Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes

Chapter 295: Chapter 285: Hidden Vein Pill

Li Yuan sat in his stone house, reviewing the two problems he had identified last night at the Spirit Vein Core.

Concealing his aura, and stabilizing the node.

Stabilizing the node couldn’t be rushed. It required a more detailed investigation of the Restrictions along the teleportation structure’s path, and he would need to advance his Tier Two Array Dao skills further before he could act. But as for concealing his aura, he could start working on a solution now.

To suppress this kind of fluctuation, he had to work from within his meridians.

What Li Yuan thought of was an alchemical pill.

None of the Tier Two alchemical pills he had refined were of this type. There were a few Tier One pills related to aura concealment, but their effects were too weak for a Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator to suppress the probing of a High Tier Divine Sense.

He needed a Tier Two alchemical pill specifically designed to suppress the aura fluctuations within his meridians.

Li Yuan took out his identity token and checked his Sect contribution balance and the catalog of exchangeable pill recipes.

He had accumulated a considerable amount of contribution points from killing the Demon Cultivator, modifying the Demon-Exploring Array, dismantling the deep-level Restrictions, and breaking the core gate of the Core Formation platform. Coupled with the continuous accumulation from his daily management of the marketplace, his balance was even higher than he had expected.

In the catalog of pill recipes, Li Yuan quickly found a suitable one.

The Hidden Vein Pill.

A Tier Two alchemical pill. Its main effect was to suppress the aura fluctuations in the meridians for a certain period after consumption, making it difficult for a Cultivator to be detected by a High Tier Divine Sense while circulating their Spiritual Power. It didn’t just mask the external aura; it directly suppressed the activity within the meridians themselves.

It was the perfect complement to his own aura-concealing abilities.

Without hesitation, Li Yuan used his contribution points to exchange for the pill recipe.

After getting the recipe, Li Yuan first read the entire formula twice at his desk.

The Hidden Vein Pill had three main ingredients: two were yin-aspected, and one was wood-aspected. The supplementary ingredients required a specific mineral powder used to stabilize the outer walls of the meridians. The overall approach was somewhat similar to the Vessel Continuation Pill, as both acted on the meridians, but the Hidden Vein Pill was for suppression, not repair.

The main ingredients for the Hidden Vein Pill weren’t particularly rare; both alchemy ingredient shops in the marketplace had them in stock. However, finding the mineral powder took some effort. He finally managed to buy a batch of acceptable quality from a Loose Cultivator from Yunzhou.

After returning to his stone house, Li Yuan lit the furnace.

The first batch started smoothly. The three main ingredients went into the furnace in sequence. After they dissolved, the medicinal liquid turned a cyan-gray color, just as the recipe described. After adding the supplementary ingredients, a contracting trend began within the furnace, and the surface of the liquid dipped slightly inward.

Li Yuan controlled the Pill Fire, following that inward-pulling force.

But a problem arose in the latter half of the middle stage. The contraction speed suddenly increased, and the medicinal liquid went from dipping slowly to shrinking rapidly, as if the entire mass was about to swallow itself. Li Yuan immediately increased the heat, but the contracting force had already sealed off the liquid’s outer layer, and the Pill Fire was blocked from entering.

With a muffled THUD from the furnace, the medicinal liquid exploded into ash.

The first batch was a failure.

Li Yuan cleaned the furnace and started a second batch.

He was luckier this time; the second batch yielded two pills.

Two pills fell onto the jade plate. They were cyan-gray, with an extremely faint membrane of light on their surface. The pills weren’t large. Rolling one between his fingers, he could feel the contracting force still active within, as if the pill itself was shrinking inward.

The Hidden Vein Pill. A success.

This was the fourth type of Tier Two alchemical pill he had successfully refined.

The panel promptly appeared.

[Detected equippable item: Hidden Vein Pill (Complete)]

[Equip Entry Preview: Meridian Hiding and Breath Concealing (Green)]

[Effect: Suppresses meridian aura fluctuations, reducing the probability of being locked onto by a High Tier Divine Sense.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Remain undetected by a same-tier Divine Sense a cumulative total of 100 times.]

Li Yuan glanced over the panel and equipped it directly.

The moment the entry took effect, Li Yuan felt a change. It wasn’t that something had been added to his meridians; rather, the activity within the meridians themselves had been suppressed. His Spiritual Power still circulated as usual, but the faint fluctuations generated during its circulation were now as if wrapped in a layer of soft cloth, the amount leaking outward significantly reduced.

