Chapter 460 - 432: First Vein Enters the Body (Part 2)

Chapter 460: Chapter 432: First Vein Enters the Body (Part 2)

A white Trait. The condition to make it permanent was reaching Late-stage Qi Refining.

Li Yuan met the condition instantly.

[Vein Pattern Perception (White) has become a permanent Trait]

The effect was immediate. Li Yuan felt his perception of Spirit Vein paths and Vein Hub locations expand outward. Though the increase wasn’t significant, it stacked with his Water Vein Survey and Earth Vein Resonance, adding another layer to his mastery over Spirit Veins.

The cavity wasn’t deep, but a narrow crevice extended sideways from it. There was something else inside the crevice.

Li Yuan probed into the crevice with his Spiritual Power, pulling seven similarly shaped iron plates from the mud and gravel one after another. Each was the size of his palm, its surface heavily corroded, and coated in the same patina of Spiritual Power that comes from long immersion in a Spirit Vein.

Including the one from before, that made eight plates in total.

The patterns on the eight iron plates were all different, but they clearly connected to one another.

Like a jigsaw puzzle that had been deliberately scattered.

Li Yuan pieced the eight iron plates together according to how the patterns connected.

It was incomplete; several more pieces were needed to form a whole image. But the assembled portion was enough for him to identify the nature of this set of Array Patterns.

A Spirit Gathering Array.

A small-scale Array used to gather Spiritual Qi, which had been carved onto iron plates, dismantled, and buried.

Setting up an Array in the sea was very different from setting one up on land. On land, a Spirit Gathering Array typically used an Array Hub as its anchor, which could be fixed to the ground to operate. But under the sea, water pressure and geological shifts would quickly dislodge an Array Hub and render it useless. Therefore, individual Arrays set up in the sea often lacked a fixed Array Hub.

Nested Arrays could defend against currents and minor geological shifts, but the difficulty of setting up an Array in water was several times greater.

Li Yuan put the eight iron plates into his storage pouch and carefully scanned the surrounding rock formations again.

Along the original path of the Spirit Vein, he discovered several other extremely faint residual traces of an Array. The remnants were so weak that if it weren’t for the enhanced perception from his newly permanent Vein Pattern Perception, he likely would have missed them entirely.

Someone had, a long time ago, set up a complete Spirit Gathering Array along the path of this Spirit Vein.

Li Yuan cleaned up any traces he had left and activated a Water Escape Technique, moving toward the outer sea.

The first Spirit Vein was refined. Next, he had to find a second one.

His Water Vein Survey, combined with the permanent Trait Vein Pattern Perception, further expanded his ability to sense the Spirit Veins on the seabed. His perception spread out like a vast net in all directions, following the grain of the rock formations below.

The distribution of Spirit Veins in the outer sea was much denser than in the coastal waters.

A branch vein splitting off from Nanyuan District’s main vein extended far into the outer sea, branching out again into over a dozen smaller Spirit Veins of various sizes within a range of dozens of miles. Several of the larger Spirit Veins showed clear signs of human development—enveloped by Arrays, marked with Spiritual Power, and some even had carved-out stone chambers and platforms.

They were claimed.

Li Yuan bypassed these claimed Spirit Veins and continued his search outward.

Beside a medium-sized Spirit Vein, he discovered several Cultivators cultivating in the water.

The three of them sat cross-legged on a stone platform carved out beside the Spirit Vein, each holding a fist-sized, pale blue bead. A transparent film of water constantly roiled off the beads’ surfaces, keeping the surrounding seawater about five feet away and creating a small, dry space.

A Water-Repelling Bead.

The three all had Cultivation around the Mid-stage of Foundation Establishment. The style of their clothing was different from that of the local Cultivators in Nanyuan District, more closely resembling the island faction Cultivators Li Yuan had seen at the docks—short, dark sharkskin tunics, with the marks of salt and sun on their arms and necks.

One of them, a Female Cultivator, noticed Li Yuan first.

She opened her eyes and saw a Late-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator moving freely in the water without the aid of any Magical Artifacts, a flicker of surprise in her gaze.

"I don’t recognize you, Fellow Daoist. Are you from the mainland?"

