Chapter 163 - 159: Spiritual Qi Convergence
Li Yuan set aside the bamboo scroll for the Spirit Gathering Array Talisman for the time being, picking up the thin booklet on the Micro-Control Spiritual Skill instead.
The booklet wasn’t thick, nor were its contents complex.
The core idea was to split the Spiritual Power at one’s fingertips into multiple independent, fine streams, with the density, direction, and speed of each stream being individually controllable.
For most Qi Refining Stage Cultivators, this was a delicate skill that required long-term practice.
But Li Yuan’s Talisman Making Skill had already reached the level of Minor Achievement. Manipulating Spiritual Power with each of his ten fingers was something he did every day when making talismans. The requirements of the Micro-Control Spiritual Skill largely mirrored the control he used for talisman making; the only difference was that this Magic systematized those scattered techniques.
Li Yuan circulated his Spiritual Power according to the booklet’s method a few times.
Spiritual Power split into six fine streams from his fingertips, each operating independently without interfering with the others.
A panel popped up.
[Magic: Micro-Control Spiritual Skill - Initiate (0/200)]
’His foundation was so solid; reaching the Initiate level took almost no effort.’
Afterward, Li Yuan took out the bamboo scroll for the Spirit Gathering Array Talisman and began to read it.
An ordinary Tier One Low Grade Talisman consists of six Spirit Patterns connected linearly. You draw one after another, and the flow of Spiritual Power is always unidirectional—from the first stroke to the last, it follows a single path all the way to the end.
The Spirit Gathering Array Talisman was different.
It had nine Spirit Patterns, connected head to tail to form a closed loop. The Spiritual Power didn’t just end after traveling from the start to the finish; instead, it circulated continuously within this closed circuit.
This meant that when finishing the final stroke of the last Spirit Pattern, the Spiritual Power had to perfectly connect with the first stroke of the first Spirit Pattern. If it was off by even the slightest bit, the circuit wouldn’t close, the Spiritual Power would dissipate at the connection point, and the entire talisman would be ruined.
The structure itself wasn’t particularly complex and had things in common with the typical Spirit Pattern pathing seen in the Talisman Making Skill. But the way they were combined was completely different.
The Spirit Patterns on an ordinary Talisman were independent; each one simply had to fulfill its own function. The Spirit Patterns on a Spirit Gathering Array Talisman, however, were interconnected. A change in the parameters of any single pattern would affect the other eight.
’Like an Array.’
Li Yuan had previously equipped a Basic Array Dao bamboo scroll, leaving him with some fundamental concepts of Arrays in his mind. The core of an Array was to connect multiple Spiritual Power nodes via specific paths to form a network, where the nodes influenced and supported one another to create an overall effect.
The nine-pattern closed circuit of the Spirit Gathering Array Talisman was, in essence, a miniature Array compressed onto a single sheet of talisman paper.
Li Yuan closed the bamboo scroll, spread out a sheet of herbal talisman paper, dipped his talisman brush in Spiritual Ink, and lifted it.
The first sheet... the second... the third...
It wasn’t until the sixth sheet that Li Yuan finally succeeded.
Li Yuan set down his talisman brush and picked up the talisman paper.
The nine Spirit Patterns were clearly visible on the talisman’s surface, with Spiritual Power circulating steadily within them. The halo of light flowed at a moderate pace, neither too fast nor too slow, indicating that the deceleration function of the second auxiliary Spirit Pattern was working correctly.
A panel popped up.
[Talisman: Spirit Gathering Array Talisman - Uninitiated (3/100)]
At the same time, another panel appeared.
[Tier One Array Dao - Uninitiated (4/100)]
It was the proficiency panel for the Array Dao.
The process of creating the Spirit Gathering Array Talisman had triggered the panel for the Array Dao system. The structure of the nine-pattern closed circuit indeed shared many commonalities with the basic configuration of an Array. The techniques used in making this talisman—Spiritual Power connection, node interconnection, and circuit self-stabilization—were themselves fundamental operations of the Array Dao.
Li Yuan placed his finger on the talisman’s surface.
