Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes

Early morning, in a hidden valley north of the Mist Forest Marketplace.

Li Yuan and three other Early-stage Foundation Establishment Loose Cultivators were hiding behind some bushes. Ahead of them was a natural stone cave, half-concealed by withered vines. A very simple sound-insulating and Illusion Array had been set up around the entrance.

According to the extermination intel issued by the Sect, this was a peripheral transfer point for the Dark Abyss Association.

Li Yuan didn’t draw a Magical Artifact. His Divine Sense stirred, and his Spiritual Sense instantly pierced through the crude Illusion Array, locking onto the auras of two Early-stage Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivators inside the cave.

"Let’s make this quick," Li Yuan instructed in a low voice, his figure suddenly erupting into motion.

He used no stealth magic, charging directly at the cave entrance. The moment the Illusion Array’s curtain of light touched his body, it shattered with a CRASH, like glass struck by a great hammer. Shards from the exploding Array Disc shot out in all directions, thudding against the tree trunks.

The two Demon Cultivators inside reacted extremely quickly, rushing out from the left and right, each gripping a bone blade shimmering with black qi.

The Demon Cultivator on the left raised his hand and sent a sinister Evil Qi Needle straight for Li Yuan’s face.

Li Yuan neither dodged nor evaded. He formed a fist with his right hand and punched straight into the incoming Evil Qi Needle. The formidable physique granted by his Alchemical True Body was on full display. The Evil Qi Needle, powerful enough to pierce refined iron, struck his fist and left only a white mark before being utterly crushed by his rampaging Qi Blood and the force of his punch.

His fist’s momentum didn’t slow, and it slammed heavily into the Demon Cultivator’s chest.

With a series of dull, sickening CRUNCHES of breaking bone, the Demon Cultivator’s chest instantly caved in. His entire body was sent flying backward, slamming into the stone wall before sliding to the ground, lifeless.

Seeing this, the other Demon Cultivator’s eyes flashed with utter terror. He abruptly halted his charge and turned to flee deeper into the cave.

The three Loose Cultivators following Li Yuan had arrived by now. Several Golden Blades and Fireballs flew past Li Yuan’s shoulders, cutting off the Demon Cultivator’s escape. Amidst a violent explosion of Spiritual Power, the second Demon Cultivator was obliterated by the magic.

The battle, from start to finish, lasted no more than a dozen breaths of time.

Li Yuan walked over and skillfully pulled the storage pouches off the two corpses. He forcibly wiped the lingering imprints from them with his Divine Sense and emptied their contents onto the ground.

Common pill ingredients, Magical Artifacts, and several hundred Low Grade Spirit Stones.

Li Yuan’s gaze swept over the miscellaneous items, finally settling on a black stone box in the corner with a Sealing Spirit Talisman affixed to it. He peeled off the Talisman and lifted the lid.

A thick and extremely condensed wave of Evil Qi surged out of the box, and the temperature of the surrounding air dropped instantly.

In the center of the stone box lay two quiet, fingernail-sized, rhombus-shaped crystals. They were entirely black, and a thick, inky substance seemed to flow slowly within them.

This was the physical manifestation of Evil Qi that had been highly compressed and condensed under extreme conditions.

Li Yuan extended two fingers and picked up one of the crystals.

[Detectable Equipable Item: Evil Crystal]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Evil Source Condensation (Green)]

[Effect: Increases the efficiency of Evil Qi gathering, compression, and sedimentation by 30%.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Cultivate an evil-type Cultivation Technique to completion.]

[An equipment slot is available. Equip?]

’A green, array-type enhancement attribute.’

"Equip."

[Equipped: Evil Crystal]

[Evil Source Condensation (Green) is now active.]

「Half a day later.」

Li Yuan returned to the Mist Forest Marketplace and went directly into the underground mine tunnel behind his stone house.

After passing through a long, dark tunnel, he arrived at a natural cavity where the Evil Ore and Fire Ore veins met. The Cultivating Evil Array was operating steadily. Dark purple light flowed through its Array Patterns as wisps of free-roaming Evil Qi were drawn in, slowly settling at the Array Hub.

Li Yuan walked to the Array Hub, removed the high-quality Purple Evil Stone that had been placed there as the core, and replaced it with the black Evil Crystal.

There were two Evil Crystals in total; now one remained.

The moment the attribute took effect, the airflow within the entire underground cavity changed visibly.

The previously slow-drifting Evil Qi was now pulled by some powerful force, transforming into streams of gray-black gas that surged madly toward the Evil Crystal at the Array Hub. The light from the Cultivating Evil Array’s Array Patterns flared, and its absorption and compression efficiency nearly doubled.

