Flowers Bloom on Many Fronts

Inside the pill room.

Ning Fa stood before a redwood table.

His expression was incomparably focused as he held a white wolf-hair talisman brush, his hand moving like dragons and serpents as he drew without pause.

Strands of silver spiritual charm curled around the tip of his brush and sank into a pale-yellow talisman paper on the table, where a silver pattern was slowly taking shape.

The pattern's spiritual inscriptions were intricate, its silver light flickering on and off, lending it an air of mystery.

As Ning Fa placed the final stroke, all the spiritual inscriptions within the silver pattern suddenly connected. Silver light flared brilliantly, brimming with spiritual charm.

Delight flashed across Ning Fa's face, but at that moment, the silver pattern suddenly trembled. Its silver light shuddered chaotically before the pattern abruptly shattered.

With a dull muffled sound, the entire talisman paper turned into a clump of black ash, leaving behind only a few scraps.

Ning Fa's expression stiffened, and he patted his head in frustration.

He had been just one step away from successfully drawing this Thunderball Talisman.

But then a smile curved his lips. With a thought, the Mysterious Scroll appeared before him.

As white light flickered across the scroll, the pattern from the remaining scraps of talisman paper slowly appeared upon it.

Then white lines extended outward, and beneath them appeared a blank yellow talisman paper and a vivid-red clump of spiritual ink.

A streak of white light flew from the scroll, and a yellow talisman paper and a small clump of red spiritual ink appeared out of thin air.

Meanwhile, the remnants of talisman paper on the table vanished without a trace.

Ning Fa chuckled as he gazed at the scroll as though it were his lover.

Sure enough, the scroll could trace back talisman papers that had failed during the drawing process. So long as they had not completely turned to ash, even a tiny scrap was enough for it to trace them back.

Thanks to the scroll's tracing ability, Ning Fa had barely used up any talisman-making materials over the past month.

Although he had yet to successfully produce his first talisman, reaching the brink of success in only a month still counted as rapid progress.

Especially since he had not spent much time making talismans over the past month, devoting less than an hour to it each day.

On one hand, this was thanks to Ning Fa's long-term pill refining. The sharpness and control of his divine sense, as well as the precision with which he channeled mana, had all been greatly honed.

These were likewise of considerable help in drawing talismans.

Another important reason was that Ning Fa had already mastered the Thunderball Technique to the Great Perfection realm, which greatly boosted his ability to draw Thunderball Talismans.

If he had been drawing talismans for other Five Elements Spells, it would have been difficult to make such swift progress.

Ning Fa put away the talisman paper and spiritual ink floating in the air, rather than continuing to draw talismans.

Because his allotted time for talisman drawing had already ended for the day.

After all, cultivation remained his primary task, while pill refining also required his time.

He only treated talisman-making as recreation alongside cultivation. He would not put the cart before the horse and spend too much time on it.

Still, judging from the past month, he seemed to possess quite decent talent in the art of talisman-making.

He had entered the field quickly, and he believed it would not be long before he formally drew a Thunderball Talisman.

Ning Fa treasured these peaceful days immensely.

He slept only two or three hours each day, while every remaining moment was packed full by his schedule.

First, he devoted sixty percent of his time to cultivation, striving to increase his cultivation.

After all, one's cultivation realm was the foundation. He desperately wished to break through to the Qi Condensation Mid-stage as soon as possible.

After opening his Main Thunder Source, Ning Fa had begun opening Lesser Thunder Sources during this period, and he had already selected the opening point for his first Lesser Thunder Source.

It was the Tianfu Acupoint in his right arm.

The reason for choosing this spot was simple: it was relatively easy, and it could greatly increase the speed at which his right hand cast hand seals.

If he successfully opened the Lesser Thunder Source at the Tianfu Acupoint in his right arm, Ning Fa would next open the Lesser Thunder Source at the Tianfu Acupoint in his left arm.

With the boost of Ning Fa's Great Five Elements Thunder Body, the opening of his Lesser Thunder Source had gone exceptionally smoothly.

