Chapter 7
One of the most famous laws of the cultivation world.
Every stage is divided into five grades.
This applies to talismans, too.
Lowest-grade, low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and supreme-grade.
Anyone can intuitively tell that lowest-grade is the bottom and supreme-grade is the top.
But what distinguishes one grade from another for the same talisman?
What’s the difference between a lowest-grade Might Talisman and a low-grade one?
“Materials, the maker’s skill, the cultivation art….”
Swish.
The brush, loaded with ordinary ink, swept across the paper.
Beautiful, flowing lines breathed life into the talisman.
“Actually, the cultivation art matters most.”
Nine moved aside the talisman glowing with a warm green light.
The Introductory Talisman Dao Art contained only three methods for making talismans.
They were all lowest-grade, with unimpressive names: Might Talisman, Fireball Talisman, and Condensation Talisman.
That was because the Introductory Talisman Dao Art was the most basic of the basics.
Compared to mathematics, its methods were at the level of addition and subtraction.
A talisman’s grade was determined from the moment it was made.
No matter how excellent the materials were, even if a Qi Refining talismanist made a Might Talisman,
as long as they followed the methods in the Introductory Talisman Dao Art, its grade could never rise above lowest-grade.
Likewise, if Nine wanted to surpass that grade, they had to learn a cultivation art that included the relevant talisman-making method.
But Nine was currently making low-grade Might Talismans.
It was a miracle on par with a child independently learning calculus using nothing but addition and subtraction.
“Wow!”
Marveling at the talismans spread out before them, Nine brought up Pou.
[User: Eun (銀) Nine (羅引/Nine)]
[Talent: Five Spiritual Roots 4 / 10000]
[Constitution: Talisman Dao Sacred Body Rank 1 10 / 10000]
[Arts: Lifespan-Severing Art 8-Star 4/15000 / Introductory Talisman Dao Art (符道入門訣) 7-Star 1500/15000 / Body Tempering Art—12th Revision 3-Star 50/200]
[Current Realm: Lifespan-Severing Stage 90%]
Including the ones they’d made the day before, Nine had made a total of twenty low-grade Might Talismans.
As a result, their current realm had advanced another step.
It had taken only twenty minutes to make ten talismans.
“This is crazy, just crazy…!”
Nine gently touched their own chest.
Their heart thumped as it pumped blood through their body, its beating felt at their fingertips.
Even without focusing, they could feel the talisman character 符 embedded like a seal in the center of their heart.
“I’m producing Talisman Dao spiritual power on my own…!”
Ink-black spiritual power naturally gathered in their heart.
Talisman Dao spiritual power had emerged where pure spiritual power should have been.
Talisman makers, or talismanists, could only advance their realms by making talismans.
For them, talismans were both a means of advancement and their day job.
No matter how much spiritual energy they gulped down like pigs, they couldn’t digest it at all if they couldn’t make talismans.
But Nine could advance their realm simply by sitting still and absorbing spiritual energy!
Their heart was producing Talisman Dao spiritual power suited to them all on its own.
“Is this what true talent is…?”
Nine was intoxicated by the sweet comfort of their newfound talent.
The corners of their mouth curled up, and they broke into a silly grin.
They gently held the left side of their chest as if cradling something precious.
Nine looked at Pou.
[Current Realm: Lifespan-Severing Stage 90%]
“I have ten percent left. Hmm, so that means….”
They only needed to draw twenty more low-grade Might Talismans.
Then Nine could break through the wall of the Lifespan-Severing Stage and advance to Qi Refining.
The exalted Qi Refining Stage they’d only ever dreamed of!
‘But my balance is zero right now.’
They still had paper and materials for making talismans, but no spirit stones to power the Spirit-Gathering Formation.
Talisman Dao spiritual power was being refined automatically in their heart.
With the absorption rate of their Five Spiritual Roots, there was no way they could produce enough Talisman Dao spiritual power to draw talismans.
They needed to make money.
Nine took their twenty low-grade Might Talismans and headed for the living room.
“At the government’s procurement price, each low-grade Might Talisman costs 300 credits, so….”
They counted it out on their fingers.
First, they’d sell them for 6,000 credits, then spend it all on lowest-grade spirit stones.
Then, using those spirit stones to make talismans…
“Breaking through to Qi Refining should be easy, right?”
Heehee.
Nine smiled happily and walked over to the machine in the corner of the living room.
There stood a massive silver-gray capsule, a full-body immersion virtual reality device.
A crystallization of technology combining cultivation and science, it went beyond simple brainwave connection to perfectly synchronize a cultivator’s very mental power with the network.
Nine held their wrist terminal against the outer panel.
Psssh—!
With the sound of compressed air escaping, the sleek, streamlined hatch smoothly slid open.
A plush cushion lined the inside of the device.
With a practiced motion, Nine lay down inside the capsule.
Swish.
The cushion changed shape to fit Nine’s body and snugly embraced them.
A faint sensation traveled along the nape of their neck and down their spine.
The chip implanted at the back of their neck faintly resonated with the spiritual energy inside their body.
