Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Chapter 671 Void Rift

Tianheng Domain, edge of the canyon.

Li Yuan put away his pass and walked deeper into the canyon.

The elusive presence completely suppressed the Nascent Soul aura, and the illusory mask altered its appearance, suppressing its cultivation level to the late Golden Core stage.

The canyon narrows as you go deeper, with the gray-black rock walls on both sides less than five zhang apart, and only a sliver of sky visible overhead.

Spatial fissures appear and disappear among the rock walls, some only a few inches long, others disappearing deep into the rock face. Silvery light seeps out from the fissures, crisscrossing in the canyon like a chaotic net.

The spatial domain operates on its own, and the distribution, direction, and expansion speed of the fissures are all reflected in the sea of ​​consciousness.

Li Yuan moved slowly through the cracks.

Half a day later, the terrain of the canyon suddenly sank, and a depression several tens of feet wide appeared in front of it. In the center of the depression was a large rift, about thirty feet long, and just wide enough for a person to pass sideways. The spatial fluctuations at the edge were several times stronger than those at the outer edge.

Three people were squatting beside the crack.

The three cultivators were all dressed in gray-blue robes with the Tianheng Sect emblem embroidered on their chests. They were all at the Golden Core stage, two in the mid-stage and one in the late-stage. In front of them was a piece of animal hide with more than ten pieces of ore and crystals of varying sizes on it, which they were sorting.

The male cultivator, who appeared to be in his thirties and was in the late stage of the Golden Core realm, was holding a dark blue ore in his hand and examining its quality by the light shining through the crack.

Hearing footsteps, the three of them looked up at the same time.

The male cultivator's gaze swept over Li Yuan, pausing briefly on his chest, but he didn't see the sect emblem.

"A rogue cultivator?"

"Just arrived." Li Yuan stopped a few feet away, his gaze falling on the ore on the animal hide.

"This is my first time in Tianheng Domain."

The two mid-stage Golden Core cultivators exchanged a glance but did not rise. The late-stage Golden Core male cultivator looked Li Yuan over a few more times, his expression relaxing somewhat.

"To dare to come to the Tianheng Domain at the late stage of the Golden Core realm, they've got some nerve. The fissures here are much denser than in the outer area; if you're not careful, you could get caught in one."

"I saw it on the way," Li Yuan said.

"Fellow Daoist, are you from the Tianheng Sect?"

"Yes." The male cultivator put the ore back on the animal hide and clapped his hands.

"The Tianheng Sect's resource gathering team is responsible for gathering the spiritual materials in this area. Independent cultivators who wish to gather should go to the outer perimeter or head south."

"I don't mine," Li Yuan said.

"I've come to inquire about the situation in Tianheng Domain."

"What's going on?" The male cultivator chuckled.

"The Tianheng Domain is vast, but it doesn't have many powerful forces. The sect strongholds are located in the north-central part of the Tianheng Domain. To the south, there are a few outposts affiliated with sects and families, such as the Baiyan Family and the Xuanshui Sect, which are small forces at the Golden Core level. The gathering place for rogue cultivators is in the southeast, called Suiyan Town. You can go there if you want to settle down."

Li Yuan nodded, then asked, "Are there any worthwhile places to visit in the Tianheng Domain?"

The male cultivator glanced at him.

A mid-stage Golden Core cultivator nearby chimed in, "There are some good things deeper inside. Have you heard of Shattered Star Valley?"

"no."

"Shattered Star Valley is located in the deepest part of the Tianheng Domain. The spatial laws are very chaotic there. Even Nascent Soul cultivators have to be careful when they go in," the mid-stage cultivator said in a low voice.

"It's said that the flow of time inside is different from outside, making it an ideal place for cultivating spatial techniques. Our sect's Nascent Soul elders go into seclusion there every few years."

"For a Golden Core cultivator, it's no different from sending them to their death." The late-stage Golden Core male cultivator shook his head.

Li Yuan didn't reply; his gaze stopped on a dark blue ore on the animal hide.

The Void Crystal is a low-grade, third-tier crystal, and it's the same type as the one found in the Collapsed Minor Realm.

Where exactly is Shattered Star Valley located?

The late-stage Golden Core cultivator smiled.

"Fellow Daoist, do you really want to go?"

"Let's find out first."

The male cultivator did not answer immediately, his gaze now showing a more scrutinizing look.

"I do know the location. The Tianheng Sect has a map of the outer perimeter of Shattered Star Valley, which marks the direction of the valley entrance and several spatial storm zones to avoid. But this thing isn't given away for free."

Li Yuan took out five Sky-Splitting Stones from his personal miniature world and placed them in front of him.

The gray-black ore body was covered with spiderweb-like cracks, and the cracks contained a faint spatial power, all of which were third-order.

The gazes of the three Tianheng Sect disciples immediately fell upon them.

The pupils of male cultivators in the late Golden Core stage slightly constrict.

"A rift stone? The quality is not bad. Where did it come from?"

I found it on the street.

The male cultivator didn't ask any further questions, but reached out and picked up each of the several Rift Stones to examine them.

"Five Tier 3 Rift Stones, okay, that's enough."

He took out a jade slip from his storage bag and handed it to Li Yuan.

"Map of the outer perimeter of Shattered Star Valley, approximately a two-day journey from the base. The valley entrance and areas to avoid are marked."

Li Yuan took the jade slip and probed it with his divine sense.

