Xia Dong carefully put away the Wind-Riding Talisman, which gave off a faint green glow, then immediately picked up his brush and dipped it in ink again.
That was because of One Proof Eternal Proof.
His movements from then on flowed like clouds and water, no longer the slightest bit sluggish.
The second one, complete.
The third one, complete.
The fourth...
As one blank sheet of spirit paper after another filled with intricate vermilion runes, Wind-Riding Talismans gradually piled up on Xia Dong's desk.
After a frenzied bout of drawing, Xia Dong made a rough estimate. His success rate for making Wind-Riding Talismans had stabilized at an astonishing ninety percent.
"Why not a hundred?" Xia Dong looked at the two or three sheets of spirit paper that occasionally failed and crumbled into ash. After pondering it, he suspected it might be due to the materials or some other cause. Regardless, this success rate was already astonishing.
Once he was certain his skill at making Wind-Riding Talismans had reached perfection, Xia Dong put down his talisman brush.
He didn't rush to force results. Instead, he sat cross-legged on the bed and began circulating the Evergreen Qi-Circulation Art. He replenished his blood and vital energy with food while patiently recovering the mana and spiritual sense he had just expended.
Only after more than half a day, when he was certain he had fully recovered to peak condition, did Xia Dong spread out a fresh sheet of spirit paper again.
Next, he would make a trump card that could truly save his life—the Breath-Concealing Talisman.
According to the records in the jade slip of the Peaceful Yin Talisman Scripture, the Breath-Concealing Talisman wasn't especially high-grade, but it was highly practical.
Even a low-grade Breath-Concealing Talisman drawn on the most ordinary spirit paper could, at the very least, perfectly evade the spiritual sense detection of Qi Refining Mid-Stage cultivators while its effect lasted.
If Xia Dong's mana grew deep enough in the future for him to successfully condense a "Talisman Seed" within his body, he could make higher-quality Breath-Concealing Talismans. Then cultivators below the Foundation Establishment Realm would find it extremely difficult to detect him while he was concealing his breath.
Of course, if during its use the talisman's wielder circulated mana violently or deliberately extended his spiritual sense to probe others, the concealing effect would immediately fail.
Xia Dong took a deep breath and began to break down the spiritual-rune patterns of the Breath-Concealing Talisman.
The Breath-Concealing Talisman was a whole level more difficult to draw than the Wind-Riding Talisman. Its runes were not only more intricate, but also required mana to form an extremely restrained, unbroken "dead knot" at the tip of the brush.
However, the core of the Evergreen Qi-Circulation Art he cultivated was to close all the pores on his body and return to the "fetal breathing" state of primordial nature. This already had a powerful effect on restraining one's blood and vital energy, as well as one's spiritual sense.
By applying what he had learned in one field to another, Xia Dong only needed to ponder it briefly before he began to grasp the Breath-Concealing Talisman's abstruse principles.
"If I really condense a Talisman Seed someday, I won't even need talisman paper. I'll be able to form talismans in the air whenever I want. That's no different from learning a Breath-Concealing Art."
Having figured out the principle, Xia Dong picked up his brush again and began practicing tirelessly.
Making talismans consumed an immense amount of spiritual sense.
Ordinary cultivators valued their spiritual sense more than their own lives and didn't dare overexert themselves. Once their spiritual sense was excessively depleted, it would damage the very source of their souls and be extremely difficult to restore. It could even trigger the terrifying consequence of a fall in cultivation realm.
That was why talisman masters had to stop and rest after drawing a few talismans, afraid of damaging their foundations.
But Xia Dong was different.
He had no psychological burden from worrying about his cultivation realm falling.
With no reservations as he tried again and again, Xia Dong became completely immersed in the world of talisman-making.
The general principles of the Peaceful Yin Talisman Scripture stated: "Observe the Way of Heaven and act in accordance with its workings."
The foundation of the Talisman Dao was to use objects to forcibly imitate and reproduce the laws governing the workings of heaven and earth.
When ordinary talisman masters drew talismans, they worried so much about their mana dispersing and their spiritual sense running dry that their minds were wound tight. How could they spare any attention to appreciate the profound mysteries of heaven and earth contained in the process?
But Xia Dong had no such burden.
With every stroke, every time he felt mana trace those abstruse circuits across the talisman paper, it was as if he were listening to the breath of heaven and earth.
Hum.
After an unknown number of failures,
the first Breath-Concealing Talisman was finally complete!
Xia Dong's wrist went limp, and his talisman brush nearly slipped from his hand. A powerful wave of dizziness washed over his mind.
