Black desk, a flat jade-green paperweight pressing down on a narrow strip of yellow paper. Ye Kong gripped the brush, dipped it fully in the iron-red cinnabar in the inkstone, and tapped the brush tip.

After briefly recalling how to draw the Spirit-Calming Talisman, confident and prepared, he gathered his energy and focused his spirit, lifting the brush to write rapidly on the yellow paper.

These paper talismans also had a fixed structure – top, middle, and bottom, divided into three sections. The topmost row was called the talisman head, composed of a row of small characters or symbols. This was like the primer for Chinese medicine, or the fuse for a bomb. The quality of the talisman head directly affected the talisman’s duration of effect, whether it would misfire, and so on.

The bottom row was the talisman foot. The talisman foot wasn’t necessary – in other words, many talismans had no foot. This was actually easy to understand. For example, when a plane drops a bomb, the bomb only cares about killing people or blowing things up – it doesn’t care how you clean up the site or bury the bodies afterward.

For those talismans that did have a foot, the foot was basically all the same – three hooks, like the check marks teachers use when grading papers. The difference was that each hook’s handle had a circle drawn on it with a dot in the middle, like eyes. These three hooks represented the True Fire of the Three Vehicles.

The most important part in the middle was the talisman core. The talisman core was a talisman’s main body – content that resembled writing but wasn’t writing, resembled drawing but wasn’t drawing. Whether a talisman succeeded and what its effects were depended entirely on the core.

Ye Kong’s gaze was focused. His right hand held the brush, wielding it like flying, his wrist as flexible as a swimming dragon, the brush tip moving back and forth across the narrow yellow paper. Writing the talisman core required completing it in one breath without the slightest pause.

Fortunately, he’d already memorized every stroke of the Spirit-Calming Talisman in his heart beforehand, so his brushwork naturally flowed smoothly. His brush strength unfurled, following momentum in an elegant arc, then suddenly drew back. The brush tip was fine as a blade edge, instantly pulling down!

The iron-red brushstrokes suddenly brightened, then dimmed.

Strangely, in that instant, the iron-red ink marks turned silver, as if written with mercury.

This talisman was complete. At the instant when the writing lit up, Ye Kong clearly felt weak spiritual energy flowing in the air above the talisman.

Obviously, paper talismans also contained spiritual energy – it wasn’t only spirit talismans that held spiritual energy. Paper talismans [visit our site]required very little spiritual energy. This was why paper talismans could be used on Earth while spirit talismans were ineffective.

The first successful talisman filled Ye Kong with joy. He held the Spirit-Calming Talisman in his palm, carefully appreciating it.

“Draw another one.” Ye Kong prepared to ride his wave of success.

But what depressed him was that his good luck seemed to have run out. After drawing several more, either they didn’t change color after completion, or when they changed color, the spiritual energy suddenly became chaotic and the paper talisman turned into a ball of flame, burning to powder.

“Could it be because I didn’t bathe and change clothes?” Ye Kong began to feel somewhat doubtful, but then why had the first one succeeded?

Then try a different talisman.

He went back to browse the Complete Collection of Talismans. Finally, his gaze settled on the Bleeding-Halt Talisman.

The Bleeding-Halt Talisman’s core was relatively simple, and it had no foot. When used, it was placed on a wound and could temporarily stop bleeding. However, its efficacy was quite small – even inferior to ordinary wound medicine – so very few people used it.

He quickly drew several Bleeding-Halt Talismans. The success rate for this talisman was considerably higher than the Spirit-Calming Talisman – out of eight, he actually succeeded four times.

“Looks like drawing talismans has a success rate. The more you draw, the higher the success rate.” Ye Kong summarized his experience and went back to drawing Spirit-Calming Talismans.

“Kong’er, it’s time for dinner.” Chen Jiuniang had finished embroidering Second Wife’s items. Seeing it was getting late, she quickly came out to urge Ye Kong to eat.

“Alright, coming right now.” Ye Kong had just succeeded with another Spirit-Calming Talisman. Overjoyed in his heart, he stuffed all the talismans into his sleeve and followed his mother out.

The talismans were successfully drawn, but how were their effects? Were they really useful?

Ye Kong’s doubts rose again. “No, I still need to test them. I can’t have them be ineffective when fighting someone – I’d be laughed at!”

