Cultivating Talisman Arts

Clerk Chen paused, then lifted the wine flask again and took a long gulp. The spicy, biting taste of the liquor mingled with a faint, almost inaudible sigh, dissipating into the dim air of the storeroom.

"Go. From now on, come to me less. You're an Imperial Guard now—you need to carry yourself like one. This storeroom, in the end, is no longer where you belong."

Lu Chen's heart tightened. In that instant, he grasped the deeper meaning behind Clerk Chen's words.

It was a reminder, and also a warning.

He now stood at the crest of the storm, every move watched by countless eyes. To remain too entangled with the storeroom—a symbol of the "lowest rung"—would only invite unnecessary suspicion and trouble.

"This junior... understands."

Lu Chen bowed deeply once more, etching that heavy debt of gratitude and that caution into the depths of his heart.

He said nothing else. Cradling the purple sandalwood box, he turned and left.

Imperial Guard Camp, Private Meditation Chamber.

Unlike the cold, damp gloom of the Corpse Handling Room, this place was dry and clean, with a burner of sandalwood lit to calm the mind and focus the spirit.

Lu Chen locked the stone door and set up a crude alert ward. Only then did he place the purple sandalwood box solemnly on the table.

He did not rush to sense the wordless Divine Firmament Induction Chapter. Instead, he first took out the Golden Bristle Jade Brush and the piece of Earthfire Cinnabar, holding them in his palm to examine them closely.

The jade brush was warm and smooth, radiating a gentle heat as if it held life within.

The tip, tipped with pale golden wolf bristle, brimmed with astonishing spiritual nature, as though it could actively draw in the world's primal energy.

As for the Earthfire Cinnabar, it was even stranger—solid in form, yet seeming to hold molten magma flowing slowly within, exuding a pure, extreme yang fire aura.

"Fine treasures!"

Lu Chen praised from the heart. To do good work, one must first sharpen one's tools. With this set, the shallow insights into talisman-craft he had gleaned before could finally find their true use.

He took a deep breath, cast aside all stray thoughts, and slowly sank his mind into the wordless heavenly tome woven from silver threads—the Divine Firmament Induction Chapter.

At first, the pages were blank. His spiritual sense probed in, like a clay ox diving into the sea—no response at all.

Lu Chen was not discouraged. Recalling Clerk Chen's guidance, he stopped trying to see with his spiritual sense. Instead, he emptied his mind, letting his spiritual essence merge with the strange book like a drop of water dissolving into the ocean—slowly, without any goal or purpose.

Time slipped away unnoticed.

How long passed, he did not know. Just as he was about to sink into a wondrous, self-forgetting meditative stillness—

A faint glimmer lit up in his mind, without warning!

At first, the light was weak, like a candle flame in the wind. But in an instant, it transformed into billions of surging, thunderous lightning serpents!

Boom!

A thunderous roar from the depths of his soul!

Lu Chen's consciousness, as if seized by an invisible hand, was suddenly yanked into a chaotic world of endless lightning and raging wind!

There, he saw ancient runes—each one formed from pure thunder and gale, vaster than mountains!

They were born and died within the chaos, each flicker representing the evolution of some heavenly principle.

There was the All-Heaven Divine Thunder Talisman, which summoned the nine-layered sky's divine thunder. There was the Unfettered Wind Formless Talisman, which commanded the nether gales of the nine abysses. And there was the Wind Thunder Spell-Breaking Talisman, which merged wind and thunder into a spear of judgment!

This was the true way of talismans!

Compared to these miraculous runes, the meager scraps he had gleaned from the fragmentary text were like a firefly trying to rival the full moon—laughably insignificant!

Lu Chen's mind was battered and baptized in that storm-world as never before. Greedily, with all his might, he tried to memorize and comprehend those fleeting runic imprints.

But the Dao and principle contained in those runes were far too profound. With his current spiritual cultivation, even one extra glance made his soul ache, as if it were about to be torn to shreds by the violent, raging power.

After an unknown time, when his soul had reached its limit of endurance, that invisible hand appeared again and gently pushed his exhausted consciousness out of that storm-world.

"Hah..."

Lu Chen's eyes snapped open. He gasped for air, drenched in cold sweat, as if he had just fought a battle that drained his very spirit.

But his eyes blazed with an alarming brightness, and deep within them, it seemed that residual lightning still flickered.

He immediately shut his eyes. Before the insights could fade, he grabbed the Golden Bristle Jade Brush, dipped it full of Earthfire Cinnabar, and suspended his wrist over a blank talisman paper.

In his mind, a rune—relatively simple in structure, yet still brimming with yang, explosive intent—slowly surfaced.

—The Sun Flame Talisman!

It was the very half-formed talisman he had deduced from the fragment back at Ghost Face Slope!

But now, after being baptized by the Divine Firmament Induction Chapter, the form of this rune in his eyes had undergone a earth-shaking transformation!

No longer mere lines, but a perfect cycle composed of thirty-six spiritual energy nodes, each infused with pure yang fire aura!

The brush fell. His mind focused. His inner force turned!

Lu Chen's brush tip glided across the talisman paper, flowing like clouds and water, one continuous stroke!

No hesitation. No pause.

The Golden Bristle Jade Brush seemed to have a life of its own, actively drawing on the Mystic Tortoise Internal Energy within him and the fire-element qi of heaven and earth, pouring it perfectly into every vermilion line beneath the brush!

Hummm—!

When the final stroke landed, the entire talisman paper suddenly trembled violently. A blazing red light burst across its surface, and a wave of scorching heat exploded outward, raising the temperature of the quiet room by several degrees!

A brand-new [Sun Flame Talisman] lay quietly on the table.

The runes flowed across it, spiritual light contained within, brimming with explosive power—a world apart from the half-finished pieces he had drawn before.

[Congratulations, Host. You have successfully drawn a Yellow Rank Low-Grade talisman—Sun Flame Talisman.]

[Talisman Art proficiency increased. Current realm: Beginner.]

Done!

Lu Chen gazed at his creation, an indescribable surge of elation and accomplishment welling up in his heart.

This, aside from his blade techniques, would be his most powerful trump card.

Over the next half month, Lu Chen plunged headlong into this bittersweet cycle of cultivation.

By day, he drilled with Zhao Da Niu and his four other subordinates in the Imperial Guard Camp's training grounds, practicing formations and coordinated combat. Occasionally, he took on trivial white-rank patrol missions to familiarize himself with the Guard's operations and establish his authority as a squad leader.

By night, he returned to his quiet room, sinking his entire mind into the wind-and-thunder world of the Divine Firmament Induction Chapter, arduously absorbing its profound talisman truths. Then, using his newfound insights, he practiced drawing Sun Flame Talismans without regard for cost.

His Demon Devil Lifespan drained at a visible rate through this monotonous practice.

[Drawing Sun Flame Talisman failed. Spiritual backlash. Consumed 3 days of Demon Devil Lifespan for recovery.]

[Drawing Sun Flame Talisman succeeded. Proficiency +1.]

[...]

Half a month later, when he had used up the last grain of earth-fire cinnabar, he had successfully produced ten superior-grade Sun Flame Talismans. His Demon Devil Lifespan had plummeted to a mere one hundred and sixty years.

But it was all worth it.

His talisman art had firmly stepped into the Beginner realm, and his control over his spiritual power was far more refined and adept than before.