Chapter 326 - 315: Dark Abyss Night Raid

Chapter 326: Chapter 315: Dark Abyss Night Raid

During the day, Li Yuan set up two Pill Furnaces in his stone house to continue testing the limits of operating them in parallel.

His main Divine Sense Line controlled the fire with Spiritual Power to refine Gathering Essence Pills, while a second Divine Sense Line used the Divine Soul Manipulation Skill to control the second Pill Furnace and refine Healing Pills. Refining Gathering Essence Pills was more difficult than Vessel Continuation Pills and demanded stricter fire control, requiring his main line’s full concentration.

Over at the second Pill Furnace, the precision of the Divine Soul Manipulation Skill was still inferior to controlling the fire with Spiritual Power. During the refinement of the Healing Pills, there were two instances where Li Yuan’s control over the heat transition wasn’t clean enough, causing faint ripples on the surface of the medicinal liquid. In the end, there was no issue with the pill formation, but the quality was a small grade lower than those refined with Spiritual Power.

After finishing his alchemy, Li Yuan left the market city to check on his Spirit Field.

The Spirit Field was laid out neatly with well-defined ridges. The Spirit-Introducing Canals used for irrigation had already been dug, drawing in fresh water from a nearby stream. Although the Spiritual Qi in the water was thin, its advantage lay in its constant flow.

Li Yuan walked a lap along the ridges, getting a general sense of the soil quality and Spiritual Qi distribution across the entire Spirit Field. He then took out the jade slip for the Soil Cultivation Skill.

He sent his Divine Sense inside, and the contents of the Cultivation Technique unfolded.

The Soil Cultivation Skill worked by infusing Spiritual Power into the ground to stimulate the soil’s inherent spirituality. When activated, Spiritual Power would flow from the palm and slowly permeate the gaps between soil particles, awakening the dormant spiritual substances deep within the earth and greatly enhancing the soil’s ability to nourish Spirit Medicine Seeds.

Li Yuan squatted on a ridge, placed his palm on the soil’s surface, and began to channel his Spiritual Power according to the Cultivation Technique.

As his Spiritual Power seeped into the ground, the texture of the soil changed slightly. The dry, hard feeling on the surface receded, and the earth beneath his palm became soft and moist, as if it had been soaked by a gentle rain.

Li Yuan walked slowly along the ridges, squatting down to activate the technique every few steps. By the time he had covered the entire Spirit Field, the sky had already grown dark.

[Soil Cultivation Skill: Novice (0/200)]

He had reached the Novice stage.

Li Yuan stopped using the technique and returned to the market city.

That night, Li Yuan sat cross-legged on his rush mat to cultivate. Four Divine Sense Lines operated simultaneously. The resonance channel established by his Spirit Vein Affinity Art allowed Spiritual Qi to continuously surge into his Dantian, keeping his cultivation efficiency extremely high.

Just past Midnight, a sharp warning signal suddenly sounded.

The Breath-Sensing Array on the outskirts of the market city had been triggered.

Almost at the same instant, his Spirit Vein Monitoring Line also sent back abnormal feedback.

Li Yuan opened his eyes, and his four Divine Sense Lines immediately switched to a combat-ready state.

The signal from the Breath-Sensing Array came from the north of the market city, in the direction of the outpost. A large number of auras were approaching rapidly, their strengths ranging from Late-stage Qi Refining to Late-stage Foundation Establishment. Each aura was wreathed in dense Demonic Qi.

Li Yuan got up, left his stone house, and headed toward the market city’s north gate.

Before he reached the north gate, the Early Warning Array in the direction of the outpost was also triggered. The linked Defense Array automatically activated, and the Restrictions on the market city’s walls lit up with a faint glow.

A synchronized signal for the three-point joint defense was transmitted, putting the outpost, the market city, and the ruins on high alert simultaneously.

Li Yuan stood on the wall near the north gate. He didn’t leave the market city; instead, he extended the perception range of his Spirit Vein Monitoring Line to its maximum.

In the direction of the outpost.

At least seven or eight Cultivator auras were gathered about a hundred zhang from the outpost’s perimeter, each carrying Demonic Qi. One of the auras was particularly heavy, its fluctuations at the level of Late-stage Foundation Establishment, pressing down on the others.

But these Demon Cultivators didn’t make a move.

They simply stopped at the outpost’s perimeter, facing off against the defending Cultivators from a hundred zhang away.

Neither advancing nor retreating.

Li Yuan’s perception lingered on the auras of those few Demon Cultivators for a moment.

’Something isn’t right.’

The way these Demon Cultivators’ auras fluctuated was different from the Demon Cultivators he had encountered before. A normal Demon Cultivator’s Demonic Qi would naturally overflow from their meridians with a uniform concentration and stable fluctuations. But among these auras, several of the Demonic Qi fluctuations were surging and ebbing erratically.

’Strange.’

Li Yuan didn’t dwell on the outpost for long. He switched the perception of his second Divine Sense Line toward the center of the Spirit Vein.

The Core Formation Platform ruins.

In the area south of the Spirit Vein’s central section, a large amount of Demonic Qi was rapidly approaching.

