Chapter 371 - 359: Netherworld Lock Array and the Hidden Node

Chapter 371: Chapter 359: Netherworld Lock Array and the Hidden Node

Inside the stone house, Li Yuan spread the jade slip for the Netherworld Lock Array on the table and immersed his Divine Sense into it.

A Tier Two High Grade enemy-trapping Array.

The Array’s core mechanism wasn’t complex. With the Array Hub as its center, it extended several Spiritual Power Lock Chains, which were infused with a sinister Evil Qi. Once an enemy stepped within the Array’s range, the chains would automatically constrict and intertwine, forming a Spiritual Power blockade net around the target.

Once the blockade net was established, the sinister Evil Qi would continuously corrode the Spiritual Power flowing through the enemy’s meridians, suppressing its circulation speed. This would prevent the enemy from casting spells or activating Magical Artifacts normally; even circulating energy for bodily protection would become sluggish.

The longer one was trapped, the stronger the suppression effect became.

Li Yuan mentally simulated the Array’s core structure three times. After confirming there were no difficult points, he closed the jade slip and walked out of the stone house.

Behind the stone house was a clearing, ten zhang square, typically used for drying Spirit Medicines and storing miscellaneous items. Li Yuan cleared the clutter to one side and took out the Array Stones and Array Flags from his storage pouch.

He didn’t set up the full version, instead shrinking the Array to a three-zhang radius, retaining only the core structure.

Five Divine Sense Lines spread out. Three were responsible for carving the Array Patterns, one guided the sinister Evil Qi into the chain circuits, and the last one monitored the overall structural balance.

The enhancement from the Earth Vein Spiritual Hub made setting up the Array incredibly fast. Spiritual Power flowed from his fingertips, carving precise patterns on the ground. Array Stones were embedded at the nodes, and Array Flags were planted at the four corners.

After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the miniature version of the Netherworld Lock Array was complete.

Li Yuan took two steps back, raised his hand, and tossed a rock into the Array’s range.

The moment the rock landed, several grayish-black Spiritual Power Lock Chains erupted from the ground. They coiled around the rock’s surface like living things, wrapping it tightly within half a breath. The sinister Evil Qi seeped into the rock through the chains, and a layer of grayish-white frost quickly formed on its surface.

The effect was excellent.

Li Yuan walked to the center of the Array, squatted down, and removed the Array Hub from the ground.

He had refined the Array Hub himself from an ordinary Array Stone. The material was common, but the quality of the Array itself depended entirely on the precision of the carvings and the purity of the injected Spiritual Power.

The moment his finger touched the Array Hub, the panel appeared.

[Detected equippable item: Netherworld Lock Array Hub (Complete · Self-made)]

[Equipment Trait Preview: Netherworld Delay (Green)]

[Effect: Your Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi attacks will gain the ability to slow the target’s Spiritual Power circulation and movement speed]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Both Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi Cultivation must reach Tier Two]

[Current equipment slots are full (5/5). Replace a current item?]

Li Yuan glanced at the permanence condition.

Spiritual Power Cultivation at Foundation Establishment Perfection was above Tier Two. Condition met.

Demonic Qi Cultivation, with his Demon Essence Skill at Great Success, had reached the Foundation Establishment Realm, also Tier Two. Condition met.

He far exceeded the requirements.

Li Yuan swapped out the Guiyuan Longevity Skill and equipped the Netherworld Lock Array Hub.

"Equip."

[Equipped: Netherworld Lock Array Hub (Complete)]

[Netherworld Delay (Green) is now active]

The panel immediately updated again.

[Permanence condition for Netherworld Delay (Green) has been met]

[Netherworld Delay (Green) has become a permanent trait]

The spectral image of the Array Hub solidified in the equipment slot for an instant, then dissipated, freeing up the slot.

The moment the trait became permanent, he felt a subtle new property added to the Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi within him. This property didn’t affect their internal circulation efficiency, but whenever his Spiritual Power or Demonic Qi was released and touched an external target, it would automatically carry a slowing effect.

Li Yuan raised his hand and formed an Evil Qi Cone, firing it at a discarded stone brick in the clearing.

The Evil Qi Cone struck the brick’s surface, exploding in a wave of grayish-black energy. Besides the normal corrosion marks, the brick was now covered in an extremely thin layer of grayish-white frost, identical to the effect of the Array’s chains from before.

