That's right.
Lu Changan knew that he was a topic of some discussion among the Mu family's women.
You can draw talismans?
I know the basics. Just practicing a little.
Lu Changan said modestly.
But Mu Xiuyun's fine brows knit, and she said with displeasure,
If you're a beginner, you shouldn't reach beyond your grasp and buy premium talisman paper.
Premium talisman paper is meant for first-rank high-grade talismans; a beginner would only waste it.
One sheet of premium talisman paper was worth several ordinary sheets.
Beginners usually practiced on cheap talisman paper.
Young Miss is right! I'm buying three premium sheets to keep as a memento—as encouragement.
Lu Changan remained calm and did not argue.
Mu Xiuyun glanced at the white-robed youth, placid as still water, said no more, and handed over the whole set of talisman-making materials.
It amounted to agreeing to Lu Changan's haggling.
Many thanks, Young Miss.
Seeing Mu Xiuyun withdraw her jade-white hand with reserve, Lu Changan set the spirit stones on the stone table.
Mu Xiuyun watched the two of them walk away.
The girl in red wrinkled her delicate nose and gave Mu Xiuyun a suspicious look.
Sister Xiuyun, you actually made an exception and gave that guy a discount?
I heard from Yunfei that this fellow kept his head when the Zheng family cultivators ambushed them, cut down a third-layer Qi Refining cultivator against the odds, saving the family from loss.
Mu Xiuyun put away the spirit stones, her tone perfectly natural.
So he counts as having done a meritorious deed—the family would naturally...
The girl in red mused, then abruptly stopped.
If he were a young new talent of the Mu family, such a showing would naturally earn him a clan reward.
Yinglan, what do you think of Lu Changan?
Mu Xiuyun's lips pursed slightly.
He's decent-looking, and pretty thick-skinned. Maybe a little too full of himself?
Mu Yinglan thought for a moment, then gave her first impression.
There were rumors in the clan that Lu Changan looked down on the women the Mu family offered him.
Yinglan, if the family had you marry Lu Changan, would you be willing?
Mu Xiuyun smiled, eyes and brows bright with amusement.
What! Me marry him? Impossible...
Mu Yinglan's cheeks flushed red, and she shook her head so hard she nearly hopped.
Sister Xiuyun, the family isn't trying to match me with this guy, are they?
She suddenly caught on.
Mu Xiuyun did not deny it. After a moment's thought, she said, "Lu Changan has a mid-grade spirit root. Pairing him with a mortal really would shortchange him. Father is considering whether to find him a clan girl with a spirit root."
So you're setting your sights on your cute little clan sister? No way! I don't think much of him at all.
Mu Yinglan was indignant and gave a little huff.
You don't think much of him?
Of course! Lu Changan must be about twenty now, isn't he? And he's only just reached the second Qi Refining layer! They say he has a mid-grade spirit root, but he's worse than some of the clan's low-grade roots.
Mu Yinglan raised her pert chin and spoke bluntly.
By contrast, she herself had only a low-grade spirit root, yet at sixteen she had already reached the peak of the second Qi Refining layer and would soon attempt a breakthrough. In the cultivation world, unless one had a top-tier aptitude like an earth spirit root or a heaven spirit root...
In the basement of the side courtyard. Otherwise, cultivation level and age better reflected one's prospects.
Lu Changan took out a complete set of talisman brushes, cinnabar, and talisman paper.
He mixed the cinnabar and spread out the talisman paper.
He closed his eyes for a moment. The talisman arts of his first two lives—all his experience and insights—rose in his mind.
Suddenly his eyes were cold lightning; he held his breath and stilled his mind.
He seized the talisman brush and moved with flowing ease.
Evergreen mana, fine as silk thread, pulsed in and out at the brush tip as he outlined the talisman on the paper without a single pause.
Clean Water Talisman.
The pale blue talisman script gathered its spiritual light, and the spirit ink quickly set.
The Clean Water Talisman was an entry-level basic talisman, not even first rank.
The stroke feels dry.
Lu Changan was not satisfied. He drew another Flame Talisman and another Home-Calming Talisman.
In the mortal world, knowing a few basic talismans was enough to pass yourself off as a so-called enlightened master.
Having finished the three basic talismans,
Lu Changan found his feel; the strokes began to glide smoothly.
Then he began on first-rank talismans, which corresponded to the Qi Refining stage.
First, two Cold Wind Talismans.
Cold Wind Talisman: first-rank mid-grade, with some area damage and a decent slowing effect.
Among first-rank talismans, it was a rare area-attack type.
The talisman was not especially common.
Because the Cold Wind Talisman's power was modest, its drawing difficulty rather high, and its success rate low, few talisman masters ever practiced it.
Whoosh!
After drawing two first-rank mid-grade talismans in a row, Lu Changan had spent more than half his mana.
Bound by their cultivation, every talisman master could draw only a limited number of talismans a day.
Drawing talismans didn't just consume mana; it was also enormously draining on the spirit. Replenishing one's mana with spirit stones did not make one a perpetual motion machine.
Fortunately, Lu Changan's qi channels were long and enduring.
He regulated his breath for the time it took half an incense stick to burn.
Then he drew two more Water Curtain Talismans, first-rank mid-grade defensive talismans.
Considering that the most common and powerful spells at the Qi Refining stage were mostly fire-based, he had made these talismans.
Finally, he drew three Wind Speed Talismans, also first-rank mid-grade.
Because he was a third-rank talisman master, the talismans Lu Changan drew were of high quality and hit harder than others of the same rank.
