Rising from Small Cloud Rain Technique

Chapter 118: Chapter 115: Metal Dao Seed

Upon hearing the question, Wei Songnian gently shook his head and said:

“No, it won’t. Twelve thousand talismans, with a sixty percent success rate for the Talisman Maker, only seven thousand two hundred would succeed.

The sect’s pace in occupying wild outposts has never stopped, and there are at least four to five thousand Qi Refining disciples actively hunting demons. It’s quite common for these disciples to carry a dozen or so talismans each.

The demand for talisman paper remains significant. Fellow Daoist, your previous talismans were good but relatively niche.

If replaced with something like the Explosive Flame Technique, you wouldn’t have to worry about sales at all.”

Talismans are consumables, and under the current circumstances, their consumption is enormous.

Without a dramatic increase in the number of Spirit Farmers planting Talisman Grass within the sect, talisman paper and talismans remain in high demand.

Ji An relaxed, as long as it didn’t affect purchasing fish fry and the Magic Array:

“For better cultivation, I practice the Wood Element Technique.

With strong wood comes thriving fire, I’ve been practicing fire element techniques lately. From now on, I’ll spend time daily crafting Flame Bursting Talismans and hand them over to Fellow Daoist Wei.”

His Explosive Flame Technique has reached Great Success, and after several more challenging months refining spiritual mechanisms, the technique can breakthrough to the Perfection level.

By then, I can continuously craft Flame Bursting Talismans.

Wei Songnian’s eyes shone brightly: “Very much looking forward to that day coming soon.”

Middle-grade Flame Bursting Talismans are in high demand; however many are produced, they can be sold. As the sect occupies more outposts, the gap for talismans will widen.

“I won’t let Fellow Daoist wait for too long.”

Ji An drank the Spirit Tea in his cup and smiled:

“You both have traveled far, stay here tonight and enjoy a few drinks, experience the charm of Red Flame Peak at night.”

“That’s the intention, thank you for your hospitality.”

Wei Songnian cupped his hands. The Wei Clan of Little Bamboo Mountain occupies only a Tier One Upper Grade spiritual vein; he has never cultivated in a Tier Two spiritual vein before.

…

Ji An ended his cultivation and stepped out of the grotto mansion, only to see the full moon like a disc, clear and bright, casting a cold light on his lifted brows and hair.

A gray Spirit Lizard emerged from the crevice in the rock, beginning tonight’s hunt.

During the day, the spiritual mechanism is intense; only at night does Red Flame Peak reveal signs of life.

His gaze fell, looking towards the woods beneath the mountain, while his divine sense submerged into his Dantian.

Within the Dantian, the Stone Turtle slowly spun in the Sea of Magical Power, as if alive.

Ji An ’looked’ at the increasingly spiritual Stone Turtle, his thoughts scattered, wondering about the origins of this divine object that brought him to this world.

If it can traverse worlds, might it yet lead him back to glimpse his former homeland, to see if anything still awaits there.

Such thoughts are too distant for now; after ten years of companionship day and night, he has only discovered three mystical aspects of the Stone Turtle.

Absorbing spiritual mechanism, refining spiritual mechanism, and once when he exhausted his power casting the Small Cloud Rain Technique, the Stone Turtle expelled spiritual power to assist.

After a while, he gathered his thoughts and connected with the Stone Turtle.

Like a drop of ink spreading through clear water, the ink formed lines and appeared in his mind.

[Master: Ji An]

[Dao Rhyme: 0]

[Spiritual Mechanism: Kan Spirit 582.8, Gen Spirit 557.6, Zhen Spirit 7.1, Xun Spirit 43.2, Kun Spirit 27.6, Qian Spirit 38.7, Dui Spirit 36.8, Li Spirit 46.4]

[Technique: Sharp Gold Technique (Perfection 92%)

Golden Armor Technique (Minor Achievement 94%)…]

With accumulation over this time, there is enough Qian Spirit to elevate the Sharp Gold Technique to the Great Perfection level.

“Refine Dui Spirit, enhance Golden Armor Technique.”

Good things should be saved for last, so he chose to first refine Dui Spirit.

His divine sense entered the Stone Turtle’s profound mysterious space, transforming into an illusion, with his foot on the Dui Position.

With repeated spells, the shadow’s muted golden light continually flickered, the understanding of Golden Armor flowed through his heart, when the Dui Spirit was entirely consumed, the Golden Armor Technique’s number froze.

[Golden Armor Technique (Minor Achievement 94% → Great Success 5%)]

“Refine Qian Spirit, enhance Sharp Gold Technique.”

The spiritual illusion swiftly shifted to the Qian Position, where the ground was brighter in color compared to the Dui Position.

Golden nanoparticles gleamed on the shadow’s fingertips, radiating sharp energy. Finally, a stream of golden light erupted from his fingertips, exploding in all directions.

The unrestrained sharpness of Qi Mechanism vanished quickly, but his world of divine sense was flooded with golden light akin to a river of stars, as if he had suffered countless cuts of blades and swords, the touch becoming numb.

[Dao Seed: Unrestrained Sharpness (Unranked), hidden within the Taiyuan Acupoint, understanding ’Unbreakable’ True Intent of Metal Dao technique, enhancing a little comprehension of Metal Dao technique.]

Ji An’s divine sense returned to his body, instinctively he gasped; it was his first time feeling that refining spiritual mechanism had indeed danger.

In this light, cultivators who practice Metal Element Cultivation Method are fierce individuals, the so-called Unrestrained Sharpness embodies a determination to advance despite countless adversaries.

The Fire Element nature is equally vigorous and fierce; cultivators practicing Fire Element Cultivation Method are also not gentle.

He raised his arm, golden light flickered at his fingertip. Viewing it, his divine sense immediately felt a sense of cutting pain.

