Rising from Small Cloud Rain Technique

Chapter 150: Chapter 147: Talisman Soldier

Ji An arrived next to the ant nest, where there were piles of slightly reddish fine sand-like substances near the rock crevices.

This is the excrement of the Fire Crystal Ants, containing very weak spiritual energy. It can be used to improve the soil and serve as fertilizer for fire element spirit plants.

However, right now, the strength of the Fire Crystal Ant colony is too low, making this fertilizer too low-grade for the various fire element spirit plants growing on Red Flame Peak, rendering it almost ineffective.

When a large number of Mid-stage Qi Refining Fire Crystal Ants appear in the colony, these materials will slowly come in handy.

Ji An extended his divine sense deep into the ant nest and discovered that the Fire Crystal Ants had dug out a network of developed tunnels here.

At the center of the nest is a standard spherical area, where the ant queen, which has reached the Qi Refining Fourth Level as a demon beast, is entrenched.

The rock walls in this area are densely hung with white eggs, with a rough estimate of two to three thousand.

If all hatch, the number of ants in the colony will double.

As the number of Fire Crystal Ants increases, they can seek more food for the ant queen.

This pine forest contains a large number of Tier One Top Grade Red Cloud Pines, theoretically capable of nurturing a Mid-stage Foundation Establishment ant queen.

Once the Red Cloud Pine bears pinecones, the Fire Crystal Ant colony can usher in a period of rapid development.

As the ant queen’s cultivation level continues to improve, once the quality of its egg production reaches a certain level, the newly born Fire Crystal Ants can reach the level of demon beasts directly.

The ecology on Red Flame Peak is still quite fragile. Fire-toothed Rabbits and Red-tailed Squirrels have no natural enemies, and their population is proliferating rapidly, which has already affected the ecological balance.

None of them can completely consume the amount, so monks have to be hired occasionally to maintain a suitable population size by hunting them.

Red-tailed Squirrels live in the pine forest, and with the continuous increase of high-tier Fire Crystal Ants, the unchecked growth of the Red-tailed Squirrel population should be suppressed.

Sensing the divine sense of its owner probing in, the antennae on top of the ant queen’s head rapidly vibrated, conveying a sense of joy and communicating with Ji An through the blood contract.

It was like a child sharing experiences from this period, the expansion of the colony, and conflicts with other creatures.

…

Ji An returned to the Cold Pool and instructed:

“I’m preparing to draw a Bursting Talisman, so get the talisman ink ready.”

Now he lived comfortably, with many trivial matters taken care of by others.

“Immediately.”

Xia Yuhuan responded and quickly walked into the stone house, first lighting a furnace of calming incense, then taking out the talisman ink and stirring it until the solution became uniform.

Ji An sat on the chair, began closing his eyes to recuperate, and adjusted his state.

“Junior Martial Uncle, it’s ready.”

Upon hearing the reminder, Ji An opened his eyes, rolled up the sleeves of his Daoist robe, picked up the pen, and began to draw the talisman.

He first picked out a stack of talisman paper to draw Explosive Flame Talismans. When his hand started feeling hot, he began to draw the Bursting Talisman.

Spiritual power pulsed within the talisman brush, and light flickered, leaving an orange-red pattern on the beast hide.

The talisman brush moved smoothly over the beast hide, drawing a Bursting Talisman without the slightest hitch.

When the last node was completed, the talisman pattern flickered for a moment, the flame-like pattern turning bright yellow, occasionally flashing with blue radiance.

“Not bad, a good start.”

Ji An nodded slightly, recognizing it as a good omen.

Seeing his good mood, Xia Yuhuan complimented:

“Junior Martial Uncle’s movements flow like water when creating talismans, and the talismans are naturally perfect. Your skills must have improved.”

“Those are words I like to hear, keep them coming.”

Ji An laughed heartily, continuing to draw more Bursting Talismans.

Half a day passed, and he drew ten Bursting Talismans, with only four being successful. The success rate was not particularly impressive, just enough to submit to the sect, making it a fruitless effort.

The task of drawing Bursting Talismans wasn’t urgent in the sect, so in the afternoon, Ji An started making Bursting Talisman Discs.

It took him five to six days to successfully create two talisman discs, the wasted materials far exceeding the value of the discs themselves.

If it weren’t for gaining crafting experience, this venture would be a massive loss.

With two talisman discs being enough, Ji An stopped refining talisman discs and turned to drawing talisman soldiers.

Drawing talisman soldiers requires high demands on divine sense as it needs the finest control of magical power. If he weren’t confident in his divine sense strength, he would have attempted this only after breaking through to the Mid-stage Foundation Establishment.

Talisman soldiers are an important branch of talisman crafting, formed by organizing runes into spiritual energy Daoist soldiers, possessing simple intelligence to assist cultivators in battle.

Similar to puppets, Daoist soldiers are powered by spirit stones and can be used continuously as long as the body isn’t damaged. However, talisman soldiers are consumables with a limited number of uses.

Generally, a talisman soldier can only be used three times, but if the materials are good enough, the number can increase to four or five.

However, talisman soldiers can be nurtured through magical power to improve their quality, and if the materials are good, the nurturing potential is higher.

The writer of the Cyan Yang Talisman Manual, Lv Qingyang, mentioned in his teachings that he once nurtured talisman soldiers across realms, reaching the level of the Chao Origin Stage. This is the true allure of talisman soldiers.

Ji An took out some talisman paper and found a bottle of the most ordinary talisman ink, as using high-tier materials for practice would be pure waste.

Not using talisman ink doesn’t reflect the effects; otherwise, he would practice with clear water.

Even though it was just drawing the lowest-grade talisman soldiers, he didn’t slack off at all.

He drew densely packed talisman lines on the talisman paper, resembling drawing a circuit board.