Li Yuan stood at the edge of the Array and observed for a moment.

On the rock walls, the nascent Purple Evil Stones that would have originally taken several more days to fully form were now visibly solidifying faster, their color shifting to a deeper purple. On the other side of the junction, the depth of the Evil Qi’s penetration into the Fire Evil Stone vein also increased.

The Array operated stably, showing no signs of overloading or collapse.

Li Yuan retracted his gaze and followed the mine tunnel back to the surface.

Over the next few days, cleanup teams organized by the Sect mobilized frequently around the Marketplace. The peripheral strongholds, now scattered and leaderless without their Demon Cultivator coordinators, were eliminated one by one. The network of intelligence and logistics that the Dark Abyss Association had woven around the Mist Forest Marketplace was forcibly torn open in several places.

The security around the Marketplace’s perimeter improved noticeably. Although sporadic attacks still occurred, their scale and frequency were far less than before.

Furthermore, to prevent the High-tier Demon Beasts in the Ghost Mist Forest from being exploited by Demon Cultivators again, the Primordial Yang Sect dispatched a large number of personnel to conduct a concentrated hunt of all Tier Two and above Demon Beasts in the forest.

This directly led to violent fluctuations in the Marketplace’s internal market.

「At noon.」

Li Yuan was walking down the Loose Cultivator trading street in the expanded district.

The pungent stench of blood filled the entire street. Several Demon Beast hunting teams had dragged enormous beast carcasses to the roadside and were butchering and selling them on the spot.

"Tier One Top Grade Wind Wolf blood! Two large jars for just ten Spirit Stones!"

"A complete backplate from a Tier Two Low Grade Iron Armor Pig! Perfect for refining a defensive Magical Artifact! Selling it cheap, sixty Spirit Stones takes it!"

The ground was piled high with Demon Beast materials. The situation of supply far exceeding demand caused the prices of Demon Beast materials, which had been sky-high due to wartime premiums, to plummet within just two days.

Li Yuan moved through the crowd, his gaze carefully scanning the various stalls.

He stopped in front of a large stall run by three Loose Cultivators from Yunzhou. In the very center of the stall rested an enormous Demon Beast skull.

The skull was about five feet long. Its bone was a heavy, grayish-white color, its surface covered with natural, dark-brown patterns.

’A green attribute.’

’A Tier Two Middle Grade Demon Beast, a Rock-Splitting Bear.’

This type of Demon Beast was known for its extremely high bone density and immense strength.

"How much for this skull?" Li Yuan asked, pointing at the massive cranium.

The stall owner looked up, and seeing it was Li Yuan, he quickly rubbed his hands together and put on a broad smile. "Pavilion Master Li, if you’ve taken a liking to it, I’ll give you a fair price, five hundred Spirit Stones. This Rock-Splitting Bear was a genuine Tier Two Middle Grade when it was alive. Its bones are incredibly hard, an excellent main material whether you’re setting up an Array or doing Artifact Refining."

’Five hundred Spirit Stones.’

Half a month ago, a complete skull from a Tier Two Middle Grade Demon Beast like this would have sold for at least eight hundred Spirit Stones.

Li Yuan didn’t haggle. He directly counted out the Spirit Stones, handed them over, and placed the heavy skull into his storage pouch.

Back in his stone house, Li Yuan activated the sound-insulating and Defensive Array.

He took the Rock-Splitting Bear’s skull out of his storage pouch and laid it flat on the floor in the center of the stone room. He placed his hand on the rough, cool surface of the bone.

[Detectable Equipable Item: Tier Two Demon Beast Skull (Complete)]

[Equipment Attribute Preview: Condensed Bone (Green)]

[Effect: Increases physical body strength by 20% and bone toughness by 30%.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Reach the ’Proficient’ level in three different Tier Two Body Refining Techniques.]

[An equipment slot is available. Equip?]

’A green, Body-Refining-enhancement attribute.’

A 20% increase in physical body strength and a 30% increase in bone toughness. This kind of pure physical defense and strength enhancement was simple and brutal to the extreme. Stacked with [Bone Firmness] and [Alchemical True Body], it was enough to raise his physical strength to a level incomprehensible to an ordinary Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

Li Yuan looked at the permanence condition.

’Reach the Proficient level in three different Tier Two Body Refining Techniques.’

’I’m still missing the last Tier Two Body Refining Technique.’

He currently didn’t have a suitable third Tier Two Body Refining Technique. Most of the Body Refining Techniques circulating in the Marketplace were either incomplete or extremely rudimentary Tier One Cultivation Techniques. If he wanted to get his hands on a complete Tier Two Body Refining Technique, he would have to wait for an auction or exchange contribution points for one from the Primordial Yang Sect.