Chapter 127 - 123: Iron Bull Skill, Minor Achievement
Chapter 127: Chapter 123: Iron Bull Skill, Minor Achievement
The Replenishing Talisman was one he had made himself back in the marketplace, but he never had a free equipment slot to use it. The Cyan Spirit Talisman Brush was an old brush he had bought from Talisman Master Lu, and it too had been set aside for a long time.
Now that two equipment slots had opened up, he could equip them both.
Li Yuan picked up the Replenishing Talisman first, his fingertip touching its surface.
[Attribute Preview: Spiritual Power Resurgence (White) — Increases Spiritual Power recovery speed by 20%.]
[Permanence Condition Preview: Maintain a full Spiritual Power state for forty-eight hours (0/48).]
With a thought, he equipped it.
The Replenishing Talisman transformed into a faint white light and merged into his body.
The Spiritual Power in his Dantian didn’t increase, but Li Yuan could feel a change in the underlying rhythm of its circulation. It was as if a subtle pulling force had appeared deep within his meridians, constantly drawing the surrounding Spiritual Qi into his body.
A twenty-percent increase in recovery speed wasn’t particularly outrageous, but its strength lay in its persistence.
The permanence condition was to maintain a full Spiritual Power state for forty-eight hours.
This condition seemed simple, but it was actually very troublesome.
A full Spiritual Power state meant the Spiritual Power in his Dantian had to remain at maximum capacity at all times. Any consumption was forbidden.
Making talismans consumed Spiritual Power, casting magic consumed Spiritual Power, and even the brief fluctuations in Spiritual Power while circulating certain Cultivation Techniques could be judged as not full.
For forty-eight hours, he couldn’t make talismans, cast magic, or do anything that consumed Spiritual Power. He would have to do nothing but cultivate to maintain a full state.
His daily talisman-making schedule was packed, leaving him no window of forty-eight consecutive hours.
’I’ll deal with it later.’
Li Yuan turned his attention to the Cyan Spirit Talisman Brush.
The dark Spirit Wood handle felt solid and steady in his hand.
His fingertip touched the handle.
[Attribute Preview: Deft Strokes (White) — Increases Talisman making success rate by 20%, and slightly increases proficiency gained upon successful creation.]
[Permanence Condition Preview: Reach Grandmastery in any one Talisman Making Skill and its corresponding Magic (0/2).]
Equip.
The Cyan Spirit Talisman Brush dissolved into a soft white light and merged into his body.
Li Yuan raised his right hand and wiggled his fingers, a thread of Spiritual Power spilling from their tips.
’It really does feel different.’
As the Spiritual Power flowed to his fingertips, there was an added, extremely subtle sense of calibration, as if an invisible hand was secretly fine-tuning its path, allowing every wisp of Spiritual Power to arrive more precisely at its intended destination.
This wasn’t an improvement in his Spiritual Power control; rather, it took his existing level of control and reduced the margin for error by another twenty percent.
Li Yuan walked to his desk, took out a new talisman brush, spread out a sheet of talisman paper, dipped the brush in Spiritual Ink, and began to draw.
’A Fireball Talisman.’
The difference was apparent from the very first stroke.
It wasn’t that his technique had improved, but that his margin for error had increased. Previously, when he drew the Fire Gathering Pattern, the edge of the spreading Spiritual Power would occasionally be a little uneven. It didn’t affect the final product, but he could feel it. Now, under the effect of Deft Strokes, that slight unevenness was automatically corrected, leaving the edges of the Spirit Pattern cleaner than before.
He drew the six Spirit Patterns in one smooth motion, then converged them into the Talisman Core.
’Success.’
Li Yuan set the talisman aside and continued drawing.
He produced five finished talismans in a row without a single failure.
Moreover, the change in his recovery speed also became apparent.
Before, after drawing five Fireball Talismans in a row, the Spiritual Power in his Dantian would be depleted by about twenty to thirty percent. Now, after finishing five, the consumption was still twenty percent, but he had already recovered a little Spiritual Power in the breaks between drawing.
After the five talismans were done, the Spiritual Power in his Dantian wasn’t down by twenty percent, but only by fifteen.
Li Yuan didn’t stop, and continued to draw.
By the end of the morning, a thick stack of finished talismans was piled on the corner of his desk.
In the afternoon, Li Yuan finished a batch of Fireball Talismans and Heart-lock Talismans and handed them over to He Shou. He spent the rest of his time rotating through other Talismans.
Cleaning Talismans, Exorcism Talismans, and Warning Talismans.
He hadn’t focused on drawing these three basic talismans for a long time. His previous focus had been on Fireball Talismans and other Combat Talismans. Although his proficiency with the basic ones had been slowly accumulating, it was still a long way from the next threshold.
But things were different now.
Deft Strokes didn’t just increase the success rate; it also slightly increased the proficiency gained upon successful creation. With every completed talisman, he gained a bit more proficiency than before.
Li Yuan cycled through drawing the three types of basic talismans.
With every finished talisman he picked up, the proficiency value on his panel jumped up.
That night, as Li Yuan finished the last Cleaning Talisman and put down his brush, the panel popped up.
[Cleaning Talisman: Master Level (0/800)]
The next day, Li Yuan continued his rotation.
