Cultivating immortality in the seas, I created an immortal island of eternal life.

How could it be her?

Several thoughts flashed through Gao Yao's mind in an instant. He remembered that this girl was timid and introverted, her voice barely louder than a mosquito's buzz, and she always kept her head down when she saw people, as if she was terrified of strangers.

Besides, wasn't the other party from a small fishing village?

Could someone with such a personality and background be a master of talismans?

Ye Zi walked closer and quickly nodded slightly to Gao Yao, then, as if afraid of being discovered by Steward Chen, she quickly lowered her head like an ostrich: "Steward Chen."

"Hmm." Manager Chen's attitude towards Ye Zi was somewhat more gentle. "Ye Zi, this kid Gao Yao wants to learn talisman making. He's already got the hang of material processing. In the future, please take some time to give him some pointers."

"You know the rules. Teach what you should teach, and don't say or ask things you shouldn't."

"Yes, steward," Ye Zi replied softly, her fingers twisting the hem of her clothes.

Manager Chen then turned to Gao Yao, his ambiguous smile returning: "Gao Yao, don't let her young age and quiet nature fool you, she has some real skills in the art of talismans."

"You should learn from them carefully, and don't be arrogant and unrealistic just because you have a little bit of cleverness."

Gao Yao suppressed his surprise and doubt, and quickly cupped his hands to Ye Zi: "Thank you for your trouble, Miss Ye. I hope you will give me more guidance in the future."

Ye Zi seemed startled by his respectful attitude, her shoulders shrank slightly, and her voice became even softer: "No, no trouble at all, Brother Gao, you're too kind."

......

After leaving Manager Chen's place, Gao Yao led Ye Zi to a secluded spot behind the fish market, where there was an old warehouse where miscellaneous items were stored, and few people usually came here.

Manager Chen said that they should be allowed to study there for the time being.

Neither of them spoke the rest of the way.

Gao Yao walked ahead and could feel the footsteps behind him, which always kept a distance.

His mind was in turmoil.

Manager Chen's meaningful expression, Wang Yao's seemingly casual yet precise arrangements, and the frail girl behind him who bore no resemblance to a talisman master...

All of this combined gave him the feeling of being led by the nose.

Gao Yao hated this feeling of being unable to control his own destiny, like being trapped in sand, the more he struggled, the deeper he sank.

But right now he has no choice. The autumn exam is like a gate to hell in front of him, and strength is the only straw he can hold onto.

Upon arriving at the warehouse, we pushed open the creaking wooden door.

Inside were piles of wooden crates and bottles and jars, dust swirling in the beams of light filtering through the cracks in the door. In the center was a square table with peeling paint, and in the corner were a few stools.

"Miss Ye, this is the place, it's a bit simple." Gao Yao stepped aside.

Ye Zi walked in with her head down, and stopped two steps away from the table, as if she remembered that she should move a chair first.

Seeing this, Gao Yao quickly moved two stools and placed them on the table: "Miss Ye, please sit down."

"Thank you." Ye Zi moved over and carefully sat on half of the stool, her back straight, her hands neatly placed on her knees, her eyes fixed on a wooden grain on the table, as if there was some extraordinary view there.

Gao Yao also sat down opposite him.

There was a table between the two, and the atmosphere was somewhat tense.

Sunlight streamed in through the latticed window high up, illuminating the dust motes floating in the air and Ye Zi's lowered profile.

Her skin was very fair, not the dark reddish-brown skin often seen on women from fishing families, but a porcelain-like white that hadn't seen the light of day for a long time.

At this moment, a very faint blush appeared on her porcelain-white cheeks, whether from the heat or from nervousness, it was hard to tell.

"Miss Ye," Gao Yao broke the silence first, his tone exceptionally gentle, "Manager Chen said you are quite skilled in talismans, and we will be troubling you in the future."

"I have never made talismans before, so I have to learn everything from scratch. If I do anything wrong, please point it out directly."

Ye Zi glanced at him quickly, then lowered her eyes again, her voice soft: "I only know a little bit about it. Brother Gao can process materials quickly, so he must be very smart. It shouldn't be difficult for me to learn from him."

She always spoke with that timid pause.

"You're too modest, young lady." Gao Yao took out a small coarse cloth bag from her bosom, inside which were the talisman materials that Steward Chen had previously examined. "These are the materials prepared according to the book 'Preliminary Appraisal of Talisman Materials.' I wonder where we should begin with this first step?"

Ye Zi didn't answer directly. Instead, she stood up and walked to the table, arranging the materials from the cloth bag in front of her. She did these things nimbly, but unlike before, she wasn't as reserved, as if she were a different person.

"The first step in making talismans," Ye Zi's voice was still not loud, but her tone was calmer, "is mixing the ink."

