Shui Renyu had many thoughts as he finalized the design of his new talisman. He would still have to write it down and properly accept it as his natal talisman, but he already had the idea, and fortunately, it was also an accumulative talisman—one with a greater hope of accomplishment, not one that would take millions of years to complete.
But he knew that he didn’t want to stay in the clan. Not to mention the coming destruction, there was no one he truly liked. The only library elder would not suffer anyways; at most, he would avenge the clan to truly and fully sever cause and effect, but he wouldn’t stay.
He had no love for the clan, nor would it properly help him, given his background as the abandoned son of a strange woman and a drunkard man. Naturally, he couldn’t just leave at this age, but he had plans.
‘If I want to leave, I need to do it before the end of the year when I turn eight. By the age of eight, my single water root will have fully developed. I already have the basic cultivation art and don’t need anything more than that. But the clan won’t let me leave if they detect that I have roots, at least not until I show that I am incapable. If I stay here, I will have to hide my talent, and it won’t do me any good. Several years will be wasted, and that’s too much.’
This was the snowball that began rolling. For the next few years, he was ignored again by everyone. He didn’t want to attract attention, so he just practiced some basic exercises he had learned in his previous life to keep his body healthy.
The most important thing was the creation of paper and ink. This was something he had learned in his previous life, so when he was five and finally had some space, he began gathering bamboo and other materials needed for the creation of paper. Later, he also acquired some objects to create ink. It was mortal stuff anyways, so even the maids could get it for him if he acted cute.
He had to create his own paper and ink if he wanted to have the biggest bonus when creating an accumulative natal talisman. Naturally, he had some more ideas about this, but the paper and ink would at least be temporarily used for training until he would create the talisman.
Years flowed by again, and just a few days after his eighth birthday, he took all the rations, clothes, and other things he had gathered over the years and left the clan land at night.
Naturally, there were patrols, but they wouldn’t care about a mortal child, so he was quick to escape from the clan land into the mortal town. There, he hid in a barn and snuck into a carriage when the day came. This carriage was delivering goods to a nearby village, and he did the same several times until he finally arrived in a large city.
‘Great Lake City! This is an independent city close to the great lake. The city lord is a mystique awakening cultivator and is also one of the few hegemons in the northern region of the great central plains cultivation world! I heard that this city has been standing for thousands of years and has a much greater foundation than anything else in the surroundings. The best part is that this is a free city, so the market is the greatest in the area! After a whole year, I finally arrived here!’
The journey was long. Shui Renyu didn’t even cultivate to ensure he remained invisible in the eyes of cultivators until he finally arrived here.
‘I have basically exhausted all my mortal resources; now I only have five spirit stones.’
When he finally entered the city as a mortal, which wasn’t rare even though it was such a great city, he left his carriage and snuck around. Finally, he found a dilapidated inn for mortals, paid some silver, and entered a small room.
Although he didn’t advance in the past year, he reached the threshold of Qi Refining. The qi in the mortal world was somewhat lacking if he didn’t intentionally gather it, so it took much longer than the month he needed in the clan land, but he didn’t care as he had enough time.
Naturally, even though he was in the mortal district of the city, the qi was still much higher as there was a fourth-level vein underground. He sat down on his bed, and as he speculated, the moment he circulated his qi according to the ‘Water Cultivation Art’, he instantly advanced.
Any cultivator would be able to see an advancement even if he only minimally pulled the surrounding qi, but there were no cultivators in the mortal region, at least not near him, so he successfully advanced without making any noise and took several days to stabilize his cultivation. He had paid upfront for a month, so it didn’t matter.
Then, he opened his bag and took out a piece of talisman paper he had created. It was thicker than usual paper, but that was how it was supposed to be. He took out a bottle of water and poured it into a small teacup in the room. Then, he took another bottle and poured blood into a different teacup. It was his own blood, which he had gathered over the years.
He dipped his finger into the clear spring water and began to write in small characters with his finger. His movements were very precise, and soon the talisman was fully written: ‘Grace of Water’. It was a talisman he had deduced from all the knowledge he gained during his enlightenment. It was an exclusive auxiliary talisman that would enhance the comprehensive ability of water-based spells, gather qi in the surroundings, and turn it into water-attribute qi, which could then be used to replenish his qi when it was low or help him cultivate.
The characters ‘Grace of’ were very hidden on the talisman, so even if he took it out, people would only read ‘Water’ and assume it was a water talisman.
