Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

Fu Tang was bigger than Li Yuan had imagined.

After walking along the stone path for about half a mile, the trees gradually thinned out, revealing a well-arranged courtyard ahead. With gray bricks and black tiles, and upturned eaves, the layout was consistent with the architectural style of the Wang family's main residence, but on a much smaller scale.

Several stone-paved paths meander between the courtyards, their surfaces meticulously swept clean. A faint scent of spiritual ink permeates the air, mingled with the aroma of cinnabar and animal hide.

Occasionally, one could see a few cultivators in gray robes entering and leaving the courtyard, mostly carrying talisman paper or talisman pens in their hands, walking slowly and with focused expressions.

Li Yuan was stopped by a guard at the entrance of the courtyard.

"What are you here for?"

"Participate in the assessment."

The monk on duty sized him up and pointed to a path to the east.

"The assessment is in the East Courtyard. After entering, turn left, and it's the second stone house."

Li Yuan walked along the road.

The east courtyard was quieter than the outer courtyard. The stone houses were arranged in a row, all with their doors closed, except for the second house, whose door was half-open, letting in a dim light.

Li Yuan walked to the door and knocked on the door frame twice.

"Come in."

The room was small, with a wide table taking up most of the space. A thick felt was laid on the table, on which were placed more than a dozen stacks of different kinds of talisman paper, as well as different kinds of spiritual ink and a talisman brush.

There was a person sitting behind the table.

He was in his fifties, with a thin face, high cheekbones, and small but extremely bright eyes. The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes looked as if they had been carved by a knife. His fingers were long and slender, with very faint traces of cinnabar at the tips, just like all those who had spent years making talismans.

The aura of someone in the later stages of Qi Refining is very heavy and can hardly be detected without careful observation.

The assessment talisman master glanced at Li Yuan without exchanging pleasantries.

"name."

"Li Yuan".

"Cultivation level".

"Sixth level of Qi Refining".

"I know several kinds of talismans."

"Fireball Talisman, Cleansing Talisman, Evil-Repelling Talisman, Warning Talisman, Meridian-Expanding Talisman, Golden Armor Talisman, Rejuvenation Talisman, Spring-Returning Talisman, Vajra Talisman."

The examiner's gaze lingered on Li Yuan for a moment longer.

He pulled out a few talismans from the pile on the table and pushed them in front of Li Yuan.

"Draw one of each, using the pen and ink on the table."

Li Yuan walked to the table and picked up the talisman brush.

The pen wasn't his own, and it felt a little different—the handle was a bit thinner than his usual one, and the nib was stiffer. But the quality of the talisman pen was good, and the spiritual energy flowed smoothly.

Li Yuan dipped his brush in ink, put it down, and began to draw a fireball talisman.

This was the talisman he was most skilled at drawing. He completed the strokes, laying out the patterns, overlapping them, and finishing the drawing in one smooth motion. His proficient technique was evident in the six spiritual patterns that flowed from beginning to end without a single pause. When the talisman's core was finished, the spiritual power was contained within, and a layer of calm, crimson luster rose from the talisman's surface.

The examiner kept his eyes fixed on his hands.

After finishing the fireball talisman, Li Yuan put it aside and changed to another talisman paper to draw a rejuvenating talisman.

The power of the wood-type spirit runes is completely different from that of the fire-type. Li Yuan switched between the two powers cleanly and efficiently, without any extra adjustment time. The healing runes spread out, the nourishing runes closed, and a faint green hue appeared at the core of the rune.

However, he rushed the finishing touches and ultimately failed to draw the talisman.

After all the first-tier low-grade talismans were drawn, Li Yuan put the talisman brush back on the brush holder.

In the end, it became four: Fireball Talisman, Golden Armor Talisman, Golden Armor Talisman, and Return to Origin Talisman.

The examiner reached out and took the talismans, including the discarded ones, and examined them one by one.

After reading it, the examiner nodded.