Li Yuan tried circulating his energy for a full cycle.

Compared to normal, the flow of Spiritual Power in his body was completely unaffected; its speed, purity, and circulation path remained unchanged. But if someone were to probe him with their Divine Sense right now, the meridian fluctuations they could detect would be much weaker than before.

Li Yuan stopped his Cultivation Technique, his gaze falling on the remaining alchemy ingredients on the table.

With the Hidden Vein Pill, plus the Body Refining Pill, Vessel Continuation Pill, and Gathering Essence Pill he had refined before, he now knew four types of Tier Two alchemical pills. Counting further back, he had successfully refined even more types of Tier One pills. The Meridian Opening Pill, Blood Coagulation Pill, Qi Blood Pill, Soul Nourishing Pill, Healing Pill, and Wood Spirit Pill... all told, they added up to six types.

Four plus six made exactly ten types.

As expected, the panel popped up the next moment.

[Permanence Condition Met for Insight into Alchemy Principles (Green)]

[Successfully refined ten different types of alchemical pills (10/10)]

[Make permanent?]

Li Yuan confirmed.

[Insight into Alchemy Principles (Green) has become a permanent entry.]

The change came quietly.

Unlike the tangible pressure that had spread from bone to skin when the Body Refining entry became permanent, the permanence of Insight into Alchemy Principles felt more like a filter in his mind that had previously flickered in and out of existence was suddenly welded in place.

Li Yuan closed his eyes to feel the change for a moment.

Previously, Insight into Alchemy Principles had only taken effect when he equipped an alchemy codex. As long as the codex was in his equipment slot, his perception of medicinal properties during Alchemy would be enhanced by forty percent. Now that it was permanent, this perception no longer relied on any external object; it had become a part of his fundamental Alchemy Dao.

Over the next few days, the marketplace patrols maintained the heightened level of scrutiny that had been implemented recently.

After the full upgrade of the Demon-Exploring Array, the patrolling Cultivators had to take turns each day checking the feedback logs from the main Array Disc and all the auxiliary nodes. As the Pavilion Master, Li Yuan also had these records periodically sent to him for review.

Most of the time, there was nothing unusual in the records. The few times a slight fluctuation was detected, investigation revealed it to be residual traces of old Demonic Qi on visiting Loose Cultivators. It wasn’t intentional concealment; they had simply fought against Demon Cultivators back in Yunzhou and had been tainted by it a little.

But on this day, as Li Yuan was looking through the records, his gaze suddenly froze.

The third auxiliary node on the west side of the Demon-Exploring Array had registered an extremely brief abnormal fluctuation three days ago. It lasted for less than half a breath and its intensity was very low, leaving only an inconspicuous little mark in the logbook.

Looking at this single entry, it could easily be dismissed as a false positive or background noise.

But when Li Yuan pulled out the records from the surrounding days to compare, he discovered that the same auxiliary node had registered a similar, even weaker fluctuation five days prior. The duration was shorter and the intensity was lower; one would never have noticed it without looking at the records consecutively.

Both fluctuations occurred at night, two days apart.

Li Yuan didn’t raise any alarm. After closing the logbook, he went to retrieve the entry-and-exit records and transaction logs for the west side of the marketplace during that period.

Laying the two documents side-by-side, a connection slowly began to emerge.

During the times when the fluctuations occurred, there was a certain Cultivator on night shift patrol along the western route.

This person was not a visiting Loose Cultivator but one of the marketplace’s own. He had been on the patrol team for several months, was usually quiet and unassuming, and had never made any mistakes.

Li Yuan singled out this person’s transaction history and compared it line by line.

Most of the transactions were normal: buying daily pills, exchanging Spirit Stones, and occasionally acquiring some Low Tier materials.

But among them were two private transactions with a visiting Loose Cultivator. The content of the transactions was vaguely recorded, simply listed as "miscellaneous."

And the entry and exit times of that Loose Cultivator happened to be just before the two abnormal fluctuations.

Li Yuan returned the logbook to its place, his expression unchanged.

’The Dark Abyss Association has already extended its reach into the marketplace.’

’It’s not an outsider, a Loose Cultivator, sneaking in to cause trouble, but someone on the inside being turned into their mole. This kind of infiltration is harder to defend against than a direct assault, and far more troublesome.’

