Chapter 477: Making the Teleportation Stone Permanent
On his way back to the Mist Forest Marketplace from Nanyuan District, Li Yuan sensed something was amiss on the outskirts of the marketplace.
The Earth Veins were trembling.
It wasn’t the brief tremor from last time that lasted only a few breaths, but a deep, continuous, low-frequency oscillation. His permanent trait, Earth Vein Resonance, clearly transmitted every subtle shudder of the ground beneath his feet into his Divine Sense.
The epicenter was to the northwest. Skeleton Ridge.
Li Yuan quickened his pace and entered the marketplace.
The atmosphere on the streets was noticeably much more tense. The patrol teams were all on duty, the stone-paved roads were sparsely populated, and several shops had closed early. From the direction of the distant skyline, muffled rumbles could occasionally be heard from dozens of miles away.
Ji Wenchuan was waiting for him at the marketplace gate.
“Pavilion Master, something big has happened at Skeleton Ridge.”
“When did it start?”
“Three days ago.”
Ji Wenchuan’s face was pale.
“There was a sudden earthquake in the middle of the night, much stronger than the last one. A few stone houses on the north side of the marketplace developed cracks, and a small section of the Spirit Fields collapsed. The patrol teams reported that the fog density on the outskirts of the Ghost Mist Forest has surged, and several old paths have been sealed off by newly emerged miasma.”
The Tier Three Top Grade Restriction had loosened substantially for the second time.
The last time was due to the backlash from the Abyss Sect’s Array Master failing to break the array with another array. That was just a partial loosening at the Restriction’s edge. The intensity of this tremor far exceeded the first, indicating a much larger structural change in the Restriction’s core area.
Li Yuan inspected the marketplace’s defensive arrangements, reinforced a few weak points in the outer Defensive Array, and then ascended the highest watchtower on the north side of the marketplace.
The pattern of auras above Skeleton Ridge had drastically changed.
Xuan Pu Master’s Late-stage Golden Core pressure was no longer in its previous state of stable, restrained suppression, but had erupted completely. His extremely righteous and pure Spiritual Power hung like a scorching sun in the sky east of Skeleton Ridge, its light searing and completely unrestrained.
Facing him were no longer three Early- and Mid-stage Golden Core cultivators.
A signal of Demonic Qi so dense it was almost liquid stood tall on the west side of Skeleton Ridge. Its continuous wave had an extremely low frequency and immense amplitude, each pulse carrying an information density far exceeding that of the previous Mid-stage Golden Core cultivator.
A Late-stage Golden Core.
The Abyss Sect had sent a Late-stage Golden Core cultivator.
The aftershocks from the head-on clash of two Late-stage Golden Core cultivators were absolutely terrifying. Even from thirty miles away, Li Yuan could feel the Spiritual Qi in the air being swept up by the two forces, churning violently like two giant whirlpools trying to devour each other.
To the northeast of Skeleton Ridge, the aura of the Bitan Sect’s Early-stage Golden Core cultivator had also shifted.
He had advanced about five miles from his previous observation post on the periphery, entering the middle ring of Skeleton Ridge. His position was perfectly centered, placing him directly behind Xuan Pu.
The Bitan Sect had chosen the side of the Celestial Peak Sect.
To the south, there were three Golden Core auras from the Primordial Yang Sect—one more than before. The Primordial Yang Sect Master, Zhou Mingyuan, had arrived. The three Golden Core cultivators formed a tripod formation, sealing off the southern approach to Skeleton Ridge.
In the gaps between all these Golden Core auras, Li Yuan’s Dark Evil Insight detected two extremely faint, segmented pulses of Demonic Qi.
The Evil Slaying Sect.
The two pulses were moving rapidly from the southwest of Skeleton Ridge, attempting to use the chaos of the clash between Xuan Pu Master and the Abyss Sect’s Late-stage Golden Core cultivator to break into the inner ring of Skeleton Ridge.
But they had moved less than half a mile before a Golden Core Level barrier of Spiritual Power suddenly blocked their path.
An interception by a Primordial Yang Sect Golden Core cultivator.
The two segmented pulses halted abruptly, then rapidly retreated, vanishing into the miasmic depths of the Ghost Mist Forest.
