I proved immortality with thunder magic.

Increasing the success rate of drawing the Fire Serpent Talisman from 40% to 50% was much more difficult than Zhou Tai had anticipated.

It took him more than a year to break through to the fifth level of Qi Refining.

A year or so may not seem like a long time, but for him, who was always pressed for time, it was a huge sacrifice.

Moreover, he only bought one bottle of Ginseng Qi Nourishing Pill that year, and spent the rest of his spirit stones on buying talisman paper and ink. He even bought a better talisman brush.

If you calculate it carefully, he has drawn talismans at least two thousand times in the past year!

Therefore, it can be said that his 10% increase in success rate was entirely due to burning spirit stones.

But no matter what, he still succeeded.

With a 50% success rate for Fire Serpent Talismans, if he specializes in drawing only this type of talisman in the future, and if the talisman market remains as prosperous as it is now, he can conservatively earn 30 to 50 low-grade spirit stones per month, and at least 400 to 500 low-grade spirit stones per year.

This is an income that many outer disciples in the late stage of Qi Refining can only dream of!

But this did not satisfy Zhou Tai.

Because he knew very well that the market profit of the Fire Serpent Talisman, a talisman that many talisman masters could draw, would only decrease in the future, and the more he drew, the faster the profit would decrease.

The Thunder Talisman is different. Its rarity and immense power mean that no matter how many he draws, it will be difficult for him to disrupt the market on his own.

Furthermore, drawing thunder talismans not only brings him a large income of spirit stones, but also greatly enhances his status and position.

A cultivator with a mid-stage Qi Refining Thunder Spirit Root who is over fifty years old is nothing in the eyes of the Foundation Establishment cultivators of Spirit Beast Mountain. They don't care whether he is a menial disciple or an outer disciple.

However, if this cultivator with the lightning spiritual root can also draw lightning talismans, then the identity of a menial disciple is clearly not worthy of him.

There are multiple paths for the menial disciples of Spirit Beast Mountain to advance to the outer sect disciples, and one of them is to improve a certain cultivation technique to the corresponding level.

Therefore, Zhou Tai must draw the Thunder Talisman.

He not only had to paint, but also had to finish the work as soon as possible, because time was running out.

What Aaron Kwok said back then has now become a reality.

The five sects of Heng Kingdom, including Ling Beast Mountain, are now sending batches of outer and inner disciples to the Demon Abyss Mountains for training. The six demonic sects of Ba Kingdom are not to be outdone, and have also sent a large number of demonic disciples into the Demon Abyss Mountains.

Although no real war has broken out between the cultivation communities of the two countries, the situation is already showing signs of war.

Aaron Kwok can still stay in the sect for the time being, but he can't delay for too long, and he himself doesn't want to delay for too long.

After all, he had already reached the ninth level of Qi Refining. If he didn't go to the Demon Abyss Mountains to slay demons and monsters, it would be difficult to exchange for auxiliary Foundation Establishment spiritual items from the sect.

In this situation, Zhou Tai could only avoid disrupting his subsequent cultivation plans by drawing the Thunder Talisman before Aaron Kwok left, thus advancing himself to the level of an outer disciple.

As for the method of making thunder talismans, Aaron Kwok had already found it for him. The method recorded on it was only one type of first-grade mid-level thunder talisman, which was the "thunder strike talisman".

Yes, this "Lightning Strike Talisman" and the "Lightning Strike Technique" that Zhou Tai knows are the same spell, but the latter can only be cast by cultivators with lightning spiritual roots, while the former can be used by any cultivator.

However, there is still a big difference between talismans and spells. The former uses the power of runes to communicate with heaven and earth, and uses talisman paper and ink as a medium, while the latter is completed by the cultivator himself.

Therefore, Zhou Tai's knowledge of "lightning strike technique" did not greatly help him in drawing "lightning strike talismans".

