Ghost Immortal

Time was of the essence, so Li Feng immediately took action.

He found a blood vine among the herbs left by the old man. It was a dark red vine that, when crushed, would release a dark red sap, the color and viscosity of which resembled blood.

He scraped some gold lacquer powder off the statue and mixed it into the blood vine juice.

As for a substitute for the talisman paper, he chose a pile of rags that the old man had discarded in a corner.

These tattered cloths were used by the old man to wipe the body of the cauldron. They were black and grimy, but the material was still quite tough. Moreover, they had been used many times. Under the long-term immersion in spiritual energy, these cloths had also absorbed a trace of spiritual energy, making them more suitable for drawing talismans than ordinary cloths.

Li Feng used a thin stick whittled from charcoal to make a talisman pen, dipped it in blood vine juice, and drew talismans according to the pictures in the book.

Drawing talismans was much more difficult than he had imagined.

Each stroke of a talisman has a specific way of circulating spiritual energy. The spiritual energy must flow evenly along each stroke; if it is even slightly off, all the previous efforts will be wasted.

When the first talisman was halfway drawn, the cloth suddenly emitted blue smoke to Li Feng's delighted look, and the talisman instantly burned to ashes, leaving behind a pile of ash.

Undeterred, Li Feng cut another piece of cloth and continued painting.

After drawing the second talisman, the spiritual energy poured into it seemed to disappear without a trace, like a clay ox sinking into the sea.

failure!

When I was drawing the third talisman, my hand trembled with excitement at the last stroke, causing the spiritual energy output to become unstable, and it burned again.

hateful!

Then came the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth.

Li Feng painted from dusk until dawn the next day, leaving piles of rags and scraps on the ground, but not a single painting was successful.

He was so anxious that he started pulling at his hair, but luckily he had a lot of hair, otherwise he would have been pulled bald.

Now Li Feng couldn't help but understand the programmers of his past life. They lost so much hair just from drawing a talisman; it was perfectly normal for programmers to be bald.

After calming down, he had to reflect on where the problem lay.

The talisman patterns in the book are very complex, with each talisman consisting of dozens of strokes.

Although he had the cultivation level of five inches, his precise control over spiritual power was far from sufficient, and he ultimately overestimated his comprehension.

You need to start practicing with simpler talismans.

Li Feng flipped to the very beginning of the talisman chapter and found the most basic talisman: the immobilization talisman.

The effect of the immobilization charm is simple: it can freeze the target for a brief moment, lasting only a breath or two.

But this effect can be deadly enough in a life-or-death battle.

The design of the immobilization talisman is much simpler than that of the advanced talismans, consisting of only a dozen or so strokes.

Li Feng cut a new piece of cloth, held his breath, and slowly began to write.

With the first stroke, spiritual energy flowed out evenly, leaving a dark red mark on the cloth that glowed faintly.

Having learned from previous failures with difficult talismans, I can now control my pen more steadily when drawing simpler ones.

He was very careful with each stroke, but by the seventh stroke, the brilliance on the cloth was still unstable, and the dark red patterns flickered.

Li Feng gritted his teeth and forcibly stabilized his spiritual energy output, his fingers even looking a little stiff.

Fortunately, the result was good. The patterns on the fabric became brighter and brighter, and the whole fabric trembled slightly, as if it were gradually coming to life and breathing.

As the last stroke was made, the entire talisman burst into a bright red light, which then quickly dimmed.

The dark red patterns solidified on the fabric, becoming a mark similar to a brand.

Become!

Li Feng picked up the unfinished immobilization talisman and could clearly feel a faint spiritual power sealed inside.

This spiritual energy is not abundant, but its strength lies in its stable structure; it can be released simply by tearing the talisman.

However, the quality of this talisman is far from meeting the standards described in the book.

The book says that the immobilization talisman can freeze a cultivator at the Spirit Root stage for one to three breaths, but the spiritual power in his talisman is too thin, and at most it can only freeze a cultivator with a Spirit Root of about five inches for a moment.

A moment is the time it takes to blink.

For ordinary people, a moment is too short.

But for cultivators, the blink of an eye is enough to determine the winner.

Li Feng carefully put the immobilization talisman close to his body and then continued drawing the second one.

Having the experience of a successful first time, the success rate is much higher later on.

Unfortunately, the materials were too poor. The talismans drawn with blood vine juice had a weak spiritual light, and the quality of the cloth was uneven. It would be considered lucky if two out of ten were successful.

He spent three whole days using up all the blood vine juice to draw three half-finished immobilization talismans.

With three talismans, you have three chances to go first.

