One Qi Chaoyang

Chapter 207 206: Rent and Work
Huang Beixuan paced back and forth, looked at the snow outside under the moonlight, and said to Zhao Fuyun, "I heard that the governor Lang Chang told people that he wanted to publish a book about the genealogy of Tiandu Mountain's disciples. Now, Tiandu Mountain is the center of the storm. Some people say that Tiandu Mountain has been robbed. He wants to publish the genealogy of Tiandu Mountain's disciples, but naturally some people don't want him to publish it."

"I guess it was someone from Tiandu Mountain who killed him." Huang Beixuan said in a low voice.

"Oh, why do you say that?" Zhao Fuyun asked.

"Need I say this? Let me tell you, although Tiandu Mountain may seem inconspicuous, it is actually a large sect. Many people in the entire Great Zhou have practiced in Tiandu Mountain."

"Oh." Zhao Fuyun responded.

"It has nothing to do with us anyway. I sell talisman paper and you sell talismans. No matter who is on top, we will still sell our paper and your shop will still have no business."

"Why do you say my shop has no business?" Zhao Fuyun asked.

"Just saying it casually." Huang Beixuan smiled and said, "By the way, why don't you draw more talismans?"

"I only bought three dozen at that time, and I have no more talisman paper." Zhao Fuyun said.

"You don't have talisman paper? Come here, I'll give you a dozen." Huang Beixuan said.

Thirty sheets in a dozen.

Zhao Fuyun did not refuse. He decided to give the other party a talisman after he finished drawing it.

"Can you make the decision?" Zhao Fuyun asked back.

"This talisman paper workshop belongs to me and my brother." Huang Beixuan said loudly.

Zhao Fuyun felt that he might have hurt him, so he didn't say anything more.

There are many unique talismans in this world. Of course, for major sects, there is no such thing as unique or not unique. It’s just a matter of personal proficiency or not, or whether a person likes it or not.

For cultivators, drawing talismans and writing inscriptions is also a process of cultivation.

When drawing talismans, the process of feeling the Tao's meaning will change one's own consciousness. If one feels the Tao, one will be closer to the Tao; if one feels the Dharma, one will be closer to the Dharma.

The meaning of the Dharma will grow, conceive, and be concluded within one’s mind.

Zhao Fuyun practiced qi and drew talismans.

Practicing Qi is a form of spiritual practice, and drawing talismans is also a form of spiritual practice.

Practicing qigong absorbs the vital energy of heaven and earth into your body and makes it your own, while drawing talismans can be considered as nourishing the spirit and refining the mind.

Although he mainly practiced fire talismans in the past, he was not unfamiliar with other talismans.

Anyone who draws talismans usually starts with water and fire, because the beginning of spiritual practice is to know yin and yang, and the representatives of yin and yang are water and fire.

Originally his magic power had become scorching hot, and he thought that he would no longer be able to cast negative magic. However, after turning to practice the "Taixu Wujie Sutra", his magic power was no longer that hot. The void was vast and ethereal, and all images and auras were within it.

With a bird's-eye view, it didn't take long for him to draw the Divine Water Talisman. He could easily draw it in the void to make water condense in the void. However, it was not easy for the Divine Water Talisman to go further. It required the understanding of some kind of divine will, but the understanding of divine will could not be sought after.

Then he started practicing other ones.

The meaning of Gui'xu has reached a bottleneck. It seems that he is only one step away from success, but he just can't get over it. He knows that he lacks the opportunity.

However, he did have insights into other things, including the 'Magic Spell to Suppress the Magic' learned from the Tianfu Secret Realm, as well as the Mountain Cloud Pattern that he knew himself, and spells with similar meanings such as calming, suppressing, banning, and sealing.

He felt that perhaps this could be brought together and put into one place.

So he thought of refining a magical weapon.

The next day, he went out and bought some stones that could be used to make seals.

The stone is hard but not brittle. Each piece of it contains a certain earth energy, or it can be called earth energy, and the shapes are all polished into the shape of an imprint.

He practiced piece by piece, carving it into a 'fixing seal', a 'demon-suppressing seal', a 'forbidden seal', or a 'soul-sealing seal'.
He continued to combine them, using mountain and cloud patterns as the main talismans, supplemented by written spells.

Except for the ones that were broken, he carved more than twenty seals in total. He simply put a box on the counter. Occasionally someone would come in and ask if there were any cheap talismans to sell, but they would be a little surprised to see the small talisman on the counter.

When asked about the price, he started with ten spirit stones for one, which scared those who asked about the price so much that they dared not say anything more.

