Talent

Ji Yuan nodded in agreement. By the time he got home, the sky had already darkened.

Just as he took out his key to open the courtyard gate, the gate to the Lin Family courtyard next door suddenly opened, and Wu Qin leaned half her body out.

"Ji... Brother Ji," Wu Qin called softly.

"What is it?"

"Lin Hu, Lin Hu went to Zengtou City with Deng Yunliang tonight. He said he wouldn't be coming back tonight..."

Wu Qin's voice grew softer and softer. Once she finished speaking, she even lowered her head deeply.

Ji Yuan was stunned as well, his hand pausing for a moment as he opened the gate. But he quickly came back to himself.

"Maybe they have something to do."

Ji Yuan smiled and pushed open his own courtyard gate.

"N-no, Lin Hu kept it from me. I'm worried they're going to do something bad."

"Then try talking him out of it more."

After saying that, Ji Yuan entered the house and shut the door. He could hear the hidden meaning in Wu Qin's words, but he did not want to get involved—and he could not afford to.

What bad things were there to do in Zengtou City?

There was a whole heap of them.

Besides, everyone had the right to choose their own path of development. Ji Yuan would not point fingers at someone else's choice.

Wu Qin stared wordlessly at the locked courtyard gate next door for a long time. In the end, she could only sigh and silently close her own door.

After returning home, Ji Yuan first inspected the house. Only after confirming that nothing in the buildings had changed did he take out Introduction to the Way of Talismans.

Although he had already gone an entire night without sleep, Ji Yuan did not feel much of anything.

Cultivating immortality and tempering his body—going without sleep for two nights was nothing.

After reading for half the night, he finally gained some understanding of talisman drawing in the cultivation world.

Drawing a talisman was divided into three steps. First, one drew the talisman head and fixed the spiritual pivot.

Next came the talisman corners, which locked in the spiritual patterns.

The final step, and also the most crucial one, was Spirit Awakening.

It looked simple... and in reality, it truly did not seem difficult. Ji Yuan immediately took out his writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone from his Storage Bag, then turned to the page on the Calming Talisman.

He read it over and over several times, then copied it onto ordinary writing paper. After repeatedly confirming that there were no mistakes, he finally picked up the Green Bamboo Brush.

The paper was Green Hemp Paper, and the ink was Vermilion-Black Ink.

Once everything was laid out, Ji Yuan poured a trace of spiritual energy into the Green Bamboo Brush. In an instant, a faint green glow surfaced along its shaft.

He steadied his mind and, following the illustration in the book... set brush to paper.

His hand was steady. Then he began tracing according to the pattern, spiritual power flowing unceasingly from the brush as dragons and snakes danced beneath its tip.

Ji Yuan could not help but feel delighted. Looks like I have some talent for making talismans after all.

Yet the instant his thoughts stirred, the stroke in his hand broke. The entire sheet of Green Hemp Paper spontaneously burst into flames.

Watching the Talisman Paper turn into drifting ash,

Ji Yuan immediately calmed down. What was burning was not paper—it was clearly money!

Only after quite a while, once Ji Yuan had calmed himself down, did he raise the brush again.

With the experience from before, his heart was now still as water.

Holding the Green Bamboo Brush, he completed it in one smooth flow.

Looking at the half-finished Calming Talisman resting on the table, Ji Yuan finally revealed a faint smile.

It seemed that he truly possessed a bit of talent on the path of talisman drawing.

Only the final step remained... Spirit Awakening.

Spirit Awakening meant pouring spiritual energy into the Talisman Paper, activating the spiritual power left behind earlier and bringing the entire sheet to life. Only then would the talisman be considered complete.

After waiting for his state of mind to settle, Ji Yuan raised the brush again and lightly tapped it down, pouring in spiritual energy.

The talisman... burned.

"Fuck!"

Ji Yuan stared at the brilliant flare on the table and could not help cursing.

There was no helping it. He could only start again.

Fortunately, this was only the second sheet of Talisman Paper, so Ji Yuan did not feel too much heartache.

But then came the third sheet, the fourth, the fifth... until he had burned through ten sheets in a row, and Ji Yuan's heart began to ache.

Something was wrong. There had to be a problem somewhere.

Ji Yuan set down the talisman brush and silently pondered what had just happened. The talisman-drawing step itself was certainly not the issue.

The problem lay only in the Spirit Awakening step.

When in doubt, consult the book.

Ji Yuan opened Introduction to the Way of Talismans again and followed its contents, checking every word and sentence... there was no fucking mistake here either.

Before long, dawn had already arrived. Ji Yuan tried drawing several more talismans, but the results were all the same.

Looking at the small pile of burned ash on the table, Ji Yuan finally behaved himself.

No wonder everything in the cultivation world emphasized a master's inheritance. Without a master, he could not even get through the door of talisman drawing... Ji Yuan rubbed his brow.

