Chapter 384 - 372: Profound Nether Bead

Chapter 384: Chapter 372: Profound Nether Bead

In the depths of the cavern, the wooden tub for the medicinal bath had been moved to the center of the Fire Demon Beast’s old lair.

This was the location with the highest concentration of fire-aspected Spiritual Qi in the entire cavern. Dark red mineral crystals on the surrounding walls radiated a scorching glow, and the concentration of the mixed fire-aspected Spiritual Qi in the air was over ten times that of the surface. The permanent entry "Flame and Demon As One" converted this searing heat wave into a gentle aid for his cultivation. Sitting in the wooden tub, Li Yuan felt as if he were soaking in a hot spring.

The medicinal liquid was a potent formula he had specially concocted over the past few days to break through his bottleneck. Its medicinal potency was twenty percent stronger than any formula he had used before.

After his Spirit Vein Affinity became permanent, the effect of a twenty percent bonus to his cultivation speed near a Spirit Vein was active at all times. The cavern was within the range of the marketplace’s Spirit Vein, so the cultivation bonuses stacked steadily.

Li Yuan circulated the Golden Body Skill. Spiritual Power surged along the cultivation pathways toward the tendons throughout his body. "Solidify Origin and Condense Meridians" firmly protected the inner walls of his meridians, minimizing the damage from the Spiritual Power’s impact.

The potent medicinal power of the liquid seeped from the surface of his skin into the depths of his muscles, burrowing along the muscle fibers into every node where tendons and bones met. With Spiritual Power pushing from within and medicinal power pressing from without, his tendons were subjected to an extreme load in a pincer attack.

The first attempt to break through. Spiritual Power flooded into every tendon node in his body, and a dense series of muffled thuds echoed from dozens of joints at once. His tendons tightened to their limit, and at the last moment, the Spiritual Power was repelled.

Failure.

He regulated his breathing and began his second attempt.

This time, he changed the rhythm of his Spiritual Power injection. Instead of infusing all the nodes at once, he pushed inward layer by layer, following the distribution of the tendons. The outer layer of tendons broke through first, and the space this freed up allowed the Spiritual Power to channel more smoothly into the deeper layers.

The outer layer gave way first. Muffled thuds started from the ends of his limbs and spread toward his torso.

But the core tendons in the deepest layer remained stubbornly stuck. When the Spiritual Power reached the final layer, it could push no further.

Failure.

The third attempt.

Li Yuan adjusted his strategy. His five Divine Sense Lines were no longer just for monitoring; they now directly intervened in the distribution of Spiritual Power. Each Divine Sense Line took charge of a group of tendon nodes, precisely controlling the amount of Spiritual Power infused into each node and the timing of the impact.

The five groups of tendons were impacted sequentially at different times. The shockwave released after the first group broke through was transmitted perfectly to the second group of nodes, creating a resonant superposition with the second group’s Spiritual Power impact. This resonance propagated through the groups, and by the time it reached the fifth, the force of the impact had far exceeded the limit of a single infusion.

In a single instant, all the tendons in his body broke through.

From his neck to his ankles, a dense series of muffled pops from his joints blended into one continuous sound. Spiritual Power flowed through unimpeded, carving an irreversible mark of reinforcement into the deepest fibers of every single tendon.

The panel appeared.

[Golden Body Skill: Proficient (0/800)]

Li Yuan stood up from the medicinal bath. The murky waste liquid slid down the lines of his muscles, and all the tendons in his body thrummed with a faint heat.

He clenched his fist, feeling an explosive power transfer that was sharper than it had been at the Adept stage. The toughness and elasticity of his tendons had risen to a new level. When he threw a punch, the transfer of power had almost no loss, flowing in a single, unbroken line from the sole of his foot to the surface of his fist.

Four Body Refining Techniques: Nameless Body Refining Technique at Perfection, Iron Wall Body Refining Skill at Great Success, Mystic Iron Bone Forging Skill at Adept, and Golden Body Skill at Proficient. His physical foundation continued to rise.

That night, Li Yuan went to the hidden teleportation node on the limestone plateau.