The Evil Slaying Sect’s probing attempt had been repelled.
Li Yuan recorded all the movements of the auras in his mind and descended from the watchtower.
The situation at Skeleton Ridge had escalated from a stalemate to a direct confrontation. The various Golden Core cultivators were no longer content with a remote standoff; they had begun to actively vie for position and control.
The scale and intensity of this conflict would only continue to grow.
Li Yuan shook his head, returned to his stone house, closed and bolted the door, and activated the Concealment Array.
He entered seclusion.
His Teleportation Skill was at the Great Success stage, just one final step from perfection. Rending Void Slash was already perfected, he had the enhanced spatial awareness from his permanent Spatial Companion, the assistance of the Profound Nether Bead’s Nascent Soul perspective, and the Divine Sense strength of a Late-stage Golden Core cultivator. All the conditions were in place.
Li Yuan sat down cross-legged and began to circulate the Teleportation Skill.
Although the Teleportation Skill at the Great Success stage was extremely fast, it still had an incredibly brief start-up process. Spiritual Power was drawn from the Dantian, injected into the tear point of the spatial tunnel, the tunnel formed, the body entered, and the tunnel closed. The entire process took less than a breath, but that single breath was its wind-up.
Perfection meant the complete disappearance of that wind-up. With a single thought, he would already be at his destination.
To achieve this, the formation of the spatial tunnel and the entry of the body had to be synchronized. It wasn’t about tearing open a tunnel and then stepping in, but rather the process of tearing *was* the process of stepping in. The body would become one with the spatial tunnel, the displacement completed the very instant the tunnel formed.
The concept was clear, but the execution was extremely difficult.
Li Yuan practiced the Teleportation Skill again and again inside the stone house. All twelve of his Divine Sense Lines focused on the instant of the spatial tunnel’s formation, while his Nascent Soul perspective rendered the tunnel’s internal spatial structure in exquisite detail within his consciousness.
Twelve days later, Li Yuan sat on the cattail mat in the center of the stone house. With a single thought—
There was no process.
The next instant, he was already standing at the other end of the stone house, facing the stone door. The afterimage of his robes on the cattail mat behind him had not yet completely faded.
Twenty zhang.
Throughout the entire displacement, there were no Spiritual Power fluctuations, no spatial rifts, and no telltale signs that could be captured by external perception.
[Teleportation Skill: Great Success → Perfected]
Teleportation Skill perfected. Teleportation distance of twenty zhang, instantaneous, no wind-up.
Both of his spatial Magic techniques were now perfected.
The condition for making the Teleportation Stone permanent had been met.
Li Yuan retrieved the Teleportation Stone from his equipment slot.
“Make permanent.”
[Teleportation Stone (Purple) has become a permanent trait.]
The phantom of the Teleportation Stone shattered in the equipment slot, dissolving into motes of purple light that merged with his body. The slot was now free.
Effects of spatial teleportation reduced by fifty percent. Spatial perception doubled. Spatial Magic power increased by thirty percent. These three effects were now a part of his very being.
The change was drastic.
The doubled spatial perception stacked with the effects of his Spatial Companion and the Profound Nether Bead’s Nascent Soul perspective. The moment Li Yuan closed his eyes, the clarity of his perception of the surrounding spatial structure took a quantum leap.
The walls, floor, and ceiling of the stone house—the texture, thickness, and stability of every inch of space—all came into focus with microscopic clarity, as if viewed through a high-powered magnifying glass.
The power of his Rending Void Slash increased by thirty percent. The distance of his Teleportation Skill expanded from twenty zhang to over twenty-five zhang.
The notification on the panel did not fade.
New information appeared.
[Accumulated 5/5 Purple Traits. Unlocking new function.]
[New function unlocked.]
[New Function: Subsequently obtained items with White Traits can be made permanent directly, without needing to meet their permanence conditions.]
Although the individual effects of White Traits were generally mediocre, their strength lay in their sheer number and broad coverage.
The panel continued to scroll.
[Next Function Unlock Condition: Come into contact with one Red Trait. Does not need to be made permanent.]
Red.