Cold Wind Talismans, Water Curtain Talismans, Wind Speed Talismans.
Seven first-rank talismans in all.
Lu Changan's energy was wrung dry, especially his spirit power.
And that was with his powerful soul and the long, enduring qi channels of the Evergreen Art. Any other early Qi Refining cultivator would have found it very hard to draw mid-grade talismans.
After a night's rest, he was full of energy the next day.
Lu Changan still had ten sheets of first-rank talisman paper and three sheets of first-rank premium talisman paper.
He meant to keep the former to earn spirit stones, depending on how the market looked.
With the three premium sheets, he intended to draw a powerful high-grade talisman.
This talisman was called the Golden Blade Talisman.
It was a signature talisman he had refined and improved over his first two lives.
"The Golden Blade Talisman has strong penetrative power, close to a high-grade magic treasure, and an ordinary late Qi Refining cultivator would find it hard to withstand. But its crafting requirements are rather high."
Lu Changan's expression turned grave.
Normally, without cultivation above the seventh Qi Refining layer, one could not draw the Golden Blade Talisman at all, and the success rate was very low.
To guard against running short of mana, he ate a bowl of spirit rice before starting.
He focused his spirit to the utmost.
The brush tip traveled over the premium talisman paper for several minutes. Toward the end the strokes were no longer smooth, growing steadily more labored...
Beads of sweat seeped from Lu Changan's forehead; his face went pale.
Sss—
The golden patterns on the talisman paper flickered a few times, and a wisp of green smoke rose.
"Pity. Just a little short." Lu Changan grimaced at the waste.
In his past life, even at the seventh Qi Refining layer, his success rate with the Golden Blade Talisman had not been very high.
If it succeeded, the talisman would become one of his trump cards.
Lu Changan did not lose heart.
After three days of cultivation, he bathed and changed his clothes.
He tried again.
This time he finally succeeded in drawing a Golden Blade Talisman, though luck played a part.
Another three days passed.
His third attempt at the Golden Blade Talisman ended in failure.
The three sheets of premium talisman paper were used up.
"At my current cultivation, I've only got a twenty or thirty percent chance with the Golden Blade Talisman."
Lu Changan could accept the final result.
If not for the Evergreen Art's peculiarities and a spiritual sense comparable to the seventh Qi Refining layer, Lu Changan would never even have considered trying.
Over the next half year.
Lu Changan devoted himself to cultivation. The Evergreen Art's life-extending effect had already begun to show.
In the training room, Lu Changan opened his pitch-black eyes.
A trace of the profound aura of passing years flickered through as his art circulated.
He could not tell whether it was an illusion.
He felt that his Evergreen mana, whose power was ordinarily unremarkable, seemed to have grown a fraction stronger.
So slight as to be negligible.
If he were not re-cultivating with a soul beyond the ordinary, it would have been hard to notice.
Could it be that the Evergreen Art grows stronger as the years turn?
The longer I live, the stronger my mana?
Lu Changan had an absurd thought.
That guess would probably take a very long time to verify.
After all, that faint sense of increased mana was so small it could be ignored; it might just be normal fluctuation.
Brother Lu.
Outside the courtyard, Li Ergou led over two spirit foals.
It had been nearly three years since they came to the Mu family.
Li Ergou's face had filled out and taken on an oily sheen, and he had grown more than half a chi taller.
His build had turned burly; in a dark blue Dharma robe, with bright, piercing eyes, he no longer invited contempt.
Lu Changan, by contrast, looked the same as ever, with a placid, unassuming air.
"Not bad—you borrowed the spirit foals?"
Lu Changan vaulted onto his horse, and the two set off together.
These spirit foals were not first-rank spirit beasts but the product of the family's crossbreeding—half spirit beasts, so to speak.
They were heading to Hengshui Prefecture for the three-year reunion they had agreed on, and to visit relatives in the mortal world as well.
Before setting out, the two had reported their plans to the Mu family.
The Mu family had placed no restrictions and granted them half a year.
The ease of it surprised Lu Changan at first.
But on second thought, Li Ergou had married and had children in the Mu family—two already—and was living happily.
The Mu family was certainly at ease about Ergou.
As for Lu Changan, since he had not married or had children, the Mu family gave him nothing but a training ground and a little low-grade spirit rice each month—a very small investment indeed.
Besides, the Mu family knew his background in the mortal world.
Even if he really ran off, Lu Changan would have a hard time finding another training ground to freeload at.
"Brother Lu, are you really not planning to marry and have children? That mid-grade spirit root aptitude would go to waste!"
Once they had left Feiyue Villa, Li Ergou could not help saying.
These days Lu Changan's cultivation lagged a notch behind his.
Li Ergou had ample supplies of pills and spirit rice; the art he cultivated was ordinary in power, but he advanced relatively quickly.
In three years he had reached the peak of the second Qi Refining layer, putting him a year ahead of Lu Changan.
"If you don't fancy mortal women, Brother Lu, my wife can introduce you to a clan girl with a spirit root?"
Li Ergou's eyes flickered slightly as he probed.
"You—counting yourself one of the Mu family already, so soon?"
Lu Changan was speechless with amusement, seeing through his little scheme.
He could not help but sigh at how much Li Ergou had changed in just three years.
"No need to bring that up."
He waved a hand and said with a long sigh, "The cultivation world is ever-changing; at Qi Refining, one is nothing but cannon fodder. Only at Foundation Establishment does one have the beginnings of a foothold. Otherwise, with no guarantee of tomorrow, how would I dare marry and have children?"