A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

Carefully spreading open the Talisman Paper, Lü Zhong took in its full appearance. It took him a moment to react, but his heart was already flooded with delight.

”A True Talisman! I’m not mistaken, this is a True Talisman!”

A ”True Talisman” wasn’t a specific type of Talisman, but a designation for a special class of them.

For instance, an unencrypted Talisman could be classified as a True Talisman.

Their purpose was to preserve the heritage of High-Tier Talismans.

This practice might seem foolish, for if a True Talisman fell into enemy hands, its secrets would be exposed.

However, behind every seemingly foolish practice in the Cultivation Realm, there was often a painful lesson learned from the past.

Take, for instance, the ”Six Ding and Six Jia Talisman,” a legendary Talisman of immortal legacy that was famous throughout the Cultivation Realm hundreds of thousands of years ago. This Secret Talisman could draw upon its own power to gather the surrounding Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, forming a six-layered protective shield. As long as the surrounding Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi was not depleted, the shield could continuously repair itself.

Like Low-Tier Talismans, the Six Ding and Six Jia Talisman was quite simple to use. Infusing just a sliver of Magical Power was enough to activate it, allowing anyone to wield it.

A Talisman of such astonishing power was enough to change the entire landscape of the Cultivation Realm. Consequently, the High-level cultivators of that era began to universally pursue Secret Skills and Magical Treasures of immense destructive force.

Because of the Six Ding and Six Jia Talisman, the North Sect of that time—the North Immortal Talisman Palace—was able to dominate Central Earth. This forced the other Three Sects to set aside their prejudices and unite. They had to resist the cultivators of the Talisman Palace, who, armed with a vast number of Six Ding and Six Jia Talismans, possessed a combat prowess that was simply unheard-of.

After realizing the threat posed by the Six Ding and Six Jia Talisman, the Three Sects quickly formulated a response. They had identified a vulnerability in its method of inheritance. To guard the Talisman’s secrets, the Talisman Palace had intentionally designed it with layers of ciphers so that only specially chosen successors could possibly interpret and master it.

For this reason, the Three Sects dispatched their Divinity Transformation Grand Venerables to eliminate every single person who had mastered the Talisman, no matter the cost.

Their targets even included a Divinity Transformation cultivator from the Talisman Palace.

This battle was historically known as the ”War of the True Talisman.”

The results of the Three Sects’ campaign were immediate. Without the Six Ding and Six Jia Talisman, the North Immortal Talisman Palace instantly lost its dominance and has never recovered, even to this day.

Learning from the Talisman Palace’s tragic lesson, the Cultivation Realm later developed the concept of the True Talisman.

Pulling his wandering thoughts back, Lü Zhong carefully examined the True Talisman in his hand. It looked familiar, and he suddenly remembered. ’Isn’t this the Talisman that Qingding used back at the Ten Thousand Witches Hall?’

The memory was seared into his mind: after activating this Talisman, Qingding had been able to borrow Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi.

With a single attack, he had nearly shattered all of his Defenses.

Playing the scene back in his mind, Lü Zhong confirmed that the Talisman Qingding had used was an encrypted version of this very True Talisman. Moreover, the name of the Talisman had been written on that encrypted version.

”Jia Yuan Heavenly Talisman!”

As he whispered the four words, he couldn’t help but feel puzzled.

’Since they have the True Talisman, it stands to reason that a place like Changchun Valley, with its ten-thousand-year history, should have plenty of Jia Yuan Heavenly Talismans stockpiled. So why is it that back in the Ten Thousand Witches Hall, I only saw Qingding use one? Even Wanmu didn’t use a Jia Yuan Heavenly Talisman before he died.’

’Could there be some restriction on creating this Talisman?’ As the thought struck him, Lü Zhong’s expression tensed. He quickly landed on a possible reason.

’It couldn’t be... could it have something to do with Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi?’

It was common knowledge that only cultivators at the Divinity Transformation Stage could command Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi.

The more Lü Zhong considered it, the more plausible it seemed.

’In that case, if I want to create a Jia Yuan Heavenly Talisman, does that mean I’ll have to find a source of Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi first? Just like how I need Yang Qi to draw an Evil Exorcism Talisman?’

Spiritual Objects containing Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi certainly existed in the Cultivation Realm. However, throughout the realm’s long history, the easily obtainable ones had long since been claimed. How could a mere Nascent Soul Cultivator possibly acquire the rare ones that remained?

’The Jia Yuan Heavenly Talisman is too tempting to just give up on,’ Lü Zhong mused. ’It seems my only option is to find some way, perhaps a relevant Secret Skill, to gather Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi and infuse it into the Talismans.’

As far as he knew, such Secret Skills did indeed exist.

However, obtaining one would be incredibly difficult. Otherwise, a major power like Changchun Valley wouldn’t have been sitting on a treasure trove for so long, unable to put the Jia Yuan Heavenly Talisman to use.

There was also a broken Jade Disc.

Almost half of the Jade Disc was missing. The intact portion was engraved with exquisite patterns, making it look like a mundane object. Even observing it with his Celestial Net Secret Eye revealed nothing Divine Wondrous about it, and yet, it was radiating Spiritual Qi.

The amount was not large, but it was incredibly pure.

’It’s not much different from a Tier Four Spiritual Vein,’ Lü Zhong thought.

He guessed that this Jade Disc was the physical manifestation of a Spiritual Eye—and one from one of the High-tier Spiritual Veins, no less. Someone had simply carved it into the shape of a disc later on.

Such an act was despicable.

After all, destroying a Spirit Vein was by no means a respectable act in the Cultivation Realm.

An object from a Spiritual Eye, when left within the Spirit Vein that birthed it, could endlessly radiate Spiritual Qi. Once removed, however, its connection to the world would be severed. It would typically exhaust all its Spiritual Qi and become inert after three to five hundred years.

But since he wasn’t the one who destroyed the Spirit Vein, he could accept it with a clear conscience.

With this Jade Disc, as long as he kept it on his person, he could enjoy the sensation of being immersed in highly-concentrated Spiritual Qi anytime and anywhere.

’As expected of a Nascent Soul True Monarch. They really carry a lot of good things.’

After Lü Zhong finished taking inventory of these items, he turned his attention to the Magical Treasures that had belonged to Qingding and Wanmu.

There were a good number of them—five in total.