’Every attack from now on will have a built-in slowing effect.’

Li Yuan retracted his hand, dismantled the Array in the clearing, and restored the area to its original state.

Just as he returned to the entrance of the stone house, he saw Sun Henian waiting outside.

The old man’s complexion was much better than when he first arrived at the market. Although his gray daoist robe was still worn, most of his vitality had returned.

"Pavilion Master Li, my apologies for the intrusion," Sun Henian said, offering a cupped fist salute.

"Come in and talk."

The two sat down inside the stone house.

"It’s about the talisman shop." Sun Henian got straight to the point. "The demand for Talismans in the market is growing, and our shop can barely keep up. I wanted to discuss with you, Pavilion Master, about possibly expanding."

"How do you want to expand?"

"Rent two more storefronts and hire a few Loose Cultivators who can draw basic Talismans to help." Sun Henian rubbed his hands together. "I’ll purchase the raw materials and pay for the labor myself. I’d just like the new storefronts to be closer to the main street for convenience."

Li Yuan thought for a moment.

"You can. That’s a decision you can make for yourself. The market is very flexible and doesn’t impose strict rules. You could just go through the normal purchasing process."

"However, I can offer a thirty percent discount on the storefront rent, on one condition."

Sun Henian immediately sat up straight.

"Please, Pavilion Master, speak."

"After the expansion, your talisman shop must prioritize selling thirty percent of its monthly output of Tier One Defense Talismans and Tier One Attack Talismans to the market’s defense reserve, at cost."

Sun Henian did some quick mental calculations, then nodded in agreement.

"No problem. Thirty percent at cost price... I can manage that."

"Then it’s settled," Li Yuan said, standing up. "Also, give me a few Talismans from your latest batch for a spot check."

Sun Henian quickly took out a stack of Talismans from his storage pouch and presented them respectfully.

Li Yuan casually flipped through a few of them, his gaze pausing for a moment on a Spirit Defense Talisman.

The panel appeared.

[Detected equippable item: Spirit Defense Talisman (Complete)]

[Equipment Trait Preview: Stacked Spirit Shield (White)]

[Effect: Increases the thickness of your Protective Spirit Light by ten percent]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Cultivation must reach Qi Refining Ninth Level (Met)]

’A white trait. The condition is only Qi Refining Ninth Level, which I’ve long since surpassed.’

Li Yuan, his expression unchanged, set the Spirit Defense Talisman aside, glanced through a few other Talismans, and then handed the whole stack back to Sun Henian.

"The quality is good. Keep it up."

After thanking him, Sun Henian took his leave.

Once the man was a good distance away, Li Yuan picked up the Spirit Defense Talisman.

He swapped out the Guiyuan Longevity Skill and equipped the Spirit Defense Talisman.

"Equip."

[Equipped: Spirit Defense Talisman (Complete)]

[Stacked Spirit Shield (White) has become a permanent trait]

The spectral image of the Spirit Defense Talisman dissipated, freeing up the equipment slot.

A white trait’s effect wasn’t huge—a mere ten percent increase in the thickness of his Protective Spirit Light. But stacked on top of existing defensive traits like Demon Pattern Protection and Iron Bone Golden Body, every little bit counted. ’Even a mosquito’s leg is still meat.’

That night, Li Yuan didn’t go to the cavern to cultivate.

He took out the jade slip containing the incomplete map of the teleportation network he had copied from the western wall of the Profound Nether Sub-Palace. He re-calculated the coordinates of the hidden node in the Liangzhou region—the one marked with the two words "Deep Layer."

The node’s location wasn’t beneath the market, but about sixty li southwest of the Ghost Mist Forest, on the edge of a limestone plateau perpetually shrouded in thick fog.

He had passed by that area several times during his patrols. There was nothing unusual on the surface, only large swathes of heavily weathered limestone and a few dried-up sinkholes. Because the landscape was barren, with no mineral veins or Spirit Medicines, no Cultivator had ever lingered there.

Past the midpoint of Midnight, with his triple-layer concealment fully active, Li Yuan left the market and moved rapidly southwest along the edge of the Ghost Mist Forest.

About two hours later, he arrived at the limestone plateau.

The fog in this area was exceptionally thick, with visibility less than twenty feet. The limestone underfoot was pitted and eroded by the elements, making a soft crunching sound with every step.

