Taoist cultivation begins with being a miner

Hand-foot replacement?

Looking at the ability of this thing, Lu Yan fell into deep thought. Although it was only a one-time use item, it could have unexpected effects when fighting enemies.

Imagine you're locked in a life-or-death struggle with your opponent, and suddenly your arm turns into a leg—that would be certain death.

Good stuff, something that can save your life.

Then he looked at the belt in the system.

It is extremely gorgeous with gold thread embroidery and gemstone pendants.

Lu Yan clicked to start looking at the function of the belt.

"The King's Belt (Disposable)"

A belt from a great king, imbued with royal majesty and awe. Its use will cause all creatures within a three-zhang radius to kneel before you for fifteen minutes. (The stronger one is, the weaker the effect.)

Friendly reminder: Every time I see countless people kneeling before me, I feel immense pride. Although I know they are kneeling before the King, at this moment I am no different from the King. What difference does it make whether I kneel before him or before me?

Oh, this is a group control item, not bad.

Finally, Lu Yan looked at the yellow bead, which seemed to have light flowing inside, making it very mysterious.

Click once.

"Pearl of Inheritance (Disposable)"

A ritual implement that can store the knowledge learned by the living and pass it on to the next generation.

Friendly reminder: I have devoted my life to studying talisman making, but unfortunately, I am not talented enough to achieve much.

Feeling unwilling to give up in my old age, I specially stored my experience and insights in talisman making in this bead, hoping that those who are destined to receive my inheritance can go further.

Upon learning the function of the yellow bead, Lu Yan was overjoyed. There was no other reason than that this inheritance bead was the most practical for Lu Yan at this stage.

With the skill of talisman making, one can change their current situation and no longer have to work themselves to death to mine ores.

There are many professions in the cultivation world, but the most popular ones are nothing more than four: formation, weapon crafting, alchemy, and talisman making.

Among them, talisman making is the most suitable for Lu Yan's current situation. The required items are cheap, and the spiritual power consumed during talisman making is small. It is also the best choice for all low-level cultivators.

Alchemy requires purchasing an alchemy furnace and medicinal herbs. In addition, it requires a large amount of spiritual energy to support the alchemy fire. At the very least, one needs to be in the mid-stage of Qi Refining before the furnace can be opened.

Refining weapons is similar to refining pills, but as for formations, Lu Yan wouldn't even dare to think about them.

Without hesitation, Lu Yan took out the Inheritance Pearl from the system and placed it on his forehead to connect with it using his divine sense.

A moment later, a flood of memories of a talisman maker entered Lu Yan's mind.

They possess the techniques, experience, and insights for making talismans.

Unfortunately, they were all first-tier low-level and mid-level talismans.

After digesting the contents of the Pearl of Inheritance, Lu Yan, who had been busy for a day and a night, could no longer hold on and fell into a deep sleep.

……

When I woke up again, the sun was already high in the sky.

Lu Yan had no intention of going back to work at the mine. With the system's support, he was better off than mining.

As soon as I stepped outside, I found the whole neighborhood to be incredibly quiet. Everyone was going to work very early; life here is a place where you can't stop for a moment.

Lu Yan's courtyard was very dilapidated, consisting of a main house, a side room, a kitchen, and an outhouse.

The main house is where Lu Yan lives, while the side room is used by Lu Yan to store miscellaneous items.

As for the kitchen and the outhouse, they eat fasting pills every day, so they can't poop even if they want to.

The surrounding walls were dilapidated, and it was easy to see inside the courtyard from the outside, offering no privacy whatsoever.

Lu Yan's left neighbor was a Qi Refining Level 2 cultivator named Liu Fu'an, who was also a miner, but he didn't work in the same mine as Lu Yan.

Seeing that no one was around, Lu Yan quickly tore off a piece of clothing that Liu Fu'an was drying and took it back to his room.

He took out his True Word Pen, pricked his palm and dripped blood into the penholder, then absorbed the scent from Liu Fu'an's clothes and began to write on the paper.

A moment later, the Pen of Truth wrote several lines of blood-red words.

"I painstakingly mined three hundred baskets of spirit ore, but that bastard surnamed Chen withheld my spirit stones. I'll kill him one day, and then slaughter his whole family, leaving no one alive."

Looking at the contents, you can tell that Liu Fu'an is complaining about his mine manager, who is so similar to his former self.

Shaking his head helplessly, he realized this was the life of a low-level cultivator, and could only feel resentful in his heart.

Lu Yan did not stop writing with the Pen of Truth, squeezing out more blood as soon as it ran out.

"The ladies at Huayue Tower are absolutely irresistible, but unfortunately they're too expensive. I don't have any extra spirit stones this month, so I'll come back next month."

Lu Yan knew about the Flower Moon Pavilion; it was a brothel in the outer city of Worry-Free City, catering specifically to cultivators at the lower levels.

The women inside were in the same situation as Lu Yan; they had all been tricked into coming here. They couldn't do heavy work like mining, so they could only sell their bodies in brothels to earn spirit stones.

There are many brothels like Huayuelou in Wuyou City, but I've heard that they're not as respectable as the brothels in the inner city.

Lu Yan did not stop and continued writing.

"Huh? That kid next door isn't dead? I saw Zhao Ming from the Ba Mao Gang sneak into his house in the middle of the night with my own eyes."

