I'm in Yellow Maple Valley, and I have one equipment slot!

Click to begin the wondrous journey of "I'm in Maple Valley, and I Have an Equipment Slot!"

The main ingredient of the Jiaoxian Pill is the inner core of the Jiaolong clan!

Both level seven and level eight demon cores can be used in medicine.

Its effects are extremely powerful—breaking through bottlenecks and enhancing magical power.

The Flood Dragon Immortal Pill, refined from the inner core of a seventh-level Flood Dragon, is a priceless treasure for Core Formation cultivators; if it is refined from the inner core of an eighth-level Flood Dragon, it is a great tonic even for Nascent Soul cultivators!

Although this Crimson Fire Flood Dragon Demon Pill is only at the seventh level, when combined with other rare medicinal herbs, it is enough to refine a batch of Flood Dragon Immortal Pills, which will help him break through to a higher realm in the future!

Zhou Yuan carefully placed the demon core into a specially made jade box and continued to examine the remaining jade boxes.

The other jade boxes also contained level six demon cores, totaling seven or eight.

Moreover, most of them are the demon cores of snakes and pythons, which are excellent materials for alchemy.

Finally, Zhou Yuan's gaze fell on a wooden shelf in the corner of the cave.

This shelf only has one item on it.

A storage bag.

Zhou Yuan reached out and picked it up, probing it with his divine sense.

For a moment, his breath caught in his throat.

Inside the storage bag lay two spirit stones radiating spiritual energy—

A high-grade fire-attribute spirit stone!

A high-grade wood-attribute spirit stone!

High-grade spirit stones!

Back then, Zhou Yuan went to great lengths to travel from Kui Xing Island to Tian Xing City, where he spent 170,000 spirit stones at the Feng Le Alliance auction to finally acquire a high-grade wood-attribute spirit stone.

And now, there are two of them in this storage bag at once!

Zhou Yuan already knew that demons also needed high-grade spirit stones for cultivation.

The fact that this black bird-transformed demon possessed two of them at once speaks volumes about the richness of its collection.

Inside the storage bag, there was also an ancient-looking jade slip.

Zhou Yuan probed with his divine sense and scanned it briefly. The contents recorded inside were quite mixed and difficult to examine in detail at once.

He didn't check it now, but put the jade slip and the storage bag into his pocket.

"This place is not safe to stay for long."

Zhou Yuan scanned the cave again, and after confirming that he had not missed any valuable items, he raised his hand and sent out a fireball, setting the giant tree and its hollow ablaze.

A raging fire erupted, engulfing all traces of the flames.

Before leaving, Zhou Yuan also collected many bird eggs from other giant trees on the mountain.

Although Zhou Yuan didn't have the patience to raise these bird eggs, he could sell them off in large quantities for spirit stones after returning to the Inner Sea.

After collecting the dozens of bird eggs, Zhou Yuan didn't linger. He used his escape light to quickly leave the island occupied by the Black Bird Clan.

This sea area is the territory of that transformed great demon, and there are no other powerful demons within hundreds or even thousands of miles around.

But Zhou Yuan dared not let his guard down.

What if that black bird has other humanoid friends? What if a dragon clan comes looking for it, following the scent of the Crimson Fire Dragon Demon Core...

He must get away as soon as possible!

For the next seven or eight days, Zhou Yuan traveled non-stop, taking many detours.

Having avoided the sea area where they had encountered the old monster in blue robes, they finally arrived at a deserted island about three thousand miles away from Ink Belly Island.

The direction of this small island is completely opposite to the direction he originally went to hunt the Thunder Whale Beast.

Even if that old monster in blue robes is still lingering in that sea area, he wouldn't be able to find this place.

Zhou Yuan landed on the island and finally breathed a long sigh of relief.

He already had a definite guess about the identity of the old monster in blue robes.

His tall and imposing figure, his rugged and strange face, his terrifying cultivation at the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, and his extremely domineering and ruthless personality...

All of this closely matches a character in the original work—Wildbeard!

One of the top demonic cultivators in the Chaotic Star Sea, he is violent and acts entirely on a whim.

He's a ruthless killer, and few dare to mess with him!

"Wild Beard..."

Zhou Yuan murmured the name, a cold glint flashing in his eyes, "You're strong now, but you can't stay stronger than me forever."

Without further thought, he immediately began setting up a temporary cave on the deserted island.

Having chosen a secluded mountain hollow, Zhou Yuan took out array flags and array plates, setting up several layers of concealment and protective restrictions.

Although it is only a temporary residence, all the necessary protections must be provided.

With the cave dwelling opened and the restrictions properly set up, Zhou Yuan sat cross-legged and took out the precious medicinal herbs and demon cores.

Next, he's going to refine pills!

The first thing to refine, naturally, is the Jade Spirit Pill.

He had already prepared all the other medicinal materials needed to refine this pill back in Tianxing City, and they had been stored in his storage bag ever since.

Now that the main medicine is in hand, everything is ready.

With a thought, Zhou Yuan readjusted the equipment slots.