A rudimentary Lesser Thunder Source had already formed in the Tianfu Acupoint of his right arm. It might be successfully opened for real within the next few days.

This once again gave Ning Fa a profound understanding of what it meant for the Five Elements Thunder Body to provide an enormous boost to cultivating thunder-element techniques.

The Ancient Source Thunder Scripture stated that opening one's first Lesser Thunder Source required at least one or two years.

Second, Ning Fa spent the remaining thirty percent of his time refining pills.

Refining a combined twenty-five batches of Essence Replenishing Pills each month for the family and Ning Shaohong put some pressure on him, but it was still manageable.

Ning Fa was exceedingly serious when refining these pills, without the slightest perfunctoriness or slackness.

This was mainly for his own sake.

Ning Fa would not think that refining Essence Replenishing Pills to an eighty percent standard meant he could grow complacent, rest on his laurels, and stick to the beaten path.

He clearly understood that pill refining was his foundation within the family at present and the key to his future cultivation. It was something he absolutely could not neglect.

Because the Ancient Source Thunder Scripture had exceedingly high requirements for cultivation resources, such as spirit veins.

In fact, this was not limited to the Ancient Source Thunder Scripture. His Great Five Elements Thunder Body was even more demanding.

No matter how good one's aptitude was, sparse spiritual energy still left even the cleverest housewife unable to cook without rice.

Even moving to Ningchang Island, with its Second-grade High-grade spirit vein, would likely still be far from enough.

Thus, Ning Fa could only cultivate by taking pills, using cultivation-advancing pills like the Essence Replenishing Pill to make up for the spirit vein's insufficient concentration, so that it would not hold back his cultivation progress.

Once he advanced to higher realms in the future, he would likely need even more pills.

If he relied on buying them from the market, it would undoubtedly be an enormous expense. The best choice, naturally, was to refine them himself.

Therefore, for the sake of his own cultivation, he also had to improve his pill-refining art.

Even without using the Mysterious Scroll to trace back his spiritual materials, Ning Fa could now maintain a stable ninety percent success rate when refining Essence Replenishing Pills, even approaching a perfect rate.

He felt that his refinement of this pill had reached a new height.

Beyond that lay another realm altogether.

Ning Fa spent the final ten percent of his time making talismans and practicing another first-grade low-grade thunder-element spell, the Lightning Flash Technique.

He actually spent more time practicing the Lightning Flash Technique.

This spell was not a purely offensive spell, but more like an auxiliary one.

It could release an intense flash of lightning that temporarily blinded other cultivators within a certain area and caused slight damage to their eyes.

This spell was somewhat useless, because cultivators relied mainly on divine sense in combat, while the Lightning Flash Technique had no effect on divine sense.

Yet in battles among low-level cultivators, the Lightning Flash Technique still had some use.

This was because low-level cultivators in the early and middle stages of Qi Condensation had weak divine sense, and generally lacked combat experience. If the Lightning Flash Technique was used suddenly, it might produce a wondrous effect.

The facts proved that after Ning Fa's Great Five Elements Thunder Body truly activated, it indeed gave him an enormous boost in cultivating thunder-element spells.

He only set aside an hour each day to practice this spell, yet within a month, he had nearly mastered it to the Major Mastery realm.

It seemed that it would not be long before he raised it to the Great Perfection realm.

Only then did Ning Fa understand that it was not that, after mastering a thunder-element spell to the Minor Mastery realm, he could directly raise it to Great Perfection.

Rather, his thunder body could greatly accelerate the speed at which he cultivated thunder-element spells. It was practically cheating.

Just as Ning Fa was about to continue practicing the Lightning Flash Technique as usual, a knock sounded at the door.

Ning Fa smiled, knowing that Ning Xiuying had probably arrived.

When he opened the door, the person outside was indeed the curvaceous Ning Xiuying.

But the expression with which she looked at Ning Fa was exceedingly strange. Her beautiful eyes stared fixedly at him, as though she wanted to find flowers blooming from his body.