Instead of taking a different talisman, he turned the still-wet talisman, cleaned his finger, then dipped it into his blood and began writing. This time, the words were just as flowing as the water talisman, but they were somewhat imposing and full of vitality.
‘Monarch of Lifeblood’ was finally written. Lifeblood was the blood essence of any creature; it was the most important blood as it was tied to the vitality, lifespan, and energy of any creature. The talisman had the ability to control the lifeblood of people, essentially controlling their bodies, while on the other hand, it could gather and store lifeblood. It also had a small effect on comprehending blood-type spells.
But instead of a full-on comprehension effect, it was more of a statement connecting to the other side of the talisman. It was the fact that over 50% of blood is made of water, while the other side of the talisman, where ‘Grace of Water’ was written, mentioned that every kind of water-based spell would be included in the comprehension ability.
With the 50% natural control of blood and the addition of the ‘Monarch of Lifeblood’, this talisman was fully a Water and Blood auxiliary and control-type natal talisman. The talisman shone, especially at the point where both statements connected, and suddenly gathered the qi in the surroundings again.
Naturally, this was very brief; it was an accumulative talisman, after all. Shui Renyu took the talisman close to his head, deeply thinking of opening his dantian and absorbing the talisman. Then, he opened his mouth, and like a water tornado, it instantly pulled the talisman into the depths of his body, into the dantian.
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Unlike other people who took normal talismans as their natal talisman, this was easier.
After all, normal natal talismans were often full of qi and out of the category of normal talismans. The normal creation of such a talisman was a great burden even to high-level talisman makers, so the absorption into the dantian was very difficult.
Accumulative talismans didn’t really have that issue. Even though the meaning and strength of it were great, at the beginning, it was very weak and could easily be absorbed into the dantian of the talisman maker. Once it was there, it bathed in the qi of the talisman maker, and if it was compatible, it would have to be kept there as the talisman maker cultivated. Then, a special technique would be used to formally accept the talisman as the natal talisman.
Renyu did so, and soon, his talisman was fully integrated. It took several days once again, but he was overjoyed. He had finally truly become a talisman maker. He was greatly satisfied; now came the difficult part of his life onward.
He came to this city because every shop here was independent; no outside force had influence here, so it was a great haven for casual cultivators of all kinds. These casual cultivators might even sit down and become shop owners here, and over the years, they would become real cultivators with a heritage in this city. Renyu had the same idea.
He went down the stairs and told the steward of the inn that he would stay longer, so he paid accordingly. Outside, he took several turns until he finally arrived at the main street. More people looked at him, a little nine-year-old cultivator, but he didn’t care and went down the street.
Great Lake City had three markets: the east market, where cultivation resources were sold; the west market, where auxiliary objects were sold; and the central market, which was naturally the open market where many stalls were set up by casual cultivators. It was the largest market with the most customers, though the other two markets had more if you counted them as one.
Renyu went to the west market and visited a large shop, ‘Great Lake Talisman Shop’. All shops with ‘Great Lake’ in their name were owned directly by the city and were more trustworthy. Their prices were higher, but it was guaranteed that you would get good quality goods.
Barely inside, Renyu was instantly greeted by a maid in elegant clothing. “May I help you?” she asked politely, considering Renyu’s age, but to a normal customer, this might seem rude.
“Do you have early-Qi-stage talisman paper and blood of early-Qi-refining water monsters?”
The maid looked at the boy. She was about to ask why but remembered that she was told not to do so, regardless of the customer, so she just answered, “Naturally, how much would you like to buy? Ten talisman papers cost one spirit stone, while one liter of early-stage water monster blood is also one spirit stone.”
One talisman paper and one hundred milliliters are needed when you write a talisman, so two spirit stones for a total of 10 refining materials. After some thought, Renyu answered, “Twenty talisman papers and three liters of water monster blood.”
The maid was once again curious about the ratio, but she didn’t ask. She just took Renyu to a counter and asked him to wait as she went to the back, gathered all the items ordered, put them into a nice bag (as she didn’t see a spatial artifact on Renyu), and then returned and gave it to him.
He paid five spirit stones, took the bag, made some turns, and walked around the shop for a bit as he looked behind himself to check whether there was anyone following him. When he was sure there wasn’t anyone, he went back to the inn.
Inside, he opened the bag and inspected everything. When he was satisfied with the quality, he put everything on his bed, took one paper and a one-liter glass of fish blood, and placed them on his table before he also took a mortal-level brush. It was better to use your own hand when you make your natal talisman, but this wasn’t the case for any other type of talisman, especially not if you used monster blood. It might enter your body and become impurities.