Now that he had the method, and had long since practiced drawing with an ordinary brush to the point where he could draw with his eyes closed, and had honed his talisman-drawing skills to a new level, Zhou Tai naturally couldn't wait to start trying it out.

Zhou Tai has accumulated a considerable amount of special talisman paper and ink for making thunder talismans over the years, but he currently lacks the means to replace the talisman brush.

According to Aaron Kwok, a specially made talisman pen using the spirit hair of a lightning-attribute demon beast and a lightning bamboo pen handle starts at least at three hundred low-grade spirit stones, and a slightly better one goes for five or six hundred low-grade spirit stones.

Zhou Tai simply cannot afford such a talisman brush right now; he can only wait until he actually draws a thunder talisman.

As long as he can draw the thunder talisman, he can ask Aaron Kwok to give him a talisman brush.

However, even though Zhou Tai was already a talisman master with profound talisman skills, when he actually started drawing thunder talismans, he was still like a novice who had just learned to draw talismans, and his first talisman quickly failed.

The reason for the failure to draw the talisman this time was quite simple: the power of lightning was too unstable, and it directly destroyed the talisman paper if it was out of control.

Zhou Tai frowned, then immediately spread out a new blank sheet of talisman paper and continued to draw talismans.

But after only a few strokes, sparks suddenly appeared on the talisman paper, and black smoke rose up.

Seeing this, he couldn't help but put down his talisman brush and looked at the ruined talisman paper on the table, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Is the talisman too fragile, or is the lightning too powerful?"

If it's the latter, that's fine; but if it's the former, then that's troublesome.

Putting aside the effort and spirit stones he has wasted on the former over the years, it is not easy for him to find better talismans now.

Although Aaron Kwok has a wide network of connections, it is limited to the outer disciples and miscellaneous disciples. If he were to search for high-quality resources such as Thunder Pattern Frog Skin, even if he could find some at a high price, it would definitely not be enough.

If it's the latter, Zhou Tai might still have a solution.

So he continued to try several more times and finally determined that the main reason was that the power of lightning was too strong.

Fu Mo's own lightning power is not strong, but when it merges with his lightning-attribute magic power, it will produce a great amplification, making it easy to get out of control.

To prevent the power of lightning from getting out of control, Zhou Tai needed to control the scale of his mana output while simultaneously increasing the intensity of his divine sense control.

These are all basic techniques for drawing talismans, but the difficulty lies precisely in these techniques.

The more fundamental something is, the more difficult it is to adapt to, and there are no shortcuts.

Zhou Tai was very troubled by this, but he had no choice but to try and fail slowly.

Fortunately, he now has ample resources to afford the costs of trial and error.

But just as Zhou Tai was concentrating on drawing the thunder talisman, a thunderbolt that had been buried earlier suddenly exploded!

That day, Zhou Tai was drawing talismans in his quiet room in his bamboo house when a loud shout suddenly came from outside.

"Where is Zhou Tai? Uncle Zhang orders you to go see him immediately!"

In the well-soundproofed, quiet room, the shouting sounded very faint, but it was still clear enough for Zhou Tai to hear.

Hearing the unfriendly tone of the person who spoke, his hand holding the pen paused slightly, and black smoke quickly rose from the talisman paper.

But his attention was no longer on that; instead, he muttered solemnly, "Judging from the tone of this relay, Uncle Zhang's summons is more of a curse than a blessing!"

He didn't know what he had done to anger Zhang Yuanjing, but he didn't have much time to think about it.

Since the visitor was so rude, if he delayed any longer, the situation would only get worse.

So he hurriedly put away the talisman pen and unused talisman paper, and quickly went out to meet the person who came.

Before long, Zhou Tai arrived at Zhang Yuanjing's cave with the messenger.

It is worth mentioning that the "cave dwelling" referred to by cultivators does not only refer to the dwelling inside a mountain cave; buildings on the ground can also be called cave dwellings.

