Illusionary Light Talisman

In the dead of night, a night-blooming pearl was suspended above the stone table in Wei Suo's small hut by a small clump of Ice Silk Spider silk, illuminating the modest stone room brightly.

The Golden Silk Talisman Brush, with its lustrous sheen, glided across the talisman paper like a swimming fish. Suddenly, with a flick of the wrist, it lifted, and a flash of red light pulsed across the entire vermilion talisman paper. All the talisman patterns seemed to come alive, and a First-Order Fireball Talisman was successfully refined.

"This Golden Silk Talisman Brush is truly a great item."

Wei Suo held the newly refined Fireball Talisman and compared it with the ones he had refined before. He found that not only were the patterns on the talismans refined with the Golden Silk Talisman Brush smoother and more fluid, but even the fiery aura of the Fireball Talismans was slightly more potent.

As the quality of the Fireball Talismans improved, their power when cast would also increase accordingly.

At this moment, seven Fireball Talismans refined with the Golden Silk Talisman Brush were already placed on a nearby stone table. Including the one in Wei Suo's hand, Wei Suo had now continuously refined ten Fireball Talismans. He had only ruined two, achieving a success rate of over eighty percent. Moreover, even the ones that were ruined this time had only minor flaws and did not directly catch fire.

Inside the stone room, against the wall, a new iron rack was placed, filled with many sealed bottles and jars containing useful Fire Scorpion Blood.

After casting a satisfied glance at the Golden Silk Talisman Brush in his hand and the newly refined Fireball Talismans, Wei Suo took out the exquisite yellow Treasure Pouch embroidered with a treasure flower pattern from his embrace. As a stream of purple True Essence flowed into it, the opening of the Treasure Pouch suddenly unfurled, spewing out a cloud of yellow light. The Spirit Stones and Fireball Talismans contained within miraculously floated in this yellow glow.

Wei Suo reached out and took a Mid-grade Spirit Stone from the yellow light in front of him. Then, with a slight tug of the golden drawstring at the opening of the Treasure Pouch, the Spirit Stones and other items floating in the yellow light were all retracted back into the Treasure Pouch along with the yellow light.

"Hmm?"

Holding this Mid-grade Spirit Stone, Wei Suo had intended to begin cultivating immediately. But at this moment, Wei Suo suddenly heard the Green Robe Old Man beside him let out a hum, as if he had discovered something good.

"Did you find something good!" Wei Suo, who was already a little tired, immediately perked up.

Inspired by the Azure Jade Talisman last time, Wei Suo had bought a pile of jade slips when he went out to collect Fire Scorpions a few days ago. These jade slips, which had no restrictions, contained information about the customs of the Tianxuan Continent, such as introductions to demonic beasts and Spiritual Herbs, and the origins of place names. They were essentially encyclopedias and not worth many Spirit Stones. However, Wei Suo felt that these items might be useful to the Green Robe Old Man and himself. After all, the Green Robe Old Man only knew about things from ten to twenty thousand years ago, and many place names and things had changed. If he went somewhere based on the old man's experience, expecting it to be full of low-level demonic beasts he could handle, but found it filled with high-level demonic beasts instead, he would have nowhere to cry. More importantly, the Green Robe Old Man knew so many talisman formulas and pill recipes. Although Wei Suo had told him about all the common Spiritual Herbs and Demonic Cores he knew last time, his knowledge was limited. These records were more complete, covering various medicinal herbs and ores, as well as raw materials for Artifact Refining.

Having been dormant for one to two thousand years, the Green Robe Old Man treated these as a scholar would, reading them with great interest, sometimes for an entire night. Over these past few days, the Green Robe Old Man had made significant progress. For example, he had learned many popular slang terms that didn't exist a year or two ago, such as "You big dummy, so frustrating," and would unconsciously blurt them out when talking to Wei Suo.

"You big dummy!" As expected, when Wei Suo asked this time, the Green Robe Old Man directly said this and then gave Wei Suo a glare. "I have plenty of good things. As long as you can quickly break through to the Fourth Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm, there will naturally be many good things."

"I've been cultivating day and night, haven't I? I can't help it if opening up a Divine Sea is so slow." Hearing the Green Robe Old Man say this, Wei Suo immediately became depressed again.

"However, I did discover a material for a type of talisman that is quite abundant now. I just don't know if you're interested in refining it." But the Green Robe Old Man then said something like this.

