The Evolved Art

"Those are words!" Luo Yunji still had not grasped the point of Tian Buyi's question.

"Who taught you this method of recording things?" Tian Buyi propped his head up with one hand and rubbed hard at his temples. He felt that communicating with his youngest disciple had become so difficult that he no longer even knew what he himself was asking.

Luo Yunji understood this sentence. He turned to look at He Dazhi, who was standing off to the side.

When He Dazhi saw his little junior brother looking at him, his face went completely blank.

"Master! I never taught little junior brother this way of recording things!" Seeing Tian Buyi follow Luo Yunji's gaze and look toward him—and that look was not exactly friendly—He Dazhi hurriedly explained.

"Master! If I really taught him, how could I not understand it?" He Dazhi threw out a powerful piece of evidence.

After hearing this, Tian Buyi nodded slightly, then glared at his own youngest.

"Fourth senior brother taught me!" Luo Yunji bobbed his head, looking at Tian Buyi as he guaranteed it with great certainty.

"I... I taught you?" He Dazhi's face was full of astonishment.

"Big fatty! Weren't you the one who told me to follow fourth senior brother and learn to read and write?" Luo Yunji opened his eyes wide and looked at Tian Buyi.

He Dazhi racked his brains. At last, a particularly fantastical idea came to him. He walked to the table, spread out a sheet of paper, picked up the brush, and wrote a character on it.

"Little junior brother! Copy this character I wrote and write it again!"

Luo Yunji took the brush and finished it in one stroke with a "swish."

He Dazhi looked at the character Luo Yunji had written on the paper and felt an urge to cry.

Seeing both his disciples staring at the paper, Tian Buyi rose curiously and walked over.

When he lowered his head and saw the two sheets of paper spread on the table, each bearing the same character, several drops of sweat silently trickled down his forehead.

After a stretch of silence, a furious roar rang out across Big Bamboo Peak.

"This is what you call writing!" Tian Buyi raised his hand, crumpled the ghost-talisman-like sheet on the table into a ball, and smashed it onto Luo Yunji's head. Then he crumpled the other sheet and flung it at He Dazhi. "And this is what you taught him!"

Then he flung his sleeves and turned away in a huff!

"I'm so mad I could die!" So it was not that he could not understand it. Rather, the characters his youngest disciple wrote were simply enough to shock the heavens and make ghosts weep. If the ancient predecessor who had created writing saw the characters Luo Yunji had written, he would surely be angered back to life and then dead again!

In the early morning, Luo Yunji stood on a little stool before everyone, explaining the new art to them.

Tian Buyi and Su Ru sat off to one side, watching the disciples gathered together, smiling with great relief and satisfaction.

"The principle of this incantation is drawing talismans!"

"Drawing talismans?!" This was something everyone had not really come into contact with. On Azure Cloud Mountain, very few people knew how to do this, and they had never seen anyone use it against an enemy. The talismans and charms they had seen were only things like the peace talismans common folk sought from ordinary Daoist temples and Buddhist monasteries.

"Talismans are a very formidable cultivation art. They can absolutely serve as the foundation of a sect. Their power is sometimes even greater than a magic treasure!" Luo Yunji explained with a solemn look on his little chubby face.

"But I've never seen anyone use them!" Sixth said curiously.

"If you don't understand them, then you don't understand them! I'll first talk about the principle of talismans." Luo Yunji cleared his throat in a very affected manner.

"Between heaven and earth, there is spiritual energy!" Luo Yunji stopped and looked toward the senior brothers across from him. Seeing the little fellow put on a stern, solemn face, the senior brothers hurriedly cooperated and nodded in unison, though inwardly they were smothering laughter.

Seeing everyone nod, Luo Yunji then continued speaking with satisfaction. "Writing the supreme principles of heaven and earth through a special method onto a special medium—this is a talisman."

"When used, you only need to cast it out, or pour spiritual power into it, or even simply burn it directly, and the talisman's effect will manifest."

"The set of movements in the new art uses space as the medium for the talisman. The paths traced by the legs, feet, palms, fingers, fists, and even footsteps are the writing of talismans between heaven and earth."

"Little junior brother means that your incantation actually replaces the brush used to draw talismans with our limbs; replaces ink with our spiritual power; and the paper is the heaven and earth before us?" He Dazhi said in sudden astonished realization.

Using one's own body as the brush, spiritual power as the ink, and heaven and earth as the paper! What a vast and imposing concept this was!

Earlier, several senior brothers had still looked down on those movements, saying they looked like dances performed by women, and had been unwillingly tracing empty lines.

Now that He Dazhi said this, that set of movements had become completely different in everyone's hearts.

"Right! That's exactly it! So this can only be executed once cultivation has reached a certain level. Because all of these replacements require one's own spiritual power and precise control to perform. Otherwise, there is simply no way to draw a continuous path with spiritual power between heaven and earth."

"Then the simplified version..." He Dazhi looked expectantly at his monstrous little junior brother.

"It just adds some more movements. It's like if one stroke isn't deep enough, then drawing over it a few more times will naturally achieve the effect." Luo Yunji voiced his own view.

"Then what progress is there now?" Sixth cut in.

"The simplified version is still being tested, but there has been progress with the evolved version."

"Quick! Quick! Use it and let us see!" Sixth urged curiously.

"Mm! With the evolved version of the art, not only is the power greater, but the consumption can also be controlled. If more spiritual power is used, the power is greater; if less spiritual power is used, the power is comparatively smaller." Luo Yunji jumped down from the stool.

Everyone crowded around him and walked into the courtyard.

"I'll first use the one with a little less power!"

"Good! Hurry! Hurry!" Fifth, also curious and delighted at the sight of good prey, began urging him.

"Heaven and earth without limit, Mysterious Purity righteous law, heaven and earth in proper order, all laws return to one." As several sets of movements and the incantation were completed, a dragon's roar abruptly exploded in the courtyard. Immediately after, they saw a pale-blue dragon coil once around Luo Yunji's body, then charge straight in the direction indicated by Luo Yunji's sword fingers.

Boom! With a tremendous crash, everyone was stunned by the sound and the scene.

"This... this is the weaker one?" Song Daren's mouth hung open as he stared in disbelief at the ground before him, devastated by that blue dragon.

Where the blue dragon had passed, a ravine three zhang wide and nearly fifteen zhang long appeared before everyone. It was far stronger than before.

"I tried a full-power strike before. It can completely collapse a small hilltop!" Luo Yunji proudly raised his chubby head.

"If Master used his cultivation and unleashed this move with all his strength..." Zhang Xiaofan imagined, dumbstruck.

"He could totally blow up our Big Bamboo Peak," Luo Yunji said after thinking for a moment, directly stating the possible result.

"Master! Master! Come try it, quick!" Old Six shouted loudly.

"Try, my foot! If Big Bamboo Peak gets blown away, where are we supposed to live!" Song Daren snapped, slapping Old Six hard on the back of the head and sending him staggering several steps forward.

"All right! Get familiar with the movements first, then add spiritual power and try it! You all know the circulation route, right?" Luo Yunji looked at everyone and asked.

"We can try it now?" He Dazhi looked at Luo Yunji, both excited and somewhat incredulous.

"Probably! What little senior brother practiced yesterday seemed to have some effect. It's just that his cultivation is too low, so he couldn't actually use it. Probably!" Every time Luo Yunji made new progress, after confirming it was harmless to the caster, he would have Zhang Xiaofan try cultivating it.

Zhang Xiaofan had become Luo Yunji's lab rat!