Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes

Deep within the rock, the spatial rift was rapidly shrinking.

Li Yuan stood outside the rift. His twelve Divine Sense Lines had already clearly captured the auras sweeping in from all directions. The several Golden Core Cultivators who had been in a standoff near Skeleton Ridge were now approaching the valley at extreme speed.

The spatial fluctuations had caused a significant disturbance.

Not just the Golden Core Cultivators, but a dozen or so Foundation Establishment Cultivators on the perimeter also seemed to have received the news and were tightening their encirclement at full speed.

Several powerful Divine Senses had already swept through the area, firmly locking onto Li Yuan’s position.

His aura was completely locked on. Even with his concealment skill, escape was highly unlikely.

Then he wouldn’t run.

With a thought, Li Yuan activated his illusory face disguise.

His face became old and grim, and his figure grew taller by an inch or so. The Spiritual Power in his body fell completely silent. His unified spirit-demon power began to circulate, filling his meridians with an extremely pure, deep Demonic Qi. The pressure of a late-stage Golden Core Cultivator erupted without reservation.

He casually took out the Spirit Demon Source Stone.

"Equip."

[Equipped: Spirit Demon Source Stone (Complete)]

[Spirit-Demon Spatial Concordance (Purple) active]

A faint purple light flashed in his equipment slot. The fusion and upper limit of his Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi instantly skyrocketed, and his sense of control over spatial Magic grew stronger once more.

Li Yuan looked at the spatial rift ahead, which had shrunk to the size of a fingernail and was about to close completely. He raised his hands, condensing a stream of pure Spiritual Power in his left and gathering profound Demonic Qi in his right, striking them both into the rift simultaneously.

The two forces collided violently inside the rift.

The system panel showed no reaction.

A casual strike of this level was far from having the power and purity required for the complete dual-elemental Magic clash needed to meet the permanent-affix condition. The rift was about to close and couldn’t withstand a stronger Magic.

Li Yuan recalled the Profound Nether Sect notes he had scanned in the ruins earlier. Spatial rifts had their own fixed tidal patterns. According to the deductions in the notes, the next time this rift would revive and stabilize enough for a person to pass through would be in two months.

BOOM!

The rock stratum above his head was forcibly torn open by a tremendous force, sending soil and rubble cascading upward like a waterfall.

A vast and majestic Spiritual Power pressure crashed down from above. Xuan Pu Master was the first to arrive, appearing in mid-air above the valley.

His gaze first swept over the lingering trace of the just-closed spatial rift before finally landing on Li Yuan.

When he sensed the late-stage Golden Core Demonic Qi, so pure it was almost tangible, a clear trace of apprehension flashed in Xuan Pu Master’s eyes.

"Impressive methods, sir." Xuan Pu Master stared at the texture of the rock behind Li Yuan, his voice low. "What’s inside?"

Before the words had even faded, he raised his hand and slashed.

A blinding cyan sword light tore through the air, aimed straight for Li Yuan’s face.

The sword strike was fast and vicious. It was framed as a test, but in reality, it was an interrogation.

Li Yuan stood his ground, not even lifting an eyelid.

Twelve Divine Sense Lines spread out simultaneously in his sea of consciousness. In an instant, he saw everything with perfect clarity: the trajectory of Xuan Pu Master’s sword strike, the residual spatial ripples in the air above the valley, and the approaching auras from all directions.

The next moment, he formed a blade with the fingers of his right hand and made a casual slash.

Void Rending Slash.

In mid-air, a gray rift, smooth as a mirror, silently appeared.

The cyan sword light slashed into it as if crashing into a shattered patch of void. It was silently devoured without even creating a ripple.

Xuan Pu Master’s pupils contracted sharply, and his body came to an abrupt halt in mid-air.

Before he could make another move, the sound of tearing air rang out repeatedly.

Zhou Mingyuan and the late-stage Golden Core Demon Cultivator from the Abyss Sect arrived at almost the same time.

