Vajra Talisman

Before long, there was a knock on the door. Jiang Yujie and I went out and found Yun Yao.

Yun Yao looked at the two of us suspiciously. "What are you two doing in here?"

I did not quite know how to explain it. After all, two men alone in a room in broad daylight, with the door shut and the curtains drawn—it really was rather awkward.

Jiang Yujie, however, had no such reservations. Like a magician, he produced two talismans.

He waved them before Yun Yao's eyes and said smugly, "Look at these talismans I just got. They're from Maoshan."

Yun Yao blinked her watery eyes and asked Jiang Yujie where he had gotten them. Jiang Yujie pointed at me, and I thought, I'm done for.

If I sold them only to Jiang Yujie but not Yun Yao, it would be hard for me to handle things.

Besides, Yun Yao's had to be a gift—I could not take money from her, since I was staying in her home.

I immediately took out two talismans and handed them to Yun Yao. "It's my first time visiting your home, and I didn't bring any gifts. These are for you."

Yun Yao had the temperament of a young lady. She giggled, said thank you, and accepted them.

Then she and Jiang Yujie began comparing theirs. What a pair of live treasures, I thought.

After that, we went downstairs to eat. During the meal, Grandpa Yun asked me, "What attribute is Yutong?"

I put down my chopsticks and told Grandpa Yun, "Lightning Attribute."

Pfft... Grandpa Yun sprayed out the soup in his mouth. Without even bothering to wipe it off, he asked whether it was true.

I raised my hand. Crackling sounds rang out, and a mass of lightning coiled around my palm.

Jiang Yujie and Yun Yao were both greatly shocked at the sight.

One of them dropped their bowl onto the table, while the other froze halfway through gnawing on a chicken leg and stared at me.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Grandpa Yun wiped his mouth and said it was nothing. Then he added, "As expected of Brother Xuande's grandson," before signaling for us to continue eating.

Yun Yao ate in small bites as she looked at me curiously, while Jiang Yujie was practically itching for a fight, as though he wanted to spar with me immediately.

Sure enough, after we finished eating, Jiang Yujie said to me:

"Yutong, how about we find time tomorrow to spar? I've never fought someone with the Lightning Attribute before."

I said that was fine and that we could give it a try tomorrow. Jiang Yujie smiled and said good, then we returned to our rooms to sleep.

After breakfast the next day, Jiang Yujie suggested we find a place. Yun Yao drove us to a plaza.

She said it was a place specially meant for people to spar and told us to fight there.

Just as Jiang Yujie and I took our positions and prepared to make our move, a man's voice sounded out.

"Yao Yao, why have you been ignoring me these past few days?"

The moment Yun Yao heard that voice, her lovely willow-leaf brows furrowed.

"I don't want to pay attention to you any day of the week, Chen Hao! Why do you cling to me every day like dog-skin plaster?"

Jiang Yujie clenched his fists. "That annoying bastard again. Let me go beat him up."

I took one look at the newcomer. He was a young man in his twenties, dressed in a sharp suit and wearing gold-rimmed glasses.

"Is he your friend?" I asked Yun Yao.

Yun Yao pouted. "No. He's an annoying guy. If you ask who I hate most, it's him. The second is Jiang Yujie."

I was a little curious, so I asked why she hated him so much. Yun Yao said he belonged to the Chen family, one of the major Yin Yang Families.

Ever since he had seen her a few years ago, he had kept pestering her. Like dog-skin plaster, he could not be shaken off no matter what.

Yun Yao frowned. "Forget it, forget it. I wanted to see what was different about your Lightning Attribute.

But now that this person is here, I'm not in the mood anymore. Let's go back."

Since I was living under someone else's roof, I immediately nodded, indicating that I would follow the host's arrangements.

Yun Yao then called out to Jiang Yujie and explained the situation. Jiang Yujie came back.

"Kid, consider yourself lucky today. If I run into you again, I'll beat you until you're crawling around looking for your teeth," Jiang Yujie said as he walked back.

The young man merely smiled and said nothing.

"Oh, give it a rest. You can't even beat him. Did you forget how he beat you black and blue outside last time?" Yun Yao said to Jiang Yujie.

Jiang Yujie said indignantly that he had only let Chen Hao get the better of him because he had been careless last time, and that next time he would definitely make him pay, and so on.

Yun Yao simply kept shaking her head.

I also felt that this young man was no ordinary person. One could tell from his bearing alone.

Though his gaze toward others was polite, I sensed a trace of contempt in his eyes that was difficult to detect.

I did not know whether it was merely my imagination. My martial uncle had once told me:

If the first time you see someone, they give you a very uncomfortable feeling,

then there was an eighty percent chance that person would bring you trouble.

That was exactly the feeling this young man gave me, though I did not know why.

I had never seen him before, nor had we ever had any grudge, yet the very first time I looked at him, I felt uncomfortable.

We got into the car and returned to Yun Mansion. With nothing else to do, I went back to my room to cultivate.

I also thought about drawing some talismans. It felt like I could try making a Vajra Talisman.

The Vajra Talisman was a low-to-mid-grade talisman. It could add a protective barrier condensed from Spiritual Energy around the body.

It could withstand some attacks that were not too powerful. That was how the Maoshan Talisman Compendium described it.

I checked my bag and found that I no longer had the materials needed to make talismans. I went downstairs and told Yun Yao that I was heading out.

They asked what I was going to do. I said I was going out to buy some materials for making talismans.

"Let's go together. That guy is extremely narrow-minded. I'm afraid he might bully you," Jiang Yujie said.

Yun Yao nodded as well, signaling her agreement. Seeing them both like that, I said nothing more, and we headed out of Yun Mansion together.

When we arrived at the market, I was dazzled by the array of goods, though most of them were used in Underworld Practices.

Every now and then, I even saw precious Chinese medicinal herbs. For example, I spotted several century-old ginseng roots, each nearly as thick as a baby's arm.

After making a round and buying everything I needed, we headed back.

"There are so many good things here," I said with a sigh.

"Though there are many things here, the truly good stuff isn't here," Jiang Yujie said.

I was a little surprised. "All this still doesn't count as much? Then where has more than this?"

"The Black Market," Yun Yao said.

She went on to say that although there were many people here, the Yun family was watching over the place. Some things that were too troublesome would not be allowed into Yun City.

The Black Market was a small market for people of the martial world, a lawless place beyond anyone's control.

So the goods sold there were completely unrestrained. Of course, ordinary cultivators could not find it.

I asked Yun Yao if she knew where the Black Market was, and she replied that she certainly did.

She then said she would take me there for a look when there was a chance. I nodded, and our group headed toward Yun Mansion.

Once we reached Yun Mansion, I planned to return to my room to make a Vajra Talisman.

Just then, Jiang Yujie tugged at the corner of my clothes. "Um... can I watch? Don't worry, I won't tell anyone else."

Yun Yao then smacked Jiang Yujie on the back of the head. "Do you know any rules at all? That's someone else's sect secret art. How can you dare to say anything?"

I shook my head apologetically at Jiang Yujie and gave him a smile before turning around and heading upstairs.

When I was halfway up, Yun Yao asked whether I wanted her to stand guard for me.

I froze for a moment and asked her why I needed someone to stand guard.

Yun Yao stared at me with wide eyes. "Didn't you need someone to stand guard whenever you made talismans before?

What if someone disturbed you or tried to sabotage you?"

I said I did not know. Was there such a thing?

Then I thought that no one had stood guard beside me when I made talismans before.

Of course, it was also possible that there had simply been no one in the Bamboo Forest, so my martial uncle had never mentioned it.