Chapter 48

Su Jiu had no idea what was happening outside. For the next six months, she shut herself in her room, doing nothing but drawing talismans and meditating to cultivate. Occasionally, she took talismans to Xiang Li's shop to sell on consignment, and even took on far fewer missions.

After nearly half a year, she had amassed a modest fortune. She now lacked neither magical artifacts nor talismans, and had even bought two second-tier talismans from Xiang Li's shop to save her life in an emergency.

"Little girl, have you never considered drawing talismans with demon beast blood and a graded talisman brush?" Xiang Li asked as he counted the ice-element talismans Su Jiu had handed him.

Su Jiu paused. "I can draw superior-grade talismans with an ordinary brush and cinnabar. Why waste spirit stones buying graded supplies to draw them? Wouldn't they still just be superior-grade talismans?"

Su Jiu was puzzled.

Xiang Li slapped his thigh, finally realizing what he had overlooked.

"Has no one ever told you that above superior-grade talismans, there are supreme-grade talismans?"

Memories came back to Su Jiu. She vaguely recalled that supreme-grade talismans had indeed existed in her previous life. But they were hardly easy to draw. Even high-level master talisman makers could not guarantee they could produce a single first-tier supreme-grade talisman, much less someone like her, who was only at the Qi Refining stage. Drawing supreme-grade talismans was probably nothing more than a wild dream.

Su Jiu shook her head. "It's too difficult. I don't think I can do it."

Xiang Li choked on his words. He suspected Su Jiu had a profound misunderstanding of her own talent. Others needed demon beast blood to retain spiritual energy before they could draw superior-grade talismans, while she could casually produce them with ordinary cinnabar. That alone revealed an enormous gulf between them, yet Su Jiu herself remained completely unaware.

"How do you know you can't if you've never tried? Do you know a supreme-grade talisman sells for five times the price of other talismans of the same tier?"

It had to be said: upon hearing the price, Su Jiu was shamefully tempted.

While Su Jiu was still wavering, Xiang Li pushed a sheet of talisman paper, a first-tier talisman brush, and a dish of cinnabar mixed with demon beast blood in front of her.

"Give it a try?"

Su Jiu did not stand on ceremony. She took a moment to settle her breathing.

The instant Su Jiu took hold of the talisman brush, Xiang Li noticed that her entire bearing seemed to change. Her expression was calm, as though nothing could affect her. Even the inverted teardrop-shaped beauty mark beneath the outer corner of her left eye gradually turned silvery white, with only its upper half remaining a few shades darker.

Xiang Li studied that beauty mark thoughtfully.

The water spiritual energy around Su Jiu also drifted toward her of its own accord. The moment it approached her, it became bitterly cold, transforming into ice spiritual energy.

This was the first time he had watched Su Jiu complete a talisman.

Su Jiu drew talismans extremely quickly. From the first stroke to the last, it took only an instant, yet that single instant actually lowered the temperature in the shop by a degree.

As Su Jiu finished her final stroke, two more people entered the shop.

This was the scene Qin Ming and Liu Zhiyan saw upon entering: the space surrounding the little girl seemed to form a world of its own, with faint particles of ice appearing around her. Yet the instant she finished her final stroke, that sight vanished as well, as though it had been an illusion.

Only a sheet of talisman paper remained on the table, shining with intense silver light.

Coming to their senses, the two involuntarily shivered.

"An ice spiritual root?" That was Qin Ming's first reaction.

"A supreme-grade talisman!" That was Liu Zhiyan's first reaction after looking at the table.

Xiang Li had clearly come to his senses by then as well. With trembling hands, he picked up the talisman. He had never managed to draw a single supreme-grade talisman in his entire life, yet this little girl before him had completed one in a single attempt.

Liu Zhiyan smacked his lips, finding it hard to imagine that someone capable of drawing an ice-element supreme-grade talisman could be a little sprout who barely stood above his waist. Had he not seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed it.

Qin Ming was much calmer. After only a moment of surprise, he handed the stack of talismans he was holding to Xiang Li.

Xiang Li accepted them and looked at him in surprise.

