Effort Brings Rewards

"It's here!"

The instant he saw the panel appear, Lin Chang'an was seized by wild joy, overwhelmed with excitement.

Forty years!

He had waited a full forty years!

The first twenty had been in the Mortal Realm, the latter twenty in the Cultivation World. At last, he had obtained this golden finger.

"But how did this golden finger awaken?"

As the thought struck him, suspicion surfaced on Lin Chang'an's face.

"I woke up after sleeping. Before that, I only went to a pleasure house. It couldn't have been the women—I hadn't exactly never gone before."

"Could it have been the wine!"

The thought flashing through his mind, Lin Chang'an widened his eyes and stared at his large bed.

If his guess was right, he must have drunk too much last night. After Er Niu brought him back, he had drunkenly... died?

Pah!

Rather, it should have been activated at the brink of life and death.

"Damn it! That wine must have been watered down!"

Lin Chang'an angrily slapped the table. Out of the corner of his eye, he happened to notice the bright mirror in the room.

The figure reflected in it was handsome and gentle, refined and radiant. Though already past forty, he showed not the slightest sign of age. Instead, he carried a sense of maturity.

Back then, it had been because of this very face that he had been the first to be cast out by the Zhou Family.

Yet now, his brows carried an air of exhaustion, and the faint bluish shadows beneath his eyes made Lin Chang'an turn pale with shock.

"I've become this haggard in just a few days!"

"Damn it! Starting today, I'm quitting wine!"

Lin Chang'an resolutely slapped his thigh. These past days, crushed by despair, he really had become somewhat lax.

But now that an opportunity had arrived, how could he squander it?

Lin Chang'an's face was brimming with excitement, and his eyes once more shone with the high spirits he had possessed when he first entered the Cultivation World.

How could he still settle down to cultivate? Instead, he excitedly studied his opportunity over and over.

Open, close!

Open, close!

The drizzle fell without pause until night descended.

The Market had lost its daytime clamor, while Lin Chang'an, who had remained in his room all day, stared with bloodshot eyes.

Yet his face still bore excitement that refused to subside.

For an entire day, he had not dared sleep, afraid that when he woke, all this would prove to be nothing more than a drunken illusion.

"I can't lose myself in this. This is only the beginning. There are still long days ahead. Achieving the Dao and attaining immortality may not be an impossible dream."

Lin Chang'an took a deep breath, got up, and plunged his head into a basin of water for a long while. Only after the icy water calmed him did he raise his head and gasp for breath.

"However, because I was preparing to return to the Mortal Realm before, I exchanged most of my Spirit Crystals for supplies. The most urgent matter now is the corvée Er Niu mentioned."

"In previous years, the corvée tax required five Spirit Stones. This time, it'll probably be at least ten."

Ten Spirit Stones were an enormous sum for a Rogue Cultivator like him at the Qi Refining Early Stage.

Even he had to prepare in advance. Otherwise, if he did not have enough Spirit Stones when the time came, he could only take on dangerous Land Reclamation missions.

Thinking of this, Lin Chang'an began quietly taking stock of his current possessions.

One chest of gold, silver, jewels, and treasures. Useless.

One bundle of cultivation techniques, martial arts manuals, divine weapons, and sharp artifacts from the Mortal Realm. Useless.

Fifteen first-rank low-grade Golden Light Talismans and ten Godly Travel Talismans.

One Low-grade Magical Tool, the Green Bamboo Sword.

The rest were the talisman-drawing tools he relied on to make a living, along with the Evergreen Art, all arranged neatly atop the table.

"Aside from the twenty-six Spirit Crystals I temporarily lent Er Niu, I still have twenty Spirit Crystals here."

He lowered his head and took out Spirit Crystals one by one from the inner pocket of his long boots, piling them all on the table.

Looking at all his assets, Lin Chang'an nodded to himself. Over the years, every Spirit Crystal he earned had gone into cultivation.

He had to earn Spirit Crystals quickly.

Midnight.

"Talisman drawing requires a calm heart and focused mind."

