Chapter 509 - 480: Mid-stage Golden Core for the Second Time

Chapter 509: Chapter 480: Mid-stage Golden Core for the Second Time

After completing the alliance’s joining procedures, Li Yuan wasn’t in a hurry to leave the main island.

The first floor of the alliance’s assembly hall housed a dedicated exchange counter. Several walls of Spirit Jade were densely inscribed with lists of exchangeable items and Magic, all categorized by grade, purpose, and Contribution Point cost.

Li Yuan walked slowly along the walls, scanning them.

The pill category had the fewest options and the lowest grades, consisting mostly of Tier Two Recovery Pills and Antitoxic Pills. The Artifact Refining section was equally lackluster, offering only a few Low Tier artifact refining blueprints and some common auxiliary materials.

The development of pill making and Artifact Refining in the sea regions was indeed inferior to that on the mainland. Lacking abundant mineral veins and herb fields, the Cultivators of the sea regions had accumulated far less in these two fields than the Sects in Liangzhou, which had legacies spanning hundreds of years.

But the Talisman and Array sections were another story entirely.

The listings for Talismans and Arrays occupied two entire walls. From Tier One to Tier Three, from offensive talismans to support arrays, the sheer variety far surpassed anything Li Yuan had ever seen in the markets on the mainland.

Cultivators in the sea regions operated in complex underwater environments year-round, placing high demands on the portability of Talismans and the adaptability of Arrays. This had spurred the creation of numerous unique talisman and array systems designed specifically for aquatic environments.

From the Talisman list, Li Yuan selected a Tier Three Middle Grade Talisman Making Skill for the Tide Pattern Talisman. This particular skill specialized in condensing and releasing Water Spiritual Power; the resulting Talismans didn’t lose power underwater—they actually grew stronger.

In the Magic category, Li Yuan’s gaze landed on a sonic Magic.

Tide Sound Skill. A Tier Three Low Grade sonic Magic that used Spiritual Power to generate special-frequency sound waves for wide-area attacks. It was exceptionally effective when propagating through denser mediums, such as water.

The two totaled 450 points, leaving him with almost none of his initial Contribution Points.

After completing the exchange, Li Yuan went to the mission board on the main island and officially signed up for the deep-sea extermination mission.

The Late-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator handling registration noticed Li Yuan’s Golden Core aura, and his attitude became exceedingly respectful. "Senior Li, the extermination mission departs in half a month. We’ll gather at the main island’s docks. Golden Core Cultivators will be responsible for killing Tier Three Sea Demons, while Foundation Establishment Cultivators will clear out the Low Tier Demon Beasts. The specific team assignments will be arranged before we depart."

Li Yuan nodded and put away the mission Token.

After leaving the main island, Li Yuan didn’t return directly to Nanyuan District.

Instead, he dove into the sea alone.

His Water-Controlling Intent automatically parted the seawater around him. Propelled by the Spiritual Power from his top-grade spiritual pill, he descended at an incredible speed.

Li Yuan chose a remote patch of sea about forty miles from the main island, far from the shipping lanes.

During his recent seclusion, he had thoroughly studied the structure of two Arrays he’d obtained from the underwater ruins: the Sea Spirit Array and the Water Absorption Array.

Li Yuan set up the Sea Spirit Array first.

With his Tier-Three proficiency in the Array Dao, combined with the passive perception from his Array Network Overview and his precise control over Spiritual Qi flow from Myriad Spirits Return to the Pulse, the setup process was exceptionally smooth. He planted the Array Flags in the seabed sand, embedded the Array Base materials one by one at the preset nodes, and infused the Array Patterns with Spiritual Power. The entire Array activated at once, covering a radius of several dozen yards.

The instant the Sea Spirit Array took shape, the Spiritual Qi in the surrounding seawater began to change. The once-violent and turbid Water Spiritual Qi was filtered by the Array, its impurities stripped away. A stream of gentle, pure Spiritual Qi began to emanate slowly from the Array’s center.

Next came the Water Absorption Array.

A moment later, the Spiritual Power circuits of the two Arrays linked seamlessly where they met, forming a nested, dual-layered structure.

The Water Absorption Array took form.

As the two Arrays operated in tandem, the seawater above the sandy seabed grew exceptionally calm, as if it were an isolated, independent pocket of water.

Li Yuan’s gaze fell upon the respective Array Hubs of the two Arrays.

Within a three-foot radius, his Trait perception activated.

He picked up the two Array Hubs in succession.

[Detected equippable item: Sea Spirit Stone (Intact)]

[Equipment Trait Preview: Spirit Sea Resonance (White)]

[Effect: Slightly expands the perception range of Spiritual Qi fluctuations in water.]

[Permanence Condition: Conditions met.]

[Detected equippable item: Water Absorption Stone (Intact)]

[Equipment Trait Preview: Tidal Regression (White)]

[Effect: Slightly reduces Spiritual Power consumption in aquatic environments.]

[Permanence Condition: Conditions met.]

The two white-grade Traits wouldn’t significantly boost his current strength, but their persistent effects in an aquatic environment would accumulate over time.

Li Yuan picked up the two Array Hubs in succession.

"Equip. Make permanent."

[Tidal Regression (White) has become a permanent Trait.]

[Spirit Sea Resonance (White) has become a permanent Trait.]

Two streams of white light merged into his body, one after the other.

