Chapter 198 - 192: Using the Jade Plate
Li Yuan sat cross-legged on his bed board and circulated the Soul Condensation Skill several more times.
The power of his Divine Soul repeatedly compressed and expanded at the node between his eyebrows. With each cycle, its density increased ever so slightly.
Now that he had reached the elementary level, the feeling was much more stable than before, and he could grasp the limit of compression more precisely.
After completing the final cycle, Li Yuan opened his eyes.
With a thought, he unequipped the Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill.
He took out the bamboo slip for the Soul Stabbing Skill from his storage pouch and equipped it.
A panel immediately popped up.
[Condition met to make Soul Stab Backlash (White) permanent.]
[Make permanent?]
Yes.
[Permanization successful.]
[Soul Stab Backlash (White) has become a permanent trait.]
[Equipment consumed.]
The bamboo slip between his fingers dissolved into a white light and entered the space between his eyebrows.
An extremely thin buffer formed in the depths of his Divine Soul, like a soft cushion added between its outer wall and core.
From now on, this buffer would absorb thirty percent of the recoil from a failed Divine Soul attack, significantly reducing the cost of trial and error.
Li Yuan got up and walked to his desk.
The dark cyan Spiritual Essence jade disc was still sitting where he had left it on the desk.
A green trait. Increases the quality of finished products by twenty percent during Talisman Making.
The condition for making it permanent was to use this item as an aid to complete three hundred Talisman Making attempts.
Li Yuan picked up the jade disc and turned it over in his hands.
The skinny Cultivator had said there was no reaction when he infused it with Spiritual Power.
Li Yuan tried it as well. He pressed his palm against the back of the disc and infused it with Spiritual Power.
The Spiritual Power seeped into the Spirit Pattern circuits inside the jade disc, circulated once, and then... nothing happened.
The Spirit Patterns didn’t light up, the dark red bead in the center didn’t change, and the disc didn’t output any Spiritual Power.
The infused Spiritual Power was absorbed by the Spirit Pattern circuits, but it didn’t trigger any function.
Li Yuan withdrew his Spiritual Power and placed the disc back on the desk.
According to the panel, the condition for permanence was to *use* this item as an aid to complete three hundred Talisman Making attempts.
’Not to make three hundred talismans after equipping it, but to *use* this item as an aid.’
Li Yuan stared at the disc for two breaths.
’The trait’s effect is to increase the quality of finished products by twenty percent during Talisman Making.’
’It’s directly related to Talisman Making. The condition for permanence is also Talisman Making.’
’This thing must be an auxiliary tool for Talisman Making.’
’The question is how to use it.’
Li Yuan picked up the jade disc again and examined the front carefully.
The surface of the disc was flat and smooth. The Spirit Patterns on the edge were extremely fine, extending from the outer ring all the way to the central bead. The direction of the Spirit Patterns converged from the outside in, somewhat resembling the closed circuit of a Spirit Gathering Array Talisman.
’A converging Spirit Pattern structure.’
’It gathers Spiritual Power from the edge to the center.’
Li Yuan placed the jade disc flat on the desk, face up.
Then, he took out a sheet of herbal talisman paper from his storage pouch and laid it on top of the disc.
The talisman paper was a bit larger than the disc, its four sides draping over the edges. As the paper rested against the disc’s surface, he could feel a faint warmth from the dark red bead in the center through the paper.
Li Yuan pressed his left palm against the back of the disc and infused it with Spiritual Power.
The Spiritual Power seeped into the Spirit Pattern circuits, gathering from the edge toward the center.
This time, the dark red bead in the center lit up.
It didn’t light up from above the disc’s surface—the bead’s glow passed through the talisman paper, shining up from beneath and casting a soft, dark red halo on the central area of the paper.
Spiritual Power flowed out of the bead, not spraying upward, but slowly spreading out along the bottom surface of the talisman paper.
It was like a thin underlay of Spiritual Power had been placed beneath the paper.
Li Yuan picked up his talisman brush with his right hand, dipped it in Spiritual Ink, and made the first stroke on the paper.
The Spiritual Power seeped from the brush tip into the paper. After less than two inches, Li Yuan’s hand paused slightly.
’It’s different.’
The stability of the Spiritual Power after it entered the paper was a notch better than usual.
Normally when he drew talismans, the Spiritual Power would diffuse ever so slightly after seeping into the paper.
Now, that diffusion had almost completely vanished.
After entering the paper, the Spiritual Power was locked firmly within the path of the Spirit Pattern, not leaking out in the slightest.
The layer of Spiritual Power infused from the jade disc below was at work, drastically increasing the stability of the Spirit Pattern.
Li Yuan continued to draw.
He completed the six Spirit Patterns in one fluid motion, then sealed them.
The crimson glow that emerged on the talisman’s surface was deeper, richer, and more uniform than the Fireball Talismans he usually made.
