This book had originally been incomplete. After the swordsmanship section, only a few pages remained, recording two spells.
One was called the Blood Light Shield, and the other the Bloodlight Escape.
However, too much of the Bloodlight Escape was missing. There were only a few scant lines, nowhere near enough to cultivate it.
The Blood Light Shield, on the other hand, was recorded in great detail. It was precisely the spell Meng Tianyi had used to block Su Shi'er's talisman ambush.
After reading it, Su Shi'er firmly committed its contents to memory.
He did not meet the minimum cultivation requirements for the swordsmanship, so it was impossible for him to practice it. The Blood Light Shield, however, suited him very well.
After taking stock of his gains this time, Su Shi'er continued his arduous cultivation.
This time, he did not raise his cultivation. Instead, he focused on practicing spells.
Including the spellbook he had bought from the trading square, he now had four more spells to practice.
Blood Light Shield, Rain Calling Technique, Object Manipulation Technique, and Heavenly Eye Technique.
In truth, among these four spells, aside from the Blood Light Shield, the other three could only be considered average in battle.
The Rain Calling Technique merely conjured a drizzle. It was generally used by menial disciples to tend Spirit Fields.
The Object Manipulation Technique used True Yuan to control certain objects. Its consumption of True Yuan varied according to an object's weight and material. This spell had little offensive power and was mainly used for picking things up.
As for the Heavenly Eye Technique, it allowed one to observe the flow of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, with the ability to see through invisibility and concealed auras.
The latter three spells were clearly more functional in nature. Few people would waste time cultivating such spells.
But Su Shi'er had other thoughts. Leaving aside everything else, he felt that the Heavenly Eye Technique should prove useful in the trial.
He treated every spell seriously. Though he could not claim to have mastered them to the point of perfection, he practiced every one of them until he was exceptionally proficient.
Two months later, there were less than four months left before the Newcomer Trial.
Feeling that his spells would be difficult to improve any further, Su Shi'er took out the two incomplete introductory talisman manuals he had bought and began studying them.
Talismans were a miraculous thing. They sealed spells onto a tiny sheet of paper, allowing them to be activated instantly with only a small amount of True Yuan. They were extremely convenient.
For Su Shi'er, his low cultivation and insufficient True Yuan had always been a problem. If he had enough talismans, he would have more means to preserve his life.
However, talismans were consumable items. Although he could afford them, he no longer dared spend so freely.
Two months ago, merely for the sake of a Level 1 Top-grade Defense Talisman, he had not only been swindled, but had nearly brought a fatal calamity upon himself.
That experience made Su Shi'er even more determined to learn talisman crafting and grasp the skill in his own hands.
There were mainly two methods of making talismans. One used cinnabar and talisman paper as materials. The other used beast blood and beast hide. But regardless of the method, both required one indispensable item: a Talisman Brush.
A Talisman Brush was an important medium connecting cultivators and materials. A good Talisman Brush could greatly improve the success rate of talisman crafting.
Fortunately, the books contained detailed methods for making Talisman Brushes. And for crafting Level 1 talismans, an ordinary Talisman Brush was all that was needed.
Over the past four years, Su Shi'er had no idea how many demonic beasts he had hunted. Now that he was practicing talismans, beast hide and beast blood naturally became his practice materials.
From then on, Su Shi'er threw himself heart and soul into talisman practice and crafting.
Over four months, Su Shi'er ruined twenty Talisman Brushes and destroyed an unknown amount of materials.
At first, he failed time and again. By the end, he could occasionally succeed in making one or two talismans.
His success rate was not high, but he made up for it with diligence, accumulating quite a few usable talismans of various kinds.
One morning.
"Dong, dong, dong..."
Early in the morning, a burst of bell chimes that rang straight into the clouds echoed throughout the sect.
The bells were vast and thunderous, deafening to the ears. They startled the entire Yun Ge Sect into activity.
Hearing the commotion, Su Shi'er rolled out of bed and sprinted toward Luofu Peak.
At the summit of Luofu Peak, there was a plaza before a towering great hall.
The plaza was packed with people, nearly a hundred in all. Every one of them was a menial disciple below Qi Refining Stage Six.
Their ages spanned an astonishing range. Some were young, like Su Shi'er, only sixteen or seventeen. Others were old menial disciples in their sixties or seventies, their faces covered in wrinkles and their backs bent with age.
"...The sect is truly going all out to explore this Ancient Forbidden Zone, isn't it?"
"But who would have thought that Luofu Peak, where one could barely see anyone on ordinary days, actually had so many menial disciples?"
When Su Shi'er reached the mountaintop and saw this scene, he instead felt relieved.
In just five short years, he had cultivated to Qi Refining Stage Four despite his Mixed Spiritual Roots. He had originally worried that it would be difficult to explain if the Peak Master noticed him, but with so many people here, the chances of the Peak Master noticing him were far too low.
After drawing a deep breath, he hurried into the crowd, found an inconspicuous spot, hunched his neck, and restrained his aura as much as possible. At the same time, he activated the Heavenly Eye Technique and silently observed the others.
In his eyes, a large portion of the older disciples had restrained their auras to the utmost.
Among the younger disciples, only a very few deliberately concealed their auras.
"Twelfth Martial Brother, I finally found you!" A voice suddenly rang out.
Su Shi'er was startled and hurriedly turned to look.
A chubby man of average height was walking toward him with a beaming smile. It was none other than the little fatty who had grown quite a bit, Zhu Hanwei.
"You were looking for me... for something?" Su Shi'er frowned slightly, his gaze swiftly sweeping over him. Zhu Hanwei was already a Qi Refiner at Qi Refining Stage Two, which surprised him a little.
It seemed that after taking the Foundation Cultivation Pill, he had awakened his Spiritual Root.
Zhu Hanwei smiled and nodded. His eyes rolled around as he quickly looked about, then lowered his voice. "There are actually so many menial disciples participating in this Newcomer Trial."
"We only entered the sect five years ago. Whether in cultivation or strength, we simply cannot compare with them!"
"Although I don't know what is going on, I always feel that this Newcomer Trial will carry no small danger. I think we need to join forces. That way, if anything really happens, we can deal with it."
Su Shi'er showed nothing on his face, but inwardly, he could not help viewing the little fatty more highly. He had obtained relatively complete information about this Newcomer Trial from Meng Tianyi.
Yet merely from the additional menial disciples, this little fatty had concluded that danger was involved. His intuition could be called remarkably sharp.
As for why Zhu Hanwei had approached him, that was not difficult to guess. With Zhu Hanwei's cultivation, it was nearly impossible for him to recruit those menial disciples who had entered the sect earlier.
Su Shi'er, who had entered the sect at the same time and likewise did not possess particularly good Spiritual Roots, naturally became the best choice.
Seeing that Su Shi'er remained silent, Zhu Hanwei grew somewhat anxious. After thinking for a moment, he hurriedly smiled again.
"Martial Brother, if you are worried that there are only the two of us and we don't have enough people, there is no need!"
"This time, I also called Chen Tie, Li Jingjing, and the others."
As he spoke, he grinned and waved toward the distance.
Only then did Su Shi'er notice three figures standing not far away. Two of them were the other two people who had entered the sect alongside him four years ago.
The three stood together. They did not pay much attention to Zhu Hanwei's greeting, their eyes tilted slightly upward and their expressions carrying a distinct arrogance.
Their cultivation levels were Qi Refining Stage Three for one of them and Qi Refining Stage Two for the other two. For newcomers, that was not bad.
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