The Easy Mode of Talisman Crafting

Within his Sea of Consciousness, six Silver runes drifted and bobbed. Luo Hong could not fully understand them, but he could be certain that they were the foundation of this world, holding a status equivalent to the atoms that made up all matter.

Taking out a finished Water Bullet Talisman bestowed by his family, Luo Hong could spot traces of those six Silver runes at a glance amid its complex Rune Patterns.

He switched to a Water Shield Talisman. Though it was somewhat more difficult, he could still distinguish the Silver Runes within it.

Luo Hong immediately realized that this ability was the greatest gain from his enlightenment. It meant that the Talisman Dao, distilled through tens of thousands of years of experience by predecessors of the Cultivation World, would become his nourishment and help him swiftly master a vast number of Silver runes.

It was still unclear what benefits this would bring to Luo Hong's future cultivation, but one thing was certain: when it came to talisman crafting, he had entered easy mode.

He spread out a sheet of Yellow Talisman Paper, dipped his Talisman Brush into some ordinary ink, and circulated his Magic Power as he set the brush down.

The instant the brush touched the paper, incredibly fine cracks appeared across it. Yet under the intense external pressure, those cracks showed no sign of spreading further.

As he began tracing the lines, Luo Hong used his old method of going by feel so that he could observe how changes in Magic Power formed Silver runes.

His first attempt at crafting a talisman ended in failure, just as expected.

The Rune Pattern he had drawn was surrounded by tiny cracks. The moment it left the Spirit Gathering Array, the talisman paper would undoubtedly burst apart and ignite.

Moreover, the crucial Silver runes had not been formed successfully. This talisman was a complete and utter failure.

In addition, Luo Hong discovered that his Golden Finger could provide tremendous assistance in talisman crafting.

First, relying on his physical examination data, Luo Hong could precisely control the amount of Magic Power he used. Thus, it was impossible for him to burst the talisman paper by pouring in too much Magic Power, or to run out of strength midway through the crafting process by pouring in too little, affecting the talisman's quality as well.

Second, due to Luo Hong's improved understanding of talismans, he could now see a new entry on them called "Completion Degree."

Without question, this was an enormous help to Luo Hong's talisman-crafting practice.

At the same time, he gained a clearer understanding of the essence of his Golden Finger: it precisely expressed his own vague understanding of things through data.

One sheet, two sheets. Ten sheets, a hundred sheets!

Luo Hong immersed himself in talisman crafting. The Talisman Brush in his hand no longer adhered to fixed formulas, shedding every restraint. His goal was not to produce finished talismans, but to study the relationship between the flow of Magic Power, the shape of the ink, and Silver runes.

Whenever his Magic Power was exhausted, he went outside the Spirit Gathering Array to meditate and recover. He hurriedly dealt with food and water while casting rain in the main house.

Half a month flashed by. More than a thousand sheets of Yellow Talisman Paper became scraps, and Luo Hong finally grasped the technique for drawing Silver runes.

The process was somewhat like knowing plaintext and ciphertext, then inferring the conversion relationship between the two.

Half a month of neglecting food and sleep left Luo Hong looking somewhat haggard, but he decided to craft one finished Water Bullet Talisman before taking a proper rest.

He raised his brush, dipped it in the Demon Blood of an Ink Cloud Frog, and gathered 4 units of Magic Power at the tip.

The brush fell. With a slight movement of his wrist, Luo Hong traced the Rune Pattern in an instant.

He lifted the brush without taking away a trace of Magic Power. The talisman was complete.

The Water Bullet Talisman Luo Hong crafted differed only slightly from those sold on the market, yet anyone with an eye for quality would see that it brimmed with Magic Power, spiritual light hidden within its Rune Pattern. It was surely a superior talisman whose power far surpassed others of its kind and which activated with remarkable speed.

After admiring the first talisman he had made for a while, Luo Hong returned to his bedroom and collapsed into sleep.

