It wasn’t uncommon for families like the Jiang family, where Taoist practitioners established households and grew into clans.
The most famous example was the Zhang family of the Celestial Master Mansion, where the title of Celestial Master was hereditary.
Yun Qi was treated as an honored guest and was led to a quaint little courtyard called "Wind Lotus Cottage."
The cottage was situated next to a vast lotus forest.
Yun Qi could only describe it as a forest, as he was certain that even the largest lotus ponds in the mortal world couldn’t compare.
The lotus leaves here were as large as paper umbrellas, emerald green and seemingly endless, stretching as far as the eye could see.
The phrase "endless lotus leaves under the sky" truly came to life here.
The cottage was on the edge of the lotus forest, offering a view of the swaying lotus leaves.
If one found the view obstructed, a slight turn of the head would reveal a vast, serene lake under a frosty sky.
What made it even more delightful was that it was June, the season when lotus flowers bloomed.
The lotuses here were exceptionally vibrant, as red as Buddhist altars, embodying the phrase "lotus flowers reflecting the sun in a unique shade of red."
The servants who led Yun Qi to the courtyard thanked him profusely, saying that their young master was a great man, and since Yun Qi had saved him, he too was a great man.
They also mentioned that the cottage was the most suitable place to stay during this season, and if it were rented out, it would cost a fortune.
Yun Qi thanked them in return.
He was indeed very pleased with the courtyard.
The scenery was breathtaking, and the spiritual energy was abundant.
Moreover, he had never lived on water before, so it felt novel and exciting.
After the servants left, Yun Qi placed his belongings in the room but didn’t rest.
Instead, he went out to the wooden corridor, sat down cross-legged, and took in the serene surroundings.
The fragrance of the lotus flowers and the vastness of the lake offered a different experience from what he had encountered on the southern shore.
He closed his eyes and emptied his mind.
After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he slowly opened his eyes.
At that moment, he pulled out something from his pocket—a black, arrow-like object about half a foot long, with a head but no feathers.
It was the talisman arrow he had taken from the skinny Taoist earlier.
Yun Qi had heard of talisman arrows before and had even seen them in the mountains, but it wasn’t until today that he encountered someone using one for malicious purposes.
For cultivators, talismans and magical artifacts were common tools for combat or self-defense.
Magical artifacts were costly and time-consuming to craft, but once made, they were easy to use.
Talismans, on the other hand, were cheaper and quicker to produce, and their power was not to be underestimated.
However, they were single-use items and required mental energy and incantations to activate.
For minor cultivators with weak mental energy, talismans that required close proximity to be effective, such as fire-based "Bone-Eroding Talismans" or metal-based "Axe and Blade Talismans," were difficult to use.
Without sufficient mental energy, the talismans wouldn’t fly far or fast, making them laughable in combat.
Another issue was the element of surprise.
Unless you were extremely close, even if your mental energy was strong, using a talisman for a sneak attack was still a joke.
After all, once the incantation was spoken, everyone would know what was happening.
Of course, these drawbacks only applied to minor cultivators.
For a grandmaster of talismans, such concerns were irrelevant.
For example, the three great talisman sects—Dragon-Tiger Mountain, Gezao Mountain, and Maoshan—had grandmasters who could summon heavenly thunder with a single talisman and a command, raining down lightning without any issues of insufficient mental energy or failed sneak attacks.
However, the world was mostly filled with minor cultivators, and even grandmasters had to start from the bottom.
Some ingenious individuals came up with a clever solution: they created a shell using crafting techniques, embedding it with seals for hiding spiritual energy, riding the wind, concealing traces, and muffling sounds.
Inside this shell, they placed an offensive talisman and a "Sound-Retaining Conch" that could store the incantation’s spiritual essence.
A simple trigger seal was placed on the shell, so when it hit something, the conch would play the pre-recorded incantation, activating the talisman.
To make it easier to throw, they shaped the shell into an arrow, thus creating the talisman arrow.
Some even went further, stuffing multiple talismans into the arrow shaft, combining the five elements, wind, and thunder in intricate layers.
Since it was used from a distance, even if it caused spiritual energy to dissipate or space to tremble, the user remained unharmed.
Over time, the method of using talisman arrows evolved from throwing to using bows and crossbows, increasing their range.
Some even said that talisman arrows, when pushed to their limits, were essentially self-destructing flying swords that didn’t require mental energy to guide them.
Earlier, the skinny Taoist had pretended to flee, using conversation to distract the young hero while secretly holding a talisman arrow.
Whether he didn’t have a crossbow or didn’t want to be noticed, he planned to throw the arrow as a sneak attack, but Yun Qi intervened.
Yun Qi intended to study the talisman arrow thoroughly.
He believed his talent was sufficient.
After all, spells, talismans, and incantations were all interconnected, differing only in whether they relied on spiritual energy, patterns, or syllables.
At their core, they were all about summoning and controlling the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
Yun Qi excelled in these areas.
Alchemy and artifact crafting were also important paths, but they were too costly and time-consuming.
Crafting a good pill or a magical artifact could take years, and Yun Qi felt he didn’t have that much time.
He had too much to learn.
As a beginner in cultivation, he believed it was better to focus on understanding the fundamental principles of the five elements and yin-yang.
At least for the first two realms, this was the way to go.
He had heard that breaking through the third and fourth realms was difficult but left one with plenty of lifespan, so he could delve into alchemy and artifact crafting later, when he could draw parallels more easily.
If he didn’t live that long, there was no point in worrying about it.
This was Yun Qi’s perspective.
For now, talismans were simple to draw, cost-effective, and time-efficient.
They allowed him to better understand spiritual energy, communicate with the forces of nature, and refine his incantations.
As for their limited power, he could compensate with quantity and use talisman arrows to enhance their effectiveness, which seemed perfect.
Crafting the arrow shell wasn’t too difficult and didn’t even require a furnace.
One only needed to hammer metal into thin sheets, roll them into arrow tubes, shape an arrowhead, and then fuse them together with fire.
If one didn’t mind the extra effort, they could create a mold, pour molten metal into it, and then hollow out the shaft.
Of course, even if it was simple, the arrow shaft couldn’t be made of ordinary metal.
It had to be something with spiritual energy, at least enough to allow the seals to take effect.
The slightly tricky part was the seals on the arrow shaft.
Although talismans, seals, and formations were related, they differed in where they were applied.
Talismans were drawn on paper, seals were inscribed on objects, and formations were laid out in the environment.
Inscribing seals on an object required a knife instead of a brush, and the technique and spiritual intent infused into it were different.
Moreover, the arrow shaft was hollow, making it even harder to inscribe seals on a thin layer of metal.
As for the seals themselves, there were only a few types, and their essence was no different from talismans.
The real challenge was the Sound-Retaining Conch, which had to preserve the spiritual essence carried by the incantation.
This was different from the conch Yun Qi had given to Lü Chi.
The conch couldn’t be too large, or it would be suitable for a siege crossbow.
A type called the "Small Curled Ear Conch" was ideal.
These conchs were indeed hard to find, as they only grew in the deepest, darkest parts of water veins with dense moisture.
Fishing them out was troublesome, and once caught, the flesh had to be removed, and the shell had to be refined using secret methods.
However, they weren’t impossibly rare.
Yun Qi knew that three of the five great lakes were their habitats, and Poyang Lake happened to be one of them.
It was said that more than one group was involved in this trade on the lake, and there were even disputes among them.
He wondered if the Jiang family was involved.
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(End of Chapter)