Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Chapter 693 The Ruins of the Demon Abyss and the Disappearance of the Hidden Yuan

The northeast corner of Lingzhou.

The streaking light landed on the barren mountain ridge.

Ahead, the ground had collapsed into a pit hundreds of feet deep, with rock layers overturned and rubble piled up around the edge. The bottom of the pit was unfathomable, and dense demonic energy surged upwards, condensing into a layer of dark purple mist at the pit's opening.

The former site of the Demon Abyss.

Dark Fiend's Insight swept across the pit opening, and the frequency and quality of the demonic energy were reflected in his mind.

Li Yuan walked halfway around the edge of the pit and quickly found the seal. The seal covered the inner wall of the pit at a depth of thirty feet, with dark purple spiritual patterns woven into a large net, about a hundred feet in diameter. There were three cracks on the surface of the spiritual patterns, and demonic energy was seeping out from them.

The traces of reinforcement by the Tianyue Sect are still visible. A layer of spiritual energy is applied to the outside of the crack to seal it, but the method is crude and can only temporarily suppress the leakage.

Li Yuan leaped into the deep pit and landed on a protruding rock wall next to the seal.

The Netherworld's knowledge operated on its own, and the sealing structure unfolded layer by layer within the sea of ​​consciousness. The Array Dao Heavenly Pivot also activated, cross-verifying the underlying structure with fourth-order array knowledge.

The seal is a four-tiered composite seal with six nested layers and twelve core nodes.

The three cracks are all located at the junction of the third and fifth layers, consistent with the Tianyue Sect's survey records. The spiritual patterns here are aging, and the circulation of spiritual energy has created a break, which eventually led to the cracks.

Repairing it is not difficult.

Li Yuan used micro-controlling spiritual techniques to probe the first crack, allowing spiritual energy to seep in along the existing spiritual patterns and reconnect the broken joint. The array's celestial pivot verified the direction of the spiritual patterns to prevent new cracks from forming after one repair.

The first crack has been repaired.

The second and third courses were also added in turn.

The leakage of demonic energy immediately weakened, and the layer of dark purple mist at the pit entrance began to dissipate.

Li Yuan did not stop.

The perception of the Netherworld sank deeper into the seal. In the middle of the fifth nested loop, there was an extremely subtle anomaly.

It's not a crack, it's a hidden injury.

The surface of the spirit pattern was intact, but there was a slight vortex when the spiritual energy flowed through it. Ordinary divine sense could not detect it, and even the Myriad Manifestations Retrospection would have to pull the precision to the limit to point out this abnormality.

This hidden injury doesn't look like natural aging; it's more like it was gently pushed from the inside by an external force.

Li Yuan used micro-controlling spiritual techniques to probe the hidden injury, examining every inch of the inner wall of the spiritual patterns, and straightening the twisted parts. The spiritual energy vortex then disappeared, and the fifth layer of the circuit returned to normal.

The sealed spiritual energy circulation was restored, and the outflow of demonic energy completely stopped.

Li Yuan withdrew his spiritual power and turned his gaze to the depths of the Demon Abyss.

While repairing, Dark Fiend Insight had been scanning the depths for demonic energy. This aura was extremely familiar, highly consistent with the demons of the Netherworld.

The demonic energy seeping from the ruins of the Demon Abyss is mostly of the same origin as that of the Netherworld.

The report mentioned that in ancient times, several spatial channels connected to a certain lower realm, through which demonic energy entered. That lower realm is very likely the Netherworld.

Li Yuan noted down this conjecture and continued his investigation.

After descending about two hundred feet into the pit, the rock walls narrowed into a vertical passage. At the bottom of the passage was a pile of collapsed rubble, with a large amount of demonic energy remaining among the rubble.

Dark Fiend's Insight detected a faint fluctuation beneath the pile of rubble.

It's not demonic energy, it's just the remnants of an array.

Li Yuan cleared away the rubble, revealing the entrance to a secret passage. The entrance was less than two feet wide and was mostly buried by mud and rocks; it would have been difficult to find unless An Sha had keen insight.

The secret passage extends to the side, turns after fifty feet, and ends at a secret room.

The secret chamber was about four zhang square. In the center of the floor was a demonic energy array, with spirit patterns drawn in dark purple ink, in the same style as those seen in the secret passage of the Yuan Sect.

However, the formation is not in the correct state.

