Chapter 30: The Power of the Spiritual Talisman

After piecing together all the information, Lu Ye had a general understanding of his current situation.

Undeniably, his situation was far from ideal. The biggest problem was his low cultivation level; a pack of wolves could easily trap him in a tree, and he would be utterly defenseless against any ill-intentioned cultivators he might encounter.

The good news was that with the battlefield insignia, he knew which direction to take to find his way out.

However, he didn't know how far he was from the Crimson Blood Sect's territory.

To reach the Crimson Blood Sect's outpost in the Spirit Creek Battlefield, he needed a certain level of cultivation. Therefore, the most urgent task was to first improve his strength!

He currently possessed numerous usable Spirit Pills. If he could absorb and refine all of them, his strength would undoubtedly increase significantly. While he couldn't predict reaching a certain level within the Spirit Creek Realm, he would at least gain more self-preservation capability.

With a plan in mind, Lu Ye looked down at the pack of wolves surrounding the tree. To cultivate, he first needed to get out of this situation, as the current environment was unsuitable for practice.

Although the wolves couldn't directly harm him, the commotion they created was significant and could easily attract unwanted attention, posing a potential danger.

After a moment's consideration, Lu Ye took out the spirit talismans from the storage bag the Sect Master had given him. He sifted through them and selected a Golden Wheel Talisman.

Out of over thirty spirit talismans, only about half were offensive; the rest were for defense or support. The dozen or so offensive talismans were all fire or metal attribute, perfectly suited for someone like Lu Ye, whose primary Five Element affinity was Fire, supplemented by Metal.

The Sect Master had undoubtedly considered this when gathering these talismans.

He didn't choose the fire-attribute talismans, mainly because he suspected they would create a considerable commotion. After all, names like 'Exploding Talisman' and 'Fire Serpent Talisman' sounded quite destructive.

Activating the spirit talisman was an issue, as Lu Ye had never used one before.

Nevertheless, he had to try now; he needed to escape his predicament as quickly as possible.

Holding the spirit talisman, Lu Ye carefully channeled his spiritual power into it.

The talisman immediately emitted a golden light, which then coalesced before Lu Ye into a disk-shaped object.

The semi-transparent, washbasin-sized disk shimmered with golden light, with spirit patterns flowing within it.

Before Lu Ye could react, a golden blade sliced out from the disk. The crescent moon-shaped blade vanished in an instant.

With a dull thud, Lu Ye looked up and saw a deep gash on the trunk of a large tree nearby, wide enough for several people to embrace.

*Slicing sounds* From the semi-transparent golden disk in his hand, crescent-shaped blades continuously sliced out. In an instant, the surrounding trees suffered, with branches and twigs being severed and falling to the ground with a rustling sound.

"So that's how it works!" Lu Ye understood and quickly adjusted the disk's direction, aiming it at the wolf pack below.

*Slicing sounds*

The incredibly sharp golden crescent blades cut through the air, slicing into the gathered wolves. Instantly, blood splattered and flesh flew.

The ferocious, calf-sized wolves were instantly cut in half once struck.

The wolf pack was clearly in a panic, scattering in all directions. Lu Ye continuously adjusted his aim, trying to strike the densest parts of the pack with the blades.

One by one, the ferocious wolves were killed, and the air filled with the stench of blood.

A moment later, the wolf pack seemed to realize the danger. After a howl echoed from nearby, the wolves gathered below quickly fled with their tails between their legs, leaving behind a dozen or so corpses.

Lu Ye continued to control the disk, pursuing the fleeing wolves for a moment, feeling immensely satisfied.

Spirit talismans were indeed excellent items; a single one allowed him, a cultivator with three activated orifices, to slaughter without restraint. The only drawback was that it was his first time using one, and he wasn't very skilled at controlling its direction and accuracy; otherwise, he could have killed even more.

As he was thinking this, Lu Ye suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion. His heart pounded, golden stars swam before his eyes, and his body swayed, nearly causing him to fall from the tree trunk.

This greatly startled him; he quickly steadied himself and gasped for breath for a moment.

After recovering slightly, Lu Ye looked down and saw that the semi-transparent golden disk had disappeared. The spirit talisman in his hand had also become dull and lifeless, its patterns indistinct.

This spirit talisman could no longer be used, a realization that dawned on Lu Ye.

But what had just happened to him?

After some examination, Lu Ye understood the truth of the matter.

His spiritual power was completely depleted! His three spirit orifices were empty, and the spiritual power originally stored within them had completely dried up.

The feeling of exhaustion stemmed from this.

He quickly took out a Spirit Nurturing Pill, swallowed it, and refined it with all his might. It took a while for him to recover slightly.

One Spirit Nurturing Pill, of course, couldn't fully restore him. He didn't even wait for the pill's effects to fully dissipate before leaping down from the tree.

The strong scent of blood here could easily attract more fierce beasts, so it was best to leave first. As for the accumulated pill energy in his body, he could refine it while walking, albeit less efficiently.

He also took the time to cut several large pieces of wolf meat with his long sword and put them into his storage bag.

After this incident, Lu Ye learned a valuable lesson: when using spirit talismans, he must never get carried away and always pay attention to his spiritual power consumption.

This time, he was only killing wolves. Next time, if he encountered hostile cultivators and his spiritual power was depleted, he would be as good as dead.

More than half a day later, in a dry, dark mountain cave, Lu Ye sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion.

Such caves were abundant in the mountains and wilderness. After Lu Ye's inspection, this appeared to be an ownerless cave, so he wouldn't have to worry about being disturbed by a returning fierce beast while taking shelter here.

The cave's environment was unremarkable, but now was not the time to be particular. If nothing unexpected happened, Lu Ye felt he might be staying here for a while.

He had previously inspected the surrounding environment and found no traces of particularly fierce beasts, though there were many small wild animals.

This was good news for him; if he got hungry later, he could go hunting at any time and wouldn't have to starve.

Before Lu Ye lay a pile of miscellaneous items; he was taking stock of his possessions.

He had three storage bags: one from Steward Yang, one from Zhou Cheng, and one from the Sect Master. These items weren't particularly valuable; almost every cultivator Lu Ye had seen possessed at least one, perhaps even more.

The Sect Master, however, didn't appear to have one, but surely possessed other storage methods, which was beyond Lu Ye's understanding.

He had twenty-five Spirit Nurturing Pills: twenty from the Sect Master and five from Steward Yang's and Zhou Cheng's storage bags. (There had originally been six from the latter two, but Lu Ye had taken one after killing the wolves.)

He had a total of sixteen Vitality Pills; most were given by the Sect Master, with the rest obtained from Steward Yang's and Zhou Cheng's storage bags.

Eight Healing Pills.

Over thirty pieces of primeval magnetic ore of varying sizes, along with some other ores that Lu Ye couldn't name.

One storybook.

One manual for the 'Golden Cicada Free Roaming Art'.

Nearly thirty spirit talismans of various types.

Five sets of clothing in various styles.

The various miscellaneous pills previously stored in Steward Yang's and Zhou Cheng's storage bags were now nowhere to be found. They were likely confiscated by the Sect Master while Lu Ye was cultivating on the Flying Dragon Boat. Those few bottles of pills probably weren't anything good.