[Exorcism Talisman: Master Level (0/800)]
[Warning Talisman: Master Level (0/800)]
All three basic talismans had reached Master Level.
Cleaning Talismans, Exorcism Talismans, and Warning Talismans, plus the Fireball Talisman which he had already brought to Master Level, meant he now had four types of talismans at the Expert Level. Although other talismans like the Rejuvenation Talisman and Vajra Talisman hadn’t leveled up, their progress had also increased significantly.
The total proficiency for his Tier One Talisman Making Skill also shot up by a large amount.
After finishing his talisman making for the time being, Li Yuan took out a piece of hind leg meat from an Iron-horned Antelope from his storage bag. He cut off a catty and cooked it using his Fire Control Skill.
The meat was firm and chewy. After he swallowed, a warm current spread from his stomach, slowly dispersing through his meridians.
The effect of his Flame Marrow Body Tempering kicked in. The residual Demonic Power within the Demon Beast Flesh was converted into Qi Blood and seeped into his muscles and bones.
But this time, Li Yuan noticed a change he hadn’t paid attention to before.
After the Demonic Power was converted into Qi Blood by his Flame Marrow Body Tempering, not all of it was absorbed by his body. A small portion of the Demonic Power wasn’t converted into Qi Blood during the process, but rather into something else.
Evil Qi.
It was an extremely faint wisp, mixed in with the circulating Qi Blood, almost imperceptible.
If not for the ’Evil Qi Affinity’ attribute he had equipped, which made his perception of Evil Qi several times more acute than an ordinary person’s, Li Yuan would never have discovered it.
He closed his eyes and focused on the sensation for a moment.
When his Flame Marrow Body Tempering converted Demonic Power into Qi Blood, the conversion rate wasn’t one hundred percent. Of the residual Demonic Power that couldn’t be fully converted, some was directly expelled by his body, while another part was captured by the ’Evil Qi Affinity’ attribute and transformed into Evil Qi.
The amount was minuscule. The Evil Qi produced from one catty of Demon Beast Flesh was probably less than one-twentieth of a single Evil Essence Pill.
But it definitely existed.
Li Yuan cut another piece of meat, cooked it, and ate it.
The same process occurred again. Demonic Power was converted into Qi Blood, and the remainder was transformed into Evil Qi, merging with the thin mist of Evil Qi that permeated his entire body.
The ’Evil Qi Body Tempering’ attribute automatically responded, drawing the newly generated Evil Qi into his fascia.
Although the amount was small, eating Demon Beast Flesh was something he did every day. Before, he only ate the meat for the nourishing effect of Qi Blood from his Flame Marrow Body Tempering. Now, he had an additional source of Evil Qi.
’Every little bit counts.’
Li Yuan returned the remaining Demon Beast Flesh to his storage bag, sat down cross-legged, and began to circulate the Iron Bull Skill.
The progress of his Iron Bull Skill had been rising steadily these past few days.
He took two Evil Essence Pills daily. ’Evil Qi Affinity’ reduced the negative effects of the Evil Qi, ’Evil Qi Body Tempering’ converted the Evil Qi into a force that tempered his muscles and bones, and ’Medicinal Power Refinement’ improved the absorption efficiency of the pills.
With the additional Evil Qi now provided by the Demon Beast Flesh, all these factors stacked together, making his progress with the Iron Bull Skill more than twice as fast as it was back at the mining site.
Qi Blood was drawn from his Dantian and channeled into his internal organs along the path of the Iron Bull Skill.
At the same time, the accumulated Evil Qi in his body seeped into the area around his organs, applying pressure from the outside.
A dual tempering.
One cycle, two cycles, three cycles.
During the latter half of the fourth cycle, Li Yuan felt a change.
The resilience of his internal organs made a sudden leap.
It wasn’t a gradual enhancement, but the breaking of some critical point.
Under the dual tempering of Qi Blood and Evil Qi, his organs simultaneously tensed up, then relaxed in almost the same instant. After they relaxed, the texture of his organ walls changed, becoming denser and more elastic.
It was like a piece of iron being repeatedly hammered; after the countless Nth strike, its internal structure finally transformed from loose to dense.
Li Yuan slowly concluded his practice.
[Cultivation Technique: Iron Bull Skill - Minor Achievement (0/1600)]
’Minor Achievement.’
Li Yuan clenched and unclenched his fist.
Compared to the Master Level, the most direct change wasn’t in his strength, but in his resistance to blows.
He tapped his ribs a couple of times. Previously, a tap with the same force would send a dull ache through the bone. Now when he tapped, the bone didn’t even register it, and the layer of fascia beneath his skin felt like it was wrapped in a layer of soft armor, dispersing the impact.
His physical body was continuously growing stronger.
After cultivating the Iron Bull Skill, Li Yuan closed his eyes and began to circulate the Spirit-Introducing Skill.
Spiritual Qi surged into his body. The Pure Spiritual Power filtered out impurities, and the Spiritual Power itself condensed and sank into his Dantian. ’Spiritual Power Resurgence’ continued to work in the background, restoring the Spiritual Power he had consumed making talismans during the day.
His Cultivation was steadily advancing.