Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes

Li Yuan arrived in Mozhou via the Teleportation Array, bringing the second batch of supplies.

This batch was even more generous than the first. It contained three hundred Mid-grade Spirit Stones, fifty bottles of Tier Two pills, two crates of Array repair materials, and a small bag of Spirit Grass seeds. The seeds were common Spirit Plant varieties he had purchased from the White Mirror Market, and they were quite valuable to the remnant people, who had long been cut off from outside resources.

Elder Shen received the supplies at the entrance to the fissure. After taking inventory, a rare smile touched his lips.

"Some of the Rejuvenating Grass seeds you brought last time have already sprouted." Elder Shen led Li Yuan through the outer part of the cavern to a corner illuminated by a faint Spiritual Light.

A small patch of earth had been dug out in the corner, its surface covered by a thin Spiritual Energy Membrane. Seven or eight tender green shoots were poking through the membrane. Their leaves were narrow, and a faint Spiritual Light emanated from their stems.

Rejuvenating Grass. A Tier One Spirit Medicine used to recover expended Spiritual Power. It was in high demand, but its cultivation requirements were strict. The fact that they could sprout in an extreme environment like this underground cavern proved that the elder in charge of Spirit Plant cultivation among the remnant people was truly skilled.

Li Yuan squatted down to examine the seedlings’ condition.

The entry perception was triggered.

’Not Rejuvenating Grass.’

At the edge of the Spirit Plant nursery, a seedling similar in form to the Rejuvenating Grass but with darker leaves triggered a reaction from his panel. This seedling was a bit shorter than the others, its leaf tips were slightly curled, and it had a few extra, irregular fibrous roots.

’A Mutated Spirit Grass.’

Li Yuan reached out and touched it.

[Equippable Item Detected: Mutated Spirit Grass (Intact)]

[Equip Entry Preview: Spirit Plant Affinity (Gray)]

[Effect: Slightly increases sensitivity to Spirit Plant attributes.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Plant a Spirit Grass and keep it alive for over three months (Satisfied).]

’A gray entry.’ He had previously planted a few experimental Spirit Grasses outside the market, and they had survived for well over three months.

"I’ll take this seedling," Li Yuan said to Elder Shen.

Elder Shen glanced at the crooked, mutated seedling, thinking nothing of it.

"It’s a mutation. The quality is poor. Go ahead and take it."

Li Yuan placed the Mutated Spirit Grass into his storage bag.

He then took out a batch of prepared pills and Talismans and began to trade with Elder Shen.

The remnant people had no Spirit Stones, but they had plenty of old artifacts. Although most of the supplies left over from the Profound Nether Sect era, accumulated over centuries, were damaged, some items were still usable.

Li Yuan traded thirty bottles of Condensing Evil Pills and twenty Tier Two Talismans for three things.

A batch of Stabilizing Materials. A few old Array components.

And an old artifact from the Profound Nether Sect.

The old artifact was a palm-sized, thin bronze plate. Its surface was covered in the remnants of extremely intricate Array Patterns. The style of the Array Patterns was in the same vein as those he had seen in the diversion system and the Sub-Palace, but the precision of the carving was much higher. It must have come from a High-Tier Array artifact.

As Li Yuan took the plate, his entry perception triggered again.

[Equippable Item Detected: Profound Nether Array Bronze Plate (Intact)]

[Equip Entry Preview: Minor Array Sensing Boost (White)]

[Effect: Increases Array Sensing sensitivity by thirty percent.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Reach Tier Three in Array mastery (Satisfied).]

’A white entry.’ His Array mastery was already at Tier Three proficiency, so the condition was met.

Li Yuan found a secluded corner and first took out the Mutated Spirit Grass.

"Equip."

[Equipped: Mutated Spirit Grass (Intact)]

[Spirit Plant Affinity (Gray) has become a permanent entry.]

A phantom image of the Mutated Spirit Grass flashed and disappeared. The slot was now free.

He immediately took out the Profound Nether Array bronze plate.

"Equip."

[Equipped: Profound Nether Array Bronze Plate (Intact)]

[Minor Array Sensing Boost (White) has become a permanent entry.]

The bronze plate dissipated. The two entries became permanent one after the other, taking less than ten breaths of time.

The effect of a thirty-percent increase in Array Sensing sensitivity took hold instantly. Li Yuan closed his eyes to feel it, and his perception of the surrounding Array structures became much clearer. The positions and states of the few faint, remnant Array nodes within the remnant people’s cavern were now crystal clear in his perception.

After the trade was complete, Ah Cheng emerged from behind.

"Elder Shen asked me to take you to see a place."

Li Yuan followed Ah Cheng through the cluster of caverns, heading down a deeper, natural passage.

This time, they headed in a different direction than his last trip to the Black Water Falls, bearing southeast. The passage grew narrower the farther they went, and the concentration of Spiritual Qi in the air gradually increased, mixed with the faint aura of a seal.

After about two hours, Ah Cheng stopped in front of a smooth rock wall.

"The outer perimeter of the sealed area is just ahead." Ah Cheng pointed to a nearly invisible fissure in the rock wall. "Our people don’t dare go any further than this. The seal’s power is too strong; getting close will get you repelled."

Li Yuan extended his Divine Sense into the rock wall.

The perception from his Earth Vein Spirit Hub pierced through the rock strata, capturing the energy structure of the sealed area’s outer perimeter deep within.

The seal was three-dimensional. It was layered, with at least five concentric layers from the outside in, each one stronger than the last. The outermost layer had already begun to decay, occasionally leaking trace amounts of energy, but the inner layers remained stable.

Li Yuan expanded the range of his perception, simultaneously probing the path of the Spirit Vein tributary below.

A tributary of Mozhou’s large-scale Spirit Vein passed beneath the sealed area. There was a clear correspondence between the tributary’s path and the energy nodes on the seal’s perimeter. Whenever the Spiritual Qi in the tributary fluctuated faintly, the corresponding nodes on the seal’s perimeter would resonate with infinitesimal vibrations.

The two could draw strength from each other.

The Spirit Vein’s energy could be channeled into the sealed area somehow, used to replenish or stabilize the seal’s operation. Conversely, any energy that leaked from the sealed area would flow back into the main Spirit Vein along the tributary.