Except for the permanent slot "Spiritual Eye Spring," which remains unchanged, the other five equipment slots have all been replaced with treasures that are helpful for alchemy.

As for the golden core of the Yuling Sect cultivator, it had long been discarded by Zhou Yuan.

With the five enhancements from the equipment slots, Zhou Yuan's alchemy skills reached their peak!

A few days later.

The first batch of Jade Spirit Pills was successfully produced.

Seven pills were formed, each one of the finest quality!

Including the one he secretly kept when he refined the Azure Spirit Pill for True Man Mulong decades ago, Zhou Yuan now has fifteen Azure Spirit Pills on hand!

This is absolutely an amazing fortune.

Each Azure Spirit Pill is enough to give a mid-stage Core Formation cultivator a greater chance of breaking through to the late stage.

Fifteen of them, if used properly, are enough to cultivate several late-stage Core Formation experts!

As for the seventh-level Crimson Fire Dragon Demon Pill, Zhou Yuan has not yet begun refining the pill.

The medicinal materials required for the Jiaoxian Pill are numerous, and although he has some reserves, they are far from complete.

That demon core was too precious; failure would be an irreparable loss.

He wouldn't attempt it lightly until he had gathered all the necessary medications and made thorough preparations.

Moreover, he now has something more important to do—cultivation.

With fifteen Jade Spirit Pills in hand, plus the three Heavenly Origin Pills he had previously saved, Zhou Yuan had a considerable amount of pills to use for breaking through the bottleneck in the later stages of the game.

He didn't delay any longer and immediately began his secluded cultivation.

……

In the blink of an eye, six years have passed.

On this day, within the cave dwelling on the deserted island, a powerful aura suddenly surged into the sky!

The aura was far stronger than before, carrying a domineering and majestic air that looked down upon all directions!

After a moment, his breathing gradually subsided and he returned to calm.

Inside the cave, Zhou Yuan opened his eyes, his gaze flashing with a sharp light, like lightning and thunder!

His cultivation level had actually broken through to the late stage of Core Formation!

"This breakthrough went so smoothly..."

Zhou Yuan muttered to himself, a smile appearing on his lips.

Six years is neither a long nor a short time.

However, for someone who has successfully broken through the bottleneck of the late stage of the Core Formation stage from the peak of the mid-stage, six years is definitely considered incredibly fast!

All of this is naturally thanks to the assistance of the fifteen Jade Spirit Pills and three Heavenly Origin Pills.

But more importantly, his powerful divine sense, which far surpassed that of his peers, his incredibly solid foundation, and the continuous support from his equipment slots all paved the way for this breakthrough.

As his cultivation level broke through, his spiritual sense also experienced another surge!

Previously, his divine sense covered a range of 120 li, which already far surpassed that of an ordinary early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator. But now—

My divine sense covers a distance of 140 miles!

This distance already puts ordinary early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators far ahead.

It's almost at the threshold of the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm!

"good!"

Zhou Yuan felt extremely happy.

This level of spiritual power means that he already has a great advantage when facing a Nascent Soul cultivator in the early stage—he can see through the enemy's every move before the enemy even discovers him!

After breaking through, he did not rush to leave the seclusion, but instead took out the ancient jade slip he had obtained from the Blackbird Cave.

He had once looked at this jade slip by chance four years ago.

He only glanced at it at the time, but he was surprised to find that the contents of the jade slip were a mixture of demon script and human script!

He naturally couldn't understand the demonic script. But the human-written parts recorded an extremely unique secret technique—

Spirit control!

According to the human script recorded in the jade slip, it was created by a human cultivator from ancient times.

That cultivator spent many years hunting demons in the outer seas. Over time, he became very familiar with the habits of demon beasts. Finally, he combined some secret techniques of the demon race to create this strange secret technique that can forcibly control demon beasts.

Of course, this technique is not a panacea.

Its core principle is to use the caster's powerful divine sense to forcibly invade the soul of a demon beast and plant a restriction deep within its soul, thereby achieving the purpose of control.

Therefore, this technique can only be used to control demonic beasts whose spiritual consciousness is far inferior to one's own.

According to that ancient cultivator's annotation, with his spiritual strength at the early Nascent Soul stage, he was able to successfully enslave a level seven demon beast.

As for the eighth-level transformed demon—its consciousness is no different from that of a human, and its intelligence is mature, making it extremely difficult to forcibly control.

Spirit control techniques have little effect on them and may even backfire and cause injury.

"It seems we'll have to stay out to sea for a while longer."

Zhou Yuan put down the jade slip, having already made up his mind.

He planned to first master this spirit control technique, and then try to find a suitable level seven demon beast in this sea area to enslave!

If he succeeds, he will have a powerful ally comparable to a late-stage Core Formation cultivator!

And this is just the beginning.

If his divine sense can reach the mid-stage or even late-stage of the Nascent Soul realm in the future, he will be able to try to control level eight or even level nine transformed demons!

By then, he alone will be an army!

Zhou Yuan stopped thinking about it and immediately focused all his attention on the jade slip, beginning to comprehend this secret technique called Spirit Control Art.