Chapter 331 - 320: Underground Demon Gathering Array

Chapter 331: Chapter 320: Underground Demon Gathering Array

The night was heavy and still.

Inside the stone house, Li Yuan sat cross-legged on a meditation mat, his Qi Blood and Spiritual Power interweaving and circulating throughout his body. Four Divine Sense Lines spread out methodically. The main one guided a resonance channel for his Spirit Vein affinity technique, drawing in the dense Spiritual Qi surging from deep underground. The other three were assigned to controlling the Pill Furnace’s fire, maintaining external vigilance, and monitoring the Spirit Vein.

Well past Midnight, the Divine Sense Line assigned to the Spirit Vein transmitted a subtle feeling of obstruction.

Without opening his eyes, Li Yuan immediately increased the perceptual accuracy of that Divine Sense Line to its maximum, extending it outward along the edge of the main vein.

The source of the obstruction was located in an area to the east, on the outskirts of the ruins.

It wasn’t the main trunk of the Spirit Vein, just a subterranean rock layer covered by small tributaries. Previous probes had revealed traces of Demon Cultivator activity in that area, with some residual Demonic Qi on the surface.

But what he sensed now was completely different.

The Demonic Qi wasn’t lingering on the surface; it was seeping out from deep underground.

His perception delved down through the cracks in the rock strata. The wisps of Demonic Qi were extremely faint but continuous, as if something deep underground was constantly exhaling. The Demonic Qi met and repelled the Spiritual Qi from the Spirit Vein’s tributaries within the rock layers, which was the true cause of the obstruction.

This wasn’t a remnant.

It was a live source.

Li Yuan extinguished the Spiritual Power flame under the Pill Furnace, stood up, changed into a dark-colored Daoist robe, and pushed open the door, stepping out into the night.

Traceless Breath, Vein Concealment, Spiritual Wave Suppression.

All three layers of concealment activated simultaneously. Li Yuan’s aura instantly dropped to freezing point. Even the faint fluctuations of Spiritual Power circulating in his meridians were tightly suppressed within his body by an invisible force field.

Instead of taking the main gate of the marketplace, his figure flickered, and he vaulted over an old section of wall in the southern expansion area.

Heading east and avoiding the patrol routes, Li Yuan soon arrived at the eastern outskirts of the ruins.

The surroundings were silent, save for the soft rustle of the night wind through deadwood. The ground showed no signs of abnormality—no trace of overflowing Demonic Qi, nor the Spiritual Light of a functioning Array.

Scanning his surroundings, he soon found a natural fissure at the base of a nearby cliff, hidden by withered vines.

The gap was extremely narrow, barely wide enough for a single person to squeeze through sideways.

He squeezed sideways into the fissure and descended quietly along the winding stone path. When he encountered narrow dead ends, he used his Micro-Control Spiritual Skill to command a Golden Blade, silently shaving away the rock wall and turning the obstructions to dust, bit by bit.

After a quarter of an hour, Li Yuan finally reached the drop-off.

The view suddenly opened up. A natural underground cavern, no more than fifty feet across, appeared below.

In the center of the cavern, the ground had been artificially leveled and carved with a circle of complex, black Array Patterns.

A dark purple light flowed within the grooves of the Array Pattern, pulsing like a living breath. The cold Yin Qi from the surrounding rock was drawn in by the Array, then compressed and converted at its center, ultimately becoming pure Demonic Qi, which was then slowly released through the fissure above.

A small-scale Demon Gathering Array.

Li Yuan clung to the rock wall at the top of the cave, his gaze sweeping over the details of the Array.

The Array Pattern was carved deep into the rock. The stone at its edges had been corroded by long-term exposure to Demonic Qi, taking on a decaying, powdery appearance. This level of erosion could not have been formed in just a few days.

It had been running for at least a month.

The Dark Abyss Association’s infiltration and preparations around Mist Forest Marketplace had begun long before the night raid on the Core Formation Platform. This Demon Gathering Array was merely a hidden node in their vast network, used to subtly alter the surrounding environment or to provide Demonic Qi support for specific operations.

Li Yuan’s gaze shifted to the center of the Array.

A Cultivator in a gray robe sat cross-legged beside the Array Hub, his eyes lightly closed and his breathing long and steady.

’Mid-stage Foundation Establishment.’

The gray-robed Cultivator’s face was gaunt, his skin an unnatural ashen-gray. Demonic Qi swirled around him, clearly the result of practicing a Demon Dao Cultivation Technique for many years. He seemed completely oblivious to the outside world, fully immersed in the nourishment of the Demonic Qi gathered by the Array.

Li Yuan wasted no movement.