Only after sleeping for more than seven shichen did Luo Hong wake from his dreams with a stretch. Once he had cleared his head a little, he Took Out Again his talisman-crafting tools and, in one smooth flow, crafted three more excellent Water Bullet Talismans in succession.

Had those talisman-crafting masters outside learned of this, they would have gasped in envy until they died. Before crafting a talisman, they wished they could fast and bathe for three days, and even then they could not guarantee success with every attempt at their most skilled talismans.

Yet Luo Hong had merely done it casually after waking up, and his success rate was one hundred percent.

There was simply no comparison!

This was the difference between crafting talismans by feel and crafting them after understanding their principles. For Luo Hong, as long as he had thoroughly grasped a talisman, there was no such thing as a failure rate.

Furthermore, his method of crafting talismans by directly striking at their essence could bypass a major shackle that plagued all talisman crafters: he did not first have to learn the corresponding Spell to craft its matching talisman. He only needed to understand the Silver runes contained within it.

Continuing to draw Water Bullet Talismans could no longer bring Luo Hong any improvement, and it left him feeling utterly bored.

"Drawing Water Bullet Talismans now is as dull as copying books. I should switch to—eh? Wait, copying books? If I could use an array to simulate my talisman-crafting process, wouldn't that create a technological explosion from handcrafting to printing? This... this has tremendous potential!"

Luo Hong was wildly excited by the idea. If it truly worked, it would be a complete upheaval of the Cultivation World's existing talisman-crafting industry.

"Arrays. I absolutely must learn arrays in the future! Miss Xin, I suddenly feel that Qi Yunxiao is not worthy of you. Hehe, if this array can be completed, I'll call it the 'Water Bullet Talisman Refinement Array'!"

Luo Hong tucked the matter away in his heart and threw himself into studying Water Shield Talismans.

"Junior Brother, your talismans are merely low-grade beginner talismans. One Spirit Stone apiece is just right. If you insist on two, then I won't trade with you."

Outside the Merit Hall, Luo Hong was negotiating with an unpleasant expression on his face with a male disciple at Level 10 Qi Refining.

"That's right. Senior Brother Xie is already looking after you by agreeing to trade with you. Don't fail to appreciate kindness!"

A rather pretty female disciple stood beside the man. The two appeared to be a couple, and she eagerly chimed in on his behalf.

Luo Hong knew full well that selling his talismans for two Spirit Stones each was entirely reasonable. Normally, the other party would even make a small profit, since ordinary-looking low-grade beginner talismans could sell for one Spirit Stone, and there was no reason his superior-quality ones should be priced the same.

That said, Luo Hong was selling talismans outside the Merit Hall because he had used up his talisman-crafting materials two days earlier. It was inconvenient to leave the sect frequently for the market, while Hundred Crafts Hall, which bought back talismans within the sect, showed no mercy when fleecing its own people. Left with no other choice, this was the worst plan he could devise.

Whether the surrounding Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters lacked the discernment or simply hung their heads high when This Matter was Not My Business, not one of them spoke up for Luo Hong.

"Fine, then. Senior Brother Xie, how many do you want?"

Luo Hong did not want to Waste Time anymore. Whether he sold them for one Spirit Stone or two, he was making a killing either way.

"The twenty laid out here. I don't have any more."

"Who buys twenty low-grade beginner talismans in one go? And you say you don't have any more? Junior Brother, I think you've got Spirit Stones in your eyes."

"I'll take them all!" The disciple surnamed Xie Took Out twenty Spirit Stones and swept up every talisman Luo Hong had laid out, moving so swiftly that he seemed afraid Luo Hong would regret it.

"Haha, thank you, Junior Brother. Junior Sister, let's go." The disciple surnamed Xie pulled away the female disciple beside him, whose face had been thoroughly "slapped swollen," and strode off, secretly delighted.

"Hehe, take care, Senior Brother Xie."

Seeing this, how could Luo Hong not know that this man had an eye for quality? He probably intended to take my talismans straight out of the valley and sell them at the market for the price difference.

Senior Brother Xie, was it? We'll meet again.

When it comes to holding a grudge, I have always been serious.