Three days later, in the talisman-making room.
Chen Mu sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, cultivating his spiritual soul.
Over the past six months, his spiritual soul had long since broken through to the Three-Rune Realm, and his martial artist cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds along with it. Not long ago, he had become a Third-Stage Martial Artist.
For a talisman master, the Acala Heart Sutra was truly heaven-defying. He hardly needed to spend any time cultivating before his martial artist cultivation steadily rose to match his spiritual soul realm.
Chen Duo's cultivation was much slower. She had cultivated for over five months before breaking through to become a First-Duan Martial Artist.
Even so, a six-year-old martial artist had probably never appeared in the history of Chen Village.
Chen Mu had specifically warned Chen Duo not to show off her strength to others at random. If anyone asked, she was to say that her strength came from runes and do her best not to let anyone know she was a martial artist.
Chen Duo usually stayed in the village and only interacted with its residents, so Chen Mu wasn't too worried about her causing trouble.
Knock, knock!
There was a knock at the door.
Chen Mu opened his eyes and stood up.
"Come in!"
The door creaked open, and Chen Mu's older male cousin, Chen Zihu, came in.
"A Mu, have you turned that batch of talisman-making materials Third Uncle gave you last time into talisman paper?"
Chen Mu smiled and nodded.
"I finished ages ago! Third Uncle hasn't come to collect it for so long that I was planning to bring it over to him in the next couple of days."
"No need. Third Uncle said that batch of talisman-making materials was your payment for improving the farmland. You don't need to hand it over to him anymore!"
Chen Zihu hurriedly shook his head and explained, "I came to find you because Granduncle Xiong and I are planning to visit the market outside tomorrow. Third Uncle told me to ask if you wanted to take some talisman paper to sell there. He said you seemed to really want spirit stones."
"Oh? I see... Wait a moment, let me think."
Chen Mu didn't much care about the talisman paper. At present, his most lethal weapon was still his Rune Gun.
Although the Rune Gun could directly absorb his soul power and internal force to launch attacks, both were limited. Even though Chen Mu's strength had increased greatly of late, if he fired at full power, both his internal force and soul power would be exhausted after about ten shots at most.
So the Rune Gun was badly in need of spirit stones as a power source. During the night raid by Black Water and White Rock, his Rune Gun had been able to keep fighting and turn the situation around in one stroke thanks to the two spirit stones he had taken from the underground wooden box.
But after that battle, the spiritual power in those two spirit stones had been exhausted, with only one of them still holding a little under half its spiritual power.
Spirit stones were indeed what he needed most right now. Besides the Rune Gun, his rune research also required them badly.
"Brother Hu, you're going to the market tomorrow. Could you take me with you?"
Chen Zihu froze for a moment, then shook his head like a rattle-drum.
"No! The market is very far from here. Even Granduncle Xiong and I have to run for most of a day to get there, and we'll have to sleep out in the mountains along the way. It'll take at least two or three days to get back. It's too dangerous."
"You're a talisman master. You do research and work magic, but you're not suited to traveling such a long way with us.
"If something happened to you on the road, Third Uncle would skin me alive! No! Absolutely not!"
Chen Mu frowned and thought for a moment.
He had been in this world for so long without ever traveling far from home. He really wanted to see the outside world.
Besides, Chen Zihu and the others didn't understand talisman masters at all. How could they know the value of talisman paper?
It surely wouldn't do to let them sell the talisman paper, and he also planned to buy some talisman-making materials. Only by doing these things himself could he maximize his gains.
"Brother Hu, aren't you just afraid I'll drag you down? How about this: I won't use hidden weapons. If I can knock you down, you'll take me along. What do you say?"
Chen Zihu gave Chen Mu a doubtful look and curled his lip.
"Forget it! I know your talisman paper is powerful, but using it on something like this would be far too wasteful."
Chen Mu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He could only say, "I won't use talisman paper either! No talisman paper! All right?"
