Talisman Crafting Success

The brush tip lightly touched down on the talisman paper, then moved like a swimming dragon. A strange symbol slowly surfaced on the paper, and after finishing it, Wang Ding did not stop. Continuing the same stroke beneath the drawing, he wrote four lines of ancient seal script: "Heaven and Earth lend their law; blazing fire like a dragon; creation profound and wondrous; Li fire refines demons."

After Wang Ding stopped writing, he felt that nearly half his body's vital essence had been consumed. He picked up the talisman from the stone platform and examined it carefully. After a long while, he frowned. "Looks like it didn't work. Compared with the talisman I seized yesterday, the one I made has no glow."

Wang Ding stopped making talismans and took out the annotations from the Beginner Talisman Guide, carefully comparing them with his own talisman-making process. Before long, he found where the problem lay.

"So that's it. When I was drawing the talisman, the vital essence I poured into the talisman brush wasn't steady or continuous, causing the essence on the talisman paper to be uneven. It couldn't absorb the fire elemental force from the outside world and complete the final step of drawing qi into the talisman. Besides that, I also have to pay attention to the talisman paper being completed in one breath. There can't be any pauses or breaks in the middle."

Wang Ding sat on the prayer mat and thought it over properly. "I shouldn't make talismans directly. I should first practice drawing them, until I can bring out the whole talisman in a single stroke, without breaking or stopping. Once I'm proficient, then I'll make talismans."

For the next three days, apart from sleeping and eating, Wang Ding held the talisman brush and practiced nonstop, trying to finish the talisman in one stroke. Heaven does not disappoint those with a willing heart; finally, on the third day, Wang Ding completely managed to draw an entire diagram without interruption or pause.

Starting to make talismans again, Wang Ding carefully controlled his vital essence, letting it flow steadily and slowly into the talisman brush. The brush tip fell, and in one breath he completed the talisman drawing.

Wang Ding had originally thought he would definitely succeed this time, but after waiting for quite a while, he still saw no strange phenomenon of fire elemental force being absorbed into the talisman. He knew he had failed again. Wang Ding frowned, calmed his heart and settled his qi for a while, then drew three more, but all of them failed.

Wang Ding drew in a deep breath. "I knew it wouldn't be that easy. If making talismans were that easy, they'd be all over the streets. But where exactly is the problem?"

Wang Ding paced back and forth in the cave for a while, then inspiration flashed through his mind. "Don't I have a ready-made one? I'll compare it with mine, and I'll know."

Wang Ding took out the Blazing Fire Talisman he had seized from the Qi-Huang Gate burly man and carefully compared it with his own failed talisman papers.

After comparing them bit by bit with great care, Wang Ding discovered that the problem should lie in the talisman's drawing. The drawing was a kind of talisman script, with many corners. The size of the corners in the talisman script Wang Ding had drawn differed from those on the finished talisman. Second, the proportion of the talisman script occupying the whole talisman paper was too small. Wang Ding also checked the old Daoist's annotations again, and there were indeed requirements regarding the size and proportions of the talisman script.

After absorbing the lessons from his previous attempts, Wang Ding made a new try. On the first attempt, Wang Ding smoothly completed the talisman paper. After he finished all the talisman script and characters in one stroke, the talisman paper suddenly emitted a faint red light. Countless red points of light gathered toward the talisman paper from the void. After about a quarter of an hour, the talisman paper stopped emitting red light, leaving only a faint red glow circling around it, exactly the same as the talisman paper seized from the Qi-Huang Gate burly man.

Holding the talisman, Wang Ding's heart was filled with excitement, and he could not help saying, "Think of me, Wang Ding, coming to another world, all alone—truly, 'No wealth, no law, no Dao companions; no gate to seek the Dao, my heart lost and adrift. Once I find a craft to earn my living, the Great Dao finally begins to open for me.'" It fully spoke of Wang Ding's fear, worry, and confusion about the future after coming to this world.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha! From now on, I, Wang Ding, finally have a foundation to stand on in this world!" Wang Ding's laughter spread through the entire little mountain, startling a swath of wild beasts into flight.

