Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Chapter 678 The Sea Eye Maze and the Devouring of the Boundary Core

Eastern sea area.

The light disappears into the sea.

The surrounding sea closed in, and the sunlight dimmed considerably at a depth of several tens of feet. Li Yuan dived towards the Demon Toad Palace.

The two third-tier water snake demons on duty recognized Li Yuan's aura and immediately stepped aside to make way for him.

Inside the main hall, a short, stout man sat on a coral chair, holding a conch cup in his hand.

"Fellow Daoist Li."

The short, stout man put down his cup, his round face barely concealing his anticipation. "Any news about what we talked about last time?"

Li Yuan took out the jade slip of the Spirit Awakening Transformation Technique and the auxiliary experience bag from his personal miniature world and placed them on the table.

The short, stout man's vertical pupils contracted sharply. He reached for the jade slip and probed it with his divine sense. About fifteen minutes later, he raised his head, his round face flushed, and his breathing quickened.

"This...this is the method for prematurely transforming into human form and gaining wisdom?"

"The Spirit Awakening and Transformation Technique," Li Yuan said.

"The complete cultivation technique, along with the formula for auxiliary spiritual herbs and insights. However, there is a limitation: it requires a fully awakened demon beast to guide it. Second-tier demon beasts can also guide other demon beasts after they have awakened their intelligence, but first-tier demon beasts cannot; they can only be guided."

The short, stout man gripped the jade slip, rubbed his hands together a couple of times, then put it down, then picked it up again.

"That's great, that's great!"

He stood up from the coral chair, circled the table twice, and then suddenly stopped.

Then two water snake demons carried out a stone box. The lid was opened, revealing neatly arranged materials from sea monsters and spiritual herbs inside. Deep-sea coral, water spirit mushrooms, and the inner cores and scales of several third-tier water-type monsters were all present.

"This is payment for Fellow Daoist Li."

Li Yuan glanced at it, nodded, and put it into his personal miniature world.

The short, stout man rubbed his hands together, leaned closer, and lowered his voice.

"Fellow Daoist Li, there's something else I'd like to tell you. Consider it an extra token of my gratitude."

99

"explain."

"There is a place in the extremely deep sea."

The short, stout man's voice was even lower, "About three thousand miles to the southeast, there is a sea eye on the seabed. That area is shrouded in demonic energy year-round, the currents are erratic, and the space itself is strange. I sent my men to explore it twice. The first time, they were swept back by the currents, and the second time, that Golden Core stage water serpent demon almost lost its life. It said there seemed to be an ancient seal inside."

"The Mysterious Cave of the Sea Eye?"

"Yes, that's what we call it here." The short, stout man nodded. "Fellow Daoist, your spatial magic is powerful, and you can break seals. If you're interested, you can go and take a look. But I can't guarantee your safety."

Li Yuan noted down the location.

Thank you.

"Fellow Daoist, you're too kind." The short, stout man patted his belly, his face beaming with joy. "Compared to this method, what is a little bit of information?"

""

After leaving the Demon Toad Palace, Li Yuan turned southeast and sank deeper into the distance.

The seawater is getting heavier and heavier.

Hundreds of feet, a thousand feet, two thousand feet.

The light completely disappeared, and it was pitch black all around. Water pressure squeezed in from all directions, getting heavier the deeper you went.

The Dragon Scale Golden Body Technique, once perfected, left Li Yuan completely unmoved by the water pressure. The hardened skin of his mineral-clad body, the passive defense of his iron-forged body, and the dispersed impact of the scale breath resonance—all these body-refining attributes combined meant that the water pressure couldn't even reach Li Yuan's body surface.

Li Yuan activated the Dragon Might Technique.

The dragon's blood energy, now at the mastery stage, spread outwards, forming a mental suppression field within a fifteen-zhang radius. In the deep sea, spiritual energy conduction is faster than on land, and the pressure of the Dragon's Might Technique spread outwards along the seawater. In the shadows dozens of zhang away, several restless demonic beasts immediately withdrew their auras and turned to retreat.

Continue descending.

Three thousand feet.

The direction of the seawater ahead began to change.

Several powerful undercurrents collided from different directions, creating vortices of varying sizes. Spatial fluctuations were contained within these vortices, and the Void Domain Profound Realm reflected each of these minute spatial vortices into its sea of ​​consciousness.

Ordinary vortices are just turbulent water flows, but when combined with spatial vortices, they become killing machines. Once a Golden Core cultivator's protective spiritual energy is caught in them, most will be reduced to nothing, not even bone fragments will remain.

Li Yuan moved through the eddies.

The Void Realm's illumination revealed the spatial structure within hundreds of feet ahead. The location, direction of rotation, and engulfment range of each spatial vortex were clearly visible.

After passing through the turbulent area, about fifteen minutes later.

A huge chasm has opened up in the seabed ahead.

The rift was about a hundred feet wide and bottomless, with the rock layers at the edges curling outwards. Dense demonic energy surged out of the rift, compressed by the deep seawater into an extremely thin layer of dark purple mist, which flowed slowly along the surface of the rift.