Gold rays, several times smaller than dust, are plainly each a sharp blade.

“Pop,” the spirit lizard fell from the stone wall, its body trembling as it crawled into the crevice.

Ji An chuckled, even he himself felt the sharpness of the gold rays; a spirit lizard, barely considered a demon beast, was startled, understandable.

Spirit lizards are harmless demon beasts, adept at preying on mosquitoes and insects, they also help maintain cleanliness, and he has allowed them to remain without driving them away.

The fourth Dao Seed entered his body, Ji An felt even more settled.

The profound mysteries of the Five Elements Dao are as deep as the sea, interlinking and counteracting, yet such a simple sentence cannot express even a fraction.

Chao Origin Stage cultivators must also comprehend the subtle essence, in hopes of merging the Five Qi Chaoyuan with their Primordial Life Fire, forging a Supreme Golden Core.

But comprehending any one of the Five Elements requires a long time, historical records show cultivators often understand only two or three elements when achieving the Golden Core, spending further endless years in completion to polish the Golden Core absolutely round and full.

In a way, what Ji An is doing now is preparing for the future, at the same time, his cultivation affirms the Wood Element Dao’s divine intent indirectly.

Red Flame Peak is the land of Five Elements convergence, thus the time he spends doing all this is not much different from other cultivators focused on a single element.

Once he condenses ten Dao Seeds, he can attempt to harmonize Yin and Yang and experience the complete Five Elements Dao.

…

Two months later, Red Flame Peak welcomed a group of guests.

Ji An invited familiar cultivators to participate in his Foundation Establishment ceremony, which was delayed by half a year.

Other sect cultivators would often hold a ceremony within the month following their Foundation Establishment, announcing their entry into the Foundation Establishment Stage circle.

He was busy handling various affairs at Red Flame Peak and attended Zhao Mengyao’s ceremony recently, wanting to avoid clashing times, thus the delay in organizing his own ceremony.

Participants included four senior brothers and sisters from Ningcui Cliff, Zhang Yuanshan and other disciples from Cyan Pine Daoist School who kept in touch all along, Wei Songnian, Huang Feihu, Liang Hill, amongst others.

The sky appeared as a white jade disc, while the ground seemed to have a layer of cold frost forming.

On the Clear Spirit Bamboo hung several Luminous Beads, tree shadows swaying.

Du Huaiyuan raised his cup with a smile: “I have yet to attend a Foundation Establishment ceremony held at night, it’s indeed a unique experience.”

“Due to conditions, it is thus.”

Ji An shook his head and chuckled, as during the day, the Spiritual Mechanism is too intense, even with a magic array to separate, it’s not an ideal time for hosting guests.

The Foundation Establishment celebration serves as a venue for building connections, the aroma of wine and exquisite delicacies filling the table, over ten people joyously engaging in exchanges.

Zhang Yuanshan took a sip of his cup and said:

“Received a sect mandatory task, I must soon temporarily leave the sect and head to a newly established outpost in the Ten Thousand Mountains to oversee for three years.”

After establishing the new outpost, to maintain its operations, besides dispatching Law Enforcement Hall cultivators for stationing, the sect will also deploy talented individuals such as artifact refiners, alchemists, talisman makers, etc., for stationing.

Mu Qingwan gently nodded, saying:

“I also received a sect mandatory task, to reside at Redwood Ridge for three years, I guess others will receive such mandatory tasks one after another.”

Zhang Yuanshan laughed: “Haha, my task location is also Redwood Ridge, hence we can look after each other in the future.”

Having acquaintances residing together at the outpost allows for mutual assistance; one cultivates fire element technique as an alchemist, so buying pills to increase cultivation becomes more convenient.

This is the value of connections, familiar people make things easier.

Li Lingyu blinked and said:

“Are outpost residency tasks safe nowadays? It’s said that as we delve deeper into the Ten Thousand Mountains, outposts frequently face counterattacks from demon beast forces.”

Everyone’s gaze turned to Liu Yu, he being from the Law Enforcement Hall, familiar with the internal situation.

Liu Yu gently coughed and said:

“Let me first explain the sect’s current basic strategy, we have maintained the rhythm of establishing outposts in the wilderness and require a large number of cultivators to reside, almost half of the grotto mansions have been sold to loose cultivators.

We treat these outposts as marketplaces, with the sect only responsible for maintaining order.

The resistance encountered in establishing a new outpost is indeed increasing, strong demon beast organizations’ counterattacks also occur frequently.

However, as long as the Mountain Protection Array is established, security can be assured, especially for cultivators not participating in direct battles.”

Unspoken, everyone knows the sect’s strategy has changed, intending to tie more loose cultivators to the chariot.

These loose cultivators having assets, upon the outbreak of a demon calamity, the first thought is not to flee, but under the sect’s organization, choose to fight for their interests.

Liu Yu paused, continuing:

“Just as Qingwan Junior Sister said, as new outposts increase, in the future, outpost residency tasks will be greatly distributed, everyone should prepare in advance.”

“Oh no,” Ji An regrettably slapped his forehead.

Liu Yu laughed and said:

“Even with outpost residency, the sect wouldn’t dispatch spirit farmers, Junior Brother Ji can rest assured staying within the sect.”

For the purpose of enticing more loose cultivators to reside, the spirit field area within the outposts is very small, it’s impossible to dispatch Foundation Establishment Stage spirit farmers for management.

Ji An said:

“I’m still a talisman maker, I’m afraid of receiving many mandatory talisman making tasks in the future.”

For talisman makers lacking other means to earn spirit stones, completing such tasks is a good deal, but for him, making many talismans seems a waste of time.

The magical power consumed by talisman making can be restored through meditation and cultivation, but the effort exhausted is difficult to replenish.