Talisman Making

Xiao Yu ran for more than fifty li before finding a secluded little cave. He slipped inside and sat cross-legged to recover his magical power.

Although the earlier fight had not lasted long, it had consumed quite a bit of his magical power. Only when night fell did he recover fully.

Looks like I need to find a chance to refine some Spirit-Restoring Pills. Otherwise, every time I use up my magical power, it takes hours to recover. I won't be able to count on my fighting strength-and at a critical moment, I might even lose my life! Xiao Yu thought silently.

Next, he took the black-bearded man's storage pouch from his robes, channeled magical power into it, and tipped its contents onto the ground. White light flashed, and a pile of items appeared. After stepping forward and sorting through them, Xiao Yu could not help cursing, "So fucking poor!"

The only valuable things in the pile were a little over thirty spirit stones. Everything else was junk. There was not a single magical artifact, spirit talisman, or pill.

Ugh, I threw away two Firecloud Talismans in that fight, worth ninety spirit stones, and this is all I got back. I'm down sixty spirit stones! What a massive loss. Don't people always say murder and arson earn you a belt of gold? Yet I killed someone who came after me and got practically nothing. Xiao Yu felt rather depressed.

What he did not know was that most rogue cultivators were so poor their empty pockets could barely jingle. The black-bearded man was actually better off than most; his spirit talismans and magical artifacts had simply all been destroyed in the earlier fight. As for pills and other supplies, those were not even worth mentioning. He had gone out robbing precisely because he was so poor he could barely keep food in his pot.

In this world, perhaps only Xiao Yu and Han Li could obtain vast amounts of resources simply by growing a few medicinal herbs.

What other cultivator did not spend a lifetime running about and toiling, contending with heaven and with others? Often, they had to stake their very lives just to go farther along the path of cultivation!

Xiao Yu rested in the cave for a night. Early the next morning, he stepped onto his flying sword and headed back to the sect. He had originally planned to visit home, but after this incident, he was no longer in the mood.

Two days later, Xiao Yu returned safely to the sect. He handed back his travel token, hurried to the Medicinal Garden, and fell fast asleep.

Only after waking up fully refreshed did Xiao Yu plunge headfirst into his grand undertaking of talisman making.

Talisman making was a relatively simple craft among the hundred arts of cultivation, and nearly every cultivator had tried it. Limited talent and returns that failed to justify the investment were the only reasons many had not persevered.

Even in the great cultivation sects, few truly mastered the craft and became master talisman makers.

For Xiao Yu, making talismans could be one of the most direct ways to strengthen himself. He could turn his improved spells into spirit talismans, which should greatly increase their power as well. Using such talismans in battle would undoubtedly add considerably to his fighting strength.

At the same time, this was also one of the best ways to earn spirit stones. Although he could use the Purple Gourd to accelerate the growth of medicinal herbs, selling those herbs was too risky and could easily attract covetous attention.

Selling talismans, however, would be much safer. Even if he sold a few more than usual, others would merely assume he had a gift for talisman making and could produce large quantities. In that situation, most people would choose to befriend him, hoping he could make it easier for them to obtain talismans.

Unless enormous profits were at stake, few people would harbor sinister intentions toward a talisman maker.

Most importantly, he could accelerate the growth of Seven-Star Grass to make blank talisman paper, making the cost of raw materials negligible. The Seven-Star Grass only needed to be between a dozen and twenty years old, which meant he could have practically as much as he wanted.

He had already bought a talisman brush, and cinnabar was cheap as well. With his willingness to pour in resources regardless of cost, he believed he would soon be able to produce talismans.

Xiao Yu then took out the jade slip containing the Complete Guide to Making Beginner Talismans and began studying it carefully.

There were many types of talismans: offensive, defensive, support, and others with special purposes. Their abilities were numerous, and their power varied.

But those that could be mastered during the Qi Refining stage

were all relatively simple talismans, none above the high beginner tier. This was because, to make a talisman, one first had to be able to cast the corresponding spell, while Qi Refining cultivators could only master beginner spells.

Xiao Yu had already considered this. For the time being, he planned to draw only three kinds of spirit talismans: Fireball Talismans, Fire Serpent Talismans, and Firecloud Talismans. He had long since learned the Fireball and Fire Serpent spells, and his Fire Serpent spell was even an improved version.

As for the high-tier beginner Firecloud spell, he would devote himself to learning it over the next two years. He believed two years would surely be enough to master it.

Successfully drawing a talisman required a full set of supplies: talisman paper, a talisman brush, and cinnabar containing spiritual energy, spirit ink, or demon beast blood.

Talisman paper served as the medium, while cinnabar and the brush gave the talisman patterns visible form. The cinnabar had to contain spiritual energy because, much like magical power, spiritual energy was the direct force that enabled a talisman to unleash its power.

All these supplies were made from special materials. Talisman paper, for example, could be made from Seven-Star Grass, cinnabar mixtures could be prepared using demon beast blood, and talisman brushes could be made from demon beast hair...

Naturally, the quality of the tools also had varying effects on both the success rate and the quality of the talismans drawn.

Cinnabar containing little spiritual power and poor-quality talisman paper produced weaker spirit talismans, with a low success rate as well.

