Secret-Mantra Talisman Method Makes a Golden Register, Gongsun Book, Patriarch of the Miscellaneous Arts

The eastern sky glowed with crimson clouds. With a turn for the better in the matter concerning his grandfather, Heng Hua was in high spirits as he leisurely admired the waterscape.

The morning breeze over Dragonreach Waters was cool and gentle, while countless aquatic creatures' carcasses drifted upon the water.

At night, the water demons swallowed and exhaled moonlight as they savagely attacked one another. Casualties were naturally unavoidable.

After taking a stroll outside, Heng Hua ran over to the neighboring boat to check on Fu Heyi while Xiang Feng was breathing in and gathering qi.

Fu Heyi's condition was normal, his internal breath even and steady.

"More or less. He should wake up within three to five days. I'll find a chance to speak with Third Brother. At any rate, he can't send me back now."

"Young Master, aren't you cultivating qi?" Xiaoyu approached on silent feet.

"I'll pass."

Heng Hua's cultivation had reached a critical threshold. Fearing that he would draw down a Foundation Establishment tribulation before entering Turtle-Burial Reef, how could he dare recklessly circulate his true qi?

After pondering for a moment, he said to Xiaoyu, "Have Hengshou keep watch outside. Come with me to refine metal."

He pulled Xiaoyu back to his room and took out the Gold Essence Mei Zhongtian had given him.

"Young Master, are you making Puppet Gold?"

"Correct."

Examining the Mystic Heart Gold and Spirit Silver, Heng Hua nodded. "I scattered my cultivation and started over, so it's inconvenient for me to operate the formation. You control it."

Puppet Gold was a medium-grade Gold Essence, a specialized material for creating immortal-art puppets.

This Gold Essence was lighter than ordinary Gold Essence, but it conducted magical power more effectively.

"But we don't have Seven-Evil Grass—ah, Young Master intends to use that method?"

"Yes. I'll use a Golden Register."

The most common metallurgical technique was the "Combined Refinement Method" used by Mei Zhongtian. Four basic materials were combined with various heavenly treasures and refined with fire to purify and elevate them.

To Heng Hua, this process resembled alloys from his previous life.

But this was, after all, a world of cultivation. Within the immortal path, there was another kind of metallurgical art—the Golden-Register Talisman Method.

Xiaoyu immediately took out the relevant items from their luggage.

First, they placed a Taiji Eight-Trigram Formation disk made from pearwood on the table. Once the basin-sized formation disk activated, golden light filled the entire room.

Next, Heng Hua spread a layer of water buffalo hide over the formation disk's surface. These water buffalo were low-grade spirit beasts raised for a century on Coiling Dragon Island. Their hides carried Water Spirit qi and could be inscribed with spirit-script runes.

Rolling up his sleeves, Heng Hua picked up an engraving knife and carefully carved white lines into the hide.

"Xiaoyu, bring me the Water-Spirit Jade Third Brother gave me."

"Yes."

Xiaoyu was no longer surprised by Heng Hua's secret metallurgical techniques.

Once the formation had been inscribed upon the hide, azure ripples spread across the water buffalo hide. Xiaoyu urged her magical power and crushed the Water-Spirit Jade they had acquired yesterday, causing Water Spirit qi to surge instantly.

Ding—

Golden light rose from the formation disk, and a pleasant chime echoed within it, firmly trapping the Water Spirit qi.

Heng Hua tossed in the Spirit Silver, then took out twenty-four Bright Moon Pearls and arranged them around it.

"Xiaoyu, circulate your power. I'll draw the Secret Mantra Golden Register."

The Secret Mantra Golden Register was an eccentric path among eccentric paths even to Metallurgy Daoists.

Orthodox Metallurgy Daoists like Mei Zhongtian used treasure flames and spirit fires to extract essence from Mystic Gold, then blend it with other materials to create high-grade Gold Essence through fire refinement.

The Secret Mantra Golden Register skipped every fire-refinement process. One merely needed the corresponding base materials, a formation brimming with spiritual qi, and the Secret Mantra Golden Register for the related higher-grade Gold Essence.

With the Golden Register's enlightenment, the Gold Essence would form itself.

Calming his mind and steadying his breath, Heng Hua carefully wrote the Secret Mantra Golden Register for "Watermoon Silver" upon talisman paper.

Xiaoyu stood beside the table controlling the formation. She closed her eyes and did not watch him write the Golden Register.

Secret Mantra Golden Registers were immensely valuable. Though Xiaoyu was Heng Hua's trusted confidante, she still dared not secretly learn such an untransmitted secret.

"You can open your eyes now."

Heng Hua let out a breath and looked at the completed Golden Register in his hand.

Not bad. He had succeeded on the first try.

