Early the next morning, Li Nanzhu knocked on Zhu Yinxi’s courtyard gate. He didn’t seem to expect her to come so early.
"You've arrived quite early, Little Junior Sister."
"Am I disturbing you, Second Senior Brother? If so, I can come back later."
After all, having successfully drawn a tier 2 talisman in the forbidden area yesterday, she had tasted the sweetness of success. Her hands were itching to get back there as soon as possible.
Zhu Yinxi stepped aside to clear the doorway. "It’s no trouble."
As he turned, he revealed a string of silver bells hanging from his waist, which emitted a faint, crisp tinkling sound with every movement. "I have also been cultivating all night."
Li Nanzhu followed him into the courtyard and noticed several bamboo scrolls spread out on the stone table. The ink in the inkstone had not yet dried.
She couldn’t help but steal a few extra glances and discovered that they were all musical scores.
"Are you studying a new piece, Second Senior Brother?"
Zhu Yinxi’s movements paused as he gathered the bamboo scrolls. "I recently acquired them and wanted to study them more to see if I could achieve a breakthrough."
As he spoke, he tucked his jade flute into his belt.
Li Nanzhu silently added in her heart that she only hoped this new tune wouldn't be so unpleasant to the ears.
"I didn’t expect you to be so diligent, Little Junior Sister. I thought you would arrive later."
Though he said this, a hint of admiration appeared in Zhu Yinxi's eyes. He was a very diligent person himself; otherwise, he wouldn’t have actually played the tunes from his cultivation manual eighty thousand times just because of a single word from Feng Yi. Now, his favor toward this equally diligent junior sister naturally increased by a few points.
"Since I made an appointment with you yesterday, I wanted to come early. Besides, with you protecting me, I can draw talismans with peace of mind. Thanks to you yesterday, my cleansing heart talisman was a success."
With that, she handed the cleansing heart talisman she had drawn yesterday to Zhu Yinxi, along with some tier 1 high-grade talismans. Although she knew they might not be very useful to someone at the Golden Core stage like him, she hoped they could at least serve as a distraction in a moment of crisis.
Zhu Yinxi was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and reached out to take the stack of talismans. It was no wonder First Senior Brother and Seventh Junior Brother liked her so much. With such a junior sister, it was indeed difficult not to.
If his previous care had merely been out of a senior brother’s duty to teach his junior sister, he now truly held her in his heart.
"Thank you for the gift. I like it very much." He placed them into his storage bag. "Shall we head to the forbidden area now?"
"Of course."
...
The two arrived at the entrance of the forbidden area with ease, but Zhu Yinxi’s footsteps faltered slightly. He moved to shield Li Nanzhu behind him.
"What’s wrong, Second Senior Brother?"
Zhu Yinxi frowned. "The forbidden area seems a bit strange. I’ll go in first to investigate."
Li Nanzhu obediently stayed put. In a situation like this, her presence would only cause trouble.
Before long, Zhu Yinxi reappeared and signaled that she could enter, though his expression was somewhat odd.
She didn't understand the reason until she stepped into the forbidden area herself.
The spiritual energy, which had been as thick as a solid substance yesterday, was much thinner today, as if it had been drained by something.
Li Nanzhu tentatively circulated the spiritual energy within her body and found that it no longer surged into her meridians as frantically as before.
"Strange..." she murmured to herself, looking toward the depths of the forbidden area.
The mist seemed much thicker than yesterday, and the roaming dark shadows were almost invisible. Only an occasional blurred outline proved their existence; if one didn't look closely, they were hard to notice.
"The spiritual energy has weakened."
Zhu Yinxi’s voice was calm as he scanned the surroundings. He had already checked the area; currently, only the concentration of spiritual energy had changed.
"Those dark shadows are almost gone too."
Li Nanzhu pointed into the distance. "Yesterday, I could vaguely see them wandering around, but today it’s as if they’ve... dispersed?"
Zhu Yinxi was silent for a moment before suddenly asking, "Do you think they were being suppressed by the spiritual energy?"
Li Nanzhu was startled and began to think carefully.
