Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes

He removed the storage bags from the four corpses one by one.

The Golden Core Cultivator’s storage bag was protected by a three-layer Demon Qi Seal, its quality far surpassing that of a Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivator’s. With a light flick of his Golden Core-level Demonic Qi, Li Yuan shattered the seals one after another.

The sheer amount of items inside made him raise an eyebrow the moment the bag opened.

Mid-grade Spirit Stones. Neatly stacked, there were over two thousand of them. ’The wealth of a Golden Core Cultivator is truly in a different league.’

Several bottles of Tier Three pills. The wax seals on the jade bottles were stamped with the Evil Slaying Sect’s discreet symbol, and a rich medicinal fragrance wafted out when he opened them. Li Yuan identified them one by one. There were Demon Essence Pills for restoring Demonic Qi, Demon Armor Powder for reinforcing one’s defenses, and one bottle of dark red pills he didn’t recognize. The bottle wasn’t labeled, but its medicinal properties were incredibly potent, at least Tier Three Middle Grade or higher.

A Tier Three defensive Magical Artifact. It was a palm-sized black disc with its surface carved with intricate defensive Array Patterns. When activated, it could project a Demon Qi Shield in front of its user. The quality wasn’t top-tier, but for a Golden Core Cultivator, it was a practical life-saving measure.

A high-level communication jade slip from the Evil Slaying Sect. Its seal was several times thicker than that of an ordinary one, and a large number of undeleted communication records remained inside.

A jet-black Token. Its material was unknown, its surface as smooth as a mirror. The front was carved with a twisted Demon Pattern, while the back was blank.

The storage bags of the three Late-stage Foundation Establishment attendants contained far less. The scattered Spirit Stones totaled less than three hundred, along with a few Tier Two Magical Artifacts and some pills and Talismans for daily use.

Li Yuan sorted all the spoils into categories. He grouped the Spirit Stones together, did the same for the pills, and set the Magical Artifacts and intelligence-related items aside separately.

As he finished his inventory, he found two more items in a hidden compartment of the Golden Core Cultivator’s storage bag.

The first was a palm-sized, jet-black mirror. Its surface was non-reflective, and the whole object emitted a faint pulse of Demonic Qi.

His trait perception triggered within a three-foot radius.

[Detected Equippable Item: Dark Origin Demon Mirror (Complete)]

[Equippable Trait Preview: Dark Demon Concealment (Blue)]

[Effect: Increases maximum Demonic Qi by 30%; Increases Demonic Qi potency by 30%]

[Permanization Condition Preview: Achieve Great Success in one Tier Three Demon Cultivator Cultivation Technique (Not Met)]

A blue trait. Both of its effects were related to Demonic Qi.

A thirty percent increase in maximum Demonic Qi meant his Demon Qi Golden Core’s capacity expanded, allowing it to support longer battles and more intense magical output.

And a thirty percent increase in Demonic Qi potency would directly enhance the lethality of all his Demon Qi Skills.

The condition to make it permanent was achieving Great Success in a Tier Three Demon Cultivator Cultivation Technique. He didn’t even have a Tier Three cultivation technique for demon cultivators, making that goal a distant one.

Li Yuan stored the jet-black Demon Mirror deep within his storage bag.

The second item was a folded piece of beast hide.

When unfolded, the beast hide was about a square foot in size. A pattern was drawn on its surface in dark red ink. It resembled an overhead view of some kind of terrain, with winding lines extending from the center and forking into countless smaller branches at their ends.

Li Yuan stared at the diagram for a moment.

The path of the lines, the angles of the forks, and the density of the branches all felt strangely familiar.

He recalled his sensory data on the major Spirit Vein in Mozhou.

The path of the Spirit Vein’s main trunk, the way its tributaries branched off, and the diffusion pattern at its extremities were a near-perfect match for the diagram on the beast hide.

It wasn’t a perfect one-to-one match. The diagram on the hide was far more simplified than the Spirit Vein’s form as he had perceived it. Many details had been omitted, leaving only the core trunk and major branches. But the overall silhouette was nearly identical.

Old Shen had said that the second key to the Sunken Abyss Secret Cave was a pattern.

’So the shape of the Spirit Vein is the pattern?’

Li Yuan carefully folded the beast hide and put it away in his storage bag.

He couldn’t fully confirm this theory yet. The pattern of the Spirit Vein was just the most likely possibility; there might be other interpretations.

Besides, there was no clear progress on the other two keys. The first was most likely the Jade Bead in the Profound Nether Sub-Palace, which was currently being watched by an Array Master from the Celestial Peak Sect. As for the third key, there were no clues at all.

’All three keys are indispensable. There’s no use in rushing.’

Li Yuan set the thought aside and picked up the high-level communication jade slip.

After breaking the Demon Qi Seal, he found the communication logs inside perfectly preserved. The Golden Core Cultivator clearly hadn’t formed the habit of deleting his messages; nearly two months of sent and received records were all still on the jade slip.

Li Yuan went through them one by one.

Most were routine orders and intelligence reports within the Evil Slaying Sect, concerning personnel transfers and resource allocation among the various branch halls, as well as surveillance reports on neighboring powers.

Two of the records caught his attention.

One encrypted record mentioned the Abyss Sect by name.

The message was an internal notice from the Evil Slaying Sect’s main hall to all its branch halls:

We have reached out to the Abyss Sect through an intermediary to gauge their stance on the Celestial Peak Sect’s intervention in Liangzhou.

The Abyss Sect has not yet formally responded, but they have not explicitly refused.

The main hall requires all branch halls to temporarily avoid any conflict with Abyss Sect cultivators, so as to not disrupt the engagement process.

The second encrypted record was a detailed directive regarding the Mozhou operation. The directive explicitly mentioned the Sunken Abyss Secret Cave, ordering this Golden Core Cultivator to find the cave’s entrance in Mozhou and then compare the partial map he carried with the surrounding terrain for verification.

’The partial map he carried.’

’That must be the beast hide.’

’The Evil Slaying Sect is also looking for the three keys. They at least know the second one is related to some kind of pattern, and they have a piece of the map.’

But this Golden Core Cultivator had failed to complete his mission. He had died in Li Yuan’s ambush before he even had a chance to enter the diversion system and compare the terrain.