Chapter 46 - 45: Entry Level

Chapter 46: Chapter 45: Entry Level

Half a year passed quietly.

Chen Jianghe held the Talisman Pen in his hand. He held his breath and concentrated his Heart and Mind. His strokes flowed as if guided by divine inspiration, drawing on the Talisman Paper like a Wandering Dragon. A streak of flowing light flashed by. A Lower-Grade Water Arrow Talisman was successfully drawn!

PU!

At that exact moment, the hairs on the Fairy’s first-hand Talisman Pen completely shed, revealing a dark, cracked tip.

"Another finished product. Not bad," Chen Jianghe said. He retracted his Magical Power back into his Qi Sea, set the Fur Light Peach Wood Pen Holder aside, and picked up the newly drawn Water Arrow Talisman.

The Spiritual Qi was evenly distributed, and the strokes were vigorous, giving it an excellent appearance. Over the course of half a year, he had consumed twenty-seven pieces of Talisman Paper and successfully drawn four Water Arrow Talismans. One was a defective product that could only unleash a two-inch Water Arrow. The other three Water Arrow Talismans were quite normal; he had tested one, and it was capable of releasing a three-foot Water Arrow, comparable to a strike from a cultivator at the Third-Layer Qi Refining.

After drawing Lower-Grade Spiritual Talismans, Chen Jianghe finally realized that he had taken things for granted. Basic Spirit Talismans were the simplest, and Inferior Spirit Talismans were relatively easy, but the difficulty of Lower-Grade Spiritual Talismans suddenly multiplied tenfold. Not only did the drawing time increase, but the consumption of his Heart and Mind also multiplied several times over.

This was especially true for his Magical Power; with his Cultivation at the Fourth-Layer Qi Refining, he could actually only sustain the drawing of Lower-Grade Spiritual Talismans three times. Perhaps it was because he hadn’t fully grasped the techniques for drawing Lower-Grade Spiritual Talismans, but this consumption was simply too massive. Every time he finished drawing a Spirit Talisman, he needed three to five days to restore his Magical Power. Furthermore, the increase in drawing time, steps, and difficulty ultimately led to a higher consumption of materials. As a result, the Lower-Grade Peach Wood Talisman Pen reached the end of its lifespan.

He had seventeen pieces of Talisman Paper and less than half a box of Spiritual Ink left. At his beginner’s rate of consumption, he estimated they would last for about ten more attempts. In total, he had obtained nineteen Spirit Talismans: ten Purifying Talismans, seven Water Condensation Talismans, and two Lower-Grade Water Arrow Talismans. Therefore, if he wanted to continue drawing Spirit Talismans, he would need to visit the Workshop Association to buy a new Talisman Pen.

Over the past seven months, he had successfully drawn one type of Lower-Grade Spiritual Talisman, which barely qualified him as Entry Level in the Talisman Dao. Once he could draw five types of Lower-Grade Spiritual Talismans, he would officially become a Tier One Lower-Grade Talisman Master.

Initially, it had taken him less than a month to successfully draw the Purifying Talisman and the Water Condensation Talisman with a success rate of over ninety percent. He originally believed that his Talent in the Talisman Dao was extremely high. After all, he was entirely self-taught without any formal Talisman Dao inheritance; usually, anyone who could achieve Entry Level through self-study within three months was considered a Talisman Dao genius, let alone his feat of doing it in less than a month.

Yet in reality, Inferior Spirit Talismans and Lower-Grade Spiritual Talismans were two entirely different beasts with completely different difficulty levels. Taking nearly seven months to reach Entry Level in the Talisman Dao meant his Talent in the Talisman Dao was only average. Still, this wasn’t bad at all. At the very least, he was Entry Level. As long as he kept grinding away and putting in the time, he would eventually become a Lower-Grade Talisman Master. With an extra source of income, he and Little Black would be able to buy more resources for their Cultivation.

"I still have two Spirit Stones, sixty-eight grains of Spiritual Sand, and two Water Arrow Talismans right now, which is enough to buy a truly ’high-quality’ secondhand Talisman Pen," Chen Jianghe muttered to himself.

Since there were still more than five months before he needed to reward Little Black with a Qi Nourishing Pill, he could absolutely divert his Spirit Stones toward drawing Spirit Talismans for now. After all, this was an investment that would yield returns. Furthermore, with Little Black handling the feeding of the Little Cyan Fish, he had nothing else to do outside of his fixed daily Cultivation meditation for three hours. In the past, he used that free time to study Magic, but now he could use it to draw Spirit Talismans.

His mind settled, he stood up and walked out of the cabin, rowing his boat toward Port No.1 to purchase a Talisman Pen and some Talisman-Making Materials.

After arriving at the port, Chen Jianghe headed straight for the Marketplace, only to find quite a few Fishermen and Farmers gathered in small groups in front of the archway, discussing something in low voices. He slowed his pace and pricked up his ears to listen.

