BXBX NOVEL Chapter 103: Fu Mo l
Qi Rui’s words further piqued Chen Mobai’s interest in joining the Divine Wood Sect.
Over the next two days, sporadic Black Plague Bird attacks occurred. The remaining members of Chen Mobai’s team were the cream of the crop and there were no further casualties.
“Manager Wang, now that the situation is essentially stable, I won’t be visiting anymore.”
After essentially receiving ten Spirit Stones for free, Chen Mobai proposed to leave.
Wang Yuanwu gave him a surprised look. For loose cultivators, the opportunity to earn Spirit Stones effortlessly without engaging in battle was rare. Some, who had initially retreated during the fiercest moments of battle, were now requesting to rejoin.
“Chen’s noble act is commendable, but our Divine Wood Sect is not lacking in Spirit Stones. There’s no need to feel guilty and leave.”
Before Wang Yuanwu could reply, Qi Rui had spoken up from the side.
During this period, his relationship with Chen Mobai improved significantly and he already regarded Chen as a future fellow disciple in the Divine Wood Sect.
“Actually, I have sensed the opportunity for a breakthrough during the short battle period here and I don’t want to miss it.”
Chen Mobai could only force a bitter smile and make an excuse. If he could, he would also like to earn Spirit Stones here by slaying demonic beasts daily.
However, he would need to go to the Cinnabarite Institute for the Magic Duel tomorrow. This was of great importance to him and he simply couldn’t afford to be late.
“Indeed, that is more important.”
Wang Yuanwu and Qi Rui respectively did not hold him back when he put forth his cultivation breakthrough as the reason for leaving.
The former fetched an enrollment record from his storage bag, crossed out Chen Mobai’s name, and then handed him a certificate.
Qi Rui pulled Chen Mobai aside and gave him a notebook summarizing his own talisman making techniques.
“As you have decided to cultivate the Immortal Longevity Sutra and the Crimson Flame Sword Decree, you can familiarize yourself in advance with the methods to refine the Crimson Flame Sword Talisman.”
“Once you can successfully make this talisman, any one of the masters will accept you as their disciple.”
“Of course, if someone asks you, just say that you bought the talisman making notebook outside and don’t mention that I gave it to you.”
The Five Elements Sect had five-line inheritances and distributed numerous Qi Cultivation techniques and fundamental spells to the secular dynasties in the Eastern Wilderness, aiming to recruit ordinary people with Spiritual Roots. Therefore, people who stood out were basically admitted into their door due to practicing the Five Elements Sect’s techniques.
Thus, there were also many cultivation techniques and talismans from the Five Elements Sect for sale in the Southstream Market.
The Blackwater Cultivation technique in Chen Mobai’s hand was thought to be of this origin by Old Man He.
“Thank you, Brother Qi.”
This address as ‘Brother’ made Qi Rui burst into laughter.
“Brother Chen!”
He extended his hand, giving Chen Mobai’s shoulder a forceful pat.
Chen Mobai returned home with the notebook in hand, its rough binding and coarse paper familiar. It gave him a warm feeling inside.
Not everything in the Tianhe Realm was about deception and competition.
People like Wang Yuanwu and Qi Rui from the Divine Wood Sect, and even Qi Hou from the beginning, all left impressions of resilient cultivators full of humanity.
Of course, this could also be a reflection of the harsh environment for loose cultivators. Surrounded by predators eager to rob cultivation resources, the cultivators outside the major sects of the Tianhe Realm became incredibly ruthless.
If it were possible to cultivate steadily and improve, most cultivators would be willing to stay peacefully in their cave dwelling and avoid trouble.
Sitting down at his desk, Chen Mobai thoroughly read through the Crimson Flame Sword Talisman notebook.
To craft this sword talisman, it requires a Talisman Maker to cultivate the Red Flame Sword Jue, only then can the Red Flame Sword Qi be sealed into the talisman paper.
Of course, it was written in the notes that the senior cultivators of the Divine Wood Sect had also tried to see if the same type of fire attribute sword Qi could be used as a substitute to achieve the same effect.
It was later proven that it was possible to do so.
However, some brush strokes and lines need to be adjusted to accommodate the balance between the Sword Qi and the talisman paper.
The “Crimson Flame Sword Talisman” could not be created easily.
You have to start from the Rank-1 intermediate grade “Crimson Flame Talisman” and “Sword Qi Talisman”, then combine the two talisman scripts to get the Rank-1 high grade “Crimson Flame Sword Talisman”. After that, there is the “Double Sword Talisman”, and the “Triple Sword Talisman”.
However, Qi Rui himself only crafted single sword talismans.
He attempted to craft a double sword talisman for several years and only succeeded twice. After that, he didn’t bother to continue.
After all, the demand for single sword talismans is greater, and they sell better.
Qi Rui did try to craft the triple sword talisman, but after failing twenty or thirty times, he simply could not afford to invest any further.
Even though the triple sword talisman is still a Rank-1 high grade, it is already in the realm of a Rank-2 Talisman Maker.
Many Talisman Makers, in order to increase their success rate, are directly using Rank-2 talisman paper and talisman ink, Qi Rui being just a Qi Practitioner at the eighth level, simply could not afford such investment.
Chen Mobai immediately opened Xianmen Web and checked the prices of these items.
Rank-2 talisman paper costs 50 Good Deed Points for a large piece, and an extra 10 Good Deed Points for cutting.
As for the talisman ink, it depends on the type. Since the ink for each talisman script is basically different, most need to be custom-made after reaching Rank-2.
A small bottle of ink for some commonly used Rank-2 talisman scripts can be mass-produced, so the price isn’t high – it’s 100 Good Deeds Points.
Chen Mobai looked at the dozen or so pages in Qi Rui’s notes about ink making. They were full of his complaints stating that nine-tenths of his time in crafting talismans was wasted in ink preparation.
Then he looked at the specific steps for preparing the ink.
The material was manageable. The Giant Tree Ridge area produced a cinnabar known as ‘Chi Zhu’.
However, this kind of cinnabar is extraordinarily hard and requires a Qi Practitioner to grind it with a special tool for a full three days and nights to get it crushed into a usable, fine powder state.
After the grinding, a Spirit Yellow Glue extracted from Spirit Wood needs to be added, along with a certain proportion of Spiritual Water to facilitate the fusion. Then, it’s slowly boiled in a specially-made furnace.
This small fire requires a kind of soft-burning Spirit Wood, which is an additional investment.
When the ink in the furnace has thickened enough to no longer flow freely, it has to be dried in the shade – another step that requires another three full days and nights.
Only once the ink has completely solidified can it be taken out.
In this process, the upper layer of the ink slab will be slightly yellow, the bottom layer will be purple, but only the bright red in the middle layer is the Rank-2 ink.
After separating the three types of Chi Zhu, the last step is filtration, in which impurities in the ink will have to be precipitated and filtered out.
The duration of filtration depends on the quality of the previous grinding and the grade of the raw materials. The first time Qi Rui made ink, due to incorrect technique, he filtered for a whole month without achieving the required standard, eventually leading to the discard of the ink.
It’s no surprise that in these notes, the process of ink preparation is the only one he complains about.
When crafting a triple sword talisman, the best way to have a higher success rate is to use Rank-2 bright red ink.
Of course, if you’re a master, you can be successful even if you use slightly yellow or slightly purple cinnabar.
Upon reading these steps, Chen Mobai found them quite troublesome, but he had his own method..