Jingxin Incense curled above the table, and all the talisman-drawing tools were ready. Lin Chang'an closed his eyes and rested his mind for a full two hours before his heart finally settled.

"Now is the time."

He took a deep breath, opened the Jade Bottle, and dipped his Spirit Pen for talisman making into the specially prepared Cinnabar within.

Holding his breath and focusing his mind, Lin Chang'an's gaze was intent and serious. He had been drawing talismans for nearly twenty years.

Especially the Golden Light Talisman—gentle spiritual power flowed from his palm through the pen tip, steadily and evenly delivered.

Blood from a metal-aspected spirit beast mixed with special Cinnabar, and the pen tip raced across the talisman paper like dragons and snakes, its movements flowing like drifting clouds and running water.

His body had repeated those movements countless times, until they had become instinctive. Everything came naturally.

Puff!

A burst of flame rose, and the talisman paper ignited without fire.

As though already accustomed to it, Lin Chang'an raised a hand to scatter the ashes and took out another sheet of talisman paper, repeating the process.

[Golden Light Talisman +1 (Proficiency 499/500)]

At last, after three failures, data flashed across the panel in his Sea of Consciousness the moment the fourth talisman succeeded.

Lin Chang'an stared blankly for a long while before finally letting out a long breath.

"So that's how it is."

If talisman drawing had once merely been a way for him to scrape out a living, now he could clearly see a bright road stretching before him.

[Golden Light Talisman (Mastery 0/1000)]

The Golden Light Talisman skill had advanced!

As a Fine Golden Light Talisman appeared, Lin Chang'an felt as though enlightenment had been poured into his head. Memories and insights into crafting Golden Light Talismans surged endlessly through his mind.

Only after a long while did Lin Chang'an open his eyes.

"So the Golden Light Talisman's breakthrough lets me gain understanding myself. It feels as if clouds have parted and the fog has cleared."

With a sigh, Lin Chang'an lowered his head to look at the Golden Light Talisman on the table. This time, he seemed to understand many of the mistakes and unnecessary techniques he had used before.

After a night of calmly drawing talismans, eight Golden Light Talismans lay neatly arranged on the table.

Especially after the Golden Light Talisman had advanced to Mastery, the consumption of his mana was reduced by ten percent. That was all Spirit Crystals!

And he suddenly understood the purpose of this golden finger as well: as long as one worked hard, there would be rewards.

It was not that every successful talisman granted experience. Eight Golden Light Talismans did not equal two points of proficiency. No!

One point of proficiency last night had suddenly appeared when he realized that it could be done this way.

In other words, his own insights counted too.

"As long as I put my heart into it, there will be rewards."

Coming back to his senses, Lin Chang'an also abandoned his previous plan to grind proficiency.

If he did not put his heart into it, then even if he drew a hundred Golden Light Talismans, he would not gain a single point of proficiency.

Put one's heart into everything, and effort would bring rewards. That was the proper way to use this golden finger.

"Although I've found the correct way to use this golden finger, the Cultivation World is as treacherous as stormy clouds and shifting waves, with danger lurking on all sides. One careless step could bring a fatal disaster. I can't let down my guard."

Lin Chang'an silently reminded himself. When he had first arrived at the Market, it was not as if he had lacked the passion to join a group of like-minded fellow cultivators in hunting demon beasts.

Yet becoming rich overnight, exchanging loot for spirit pills, and breaking through in cultivation had always belonged to the lucky few. Most had fallen in pools of blood.

"Back when we hunted demon beasts, several at the Qi Refining Mid-Stage died. That I survived despite being at the Qi Refining Early Stage—wasn't that luck as well?"

After drawing talismans all night and feeling the mana within him nearly dry up, Lin Chang'an smiled.

He even took out the Spirit Crystals he normally could not bear to use, using them to restore his mana.

By then, dawn had broken outside, and the rain had stopped as well.

Warm sunlight spilled across the rain-washed world, while crystalline droplets on the emerald bamboo leaves outside the Market gleamed with light.