Water Cloud Talisman Scripture

The next morning, Su Fan squatted in the small courtyard, looking at the door on the ground.

The wooden door was three inches thick, with several cracks spreading from the center in all directions.

This was Black Ironwood, which only grew in places with Spirit Veins.

There were trees like this everywhere in the surrounding mountains. They were worth little money.

In the shantytowns around the market, the beams and wooden doors used to build houses were almost all made from this kind of wood.

Moreover, its density was extremely high and its texture tough, making it the main material for crafting low-grade puppets.

None of that was the point.

The point was, how had he kicked such thick Black Ironwood apart?

He had tested himself just now, and his strength had nearly doubled compared to before.

This strength had come from nowhere, leaving him somewhat terrified.

What was even more horrifying was this.

When he woke up, the skin on his face had become dry and parched.

When he rubbed it with his hand, flakes came showering down.

His body was not as itchy, but he still could not tear off the bandages.

Su Fan examined his body, but found nothing abnormal in his internal organs or meridians.

He took a talisman from the talisman pouch at his waist and examined it carefully.

This was a Water Repelling Talisman that had already lost its spiritual power. Now he finally knew what this kind of talisman was for.

Damn it, ghosts really did exist in this world.

That was freaking terrifying.

Just then, someone knocked on the door outside, and Su Fan immediately tensed up.

He stood and glanced around the courtyard.

He had already swept away last night's bloodstains, inside and out, with furnace ash mixed with dirt.

"Who is it...?"

"Old Li, it's me, Wang Yang..."

Su Fan thought for a moment, and some scattered memories surfaced in his mind.

This person had often gone into the mountains with him to hunt monsters. His home was not far from here.

He walked over and opened the door.

The person standing outside was in his thirties, with a sturdy build and thick brows over large eyes.

When the other man saw Su Fan, he froze.

"Old Li, you're injured?"

Seeing the worry covering the other man's face, Su Fan realized that he was not wearing his Daoist robe.

His body was wrapped in layer upon layer of bandages, with dried blood in some places.

At first glance, it was indeed rather gruesome.

Su Fan coughed lightly several times and said with a bitter smile, "It's a long story..."

Wang Yang did not ask any questions. As soon as he entered, he began to complain.

"Last time, while you were away, several of us were ambushed at Old Crow Ridge. Only Jiang Hai and I made it back. The others all..."

He sighed after saying this.

"Jiang Hai's injuries are pretty serious. All his spirit stones are gone. I originally thought of coming to you... Forget it, I'll go ask someone else."

Su Fan put on an embarrassed expression and said weakly, "My injuries have only just improved a little, and I'm a bit short on funds..."

Wang Yang laughed heartily. "It's fine. Rest properly and get better. I'm leaving."

Su Fan called out to him, then took a cloth bundle from inside the house and opened it. Inside were a spirit stone and dozens of Magic Coins.

"This is all I have left. Take the spirit stone. Jiang Hai's injury is more important."

Wang Yang froze for a moment and hurriedly waved his hands. "How can I accept this..."

After saying that, he turned and walked outside. Su Fan chased after him, but the man had already left the courtyard.

Su Fan stood at the courtyard gate, watching Wang Yang's retreating back, and shook his head with a bitter smile.

This was how Rogue Cultivators survived in the market.

Even if his predecessor had not been struck to death by lightning, he would not have had a good ending.

He and these people probably would not cross paths again in the future.

Ever since transmigrating here, he had always felt an inexplicable sense of danger weighing on his heart.

The Cultivation World was dangerous. He had better keep his head down and stay alive.

Su Fan had just turned to enter the courtyard when someone beside him called his name.

He turned around and saw a middle-aged cultivator cupping his hands toward him.

The man was in his forties and at the Mid Qi Refining Stage.

He had faint brows, long eyes, sunken cheeks, and a wisp of goatee fluttering beneath his chin.

"Brother Su, long time no see..."

Su Fan also cupped his hands and smiled. "Senior Xu Wen, I hope you've been well."

This man was Xu Wen, whose home was right next door to Su Fan's.

