Chapter 103: Fu Mo

Qi Rui’s words made Chen Mobai even more interested in joining the Divine Wood Sect.

Over the next two days, there were only scattered attacks by Black Plague Birds. Chen Mobai’s team, consisting of the most elite members, suffered no further casualties.

"Steward Wang, since the battle situation is basically stable, I won't be coming here anymore," Chen Mobai announced, having essentially received 10 spirit stones for free. He then requested to leave.

Wang Yuanwu looked at him with some surprise. Other rogue cultivators would shamelessly cling to such an opportunity to easily earn spirit stones without having to fight. Even some rogue cultivators who had retreated during the fiercest battles were now applying to rejoin.

"Fellow Daoist Chen is very honorable," Qi Rui interjected before Wang Yuanwu could speak. "However, my Divine Wood Sect is not short of spirit stones. There's no need to leave if you feel uncomfortable about it." During this time, his relationship with Chen Mobai had grown increasingly good, and he essentially regarded Chen Mobai as a junior disciple who would be recruited by the Divine Wood Sect in the next intake.

"Well... it's mainly because I felt an opportunity for a breakthrough during these recent battles, and I don't want to miss it," Chen Mobai replied with a wry smile, finding an excuse. If he could, he too would have wanted to stay here every day, hunting demonic beasts and easily earning spirit stones. However, he had to go to Danzhu Academy tomorrow for the combat competition, which was a significant event in his life, and he absolutely could not be late.

"That is indeed more important," they conceded. With a potential breakthrough in cultivation as his reason, neither Wang Yuanwu nor Qi Rui tried to keep him any longer. Wang Yuanwu took out a roster from his storage pouch, crossed out Chen Mobai's name, and then gave him a certificate.

Qi Rui, on the other hand, pulled Chen Mobai aside and handed him a set of talismanship notes he had compiled. "Since you've decided to cultivate the Immortal Longevity Scripture and the Scarlet Flame Sword Art, you can familiarize yourself with the crafting methods for the Scarlet Flame Sword Talisman in advance."

"As long as you can master this talisman, any Martial Uncle will accept you into the sect."

"Of course, if anyone asks, just say you bought these talismanship notes outside. Don't mention that I gave them to you."

The Five Elements Sect, with its five lineage inheritances, disseminated many Qi Cultivation techniques and basic spells from within the sect into the mortal dynasties. This was done to recruit mortals with spiritual roots from the Eastern Barrens. This way, even if these individuals emerged, having cultivated the Five Elements Sect's techniques, they would almost certainly end up joining their sect. As a result, many Five Elements Sect cultivation methods and talismans were sold in Nanxi Market. The Black Water Art that Chen Mobai possessed was believed by Old Man He to have come from such a source.

"Thank you, Senior Brother Qi," Chen Mobai said. The address of "Senior Brother" made Qi Rui burst out laughing. "Junior Brother Chen!" he exclaimed, reaching out and patting Chen Mobai firmly on the shoulder.

A flash of silver light. Chen Mobai was back in his home. He looked at the Scarlet Flame Sword Talisman crafting notes in his hand, rough in binding and paper quality, and felt a warmth in his heart. This Heavenly River Realm was not entirely filled with deceit and intrigue. Individuals like Wang Yuanwu and Qi Rui from the Divine Wood Sect, and even Qi Hou at the beginning, all felt like flesh-and-blood cultivators with resilient characters upon closer acquaintance.

Of course, it was also possible that the cultivation environment for rogue cultivators was too harsh, surrounded by wolves eager to plunder their cultivation resources, which made rogue cultivators outside the major sects of the Heavenly River Realm so ruthless. If they could cultivate and advance peacefully, most cultivators would surely prefer to stay in their caves and avoid trouble.

Sitting at his desk, Chen Mobai carefully read through the Scarlet Flame Sword Talisman crafting notes.

To craft this sword talisman, a talisman master needed to cultivate the Scarlet Flame Sword Art to produce the Scarlet Flame Sword Qi and seal it into the talisman paper. The notes also mentioned that senior cultivators of the Divine Wood Sect had experimented with using similar fire-attributed spiritual sword qi as a substitute to achieve the same effect. It was later proven to be possible, though it required adjusting some strokes and lines to balance the sword qi with the talisman paper.

The "Scarlet Flame Sword Talisman" could not be achieved in one go. One had to start with the mid-tier Grade 1 "Scarlet Fire Talisman" and "Sword Qi Talisman." Then, combining these two talismans formed the top-tier Grade 1 "Scarlet Flame Sword Talisman." Following that came the "Two-Sword Talisman" and "Three-Sword Talisman."

However, Qi Rui himself only crafted the Single-Sword Talisman. He had attempted the Two-Sword Talisman for several years with only two successes, after which he became too lazy to continue crafting them. After all, the Single-Sword Talisman was in higher demand and sold better.

Qi Rui had also tried to craft the Three-Sword Talisman, but after twenty or thirty failures, he simply couldn't afford the investment. Although the Three-Sword Talisman was still a top-tier Grade 1 talisman, its crafting actually fell within the domain of a Grade 2 Talisman Master. Many talisman masters used Grade 2 talisman paper and ink directly to improve their success rate, and Qi Rui, only at Qi Cultivation Layer 8, couldn't afford such expenses.

Chen Mobai immediately opened the Immortal Gate Network to check the prices of these items. A large sheet of Grade 2 talisman paper cost 50 good deeds points; if pre-cut, there was an additional 10 good deeds points processing fee. Talisman ink varied by type. Since the ink for each talisman was fundamentally different, most Grade 2 talismans required custom blending. Ink for some common Grade 2 talismans could be mass-produced, and their price was not expensive, 100 good deeds points for a small bottle.

Chen Mobai then looked at the dozen or so pages in Qi Rui's notes dedicated to ink blending. They were filled with his complaints, stating that ninety percent of the time he spent crafting talismans was wasted on blending ink.

He then examined the specific steps for blending ink. The materials were manageable; a cinnabar named Chizhu was produced in Gigantic Wood Ridge. However, this cinnabar was exceptionally hard, requiring Qi Cultivation cultivators to grind it with special tools for three days and three nights to produce a usable fine powder.

After grinding, a spiritual yellow gum extracted from spirit wood needed to be added, along with a specific proportion of spirit water to combine the two. This mixture then had to be slowly simmered over a low flame in a specially made cauldron.

This low flame required a spirit wood with gentle heat, which was another investment. Once the talisman ink in the cauldron was simmered until it no longer flowed, it had to be removed and air-dried in the shade, a process that also took three days and three nights.

Only after the talisman ink had completely solidified could it be removed. The top layer of the ink block would be yellowish, the very bottom layer purplish, and only the bright red middle layer was the Grade 2 talisman ink. After separating these three colored layers of the ink, there was one final filtration step to precipitate and remove impurities from the talisman ink.

The time required depended on the prior grinding and the quality of the raw materials. The first time Qi Rui made ink, his technique was incorrect, and he filtered it for a full month, yet it still didn't meet the requirements, forcing him to discard the ink.

No wonder he only complained about the ink-making process in his notes.

To achieve a high success rate when crafting the Three-Sword Talisman, it was best to use Grade 2 bright red talisman ink. Of course, a master could succeed even with yellowish or purplish cinnabar ink.

Chen Mobai found these steps very troublesome after reading them, but he had his own method.