Under the catalysis of the Yin-Yang Fate-Tapping Record, the swallowed Dew-Condensing Pill quickly dissolved, its medicinal power dispersing into a pale green cloud that gathered in her dantian.
The effects of the Dew-Condensing Pill were gentle, presenting no danger during refinement; she simply needed to follow the process step by step.
Shi Yu guided the innate true Qi within her dantian to thread through this cloud of medicinal power, like fine needles passing thread through a sheet of silk, refining the medicinal power bit by bit.
The refined medicinal power transformed into faint, thread-like strands of spiritual power, drawn out from the pale green cloud and merging into her innate true Qi, slowly strengthening it.
As those "needles" threaded back and forth with increasing density, she was able to circulate and assimilate the spiritual energy even faster.
Of course, the pill's inherent impurities and pill toxicity also settled down during this process, waiting to be refined and purged in the future.
...
After the long night passed, as the first ray of sunlight filtered through the window into the room, Shi Yu slowly opened her eyes.
A night had gone by, and a small portion of the Dew-Condensing Pill's power was refined. Shi Yu was pleasantly surprised to discover that the strand of innate true Qi in her dantian had grown significantly denser.
“It seems the day I sprout the yellow sprout and lay down my Dao Foundation is not far off.”
After a simple breakfast, taking advantage of her energetic state, Shi Yu retrieved the materials for mixing talisman ink.
She intended to try crafting a Blaze Talisman first.
Among Tier-1 spirit talismans, the Blaze Talisman was a rather useful offensive spirit talisman, requiring only a small injection of spiritual energy to trigger.
This was a real world, not a game—there was no reviving after death. Furthermore, the cultivation world was governed by the law of the jungle. With no one to protect her, she had only herself, starting off in a dire situation where her cultivation talent had been stolen and her progress was painfully slow.
Shi Yu cherished her new life dearly. Since she lacked the cultivation to protect herself for now, she would aim to hoard hundreds or thousands of spirit talismans first. If she ever ran into bad actors, hurling a barrage of spirit talismans in a pinch would at least buy her a few extra chances at survival.
She retrieved a small pile of fire-attribute materials from the Yin-Yang Fate-Tapping Bell and set them on the table. They felt warm to the touch.
Faint, familiar strands of fire-attribute spiritual energy emanated from them, bathing Shi Yu in a comforting warmth.
“One liang of Tier-1 Flame-Devouring Fox blood, two qian of Tier-1 Flame Spirit jade dust, one and a half qian of Tier-1 Fire-Element Sand...” Shi Yu counted out the materials, pouring them out with exact precision without needing a scale.
This muscle memory was forged through thousands of ink preparation attempts.
Mixing ink for Tier-1 spirit talismans required no complex techniques; once the materials were mixed and ground evenly, the talisman ink was complete.
The prepared talisman ink was dark red, flecked with tiny orange specks that glowed like fireflies.
“Plus talisman paper tanned from the bark of Tier-1 Fire-Attuning Wood...”
When everything was ready, she took out the single spirit stone remaining after her shopping trip.
Not having reached the First Layer of the Qi Refining Realm yet, she had to rely on external help even to craft Tier-1 spirit talismans.
She had never faced such a plight before and was unsure whether drawing spiritual power from a spirit stone as a medium would work for talisman crafting.
“I'll try it first regardless. Worst-case scenario, I just lose a spirit stone.”
Holding the talisman pen in one hand, Shi Yu dipped the tip into the talisman ink. Holding the spirit stone in the other, she used her divine sense as a guide to feel the spiritual energy within it.
Once her divine sense enveloped the spirit stone and felt the pure, continuous surge of spiritual energy inside, she began drawing it out.
With her low cultivation and weak divine sense, trying this for the first time felt like a game of tug-of-war against the spiritual energy.
She strained to pull the spiritual energy outward. After several attempts, her divine sense finally channeled the pure energy into a thread, guiding it like a fine, misty strand toward the talisman pen.
Seeing the hazy, attribute-less spiritual energy condense on the ink-dipped talisman pen, she brought the nib down slowly and began outlining the first source rune.
