Splitting the Heave

Even though the other treasures other than the extermination qi collecting gourd and Essence Bone Ember were pretty valuable, they weren’t very useful to Shang Xia at all.

There were even some items in there Shang Xia hadn’t heard of. He suspected that those things were special products from the Azure Spiritual World, and he didn’t know if he would be able to use them in the future.

After arranging the scattered belongings on the ground, Shang Xia immediately left the Shang Clan’s territory on the Observation Peak and returned to the Talisman Hall.

The moment he returned, he received a piece of news that had something to do with the gathering he had just been to.

After Shang Xia left, two more rank four treasures appeared at the end and pushed the gathering of Martial Intent Realm experts to its climax.

Due to the fact that the items signified the end of the gathering, those who failed to get their hands on them would be left with regret. As such, the bids were raised aggressively by the experts present. Who would have thought that the two experts who took out their treasures raised their asking price the higher it went, in an attempt to get a little more benefits.

Surprisingly, but not really, the entire situation spiraled out of control. Those cultivators who were bidding on the items a moment ago cursed the sellers as a massive battle was about to break out.

Luckily, the five great families reacted quickly. With the help of the experts of the institution, they managed to control the situation.

With the experts of the five great families and more than a dozen experts of the institution taking charge, the gathering eventually came to a close. It might not be perfect, it was definitely a successful one.

Shang Xia was shocked to learn of what happened and he felt a wave of regret filling his heart.

He thought that nothing good would appear since the gathering was about to come to an end. He didn’t think that there would be experts patient enough to save the best for last.

Moreover, from what he heard, the two experts who took out their rank four treasures at the end had nothing in mind to trade for. All they wanted was to gain the most of our selling their treasures.

He was also surprised by one more thing. No one mentioned anything about the Yuxi Peak, and it seemed as though the changes he caused happened so quickly that no one managed to catch on.

Also, the news of his return probably reached Ren Huan quickly. The fatty came to deliver 17 pieces of rank three talisman paper made from the Stormy Lightning Leaves.

“The institution has been up my ass for this and I’m delivering those talisman paper made from my portion of the leaves. Brother Shang, I’m afraid I will have to delay the creation of your talisman paper for some time…” Ren Huan apologized.

Shang Xia gasped in shock when he looked at the stack before him. “There’s no need to worry about my talisman paper for the moment. Brother Ren, you’re really efficient. You managed to make so many talisman papers in such a short amount of time.” 

Ren Huan waved his hand and muttered, “I wasn’t really that fast. I started to craft the talisman paper right after I got my hands on the leaves. I was rushed a lot and if I had a little more time, I would be able to ensure that the talisman paper would be of better quality. Also, the success rate of creating those talisman papers would be raised when I work on your batch. With my experience this time, I should be able to complete 19 or 20 talisman papers with your portion of leaves.”

“Brother Ren, you truly have impressive skills!” Shang Xia couldn’t help but praise.

Ren Huan chuckled softly, but a trace of hesitation flashed across his eyes. “Brother Shang, are you confident in crafting 3 Gale Thunderbolt Talismans in 2 months?” 

“How would I know if I don’t try?” Shang Xia smiled in response.

With his eyes widening slightly, Ren Huan thought for a second before speaking, “I actually hope that you manage to finish those talismans.” 

His words might betray his actual belief in Shang Xia. He might think that it was impossible, but he truly hoped that Shang Xia could achieve what he was setting out to do. 

Ren Huan wasn’t the only one. Almost nobody in the Talisman Hall believed that Shang Xia would be able to craft those talismans in 2 short months.

There were even some people who came up with their own conspiracy theory that Shang Xia was using the resources of the Talisman Hall to improve his understanding in the way of talisman crafting.

When Shang Xia finally sent Ren Huan away, everyone in the Talisman Hall basically heard of his return. Regardless of their thoughts, they prepared everything that he required as they sent a ton of resources into his secret chamber.

No matter how pessimistic they were about Shang Xia’s attempt, the Talisman Hall wouldn’t skimp on the resources they provided. After all, Shang Xia was one of the 3 rank three Talisman Masters in the Talisman Hall and his status in the institution wasn’t something to scoff at.

Shang Xia didn’t allow himself to be affected by whatever other people thought and after he was ready, he sealed his secret chamber immediately. He had no time to waste as he started the crafting process.

The Formation Hall’s request wasn’t the only reason Shang Xia was in a rush to craft those talismans. He also wanted to test out his unique method of talisman crafting. He needed to see if it was effective even when crafting other types of talismans! With enough practice crafting those Formation Talismans, he knew how to get into his state of mind once the process started.

