Swift-Step Talisman Successfully Crafted

Premium Foundational Talismans had effects and power more than ten times greater than ordinary-quality ones, so First-Grade ones were surely even stronger.

It was just that Yue Shuo could not bear to use up his limited number of First-Grade Spirit Talismans to test their power.

But no matter what,

Yue Shuo did not have any talismans that increased speed or defense.

If he crafted them first and saw the effects of the ordinary version, he would gain some understanding of the premium and First-Grade versions.

Yue Shuo immediately scrapped his plan to focus on grinding spells.

He prepared the talisman paper and talisman ink, ready to begin.

He would first get a feel for it.

As for how to begin drawing without standard rune diagrams or explanations of Talisman Crafting,

Yue Shuo had long since figured that out.

A single rune—

if others saw one and wanted to study it, transforming it into a Spirit Talisman they could draw themselves would naturally be exceedingly complicated.

Because, much like writing,

where should the strokes begin?

Where could they not break? Where should they be light or heavy? Where should the brush first touch down, and where should the final stroke end?

And when that final stroke was completed,

the entire rune had to form a complete energy circuit!

That was the most important point!

With the awareness gained from more than ten years of schooling in his previous life,

as well as his study habits,

from the moment he first obtained his Talisman Crafting insights, memorized runes, and began crafting talismans, he had been studying the patterns within runes!

Whether it was the patterns needed for reading comprehension in language studies,

or formulas and other patterns in science subjects,

after taking exams for more than ten years,

anyone could sum up a thing or two.

A strange rune, upon first glance at such a complicated rune resembling a madman's scribbles, truly left one at a loss.

But it could be broken down like characters!

Just like typing with the Wubi input method, runes too were composed of different strokes and components.

Of course, Foundational Runes were relatively simple.

They could be broken down.

As for First-Grade runes, even looking at one did not necessarily mean one could remember it. At the very least, those without a panel cheat could not memorize one at a glance.

Much less break it apart.

At least, he could not do that yet!

His panel cheat was quite useful.

It was not merely for grinding proficiency.

Of course, there was no need to rack his brains over the cheat now. Using it first and improving himself were what mattered most.

Yue Shuo began by trying to draw it according to his experience of breaking down characters.

He used elimination.

The talisman brush dipped into talisman ink. A thread of spiritual power steadily flowed through the brush, and as it touched the Yellow Talisman Paper, he began the first stroke...

Sizzle!

Failure!

The first stroke was wrong!

This was a detail that could not be sensed on ordinary paper.

Yue Shuo switched to another method of breaking down characters.

He tried again!

This time, there was no feeling of immediate failure as soon as the brush touched down, but after two strokes of the simple rune, his spiritual power backlashed once more.

It was only a thread of spiritual power.

That tiny bit of conflict and fluctuation merely melted a patch of the talisman paper beneath his brush, turning it into waste paper.

He moved the waste paper aside.

He replaced it with a fresh sheet of Yellow Talisman Paper and tried again!

Failed Talisman Crafting consumed an almost imperceptible amount of Divine Sense.

It seemed like there was none.

It also seemed like some had been lost, but because it did not amount to even a single point, the panel automatically smoothed it away.

That feeling of slight discord with real cultivation

was something Yue Shuo had long grown used to ignoring.

He had already transmigrated.

Why fuss over this?

All he wanted was to cultivate diligently, grow stronger, and live forever!

To live long, healthy, and safe!

That feeling of hanging by a thread, so weak he seemed as though he might die at any moment—he never wanted to experience it again!

Yue Shuo continuously used elimination to break down the Foundational Runes.

His First-Grade high-quality Talisman Crafting level gave him a certain indescribable feel and experience in talisman crafting.

That was also one of the reasons he dared,

despite having learned so few runes,

to begin breaking down unfamiliar runes.

A First-Grade high-quality Talisman Crafting level

gave him a special, blessed feel even when drawing First-Grade Spirit Talismans, though naturally it could not compare to his time of brilliant enlightenment.