Unexpectedly, Zhao Ming, who was at the second level of Qi Refining, failed to kill the newbie at the first level.

Lu Yan was stunned when he saw this message, which was related to the death of his original self.

Zhao Ming and Lu Yan, the original owner of the Ba Mao Gang, both knew each other.

This Ba Mao Gang is actually a small group of more than ten people. Each household has to pay them ten Soul Shards every month as protection money, and Lu Yan also pays.

Their gang leader is not only a cultivator at the third level of Qi Refining, but also his brother-in-law who is in charge of housing in this area, which is why he is so rampant.

And Zhao Ming was one of the members of the Ba Mao Gang.

I was wondering why the room was so messy when I transmigrated. It turns out that Zhao Ming killed the original owner while he was asleep, giving Zhao Ming an opportunity to take advantage of him. However, it seems he didn't get anything.

Zhang Ming never imagined that he hadn't hidden the spirit stone in the main room, but had instead dug a hole in the outhouse and buried it there, making it undetectable by divine sense.

After saving for more than a year, I only managed to save five spirit stones, which is quite tragic.

Currently, Lu Yan only has thirteen spirit stones and spirit fragments in total.

Having not received much useful information from Liu Fu'an, Lu Yan withdrew the True Word Pen and prepared to go to the outer city to purchase items related to talisman making.

It's the same market where I bought the Bigu Pill yesterday. There are many markets like this in the outer city of Wuyou City that sell items used by lower-level cultivators.

The streets are lined with shops selling all sorts of things. In addition, there is an area where cultivators can set up stalls freely for just ten spirit fragments per day.

Most of these shops buy materials and meat from monsters.

At this moment, those strolling around the street were mostly cultivators who earned spirit stones by hunting demonic beasts.

Hunting monsters is the most common profession besides mining, and it is also what Lu Yan calls high-level slavery.

If nothing unexpected happens, I will join their ranks once my cultivation reaches the second or third level of Qi Refining. This is the path of advancement for most miners, which is tightly controlled by Wuyou City.

There's no need to worry about a lack of monsters, because Wuyou City is located deep in the wilderness, and further north lies the continuous Qiongyi Ridge, where monsters are countless.

The rate at which those demonic beasts reproduced far exceeded the rate at which cultivators could hunt them.

Hunting monsters is lucrative, but also dangerous. Some hunters fail to hunt monsters and are killed by them instead, while others are lurked in the shadows and profit from the chaos.

The area outside the city was even more chaotic than the area inside; it was a true lawless zone.

I arrived at a shop that sells raw materials for talismans. The shop was very small, only about 20 square meters, and the shop assistant and the shopkeeper were the same person.

Upon seeing Lu Yan enter, the shopkeeper was initially quite polite, but his smile gradually faded after he sensed Lu Yan's cultivation level.

"I am the manager here. May I ask what you would like to order?" the manager asked.

"Give me a basic talisman encyclopedia, a regular talisman brush, a bottle of first-grade low-level spirit ink, and a dozen first-grade low-level talisman papers." Having received the inheritance of a talisman maker, Lu Yan naturally knew what he needed to buy.

"Oh~ Fellow Daoist, please wait a moment." I thought he was just browsing in the shop, but I didn't expect him to be a big customer.

They quickly prepared what Lu Yan wanted, packed it together, and placed it in front of Lu Yan.

"Fellow Daoist, the talisman brush costs two spirit stones, the talisman paper costs one spirit stone, the spirit ink costs one spirit stone, and the complete basic talisman manual costs one spirit stone. In total, it's five spirit stones."

"Here you go." Lu Yan took out five spirit stones from his pocket and handed them to the other party, then quickly left with the package.

"Another young man trying to learn talisman-making to change his fate, but is talisman-making so easy to learn?" The shopkeeper shook his head and muttered to himself as he watched Lu Yan's departing figure.

He had seen far too many people like Lu Yan, but very few of them succeeded and ultimately had to succumb to fate.

On the way back, Lu Yan made sure his clothes and his bundle were very dirty to prevent anyone with ill intentions from robbing him. Lu Yan was very weak at the moment.

Lu Yan originally wanted to put the contents of the package into the system's storage space, but the system did not accept foreign items, which made him quite disappointed.

It seems I need to find a way to buy a storage bag, otherwise carrying it around like this is too conspicuous.

Lu Yan remembered that even the cheapest storage bag cost more than ten spirit stones, which he simply couldn't afford.

In short, I'm still too poor.

Having returned to his residence without incident, Lu Yan opened the Complete Book of Basic Talismans and began to examine it.

It contains the methods for making hundreds of first-tier low-level talismans.

Lu Yan spent a whole day carefully reading through it before he began to make the talisman.

There are specific rules for making talismans; different levels of talismans require different levels of talisman paper and spiritual ink.

This spirit ink is made from the blood of demon beasts, and the talisman paper is also made from the hide of demon beasts. However, the talisman paper and spirit ink that Lu Yan bought were all from low-level demon beasts.

The art of talisman making is inseparable from demonic beasts in every aspect. Talisman masters need materials from demonic beasts to make talismans, and the finished talismans are bought by cultivators to hunt demonic beasts, and so on.

Lu Yan laid the talisman paper on the table, dipped the talisman brush in the spiritual ink, took a deep breath, and chose the simplest cleansing talisman for the first talisman he made.