Starting as a Talisman Master

With a solemn expression, Lu Chi took out his usual green talisman brush, a stack of blank talisman paper, and a dish of still-drying crimson talisman sand from his storage bag and arranged them neatly on the table.

He gripped the talisman brush, held his breath, and tried to use the eyes of a talisman master to trace and decipher the real patterns hidden deep within the fibers of the talisman paper.

This is a genuine second-tier spirit talisman. Lu Chi is currently only a first-tier high-grade talisman master. He has never even seen a complete second-tier rune before, let alone analyzed such an ancient fragment used for sealing.

He stared at it for a full half hour, until his eyes felt sore and his head throbbed with pain.

Those fragmented runes appeared as twisted, living things to me, chaotic and disorderly, with no clues to be found, let alone any secrets to be discovered.

"In the end, their vision and level of understanding are still too far apart."

Lu Chi put down the talisman brush and closed his eyes to calm himself for a moment. A thought flashed through his mind, but it made him hesitate subconsciously.

Should we use [Burning Thoughts] to forcibly deduce and repair the damage?

Reason told him that this was extremely risky.

He can't even draw a first-tier top-grade item, yet he wants to touch this second-tier ancient fragment?

But he took a deep breath, his eyes flickering in the dim candlelight, and quickly figured out the key to it.

The current situation is completely different; it's about repairing talismans, not drawing them.

He wasn't trying to create a second-tier talisman out of thin air, but rather to "mend" it.

This ancient fragment is made of neither gold nor wood, and it remains incredibly resilient despite the erosion of countless years.

Its very essence was designed to bear such hidden runes. With its framework intact and foundation extremely stable, it can fully withstand the spiritual pressure of a second-tier being.

What he needs to do is not to build a tall building out of thin air, but to use the extreme focus and insight of [Burning Thoughts] to see through the broken fog and reconnect the broken array patterns.

Paper can bear weight; what he lacks now is just a "needle" to thread the needle.

With the key to understanding cleared, all the hesitation in Lu Chi's eyes vanished.

The Great Dao is as deep as an abyss, and creation is always born from death. If one lacks even the Dao heart to throw oneself into the game and take the risk, then this path of defying fate and seizing immortality is not worth taking.

[Burning Thoughts]!

The pen tip, dipped in rich, crimson talisman sand, landed heavily on the tattered talisman paper that was neither gold nor wood.

As his talent was unleashed, it was as if a raging fire of ignorance had been ignited in Lu Chi's sea of ​​consciousness.

Those originally obscure and tangled second-order hidden runes, under extreme focus and overexertion, gradually shed their fog, revealing incomplete breaks and patterns.

He gritted his teeth, his wrist as steady as a rock, and dragged the pen tip to forcibly reconnect the broken array patterns.

Each stroke of his pen seemed to drain a sliver of his life force.

The complexity of a second-tier spirit talisman far exceeds that of a first-tier one, and the spiritual energy corridor contained within it is astonishingly vast.

With just a few strokes, his forehead was already covered in beads of cold sweat, which dripped down his pale cheeks onto the table.

But he dared not pause for even a moment, his mind fixed intently on the tip of his pen.

"Buzz—"

After an unknown amount of time, with the final, difficult stroke completed, the remaining talisman on the table suddenly emitted a low, buzzing sound.

The once lifeless surface of the talisman paper was suddenly filled with a subtle yet complete spiritual light, as if a withered tree had come back to life.

It became.

The incomplete talisman was finally repaired, transforming into a complete [Mysterious Scripture Collection Talisman].

However, the repair marks are extremely obvious.

The newly added crimson talisman is bright and dazzling, clearly contrasting with the original dry, blackened, and weathered ancient background. It's like putting an eye-catching red patch on an antique porcelain piece, giving off a rough feeling of forced stitching.

"Clatter."

The talisman brush slipped from his palm and landed on the table.

Almost the instant the aura closed, the state of [Burning Thoughts] receded like a tide.

An indescribable sense of terrifying weakness instantly overwhelmed Lu Chi's limbs and bones.