But Li Yuan didn’t act on this lead immediately.

’If I arrest him now, the Dark Abyss Association will just replace him with someone even more clandestine. But if I let him be and follow this thread, I can uncover much more later on.’

Li Yuan committed the man’s name and the suspicious transactions to memory, then left the administration office.

That afternoon, a middle-aged Cultivator came looking for Li Yuan.

The man introduced himself as Zhou. He was at the Early-stage Foundation Establishment realm and claimed to have been sent by the Li family to pay a visit.

He’d seen him once at the trade fair. The man seemed to travel frequently between the two provinces.

Li Yuan received him in the administration office.

Cultivator Zhou was very polite. He started with a few pleasantries and some superficial remarks before getting to the point.

"The Li family is currently being watched by the Sect, and our situation is indeed difficult. However, the Li family has always respected capable fellow cultivators. We will never forget the favor Li Dao You did for us by helping to break that array."

"Recently, the Li family has been organizing some of its resources. We have a few rare alchemy ingredients that are not easy to purchase. If Li Dao You needs them, the Li family is willing to part with them at a friendly price."

His words were diplomatic, but the meaning was clear enough.

’The Li family is being suppressed by the Sect, and now they want to win me over. The reason isn’t hard to guess. Although I’m not an official disciple of the Primordial Yang Sect, I’ve built up considerable influence through my work in the marketplace, the outpost, and the ruin explorations. If they can form a connection with me, the Li family can use it to alleviate some of the pressure on them.’

Li Yuan, holding his teacup, simply nodded after hearing him out.

"I understand the Li family’s kind intentions. As for the alchemy ingredients, let me see what I’m missing first."

He neither agreed nor refused.

Cultivator Zhou studied Li Yuan’s expression, said no more, and politely took his leave.

Li Yuan put down his teacup and continued to handle the matters at hand.

In the evening, Li Yuan left the administration office. Instead of returning directly to his stone house, he made a detour to several material shops in the marketplace.

News that the Dark Abyss Association was buying up life-extending medicinal herbs and Array Materials on a large scale had been circulating for several days. The prices of many medicinal ingredients in the marketplace had already begun to rise. However, the increase hadn’t truly taken off yet; it was still in the early stage where rumors were spreading, people were unsettled, and prices were just starting to budge.

Li Yuan took advantage of this window to start stocking up in advance.

He first bought a batch of aura-concealing herbs, which he would need later to refine more Hidden Vein Pills. He also acquired a good amount of Stabilizing Array-type Spiritual Sand, which would be useful for dealing with the nodes in the underground passage. In addition, he bought several types of subtle, restriction-breaking auxiliary materials. The quantities were small, but they were already scarce in the marketplace, and might be impossible to find in a few more days.

When it came time to pay, Li Yuan didn’t use only Spirit Stones.

He traded directly with Mid-grade Evil Stones for a portion of the payment.

Since the Evil Ore mine had entered its profitable phase, his stock of Mid-grade Evil Stones had become quite substantial.

With the arrival of the Demon Cultivators, these things had gained value. The shopkeepers were happy to accept them in exchange for medicinal herbs and Spiritual Sand.

After visiting several shops, Li Yuan made another trip to the general store that specialized in buying materials from Loose Cultivators.

There, he took out one of the two Purple Evil Stones he had kept and inquired about its price.

The Shopkeeper took it and glanced at it, his expression shifting from confusion to obvious interest.

"What kind of Evil Stone is this? Its quality is much higher than Middle Grade."

"A new variety," Li Yuan said simply.

The Shopkeeper examined it over and over for a moment, probed its internal structure with his Divine Sense, and finally gave a tentative price.

One hundred and fifty Spirit Stones.

The price wasn’t low, nearly two to three times higher than a Mid-grade Evil Stone.

Li Yuan wasn’t in a hurry to sell. He simply took the Purple Evil Stone back.

’There’s a market for this.’

By the time he returned to the stone house, the sky had completely darkened.

The newly acquired medicinal herbs and Spiritual Sand were laid out on the table. He had fewer Mid-grade Evil Stones in his storage bag, but the items he’d traded for were more practical. The output from his Spirit Field, the returns from the Evil Ore mine, the daily sales of Talismans and pills, and the information advantage he held in his transactions—several streams of income were simultaneously replenishing his funds.

Li Yuan gathered and stored everything away, then sat down cross-legged to continue his cultivation.

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