His hand brushed lightly across the Golden Register, and the runes vanished one by one, turning it into a black talisman paper.

Xiaoyu opened her eyes and saw the pitch-black Golden Register. "That fast?"

"Watermoon Silver is a basic composite Gold Essence formed from upgraded Spirit Silver. Its Golden Register isn't difficult to write."

But it was expensive!

Heng Hua would rather let Xiaoyu learn the Secret Mantra Golden Register for Puppet Gold than allow her to know the Golden Register for Watermoon Silver.

That was because Watermoon Silver was an extremely versatile synthesis material for many high-grade Gold Essences. This Golden Register was worth more than the registers for some higher-grade spirit metals.

Of course, such value only applied to cultivation sects and lineages.

In the hands of individual cultivators, a Golden Register merely saved some trouble when creating Gold Essence. But for cultivation lineages and sects, one Golden Register could skip the relevant fire-refinement process and simplify Gold Essence production. Every Secret Mantra Golden Register was equivalent to a metallurgical production line.

Heng Hua pinched the Golden Register and pointed it toward the formation Xiaoyu controlled.

"Go."

Creation True Qi activated the "Watermoon Golden Register."

Mysterious white light enveloped the hide formation, raising the twenty-four Bright Moon Pearls with the Taiji Eight-Trigram Formation.

The spiritual qi within the Bright Moon Pearls slowly flowed into the Gold Essence. After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, a silver-moon-colored Gold Essence appeared.

Heng Hua swept aside the shattered pearl powder nearby and picked up the Watermoon Silver for inspection.

"Not bad, not bad. The weight is right, and the purity is acceptable. No further processing is needed."

He took out the Mystic Heart Gold and continued speaking to Xiaoyu.

"Come, let's continue making Puppet Gold."

Xiaoyu put away the water buffalo hide, which had lost more than half its spiritual power, then pulled out a fiery-red beast hide from the luggage.

The instant the hide appeared, the room's temperature rose sharply, and Heng Hua's expression turned solemn.

"Using this thing... what a waste."

No matter how poor Heng Hua had been, he had never been willing to sell this piece of flood dragon hide.

"How about using Third Young Master instead? His Samadhi True Fire can replace the formation."

"Third Brother? That works too. Go fetch him."

As he spoke, Heng Hua took up his brush and wrote the Secret Mantra Golden Register corresponding to Puppet Gold.

Just as he finished writing, Fu Xiangfeng entered the room.

Seeing the Golden Register radiating a yellow glow, Xiang Feng revealed a startled expression. "Xiaoyu came looking for me, and I didn't believe her. You brat really know this sort of crooked, obscure stuff?"

"I've only mastered three of them."

The Golden Registers for Watermoon Silver and Puppet Gold had been hidden inside an ancient book. They were a set of metallurgical formulas.

In addition, Heng Hua had obtained the Secret Mantra Golden Register for Crimson Origin Gold Essence from the inner cover of a certain popular novel.

Xiang Feng sat down carelessly. "Are there any our family can use?"

"There are, but given the current situation, I don't plan to bring them out."

"True. We can't casually let White Elm Hall benefit. We'll tinker with them ourselves later."

Heng Hua shook his head. "Don't get carried away. Our family must certainly control the core techniques, but we should let the other two halls take part as well. It's just that Grandfather's affairs come first right now, and I don't intend to stir up fresh waves. Come, Third Brother, stoke the fire."

Once Xiang Feng produced two balls of Samadhi True Fire, Xiaoyu threw the Watermoon Silver and Mystic Heart Gold into the flames.

The Eight Trigrams Formation locked the two clusters of Samadhi Fire in place, and heat waves continually surged within the formation.

Heng Hua activated the Golden Register. Yellow mist enveloped the flames, gradually driving them to merge together as the two Gold Essences within began to make contact...

While easily controlling the fire, Xiang Feng asked, "What are you making Puppet Gold for? Are you going to play with puppets too?"

"I'm idle, so I'm making a little toy. Probably... a puppet at the Foundation Establishment level?"

"You really are versatile. Puppet arts, metallurgy—things so far off they're separated by a hundred thousand eight thousand miles. Yet you can learn them all."

When it came to what Fu Heng Hua had learned, Fu Xiangfeng could do nothing but marvel.

He dabbled in every strange technique and secret mantra imaginable. This brat truly intended to comprehend the Dao and become immortal through books!

"Far off? Not at all. Third Brother, have you heard of the Gongsun Book?"

"The immortal book supposedly written by the legendary Immortal Gongsun, recording methods for building immortal estates, mechanism puppets, divining fortune and misfortune, feng shui arrangements, suppressing baleful intent and banishing evil, and all manner of miscellaneous arts?"

