The stall owner before Chen Daoxuan was a fair-faced cultivator at the ninth layer of Qi Refining. Delicate-featured and refined, he looked less like a cultivator than a scholar.
Hearing Chen Daoxuan's question, the fair-faced cultivator glanced at the Talisman Chen Daoxuan was pointing to and looked up. "You have a good eye, Fellow Daoist. This Talisman is called an Ice Wall Talisman, a First-grade Superior Spirit Talisman.
"When released at a critical moment, it can form an ice wall roughly a zhang thick to withstand an enemy's attacks."
Chen Daoxuan was somewhat tempted. Pointing at the Talisman, he asked, "May I take a look at it?"
"Of course."
The fair-faced cultivator made an inviting gesture.
Chen Daoxuan picked up the Talisman and examined it carefully.
In the cultivation world, Talismans could be divided into two types based on the materials used to make them: Paper Talismans and Jade Talismans.
So-called Paper Talismans were made by cultivators grinding the stalks of special Spirit Plants into paper, then inscribing spells onto the Talisman Paper.
The advantage of Paper Talismans was that their materials were cheap. Cultivators did not need an especially substantial fortune to attempt making them.
Their drawback, however, was that because of the inherent limitations of the paper itself, the Talismans drawn on them were generally not of high grade.
Moreover, because Paper Talismans could not hold much true qi, they did not last long. Other than low-level Rogue Cultivators, few cultivators used them in battle.
As for the second kind of Talisman—the Jade Talisman—it was far more precious.
The Spirit Jade used to make Jade Talismans came in varying grades, from First-grade Spirit Jade to fifth grade Spirit Jade, so the Talismans produced could generally cover every grade.
The reason Rogue Cultivators in the cultivation world generally did