Ever since Luo Yao moved into Little Slaughter Peak, Xu Ziqing’s days had become even more regular.
Every morning, he practiced swordsmanship with Yun Lie. After roughly half a day, Yan Shuang would bring them a meal. In the afternoon, Xu Ziqing went below the mountainside to the cave abode Luo Yao had opened, studying the talisman arts with him and listening to his guidance.
After spending some time together, Xu Ziqing had come to understand quite a bit about Luo Yao.
Luo Yao had originally been the son of a great family in the mortal world, born into its legitimate line. Clever from an early age, he had been doted on by everyone around him. However, in the year he turned ten, his family followed its custom of sending all its children to a gathering of immortals to test their spiritual roots. The test revealed that Luo Yao possessed three spiritual roots, neither particularly good nor particularly poor. His aptitude was middling.
Such aptitude was unimpressive in the eyes of a great sect, but a small sect would still have valued it.
At the time, Luo Yao’s family supported several small sects, so sending its descendants to one of them would have been easy. Luo Yao himself had no objections. Yet an unexpected incident drew him into a deadly struggle among cultivators, leaving him at death’s door.
Fortunately, Luo Yao’s life was not destined to end there. A passing Qi Refinement cultivator saved him. That cultivator unleashed talismans one after another, swiftly killing the cultivators fighting nearby. Luo Yao was dazzled by the extraordinary spectacle and could scarcely believe his eyes.
Afterward, the passing cultivator gave Luo Yao a medicinal pill that saved his life. Deeply grateful, Luo Yao invited him home as a guest. As they grew acquainted, a genuine friendship developed between them.
The traveler was honest and kindhearted. He did not look down upon Luo Yao simply because the boy had not formally begun cultivating. He explained that his own poor aptitude had troubled him greatly, so he had turned his attention to auxiliary disciplines, including the art of talismans. Noticing Luo Yao’s interest, he generously demonstrated every talisman technique he knew. Luo Yao likewise became entranced by their extraordinary power and resolved to establish himself through the talisman arts.
They took to each other immediately. After several months of friendship, the traveler had to leave, and Luo Yao was reluctant to part with him. Only then did he learn that the man was an outer-sect disciple of Wuling Immortal Sect, a second-grade immortal sect.
What a towering existence Wuling Immortal Sect was! Entering it was unimaginably difficult. Yet Luo Yao did not want to lose the close friend he had made. He therefore gave up joining the small sects near his family and set his heart on reaching Wuling Immortal Sect instead.
Fortunately, his hard work eventually paid off. Luo Yao endured many trials and ultimately entered Wuling Immortal Sect, becoming an outer-sect disciple and reuniting with his old friend. After many further years of hard cultivation, he finally established his foundation and entered the inner sect, allowing him access to most of the sect’s internal resources on talismans.
After learning about Luo Yao’s life, Xu Ziqing increasingly felt that his own hardships in the past scarcely amounted to anything. Countless cultivators longed to pursue immortality and struggled desperately to enter great sects. The trials they endured were beyond his imagination.
And what about Xu Ziqing himself?
He had certainly suffered, and he had also hovered at the edge of life and death more than once. But the difficulties he had endured were no greater than those of countless rogue cultivators, and the cruelty of human nature he had witnessed was nothing compared with what many struggling cultivators had encountered.
When Xu Ziqing examined his own experiences again, he felt that his luck had been extraordinarily good.
Although people had plotted against him, he had escaped disaster time and again. Although he had no family, he had met his senior brother soon after stepping onto the immortal path. Although the Xu family had cast him out, fate had allowed him to become a personal disciple directly… If he still could not strive ahead after receiving so much more than others from the outset, he would be failing to honor all his good fortune.
With his Dao Heart strengthened once more, Xu Ziqing became even more focused when studying talismans with Luo Yao.
Luo Yao truly possessed remarkable talent in the talisman arts and knew a thing or two. After watching Xu Ziqing demonstrate his swordsmanship, he carefully selected more than ten kinds of spirit talismans and explained them to him in detail.
Among them were three types of lower-grade spirit talismans, five types of middle-grade spirit talismans, and seven types of upper-grade spirit talismans. All were highly powerful and useful in different situations, while many were particularly well suited to combining with the Four Seasons Sword Art.
After Luo Yao’s explanations, Xu Ziqing felt that his confusion had cleared. His understanding of the art advanced rapidly.
Luo Yao was also very considerate. He remained every day in his cave abode below the mountainside, rarely stepping outside and never trying to pry into the affairs of Little Slaughter Peak. When Xu Ziqing came to ask for guidance, he taught him. When Xu Ziqing did not come, Luo Yao devoted himself to researching Comprehensive Principles of Talisman Patterns, studying it with an almost obsessive fascination.
Xu Ziqing did not know why Luo Yao was so passionate about the subject, or why he became almost madly absorbed whenever he began his research. But none of that prevented Xu Ziqing from regarding Luo Yao as someone worth befriending.
The man had vision and depth. In ordinary life he was a refined gentleman, clearheaded but not rigid, meticulous in his dealings yet possessed of a frank and candid side. He held firmly to the path he had chosen and never wavered in its pursuit… How could anyone fail to admire such a person?
For Luo Yao’s part, the fact that Xu Ziqing was willing to share a treasure as precious as Comprehensive Principles of Talisman Patterns was enough to convince him of Xu Ziqing’s broad-mindedness. Moreover, Xu Ziqing was gentle and kindhearted. As they spent time together, Luo Yao came to like him as well.
Thus, almost without their noticing, their days of teaching and learning together gave rise to genuine friendship rather than mere acquaintance.
The cave’s four walls were bare. Only a fist-sized pearl was embedded in the ceiling, giving off a soft radiance that filled the interior with light as bright as day.