Although those stones contained some earth energy and were suitable for making talismans, one spirit stone could buy four stones, making them very cheap materials for practicing. Zhao Fuyun wanted ten spirit stones at once, so of course no one was willing to buy them.

But he thought that other people were charging two spirit stones for the chair he was sitting on, so he set this price. Because when he carried this talisman on his body, it would become a magic weapon after being refined by the cultivators.

Even if a person without any cultivation carries it on his body for a long time and it is in harmony with his own Qi, it can have a protective effect and can be used for a lifetime, unlike talisman paper which will dissipate the true meaning of the talisman.

Because the runes engraved on his talisman were intertwined with the earth energy inside.

Zhao Fuyun didn't care. He felt that his savings would last him a long time.

If no one really wants to buy it, then we can lower the price and sell it.

As he engraved, a heavy and sluggish sense of Dharma also appeared on his body.

He has cultivated the Dharma into his body, or in other words, the Dharma has entered his thoughts.

He suddenly thought that the golden crow bird tied to his lamp came from the depths of his soul and belonged to his own god. So when he carved the seal, could he replace the name of the god engraved on it with the name of the mountain god deep in his memory?
When he thought of this, he immediately verified it. He wrote again and again, and in a state of concentration, he called out to "Emperor Dongyue" from the depths of his consciousness, pouring his Dharma thoughts into his pen, into the ink, and onto the paper.

After a day of practice, the words he wrote became heavier and heavier. Finally, after he put pen to paper, light appeared on a piece of talisman paper, and the talisman paper shattered into ashes in an instant.

Then, he took out a piece of blue talisman paper and finally wrote down the words "The Great Emperor of Tianqi Rensheng, Mount Tai, the Eastern Peak".

He was happy in his heart. There are gods in the world. One kind is a real god, and the other kind is not real, in a form similar to a concept. It can also be said that it exists deep in his soul.

God can be either an external God or the God of my own self.

Many times, visualizing external gods is also shaping the god within oneself.

It's like copying a portrait.

There are many mountain gods in this world. Many people who practice magic will worship mountain gods, or use some rituals to form a relationship with mountain gods, such as recognizing mountain gods as their adoptive fathers.

There has always been a mountain god in his heart, extremely powerful, suppressing the underworld of the earth.

It’s just that the name of God he wrote now has divine will, but it is not as strong as the divine will of the name of God he carved on the wind chime.

After all, the name of the god on the wind chime spirit stone is the real name of the mountain god in this world.

But what he wrote on the paper now did not exist in this world, but came from the depths of his own soul. It could also be said to be his own soul, his own divine will.

It's like the Golden Crow divine bird on his Red Flame Divine Lamp, although magical, it needs to be fed with flames to make it grow.

So Zhao Fuyun used this god's name and combined it with mountain and cloud patterns, and a brand new talisman appeared. He named it the Dongyue Zhenshen Talisman.

It's no worse than the magic-suppressing spell.

Someone came to the store and bought a magic spell. If the magic spell is mainly used to suppress demons, then this Dongyue Zhenshen Talisman has the magical effect of suppressing everything.

He bought some earthen seal stones and thought about how to engrave everything related to his mind onto the seals.

First, the top of the seal was engraved with mountain and cloud patterns, and the bottom was engraved with the name of the Great Emperor Dongyue. Then, spells of suppressing, prohibiting, fixing, and sealing were engraved on all four sides.

He wanted to carve the magic-suppressing spell on it, but the spell had too many words and could not be carved at all.

Finally he thought of another spell.

"Edict!"

However, because the layout was not good, this seal was not engraved further.

He decided to find a better material for engraving.

He came to a more upscale store and finally found a kind of brass. The seller introduced it as Mianshan brass. Zhao Fuyun felt the stronger earth and gold elements from it.

When I asked about the price, I found out that a small seal the size of a thumb cost thirty spirit stones, and they didn't bargain.

Zhao Fuyun thought about it and bought it.

This seal is square, khaki in color, has nothing engraved on it, and is about the size of a thumb.

After he bought it, he carved mountain and cloud patterns on it, and then carved the name of the Emperor of Dongyin on the bottom. He also carved four spells on the four sides: "Chizhen", "Chifeng", "Chiding" and "Chijin".

After carving the seal, it is time to offer sacrifices and refine it. Before offering sacrifices and refining, it is just a talisman.

He communicated through mind control, visualizing a towering mountain overlapping the mountain seal in his palm.

The penetration of Dharma thoughts and the gathering of Dharma intentions is the first level of sacrifice.

