Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes

Chapter 301: Chapter 290: Bones Tough as Iron

The Restriction on the third floor of the underground passage was on a whole other level of difficulty compared to the first two.

Li Yuan squatted before a node in the middle section of the teleportation structure, his Divine Sense and Spirit Vein perception bearing down as he observed for a long time.

The Restrictions on the first two floors, while also nested, were relatively orderly. The critical points were obvious at a glance, making them merely time-consuming to dismantle. The third floor was different. The Array Patterns were no longer just laid flat on the surface of the teleportation structure; they delved deep into the stone, intertwining with the surrounding rock.

Fortunately, his Tier Two Array Dao had reached the level of proficiency, and his Array Mechanism Resonance had long since been made permanent.

Li Yuan watched for a moment, not rushing to act. This layer was very tightly interlocked with the teleportation structure. If he dismantled it rashly, the structure itself could be damaged. He first needed to find the gaps at the interlocking points, send his Spiritual Power into them, and slowly pry the two apart.

This task was more delicate than any previous step.

Every night, Li Yuan worked on only a small section, continuing onward only after confirming there were no errors.

Several days later, the majority of the third-floor Restriction had been dismantled. The remaining part was concentrated on the most critical circuit of the teleportation structure. It was slower to dismantle, but there were no longer any parts he couldn’t understand.

During this period, Li Yuan also kept busy during the day.

One early morning, his Spirit Vein perception once again caught the movements of a Tier Two Demon Beast in the middle layer of the Ghost Mist Forest.

Li Yuan took his Investigation Talismans, combat pills, and Magical Artifacts, then headed straight out of the marketplace.

This time, he encountered a Red-maned Leopard.

It was smaller than a Cold Horned Lizard but extremely fast. The Red-maned Leopard excelled at short-distance explosive sprints, its fur was tough and had a weak resistance to the Fire Attribute. Killing it head-on required restricting its speed first.

The moment the Red-maned Leopard realized it was being targeted, it took off running at extreme speed. In just a few leaps, it had dashed more than twenty zhang away.

Li Yuan raised his hand and unleashed a Fire Arrow, not aiming at the beast itself, but smashing it into the ground before it.

When the fire arrow exploded, shattered earth and flames blocked the path ahead. The Red-maned Leopard stuttered and swerved sharply to the side, but Li Yuan’s second fire arrow had already arrived, once again sealing off its escape route.

The Red-maned Leopard was forced to turn back.

The instant it spun around, the Fire Python Skill had already coalesced, lunging straight for it.

The Red-maned Leopard reacted with incredible speed, ducking low to dart under the Fire Python. But the tracking precision of the Fire Python Skill at the Great Success stage far exceeded its predictions. The serpent’s body dove down in mid-air, and the entire Fire Python slammed onto the Red-maned Leopard’s back, smashing it directly into the ground.

Crimson flames exploded across its fur.

Although the Red-maned Leopard possessed Fire Attribute resistance, the power of the Fire Python Skill—boosted by the combined effects of Refined Flame Essence, Condensed Pill Fire, and the Art of the Blazing Sun—had far surpassed ordinary Tier Two fire skills. Its resistance couldn’t hold up at all.

The Red-maned Leopard let out a miserable howl, large patches of fur on its back scorched black as it struggled desperately to stand up.

The Golden Blade Skill followed, severing the back of its neck in a single strike.

The struggling stopped.

Li Yuan stepped forward to collect the carcass. He extracted its Inner Core and swallowed it on the spot.

As the Inner Core entered his stomach, a searing force pressed into his bones.

A panel popped up.

[Iron-Tough Bones (Green) Permanence Progress: 2/3]

He also collected the Red-maned Leopard’s fur, bones, claws, and fangs, which could be sold back at the marketplace.

After returning to his stone house, Li Yuan continued his Body Refining.

He consumed a Body Refining pill. After the medicinal power dissolved, it followed the Skill’s path, pressing into his bones and membranes. The Medicine-Refined Strong Body peeled out impurities bit by bit, while the medicinal power of the Bone Refining Spirit Ointment seeped in from the outside. When the two met on the surface of his bones, they were guided by the Nameless Body Refining Technique and refined together.

This time, as he circulated the Skill, a change occurred.

The bottleneck that had held him back in the latter half of the Minor Achievement stage was worn through during this session.

It wasn’t a sudden, explosive breakthrough. Rather, after long-term honing, his bones and membranes had finally and thoroughly absorbed all the accumulation of this stage, allowing him to cross over naturally.

The panel popped up.

[Nameless Body Refining Technique — Great Success (0/3200)]

Li Yuan stopped circulating the Skill and closed his eyes for a moment to feel the changes.

The changes were tangible.

His bone density and toughness had both risen a level; his entire skeleton felt as if it had been reinforced. The layer of Spiritual Power protection beneath his skin was thicker and more stable than at the Minor Achievement stage. Previously, when the Spiritual Light protection extended to the ends of his limbs, there would be faint fluctuations, but now it could stably cover his entire body. He no longer needed to consciously maintain it while circulating the Skill.

