Breath Concealment and Ink Making

Xia Dong carefully stowed away the Wind-Riding Talisman, which emitted a faint cyan glow. Without pause, he picked up his brush and dipped it into the ink once more.

Because of One Proof Eternal Proof.

His subsequent movements were like flowing water, devoid of the slightest hesitation.

The second one, complete.

The third one, complete.

The fourth...

As each sheet of blank spirit paper was filled with complex cinnabar runes, the Wind-Riding Talismans on Xia Dong's desk gradually began to stack up.

After a bout of frenzied creation, Xia Dong made a rough estimate and found that his success rate for crafting Wind-Riding Talismans had stabilized at a staggering ninety percent.

Why not one hundred percent? Xia Dong looked at the two or three sheets of spirit paper that had occasionally failed and turned to ash. After some thought, he concluded it might be due to the materials or other factors. Regardless, this success rate was already astonishing.

Satisfied that his technique for crafting Wind-Riding Talismans had reached a state of pure perfection, Xia Dong set down his brush.

He did not rush for success. Instead, he sat cross-legged back on his bed, began circulating the Evergreen Qi-Circulation Art, and consumed food to replenish his blood and qi while patiently recovering the mana and divine sense he had just expended.

It was not until more than half a day later, when he was certain he had fully recovered to his peak state of vigor, that Xia Dong spread out a fresh sheet of spirit paper.

Next, he intended to craft his true trump card for survival—the Breath-Concealing Talisman.

According to the records in the Peaceful Yin Talisman Scripture jade slip, the Breath-Concealing Talisman was not of the highest grade, but its utility was immense.

Even a low-grade Breath-Concealing Talisman drawn on the most ordinary spirit paper could, once applied to the body, perfectly evade the divine sense detection of a mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator for the duration of the talisman's effect.

If Xia Dong were to possess deep mana in the future and successfully condense a "Talisman Seed" within his body, allowing him to craft higher-quality Breath-Concealing Talismans, then even cultivators below the Foundation Establishment Realm would find it extremely difficult to discover him while he was in a state of concealed breath.

Of course, if the user were to violently circulate their mana or actively project their divine sense to probe others while the talisman was in effect, the concealment would immediately fail.

Xia Dong took a deep breath and began to deconstruct the spirit-pattern trajectory of the Breath-Concealing Talisman.

The difficulty of drawing a Breath-Concealing Talisman was an entire tier higher than that of the Wind-Riding Talisman. Its runes were not only more complex, but they also required the mana at the tip of the brush to form an extremely introverted "dead knot" that connected head to tail.

However, the core of the Evergreen Qi-Circulation Art he practiced was the "fetal breath" state—closing all pores of the body to return to a primordial state—which inherently possessed a powerful effect of restraining blood, qi, and divine sense.

By drawing parallels, Xia Dong only needed a little contemplation to grasp the obscure principles of the Breath-Concealing Talisman.

"If I truly condense a Talisman Seed in the future, I won't even need talisman paper; I will be able to form talismans in the void anytime and anywhere. That would be no different from learning a Breath-Concealing Art."

Having clarified the principles, Xia Dong picked up his brush again and began his tireless practice.

Crafting talismans consumed a great deal of divine sense.

Ordinary cultivators valued their divine sense more than their lives and dared not over-expend it. If divine sense were overdrawn, it would damage the origin of the soul, making it extremely difficult to recover and potentially leading to the terrifying consequence of a drop in cultivation realm.

That was why those talisman masters had to stop and rest after drawing only a few talismans, fearing damage to their foundations.

But Xia Dong was different.

He had no psychological burden regarding a drop in his cultivation realm.

Under this uninhibited and frenzied experimentation, Xia Dong became completely immersed in the world of talisman crafting.

The general outline of the Peaceful Yin Talisman Scripture stated: "Observe the Way of Heaven, and hold the conduct of Heaven."

The essence of the Talisman Dao was to use tools to forcibly imitate and replicate the supreme principles that governed the world.

Ordinary talisman masters, while crafting, were so worried about mana dissipation and divine sense exhaustion that their minds were stretched to the breaking point. How could they have any spare mental energy to experience the profound mysteries of heaven and earth contained within the process?

But Xia Dong had no such burden.

Every time he put brush to paper, every time he felt the mana tracing those mysterious circuits on the talisman paper, it was as if he were listening to the breathing of the world.

Hum.

After failing countless times.

The first Breath-Concealing Talisman was finally complete!