Sea Eye.

Kongyu Tongxuan probed into the depths of the rift.

About a thousand feet below the rift, the spatial structure suddenly broke apart. The break was covered by an extremely ancient seal, the sealing spiritual power of which had weakened to its limit, with large areas of spiritual patterns dimmed, and only the core area still barely holding on.

Inside the seal was a dilapidated space. The walls of the space were riddled with holes, and the pressure of deep sea water was squeezing in from every crack, slowly crushing the space.

Li Yuan continued to descend along the crack.

After passing through the outer layer of the seal, the space in front of us suddenly opened up.

The interior of the dilapidated space was much wider than the exterior, spanning several hundred feet in diameter, and riddled with cracks and holes. Seawater seeped in through the holes, accumulating at the bottom into a murky, dark current.

A large number of skeletons remain in the space.

It was all the skeletons of water-type monsters.

The smaller one was about several meters long, while the larger one, which was perched in a corner, had a skeleton that was over thirty meters long, and the horn on its skull still bore traces of the aura of a fourth-tier demon beast.

Li Yuan collected the bones one by one into his personal microcosm and headed towards the deepest part of the space.

At the edge of the space, a crystal the size of a fist floated in mid-air. Its surface was enveloped in a layer of sea-blue light, the light flickering as if it were making a final struggle.

Boundary core.

Outside the halo, there was another layer of formation.

Dark purple spirit patterns wove a dense net around the boundary core, with demonic energy flowing within the patterns, forming a fourth-order ancient demonic water-based killing array.

The array's celestial pivot operates on its own, reflecting the structure of the killing array into the sea of ​​consciousness.

This killing array is extremely sophisticated in its construction. The demonic energy runes are based on the water element, and are embedded with three layers of destructive circuits and two layers of backlash restrictions. Any spiritual power that touches the edge of the killing array will be captured by the destructive circuits, causing a chain reaction of backlash.

Dark Fiend's keen perception detected traces of demonic energy within the formation.

The frequency and quality of this demonic energy are highly consistent with the demonic energy of the demon race in the Netherworld.

homology.

After scanning the formation, Li Yuan began to dismantle it.

This time, it lasted for three days.

At the end of the third day, the last node dispersed.

The fourth-order ancient demon water-based killing array completely collapsed, and the dark purple spirit patterns around the boundary core vanished completely.

The core of the boundary was exposed before them. The azure aura had weakened to the point of near extinction, the surface was covered with cracks, and the primordial energy was still slowly dissipating.

It is in its final stages of natural collapse.

Li Yuan extended his right hand and placed his palm on the boundary core.

The devouring begins.

The primordial energy within the boundary core was forcibly drawn out by the red light stream, strand by strand, and poured into Li Yuan's body. The energy scale of this boundary core was larger than that of the collapsed minor world, and its water elemental essence was also purer.

About 70% of the energy was drawn to the depths of the sea of ​​consciousness by the red entry.

The dark red light core then expanded.

The primordial energy that the collapsed minor realm had previously absorbed had been quietly resting at the bottom of the sea of ​​consciousness. Now, with the influx of new primordial energy, the two energies suddenly merged. The dark red light core nearly doubled in size, its light changing from dark red to deep red, settling deep within the sea of ​​consciousness, as heavy as an abyss.

The remaining 30% of energy spreads along the meridians, tempering the entire body.

The walls of the meridians became denser under the scouring of the primordial energy. The resistance to the flow of spiritual energy decreased again, and the 108 circuits of the fourth-order Yuan-gathering and spirit-collecting array operated more smoothly in the meridians.

The soul was also nourished. The precision of the soul was pushed to another level, the scope of exploration was expanded, and the ability to distinguish spatial structures was deepened from the level of wall folds to the level of stress distribution inside the wall.

Spatial resistance also surged. After the red attribute merged with the new round of primordial energy, the immunity threshold to spatial damage increased again. Previously, one could feel extremely slight spatial compression deep within Shattered Star Valley, but now, compression of the same level is completely imperceptible.

About 15 minutes later, the energy in the boundary core was completely drained.

The remaining outer shell shattered, turning into grayish-white powder that sank to the bottom of the water.

[Red-level entry permanentization condition advancement: Natural Collapse Rift Core 2/3]

Li Yuan withdrew his hand.

After losing its core, the remaining space began to collapse at an accelerated rate. The holes in the walls widened rapidly, and seawater rushed in.

Li Yuan did not linger and disappeared from the spot.

Wulinfang Market, residence.

Li Yuan appeared out of thin air at the location of the secluded training room, his body still covered in deep-sea vapor, and seawater dripping from the hem of his robes.

He shook off the water and sat down cross-legged.

Deep within the sea of ​​consciousness, a deep red light core hung steadily at the bottom, radiating a profound and restrained light.

The primal energies of the two boundary cores have completely merged.

One more is needed.