Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Chapter 571 Nascent Soul Ruins

into the night.

The lights at the Lu family's residence gradually went out, and the guards changed shifts at the entrance of the valley.

Li Yuan left the guest room silently.

The Shadow Concealment Technique was activated, and the double-layered light-refracting membrane, perfected at the advanced stage, adhered to the body surface. The technique compressed spiritual energy to an extremely low level, concealing the user's presence and minimizing the sound feedback from footsteps and airflow disturbances.

With three layers of concealment, Li Yuan moved like an invisible wind, passing through the perimeter of the base and heading towards the third mine.

The night was thick, and the moon was hidden behind the clouds.

The light descended to an extremely low altitude and flew close to the ground, landing at the foot of the solitary peak where the third mine was located about fifteen minutes later.

Down the mine tunnel.

After the sixteen lines of divine sense were extended, the rock strata structure within the surrounding area, spanning dozens of feet, became clearly visible in the senses.

We went straight through the 120-foot-deep cave and continued downwards.

The mine tunnel ends about thirty feet below the karst cave, and below that are the unexplored original rock layers.

Li Yuan stopped at the end of the mine tunnel and channeled his spiritual energy into the rock beneath his feet.

The instinctive perception of the pulse pivot extends downwards.

The location where the spiritual energy deflected was about seventy feet directly below. From the end of the mine tunnel to the deflection point, there were dense rock layers without any natural fissures.

The Earth Transport Technique is activated.

Spiritual energy seeped into the rock strata, softening and shifting the rocks beneath their feet at an extremely slow pace. It wasn't an explosive excavation, but rather a silent pushing of the rocks to both sides, creating a vertical passage just wide enough for one person to pass through.

After descending about seventy feet, the rock layer beneath their feet suddenly thinned out.

Two feet down, the rock strata break off.

aisle.

Li Yuan peeked out from the bottom of the vertical passage and looked down.

A horizontal passage appeared beneath their feet. The passage was about four feet wide and five feet high, with smooth walls and obvious signs of human excavation. The chisel marks were more weathered than those at the mine entrance, and the rock surface was covered with a layer of grayish-white mineral crystals, a product of the natural condensation after long-term penetration of spiritual energy.

It is extremely ancient.

Li Yuan walked forward a few steps along the passage.

The fluctuations of the white grade emanated from within a three-foot radius.

A copper ring was half-buried in the rubble. The ring was about the thickness of a thumb, and its surface was almost entirely covered by patina, with only a small, indistinct engraving remaining on the inner side.

Li Yuan squatted down and took the copper ring out of the rubble.

[Equipable item detected: Ancient Patterned Bronze Ring]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Subtle Ancient Patterns (White)]

[Result: Improved accuracy in recognizing various types of characters]

White entries are made permanent.

【Ancient Pattern Subtlety (White)】has become a permanent entry.

The copper ring shattered and dissipated in his palm.

The scene flashed by. A monk squatted before a stone wall, his fingers tracing the weathered inscriptions on the surface. Where his fingertips touched, the blurred marks became clearly discernible in his perception. The scene was brief, with extremely subtle enhancement.

Li Yuan withdrew his hand and continued walking.

After extending westward for about a hundred feet, the passage begins to slope gently downwards.

Inscriptions appeared on the wall of the sloping section.

The inscription was carved on a flat part of the rock face, written in a script that Li Yuan had never seen before.

The white entry with subtle ancient patterns takes effect immediately.

The blurry inscriptions became much clearer with perception. Most of the characters remained unrecognizable, but the meanings of a few high-frequency characters could be inferred from the context.

"Gate", "Disciple", "Forbidden Area", "No Unauthorized Entry".

Li Yuan continued forward.

At the end of the sloping section is a stone gate.

The stone door was half-open, one of its hinges broken, the entire door panel leaning to one side inside the passage. The surface of the door panel was engraved with denser inscriptions and a set of restrictive runes, but the spiritual energy within the runes had long since dissipated, rendering the restriction ineffective.

Push open the crooked door and go inside.

Behind the stone gate is a stone chamber about ten feet in diameter.

The layout of the stone chamber resembles a library.