But that wasn't enough; Li Feng always felt it wasn't stable enough.

Li Feng closed the book and turned his gaze to the open space outside the dilapidated temple.

He now has Fireball, Palm Lightning, and three Immobilization Charms, but these are all for direct confrontation.

The bald old man didn't know his background, which was his advantage. But if he made a mistake in a direct confrontation and the old man realized what was going on, the consequences would be unimaginable.

He needs to set a trap; it might save his life in a critical moment.

The trap was not intended to kill the old man outright, but to render him incapacitated at a crucial moment, thus creating an opportunity for Li Feng to deliver a fatal blow.

Li Feng returned to the temple, opened the tattered book, and searched through the chapter on formations.

Formations are more complex than talismans, requiring spiritual objects as their core to draw the formation patterns. These spiritual objects are the heart and source of power for the formation.

The array patterns are like the blood vessels of an array, used to guide the flow of spiritual energy.

The simplest type of formation is called a trapping formation, which is used to trap targets that enter the formation and restrict their movement.

The trapping formation does not require spiritual objects as its core; it only requires drawing formation patterns according to local conditions and arranging them using the five elements, making it relatively simple.

Li Feng found a suitable one in the trapped formation: a swamp formation.

The effect of the mud swamp formation is simple: with earth as the core, the ground within the formation's coverage area will turn into a mud swamp, and anyone who steps on it will sink in, the more they struggle, the deeper they sink.

The materials needed to set up the swamp array are not complicated. A few stones containing spiritual energy are used as array nodes, and then spiritual power is used to inscribe array patterns between the nodes to connect them.

The stones were easy to deal with. When Li Feng cooked spirit rice and meat tendons before, the ground next to the cauldron was soaked with spiritual energy, and several stones were also stained with spiritual energy. Although the energy was weak, it was still usable.

He then rummaged through the old man's pile of herbs and found several dark red mineral stones. These were the weight stones the old man used to weigh down the lid of the cauldron when refining pills, and they contained a trace of fire-attribute spiritual power.

Li Feng selected seven stones and, following the diagram in the book, dug seven small pits in the ground inside and outside the temple gate, then buried the stones in them.

Then, using a thin stick shaved from charcoal, they carved patterns on the ground.

This work is even more tiring than drawing talismans, because the array patterns must be precisely connected to the seven array nodes; even an inch off is unacceptable.

Moreover, when carving, one must continuously input spiritual energy to allow it to penetrate the ground, activate the earth element, and form a stable channel of spiritual energy.

He spent three whole days drawing, failing twice, leaving the ground a mess, as if it had been dug up by wild boars.

It was only on the third attempt that they finally succeeded. The seven spirit stones glowed faintly, and spiritual energy flowed on the underground array patterns, forming a circular array area with a diameter of about two zhang.

Li Feng stood at the edge of the formation and threw a stone into it.

The stone landed on the ground within the array's range, and the ground suddenly became soft, like mud soaked in water. It slowly sank in and disappeared completely into the ground after a moment, leaving no trace.

Li Feng gasped.

The power of this formation was far greater than he had imagined.

If a person steps on it, they can sink right up to their knees, making it difficult to pull their legs out.

He immediately thought of a problem: the mud trap could indeed trap people, but the old bald man wasn't stupid. If he saw that the ground was not right, wouldn't he go around it?

The formation had to be disguised, so Li Feng cut down some dry grass and leaves from the mountain and spread them on the ground covered by the formation, then sprinkled an inch of topsoil on top to make it look exactly like the surrounding yellow earth.

Then he placed a bluestone slab next to the formation, which looked like it had been randomly discarded, but was actually used to guide the old man's walking route.

When people walk, they subconsciously avoid obstacles. When they see a bluestone slab, they will walk around it and step right into the formation.

After arranging everything, Li Feng stepped back a few paces and took a closer look.

It was well disguised; you couldn't tell there was a trap on the ground unless you looked closely.

After doing all this, Li Feng sat back down cross-legged on the haystack.

Close your eyes and mentally reenact the situation.

The bald old man returned from the foot of the mountain, walked up the stone steps, and pushed open the temple door.

As soon as the temple door opened, the first thing the old man should have seen was Li Feng lying on the ground. He pushed over the bronze cauldron, pretended to be weak and powerless, and lured the old man in.

When the old man walks in, he will most likely step into the disguised mud pit outside the door.

If he steps on it, his legs will sink into the mud, restricting his movement.

Li Feng attacked from behind the statue, first using a stun talisman to freeze him for a moment, then unleashing a palm lightning and fireball spell simultaneously, aiming to take him down in one fell swoop.