Chapter 20
Liu Wu set off back to Profound Female Sect with several young women in tow.
As a first-layer Qi Refining cultivator, he could have moved as lightly as a swallow, riding the wind. But the young women behind him were ordinary mortals with limited stamina. Even at full strength, they could barely keep up with his pace, slowed countless times for their sake.
The rugged mountain paths and dense forests were all trials for them.
In less than half a day, they were drenched in sweat and panting, their faces turning pale.
Liu Wu felt little sympathy for them, stopping only when they truly couldn’t go on so they could rest for a while.
Night fell quickly. Cold moonlight filtered through layers of treetops, casting mottled, eerie shadows across the ground.
From deep in the mountains came the occasional shrill roar of a vicious beast. The young women turned pale with fright and instinctively huddled closer to Liu Wu.
“We’ll rest here tonight.” Liu Wu found a relatively open, sheltered hollow in the mountains and ordered coolly, “Light a fire and take turns keeping watch.”
He found a clean rock and sat cross-legged on it, closing his eyes. He seemed to be meditating, but was actually spreading out his spiritual sense, alert to every movement around him.
...
Far away, inside a cave abode, Liu Ming suddenly opened his eyes.
The familiar system prompt sounded in his mind right on time.
[A new day has arrived. You may summon a new clone.]
“Summon a clone!” Liu Ming issued the command without hesitation.
[Summoning clone.]
[Clone appearance randomly generated.]
[Please choose items to assign to the clone.]
“Nothing.”
[Please name the clone.]
“Liu Liu.”
The name slipped out almost without thought, but just before confirming it, he abruptly stopped himself.
An idea came to him.
In Wangxian Town, everyone knew that the Valley Master of Blood Feast Valley planned to take a man named “Shen Qingyun” as a disciple.
Countless mortals with the same name and surname had come from every corner of the land, willingly entering the city lord’s residence for that faint, elusive chance at immortal fate!
Liu Ming was curious about Blood Feast Valley, too. Unfortunately, his name wasn’t “Shen Qingyun,” so there was little chance he could sneak inside.
But what if... he named his clone “Shen Qingyun”?
He didn’t know how the system chose names, but he was eighty percent sure that a clone named “Shen Qingyun” could pass the test and get into Blood Feast Valley!
With that thought, Liu Ming no longer hesitated.
[Please name the clone.]
“Shen Qingyun!”
[Name confirmed.]
[Summoning clone... Please wait.]
The air rippled faintly, and a young man of about seventeen or eighteen, with a scholarly air about him, quietly appeared in the empty hall.
Just then, someone rapped twice on the cave abode’s stone door.
Liu Meng’s brows furrowed slightly. She wondered who would come by at a time like this, then waved open the stone door. A young attendant from the Treasure Gathering Pavilion stood respectfully outside, holding a storage pouch.
“Senior Sister, the talisman materials you ordered have arrived. Two hundred sets in all. That’ll be one Three Talents Coin.” The attendant wore a professionally polite smile.
Liu Meng took the storage pouch and swept it with her spiritual sense, confirming that the talisman paper, spiritual ink, brushes, and other materials were all there. She took a Three Talents Coin from her own storage pouch, tossed it to him, and coldly shut the stone door.
It seemed the gaunt man hadn’t let her down. He’d successfully gone to Three Talents Market and bought the materials.
But he still hadn’t returned. She didn’t know whether he was simply slower or had run into trouble.
There was no point dwelling on it. Liu Meng quickly gathered her thoughts and focused all her attention on the talisman materials before her.
Thanks to Liu San’s “contribution,” Liu Meng’s mind was already filled with a vast amount of talisman knowledge. From the most basic Qi-Guiding Talismans to all kinds of offensive and defensive talismans, she knew them all. Her theoretical knowledge was practically at a master’s level.
Everything was ready. All that remained was to put it into practice.
Liu Meng took a deep breath, picked up a talisman brush, dipped it in spiritual ink, and began drawing on the talisman paper.
She was going to make one of the most basic talismans of all: a “Pathfinding Talisman.”
From setting down the brush to tracing the lines and infusing them with spiritual power... She had watched every step countless times through Liu San’s eyes.
But just as she was about to finish the final stroke and seal the spiritual power inside the talisman paper—
“Sizzle!”
With a soft hiss, the spiritual power on the talisman paper instantly went out of control. The entire talisman turned into a wisp of blue-green smoke and vanished into the air.
She had failed.
Liu Meng frowned, but didn’t lose heart. She took another sheet of talisman paper and tried again.
“Pfft.”
This time, the spiritual ink spread across the paper, ruining it before the talisman even took shape.
On the third attempt, she infused the brush tip with spiritual power a little too hastily, and the talisman script shattered outright.
The fourth try, the fifth...
After more than a dozen attempts, not one had succeeded.
Liu Meng set down the brush, a trace of helplessness on her face.
Only then did she understand that no matter how much knowledge she had in her head, putting it into practice wasn’t so easy. Even the slightest mistake meant immediate failure.
Liu San had made it look so easy, but perhaps his empty, desireless state, devoid of consciousness, was exactly what made him suited to drawing talismans.
The thought left her feeling stifled, but there was nothing she could do. She had no choice but to keep trying, at least to build her skill.
Sheet after sheet of talisman paper turned to ash in her hands, but with each failure, her movements grew steadier and smoother.
She didn’t know how much time had passed. More than half the materials on the table had been used up when she finally made the last stroke.
Buzz—
A pale blue-green light flashed across the talisman paper and vanished. All the talisman script drew inward, and a steady, profound energy fluctuation emanated from it.
Her first Pathfinding Talisman had finally succeeded!
Liu Meng let out a long breath, a smile she hadn’t worn in a long time appearing on her face.
At that moment, Liu Wu finally returned with the weary, dust-covered young women.
They were brought before Liu Meng, all wearing anxious, fearful expressions.
Perhaps only now did they finally remember Liu Wu’s warning and begin to wonder: What exactly did this stunning “immortal maiden” before them intend to do with them?
What would become of their future?
While their thoughts raced, Liu Meng was also watching them, lost in thought.
It was certain that she would have them cultivate the subsidiary formula of the Profound Female Art and become her maids. But what then?
Would she follow Su Meier’s example and forbid her maids from harming the living or absorbing men’s yang energy?
Would she follow Su Meier’s example and send each maid away to establish her own cave abode as soon as she broke through to Qi Refining?
Would she follow Su Meier’s example... and absorb men’s yang energy?
Liu Meng shook her head. Although this body of hers was female, her consciousness was still that of a man. The thought of cultivating through dual cultivation with other men still made her deeply uncomfortable.
But if she did nothing and relied solely on her own cultivation, her progress would be far too slow.
Instead...
She looked at the newly recruited maids before her as a new idea gradually took shape.
Why shouldn’t she have these maids cultivate?
She could assign men to them and have them cultivate through dual cultivation.
The faster they cultivated, the faster her own cultivation would grow through the feedback from the Mother Formula!
Although this meant sharing her resources with others, in the long run, her cultivation might not grow much more slowly than anyone else’s!
Most importantly, she wouldn’t have to get involved herself. That would put an end to the revulsion she felt inside.
“That’s what I’ll do!”
Liu Meng made up her mind, smiled at the young women, and beckoned them forward.
Meanwhile, Liu Wu had only just returned to the cave abode, and he was already setting off again.
He planned to escort “Shen Qingyun” to Wangxian Town first, help him sneak into the city lord’s residence, and investigate the true situation at Blood Feast Valley.
After that, he would head to that dead city and use the Pathfinding Talisman Liu Meng had drawn to enter Luofeng City and find a soul banner!