That book contained no cultivation methods and could not grant longevity. Yet its various techniques were bizarre and strange, worthy of being called the ancestor of the miscellaneous schools.

"Correct. Langhuan Hall secretly preserves a fragmentary page of the Gongsun Book."

"Impressive. You read in Langhuan Hall every day, and you can still gain something like this?"

"If Third Brother is interested, you can read with me. There are quite a few things in our family library that you don't know about."

"Forget it. I don't have the time. I'd rather focus on cultivation. Cultivating magical power is the foundation."

No matter how many techniques one knew, in a true battle of magic, one sword was enough.

"Right, I heard someone say that Evil-Soul Daoist's Black Artifacts were first recorded in the Gongsun Book?"

"I don't know. The Gongsun Book's origins are far too ancient. It is said that it was already circulating in the cultivation world five thousand years ago. It isn't impossible that Evil-Soul Daoist's Child-Mother Yin-Yang Divine Stele came from the Gongsun Book. Third Brother, watch the heat."

Xiang Feng adjusted the fire, and the yellow mist completely wrapped the two materials.

The Puppet Gold, which would originally have required three days and three nights of ritual refinement, was already beginning to take shape.

Putting on the airs of an elder brother, Xiang Feng warned, "Black Artifacts are wicked and vile, not the work of our orthodox mystical path. If you obtain related techniques from the Gongsun Book in the future, you must destroy them. Do not study them further."

"..."

"Still, forbidden evil arts like Black Artifacts should be something you have no chance of encountering. They must have all been destroyed thousands of years ago."

Seeing him put on an elder brother's airs, Heng Hua looked at the ring on his hand and deliberately said in a breezy tone, "Black Artifacts? The page I obtained didn't contain Black Artifacts, but making one isn't difficult. I know how."

That breezy remark made Xiang Feng's right hand tremble, and he nearly lost control of the Samadhi True Fire.

"You know how? You can make Black Artifacts?"

"Yes, I learned it from an ancient book. Third Brother, watch it!"

Heng Hua helped stabilize the flames. The Puppet Gold was now mostly refined.

"I actually had the idea back then of making a Black Artifact for myself to play with. And then..."

Thinking of that miserable experience, Heng Hua let out a faint sigh.

Xiang Feng looked at Heng Hua with an indescribable expression.

What in the world had this brat been tinkering with while reading books all day?

Heng Hua held out his palm. "See this Qiankun Ring of mine? This was originally the raw embryo of a Black Artifact I made. I planned to use my own finger bones and flesh mixed into the ritual refinement, then use this ring to make secondary rings. I would toss them into some ancient cultivators' caves, lure members of the Wei Family there, and once those fools got the rings and tried to refine them, they would automatically become my slaves."

"The Wei Family? Right, their people love exploring ancient cultivators' caves."

Xiang Feng's heart stirred. He remembered how the Wei Family had come to Coiling Dragon Island to cause trouble, even using a Qi Refining genius to humiliate Little Six.

Could it be that Little Six had held a grudge over that incident and planned to use a Black Artifact to trap them?

"Then why didn't you keep going?"

"Old Master found out. Then..." He had intended to tease Third Brother, but thinking of that incident, Heng Hua felt his backside begin to ache again.

"He beat you up?"

Fu Xiangfeng knew Fu Danwei's temperament all too well.

Fu Danwei would have loved nothing more than for the Wei Family to die, yet he would never permit wicked things like Black Artifacts. Still less would he permit his descendants to commit such vile acts for the sake of killing.

In a gentleman's conduct, there were things one did and things one did not do.

Heng Hua said nothing.

It had hurt badly. Since childhood, he had known how to act cute and seek his grandfather's favor. Though his grandfather scolded and berated him, he rarely dealt him harsh blows.

That time, however, his grandfather learned that he intended to use a Black Artifact to control the Wei Family.

In his fury, Fu Danwei beat Fu Heng Hua so badly that he could not get out of bed for three days.

"How many lashes? No, how many strikes of the ruler?"

Under normal circumstances, Fu Danwei used the Seven-Star Whip made from flood dragon hide to beat his grandsons. But under special circumstances, he used the jade ruler in his hand.

That ruler could be called Coiling Dragon Island's island-protecting treasure, and its power was immense. Even without activating its spirit-artifact might, merely being struck by the ruler's material would leave a Foundation Establishment cultivator with torn skin and mangled flesh.

Heng Hua rolled his eyes, too lazy to continue speaking with Xiang Feng.

"Three strikes? Five? Don't tell me ten—surely he didn't hit you thirty times? Could you still walk after that?"

"Third Brother, don't stop moving your hands. It'll be done soon. It's done—put out the fire."

Once the Puppet Gold was complete, Heng Hua immediately drove Xiang Feng out the door.