A disorderly pile of materials lay in a corner not far away.
A young man in a sapphire-blue robe sat cross-legged on the ground. Four or five spiritual materials floated before him, with flames coiling around them as they collided, slowly being heated, refined, and melted.
His expression was solemn. He formed hand seals and continuously sent magical formulas toward the materials.
Each time he launched several formulas, the materials melted a little faster and the flames burned a little more fiercely.
Three to five feet to his right sat another young man in green. He looked barely twenty, with refined, gentle features, and was watching the blue-robed cultivator cast his spells with complete concentration.
Two masses of green light glowed in his eyes. A thin layer of true essence surrounded his body, while spiritual energy stirred above his head, as though he were constantly comprehending something.
The process of refinement was extremely lengthy, taking a full shichen and more, over two hours.
The young man in blue gave a sharp cry. “Gather the formulas!”
As the words left his mouth, the flames suddenly flared a full zhang higher, almost reaching the ceiling.
Under that intense heat, the last portions of the materials that had not yet melted immediately turned into thick liquid, crackling softly as they writhed.
Another magical formula struck, and the mass of liquid erupted with dazzling light!
Hiss!
The flames went out, and the liquid had already transformed into a sheet of yellow talisman paper, hanging motionless in the air.
A faint spiritual glow covered the talisman paper, making it seem remarkably solid and substantial. It looked as though it had been fashioned by the heavens themselves, with not the slightest trace of human workmanship.
Were it clothing, one might have called it “a heavenly robe without seams.” But as a sheet of talisman paper, it could only be described as almost infinitely close to perfection.
The young man in green grew even more attentive.
At that moment, the young man in blue changed his hand seal and began murmuring a series of syllables that no one else could understand.
The scene became rather strange.
Once the syllables were spoken, something mysterious within the cave seemed to resonate with them. The blue-robed cultivator’s hand seals changed again, shifting through more than ten forms in the blink of an eye. In response to the different seals, the syllables vibrated and abruptly condensed into characters formed from true essence in midair.
These characters were Cloud Seals.
The strokes of the Cloud Seals drifted and floated in a mysterious fashion. They were the very source of the magical power within spirit talismans.
The Cloud Seals quickly gathered together, slowly joining according to some hidden rule. At the moment they touched a particular trajectory, they abruptly locked into place!
The characters connected one after another like threads in woven brocade, gradually forming a single fine talisman pattern.
This was a spiritual pattern!
Once the Cloud Seals had formed a spiritual pattern, it shot toward the yellow talisman paper under the guidance of the blue-robed young man’s fingers. Like a parasite clinging to bone, it immediately attached itself to the paper.
Before long, fine lines appeared on the talisman paper, resembling nimble little snakes joyfully writhing and stretching their bodies across its surface.
At that moment, the paper itself began to tremble slightly, as though it were experiencing some indescribable pain.
Then a second spiritual pattern formed and attached itself to the paper, followed by a third, a fourth… When seven spiritual patterns had fixed themselves upon it, the light emanating from them suddenly drew inward!
The entire sheet of talisman paper became still!
The spiritual patterns, which had been writhing and stretching before, also quieted and settled into the paper, becoming one with it.
The spirit talisman was complete!
The young man in blue extended his hand, and the talisman obediently descended into his palm as though responding to a summons.
The green-robed youth smiled slightly and asked, “A-Yao, how did it go?”
A trace of a smile appeared on the blue-robed youth’s face. “It worked. Unfortunately, I can still only produce lower-grade spiritual patterns, so the spirit talismans I make are also lower-grade.” He sighed, quickly cast aside the thought, and continued, “But I really must thank you for sharing the reference book with me, Ziqing. The talisman I made this time is much stronger than before, and it has become easier to condense the spiritual patterns.”
The two were, of course, Xu Ziqing and Luo Yao. After spending this time together and developing a mutual fondness, they had naturally begun addressing each other more familiarly.
Having watched Luo Yao make talismans several times, Xu Ziqing understood more clearly that talisman-making was related to artifact refinement. The materials used for different spirit talismans varied greatly according to the patterns affixed to them. Choosing the right material required care, and it had to be capable of bearing the power of its spiritual patterns.
Only now did Xu Ziqing realize how naïve his earlier assumptions had been. If he wished to learn how to make talismans, he would also need some proficiency in artifact refinement.
This made him admire Luo Yao all the more.
As an unsupported inner-sect disciple, how much determination must Luo Yao have needed to explore his chosen art and advance so far? It was truly remarkable.
Luo Yao did not know what Xu Ziqing was thinking. He lifted his hand, and the spirit talisman floated toward Xu Ziqing. “Ziqing, keep this talisman.”
Xu Ziqing blinked, then smiled. “As a memento?”
Luo Yao shook his head. “The sect tournament is almost here. I’ll take this opportunity to refine more talismans, making sure their auras are compatible with yours. That way, they’ll be easier for you to use in the tournament.”
Xu Ziqing frowned. “A-Yao, I regard you as a friend. If you’re doing this because of the reference book, there’s truly no need.”
Luo Yao replied, “You letting me read the book was indeed a favor. But now I consider you my friend, and reading an ancient book of yours doesn’t feel like some enormous debt of gratitude. Friends should give and take. You don’t mind sharing something precious with me; naturally, I worry that you might lose in the tournament. If I want to contribute as your friend, you should not treat the matter so gravely.”
Xu Ziqing was momentarily speechless, then laughed. “You’re right, A-Yao. I’ve been getting caught in my own mental obstacles again.”
The two exchanged smiles, each feeling that their friendship had deepened.
Only three days remained until the sect tournament. Xu Ziqing had now made every preparation within his power. How far he would go in the tournament would depend upon the results of all the years he had spent cultivating… and what those years had made of him.