Three-Calamity Tribulation-Transforming Leaping Azure Talisman (Wishing My Brothers and Sisters in the North a Happy Little New Year)

Cloud Perch Continent, Eastern Yu Mountain.

Penglai Estate.

The mountain's sea of clouds rolled like waves, its rosy light gleaming brilliantly. Pavilions and towers rose one after another amid bamboo groves, pines, and cypresses, while covered corridors and cloud terraces linked the strange peaks and rugged ridges in scattered patterns.

Falling sunset clouds streamed with color; nature's treasures shone with heavenly splendor.

Amid a surging plume of smoke and flame, Fireward Rhino King revealed his true form and hurried toward the Central Mountain Cloud Hall where Jiang Sheng was.

Central Mountain towered high, cloud-jade and flowing sunset haze surrounding it. A Heavenly Star hung across the sky, while layered clouds below cradled an immortal hall.

"Master, I'm back."

Fireward Rhino King came to an abrupt stop, looking somewhat anxious.

"Do not be hasty. Remember: guard against arrogance and impatience in all things, and success will already be seven or eight parts assured."

Hearing Jiang Sheng's cool voice, Fireward Rhino King's restless impatience faded by more than half without him realizing it.

His burly, three-zhang-tall body stood there as he looked curiously at Jiang Sheng.

Dressed in plain white robes, Jiang Sheng knelt before a desk, holding a talisman brush as he traced talismans.

On either side of the desk stood bronze immortal cranes, their pointed beaks holding incense burners woven from silver threads. Wisps of blue smoke drifted leisurely from the burners and curled through the hall.

Behind a landscape screen came the soft, elegant sounds of strings and bamboo pipes, flowing like a mountain stream murmuring and bamboo leaves sighing in the wind, involuntarily calming both mind and spirit.

Music, chess, calligraphy, and painting were refined pursuits. Talisman crafting was also a refined pursuit.

To craft a talisman, one first had to calm one's heart and still one's breath,