Chapter 327 - 316: The Underground Breakthrough

Chapter 327: Chapter 316: The Underground Breakthrough

Li Yuan did not pursue them in the direction of the ruins.

The Late-stage Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivator was very fast. A direct pursuit would not only fail but also expose his full strength. Besides, the outer Array of the ruins had already been mostly broken. Rushing in to clash head-on with a group of Demon Cultivators would create an uncontrollable situation.

Underground passage.

Li Yuan turned and quickly retreated toward the market.

He passed through the market’s side gate, went down the mine tunnel entrance behind the stone house, and walked all the way to the main vein node near the Spirit Vein Core. From the main vein node, he entered the underground passage, following the old circuit toward the Core Formation Platform.

The passage was pitch-black, and the air was heavy.

All four of his Divine Sense Lines were reassigned.

The main line focused on perceiving the passage ahead and the direction of the Core Formation Platform. The second line was dedicated to Spirit Vein monitoring, tracking the location and movements of the Demon Cultivators at the ruins in real time. The third line monitored the situation on the surface, capturing the Spiritual Power tremors and aura fluctuations coming from above the stone ceiling. The fourth line covered the passage behind him, ensuring he wasn’t being followed.

The information from the Spirit Vein Monitoring Line was constantly updating.

On the surface, the Demon Cultivators were breaking through from the outer layer of the ruins to the inner layer. The outer Array had been completely dismantled. The interconnected Defense Array of the middle layer was under attack, and large sections of the Array had been breached. The few remaining garrison Cultivators were making a last stand in the middle layer, but they were too shorthanded, and their defensive line was rapidly shrinking.

Li Yuan quickened his pace.

He stopped when he reached the periphery of the 3rd Floor Restriction.

Less than twenty feet above his head was the base of the Core Formation Platform. The Array Pattern network of the 3rd Floor Restriction clung tightly to the bottom of the platform. From this angle, the dense network of Spiritual Power Lines looked like a tautly drawn net.

The alarm circuit was embedded within this net.

Li Yuan took a Concealment Talisman from his storage pouch.

The effect of "Spiritual Wave Concealment" on his panel was still active. It reduced Spiritual Power fluctuations by thirty percent when casting spells and could actively shield against surrounding Spiritual Waves.

Li Yuan maximized the active shielding effect of the Concealment Talisman.

An invisible force field spread out from the surface of the Concealment Talisman, covering an area of about ten feet around Li Yuan. The Spiritual Power fluctuations within the force field were greatly suppressed, like a thick cotton cloth muffling all sound.

"Traceless Breath" suppressed his own aura, "Hidden Meridians" suppressed his meridian fluctuations, and "Spiritual Wave Concealment" suppressed his Spiritual Power fluctuations.

A triple stack.

Li Yuan raised his hand, sending Spiritual Power from his fingertips to touch the bottom of the 3rd Floor Restriction.

During his previous reconnaissance, he had already found the location of a weak node. At the bottom of the 3rd Floor Restriction, there was a convergence point of Array Patterns where the Spiritual Power links between them had slightly loosened due to age. It didn’t affect the overall operation of the Restriction, but dismantling it required a much smaller impact of Spiritual Power than other spots.

Li Yuan pushed the precision of his Micro-Control Spiritual Skill to its limit.

The Spiritual Power didn’t strike like an impact. Instead, it was like an extremely fine needle, slowly piercing along the loosened gap in the Array Patterns. After seeping in, the Spiritual Power didn’t expand hastily. It first established a thin insulating layer between the inner wall of the gap and the Array Pattern, temporarily blocking the Spiritual Power conduction channel between the Array Pattern and the alarm circuit.

Only after the insulating layer was established did Li Yuan begin the actual dismantling.

Before the Spiritual Power tremor could be transmitted to the alarm circuit’s input, it was mostly suppressed by the force field. The intensity of the residual tremor was extremely low, far below the alarm circuit’s trigger threshold.

