Chapter 328 - 317: Aftermath

Chapter 328: Chapter 317: Aftermath

Silence filled the stone house.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion. His mind, however, was not withdrawn. He maintained several lines of Divine Sense, following the subtle vibrations through the Spirit Vein and geological strata to monitor the activity at the ruins.

The Restriction on the outer layer of the core area was still collapsing.

After the Core Formation Platform was taken, the third layer of the Restriction lost its anchor. The Array Patterns, originally laid tightly against the platform, began to unravel. The group of Demon Cultivators had clearly noticed the change. They broke through the Array at an even faster pace, unleashing several consecutive blasts of Spiritual Power. The final barrier was quickly torn apart.

Immediately after, a group of presences rushed in.

Li Yuan’s perception couldn’t directly penetrate the cloaking Array, but the Spiritual Power fluctuations and the Qi Blood undulations from bodily movements emanating from the core area were enough for him to deduce what was happening inside.

The next moment, the presences inside erupted into chaos.

Li Yuan kept his eyes closed, listening to the faint disturbances transmitted through the Spirit Vein.

This was followed by an even more frantic eruption of presences.

Li Yuan remained seated and motionless, only sweeping his perception toward the outpost one more time.

The battle over there was rapidly concluding.

The few columns of Demonic Qi that had been suppressing the garrison suddenly retreated simultaneously. The Demon Beasts suffused with Demonic Qi also stopped pressing forward, fighting as they fell back.

The nighttime clashes of Spiritual Power didn’t last long before the distance between the combatants grew.

Then, a short, strange sound came from deeper to the north of the ruins.

It wasn’t the sound of clashing Magic, but more like some kind of prearranged signal.

After this sound, the Demon Cultivators both inside and outside the ruins began to withdraw.

The retreat was decisive.

The few Demon Beasts on the periphery were the first to dive into the forest. The Demon Cultivators behind them retreated in waves. Even the presences in the core area, which had been searching back and forth, pulled out without any further delay.

In less than fifteen minutes, the Demonic Qi around the ruins began to recede quickly. It scattered along several hidden paths deeper in the Ghost Mist Forest, retreating to the northeast. The forces feinting at the outpost also merged into the woods and vanished swiftly.

Only when the Demonic Qi fluctuations in his Spirit Vein senses had completely faded into the distance did Li Yuan slowly open his eyes.

The room was just as he had left it.

The Pill Furnace on the table was untouched and the door and windows were shut tight, as if nothing had happened at all.

Li Yuan raised his hand, and his consciousness sank into the panel.

[Platform of Creation (Purple)]

The entry was already in his equipment slot, its effects active.

This thing was not easy to take out. It was large, and its Spiritual Power fluctuations could be easily detected. Once unequipped, it required twenty-four hours before it could be equipped again.

He didn’t try it immediately, nor could he possibly test it now. But just looking at the description, the meaning was already crystal clear.

During a breakthrough, it could suppress every minute detail of one’s Spiritual Power aura, Dantian changes, and Spiritual Power coagulation down to the finest degree, not leaking a single trace or wasting a single bit. For a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, this was already an immense help.

Furthermore, this was equivalent to being able to undergo Core Formation in secret. Since it allowed for perfect control over one’s aura, it could at least suppress the phenomena and Spiritual Power leakage during a breakthrough to nothing, making it extremely difficult for outsiders to notice.

The subsequent effect was even more powerful.

It allows one to voluntarily increase the difficulty of Core Formation in exchange for a chance to form the Core a second time, after the first Golden Core is formed.

The truly incredible part of this effect wasn’t the grade of the initial Golden Core, but that it gave a Cultivator a second chance to re-solidify their Golden Core.

If one successfully stepped into the Golden Core Realm the first time, they could then leverage the foundation of the Golden Core Stage to solidify the pill a second time and reshape their very roots.

By that point, the difficulty would be far less than when charging toward the pill from the Foundation Establishment stage.

The main question was whether Core Formation would even succeed after increasing the difficulty at the Foundation Establishment stage.

Li Yuan looked at it for a moment before retracting the panel.

’This doesn’t affect my preparations for Core Formation. I can consider it when the time comes.’

Li Yuan didn’t dwell on it further. He sent out another Divine Sense Line to continue monitoring the area between the marketplace and the ruins. Fifteen minutes later, when the patrolling Cultivators from the Primordial Yang Sect and reinforcements from the outpost began to assemble, he finally withdrew his senses and closed his eyes to regulate his breathing.

