Chapter 159: Inner Cultivation Perfected (Part 2)

Destroying the letter, Duanmu Sheng's gaze grew dim.

The three camps of the Divine Guard Army: Camp Jia is the oldest, spread across every sect and family; Camp Bing has a mixed personnel, with quality varying from good to bad.

Camp Yi is the Valley Master's direct line; he is naturally the most direct of the direct. In past years, his relationship with Shi Hong was good, with much care and friendship shown.

But that was only because he was the Young Valley Master, and now...

"The weight of a Divine Artisan, surely the Valley Master cannot turn a blind eye?"

Duanmu Sheng murmured to himself, turning over the Juan Sect intelligence files again; at this moment, he had no heart to focus on these matters, even feeling that Shi Hong did not understand the big picture.

With the Thousand-Weight Cave not yet destroyed, and the Three Yuan Dock and Pang Pang Liexue Mountain watching hungrily, he was still thinking of fighting for power and profit.

"The master of Three Yuan Dock, Wan Ya..."

Hoo~

Morning light breaks the dawn; a shimmering expanse of light ripples over the cold pool.

After the New Year, the chill gradually recedes, yet very few boats come and go on the cold pool; only a few scattered ferrymen ferry people back and forth.

On a black-canopied boat, Li Yuan sat fishing; in the fish basket beside him were already a few small fish.

"Fishing, I cannot catch any more."

After flicking the rod again to hook another small fish, Li Yuan shook his head inwardly.

Since the news came that the Three Yuan Dock's main army had marched out, the Sword-Forging Valley became busy all at once, but mostly forging ordinary blades; after Li Yuan completed his quota, he would also take time to fish at the cold pool.

Alas...

"What bait does Liang Liang Ashui use after all?"

Glancing at Liang Liang Ashui sitting and fishing on a boat not far away, Li Yuan felt some curiosity in his heart.

Not counting that one fish left by Ding Zhi before, he had subsequently spent six hundred taels of gold to buy two Red Dragon Fish from Liang Liang Ashui.

"Pity, those two Red Dragon Fish were a bit small; they cannot forge a famous weapon..."

Li Yuan tallied them up.

He now had five Red Dragon Fish leather armors and a pair of Red Dragon Fish leather gloves, but only two were Fourth-Rank; the rest were Third-Rank.

After enhancement, he broke into the hundred-zhang bend of the Red Fusion Cave; alas, he still could not advance further.

"Forget it."

After fishing for a while with no further gain, Li Yuan put away his rod, greeted Liang Liang Ashui, and prepared to return to the island.

At that moment, from far away, he heard someone shouting.

On a small boat, Liu Liu Jingshan waved: "Senior Brother Li!"

"You're back?"

Li Yuan's eyes brightened; he quickly steered his boat to meet him, and saw that on Liu Liu Jingshan's boat were placed more than ten small incense burners.

One glance swept over: white and blue light interwove; besides that, there was one emitting a green light.

A Third-Rank incense burner.

"I have not failed in my mission!"

Liu Liu Jingshan grinned, moved the incense burners to Li Yuan's small boat, and spoke of his recent trip down the mountain.

"Those large incense burners have been passed down for hundreds of years; no temple keeper in any family is willing to sell them, but these small ones are plentiful; Senior Sister Wang still has more than ten, which will be delivered shortly."

Liu Liu Jingshan lifted a string of boots from the boat cabin:

"These are what the shop's manager has been searching for during this period; alas, the quality is all quite average."

"Good boots are not easy to find."

Li Yuan took the boots.

There were six pairs in total, all First-Rank; their control effects were also quite average, such as 'Swift as Flying' and 'Walking on Flat Ground.'

However, he was already very satisfied; combined with those he had saved up before, merging them into two pairs of Third-Rank boots should not be a problem.

With the great war about to begin, he was also making preparations; besides the inner armor, boots were naturally the Top priority, even more important than the inner armor.

Except for those martial artists who Liu Liu Jingshan excelled at lightness skills, a pair of Third-Rank boots, combined with his own speed, would be no less than a Meridian-Piercing expert.

