Talisman Arts

After gaining magical power, the first thing Xia Dong considered was how to earn more cultivation resources.

Cultivators had four main ways to earn Spirit Stones: pills, artifacts, formations, and talismans.

After giving it some careful thought, Xia Dong fixed his sights on "talisman arts."

Alchemy and artifact crafting required staggeringly high upfront costs. They called for expensive furnaces, earthfire, and rare spirit herbs and ores.

With his current straitened finances, Xia Dong couldn't even afford the dregs from a medicine pot.

Talisman crafting, however, had the lowest barrier to entry and the lowest cost of the four arts.

The spirit paper needed for talisman crafting was made mostly from spirit bamboo.

The Qixia Mountains had no shortage of spirit bamboo. It grew all over the mountainsides, and because it grew so quickly, one Low-Grade Spirit Stone could buy a large stack of decent blank spirit paper at the Marketplace.

As for the demon blood or cinnabar used to draw talisman runes, neither was especially rare among mortals and low-level cultivators, and they were not difficult to obtain.

What truly made countless cultivators shy away from talisman crafting was its infuriatingly low success rate.

Drawing a talisman required an uninterrupted flow from start to finish.

The slightest fluctuation in a cultivator's state of mind while drawing, the tiniest deviation in the magical power they infused, even the faintest tremor in their hand—all could scatter the spiritual energy across the entire sheet and ruin it in an instant.

Drawing talismans also consumed spiritual sense at a punishing rate. Many low-level cultivators found it more trouble than it was worth. They were often grateful to complete even one talisman out of ten.

But for Xia Dong, who possessed the Bronze Ancient Bell, this was no problem at all!

"One Proof Eternal Proof" was perfectly suited to overcome these flaws.

As long as he could successfully draw one high-quality Talisman, its flawless flow of magical power and exquisite strokes would be branded deep into his soul.

After that, when he drew the same kind of Talisman again, it would be like the work of the most precise printing block, and his success rate would be exceptionally high.

Having settled on a direction, Xia Dong searched the vast collection of strange tales in the Pingyang County Gazetteer in his mind, looking for a way to obtain a talisman inheritance.

Soon, a name buried in the dusty stacks of old papers sprang into view—Zhang Ping.

Zhang Ping had been a native of Pingyang County more than a thousand years ago.

He had spent his whole life obsessed with seeking immortality, wandering far from home for half of it. In the end, he never managed to join any of the renowned sects and learned only the talisman-and-water arts of a Rogue Cultivator.

In his later years, he returned to his roots and came back to Pingyang County.

According to the Gazetteer's hidden records, Zhang Ping had devoted himself primarily to talisman arts.

One year, Pingyang County suffered a great drought followed by famine, and plague ran rampant. Zhang Ping used talisman water outside the city to treat the sick and save lives.

Unfortunately, talisman water could cure evil spirits and pestilence, but it couldn't cure poverty, much less hunger.

As the number of refugees swelled, the county magistrate at the time feared they might rise in revolt—and feared even more that Zhang Ping might take the opportunity to gather a crowd and rebel. So he accused him of "leading the people astray with heretical practices" and sent soldiers to drive him out by force.

Disheartened, Zhang Ping eventually went into seclusion in the deep mountains of Tiger Hill, eighty li outside Pingyang County. He lived among the tigers and spent his final years in the mountains and forests.

The Gazetteer's last few words about him said that villagers gathering herbs in the mountains had found his secluded cave in ruins, and that he himself had likely been swallowed by a giant serpent that had become a demon.

"He died so suddenly. There's a good chance his talisman inheritance is still tucked away somewhere in Tiger Hill."

The reason Xia Dong was so interested in this thousand-year-old tale was that just last month, Zhao Ting, a Flag-Bearer of the Eagle-Wolf Guard, had personally led a team to Tiger Hill to suppress a band of roving cultists.

They failed to catch the cultists and instead disturbed a terrifying serpent deep in the mountains.

The serpent's scales were hard as iron. It was not only skilled in poisonous miasma, but astonishingly strong as well. Zhao Ting, a Qi Refining Third Layer cultivator, had teamed up with several minor captains in the Skin Grinding Realm, yet they had still failed to subdue it. Several of their brothers-in-arms had fallen, and Zhao Ting himself had suffered internal injuries.

