Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes

Li Yuan sat cross-legged on a meditation mat, a dense series of faint, crisp cracks echoing from his bones.

Spiritual Power traced the path of the Mystic Iron Bone Forging Skill, completing another Grand Circulation through the marrow channels of his entire body. Unlike the past few days, after finishing its circuit this time, the Spiritual Power didn’t return to his Dantian as usual. Instead, it ran into an invisible barrier deep within his spine.

The Spiritual Power pressed against the barrier, unable to move.

Li Yuan didn’t try to force his way through. Instead, he maintained the pressure of his Spiritual Power against the barrier’s edge, letting it seep through bit by bit.

This process continued for about the time it takes to burn half a stick of incense.

The barrier suddenly split open. Like a flood finding an outlet, his Spiritual Power surged into the deepest marrow cavity of his spine, simultaneously rushing up and down from the central point.

Skull, ribs, shoulder blades, the long bones of his limbs, fingers, and toes.

In that instant, the Spiritual Power washed through the marrow channels of every single bone.

An incredibly intense, aching soreness erupted from deep within his bones, followed by a heavy sensation as his bone matter was crushed by Spiritual Power and then re-condensed. It was as if an invisible pair of giant hands had shattered every one of his bones, only to knead them back together into a denser form.

The aching soreness came on strong, but it faded just as quickly.

As the Spiritual Power completed this deep-level circulation and flowed back into his Dantian, an extremely faint hum emanated from Li Yuan’s bones.

It wasn’t pain, nor was it a tremor, but a resonance produced by the qualitative change in his bone density.

A panel popped up.

[Mystic Iron Bone Forging Skill: Adept (0/400)]

Li Yuan opened his eyes.

’Three Tier Two Body Refining Techniques.’

’All at Adept rank or higher.’

Without pausing, he took the Rock-Splitting Bear’s skull from his storage bag.

The enormous, grayish-white skull was placed on the stone floor of the chamber. Its natural dark brown patterns looked particularly rugged under the lamplight. Li Yuan placed his palm on it.

"Equip."

[Equipped: Tier Two Demon Beast Skull (Intact)]

[Dense Bone Structure (Green) is active]

With a thought, he made it permanent.

[Dense Bone Structure (Green) has become a permanent trait]

The phantom image of the Rock-Splitting Bear skull solidified for a moment in the equipment slot, then dissipated, freeing up the space.

Before he could re-equip Hidden Meridians and Concealed Aura, the edge of the panel suddenly flared with a circle of brilliant blue light.

[Permanent traits meeting fusion criteria detected]

[Dense Bone Structure (Green) + Bone Firmness (Green)]

[Proceed with fusion?]

’Two bone-structure-type traits.’

One was from the Rock-Splitting Bear skull, the other from the Tier Two Beast Spine Bone of a Black-backed Leopard. Both were purely defensive Body Refining traits with highly similar effects.

"Fuse."

The two balls of green light on the panel were devoured by the blue light, intertwining and spinning before finally coalescing into new text.

[Iron Bones Golden Body (Blue)]

[Effects: Greatly increases physical bone strength; increases damage resistance by 50%; increases bone self-healing speed after injury by 30%; increases the upper limit of enhancement from Body Refining Techniques by 30%.]

The moment the fusion was complete.

A deep HUM reverberated from all the bones in Li Yuan’s body, as if someone had struck a great cast-iron bell within him.

The hum spread from his spine to his limbs, making his fingertips tingle. Immediately after, an extremely heavy power surged out from the depths of his bones, seeping along the periosteum and into his muscle layer. His entire body felt as if it had been encased in an invisible iron shell—stable and solid.

Li Yuan raised his right hand and clenched his fist.

The bones in his fingers and palm pressed together, no longer making the previous grating sound, but a dull ring, akin to the impact of metal on metal.

He now had two blue Body Refining traits active. Layered on top of green and white defensive traits like Three Elements Body Protection, Periosteum Synergy, Bones Like Iron, and Golden Armor Protection, the toughness of his physical body had reached an absurd level.

And the last effect of Iron Bones Golden Body was even more critical.

’Increases the upper limit of enhancement from Body Refining Techniques by 30%.’

This meant that for the three Tier Two Body Refining Techniques he was currently practicing, the physical enhancement gained from each level of proficiency would be 30% greater than normal. This was a continuous, long-term bonus. The longer he cultivated, the wider the gap between him and ordinary Body Refining Cultivators would become.

The accumulated gains from his previous training were also boosted by thirty percent in that instant.

He had just stretched a bit when the communication jade slip on the corner of the table lit up.

Li Yuan picked up the jade slip and extended his Divine Sense into it.

It was a Sect transfer order forwarded by Chen Yi.

The Yunyang Marketplace expansion project had officially begun, and the Primordial Yang Sect was requisitioning Array Masters from all marketplaces to set up the outer Defensive Arrays. Since he was the only Array Master in Mist Forest Marketplace, it naturally fell to him.

The time indicated on the document was tomorrow.

Li Yuan put the jade slip down. Without delay, he packed the necessary tools and materials for array-setting that night and set off for Yunyang Marketplace early the next morning.

Yunyang Marketplace was even more crowded than it had been during the last trade fair.

The massive influx of Cultivators had pushed the marketplace’s capacity to its limit. Several sections of the outer walls were already being demolished for reconstruction. The construction site was thick with dust as dozens of Cultivators used earth and wood-type magic to transport huge blocks of stone from a quarry, stacking them one by one onto the new wall foundations.

After picking up the mission papers at the marketplace’s administrative office, Li Yuan went directly to the southern expansion area.

This time, he needed to set up the most basic outer Defensive Arrays. The first step was to install Tier One Breath-Sensing Arrays and linked Early Warning Arrays.

Although the task was simple, the amount of work was substantial.

After surveying the terrain, Li Yuan began construction with a few Loose Cultivators who were responsible for transporting materials.

Digging the Array Bases, embedding the Spirit-Guiding Stones, carving the Array Patterns, filling them with Stabilizing Spirit Sand. He performed each step with extreme speed, extending four Divine Sense Lines simultaneously to inject Spiritual Power precisely into each node.

On several adjacent sections of the wall foundation, other Cultivators were using the Earth Transporting Skill and Stone-moving Skill to compact rubble and soil into shape. Occasionally, someone would glance back at Li Yuan’s progress, a look of surprise on their face.

His speed at setting up arrays was faster than that of two other Array Masters combined.

The bonus from his Array Mechanism Synergy trait made nesting multi-layered arrays incredibly smooth, while Array Talisman Resonance elevated the precision of his Array Pattern carving. Combined with his foundation in Tier Two Array Magic at the Minor Achievement level and his solid, perfected mastery of the Tier One Array Dao, these basic Defensive Arrays presented almost no technical challenge for him.

By evening, the section of the outer Defensive Array that Li Yuan was responsible for was completely finished.

Li Yuan walked a circuit around the Array Patterns, confirming that every node was functioning correctly before putting his tools back into his storage bag.

The administrative deacon of Yunyang Marketplace inspected and accepted the array, stamped the mission papers, and handed him a new notification jade slip.

"There will be a few more batches of expansion tasks later on. We will notify you in advance."

Li Yuan nodded and accepted it, setting off to return to Mist Forest Marketplace that same day.

As night fell, silence returned to the stone chamber.

Five Divine Sense Lines spread out, the Pill Furnace ignited, and a talisman brush hovered in the air.

Spiritual Power slowly circulated within his body, growing ever stronger.