Chapter 4: Purple Lightning Talisman
“Have you been well these past five years?” Fang Chen smiled at the members who arrived.
He asked, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know the answer. The capital of the Grand Xia Empire held no secrets before his eyes. After all, whenever he felt bored, he would use his soul to wander through the city.
“None of us are doing well, my lord!” someone blurted.
“Yeah! We haven’t been too well. Every time we hear those fellows insulting you, my lord, we want nothing more than to cut them down! But your orders won’t allow us!”
“My lord, it has been five years since you last came to this courtyard…. Now that you’re here, does this mean that we’ll be back in action?” another asked.
The faces of everyone present suddenly lit up with expectation, their eyes eagerly staring at Fang Chen.
“My cultivation has been completely crippled. Even if I wish to make use of you guys again, are you willing to listen to my orders? You should know that any one of you will be able to easily defeat me now.” An unusual smile, one that didn’t really feel like a smile, suddenly crept on Fang Chen’s face
“Lord, we wouldn’t dare disobey you! As long as you say the word, we will follow you to the ends of the earth! We are still your loyal Grand Xia Hidden Guards!” A voice reverberated throughout the courtyard, and a man stepped out from the crowd, his eyes gleaming with ferocity. Sweeping his comrades with his gaze, he emitted an impressive aura that clearly reached the peak of the Qi Detonation Realm. He was a top-tier expert within Grand Xia without a doubt.
“Xu Ge is right. We are willing to follow you regardless of your cultivation level, my lord! As long as you give the order, we’ll complete it even if it means conquering a mountain of blades or diving into a sea of flames!”
Even though they lowered their voices in fear of being heard by someone outside, their determination could not be masked.
“Lord, Marshall Xiao Lang’s daughter will be arriving in the capital tomorrow. If we make a move, we’re confident we can kill her on her way here. We can also control the casualties to stay within thirty percent.” A ferocious snarl rang through the air.
“Looks like you guys have not been idling around. You even managed to catch news of that.” The corners of Fang Chen’s lips tilted upward, and he muttered, “But you seem to have forgotten about one thing. The reason you’re called the Grand Xia Hidden Guards is that your only mission is to protect and guard the empire. You’re not assassins. I don’t need you to kill anyone for me, either. All you need to do is to protect the empire. With your talents, it would be a shame for you all to degrade into assassins.”
“Lord, what should we do then?” Xu Ge whispered.
“I came today to reinstate all of you. However, all you need to do for now is to wait and observe silently. I won’t be needing you for now.” Fang Chen turned to Xu Ge. “Xu Ge, you stay.”
He then eyed the others. “The rest of you should head back to where you came from. You can help spread the news to those of you not in the city,” Fang Chen said with a slight smile on his face.
The guards were slightly taken aback at his words, but their training had long since ingrained in them the discipline to not question an order. They might have been unwilling to leave just like that, but they had no choice..
“My lord, is there something you need me to do?” Xu Ge asked. Even though his tone was calm, the excitement on his face was evident.
“I need a wolf hair brush, superior cinnabar, and superior yellow talisman papers. Also, the Hidden Courtyard is getting a bit dirty and needs to be cleaned,” Fang Chen instructed with a smile.
Xu Ge was stunned, but he quickly nodded in response. "Please give me a moment. I’ll head out to get everything.”
He quickly left, and about an hour later, he returned with everything.
He handed the items to Fang Chen and then rolled up his sleeves to start cleaning the courtyard, but he couldn’t help but take a quick glance at what Fang Chen was doing out of curiosity.
To his confusion, he found Fang Chen casually scribbling on a piece of talisman paper, causing an unusual expression to creep up on his face. “Isn’t the lord… blind? How is he drawing on a talisman? Well, whatever, forget it. My head hurts just thinking about it. There must be a reason behind whatever he’s doing….”
Xu Ge no longer thought about it and instead focused on his task, cleaning! The reinstating of the Hidden Courtyard was a cause for celebration to him. Nothing else mattered!
