Chapter 114 - 111: Talisman Hall
Chapter 114: Chapter 111: Talisman Hall
The residential area of the Talisman Hall was more deserted than Li Yuan had expected.
Rows of stone houses lined both sides of the courtyard wall, at least thirty or forty of them. Most of their doors were shut tight, and he couldn’t sense any presence from within the majority of the rooms.
Li Yuan walked from the east end to the west. Along the way, he encountered two people: one was heading out carrying a Spirit Ink Bottle, and the other was squatting by a doorway, drying talisman paper in the sun.
There weren’t many people in the Talisman Hall.
Li Yuan chose a stone house located further in. The room was much more spacious than the low houses at the mining site. The stone table was large enough to lay out four or five sheets of talisman paper, and with the window facing east, the lighting was decent.
He put his things away and latched the door.
First, Li Yuan sat cross-legged on the bed board and began to circulate the Spirit-Introducing Skill.
The concentration of Spiritual Qi in this area was a notch higher than at the mining site, but still not as good as the He family’s herb garden.
With Pure Spiritual Power equipped in his status bar, impurities were filtered out the moment the Spiritual Qi entered his body. The Spiritual Power that settled in his Dantian was clean and condensed.
After completing a few cycles, Li Yuan stood up and took out the second round of Body Refining medicinal fluid from his storage pouch.
Iron Bone Liquid.
He broke the wax seal on the jar, and a pungent, medicinal smell wafted out. Li Yuan poured the liquid into a prepared wooden basin, diluted it with water, undressed, and sat inside.
The medicinal power seeped into his skin, and that familiar, dull, aching sensation spread through him once more.
It was a bit milder than the first round—his body had already partially adapted, and his muscle fibers weren’t resisting the medicinal power as strongly. The "Medicinal Power Refinement" entry operated as usual, efficiently absorbing the active ingredients while grayish-black impurities were expelled from the surface of his skin.
Four hours later, the medicinal liquid was completely used up.
Li Yuan got up, cast a Cleaning Skill, and changed into a fresh set of clothes.
He then continued to cultivate, interspersing it with a bath in the second round of the Black Armor Decoction.
By the time he emerged from the basin, his body flushed red, the sky outside was already turning pale with dawn.
The next morning, there were two knocks on the door of his stone house.
Li Yuan opened the door. Standing outside was a Cultivator in his forties with a square-jawed face. His aura was at the Qi Refining Sixth Level. He wore the standard blue-gray robe of the Talisman Hall and had a token hanging from his waist that was slightly larger than a normal patrol token. The character for "Talisman" was carved on its front.
"Li Yuan?"
"Yes."
"Follow me."
The two of them walked west along the stone-paved path of the residential area for a while before entering a slightly larger stone house.
Inside, shelves against the wall were piled high with scrolls and wooden boxes, and several ledgers were spread across a desk. Behind the desk sat another Cultivator, who looked to be in his early fifties. He had the aura of a Late-stage Qi Refining cultivator and was currently flipping through a booklet.
"Li Yuan, Qi Refining Sixth Level."
The Cultivator who had led him there said to the man behind the desk, then stepped aside.
The Cultivator behind the desk looked up, his gaze resting on Li Yuan for a moment. He then took out a new waist token and a thin document from under the desk and placed them on top.
The waist token was made of bronze, a size larger than an Inspector General’s. The character for "Talisman" was carved on the front, and on the back were Li Yuan’s name and a line of small text: Third-Class Talisman Maker.
"Your status has been transferred from the inspection team to the Talisman Hall. Your old Inspector General’s token will be collected."
Li Yuan removed his old token, placed it on the desk, and put on the new one.
"Third-Class Talisman Maker, the lowest rank."
The manager flipped a page in his ledger, his tone unhurried.
"The Talisman Hall does not provide a monthly salary."
He glanced up at Li Yuan. "This place isn’t like the inspection team or the guard unit, where you get a fixed amount of Spirit Stones every month. The Talisman Hall runs on contribution points. Whether you’re getting supplies, exchanging for Talisman crafting methods, or trading for cultivation resources, everything requires contribution points."
"How do I earn contribution points?"
"By completing talisman-crafting missions. The Talisman Hall periodically issues missions. You craft the required Talismans, turn them in, and are awarded contribution points based on quantity and quality."
The manager closed the ledger.
"Your previous contribution points from the inspection team will also be transferred over, but the process takes time, about seven or eight days."
"Also, the value of contribution points isn’t the same between the two departments, so they will be converted."
He took a cloth bundle from a wooden box under the desk and pushed it toward Li Yuan.
"Basic talisman-crafting supplies, all newcomers to the Talisman Hall get them. One hundred sheets of Cyan Pattern Paper, four bottles of all-purpose Spiritual Ink, and one box of cinnabar. This should be enough to get you started."
Li Yuan took the bundle, testing its weight.
"However, you can’t accept any talisman-crafting missions just yet."
The manager added, "Newcomers have an adjustment period. Use this time to familiarize yourself with the environment."
He leaned back in his chair and looked at Li Yuan.
"Is there anything you need for now?"
"The materials for crafting Concealing Breath Talismans."
The manager nodded.
"Alright, I’ll have a batch prepared for you later."
"One more thing," Li Yuan said. "I want to go to the Talisman Hall’s Scripture Pavilion to exchange for a Cultivation Technique."
The manager’s movements paused for a second.
He opened a nearby ledger, checked it for a few moments, then closed it again.