Because the name of the god he engraved was not the name of an existing god in this world, it did not bring a strong divine will and Dharma nature. He needed to cultivate it himself. The process of cultivating the magic tool was also a kind of cultivation.

He found that his Dharma thoughts were constantly being refined and enriched. His original Dharma thoughts had a heavier feeling and were more condensed. He had not felt the progress of his Dharma power for a long time, but at this moment he clearly felt the progress again.

Ever since he turned to practice the "Taixu Wujie Sutra", he gradually felt that his own magic power had a sense of unreality. Sometimes he would feel as if there was nothingness in his body. No matter how much spiritual energy entered his body, it was like entering an empty void.

And in the process of refining the seal, he felt the reality.

This sense of reality is mysterious.

He suddenly had a flash of enlightenment in his mind. He realized that the "Taixu Wujie Sutra" he was practicing was not a method of cultivation without flaws. If he could not grasp it, he might be led into some unknown danger by this method.

If you become nihilistic and fall into nothingness, it may be either the physical body or the consciousness.

By refining this seal, he regarded it as himself. The mysterious power of suppressing the four directions suppressed his mind, body and soul.

After practicing for a night, Zhao Fuyun opened his eyes and stroked the warm brass seal in his hand, feeling happy.

"Let's call it Taiyue Zhenshen Yin!"

He held it around his waist like a jade pendant.

In Zhao Fuyun's opinion, this seal helps him practice more than it does for fighting.

A night of practice gave him a sense of peace of mind.

However, in the morning, someone came to collect the lease, which is the rent.

The annual rent is 1,200 spirit stones.

One has to pay for the whole year at the beginning of the year, which is equivalent to one hundred spirit stones per month. Zhao Fuyun doesn't know what the prices are like here, but since everyone does it this way, so let it be.

But he didn't have 1,200 spirit stones.

I asked the other party if he could wait for a while, but he didn't say anything.

Zhao Fuyun asked again if he could pick up the talisman and seal to pay. The other party asked about the price of Zhao Fuyun's talisman. After Zhao Fuyun said that, the other party's eyes changed when he looked at him.

He felt that Zhao Fuyun was making a random offer and treating him like a fool.

So he asked, "Do you know how many spirit stones the best talisman on the market costs?"

"How much others sell has nothing to do with me." Zhao Fuyun said.

The other party was silent for a while: "If you want to rent it again next year, you must pay the full rent before the end of this year, otherwise, leave here."

His tone was rather harsh, perhaps because he had seen too many people like Zhao Fuyun who could not afford the rent, so he had no sympathy for them. Or maybe he was simply not familiar with them and had no need to sympathize with them, or maybe he was annoyed by the price of the talisman Zhao Fuyun had just mentioned.

In short, it's very tough.

Zhao Fuyun scratched his head. He really had forgotten about the rent.

Anyway, now it’s just a matter of words: the New Year is almost here, I can’t go home, and I don’t have the money to pay the rent for next year. What can I do?

However, the Huang's Talisman Paper Shop next door to him paid the full amount.

Huang Donglai probably knew that they would come to collect it today, so he had already made preparations.

He had just heard that Zhao Fuyun had no spirit stones to pay, so he could not help but come outside, stick his head out to look at Zhao Fuyun, and thought to himself, "He is a casual cultivator with great magic skills. It's almost the New Year, and he has no money to pay the rent. He should not think of going back to the old ways."

He felt that his shop was right next to his, and after thinking a lot, he actually felt a sense of uneasiness.

In the past, he thought that Zhao Fuyun was just a young, impoverished independent cultivator with not much true self, or a member of a impoverished family.

But now, in Huang Donglai's mind, the Taoist priest Fuyun next door is a casual cultivator with powerful magic skills.

If a casual cultivator has strong magic skills, his hands must be covered in blood, and his main business must be looting, which makes him a little scared.

He heard from his younger brother that patrolmen from the Joint Patrol Division had been to the next door several times.

Even the patrolmen were wary of him.

Zhao Fuyun went out, walked around outside, then went out again and closed the shop door.

He had just taken a part-time job, helping people draw talismans at the White Tiger Hall. If he worked hard, he could still earn a thousand spirit stones a month, as the money was calculated by volume.

Zhao Fuyun never thought that as a cultivator, he would one day have to work for others.

However, Huang Dong, who was watching him leave, was thinking about another thing in his mind. He was a little embarrassed because he was wondering whether he should tell the patrolman about his speculation about the Taoist priest Fuyun next door.

　Whatever, since you work so hard, you should at least give me some monthly tickets.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)