Chapter 63: Retreat and Make Talismans
Yunxiang cleaned up the house first, then went to chat with Aunt Fu. She hadn't been home for a long time, and everyone missed her. Aunt Fu invited a few close relatives to have a meal together and chat about their recent situation.
Because of this incident, Yun Xiang returned home very late that day. Naturally, he took a break the next day and didn't get up until noon.
Aunt Fu explained that everyone had been doing well over the past six months, but she was worried about the future. The reason for this was the February harvest festival. The plantations, originally scheduled to open this year, had been cancelled due to the unexpectedly long ripening period for fruits and vegetables, making life even more difficult for families who had already been planning for it.
Aunt Fu's husband and two sons had been accompanying the mercenary group on missions since March, doing logistics work. However, since they weren't awakened, their opportunities were limited. Unexpectedly, the environment was changing so quickly. She suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of urgency and immediately decided to retreat the next day.
That afternoon, she went to the Jinmao Building, hoping to see Uncle Qian and stock up on some goods. Unfortunately, she didn't see Uncle Qian, as he had moved away from Chaihe Star not long after she arrived at Mercury Academy.
Yun Xiang was filled with disappointment. The older you get, the more you fear separation from familiar people. Aside from her grandfather, Uncle Qian was the person who had been with her the longest and was closest to her, even though they had always been buyer and seller. But she knew in her heart that Uncle Qian had always taken good care of her, and she also knew that sooner or later, he would leave.
The next morning, Yun Xiang went straight into the studio after exercising, as if everything had returned to normal.
Yun Xiang took out the defensive talisman and looked at it. Thinking about Bai Mingyang's control talisman that day, she wondered if she could make a talisman with a protective shield. Such a talisman must have two features: one is the time blessing, and the other is the energy shield that can block attacks. Both of these require a lot of energy. She had tried a time-blessing defensive talisman before, but failed due to insufficient power.
So, if he wanted enough energy, he had to use materials with energy. What materials would he use? Yun Xiang took out the materials from his storage ring (which he had exchanged with Chu Xu for the mutant beast) and after careful selection, he finally decided on the Water Condensation Stone.
She first used tools to grind away the top layer of the water-condensing stone, then used a chisel to cut through the protective film and place the liquid into an energy bottle. Then she began carving the runes. To make the runes more resistant to energy, she widened and deepened the lines as much as possible. She started with three pieces, widening, deepening, and then widening and deepening them simultaneously. She then used force to direct the liquid from the water-condensing stone into the runes until they were saturated.
In less than a minute, the first two talismans shattered under the weight of the energy, while the third barely lasted a minute. It seemed that widening or deepening the talisman wouldn't work. Yun Xiang pondered for a moment, then took out some trimmed boxwood and carved a rune on it. The talisman was surprisingly solid, so she carved another. That's right, she decided to create a rune within another to disperse the energy.
After the second pass, feeling it was good enough, he added another layer. After careful observation, he determined that three layers of runes was the limit for the boxwood. He stopped short and reintroduced the liquid from the water-condensing stone. Ten or so minutes later, the upgraded defensive rune, shimmering with water, was complete.
Yunxiang tried it out. The three layers of runes formed three protective shields, each layer offering a different level of protection, each increasing in strength, with the innermost layer being the most solid. Perhaps it was the last layer of runes, the one that required the most concentrated mental effort and the most refined technique, that produced such an effect. Accidents always bring endless surprises.
Yun wanted to replace the boxwood with redwood, using the same carving technique, but still could only create a three-layer defense talisman. Then, she boldly tried using the same old tree, the banyan thorn, that Xie Yu had named. The results were surprisingly good, and she created a five-layer defense talisman, a mid-level talisman.
Putting the defense talisman aside first, Yun Xiang started to upgrade the relaxation talisman.
Since the Relaxation Talisman can eliminate negative states, what changes will be achieved by adding the Awakening Grass? Yun Xiang directly cut open the leaves of the Awakening Grass and used her strength to guide the juice into the Relaxation Talisman. A flash of bright green light appeared, and the upgraded Relaxation Talisman had a soothing and calming effect. She gave it a new name, the Calming Talisman.
Aside from the concentration required to inject the juice, the calming talismans were simple. It didn't take Yun Xiang long to create a dozen. When her strength ran out, she went back to the backyard to practice some physical training. The day passed like this, and for the next few days, Yun Xiang began to work on the attacking talismans.
She first sorted out her talismans: the Flame Talisman, a one-time attack talisman shaped like a fireball, a low-level talisman, had 15 remaining. The Blazing Flame Talisman, a one-time attack talisman shaped like a flame, a mid-level primary talisman, had 10 remaining. These two talismans were upgradeable and required the material Flame Stone, which was available in the Coking Stars, but was quite difficult to obtain. She'd see how it went as she went.
Yun Xiang tried both the Thunder Flame Talisman and the Thunder Explosion Talisman, but they weren't very effective. The lightning they released felt like a tickle, barely enough to scare even a child. Perhaps the material wasn't right, Yun Xiang looked at boxwood and redwood, but skipped them in favor of the ficus thorn. Well, it had some effect, but unfortunately, it couldn't even reach the lower levels, making it essentially useless.
Yun wanted to let it go for now and wait until he collected more suitable materials.
Ice Breaking Talisman, a one-time attack talisman, has been upgraded to a mid-level primary talisman, with 20 remaining. Ice talismans are very useful, and Yun Xiang has made every one of them. Icy Chilling Talisman, a mid-level primary talisman, with 12 remaining. The Freezing Talisman is the only mid-level high-level talisman Yun Xiang has made, and at her current level, it's a rare find, so she has no plans to upgrade it yet.
The Ice Breaking Talisman needs materials with ice properties to be upgraded again. She only has the leaves of the Ice Spirit Grass, but the leaves of the Ice Spirit Grass only have a refrigeration function and do not have attack capabilities. She is afraid that the effect will not be great, so she simply uses it to upgrade the Ice Cooling Talisman.
Yun wanted to find a Rong Lingcao (function: turning spiritual herbs into juice), turn the leaves of Bing Lingcao into juice and introduce it into the Ice Talisman. The effect was surprisingly good. The Ice Talisman immediately changed its appearance. The runes became silver-white and dazzling, and the icy air was visible to the naked eye. If it were not for the limit of her level, it would most likely be a high-level talisman.
Currently, it's one level higher than the Freezing Talisman, a mid-level intermediate talisman. Afterwards, Yun Xiang made several more attack talismans, some with wood attributes, some with metal attributes, and some with earth attributes. These were all low-level talismans that required collecting materials with matching attributes to upgrade. Next came some auxiliary talismans.
During this beast tide, speed became Yun Xiang's ultimate weapon. Besides daily practice, he could also use talismans to further improve his speed. Yun Xiang made two: an acceleration talisman and an expedited talisman, both of which were disposable.
The Acceleration Talisman is a constant-speed talisman, maintaining a constant speed for 30 minutes. The Expedition Talisman is an explosive talisman, continuously increasing speed until the energy is exhausted, lasting for 30 seconds. Specialized talismans like the Invisibility Talisman and the Water Repellent Talisman are currently unavailable and require specific materials.
Finally, there was the magical talisman. The mother-child talisman was quite complex, primarily because the mental connection between the two talismans was difficult to achieve. Yun Xiang practiced for several days before he could barely connect them. It took another ten days before he fully mastered it.
(End of this chapter)
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