Free Web NovelChapter 43: Chapter 43: The 3rd Equipment Slot
Before dawn the next day, the camp was already stirring.
The guard captain took two members of the Wang family and a small team, heading deeper into the valley under the cover of the morning mist.
The remaining people split into three groups as arranged the previous night, each assigned a search area.
Li Yuan, He Shou, Xu Mao, Chen Qi, and Liu Ping advanced north along the eastern cliff face of the valley.
"What kind of traces are we looking for?" Chen Qi asked.
"Patterns on the rocks." He Shou briefly relayed the description given by the Wang family members the night before. "Not natural cracks, but man-made engravings. The lines are uniform and curved."
"Sometimes you have to dig. Some of the stones are buried underground."
The five of them searched along the cliff wall, stopping and starting as they went.
The rock formations on the cliff were exposed, the grayish-black shale surface covered with natural cracks and moss. It wasn’t easy to distinguish the man-made marks of a Spirit Pattern from all this.
After searching for nearly two hours, Chen Qi found something unusual on a protruding rock face.
"Over here."
The others gathered around to look.
There was a curved groove on the rock’s surface, about a finger’s width and very shallow, almost completely covered by moss.
He Shou used the tip of his blade to scrape away the moss, revealing the bottom of the groove.
It was smooth—much smoother than the surrounding natural rock—and its edges had a uniform curve.
"It’s a Spirit Pattern," He Shou said, sheathing his blade.
Li Yuan crouched down, his fingers tracing the path of the groove.
The groove extended from this rock face, took a left turn, and disappeared beneath a pile of rubble.
He Shou noted the location, and the group continued their search northward.
Over the next half-day, the five of them discovered three more similar Spirit Pattern markings.
Some were carved on cliff walls, others on the surface of large boulders half-buried in the ground. Their locations were scattered, but the style of the patterns was consistent—uniform curves, smooth bases, weathered and eroded but still discernible.
In the afternoon, the search parties returned to the valley camp one after another to regroup.
The other two groups had also made discoveries. All told, more than a dozen Spirit Pattern markings had been found around the valley.
The sun was already setting in the west when the guard captain returned from the depths of the valley with the Wang family members.
The expressions of the two Wang family members were even more grave than yesterday. One of them now held a rolled-up sheet of coarse beast-hide paper, which was densely covered with markings.
The guard captain collected the location information reported by each team and huddled with the Wang family members, cross-referencing it with the markings on the beast-hide paper.
This time, they didn’t try to hide what they were doing.
Li Yuan stood a short distance away and could see a simple topographical map drawn on the beast-hide paper. The valley’s outline, the direction of the cliffs, and the location of the creek bed were all clearly marked. More than a dozen red dots were scattered across the map, with a few small characters written next to each one.
A member of the Wang family used a charcoal pencil to draw several lines on the map, connecting some of the dots.
The connected lines formed an irregular arc, like a fragment of some larger pattern.
"Just as I thought, there’s more than one," the voice of a Wang family member drifted over from the group, his tone one of confirmation.
"I just don’t know what they’re up to. In any case, an Array this large is impossible."
The guard captain was silent for a few breaths before rolling up the beast-hide paper and tucking it into his sleeve.
Then he turned to face everyone.
"We’ll continue searching in teams tomorrow."
...
That night, Li Yuan sat cross-legged and began to cultivate.
Spiritual Qi surged from all directions. The Spiritual Qi Convergence expanded his absorption range to over fifty or sixty feet away, drawing in a massive amount of the already-dense Spiritual Qi from within the Yuanheng Mountain Range.
His efficiency was a great deal higher than back in the market city.
Li Yuan was completely focused, his mind free of distractions, completing one cycle after another.
After an unknown amount of time, the feeling of circulating the Spirit-Introducing Skill suddenly changed.
It wasn’t a change in his Spiritual Power, but in the Cultivation Technique itself.
Previously, when his Spiritual Power circulated, there was a minuscule pause between the nodes of his meridians. The Spiritual Power had to slightly adjust its direction when moving from one meridian to another, like a river slowing down as it flows around a bend.
Now, those pauses were gone.
The circulation of Spiritual Power through his meridians had become a complete, uninterrupted flow. It departed from his Dantian, traveled through all the meridians in his body, and returned to his Dantian without the slightest bit of stagnation.
Li Yuan opened his eyes and let out a long, turbid breath.
The panel appeared.
[Cultivation Technique: Spirit-Introducing Skill - Great Success (0/3200)]
In two months, his proficiency had increased by nearly eight hundred points.
The most direct change after reaching Great Success was his cultivation efficiency.
For each cycle, the Spirit-Introducing Skill at Great Success absorbed nearly forty percent more Spiritual Qi than it did at Minor Achievement, and the loss of Spiritual Power within his meridians was practically zero. freewebnovel.cσ๓
Before, a small portion of Spiritual Qi would always be lost at the turning points of his meridians after each cycle, a significant waste when accumulated. Now that this loss was gone, it meant every wisp of absorbed Spiritual Qi was delivered completely to his Dantian.
Furthermore, the speed at which he absorbed Spiritual Power from Spirit Stones had also increased.
Li Yuan dismissed the panel, closed his eyes, and continued to cultivate.
Li Yuan cultivated until the second half of the night before stopping.
[Spiritual Qi Convergence (White) Permanence Progress: 7/10]
In a single night, he had drained the Spiritual Power from two Spirit Stones.
Qi Refining Stage Cultivators didn’t need much sleep. The higher their Cultivation, the less they needed. For someone at the Qi Refining Fifth Level like him, two to four hours was enough.
Li Yuan leaned against the cliff wall and closed his eyes. His body rapidly recovered its stamina under the effect of Five Grains Qi Nourishing.