[Equippable Item Detected: Spirit Gathering Array Talisman (Complete)]
[Equipment Entry Preview: Spiritual Qi Attraction (White)]
[Effect: Increases Spiritual Qi absorption speed by 10% and absorption range by 10%]
[Permanence Condition Preview: Learn Spirit Gathering Talisman and Spirit Gathering Array, reaching Initiate level in both (0/2)]
’A white entry. The effect isn’t particularly strong, but its help with cultivation is continuous.’
The permanence condition required reaching the Initiate level in two things.
The Spirit Gathering Talisman and the Spirit Gathering Array. One was a talisman, the other an array; they belonged to two separate systems.
The Spirit Gathering Array Talisman was a cross-disciplinary product of the Talisman Dao and the Array Dao, but the Spirit Gathering Talisman and the Spirit Gathering Array were two independent things.
Li Yuan put the talisman paper away without equipping it.
’There’s no rush for a white entry, and the permanence condition can’t be met in a short time. For now, I’ll focus on getting proficient at making the Spirit Gathering Array Talisman, while also increasing my proficiency with other Talismans.’
In the following days, Li Yuan maintained an intense talisman-making rhythm.
He drew three to five Spirit Gathering Array Talismans each day. His success rate wasn’t high, only two or three successes out of every ten attempts, with the main sticking point being the handling of the closing point. But every failure was an accumulation of experience; the Spiritual Power transition at the closing point grew smoother, and his drawing speed for the spiral structure also increased.
The rest of his time was allocated to making various Tier One Low Grade Talismans in rotation.
The Vein-Expanding Talisman and the Golden Armor Talisman were the first to break through. Li Yuan already knew the Spirit Pattern structures of these two Talismans by heart; all he lacked was the accumulation of proficiency. After the Micro-Control Spiritual Skill improved his Spiritual Power control precision, the success rate for these two Talismans rose dramatically, and the failure rate dropped to less than ten percent.
[Talisman: Vein-Expanding Talisman - Proficient (0/800)]
[Talisman: Golden Armor Talisman - Proficient (0/800)]
The Replenishing Talisman followed soon after.
[Talisman: Replenishing Talisman - Proficient (0/800)]
The progress for the Detoxification Talisman, Concealing Breath Talisman, and Heart-lock Talisman was also advancing steadily. They were still some distance away from the Proficient level, but he was making headway every day.
The proficiency for the Qi Gathering Talisman increased the fastest.
This Talisman’s Spirit Pattern structure was somewhat similar to that of the Spirit Gathering Array Talisman, as both involved the gathering and guiding of Spiritual Qi. After drawing a Spirit Gathering Array Talisman, drawing a Qi Gathering Talisman felt exceptionally smooth, as if the skills were transferable.
[Talisman: Qi Gathering Talisman - Skilled (0/400)]
The creation of the Soul-Refining Talisman was interspersed with his daily talisman making.
A Tier One Top Grade Talisman’s Spiritual Power consumption far exceeded that of Tier One Low Grade and Middle Grade ones; drawing a single Soul-Refining Talisman required an hour of rest to recover his Spiritual Power. But the effect of the Soul-Refining Talisman was irreplaceable.
The light released from each successfully activated Soul-Refining Talisman poured into his Divine Soul, continuously strengthening its strength and resilience.
The "Alchemy Insights" entry operated in sync, increasing his Divine Soul’s strength based on his proficiency in Tier One Alchemy. Although Li Yuan hadn’t officially started practicing Alchemy, the basic boost from having it equipped was already in effect.
Coupled with the tempering from the Soul Mirror’s soul light, the strengthening of his Divine Soul was much faster than relying on the Soul-Refining Talismans alone.
Li Yuan used two Soul-Refining Talismans a day, one in the morning and one at night. Upon activation, the talisman’s surface would bloom with a silvery-white light, which would sink into the spot between his eyebrows. His Divine Soul would tremble slightly under the washing of the light before stabilizing, becoming a sliver more substantial than before.
「The days passed, one by one.」
The overall proficiency of his Talisman Making Skill continued to climb through the rotated production of various Talismans. His success rate for the Spirit Gathering Array Talisman increased from two or three out of ten to four or five. Handling the closing point was no longer the biggest hurdle; instead, the precision of the second auxiliary Spirit Pattern’s spiral had become the new bottleneck.
But that bottleneck, too, was being worn down day by day.