Chapter 443 - 416: New Mission (Part 2)

Chapter 443: Chapter 416: New Mission (Part 2)

Li Yuan quietly ascended along the rock formation, arriving at the edge of the Sensing Array.

He took the Blood Token from his waist and injected a trace of Demonic Qi with a continuous wave signature into it. A dim light washed over the Blood Token’s surface, resonating with the Sensing Array’s connection port.

The array’s light screen silently split open, creating a gap just large enough for one person to pass through.

The access signal was correct.

Li Yuan slipped inside. Activating his stealth abilities to their fullest, he suppressed his form and aura to the absolute limit, clinging to the corridor wall outside the stone chamber like a phantom shadow.

The space inside the stone chamber was quite large, divided into an inner and an outer section.

Two Foundation Establishment guards from the Evil Slaying Sect stood at the entrance to the inner section, their gazes fixed on the stone table in the center.

A transaction was currently underway.

Standing on the left side of the stone table was a Cultivator in a gray robe. He was at Mid-stage Foundation Establishment, and his cuffs were embroidered with a water wave pattern.

’The jade slip had mentioned this was the crest of a branch of the Lingzhou Lu family—a peripheral family affiliated with the Abyss Sect.’

"Three boxes of Spirit Grass, it’s all here." The Lu family Cultivator patted the three large wooden boxes on the table, his voice dry. "As agreed, in exchange for your Demon Qi Array Stones and three copies of the Cultivation Technique."

The Evil Slaying Sect manager on the right side of the table inspected the Spirit Grass in the boxes, nodded in satisfaction, and pushed a few heavy storage pouches across.

"The goods are fine. Cultivator Lu, the higher-ups have instructed that the next transaction may need to be moved up."

"Moved up? Why?" The Lu family Cultivator frowned.

"Things haven’t been peaceful on the western front lately, and the Sect is in urgent need of a batch of specific auxiliary materials."

The Evil Slaying Sect manager lowered his voice. "If your side can procure them, the price is negotiable."

Hidden in the shadows of the corridor, Li Yuan committed the entire transaction and conversation to memory, word for word.

The Lu family Cultivator put away the storage pouches without asking any more questions, turned, and hurriedly left the stone chamber through another secret passage.

The transaction was over.

One of the two guards turned and walked toward a partitioned room deeper inside the chamber, saying to the manager, "I’ll go send a transmission to our superior to report the completion of the transaction."

The manager nodded and casually flipped through a register on the table. A moment later, he also stood up and headed for the storeroom at the side to inventory the Spirit Grass he had just received.

A brief window of opportunity appeared in the main hall.

Li Yuan slid into the inner chamber like a ghost.

His gaze locked directly onto the open register on the stone table.

His Divine Sense swept over it, instantly imprinting the register’s contents into his mind. It was a torn page, but it contained a wealth of information: the precise coordinates for three backup rendezvous points on the western front, and a recent logistics record.

Li Yuan’s attention focused on the last line of the logistics record.

The record showed that the Evil Slaying Sect had recently been collecting several special materials at any cost: remnant dust from ancient arrays, fragments of old artifacts from the Profound Nether Sect, and High Tier Spirit Vein Crystal Stones.

’Homogeneous Materials.’

Li Yuan’s pupils contracted slightly.

’The properties of these items were identical to the materials he was using to repair the Jade Bead. They were all core mediums used to repair or activate the ancient arrays of the Profound Nether Sect.’

’The Evil Slaying Sect wasn’t collecting these things for routine cultivation. Combined with the previously intercepted communication jade slips and the Tier Three Top Grade Restriction beneath Skeleton Ridge, their objective was glaringly obvious.’

’They want to break into the ruins at Skeleton Ridge.’

’Furthermore, the cooperation between the Evil Slaying Sect and the Abyss Sect had entered a substantive phase of resource exchange. The Abyss Sect provided Spirit Grass and basic supplies, while the Evil Slaying Sect offered Demon Sect Cultivation Techniques and Array Stones, simultaneously using the Abyss Sect’s channels to search for relics of the Profound Nether Sect.’

’The link between them was complete.’

Hearing footsteps coming from the storeroom, Li Yuan flickered and retreated back into the shadows of the corridor, slipping away quietly through the same gap in the Sensing Array he had used to enter.

「By the time he returned to the Mist Forest Marketplace, dawn was breaking.」

Li Yuan met with Chen Yi in a hidden grove outside the outpost.

"How did it go?" Chen Yi’s eyes held a hint of anticipation.

Li Yuan handed him a jade slip.

"An internal layout of the western front rendezvous point, the trigger mechanism for its Sensing Array, and a torn page from a contact register. The register has the coordinates for three backup rendezvous points."

Chen Yi took the jade slip and probed it with his Divine Sense. An expression of unconcealable joy immediately appeared on his face.

"Excellent! This is fantastic! With these three backup coordinates, we’ll have torn a huge hole in their western front network." He carefully put the jade slip away. "This is extremely high-quality intelligence. The Sect will add a bonus to the mission reward. The Core Formation materials will be delivered to the marketplace tomorrow."

