When Xiao Hua's gaze fell upon the other talisman paper he had bought from the Talisman Refining Sect's shop, his eyes lit up. "This is talisman paper specially refined by the Talisman Refining Sect. Isn't it much better than the talisman paper Senior Ma refined himself? If I use this talisman paper, I should... be able to succeed, right?"
Xiao Hua did not immediately begin refining. He first closed his eyes and regulated his breathing, circulating Shang Hua Ming's Qi Cultivation second layer technique through his meridians for several cycles, replenishing the spiritual power he had expended in refining dozens of yellow talismans in one go. Only then did he open his eyes.
"Hm, refining yellow talismans also consumes a considerable amount of spiritual power. I only experimented several dozen times without succeeding even once, yet I used up eighty percent of the spiritual power in my body. Without cultivation, this really can't be done!"
Xiao Hua took a deep breath and brought out the talisman brush again. A thread of extremely precise spiritual power slowly flowed into the brush. Then, just as before, he dipped it into the talisman ink and sent spiritual power into the ink. With a flick of his wrist, he drew the talisman pattern, already memorized beyond familiarity in his mind, stroke by stroke across the spread-out talisman paper... With a soft "sizzle," this time he had drawn more of the pattern than in any of the previous dozens of attempts. Yet once it reached a certain point, the unfinished yellow talisman still mercilessly gave off green smoke. As the smoke rose, the entire sheet of talisman paper turned into a ball of flame, flashed brilliantly for an instant, then became a pile of ashes!
"Ah..." Xiao Hua was speechless as he set down the