Wei Suo immediately became excited. "What talisman? As long as it's useful, I'll definitely refine it."

"It's the Illusionary Light Talisman," the Green Robe Old Man glanced at Wei Suo. "It has no offensive power. Precisely because it has no offensive power, this type of talisman was lost a thousand years ago, which is why its materials are so plentiful now."

"No offensive power? Then what kind of talisman is it?"

"It's a talisman that produces unique sounds and lights, capable of completely simulating the form of a certain spell or demonic beast. However, at most, it can only startle the opponent. It has no offensive power itself. If the opponent uses any spell or Magic Treasure to block the spell or demonic beast simulated by this talisman, they will immediately realize it's fake," the Green Robe Old Man explained. "Depending on the complexity of the patterns used in its refinement, you can make your Illusionary Light Talisman produce just the illusion of a fireball, or you can make it produce the illusion of a high-level demonic beast. However, these Illusionary Light Talismans rely on the materials of the talisman itself. They have no magical power fluctuations, consume almost no True Essence when cast, and are very stealthy to use."

"Interested!" Wei Suo immediately chuckled and told the Green Robe Old Man to quickly tell him how to refine it. Wei Suo thought to himself, since this talisman had been lost for so many years, very few people would know about it now. When facing an opponent, even if they could quickly tell it was fake, releasing it at that moment could at least startle the opponent and distract them. Moreover, most demonic beasts below level three do not have such intelligent thinking, so using this talisman against them should be very effective.

"Immeasurable Crystal?"

Wei Suo unconsciously repeated the name of the material. The materials the Green Robe Old Man mentioned for refining the Illusionary Light Talisman were indeed very common. The talisman paper was made from Yellow Silk Grass and Bitter Gold Chrysanthemum, and the talisman liquid was a mixture of Immeasurable Crystal, Vermilion Green Stone, and Cuttlefish Fat.

"What? Is Immeasurable Crystal not common now?" the Green Robe Old Man asked, finding Wei Suo's repetition of the name a bit strange. "I clearly saw from the jade slips you brought back that there are quite a lot of these crystals now, and they aren't very valuable."

"That's not it, it's just that I happen to have a piece," Wei Suo chuckled, a little sweat breaking out on his forehead. It turned out that Immeasurable Crystal was also called Image-Imprinting Crystal. Normally, in sunlight, if you pointed it at a person, it could capture a fleeting image of that person. It was said that when combined with a type of Glazed Crystal and inscribed with a special magic array, it could preserve a scene for up to a month.

At the time, Wei Suo had a rather lewd thought: if he happened to secretly see a beautiful woman bathing or something, and could capture that sensual scene in a crystal ball made from Immeasurable Crystal, wouldn't he be able to rewatch it repeatedly after returning home? That's why when Wei Suo saw someone selling Immeasurable Crystal at the Free Market outside the city, he specifically bought a piece. However, he never found the Glazed Crystal later, and over time, he forgot about it. He never expected this piece of Immeasurable Crystal to be useful now.

"Damn it, this Illusionary Light Talisman is more troublesome to refine than the Fireball Talisman, requiring two superimposed talisman arrays?"

After memorizing the materials the Green Robe Old Man mentioned, Wei Suo immediately set to work with great fervor. These materials were indeed not difficult to find now. Except for the Immeasurable Crystal, the other materials were bought in bulk for just two Low-grade Spirit Stones. However, when he saw the refinement method and talisman patterns that the Green Robe Old Man projected with green light, Wei Suo was a little surprised.

The refinement of this Illusionary Light Talisman actually required two rounds of drawing talisman patterns. After making the talisman paper, the Immeasurable Crystal had to be ground into a fine powder and then melted completely in Cuttlefish Fat through boiling. This talisman liquid was used to outline the first talisman pattern. After the talisman was formed, this semi-finished talisman would be used to imprint the light and shadow. Within two incense sticks' time, another talisman pattern had to be drawn using talisman liquid made from Vermilion Green Stone and Cuttlefish Fat. Only then would an Illusionary Light Talisman be considered finally completed. If the second talisman pattern was completed after more than two incense sticks' time, the refined talisman would have no effect.

The complexity of each talisman pattern was no less than that of the Fireball Talisman. Moreover, an extra round of drawing patterns meant an extra step where errors could occur. In this regard, the success rate of the Illusionary Light Talisman was half that of the Fireball Talisman.