He released his grip on the rock wall, and his body fell silently from the ceiling like a weightless stone.

When he was just about ten feet from the gray-robed Cultivator’s head, Li Yuan suddenly exerted his strength.

He didn’t use any Magic.

A river of Qi Blood surged through his body. Three Elements Body Protection activated instantly, and all the formidable physical power from Bone Firmness was channeled into his right leg.

The gray-robed Cultivator finally sensed the danger the instant Li Yuan struck. His eyes snapped open, pupils constricting. His gaunt hands instinctively shot upward, and a dense, black Demon Qi Shield instantly formed above his head.

Too late.

Li Yuan’s right foot stomped viciously onto the Demon Qi Shield.

"CRACK."

The Demon Qi Shield, strong enough to withstand a full-force attack from a Cultivator of the same level, shattered like glass upon impact. The immense force didn’t pause for an instant, punching through the shield’s fragments to stomp heavily on the gray-robed Cultivator’s chest.

A dull crunch of shattering bone echoed through the cavern.

The gray-robed Cultivator’s chest instantly caved in. The back of his robe bulged violently as the terrifying force slammed his entire body into the rock floor.

Blood gushed from his mouth and nose, and the light in his eyes rapidly faded.

A single, fatal blow.

’Fighting people with physical strength is so much more satisfying than using Magic.’

Li Yuan landed, not even glancing at the corpse beneath his feet as he bent down and ripped the storage pouch from the gray-robed Cultivator’s waist.

He forcibly broke the residual imprint on the storage pouch with his Divine Sense and scanned its contents.

The space inside wasn’t large. It was filled with a few bottles of foul-smelling Demon Dao pills, several jade slips recording Cultivation Techniques, a short blade emanating a chilling Yin Qi, and a pile of unused Array materials.

Drainage Stones, array-stabilizing copper plates, and Spirit-Extinguishing Sand.

The materials were largely the same as those found on the Demon Cultivator with the Tier One Demon Beast he had killed earlier—all basic components used for setting up or repairing Arrays.

Li Yuan put away the storage pouch and turned toward the small Demon Gathering Array, which was still running.

The core of the Array was a dark purple Crystal Stone embedded in a groove in the ground.

Li Yuan crouched down and extended his Divine Sense into the Array Pattern, searching for the nodes of the Spiritual Power circuit. He didn’t just crudely smash the Array, as that would trigger a violent backlash of Demonic Qi and an explosion, which would very likely attract attention from the surface.

Spiritual Power flowed from his fingertips, forming sharp, thin needles that he precisely inserted into several key junctures of the Array Pattern.

Cutting off the Spiritual Power supply.

Blocking the backflow of Demonic Qi.

Severing the energy-gathering circuit.

In just over ten breaths, the Array Pattern that had been glowing with a dark purple light dimmed completely, and the suction force pulling in Demonic Qi from the surroundings dissipated.

Li Yuan reached out, gripped the dark purple Crystal Stone at the Array Hub, and with a slight exertion of force, pried it out of its rock groove.

The Crystal Stone was cool to the touch, and a black mist seemed to roil within it.

The moment he touched it, a panel immediately popped up.

[Equippable Item Detected: Demon Gathering Array Hub (Intact)]

[Equipment Affix Preview: Demon-Gathering Channel (Green)]

[Effect: Can actively attract, gather, and channel surrounding Demonic Qi; also improves the ability to identify Demonic Qi nodes, Demon Array circuits, and the direction of subterranean Demonic Qi seepage.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Personally set up three node Arrays related to Demonic Qi.]

’A green affix.’

Li Yuan glanced at the effect description. Attracting and channeling Demonic Qi, combined with an enhanced ability to identify Demonic Qi circuits.

For a righteous Cultivator, this affix would be of little use. But for him, who also cultivated the Demon Essence Skill and possessed the [Demon Essence Incarnation] and [Evil Essence Convergence] abilities, this item could be quite useful in specific situations.

The ability to identify the direction of subterranean Demonic Qi seepage, in particular, would be perfect for rooting out the hidden stakes the Dark Abyss Association had planted around the marketplace.

After storing the Crystal Stone in his storage pouch, Li Yuan spent another ten minutes or so completely cleaning up the signs of battle and the remnants of the Array in the cavern.

Li Yuan walked to the table, poured and drank a cup of cold water, and then settled back onto the meditation mat, sitting cross-legged once more.

The four Divine Sense Lines spread out again.

The main line switched back to the Pill Furnace, and a faint Spiritual Power flame reignited. The remaining lines continued to monitor the Spirit Vein and maintain the perimeter alert.

Everything was as it was before.