The hidden information triggered by the permanence process was extremely brief, consisting only of a visual replay of the Spiritual Power flow during the Array’s setup. There was no valuable intelligence.

Once the Array Hubs vanished, the two Arrays rapidly lost their power, their cores gone. The Spiritual Light in the Array Patterns faded. The Array Flags and Array Base materials remained, but they were now just inert objects.

Li Yuan collected the materials and headed back to Nanyuan District.

Upon returning to Nanyuan District, Li Yuan used the Token Zhou He had given him to find an unoccupied private chamber and entered seclusion.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged and retrieved the Spirit Demon Fusion Technique from his personal storage space, the one he had acquired from the ruins of the Profound Nether Sect.

This wasn’t a complete Cultivation Technique, but rather a preliminary framework for cultivation. Its core principle was the fusion of Demonic Qi and Spiritual Power, achieved by unifying two cores.

However, the Sect Master of the Profound Nether Sect at the time was likely already at the Nascent Soul realm and unable to complete it himself, forced to work on other aspects instead.

Li Yuan closed his eyes and began to circulate the Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi within his body.

His purple-grade Trait, Spirit-Demon Same Origin, already made the conversion between Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi extremely fluid. Another, Spirit-Demon Void Absorption, further enhanced their compatibility. Supported by these two purple-grade Traits, the coexistence of Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi in his Dantian was already quite stable.

But coexistence was not fusion.

Spiritual Power was still Spiritual Power, and Demonic Qi was still Demonic Qi. The two merely no longer repelled each other; they hadn’t truly blended into a single entity.

Following the instructions of the fusion technique, Li Yuan guided a wisp of Spiritual Power and a wisp of Demonic Qi into a minuscule area in the center of his Dantian. The spatial control granted by his Red Core proved crucial. He used his spatial power to create a miniature high-pressure field in that spot.

The two wisps of energy were forcibly compressed within the high-pressure field.

He felt an immediate repulsion.

The Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi vibrated violently where they touched, like the identical poles of two magnets being forced together.

Their color, a mix of white-blue and dark purple, took on a grayish-silver sheen.

[Spirit Demon Fusion Technique: Novice]

Li Yuan didn’t stop. This Spirit Demon Fusion Technique was incomplete; he would have to continue to study and perfect it himself.

「Two days later.」

In the private chamber, a grayish-silver sphere of light the size of a pigeon’s egg floated above Li Yuan’s palm.

The sphere rotated slowly, the boundary between Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi completely gone. The two energies were perfectly integrated, emitting an incredibly profound aura.

Li Yuan guided the sphere into his meridians. The grayish-silver hybrid energy flowed through them for a full Grand Circulation without dissipating or separating.

[Spirit Demon Fusion Technique: Novice → Minor Achievement]

He had jumped directly from Novice to Minor Achievement, skipping the intermediate stages of Adept and Expert in a flash. The fusion bonus from his two purple-grade Traits, Spirit-Demon Same Origin and Spirit-Demon Void Absorption, combined with the accelerated learning from his True Understanding of All Dharmas, had compressed a cultivation process that should have taken years into an instant.

Li Yuan withdrew his power and exhaled a long, turbid breath.

Minor Achievement in the Spirit Demon Fusion Technique meant he could now use the hybrid energy on a small scale in battle. This grayish-silver energy possessed both the purity of Spiritual Power and the corrosiveness of Demonic Qi, its might and properties far surpassing those of any single-attribute power.

However, the fusion efficiency at Minor Achievement was still low, and using it on a large scale consumed a tremendous amount of energy. To wield it as a primary weapon in combat, he would need to reach the Great Success stage at a minimum.

The top-grade spiritual pill had been circulating in his Dantian for nearly a month, and his Spiritual Power accumulation was progressing steadily. The perfect control from his Dan Terrace of Creation made every breath he took exceptionally efficient. The buff to his essence, qi, and spirit from Three Origins Unity provided a constant source of power, while the boosted respiration from Myriad Spirits Return to the Pulse made his Spiritual Power absorption speed far surpass that of his peers.

His Cultivation, at the peak of the Early-stage Golden Core realm, was nearing the threshold of the Mid Stage. He was just one step away.

Li Yuan gathered all the Spiritual Power in his body, focusing it on his Dantian. The pure white light on the surface of his top-grade spiritual pill erupted with brilliance.

The Spiritual Power permeated deeper into the Spirit Pill’s crystalline structure. With every fraction it penetrated, the pill’s density increased. Infused with Spiritual Power, the crystal lattice slowly expanded, evolving from the scale of the early stage to that of the mid stage.

The process was exceptionally smooth.

A top-grade spiritual pill had no quality-related bottlenecks. The advancement from the early to the mid stage was simply a matter of accumulating more Spiritual Power and expanding the pill’s scale; it did not involve a qualitative leap.

「Two hours later.」

A deep, muffled hum resonated from his Dantian.

In that instant, the top-grade spiritual pill visibly expanded. The pure white light on its surface drew inward, becoming deeper and more contained. The density and total volume of his Spiritual Power simultaneously leaped to a new level.

Mid-stage Golden Core.

The breakthrough was complete.

The Spiritual Power in his meridians began to circulate even faster, and the capacity of his Dantian had expanded by nearly thirty percent.

Li Yuan opened his eyes, flexed his fingers, and pushed open the chamber door.

The sky outside had already darkened.

There were still about ten days until the deep-sea extermination mission.