Did he have to find a Talisman Way master too?

Talismans... Suddenly, a name appeared in Ji Yuan's mind.

Lu Wan!

She was Zengtou City's Talisman Way prodigy, and she had even taken the renowned Master Wu Wenbin of Zengtou City as her teacher. Asking her about such a small matter should not be a problem.

He just did not know whether it involved her master's inheritance... never mind, he would know once he asked.

If it did not work, then he could consider taking a master.

Just as Ji Yuan finished feeding the Green-Yellow Chicken and Spirit Pig, then collected the Spirit Egg and prepared to leave, he heard Deng Yunliang and Lin Hu laughing loudly outside the gate.

The two had spent the entire night in Zengtou City and returned now that day had broken.

Judging from the look of things, they had enjoyed themselves quite a bit?

But what exactly they had enjoyed, no one knew.

Ji Yuan deliberately waited in the courtyard for a while. Only after the sounds of doors closing came from both neighboring courtyards did he silently shut his own gate and leave.

He first went to Lu Wan's home, where he met Uncle Lu from earlier, Lu Song.

Perhaps because of years of pampered comfort, coupled with the fact that he had not gone into the water for a long time, the somewhat dark and thin Lu Song from Ji Yuan's memories had become a rather well-fed middle-aged man.

Lu Song was naturally somewhat surprised to see Ji Yuan arrive.

"Looking for Wan'er? She went to Master Wu's place. She won't be back until tonight."

The two households had interacted in earlier years, and Ji Yuan and Lu Wan had always had a fairly good relationship. Thus, Lu Song did not hide it and told him the truth.

Ji Yuan understood. He then caught up with Lu Song for a while, politely declined his invitation to stay for lunch, and finally took his leave.

Lu Song stood at the entrance, his hands tucked into his sleeves as he watched Ji Yuan depart.

After a moment, a woman's voice sounded from inside the house. "Ji Qingyun's son? He is rather handsome, but sadly, looks aren't worth money."

The speaker was naturally Lu Wan's mother and Lu Song's wife, Li Qiuling.

Unlike Lu Song, who still maintained that shred of connection, she could not even be bothered to show herself. So even though she had seen Ji Yuan just now, she had been unwilling to come out.

Lu Song, dressed in embroidered finery, merely shook his head.

"Without parents, yet reaching the Middle Qi Refining Stage at such an age... he may be worth something after all."

Lu Song had already reached the Fifth Layer of Qi Refinement in his early years. Over the years, he had even touched the threshold of the sixth layer.

Moreover, he himself was a meticulous person. With age came wisdom, and even though Ji Yuan concealed his aura extremely well, Lu Song had still detected a trace of something unusual.

Someone at such an age reaching the Middle Qi Refining Stage either possessed exceptional ability himself, or had someone behind him looking after him.

Whichever it was, it showed that Ji Yuan was far from simple.

"What? He's already at the Middle Qi Refining Stage?"

Li Qiuling asked in great surprise.

The Middle Qi Refining Stage was nothing unusual, but reaching it before the age of twenty was relatively rare in Zengtou City.

Coupled with Ji Yuan's rare good looks, calling him one of Zengtou City's outstanding young talents would hardly be an exaggeration.

Naturally, Ji Yuan knew nothing of this. After making inquiries all around, he finally stopped before a grand courtyard with towering gates in Zengtou City.

Anyone who could afford to live in such a residence in Zengtou City was either wealthy or noble.

As a Talisman Master capable of drawing First-Rank Upper-Grade Talismans, Wu Wenbin naturally counted as both wealthy and noble. Not to mention that he kept a whole group of disciples under him who could draw Talismans, bringing him considerable tribute every month.

It was said that, with his skill in Talismans, he could have joined the Water Dragon Sect long ago, yet he had not gone.

Everyone had their own way of living. If he went to the Water Dragon Sect, he could only be a common soldier, a vanguard at another's beck and call.

How could that compare to lording it over others in Zengtou City as he did now?

Ji Yuan knocked on the gate of the Wu Residence. There was no gatekeeper; the one who came to open it was one of Wu Wenbin's disciples.

"Who are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for Lu Wan." Ji Yuan cupped his hands slightly.

"Looking for Junior Sister Lu?"

The white-robed man who had opened the gate immediately gave Ji Yuan several extra looks. Even his gaze became less friendly.

Ji Yuan did not want to put on some farce of fighting over a female cultivator. Besides, he had no such thoughts toward Lu Wan, so he added another sentence.

"That's right. She's my sister."

Sure enough, the moment he said this, the warmth in the white-robed man's eyes increased considerably.

"So that's how it is... Fellow Daoist, please come in. Junior Sister Lu has recently been trying to draw Middle-Grade Talismans. She truly is exceptionally gifted."

"Master is even preparing to have her take part in next year's Water Dragon Sect selection."