Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Chapter 565 Killing the Jiao in the Canyon

On the eve of his departure, Li Yuan practiced the Heavenly Evolution Divination Technique in his secluded cultivation room.

Divination objective: The auspicious or inauspicious outcome of tomorrow's mission to attack the dragon's nest.

Spiritual energy is infused, and the hexagrams are condensed.

The hexagram in the initial stage of formation is a rough panoramic view, with clear directional guidance but vague details. During this process of hexagram condensation, the details of the panoramic view begin to fill in on their own. The causal clues no longer merely provide direction, but rather layer upon layer on top of that direction.

The core layer is the auspiciousness or inauspiciousness of the task itself: slightly auspicious, but subject to change.

The absence of misfortune means the absence of danger.

The outermost layer is the time factor: the hexagram vaguely suggests that a new situation will emerge shortly after the mission ends, but the specific details are unclear.

The hexagram has one more layer than the one in the Lesser Completion stage, and the amount of information has increased significantly.

The art of divination by celestial evolution has reached its zenith.

Li Yuan accepted the divination results and memorized them.

Slightly auspicious, but subject to change.

The next morning, the three Golden Core cultivators gathered at the stronghold.

Besides Li Yuan, the other two were a late-stage Golden Core cultivator surnamed Zhao and a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator surnamed Sun. The Zhao cultivator was skilled in close combat, while the Sun cultivator was skilled in water-based magic; both had extensive experience in sea battles.

The three transformed into streaks of light and entered the water, heading towards their target sea area.

The underwater canyon is located about sixty miles southeast of the main island. The entrance to the canyon consists of two rock walls, each about thirty feet high, facing each other with a gap of less than five feet, allowing only two people to pass side by side. The surface of the rock walls is covered with dark seaweed and shells, and small schools of fish occasionally dart through the crevices.

The three stopped outside the canyon entrance.

Li Yuan simultaneously deployed his sixteen divine sense lines, scanning the interior of the canyon in a fan-shaped pattern. After the Demon Tracking Mirror became permanent, its sensitivity to detecting the aura of demonic beasts increased by 30%, and the distribution of demonic beasts deep within the canyon appeared to him like a map marked with coordinates.

The main passage of the canyon is about two hundred feet long, with seven second-tier demonic beasts scattered along the way. At the end of the main passage, it extends downwards for about forty feet before widening into a cave. Inside the cave, there is the aura of a third-tier demonic beast, steady and heavy—it is a dragon.

The dragon was located at the deepest part of the cave, with two weaker auras beside it, much smaller in size, which should be young dragons.

"Seven second-tier dragons are in the main passage, and third-tier dragons are in the deepest cave, accompanied by two young dragons," Li Yuan told the other two about his findings.

The cultivator surnamed Zhao nodded: "Leave the second-tier ones to me and Old Sun to clear the way. You'll handle suppressing the flood dragon?"

"I first used an array to seal the cave exit to prevent the dragon from escaping. After the seal was completed, the three of us worked together."

The plan was finalized, and the three men entered the gorge.

The seven second-tier demonic beasts along the way were quickly eliminated by Zhao and Sun. Zhao's close combat was clean and efficient, while Sun's water-based magic was perfectly suited to the underwater environment. The two worked together seamlessly.

Li Yuan did not participate in clearing the path; he went directly through the main passage to the entrance of the cave.

The cave entrance is about four zhang wide and three zhang high, with obvious claw marks on the edges.

The engraving knife fell on the rock wall. A simple sealing array took shape at the cave entrance. The array had a single function: sealing, not attacking. The spiritual energy circulation was laid out in the most streamlined way, and the setup time was compressed to an extremely short time.

The formation was activated, and a semi-transparent spiritual energy barrier covered the cave entrance.

Inside the cave, the dragon stirred.

Heavy spiritual energy surged from the depths of the cave, stirring the water into whirlpools. A dark blue dragon, four zhang long, swam out from the deepest part of the cave, its vertical pupils revealing a chilling killing intent.

Tier 3, superior grade.

It's half a grade stronger than expected.

The dragon charged towards the sealing array at the cave entrance, its head slamming into the spiritual energy barrier. The barrier trembled violently, and a sharp overload sound emanated from the spiritual energy circulation, but it did not shatter. Although Li Yuan's array was simple, its quality far surpassed others of its kind, enhanced by the purple inscription of the Array Dao Heavenly Pivot.

The dragon made its second impact.

Cracks appeared in the barrier.

The cultivators surnamed Zhao and Sun arrived, and the three of them attacked simultaneously.

The cultivator surnamed Zhao was the first to enter the cave. His magical weapon was a three-foot-long short spear, the tip of which gleamed coldly after being infused with spiritual energy. He thrust the spear towards the side of the dragon's neck, but the dragon twisted its body to dodge, sweeping its tail fin horizontally. The cultivator surnamed Zhao blocked with his short spear, but was knocked back several feet by the immense force.

The cultivator surnamed Sun cast water-based spells outside the cave entrance, reversing the flow of water inside the cave and creating a high-pressure zone to restrict the dragon's range of movement.

Li Yuan attacked from the side.

Sky-Splitting Slash.