He was quite capable. Because he could procure some resources from the Lesser Yang Sect, he had been thriving in the market.

The two had no conflicts of interest, and their relationship was normally quite good.

As neighbors on either side, they had often gathered together for a drink.

Xu Wen glanced left and right before approaching mysteriously.

"Stock up on some more spirit rice as soon as you can. If you have money to spare, you might as well buy more talismans and pills too."

After saying this, he cupped his hands, turned around, and entered the neighboring courtyard.

Su Fan was somewhat bewildered. The other man had always been well-informed. Could something have happened to the Lesser Yang Sect?

Tomorrow, he should make time to visit the market.

Whatever had happened, it was better to be prepared.

Over the past two days, he did not know what was going on, but his appetite had increased greatly, and he was almost out of spirit rice.

He entered the courtyard and went into the inner room.

Sitting on the cushion atop the earthen bed, he took the Bandit Leader's Storage Bag from his waist.

This Storage Bag was two cubic meters, twice as large as the one he had sold.

In a shop in the market, it would cost at least two hundred spirit stones.

He took out everything inside and dumped a large pile onto the earthen bed.

Su Fan picked up a small saber. The name of the magic artifact, "Azure Cloud Saber," was engraved on its hilt. It was a low-grade magic artifact.

It was only the size of a palm, black as ink from tip to hilt, with a razor-sharp edge shining with a cold, ghostly light.

Last night, Su Fan had truly witnessed the might of this magic artifact.

Not only was it incredibly fast, its power was also formidable. Ordinary magic swords were utterly outclassed.

Even a mid-grade "Golden Shield Talisman" had shattered after blocking only two strikes.

If they had fought head-on instead of being ambushed, he would have had no chance at all.

Even after gaining the initiative, if his movements had been just a little slower, he would not have been sitting here now.

He would keep it for now. It was not as if he could use it anyway.

When he was reduced to scraping the bottom of the pot, he could exchange it for spirit stones.

There were quite a lot of pills, fifteen bottles in total.

Only two bottles of "Yellow Spirit Pill," used by mid-stage cultivators, were worth anything.

There were twenty pills in each bottle, all untouched.

The market price was eighteen spirit stones per bottle, or two spirit stones per pill.

The rest were Qi Replenishing Pills, Detoxification Pills, Hemostatic Pills, Life Extending Pills, and other essential pills for cultivators venturing into the wild. They were not worth more than a few spirit stones.

There were also quite a few healing medicines such as Tianji Bone-Mending Paste and Dragon Tiger Creation Powder.

There were more than a hundred talismans, but not a single attack talisman.

There were three mid-grade Wood Armor Talismans for protection—the same kind the bandit cultivator had used to shield his body last night.

In Su Fan's eyes, any talisman that could save his life and protect him was a good talisman.

The rest were low-grade auxiliary talismans. There were many different types, and they were probably all spoils the group had seized.

Su Fan selected several talismans, all of them Evil Warding Talismans and Evil Exorcising Talismans.

He would definitely need to keep several of these talismans on hand in the future. If he encountered those filthy things again, he would at least have a way to deal with them.

What surprised him most was that there was also a complete set of Talisman Making Tools.

It included two Talisman Brushes, several bottles of Talisman Ink, more than a dozen sheets of talisman hide, and two bundles of Talisman Paper.

The rest consisted of forty-five spirit stones, monster materials, spirit herbs, spirit ores, and various miscellaneous items.

The other bandit cultivators were much poorer.

They had only a few magic swords, more than twenty auxiliary talismans, over fifty spirit stones, and several hundred Magic Coins. The rest could be ignored.

Although these people were not professional bandit cultivators, they had still done plenty of dirty work.

The things in their Storage Bags were varied and utterly miscellaneous. Their origins were probably all improper.

Unfortunately, he had not found that secret technique that could locate him without tracking him. It was truly miraculous.

Su Fan put everything into the Storage Bag, leaving only a stack of books.

He looked through them one by one, kept one, and stored the rest away.

"Water Cloud Talisman Scripture," volume one, written by a talisman master of the Water Cloud Sect of Qin.