"Damn it, let's do this!"

However, after hesitating for a moment, Wei Suo gritted his teeth and made his decision. After all, the more tricks one had when facing an enemy, the more likely they were to be killed. Moreover, from the Green Robe Old Man's words, Wei Suo was certain that the old man definitely knew several high-level talismans, and the materials for those talismans would definitely not be as cheap as those for the Fireball Talisman. Refining this Illusionary Light Talisman could also serve as practice.

Seeing Wei Suo thoroughly crush the Yellow Silk Grass and Bitter Gold Chrysanthemum according to the proportions and begin to boil the materials needed for the Illusionary Light Talisman paper, a hint of imperceptible admiration flashed in the Green Robe Old Man's eyes. After all, this perverted fellow still had many merits, such as having a good mind and not being overly ambitious.

As Wei Suo focused on refining the Illusionary Light Talisman, a young man in fine clothing from the Golden Jade Pavilion walked into Ji Ya's room in the Treasure Pavilion, extremely respectful and secretly excited.

Ji Ya, possessing astonishing beauty, was wearing a simple purple palace dress and sat at a table, her face showing an unconcealable weariness. Her expression seemed ordinary, but she exuded an aura of icy coldness that kept people at a distance. Her table was filled with various herbs of different ages, and the entire room was filled with peculiar medicinal fragrances.

Although it wasn't the first time he had seen Ji Ya, this young man in fine clothing from the Golden Jade Pavilion was still captivated by Ji Ya's stunning beauty and her cold demeanor, causing his heart to tremble involuntarily.

What kind of person could earn the favor of such a woman, making such an ice-cold beauty smile?

After sighing inwardly, the young man in fine clothing from the Golden Jade Pavilion stepped forward extremely politely and placed the crystal bag in his hand on an empty spot on the table in front of Ji Ya. "Shopkeeper Ji Ya, because you have been busy with alchemy, I dared not disturb you and waited until now to deliver the Spirit Stones. The Void Merging Pill you gave to Shopkeeper Tian was finally sold for four thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones. After deducting the one thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones already paid and the fees, here are two hundred and seventy Mid-grade Spirit Stones. Please count them."

Ji Ya shook her head slightly. "No need. Liu Xiang, you and Boss Tian, I trust you. Thank you for waiting."

The young man from the Golden Jade Pavilion named Liu Xiang said respectfully, "Shopkeeper Ji Ya, our Shopkeeper Tian also asked me to convey a message. The pills you refine are all very popular. If you could deliver a pill like the Void Merging Pill to the Golden Jade Pavilion for auction each month, then half of the fees for all future transactions between the Golden Jade Pavilion and the Treasure Pavilion can be waived."

"I understand. You may leave," Ji Ya nodded. Watching the young man in fine clothing respectfully exit her alchemy room, a wry smile appeared on her lips. She also knew that Shopkeeper Tian's proposal was because if the Golden Jade Pavilion's auctions regularly featured pills like hers, it would attract a lot of attention and many cultivators, making the Golden Jade Pavilion's business even more prosperous. The conditions offered by the Golden Jade Pavilion were naturally very beneficial to the Treasure Pavilion as well. The key was that Ji Ya was the only one in the entire Treasure Pavilion who could refine pills of this caliber, and the cost of such pills was not insignificant.

Furthermore, Ji Ya had many other matters to attend to in recent years. It was not certain whether Ji Ya could refine one Void Merging Pill per month.

Rubbing her temples wearily, Ji Ya swallowed a white pill and then called out, "Dugu Yuyun." As her voice echoed, a cultivator shrouded in a black robe reappeared at her doorway.

"Miss has already broken through to the Fifth Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm. She has also cultivated the Ice Chi True Art you gave her to the third level." As if knowing what Ji Ya wanted to ask, the black-robed cultivator said directly.

"She has already cultivated to the Fifth Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm?" Ji Ya was greatly surprised.

"Indeed." The black-robed cultivator nodded as calmly as ever. "Her talent in cultivating Cultivation Techniques and spells is extremely high."

"I understand. Continue to have Tie Ce's people help protect Miss," Ji Ya nodded. After watching the black-robed cultivator leave silently, a look of relief spread across Ji Ya's eyes.

(Today is Monday, please vote for more red tickets to support us. It's almost Chinese New Year, and averaging ten thousand words a day is not easy.)