Warding Talisman

By the time he brought the two newcomers back to their residence, dusk had already fallen.

Zhao Hu and Zheng Xiaoman were serious about learning. After a full day, they had basically memorized the patrol procedures. Tomorrow, he could let them try covering half a street on their own.

Li Yuan slid the bolt into place, sat down at the table, and took out his talisman-crafting materials from his sleeve.

Yellow talisman paper, spirit ink specially made for warding, cinnabar, and a fine-hair brush were neatly arranged across the tabletop.

A Warding Talisman was more than one level more complex than a Cleaning Talisman.

Li Yuan picked up the brush, dipped it in warding spirit ink, and set it onto the first sheet of talisman paper.

The opening stroke of a Warding Talisman resembled that of a Cleaning Talisman. Starting from the upper-left corner, the talisman brush moved clockwise across the paper. Spiritual power poured from his fingertips into the brush shaft, while cinnabar slowly spread over the talisman paper.

At a bend in one spirit pattern, Li Yuan gave his wrist a slight turn and adjusted the frequency of his spiritual power output.

It failed. He had adjusted the spiritual power too quickly, and that spirit pattern on the paper was visibly a shade too faint.

Li Yuan put down the brush and set the talisman paper aside.

The second sheet, the third sheet... the seventh sheet.

He failed seven sheets in a row. This was already the result of having the Talisman Crafting Manual equipped and a vast amount of experience in his mind.

The eighth sheet.

Li Yuan took a deep breath, picked up the brush, dipped it in ink, and began.

Spiritual power flowed across the talisman paper, slowly constructing the spirit pattern.

The talisman brush naturally tapered at the end of the pattern, and the final point landed steadily in the very center of the paper.

The Warding Talisman was complete.

Li Yuan set down the brush and flexed his slightly sore wrist.

Out of eight sheets of talisman paper, one had succeeded.

A notification popped up on the panel:

[Detected equippable item: Warding Talisman (Complete)]

[Trait preview: Warding (Gray)—Spiritual power carries a slight effect that damages the divine soul and Yin Ghosts]

[Permanent condition preview: Kill one Yin Ghost of Low-grade First-Order strength or above (0/1)]

[Current Equipment Slots full (3/3). Replace current equipment?]

A Gray Trait. Its effect was not strong.

But the condition for making it permanent only required killing one Low-grade First-Order Yin Ghost.

Yin Ghosts were a special kind of existence. After cultivators or mortals died, a very small number of souls did not disperse and instead transformed in places thick with yin energy.

Li Yuan had seen relevant records in the original owner's memories. Rogue Cultivators occasionally encountered Yin Ghosts in certain damp, gloomy valleys of the Yuanheng Mountains, but they were rarely seen near Qinghe Market.

No rush. The condition was not demanding. If he came across one, he could deal with it along the way.

[Tier 1 Talisman Crafting Art: Entry Level (30/100)]

[Warding Talisman: Not Entry Level (13/100)]

[Talisman Crafting Insight (White) permanent progress: 2/50]

The overall experience for the Talisman Crafting Art had risen quite a bit. In roughly two or three days, it should reach Entry Level.

However, the Talisman Crafting Art's experience grew noticeably slower than cultivation arts. Equipment infusion merely saved him the time needed for comprehension; the skill in his hands still had to be honed one talisman at a time.

Li Yuan put away the Warding Talisman and looked over the remaining materials on the table.

There was still a stack of talisman paper left. Half the spirit ink had been used, while the cinnabar had barely been consumed—Warding Talismans mainly devoured spirit ink.

That was enough for today. He had used up a fair amount of spiritual power. If he kept drawing, the failure rate would only climb higher.

Li Yuan put away the talisman-crafting materials, sat cross-legged on the bed, and circulated the Spirit Guiding Art.

Spiritual energy poured into his meridians, pure and without impurities.

He switched to the Hundred Meridians Origin Return Art. After spiritual power circulated once through the branch meridians, it returned to the Dantian, its quality rising by a notch.

Over the next two days, Li Yuan led Zhao Hu and Zheng Xiaoman on patrols through the market during the day.

The two newcomers picked things up quickly. Zhao Hu was bold and dared step forward to stop squabbling vendors, but his words were too blunt. Twice, he nearly provoked people into a rage, and only stopped after Li Yuan gave him a kick from the side.

Zheng Xiaoman spoke little, but his eyes were sharp. While patrolling, he was always looking left and right. Every so often, he would sidle up to Li Yuan and lower his voice to report a few things, all of them minor details.

They each had their own flaws, but they were easier to lead than Li Yuan had expected.

On the third day, Li Yuan had the two of them patrol East Street and North Alley by themselves, freeing up his own hands.

That afternoon, Li Yuan headed toward the southern section along East Street and turned in front of Old Sun's stall.

