Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes

Finally, he sifted through the remaining supplies in the wooden chests. Most of it was worthless, but at the bottom of one chest, he found a palm-sized, iron-gray plate engraved with an extremely intricate Array Pattern.

His trait perception triggered within a three-foot radius.

[Detected Equippable Item: Array Pattern Engraving Plate (Intact)]

[Equippable Trait Preview: Array Pattern Engraving (Green)]

[Effect: Array drawing speed increased by 20%.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Successfully deploy one Tier Three Middle Grade Array (Not Met)]

A green trait. An increase of twenty percent to Array drawing speed was an excellent bonus for a Cultivator like him who frequently deployed Arrays. However, the permanence condition required deploying a Tier Three Middle Grade Array, and his current proficiency was only at the introductory stage of Tier Three. He couldn’t do it yet.

Li Yuan placed the Array Pattern engraving plate into his storage bag.

After sorting through the supplies, he picked up two jade slips from the storage bag of one of the Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivators.

The first jade slip contained an encrypted piece of intelligence. After breaking the Demon Qi Seal, the message was very short: The Evil Slaying Sect has dispatched an Early-stage Golden Core Cultivator south from its northern branch. He is expected to arrive in the vicinity of Mozhou within half a month. This person carries an item related to the Abyssal Grotto. You must provide your full cooperation upon his arrival.

This corroborated the intelligence he had previously obtained at the first transfer station. The Evil Slaying Sect was indeed sending a Golden Core cultivator to Mozhou, and this person was carrying something related to the Abyssal Grotto.

The second jade slip made Li Yuan’s eyes light up.

It wasn’t intelligence, but a skill.

A Tier Two Demon Qi Skill, Dark Erosion Finger.

The jade slip’s description of the Dark Erosion Finger was concise: Condense Demonic Qi at the fingertip to form a Dark Attribute finger beam with extremely strong penetrating power. The finger beam can ignore the outer defenses of most Spiritual Power shields, directly invading the target’s body to cause internal injuries. Its power depends on the caster’s Demon Qi Refinement Level and Divine Sense precision.

The drawback was also obvious: its range was extremely short, with an effective distance of no more than three feet. It had to be used at close range.

Li Yuan held the jade slip and looked at it for a moment.

’The Dark Erosion Finger is a Demon Qi Skill. And the permanence condition for the Profound Stone is to master a Tier Two Demon Qi Skill to the entry-level.’

He put away the jade slip. Then, using the Flame of Flame Fiend, he incinerated the bodies and eliminated all traces, cleaning the entire transfer station spotless.

After returning to the market, Li Yuan closed the door to his stone house and took out the jade slip for the Dark Erosion Finger skill.

He sent his Divine Sense into it and began to study the skill’s operational circuit.

The energy circulation path for the Dark Erosion Finger was completely different from that of Spiritual Power skills. The meridians used for Spiritual Power skills followed precise and orderly paths, with strict rules for the flow of Spiritual Power in each one. The circulation of Demonic Qi skills, however, was cruder and more direct. The flow of Demonic Qi through the meridians didn’t aim for precise pathing control; instead, it relied on the caster’s willpower to forcefully guide it, prioritizing explosive force and penetrating power.

This difference was a huge obstacle for Spirit Cultivators attempting to learn Demonic Qi skills. The habit of fine control, developed over a long time by Spirit Cultivators, would clash with the crude circulation method of Demonic Qi skills, leading to casting failure.

But Li Yuan didn’t have this problem.

His Demon Essence Skill had already reached perfection. His meridians had long been steeped in a dual environment of Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi, allowing him to fully adapt to both fundamentally different methods of energy circulation. Furthermore, his Demon Qi Golden Core provided an abundant reserve of Demonic Qi, more than enough to power a Tier Two Demon Qi Skill.

Li Yuan closed his eyes and circulated his Demonic Qi, guiding a strand of pure Demonic Qi to the tip of his right index finger’s meridian.

The Demonic Qi flowed along the unique circulation path of the Dark Erosion Finger. It was crude and direct, with no concern for precision, seeking only the shortest path to condense the maximum amount of Demonic Qi into a single point at his fingertip.

First attempt. A faint, dark gray glimmer appeared at his fingertip, but the condensation wasn’t sufficient. More than half of the Demonic Qi dissipated at the tip, failing to form an effective finger beam.

Second attempt. He adjusted the infusion speed of the Demonic Qi, slowing down the initial charging process to allow the Demonic Qi to be fully compressed at the end of the fingertip’s meridian before release. This time, a dark gray beam about half an inch long condensed at his fingertip, but it collapsed in less than a second.

Third time, fourth time, fifth time...

His Golden Core Stage Demonic Qi reserves allowed him to practice repeatedly without concern for consumption. Each failure refined his perception of the critical point of Demonic Qi condensation. By the twentieth attempt, the dark gray finger beam at his fingertip could be stably maintained for more than three seconds.

