Azure Crow Talismans

Having finally gotten a few days of leisure on Funiu Mountain, Song Qingming returned to Mujiao Town to visit his family, only to find that the household had happened upon a joyous occasion as well.

Song Qingming's fourth younger brother had married a year ago and had recently welcomed a son. The family was discussing when to hold the child's half-month celebration feast when Song Qingming happened to return home. His father, Song Dezhang, decided that rather than pick a day, they might as well seize the day, and the family laid out a grand feast the very next day.

The banquet went on for two days straight, with an endless stream of guests coming and going. Many relatives and friends from Mujiao Town came bearing congratulatory gifts. Ever since Song Qingming had become an immortal cultivator, the Song Family had become a prominent wealthy household in this part of western Mujiao Town. Naturally, many people now sought to attach themselves to them.

After the banquet, Mother Song led her daughter-in-law, who carried the newborn child, into a quiet room in the back courtyard. Seeing Song Qingming sitting upright inside with a book in his hands, Mother Song smiled and said,

"Third Son, your father said you'll be leaving again tomorrow. Who knows when you'll return?"

A flash of azure light passed over the book in Song Qingming's hand as he placed it into his Storage Bag. After a pause, he answered softly, "Your son has accepted a family assignment to guard an outlying Spirit Mountain. I will not return to the mountain for another year. Once I return, I will have two years of free time for cultivation, so I certainly will not make Mother miss me for too long."

His parents had already reached the age of playing with grandchildren, an age that was no longer young among mortals. Though they had taken some low-grade spirit fruits Song Qingming had obtained from the mountain and showed no obvious signs of aging yet, Song Qingming understood that a mortal's lifespan was no more than around sixty years. He only hoped the two elders would remain for a few more years for him to worry about.

"Your father discussed it with me yesterday. We still wanted to ask you to name this eldest grandson, so he might borrow some of your immortal aura. Perhaps this child will have a chance to ascend to immortality someday as well." Mother Song smilingly took the child from her daughter-in-law and brought him before Song Qingming.

His younger brother's wife was also a woman from a scholarly family. Since marrying into the Song Family, she had diligently managed the household and honored her parents-in-law, deeply winning Mother Song's favor. At this moment, her eyes were full of anticipation as she watched Song Qingming think.

"A few months ago, the family made a trip to the Floating Cloud Mountain Range. Our luck was fairly good, and even I gained quite a few opportunities. Then I came back just in time for this child to be born. I think he should be called Yunshan!"

"Song Yunshan." Mother Song repeated the name. Finding it quite agreeable, she nodded and had her daughter-in-law carry the child out first.

"Third Son, I know you immortals do not like to be tainted by us mortals' worldly air. You have your own matters to attend to. Thanks to your blessings, life at home has been getting better and better. Mother has nothing else to ask of you. I only hope you can come back and visit often."

Although Song Qingming had been home these past few days, he had mostly remained in his own room. Apart from a few family members, he had not interacted with anyone else. Mother Song also understood that immortals and mortals were ultimately different. Her son no longer truly belonged in this little house.

"The reason I did not wish to go out and meet people these past two days was merely because I feared people in town would gossip about our family. After all, those on the mountain all have worldly relatives. Matters below the mountain will inevitably reach the mountain, and people may say that I do not observe the family rules and involve myself too deeply in worldly affairs."

"I rather like this little room the family left for me. Over the past few days, I have set up an array within it. When I am away, do not let anyone enter, lest they trigger the array and suffer for it. Mother, rest assured. Whenever I have the time, I will certainly come back often."

Mother Song nodded after hearing this, then sighed. "Ai, you have grown up. You have become much more mature in the way you conduct yourself, but Mother always feels that you are no longer as cheerful as you were when you were little."

"Mother, people have to grow up eventually, don't they?" Song Qingming said with a mischievous smile. Looking at him, Mother Song felt as though he had returned to how he had been in his youth.