The talisman brush was another important factor in the success rate. A good brush transmitted spiritual power smoothly, allowing the talisman maker to work as naturally as if the brush were an extension of his hand.

He had heard that some talisman-making tools were even fashioned from incomparably precious treasures of heaven and earth, allowing them to greatly enhance a talisman's power.

Although talisman making had a low barrier to entry, achieving anything in it still required vast amounts of resources.

Take talisman paper, for instance. Even low-grade paper cost one spirit stone for a dozen sheets.

For a novice talisman maker, hundreds of consecutive failures were perfectly normal. Some with poor aptitude could even fail more than a thousand times in a row! For those without the slightest knack, even ten thousand failures were not impossible.

That was only the beginning, and only for a single type of talisman! Maintaining a steady success rate later on still required an ocean of failures, accumulating experience bit by bit... If one switched to another type, the success rate would scarcely be better than a novice's, and the same process would have to be repeated!

Improving one's overall talisman-making skill required drawing and building experience with each type in turn... Every type demanded enormous resources, and when the costs of many types were added together, the total became truly staggering. Raising a master talisman maker was therefore no easy feat.

Not even the great sects, much less cultivation clans, would be so extravagant. This was why so many people in the cultivation world studied talisman making, yet so few truly mastered it.

With their limited resources, most of the cultivation world's so-called "talisman masters" devoted their entire lives to a single type of talisman. Even the very best masters knew only two or three types.

Since talismans were not essential to daily cultivation, most cultivators would not waste resources on them and simply bought them when needed.

In the Yue Kingdom, only the seven great sects and a few top-tier clans trained talisman makers according to talisman type.

Although Xiao Yu could accelerate the growth of Seven-Star Grass to make talisman paper, he would not start practicing on it right away. He planned to use ordinary paper, ink, and brushes to practice the talisman patterns and brushstrokes first, then switch to a proper talisman brush and paper once he was proficient.

Having thought everything through, Xiao Yu began practicing with the simplest talisman, the Fireball Talisman.

After memorizing its pattern, he picked up a writing brush and practiced on white paper with ordinary ink...

Using ordinary paper, ink, and brushes could only reproduce the general shape and would provoke no reaction whatsoever. Although he could neither confirm success nor judge failure, it would build muscle memory for drawing the patterns. When he eventually used a real talisman brush and paper, he would be able to draw some of those patterns almost by reflex.

Such practice was an extremely tedious process, but cultivation itself was monotonous. Xiao Yu had long since grown accustomed to this sort of tedium and could naturally endure it.

While practicing the shapes of the talisman patterns, Xiao Yu also kept accelerating the growth of Seven-Star Grass and making talisman paper.

Making talisman paper was itself a tremendous undertaking. The main and supplementary ingredients, including Seven-Star Grass, had to be soaked, steamed and boiled, washed, cleared of impurities, dried, and put through various other processes before they could finally become talisman paper.

After two months, Xiao Yu finally produced a large quantity of talisman paper. Together with the hundred dozen sheets he had bought earlier, he believed it would sustain his drawing efforts for some time.

During those two months, aside from making talisman paper, he had also made considerable progress in practicing the patterns. He could now draw the patterns for both Fireball and Fire Serpent Talismans at will.

That day, Xiao Yu held the Green-Hair Talisman Brush, dipped it in cinnabar, and began drawing a Fireball Talisman on a blank sheet of talisman paper.

Following the feeling he had developed while practicing with an ordinary brush, his strokes seemed divinely guided from the moment the tip touched down. They flowed like drifting clouds and running water, every stroke carrying precisely the right pressure and thickness...

Unfortunately, now that he had switched to a real talisman brush and paper, controlling his spiritual power became a problem. Its flow was either too fast or too slow, and he also struggled to regulate how much he released.

On his first attempt, he had not even drawn half the pattern when the sheet spontaneously burst into flame with a poof, leaving him thoroughly flustered.

On his second attempt, he reached the halfway point. Poof.

The third attempt showed some improvement...

On his hundred and fiftieth attempt, Xiao Yu looked at a sheet that appeared exactly like the Fireball Talismans he had bought, yet contained not a trace of spiritual power. Another failure, it seemed...

Two hundred attempts, three hundred...

Finally, after more than five hundred attempts, the whole sheet flashed with spiritual light as he drew the final stroke, then quickly dimmed. Xiao Yu picked it up and examined it for a moment. The spiritual glow and patterns on it were identical to those of the Fireball Talismans he had bought before.

He immediately channeled magical power into it and threw it toward an empty patch of ground to the side. With a fwoosh, the Fireball Talisman transformed into a fireball the instant it left his hand and shot toward a spot on the ground.

Looking at the small crater blasted into the earth, Xiao Yu grinned. "Haha, it worked!"

After carefully recalling the details of that success, Xiao Yu laid out another sheet of talisman paper and lowered his brush once more...

After that first success, successful attempts gradually became more frequent. By the time Xiao Yu had used up the hundred dozen blank sheets he had bought, he had successfully drawn thirty Fireball Talismans. Overall, he was still operating at a loss.

He did not care in the slightest, however, and continued drawing on the blank talisman paper he had made himself.

And so, as Xiao Yu cultivated while making talismans, two years slipped by without his noticing...