On the road back to Chen Village, Chen Mu felt vaguely uneasy. For some reason, he kept feeling that a pair of eyes was watching him from the shadows.
He urged his Dragon-Horned Horse to go faster and made it back to Chen Village from Wuyan Market in just over two double hours.
Once he was back in Chen Village, protected by the village's defensive talisman formation, the eyes in the shadows finally disappeared. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.
Chen Village was simply too weak, so whenever Chen Mu went to the market to trade, he disguised himself to keep anyone from learning where he came from.
People had followed him before, but each time he had found a way to shake them off.
Today, however, he had discovered that he couldn't find a single trace of whoever was following him.
All he could do now was hope the other party wasn't an enemy. Otherwise, there could be trouble.
"A Huo, go tell the chief to put more people on patrol over the next couple of days, just in case."
"Okay!"
Without another word, A Huo ran to Chen Hongjie's residence.
Chen Mu had bought a large quantity of supplies this time, most of them materials for making talismans.
After his divine soul realm breakthrough, he now had a way to accomplish many things he couldn't do before. He planned to give Chen Village a major upgrade.
He also felt a slight sense of urgency. He had killed so many of the Wumeng Tribe's men before, and no one knew how they would react.
But the bitterly cold winter was almost upon them. Normally, no tribe would start a war at such a time, so things should be safe for a while.
If his deal with Hou Sailei went smoothly, he would soon have all the resources he needed. He believed that in another two or three months, he would have nothing to fear even if the Wumeng Tribe sent more men.
"Chen Village? I didn't expect him to be from Chen Village."
Low-tier tribes in the Wilderness sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain. Every year, tribes were wiped out and new ones rose. Normally, Hou Sailei paid no attention to such small tribes.
But some time ago, Chen Village's battle with the Wumeng Tribe's puppet forces had drawn the attention of quite a few tribes, leaving him with some impression of it.
For a merchant, being well-informed was paramount. He returned to his study, dug out nearly a year's worth of news reports, and reread everything concerning Chen Village.
"Chen Village's defensive talisman formation can cover such a large village. That would be practically impossible without reaching the earth talisman master realm. It seems they really do have a powerful talisman master holding down the fort."
Hou Sailei murmured absentmindedly, "And those mechanical puppets had control of them seized. Only a talisman master whose divine soul realm far surpasses the creator's could forcibly do that."
Of course, he knew that the creator of a mechanical puppet could also forcibly take control of it, but why would a talisman master capable of making mechanical puppets suddenly defect to Chen Village? So the thought never crossed his mind.
After sorting through the intelligence, Hou Sailei felt much more at ease. He had never meant Chen Mu any harm; he had only wanted to ensure their cooperation was stable enough.
He also found it strange that Chen Mu could produce five thousand sheets of talisman paper every month, and wondered why Chen Mu's master had not appeared during the war.
But there were too many strange things in the world. He was a merchant, and he knew it was enough to make a profit. As long as Chen Village continued to exist, he could keep profiting. He wasn't a bandit who dealt only in one-off transactions.
He even considered putting some pressure on the Wumeng Tribe to keep them from affecting Chen Village's production of talisman paper.
In Chen Village's talisman-making room.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Three rune printers were printing talisman paper in an orderly rhythm. With each tapping sound, a sheet of talisman paper came out.
Ever since seeing the rune chip Chen Mu had developed, Landuo had been deeply fascinated by it.
"The two primordial forces give rise to the four phenomena, the four phenomena give rise to the eight trigrams, and the eight trigrams evolve into the full cycle of the heavens. Such a tiny combination of runes contains infinite variations. Marvelous! Absolutely marvelous! This is a creation that seizes the wonders of heaven and earth, a miracle of the rune world!!"
Landuo could make mechanical puppets and was himself a fanatical researcher of runes. He was extremely learned, and such high praise from him left even Chen Mu feeling a little overwhelmed.
"Haha, it's nothing, really! Landuo, I'll be counting on you from now on.
"These rune printers need Soul Power infused into them about once every two double hours, and the talisman-making materials generally need to be replaced every half a day. Sorry to trouble you with all that."
"No problem!"
Landuo happily patted his chest and laughed.
"Boss, I never realized you were a talisman master too, or that your insights into runes were so unique. Your master must be an extraordinary figure, I imagine?"
After the Divine Soul Seed had been planted in him, Landuo had no room to resist Chen Mu. He had originally called Chen Mu "master," but Chen Mu disliked the title, so he had switched to "boss."
"You don't need to know things you shouldn't. In any case, do your work well, and I won't treat you poorly."
Chen Mu couldn't be bothered to explain and spoke calmly.
"Yes!"
Landuo lowered his head respectfully, then a hesitant expression appeared on his face.
"Boss, I've looked at quite a few of the runes you drew over the past two days, and I've formed some opinions of my own. I don't know whether I should say them."
"Go ahead."
Chen Mu was not the sort to work behind closed doors. He had long been troubled by the lack of another talisman master to exchange ideas with. Now that a native nine-rune talisman master stood before him, he was naturally happy to have him point out his shortcomings.
"I can tell your foundation in runes is extremely solid. Even with only some low-level runes, you can combine them to unleash tremendous power.
"Although there is much to recommend your method of drawing runes, it also has many flaws. Some of them strike me as quite childish. Anyone who has systematically studied advanced rune knowledge generally wouldn't make such mistakes.
"So I suspect your master only taught you the fundamentals of runes, not how to advance beyond them, and that you haven't compared what you've learned with other talisman masters either."
"Very good! Go on!"
Landuo's words had struck right at Chen Mu's weak spot.
In the Rune Ancestor's view, all paths of the Great Dao led to the same destination. As long as one's divine soul realm kept improving, basic runes could evolve into every variation in the world. He did not want his successors to retrace his own path; he had left this inheritance in the hope that they could forge a path different from his.
As for his successors drawing on others' experience, he left them to seek it out themselves. There were countless paths to the pinnacle of runes, and the Rune Ancestor could not possibly store all knowledge in his inheritance.
But Chen Mu came from humble origins and had always had to feel his way forward alone, so taking some detours was unavoidable.
If he followed those detours well, he might naturally forge an entirely new path. But if he took the wrong turns, he would waste his time, or even become trapped and unable to find his way out, only to spend his whole life accomplishing nothing.