Xia Dong's wrist went limp, the brush nearly falling from his hand, as a wave of intense dizziness washed over his mind.

To draw this Breath-Concealing Talisman, his divine sense had once again been severely squeezed.

He steadied his breathing, then skillfully closed his eyes to meditate and circulate his cultivation technique to recover.

When he opened his eyes several hours later, a flash of surprise crossed them.

His newly recovered divine sense had actually become a fraction more resilient than before.

This feeling was extremely subtle, like a tiny speck of dust gently landing on a patch of smooth, tender skin; as long as one carefully felt and looked for it, it could be clearly perceived.

To be precise, his divine sense had not expanded in range, but in quality, it had undergone a genuine "tempering"!

"Talisman crafting... can actually temper divine sense?"

Xia Dong had not expected that this immersive crafting, by leveraging his insights into the profound principles of heaven and earth and pushing his limits, could also have the miraculous effect of training his divine sense.

With a thought, Xia Dong continued to attempt crafting.

He did not know how much time had passed.

The rough inkstone was clean, with only a few specks of dried, dark red residue remaining.

"The talisman ink is used up?" Xia Dong looked at the empty ink dish, feeling a sense of lingering desire.

He suppressed the urge to continue crafting talismans and stood up to stretch his stiff limbs.

Once his divine sense and mana had completely stabilized, Xia Dong fell into deep thought.

What should he do next?

Should he take this batch of Wind-Riding Talisman to the marketplace to secretly trade for spirit stones and talisman ink, or... try that method?

Deep down, a strange thought had been circling in his mind.

"What specific advantages do martial artists actually offer to cultivators?"

Xia Dong's gaze stared intently at the dried-up inkstone as he muttered to himself.

"If the blood of demonic beasts can be used to create talisman ink capable of bearing mana because it contains powerful vitality and spirituality..."

"Then what about the blood of a martial artist?"

Xia Dong's eyes flickered in the swaying candlelight.

He decided to test it with his own blood.

The Peaceful Yin Talisman Scripture contained methods for crafting talisman ink, and Xia Dong was determined to try replacing demonic beast blood with his own.

He turned and walked to the medicine cabinet, took out an extremely clean white porcelain bowl, placed it on the desk, and retrieved a small knife to sterilize it.

Xia Dong took a deep breath, circulated his Dragon-Capturing Technique, and deliberately relaxed the meridians in his left arm. Then, holding the knife in his right hand, he precisely sliced a one-inch-long cut into the vein of his left wrist.

If an ordinary person suffered such an injury, blood would surely gush out like a fountain. But Xia Dong's control over his physical body had reached the pinnacle of perfection; under his deliberate command, the blood merely formed a steady, slow stream, flowing unhurriedly into the white porcelain bowl.

Drip, drip...

Xia Dong's blood was now fundamentally different from that of an ordinary mortal.

The blood appeared a deep, profound dark red, as viscous as mercury. As it fell into the bowl, it made a faint, muffled sound and even emitted wisps of warm white vapor.

"Enough."

With a thought, the Dragon-Capturing Technique exerted force instantly, and the muscles in his left arm tightened violently, locking the blood vessels like an iron hoop. The muscle fibers at the wound quickly writhed and closed, forcibly cutting off the flow of blood.

He immediately treated the wound, then took out the materials for refining talisman ink and sprinkled them evenly into the bowl full of blood.

Next came the most critical step.

Xia Dong closed his eyes slightly, and his vast divine sense surged out of his body, tightly enveloping the white porcelain bowl.

The Ink-Refining Secret Method recorded in the Peaceful Yin Talisman Scripture raced through his mind.

"Rise!"

Xia Dong let out a low shout, and the cold, dark Mysterious Yin Mana within his dantian flowed continuously from his fingertips into the bowl.

Boom!

The moment the blood in the bowl touched the Mysterious Yin Mana, it began to churn and boil violently like water.

Immediately after, Xia Dong wrapped the blood in his divine sense.

It took a full half-hour.

The activity in the white porcelain bowl finally subsided.

The dark red blood in the bowl had completely vanished.

In its place, resting quietly at the bottom of the bowl, was a solid ink block the size of a fingernail, as translucent and crystalline as a red agate.

Xia Dong reached out with two fingers and picked up the talisman ink.

It felt slightly cool to the touch, yet possessed the warm, smooth texture of jade.

Most strangely, the nauseating scent of blood was gone from the ink; instead, it emitted an extremely dark, profound, and exotic fragrance that seemed to strike directly at the soul.