Chapter 75 Desire

When he discovered the true form of the golden finger, Nan Wang finally realized what the black chain pattern on An Nuo's body was.

It was a talisman, a talisman that no one except him, Nanwang, could see.

Not only could other people not see it, even Annuo himself couldn't see it.

Nan Wang bent his waist and picked up An Nuo, and asked seriously: "Nuonuo, do you know that you have a talisman on your body?"

"Chichichi?"

Is there?

An Nuo twisted his butt and raised his feet to take a look, and asked in confusion: "Ji? Jijiji?"

No? Did I get it somewhere? If you see it, just tear it off for me.

"...No, I was mistaken."

Nan Wang rubbed An Nuo's head and retracted his words.

He didn't think there was anything wrong with An Nuo. An Nuo had been fine before, but suddenly became like this... No matter how he thought about it, this was not An Nuo's problem, but the Immortal Master's problem.

It was the Immortal Master who harmed An Nuo to this extent.

Now the whereabouts of the Immortal Venerable are unknown. Even if he wants to know about Annuo's situation, he has no channel to find out.

It was this sudden golden finger that made Nan Wang realize that the rolling black words on An Nuo's body were a talisman.

So he adjusted his spiritual energy while searching through the jade slips, trying to find the corresponding spell effect.

If we can find out what the talisman on An Nuo is, maybe we can deduce where the Immortal Master is.

After flipping through all the jade slips, Nan Wang sighed slowly.

None of the jade slips recorded the strange talisman on Annuo.

Not to mention being exactly the same, there aren't even any that are similar in shape.

Things are not that simple...

"Chichichi."

You are quite good at drawing talismans. Maybe you are suitable to be a talisman practitioner.

An Nuo, who had no sense of crisis at all, stepped on Nan Wang's wrist with his rabbit legs and rubbed his little head against Nan Wang's chest affectionately.

"You're right. If I had realized earlier that I had this ability, I wouldn't have wasted so many years as a handyman."

Nan Wang stroked the rabbit absentmindedly and said:

"But this is not the fault of others. No one in Qingyun Sect is good at making talismans. Not to mention Qingyun Sect, there are not many people in the entire fairy world who are good at making talismans. However, there are many sects in the demon world who are good at making talismans.

"If I really want to delve into this path, staying in Qingyun Sect doesn't seem to be feasible..."

…

Three days later, Nanwang entered his first retreat since his cultivation.

For a whole month, he did not step out of Fu Zong's cave.

What I do every day is to draw talismans, drive them, replenish the spiritual energy, and then continue to draw talismans.

A month is neither long nor short.

Nanwang could have continued to stay in seclusion, but he had to come out because he had finished drawing all the talismans that Zhu Tianque had given him.

Speaking of this, I have to mention Chu Songping's medicine.

Drawing talismans consumes a lot of spiritual energy, and there are many ways to replenish spiritual energy. Even if you do nothing, you can absorb external spiritual energy through natural breathing. However, this method is too inefficient. As for the fastest way, it is undoubtedly elixir.

After a month, all the talisman papers were drawn, but there were still a lot of Qi Condensing Pills and Qi Replenishing Pills given by Chu Songping left, which could not be used up at all.

——This is the value of the second senior brother of Qingyun Sect.

——This is the value of Qingyun Sect’s Danxian.

However, although Chu Songping's elixirs are of superb quality, Zhu Tianque's family background should not be underestimated. The number of talisman papers he sent is very large, and it is definitely not used up under normal use. The reason why they are consumed so quickly is because the failure rate is too high.

Intermediate spells are fine, but starting from the advanced spells, the failure rate soars exponentially.

Although Nanwang could see the next position of the talisman, the structure of the talisman in high-level spells was extremely complex. One stroke would extend into several strokes. Even if his eyes could keep up, his hands could not.

But failure is not terrible, as long as you can succeed. If you can succeed once, you can succeed a second time. With more successes, it becomes a matter of practice. Just practice more and you will be fine.

Moreover, the "failure" that Nanwang defined for himself is different from the failure of drawing talismans in the ordinary sense.

Any talisman that cannot be activated with the minimum amount of spiritual energy is considered a failure in his eyes, even if it is successfully drawn.

In his opinion, a talisman is a special way of casting a spell. If a large amount of spiritual energy is required to activate a talisman, then this talisman will be useless in actual combat.

If it takes more aura to power a spell than to cast a spell directly, why not just cast the spell directly?

Of course, learning spells is much more difficult than exorcising talismans. For those monks who cannot learn advanced spells, they have no other choice but to take shortcuts through talismans.

Nan Wang was once such a cultivator. Not only was his cultivation level backward, but his other skills were also not up to par. He could not refine elixirs, weapons, or draw formations. He could not even sleep all day when learning magic.

But Nanwang is different now.

His requirement for himself changed from "learn to make talismans first" to "use the lowest cost to drive the highest level of talismans."