With two more pairs, he estimated that even a Meridian-Piercing grand expert famous for lightness skills would not be able to touch his edge.

"Continue collecting boots; items such as hairpins and belts can also be collected."

Li Yuan had long since expanded the scope of items he collected; alas, boots were one thing, but belts and hairpins rarely reached the ranked tiers.

"Spirit beast leather is so precious; which family would bear to make it into a belt?"

Liu Liu Jingshan smiled bitterly.

He had no idea at all what this young master was doing collecting such strange and bizarre things, but he never asked.

Not long after carrying the incense burners back to the Bingtang, Wang Wang Peiyao also directed two menial disciples to carry incense burners back.

"Eh?"

Li Yuan stepped out a few meters, and immediately spotted a strange glimmer before his eyes:

【Five-Step Viper Leather Belt】

【Spirit Snake Five-Step Viper leather, soaked in special medicinal water for several years, then forged by fire and hammering...】

【Control Condition: Snake Waist】

【Control Effect: Third-Rank: Keen】

【Second-Rank: Evade Hundred Insects】

A Second-Rank belt.

Li Yuan stepped forward, took the incense burners Wang Wang Peiyao was carrying, and also casually took that snake-skin belt, feeling a slight stir in his heart.

【Keen Perception: The Five-Step Spirit Snake has no eyes, its perception is extremely keen, capable of discerning good and evil, danger and safety】

Good stuff!

After seeing the few people off, Li Yuan returned to his room, stored all the incense burners into the gray stone platform, and only then began to toy with that belt.

"Good stuff."

Li Yuan toyed with it for a bit, then chose to bond with it.

Hum!

In an instant, he only felt a slight coolness in his mind, his spirit jolted, and felt as if his perception had been elevated to a new height.

"This feeling…"

Li Yuan closed his eyes, stretched out five fingers and waved them before him, and could actually make out the general outline!

"Squeak squeak!"

Just as Li Yuan was delighted in his heart, a shriek suddenly came from beneath the bed. The little mouse, still in its sleep, felt its fur stand on end, squealing and shrieking in panic.

"It's me!"

Li Yuan glared at it in annoyance. The latter, in turn, stared back with its little green-bean eyes, shocked and puzzled—its spirituality was growing more and more abundant.

"Squeak squeak?"

The little mouse's eyes were full of confusion and incomprehension. In its sensing, a great python was clearly coiled up in the room.

"Go on, play."

Li Yuan tossed it a low-grade Zeng Xue Dan, then got up himself to try out this belt.

"When the light is bright, even with eyes closed, I can see things within one or two meters. When the light is dim, it's still about a meter."

Li Yuan reached a conclusion: bonding with this belt had indeed greatly elevated his perception.

As for repelling a hundred insects, the New Year had just passed, and inside and outside the house there truly wasn't a single bug to be found—no way to test it.

"If it really can repel a hundred insects, then it would be very useful in the mountains."

After experimenting for quite a while, Li Yuan finally stopped, closed his eyes slightly, and entered the Weapon-Bonding Space.

Hum~

On the gray stone platform, all manner of Weapon items were laid out, already looking somewhat crowded.

When Li Yuan arrived here, he suddenly felt something was off. His greatly elevated perception made him feel that the surroundings seemed to have become more dangerous.

As if the moment he fell off the stone platform, it would be an eternal damnation.

"What exactly is outside the stone platform?"

Li Yuan looked around, feeling only darkness like a tide. Staring for a while made him feel his hair stand on end; his claustrophobia was about to act up.

"Forget it, I can't fall off anyway."

After looking for a while, Li Yuan withdrew his gaze and began tallying the small incense burners scattered across the ground.

Ever since the Divine Fire Weapon-Merging Furnace had appeared, he had been collecting incense offerings, but the process had been far from smooth. The reason was simple: those temples were filthy rich, the temple keepers rolling in wealth.

These small incense burners, the ones worshiped at home by devotees, had to be passed down at least three generations before they could be considered unranked.