The Teleportation Array activated, establishing a connection with the node in the Stone Wilderness. The teleportation channel stabilized, and Li Yuan stepped onto the stone platform, injecting his Spiritual Power into the Array Hub.

Space distorted. A few breaths later, he landed.

Everything in the underground stone chamber was as he had left it. The storage chests he had looted last time were piled empty in a corner.

Li Yuan didn’t linger in the stone chamber. He used the Earth Escape Technique to pass directly through the stone wall and move toward the surface.

After passing through several dozen zhang of rock, he broke through the ground.

The desolate surface of the Stone Wilderness looked even more deathly silent in the dark of night. Grayish-white gravel covered the land, showing no signs of life.

Li Yuan stood on the surface and released the perception of his Spirit Vein Affinity.

The range of his Spirit Vein perception, which had doubled after becoming permanent, spread out across the wilderness. Last time, he had only vaguely detected a minuscule branch of a Spirit Vein deep beneath his feet. This time, he planned to follow the branch’s path for a more in-depth survey.

His perception extended southeast along the Spirit Vein branch. The branch was extremely thin and more than a hundred zhang underground, winding its way through the wilderness’s strata.

Li Yuan used the Earth Escape Technique to move quickly underground, tracking the path of the Spirit Vein branch.

After traveling for about twenty-odd li, the path of the Spirit Vein branch changed. It shifted from a gentle horizontal extension to a downward slope, the angle growing steeper and steeper until it finally vanished into the deeper strata.

Li Yuan stopped.

He stood on the surface and reoriented himself.

He was already within the borders of Mozhou.

Li Yuan continued to follow the Spirit Vein branch deeper. The Earth Escape Technique carried him through increasingly dense rock layers as his depth increased. One hundred zhang, one hundred twenty, one hundred fifty.

At a depth of one hundred sixty zhang, the Spirit Vein branch suddenly expanded.

It wasn’t that the branch had grown thicker; it had merged into an entirely different Spirit Vein.

The scale of this Spirit Vein far surpassed that of the branch, its thickness comparable to the major Spirit Vein of the Mist Forest Marketplace. But it was in an extremely peculiar state—the Spirit Vein itself was perfectly intact, brimming with Spiritual Power, its walls structurally sound, and showing no signs of decay.

But the Spirit Vein was sealed.

A man-made Restriction enveloped the entire Spirit Vein, wrapping it tightly. The Restriction’s structure was extremely ancient, its style consistent with the Array Patterns of the Profound Nether Sect. The Restriction completely sealed the Spiritual Power within the vein’s body, preventing even the slightest trace from leaking out.

This was why the Spiritual Qi concentration on the surface of the Stone Wilderness was almost zero. It wasn’t that the Spirit Vein had withered; it had been deliberately sealed away.

’The Sect Master is extracting Spirit Veins to cultivate something.’ The line recorded in the disciple’s log surfaced in his mind.

The foundational Spirit Veins of Mozhou had been mostly drained, but this one hadn’t been drained. It had been sealed.

’What was the purpose of sealing it?’

Li Yuan extended his Spiritual Power toward the layer of Restriction on the Spirit Vein’s surface.

The moment his finger touched the edge of the Restriction, the panel appeared.

[Detectable Equippable Item: Major Spirit Vein (Complete)]

It was an entry with the same name and effect as the major Spirit Vein at the Mist Forest Marketplace.

Li Yuan withdrew his hand and recorded the precise coordinates, depth, scale, and Restriction structure of this sealed Spirit Vein in a jade slip.

’A complete Spirit Vein, sealed by the Profound Nether Sect, exists beneath Mozhou. If the Restriction could be undone one day, this Spirit Vein would be enough to support the operation of a large marketplace.’

He returned to the underground stone chamber in the Stone Wilderness the way he came and used the Teleportation Array to go back to the limestone plateau.

After returning to the marketplace, Li Yuan sat cross-legged in his stone house and fully extended the perception of his Spirit Vein Affinity in the direction of the Ghost Mist Forest.

The information from his perception was even denser than it had been a few days ago.