[Insomnium Core activated. Scanning the user’s vital rhythms and spiritual energy frequency.]
[…Scan complete. Beginning mental synchronization.]
A faint blue hologram appeared on the inner surface of the hatch covering Nine’s field of vision.
They closed their eyes comfortably and murmured softly.
“Connect.”
Vrrrrrr—!
As the device whirred to life, Nine’s consciousness sank away.
***
[Warning]
[This network is managed by the Spiritual Resources Management Department under the Human Alliance Government.]
[Fraud, insult, assault, verbal abuse, proxy sales of one’s avatar, modern-style kidnapping, using modern soul-splitting techniques to create a market in multiple-personality products, malicious attacks on souls, leaking unauthorized pirated cultivation arts, collusion with demons, disseminating the true form of a Golden Core cultivator, and any other illegal acts
are prohibited.
]
[You may be
sentenced to
Eternal Punishment (永罰刑). Please take heed.]
[Minister of the Spiritual Resources Management Department: Revered One Liu Shaoshang (流燒上人)]
***
Fwaaash…!
“Haaah….”
The light that had filled their vision disappeared.
They felt dizzy and nauseous.
Nine pulled their hood low and cautiously lifted their head.
“I never get used to this sight, no matter how often I see it….”
It was an overwhelming sight.
This wasn’t a world viewed through a hologram or a screen, but a perfect virtual reality that synchronized all five senses and the mind.
In the sky, streams of data made up of zeroes and ones mingled with spiritual energy and flowed like the Milky Way, while beneath them, halls with enormous tiled roofs floated about, defying gravity.
Neon signs woven from holograms filled the air with brilliant light.
[Four-Star Pharmaceuticals (四星製藥) - We create pharmaceuticals for the future.]
[Baekdu Kim Clan (白頭金家) - Custom formations for the Korean Peninsula, and only the Korean Peninsula.]
[Origin Corporation - Exquisite magic artifacts, made just for you.]
The trails of flying swords and delivery drones crisscrossed overhead in a tangled swarm.
Avatars concealing their identities hurried through the streets.
Sword cultivators with prosthetic arms spitting sparks, cultivators whose forms flickered like pixels to thwart pursuit, and small business owners wearing bizarre yao-beast masks as they called out to customers.
Not a single person was walking around with their real face exposed.
“Ugh….”
Nine pulled their hood down over their head once more.
Bright sunlight and countless people.
The conditions needed to set off Nine’s shut-in instincts were everywhere around them.
‘Still… Maybe because it isn’t real, it’s not so bad.’
If this were reality, even imagining going outside would leave them short of breath and trembling all over.
But here, in virtual reality, their heart still pounded, yet as long as they avoided people’s gazes, it was fairly bearable.
“All right… I’ll keep a low profile, quietly sell my talismans at the appraisal office, and leave.”
This place was called the Other-Side Cultivation World (二面修仙界).
It was one of the places, along with Earth, where the greatest number of cultivators were active—and a kind of alternate reality.
Still frightened, Nine glanced around before slowly making their way to the government appraisal office.
***
Tick.
A clock hanging from the ceiling marked the time.
It was currently six in the morning.
“…Hup!”
The lukewarm dawn air filled her lungs.
As she stepped forward, sand scattered across the training ground, and a domineering aura pierced through the space.
The sword in her hand unleashed a chill sword energy.
Thud, boom—!
Shing.
With a slicing sound, a steel plate tens of meters across was cleanly cut apart.
The girl looking down at the scene nonchalantly shook off her lightning-wreathed sword.
The severed plate burned up in lightning and vanished without making a sound.
Clap, clap, clap.
“You improve by the day, Junior Sister Decia.”
Whish.
Decia calmly looked at the boy who had walked out from behind her, her yellow eyes unruffled.
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
His black hair was tossed about by the early morning breeze.
Beneath it, his black eyes gleamed, deep and clear as pitch.
A chest like a mountain and thick forearms corded with muscle made their presence known even through his thin training clothes.
He held a long sword casually in a hand covered in thick calluses.
His was a robust body tempered through an advanced Body-Refinement Art.
“Don’t glare at me like that. You’re making me self-conscious.”
“…I’m not glaring at you, though.”
A genial, mischievous, utterly unserious smile rested at the corners of his lips.
At a glance, he looked like nothing more than an easygoing young man, but Decia knew better.
She knew what happened when that senior brother, who usually went around laughing and spouting nonsense, took up his sword in earnest.
“Looks like the result’s in, Senior Brother Im?”
Senior Brother Im, Im Mugang (壬武剛), nodded.
"I've gotten permission to go out. More importantly, what got into you that you want to leave? You usually care about nothing but training, Junior Sister?”
“Mother asked me to do something.”
Tap.
With that, Decia left the training ground without another word.
Watching her leave without the slightest hesitation, Im Mugang was left alone in the training ground, scratching his head.
"Hmm, she really is odd. Still letting her parents influence her at this age. Is it because she's still a teenager?"
Im Mugang muttered under his breath and shook his head.
Then, with a chilling flash of his sword, he vanished from the training ground in an instant.