Ideas

Before releasing it, Benjamin had already prepared himself for failure, but what the hell was this?!

Judging from how it felt, the talisman should have activated successfully, but why did it only produce such a tiny flame?

Unwilling to give up, Benjamin tried several more times.

He soon figured out the pattern: the size of the flame was directly proportional to the amount of True Essence he infused while activating the talisman. The more True Essence he injected, the larger the flame became.

When he poured in most of his Qi Refining third-layer True Essence, the resulting flame finally reached the power described in the texts.

This was completely useless!

If the power of a talisman depended on the amount of True Essence he put into it, then he might as well cast the same spell directly with his bare hands. At least that would be more flexible and would not require advance preparation!

Moreover, casting a spell directly required less True Essence to achieve the same power, while using a talisman consumed a great deal of extra energy instead.

This was completely different from what the texts described as "requiring only a trace of Spirit Energy to activate"!

After a few more attempts and summarizing his current problems, Benjamin immediately began accessing the Great Dao Library.

After spending another half month carefully studying the books provided by the Great Dao Library, along with the advanced knowledge of Alchemy Studies, Benjamin finally understood the fundamental difference between the Immortal Cultivation System's talismans and the Wizard World's extraordinary tools.

"The essence of a talisman is not simply energy storage or activation. It is more like a precise 'launcher' or 'program.'" Benjamin took out a gleaming golden talisman and carefully examined the patterns upon it.

"The talisman Seals on a talisman are a form of 'indexing' and 'invocation' command for the Spirit Energy of heaven and earth. During activation, the talisman draws upon the user's faint Spirit Energy as a 'key,' then uses the talisman Seals as a 'program' to invoke, gather, and activate vast amounts of ambient Spirit Energy, thereby releasing a complete and powerful spell."

"Of course, if circumstances permit, one can also prepare certain powerful forces in advance and directly invoke them through a talisman."

"The Immortal Cultivation World is rich in Spirit Energy, which fills heaven and earth. Therefore, with only a trace of Spirit Energy to activate it, a talisman can automatically invoke the boundless Spirit Energy of the environment and unleash a powerful spell."

"But the Wizard World has no Spirit Energy. Talismans cannot invoke Spirit Energy from the environment, so their 'programs' naturally cannot function completely. The size of the flame is merely the result of my own True Essence being temporarily gathered and activated within the talisman's structure, rather than the talisman's intended power. Because it also consumes extra energy to activate other useless 'programs,' it is even weaker than casting the spell directly."

Benjamin took out another scroll. It was made entirely from animal hide and had an effect similar to a talisman: with a small amount of mental power input, it could release a flame spell.

Although this item was very cheap, costing only ten points per scroll, few people bought it.

That was because Wizard Artifacts with the same effect cost at least a hundred points, but could be recharged and used repeatedly.

"Meanwhile, the Wizard World's mainstream extraordinary tools, such as spell scrolls, Wands, and disposable talisman cards, operate on principles completely different from talismans."

Benjamin activated the scroll at a target in the training ground and watched as it instantly turned to ash, transforming into a fireball that blasted outward.

Throughout this process, the elemental power in the surroundings did not change in any way.

"They store a complete spell, along with all the energy required to cast it, inside the vessel in advance. A wizard only needs to inject a faint amount of mental power as a 'switch' or 'password' to directly activate and release the stored spell at its fixed power."

"The advantage of this method is that, unless under extreme rules or environmental conditions, such as an artificial anti-magic zone, a Wizard Artifact can directly activate and release a complete spell anytime and anywhere. Afterward, it only needs to be recharged before it can be used again."

"The drawback is that its power has nothing to do with the user's own strength and depends entirely on the maker's skill. Its flexibility is also poor. If it stores a fireball, then it can only release a fireball; it cannot be adjusted or controlled."

After summarizing the technological differences between the two worlds, Benjamin's eyes suddenly lit up!

He had found an idea for combining the advantages of both worlds' technologies!

Immortal Cultivation talismans had the advantages of low activation costs and reliance on environmental energy, while Wizard Artifacts had the advantages of stability and being able to release spells of fixed power in any environment.

The Wizard World's environmental energy was not "Spirit Energy," but the ever-present elemental energy.

What if... what if he could learn the principles of Immortal Cultivation talismans? Instead of storing a spell's energy in advance within the vessel, what if he engraved a Wizardry Model and instructions for invoking the Wizard World's ambient elemental energy onto a Wizard Artifact?

That way, as long as the Wizard Artifact was not damaged and the external elemental power had not run dry, he could use a tiny amount of mental power as a "key," just like using a talisman, to repeatedly activate the Wizard Artifact. It would automatically draw elemental energy from the environment and release spells over and over again!

As long as elemental energy existed in the environment, such a Wizard Artifact would have no limit on the number of uses and would require only a faint amount of mental power to activate.

Of course, similar things existed in both the Wizard World and the Immortal Cultivation World, but wizards' efficiency at leveraging external energy was certainly inferior to that of cultivators, who valued unity between man and heaven.

When energy was insufficient, wizards also preferred to directly construct elemental Pools to strengthen their energy supply rather than mobilize more external power.

The Immortal Cultivation World likewise had jade talismans that contained "a strike from some great figure" as lifesaving tools, but such things were difficult to make and far too costly.

What Benjamin wanted to do was graft the Immortal Cultivation talisman's advantages of "low activation cost plus environmental energy invocation" onto the Wizard World's system of "environmental elemental energy plus stable activation."

He would combine the strengths of both systems and develop a power of his own!

After the excitement faded, Benjamin also realized the difficulty involved.

To realize this idea, he could not simply copy talisman Seals as though he were drawing talismans.

He had to fully understand the underlying logic and function of every stroke in every Talisman Seal—what part served as the "launcher," what part "indexed environmental energy," what part "constructed the spell model," and what part "activated and released" it...

Then, drawing upon his understanding of the Wizard World's runes, energy structures, and Wizardry Models, he would need to gradually replace these "functional modules" of talismans with corresponding rune combinations, energy circuits, and even conceptual guidance from the Wizard World—things capable of interacting with elemental energy and magical power while constructing Wizardry Models!

This required him not only to be proficient in the Wizard World's runes and spell theory, but also to possess a thorough understanding of the talisman principles within the Great Dao Library.

"However... compared to the Native wizards of this world, I already have a great enough advantage."

At the very least, he now had a clear direction, and there were plenty of examples he could "copy." He would not be as completely clueless as the wizards of this world.

"Ah, if I had thought of this earlier, I should have inscribed the core rune of Runology as my fourth Truth Rune first..."

Benjamin felt somewhat annoyed. "Forget it. Fortunately, my cultivation speed is not slow now. I'll take it step by step..."