The smooth progress of the talisman-making technique ignited a desire in Nan Wang's heart, a desire for power.

This desire is not unique to Nanwang. Any cultivator who embarks on the path of cultivating immortals has the same desire.

If a cultivator cultivates immortality simply to improve his cultivation, then he should not touch special skills such as weapons, spells, elixirs, formations, and talismans from the beginning.

Any monk who has made achievements in his skills will inevitably lag behind in his cultivation.

The practice method of sword cultivators is based on mental training, supplemented by sword skills. The level of sword skills increases along with the level of cultivation, so the cultivators with the highest level of cultivation in the entire Qingyun Sect are all concentrated in the Sword Sect.

However, a monk who is proficient in special skills, even if his cultivation level is lower, can still use his skills to do things that only high-level monks can do.

Chu Songping can use spells of all attributes at the same time. No one in the sect can avoid his sharp edge. Lingzhi can temper the Thousand Flower Bell with blood to protect his own consciousness at the critical moment. This is the reason.

Likewise, if Nanwang could really make some achievements in the art of talisman making, he might be able to overtake others and create his own path.

However, the path of practicing talismans is not that easy.

No matter how great Nan Wang's talent in talisman making is, he cannot draw a talisman out of thin air.

Nan Wang was not the legendary beggar who would ask for help. After the talisman paper ran out, his first reaction was to buy some himself.

However, when he inquired about the price of the talisman paper, he immediately gave up the idea.

One piece of top-grade talisman paper requires one medium-grade spirit stone, and ten pieces of talisman paper require one top-grade spirit stone. An ordinary talisman pen requires five medium-grade spirit stones and will break after a few uses.

Even low-grade talisman paper is not cheap. One piece requires a low-grade spirit stone. Moreover, low-grade talisman paper cannot draw complex high-level talismans. For Nan Wang now, it would be a waste of money to buy it.

Now the question is, how many pieces of high-quality talisman paper did Nanwang use up during the one month of seclusion?

One hundred thousand.

Not counting the talisman ink and talisman pen, Nan Wang used up 10,000 high-quality spirit stones just on the talisman paper.

The same resources, when invested in refining elixirs or refining instruments, can yield many times more results than making talismans.

With such a huge consumption, Nanwang cannot sustain it on his own.

Nan Wang inquired further and found out that the reason why the raw materials for the talismans were so expensive was because there were too few talisman practitioners in the world of immortal cultivation and the market was small, so the unit price was high.

In contrast, there are more talisman practitioners in the Demon Cult. The price of smuggling talisman paper from the Demon Cult is much lower, but there is a risk of being caught... With Nanwang's current experience and connections, he is not able to perform such a difficult task for the time being.

Nanwang was really helpless and could only write a letter to ask for help from his senior brother.

The good news is that Zhu Tianque’s reply came soon, inviting Nanwang to his residence for a gathering.

Judging from the wording in the reply, it seems that the author is willing to help Nanwang.

Nan Wang was overjoyed and immediately rubbed his hands as he rushed to the Sword Sect, taking with him several of the best talismans he had drawn.

It's a little less, but the thought is worth it.

I don't think the senior brother will dislike it.

…

This was not Nan Wang's first time entering the Sword Sect, but it was his first time going to Zhu Tianque's residence.

Du Xueling's mansion was the place Nan Wang visited most often, which led to Nan Wang forming a certain inherent impression of the Sword Sect and tacitly assuming that Zhu Tianque's mansion was as "luxurious" as Du Xueling's.

This concept was broken today.

Everyone in Qingyun Sect knows that Zhu Tianque's family has a strong foundation, but not many people know how strong his family's foundation is.

In fact, Zhu Tianque's mansion has completely transcended the concept of "mansion" and is instead a town.

To call it a small town is an understatement. It is simply a Tang Dynasty city that never sleeps that has been forcibly built into the desolate and quiet snowy land.

The lights were flickering continuously, and there were lanterns and decorations everywhere. Countless paper dolls shaped like maids stood in two rows. There were disciples of the Sword Sect waiting for Nan Wang at a distance at the door to lead the way for him.

When Nan Wang was sitting on the fairy crane and saw the city that never sleeps, for a moment he thought he was seeing a mirage.

After landing, the feeling of illusion not only did not weaken, but became even stronger.

The city that never sleeps is full of paper puppets, some look like traveling merchants, some look like children, each with its own duties, just like a real town. Although all the paper puppets can only perform simple movements, even so, they require a large amount of spiritual energy.

Based on his subjective guesswork, Nanwang felt that the spirit stones needed to run the town for a day might be enough for him to draw talismans for a month.

I originally thought that the eldest senior sister was rich enough, but I didn't expect that compared with Zhu Tianque, the eldest senior sister was simply poor!

The town was large, and newcomers would most likely get lost. However, no matter how lost they were, Nan Wang could find Zhu Tianque's residence at a glance.

It was obviously the Lingxiao Palace located in the center of the town.