The only difference this time was that he was in no rush to start drawing on the talisman papers. According to the Zhu Family Talisman Scripture, he calculated everything he needed to do in his mind. He didn’t miss out a single detail as he thought about every stroke and how long i would take. The position of the brush after, and how long he would need to pause at every step. Even the pressure he had to put into each brushstroke ran through his mind.

By the time he completed the entire process in his mind, half a month had already passed. The Formation Hall gave him a time limit of two months, and a quarter of that was gone just like that. His brush hadn’t even touched a single piece of talisman paper since he started!

However, Shang Xia was in no rush at all. He even used three days to restore his state of mind.

Only on the nineteenth day did his brush finally touch the talisman paper.

On the second day of his first attempt, the talisman paper he was working on was vaporized in a storm of wind and lightning.

Shang Xia flicked his sleeves nonchalantly as he cleared the table of its contents. He wiped away every trace of ink that had spilled and restored the table to its original position before bringing out another piece of talisman paper.

His previous failure could be attributed to the sudden disharmony of the power of wind and lightning. It caused a huge explosion that caught him off guard.

If not for the fact that he had expected something to go wrong and prepared himself to suppress it with his inner qi without dodging, half the table might have been taken out in that explosion.

With the lesson from before, Shang Xia linked several restrictions around the secret chamber to the table he was working on. It covered some of the auxiliary equipment and resources he required and it ensured that nothing would be destroyed if he messed up again.

Unlike his first failure, he only failed on his second attempt on the third day. The reason behind it was the same as the first. The power of wind and lightning went off balance for a moment, causing a huge explosion.

Obviously, his second attempt was much closer to success than his first. In fact, he wasn’t too far away from completing the Gale Thunderbolt Talisman.

However, failing close to the end like that caused the greatest amount of damage to a cultivator’s divine sense. Moreover, it was also a blow to a Talisman Master’s confidence.

Luckily, Shang Xia was prepared for it. He expected as much due to the difficulty in crafting the Gale Thunderbolt Talisman. The talisman could be said to be one of the most difficult rank three talismans and it wasn’t really realistic to successfully craft one on his first few attempts.

Taking a day to restore his condition, Shang Xia sped through whatever he had learned in his mind several times. On the 25th day, he started his third attempt.

What Shang Xia didn’t know was that there were 2 rank one Talisman Masters waiting for him outside his secret chamber at the moment. 

Since two months ago, Shang Xia had left his secret chamber on the 25th day and he handed in his talismans personally.

Even though Shang Xia had no idea how the rules of the Talisman Hall worked, everyone else who wasn’t a rank three Talisman Master broke out into full-scale panic whenever Shang Xia went to deliver his talismans. That was because according to the rules of the Talisman Hall, someone else would head over to collect the completed talismans after the Talisman Master left seclusion. Even rank two Talisman Masters enjoyed the privilege of dumping their creations to some other attendant when they were done so as not to eat into their rest time. As a rank three Talisman Master, Shang Xia was obviously entitled to such services!

In order not to be caught off guard, the Talisman Hall sent two rank one Talisman Masters over to Shang Xia’s secret chamber on the 25th day of his seclusion. They were instructed to explain the rules to Shang Xia when he emerged, but they were destined for bad luck.

No one expected him to continue to remain in seclusion!

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…

“Why isn’t Talisman Master Shang coming out? The 25th day mark should have passed two days ago…”

“Heh, haven’t you heard? Teacher said that Talisman Master Shang boasted that he would be able to complete 3 new rank three talismans in 2 months! Who knows when he will emerge? He might even be too embarrassed to come out after wasting all the resources he has in there…” 

“Keep quiet, but I heard from our teacher than Talisman Master Shang is young and arrogant. He might have been goaded into doing that by the Formation Hall…” 

“Yeah, I heard the same thing. My teacher once received the guidance of Talisman Master Fan. When Talisman Master Fan crafted a new type of talisman, he used half a year to succeed. No one knows how many times he failed back then. He even had to look for Talisman Master Gong for some pointers before finally completing it. After that, he needed another half a year before he restored his condition to his peak.” 

“Hehe, did you hear the rumors going around? It’s said that even if Talisman Master Shang manages to complete one proper talisman, it would be a blessing in disguise?” 

“Wouldn’t that mean that even Talisman Master Gong and Talisman Master Fan aren’t too optimistic about him?” 

As the two of them continued to talk behind Shang Xia’s back, they would never expect that Shang Xia’s third attempt would allow him to succeed! He ran into slight problems along the way, but he managed to overcome them to create his 5th type of rank three talisman, the Gale Thunderbolt Talisman!