Complete Compendium of Low-Level Talismans
After leaving the stall, Shen Ge continued browsing. Although he had obtained several talismans to save his life, he had spent more than half his wealth.
"The cost is just ridiculous. Spending years deep in the mountains and old forests searching for spirit medicines only earns a few hundred Spirit Stones at most, and that's if you're lucky. Tsk, tsk. At that rate, you might not even make half a Spirit Stone a day."
After that complaint, Shen Ge walked up to another stall displaying a few battered books and asked, "Fellow Daoist, what Law Techniques are these?"
The stallholder's eyes lit up at the sight of Shen Ge. This was a man with money to spare, someone who had just splurged hundreds of Spirit Stones. He immediately explained, "Fellow Daoist, this one is a detailed guide to Qi Refining Stage alchemy, and this one is the Complete Compendium of Low-Level Talismans. It even contains some intermediate talismans. The others are all minor Law Techniques."
Picking up the book on low-level talismans, Shen Ge asked, "How many Spirit Stones are you selling this for?"
"The price is clearly marked: twenty Spirit Stones. No haggling."
Shen Ge lost interest as soon as he heard that. He shook his head, got up, and prepared to leave.
Seeing his wealthy customer about to leave, the stallholder grew anxious. His wares had been sitting here for over a month without selling, and at this rate, there was no telling how long he would have to wait to make a sale. He immediately called out to stop him. "Fellow Daoist, don't be in such a hurry to leave! I can't lower the price of that book, but I can throw in two stacks of talisman paper. Surely that will do?"
"And you don't need to pay in Spirit Stones. Just give me three Five-Leaf Ginseng plants."
Shen Ge immediately turned back to the stall, swiftly took out three Five-Leaf Ginseng plants, and put them down. Then he snatched up the Complete Compendium of Low-Level Talismans and put it away.
"Fellow Daoist, you're quite a good guesser. I only had three Five-Leaf Ginseng plants left, and I was saving them for when I break through to Foundation Establishment. But you're lucky. I just felt like I got ripped off buying talismans at that stall over there, or I wouldn't have taken this thing of yours."
"By the way, where are those two stacks of talisman paper you promised? Hurry up and give them to me. There's still some time before this market ends, so I'll go draw some talismans and recoup some of my costs."
After putting away the Five-Leaf Ginseng, the stallholder beamed as he handed over the talisman paper. "Fellow Daoist, drawing talismans isn't actually that simple, but I wish you success all the same."
After putting away the talisman paper, Shen Ge glanced at the detailed guide to Qi Refining Stage alchemy. He wanted that book too, but he had already reached the Ninth Layer of Qi Refinement, so it would not be all that useful to him. Besides, he had spent enough Spirit Stones today. Although he had mostly bartered, if he kept buying, he might be targeted as a fat sheep.
Shen Ge's Ninth Layer of Qi Refinement cultivation might have put him among the strongest in the crowd, but if he really were targeted and eight or ten people at the same level came to gang up on him, he would still end up dying with regrets.
After leaving the market and spending five Spirit Stones to rent a cave abode on another street, Shen Ge could not wait to pick up the talisman book and start reading.
A quick scan showed that it recorded the methods for drawing thirty kinds of talismans. More than half were support talismans. Only ten were for attack, defense, or movement: seven attack talismans, two defensive talismans, and one movement talisman.
Once he had counted them, Shen Ge's face darkened, and he nearly burst into curses. With so few practical talismans, it dared call itself a complete compendium of low-level talismans? Fucking hell.
Forcibly suppressing the urge to go back and give the stallholder a savage beating, Shen Ge began studying a low-level talisman called the Golden Sword Talisman.
As the name suggested, this talisman unleashed a golden sword. Its power could not match a Law Artifact, of course, but its sole advantage was that it activated instantly. All one had to do was inject Spiritual Qi, and the golden sword would instantly shoot out to kill the enemy, catching them off guard.
After carefully memorizing every stroke, Shen Ge began putting it into practice.
He laid the talisman paper flat, and a golden light emerged from his index finger. Using the paper as a brush, he began tracing the design.
But after moving his raised finger only a few inches, Shen Ge's hand tilted, sending it off course and ruining the talisman.
Shen Ge frowned, stopped, and thought it over. He was certain he had not deliberately let his finger stray. An invisible force had been interfering with his drawing. If he had to explain it, Shen Ge thought this force should be called the power of heaven and earth.
According to the description of the talismans, they actually borrowed the power of heaven and earth for their user. In that case, it made sense that the power of heaven and earth would obstruct him. After all, Heaven itself might be unwilling to lend out its power.
He tried several more times afterward, but without exception, they all ended in failure. Even his best attempt only got about halfway.
"Hey, I refuse to believe I can't do it!"
Once Shen Ge's temper flared, he gave no thought to the cost. He drew for more than four hours straight, and finally, when he was down to his last sheet of talisman paper, he succeeded.
Looking at the Golden Sword Talisman in his hand, Shen Ge frowned and recalled the process of drawing it. After a long while, realization dawned on him, and he nodded. "So that's how it is. I understand now."
"Looks like drawing talismans isn't so hard after all."
Having figured out where his earlier attempts had gone wrong, Shen Ge could not wait to try again. But when he reached for the talisman paper, his hand grasped empty air.
Looking at the empty tabletop, Shen Ge shook his head helplessly. "It's skilled work, after all. It's normal to use up a little more material."
"But two stacks of talisman paper worth five Spirit Stones only yielded one Golden Sword Talisman worth three Spirit Stones. I really did take a bit of a loss this time."
With skilled work like drawing talismans, setting up formations, refining pills, and crafting artifacts, heavy consumption early on was normal. After all, they all required hands-on practice. But once one learned the basics, the returns were quite considerable.
After all, what cultivator did not need these things? As long as one mastered one of these crafts, one could be said to have no need to worry about a source of Spirit Stones anywhere.
Not many Rogue Cultivators knew these crafts, though. The huge expense before learning the basics was simply astonishing. Regardless of whether they had enough Spirit Stones to support it, even if they did, they would not invest them.
After all, these talismans were not all that expensive. Those who could not afford them still could not afford them, while most who could simply chose to buy them when needed. That left them with more Spirit Stones for cultivation.
"A basic talisman takes about the time it takes an incense stick to burn to complete. Perhaps that time will shorten with practice, but factoring in material consumption and failure rates, the returns still aren't worth the effort. It's fine if I'm using them myself, but there probably isn't much point in selling them."
After thinking it over, Shen Ge abandoned the idea of earning Spirit Stones with talismans. With his current skill, if he went into that business, he would probably lose every last bit of his investment. Even the wealth he had previously obtained from someone at the Golden Core Stage would not be enough to cover it.
"Sigh, now I understand why those Alchemists and artifact refiners in novels are so revered. The resources spent early on are simply staggering. The resources an Alchemist who can refine Golden Core Stage pills uses up are probably enough to produce ten Golden Core cultivators."