Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes

Chapter 264: Chapter 254: Clues

After the investigation into the outer layer of the Alchemy Dao concluded, the Mist Forest Marketplace was peaceful for about ten days.

Construction on the outpost was still underway, and the flow of Cultivators to and from the area was greater than ever. The marketplace’s main street was crowded from dawn to dusk. The first batches of Low Tier Spirit Grass began to mature in the Spirit Fields, and business at the shops and supply stalls boomed, with profits continuing to climb as usual.

Li Yuan hadn’t been taking frequent long trips recently, instead spending most of his time in the marketplace cultivating and patrolling. He also used the opportunity to slowly internalize the items he’d brought back from the ruins.

He wasn’t in a hurry to delve deeply into the Tier Two Body Refining Magic he had obtained from the grey jade slip. For now, he was just familiarizing himself with its circulation pathways and refinement methods. Instead, he first turned his attention to two ordinary types of Magic he had recently acquired.

One was the Vein-Probing Art, the other the Dust-Guiding Art.

The former was an investigative technique, mainly used to identify underground Spiritual Power and the direction of Earth Veins. The latter wasn’t meant for combat; it was used to meticulously manipulate fine dust, debris, and residual traces. While not particularly useful in daily life, it was very convenient in settings like ruins, mines, or for tracking purposes.

Li Yuan hadn’t acquired these two techniques on a whim.

The Vein-Probing Art would be useful against that abnormal underground backflow, while the Dust-Guiding Art was perfect for detailed inspections. More importantly, the new Body Refining Magic he’d obtained was linked to the total number of techniques he knew—the more he had, the faster he could cultivate it. Since that was the case, there was no harm in picking up a few more applicable minor arts.

Neither of the Magic techniques was high-level, and Li Yuan already had a solid foundation.

It only took him a few days to grasp the basics of both.

What truly caught Li Yuan’s attention, however, was that the winds in the marketplace had shifted.

The three people caught last time had carried Demonic Qi, which the Demon-Exploring Array had detected immediately. But these new people who were surfacing now showed no signs of being Demon Cultivators.

The Demon-Exploring Array continued to operate as usual. The nodes at the four entrances and exits recorded all fluctuations in the Array Hub daily, but in half a month, it hadn’t detected a single target like the last ones.

Judging by the Demon-Exploring Array alone, the marketplace seemed almost unnervingly clean.

But therein lay the problem.

At first, Li Yuan merely paid attention. Later, he decided to pull all the records from the administration office, the patrol teams, and the Demon-Exploring Array.

The administration office had registration and temporary lodging records for visiting Cultivators.

The patrol Cultivators had logs of daily foot traffic, conflicts, and nighttime entries and exits.

Although the Demon-Exploring Array could no longer detect Demon Cultivators, it still recorded who entered and exited from which gate, how long they stayed, and any abnormal frequency in their comings and goings.

Coupled with the marketplace’s transaction records—who bought items from which shop, what they bought, how much, and where they went afterward—many of these traces could be correlated.

Li Yuan spread out all this information and spent half a day organizing it.

Some people weren’t buying medicinal pills but blank jade slips and Sealing Spirit Boxes.

Some people weren’t asking about Demon Beast materials, only where they could get old Array Materials, damaged Magical Artifacts, and easily dismantled mechanical components.

Two individuals were the most conspicuous. They had visited three times, staying only one night on each occasion. Each time, they would leave something at a different shop, and the next day, a different person would come to retrieve it.

Li Yuan compiled a separate list of the dozen or so individuals and their activities that he had filtered out and sent a message to Chen Yi that very night.

Chen Yi’s reply came quickly.

"Keep watching them. Don’t make any arrests yet."

The following afternoon, Chen Yi arrived in person.

The two met again on the second floor of the administration office. Li Yuan pushed several organized scrolls of records toward him. Chen Yi looked them over, glancing up from time to time to ask questions.

"This person selling Sealing Spirit Boxes—are you sure he only ever contacts two specific people?"

"I’m sure."

"And the three from the north gate? Different lodgings, but they all visited the same junk shop?"

