Recently, Chen Mu had come up with a good idea: first, he would build an automated rune printer.
By selling talismans, he had accumulated a great deal of wealth over the past few years, but he was truly sick of making them.
Every time, it was the same drawing method and the same lines. His record was making one hundred and three five-mark Immobilization Talismans in a single day.
Only after communicating with the outside world over the past two years had he learned that his talisman-making ability far surpassed that of talisman masters at the same level.
Many five-mark talisman masters needed a full day to draw just five five-mark talismans, and even then, they had a fifty percent failure rate.
But Chen Mu's failure rate had always been below five percent, and when he was in the Five-Mark Realm, he could already make more than twenty five-mark talismans a day.
This was not only because Chen Mu's Divine Soul was more substantial than those of other talisman masters, but also because his understanding of runes was far more thorough than theirs.
Even so, he no longer wanted to spend every day making talismans for money.
To someone like him, who believed technology could change the world, such repetitive labor was slow suicide.
The control chip he had made still lacked the performance to support a fully functional computer, but it was basically sufficient to serve as the control core of a printer.
He spent more than a full hour modifying the rune chip board on the table. Only when the sky outside the window grew darker and darker did he pick it up, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.
Next, he placed the rune chip board inside a strange-looking wooden machine.
The machine had three layers. The top layer had a slot for the yellow paper used to make talismans. The middle contained a rune printing plate with holes for injecting talisman ink, intended to imprint the runes onto the yellow paper. The bottom layer arranged the finished talismans.
Hum! Clack, clack!
As Chen Mu inserted a Spirit Stone into the side of the machine, it immediately sprang to life. A sheet of yellow paper was drawn from the top layer, passed through the rune printing plate in the middle, and entered the bottom layer.
"Haha! It worked!"
Seeing that the machine really could operate as he had expected, he happily pumped his fist.
For now, however, he had only achieved automatic printing. There were still many problems to solve before it could truly be considered complete.
The biggest difficulty was that making talismans required the involvement of a talisman master's Divine Soul.
Although the machine could now print automatically, unless Chen Mu concentrated on injecting Soul Power into the rune printing plate, the talismans it printed would be nothing more than useless scrap paper.
So, for now, the printer's real function was simply to increase the speed at which Chen Mu made talismans. He also only needed to spare a thread of attention for the printer and did not have to do the work by hand, which made things much easier on him mentally.
Clearly, however, Chen Mu was not satisfied with that. Once his excitement had passed, he took several books from the nearby shelves and searched through them carefully.
"The rune printing plate doesn't have a Divine Soul of its own, so I have to inject Soul Power into it. Could there be a material that can store my Soul Power? Or perhaps one that would allow the rune printing plate to develop a Divine Soul?"
Ever since Chen Mu had gained a financial footing, he had bought many books at the market, enough to fill two or three whole bookshelves.
After all, paper was still something of a luxury in the Wilderness. His books were already worth as much as the entire wealth of many low-level tribes.
To protect the books, he had even set up a defensive talisman array in the talisman-making room. He had taken great pains over them.
After a long while, Chen Mu finally found information on some materials related to Divine Souls.
Most materials involving Divine Souls were extremely precious, and their places of origin were all exceedingly far from Chen Village. There were also many place names that Chen Mu could not even find on a map.
It was not until late at night that Chen Mu found a source of Soul Power material that was not too far from Chen Village.
Soul-Hosting Wood was produced in abundance on Ghost Yin Mountain, at the southern edge of the Wuyan Mountain Range in the Wilderness. It was made from the heartwood of a plant called the Yin Baleful Intent Demonic Tree.
Soul-Hosting Wood could nurture Soul Power and was often used by talisman masters to make mechanical puppets. However, because it was not very sturdy and could easily be destroyed by a powerful attack, it was generally used only in low-level mechanical puppets.
Judging by the properties described in the information, Soul-Hosting Wood was very suitable for making a rune printing plate. If the plate used Soul Power, then, in theory, there would be no real problem with producing runes automatically.
"From Chen Village, it's a little over two hundred and eighty kilometers. With a mount, I should be able to get there in two or three days."
Chen Mu murmured to himself, then looked for more information on the Yin Baleful Intent Demonic Tree.
The Yin Baleful Intent Demonic Tree could control its branches and roots to attack enemies. Its strength ranged from that of a first-tier to a third-tier demonic beast, and the trees generally grew together in large groups. With Chen Mu's current strength, dealing with them would still be somewhat troublesome.
Chen Mu put the books away and pondered for a moment.
"Nothing much is happening in the village lately anyway. I'll head out tomorrow!"
Early the next morning, Chen Mu packed his bags, preparing for the first long journey of his life.
"Brother, why can A Huo go with you, but I can't? That's not fair! A Huo can't even beat me..."
Chen Duo sulked in Chen Mu's room, refusing to leave as she chattered on and on.
"This isn't a trip to the market for fun. Why should you come along? I told you to help Granduncle Xiong tame demonic beasts. Have you done that?"
Chen Mu asked as he packed.
At Chen Mu's words, Chen Duo's voice immediately grew much quieter. "I haven't made any progress yet..."
Chen Mu stopped and looked at Chen Duo. "Duoduo, strength is important, but knowing how to put it to use is even more important. You still have a lot to learn from A Huo."
Chen Duo nodded, only half understanding. Chen Mu continued, "Think about it carefully! If you figure it out, I'll take you with me the next time I travel far from home."
With that, Chen Mu continued packing, and Chen Duo could only leave dejectedly.
As Chen Mu and A Huo were preparing to set out, Third Uncle Chen Hongjie and several relatives came to Chen Mu's home to see him off.
"A Mu, Duoduo said you're going on a long trip?"
"Yes! I'm planning to visit Ghost Yin Mountain to the south. I'll be back in ten days to half a month at the earliest, or two or three months at the latest."
As Chen Mu had grown up, his strength had also become increasingly unfathomable. Chen Hongjie knew he had no reason to stop him, so he could only sigh. "If you want to go, I won't stop you, but you must be careful."
"All right. Oh, right! What are you going to do with those Black Water Tribe members we captured a few days ago?"
Chen Mu had spent the past few days doing research in the talisman-making room and had only just remembered the matter, so he asked out of curiosity.
"Everyone who took part in the attack on Chen Village has been killed. The rest have been reduced to slaves to supplement the village's workforce."
Chen Hongjie spoke calmly.
"What about the man who said he was from the Wumeng Tribe? Was his identity confirmed?" Chen Mu asked.
"I sent someone to communicate with the Wumeng Tribe. He really was one of theirs, so we let him go.
"That fellow also wanted us to hand over Huyan Manqi and Huyan Qing, but those two had already been executed, so he had no choice but to leave dissatisfied."
At this, Chen Hongjie's expression grew somewhat unpleasant. Wu Tong had been extremely arrogant and had even threatened to come back for revenge. If the clan elders had not talked Chen Hongjie out of it, he had nearly killed Wu Tong.
Chen Mu nodded, reassured. "That's fine, then! I'm off. There's no need for everyone to see me out. I'll be back as soon as I can."