The circuit didn’t sound.

Li Yuan held his breath and continued dismantling.

The entire process was extremely slow. For every small section of Array Pattern he peeled away, he had to first confirm that the Spiritual Power tremor was completely suppressed before moving on to the next.

It took nearly the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

When the last section of the Array Pattern detached from the stone wall, the Restriction at the weak node was completely dismantled. A gap about two palms wide appeared at the bottom of the 3rd Floor Restriction.

On the other side of the gap was the stone surface of the Core Formation Platform’s base.

The alarm circuit never triggered.

The panel popped up at this moment.

[Conditions met to make Spiritual Wave Concealment (Green) permanent]

[Successfully dismantled one Tier Two Restriction (Met)]

[Make permanent?]

Li Yuan confirmed.

[Spiritual Wave Concealment (Green) has become a permanent entry]

Li Yuan took out a few old Array Pattern fragments left over from a previous array setup from his storage pouch. Using his Micro-Control Spiritual Skill, he attached them to the edge of the gap. The Spiritual Power characteristics and Array Pattern style of the old fragments were consistent with the 3rd Floor Restriction. After being attached, no abnormality could be seen by visual inspection or Spiritual Power scan.

Unless someone pressed their Divine Sense against the bottom of the Restriction and inspected it inch by inch, the gap would not be discovered.

The passage leading directly from underground to the base of the Core Formation Platform was officially open.

Li Yuan reached his hand through the gap, his palm pressing against the stone surface of the Core Formation Platform’s base.

The stone surface was cold, its texture dense and heavy. An extremely faint flow of Spiritual Power moved slowly across the surface, a residual trace of the platform’s main Array in operation.

The moment his palm touched the stone, a strange sensation washed over him.

It was as if something was pulling him.

Li Yuan probed along with the pulling sensation. His body suddenly felt light, and he was lifted by a gentle force, passing through the stone base layer and appearing on top of the Core Formation Platform.

Teleportation.

’There’s some kind of teleportation structure inside the base. It can transport you directly from the bottom to the top of the platform.’

Li Yuan stood on the Core Formation Platform and looked around.

Above him was the dome of the ruins’ core area, and surrounding him was the Array Pattern network of the 3rd Floor Restriction. Looking out from the platform, the concealment Array’s effect was two-way; the inside couldn’t be seen from the outside, and likewise, the details of the outside couldn’t be seen from the inside.

The platform itself was larger than he had perceived from underground.

The platform’s surface was about thirty feet square, paved with grayish-white stone slabs covered in dense Array Patterns. The direction and structure of these Array Patterns were countless times more complex than the auxiliary arrays, with each line containing an extremely precise Spiritual Power circuit.

In the center of the platform was a slightly concave circular area, about three feet in diameter. This must be the spot where a Cultivator would sit cross-legged during Core Formation. The stone surface in the depression was smoother than the surroundings and had faint scorch marks, remnants from the Spiritual Power backlash of a failed Core Formation attempt.

The Spiritual Light on the platform’s surface was indeed much dimmer than before. The traces of it having been consumed were even more obvious up close.

Li Yuan crouched down, pressing his palm onto the stone slab of the platform.

The panel popped up.

[Equippable Item Detected: Core Formation Platform (Complete)]

[Equip Entry Preview: Platform’s Fortune (Purple)]

[Effect: Allows for perfect control over Spiritual Power aura during breakthroughs, wasting not a single bit. You can choose to increase the difficulty of Core Formation. If the difficulty is increased, the success rate of Core Formation will decrease by thirty percent, and the resulting Golden Core’s quality will decrease by one tier. However, after a successful Core Formation, you may attempt it again while in the Golden Core Realm without shattering your current core.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Successfully form a Golden Core on the Core Formation Platform, or reach the Nascent Soul Stage in Cultivation.]

Purple.

Li Yuan’s gaze lingered on the panel for two breaths.