Li Yuan’s perception carefully counted them.

There were at least a dozen sources of Demonic Qi, scattered in a fan-shaped area from the north to the east of the ruins’ perimeter, converging on the ruins from different directions.

Then, at a certain point, they concealed their auras and stopped.

’A diversion.’

The standoff at the outpost was a feint. The real target was the ruins.

Li Yuan immediately leaped down from the wall and moved toward the outpost.

He pushed both his breath and meridian concealment techniques to their limits, lowering his aura to an absolute minimum.

After getting close to the outpost, Li Yuan stopped on a patch of high ground and focused the precision of his Spirit Vein Monitoring Line to its highest level.

The locations of the dozen or so Demonic Qi sources were marked one by one in his perception.

The closest one was about one hundred and fifty zhang north of the ruins’ perimeter and was moving slowly. Li Yuan focused his perception on that point.

’The aura is wrong.’

The way that Demonic Qi fluctuated wasn’t like a Cultivator, but more like a Demon Beast. The rhythm of its Spiritual Power circulation was crude and primitive, lacking the refinement of being guided through meridians. It was purely the natural flow of Demonic Power within its body.

A Demon Beast.

A Demon Beast with dense Demonic Qi attached to it.

Li Yuan scanned the other sources of Demonic Qi and found that more than half of them had the same pattern.

Of the dozen or so sources, only four or five were true Demon Cultivators; the rest were Demon Beasts controlled by them, their bodies covered in Demonic Qi to act as vanguards and cover.

Li Yuan decided to test his theory.

Inside the outpost, several Foundation Establishment cultivators, including Chen Yi, were on high alert.

A Fire Arrow Skill, launched with extremely low Spiritual Power output, shot toward the nearest source of Demonic Qi.

The fire arrow passed through a gap in the canopy and slammed into the side of a gray-furred Demon Beast. The beast cried out in pain and scurried sideways, but did not retaliate.

’It really is a Demon Beast.’

The moment the fire arrow hit, Li Yuan’s clear Spiritual Sense distinctly perceived the way the Spiritual Power fluctuated within the Demon Beast’s body. It was a Tier Two Middle Grade Demon Beast with a thick layer of Demonic Qi attached to its surface. Its movements were stiff, as if controlled by an external force.

Simultaneously, Spiritual Power fluctuations from magic being cast appeared from behind him, providing reinforcement.

Spiritual Light and Demonic Qi flashed alternately above the outpost. The intensity of the battle wasn’t too high, but it was creating a huge commotion.

Meanwhile, within Li Yuan’s perception range, the cultivators stationed at the ruins were rushing toward the outpost.

Just then, the group of Demon Cultivators near the ruins made their move.

The outer array of the ruins instantly triggered a warning as its Spiritual Light flared brightly.

The signal from the linked Defense Array was simultaneously transmitted to the market city and the outpost.

From the direction of the market city, Chen Yi’s urgent voice came through the communication jade slip.

"The ruins’ alarm was triggered! The Demon Cultivators have broken through."

Li Yuan didn’t reply. Within his Spirit Vein’s perception range, the group of stationed cultivators had already left the ruins and were still rushing in this direction, apparently not having received the message.

The information from his Spirit Vein Monitoring Line was clearer than any communication slip.

The outer array of the ruins was being rapidly dismantled.

The Demon Cultivators’ array-breaking technique was extremely practiced. They weren’t using brute force but were precisely dismantling the array nodes. The order and speed at which each node was removed had been meticulously calculated, as if they had studied the array’s structure beforehand.

The nodes of the outer array failed one after another at an incredible speed.

In the direction of the outpost, the fighting suddenly intensified. The Late-stage Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivator attacked with full force, suppressing the outpost’s defenders and drawing more attention and manpower toward them.

Li Yuan was positioned to the west of the outpost battlefield when an aura suddenly broke away from the fight and charged in his direction.

Late-stage Foundation Establishment.

Dense Demonic Qi, extremely fast.

The Late-stage Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivator revealed himself a hundred zhang away, his gaze fixed directly on the high ground where Li Yuan stood.

Li Yuan did not meet him head-on.

He turned and ran, his figure rapidly retreating toward the market city. He activated the Fire Escape Skill, pushing his speed to the limit.

The Demon Cultivator gave chase.

The two of them moved at high speed along a path on the outskirts of the Ghost Mist Forest, one chasing the other. The distance between them closed from a hundred zhang to seventy, and then from seventy to fifty.

After Li Yuan had run for about three hundred zhang, the pursuit behind him suddenly stopped.

The Late-stage Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivator stopped fifty zhang away, stood for two breaths, then turned and sped away toward the ruins.

’He’s not chasing anymore.’

’I’m not the target.’

Li Yuan stood his ground, watching as the Demon Cultivator’s aura rapidly receded, disappearing into the night in the direction of the ruins.

The array warning from the ruins was still active, its Spiritual Light flickering incessantly in the night sky.

The information from his Spirit Vein Monitoring Line indicated that the outer array of the ruins had already been more than halfway broken.