I proved immortality with thunder magic.

The Talisman Hall of Spirit Beast Mountain is an organization. In a broad sense, most of the Spirit Beast Mountain disciples who can draw talismans are members of the Talisman Hall.

However, the true members of the Talisman Hall are not many; they are mainly older talisman masters or young talisman masters with great potential.

The true talismanic tradition of Spirit Beast Mountain can only be mastered and inherited by high-level cultivators and foundation-building cultivators like Zeng Qiming and Li Jianping.

Of course, rights and responsibilities are equal.

Those who are able to master the profound talismanic arts of the sect must take on the responsibility of selecting and cultivating talents for the sect, and must complete some talisman-drawing tasks assigned by the sect free of charge.

Zeng Qiming wanted to promote Zhou Tai to an outer disciple and have him join the Talisman Hall, with the intention of developing him into a formal member of the Talisman Hall.

Therefore, it is essential to have a deeper understanding of his personal circumstances.

Therefore, after taking Zhou Tai to his usual courtyard where he entertained guests, he inquired in detail about Zhou Tai's experiences after becoming a disciple, including who he learned to draw talismans from.

He could actually find out these things himself, but letting the parties involved speak first, and then combining that with his own investigation results, would obviously be more truthful and credible.

Zhou Tai asked himself if there was anything he couldn't tell others about his experiences, and he didn't have any treasures he was afraid of others finding out.

Therefore, when asked by Zeng Qiming, he frankly and thoroughly recounted his own experience without any concealment or exaggeration.

He spoke for almost an hour, and Zeng Qiming showed no impatience whatsoever, listening quietly without interrupting.

Only after he finished speaking did she look at him with surprise and say, "So, your talisman-drawing skills are entirely due to your own self-exploration and understanding, without ever receiving guidance from any master!"

"That's exactly right."

Zhou Tai nodded, his tone very calm.

Seeing this, Zeng Qiming stopped asking questions and nodded to him, saying, "I understand. Starting tomorrow, you will stay here and learn to draw talismans from me. As for Junior Brother Zhang Lei Hefeng, I will give you a personal letter to take to him. He will definitely not stop you after reading it."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Tai breathed a sigh of relief, and his last worry was put to rest.

He quickly and respectfully replied, "Yes, disciple obeys."

Zeng Qiming then took out paper and pen and wrote a personal letter to Zhou Tai, leaving his own magical imprint as proof.

Soon after, a reply arrived from the Yuying Hall. After reading the reply, Zeng Qiming smiled slightly at Zhou Tai and said, "Junior Brother Chen from the Yuying Hall has agreed to this matter. Zhou Tai, you can go to the Yuying Hall tomorrow to collect the relevant items for outer disciples."

"As for the initiation ceremony, let's hold it together with the other newly recruited outer disciples after next year's outer sect competition!"

Zhou Tai's face lit up with joy, and he hurriedly bowed to Zeng Qiming in gratitude: "Master Zeng, I am deeply grateful for your guidance and support. Please accept my bow!"

He then knelt down and sincerely kowtowed to express his gratitude.

Zeng Qiming simply waved his hand and said calmly, "Get up. This is the treatment you deserve. I'm just setting things right!"

Then, without keeping Zhou Tai any longer, they let him leave directly.

Aaron Kwok was still on the mountain at this time. After Zhou Tai came out of Zeng Qiming's place, he quickly met up with him.

"How did it go? What did Uncle Zeng say?"

Upon seeing Zhou Tai, Aaron Kwok immediately began to inquire about the situation.

Although he expected that Zeng Qiming would not pursue the matter too much even if he saw through his scheme, he was still uneasy without a definite answer.

Zhou Tai also knew this, so he didn't keep him in suspense at this time. He quickly smiled at him and said, "Don't worry, Senior Brother Guo. Master Zeng has never mentioned our collusion from beginning to end, and has already agreed to take me as his student so that I can follow him to learn the Dao of Talismans in the future."

"Phew, that's good then. Congratulations, Junior Brother Zhou!"

Aaron Kwok breathed a sigh of relief and immediately greeted Zhou Tai with a big smile, bowing and offering his congratulations.

But Zhou Tai's expression turned serious, and he bowed to him with a solemn expression, saying, "I owe my success today entirely to Senior Brother Guo's great help. From now on, if you ever need my assistance, I will do my utmost!"

Aaron Kwok was slightly taken aback, then his smile widened as he quickly grabbed Zhou Tai's hands and said, "Junior Brother Zhou, you flatter me. We've been brothers for many years. If I were truly in trouble, I would definitely ask you for help!"

"If that day ever comes, I, your junior brother, will certainly do everything in my power to help you!"

