Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes

The ingredients for the Celestial Essence Pills were being consumed extremely quickly.

After three batches, the first set of raw materials purchased from the Mingyuan Commerce Association’s main shop in White Mirror Market was already used up. The materials for refining the Golden Body Armor were even harder to find locally. The Spirit Silver Ore, Cold Iron Essence, and Star Sand needed for setting the Spirit Patterns—all required for a Tier Two defensive Magical Artifact—were high-end raw materials that could only be reliably sourced in Jingzhou.

Li Yuan set out for White Mirror Market once again.

He took the same route as last time, arriving in less than half a day with his Golden Core Stage speed. Using a disguise, he changed his face, suppressed his aura to that of a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, and blended into the crowd at the city gate.

The main street was as busy as ever.

Li Yuan first went to the Mingyuan Commerce Association’s main shop to restock two sets of ingredients for the Celestial Essence Pill. He then asked the manager for a list of Tier Two Artifact Refining materials. The manager checked the inventory and quoted a price.

"Three blocks of Spirit Silver Ore, one catty of Cold Iron Essence, half a tael of Star Sand, and two bottles of Spirit Pattern setting fluid. The whole set comes to six hundred Mid-grade Spirit Stones."

Li Yuan paid and stored all the materials in his storage bag.

After leaving the main shop, he walked south along the main street and passed an area of open-air stalls.

The open-air stalls in White Mirror Market were more than ten times larger in scale than those in Yunyang Market. They had everything, from Spirit Grass and medicinal herbs to ore and raw materials, as well as all sorts of miscellaneous cultivation aids. Most were run by Loose Cultivators, but some vassals of smaller families were also here selling Spirit Grass they had grown themselves.

Li Yuan’s steps halted before an inconspicuous herb stall.

A piece of coarse cloth was spread over the stall, displaying a dozen or so Spirit Grasses with their roots wrapped in damp mud. The variety was mixed; most were common Tier One medicinal herbs, with a few barely reaching the threshold of Tier Two Low Grade.

Li Yuan’s gaze fell on a short, small Spirit Grass in the corner.

The Spirit Grass was no taller than half a chi, with long, narrow, dark brown leaves. A layer of grayish-white soil clung to its roots. It looked utterly unremarkable, not even comparable to the few Tier Two Spirit Grasses nearby.

But his entry-perception ability had already been triggered within a three-chi radius.

Li Yuan squatted down and pinched the Spirit Grass’s stem.

A panel popped up.

[Detectable equippable item: Earth Vein Grass (Complete)]

[Entry Preview: Minor Earth Evasion Speed (White)]

[Effect: Increases Earth Escape Technique speed by 10%.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Master an Earth Element Cultivation Technique (Fulfilled)]

’A white entry. My Heavy Earth True Art is already perfected, so the condition was met long ago.’

Li Yuan glanced up at the stall owner. She was a female cultivator in her forties, at the early-stage of Foundation Establishment, and was currently haggling with another customer.

"How much for this one?"

The female cultivator turned her head, glanced at the Earth Vein Grass in Li Yuan’s hand, and casually quoted a price.

"Five Spirit Stones. That’s Earth Vein Grass. It’s mediocre as a medicinal ingredient, but it’s pretty good for soaking your feet."

Five Spirit Stones.

Li Yuan took out the Spirit Stones and paid.

The female cultivator took the Spirit Stones without a second glance and turned back to haggle with the other customer.

Li Yuan put the Earth Vein Grass away and walked into a quiet alley.

"Equip."

[Equipped: Earth Vein Grass (Complete)]

[Minor Earth Evasion Speed (White) has become a permanent entry.]

A phantom image of the Earth Vein Grass flashed in the equipment slot before dissipating into white motes of light.

A ten percent increase in his Earth Escape Technique speed. The bonus might not seem significant on its own, but when stacked on top of his Golden Core Stage base speed, the actual effect was quite substantial. The Earth Escape Technique was his most frequently used stealth method, and a ten percent speed boost meant greater covert mobility when traveling underground.

