Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes

To be more precise, Li Yuan’s main body was now his Golden Core. His Divine Sense stemmed from the Golden Core, which he then used to control his physical form.

The Golden Core was minuscule, producing almost no Spiritual Power fluctuations as it moved. The Celestial Peak Sect’s monitoring array had a detection threshold for Spiritual Power fluctuations designed around a Cultivator’s body size. A fist-sized Golden Core was far below this threshold.

The Golden Core silently passed through the corridor and entered the space above the main hall.

The two Array Masters were right by the stone platform below, less than twenty zhang away.

Li Yuan simultaneously activated the Illusion Technique, and the Golden Core emitted a strange glow.

His Golden Core Stage Divine Sense powered a Tier Two Illusion Technique, which he cast on the two Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

The Illusion Technique spread downward from the Golden Core’s position, enveloping the two Array Masters’ Divine Senses like an invisible layer of mist.

The older Array Master’s movements paused slightly, his eyes losing focus for less than a breath. The younger Array Master’s hands, which were channeling Spiritual Power into the Jade Bead, also trembled ever so slightly before becoming still again.

The eyes of the two Array Masters seemed to have grown a bit cloudy.

At this moment, the Golden Core dove downward at extreme speed, passing through the outer wall of the mist array.

A repulsive reaction from the outer wall did indeed exist. The moment the Golden Core penetrated it, a weak repulsive force acted on the Golden Core’s surface, slowing its advance for an instant. But this force was far from enough to stop a Golden Core’s penetration, let alone trigger the array’s self-destruct mechanism.

The Golden Core passed into the mist array.

The Jade Bead was directly ahead.

Li Yuan extended Spiritual Power Threads from the Golden Core’s surface with his Divine Sense and touched the surface of the Jade Bead extremely slowly.

The moment they made contact, he sensed the energy signature inside the Jade Bead. It shared the same origin as the Spiritual Power pulses at the bottom of the Abyssal Rift Valley—ancient and profound, carrying an indescribable aura of desolation.

The Spiritual Power Threads wrapped around the Jade Bead and began to pull it slowly.

The Jade Bead moved half an inch from its suspended position toward the Golden Core. The mist array emitted an extremely subtle fluctuation; the array had sensed that its core energy source had shifted.

Li Yuan immediately used the Earth Vein Spiritual Hub to draw upon the energy of the local Spirit Vein.

A gossamer thread of Spirit Vein energy seeped into the Sub-Palace’s foundation along an underground branch channel. From there, it was injected into the mist array’s underlying power supply structure via several remaining spirit-conducting nodes from the Profound Nether Sect era.

The Spirit Vein energy began to replace the Jade Bead, providing operational power for the mist array.

The array’s fluctuations subsided.

Li Yuan increased his pulling speed.

The Jade Bead left its original suspended position, pulled by the Spiritual Power Threads toward the Golden Core. The Golden Core then carried the Jade Bead with it through the outer wall of the mist array. The repulsive reaction from passing from the inside out was just as weak, not enough to cause any impact.

The Jade Bead touched his Golden Core.

He felt a warm, smooth sensation. The Spiritual Light within it still flowed, but the cracks on its surface were even clearer upon closer inspection.

The Entry Perception triggered.

It had an Entry, but it could not be equipped. The cracks in the Jade Bead meant its internal structure was incomplete, and the system judged it as Damaged.

’It needs to be repaired.’

Li Yuan slowly retracted his Golden Core, placed the Jade Bead into his storage bag, and guided the Golden Core back into his body. The Demon Qi Golden Core returned to his Dantian along the same path, and the supply of the Essence, Qi, and Spirit Three Elements was instantly restored.

The mist array did not collapse immediately after losing the Jade Bead. The infusion of Spirit Vein energy maintained the array’s basic operation, but Li Yuan could sense that its area of effect was shrinking at an extremely slow rate.

The core energy source had been removed. The externally injected energy could only delay the array’s decay, not replace it completely.

The Illusion Technique was still active, and the two Array Masters had not yet noticed anything unusual.

At the current rate of decay, the mist array’s contraction would only become noticeable enough to alert them in about ten days. If no one intervened, given enough time, the entire array would sooner or later destabilize completely.

Li Yuan hadn’t actually tried to forge a complete Jade Bead. A core Spiritual Object of that level could not be faked with a mere Spiritual Power illusion to deceive Array Masters who were dismantling the array from up close. All he did was use the residual effects of the Illusion Technique, coupled with a subtle stream of energy continuously drawn from the underground Spirit Vein, to temporarily maintain the Spiritual Mechanism fluctuations at the Jade Bead’s original location within a range that wouldn’t yet cause problems.

’I wonder how effective this will be,’ he thought. ’After all, it should be pretty easy for them to notice the Jade Bead is gone when they try to dismantle the array.’

Li Yuan quickly retreated the way he came, through the side door.

Vines and rubble once again concealed the entrance to the fissure.

Not a single alarm was triggered.