「At the crack of dawn.」

The marketplace was already in chaos.

Cultivators were rushing back and forth all over the main street.

Without hesitation, Li Yuan changed into a different set of robes and left the stone house.

Seeing Li Yuan approach, Chen Yi immediately waved him over.

"What did you see on your end last night?"

"There was Demon Cultivator activity on the outskirts of the ruins." Li Yuan shared the part of the story he could publicly admit to. "After I escaped, I saw many signs of a battle around the perimeter."

Chen Yi’s expression was grim.

"Something happened in the core area of the ruins."

"The Core Formation Platform?"

"It’s gone."

Chen Yi’s jaw was tight as he forced out the two words. He then lowered his voice. "People from the Sect are already on their way. Don’t spread this around for now."

Li Yuan feigned shock and nodded. He didn’t ask any more questions, instead moving to handle the aftermath in his capacity as Pavilion Master.

There weren’t too many casualties on the periphery.

A few Cultivators at the outpost were injured, but thankfully, the Demon Cultivators were only responsible for stalling, so there were no fatalities yet.

The main losses were several destroyed early-warning nodes on the perimeter, and the corpses of a few enthralled Demon Beasts lay at the edge of the forest.

Li Yuan first led a group to inspect the outskirts of the ruins.

The traces left on the ground were a chaotic mess.

There were craters where the giant claws of Demon Beasts had crushed the stone layer, as well as scorched marks and cracks blasted open by Magic. The nodes of several outer layer Arrays that had been forcefully dismantled were scattered about. Spirit-Guiding Stones were shattered into pieces, and the copper plates of the Array Patterns had been precisely severed. It didn’t look like random destruction; it was more like they had been systematically disassembled according to their structure.

Before long, people from the Primordial Yang Sect arrived.

The arrivals quickly split into three groups. One entered the ruins, another went to the outpost, and the third directly sealed off the marketplace’s administrative office and several surrounding areas. Everyone who had been on duty, on patrol, or maintaining the Arrays the previous night had their names and identities re-registered and their statements reviewed one by one.

The core area of the ruins was off-limits, and the outpost was placed under temporary martial law.

As the marketplace’s Array Master, Li Yuan was naturally called to accompany the investigation.

Among the arrivals were two Inner Sect Foundation Establishment Cultivators from the Primordial Yang Sect, an old Array Master, and a late-stage Foundation Establishment deacon who was overseeing the operation. The group began their inspection from the outer perimeter and worked their way in, with Li Yuan following along and observing.

The breach in the outer Restriction was obvious.

It hadn’t been blasted open with brute force, but rather dismantled node by node from the outside in.

The old Array Master crouched beside a severed main pattern, his expression exceedingly grave.

"They weren’t just casing the joint for a day or two. They must have figured out the Restriction’s structure in advance."

"There’s a mole."

As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere immediately grew colder.

The old Array Master paid it no mind and continued leading the group toward the middle layer, where even more of the Restrictions were damaged.

While cooperating with the inspection of the broken Array, Li Yuan also clearly explained the changes in the early-warning circuits from the previous night. The tripartite defense system linking the marketplace, the outpost, and the ruins was his own handiwork.

Everything he said was the truth.

He just omitted the part about what happened underground.

As the investigation reached the middle layer, Li Yuan’s gaze swept over a garrison Cultivator standing not far away.

It was the same person from whom he had detected a faint wisp of Demonic Qi during the re-inspection at the Core Formation District.

The man was standing very primly today, said little, and didn’t try to push his way to the front.

After inspecting the middle layer, when they tried to proceed to the core area, they found it had been completely sealed off by the Sect’s personnel. Outsiders were forbidden from entering, and even those accompanying the investigation had to stop at the perimeter.

When the deacon emerged from within, his expression was even darker than before. His cuffs were stained with a fine powder ground from broken Array Patterns.

He glanced at the crowd and spoke curtly.

"Continue the review. Every single person who had contact with the ruins, the outpost, or the marketplace’s joint defense Array last night—miss no one."

With that, he turned and went back inside.

Li Yuan stood by the outer corridor, his gaze sweeping past the garrison Cultivator.

The man stood motionless where he was, his eyes downcast.

Li Yuan also withdrew his gaze. Without a word, he reached out and placed his hand on a fragment of a severed Array Disc, tracing the broken Spiritual Power circuits within to continue his inspection.