Zhang Yuanjing's cave dwelling was located on the ground and was an extremely exquisite courtyard. This was Zhou Tai's first time visiting this place.

He followed a maid into a living room and saw Zhang Yuanjing sitting in a grand chair with a gloomy face, his face frighteningly dark.

Seeing this, he dared not hesitate and immediately knelt down with a "plop," bowing and saying, "Disciple greets Uncle Zhang."

Zhang Yuanjing looked at Zhou Tai kneeling on the ground and questioned him with a gloomy gaze, "Zhou Tai, since I took over Leihe Peak, have I ever mistreated you?"

Zhou Tai didn't understand why he asked that, but he quickly replied, "Uncle Zhang, you treat me extremely well. You even give me spirit rice every month. Since I entered the sect, I have never met such a kind elder as Uncle Zhang!"

He wasn't lying; at least he was genuinely grateful for the gift of the spirit rice.

Unexpectedly, upon hearing his answer, Zhang Yuanjing slammed his fist on the table and roared, "Then why did you betray me?"

Before the shout had even finished, a powerful divine pressure erupted and slammed down on Zhou Tai.

This time, with no one else to help Zhou Tai share the pressure, he was immediately overwhelmed by the oppressive force of the divine sense, feeling suffocated, dizzy, and short of breath, as if someone was choking him and making it difficult to breathe.

His face flushed red as he hurriedly said, "Uncle Zhang, what are you talking about? Even if I had a thousand lives, I wouldn't dare betray you!"

"Hmph, still pretending to be stupid!"

Zhang Yuanjing snorted coldly, looking at Zhou Tai struggling on the ground like a fish out of air, and said in a chilling tone, "You've always been in charge of raising Senior Brother Yang's Thunder-Patterned Frogs. Now explain to me why Senior Brother Sun Jianghai is also raising Thunder-Patterned Frogs? Where did his Thunder-Patterned Frogs come from?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Tai's heart sank, and he finally understood why he had put on such a show today.

Even though he cursed Aaron Kwok a thousand times in his heart, Zhou Tai knew he absolutely could not admit to this, otherwise he would be in serious trouble today.

He hurriedly cried out, "I'm innocent, Uncle Zhang! I've been cultivating on Thunder Crane Peak all this time. Since joining the sect, apart from Uncle Yang and you, I've never had any dealings with a third Foundation Establishment uncle. I have no idea who this Uncle Sun you're talking about is!"

He was absolutely right in what he said, and he spoke with complete confidence.

But Zhang Yuanjing wasn't so easily fooled. He coldly stared at him and questioned, "It's fine if you don't know Senior Brother Sun, but what's the deal with Senior Brother Sun's Thunder-Patterned Frog? Do you dare say this has nothing to do with you?"

"No, it has absolutely nothing to do with this disciple!"

Zhou Tai shook his head repeatedly in denial, without the slightest hesitation.

Seeing that he stubbornly refused to admit it, a cold glint flashed in Zhang Yuanjing's eyes, and his tone became dangerous: "Are you planning to deny everything to the death? Do you really think I can't make you tell the truth?"

Zhou Tai continued to protest his innocence, saying, "Uncle Zhang, you have truly wronged your disciple! And even if you are going to punish me, at least let me die knowing why!"

His face was filled with grief and indignation, and there was not a trace of falsehood in it.

Zhang Yuanjing stared at him for a long while before nodding and saying, "Fine, I'll let you die knowing why!"

After saying that, he said angrily, "I received news today that Senior Brother Sun Jianghai of Biyuetan is also raising a group of Thunder-patterned Frogs, all of which are juvenile frogs less than two years old. He is now offering a reward for experienced and capable disciples to help him raise the frogs. Where do you think his juvenile frogs came from? And who is this reward for?"

Hearing his words, Zhou Tai felt relieved.

It seems that Aaron Kwok still has some conscience; he didn't completely sell him out.

He immediately said, "So, Uncle Zhang, you suspect that the baby frog that Uncle Sun gave you was given to you by your disciple? And the bounty is also aimed at your disciple?"