Li Yuan’s expression was calm.

The intelligence he handed over had been precisely tailored. The location, layout, and backup coordinates of the rendezvous point were all vital for the Primordial Yang Sect’s efforts to dismantle the Evil Slaying Sect’s network. However, he had deliberately withheld two key pieces of information: that the Evil Slaying Sect was collecting Homogeneous Materials from the Profound Nether Sect, and that the Lingzhou Lu family was involved in the transactions.

’These two threads were directly tied to the secrets of the Profound Nether Sect’s ruins and the Jade Bead; the Primordial Yang Sect absolutely could not find out.’

After parting ways with Chen Yi, Li Yuan returned to his stone house and activated the Concealment Array.

He sat down cross-legged and sank his consciousness into his perception of the Mozhou Spirit Vein Core.

The second phase of the Jade Bead’s repairs was progressing steadily. As the mid-level circuits were gradually restored, fragments of information sealed deep within the bead’s core began to unseal automatically.

Li Yuan used his Divine Sense to receive this newly unlocked information.

It was a detailed catalogue of array diagrams, recording the Jade Bead’s specific node positions within the Sub-Palace’s mist array, as well as how it interconnected with other array components.

Li Yuan merged this new set of information with the structural diagram of the Sub-Palace he had previously imprinted.

A complete diagram of the array’s structure gradually took shape in his mind.

’A Tier Three Array. It uses the Jade Bead as its core energy source, radiating outward through thirty-six peripheral nodes. The array’s primary function is to absorb lifeblood and Divine Souls, converting them into power to sustain its operation. This explains the source of the dense fog in the Ghost Mist Forest—the mist itself is the exhaust and residual energy expelled after the array devours living beings.’

But the more Li Yuan looked, the more something felt wrong.

’The power of the array recorded in the diagrams was clearly different from the strength of the array he had actually felt at the Sub-Palace. The array at the Profound Nether Sub-Palace was far more formidable than the one described in the diagrams.’

’The only explanation was that the Jade Bead’s own energy level was extremely high. It was like an overly powerful heart, forcibly elevating an ordinary Tier Three Array to a level that even Late-stage Golden Core cultivators would find troublesome.’

Withdrawing his focus, Li Yuan rose and walked out of the stone house.

Today was the monthly accounting day for Yuanming Studio.

The streets of the marketplace’s new district were bustling with people. A small line had even formed in front of Yuanming Studio; business was booming.

Xu Zhang was already waiting in the second-floor accounting office. Seeing Li Yuan enter, he immediately handed over a thick ledger.

"Pavilion Master, last month’s revenue is in." Xu Zhang couldn’t hide his smile.

Li Yuan opened the ledger.

The Condensing Evil Pill, Golden Body Armor, and Tier Two Spirit Talismans—these three flagship products had all but monopolized the market for mid-to-high-end Loose Cultivators in the marketplace. The Golden Body Armor, in particular, would be snatched up less than an hour after being put on display.

After deducting the Mingyuan Commerce Association’s fifteen percent commission, Li Yuan’s share of the profit was staggering.

"The Spirit Stone reserves in the storeroom are now enough to cover the list of Tier Three materials you laid out," Xu Zhang said, pointing to the final row of numbers in the ledger. "And there’s a large surplus."

"Continue acquiring all the finest Tier Two medicinal herbs and Artifact Refining ores you can get." Li Yuan closed the ledger. His resource reserves had hit a new high, giving him more confidence to experiment and strategize.

Back in his stone house, Li Yuan sat on a meditation cushion and closed his eyes.

His Divine Split multitasking ability activated.

With his first thread of consciousness, he slowly circulated the Profound Nether Killing Skill within his body, refining Demonic Qi.

With his second, he guided Water Spiritual Power with the Cold Stream Skill to nourish his meridians.

With his third, he split off his Divine Sense to simulate improved pharmacological ratios for the Condensing Evil Pill in his sea of consciousness.

With his fourth, he controlled the talisman brush on the table, mass-producing Spirit Detective Talismans.

With his fifth, he focused on fine-tuning the Spirit Pattern parameters of the Frost Armor.

With his sixth, he compiled the passive sensory data sent back by the Spirit Detective Talismans scattered throughout the Ghost Mist Forest.

With his seventh, he monitored the marketplace’s three-layered Defensive Array in real-time.

With his eighth, the passive scanning net of his Dark Evil Insight radiated outward, covering a radius of ten li.

Eight threads of his Divine Sense operated in unison.

Each thread ran with precision and stability, without interfering with the others. With long-term use of his Divine Split multitasking, his control over parallel processing grew stronger, with no loss in accuracy.

「A few days later.」

Inside his Dantian, a deep, ethereal glow surfaced on his Middle Grade Demon Qi Golden Core. The speed at which his Demonic Qi circulated suddenly accelerated, and its purity climbed once again.

A notification popped up on his panel.

[Profound Nether Killing Skill: Proficient → Minor Achievement]

The efficiency of his multi-threaded cultivation was extremely high, and the Profound Nether Killing Skill broke through smoothly. The operational efficiency of his Demonic Qi had increased by a visible margin.