In all his years, Wen Shuxian had never seen a supreme-grade talisman with his own eyes until today.
And it had actually been drawn by someone in the Qi Condensation realm!
Xue Mingzhao herself had been startled by the blinding red light from earlier.
She pointed at the talisman paper, her face filled with wonder. “Huh? Martial Uncle, there was no light when I was drawing it just now. Why is it glowing now? It's even pulsing... Could it be breathing?”
Wen Shuxian gave her a complicated look. He carefully picked up the talisman paper, took a deep breath, and said, “Come with me. I'll take you to test this talisman and see if it's the real deal.”
A low-grade Sky-Blasting Talisman could blow down a wall, a mid-grade one could demolish a small building, and a high-grade one could level an entire forest.
If this was truly a supreme-grade one, it could easily obliterate half of his mountain peak.
Wen Shuxian flew Xue Mingzhao over to an uninhabited islet near the sect's borders on his blade.
The islet was barren, with only a small hill standing in the center.
On the shore, several black water turtles lay basking in the sun, looking incredibly relaxed.
Wen Shuxian raised his hand, using a burst of spiritual energy to toss the turtles into the distant sea.
He then took out the talisman Xue Mingzhao had drawn. His fingers trembled slightly with excitement, and he had to take a deep breath to steady his wrist.
Funneling his spiritual energy into the talisman, he threw it forcefully toward the islet.
BOOM—
An earth-shattering explosion rang out.
The small hill on the islet was instantly reduced to rubble, and half of the islet itself was completely blasted away. Debris rained down into the sea, sending massive geysers of water shooting into the sky.
The black water turtles had just poked their heads out of the water, completely clueless about what was happening, when the massive waves whipped up by the blast smacked them right on the head. They tumbled backward in the water several times before being swept far away.
Standing in midair, Wen Shuxian stared at the half-obliterated islet below him and fell into a long silence.
He turned to look at Xue Mingzhao, his voice a mixture of intense excitement and sheer shock. “The third level of Qi Condensation, drawing a talisman for the very first time, and you made a supreme-grade Sky-Blasting Talisman... Does your master know about this?”
Xue Mingzhao only just snapped out of her daze as the falling rocks and water settled. She swallowed hard and shook her head honestly.
Wen Shuxian took a deep breath. “Come, let's go back. This old man will personally teach you how to draw talismans.”
The smile on Wen Shuxian's face didn't fade for a single second on the way back.
Even after they returned and sat down in Guanlan Hall, he was still buzzing with excitement.
The Grand Primordium Sect had produced a genius—a real, bona fide genius!
Even on the entire Tianyan Continent, she would easily rank among the absolute best!
If it were anyone else, let alone drawing a talisman above their realm, even Golden Core cultivators couldn't succeed on their first try, much less produce a supreme-grade talisman.
In the middle of his excitement, he suddenly smacked the back of Xue Mingzhao's head.
The blow wasn't hard, but his tone was fierce. “It's a good thing you failed your first try and only blew up a rock. If you had caused this kind of commotion back then, your master would have had to give me half of his Cloud Listening Peak today to make up for it.”
He wiped the smile from his face and said solemnly, “Also, this talisman is too powerful and has a massive area of effect. It's easy to cause collateral damage. You must be extremely careful when using it in the future, lest you blow yourself up too.”
Rubbing the back of her head, Xue Mingzhao stuck out her tongue. “Got it!”
Seeing her cheerful demeanor, Wen Shuxian knew the girl hadn't truly taken it to heart. He shook his head and shifted the topic. “The Sky-Blasting Talisman is too powerful and destructive, making it unsuitable for confined spaces. I'll teach you to draw another one: the Exploding Talisman. It has a smaller blast radius and concentrated power, making it less likely to cause accidental damage. It'll be perfect for self-defense in the mystic realm.”
Wen Shuxian taught meticulously, and Xue Mingzhao learned even faster.
The Exploding Talisman was much simpler than the Sky-Blasting Talisman. She traced it stroke by stroke, following Wen Shuxian's demonstration. As her final stroke fell, a red light flashed and vanished on the talisman paper—she had succeeded again!
She picked up the talisman paper to examine it, then lifted her brush again to draw a small, five-petaled flower on the back.
It was in the exact shape of the birthmark on her palm, its five petals arranged perfectly, looking identical to the one on her hand.
Tilting her head, she nodded in satisfaction. “There, this looks much better.”
From start to finish, it had taken less than fifteen minutes.
Wen Shuxian watched from the side, speechless.
How many times had he fallen silent today?
Ever since this girl arrived at the Grand Primordium Sect, he had been rendered speechless more times than in the past several decades combined.
Su Mingyuan was incredibly lucky. He went out for a stroll and ended up scoring a genius disciple for free.
Why didn't he have that kind of luck?
But on second thought, what belonged to his Senior Brother belonged to him. By extension, his Senior Brother's disciple was basically his disciple too.
Thinking of it this way, he immediately felt much better.
When he looked at Xue Mingzhao again, his gaze was significantly warmer, almost as if he were looking at his own personal disciple.
Xue Mingzhao felt bewildered by his gaze and rubbed her arms. “Martial Uncle, could you not stare and smile at me like that? It's kind of creepy.”
Wen Shuxian immediately wiped the smile off his face, put on a stern expression, and tapped the desk. “Cut the chatter. Draw another one. This time, I won't give you any guidance; draw it yourself.”
Xue Mingzhao was watched closely as she drew talismans all day, until Su Mingyuan came looking for her in the evening.
His little disciple was currently hunched over the desk, drawing a talisman stroke by stroke.
As he stepped closer to take a look, he froze on the spot. His mouth opened and closed, and only after a long moment did he find his voice. He turned to Wen Shuxian. “T-This... She drew this?”
Standing to the side, Wen Shuxian stroked his beard, calmly enjoying his Senior Brother's stunned expression.
His Senior Brother was still not composed enough.
Unlike him, who was so calm and collected.
He completely forgot that when he had seen that pile of pulverized stone on the uninhabited islet, he hadn't been any better than Su Mingyuan was now.
From that day on, Xue Mingzhao's schedule was packed to the brim.
Every day thereafter, before the sky was even fully bright at the Hour of the Hare, Xue Mingzhao would drag Su Ye to the Library Pavilion to report on time.
At noon, they would go to Cloud Listening Peak to practice the Flowing Light Shadow.
Su Ye had already gotten the hang of it; not only could he dash out steadily, but the flowing light used to confuse enemies could also last for ten breaths without dispersing.
In the afternoon, they would split up; Su Ye continued practicing swordplay with Su Mingyuan, while Xue Mingzhao dove headfirst into Guanlan Hall to draw talismans with Wen Shuxian.
In the evening, back in her small courtyard, she still had to engage in a battle of wits with the "grandpa" inside her dantian.
The Chaos Spiritual Root had an unpredictable temper. When it was in a good mood, it would snort and help her absorb spiritual energy. When it was in a bad mood, she had to coax it for ages before it would budge.
Sometimes, she even had to gesture with a dagger before it would obediently get to work.
As she used this trick more often, it began to develop an immunity, forcing Xue Mingzhao to find new ways to negotiate with it.
After a month, she had finally managed to stumble her way up to the seventh level of Qi Condensation.
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