Seeing how serious Chen Mu was, Chen Zihu smiled, a trace of disdain in his eyes.
"All right, then! Come on, I'm ready whenever you are. I could take on ten little runts like you without a problem."
"Good! Brother Hu, here I come!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Chen Mu threw a straight punch at Chen Zihu's chest.
"Haha, bring it on!"
Chen Zihu had long been a Second-Stage Martial Artist. Recently, under pressure from many sides, his strength had also advanced by leaps and bounds. He was already at the peak of the second stage, only one step away from becoming a Third-Stage Martial Artist.
He turned slightly to avoid Chen Mu's straight punch and reached for his shoulder.
Chen Zihu was clearly far more experienced in actual combat than Chen Mu, able to avoid harm with the smallest movements. But Chen Mu was, after all, already a Third-Stage Martial Artist, and his powerful spiritual soul allowed him to see his opponent's movements more clearly.
Chen Mu stepped forward and lowered himself slightly, slipping past Chen Zihu's grasp. Then he pulled back the arm he had punched with and drove his elbow toward Chen Zihu's stomach.
"Hey, not bad!" Chen Zihu laughed heartily, hooked an arm around Chen Mu's head, and spun his body to avoid the elbow.
The two of them exchanged moves for several rounds before Chen Zihu realized what was happening and felt secretly alarmed.
Before he could let his thoughts run wild, Chen Mu suddenly let out a fierce shout, and the Life-Bound Talisman Scripture in his sea of consciousness transformed into an Immobilization Talisman.
"Freeze!"
Chen Zihu immediately stood rooted to the spot, as though he had lost control of his body.
Chen Mu finally knocked him to the ground with a punch.
Chen Zihu climbed to his feet and couldn't help asking, "A Mu! What's going on? Could it be that you're a martial artist too?"
Chen Mu smiled and took off his shirt, revealing the strange patterns densely covering his body.
"No. This is called the Body-Possessing Demon Rune. It's also a type of rune, and it can strengthen my body. That's how I was able to face you head-on."
Chen Mu had prepared this explanation long ago. He wasn't ready to reveal that he was a martial artist so soon, or it would be hard to keep the martial arts manual a secret.
Having witnessed the power of the Acala Heart Sutra, he was increasingly convinced that his parents must have had a reason for hiding the manual. Until he had figured out what was going on, he didn't want anyone to know he was cultivating this technique.
The Body-Possessing Demon Rune could indeed strengthen the body, but Chen Mu's skill with runes was still far from sufficient to achieve such a powerful effect. Even so, it was enough to fool the inexperienced Chen Zihu.
Chen Zihu stared wide-eyed at the Demonic Pattern on Chen Mu's body, his face full of disbelief.
"It's that powerful? Then if you tattooed this kind of Demonic Pattern on other people too, wouldn't they all be able to beat martial artists?"
Chen Mu shook his head and laughed heartily.
"You're getting ahead of yourself. The kind of Demonic Pattern I have now can only be used on my own body, because it needs to absorb soul power to maintain itself. Someone who isn't a talisman master has no way to sustain this Demonic Pattern."
A trace of disappointment flashed in Chen Zihu's eyes. "So that's how it is. I was thinking that if you could tattoo a set of this kind of Demonic Pattern on me too, it could make me stronger."
Chen Mu looked at Chen Zihu and grinned. "That's not impossible, but researching Demonic Patterns costs a lot of money. Once we've made some money in the future, maybe we can give it a try."
Chen Zihu's eyes lit up, and he nodded repeatedly.
"Good! Once we've made money in the future, A Mu, you mustn't forget me."
"Of course not. Brother Hu, where should I wait for you tomorrow?"
Chen Mu was all smiles.
Chen Zihu's face fell at once. He was silent for quite a while before finally speaking in resignation.
"Tomorrow morning, halfway through the hour of Mao, meet at the village entrance!"