Walking to the dining hall, he happened to see a big dog at the entrance – a very fierce-looking big yellow dog that belonged to Sister Ma, the fat woman in charge of the dining hall. Seeing it, Ye Kong got an idea. Sister Ma, this hateful woman, made his mother eat cold buns – he’d let her dog taste the power of his talismans first!

“Oh my, Eighth Young Master, what brings you here to eat? Don’t you usually enjoy fine clothes and imperial food in the inner courtyard?” Sister Ma said in a mocking tone.

After Sister Ma finished speaking, the servants eating together burst into laughter.

Ye Kong smiled and replied, “That’s right. This old man heard there’s a pig in the dining hall bullying people too much, so I came to see for myself.”

Sister Ma’s face immediately changed color. She said angrily, “You dare curse me?”

“Not at all. I cursed a pig, not you, Sister Ma. How would I dare curse you?”

Sister Ma’s face changed several times. She’d also heard this brat wasn’t easy to provoke, and besides, if she continued, she’d be admitting she was a pig.

She casually ladled out a few scoops of food. Though the portions were a bit small, they weren’t too excessive. Ye Kong had other things on his mind and was too lazy to argue with her. However, while eating, Granny Hu sat there with a swollen face, constantly looking at him with venomous eyes. He suddenly glared back, scaring Granny Hu into quickly lowering her head to eat.

“Mother, you go back first after eating. I’m going to the outhouse.” Ye Kong bluffed his mother away, then snuck back to the dining hall.

By this time, the sky was gradually darkening. Dinner time had passed and no one else would come. Ye Kong waited a while longer until those dining had all left and the sound of cleaning echoed through the dining hall. Only then did he begin to act.

“Woof woof!” Probably sensing the crisis, the yellow dog barked ​unauthorized copy​nervously, watching Ye Kong approach.

“Hehe, bark all you want. The fat woman is busy.” Ye Kong sneered coldly.

He pulled out the Spirit-Calming Talisman. Obscure, difficult-to-understand incantations rapidly finished from his mouth, and his palm already felt the spiritual power on the talisman paper fluctuating.

“Woof woof!” The big yellow dog that usually relied on human power was also afraid now. After barking twice, it tried to escape into the dining hall.

But how could Ye Kong let it get away!

He approached at flying speed, his hand shooting out like lightning!

“Smack!”

A narrow strip of yellow paper stuck to the big yellow dog’s forehead!

The dog didn’t make a sound. Its legs went soft and it fell sideways, only a pair of wide-open eyes staring at Ye Kong approaching.

“Yeah! It works!” Ye Kong struck a V-shaped pose, then went over and kicked the dog’s belly. The big yellow dog was like it was dead, letting him kick and beat it at will.

“Then let’s test the Bleeding-Halt Talisman.” Ye Kong looked left and right, dragged the yellow dog behind the building, and by the lamplight, took out the small knife for sharpening brush tips and lightly cut the yellow dog’s lower leg.

The blade flashed and fresh blood immediately gushed out.

“Stop!” The incantation for the Bleeding-Halt Talisman was ridiculously simple.

When the talisman paper struck the yellow dog’s wound, with a boom, a bright red flash of fire ignited and extinguished.

The Bleeding-Halt Talisman burned without a trace, and the wound on the yellow dog’s leg also miraculously stopped bleeding.

Then Ye Kong lifted his hand and peeled the talisman paper from the yellow dog’s forehead. The Spirit-Calming Talisman was single-use – as soon as it was peeled off, it immediately turned into a ball of firelight and disappeared into the air.

The big yellow dog also quickly flipped over and got up, fleeing desperately. Only after running far away did it dare turn back to bark twice at Ye Kong before disappearing without a trace.

The test was successful. Ye Kong’s confidence in talisman arts strengthened even more. In his heart, he almost looked forward to Granny Hu’s son coming to find him.

However, Granny Hu’s son had encountered a major case at the magistrate’s office today and was busy with it, so he didn’t come home. Ye Kong’s wait was in vain.

What disappointed Ye Kong was that his plan to go to the Lu family home to see the dancing figures also fell through.

In the evening, a light rain began to patter down. In this kind of weather, there naturally wouldn’t be any moonlight, and without moonlight, that thing couldn’t be viewed. So Ye Kong could only sit cross-legged on the bed and begin meditating.