Layers of stone bookshelves were carved into the four walls, most of the items that once stood on them now destroyed. Jade slips shattered into dust, magical artifacts rusted into scrap iron, and spiritual materials dried into ash. Scattered fragments and powder covered the ground in a thick layer.

But one thing survived.

Ancient paper books.

On a set of bookshelves to the right of the stone chamber, dozens of paper books are neatly arranged.

The paper has yellowed and become brittle, with varying degrees of insect damage and mold on the edges, but the overall structure is intact and the writing is clear and legible.

The jade slips and magical artifacts were destroyed because their structures collapsed after their spiritual energy was depleted, while the paper books survived because they did not have a spiritual energy structure to rely on.

Li Yuan walked to the bookshelf, carefully wrapped his spiritual power around the book, and took down the outermost ancient book.

The paper trembled slightly in my hand; it was extremely brittle.

Turn to the first page.

The "Ancient Pattern Micro-Distinguishing" feature significantly improves the recognition speed of ancient fonts.

Although the characters differ significantly from the commonly used script for monks today, the core stroke structure is consistent, and most of the meaning can be inferred from the context.

The first volume is the Records of the Sect.

It records the historical evolution of this sect.

The sect is called Xuan Yuan Sect. At its peak, it had two Nascent Soul cultivators, more than ten Golden Core cultivators, and over a hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators, making it the largest cultivation sect in Baihe Prefecture.

However, Xuan Yuan Sect is not an independent sect.

Ancient texts clearly state that the Xuan Yuan Sect is a branch sect of the Qing Xu Sect in the upper realm located in the lower realm.

Li Yuan paused for a moment as he turned the page.

Continue reading.

There is a spatial passage between the upper and lower boundaries.

The simplest condition for opening the passage is to ascend to godhood.

With the assistance of Nascent Soul cultivators from the upper realm, Nascent Soul cultivators can sense the location of the passage and pass through it based on their own cultivation level.

The founder of Xuan Yuan Sect was a Nascent Soul elder from Qing Xu Sect who used a secret method to prolong his life but whose cultivation level subsequently dropped.

After descending from the upper realm to the lower realm, they established branch sects, responsible for discovering outstanding disciples in the lower realm and sending them to the upper realm for cultivation.

The connection between the upper and lower realms has never been severed. Every few years, the Xuan Yuan Sect exchanges with the Qing Xu Sect in the upper realm, and resources, cultivation methods, and spells are passed down from top to bottom.

Li Yuan put the first volume back on the bookshelf and took down the second volume.

The second volume is the general outline of cultivation.

The content covers a complete cultivation system from Qi Refining to Nascent Soul, largely consistent with the current cultivation framework, but with more refined details. The types of cultivation techniques are more diverse, and the number of spells is greater, clearly a product of an era abundant in spiritual energy.

The last few pages of the general outline record the cultivation realms above the Nascent Soul stage.

Transformation into a deity.

After the transformation into a divine being comes the refinement of emptiness.

After refining to the void comes the tribulation.

Beyond the tribulation lies the true immortal.

The ancient texts describe the True Immortals up to the point of Tribulation, with only a few lines of vague wording. It seems that even the authors themselves were unsure whether the True Immortal was an attainable realm.

There is no higher realm above the upper realm. The upper realm is the highest world.

Another note in the ancient book caught Li Yuan's attention: the highest cultivation level in the Upper Realm is the Tribulation Transcending Realm, the number of Void Refining cultivators is extremely small, and the Nascent Soul Transformation cultivators are the backbone of the force.

Li Yuan memorized all this information.

The third volume is the Daily Chronicle, which records the daily affairs of the Xuan Yuan Sect during a certain period. The content is fragmented, including disciple entrance examinations, spirit field harvests, mineral vein mining progress, and interactions with surrounding forces.

The era can be deduced from several key records in the daily records.

The records mention that the spiritual energy concentration in Baihe Prefecture is several times higher than it was during the peak of the large spiritual veins of the Tianyue Mountains. Second-tier demonic beasts are common prey in Baihe Prefecture, while third- and fourth-tier demonic beasts occasionally appear. The overall cultivation level of cultivators in Baihe Prefecture is at least one level higher than it is today.