To draw this Breath-Concealing Talisman, his spiritual sense had once again been severely overtaxed.
He steadied his breathing a little, then skillfully closed his eyes and sat in meditation, circulating his cultivation method to recover.
Several hours later, when he opened his eyes again, a glimmer of delight flashed in them.
His newly recovered spiritual sense had become a little more resilient than before.
The feeling was incredibly subtle, like a tiny mote of dust gently settling on an inch of smooth, tender skin. If you took the time to feel for it and look closely, you could still see it clearly.
More precisely, his spiritual sense hadn't expanded in range. Instead, its quality had undergone a genuine "tempering"!
"Making talismans... can actually temper spiritual sense?"
Xia Dong hadn't expected that immersing himself in talisman-making, through comprehending the mysteries of heaven and earth and pushing himself to his limits, could also produce such a miraculous effect on his spiritual sense.
A thought crossed Xia Dong's mind, and he continued trying to make talismans.
An unknown amount of time passed.
The rough inkstone was completely empty, with only a little dried, dark-red residue left.
"Ran out of talisman ink?" Xia Dong looked at the empty ink dish, still reluctant to stop.
He suppressed the urge to continue making talismans and stood up to stretch his stiff limbs.
Once his spiritual sense and mana had fully recovered and steadied again, Xia Dong fell into thought.
What should he do next?
Should he take this batch of Wind-Riding Talismans to the Marketplace and secretly sell them for Spirit Stones and talisman ink, or... try that method?
An unusual thought had been circling in the back of his mind all along.
"What specific advantages do martial artists have over cultivators?"
Xia Dong stared at the dried-up inkstone, his gaze distant, and murmured to himself.
"If the blood of demonic beasts can be used to make talisman ink that carries mana because it contains powerful blood vitality and spiritual essence..."
"What about a martial artist's blood?"
In the wavering candlelight, Xia Dong's expression shifted between light and shadow.
He decided to try it with his own blood.
The Peaceful Yin Talisman Scripture contained a method for making talisman ink. Xia Dong resolved to try replacing demonic beast blood with his own.
He turned and walked to the medicine cabinet nearby, took out a thoroughly clean white porcelain bowl, and set it on the desk. Then he took out a small knife and sterilized it.
Xia Dong took a deep breath and circulated the Dragon-Capturing Technique, deliberately relaxing the meridians in his left arm. Then, holding the knife in his right hand, he precisely cut an inch-long gash over a vein in his left wrist.
If an ordinary person suffered such an injury, blood would gush out like a spring. But Xia Dong had long since gained exquisite control over his body. Under his deliberate control, the blood flowed in a steady trickle into the white porcelain bowl.
Drip, drip...
Xia Dong's blood was now completely different from that of ordinary mortals.
It was a profoundly dark red and as viscous as mercury. When it fell into the bowl, it made a faint, muffled sound, and wisps of warm white vapor even rose from it.
"That's enough."
A thought flashed through Xia Dong's mind. The Dragon-Capturing Technique instantly took effect, and the muscles in his left arm clenched like an iron band, locking his blood vessels tight. The muscle fibers around the wound quickly wriggled and closed, forcibly stopping the bleeding at once.
He then treated the wound and took out the materials for refining talisman ink, sprinkling them evenly into the bowl filled to the brim with fresh blood.
Next came the most crucial step.
Xia Dong's eyes fell half-shut. His immense spiritual sense surged out of his body and firmly enveloped the white porcelain bowl.
The Ink-Refining Secret Method recorded in the Peaceful Yin Talisman Scripture began to race through his mind.
"Rise!"
Xia Dong gave a low shout, and the cold, dark Mysterious Yin Mana in his dantian poured through his fingertips and into the bowl without pause.
Boom!
The blood in the bowl began to boil violently the moment it touched the Mysterious Yin Mana.
Then Xia Dong wrapped his spiritual sense around the blood as well.
Nearly half an hour passed.
At last, the commotion in the white porcelain bowl subsided.
The dark-red blood in the bowl had completely disappeared.
In its place, a tiny solid lump of ink, no bigger than a fingernail and as translucent as red agate, lay at the center of the bowl.
Xia Dong reached out and pinched the lump of talisman ink between two fingers.
It felt cool to the touch, yet had the warm texture of jade.
Most wondrous of all, not the slightest trace of nauseating bloodiness could be detected from the ink. Instead, it gave off an extremely dark, profound fragrance that seemed to strike straight at the soul.
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