Zhou Tai solemnly promised again, then smiled normally and said to Guo Fucheng, "Master Zeng has already taken care of my promotion to outer disciple. Tomorrow I can go to the Yuying Hall to register my name. I would also like to ask Senior Brother Guo what I need to be careful about."

Upon hearing this, Aaron Kwok immediately laughed and said, "It's nothing, I'll tell you the details right away."

After saying that, he went on to explain the relevant process in detail.

This process was originally somewhat complicated, as the initiation ceremony itself was quite tedious and even required several days of learning the relevant etiquette in advance.

However, Zhou Tai's initiation ceremony was held a year later, so the process was much simpler.

Simply put, all he needs to do is go to the Yuying Hall to verify his identity, revise his personal information, and then receive the introductory gift pack prepared by the sect for outer disciples.

After explaining the procedures to Zhou Tai in detail, Guo Fucheng seemed to realize something and couldn't help but sigh, "Junior Brother Zhou, you're so lucky! You can advance to the outer sect disciple just by drawing a talisman. Unlike other menial disciples who have to wait for the outer sect competition held once every nine years, which is a real life-or-death struggle!"

Zhou Tai had heard about the so-called outer sect competition in his first year of joining the sect, and it was even held a few years after he joined.

However, at that time his cultivation level was low and he had to work, so he didn't have the mind to pay attention.

Upon hearing Aaron Kwok's words, he was also moved and couldn't help but say, "Speaking of which, the outer sect competition is a grand event for the sect, right? I'll go and watch the excitement next year, and see how we cultivators fight and kill each other."

As soon as he finished speaking, Aaron Kwok nodded repeatedly and said, "That's right! Don't be fooled by the fact that this outer sect competition is just a battle between menial disciples for a chance to be promoted to outer sect disciples. It's just as exciting as the duels between outer sect disciples!"

"At that time, almost all the outer disciples within the sect will go to watch the excitement whenever they have free time, and there will even be quite a few Foundation Establishment cultivators in attendance!"

At this point, he smiled at Zhou Tai and said, "If I can return early, I can introduce you, Junior Brother Zhou, to some interesting fellow disciples!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Tai immediately said with a serious expression, "I take your words to heart, Senior Brother. My only connection in the sect right now is you, Senior Brother. Wouldn't it be incredibly boring without you by my side?"

When Aaron Kwok heard him say that, he knew that the man truly considered him a friend, and he was extremely happy.

He immediately laughed and said, "Haha, that's definitely true! Junior Brother Zhou, a talisman master with such great potential, once your name spreads, countless people will be begging to befriend you!"

As they were talking and laughing, as if to prove his words, other talisman masters who had been waiting on the mountain spotted the two of them and came up to Zhou Tai with joyful eyes.

Seeing this, Aaron Kwok gave Zhou Tai a mischievous smile and then left first.

Zhou Tai will be settling down in the Talisman Hall from now on, so he can't afford to strain his relationship with other talisman masters. He can only brace himself to deal with these talisman masters who come to make friends.

Fortunately, he had been a merchant in the mortal world for decades and had a wealth of experience in handling such matters, so he was unlikely to make any mistakes.

Zhou Tai stayed in the Talisman Hall until nearly dusk before he was able to escape and return to Leihe Peak.

By the time he finally returned to Leihe Peak, it was already dark.

However, considering that he still needed to go to the Yuying Hall to register his name the next morning, he still went to Zhang Yuanjing's cave to submit his request to visit, and took out Zeng Qiming's handwritten letter.

Sure enough, upon seeing the Palace Master's handwritten letter, the gatekeeper maid, who had initially been reluctant to help Zhou Tai report the matter, immediately took the letter and went to report it.

Not long after, Zhou Tai saw Zhang Yuanjing again in the same living room.

He looked at Zhang Yuanjing, who was still sitting in the grand master's chair, and bowed respectfully, saying, "Disciple greets Uncle Zhang."

Zhang Yuanjing looked quietly at Zhou Tai, who stood before him with a submissive expression, and said calmly, "Zhou Tai, you're quite capable. You managed to draw a thunder talisman without a word. Why didn't you tell me about this beforehand? And why did you use the excuse of going to the library to participate in the talisman battle at the talisman hall? Do you perhaps have some kind of opinion about me?"

Although his tone was calm, the questioning and dissatisfaction in his words were obvious to even a fool.

However, Zhou Tai had already prepared himself for this, and with a powerful backer now, he was not flustered.

He bowed again to Zhang Yuanjing and said, "Uncle Zhang, you are wise. I would never dare to have any opinion against you. I was just worried that other reasons would not be understood by Senior Sister Cai and would delay our trip. That's why I acted expediently in this emergency. If you blame me for this, I apologize and beg your forgiveness!"

