Talisman Dao Harvest

"Why are you here?"

Looking at the beautiful young girl before him, Shen Mo was slightly startled.

"My father asked me to come and check on you, and while I'm at it, deliver some spirit stones."

The girl spoke indifferently.

This girl was none other than Chen An's only daughter, Chen Mengze.

She and Shen Mo had known each other since they were children, growing up together in the River-Facing Sect as childhood sweethearts.

When they were young, their relationship had been quite good.

But as Chen Mengze reached the age of maturity and blossomed into a graceful young woman, the differences between the sexes grew, and their childhood bond faded significantly.

Later, she successfully broke through to the Qi Gathering Realm and was promoted to an inner disciple, leaving Shen Mo with even fewer opportunities to see her.

Counting the days, it had been two or three years since they last met.

Gazing at the girl radiating the vitality of youth, Shen Mo felt an inexplicable palpitation; he almost didn't dare to look her in the eye.

This was not his own intention, but the lingering influence of the original owner's memories.

It seemed that the original owner, having lost his parents' affection at a young age, still held a hazy fondness for this childhood playmate.

However, Chen Mengze didn't seem to have any interest in the original owner, and as they grew into adulthood, their relationship had grown quite cold.

"Here, twenty spirit stones."

Chen Mengze didn't notice Shen Mo's strange behavior. She took the spirit stones from her storage bag and placed them on the table. "My father began his seclusion a few days ago. He likely won't have time to assess your cultivation progress for the next few months."

"He asked me to tell you that you must cultivate diligently and not give up on yourself."

"Understood, please thank Uncle Chen for me."

Shen Mo felt a touch of gratitude in his heart and spoke up.

"By the way, I heard from my father that you didn't want to stay in the River-Facing Sect anymore and were planning to leave?"

"My cultivation hadn't made any progress, so I did have such thoughts, but after Uncle Chen's teachings, I have abandoned them."

Shen Mo answered truthfully.

"Oh." Chen Mengze nodded, looking somewhat disappointed. "Alright, the items have been delivered, and I've passed on my father's words, so I'll be going now."

"Would you like to stay for a meal before you go?"

"No need, I still need to go to the Sutra Lecture Hall this afternoon to attend the elder's lecture."

Chen Mengze put down the spirit stones, turned, and left.

After she departed, Shen Mo carefully put the spirit stones away, sighing inwardly, "We have grown distant after all."

The sharp decline in their relationship, besides being due to their different paths as they grew up, likely had something to do with Uncle Chen.

Shen Mo knew from the original owner's memories that because Uncle Chen was an old friend of his parents, he treated him like his own son.

Not only did he provide much care in his daily life, but he also harbored thoughts of matchmaking his daughter with Shen Mo.

The original owner had naturally been happy to see this.

But Chen Mengze did not like it at all.

She had a personality that refused to be outdone by men; she had no interest in romantic entanglements and only yearned for cultivation.

In her own words, she only wanted the stars in the sky, not the affections of the world.

Thus, Uncle Chen's matchmaking had the opposite effect, causing their relationship to drift further and further apart.

"There's no use dwelling on it; focus on cultivation."

Suppressing the distracting thoughts in his heart, Shen Mo stopped thinking about the matter.

A man of great ambition need not worry about the lack of a wife; these were all just obsessions of the original owner.

"Over this past month, I have diligently crafted talismans and made significant progress."

Opening his status panel, Shen Mo looked at his current experience bar.

[Talisman Dao (First Grade) 242/1000]

In this month, Shen Mo had crafted talismans nearly a thousand times, large and small.

Through constant accumulation, he had finally reached the First Grade level.

"However, ever since I entered the First Grade, crafting Lightness Talismans and Focus Talismans—those two types of unranked, miscellaneous talismans—no longer provides me with much experience," Shen Mo muttered to himself.

At first, Shen Mo's Talisman Dao cultivation had progressed by leaps and bounds as he accumulated crafting attempts.

But after entering the First Grade, the experience points for crafting began to plummet. From the original two or three points per successful talisman, it eventually became entirely dependent on luck, with experience appearing sporadically.

"It seems I must craft higher-level talismans to continue gaining experience in the Talisman Dao."

Shen Mo had originally planned to use cheap, low-end talismans to grind his Talisman Dao cultivation to the Second Grade.

But clearly, reality had not given him a chance to exploit a bug.

The experience bonus provided by low-end talismans is subject to diminishing returns.

"Although the experience gained from the Talisman Dao is no longer substantial, my proficiency in crafting Focus Talismans and Lightness Talismans has been steadily rising."

He took another look at the crafting proficiency for these two types of talismans.

[Lightness Talisman (Pure Mastery) 105/5000]

[Focus Talisman (Pure Mastery) 25/5000]

Over the past month, Shen Mo had refined these two types of talismans hundreds of times each, resulting in a massive increase in proficiency.

From the most basic unfamiliarity, he had advanced to proficiency, then to a level of competence, and finally, his crafting experience for both talismans had reached the level of Pure Mastery.

With the improvement in proficiency, supplemented by the effects of his Talisman Dao advancing to the first rank, Shen Mo's success rate in talisman crafting had also seen a significant improvement.

From the very beginning, when he could barely produce one successful talisman out of ten, he had now reached a point where at least nine out of every ten talismans were finished products.

"At this rate, I can finally consider this a trade to make a living."

Such a success rate was enough for him to treat talisman crafting as a way to generate wealth.

Although these two types of talismans were inexpensive, even a fly's leg is meat.

At the very least, he could now recoup some of the resources consumed by his cultivation.

With this thought in mind, Shen Mo rummaged through his room, took out all the finished talismans he had crafted over the past month, and tallied them up.

Two hundred and twenty Lightness Talismans.

One hundred Focus Talismans, no more and no less.

"According to market prices, ten Lightness Talismans sell for roughly one low-grade spirit stone, while five Focus Talismans can be sold for one low-grade spirit stone."

Shen Mo did the math and reached a conclusion: "Forty-four low-grade spirit stones—that is my harvest for this past month!"

Forty-four low-grade spirit stones was a considerable sum; for an outer disciple, it was even a small fortune!

Relying on various sect missions and monthly stipends, one might not even be able to save up forty spirit stones in two years.

"However, I must account for the raw materials consumed." Shen Mo looked at the consumption of sandalwood ink, beast blood, and yellow paper, and made a rough calculation: "The cost was about twenty low-grade spirit stones."

Even after accounting for the costs, he still had twenty-four low-grade spirit stones, which was already quite a lot.

If he added a little more of his own, he could even buy a Qi Gathering Pill!

"Not bad, truly not bad!"

Shen Mo nodded in satisfaction, thinking that he would ask for leave tomorrow to head to the market, sell all these talismans, and exchange them for spirit stones.

While he was at it, he could use the spirit stones to see if he could buy a pill furnace at the market and officially begin his foray into alchemy!