Li Yuan had never seen a Red Trait before. Gray, White, Green, Blue, Purple—these were all the trait grades he had encountered so far. Red was above Purple.
[Unlock Effect Preview:]
[When completing permanence conditions and the permanence process, the item does not need to be equipped.]
[After making an item permanent, you will learn its related hidden information.]
Both effects were extremely practical.
The first meant he would no longer need to occupy an equipment slot to make an item permanent. He currently had only five regular slots, each one extremely precious. If permanence didn’t require equipping, it was as good as greatly loosening the restrictions on his equipment slots.
The second was even more enticing. Hidden information. Every trait item might conceal extra content not displayed on the panel, which would be automatically revealed upon being made permanent.
But the prerequisite was finding a Red Trait item.
Li Yuan filed this information away in his mind and didn’t dwell on it. He couldn’t control when a Red Trait might appear; the pressing matter was to make good use of his current power boost.
With two perfected spatial Magic techniques and doubled spatial perception from the permanent Teleportation Stone, his mastery over the power of space had reached an unprecedented height.
‘I’m not going to Skeleton Ridge. A head-on clash between Late-stage Golden Core cultivators is not a battlefield I should be stepping onto right now. But the valley Sun Shiyi described—that’s a place I can visit now. That spatial fissure.’
That night, Li Yuan used the Earth Escape Technique to leave the marketplace, moving stealthily to the northwest.
He skirted the Skeleton Ridge warzone, looping around from the south to reach the valley Sun Shiyi had described.
The valley’s terrain was unchanged from his last visit. Rubble, dead branches, and thick fog. A few crooked old trees moaned softly in the night wind.
Li Yuan didn’t enter from the surface, instead using the Earth Escape Technique to dive seven zhang deep underground.
The spatial fissure was just ahead.
His doubled spatial perception, a result of making the Teleportation Stone permanent, had brought about a world-altering change in the clarity of his senses. Last time, he could only vaguely sense a trace of spatial fluctuations; now, the fissure’s complete form was rendered in exquisite detail within his perception.
The fissure had shrunk a bit more since last time, its width now less than half a thumb. But in his perception, the spatial structure on both sides of the fissure was as clearly discernible as a dissected tissue slice.
There was indeed an enclosed space on the other side of the fissure.
A stone chamber.
With the perfected precision of his Rending Void Slash, Li Yuan very carefully applied a miniature spatial cut along the edge of the fissure.
He wasn’t forcing the fissure wider, but rather gently prying it open along its existing grain. The perfected Rending Void Slash created a spatial cross-section as smooth as a mirror, causing no additional damage to the spatial structure on either side of the fissure.
The gap widened from half a thumb to about the width of two fists.
That was enough.
Li Yuan used the Teleportation Skill to instantly move through the gap.
His feet landed on a hard stone surface.
The ruins of the Profound Nether Sect.
The stone chamber was not large, roughly three zhang square. The four stone walls were polished to an extreme smoothness and covered with densely packed Spirit Patterns. The style of the Spirit Patterns was identical to what he had seen in the Spirit Vein Core of Mozhou—the standard design of the Profound Nether Sect.
Numerous items were scattered around the chamber.
On a stone shelf against the wall, a dozen or so jade slips and several sealed Spirit Wood boxes were arranged neatly. In a corner on the floor were a few Magical Artifacts and two bundles of beast-skin Scrolls. In the center of the chamber, a low stone table held a jet-black iron casket, its surface covered with three Spirit Pattern seals.
Li Yuan didn’t rush to examine these items, instead sweeping his Dark Evil Insight over the entire area of the ruins first.
This stone chamber was only one part of the ruins.
Behind the chamber’s north wall was a corridor connecting to several other stone chambers. The floor and walls of the corridor were also covered in Spirit Patterns, but they were denser and more complex in structure.
The deepest chambers were covered by Tier Two Restrictions.
Mixed within the Spiritual Power fluctuations of the Restrictions was an energy signature that Li Yuan found extremely familiar.
The power of space.
Those chambers were filled with a dense power of space, its concentration far exceeding anything he had ever sensed before.
Standing in the first stone chamber, Li Yuan’s gaze swept over his surroundings before finally landing on the entrance to the corridor.