When he explained that the reason for concealing his whereabouts was due to his concubine, and then frankly admitted his mistake, Zhang Yuanjing felt it was difficult to press the matter further.

The truth of the matter is no longer important, and it wasn't a big deal to begin with.

What's bothering Zhang Yuanjing now is that after Zhou Tai went to the Talisman Hall, who should feed his Thunder Pattern Frogs?

After careful consideration, he realized that using his status to pressure Zhou Tai would probably be useless now, so he simply laid his cards on the table: "Senior Brother Zeng of the Talisman Hall is highly respected. He personally wrote a letter specifically requesting you, so I naturally can't stop him. But what about my frog swarm here? If you leave, who will I find to replace you temporarily?"

However, Zhou Tai chose to play dumb and said, "Senior Brother Qiao Huan has been raising frogs for several years and is fully capable of taking over from his disciples. In fact, he is now doing most of the frog feeding."

This immediately displeased Zhang Yuanjing, who glared at him and coldly snorted, "Hmph, don't play dumb with me. You know what my point is!"

"Disciple understands, Uncle Zhang, you're referring to the matter of the mine!"

Zhou Tai suddenly seemed to understand, then cupped his hands and said, "If it's about this, Uncle-Master, you don't need to worry. Even if I go to the Talisman Hall, I can still make time to visit Thunder Crane Peak every few days until you recruit a more suitable person!"

It's highly unlikely that a more suitable person will be found, a fact that Zhang Yuanjing and Zhou Tai are well aware of.

Why would a normal disciple with the Thunder Spirit Root need to stoop to working for Zhang Yuanjing and raising frogs?

However, Zhang Yuanjing's expression softened when he heard that Zhou Tai was also willing to raise frogs part-time.

Zhou Tai's original role was this, and as long as the frog swarm could continue to grow and expand normally, he didn't really care that much about Zhou Tai's whereabouts.

So he quickly nodded and said, "Then that's settled. You will continue to come to Leihe Peak every three days until I find an alternative."

After saying that, he added, "Of course, I won't let you work for nothing. From now on, I'll increase your monthly allowance of spirit rice to thirty catties. You don't have any objections to that, do you?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Tai quickly replied, "This disciple dares not accept such a favor; this disciple is most grateful for the gracious reward from my master!"

I feel completely relieved now.

With 30 catties of spirit rice a month, he could eat spirit rice every day. You should know that many outer disciples with poor families can't even afford that!

Moreover, this is only the frog-feeding wage given by Zhang Yuanjing. Uncle Sun, who lives in Biyutan, has another frog-feeding wage waiting for him!

He was happy, and a smile couldn't help but appear on his face.

Seeing Zhou Tai's seemingly advantageous demeanor, Zhang Yuanjing felt even more displeased.

For him, there wasn't much difference between five catties of spirit rice and thirty catties of spirit rice per month.

The root of his dissatisfaction lies in his own misjudgment; he failed to take Zhou Tai, a menial disciple right under his nose, seriously in time.

As a wind-attribute cultivator with a unique spiritual root, he should have been well aware of the advantages that cultivators with unique spiritual roots had over ordinary cultivators, and should have shown more favor to Zhou Tai from the beginning.

The incident of the Thunder-patterned Frog appearing at Bishuitan last time should not have been presumed to be the work of Zhou Tai before a thorough investigation was conducted, in an attempt to coerce Zhou Tai into confessing.

In particular, he knew about Zhou Tai's drawing of thunder talismans before, but he didn't take it seriously. Instead, he thought Zhou Tai was overestimating himself.

As a result, Zhou Tai not only successfully drew the Thunder Talisman, but was also valued by Zeng Qiming, the Lord of the Talisman Hall, who took him in as a student and promoted him to an outer disciple. This made him feel like he was slapping himself in the face, saying that he was blind!

The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he became, and the less he wanted to see Zhou Tai again. So he quickly waved his hand and said, "Alright, this is none of your business. You'd better watch yourself from now on!"

Zhou Tai couldn't wait to leave, and upon hearing this, he immediately replied, "Yes, disciple takes his leave."

Then he quickly left the living room.

Watching Zhou Tai's retreating figure as if he were fleeing, Zhang Yuanjing's expression darkened further.

After pondering for a while with an uncertain expression, he finally decided that he hadn't done anything seriously wrong and couldn't help but snort coldly, "Hmph, so what if he really has good talent for drawing talismans? He's over fifty years old and still only at the fifth level of Qi Refining. He doesn't have a real master to guide him, so he'll just waste his life at the Qi Refining stage. What do I have to care about!"