With Yun Jiao — the study genius — personally guiding (pressuring) him, Bai Yu’s talisman-drawing skill improved at a rocket-like pace. From having only a few percent success rate at first, now out of ten talismans only one or two might fail. He had even managed to draw two Thunder-Summoning Talismans — the lowest grade of that type, but still proof that his cultivation had advanced another step.
One had to know that a Thunder-Summoning Talisman was already considered a mid-tier spiritual talisman; ordinary people simply couldn’t draw one. Bai Yu even felt a faint illusion that if he kept practicing like this, his cultivation realm might soon break through as well.
“Girl, these should be enough, right?”
He shook his sore wrist and stared at the table piled with talisman papers — if not a thousand, then at least several hundred. It was his first time ever producing so many usable talismans at once.
“Mm.”
Talismans don’t stack in effect — unlike those useless failed slips from before where throwing one or a bunch was the same. More would probably just go unused.
“I just don’t know if these can hold back those malicious spirits!” Bai Yu looked genuinely worried. The ones he could draw were all low-grade, things like Purification Talismans that could only suppress evil spirits temporarily. Hurting them badly or dispersing their souls outright — that he couldn’t do.
“If only the Purple Talisman my master left me was still here,” he muttered, longing for that lost talisman.
“You can’t draw it yourself?” Yun Jiao glanced at him.
“That was a Demon-Suppressing Talisman!” Bai Yu sighed. “Only talisman masters at Earth-rank or above can draw it. My master never mastered it himself, which is why the art was lost. Even if I wanted to try, I don’t know how it’s supposed to be drawn…”Before he finished, Yun Jiao suddenly picked up the brush, swish-swish-swish, and sketched a talisman pattern, handing it over. “Like this?”
Bai Yu: “……”
Σ(°△°|||)︴
He snatched it up and examined it closely — sure enough, it was exactly like the Purple Talisman he once had, except hers was drawn on yellow paper instead of purple.
“You… how did you draw this?!”
It’s one thing to know what a talisman looks like; reproducing it is completely different. The stroke order, brush technique, tiny angle differences — one misstep and the talisman fails and might even backlash and injure you. His master spent a lifetime deducing it and never succeeded despite having an actual Purple Talisman to study. And this girl… she’d only seen the original once, hadn’t she? How on earth did she recreate it?!
“Oh, I just used the basic talisman principles from the books, deduced the stroke order according to the Five Elements concept and spiritual energy flow patterns, then worked out the exact drawing method.” She said it calmly, as if it were an easy, casual thing. Then added, “It’s just simple calculation.”
“……” Bai Yu was dumbstruck, feeling a mouthful of old blood he couldn’t spit out.
Simple… your head! He couldn’t even understand half of that! She’s only been reading for less than two months — how can she already deduce this?!
Believe it or not, my master would climb out of his grave to find you!
(╯°Д°)╯︵┻━┻
“Enough, don’t overthink it. Try copying one!” Yun Jiao urged.
Bai Yu gave her a complicated look, then finally picked up the cinnabar brush again. Meanwhile, Yun Jiao began drawing out step-by-step breakdown diagrams — splitting every stroke apart, labeling rows of precise angle numbers, thickness measures, and detailed notes. A high-level talisman was turned into something a child could follow.
“……” Bai Yu felt a knife twist somewhere inside. Decades of cultivation felt wasted.
This girl’s talent and comprehension were heaven-defying — pity she couldn’t channel the world’s spiritual energy. Every sample she drew was a hundred times more accurate than his, but without spiritual energy they couldn’t become real talismans.
He felt stifled. Why didn’t she have a spiritual vein?! If she did, she’d be mass-producing not just Profound-rank talismans but Earth-rank and maybe even Heaven-rank in time!
“Understand this breakdown?” Yun Jiao pointed at the paper.
“Ah!” The old man blinked back to focus and quickly nodded. “Got it!” — anyone who didn’t after such a dumbed-down diagram would have to be brainless.
“Good, then draw.” She paused, then added, “Might be a bit exhausting — hang in there.”
Bai Yu thought she meant he was just tired after drawing all day. He replied offhandedly, “It’s fine, I’m healthy!” Without thinking more, he checked the diagram again and started drawing.
He had barely drawn the first horizontal line when he tried to pull in surrounding spiritual energy — and realized it wasn’t enough. His drawing was consuming energy faster than he could gather it. Gritting his teeth, he tapped into his own reserves, letting spiritual power flood the brush. The amount needed shocked him — he had to strain to pull ambient energy while forcing his own to hold the strokes together.
At first it was okay, but halfway through he was already struggling. His spiritual power drained fast, shoulders heavy as if weighed by a thousand pounds, each stroke hard to move. And he couldn’t stop — stopping would waste the energy and ruin the talisman.
So this was what Yun Jiao meant by “a bit exhausting”! Exhausting, my ass — this thing was killing him!
w(Д)w
He had never drawn anything this hard before. Sweat poured down his forehead; with his energy bleeding away, his face turned pale. He’d emptied his reserves into the paper, yet the talisman still had one-third unfinished and was about to fail.
“Sense the ambient spiritual energy — draw it directly into yourself,” Yun Jiao suddenly said.
Startled, he didn’t think, just obeyed — stopped channeling straight into the paper and instead absorbed the energy first. Instantly his body felt lighter; the strain eased. The power flooded into him, though the talisman drank it up quickly.
Gritting his teeth, Bai Yu rushed to finish the remaining strokes and quickly lifted the brush.
Next moment — success!
On the once-yellow paper, a glow far richer than any normal talisman rose. The strokes looked soaked in dye, spreading from the top downward into purple. But the purple only reached halfway before fading, leaving a talisman purple on top and still yellow below.
Only half purple — the lowest grade of Purple Talisman. Still, succeeding on the first attempt was already remarkable. Bai Yu exhaled, looked at it once, body relaxing… then dizziness swept over him, and he collapsed unconscious.
(End of this chapter)