Chapter 53 The Spirit-Seeking Rat
Ji An took the talisman brush and channeled his spiritual energy into it. He felt the energy reach the tip of the brush without any obstruction. He nodded slightly, noting that the talisman brush was of very good quality.
"I want it."
He had researched the market price of talisman pens, and this price was considered cheap; he guessed that Wei Songnian hadn't raised the price.
At present, talisman making is just for practice. There's no need to insist on having a good talisman pen; having something that works is good enough.
Wei Songnian smiled and said:
"Junior brother, you should buy a copy of the Talisman Maker's Inheritance Manual. Don't be stingy. It contains a lot of practical skills for novice talisman makers and can save you a lot of detours."
The original owner of this talisman pen was one of his old customers, who would sell him dozens of talismans every month. Otherwise, he wouldn't have agreed to use this nearly unusable talisman pen as payment for the debt, as this thing is not easy to sell.
He was mentally prepared to be stuck with the stock, but now that he's sold it, he's very happy.
Ji An cupped his hands in greeting:
"Thank you, senior brother. I have another favor to ask. The young ginseng seedlings in the yard have been stolen by something. Do you have any medicinal powder here that can poison or stun wild animals?"
"The medicinal power contained in the ginseng is considerable, so it must have been stolen by a demon beast. Can you roughly determine what kind of beast it is, junior brother?"
Is it really a monster? This is getting complicated.
Ji An stated his judgment:
"I think it's a rodent-like monster."
"Rodent-like monsters have an extremely keen sense of smell; they won't even touch anything that's been poisoned."
"Let alone rodent-type monsters, most monsters are very sensitive to toxins and the like; otherwise, hunting monsters wouldn't be so difficult."
Wei Songnian expressed his helplessness, saying that normally medicinal herb gardens are subject to legal restrictions and such situations should not occur.
"Alright, I'll just have to work hard for a few nights and see if I can catch or kill the thief."
Ji An gave a wry smile. He was afraid he wouldn't be able to eat or sleep properly until he caught the monster that had stolen his food.
A single Fire Cloud Ginseng seed yields two contribution points. If many are wasted, not only will he lose crystals, but he will also waste time. Moreover, he is even more afraid that the spirit fruit saplings will be eaten.
He pondered for a moment and then said:
"Senior brother, have you sold all the talisman paper and ink I originally sold to you?"
"Not yet, how much do you want?"
Upon hearing this, Wei Songnian immediately understood what it meant.
"100 low-grade talisman papers, 10 mid-grade talisman papers, and a bottle of talisman ink. I'll return them to you during the next transaction."
Ji paused for a moment, then said:
"Has this affected your crystal turnover? If so, the number of talismans will be halved."
"Of course not. My business has been good these past two months, and I haven't had any goods sitting in my hands for long periods of time."
Wei Songnian readily agreed, pointed out the full amount of talisman paper, and took out a bottle of talisman ink.
After expressing his gratitude, Ji An left in a hurry without lingering.
He rode the talisman bird to the General Affairs Hall and used the crystals he originally intended to use to activate the Spirit Absorption Array to exchange for a beginner talisman master's inheritance jade slip. Inside were some common Qi Refining stage spell talismans and crafting methods. He was now five spirit stones short from his pocket.
Ji An returned to the bamboo house under the midday sun. He checked the spirit rice in the courtyard and found that a lot of it was missing, but there were no traces of animals passing by. It must have been pecked away by birds.
He washed his hands and face, lit an incense burner, and lay down on the chair to examine the contents of the jade slip.
After quickly browsing through the contents of the jade slip, he began to study the common talisman-drawing techniques.
Once he felt he had roughly memorized the techniques, he began to study the precautions for drawing water-elemental talismans.
Before he knew it, the sun was already setting. When he finished preparing to draw the water curtain talisman, he was surprised to find that a sliver of sunlight was shining obliquely through the window, turning the outside into a sea of orange-red.
Despite his spiritual strength surpassing that of other cultivators of the same level, he still felt somewhat dizzy and lightheaded at this moment, finding it exhausting to learn and understand new knowledge.
After steaming the spirit rice, Ji An went out of the courtyard, stretched his limbs for a while, and then practiced his object manipulation technique while walking around the courtyard.
A stone the size of a basketball, under his magical control, floated in the air as if it were nothing.
Smoke curled from chimneys in the valley, and the birdsong was much quieter, creating a peaceful and serene scene.
A faint aroma of rice wafted from the courtyard. Ji An tossed a stone at the gate and focused his mind on the stone tortoise.
[Spell: Object Manipulation (Minor Success 27%)]
It is said that many spells for controlling magical artifacts are based on the art of object manipulation, so the spell he has been practicing the most these past few days is the art of object manipulation.
Perhaps it was because of his powerful spiritual sense, or perhaps it was because the spell was relatively simple, but he made rapid progress in his practice and achieved this result in just three days.
He guessed that it wouldn't be long before he could perfect the spell.
Ji An went to the kitchen, cooked a bowl of dried vegetable and rabbit meat, and ate it with Lingmi.
After dinner, it got completely dark, and a crescent moon hung over the hillside.
He found a straw raincoat and placed it at the door, and then lit torches at the four corners of the wall.
There's light in the courtyard; that thieving monster should be more cautious.
He took out a meditation cushion and sat cross-legged in the courtyard to begin his cultivation.
After practicing twice in between, it was already 9 PM, and the torches had gone out.
Ji An got up, put on his raincoat, and sat back on the futon, letting his mind wander and quietly feeling the flow of the wind between heaven and earth.
Outside the courtyard, the chirping of insects rose and fell, and everything seemed peaceful and harmonious.
After an unknown amount of time, Ji An heard a rustling sound.
He squinted and caught a glimpse of a palm-sized rat appearing next to a ginseng plant.
It crawled into the moonlight, cautiously looking around, its bean-sized eyes gleaming eerily.
Suddenly, it retreated back into the shadows by the wall and remained motionless.
After a while, it carefully poked its body out and came to the food it had chosen. It quickly dug into the soil with its two small front paws, digging a couple of times and then stopping for a while, its ears twitching incessantly.
As the mouse lowered its head to dig in the soil once more, Ji An suddenly raised his hand, and his object manipulation technique was activated.
Hearing him raise his hand, the mouse turned and scurried into the shadows.
It was too late; the telekinesis had captured it, and the mouse squeaked.
Ji An strode over and released the spiritual pressure belonging to the seventh level of Qi Refining. The frantically struggling rat immediately quieted down, its neck tilted to the side and it remained motionless.
"Playing dead? That's so fake!"
Ji An scoffed and continued to use his object manipulation technique to firmly hold the mouse.
This is a Qi Refining Level 2 rat demon, species unknown.
He brought the rat demon into the bamboo house, lit a candle, and carefully observed the rat.
The fur on the head and back is golden brown, the sides are pale yellow, and the belly is white. The front paws have four toes and the hind paws have five toes.
"What a coincidence! It's actually a spirit-seeking rat."
Spirit-seeking rats are not rare demonic beasts, and many cultivators choose to raise one. However, it is not easy to raise a spirit-seeking rat to be full of intelligence. This spirit-seeking rat is quite intelligent.
Ji An raised an eyebrow slightly, then carefully examined the luster of the spirit-seeking rat's fur before nodding gently.
The rats have good bloodlines and are worth breeding.
The family's inherited beast-taming techniques will finally have a chance to be put to use. After two years of training, they will be ready to be put to good use.
(End of this chapter)
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