As for those that were ranked, without exception, they had all been scrounged from the great and small families in the city.

"Mm, these incense offerings are enough to merge over sixty first-rank weapons, thirteen second-rank, two third-rank, fourth-rank… none…"

Li Yuan was tallying.

Up to now, he had never seen fourth-rank incense offerings. After all, incense burners could only be considered a medium; the true gathering place of incense offerings was the divine statues.

But divine statues would be "replaced" every so often.

"Fourth-rank and above incense offerings, I reckon only the imperial court, or the Xieshen Sect would have. Mm, the Star-Plucking Tower might have some too?"

Li Yuan mulled it over in his heart for a while, then lit the Divine Fire Weapon-Merging Furnace.

During this period, he had merged quite a batch of second-rank forging hammers, war hammers, and the like. If the incense offerings were sufficient, he estimated he could merge at least four famous-grade heavy hammers.

"Boots."

Li Yuan did not hesitate, tossing pair after pair of boots, along with gold and silver, into the Weapon-Merging Furnace.

……

【Supreme Nine-Merge Boots】

【Forging within the Divine Fire Weapon-Merging Furnace…】

【Bonding Requirement: Any Lightness Skill at Minor Accomplishment】

【Bonding Effect: Fourth-Rank: Body like a swimming snake, steps swift as flight

Third-Rank: As if walking on flat ground, swift as a hawk】

A long while later, when the firelight in the Weapon-Merging Furnace dimmed, Li Yuan paid the price of over sixty taels of silver and merged out two pairs of third-rank boots.

Because he had chosen deliberately, the bonding effects of the two pairs of boots were more or less the same, and the difference from the previous Six-Merge Boots was also very small.

This was preparation for merging fourth-rank later.

"Good, with these two pairs of boots, plus the Six-Merge Boots, I'll be able to run even faster."

Li Yuan was quite satisfied.

During this period, every time he went out at night he had to avoid Jin Siren, relying entirely on the Supreme Six-Merge Boots.

Add to that these two pairs of Nine-Merge Boots, and he would even dare to break into the Divine Weapon Valley and the Scripture Pavilion.

He couldn't win a fight, but running…

"In today's Zhe Long Prefecture, how many can still outrun me?"

Li Yuan felt a slight sense of security in his heart, and his gaze fell on that second-rank heavy armor.

Heavy armor was no less rare than boots. For now, he couldn't get too much of it either—mainly, the incense offerings were insufficient, and he couldn't merge any.

"Hammers, boots, inner armor, heavy armor, bows and arrows—if I can put together five sets of bonded gear, then even if Sanyuan Stronghold comes storming up the mountain, I won't be afraid!"

Li Yuan was taking stock of the weapons and items on him; compared to when he had just left Gao Liu County, the change was far too great.

Setting aside first and second rank ones, the various third and fourth rank weapons and items alone exceeded twenty pieces!

"Hoo!"

After counting several times, Li Yuan waited for his emotions to settle before opening his eyes and closing the door.

Only then did he take out two Origin-Supplementing Pills and consume them.

His taking leave today from the Weapon Forging Valley was certainly not out of laziness, but because his internal infusion of strength had reached its final stage.

That was why he had asked Lei Lei Jingchuan for five days off, preparing to push through in one go to the Great Completion of Internal Strength.

"The closer to the end, the less one can afford to be careless."

Li Yuan took a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes, but the next moment he suddenly opened them again.

"This?"

His expression was somewhat stunned; he closed his eyes once more, and only then confirmed that he could actually faintly sense his own internal organs.

"Five-Step Spirit Snake Belt!"

Li Yuan's heart leaped, overjoyed: "Although it's very faint, the difference between being able to see and not being able to see is huge!"

Whoo-woo~

With the belt's enhancement, the final step of infusing strength internally was far simpler than before.

He did not know how long had passed, but when Li Yuan opened his eyes, he felt only that his internal force, from outside to inside, had woven into a net, transparent as one.

Great Completion of Internal Strength!