In the end, it was Xia Dong who stepped in, using the Evergreen Medical Classic alongside the Dragon-Capturing Hand and the Rejuvenating Divine Needle to stabilize their injuries.

"Tiger Hill... the serpent demon... Zhang Ping's inheritance."

Xia Dong pieced the clues together and formed a plan. The serpent that had given the Eagle-Wolf Guard such a hard time was very likely descended from the Great Serpent that had swallowed Zhang Ping all those years ago.

It had settled in Tiger Hill, probably because Zhang Ping's cave or some kind of miniature spirit vein was there.

Xia Dong decided to make a trip to Tiger Hill.

Of course, he had prepared a backup plan.

If he failed to find Zhang Ping's inheritance at Tiger Hill, he would keep lying low in the medical clinic and saving up Spirit Stones. Then he could go to the Marketplace of the Qixia Immortal Sect and buy the most basic jade slip on talisman crafting.

Though he could also exchange merit points for talisman-crafting methods in the Eagle-Wolf Guard's internal storehouse, they were expensive. Besides, as a mortal physician with "no Spirit Root," he couldn't suddenly ask to trade for one of the immortal arts without having to explain himself to his superiors.

Going to the Marketplace was much safer.

In her most recent letter, Qin Wan had mentioned that her master, True Person Lone Moon, had gone into seclusion at the end of last year and was now refusing to see anyone. The Foundation Establishment Perfection cultivator was devoting herself wholeheartedly to opening the legendary "Purple Mansion."

Opening the Purple Mansion was fraught with danger. Even if one succeeded by sheer luck, it would still take a very long time to nourish it. This meant True Person Lone Moon would have no time to concern herself with the outside world for quite a while.

Xia Dong could visit the Marketplace during this period without worrying about attracting the attention of such a powerful cultivator.

As for the serpent in Tiger Hill, Xia Dong, being a highly skilled physician, naturally had ways to deal with it.

He would need to prepare some special medicine.

But considering that the Great Serpent had already become a spirit creature, the specially prepared medicine might not work. So Xia Dong was also ready to run at a moment's notice if he couldn't beat it.

He also planned to strengthen his spiritual sense again.

A powerful spiritual sense was a great help in staying alive. Most obviously, it enhanced one's ability to observe one's surroundings and sense danger before it drew near.

For the past three years, promoting martial arts in Pingyang County had actually done more harm than good.

Practicing martial arts consumed a great deal of food.

It was difficult enough for an ordinary household to support a martial artist, let alone a prosperous farming family.

As a result, grain and meat prices in Pingyang County had risen sharply over the past few years.

As it happened, this year brought the second year of drought.

So this year, Pingyang County was truly in dire straits.

Other counties were even worse off.

That was why so many refugees had gathered outside the city over the past two years, with disease running rampant.

There had also been more and more reports of hauntings.

Some were true, and some were false.

This was also an opportune moment for the local gentry and powerful families of Pingyang County to seize land.

Perhaps the Great You Dynasty Court had originally promoted martial arts with good intentions, but it could not be denied that after the new policy came into effect, the local gentry and powerful families had fanned the flames. Many ordinary households had been ruined by the burden of supporting martial artists.

At this time, with drought, famine, and disease ravaging the people of Linyuan Prefecture, many had joined an evil cult called the Unborn Cult.

Many others prayed for the immortals of Qixia Mountain to come down and save them.

They had also heard the rumor that the immortals of the Qixia Immortal Sect meant to relieve suffering and save the people, but the government was suppressing them, so they could not act.

This was not without precedent. Take that immortal called Zhang Ping, who was said to have lived in Pingyang County. Hadn't he angered the government back then by using talisman water to treat the people?

And so, without realizing it, the Great You government had stirred up a great deal of public resentment throughout Linyuan Prefecture.

If a skilled cultivator used the Qi-Gazing Technique to observe the flow of energy, they would see all that resentment gathering in a certain corner.

There stood an altar, with loud chants drifting through the air:

"The Holy Mother descends! The people shall rise!"

"Divine power shields our bodies! Blades and spears cannot harm us!"