"Thirty this time?"

Su Jiu glanced at the two youths before her and could not help being surprised as well. Wasn't this Qin Ming, the swordsmanship genius from her previous life?

Qin Ming came from the Jade Sword Sect, a gathering place for sword cultivators. It was said that the sect even had two Sword Saints presiding over it. Yet despite its strength, the Jade Sword Sect was also notoriously poor.

In terms of martial prowess alone, the Jade Sword Sect was unquestionably the strongest of the eight great sects. Its scarcity of resources stood in stark contrast to its strength.

Otherwise, it would never have been reduced to having Qin Ming, a personal disciple with a thunder spirit root, change out of his sect robes and go out to sell Thunderbolt Talismans.

Was he selling Thunderbolt Talismans merely because he was poor? Su Jiu kept feeling that she had forgotten something important.

Su Jiu had only gotten to know Qin Ming when she was at the late stage of Foundation Establishment. She probably could not have beaten him then, though the two had never fought a proper match. They had been on somewhat friendly terms.

Since Qin Ming had never been mentioned in the book, she had not expected him to be so down on his luck in his youth.

Qin Ming seemed to notice Su Jiu's odd gaze.

"Fellow cultivator? Is something the matter?"

Su Jiu also realized that she seemed to have been staring at Qin Ming for quite a while. She smiled apologetically and shook her head.

Seeing that her gaze was clear and honest, unlike those female cultivators who were difficult to describe, Qin Ming gave her a polite nod and said nothing more.

Liu Zhiyan, however, smiled and whispered softly in Qin Ming's ear, "I've never seen you look so kindly on a female cultivator, senior brother. She is pretty, but isn't she a little too young?"

Qin Ming was undeniably handsome, and female cultivators from other sects flocked to him like ducks to water. Had he not had a powerful sect leader as his master, those women would probably have swallowed him whole and licked their plates clean long ago.

Qin Ming said coldly, "It seems you still have too much free time. Come practice swordsmanship with me on Chongyang Peak for the next few days."

At the words "practice swordsmanship," Liu Zhiyan's face paled. Everyone in the Jade Sword Sect knew that Qin Ming was the sect leader's youngest personal disciple and a notorious sword fanatic. Practicing with him meant being unable to get out of bed for three months afterward.

"Senior brother, I was wrong! I'll never talk nonsense again."

Qin Ming ignored him. Once he had finished his transaction with Xiang Li, he left the shop.

Before long, only Xiang Li and Su Jiu remained in the shop again.

"That young man has been supplying the Thunderbolt Talismans all along. I didn't expect you to run into each other this time." Ever since Xiang Li had picked up Su Jiu's supreme-grade talisman, he had not let go of it.

Su Jiu naturally knew that. Her gaze swept toward the supreme-grade talisman in Xiang Li's hand as well, silently reminding him that it belonged to her.

Xiang Li smiled. "Don't be so stingy, little girl. How many spirit stones do you want for this talisman? Name your price. I'll buy it." In short, he had no intention of returning it to Su Jiu.

Su Jiu sighed. She drew talismans to sell them anyway, so she simply stopped making things difficult for Xiang Li. "Five times the price, just as you said."

Xiang Li paused, feeling a little embarrassed. He knew the value of supreme-grade talismans better than anyone. Their market price was indeed five times that of superior-grade talismans, but they were always priced without any available stock. It was not unheard of for their price to be driven up to ten times as much on the Black Market.

Feeling guilty, Xiang Li gave Su Jiu two hundred spirit stones outright. Su Jiu put them away without fuss. In truth, she had already guessed that supreme-grade talismans were probably scarce in the marketplace, and that their actual price was not as simple as it appeared.

"If I supply you with supreme-grade talismans from now on, how much do you plan to sell them for?"

Xiang Li held up two fingers.

Su Jiu raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you afraid they won't sell?"

Xiang Li smiled. "Do you think there's any chance supreme-grade talismans wouldn't sell?"

The corners of Su Jiu's lips lifted slightly. In excellent spirits, she turned and left the shop, heading to the marketplace to find suitable beast blood and a talisman brush.