A dark golden blade of light condensed in the water.

Li Yuan deliberately suppressed the power of his blade, slashing towards the dragon's belly. After cutting about two inches deep, it was stopped by the toughness of the scales.

The dragon let out a deep hiss, its body thrashing violently, its tail fins and claws attacking simultaneously, churning the water in the cave into a chaotic mess.

The three of them moved aside, creating some distance between themselves before surrounding each other again.

The cultivator surnamed Zhao repeatedly stabbed the dragon's neck with his short spear, while the cultivator surnamed Sun continued to apply pressure and restrict its movement. Li Yuan then focused his attacks on the weakest points in the dragon's scales.

The dragon's combat power is indeed far superior to that of ordinary third-tier demonic beasts. Even when surrounded by three Golden Core cultivators, this dragon was still able to maintain both offense and defense, and the defensive power of its scales meant that most attacks could only cause minor injuries.

Seizing an opening as the dragon turned, Li Yuan unleashed three consecutive Sky-Splitting Slashes, all aimed at the same wound on the dragon's abdomen. The three overlapping blade beams finally cleaved through the dragon's scales, allowing dark golden spiritual energy to flow into its body.

The dragon's body convulsed violently, then its movements suddenly slowed down.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, the cultivator surnamed Zhao thrust his short spear into the vital spot on the side of the dragon's neck.

The light in the dragon's vertical pupils gradually faded, and its massive body slowly sank in the water.

The two young dragons, only about ten feet in size and of low-grade second rank, hid in the deepest part of the cave during the battle and did not emerge. They had no combat power. After the cultivator surnamed Zhao drove the two young dragons away, the three of them began collecting materials.

The materials used to make the dragon are extremely precious. Its scales, bones, blood, and inner core are all top-grade spiritual materials of the third rank.

Li Yuan was in charge of retrieving the inner elixir.

The dragon's inner core was located deep within its abdominal cavity and was carefully extracted using spiritual power. The inner core was about the size of a fist, dark blue in color, with fine dragon patterns flowing across its surface, and its spiritual energy fluctuations were steady and profound.

A blue-grade fluctuation was detected.

[Equipable item detected: Dragon Inner Core]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Dragon Blood Battle Spirit (Blue)]

[Effect: Increases spell power by 30% and physical recovery speed by 50% when equipped; attacks against python and snake-type monsters have a bloodline suppression effect.]

[Preview of Permanent Status Conditions: Kill three different types of Tier 3 or higher monsters while equipped with the Dragon Core (0/3)]

Blue tag. Effects target melee and dragon suppression, which aligns well with my fighting style.

Li Yuan stored the inner core in his personal space.

After collecting the materials, the three conducted a search of the cave.

The structure of the dragon's nest is similar to the dragon remains previously discovered beneath the underwater spiritual veins. Inside the cave are nest depressions, pools of water, and reclining stones, with the walls covered with layers of claw marks and scale abrasion marks.

In the deepest corner of the cave, a jade slip half-buried in the rubble caught Li Yuan's attention.

The jade slip was not made of ordinary spirit jade, but rather coral jade with a distinct marine style. Its surface was engraved with a set of spirit patterns that Li Yuan had seen before.

The format of the Canglan Sect.

Li Yuan squatted down and took out the jade slip from the rubble, and a blue-grade fluctuation came from it.

Divine sense probed in.

The jade slip contains a martial arts technique.

A technique that allows a demon to take human form.

The core concept is to guide demonic beasts to transform their demonic power into a special spiritual energy circulation method necessary to maintain human form, allowing them to retain this human form for extended periods. This technique is designed for demonic beasts of the third rank or higher that have awakened intelligence, especially the dragon race.

The cooperative relationship between the Canglan Sect and the Jiaolong is clearly reflected in this cultivation technique, whose spiritual energy path is optimized specifically for the meridian structure of Jiaolong-type demonic beasts.

[Equipable item detected: Demon Transformation Humanoid Technique]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Reverse Scale Transformation (Blue)]

[Effect: Human cultivators can normally cultivate the Demon Transformation into Human Form technique. An additional effect can be added, allowing human cultivators to inversely gain the ability to transform into demonic beasts, with the degree of transformation being equal to the progress of the Demon Transformation into Human Form technique; in the demonic state, physical strength and demonic beast characteristics are proportionally stacked.]

[Preview of conditions for permanent transformation: Cultivate the demon-humanoid transformation technique to perfection and maintain it in the demon-humanoid state for a full day without interruption (0/1)]

Blue entries.

The technique that allows demonic beasts to transform into human form has an effect that reverses this, transforming humans into demonic beasts. In this demonic state, the physical strength and demonic beast characteristics are combined, effectively granting the user a physical attribute bonus from the demonic beast in battle.

Li Yuan put the jade slip into his personal space.

After completing their cave search, the three returned along the same route through the canyon.

Upon returning to the base, the materials were distributed as agreed. The dragon's inner core went to Li Yuan, the scales and bones were divided between Zhao and Sun, and the blood was split equally among the three. Battle contributions were recorded, and contribution points were credited to the account.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged in the secluded cultivation room and began practicing the technique of transforming a demon into a human.

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