Mortal: Starting with the Golden Jade Book

Several months later.

A secluded corner of Yellow Maple Valley.

Lin Zui manipulated countless low-level talismans to float around his body, forming a strange "battle armor," and was dealing with his senior brother Wang, who was wielding a top-level magic weapon.

Faced with Senior Brother Wang's relentless sword energy attacks, this "battle armor" would occasionally light up with specks of spiritual light, sometimes forming small spiritual energy shields around its body to block the sword energy attacks, and sometimes conjuring vines, water, and threads to attack Senior Brother Wang from various strange angles, unpredictable and quite magical.

Senior Brother Wang's attacks were consistently ineffective, and he was overwhelmed by these unpredictable attacks. Knowing that this couldn't go on, he gritted his teeth and launched a series of fierce attacks, forcing Lin Zui back. He then took out a high-level talisman and was about to activate it.

How could Lin Zui let him have his way? The spiritual light on the "battle armor" flashed again, and the speed suddenly increased, leaving several afterimages in the air. Before Senior Brother Wang could react, it had already appeared in front of him like a ghost.

Lin Zui brought down his stone axe, but in that critical moment, Senior Brother Wang activated a mid-level water shield talisman. The moment the stone axe collided with the spiritual water shield, the water shield shook violently but quickly returned to normal. The stone axe, however, was completely annihilated into specks of spiritual light, like bubbles.

Lin Zui frowned slightly. The stone axe in his hand was not a real magic weapon, but rather a transformation of a low-level, elementary rockfall talisman.

This method of manipulating talismans, which can transform them into weapons, is arguably his greatest achievement in studying the "Myriad Manifestations Talisman Armor" over the past few months.

The seemingly simple transformation can unleash a greater power than directly activating and throwing a talisman, but clearly, it is not enough for it to directly break through a water shield talisman that is a level higher than itself.

Another rockfall talisman appeared in his hand, and then the talisman was activated, transforming into a giant stone scythe that slashed at the water shield again with a whistling sound.

After the collision, the stone sickle was destroyed, and the water shield was restored to its original state, although its spiritual light was noticeably dimmer.

Then came another one, but this time, under Lin Zui's control, the Falling Rock Talisman transformed into a sharp stone spear. Finally, the water shield could no longer withstand the piercing of the stone spear and shattered with a bang, turning into specks of spiritual light and dissipating into the air along with the stone spear.

Lin Zui did not continue his attack, but savored the feeling from just now. Seeing this, Senior Brother Wang also wisely stopped activating the talisman and stood respectfully to the side.

"To break through the surface with a single point, to achieve the greatest results with the least amount of effort... So that's what it means."

Lin Zui nodded secretly. If the Falling Rock Talisman were used to attack the Water Shield Talisman normally, even with the advantage of elemental counter, the level difference would still be significant. Without seven or eight Falling Rock Talismans, it would be difficult to break through the protective shield formed by the mid-level Water Shield Talisman.

However, after using the talismans to transform into weapons and launching a targeted attack, breaking through the opponent's defenses with just three talismans, it was as if the power of the Falling Rock Talisman had been increased two or three times.

"This Myriad Talisman True Monarch is indeed quite something. His talisman manipulation technique alone is enough to make him stand out among cultivators of the same level. However, this Myriad Manifestation Talisman Armor..."

Lin Zui glanced at the strange "armor" he was wearing, hesitated for a moment, then looked at Senior Brother Wang and asked, "Old Wang, what do you think of the supernatural powers of this set of talismanic armor?"

"Um... combining numerous talismans in a synergistic way, with exquisite control and unpredictable variations, has great potential, but..."

Senior Brother Wang hesitated for a moment, and seeing that Lin Zui's expression did not change, he tentatively continued.

"However, they are ultimately just low-level talismans, and their power is still a bit lacking. If I had continued to activate the talismans just now, this set of talisman armor might not have been able to easily withstand the burst of power from high-level talismans. Even if it could have, it would probably have exhausted most of the talismans' spiritual power, and the talisman armor would have been practically half-useless..."

Lin Zui nodded. He naturally understood the problem that Senior Brother Wang was talking about. Solving the problem of insufficient power was also very simple. He just needed to replace the talismans that made up the talisman armor with mid-level or high-level ones.

However, while upgrading talismans is simple, being able to activate and smoothly control them at any time is not so easy.