She picked up the small bottle containing the clear liquid, uncorked it, and a faint fishy smell mixed with the scent of herbs wafted out.

"The blood of this Silver Blood Shuttle is quite laborious to prepare. It needs to be filtered seven times over three days to remove all impurities in order to maintain its spiritual power."

"Brother Gao's preparation is a bit lacking, but it's usable."

Gao Yao nodded and made a mental note of it.

Ye Zi found two clean small bowls, carefully poured the liquid from the bottle into each bowl, about half full, then opened the packet of red phosphorus powder, scooped out a small pinch of powder, and sprinkled it evenly into one of the bowls.

The powder did not settle upon entering the liquid, but instead slowly suspended, like a thin layer of red mist.

"When adding the red phosphorus powder, you must maintain the input of spiritual energy." Ye Zi said, while dipping her finger into the bowl and stirring gently, "so that the powder and spiritual blood can be fully mixed. Otherwise, the ink color will be uneven, and the flow of spiritual energy in the drawn runes will be sluggish."

She stirred very slowly, her fingertips gleaming with a faint light, and the liquid in the bowl gradually changed from transparent to a uniform crimson, thick as blood.

As Gao Yao watched her technique, he suddenly realized that the creation of talismans in this world was far more complex than he had imagined.

Based on his previous life's cultivation novels, he thought drawing talismans was simply about dipping a brush in ink and drawing on paper. Now he realized that just the process of making ink alone was enough to give him a lot of trouble.

"That's enough." Ye Zi withdrew her hand, her fingertips lightly tracing the rim of the bowl, not a single drop of ink remaining. "Brother Gao, you try it."

Gao Yao took the other bowl, followed suit, sprinkled in the powder, and then inserted his finger into it.

The spiritual energy flows from the fingertips, touching the fine powder. It requires extremely precise control; it cannot be too forceful to disperse the powder, nor too weak to allow it to sink to the bottom.

He tried several times before the powder could barely suspend, but it kept gathering and dispersing, far less even than Ye Zi's.

Sweat had already beaded on his forehead.

"Take your time, there's no rush," Ye Zi said softly.

Gao Yao took a deep breath, steadied his wrist, and adjusted his spiritual energy output little by little.

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the bowl finally showed a fairly even red color.

"That's fine." Ye Zi nodded and took another item from the table.

It was a processed spirit fish skin, so thin it was almost transparent, laid flat on the table, its texture as delicate as silk.

"The second step in making talismans is drawing the patterns."

Ye Zi took out two slender pens from the bundle at her waist.

The pen barrel was made of some unknown material, entirely black, but the nib was not bristles, but a small, sharp crystal that gleamed coldly in the light.

"This is called a spirit pattern pen. The tip is made of low-grade spirit stone, which can better guide spiritual power." She handed a pen to Gao Yao. "Each stroke of the rune must be infused with spiritual power into the pen tip before being drawn on the spiritual material."

"It cannot be interrupted, it cannot be delayed, and there cannot be the slightest deviation."

Gao Yao took the pen; it felt slightly heavy in his hand.

Ye Zi then took out a thin piece of paper from her bosom. It had a few simple lines drawn on it, shaped like a small sword.

"This is the pattern of the wooden sword talisman, a first-tier low-grade talisman, one of the most basic talismans, suitable for beginners to practice. First, take a look at the pattern and try to trace it a few times on paper. After you are familiar with it, then draw it on spirit skin."

Gao Yao took the blueprints and examined them carefully.

The patterns are not complicated, but every stroke, rise and fall, and turn is deliberate, like a miniature formation.

He closed his eyes and memorized it several times before trying to write it down on paper.

The paper is ordinary paper; it doesn't require spiritual power, it only needs to be deformed.

The first few strokes were crooked and uneven, but by the third drawing, he was able to draw smoothly in one stroke.

"It's almost done." Ye Zi glanced at it. "Now let's test it on the spirit skin."

Gao Yao took a deep breath; the real test was about to begin.

He poured the prepared spiritual ink into the crystal groove at the tip of the pen, and slowly channeled spiritual energy into the pen shaft.

The pen tip falls.

The first stroke went smoothly, but starting with the second stroke, the left hand had to maintain the spiritual energy input of the spiritual ink in the bowl, while the right hand had to steadily output the runes. Doing two things at once, the spiritual energy in the body split into two streams, as if it were about to tear the person apart.

With a flick of the wrist, the pen tip veered slightly off course.

laugh!

A wisp of smoke rose from the spirit skin, the patterns burned off, and the entire skin was ruined.

"It's okay, it's always like this at the beginning," Ye Zi said softly, handing over a new spirit skin.