’The quality of the finished product really is higher.’
Li Yuan peeled the Fireball Talisman off the jade disc and examined it in his hand.
The precision of the talisman’s patterns was a level above the finished products he usually made at his Great Success level.
The distribution of Spiritual Power within each line was extremely uniform, with almost no deviation. The leakage of Spiritual Power during the sealing process was also reduced to an unprecedentedly low level.
A panel popped up.
[Spiritual Essence Refinement (Green) Permanence Progress: 1/300]
’Just as I thought. No need to equip it; as long as I actually use the jade disc to aid in Talisman Making, I can accumulate progress.’
Li Yuan set the Fireball Talisman aside and laid a new sheet of talisman paper on the jade disc.
’Three hundred times.’
At his current Talisman Making speed, it would take about five or six days to reach the total.
However, using the jade disc for Talisman Making required one hand to continuously infuse Spiritual Power into it, which meant he could only draw with one hand.
Drawing with one hand wasn’t a major obstacle for a Talisman Maker at the Great Success level.
After reaching Great Success in the Talisman Making Skill, the coordination between his wrist and fingers was ingrained in his muscle memory, allowing him to perform all the necessary actions with a single hand.
Although the Spiritual Power consumption would be greater than usual, it wasn’t a problem given his total Spiritual Power at the Qi Refining Ninth Level, coupled with his various traits that accelerated Spiritual Power recovery and increased its total capacity.
Li Yuan put the jade disc away in his storage pouch and stood up, stretching his wrist.
The sky outside the window had completely darkened. Light from the Spirit Lamps outside the courtyard wall seeped through the cracks, casting a soft glow on the two newly drawn Talismans on the desk.
Li Yuan sat on the bed board and began to cultivate cross-legged.
Spiritual Qi surged into his body, while Spiritual Power and Qi Blood circulated alternately through his meridians.
He also interspersed his practice with the Soul Condensation Skill, concentrating his consciousness between his eyebrows every few cycles to perform a set of Divine Soul compression and expansion exercises.
After reaching the elementary level in the Soul Condensation Skill, the strengthening of his Divine Soul from each cycle was minuscule, but when combined with the Soul Mirror, his insights from Alchemy, and Divine Soul Tempering, the cumulative effect over time was considerable.
The next morning, Han Qing arrived right on time.
He had the same reserved demeanor, standing at the courtyard gate with a cloth bag in hand. After Li Yuan opened the gate, he respectfully called out, "Master Li."
Li Yuan let him in and had him sit at the desk.
"Did you go home and practice the brush grip and starting angle I taught you yesterday?"
"I did." Han Qing took a stack of talisman paper from his cloth bag. "I drew over twenty, and eighteen of them were failures."
He spread the stack of failed talismans on the desk.
Li Yuan glanced at them.
The quality of the failed talismans was slightly better than the day before yesterday.
"Look here." Li Yuan flipped over one of the failed talismans and pointed to a noticeably thicker spot in the middle of the Fire Gathering Pattern.
"The increase in Spiritual Power isn’t uniform. It should increase slowly from the start to the middle, then accelerate from the middle to the end. You suddenly sped up here, causing the Spiritual Power to pile up and the pattern to thicken."
Han Qing leaned in for a closer look and nodded.
"Draw another one."
Han Qing laid out a sheet of talisman paper, dipped his brush in ink, and began to draw.
Li Yuan watched from the side, offering occasional reminders.
"Slower... yes, that’s the rhythm... start accelerating in the middle, but not all at once, build it up slowly..."
Han Qing’s wrist was much more flexible than the day before yesterday.
When Han Qing’s final stroke landed, an extremely faint crimson glow appeared on the talisman’s surface. It was much better than his previous failures, but it still wasn’t a finished product.
"Not a success, but you’re on the right track." Li Yuan set the semi-finished product aside. "Continue."
Han Qing drew five or six more. His success rate wasn’t high, but each attempt was a little better than the last.
After more than two hours, Han Qing put down his brush and stacked the finished and failed talismans separately.
"Same time tomorrow," Li Yuan said.
Han Qing nodded, packed his things into the cloth bag, bowed to Li Yuan, and turned to leave the courtyard.
After Han Qing left, Li Yuan closed the courtyard gate.
He took the Spiritual Essence jade disc from his storage pouch and placed it on the desk.
With every Talisman he drew, the progress bar increased by one.
Over the course of the afternoon, Li Yuan drew twenty-eight finished talismans, bringing his progress to thirty-one.
At night, he sat cross-legged to cultivate, circulating the Spirit-Introducing Skill at full power. He wove in the Soul Condensation Skill, performing a set of Divine Soul forging exercises every few cycles.
Spiritual Power and Qi Blood circulated alternately through his meridians, and his Cultivation steadily advanced.