Li Yuan stood up and moved around. When he clenched his fist, he could feel that the force-bearing structure between his finger and palm bones was more integrated than before.

He stomped his foot hard. The feedback from the sole of his foot was different, as if he were stepping on harder ground. In reality, it was his own bones that had become harder.

Body Refining at Great Success.

Over the next few days, Li Yuan shifted some of his attention to the marketplace’s transaction data.

He reviewed the Management Office’s transaction records every day. This had once been just a routine administrative task, but recently, Li Yuan had started to notice other things within the data.

The batch of unorthodox Life Nourishing Vein-related Skills discovered during the ruin cleanup, although not yet officially public, was already known to many at the outpost and within the Sect. The news slowly leaked from the Sect, and now, faint rumors were circulating in the marketplace as well.

The Dark Abyss Association was already buying up life-extending medicinal herbs on a large scale. As soon as the news from within the Sect spread, the market’s interest in materials related to the Life Nourishing Vein immediately rose.

Li Yuan flipped through the transaction records of the past ten days and quickly noticed that the sales volume of several medicinal herbs was quietly rising.

Life-extending Grass, Life Nourishing Spiritual Sand, and Cyan Yang Root.

These items usually had low trading volumes and prices, belonging to the category of niche materials. But in the last ten days, the number of transactions had nearly doubled compared to the previous month. Although the prices hadn’t fluctuated significantly yet, the number of buyers was increasing, and sellers’ inventories were being rapidly depleted.

After reviewing the transaction records, Li Yuan got up and left the Management Office.

Over the course of an afternoon, he visited four material shops and three fixed stalls in the marketplace, checking the current inventory of these medicinal herbs.

There wasn’t much inventory left.

There were more buyers than sellers. At this rate, these medicinal herbs would be out of stock in half a month at most. Once they were out of stock, the price would inevitably skyrocket.

Meanwhile, the Dark Abyss Association was still buying. Not just in this marketplace; it was said that people were also sweeping up goods in several other Loose Cultivator gathering spots.

Li Yuan began stockpiling that very day.

He acquired over thirty stalks of Life-extending Grass, bought two large portions of Life Nourishing Spiritual Sand, and even bought out the entire remaining stock of Cyan Yang Root from two shops. There were also several other supplementary materials related to the Life Nourishing Vein; though the quantities were small, they were also becoming increasingly scarce on the market, and Li Yuan bought them all up as well.

This round of stockpiling cost a significant amount of Spirit Stones, but Li Yuan’s calculations were very clear.

The current prices for these items were still within a normal range. When the stock shortage hit in half a month, the prices would at least double. At that point, he could sell a portion to recoup his initial investment and keep the rest for his own use. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t lose.

After he finished stockpiling, Li Yuan went to the Yunyang Marketplace.

He didn’t go to sell anything, but to buy a Tier Two Demon Beast Core.

Although Tier Two Demon Beast Cores were quite rare, Li Yuan fortunately had no specific requirements and was still able to acquire one after spending a great deal of money.

After returning to the marketplace and sitting down, Li Yuan placed the Iron-backed Turtle’s Inner Core on the table and examined it.

The gray surface of the Inner Core gleamed with a dull, earthy-yellow luster under the light. When he picked it up, it felt very heavy—heavier than the previous two.

Li Yuan didn’t hesitate and swallowed it.

After the Inner Core entered his stomach, a deep and heavy force spread out from his stomach wall. Unlike the icy chill of the Cold Horned Lizard or the searing heat of the Red-maned Leopard, the Iron-backed Turtle’s Demonic Power was heavy and stable, as if someone were pressing down on his bones, layer by layer.

The Evil Essence Unification, as usual, stripped away the Evil Qi components. The remaining Demonic Power was caught by the river of Qi and Blood and seeped deep into his bones, following the circulation path of the Skill.

He had collected three different types of Tier Two Demon Beast Cores.

The panel promptly popped up.

[Iron-Tough Bones (Green) Permanence Conditions Met]

[Consume three different Tier Two Demon Beast Cores (3/3)]

[Make permanent?]

Li Yuan confirmed.

[Iron-Tough Bones (Green) has become a permanent trait]

The change began from the very depths of his bones.

It wasn’t an increase in surface hardness, but a reinforcement of the fibrous structure within the bones themselves. From his spine to his ribs, from his shoulder blades to the long bones of his limbs, the toughness of every single bone was instantly elevated.

Li Yuan clenched his fist; the feedback from his interlocking finger bones felt more solid than before.

He squeezed a corner of the stone table forcefully, leaving a shallow indentation. His finger bones felt no discomfort whatsoever.

Iron-Tough Bones.

Worthy of the name.

After this trait was made permanent, combined with the Great Success stage of his Nameless Body Refining Technique and the skin-level defense of his Three Elements Body Protection, his physical body’s ability to withstand direct damage was on a completely different level from when he first reached Mid-stage Foundation Establishment. Even without using Spiritual Power for protection, tanking some medium-intensity attacks with just his physical body was no longer an issue.

Li Yuan circulated the residual Demonic Power from the digested Inner Core for one final cycle. Only after confirming there were no adverse reactions left in his body did he stop the Skill.

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