"Lann Tianxiang is dead! I heard he tried to snatch an auctioned Low-Quality Foundation Establishment Pill at the Qinghe Marketplace and was beaten to death on the spot by a Foundation Establishment Ancestor there."

"Your version of Lann Tianxiang is fake. Half a month ago, Lann Tianxiang broke into the Bai Family’s Qiyun Marketplace and robbed over a thousand Spirit Stones’ worth of resources. Before leaving, he even conjured a ten-zhang-long Water Dragon that crashed into and collapsed the drum tower of the Qiyun Marketplace!"

"Fellow Daoist, yours might not be accurate either. If I remember correctly, Lann Tianxiang practices the Red Flame Flood Dragon Technique, which is a Fire Element Technique. How could he possibly conjure a ten-zhang Water Dragon?"

"What do you know? What if Lann Tianxiang practices the Water and Fire Dual System for his Dual Cultivation?"

"Bullshit! Have you ever heard of anyone succeeding in Water and Fire Cultivation?"

"Ahem, all of your stories are fake. The Demon Cultivator who launched a surprise attack on the Yun Family’s Qingyun Mine three days ago is the real Lann Tianxiang. He stole hundreds of Spirit Stones and even injured and killed several Mid-Stage Qi Refining Yun Family disciples."

"Yours isn’t guaranteed to be true either. The Magical Artifact doesn’t match up. Lann Tianxiang uses the Profound Celestial Dragon Pattern Rope, but the Magical Artifact your Demon Cultivator used was a saber."

"..."

Listening to the ensuing discussions, Chen Jianghe walked through the archway. The news regarding Lann Tianxiang was getting more and more ridiculous. Previously, Lann Tianxiang had reportedly appeared in three places simultaneously, but now, he was supposedly everywhere. He had even supposedly robbed the Qinghe Marketplace. Was Lann Tianxiang really that stupid? The Qinghe Marketplace was the largest Marketplace within a Fang Yuan of three thousand miles, guarded by three Foundation Establishment Ancestors.

Uninterested in such gossip, he entered the Workshop Association and headed straight to the stall where he had previously bought his Talisman-Making Materials. Without wasting any words, he directly asked if the vendor had any secondhand Talisman Pens.

After a quarter of an hour of haggling, Chen Jianghe paid two Spirit Stones, two Water Arrow Talismans, seven Water Condensation Talismans, and ten Purifying Talismans. The two Water Arrow Talismans were bought back at a ten percent discount off the market price, valued at one Spirit Stone and eighty grains of Spiritual Sand. The Water Condensation Talismans and Purifying Talismans combined were counted as fifteen grains of Spiritual Sand.

Water Condensation Talismans could be sold for ten grains of Spiritual Sand on the streets, but that required finding a buyer yourself, and Chen Jianghe simply didn’t have the time for that. Cultivators had no use for such things anyway, so he disposed of them all together in exchange for Spiritual Sand. Afterward, he left with twenty sheets of High-Quality Yellow Paper, a box of Spiritual Ink, and a high-quality Fairy’s first-hand Talisman Pen.

Indeed, this middle-aged stall owner only sold first-hand Talisman Pens previously used by a Fairy. This secondhand Talisman Pen was still in decent condition. The brush hairs were not severely worn, and it should still be good for around two hundred uses. He snagged it for two Spirit Stones and fifty-five grains of Spiritual Sand. Following that, he went to the market to purchase some daily necessities before leaving the port.

Just as he returned to the breeding waters, he heard the cry of a White Egret.

"CAW CAW!"

A White Egret landed on the bow of the boat, a letter tube strapped to its slender leg.

"What is this?" Chen Jianghe murmured. He noticed a small, bulging pouch slung around the White Egret’s neck. As he reached to retrieve the letter tube, the White Egret lowered its head, and the pouch slid into his hand.

He took the pouch and the letter tube back into the cabin. He opened the letter tube first to find a letter from Yu Daniu.

The first thing that caught his eye were Yu Daniu’s greetings, followed by his smug boasting. His Fifth Brother was born. It was another boy. He hadn’t been named yet; they would wait until New Year’s Eve to decide. Chen Jianghe chuckled as he finished reading Yu Daniu’s letter. While sighing in amazement at Yu Daniu’s unbelievable luck, he also figured out what the item in the pouch was.

It turned out that the pouch contained a Jade Scroll, which recorded the basic common sense of the Cultivation Realm as compiled by the Yun Family. Chen Jianghe took out the Jade Scroll. It was about the size of a thumb, made entirely of white jade, and exquisitely compact. As long as one projected their Divine Sense into it, they could read the recorded contents with extreme convenience. However, Jade Scrolls were quite expensive and were exclusively used by large Cultivator families. Therefore, Yu Daniu had instructed him in the letter to read it quickly and return it when New Year’s Eve arrived.