Zhou Mingyuan saw Xuan Pu Master confronting an unfamiliar Demon Cultivator at a glance. His gaze then swept over the recently closed rock formation, and his expression immediately darkened.

Without any hesitation, the crimson flames around his body erupted. With a raise of his hand, he formed a Fire Python over a hundred feet long that lunged at Li Yuan from the flank.

At the same time, Xuan Pu Master formed hand seals, instantly materializing dozens of cyan Magic Swords in mid-air. The blades crossed and pulled at each other, faintly weaving into a descending net of swords even before they fell.

From above and from the side, two late-stage Golden Core Cultivators pressed their attack simultaneously.

Li Yuan glanced at them, took a light step, and activated Demon Shadow Step, leaving only a slightly delayed afterimage in his place.

Zhou Mingyuan’s Divine Sense blurred for a moment. Just then, another Li Yuan flickered into existence ten feet to the left. Real and illusory images intertwined, to the point that even Zhou Mingyuan couldn’t tell which was the real body.

’A proficient-level Illusion Technique is naturally not a killing blow against a Cultivator of the same tier, but it seems it can still have an effect.’

’Opportunities to fight late-stage Golden Core Cultivators are rare. This is a perfect chance to test my skills.’

His real body silently shifted five feet away using the Teleportation Skill.

Xuan Pu Master’s net of cyan swords descended from above, and Zhou Mingyuan’s Fire Python snapped at his shoulder. An ordinary late-stage Golden Core Cultivator would have been forced into a panicked scramble.

But Li Yuan simply raised his left hand, his fingers forming a grasping motion.

Tidal Return and Frostvein Seal activated simultaneously. However, they didn’t form the thick, frontal shield from before. Instead, they condensed into an extremely thin layer of ice-blue mystic light around his body, flowing close to his skin like a constantly shifting mirror of water.

The first cyan Magic Sword stabbed into the mystic light, its momentum faltering.

Then, the second and third Magic Swords descended one after another. The Spiritual Power on their blades seemed to sink into a swamp, slowed, eroded, and frozen inch by inch by the thin layer of mystic light.

Before the dozens of Magic Swords could truly reach him, they let out a series of faint pops and shattered, inch by inch.

At almost the same moment, the Fire Python from the side lunged right before him.

Zhou Mingyuan had timed his attack perfectly, striking at the exact instant Li Yuan had dismantled the sword net and was transitioning his energy flow.

Li Yuan didn’t even turn his head. He simply pointed behind him.

Dark Corrosion Finger.

A thread-thin black ray shot through the air, precisely striking the nexus point where the Spiritual Power of the Fire Python’s lower jaw and abdomen converged.

The Fire Python’s forward momentum instantly stalled.

In that moment of hesitation, a gray light flashed along the edge of Li Yuan’s right hand. A spatial rift as thin as a hair skimmed past the Fire Python’s abdomen, cleanly severing its core Spiritual Power circulation.

The next moment, a chilling cold poured in through the gash.

The entire Fire Python stiffened abruptly. Dark blue ice patterns appeared all over it, spreading from the inside out. Then, it exploded with a BOOM, turning into a sky full of fiery motes and ice crystals.

A tide of spiritual energy surged, and the aftershocks scattered in all directions.

The hem of Li Yuan’s robes was finally stirred by the shockwave, and several cracks silently appeared in the rock beneath his feet.

But that was all.

He neither pursued nor retreated, simply standing firm in his original spot, as if the combined assault had barely been enough to warrant his attention.

The coldness on Xuan Pu Master’s face gradually faded.

The flames around Zhou Mingyuan were still churning, but the look in his eyes had changed.

On the other side, the late-stage Golden Core from the Abyss Sect hovered in mid-air with his arms crossed, having never intervened.

Zhou Mingyuan was silent for a breath, his gaze finally moving past Li Yuan to land on the now-calm texture of the rock formation.

The residual spatial fluctuations, the traces of broken Array Patterns, and that faint, almost imperceptible Profound Nether Sect aura quickly made him recall something.

