Harvesting Talismans

Wang Ding instantly threw himself forward, dodging the vicious gust behind his head. Without the slightest pause, the moment his foot landed he crouched, then swept a leg back in a low kick. His foot struck the shin of the man who had ambushed him from behind, and with a crack, the lower leg snapped on the spot.

Wang Ding stood and looked—it was that shop attendant. So the attendant had seen Wang Ding kill his cousin in a few swift moves and knew he would be next. Then, seeing Wang Ding standing there in a daze for some unknown reason after killing his cousin, he had decided to risk everything and launch a sneak attack, hoping to fight for a sliver of life.

But in the end, he was only a mortal at the Qi Transformation stage. Though he possessed the combat strength of one flying dragon, Wang Ding still dodged him.

Wang Ding walked toward the attendant lying on the ground, clutching his broken leg and howling. When the attendant saw him approach, fear immediately spread across his face, and he pleaded, "You can't kill me. My cousin is an inner disciple of the Qi-Huang Sect. If you kill him, the Qi-Huang Sect definitely won't let you off. If you don't kill me, I'll say my cousin went out to hunt demon beasts and was killed by one."

Wang Ding frowned. "I really have stirred up a huge mess. The Qi-Huang Gate is one of the six great powers in Yong City. I wonder if the Qi-Huang Gate will investigate."

Seeing hesitation on Wang Ding's face, the attendant thought Wang Ding was afraid. His expression immediately changed, and he shouted arrogantly, "Do you know what a disaster you've caused? Kneel down obediently and kowtow to apologize. When the time comes, I might even plead for mercy on your behalf before the seniors of the Qi-Huang Gate." Though the attendant said this aloud, that was not what he thought. Scared now, kid? When the time comes, I'll make you wish you were dead.

Wang Ding, who had been considering how to deal with him, knew from his words that this attendant was a petty man who would repay the smallest slight with vengeance and could not be trusted. A fierce light flashed in his eyes, and he kicked toward the chest of the attendant who was still clamoring nonstop. With a bang, Wang Ding's foot landed solidly on the attendant's chest. The attendant looked like a rooster whose throat had been clamped shut, staring at Wang Ding with wide eyes as though he could not believe Wang Ding actually dared to kill him.

"This world is truly strange. Even a shop attendant can be this arrogant. The King of Hell is easy to deal with, but the little devils are hard to shake off. Still, killing that disciple of the Qi-Huang Gate really is trouble." Wang Ding looked at the two corpses, thought for a moment, then walked over and picked them up. He entered the small woods beside the road. After searching out their belongings, he packed them into the bundle he had set aside, dug a pit, and buried the bodies.

Wang Ding lifted the bundle and continued toward his temporary cave dwelling. Before long, he arrived at a small mountain. The mountain was about a hundred meters high, covered in dense trees, and surrounded by a range of similarly small hills. Wang Ding's cave dwelling was on a cliff near the summit. The cliff was about five meters tall, with a cave in the middle that could not be seen without careful attention. It was something Wang Ding had spent a day digging out.

Carrying the bundle on his back, Wang Ding leaped two meters high, tapped his foot on a protruding stone in the mountain wall, and neatly entered the cave dwelling.

The cave dwelling was very crude, two zhang deep and one zhang wide. Inside was only a meditation cushion made from weeds, along with a waist-high stone block protruding from the mountain wall, two feet square.

Wang Ding entered the cave, sat on the cushion, then took out the items from the bundle and laid them out one by one before him: a small bottle containing cinnabar, five stacks of talisman paper, a large bottle of spirit water, a box of spirit grain, over a dozen low-grade spirit stones, several low-grade talismans, a small booklet one finger thick, a thin booklet half a finger thick, and a set of talisman-making tools. Among them, the small booklet, the talismans, and several low-grade spirit stones had all been found on the Qi-Huang Gate disciple.

Wang Ding picked up the small booklet. On it were three large gilded words: Rare Treasures Manual. He flipped to the first page, where it read: The rare treasures of heaven and earth are vast beyond measure. We all walk against the heavens; the path of the Dao is difficult. Yet the way of heaven takes from what has surplus and makes up for what is lacking. Only by seeking from heaven and earth do we have a chance to prove the Dao.