The biggest problem is that the higher the level of the talisman, the harder it is to activate. Some mid-to-high-level talismans even require cultivators to use their essence blood in conjunction with lengthy incantations to activate. However, the Myriad Manifestations Armor is designed for close combat. In the midst of a fierce battle, there is no time to slowly activate the talisman.

This is why, although True Monarch Wanfu once dominated the region, this incomplete "Myriad Manifestations Armor" was truly a useless piece of junk in the eyes of high-level cultivators.

"However... if it's just a beginner-intermediate or advanced talisman, it's not entirely impossible."

Compared to intermediate and higher-level talismans, to instantly cast a beginner-to-high-level talisman, all you need to do is inject a sufficiently large amount of mana at once.

Lin Zui's magical power far surpasses that of others of the same level, so the total amount of magical power is not a problem at all. It's just that his meridian expansion is insufficient, so the amount of magical power he can output instantly cannot meet the requirements.

Therefore, if he could increase the speed of mana output, Lin Zui would likely be able to instantly cast mid-to-high-level talismans ahead of time. At that time, upgrading the talismans that make up the talisman armor to mid-level or even high-level would be an absolutely terrifying boost to his strength.

As for how to increase mana output speed?

It's very simple. Just use the Spirit Void Array Talisman to construct an amplification array at the meridian point, and you can instantly and significantly increase the output of mana, which can completely achieve the purpose of instant casting of mid-to-high-level talismans.

However, after what happened to Uncle Yu a few months ago, Lin Zui inexplicably developed a sense of distrust towards the contents of "Yu Feng's Array Explanation".

Who knows if this guy, who even schemes against his own junior disciples, has planted some kind of landmine in his book?

He was quite surprised that this person would actually bring out such a high-level array inheritance in exchange for a Foundation Establishment Pill.

I once thought it was just good luck that I'd stumbled upon a mentor who was willing to guide younger generations, but now that I think about it...

The other party probably has ill intentions!

If I really construct the internal magic array using spiritual energy runes as described in the book, will all my hard work in cultivation end up benefiting this person?

Lin Zui couldn't help but doubt himself, and consequently, he wasn't very confident in the Spirit Void Array he had created.

Although he was somewhat confident in using the Spirit Void Array Talisman to construct an amplification array, what if he faced his Uncle-Master in the future and was turned around and used against him at a crucial moment?

Fortunately, this Uncle Yu has not returned to Huangfeng Valley since that day. It is unknown whether he is hiding somewhere to recover from his injuries or realized that his true colors had been exposed and simply fled far away. This gave Lin Zui a temporary sense of relief.

"I wonder what the final outcome of that battle was, and whether the Sumeru Insects fell into Uncle Yu's hands. If I were a cultivator from Spirit Beast Mountain, I would rather destroy those Sumeru Insects than let him get away with it."

Lin Zui thought fiercely. Although he didn't know what the man was trying to do by getting the Sumeru Worm at all costs, he figured it was probably related to the internal magic array circulation that he was so eager to perfect.

Judging from his combat prowess that day, if he were to perfect the internal array circulation, his strength would probably be comparable to that of a Core Formation cultivator, which would be a huge problem in the future.

Lin Zui frowned. With such a potential threat present, he couldn't help but feel a sense of urgency.

"We must improve our strength as soon as possible!"

Lin Zuixin steeled his heart and decided to take the risk. Even if there were some traps in "Yu Feng's Array Explanation", the problem should be with the spiritual energy runes, not the spiritual energy array runes he modified.

Even if the Spirit Void Array Talisman has problems, we can simply avoid using it when facing our martial uncle. At least it can still enhance our combat power when facing other enemies.

It's a pity that in the "Golden Jade Book", there are very few secret techniques and supernatural abilities that can be cultivated during the Qi Refining and Foundation Building stages, and those related to combat are even rarer. Otherwise, why would I waste my time on these shallow cultivation methods in the human world?

Lin Zui sighed. Fortunately, there was still a secret technique called "Primordial Divine Light" in the "Five Elements Transformation Technique" that could be cultivated, but it required breaking through to the seventh level of Qi Refining.

There are also several auxiliary secret techniques that require reaching the seventh level before they can be cultivated. Thinking about it this way, it would be more practical to focus on cultivating them first and break through to the seventh level.

Lin Zui cleared his mind and suddenly had a direction in his heart. Without further hesitation, he and Senior Brother Wang flew towards their residence on their magical artifacts.