"If it's not you, then who else could it be?" Zhang Yuanjing said coldly.

"I'm innocent, Uncle Zhang! Think about it, when you first came to Leihe Peak, it was summer or autumn, not the time when the Thunder-patterned Frogs lay eggs at all. Before that, Uncle Yang was even stricter with his disciples, and they had no chance or dare to sell frog eggs and tadpoles privately!"

"Furthermore, since you arrived, the Thunder-striped Frogs have been taking care of their eggs and incubation with the help of Senior Brother Qiao, whom you assigned to assist the disciples. The number of baby frogs has remained unchanged!"

"As for the so-called bounty, I have been staying on Thunder Crane Peak and rarely leave. Even if there were a bounty, I wouldn't know, let alone abandon you, Uncle Zhang!"

At this point, Zhou Tai suddenly adopted a look of resignation and shouted, "If you still don't believe me, then take me to confront that Uncle Sun face to face. If Uncle Sun says that I stole and sold his Thunder-Patterned Frog, you can kill me or torture me, but I won't dare utter a single word!"

Hearing his words and seeing his wronged expression, Zhang Yuanjing couldn't help but frown.

In fact, Zhang Yuanjing only suspected whether Zhou Tai was responsible for the incident, but had no evidence whatsoever.

His attitude just now was most likely intentional, to see if he could scare him out of something.

However, Zhou Tai's reaction from beginning to end did not seem to indicate that he knew beforehand, nor did it show any signs of lying.

This made him wonder if he had wronged someone.

After a moment of contemplation, he withdrew his divine sense pressure and looked at Zhou Tai indifferently, saying, "Fine, even if what you say is true, and Senior Brother Sun's Thunder-Patterned Frog wasn't obtained through your private sale, then where did it come from? Don't tell me he caught it from outside!"

Zhou Tai quickly shook his head and said, "This disciple does not know."

Before Zhang Yuanjing could react, he immediately continued, "However, this disciple knows that Senior Uncle Yang previously sold Thunder-Patterned Frogs to another Foundation Establishment Senior Uncle, apparently because that Senior Uncle bought a Blue-Feathered Thunder Crane egg, which hatched into a Blue-Feathered Thunder Crane chick!"

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Zhang Yuanjing immediately said, "I also know about this matter. That blue-feathered thunder crane chick is now Senior Brother Sun's spirit pet!"

After saying that, he looked at him intently and said, "But I know even better that the Thunder-Patterned Frog that Senior Brother Yang sold was a dead frog!"

Zhou Tai was startled, his mouth agape in surprise. "Ah, is that so? But when I handed over the Thunder-Patterned Frogs, they were all alive!"

Zhang Yuanjing couldn't tell if he was lying, but he knew it would be very difficult to make him give himself away.

And since the mountain stream frog pond is now completely inseparable from Zhou Tai, he could never actually kill someone in a fit of rage because of this.

So after weighing the options, he decided to let Zhou Tai off the hook for now and continue his investigation in secret.

Having made his decision, he glared coldly at Zhou Tai and warned, "Zhou Tai, you'd better not try anything funny in front of me. Otherwise, if I catch you doing anything wrong, I'll have plenty of ways to make you wish you were dead!"

Zhou Tai quickly bowed his head and replied, "This disciple dares not!"

"Get out!"

Zhang Yuanjing waved his hand and shouted as if shooing away flies.

"Uncle-Master's insight is truly remarkable. This disciple is deeply grateful and will take his leave now."

Zhou Tai kowtowed again before respectfully getting up and leaving the living room.

After he went out, he immediately looked shaken, then glanced back at the living room with awe before quickly bowing his head and leaving the courtyard.

Inside the living room, Zhang Yuanjing used his divine sense to take in Zhou Tai's reaction, and a look of doubt immediately appeared in his eyes.

Did we really misunderstand him?