For the next three days, Li Yuan dedicated most of his cultivation time to practicing the Dark Erosion Finger. He handled market affairs and bulk Alchemy during the day, and spent the entire night cultivating this skill.

Late on the third night, Li Yuan slowly raised his right hand. A two-inch-long, dark gray finger beam condensed at the tip of his index finger. The Demonic Qi on the beam’s surface flowed in an introverted manner, no longer dissipating in the slightest. Its penetrating power was focused to an ultimate point.

He gently poked the finger beam into a Spirit Iron plate he was using for testing.

The surface of the Spirit Iron plate was covered by a Tier Two Spiritual Power shield, which he had generated himself with the Spirit Shield Skill.

The moment the finger beam touched the shield, there was no sound of collision, no sparks of exploding Spiritual Power. The dark gray light silently seeped into the shield as if passing through water, directly piercing the surface layer of the Spirit Iron plate and leaving a hole less than a millimeter in diameter on its surface.

The edges of the hole were dark gray, bearing the corrosive traces of Demonic Qi.

’I’ve reached the entry-level.’

[Dark Erosion Finger: Entry-level (0/100)]

Li Yuan retracted his finger and looked at the hole in the Spirit Iron plate.

’The penetrating power is truly astonishing. A Tier Two Spiritual Power shield offers almost no resistance to the Dark Erosion Finger; the beam completely ignored the outer defense. If used in a real battle, an opponent’s Protective Spirit Light could very well be shattered from the inside.’

’The three-foot range limit is its biggest weakness. But in close-quarters combat, three feet is more than enough.’

Now that he had cultivated the Dark Erosion Finger to the entry-level, the permanence condition for the Profound Stone was met.

Li Yuan took the grayish-black Profound Stone from deep within his storage bag.

Currently, all five of his ordinary equipment slots were full: Cauldron of Creation, Three-in-One Bead, Teleportation Stone, Origin Condensing Grass, and Celestial Essence Pill.

To equip the Profound Stone, he had to free up a slot.

"Unequip Origin Condensing Grass."

[Unequipped: Origin Condensing Grass]

[Three Essences Condensation (Blue) effect paused]

The sense of fusion between his Essence, Qi, and Spirit weakened slightly.

Li Yuan immediately took the Profound Stone in his hand.

[Detected Equippable Item: Profound Stone (Intact)]

[Equippable Trait Preview: Demon Qi Condensation (Green)]

[Effect: Demon Qi Refinement Level increased by 30%.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Master a Tier Two Demon Qi Skill to entry-level (Met)]

"Equip."

[Equipped: Profound Stone (Intact)]

[Demon Qi Condensation (Green) has become a permanent trait.]

The phantom image of the Profound Stone lit up for a moment in the equipment slot, then shattered and dissipated, transforming into green specks of light that merged into his body. The slot was freed up again.

The instant the permanence process was complete, a very faint, dark light washed over the surface of the Demon Qi Golden Core in his Dantian. The Demonic Qi released by the Golden Core became even more solid and dense; the quality of every wisp of Demonic Qi had increased by thirty percent.

Li Yuan closed his eyes to feel the changes after the increase in his Demon Qi Refinement Level.

The pulsing of his Demon Qi Golden Core was steadier and more powerful. The concentration of Demonic Qi released with each pulse had increased by nearly thirty percent, which meant that all techniques driven by Demonic Qi were directly enhanced.

His disguised Demonic Qi aura, meant to be untraceable, became even more convincing. The passive perceptual accuracy of his Dark Evil Insight rose to another level. The penetrating power of his Dark Erosion Finger would also increase accordingly.

More importantly, the efficiency of converting Demonic Qi into Spiritual Power had improved. The more refined the Demonic Qi, the higher the quality of the converted Spiritual Power. Previously, when he converted Demonic Qi from his Demon Qi Golden Core to cast spells, his output was slightly lower than that of a true Spiritual Power Golden Core. Now, that gap had been narrowed even further.

Converted Spiritual Power was still his primary combat method. Void-Rending Slash, Fireball Technique, Teleportation Skill—the casting paths for all his Spiritual Power skills remained unchanged.

But the Dark Erosion Finger filled a previous gap: close-range, armor-piercing defense breaking.

When facing an opponent with a strong Protective Spirit Light or magical artifact shield, although the Void-Rending Slash was sharp, the opponent could still potentially withstand it with a full-power defense. The penetrating characteristic of the Dark Erosion Finger was perfect for bypassing this layer of defense and dismantling the opponent’s protective system from within.

Void-Rending Slash for range, Dark Erosion Finger for close quarters. One spiritual, one demonic—the dimensions of his offensive capabilities had been broadened.