Li Yuan stopped at the edge of the plateau, planted his feet firmly on the ground, and spread the perception of his Earth Vein Spiritual Hub downward.

The geological structure of the limestone plateau was extremely loose, riddled with dissolution cavities, and his perception penetrated it quickly. Ten zhang, fifteen zhang, twenty zhang—all of it was a natural layer of dissolution, with no artificial traces.

Twenty-five zhang.

His perception touched an abnormally dense layer of rock.

The density of this rock layer was completely different from the loose limestone around it. It was like a massive stone slab that had been artificially embedded deep within the strata, completely sealing the space below from the dissolution layer above.

An ordinary Earth Vein perception would have been blocked here.

But his spatial perception, enhanced by the Teleportation Stone, penetrated this dense rock layer and caught an extremely faint fluctuation beneath the slab.

It wasn’t a fluctuation of Spiritual Power, nor was it Demonic Qi.

It was a spatial fluctuation.

Extremely ancient and incredibly faint, like the weakest pulse of a sleeping heart.

Li Yuan used the Earth Escape Technique and slowly sank into the ground.

Passing through the loose dissolution layer was effortless, but the hardness of the dense rock layer was far beyond ordinary. He had to increase the Spiritual Power output of his Earth Escape Technique by thirty percent to arduously chisel through the barrier, inch by inch.

The rock formation was about two zhang thick. Its inner surface had been artificially polished and bore the remnants of extremely ancient sealing patterns. This rock layer was itself a sealed insulating barrier, specifically designed to prevent any fluctuations from the space below from leaking upward.

No wonder it was completely undetectable from the surface. Even when he had used his Earth Vein Spiritual Hub to perform deep scans from the market, his perception had never pointed toward this desolate plateau sixty li away. The location of this node had been deliberately chosen to avoid any area that might be investigated.

After passing through the rock barrier, Li Yuan entered a very small cavity.

The cavity was less than two zhang square, its four walls made of smooth, artificially polished stone. In the center of the floor was a circular stone platform about three feet in diameter. Most of the Array Patterns on the platform’s surface had crumbled and fallen away; only a small area at its core retained its complete patterns.

The complexity and style of those patterns were identical to the Ancient Teleportation Array he had repaired in Mozhou.

The Array Hub’s position in the center of the stone platform was empty, but the shape of its socket and the specifications of the Spiritual Power interface indicated that a Space Crystal Stone, the same type as his Teleportation Stone, had once been embedded there.

Li Yuan crouched down, his fingertips slowly tracing the remaining Array Patterns.

The spatial perception from his Teleportation Stone fed back extremely detailed structural information.

The specifications of this Teleportation Array were far superior to the one in Mozhou. The Array Patterns had more nested layers, the precision of its spatial folding was higher, and the cross-section of its Spiritual Power channels was wider.

A high-clearance Teleportation Array.

The hidden node marked on the incomplete map was right here.

The Array was severely damaged. Nearly half of the core Array Patterns had crumbled, and the Spiritual Power channels were almost completely blocked. But the foundation was still there, the framework remained.

’Repairing it will be much easier than building one from scratch.’

Li Yuan carefully assessed the materials needed for the repairs: spatial-type Array Stones, spirit-conducting copper sheets, Spiritual Power putty, and a suitable Space Crystal Stone to act as a temporary Array Hub. Most of the materials could be bought at the Yunyang market; only the Space Crystal Stone would be troublesome and require a separate solution.

’The total cost would be far lower than setting up a brand-new Teleportation Array.’

He then inspected the structure of the cavity’s four walls. A few extremely fine Spiritual Power conduit patterns were carved into the stone, extending outward from the cavity in a northeasterly direction—precisely toward the location of the market’s Spirit Vein node.

These conduits belonged to the same system as the broken Spiritual Power transport network in the Profound Nether Sub-Palace.

The teleportation node, the Sub-Palace’s fog array, and the market’s Spirit Vein—all three were interconnected underground through this ancient network of conduits. It was just that the conduits had long since broken and become blocked, rendering the connection nominal at best.

Li Yuan recorded the complete structure of the remaining Array Patterns from the stone platform into a jade slip. Then, he used the Earth Escape Technique, passed back through the dense rock barrier, and returned to the surface.