The first half of the effect was a pure buff: perfect control over Spiritual Power aura during a breakthrough, not wasting a single bit. The second half was a choice: he could proactively increase the difficulty of his breakthrough from the Foundation Establishment Stage to gain a chance to reform his Golden Core after reaching the Golden Core Realm.

Reforming the core didn’t require shattering the old one.

This meant that if he was unsatisfied with the quality of his first Golden Core, he could try again with the full strength of a Golden Core Cultivator.

Just as Li Yuan was about to ponder the meaning of this entry, a noise suddenly came from his left.

The sound came down from the depths of the ruins; the Demon Cultivators had already broken through the middle layer Array. It had become muffled after passing through layers of stone walls and Array Patterns, but Li Yuan’s Spiritual Sense had become much more precise after reaching mastery, and he could still distinguish human voices.

At the same time, his Spirit Vein perception detected that Cultivators from the Primordial Yang Sect were rushing over, but they were subsequently tied down by Demon Cultivators and Demon Beasts.

"Hurry up! The people outside can’t hold on for much longer."

"What’s the rush? We have time. The inner Array is actually easier to break. The higher-ups gave us enough time. Is the target confirmed?"

"Confirmed. The platform is in the core area, just as the intel said. The transportation Array is ready. As soon as the Restrictions are dismantled, we can move the platform out within fifteen minutes."

"And after that?"

"We retreat. Head for the northern mountains. A Golden Core Cultivator will be there to receive us."

A Golden Core rendezvous.

Li Yuan’s palm remained pressed on the stone surface of the Core Formation Platform, unmoving. Spiritual Power fluctuations were already coming from the Array outside.

’The Demon Cultivators have a lot of intelligence on the Core Formation Platform, including its location, Restriction structure, and how to move it.’

’This operation was premeditated. The standoff at the outpost was a feint; the ruins were the main attack. They used Demon Beasts as a vanguard to cover the real Demon Cultivators, luring the garrison forces away before making a swift infiltration.’

’After moving the platform, they’ll retreat to the north, where a Golden Core Cultivator is waiting to meet them.’

Li Yuan made a snap decision.

’Equip.’

The Spiritual Light on the Core Formation Platform under his feet flashed. The huge, thirty-foot-square platform shrank, converged, and vanished in an instant. The dense Array Patterns on its surface, the central depression, the stone base at the bottom—everything was collected into the equipment slot of his panel in the blink of an eye.

The ground beneath Li Yuan’s feet vanished, and his body began to fall.

He immediately circulated his Spiritual Power to stabilize himself, landing in the sealed space that had been beneath the platform’s base.

The Core Formation Platform was gone.

Only a bare stone foundation remained where the platform had been. The Array Patterns and Spiritual Light had all been taken along with it. The 3rd Floor Restriction had lost the object it clung to; its Array Pattern network could barely hold together and would soon collapse.

Li Yuan didn’t linger.

He slipped from the sealed space into the gap leading to the underground passage, retrieved the old Array Pattern fragments into his storage pouch, and then quickly retreated along the path he had come.

"Spiritual Wave Concealment" was now permanent. Combined with the triple stack of "Traceless Breath" and "Hidden Meridians," the Spiritual Power fluctuations in the passage were suppressed to the point of being almost nonexistent.

His steps were swift, his form silent.

The stone walls of the passage flew past on both sides. Li Yuan didn’t stop, passing through the main vein’s core node and following the mine tunnel back to the area behind the stone house.

When he emerged from the mine tunnel entrance, it was still the dead of night on the surface.

The commotion from the direction of the ruins was ongoing. Information from the Spirit Vein Monitoring Line showed that the Demon Cultivators were still breaking the Array, but their auras had suddenly begun to fluctuate violently before they stopped their work, as if they’d received a shock.

Li Yuan returned to the stone house, closed the door, and sat cross-legged on the rush mat.