The spirit runes still contained faint traces of demonic energy, not old remnants from hundreds of years ago, but new traces that had recently been activated.

Someone has been here.

Dark Fiend used his keen insight to extract the remaining aura within the formation and compared it with the demonic energy sealed within the Demon Abyss.

homology.

It also shares the same origin as the demonic aura of the Netherworld.

Li Yuan scanned the secret room. In one corner were piles of dozens of magic stones and several sets of spiritual materials, ranging in grade from third to fourth.

On the stone shelf against the wall, there was also a dark-colored box.

A sweep of three-foot-long perception revealed no fluctuations in the attributes of the magic stones and most of the spiritual materials. However, a dark magic crystal within the dark box emitted a green-grade fluctuation.

Li Yuan didn't touch the Dark Magic Crystal for the time being and continued to investigate the secret room.

Dark Fiend Insight detected the fourth tracking marker deep within the western wall.

The core remains the third-order tracking spirit rune, an old method from the Yuan Sect. This time, the outer layer of shielding is replaced with wood-attribute spiritual power, and the spiritual membrane has a very faint emerald green color, which is different from the previous three methods.

Four markers, four occlusion properties.

Li Yuan took out the Concealing Yuan Bead from his personal miniature world and put it into his equipment slot.

The anonymous disappearance entry is now in effect.

The spiritual energy probed into the wall, passed through the wood-attribute spiritual membrane, and severed the core spiritual rune node. The circuit collapsed, and the spiritual membrane dissipated.

Tracking markers cleared.

Progress on permanent disappearance of anonymous elements: 4 locations.

Li Yuan removed the Concealing Yuan Bead and retrieved it into his personal miniature world.

He then opened the dark box on the stone shelf and took out the dark magic crystal. It was the size of a fist, completely black, with a dark purple luster flowing across its surface; it was a low-grade fourth-tier crystal.

Touch it with your fingertips.

[Equipable item detected: Dark Magic Crystal]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Dark Magic Essence (Green)]

[Effect: Permanently increases the power of demonic spells by 20%; permanently increases the speed of demonic energy condensation by 20%]

[Preview of Permanentization Conditions: Continuously practice demonic energy spells for thirty days]

Both effects point to the cultivation of demonic energy. The conditions are also simple: cultivate demonic energy spells continuously for thirty days.

Li Yuan stored the Dark Magic Crystal into his personal microcosm, leaving it unequipped for the time being. He also collected the remaining magic stones and spiritual materials in the secret chamber, recorded the array runes with his divine sense, and returned to the surface via the secret passage.

The light escaped and returned to the Tianyue Sect's stronghold.

In the mission hall, Li Yuan submitted a report using his token.

"The seal on the Demon Abyss Ruins has been repaired. The three surface cracks have been fixed. Additionally, a hidden injury was discovered and repaired in the fifth nested loop. This hidden injury is not due to natural aging but is suspected to have been caused by external forces. The leakage of demonic energy has stopped."

"The frequency of the demonic energy seeping from the seal is highly consistent with the aura of the demons in the Netherworld. A secret passage and a secret chamber were discovered deep within the Demon Abyss. Inside the secret chamber, there is a remnant demonic energy array from the Yuan Sect, which was recently activated. The residual aura is of the same origin as the demons in the Netherworld. A fourth tracking marker was found in the secret chamber, but it has been removed."

The disciples on duty looked serious and wrote down each item.

Not long after, a late-stage Golden Core steward strode out of the inner hall.

"Lord Li, the sect attaches great importance to this matter. The additional contribution has been recorded in your token. Furthermore..."

The steward handed over a jade slip for communication.

"There are anomalies at the monitoring point in the abandoned mining valley of Yunzhou. The spatial sensing array is functioning normally, but the residual spiritual energy in the surrounding area has changed, as if it has been probed."

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

The pattern of residual spiritual energy around the abandoned mining valley has changed. The previously uniform background spiritual energy now shows several extremely slight disturbances, unlike natural fluctuations, but more like traces left by a cultivator's divine sense.

Someone is investigating the monitoring points he set up.

Li Yuan carefully put away the jade slip and left the stronghold.

The light escaped and flew towards Yunzhou.

In the northeast corner of Yunzhou, there is an abandoned mining valley.

The mining valley remains abandoned, filled with piles of rocks and devoid of spiritual energy.