He opened to the second page. There were pictures one after another, and beneath every picture were several lines of notes. Wang Ding looked carefully and saw they all explained the appearance of various heavenly materials and earthly treasures, the environments in which they grew, and what uses they had.

This Rare Treasures Manual had been compiled together by Yong City's six great powers so that their disciples would not encounter treasures without recognizing them and miss their opportunities for nothing.

The sun sank westward, and the moon rabbit rose. Wang Ding spent an hour finishing the Rare Treasures Manual. "I never imagined there were so many treasures in this world. But the most unbelievable thing is that these sects and clans actually know what every kind of treasure is used for. This Rare Treasures Manual says that what's recorded here is only a small portion, and who knows how many more treasures are buried between heaven and earth, undiscovered by anyone. With this kind of foundation, when others obtain treasures but don't know how to use them, they can only gaze at the treasure and sigh, while those in sects can use them to grow stronger and stronger. This is the gap—the strong grow stronger, the weak grow weaker." Wang Ding could not help sighing. "Looks like I also need to find a sect to rely on if I want to continue my path of cultivation. Otherwise, without good cultivation methods, good resources, and sufficient information, trying to attain the Dao is practically impossible."

"First, I'll learn talisman-making and solve my current cultivation problems. Then I'll ask around and find out which sect is accepting disciples, and go there to take a master." In a single thought, Wang Ding had already settled his future course.

Early the next morning, Wang Ding began preparing to make talismans. He took out the Beginner Talisman Guide left behind by the old Daoist and carefully flipped through it. There were only five types of talismans in the book. The Blazing Fire Talisman: it could release a blaze capable of melting iron and liquefying gold. That burly man from the Qi-Huang Gate had several talismans, and one of them was a Blazing Fire Talisman. If he had been allowed to activate the talisman paper, the one lying in the dirt would probably have been Wang Ding. When Wang Ding searched out the talisman paper yesterday, he had also broken out in a cold sweat. Right now, his cultivation was only at the Meridian Opening stage. His power could not yet condense into the phantom of a flying dragon and could not attack intangible things. Once he encountered this kind of vital energy attack, he would be finished. Only after entering the Qi Refining realm, when one's strength reached the power of ten flying dragons, could one condense a phantom of strength and possess the ability to destroy the intangible. Only then would a cultivator have the qualifications to roam freely between heaven and earth. Apart from that, for cultivators who had not reached the Qi Refining stage, talismans and magic tools became life-preserving objects.

Aside from the Blazing Fire Talisman, the Beginner Talisman Guide also contained the Earth Wall Talisman, the Earth Spear Talisman, and the Vitality Talisman. Among them was the talisman paper most important to Wang Ding: the Earth Escape Talisman. To the current Wang Ding, this was the best life-saving art.

Wang Ding held the booklet and read carefully. Originally, the booklet had only one diagram, but now its blank spaces were densely covered with annotations. They were the old Daoist's lifetime of insights and experiences in making talismans. The reason Wang Ding was so confident he could learn talisman-making was that the old Daoist's annotations were extremely detailed, marking almost every place that required attention.

Although the old Daoist had stopped at Xiantian all his life, his more than a hundred years of talisman-making experience were profoundly deep. He had already thoroughly understood these five talismans, and his success rate in making them had reached almost one hundred percent. With the old Daoist's annotations, Wang Ding believed he would definitely be able to master the skill of talisman-making in a short time.

After finishing the old Daoist's annotations, Wang Ding chose to make the Blazing Fire Talisman first. He then arranged the talisman-making tools, poured the cinnabar he had purchased into the inkstone for talisman-making, picked up the talisman brush, and dipped it in cinnabar. He circulated his essence and injected it into the bristles at the tip of the brush. The cinnabar-stained bristles immediately gave off a faint red glow.

Wang Ding calmed his mind and breath for a while, adjusted his state of mind, then began his first attempt at making a talisman on the blank talisman paper.