This was no common, widely available book like Explanation of First-Order Talismans.

It contained the talisman-making experience passed down through generations of talisman masters from the Water Cloud Sect and was extremely precious.

Although he only had the first half, the opening chapters were all basic knowledge of talisman-making.

In Su Fan's eyes, this book was absolutely a treasure, exceptionally friendly to a beginner like him.

It explained all kinds of brush techniques, the use of spiritual power, and other basic skills in extraordinary detail.

More than a hundred years ago, the Water Cloud Sect had been destroyed by the demonic sects.

The person who possessed this scripture was probably a descendant of a Water Cloud Sect inheritor.

That set of Talisman Making Tools might have belonged to this talisman master as well.

Many of those auxiliary talismans had probably also been drawn by him.

Unfortunately, this talisman master's fate had most likely already been a tragic one.

The scripture also recorded twelve first-order talismans, along with the talisman-making experience summarized by successive generations of talisman masters.

There were nine first-order low-grade auxiliary talismans in total.

They included the Cleaning Talisman, Muting Talisman, Green Lamp Talisman, Night Illuminating Talisman, Water Repelling Talisman, Disease Dispelling Talisman, Armor Horse Talisman, and Arrow Repelling Talisman.

There were three mid-grade talismans, all auxiliary types as well: the Thousand Jin Talisman, Evil Exorcising Talisman, and Quicksand Talisman.

The Evil Exorcising Talisman should be similar to the Evil Warding Talisman, specifically meant to deal with Evil Spirits and ghosts.

The other two talismans were also quite good, both being extremely practical auxiliary talismans.

The Thousand Jin Talisman could impose several times the force of gravity on an enemy, leaving the opponent clumsy and sluggish.

The Quicksand Talisman was even more impressive. It could turn an area several dozen yards across into quicksand, hindering and slowing enemies.

Unfortunately, both talismans were mid-grade. One could only attempt to craft them after reaching the Mid Qi Refining Stage.

Because he had possessed Explanation of First-Order Talismans, Su Fan had once wanted to try learning the Path of Talismans.

But when he had asked around in the market, even the cheapest Talisman Brush cost more than ten spirit stones, while high-grade brushes often cost several hundred.

Adding in talisman hide, Talisman Paper, and Talisman Ink, the initial investment would be close to twenty spirit stones at the very least.

Compared to learning the Path of Talismans, keeping his life was naturally more important.

So he could only give up and instead invest his spirit stones in talismans that could save his life.

As it turned out, the choice he had made back then had been truly brilliant.

If not for those few mid-grade talismans, his corpse would have long since been dumped into a ditch in the shantytown.

Moreover, his initial investment had brought him rich returns.

Not only had he earned back several times the spirit stones, he had also obtained a complete set of Talisman Making Tools and the Water Cloud Sect's talisman scripture inheritance.

Last night's gains alone were substantial. The Azure Cloud Saber, for instance, was worth more than a hundred spirit stones.

There were more than a hundred spirit stones and nearly a thousand Magic Coins.

As for the two-cubic-meter Storage Bag, even if he sold it to a shop, he could get more than a hundred spirit stones for it.

Adding in the other gains, the total came to nearly four hundred spirit stones.

After visiting the market again tomorrow and replenishing some daily necessities, he would have enough to lie flat for a while.

This crisis had given Su Fan a deeper understanding of this world.

In the past, he had always habitually used the mindset of his previous life to explain this fantastical and sinister Cultivation World.

If not for his good luck, he would have been dead last night.

When all was said and done, his cultivation level was simply too low.

He would first set a small goal: break through the bottleneck of the Qi Refining Second Layer.

Then he would set a long-term goal: advance to the Mid Qi Refining Stage as soon as possible.

Thanks to Old Yao Is Also a Monster, Webnovel Generation Two, Beacon Fire Linking the Cities V Opens the Heavens, Ah, I Didn't Take My Medicine YesirNoNo, Book Friend 20220920151710454, Liu Xianzi Zhu Chui Kou Shao Ren, and everyone else for your support and encouragement. Old Bu was endlessly grateful.