Is There Any Justice Left?

The Green Robe Old Man's gaze was complicated.

Judging from what had just happened, this kid had definitely not been a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse. The Green Robe Old Man knew very well that an ordinary cultivator without experience in talisman crafting could never successfully produce a First-Order Fireball Talisman in less than one or two months.

Wei Suo had successfully made one after only seven days of practice. That could only mean one thing: the kid possessed exceptional talent in talisman crafting. And with his tens of thousands of years of experience, the Green Robe Old Man knew better than anyone what such talent meant at a time like this.

"Were your parents talisman crafters? Artifact refiners?" the Green Robe Old Man could not help asking.

"I don't know. When I was thirteen, my dad and mom went out with others to hunt demon beasts and never came back. They only left me a copy of the Purple Profound True Art." Wei Suo gave the Green Robe Old Man a puzzled look. "Why are you asking?"

"You can test this talisman first and see whether it is truly a First-Order Fireball Talisman, just as I said." The Green Robe Old Man looked at Wei Suo. "As for the rest, we'll talk when you return."

Wei Suo tucked the freshly made talisman away and headed west out of Lingyue City.

Lingyue City was now under the jurisdiction of the Tianyi Sect. Any Rogue Cultivator who paid a certain amount of Spirit Stones could live within the city, while ordinary mortals could earn residency rights by doing work for certain sects.

For a tiny stone house like Wei Suo's, with its terrible environment and almost no facilities, the monthly rent was two Low-grade Spirit Stones. If he failed to pay for more than two months, he could only move outside Lingyue City.

So although it was called rent, it was really protection money. Yet practically none of the Rogue Cultivators in Lingyue City had any complaints.

That was because the Tianyi Sect sent quite a few capable cultivators to patrol the city every day, ensuring its safety. In recent years, the number of demon beasts in the wilderness had increased considerably compared to the past. For instance, five years ago, a second-order demon beast like the Stone-tailed Wall Lizard could never have appeared in Yellow Sand Canyon, which was separated from Lingyue City by only several mountain ranges.

If one did not live in the city, there was not only the threat of demon beasts, but also the risk of being murdered and robbed by other Rogue Cultivators. Thus, nearly every low-level Rogue Cultivator who could afford the rent scrambled to pay Spirit Stones to live in the city.

The only inconvenience was that flying and private spell duels were forbidden within the city.

Wei Suo did not know any flight techniques at all. And with his current cultivation, even if he learned one, his True Essence would probably only support him for the time it took an incense stick to burn. Testing talismans like this naturally did not count as private spell dueling, but to avoid the trouble of being questioned by the Tianyi Sect, Wei Suo still chose to leave the city.

Less than half a li outside the city, Wei Suo saw a black stray cat beside an abandoned house, howling its heart out in heat atop a crooked willow tree.

When it saw Wei Suo stop, the black stray cat even bared its teeth and snarled, as if telling him to get lost and not interrupt its mating calls.

"Heh heh!"

Wei Suo's eyes rolled. With a casual flick of his hand, there was a boom, and a fireball the size of a winnowing basket blasted into the base of the willow tree, shattering its lower half to pieces as flames roared skyward.

"Meow!"

The black stray cat was nearly scared out of its mind. Every hair on its body stood on end, and it leaped as if riding the wind, springing from the upper half of the tree to a wall far away, where it trembled all over.

"F... fuck!"

It was not just the black stray cat that had been startled—even Wei Suo jumped in fright. When the Fire Talisman activated, the scattered heat made his skin sting with burning pain. The First-Order Fireball Talisman seemed even a little more powerful than the Fireball Talisman used by that silver-robed, curvy little beauty.

"Damn it! Isn't this way too outrageous?"

On a distant road, two men heading toward Lingyue City happened to witness the scene and were left dumbfounded. "Using a First-Order Fireball Talisman just to hit a stray cat? Is there any justice left in this world?!"

"I'm rich!"

"I'm really rich this time!"

Wei Suo practically floated back into his stone house west of Lingyue City.

"Shui Ling'er, maybe you'll really become my wife after all."

The moment Wei Suo entered, the Green Robe Old Man knew that there had been no problem with his Fireball Talisman. But Wei Suo's next action made him shudder with disgust, leaving him unable to speak for a long while.

As though he had suddenly picked up a mountain of Spirit Stones, Wei Suo actually reached out and groped the breasts in those beauty portraits several times. Only then did the Green Robe Old Man finally understand why the color around the breasts in those portraits differed slightly from the rest.

"Oh, right, Green-Haired Old Man." As if recalling something, Wei Suo looked at the Green Robe Old Man and asked, "You said you had something to tell me after I tested the Fireball Talisman. What was it?"

"I was going to tell you that now is not the time for you to get excited." The Green Robe Old Man gave Wei Suo a stern look. "Whether it is talisman crafting, pill refining, or artifact refining, the most important thing is the success rate. A talisman crafter with a success rate below twenty percent is still little better than trash. The talismans he makes are not even worth the materials consumed."

Wei Suo froze. "Old man, are you saying I still need to test what my success rate is?"

"What do you think?" The Green Robe Old Man gave Wei Suo a cold glance.

Wei Suo once again stood solemnly before the crude stone table. This concerned his grand plan to get rich, so he had no choice but to take it seriously.

The first talisman failed when one stroke in the middle rune pattern went slightly off. The entire talisman burst into fierce flames, but fortunately, Wei Suo had gained experience and was not burned by the flames.

The second one clearly seemed complete, yet he had no idea where it had gone wrong. The talisman did not emit even the slightest heat.

The third one finally succeeded.

Wei Suo was drenched in sweat from head to toe.

By the time he made his sixth successful First-Order Fireball Talisman, Wei Suo collapsed over the stone table in utter exhaustion, too tired to so much as move a finger.

The remaining Fire Scorpion Blood was enough to make fourteen First-Order Fire Talismans in total. Wei Suo ruined eight and succeeded with six. It took him more than an hour, leaving him with a success rate below fifty percent.

Talisman crafting required intense concentration. It consumed not only an enormous amount of physical strength, but also a great deal of mental energy.

With a success rate of less than fifty percent and exhaustion that left him feeling like a dog, Wei Suo was truly rather dejected.

But the Green Robe Old Man was already making calculations in his heart.

Wei Suo had no idea that even ordinary professional talisman crafters only had around a sixty percent success rate when making a First-Order talisman they were skilled at. When crafting an unfamiliar First-Order talisman, their success rate might not even reach forty percent.

Yet Wei Suo's current success rate was already close to fifty percent! This was only his first day successfully crafting talismans. Given enough time, how high would his success rate rise?

"Kid, are you dead? If not, how about we have a chat? You tell me some things, and I'll tell you some things too." After pondering with a complicated look in his eyes, the Green Robe Old Man suddenly spoke.