Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes

Chapter 278: Chapter 268: Permanentizing Pursuit

Heat from the Pill Furnace had built up in the stone house for days.

During this time, Li Yuan hadn’t been distracted by the blood essence Alchemy skill. Instead, he continued to practice with Tier One pills.

Now that his medicinal property identification was permanent, he had a much clearer grasp of sorting herbs and controlling the heat.

Combined with the Alchemy Dao experience books and pill formulas he had recently bought, his Tier One Alchemy, originally only at the Minor Achievement level, was steadily improving.

He no longer needed to rely on trial and error for the first few batches.

Li Yuan grew more and more proficient in adding the herbs, adjusting the heat, and timing the Pill Collection. Eventually, when refining certain Tier One pills, he only needed to glance at the changing medicinal liquid to know roughly how successful the batch would be.

After he finished collecting another batch of pills, the panel finally popped up.

[Skill: Tier One Alchemy—Great Success (0/3200)]

Tier One Alchemy, Great Success.

Li Yuan glanced at the panel, took the last two pills from the furnace, and placed them in a jade bottle before completely extinguishing the Pill Fire.

Instead of staying in the stone house to refine another batch, Li Yuan got up and left.

The marketplace had been bustling lately, and the personnel from the outpost were still pushing toward the ruins.

’But what I lack most right now aren’t ordinary cultivation resources, but high-quality evil materials to continue nourishing the spirit vein.’

The spirit vein had already produced more than one Mid-grade Evil Stone, bringing it ever closer to truly crossing that threshold.

That very day, Li Yuan left the Mist Forest Marketplace and entered the Ghost Mist Forest alone.

This time, Li Yuan didn’t stick to the common paths. Instead, he ventured deeper, starting from an area where he had previously hunted Evil Demons.

He kept his Divine Sense extended the entire way and didn’t retract his Spirit Vein perception either.

Now that the large Spirit Vein was equipped in his special slot, he had a much clearer perception of underground Spiritual Power fluctuations and the paths of branch veins.

Li Yuan’s original plan was to find an Evil Demon.

’The most reliable source of high-quality evil materials is still Tier Two Evil Demons.’

After walking for several hundred yards, he hadn’t yet encountered an Evil Demon, but he did detect a strange fluctuation of Spiritual Power.

Li Yuan paused. Standing behind a collapsed stone slope, he swept his Divine Sense along the faint, indistinct branch vein underground.

’Someone’s here.’

’And it’s not just some ordinary passing Cultivator.’

The person was right beside a branch of a Spirit Vein, holding what looked like a detection-type Magical Artifact and tracing the vein bit by bit. His movements were slow but meticulous; he clearly wasn’t just passing by, but conducting a serious investigation.

Li Yuan concealed most of his aura and slowly circled around, using the terrain for cover.

As he drew closer, something else—something more familiar—entered his perception.

Demonic Qi.

’The other person has Demonic Qi on them, and it’s suppressed very deeply.’

Moving a little closer, Li Yuan caught sight of him.

He was a middle-aged Cultivator with a thin face, dressed in a grayish-blue robe. He held a long, slender Pulse Exploration Rod, his head bowed as he carefully scanned the stone layer. The man’s aura was at the Foundation Establishment Level and was reasonably well-concealed, but he was so focused that nearly all his attention was on the branch vein beneath his feet.

The moment Li Yuan emerged from the side, the man snapped his head up.

He didn’t ask any questions or make any probing moves.

The Foundation Establishment Cultivator spun around, raised a hand, and shot a beam of jet-black light straight at Li Yuan.

Li Yuan pivoted, his body already shifting sideways.

The jet-black light scraped against the stone wall as it flew past, instantly corroding a deep pit into the rock face.

The man didn’t pause after his first attack. He instantly retrieved the Pulse Exploration Rod and, with a short blade now in his other hand, lunged forward.

His movements were swift and vicious.

He was clearly intent on killing him to silence him.

Li Yuan didn’t retreat.

’Since he attacked first, there’s nothing more to say.’

Circulating the Spiritual Power in his Dantian, Li Yuan channeled Fire Spiritual Power through his meridians and into his palm. The next moment, he unleashed the Fire Python Skill. A crimson, fiery shadow shot forward, hugging the ground.

The Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s figure flashed as his short blade, trailing a blackish-gray glint, cleaved the Fire Python Skill in two. But as the flames dissipated, Li Yuan was already on him, striking with the Golden Blade Skill.

A slender golden light shot out from the side of his palm, aimed straight at the man’s neck.

The man reacted quickly, whipping his short blade around to block. With a sharp CRACK, the Golden Blade dissipated, but he was forced to take a step back.

’I can tell at a glance.’

’This man is a decent fighter, but he’s only at the Mid-stage Foundation Establishment. He’s not absurdly powerful.’

Li Yuan’s Divine Sense bore down on him.

The Foundation Establishment Cultivator clearly hadn’t expected Li Yuan’s Divine Soul to be so powerful, and his movements faltered for a moment. In that instant, Li Yuan was upon him, striking his palm against the man’s chest.

Fire Spiritual Power and raw physical strength erupted simultaneously.

The protective layer of Spiritual Power on the man’s chest instantly caved in. He was sent flying backward, crashing into the rubble.