The two Spiritual Power clusters of the Primordial Yang Sect’s exploration teams were still advancing slowly deep within the Ghost Mist Forest, now less than twenty li from the central area. At the same time, in a more distant direction, several other scattered Spiritual Power fluctuations were moving toward the same area, their auras showing clear traces of Demonic Qi.

’People from the Dark Abyss Association.’

But what truly put Li Yuan on alert was an extremely faint fluctuation of Spiritual Power.

That fluctuation wasn’t inside the Ghost Mist Forest but came from the north of its periphery. The fluctuation’s intensity was extremely low, as if it had been deliberately suppressed to its limit, but the doubled perceptual accuracy of his Spirit Vein Affinity still managed to capture it.

A Golden Core Level Spiritual Power fluctuation.

It was too far away, and not in the direction of the Ghost Mist Forest’s heartland. It could be some Golden Core Cultivator observing from a distance on the outskirts, or perhaps just passing by. But the existence of this fluctuation in itself meant one thing—this area had already attracted the attention of those at the Golden Core Level.

The Primordial Yang Sect and the Evil Slaying Sect behind the Dark Abyss Association were both converging on the Ghost Mist Forest.

The next morning, Chen Yi personally came to the stone house and handed over a jade slip sealed in red.

"An official Sect mission."

Li Yuan took the jade slip and probed it with his Divine Sense.

The mission’s details were clear: proceed to a location approximately one hundred eighty li northeast of the Ghost Mist Forest and attack a confirmed medium-sized stronghold of the Dark Abyss Association. It was estimated that there were three to four Foundation Establishment Stage Demon Cultivators inside.

The mission came with an item.

Chen Yi took a sealed jade box from his storage bag and placed it on the table.

"This thing can emit a Golden Core Level aura for about a quarter of an hour. Activate it during the attack to make the Dark Abyss Association think a Golden Core Cultivator is taking action personally."

Li Yuan opened the jade box.

Inside the box was a thumb-sized, dark cyan pearl, its surface shimmering with an extremely restrained Spiritual Light.

The moment his finger touched the pearl, the panel appeared.

[Detectable Equippable Item: Profound Nether Bead]

[Equippable Entry Preview: Profound Nether Bead (Blue)]

[Effect: Allows one to feel a rough approximation of the next major realm’s abilities in advance, but does not increase actual strength.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Break through a major realm.]

A blue entry.

’Feel a rough approximation of Golden Core Stage abilities in advance. It doesn’t increase actual strength, but it allows him, while still in the Foundation Establishment Stage, to experience some of the perceptual perspectives and methods of using abilities that a Golden Core Stage cultivator would have.’

’This would be extremely valuable for preparing for Core Formation.’

’The condition for permanence is breaking through a major realm—which will be met upon successful Core Formation.’

"What’s the reward for completing the mission?" Li Yuan asked.

"A medicinal ingredient that increases the success rate of Core Formation," Chen Yi said. "The Sect didn’t specify what it is, but they guarantee it will be a direct help for a Foundation Establishment Perfection cultivator attempting to reach the Golden Core Stage."

Li Yuan placed the Profound Nether Bead back in the jade box and closed the lid.

’The Sect’s intentions are unclear. Although there’s an agreement that Golden Core cultivators won’t interfere, when faced with a treasure that can increase the success rate of Nascent Soul Formation, it’s impossible that they wouldn’t get involved.’

"I’ll think about it," Li Yuan said.

Chen Yi nodded and turned to leave.

After the door to the stone house closed, Li Yuan once again extended the perception of his Spirit Vein Affinity toward the Ghost Mist Forest.

The density of activity was a level higher than yesterday. The two Primordial Yang Sect exploration teams had stopped at the periphery of the central area and seemed to be setting up a temporary camp. The Demonic Qi fluctuations from the direction of the Dark Abyss Association were also increasing; at least three small squads were active deep within the Ghost Mist Forest.

The various factions were gathering at an accelerated pace.

He had already plundered everything in the Profound Nether Sub-Palace, but he wasn’t sure if there were other undiscovered ruins or resources deep within the Ghost Mist Forest. Of the several locations marked on the fragmented map, some were very close to the central area, while others were scattered across the more distant periphery.