Li Yuan continued to wander through the market.

As he passed a Magical Artifact Shop in the west district, he noticed a fairly long line at the entrance. Most of the cultivators in the line were wearing grayish-white Daoist robes with a gold-threaded mountain peak insignia embroidered on their sleeves.

’Disciples of the Celestial Peak Sect.’

Li Yuan slowed his pace and swept his Divine Sense over the shop’s interior shelves.

The shelves were more than half empty. Among the remaining items, the sections for Array materials and exploration-type Magical Artifacts were almost completely cleared out. Investigation Discs, Spirit-Guiding Needles, Restriction probes, portable Lighting Array Stones—all equipment related to underground exploration had been bought.

The shopkeeper behind the counter was frantically trying to handle the purchasing demands of the Celestial Peak Sect disciples, muttering, "They’re all gone, all gone. The next batch won’t be here for ten days."

’The Celestial Peak Sect is buying up exploration equipment in bulk. It’s a large-scale purchase, enough to outfit a team of at least twenty people.’

Li Yuan didn’t linger and continued on his way.

The Artifact Refining district of White Mirror Market was located deep in the eastern section, a centralized area dedicated to serving Artifact Refiners. There were specialty shops selling refining materials, consultation halls where senior cultivators offered guidance, and most importantly, Artifact Refining Rooms for rent.

The forging process for a Tier Two Magical Artifact was fundamentally different from that of a Tier One.

The smelting temperature and Spiritual Power infusion required for a Tier One Magical Artifact were within a controllable range; a Golden Core Cultivator could manage it simply by conjuring fire in their palm. However, a Tier Two Magical Artifact required a sustained and uniform high-temperature environment. The inscription of Spirit Patterns had to be done within a specific Spiritual Power Field, as even the slightest deviation would cause the patterns to become disordered. These conditions could only be met in a dedicated Artifact Refining Room.

Li Yuan walked into a shop with a sign that read "Cloud Furnace Workshop" and told the counter that he needed to rent an Artifact Refining Room.

"A Tier Two Artifact Refining Room is eighty Spirit Stones for a full day. For three days, it’s two hundred and twenty," the clerk behind the counter quoted.

"I’ll take it for three days."

The Spirit Stones were exchanged. The clerk led him through a back courtyard to a sealed room partitioned by thick stone walls.

The sealed room was about five zhang square. In the center stood a large, bronze-colored furnace with the dual Array Patterns of a Fire Array and a Temperature Control Array embedded in its base. The four walls were inscribed with auxiliary arrays for a stabilization field, which, when activated, would create a uniform Spiritual Power environment to ensure the inscription of Spirit Patterns wasn’t disturbed by external fluctuations.

Li Yuan closed the stone door and placed the crafting schematic for the Golden Body Armor on the workbench.

He first spent two hours studying the Spirit Pattern pathways on the schematic.

The Spirit Pattern structure of the Golden Body Armor was more than three times as complex as a Tier One Magical Artifact’s. The core Spirit Patterns consisted of twelve sets of defensive arrays, arranged in a ring on the chest and abdomen of the armor, with each set interconnected by Spiritual Power channeling grooves. The auxiliary Spirit Patterns on the periphery were responsible for guiding the wearer’s Spiritual Power into the core arrays to form a passive defense.

The entire set of Spirit Patterns had over three hundred pathways and nearly fifty nodes.

With his current Artifact Refining attainment at Tier One Great Success, attempting to inscribe this set of Spirit Patterns directly carried an extremely high risk of failure. However, the Golden Body Armor was a Tier Two Low Grade item, placing it at the most basic level among Tier Two Magical Artifacts. Coupled with the fact that his Golden Core Stage Spiritual Power precision and Divine Sense strength far exceeded the operational limits of a Tier One Artifact Refiner, success was theoretically possible.

Li Yuan took a deep breath and began.

He lit the furnace.