On rainy days, water spiritual energy was especially active. Of course, water attribute spiritual energy wasn’t water vapor – the sky was full of water, but water spiritual energy only increased a tiny bit. However, it was more active, flowing faster, and naturally more could be absorbed.

Inside the Qi Sea at the first layer of Qi Refinement, it was still quite hazy. Various attributes of spiritual energy gathered inside, flowing slowly, like a bowl of porridge glowing with multicolored dim light, or like a distant galaxy seen through the Hubble telescope – brilliant, glorious, mysterious!

The colors in the airflow cluster were primarily water attribute black and wood attribute green. Earth attribute yellow spiritual energy was secondary. Crimson fire attribute was pulled into concentric circles like silk threads by the other spiritual energies, while the least abundant white metal attribute was already so scarce as to be nearly untraceable.

Actually, Ye Kong also had a way to supplement fire attribute, because he always cultivated at night, which led to fire attribute being scarce. In the future if he had an opportunity to cultivate unauthorized copyunder the scorching sun for a period, fire attribute would naturally increase.

What troubled Ye Kong most was – where could he find metal attribute spiritual energy? Spiritual energy wasn’t something you could absorb just by finding a piece of metal. Where in the air would metal attribute come from? If he went to Earth to absorb car exhaust, there might be some metal attribute, but in the Cangnan Continent, metal attribute spiritual energy was truly very scarce.

Go dig up someone’s mine vein? Unless you were tired of living. It seemed he could only wait until later when he could draw spirit talismans to sell for money and exchange them for white metal attribute spirit stones to absorb.

During cultivation, time always seemed to pass quickly. Outside, the rain grew heavier and heavier – light rain becoming torrential downpour. Water attribute was exceptionally active, and Ye Kong also absorbed it feeling extremely refreshed. If a cultivator came at this moment, they would certainly be amazed to discover that above Ye Kong’s head, there was actually an enormous vortex, with black water spiritual energy continuously surging into his body.

Only cultivators with sensitivity to spiritual energy could see this. If ordinary people came, they fundamentally couldn’t see the fluctuations of spiritual energy.

“Kong’er.” Who knows how much time had passed when a call awakened Ye Kong, who was vigorously absorbing water spiritual energy.

The person who came was Chen Jiuniang. She’d already received Ye Kong’s instructions – to wake him, just call out once, then wait a moment. No matter how urgent the matter, don’t reach out to push him, or else if the spiritual energy was halfway through circulating in his body and got blocked, it would cause spiritual energy backlash.

Spiritual energy backlash – in mild cases it injured the meridians, in severe cases it caused qi deviation.

This was why he’d rather stay in the ancestral hall – no one to disturb him. But now that he’d come out, he could only risk cultivating. Otherwise, what could he do? First, he couldn’t abandon his mother. Second, he didn’t know formation techniques. He could only instruct his mother to absolutely wait a moment and not disturb him unless necessary.

Sending the last trace of spiritual energy into his Qi Sea, Ye Kong felt he’d become much more substantial again. His eyes opened, and in the darkness, his pupils actually flashed with brilliance.

“Mother, what’s the matter? Could it be Granny Hu’s son has come?” Ye Kong asked.

Chen Jiuniang saw her son’s gaze was like torches and thought that’s just how young people with good energy should be. She had no questions and sat on the bedside saying, “Granny Hu’s son hasn’t come, but Li Laosi came.”

“Oh? What’s he here for? Looking to get hit with a brick again?”

Chen Jiuniang couldn’t help laughing. She chided, “You little street thug, all you know is bricks. Li Laosi came to inform you that someone is looking for you. It’s not convenient to let them in at night, so they’re waiting in the gatehouse.”

“Someone’s looking for me?” Ye Kong was startled. In the middle of the night, with such heavy rain, who would come looking for him?

“Then I’ll go see.” Ye Kong felt the Spirit-Calming Talismans in his sleeve, grabbed the black oiled-paper umbrella from the corner of the wall, and walked out.

Behind him came his mother’s concerned voice, “Kong’er, be polite when you speak to others, don’t fight!”

Ye Kong smiled. “Don’t worry. If people don’t offend me, I won’t offend them. My temper is great. You go back inside, don’t catch cold.”