After seeing Mother Song off, Song Qingming took out his flying sword and carefully pried up a stone floor tile in the room. He dug a small pit and placed the jade box containing the Water Spirit Fruit inside, then slowly restored the stone slab to its original position. He had no use for the item yet, and keeping it on his person at all times was somewhat inappropriate. He might as well hide the Water Spirit Fruit in Mujiao Town. This place lay within Funiu Mountain's Mountain Protection Array, making it far safer than hiding it on Lingyuan Mountain.

After staying on Funiu Mountain for several days, Song Qingming finally received Fourth Elder Song Gucai's permission to return to Lingyuan Mountain.

Having been gone for over two months, Ninth Uncle Song Changxin had missed him greatly. During Song Qingming's absence, the family had not assigned anyone else to help at Lingyuan Mountain due to a lack of manpower. In order to keep watch over the mine's normal operations, Song Changxin had been unable to enter prolonged secluded cultivation during this time.

The moment Song Changxin saw Song Qingming return, he tossed him a pile of Spirit Talismans and miscellaneous items, then immediately went back into secluded cultivation. Song Qingming also quickly resumed his former life of guarding the mountain while cultivating.

This time, however, Song Qingming had brought back a great many spirit items from Guiyun Marketplace, so he would be just as busy in the days ahead.

Half a month ago at Guiyun Marketplace, Song Qingming had spent several hundred Spirit Stones in a single day. His once well-stocked Storage Bag had instantly become poor again, and he now had only a few dozen Spirit Stones left on him.

On his way back, Song Qingming had already decided that he needed to find a way to broaden his sources of income.

After pondering it throughout the journey, Song Qingming still chose to improve his own Talisman Making first. After desperately making talismans for the past two years, his Talisman Making had reached a bottleneck where he could break through. Over the past half year, he had also begun attempting to make mid-grade Spirit Talismans. Though he had ultimately failed every time, that was because Caolu Mountain lacked the materials needed to make mid-grade Spirit Talismans, making it impossible to purchase them in large quantities.

Now that he had exchanged for a considerable amount of mid-grade Talisman Paper at Guiyun Marketplace, he finally had the confidence to break through to Mid-grade Talisman Master. As long as he could produce mid-grade Spirit Talismans in large quantities from now on, he would not need to worry about lacking Spirit Stones for quite some time.

A Mid-grade Spirit Talisman sold for several times the price of a low-grade Spirit Talisman. Although its production cost would likewise increase, as long as he could achieve a thirty percent success rate, the profit would still be substantial. It was nothing like the low-grade Spirit Talismans Song Qingming had made day after day in the past.

Mid-grade Spirit Talismans also sold much better on the market than low-grade Spirit Talismans. Even on Caolu Mountain, Song Qingming did not need to worry too much about finding buyers.

The Song Family's path of Talisman Making was somewhat renowned among the nearby Qi Refining Families. Not only had the family trained two high-grade Talisman Masters, it also had six Mid-grade Talisman Masters. Even an Arduous Cultivator like Ninth Uncle, who devoted most of his time to cultivation, had managed to raise his Talisman Making to the mid-grade level in his spare time.

After returning to his residence, Song Qingming first took out the Talisman Making manual he had obtained at Guiyun Marketplace and began studying it.

This Talisman Making manual was called "Azure Crow Talismans," written by Daoist Azure Crow, a Grade 2 Low-grade Talisman Master. Although it did not record many kinds of Spirit Talismans and was not worth much on the market, it contained detailed records of this rogue cultivator Talisman Master's lifetime of experience in Talisman Making, along with many of his personal insights into the path of talismans. The experience of a Grade 2 Talisman Master still held some value for a low-level Talisman Master like Song Qingming.

After carefully reading it several times, Song Qingming benefited greatly. He then took out the Song Family's talisman manual and compared them in detail, discovering many shared principles and ingenious methods. This senior cultivator known as Azure Crow Master indeed possessed some unique insights into the path of Talisman Making.

"Azure Crow Talismans" did not record many talisman patterns, far fewer than the Song Family's Talisman Making manual. However, its explanations of the talisman-making process were extremely meticulous, providing Song Qingming with considerable help in improving his Talisman Making.

Taking out the talisman brush he had not used in several months and opening the various Talisman Making materials he had collected, Song Qingming once again began his path toward greater mastery of the talisman arts.