When crafting a talisman on that last sheet of blank First-Grade talisman paper,

if not for the minor issue with the talisman brush, he guessed his chances of success would have been high!

"I vaguely remember that in the game back then, every increase in Talisman Crafting rank seemed to raise the success rate of crafting talismans..."

Yue Shuo knew that his cheat

seemed to have come from an immortal-cultivation game he had played in his previous life.

But more than ten years had passed.

Perhaps his infant body's instinctive drive to survive and protect itself after reincarnation had blurred some useless information that would take up too much brain space.

Otherwise,

how could an undeveloped brain support an adult's enormous storehouse of information?

No wonder he had always been sickly as a child, yet had been so ferocious when drinking milk.

He had heard that he could eat an astonishing amount!

Brain development required a great deal of nutrition.

Some useless memories flickered through his mind, relaxing his tense brain after repeated talisman-crafting failures.

Through the constant character-breaking elimination method,

he went through dozens of attempts before stopping at a strange intuition.

The final failure had not been caused by an error in breaking down the character.

Rather, his nerves had been strung too tight, and the returning tip of his final stroke had failed to connect with the first stroke and form a cycle.

He loosened up, moved his limbs a little,

and prepared to complete the next attempt in one breath!

From behind the little wooden house came the sound of Gu Jiu practicing martial arts, his chopping palms splitting the air. The sound was not particularly grating.

Yue Shuo had grown accustomed to hearing it.

Gu Jiu was quite diligent. Every morning, afternoon, and evening, he would practice martial arts for several hours without pause.

However, Gu Jiu knew Yue Shuo disliked being disturbed.

So he always practiced far from the Spirit Field and little courtyard, on a stretch of flat ground beside the stream behind the wooden house.

The sound of the stream concealed some of it.

It truly was not very noticeable.

But Yue Shuo's five senses were now extremely sharp. No matter how far away Gu Jiu was, Yue Shuo could hear him with the slightest effort.

"My servant works this hard—what reason do I have to slack off?"

Yue Shuo gave himself a burst of encouragement.

He laid out the Yellow Talisman Paper, calmed his mind and focused his spirit, and his brush moved with divine inspiration!

Rustle, rustle...

A complicated rune combination took shape beneath his brush. As the final stroke returned to its place, a faint glimmer seemed to flash across the rune.

The rune on the Yellow Talisman Paper seemed to have gained spiritual light.

The entire sheet of Yellow Talisman Paper now looked utterly different from blank talisman paper.

"Success..."

Yue Shuo was delighted.

He carefully examined the new Foundational Swift-Step Talisman he had personally broken down, then checked the time it had taken before putting away the Foundational Talisman and continuing his Talisman Crafting!

The success rate for the new talisman he had personally broken down was not low.

Perhaps the earlier process of breaking down the rune

had already tempered his proficiency.

Though the panel did not acknowledge it, between his own feel and the panel display, he naturally trusted his own feelings more.

Ten attempts in a row, eight successes!

[Skill: Talisman Crafting (First-Grade High Quality) (5/1000)]

[Swift-Step Talisman (Foundational): 8/10 (Beginner)]

Yue Shuo had been quite satisfied as he looked at the Swift-Step Talisman's proficiency, which was about to level up, but his gaze accidentally swept over his Talisman Crafting proficiency.

A maximum of one thousand points was nothing strange.

Talisman Crafting had initially been proficiency without a displayed rank, at (0/100).

Only after filling those one hundred points did it become First-Grade low-quality Talisman Crafting.

After filling another two hundred points, he became a First-Grade medium-quality talisman crafter.

Then after filling another five hundred, he became First-Grade high-quality.

To reach the next rank, he needed one thousand proficiency points. This was perfectly reasonable, and Yue Shuo was very familiar with those numbers.

But the problem was,

he remembered that after brilliant enlightenment had completed the crafting of five First-Grade Spirit Talismans,

he had already possessed those five points of proficiency.

Now that he had successfully made eight Foundational Talismans, why was it still only five points?

A bad premonition rose in Yue Shuo's heart.

Perhaps,

crafting Foundational Talismans no longer granted experience?