Like the requirements for talismans, the drawing process of talisman soldiers can’t be interrupted; otherwise, all efforts would be in vain, with a higher consumption of divine sense.

After two days of work and nearly twenty failures, Ji An finally drew a sheet of the lowest-grade Copper Armor Talisman Soldier.

The white talisman paper was filled with light golden patterns, and he could feel a sense of abundant spiritual energy.

“That wasn’t easy.”

Ji An said with a wry smile. As recorded in the Cyan Yang Talisman Manual, the Copper Armor Talisman Soldier’s power is only similar to the Qi Refining Fourth Level.

He is already at the Third-Layer Foundation Establishment, and finding it so challenging to draw now, he wonders how difficult it will be when he begins to draw Foundation Establishment Stage talisman soldiers. He secretly speculates that Lv Qingyang might have practiced a secret technique to enhance his Divine Sense.

“This is a talisman soldier, it can help you in combat, it’s a gift for you.”

These low-priced talisman soldiers are useless in his hands. Rather than discarding them, giving them to the maid is an indirect way to improve her welfare.

“Thank you, Junior Martial Uncle.”

Xia Yuhuan happily accepted the talisman soldier. She had been by Junior Martial Uncle’s side throughout the drawing process, deeply aware of its difficulty.

With Junior Martial Uncle’s talisman creation skill, to have spent so much time and effort on it, it must be something good.

“This talisman soldier can be used three times. Let’s go outside, and you can infuse it with Magical Power to see how strong it is in combat.”

“Yes.”

The two walked out of the stone house, and Xia Yuhuan infused the talisman soldier with Magical Power. A humanoid golden armor guard, about ten feet tall, appeared beside her, looking heroic and extraordinary.

Being the lowest grade talisman soldier, the details of the armor and face of the golden armor guard were quite vague.

Ji An moved to the open ground and stood still, saying:

“Command it to attack me.”

“Junior Martial Uncle, pardon my offense.”

As Xia Yuhuan’s voice fell, the golden armor guard stepped forward a few paces, gave a loud shout: “Ha!”

Ji An grinned, the opponent understood the power of initiative.

The golden armor guard, moving like a body refining cultivator, charged forward recklessly, kicking up dust and creating a grand scene in the field.

Ji An moved extremely fast, and the talisman soldier couldn’t touch him.

Dodging for a while, he felt bored; if the Copper Armor Talisman Soldier only had this much skill, it didn’t justify such a high production difficulty.

He unleashed the Explosive Flame Technique to attack, and an anomaly occurred.

The golden armor guard suddenly held a golden umbrella to defend against the incoming Magic Technique attack.

As the umbrella formed, the spirit light on its body dimmed a little.

After the magic bombardment, the golden armor guard’s body shook violently as if a candle in the wind but ultimately stood firm.

Ji An raised an eyebrow slightly, although he only used three parts of his strength, the attack damage of the Magic Technique could reach the full power strike of a Sixth-Layer Qi Refining cultivator.

Failing to smash the talisman soldier in one blow proved its defense was commendable.

He unleashed the Explosive Flame Technique again, and the spirit light on the golden armor guard flickered once and vanished into the wind.

“Not bad.”

Ji An said with a smile, the talisman soldier could both attack and defend; for a Mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator, it was considered quite a treasure.

However, the difficulty in talisman soldier creation destined them not to be mass-produced like talismans.

“Thank you, Junior Martial Uncle, for the gift.”

Xia Yuhuan, eyebrows raised with delight, saluted with a smile:

Ji An nodded slightly, saying:

“Warm it with your Magical Power for a quarter hour every day, and you’ll discover unexpected surprises in the future.”

…

Wei Songnian took out a wooden box from his storage bag and opened it, inside was a piece of paper filled with writing and over ten bags made of beast hide.

“Senior Brother, there is Tier One Top-Grade material Star Sea Sinking Silver Powder here, totaling ten pounds, costing six thousand Spirit Stones.

There are also some related metal powders, costing two thousand two hundred Spirit Stones.

The two thousand Top-grade Explosion Talismans you entrusted to me were sold for eight thousand Spirit Stones.

This time I was quite lucky to purchase one tael of Profound Yellow Soil, costing four hundred Spirit Stones.”

He took out another Yellow Jade Box and said: “This is the Profound Yellow Soil.”

Wei Songnian sighed in his heart, Senior Brother hasn’t changed at all, still spending Spirit Stones as generously as ever; he wondered when he could be so lavish.

Ji An examined the materials, then said to the maid behind him:

“Compare with the list and weigh these spiritual objects.”

It’s best to do these things in front of the supplier, so he never felt embarrassed about it.

Xia Yu Lian took the list and carefully weighed them, whispering:

“Reporting to Junior Martial Uncle, the quantity is accurate.”

Ji An nodded slightly, smiling:

“Thanks for your hard work, Junior Brother.”

With this batch of metal powder, he could advance the Glaze-Gold Jade Bone Body to the Silver Armor level.

The Profound Yellow Soil was a Tier Two Lower Grade material for refining the apricot yellow Banner, and he needed half a pound.

“Not at all, being able to serve Senior Brother is my honor. But…”

Wei Songnian’s tone shifted and continued:

“After a year of observation, I found that the spiritual objects Senior Brother wants are not in stock in the Immortal City shops, and few cultivators are willing to trade with Spirit Stones.

They mostly prefer bartering; for Senior Brother to gather these materials, you need to attend trade fairs or auctions.

Especially those Tier Two Middle-grade Spiritual Objects, it’s impossible to buy with Spirit Stones.”

“I understand.”

Ji An nodded slightly; he had anticipated this situation long ago, asking for help purchasing them was with the mindset of hoping for a lucky find.