...
Before the morning mist had fully dissipated, the five of them were already heading north along the valley’s eastern cliff face.
He Shou walked at the front, with Li Yuan behind him. Chen Qi, Liu Ping, and Xu Mao brought up the rear.
Today’s search area was farther than yesterday’s. They had to circle around a ridge north of the valley and enter a gentle slope on the other side.
Li Yuan held a Spirit Stone in his hand and began absorbing its Spiritual Power.
Li Yuan was surprised to find that after his Spirit-Introducing Skill reached Great Success, absorbing Spiritual Power while walking had become much smoother.
Yesterday, he had to absorb Spiritual Power slowly to avoid errors in his technique. But now, the Spiritual Power circulated rapidly within him. While it wasn’t enough to actually cultivate, walking no longer interfered with his ability to absorb Spiritual Power from a Spirit Stone.
They hadn’t gone far before Chen Qi started muttering.
"Looking for patterns on rocks again. What’s the use? They don’t give us Spirit Stones, just some useless Contribution Points. Plus, there are so many Demon Beasts, and it’s dangerous."
His voice wasn’t loud, but He Shou, who was up ahead, could definitely hear him.
He Shou didn’t turn back.
Chen Qi grumbled a few more times. When no one responded, his voice trailed off, but his steps became noticeably sluggish, and he fell several paces behind the others.
The search did not go smoothly.
On the northern gentle slope, the rock formations were severely weathered, their surfaces fractured into thin, flaky pieces of shale. Forget Spirit Pattern markings—there were hardly any intact rock faces to be found.
The five of them spent the better part of the morning searching the scree slope, only finding a short groove that might have been a Spirit Pattern on the side of a large, half-buried boulder, and even that wasn’t certain.
On their way back in the afternoon, they encountered two more Demon Beasts.
A Tier One Low Grade Gray Raccoon Dog shot out from the grass and was pinned dead by one of Liu Ping’s ice awls.
The other was a Tier One Low Grade Horned Lizard, lurking behind a rock. Li Yuan finished it off with a Fireball.
The two Demon Beasts were dealt with cleanly and efficiently, but Chen Qi’s expression grew increasingly sour.
"We ran into three yesterday, and now two today." Chen Qi sheathed his short sword, his fingers rubbing back and forth over the hilt. "There are more and more Demon Beasts in this place. What are the five of us going to do if we run into a Tier One Top Grade one out here?"
This time, He Shou turned his head.
"If we run into one, we run."
"Run? Run where?" Chen Qi’s voice rose a notch. "We’re in the middle of nowhere."
He Shou looked at Chen Qi for two breaths, his tone unchanging.
"You signed the contract, so you do the work. Don’t forget, you dripped your essence blood on it."
Li Yuan glanced at Chen Qi, saw his mouth move, but in the end, he said nothing more and lowered his head, rejoining the group.
Violating the contract wouldn’t kill you on the spot, but that drop of essence blood would allow the Wang family to know your approximate location, preventing you from escaping.
...
That night, Li Yuan looked at his system panel.
[Spiritual Qi Convergence (White) Permanence Progress: 10/10]
[Permanence Conditions for Spiritual Qi Convergence (White) have been met]
[Make permanent?]
Li Yuan focused his thoughts.
Yes.
[Permanence successful]
[Spiritual Qi Convergence (White) has become a permanent entry]
[Equipped item consumed]
[Five or more White-grade entries have been made permanent. Third equipment slot unlocked.]
[Current Equipment Slots: 1/3 (Break through to Late-stage Qi Refining / Make three or more Green-grade entries permanent. Complete either to unlock the fourth equipment slot)]
[Equipped Item: Origin Condensation Skill]
[Equipped Entry: Spiritual Power Condensation (Green)]
[Permanent Entries: Clean Body (Gray), Spiritual Qi Filtration (White), Five Grains Qi Nourishing (White), Cycle Acceleration (White), Scale Armor Protection (White), Spiritual Qi Convergence (White)]
Six permanent entries, five of them White.
The third equipment slot was unlocked, which meant he could now equip three items at once.
Looking at the requirement to unlock the fourth equipment slot, the condition about breaking through to the Late-stage Qi Refining was still there.
’It’s possible the Cultivation requirement and the accumulated entries are parallel conditions. Meeting either one will unlock the next slot,’ Li Yuan guessed.
Li Yuan put the depleted Spirit Stone into his sleeve and took out the Iron Bull Skill manual. The cooldown was long over.
Equip.
The manual dissolved into light and merged with his body. The warmth that enveloped his internal organs deep in his abdomen surged once more.
[Current Equipment Slots: 2/3]
[Equipped Items: Origin Condensation Skill, Iron Bull Skill]
[Equipped Entries: Spiritual Power Condensation (Green), Organ Fortification (White)]
There was still one empty slot. Li Yuan thought for a moment and equipped the Flame Snake Tube.
His current situation in the mountain range was perfect for accumulating progress for the Flame Snake Tube’s entry.
[Current Equipment Slots: 3/3]
[Equipped Items: Origin Condensation Skill, Iron Bull Skill, Flame Snake Tube]
[Equipped Entries: Spiritual Power Condensation (Green), Organ Fortification (White), Precision (White)]
Nine entries were now active simultaneously.
Spiritual Qi Filtration purified his Spiritual Power, Cycle Acceleration sped up its circulation, and Spiritual Qi Convergence expanded his absorption range. Spiritual Power Condensation compacted the density of his Spiritual Power. Organ Fortification protected his internal organs, and Precision improved his accuracy. Scale Armor Protection defended against external injuries, Five Grains Qi Nourishing boosted his stamina and Qi Blood, and Clean Body maintained his cleanliness.
