The information from the light spots automatically flowed into his senses, as naturally as breathing. The cultivator turned and walked out of the array's coverage area. The light spots disappeared, but he could still sense the approximate location and strength of the auras of several demonic beasts in the distance.

No longer needing formations as a medium, detecting the aura of demonic beasts has become instinctive.

The image disappeared.

The sensitivity of divine sense to detect the aura of demonic beasts is permanently increased by 30%, and the probability of being detected when searching for demonic beasts is permanently reduced by 50%. This is a significant boost, especially useful in environments like the sea where demonic beasts are abundant.

After the array eye at point four dissipates, a new array eye spirit stone needs to be replaced. Li Yuan noted this down and will deal with it during the next inspection.

After returning to the stronghold, Li Yuan used his accumulated contribution points to exchange for the Nascent Soul advancement manuals on the recruitment list.

This book consumes a very high number of contribution points, but Li Yuan has accumulated a large number of contribution points through his deployment, garrisoning, and intelligence provision in the sea area, which is enough to redeem it.

After obtaining the jade slip, do not rush to read it carefully; instead, store it in your personal space.

In the days that followed, Li Yuan shifted his focus of cultivation to tempering his soul.

I have carried the Soul Tempering Manual with me ever since I exchanged it at Tianyue Sect. The green entry on it, which is attached to the manual, is permanent only if the soul is effectively tempered for two thousand consecutive days using a soul-type cultivation technique.

Once the Soul Condensation and Consciousness Control Technique is mastered, the precision and strength of the divine consciousness lines are sufficient for high-intensity soul tempering.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged in the secluded cultivation room and began to circulate the Soul Condensation and Consciousness Control Technique.

It lasted for twenty days without interruption.

By the end of the twentieth day of tempering, all areas of the soul's surface had undergone complete compaction. The originally slightly uneven surface of the soul had formed a uniform, stable structure under repeated tempering, as if a thin and dense protective film had been coated on the outside of the soul.

A panel pops up.

The conditions for permanent Soul Refinement Micro (Green) have been met.

[Condition: Effective tempering of the soul using a soul-based cultivation technique for twenty consecutive days √ (20/20)]

[Soul Refinement Micro (Green) has become a permanent entry]

The jade slip containing the essential principles of soul tempering in the personal space shattered and dissipated.

A scene flashed into my mind.

An ancient cultivator sat cross-legged in a dimly lit stone chamber, his eyes slightly closed. Dozens of extremely fine threads of divine consciousness extended from the cultivator's sea of ​​consciousness, meandering across the surface of his soul like threads threading a needle. In each area traversed by a thread, the texture of his soul became denser and more uniform.

The silk threads traveled back and forth countless times, eventually forming a semi-transparent film on the surface of the soul. The film was extremely uniform in thickness and shimmered with a soft glow under the illumination of spiritual energy.

The image disappeared.

The understanding of the subtle techniques for tempering the soul sank into the sea of ​​consciousness.

The effects of the Soul Refining and Microscopic Permanentization take effect immediately. The cultivation speed of techniques related to Soul Tempering is permanently increased by 30%, and the precision of the subtle perception of the Soul body is permanently enhanced.

Collect power.

Li Yuan took out the Nascent Soul Advancement Manual he had just exchanged from his personal space.

There was only one jade slip, but its contents were thicker than the three basic books combined.

The learning speed of "Wanfa Xizhen" doubles and the comprehension of "Wudao Qingming" accelerates by 50% simultaneously.

I went through the table of contents and framework.

Unlike the three basic books, this classic text is not comprehensive, but it provides in-depth explanations of several key aspects.

The most crucial chapter is a description of the essence of the Nascent Soul.

After the Golden Core transforms into the Nascent Soul, just like the Golden Core, the Nascent Soul is the cultivator's true essence, but it is even more crucial.

The nascent soul is composed of essence, qi, and spirit as its core, with essence as its foundation, qi as its framework, and spirit as its spiritual core. These three are conceived and formed within the golden elixir, and emerge as independent life forms after leaving the elixir. The relationship between the nascent soul and the physical body is not one of the soul residing in the body, but rather a pivotal element nested within the vessel.

The nascent soul is the pivot, and the physical body is the vessel.

Even if the physical body perishes, the nascent soul can still survive independently. In the nascent soul form, one can walk, cast spells, and even fight, but its combat power is far less than when the physical body is still present.

The reason is that most of the essence, energy, and spirit are still carried in the physical body. The nascent soul is just the core hub, responsible for regulating and integrating the operation of essence, energy, and spirit. The physical body is the one that truly outputs power.

A nascent soul that has lost its physical body is like a general who only has a command center but no army.

However, the Nascent Soul can reshape the physical body. Using the Nascent Soul as the core, a physical body is reconstructed using a large amount of spiritual materials and time. The quality depends on the grade of the Nascent Soul and the level of the spiritual materials used in the reconstruction. The reconstructed body will be weaker than the original in the initial stages and will need time to recover to its peak.

Of course, the physical cultivation level will be fixed after the reshaping and will not be able to break through again, but there are special techniques that can avoid this.

It is also possible to slowly reshape it using only the nascent soul, but this takes a hundred years and requires ensuring that the nascent soul's cultivation does not regress.

Some Nascent Soul cultivators can even have their physical bodies made from special spiritual materials, making them comparable to those of Body Refinement cultivators.

Li Yuan went through this information in his mind and cross-referenced it with the content of the three basic textbooks.

The three basic books describe the process and preparation for Nascent Soul formation, while this advanced text describes the state and operational mechanism after Nascent Soul formation. When combined, the understanding of the Nascent Soul stage deepens further.

He carefully put away the jade slip and closed his eyes to process it.