He added the Spirit Silver Ore, Cold Iron Essence, and Star Sand to the furnace in proportion. The power of the Tier Two Artifact Refining Room’s Fire Array far surpassed the flame he could conjure in his palm, and the temperature inside the furnace climbed above the melting point of Spirit Silver Ore within a few breaths. The three materials gradually fused in the intense heat, forming a silvery-white ball of molten metal.

Li Yuan extended his Divine Sense into the furnace to monitor the state of the molten metal’s fusion.

The precision of his Golden Core Stage Divine Sense allowed him to detect the position and trajectory of every trace impurity within the molten metal. He removed them one by one, perfectly fusing the essences of the Spirit Silver Ore and Cold Iron Essence. The Star Sand, acting as a shaping catalyst, slowly released fine particles of Spiritual Power in the high heat, which seeped into the molecular gaps of the molten metal.

Next came the forging. He had no experience with Tier Two forging. Although he had completely internalized the feel of forging Tier One Magical Artifacts, the precision required for Tier Two was a whole level higher. On the first three armor prototypes he forged, the positions of the Spirit Pattern grooves all deviated from the standard values marked on the schematic to varying degrees.

After producing three failed products in a row, Li Yuan melted all three of them back down in the furnace and started the forging process over.

Each failure refined his understanding of Tier Two forging precision. The angle of force from his wrist, the pulse frequency of his Spiritual Power strikes, the spacing between impacts—through trial and error, these parameters gradually converged toward their optimal values.

The fourth attempt.

The armor prototype took shape. The deviation of the Spirit Pattern grooves was controlled to within thirty percent of the acceptable tolerance, and both the depth and width met the required standards.

Next was the most critical step: inscribing the Spirit Patterns.

This step was Li Yuan’s strong suit. His Golden Core Stage Divine Sense was more than enough to bridge the gap in his Artifact Refining skill.

The inscription was complete. Next was the Spiritual Power infusion and setting.

Li Yuan gathered all the Spiritual Power in his body into his palms and slowly infused it into the armor prototype. The Spiritual Power flowed along the three hundred-plus Spirit Pattern pathways, generating a faint resonance as it passed through each node. The twelve sets of defensive arrays activated one by one. A silvery-white light seeped from the armor’s surface before receding back into it.

VMMMM.

An extremely deep Spiritual Power resonance emanated from the depths of the armor.

The Golden Body Armor was complete.

A Tier Two Low Grade Magical Artifact. Acceptable quality.

The panel popped up.

[Artifact Refining Attainment: Tier One Great Success → Tier One Perfection]

Tier One Perfection. Four failures and one success; two straight days of high-intensity, hands-on practice had filled the last bit of accumulation for his Tier One Artifact Refining Technique.

Although he had successfully refined a Tier Two Magical Artifact, it was mostly by relying on his Golden Core cultivation and his foundation in Arrays to brute-force it. While this had brought his Tier One Artifact Refining attainment to Perfection, he still lacked the intuitive feel for a truly stable entry into Tier Two.

The moment his fingers touched the Golden Body Armor, the panel triggered again.

[Detectable equippable item: Golden Body Armor (Complete)]

[Entry Preview: Unbreakable Golden Body (Green)]

[Effect: Increases defense by 20%; increases Spiritual Power body protection strength by 10%.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Withstand three full-power attacks from a Tier Two or higher Magical Artifact while the Golden Body Armor remains intact (0/3)]

’A green entry.’

’A twenty percent increase in physical defense and a ten percent increase in Spiritual Power body protection. Stacked on top of his existing permanent defensive entries like Body Protection, Three Elements Body Protection, and Iron Bones Golden Body, the boost is quite significant.’

’The permanence condition requires practical combat validation. Withstanding three full-power attacks from a Tier Two Magical Artifact without the armor being damaged... that condition is rather tricky. I’ll need to find a suitable opportunity to complete it.’

Li Yuan placed the Golden Body Armor into his storage bag, cleaned up the Artifact Refining Room, returned the key, and left Cloud Furnace Workshop.

By the time he walked out of the city gates of White Mirror Market, the sky had already grown completely dark.