"They all went. And they weren’t buying finished goods. They were asking about fragments of old Array Discs and materials from dismantled Restrictions."

Chen Yi considered this for a moment. "Let’s not move on them yet," he said. "Peel back another layer here in the marketplace. I want to uncover the entire chain. I need to know who the couriers are and who their handlers are."

For the next few days, the marketplace continued to operate as usual on the surface.

But behind the scenes, the Primordial Yang Sect had already moved its agents into place.

Li Yuan wasn’t idle either.

During this period, in addition to following leads, he also used his contribution points to exchange for several old texts related to the Golden Core.

These weren’t Skills for Core Formation itself, but rather foundational texts and cultivator accounts detailing the experiences before and after the process.

After seeing that old manual in the ruins, he had already decided on his path. Reading the Sect’s texts now was simply a way to clarify that path further.

The information in the texts was more scattered than what was in the old manual from the ruins; they didn’t point as directly to the concept of balance, but the underlying meaning was similar.

Spiritual Power had to be pure, stable, and able to endure pressure.

The physical body could not be weak; otherwise, it wouldn’t withstand the scouring of Spiritual Power during Pill Solidification, nor could it contain the changes following Core Formation.

The Divine Soul had to be sufficiently condensed and stable. Otherwise, if one’s mind fell into chaos at the critical step, all prior accumulation would be for naught.

However, none of them mentioned anything about Golden Core Grades.

After finishing the texts, Li Yuan didn’t write out any lengthy summaries; he simply re-evaluated his own path once more.

Four more days passed. At the marketplace, they finally identified a key node in the network.

After reviewing the latest records, Chen Yi finally gave the order.

"It’s time to move in."

This operation was far more ruthless and swift than the previous two.

Because the targets weren’t Demon Cultivators, the Primordial Yang Sect didn’t bother using the Demon-Exploring Array to corner them. Instead, they struck simultaneously at multiple locations based on transaction times, rendezvous routes, and drop-off points. Several shops in the marketplace, a temporary stone house to the south, an abandoned shack outside the north gate, and a stretch of old road near the outpost were all raided in a single night.

The courier Cultivators were quick to react; two even tried to burn the secret letters and jade slips they were holding, but they weren’t fast enough.

The individuals were apprehended, and most of their belongings were seized.

In a stone chamber behind the administration office, the confiscated items were quickly laid out on a table.

There were two more map fragments than last time. Though they still couldn’t form a complete picture, some pieces aligned with the map previously confiscated from the Demon Cultivators.

There was also half a key-seal fragment, several Hidden Mark Maps with routes drawn on them, a batch of small Array Materials for breaking Restrictions and surveying Earth Veins, a few secret letters that had been passed back and forth, and several old jade tablets engraved with strange patterns.

Li Yuan stood by the table, not examining the items himself. He just listened as Chen Yi and another Primordial Yang Sect disciple analyzed them one by one.

"These maps show the outer routes to the middle layer of the ruins."

"This letter mentions that ’the middle layer is not yet open and still requires the key-seal.’"

"This one says, ’The Earth Vein passage is not yet stable; probing must continue.’"

"And this one..."

As the disciple opened the final secret letter, his brow furrowed.

"There’s a term mentioned here."

"What term?" Chen Yi asked.

"Large-scale Spirit Vein Core."

Li Yuan’s gaze flickered, but he remained silent, waiting for the disciple to continue.

Chen Yi placed the secret letter back on the table. He was quiet for a moment before he spoke.

"We can pretty much confirm the locations of their other peripheral nodes now."

Li Yuan glanced at the map fragments on the table.

"The outskirts of the Ghost Mist Forest?"

"That’s right." Chen Yi nodded. "They aren’t major strongholds, just small spots for hiding people, maps, and materials. They’re inconspicuous under normal circumstances, but when it’s time to break a Restriction or pass a message, they rely on these locations as hubs."

As he said this, his expression grew calm and determined.

"Now that we know where their outer network is, there’s no reason to keep waiting passively."

Li Yuan looked up.

Chen Yi reached out, tapping several spots on the map fragments and route charts on the table. His tone was more direct than before.

"Let’s uproot their peripheral outposts first and take back the initiative."

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