Holding the newly made talisman, Wang Ding went outside the cave, wanting to test it.

Wang Ding held the talisman in his right hand, pinching it between two fingers, and injected vital essence into it. The moment the talisman was stimulated by Wang Ding's essence, it immediately emitted red light. Wang Ding then felt as if the talisman had become one of his own organs, something he could control at will. Wang Ding pointed the talisman at a hundred-year-old tree ahead and commanded it in his heart to attack. A pillar of fire sprayed out from the talisman and charged toward the great tree. With a thunderous boom, the entire tree was blasted to pieces.

Wang Ding reacted very quickly, retreating the instant the explosion occurred and dodging the aftershock. A cloud of smoke rose across the entire area ahead. When the smoke dispersed, a pit about a zhang wide appeared where the old tree had originally stood, its depths filled with the old tree's roots and stems that had been buried deep underground.

Looking at the scene before him, Wang Ding could not help feeling somewhat shaken. "This is practically a cultivation-world rocket shell. Just a low-level cultivator can make something with this kind of power. Wouldn't high-level cultivators be even more terrifying? I'm afraid even an atomic bomb might not necessarily kill them."

Wang Ding then made five more talismans in a row, until he exhausted the vital essence produced in a single day. Among them, only two succeeded. However, in the market, each talisman paper was worth five spirit stones. As long as one out of every five succeeded, it would be enough for Wang Ding's cultivation needs.

For the next nine days, apart from eating, drinking, sleeping, and cultivating, Wang Ding spent every day making talismans. After exhausting his vital essence each day, he practiced his brushwork, striving to reach the point where practice made the craft skillful.

Over these days, Wang Ding made a total of ninety Blazing Fire Talismans, with twenty successes, roughly a twenty percent success rate—far better than ordinary people.

"All the talisman-making materials have been used up. About half the spirit grain and spirit water remain. It's time to exchange the talismans for spirit stones and buy all kinds of supplies again." Wang Ding began packing his things, putting everything into his bundle, then leapt out of the cave.

An hour later, Wang Ding once again arrived at Yong City. The city gate was still bustling with extraordinary liveliness, countless cultivators carrying large and small bundles coming and going. Wang Ding entered the city gate and headed straight for a shop that sold talismans. As soon as he stepped inside, the shopkeeper came forward and greeted him warmly. "May I ask what this brother requires?"

Wang Ding took the talismans from his robes and let the shopkeeper see them, saying, "I'm not buying. I'm here to sell. May I ask whether your esteemed shop accepts talismans?"

Seeing that Wang Ding was a seller, the shopkeeper's warmth dropped quite a bit, though he did not lose courtesy. "This humble shop purchases talismans. The market price of the Blazing Fire Talismans in your hand is five low-grade fire spirit stones each, but our purchase price is four low-grade spirit stones."

When Wang Ding saw that the price was one spirit stone lower than he had expected, he knew this was probably an established custom and could do nothing about it. "I have twenty-one. Please exchange them all for spirit stones for me."

Spirit stones were divided into various attributes: metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, yin, yang, and so on. Spirit stones could be used in alchemy, artifact crafting, talisman making, array formation, cultivation, and all kinds of situations. However, one had to be at least in the innate realm to use them. They were the common currency of the cultivator world.

After leaving the shop with the spirit stones, Wang Ding began purchasing supplies all over. Now that he had the ability to refine talismans, Wang Ding finally began his own path of cultivation in an orderly fashion.

In the blink of an eye, half a year passed. Every day, Wang Ding spent his time making talismans, cultivating, selling talismans, and purchasing supplies. During this half year, Wang Ding ate spirit grain every day, and with sufficient nutrition, his essence had already accumulated to five drops. He had also saved up a stock of nearly four hundred spirit stones.

"I have more than four hundred spirit stones now. It should be time to buy a large amount of Origin-Cultivating Pills to speed up the accumulation of essence."