Chapter 89 - 86: Growth in Talisman Art
Chapter 89: Chapter 86: Growth in Talisman Art
After returning to the Market District, Li Yuan went to the guard headquarters early the next morning.
The courtyard was much quieter than before their departure. Many hadn’t returned, having stayed behind on the outskirts to support the Loose Cultivators.
Song Tiezhu and the other four were already inside, however. Li Yuan called the five of them over.
He then took out his storage bag and emptied it of all the Demon Beast materials he had collected over the past few days.
There were quite a few hides, but only four were intact; the rest were torn pieces of Demon Beast pelts. There was also a pile of beast bones of various sizes, along with a large quantity of beast meat and other materials.
"We’ll divide it based on contribution."
No one objected.
On this trip, Li Yuan had personally taken down at least seventy percent of the Demon Beasts hunted by Team Four. He was almost always the first to strike with his Fireball Technique and Fire Arrow Skill, dealing with most Demon Beasts from a distance before they even had a chance to get close.
The others had contributed, but their efforts paled in comparison to Li Yuan’s.
Li Yuan pulled the four intact hides and most of the meat toward himself. He pushed the remaining materials over to the others.
"Divide these among yourselves."
Han Xiaoyi was the first to reach out, selecting a few partially damaged hides and two pieces of bone. Song Tiezhu, Tian Qi, and Xu Qing each took a share. Zhao An’s leg injury hadn’t fully healed, and he couldn’t quite reach from his stool, so Xu Qing picked out a portion for him and set it aside.
After everything was divided, Li Yuan bundled up his share of the materials and hefted it, gauging its weight.
His assets were nothing to sneeze at. But Spirit Stones were one thing, and raw materials were another. The materials were only useful once converted into cold, hard cash.
For things like pelts and hides, Talisman Master Lu was the best person to sell to.
Li Yuan bid farewell to the others and left the guard headquarters.
The Market District was far livelier than it had been before his departure.
The stalls on both sides of East Street were nearly all occupied, with some vendors even setting up canopies at the mouths of alleys. A large number of people had evacuated from the Loose Cultivator market, and combined with the local Loose Cultivators and traveling merchants, the streets were so packed it was difficult to even turn around.
The calls of vendors selling herbs, ores, Talismans, and Demon Beast materials rose and fell in waves. There were even a few makeshift porridge stalls, steam rising from them, with long lines of people waiting.
Li Yuan didn’t linger on the street. He cut through a few alleys and went straight to the rented room where Talisman Master Lu lived.
The door was open, and Talisman Master Lu was sitting behind a table, cutting talisman paper.
Seeing Li Yuan enter, Talisman Master Lu glanced up, his eyes immediately landing on the bulging cloth bundle in the young man’s hands.
"Selling something?"
"Yes."
Li Yuan placed the bundle on the table, untied it, and laid out the four intact hides and the beast bones one by one.
Talisman Master Lu put down his paper cutter, his hands pausing in surprise.
Four intact hides: two Tier One Middle Grade and two Tier One Low Grade. Their quality was decent—the incisions were clean, with no major burns or damage. The same was true for the beast bones; their cross-sections were clean, and all the valuable parts had been preserved.
Talisman Master Lu didn’t ask where the items came from, nor did he question how Li Yuan could produce so many at once.
He inspected each of the four hides, turned over the bones, and finally gathered everything together.
"I’ll take it all."
Talisman Master Lu began counting out Spirit Stones from a drawer beneath his table.
Twelve Spirit Stones for one of the complete Tier One Middle Grade hides, and ten for the other, as its quality was slightly inferior. Five Spirit Stones each for the two Tier One Low Grade hides. The beast bones, depending on their quality and size, added up to another dozen or so Spirit Stones.
"Fifty-two in total."
Talisman Master Lu arranged the Spirit Stones into several stacks and pushed them across the table to Li Yuan.
Li Yuan counted them before sweeping them into his sleeve.
With fifty-two Spirit Stones pocketed, his wealth was now greater than all his previous savings combined.
Li Yuan didn’t leave immediately. He remained standing before the table and asked a question.
"I want to advance my skills in the Talisman Dao. What are my options?"
Talisman Master Lu folded the hides on the table and set them aside, then picked up his paper cutter and resumed his work.
"Two paths."
He spoke as he worked, without looking up.
"The first is to practice more. But that’s obvious, so it’s not much of an answer."
The cutter slid across the paper. SLICE. A sheet of talisman paper was cut free.
"The second is to find a teacher."
Talisman Master Lu stacked the finished sheets to one side before finally looking up at Li Yuan.
"How far you can go exploring on your own depends on your talent. But with someone to guide you, you’ll avoid a great many wrong turns."
"Some crucial techniques and secrets simply can’t be figured out through self-practice alone."