“There are four types of talismans mentioned in the Introduction to the Three Thousand Daos. They are the Vajra Talisman, the Divine Talisman, the Strength Talisman, and the Purple Lightning Talisman. They are all of the Inferior-yellow rank. The first three are pretty ordinary, too. Their effects are only so-so. The fourth talisman, however, carries the attribute of lightning and possesses astonishing power. The Purple Lightning Talisman!”
Fang Chen sat quietly in thought, staring at the first draft. Feeling that it was nearly complete, he started to circulate his spiritual qi.
Only by using his spiritual qi to draw the talisman would it have an effect.
Fang Chen's primary objective of the day was to complete a Purple Lightning Talisman. Now that he had taken his first step on the journey of cultivation, he knew that he was no longer a martial artist. And in order to alter the course of fate and command the respect of the Qingsong Empire, he needed overwhelming strength!
While he had assumed that everything would go smoothly judging by the way the talisman looked when it was drawn with ordinary ink, when he finally started to circulate his spiritual qi, he realized how wrong he had been. It was very difficult. When he used his qi to follow the outline he had drawn with ink, half of his spiritual qi reserves were instantly depleted. It was only then that he realized drawing talismans greatly exhausted spiritual qi.
Fang Chen no longer hesitated, he was set on completing the Purple Lightning Talisman in one go!
Hoping that his spiritual qi would suffice for the entire process, he focused on the task.
Unfortunately, his attempt ended up in failure….
Not only did he severely deplete his spiritual qi, he even lost control of the brush. It refused to move according to his will and went haywire, causing the talisman paper to be ruined.
“Turns out drawing a talisman is not an easy task.” Fang Chen sighed.
Surprisingly, he discovered that his depleted spiritual qi was recovering at an unusually rapid pace.
‘Is the rapid recovery of my spiritual qi a result of my Divine Soul being stronger than that of ordinary people?’ he thought
With this new discovery in mind, Fang Chen’s thoughts shifted, and a smile rose on his lips. He went straight back to drawing another Lightning Purple Talisman.
He kept at it for an entire day. Even though the skies had turned dark, it didn’t affect Fang Chen in any way. After all, he was blind to begin with.
There were hundreds of failed talismans stacked up on the table beside him.
At that point in time, Xu Ge was done with the courtyard, and thanks to his effort, it was completely spotless. He currently stood in the shadows of the courtyard, acting as a guard for Fang Chen.
"When will the lord finish what he’s doing? Tomorrow, Marshall Xiao Lang’s daughter will arrive in the capital..." Xu Ge was secretly anxious.
“I’m almost done. I should be able to succeed this time.”
Fang Chen picked up a new piece of talisman paper.
With the experience of over a hundred ruined talismans, he gradually grasped a feel for the technique for drawing the Purple Lightning Talisman.
Throughout the day, he exhausted his spiritual qi countless times; however, thanks to his extraordinary spiritual qi recovery speed, it would be restored back to its peak state in just a short while!
That wasn’t all. He discovered that every time he exhausted his spiritual qi, he would be able to expand his reserves a little more when it was fully recovered. On that day alone, his spiritual energy increased by around twenty to thirty percent!
Perhaps it wouldn’t take long for him to condense his second Immortal Vein and advance into the second stage of the Qi Refining Realm!
While Fang Chen was blind, every stroke was perfect and seemed to contain his very will. The tip of the wolf hair brush was covered with his spiritual qi, flowing smoothly onto the yellow paper. Every time it touched the paper, dense spiritual qi would emerge.
As the minutes passed… Fang Chen finally completed his very first Purple Lightning Talisman without making any mistakes!
As he concluded his final stroke, a wave of heaven and earth qi of the lightning element converged. It sank into the talisman and a bolt of lightning seemed to flash through the pitch-black courtyard.
“Was that lightning or am I seeing things?!” Xu Ge straightened his back abruptly and rubbed his eyes. The courtyard was quiet , and he could only see an upright figure sitting in its center.
He had definitely seen a flash of lightning earlier. Was he hallucinating?!
A genuine smile finally appeared on Fang Chen’s expressionless face. "What rich lightning aura…. The Lightning Talisman is finally complete.”
With his earlier experience, he was able to create a Purple Lightning Talisman in an hour. There were still ten hours left before dawn broke. He could at least create eight or nine more.
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