Li Yuan landed at the valley entrance, his spatial perception sweeping across the interior of the mining valley. The spatial sensing array was functioning normally, and the spiritual energy circulation was stable.

The surrounding area has indeed been explored.

On the rock walls on both sides of the valley entrance, faint traces of divine sense scanning ripples remained. The ripples had weakened to the point of almost dissipating, making them undetectable by ordinary means. The Myriad Manifestations Retrospection technique extracted the frequency of the ripples and compared it with known characteristics of cultivators' spiritual power, but found no match.

The other party was very cautious.

Li Yuan searched along the perimeter of the mining valley and found the fifth tracking marker deep within a large rock wall on the right side of the valley entrance.

This one was hidden the deepest, embedded about a foot inside the rock wall. The core spirit pattern was the same as the previous four, and the outer layer was covered with earth-attribute spirit power. The color of the spirit membrane was close to the natural color of the rock, and it was almost fused together with it.

The technique is more precise than the previous four.

Li Yuan took out the Concealing Yuan Bead and put it into his equipment slot.

The anonymous disappearance entry is now in effect.

Spiritual energy probed into the rock wall. The earth-elemental spiritual membrane was too close to the rock layer; if it were moved too forcefully, the spiritual membrane and the rock layer would shatter together, and the mark would self-destruct.

The entry clearly shows the structure of the spirit membrane. Li Yuan used extremely fine spiritual energy to seep in from the boundary, peeling away the spirit membrane little by little to reveal the core spiritual patterns inside.

The spirit pattern node is severed, the loop collapses, and the spirit membrane dissipates.

Tracking markers cleared.

Progress on permanent erasure of hidden entities: five locations.

The conditions are met.

The Concealment Bead disappeared from the equipment inventory. A stream of blue light flowed out from where it had disappeared, spreading throughout the body along the meridians.

The images flooded into my mind.

A cultivator walked in the darkness, the fluctuations of spiritual energy around him receding layer by layer until they finally vanished completely, like a stone or a fallen leaf, merging into the darkness. A detection spell swept past him, only able to detect the natural fluctuations of spiritual energy in the background.

The cultivator reached out and touched the tracking mark on the wall. His spiritual power cut into the weakest part of the core spiritual pattern, and the mark's circuit instantly collapsed, even erasing the traces.

He then condensed an extremely fine spiritual energy mark and pressed it onto the door frame. The mark's frequency blended with the spiritual energy of the door frame, making it undetectable from the outside.

A wealth of insights into concealing, tracking, marking, identifying, clearing, and proactively setting up spiritual energy fluctuations flooded into my mind.

The image fades away.

The disappearance of the original entity has been permanently completed.

While in stealth mode, spiritual energy fluctuations are permanently reduced by 50%. Can detect and remove tracking marks from others. Can intentionally leave tracking marks.

Li Yuan closed his eyes and sensed for a moment.

The ability to conceal oneself and remain hidden suppresses the aura of the Nascent Soul, the cultivation of the Dark Demon reduces the fluctuations of demonic energy escape techniques, and now the ability to conceal one's origin and disappear further reduces the fluctuations of spiritual power by 50%. With the three combined, the ability to hide has become even more stable.

The detection and removal of tracking markers no longer require the use of the Concealment Bead.

The ability to proactively deploy tracking markers has also been acquired.

Li Yuan withdrew his senses, recorded the results of the investigation of the abandoned mine valley, and transformed into a beam of light to return to the Misty Forest City.

Wulinfang Market, residence.

The stone gate was closed.

Just as Li Yuan sat down, Ji Wenyuan's message arrived.

"The shopkeeper is back? The accounts for this quarter are ready and can be reviewed at any time."

"Bring it over."

A moment later, Ji Wenyuan delivered the two bamboo books.

Li Yuan flipped through the pages. The revenue of the Misty Forest Market continued to climb, with spirit material shops and pill shops still accounting for the majority. Ore shops, driven by recent demand, also saw a 20% increase. The Yunyang Market saw even greater sales volume, with a stable supply from newly recruited rogue alchemists, and the pill shortage had been filled.

The share of spirit stones from the two workshops has increased again compared to the previous quarter.

"The market is operating normally, there are no problems." Li Yuan closed the bamboo book.

"Yes." Ji Wenyuan nodded and withdrew.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged on the stone platform and began to practice the Nascent Soul Returning to Origin Technique.

The cultivation continues.