Since this strand of spiritual energy was not produced within her own body, controlling it was inherently arduous.
The talisman pen, which used to feel like an extension of her senses, now trembled at the tip. It was nearly impossible to control, as if some force were resisting her, making every stroke stiff and agonizingly slow.
Frowning slightly, she concentrated, holding the pen firm and straining her divine sense to keep the spiritual energy bound to the tip.
The first source rune jerked and halted repeatedly, but was finally drawn. The moment her pen lifted, light flashed, and the traced lines emitted a soft, shimmering radiance.
However, this radiance was broken and inconsistent, flickering between bright and dim spots unevenly.
Dissatisfied with the result, she reminded herself that this first talisman was merely for practice anyway. Keeping her mind focused, she proceeded to trace the second source rune.
A Blaze Talisman comprised three source runes in total, nested and linked together. The first was the easiest; the remaining two were considerably harder, as they had to overlay, nest, and connect with the preceding ones.
Sure enough, halfway through drawing the second rune, affected by the breaks and unevenness of the first rune, the point meant to connect ruptured. In an instant, the entire sheet of talisman paper ignited and burned to ashes.
Shi Yu pondered for a moment, closed her eyes to review the process a few times in her mind, grasped a few key points, and began trying again.
This time, her control over the spiritual energy inside the spirit stone had deepened. The first source rune was drawn smoothly, its radiance continuous and even. Drawing the second, she took heed of her previous lesson, paying extra care at the connection points, and successfully completed it as well.
However, while drawing the most complex third rune, her divine sense faltered. For a split second, the spiritual energy scattered out of control, resulting in another failure.
Having gained experience from these two attempts, Shi Yu felt more confident. Instead of pushing forward immediately, she sat in meditation to restore her mental energy before trying again.
This attempt went far more smoothly: the first rune, the second rune, and finally the last...
With every stroke, a bright, full glow emerged. Shi Yu felt the power of the source runes flowing beneath her nib and, in one continuous effort, completed the final connection.
As the final stroke fell, the light of the three source runes flashed in an interlocking pattern before fading from view.
The talisman paper felt completely different now—the Tier-1 Blaze Talisman was complete.
Beads of sweat glinted on the tip of Shi Yu's nose, and her chest rose and fell faster than usual. What used to be an effortless task yielding stacks of spirit talismans in the game had taken two failures just to complete a single one here.
Her physical and mental energy wouldn't allow her to attempt another.
Moreover... Shi Yu glanced at the spirit stone in her hand.
Compared to before, the luster of the spirit stone had visibly dulled. Drawing out its spiritual energy using her divine sense incurred significant loss; it looked as though the remaining energy could only support crafting one more spirit talisman at most.
Putting away the unused talisman ink into the bell, Shi Yu resumed circulating her cultivation technique to restore her spirit and strength.
Over the next few days, after successfully crafting one more Blaze Talisman, the spirit stone was completely depleted and crumbled into dust.
So Shi Yu resumed crafting the unfinished jade talismans until all one hundred were complete, then took them to Tongyi Pavilion to sell.
Shi Yu intended to hoard the two hard-won Blaze Talismans for personal use first, considering selling them only after she had a surplus.
This time she brought ninety jade talismans. Tongyi Pavilion offered the same purchase price of seventeen taels of silver each, netting her over fifteen hundred taels of silver. She exchanged them for a dozen or so spirit stones and, just like last time, purchased a good quantity of jade slips, Dew-Condensing Pills, and materials for crafting spirit talismans.
Seeing this, Manager Jiang Qihe naturally deduced in his own mind that the master behind Shi Yu had not yet succeeded in crafting spirit talismans.
This was entirely expected. They were still making jade talismans earlier and had only just begun trying spirit talismans—if they succeeded in such a short time, what kind of transcendent genius would that be?
Unaware of Jiang Qihe's silent assumptions, Shi Yu left Tongyi Pavilion after finishing her purchases and started walking home, only to catch sight of a familiar figure out of the corner of her eye.
Rate on N.U.