Talisman Master Lu paused for a moment.
"You’ve bought the creation method for the Fireball Talisman from me before, and you’ve learned a few things from Yu Talisman Master as well. It’s not out of the question for me to teach you something more advanced."
He tapped the back of the cutter on the tabletop twice.
"But the old rule still stands: a skill for a skill. If you have a new technique to offer, I’ll teach you something of corresponding value."
Li Yuan nodded.
"Deal."
After leaving Talisman Master Lu’s place, Li Yuan walked north along East Street for some distance.
He bought a high-quality talisman brush at a Loose Cultivator’s stall.
It was a bit thicker than the fine-bristled brush he had been using. The shaft was made of dark Spirit Wood, and the tip was long and slender. When dipped in ink, it conducted Spiritual Power much more smoothly than an ordinary brush.
It cost seven Spirit Stones.
He then visited a few more stalls and bought all the Vein Relaxing Pills he could find.
He collected six from the Loose Cultivator stalls, managed to find four more at a traveling merchant’s temporary setup, and Old Sun still had two he’d put aside for him earlier.
Twelve Vein Relaxing Pills, for a total of twenty-four Spirit Stones.
Including the talisman brush and a batch of Cyan Pattern Paper, Spiritual Ink, and other talisman-making supplies, the shopping trip consumed the better part of his fifty-two Spirit Stones.
Combined with his previous savings, he had about twenty Spirit Stones left in his sleeve.
Back at his residence, Li Yuan slid the bolt on his door and cleared his desk.
He spread out a sheet of talisman paper, ground the Spiritual Ink, and twirled the new brush in his hand.
The shaft was heavier than his old one, providing a more solid grip. The flow of Spiritual Power from his fingertips to the brush tip was indeed smoother.
Li Yuan dipped the brush in ink and set it to the paper.
He was drawing a Fireball Talisman.
His opening stroke was steady, and the first few Fire Patterns were drawn smoothly.
As he layered the Fire Gathering Patterns in the middle section, he pressed his Spiritual Power into the paper. The surface of the talisman glowed faintly as Spiritual Power flowed through the patterns before finally converging in the Talisman Core.
Success.
Li Yuan set the finished talisman aside and spread out a second sheet of paper.
A second, a third, a fourth...
His success rate with Fireball Talismans was much higher now. Tier One Low Grade Combat Talismans weren’t as easy to mass-produce as basic ones, but going by his current feel for it, his success rate was already quite high.
Li Yuan didn’t stop. He kept drawing.
After finishing a batch of Fireball Talismans, Li Yuan switched papers and practiced drawing a few Cleaning Talismans and Exorcism Talismans.
His success rate with basic talismans was also on the rise. He succeeded with six out of seven Cleaning Talismans, and five out of six Exorcism Talismans.
Although they didn’t sell for much, their strength was in volume. There was always a demand for Cleaning Talismans in the Market District, and with the recent frequency of Demon Beast attacks, Exorcism Talismans were also selling better than before.
After a full night of work, only a thin layer of failed talismans lay on the corner of his desk, while the pile of finished products was substantial.
The data on his panel was changing as well.
[Fireball Talisman: Novice (143/200)]
[Cleaning Talisman: Skilled (0/400)]
[Exorcism Talisman: Skilled (0/400)]
[Warning Talisman: Novice (167/200)]
Both the Cleaning Talisman and the Exorcism Talisman had reached the Skilled level.
For the next two days, Li Yuan poured nearly all his free time into making talismans.
Zhao Hu and Zheng Xiaoman were constantly running errands, so they didn’t require much of Li Yuan’s supervision.
He spent all his remaining time at his residence drawing talismans.
The Fireball Talisman was his main focus.
The Fireball Technique was already the form of Magic Li Yuan knew best. In addition, with the boosts from his two permanent traits, Flame Marrow Physique and Swift Fire Casting, his control over Fire Spiritual Power was far more refined than that of other Cultivators at his level.
When it came to talisman creation, this translated into increasingly clean layering of the Fire Gathering Patterns and a progressively more stable convergence at the Talisman Core.
After two days, his success rate with the Fireball Talisman stabilized at over sixty percent.
[Fireball Talisman: Skilled (12/400)]
The Fireball Talisman had also broken through to the Skilled level.
At the same time, Li Yuan took Vein Relaxing Pills at every opportunity, alternating his cultivation between the Spirit-Introducing Skill and the Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill.
In less than three days, he had consumed more than half of the twelve Vein Relaxing Pills. His meridians were repeatedly expanded and contracted as Spiritual Power surged through them, and the Spiritual Power within his Dantian became much denser than it was before his trip.
His Qi Refining Sixth Level Cultivation progressed steadily. Although he was still a good distance from the bottleneck, he could feel that his advancement was rapid.