"You have a slot to enter the Scripture Pavilion?"
"I do."
Li Yuan took out the document he had received when he was stationed at the He family’s estate and handed it over.
The manager took the document, glanced at it, confirmed the seal on it, and nodded.
"Fine, you can go to the Scripture Pavilion anytime. Turn left out the door, follow the stone path to the end, and it’s the two-story stone building at the very back."
He returned the document to Li Yuan.
"Anything else?"
"No."
The manager grunted in acknowledgment and went back to flipping through his ledger. The Cultivator who had guided Li Yuan saw him to the door, pointed in the direction of the Scripture Pavilion, and then left.
Li Yuan didn’t go to the Scripture Pavilion right away; he returned to his residence first.
He sorted and stored the talisman-crafting supplies from the cloth bundle. He stacked the Cyan Pattern Paper on a corner of the table, placed the Spiritual Ink next to it, and set the cinnabar aside separately.
Then he spread out a sheet of talisman paper, dipped his brush in ink, and resumed crafting talismans.
He drew several Fireball Talismans, and his success rate remained stable at over seventy percent. Afterward, he switched to practicing with Rejuvenation Talismans and then drew two Vajra Talismans.
In the afternoon, the door of the neighboring stone house creaked, and footsteps passed by his doorway.
Li Yuan put down his talisman brush and pushed the door open.
The door to the stone house across the corridor was open. A Cultivator in his early thirties was squatting on the stone slab by the entrance, laying out talisman paper. He wore the same standard-issue blue-gray Talisman Hall robe as Li Yuan. His fingers were stained with Spiritual Ink, his complexion was sallow, and his hair was tied back messily.
Qi Refining Fifth Level.
Hearing the noise, the Cultivator looked up and glanced at Li Yuan.
"New here?"
"Just arrived yesterday."
"Oh." The Cultivator nodded and folded the talisman paper in his hands. "My surname is Wei."
"Li Yuan."
Talisman Master Wei stood up, dusting off his pants.
"Not many people live over here. The Talisman Hall only has so many Talisman Masters to begin with, and most of them have been dispatched elsewhere. There are only a few of us left."
He glanced at the closed doors on both sides of the residential area.
"What can you draw?"
"Fireball Talismans, Rejuvenation Talismans, Vajra Talismans, and the like."
Talisman Master Wei grunted, offering no further comment.
Li Yuan took the opportunity to continue the conversation.
"What kind of talisman-crafting missions does the Talisman Hall have right now?"
Talisman Master Wei put the talisman paper he was holding back inside his room, then came back out and leaned against the doorframe.
"Combat Talismans. It’s all Combat Talismans. Offensive ones, healing ones—we make whatever the higher-ups demand."
He held up his fingers to make a gesture.
"Missions used to be graded. You could even earn contribution points by making basic talismans. It’s different now. The fighting at the front is fierce, so the higher-ups are only accepting Combat Talismans."
"Is it easy to earn contribution points?"
The corner of Talisman Master Wei’s mouth twitched.
"Depends on how you look at it."
He lowered his voice.
"The requirements for the missions aren’t low. The quality of the turned-in Talismans has to meet a certain standard; they won’t accept anything subpar. The higher the quality, the more contribution points you get, but the material consumption is also greater. Just do the math—you spend contribution points to exchange for materials, and you earn them by turning in the finished products. In between, you have to deduct the cost of failures. When you balance it all out, the cost-effectiveness isn’t actually that high."
He ticked off on his fingers.
"For example, say you exchange 50 contribution points for one hundred sheets of Cyan Pattern Paper. You draw Fireball Talismans with, let’s say, a sixty to seventy percent success rate, so you get sixty to seventy finished products. After turning them in, you might get back seventy to eighty contribution points. Once you deduct the cost of Spiritual Ink and cinnabar, you’ve only really profited by twenty or thirty points."
"You’d be better off taking freelance jobs on the outside."
"Nothing to be done about it." Talisman Master Wei spread his hands. "People in the Talisman Hall can only do Talisman Hall missions. Taking private jobs on the side is another matter, but the only way to get contribution points is through official missions."
Li Yuan didn’t respond to that, instead asking another question.
"I heard you can get an advance on contribution points."
Talisman Master Wei nodded.
"You can, and the limit isn’t small."
He pulled his hands back from the doorframe and crossed his arms.
"It’s one of the perks of the Talisman Hall, meant to help Talisman Masters improve quickly."
"You can use the advanced points to exchange for supplies."
He paused, then raised a finger and pointed upward.
"But there’s one catch: advanced points can only be paid back by completing talisman-crafting missions. And if you want to exchange for other Talisman crafting methods, you have to earn the points by completing missions—advanced points don’t count for that."
’The rules are clear.’
Li Yuan didn’t say much more, just nodded at Talisman Master Wei.
"Thank you."
Talisman Master Wei waved his hand dismissively and turned to enter his own room.
Li Yuan returned to his stone house, closed the door, cleaned his desk, and sat cross-legged on the bed board.
He first circulated his Spirit-Introducing Skill for two cycles, letting the Spiritual Power sink into his Dantian.
Then, he took out the last jar of Red Marrow Juice, poured it into the wooden basin with water, and began the final medicinal bath of the second round.
Four hours later, the medicinal power was depleted, and Li Yuan rose from the basin.
The second round for all three Body Refining medicinal fluids was now complete.
Li Yuan took a moment to assess himself and felt a slight improvement in his physical constitution.