It felt as if a rusty, blunt knife had been shoved into my mind and was stirring wildly, followed by an abyss of weariness and drowsiness.

This feeling of his consciousness being completely depleted was several times more intense than when he first forcibly activated the [Burning Thought] technique to draw talismans.

Lu Chi gripped the edge of the table tightly with both hands, his eyelids felt as heavy as lead, and his body swayed uncontrollably, almost falling asleep on the spot.

"Finally repaired. Let me see what's hidden inside this talisman."

He took a deep breath, brought his pale index and middle fingers together, and channeled the last bit of spiritual power in his dantian onto the repaired [Mysterious Scripture Repository Talisman].

As spiritual energy was poured in, the red and black interwoven patterns on the surface of the talisman began to churn violently like boiling water.

Immediately afterward, under Lu Chi's gaze, the entire talisman spontaneously combusted without fire, turning into a wisp of dark blue dust.

The ball of light did not dissipate; instead, it followed his fingertip, which was touching the table, and, like a living thing, directly entered his meridians, rushing straight into his sea of ​​consciousness!

"boom!"

Lu Chi felt a silent roar in his mind.

Immediately afterwards, an extremely vast, ancient yet fragmented stream of information was forcibly crammed into the depths of his memory like a flood bursting its banks.

What was sealed inside this Xuanlu talisman was actually a fragment of an ancient cultivation technique that pointed directly to the Great Dao—the "Taiyuan Xuanshui Scripture"!

A massive flow of information surged through his mind, leaving him no time to carefully comprehend the profound mysteries of the "Taiyuan Xuanshui Scripture." His survival instinct compelled him to maintain his last shred of clarity, and with trembling hands, he pulled two talismans from his robes.

"Smack."

He slammed a warning talisman onto the wooden post at the head of the bed, and then tightly gripped a life-saving golden talisman in his palm.

Having made this final preparation, Lu Chi felt as if all the bones in his body had been removed, and he collapsed onto the stiff wooden bed with a "thud".

Before she could even pull the covers over herself, she instantly fell into a deep, unconscious sleep, completely unaware of anything.

……

……

I don't know how much time passed.

Lu Chi struggled to open his heavy eyelids amidst a burning hunger and thirst that seemed to scorch his stomach.

The room was dark and gloomy. Looking out through the half-open window, the daylight outside was rapidly fading from a lifeless gray-white into deep black, and night was slowly descending like a heavy curtain.

"He only slept for half a day..."

Lu Chi's voice was dry and hoarse, and he rubbed his still slightly aching brow as he struggled to sit up, propping himself up on the bed.

However, when he habitually glanced at the water clock in the corner of the room used for timing, and then used his divine sense to sense the residual dew aura of the Xuanbing Lotus in the spirit field in the backyard, his expression changed slightly.

Half a day is nowhere near enough!

The water level in the leak had already exceeded the full circle. He slept soundly through the entire day and night, remaining asleep until the evening of the next day!

Lu Chi felt a chill run down his spine. Using [Burning Mind] to repair a second-tier spirit talisman beyond one's level was an incredibly terrifying strain on one's mental energy.

If it weren't for the fact that his soul was already more resilient than that of ordinary cultivators of the same level after he awakened his talent [Combined Brushstrokes], this blow would have left an indelible hidden injury on his sea of ​​consciousness, turning him directly into a fool.

He picked up the cold tea on the table and gulped down three large mouthfuls to quell his thirst.

Taking a deep breath, Lu Chi closed his eyes and focused his mind, silently circulating his spiritual energy throughout his body. A moment later, he suddenly opened his eyes, the weariness in them replaced by a sharp glint.

Break and stand.

After this near-exhausting period of extreme exertion and deep dormancy, he not only replenished his losses, but could also clearly feel that his mind was more refined and clear than before.

The perceptions that were somewhat sluggish when drawing talismans in the past are now as clear and precise as an extension of one's own limbs in the sea of ​​consciousness.

"With my current mental strength and control over runes... it seems I can attempt to draw top-grade runes."