He thought for a bit and contemplated which spell he should use. In his previous life, he had learned three spells and knew how to present them as a talisman from the early-talisman inheritance he gained. In truth, as long as you knew the spell, it wasn’t difficult to deduce how to write it into a talisman; an inheritance in this regard just made it easier for those without great comprehension and creative thinking.
The three spells were ‘Water Ball’, an all-rounder water spell; ‘Water Blade’, an attack-type spell; and ‘Water Shield’, a defense-type spell. In this life, he had studied them already in his head but never properly used them. Still, he reached major achievement in the five achievement stages of entry, minor achievement, major achievement, perfection, and great perfection. Entry meant one could understand the spell but couldn’t properly use it; minor meant you could use the spell properly with focus; major was a quantitative improvement where you cast it better and faster; perfection meant you could cast it instantly; and great perfection was casting it instantly and having control over the spell even after casting.
Over the years, Renyu had a 30% success rate with all three talismans, meaning he would make a profit. One early-Qi Refining stage talisman costs about one spirit stone, so succeeding twice would mean no profit nor loss, while succeeding three times meant profit. Succeeding once naturally meant a loss.
Before Renyu began, he took out a different blood bottle, took out his natal talisman, and put it into the blood bottle. The water side was already gathering qi and transforming it, but the blood side needed blood to produce lifeblood, so naturally, he gave it the bottle. According to his calculations, every liter would produce one drop of lifeblood of the corresponding stage.
This might seem like not enough, but a single drop could enhance a talisman’s power by 10%. The most a talisman could take was 10 drops, which would give the talisman double the strength of a different talisman in the same stage. With so much more power, an early-stage talisman could rival a bad middle-stage talisman. In actuality, it was somewhat of a loss-making business if you didn’t have special tools to extract lifeblood, but Renyu had such a tool, so naturally, he would not lose out on this business! Especially since the process of refining blood to lifeblood would also enhance his natal talisman.
After some thinking, Renyu decided to write the ‘Water Ball’ talisman, which had greater usage and was easier to sell. He put all his energy into refining talismans. In the end, he could only be happy that his success rate didn’t fall back too much. From the twenty sets, he refined three talismans, which meant he had around a 15% success rate, resulting in a loss of one spirit stone. This took a total of twenty days, as an early-Qi stage talisman took a day to refine.
In all honesty, if he refined the defense talisman ‘Water Shield’, he could probably get more spirit stones, but it was more difficult to refine, and he didn’t want to take the risk. Defense talismans were normally 30% to 50% more expensive, but they were just as much more difficult to write. Renyu might have had the same success rate in his previous life, but he never really fought, so neither his attack nor defense spells were of high quality, while his water spell was often used to clean, so he had the highest understanding of it.
Talisman creation didn’t only need a high comprehension of spells but also a high level of control.
If you lacked either of these, the talisman would only be of low quality. Theoretically, any cultivator could create a low-level, low-quality talisman as long as they had mastered a spell, and every cultivator had mastered at least one spell. The reason why talisman creators are still so well-known and needed is that their talismans normally go above and beyond, and a true talisman creator knows as many spells as three to five people.
One could say that a talisman refiner was a spell-cultivator with a much higher comprehension and control. Don’t think that’s bad—aren’t alchemists and artifact smiths just fire-cultivators with better control? Planters are just wood cultivators who know deeper knowledge of plants. The same is true for all other creation arts; talisman creation just has an easier entrance but a much harder peak compared to other arts.
If you talk about normal talismans, sure, everyone could theoretically create them. But two-sided talismans? Shrinked talismans? Stacked talismans? Talisman Arrays? Other powerful talismans are also impossible to recreate by non-talisman creators.
After inspecting the talismans and being satisfied with the quality, Renyu took the blanket from his bed, packed it into his bag with the other things, and headed out. He had already taken back his natal talisman after ten days; that seemed to be how long it took to create a drop of lifeblood.
SO, I randomly made up a name, the last name (Shui) I just took cuz it sounded nice. Now, in afterthought, maybe I took it cuz of Fengshui cuz it sounds nice, but it has nothing to do with Fengshui for that matter. The name Renyu came to me when I saw scrolling through Youtube and saw reactions to 'Violet's Tale', the singer of this is Ren, I thought it's a really nice sounding name, why not take it and change it a bit!
