Chapter 343: Half-Character Assessment
The layman who had learned to draw talismans for a few days almost laughed out loud when he heard the word "continued talismans".
I was secretly delighted because continuing a talisman just involves drawing the head or tail of a talisman drawn by someone else. This saves half the steps compared to drawing it from the beginning. It's great!
However, those who truly understood the meaning of the talisman looked nervous and swallowed their saliva, fearing that the half talisman they got would be a completely unfamiliar one.
Hundreds of people in the field were suddenly happy and sad.
The short-bearded Taoist priest didn't care what they were thinking. He raised a stack of talismans in his hand and continued to explain the content of the test to the candidates:
"These talismans in my hand are all half-talismans. As the name suggests, they are already half-drawn. All you have to do is draw the other half. Once the talisman is completed, you can hand it in and leave. If you use up a talisman, you can leave immediately. The results of the assessment will be announced tomorrow morning."
After saying that, he divided the large stack of talismans into several portions, giving one to each apprentice and candidate.
Most of these half-talismans prepared for the exam are talismans that apprentices practice in their daily lives. Most of them are dust-clearing talismans, a few are defensive talismans, and there are also five explosive talismans that Taoist priests practice.
A man in his thirties among the candidates took the talisman paper with a look of joy on his face. He smiled as soon as he saw the rune on it clearly. It was the Qingchen Talisman, which was the easiest to draw.
Only the lower half of the rune was drawn on the slightly yellow talisman paper. After he finished laughing, he couldn't wait to grind the cinnabar and picked up the brush to moisten the tip.
The young apprentice who was handing out talismans nearby saw that he was so anxious to take action without even meditating, and curled his lips in disdain, thinking that he was ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth.
For a layman who has only a superficial knowledge of talismans, he cannot even put pen to paper without concentrating in advance.
The moment the pen tip touches the rune interface, it will become crooked, and once the pen is crooked, the qualification for the exam will be automatically cancelled.
At the same time, those who truly understand Taoist magic, after receiving the half talisman and seeing the runes on it clearly, immediately sit cross-legged and meditate in a calm manner, trying to calm their body and mind as much as possible.
Some of them, whose bodies were nurturing spiritual energy, even caused it to circulate around them. They didn't dare to take action until they had adjusted their state to the most peaceful state.
They had never expected that today's test would be so difficult. It was clearly an introductory Taoist knowledge test just two days ago, so why was the difficulty so much higher today?
In fact, there is a reason why the difficulty of Detian Temple will be increased this time.
Detian Temple is indeed in urgent need of expanding its apprenticeship recently, but they underestimated the status of Taoism in people's hearts today. The low standards in the past two days have indeed resulted in too many disciples being accepted, resulting in insufficient places.
Therefore, the difficulty of the assessment on this last day was increased to eliminate those outsiders with no basic knowledge and to pick up some loose ends at the same time.
Looking back at the examination room, since the talismans were distributed from the center, by the time Zhuang Moxing got half a talisman, the remaining half was gone.
And he also happened to get the most difficult Exploding Talisman to draw by chance. Even the apprentice who distributed the talisman paper looked at him with sympathy.
The apprentice thought to himself, if this person didn't know anything about Taoism, it would be fine. But if he had some knowledge of Taoist techniques and could really activate spiritual energy, that would be even worse.
Why do experts say that a half-finished talisman is difficult to continue? It is because in order for the talisman paper to be effective, one must use the spiritual energy in the body.
The strength and purity of each person's spiritual energy are completely different, just like there are no two leaves in the world that are exactly the same.
Once the intensity of the spiritual energy released when you renew the talisman is not half of the previous one, the talisman will be useless at best and explode at worst.
The explosive talisman that Zhuang Moxing got at this time was exactly the kind that could explode the body!
At this time, everyone in the examination room received their own half talisman, and the short-bearded Taoist priest who was in charge of the examination went through each small compartment one by one.
When he saw the half-exploded talisman on Zhuang Moxing's desk, a hint of sympathy flashed through his eyes. But when he saw Zhuang Moxing's exceptionally handsome face, he suddenly turned to disdain.
He cursed in his heart that this was just another show-off trying to soar to the sky by borrowing the power of Detian Temple. He snorted softly and waited with a gloating look to see Zhuang Moxing's body explode with half of the talisman.
However, just as the laymen in the many small compartments were writing crookedly, Zhuang Moxing placed his fingertips on the surface of the talisman paper and carefully felt the strength of the spiritual energy therein.
This process only lasted two seconds, and then he picked up the brush and dipped it in finely ground cinnabar ink.
Several apprentice examiners were attracted by the short-bearded Taoist's gaze and looked towards Zhuang Moxing's small compartment.
As soon as I looked over, I saw Zhuang Moxing writing boldly, and I couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat for him.
The candidate who first started to concentrate and calm down had not even opened his eyes yet, so how come this person started writing?
When they saw clearly that the half talisman on his desk was an explosive talisman, several apprentices could not help but take a step back.
Even though they were three meters away from Zhuang Moxing at this time, they were still afraid of being hit.
It’s not their fault for being timid. It’s just that the explosion of the explosive talisman is too painful. Anyone who is close to it will definitely be blown to pieces!
At this time, none of the invigilators thought that Zhuang Moxing could succeed!
But Zhuang Moxing continued to do his own thing, completely unaware of the outside world's malicious sympathy towards him.
He just focused on mobilizing the pure spiritual energy in his body and subtly imitated the weak spiritual energy in the half talisman.
After the pure spiritual energy reluctantly suppressed its own tremendous power, Zhuang Moxing began to write.
The mellow crimson ink was perfectly integrated into the broken part of the half-talisman. Then Zhuang Moxing concentrated his mind and held his breath, gradually stabilizing his spiritual energy and bringing out the remaining brushstrokes.
The brush and ink are used very smoothly, the strokes are vigorous and free, and the dragons and snakes leap.
At the moment of finishing writing, the talisman that was suppressed by the paperweight on the desk suddenly moved without wind, floated up slightly, and it was obvious that the explosive talisman was completed!
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