Li Yuan stopped and nodded.

"Liangzhou. I came to Shuizhou on business and thought I’d check out the Spirit Veins under the sea while I’m here."

The Female Cultivator relaxed her guard slightly. Encountering unfamiliar Cultivators underwater was common, but a Late-stage Foundation Establishment expert who could move so freely at this depth was clearly powerful. There was no need to make an enemy for no reason.

"Then you’ve come to the wrong place, Fellow Daoist." She pointed to the surrounding Spirit Veins. "All the decent-sized Spirit Veins in this area are already claimed, either by the island families or by groups of acquainted Loose Cultivators who’ve partnered up. Outsiders who want to borrow a vein for cultivation must first negotiate terms with its occupants."

"What about the miniature Spirit Veins?"

"Nobody wants those." The Female Cultivator shook her head. "They’re too small. The flow of Spiritual Qi isn’t even enough to power a single Water-Repelling Bead. Besides, setting up arrays on the seabed is difficult enough as it is. Building a Spirit Gathering Array on a miniature Spirit Vein is a thankless task; the Spiritual Qi gets washed away by the currents before it even has a chance to gather."

Another Cultivator beside her chimed in, "If you’re looking to cultivate, Fellow Daoist, you should try closer to the coast. The coastal waters have fewer Spirit Veins, but they also have fewer Demon Beasts, so it’s safer. There are more Spirit Veins out here in the outer sea, but the frequency of Demon Beast sightings is also higher. The three of us are from Jade Wave Island; we only dare linger in this area because we’re together."

Jade Wave Island.

Li Yuan committed the name to memory.

"Is Jade Wave Island far from here?"

"Not too far, about two hundred miles to the southeast," the Female Cultivator replied. "Jade Wave Island is a medium-sized island, home to three families and a Loose Cultivator alliance. We aren’t a major power in the outer sea; we get by mostly by gathering deep-sea Spiritual Materials and running trade for the larger islands."

"And the major powers of the outer sea?"

The Female Cultivator thought for a moment. "The largest is the Kunpeng Island Alliance, which is said to be overseen by a Nascent Soul Stage Ancestor. Then there are Coral Palace and Dragon Abyss Pavilion, both of which are Late-stage Golden Core powers. Deeper in the outer sea, there are several massive island archipelagos, but we’ve only heard their names; we’ve never been there ourselves."

"Is there much interaction between the outer sea factions and the mainland?"

"Not much," the Female Cultivator said bluntly. "The islands and the mainland are separated by a vast ocean, and a round trip is too costly. Most island factions do business through the Celestial Peak Sect’s trade port. It’s much more convenient."

Li Yuan asked a few more questions about the underwater cultivation environment and the distribution of Demon Beasts, and the Female Cultivator answered them one by one.

The conversation didn’t yield a large amount of information, but a few details gave Li Yuan a better grasp of the situation.

The political landscape among the outer sea’s island factions was far more complex than that of the mainland—scattered and disunited, each faction fending for itself. The large islands oppressed the small, while the small islands banded together for survival. The Celestial Peak Sect served as the only stable link between the sea and the mainland, effectively monopolizing all high-value, cross-regional trade.

After bidding farewell to the Female Cultivator, Li Yuan continued his search deeper into the outer sea.

Avoiding claimed Spirit Veins and areas with heavy Cultivator activity, he found a second miniature Spirit Vein at a location about forty miles from Nanyuan District.

This Spirit Vein was even thinner and weaker than the first, hidden at the bottom of a dead coral reef, with no signs of human development around it.

Li Yuan established a connection and began the refining process.

Drawing on his previous experience, the process was smooth and familiar. The Demonic Qi dissolved the rock adhesions much faster, and his Water Vein Survey’s predictions of the rebound force were more precise.

This Spirit Vein was shorter and weaker, and refining it only took a day and a half.

The moment the second Spirit Vein was fully refined into his body, stabilizing in parallel with the first, the panel popped up.

[Spirit Vein Refining (Blue) Permanence Progress: 2/3]

Li Yuan took a moment to assess himself. The two Spirit Veins exerted a slight pressure on his body. While not significant, it hinted that this process was not without its costs.