The route map unfolded in my mind, clearly marked.

Li Yuan carefully put away the jade slip and the remaining Sky-Splitting Stones, nodded to the male cultivator, and turned to walk deeper into the canyon.

A low mutter came from behind him, belonging to the mid-stage Golden Core cultivator.

"This rogue cultivator has gone mad, running to Shattered Star Valley at the late stage of Golden Core."

"Who cares, as long as I get the Rift Stone."

A beam of light rose, and it flew towards the direction marked on the jade slip.

Two days later.

The beam of light stopped at the edge of a fractured plateau.

The ground ahead disappeared.

That wasn't a canyon, nor an ordinary crack; it was a gash torn open in the earth itself. The fissure was several miles wide, stretching to the horizon on both sides, its bottom unfathomable. The rock layers at the edges were rolled up and curled outwards, jagged like a saw, as if something had forcibly pried them apart from the ground.

Shattered Star Valley.

Inside the rift, countless fragments of space hung suspended in mid-air.

The fragments varied in size, some as small as a fist, others several meters in diameter. Each fragment's surface was covered with different scenes: withered grass, broken stone pillars, and distorted light and shadow, like fragments left behind after a complete world had been shattered.

The walls between the fragments twisted and deformed, and the refracted light made the entire crack appear to flicker.

The Sky Domain Insight system is operating at full capacity.

Within his sea of ​​consciousness, the spatial structure within a radius of several hundred feet near the mouth of the Shattered Star Valley gradually became clear.

These fragments are not just drifting aimlessly.

Each fragment is weakly connected, as if strung together by an invisible net. The gaps with the weakest gravitational pull form several relatively stable channels, through which the fragments drift slowly and do not close up in the short term.

Li Yuan turned his head to look to his right.

More than ten miles outside the valley entrance, there is a solitary peak. The gray-white rock rises abruptly from the plateau, about a hundred feet high, with a flat summit.

The passive perception of the airspace was able to detect an anomaly at this distance.

Li Yuan transformed into a streak of light and sped towards the solitary peak.

He landed in front of the rock face in the middle of the isolated peak and pressed his hand against the rock surface.

Kongyu Tongxuan probed deeper and deeper into the interior of the rock wall.

The remaining spatial patterns pointed to a point about three zhang (approximately 10 meters) deep within the rock wall. The spatial density there was slightly abnormal, as if it had been artificially compressed.

It is not naturally formed.

Li Yuan activated his spatial exploration technique, pushing the precision to its limit.

Three zhang deep, an extremely narrow spatial fissure was hidden in the rock strata, less than half a foot wide and about ten zhang long. There were traces of human reinforcement at the edge of the fissure, although it had long since failed, the outline had not completely disappeared.

There is a space behind the crack.

Li Yuan activated his spatial cutting technique, precisely cutting along the contours of the crack. The rock wall silently split open, just wide enough for a person to pass through sideways.

Then he slipped inside.

Inside was a stone chamber, about five zhang square.

The cave walls, polished by spiritual energy, were smooth yet riddled with cracks. In one corner of the stone chamber stood a stone table, upon which lay several blank jade slips and a pile of blackened array materials. A ring of array runes remained on the ground beside the table, their spiritual energy long since depleted and now dim and lifeless.

There is a picture carved on the opposite stone wall.

The map is small, about three feet square, with simple lines. It is a partial map of Shattered Star Valley that was directly carved into the stone surface with spiritual power.

Two locations are marked on the map.

The first location is deep within the valley, slightly to the west, with three small characters carved beside it: Time Slit Platform. Below it is a very small annotation, which roughly states that the flow of time here is about three times that of the outside world.

The second location is in the eastern part of the valley, called Stardust Beach. The accompanying annotation is even shorter, containing only two characters: "abundant materials."

In addition to the map, several walking routes in Shattered Star Valley are also carved on the stone wall, with markings indicating the space storm zones and high-risk debris-dense areas to avoid along the way.

Li Yuan used his divine sense to memorize the map's contents completely and stored it in a blank jade slip.

He then examined the items on the stone table.

Five blank jade slips, of acceptable quality, were stored in the minor realm. The array materials had lost all their spiritual energy and were no longer of much value.

The remaining array runes on the ground are the remnants of a defensive array, not large in scale, about the third level.

The original owner of the cave should have been a Nascent Soul cultivator who practiced spatial techniques. Judging from the degree of decline in the spiritual energy traces on the cave walls, this cave has been abandoned for at least several hundred years, and the original owner has most likely perished.

Li Yuan left the cave and returned to the mouth of Shattered Star Valley.

With a light touch of his toes, he swept into the valley entrance.

Spatial detection techniques operate at high intensity in this environment. The location, length, cutting direction, and expansion rate of each fissure must be clearly detected in an extremely short time.

The range of perception gradually expanded outward from several hundred feet. Initially, it could only cover the spatial structure within a radius of three hundred feet, but after more than ten fissures, it had expanded to four hundred feet. The spatial stress distribution at the edges of the fissures also changed from a blurry outline to a clear pattern.

Li Yuan spent half a day walking back and forth near the valley entrance.

His spatial exploration skills have improved considerably, but he's still some distance from mastering them. A place like Shattered Star Valley is perfect for repeated practice and refinement.

As you delve deeper, the accumulation will only accelerate.

Li Yuan transformed into a beam of light and sped towards the depths of Shattered Star Valley.