"Traces of a Profound Nether Sect spatial ruin..."

Zhou Mingyuan’s brow twitched slightly. The flames around him rapidly receded as intelligence surfaced in his mind.

"So the fluctuations were caused by the spatial ruin where Spirit-Demon Unity was once researched."

As he said this, he glanced again at the trace of the completely closed rift and immediately came to a conclusion.

’The rift is closed, the ruin is empty, and this has nothing to do with the Earth Element Spiritual Embryo.’

’If we keep fighting, we’ll gain nothing except the bitter enmity of a late-stage Golden Core Cultivator with unknown origins and unfathomable methods.’

Zhou Mingyuan immediately drifted back, being the first to offer a way out of the confrontation. He let out a hearty laugh.

"My friend, your Cultivation is profound. What just happened was a misunderstanding. Since the ruin is already closed, I’m sure whatever was inside has already been claimed. There’s no point in fighting anymore."

Xuan Pu Master was silent for a moment before finally dispelling the Spell in his hands.

"You, sir," Xuan Pu Master said, turning to the late-stage Golden Core from the Abyss Sect, "is he one of yours? From the Abyss Sect?"

The late-stage Golden Core from the Abyss Sect slowly shook his head. "I don’t know him. And his Cultivation Technique doesn’t resemble someone from the Evil Slaying Sect."

A few moments later, several more Golden Core auras arrived one after another.

Everyone looked at the traces of the ruin on the ground and began to communicate via voice transmission.

A Golden Core from the Evil Slaying Sect was the first to speak up: "Friend, could it be that you’ve obtained the legacy of the White Nether Sect?"

Everyone knew that back then, the White Nether Sect, a local Sect in Liangzhou, had only three Golden Core Cultivators under the dual pressure of the Primordial Yang Sect and the Evil Slaying Sect. In the end, all their Golden Cores were killed in an attack by the Primordial Yang Sect. Only a few core Foundation Establishment Cultivators managed to escape with the sect’s legacy and clues to a few ruins.

In their eyes, this powerful Demon Cultivator of unknown origin had most likely captured a remnant of the White Nether Sect who had fled with the core legacy, and had thus found this abandoned ruin of the Profound Nether Sect.

Li Yuan neither confirmed nor denied it.

The Golden Core from the Abyss Sect glanced at Li Yuan. He took a step forward, his voice hoarse. "Your strength is outstanding, friend. If you have nowhere to go, the gates of my Abyss Sect are always open. An elder’s position awaits you."

Li Yuan remained noncommittal.

Zhou Mingyuan then spoke up. "Friend, you’d best not get involved in the mess over at Skeleton Ridge. If what’s under that Restriction is really the Earth Element Spiritual Embryo, it’s useless to you Golden Core Demon Cultivators."

Li Yuan’s interest was piqued. "If it’s useless, then what do they want with it?"

He looked at the Golden Cores from the Abyss Sect and the Evil Slaying Sect.

But the Golden Core Cultivators from both factions remained silent. No one offered an explanation.

Seeing that Li Yuan hadn’t responded, the late-stage Golden Core from the Abyss Sect suddenly flicked his wrist, tossing out a black streak of light.

Li Yuan raised his hand and caught it. It was a dark gold, ring-shaped Magical Artifact.

"Our meeting is fate. Since you are a fellow traveler on our path, take this little trinket as a token of friendship."

[Equippable Item Detected: Abyssal Demon Ring (Complete)]

[Equipment Affix Preview: Demonic Insight (Blue)]

[Effect: Increases the effect of Demon Qi Skills by 30%. When observing an opponent casting a Demon Qi Skill, there is a chance to deduce the underlying principles of the Magic.]

[Permanent-Affix Condition: Cultivate a Tier Three Demon Qi Skill to the Great Success stage.]

’A blue affix.’

Li Yuan put the ring into his storage bag and gave a slight nod. His figure transformed into a dark Escape Light and instantly vanished into the night.