Old Sun was not tending his medicine furnace today. Instead, he was squatting behind the stall sorting medicinal herbs. Several kinds of dried herbs lay before him, and he was separating them handful by handful.

Li Yuan crouched down in front of the stall.

Old Sun glanced up, then set down the herbs in his hand.

"Back? I heard you haven't gone out again since returning from the mountain."

"For now, I'm staying in the market." Li Yuan took two medicinal herbs from his sleeve and placed them on the stall cloth.

One stalk of Green Jade Grass and one Red Root Vine. He had picked them up along the patrol route, not much in quantity.

"Just these?" Old Sun picked up the Green Jade Grass and turned it over, then examined the Red Root Vine.

"It wasn't convenient to gather herbs in the mountains. This time, we were mainly searching and fighting, so there wasn't much time to pay attention to herbs."

Old Sun gave a grunt and put the two herbs into the medicine chest behind him without quibbling over the amount.

"No matter. Having some is enough."

Old Sun rummaged through the medicine chest, pulled out two small porcelain bottles, and placed them on the stall cloth before pushing them toward Li Yuan.

"Fiend Essence Pills. New ones."

Li Yuan picked up one porcelain bottle and pulled out the stopper. A medicinal fragrance wafted out from its mouth.

It smelled different from the Fiend Essence Pills he had taken before.

The old Fiend Essence Pills had a strong medicinal aroma tinged with a pungent, scorching dryness.

The aroma of these two pills was still rich, but the pungency had faded considerably. In its place was a trace of faintly bitter coolness.

"I changed the formula." Old Sun gestured at the porcelain bottles with his chin.

"The fiend qi problem still hasn't been completely solved, but I found a way to suppress the backlash somewhat. I added Soul-Calming Flower. It doesn't affect the cultivation-boosting effect, but after taking it, the impact on the internal organs can be reduced by twenty to thirty percent."

"I originally wanted to refine medicinal pills to assist breakthroughs, but there were too many problems."

Old Sun rubbed the residual medicinal powder from his fingertips, then added another sentence.

"Try them. Just tell me how they feel after you finish them."

Li Yuan stoppered the porcelain bottle and tucked it into his sleeve.

"How have your medicinal pills been selling lately?"

"Fiend Essence Pills?" Old Sun snorted. "Still no one's buying them. Now I just refine them for fun, since they don't use much material anyway. The Turbidity Cleansing Pills and Yuan Condensing Powder, on the other hand, have been selling well lately. Traveling Merchants come to me whenever they need to restock."

"Do the Traveling Merchants affect your business much?"

"Me? Not much." Old Sun picked up a handful of dried grass leaves and fiddled with them in his hand.

"Traveling Merchants sell finished medicinal pills, buying them from other markets and reselling them. I refine mine myself, so I can keep the costs down, and the quality isn't bad either."

Old Sun put down the grass leaves and jerked his chin toward East Street.

"The ones hit hardest are the Rogue Cultivators selling herbs and those selling miscellaneous goods. The Traveling Merchants bring in huge quantities of herbs at low prices. Local Rogue Cultivators' goods can't compare at all. And those selling scraps of ore are even worse off."

Old Sun picked up a coarse earthenware bowl beside the medicine chest, poured half a bowl of water into it, and gulped down a mouthful.

"I'm not affected much. I can still set up my stall in the market as usual. If herbs rise in price, my medicinal pills rise too. My business has always been a slow stream that runs long."

Old Sun set down the bowl and gave Li Yuan another look.

"You people in the Patrol Squad have it rough, running around inside and out."

Li Yuan did not respond. He stood up.

"As for the pills, I'll tell you after I take them."

"No rush." Old Sun waved him off and bent down to continue sorting herbs.

Li Yuan turned and headed back along North Alley, weighing the porcelain bottle containing the two Fiend Essence Pills in his sleeve.

The formula had been improved, and the backlash reduced by twenty to thirty percent, but he would only know the specifics after taking them.

After returning to the residence, Li Yuan slid the bolt into place.

He took out one of the new Fiend Essence Pills and put it into his mouth.

The medicinal pill melted the instant it entered his stomach. Scorching medicinal power exploded from his gut and surged through his meridians.

Compared to before, the burning sensation had indeed lessened. The intensity of the medicinal power was about the same, but the fiend qi mixed within it was clearly gentler. When it swept past his internal organs, it no longer felt like ice spikes scraping through them. It was more like cold water being poured over him—a brief chill, then it was gone.

The entire digestion process was much faster than with the old formula. Combined with the improvement in his cultivation, he finished absorbing it in less than half an hour.

Li Yuan continued by taking the second Fiend Essence Pill, memorizing his impressions so he could tell Old Sun tomorrow.