Wen Jingshu had no time to pay attention to the two of them. She spent the first half of the night drawing talismans and the second half swinging her sword. After finishing another fulfilling night of cultivation, the three of them set off once more.
Halfway through their journey, they felt the ground shake and the mountains tremble, as if a beast tide were rushing in their direction.
The three exchanged glances and quickly dashed toward the surrounding thousand-year-old giant trees.
As for why they didn't fly on their swords—there were plenty of flying beasts in a beast tide as well!
With no cover in the open sky, they would only be in greater danger if they ran into high-level flying beasts.
As the beast tide drew closer, Fu Sinian observed for a moment and noticed something unusual.
Wen Jingshu asked, “This is...”
Fu Sinian replied, “Those lunatics from the Beast Taming Sect are stocking up in Jiangyuan Valley again!”
Wen Jingshu was somewhat baffled by Fu Sinian's words.
Although there were many demon beasts before them, they were all low-grade ones with little room for growth. Was the Beast Taming Sect really that unselective?
Seeing Wen Jingshu's confused expression, Yun Xiange kindly explained, “They aren't catching these demon beasts to raise them. They're using them as feed.”
A high-grade demon beast of the sixth rank or above could eat five thousand jin of meat a day. The Beast Taming Sect had at least thirty thousand high-grade demon beasts and eighty thousand low-grade ones. Even ignoring other expenses, the cost of feed alone was astronomical.
Although a single Beast-Feeding Pill could keep a high-grade demon beast full for three days, the sheer demand was too overwhelming. They couldn't afford to feed every single beast with pills!
That was why they regularly came to Jiangyuan Valley to stock up. However, every trip turned the area upside down, leaving passing cultivators with no peace.
Having understood the situation, Wen Jingshu was somewhat speechless. “What do we do now then? Do we just wait for the beast tide to pass?”
Fu Sinian felt a bit embarrassed by her question, but he could only reply, “This is the safest choice.”
“And how long does it take for them to finish stocking up each time?”
“At least seven days, and up to half a month.”
Hearing this, Wen Jingshu just wanted to take out her carriage and leave.
Standing around and waiting like this was a pure waste of time, wasn't it?
Fu Sinian was equally frustrated.
They had encountered far too many accidents along the way. Yun Xiange, in particular, was visiting Jiangyuan Valley for the first time and wanted to beat every demon beast she saw to death. Furthermore, she lacked combat experience; even when a problem could be solved with a single talisman, she insisted on throwing three, claiming she was afraid the beast was playing dead.
And he couldn't even criticize her. If he did, Yun Xiange would get angry, and he would have to coax her afterward.
As a result, they had run out of their prepared pills and talismans before even reaching the legacy site.
If they hadn't run into Wen Jingshu, they would basically be running on empty by now.
“Junior Sister, this beast tide won't stop anytime soon. Why don't we head back to Yundan City to restock first, then come back?”
Hearing Fu Sinian's suggestion, Yun Xiange rejected it without a second thought. “No way!”
In the original novel, the female protagonist passed through Jiangyuan Valley during this exact period and obtained her fortuitous opportunity. If Yun Xiange left now, wouldn't she be leaving that opportunity for the female protagonist all over again?”
Yun Xiange's reaction was so intense that Wen Jingshu couldn't help but steal another glance at her.
This was just a minor legacy realm of a Golden Core Stage cultivator, wasn't it? Why was she so obsessed with it?
Fu Sinian didn't understand either. Frowning, he said:
“Junior Sister, being trapped here is no different from being trapped elsewhere. Taking a detour would waste even more time than waiting for the beast tide to pass. Besides, the legacy site is right there; it's not going to run away...”
Yun Xiange cut him off directly:
“Senior Brother, trust me. We really cannot leave right now!”
The female protagonist's opportunity was right before her eyes. How could she bear to leave!
Seeing how stubborn Yun Xiange was, Fu Sinian felt helpless and couldn't say much more.
