Carving Restrictions

He shook his head to himself, knowing that Earth Shrinking Step really was difficult to master. Whether a cultivator had mastered this spell wasn't determined by whether he could cast it, but by whether he could control it at will. Otherwise, if he were no match for his opponent and used Earth Shrinking Step to escape, only to appear right in front of the enemy, he'd be sending himself to his death. The same went for Falling Rock Art: if, after casting it, the rocks didn't strike the enemy but instead fell from above his own head, that would be suicide, not an attack.

Yan Chihuo knew that, at his current level, there was no way he could cast Earth Shrinking Step at will inside his cave dwelling. So he went outside and tried the spell again.

Only after he began practicing did he realize just how difficult it was to master. He cast the spell dozens of times in a row. Sometimes he shot forward nearly a hundred zhang, sometimes barely a dozen. He couldn't control the direction at all, and once he even ran back the way he'd come.

He knew that continuing to practice this way would get him nowhere, so he went to Ping Qi. After hearing him out, Ping Qi smiled. "Earth Shrinking Step isn't easy to master. And the way you're going about it makes it even harder."

"I'll teach you a set of movement techniques. They're useless in a fight, but they'll help you practice Earth Shrinking Step. In fact, difficult spells of other attributes have their own accompanying movement techniques and fist arts, too. Take the Ape Lord Sword Art you have: it may not be of much use in a fight, but if you want to become a sword cultivator, you'll have to master it completely."

After speaking, he demonstrated a set of movement techniques and gave Yan Chihuo detailed instructions. When he saw that Yan Chihuo had grasped the basics and only needed more practice, he said, "Once you can perform these movements unconsciously, even in your sleep, start practicing Earth Shrinking Step. First, mark out an area a hundred zhang across. Once you can control your direction within that area, make it smaller. When you can cast the spell freely within the final three zhang, you'll have mastered it for the Body Tempering Stage."

After returning, Yan Chihuo first practiced the movement techniques Ping Qi had taught him. The movements were quite difficult, specifically designed to train cultivators to keep their balance under all kinds of extreme conditions. Once he mastered them, he would indeed be better able to control his direction when casting Earth Shrinking Step.

From then on, aside from practicing the Spirit Jade Vajra Art each day, he worked on the movement techniques. At the same time, so he wouldn't let his crafting skills grow rusty, he kept practicing carving Forbidden Cloud Patterns into sand, stone, wood, and other materials.

Crafting masters all said that carving Restrictions into such mundane materials was a waste of effort, and that no one had ever succeeded. But Yan Chihuo believed that someone must have managed it; that person's cultivation and crafting skills had simply been so profound that he couldn't be bothered to craft such a Talisman Artifact.

Yan Chihuo was different. He didn't have enough Jade Crystals to practice crafting, so he had no choice. Besides, he'd found that carving Restrictions into sand, stone, wood, and other materials not only improved his crafting skills but also helped him practice the Spirit Jade Vajra Art and earth-attribute spells.

In the cultivation world, no one had ever used this method to improve their crafting skills. No one in the Body Tempering Stage could see the Forbidden Cloud Patterns clearly enough. Naturally, cultivators with sufficiently high cultivation, such as those at the Dao Foundation Stage, could carve the patterns on Talisman Artifacts perfectly. But they didn't even have to wait until the Dao Foundation Stage: once they reached the Qi Gathering Stage, they could no longer see the spiritual patterns of Restrictions on Dharma Tools clearly enough. As a result, crafting masters inevitably left flaws in their Restrictions. Before long, the mundane materials couldn't withstand the backlash and crumbled to dust. Practicing this way naturally did nothing to improve their crafting skills, nor could they gain insight into the changes in cultivation arts and spells.

Yan Chihuo had exceptional eyesight. Although he couldn't see the Forbidden Cloud Patterns in their entirety, his perception of their fine details far surpassed that of other cultivators. That was why he had such extraordinary success at carving Restrictions. And since carving Restrictions into sand, stone, and wood gave him a finer grasp of the patterns, it naturally deepened his understanding of spells and cultivation arts as well.

Of course, that was also why he only carved earth-attribute Restrictions. Carving Restrictions of other attributes wouldn't make any difference to his crafting, but it could never help him understand wind-attribute spells or cultivation arts.

Three months passed in a flash. Yan Chihuo made considerable progress in both crafting and practicing Earth Shrinking Step. He had completely mastered the movement techniques and had begun practicing the spell itself. He still couldn't fully control it within a hundred zhang, but he no longer careened about like a headless fly. He had gained a basic grasp of direction.

As for carving Restrictions into sand, stone, and wood, the day before, almost as if by some stroke of luck, he had managed to carve a Falling Rock Art Restriction onto a fist-sized stone. But that was the only time. He tried more than ten times afterward and didn't succeed once. After he cast Falling Rock Art on that stone three times, it crumbled to dust. Mundane materials simply couldn't withstand the backlash of magical power for long.

Even so, Yan Chihuo was extremely satisfied. As far as he knew, this achievement had gone unmatched in the Cloud Soaring Sect for thousands of years. He kept it to himself and didn't even tell Ping Qi. It was a habit he'd picked up over years as an assassin: the fewer people who knew his secrets, the better his chances of staying alive.

Next, he used Poison Dissolving Art to wash away the Restrictions on the Soul-Breaking Sword and carved sixteen new layers. He combined Falling Rock Art, Stone Armor Art, and Imprisoning Earth into a single compound Restriction.

To his delight, casting these three spells through the Soul-Breaking Sword caused no delay at all, and their power hadn't diminished. After considering it from every angle, he settled on two possible explanations. First, his skill at carving Restrictions had improved greatly, allowing the compound Restriction to combine the three spells perfectly. Second, his understanding of spells had reached a new level, which was probably closely related to his daily practice of carving Restrictions.

Another year and a half passed. At last, he could control Earth Shrinking Step freely within a radius of about seven zhang, but he couldn't make any further progress. Even so, this was an extraordinary achievement. He could now cast the low-level spell instantly, and no one in the Cloud Soaring Sect had ever been known to master it to this degree while still in the middle stage of the Body Tempering Stage.

He had carved twenty-three layers of Restrictions onto the Snake Scale, but he was reluctant to carve the twenty-fourth. Once a Talisman Artifact had twenty-four layers of Restrictions, it became a fully perfected Talisman Artifact, also known as a half-step Dharma Tool. Its power far surpassed that of Talisman Artifacts carved with only twenty-three layers of Restrictions.

Yan Chihuo didn't want to carve the twenty-fourth Restriction carelessly, because the quality of a Talisman Artifact depended directly on how well its Restrictions were carved—especially one that was a half-step Dharma Tool.