The spiritual energy in the forbidden area was concentrated to an abnormal degree, and the existence of the dark shadows seemed closely related to it.
Now that the energy was thin, the shadows had decreased. Could it be that they were some kind of existence bound here by the spiritual energy?
But if that were true, was all that dense spiritual energy from before used solely to suppress them?
However, Li Nanzhu quickly dismissed her own theory. Looking at Zhu Yinxi’s reaction, it was clear that this was also his first time encountering such a situation. The concentration of spiritual energy should not have changed much before this; if it were meant to seal those shadows, the change would have happened long ago rather than waiting until now.
What exactly had caused these things to change?
And what, exactly, were those dark shadows?
"I can't figure it out." She shook her head. "But since they aren't coming near, it's a good thing for us."
Zhu Yinxi nodded and said no more, though his gaze still swept toward the depths of the forbidden area from time to time.
Since the spiritual energy no longer suppressed her own internal power, Li Nanzhu felt it was a bit of a pity, but she also didn't need to be as cautious as she had been yesterday.
Returning to the blue stone, she spread out the talisman paper and took out the Wanxiang Brush. This time, she planned to try drawing a tier 2 spirit-traveling talisman. If she succeeded, it would save her some effort when traveling in the future.
Zhu Yinxi didn't say much either. He simply sat down cross-legged nearby with his jade flute across his knees, closed his eyes to regulate his breathing, and actually began to cultivate.
Then, as if suddenly remembering something, Zhu Yinxi took out the cleansing heart talisman from his storage bag and slapped it directly onto his forehead. A cool sensation, like a gurgling stream, smoothed over his slightly restless heart.
In an instant, Zhu Yinxi had fully entered a state of cultivation.
Li Nanzhu glanced at him, slightly surprised. She hadn't expected him to use her talisman so quickly, or to enter cultivation so fast.
But this was good. Once they left today, she could ask him about the effects.
Since she had confirmed there was no danger in the vicinity, Li Nanzhu also intended to start drawing talismans. However, with the spiritual energy concentration becoming so thin, she wasn't sure if things would go as smoothly as yesterday.
The tip of the brush dipped into the ink, spiritual energy circulated, and the talisman patterns slowly took shape on the paper.
In the outside world, although there was spiritual energy, its thin concentration often meant the speed of consumption outpaced the speed of absorption, leading to an insufficient supply that made it impossible to draw tier 2 talismans.
Today, the concentration of spiritual energy in the forbidden area was no longer dangerous, but it could still keep up with her absorption rate. This allowed her to absorb and replenish while drawing, making her more proficient than before. Between the turns of her brush strokes, spiritual energy flowed naturally like a stream.
However, she was still too unfamiliar with tier 2 talismans. Just as she was about to finish, the tip of her brush trembled slightly, deviating from the original path.
"Sigh." She gave a light sigh. The spiritual light on the talisman paper flickered a few times before it spontaneously combusted.
But this was all within Li Nanzhu's expectations. Yesterday's success on the first try had been pure luck; today's failure was the normal state of affairs. Even tier 1 talismans had a chance of failure, let alone tier 2.
Li Nanzhu was not discouraged, having clearly grown accustomed to this kind of failure. She immediately spread out another sheet of talisman paper.
Although the spiritual energy in the forbidden area was sufficient, the absorption was too rushed. The supply of spiritual energy in her body often became intermittent, frequently stagnating at critical moments and causing the nearly completed talisman patterns to fail.
Li Nanzhu had also tried to use her mental power to connect with the external spiritual energy and guide it into the Wanxiang Brush, but because the concentration of spiritual energy in the forbidden area had dropped, she couldn't do it as she had yesterday.
Since forcibly attempting tier 2 talismans would only waste materials, it was better to proceed steadily.
She readjusted her breathing, dipped the brush in ink, and began drawing the tier 1 talismans she was most familiar with.
The familiar patterns unfolded smoothly on the paper. Although the circulation of spiritual energy was not as abundant as before, it was stable.
After an unknown amount of time, Li Nanzhu's mental power was nearing exhaustion, and Zhu Yinxi had also finished his cultivation, slowly opening his eyes.
Rate on N.U.
