Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes

After returning to the market, Li Yuan sealed the doors and windows of his stone house and fully activated the soundproofing array.

He sat cross-legged on a meditation mat and extended the perception from the Evil Vein Nurturing in his special equipment slot deep beneath the market.

The main trunk of the Evil Vein was located about thirty zhang directly beneath the stone house. Unlike a Spirit Vein, an Evil Vein’s energy was sinister and corrosive. Prolonged exposure would damage an ordinary cultivator’s meridians. But a series of permanent traits within Li Yuan, such as Evil Essence Unity and Flame-Evil Integration, had long since made Evil Qi a part of his cultivation system.

The effects of Evil Vein Nurturing began to take hold.

A thin wisp of Evil Qi seeped up from underground, following the Earth Vein nodes into the stone house’s foundation, then entered his meridians through the guiding Array Patterns Li Yuan had laid down. The moment the Evil Qi entered his body, the Flame-Evil Integration permanent trait automatically fused it with the Fire Attribute Spiritual Power inside him, forming a warm, dense stream of mixed energy.

Li Yuan guided this mixed energy through his limbs and bones, and began to circulate the Golden Body Skill.

The cultivation method for the Golden Body Skill differed from conventional Body Refining Techniques. It didn’t aim for absolute muscle hardness, but instead strengthened the resilient connections between muscles and bones, allowing the body to possess both strength and elasticity when enduring heavy impacts.

The addition of Evil Qi elevated the cultivation efficiency of the Golden Body Skill by a whole tier. The Evil Qi affinity from Evil Essence Unity, the Evil Qi and Fire Attribute fusion from Flame-Evil Integration, and the continuous supply from Evil Vein Nurturing—these three factors stacked together, forming a highly efficient, self-sustaining cultivation loop.

After the mixed energy completed one Grand Circulation through his meridians, it began to permeate the deep structure of his muscle fibers.

Under the tempering of the Evil Qi, his muscle fibers contracted slightly before rearranging themselves in a denser formation. The periosteum on the surface of his bones was also strengthening in sync, and the resulting increase in resilience affected his entire body.

Li Yuan clenched his fist. His knuckles didn’t crack, but his grip was noticeably stronger. The muscle definition in his arms showed no obvious change, but their internal fiber density and elasticity had tangibly increased.

After a full night of cultivation, his Golden Body Skill progressed steadily within the Minor Achievement stage.

At daybreak, Li Yuan emerged from his stone house.

The market’s daily operations were running as usual. Since the implementation of joint sign-offs, rotational duties, and mutual ledger audits, every department was running even more smoothly than when the Sect deacons had been in charge. The Wang family handled patrols, the Ji family managed the warehouses, and the merchant guild oversaw the accounts. With the three parties keeping an eye on each other, no one dared to cause trouble.

Li Yuan took a walk around the market, his mind occupied with another matter.

The market’s Defensive Array hadn’t been updated in a long time. The array system originally established by the Primordial Yang Sect had been built to Foundation Establishment Stage standards. Its coverage was limited and its defenses were shallow. It was barely adequate for dealing with routine Demon Beast incursions, but against a Golden Core Level threat, the array wouldn’t even be able to provide a warning.

’It’s time to rebuild it.’

That very afternoon, Li Yuan set to work.

Starting from the four corners of the market, he began dismantling the old array’s hubs and patterns one by one, replacing them with a completely new layout.

The new array system was divided into three layers.

The outermost layer was an early-warning and detection array. It covered a three-li radius around the market’s periphery. Any Cultivator or large Demon Beast entering this range would trigger a passive sensor, and the signal would be transmitted directly into Li Yuan’s Dark Evil Insight network.

The middle layer was a Defense Array. Integrated into the market’s perimeter walls, it was a Tier Two High Grade Spiritual Power shield array. When activated, the shield could withstand dozens of full-power attacks from a Late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator and could even provide a brief buffer against Golden Core Level attacks.

The innermost layer was a Concealment Array. It covered the two core areas—the stone house and the administration office. Its function was like an amplified version of his "Shadowy Stealth" ability, capable of completely isolating the core areas from external perception when necessary.

Laying out the three-layered array was an immense undertaking. Each layer required the precise alignment of dozens of Array Hub nodes and hundreds of Array Pattern lines. The slightest positional error in a single node would compromise the entire system’s defensive efficacy.

It took Li Yuan a full five days.

During those five days, he laid out arrays by day, cultivated his Golden Body Skill by night, and used his spare moments to manage market affairs. The process of setting up the array was the best possible practical application of Tier Three Array theory. Calibrating each node and connecting each Array Pattern continuously deepened his understanding of Tier Three Array structures.

When the final node clicked into place, a notification popped up on his panel.

[Array Mastery: Tier Three Novice (30/200 → 50/200)]

’Steady progress.’ The hands-on experience of setting up the three-layered array had converted his theoretical knowledge into practical skill and experience.

After completing the array, Li Yuan returned to his stone house and took out his Pill Furnace.

Condensing Evil Pills were the market’s core source of profit. After the Primordial Yang Sect’s deacons withdrew, he became solely responsible for the pill supply. Fortunately, his alchemy efficiency in the Golden Core Stage was incomparable to his time in Foundation Establishment. He could refine six to eight batches of Condensing Evil Pills a day, yielding three to five pills per batch, with quality consistently ranging from Tier Two High Grade to Top Grade.

Li Yuan spent two days focused on refining Condensing Evil Pills, producing nearly fifty of them. He gave thirty to Ji Wenchuan to stock and sell, keeping the rest as a reserve.

After finishing the Condensing Evil Pills, he moved on to refining Celestial Essence Pills.

The fourth batch of Celestial Essence Pills. The weaving of the Condensation Field had already formed a stable, three-sector parallel processing model, increasing the pill formation speed by another ten percent compared to the third batch. It yielded a single Tier Three Low Grade pill, its quality on par with the third batch.

The fifth batch. Li Yuan tried adding a layer of Spiritual Power as a buffer at the Condensation Field’s central node, attempting to increase the compression density of the medicinal essence. As a result, the field’s stability slightly decreased, and the quality of the finished pill was actually inferior to the one from the fourth batch. However, this attempt clarified the path forward for optimizing the Condensation Field’s structure.