Before the man could get up, Li Yuan unleashed another Fire Python Skill.

BOOM.

The Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s protective aura shattered completely. The Fire Python Skill tore a gaping hole in his abdomen, and he staggered back several steps, his face instantly turning deathly pale.

But the man was still trying to fight, reaching for his storage bag.

Li Yuan gave him no more chances.

As his Divine Sense pressed down again, the Golden Blade Skill shot from his palm. This strike was faster and closer than the last. The man’s body froze for an instant under the pressure of the Divine Sense, and in that moment, the golden light sliced through his throat.

A line of blood flashed.

The man’s eyes went wide. The short blade slipped from his grasp, and after swaying twice, he collapsed.

Silence fell, leaving only the faint twitching of the corpse on the ground.

Li Yuan remained where he was, not approaching immediately. He scanned the area once more. Only after confirming there were no other hidden auras did he walk over to inspect the storage bag.

What he saw made his eyes narrow slightly.

The bag wasn’t filled with the pills and Magical Artifacts an ordinary Loose Cultivator would carry. Instead, it held a large quantity of materials related to Evil Qi and Demonic Qi: Evil Bones, Demon Blood Stones, yin-evil herbs, ores sealed with Tier Two Evil Qi, and even several Demon Dao materials that Li Yuan himself had never seen before.

And none of these items were low-level.

They were all Tier Two.

’This loadout doesn’t seem like what a typical scouting Cultivator would have. It’s more like it was all prepared for a specific purpose.’

Li Yuan put the items away one by one, then felt a blood-colored stone in a corner of the storage bag.

The stone was palm-sized, its surface covered in fine, blood-red veins. It felt faintly and sinisterly cold to the touch.

The moment Li Yuan touched it, the panel popped up.

[Equippable Item Detected: Blood Evil Stone (Complete)]

[Equipment Affix Preview: Bloodsucking and Evil-Gathering (White)]

[Effect: Use Spiritual Power to absorb blood essence. The more potent your Spiritual Power, the wider the absorption range.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Kill one Cultivator of the same realm, or one Late-stage Qi Refining Cultivator.]

[Current Equipment Slots Full (5/5). Replace an equipped item?]

Li Yuan gave it a glance before dismissing the panel.

The affix wasn’t complex, and the item’s effect was clearly stated.

This item immediately reminded Li Yuan of the bodies he’d seen in the Ghost Mist Forest, completely drained of their blood essence. But he’d have to test this Blood Evil Stone to see exactly what it was capable of.

Li Yuan quickly dealt with the body and cleaned up the battle site, careful not to leave any obvious traces. He then continued searching deeper into the forest.

This time, Li Yuan didn’t run into any other Foundation Establishment Cultivators, nor did he immediately find an Evil Demon. He did, however, stumble upon a Tier One Demon Beast in a low-lying patch of woods.

’It isn’t strong. Perfect for a test.’

Li Yuan raised his hand, killed it with a Fireball Technique, dragged the corpse aside, and then took out the Blood Evil Stone.

The moment he channeled Spiritual Power into it, the blood-red veins on the Blood Evil Stone’s surface lit up.

The next moment, the flesh and blood within the Demon Beast’s corpse seemed to be forcibly drained, and it instantly collapsed inward. In just a few breaths, the once-intact corpse rapidly withered, its fur clinging to the bones as if it had been left to dry in the sun for ages.

Li Yuan stood to the side, his eyes narrowed.

’This effect is even more potent than I expected.’

It was almost identical to the state of the cultivators in the Ghost Mist Forest who had been drained of their blood essence.

However, Li Yuan soon discovered something else.

The item was useless against living targets; at least, it couldn’t drain the blood essence of a living creature from a distance.

The target had to be dead, or its blood essence had to have lost its vitality, before the Blood Evil Stone could absorb it from the corpse.

Finished with his test, Li Yuan put the Blood Evil Stone away.

Although he hadn’t found any new Evil Demons on this trip, it hadn’t been fruitless.

The batch of Tier Two Evil Qi and Demonic Qi materials from the storage bag alone was enough for him to accomplish a great deal. Whether for nourishing the spirit vein or for future research, their value was considerable.

On his way back, Li Yuan took a familiar route, his Divine Sense sweeping the area for any movement. He detected a Foundation Establishment Cultivator from the Primordial Yang Sect.

Just then, a notification suddenly appeared on the panel.

[Tracking (Green) — Permanence Conditions Met]

[Permanize?]

Li Yuan paused for a moment, then immediately understood.

The condition for the ’Tracking’ affix was to come into contact with twenty different Foundation Establishment auras. He had finally completed it.

Li Yuan confirmed it immediately.

[Tracking (Green) is now a permanent affix.]

A cool sensation swept through the depths of his perception before dissipating.

The next moment, when Li Yuan extended his senses to the lingering auras in the area, the change was immediately apparent.

A few old auras in the forest, which had been on the verge of dissipating, were now much easier to distinguish. He could tell which belonged to a Demon Beast, which he had left behind himself just moments ago, and even grasp the faint outlines of Cultivator traces from days ago in the distance.

Li Yuan retracted his Divine Sense and continued on his way out of the forest.

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