The ancient era, brimming with spiritual energy.

Li Yuan used his divine sense to record the contents of all the ancient books page by page in his sea of ​​consciousness.

About two hours later, all the ancient books had been read.

Li Yuan put the ancient books back on the bookshelf in their original order, with the same position and orientation as before they were taken out.

Then exit the stone chamber and restore the tilted door panel to its original angle. Return along the original path and ascend back to the end of the mine tunnel via the vertical passage.

The earth-moving technique is used to refill the softened and displaced rocks in the vertical channel back into their original positions.

Rock strata restoration.

From the outside, the rock face at the end of the mine tunnel is exactly the same as before it was excavated, without leaving any trace.

Li Yuan returned to the surface along the mine tunnel and went back to the guest room at the Lu family's residence.

It was not clear.

I sat cross-legged and closed my eyes to process the information I had gathered that night.

Upper Realm. Spatial Passage. Nascent Soul cultivators can pass through. Qingxu Sect. Xuanyuan Sect. The ancient era abundant in spiritual energy. Deity Transformation, Void Refinement, Tribulation Transcending, True Immortal.

This information cross-corroborates the hidden information previously obtained from the spatial folding micro-principles left behind by the Xuan You Sect Master.

The following morning.

Li Yuan made final adjustments to the array at the third mine.

With all parameters of the spiritual energy circulation system calibrated, the array's operational efficiency increased by about 10% compared to the initial setup. During the debugging process, Li Yuan deliberately lingered near the array's core for a while, using his intuitive perception of the Pulse Pivot to perform a seemingly casual scan of the surrounding rock strata.

"Wait a moment."

Lu Ping turned his head to look.

Li Yuan squatted down and placed his palm on the rock next to the array's core.

There is a cavity below.

Lu Ping walked over, looking puzzled.

"A cavity? How deep?"

"It's not shallow, probably two hundred zhang." Li Yuan stood up, his expression calm. "The flow of spiritual energy is deflected here, and there should be traces of artificial excavation below."

Lu Ping's expression changed.

"Manually excavated?"

"Go and call Chief Lu over."

Half an hour later, Lu Yang arrived with three Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Li Yuan pointed out the location and direction of the deflected spiritual energy to Lu Yang, and then used the Earth Transport Technique to open a passage on the rock surface at the end of the mine tunnel.

Lu Yang led his men down to investigate.

About an hour later, he returned to the ground with a complicated expression.

"It is the remains of an ancient sect."

Lu Yang's tone was filled with undisguised excitement. "There are ancient books and some discarded items in the stone chamber, which are extremely old. We roughly flipped through a few pages of the ancient books, and they were left behind by a sect called Xuan Yuan Sect."

Li Yuan nodded, his expression unchanged.

What else is in the ruins?

"Most of the things were destroyed, only the ancient paper books were preserved." Lu Yang paused for a moment.

"These things are of great value to our Lu family."

"The ruins were found beneath your mine; the contents are yours."

"I can't take advantage of Fellow Daoist Li's discovery for nothing." Lu Yang took out a jade box from his storage bag and pushed it in front of Li Yuan. "This spiritual plant was newly discovered by us in the depths of the first mine. It's of good quality, so consider it an extra gift of thanks."

Li Yuan opened the jade box.

A robust plant with thick roots lay quietly in the jade box, its leaves emerald green, indicating its high quality.

There was no fluctuation in the entries within a three-foot radius.

Ordinary spiritual plants, no description. Even those at the peak of the Golden Core stage have no need for these kinds of spiritual plants that aid cultivation.

But refusing would be inappropriate.

Thank you.

Li Yuan put the jade box into his personal space.

After bidding farewell to the Lu family, he transformed into a beam of light and left Baihe Prefecture.

The light flew towards Liangzhou.

The contents of the ancient books in the ruins flashed through my mind.

The information from the upper realm cannot be verified at the moment, but it is worth keeping a close eye on in the long term. The cultivation realms after the Nascent Soul stage are entirely new information that was previously unknown, providing direction for long-term cultivation planning.

The streaks of light swept across the hilly area in eastern Liangzhou, and the outline of Wulinfang City appeared in the distance.