Watching the two bicker, Wen Jingshu quietly spoke up, “I have some low-grade teleportation talismans. Looking at the scale of this beast tide... two should get us out of here. Do you want them?”
Yun Xiange quickly replied, “Yes, yes, yes! I want ten!”
Fu Sinian looked at her with disapproval. “Why do you need so many? Can you even use them all?”
Yun Xiange said, “I'm stockpiling them! I'll definitely need them in the future.”
Fu Sinian was speechless once again.
Wen Jingshu didn't say much and completed the transaction on the spot.
Over the past few days, she had gotten a clear picture of their personalities.
The two of them didn't have any malicious intentions. In fact, they could even be described as naive.
Yun Xiange was simply targeting her, and because Fu Sinian was close to Yun Xiange, he joined in.
But...
Why?
Wen Jingshu grew more and more puzzled.
After using the teleportation talismans, the three quickly escaped the range of the beast tide. The legacy site was located near the middle region of Jiangyuan Valley. The deeper they went, the stronger the demon beasts they encountered.
After working together to slay another high-grade second-rank demon beast, Wen Jingshu felt quite constrained.
She was currently focusing on the Thunder Brake Sword Art, an incredibly destructive sword technique, and had used it in her previous battles. Now that she had to disguise herself, she could no longer display it.
Especially since these two were her own senior brother and senior sister, she couldn't even use a sword comfortably.
After all, her cultivation method was identical to their master's. If she used her lightning spiritual power, it would be too easy to blow her cover.
Fortunately, she had once been a talisman cultivator who specialized in talismans. In combat, a talisman cultivator would simply stand in a safe zone and fling talismans.
However, throwing too many would still arouse suspicion.
“Fellow Daoist Shu, aren't you primarily a sword cultivator? Why haven't I seen you draw your sword?”
Faced with Yun Xiange's earnest question, Wen Jingshu lied without batting an eye:
“Ah, I haven't started learning yet.”
Yun Xiange: ...
Seriously? Do I look like an idiot to you?
Fu Sinian teased, “Fellow Daoist Shu, I think you look less like a sword cultivator and more like a talisman cultivator!”
Seeing how Wen Jingshu had dozens of talismans hovering in the air behind her, ready to be used at any moment, along with her proficient dodging, her professional calculation of safe distances, her escape routes after throwing, and her ability to throw a buff talisman or two to them on the side...
To multitask like this while maintaining such an elegant composure, it would be a crime to say she wasn't a talisman cultivator.
Hearing Fu Sinian's words, Wen Jingshu played along:
“What Fellow Daoist Fu says is indeed true. I am indeed focusing on talismans right now, and I'll switch to being a sword cultivator when the time is right.”
Fu Sinian: ...
Wait, what kind of cultivator changes their profession halfway through?!
After her perfunctory explanation, Wen Jingshu hurled another seven or eight talismans at the demon beast. Bolts of heavenly thunder crashed down one after another, turning the demon beast into charred charcoal in no time.
Staring at the thoroughly dead demon beast, Yun Xiange said with some envy, “Thunder-Attracting Talismans are really handy!”
Generally speaking, talismans were attribute-less, such as teleportation talismans, exploding talismans, and spirit-gathering talismans.
However, because the cultivators who drew them had their own elemental spiritual roots, a series of spiritual-root-exclusive talismans had emerged. For example, only cultivators with a lightning spiritual root could draw Thunder-Attracting Talismans, and only those with a fire spiritual root could draw fire talismans.
These attributed talismans did not have specific ranks; they depended entirely on the cultivator's cultivation level and spiritual root quality at the time of drawing.
Nevertheless, there were also cases where wood spiritual root cultivators used external exotic fires to draw fire talismans, or metal spiritual root cultivators used water-attribute spiritual treasures to draw water talismans.
Among these, however, only the thunder talismans drawn by lightning spiritual root cultivators could absolutely not be replicated by cultivators with other spiritual roots.
Rate on N.U.