Gao Yao gritted his teeth and tried again.

The second time, the spiritual energy output was unstable, the ink color was sometimes thick and sometimes thin, and the runes collapsed on their own halfway through drawing.

The third time, the left hand stopped typing for a moment, and the ink on the right pen tip dried up, resulting in failure.

The fourth time, the fifth time...

Sweat streamed down Gao Yao's forehead and dripped onto the table, but he didn't bother to wipe it away.

The discarded spirit skins piled up one by one, like a silent mockery.

He suddenly understood why talisman making was so difficult to master.

Without guidance, relying solely on trial and error, one might exhaust all the materials and still not be able to produce a single sheet.

Just coordinating the left and right hands requires a lot of practice.

Ye Zi didn't urge him, but sat quietly opposite him, occasionally handing him a new piece of leather.

"You can make your spiritual energy output with your left hand more stable; there's no need to rush," she advised softly. "When you start writing with your right hand, first pour in seven-tenths of your spiritual energy, and then gradually increase it to ten-tenths as you write. This way, it's less likely to break."

Gao wanted to try it as she said.

Sure enough, the pen tip moved more smoothly.

By the time he finished drawing the last line on the tenth spirit skin, he had finally completed the drawing.

The moment the brush touched the paper, the fine vein-like lines on the skin suddenly glowed faintly, then quickly dimmed and disappeared into the skin.

It became.

A wooden sword talisman lay quietly on the table, its patterns clear and its spiritual power restrained.

"It's done!" Ye Zi's voice unconsciously rose a little, seemingly overjoyed at Gao Yao's success. "Brother Gao is truly talented."

Gao Yao let out a long breath and leaned back in his chair, only then realizing that his arms were sore and that most of his spiritual energy had been depleted.

He glanced at the pile of waste on the table: nine spirit skins, half a bowl of spirit ink, and all that energy and time.

If converted into spirit stones, it would be enough for an ordinary fisherman to pay the sea tax several times over.

No wonder talisman masters are so rare and precious; ordinary people can't afford such losses.

"Thank you for your guidance, Miss Ye." Gao Yao stood up and solemnly cupped his hands in greeting. "Without your careful instruction, I'm afraid I would still be struggling to get started."

Ye Zi was taken aback by his bow and quickly stood up, took half a step back, and lowered her head again.

"Brother Gao, don't be like that... Yes, it's because you have good understanding." As she spoke, her fingers began to twist the hem of her clothes again, and her fair wrist was faintly visible at the cuff.

Looking at her like this, Gao Yao's doubts resurfaced.

How could a girl from a fishing village be so skilled in making talismans?

Manager Chen said she had real skills, and that didn't sound like a polite remark.

But Gao Yao didn't ask. In this place, it's better to ask less than more; knowing too much isn't necessarily a good thing.

"I'm truly sorry for taking up so much of your time today, young lady." Gao Yao took out a small cloth bag from his robes, inside which were a few fragments of spirit stones. "Please accept this small token of my appreciation."

"No, no need..." Ye Zi retreated repeatedly, waving her hands erratically in front of her. "I... I can't accept what Steward Chen instructed!"

Her face turned red to her ears, and she quickly shook her head.

Seeing that she was refusing so strongly, Gao Yao didn't want to force her and took the bag back.

"Then I'll thank you another day, Miss." He paused, "I'm afraid I'll be bothering you quite often in the future."

Ye Zi gave a soft "hmm" without looking up.

"It's getting late, I'll take my leave now." Gao Yao tidied up the things on the table and cupped his hands in a respectful gesture towards her.

"Take care, Brother Gao." Ye Zi still didn't look up, her voice as soft as the wind.

Gao Yao turned and left the warehouse, the sunlight shining obliquely on him.

He squinted, stood at the door for a moment, and then walked towards the dock.

In the open space outside the fish farm, several fishermen squatted against the wall, smoking and chatting.

As Gao Yao walked by, he caught a glimpse of two somewhat familiar faces out of the corner of his eye.

He paused slightly, recognizing the two men who had been squatting with Old Man Ma earlier; one was missing an ear, and the other was thin and hunched over.

They seemed to have seen Gao Yao, but quickly turned their faces away and continued whispering something.

Gao Yao didn't think much of it and continued walking forward.

These days, I've been going in and out of the fish market so many times that I've seen so many fishermen's faces that they're all familiar.

But then he suddenly remembered that he hadn't seen Old Man Ma for a while. The man used to squat outside the fishpond smoking and would chat with anyone he met, but now he was nowhere to be seen.

Perhaps it's because of mobility issues that I'm going out less.

Or perhaps...

Never mind, it's none of my business anymore.

Gao Yao snapped out of his thoughts and quickened his pace.

......