"pass."

The examiner leaned back in his chair, his gaze shifting from the talismans to Li Yuan's face.

"Do you know how to use a concealment spell?"

"Won't."

The examiner took a roll of animal hide from a drawer under the table, placed it on the table, and pushed it toward Li Yuan.

"This is how to make a Breath Concealing Talisman."

Li Yuan glanced at him.

"Look now, learn now, draw now." The examiner's tone remained unchanged, as if he were instructing someone on something extremely ordinary.

He pushed a few more talismans over from the table.

He paused for a moment, his gaze sharpening.

"Let me remind you, don't try to fool me. Whether this is your first time dealing with this kind of talisman or not, I can tell from the way you write it."

Li Yuan didn't say much, and reached out to unfold the animal hide.

The instructions for making the Breath Concealing Talisman were laid out on the table, with the diagram of the spirit runes and the key points clearly displayed.

Li Yuan looked it over from top to bottom.

My first impression was that it was different from the previous talismans.

The Fireball Talisman follows the fire element, the Vajra Talisman follows the earth and metal element, the Rejuvenation Talisman follows the wood element, and the Cleansing Talisman and the Evil-Repelling Talisman also follow common spiritual energy paths.

The Concealing Breath Talisman does not follow any attributes.

This isn't a no-go, it's a recommendation for the treasure book "Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes":

Its spirit pattern is called the Concealing Breath Pattern. Its core is not to output a certain spiritual power effect, but to build a spiritual power barrier on the talisman paper to wrap the user's spiritual energy fluctuations and aura inside and prevent them from leaking out.

The approaches are completely different.

Li Yuan reviewed the key points of the preparation method once again.

"The concealment pattern requires gathering spiritual energy from the outside in. The stroke direction is the opposite of the regular spiritual pattern, with a heavy start and a light finish, and the spiritual energy is distributed with a thicker outer layer and a thinner inner layer."

The stroke begins heavily and ends lightly.

It was exactly the opposite of all his habits of drawing symbols.

The Fireball Talisman begins with a light stroke and ends with a heavy one, concentrating its spiritual power towards the end. The Vajra Talisman maintains a consistent intensity throughout. The Rejuvenation Talisman is executed with a lighter touch throughout.

Li Yuan picked up the talisman brush, dipped it in spiritual ink, and spread out the first talisman paper.

The first concealment pattern.

He began to write, suppressing his spiritual power.

It's too heavy.

It's not a matter of force, it's a matter of direction. Previously, all spirit runes were "spread outwards," with spiritual energy flowing from the tip of the pen and spreading across the paper. The Concealing Breath Talisman requires spiritual energy to "draw inwards," seeping from the surface of the paper into its interior.

As Li Yuan made his first stroke, the spiritual energy habitually flowed outwards, spreading out over a small area on the paper.

The shape of the concealed breath pattern simply dissipated.

obsolete.

Li Yuan picked up the discarded talisman and set it aside, then laid out the second one.

This time, he deliberately suppressed the flow of spiritual energy. When he started writing, he rotated his wrist inward by half a bit and lowered the angle of the pen tip towards the paper, trying to make the spiritual energy flow to the inner layer of the paper.

The spiritual energy did seep in a little. But not enough; it only seeped into the surface and then stopped, with most of the spiritual energy still remaining on the paper.

The first half of the concealment pattern was barely formed, but in the second half—when finishing the stroke, the spiritual energy should gradually decrease—Li Yuan's wrist failed to control the rhythm of the decrease, and the spiritual energy was interrupted in the middle, resulting in a clear gap in the pattern.

It's ruined again.

The examiner sat opposite him, his hands folded on the table, watching intently.

His gaze wasn't on the talisman, but fixed on Li Yuan's wrist.

The third one... the fourth one... the fifth one...

Li Yuan finally succeeded in producing the seventh sheet.

A very faint gray layer floated on the surface of the Concealing Breath Talisman. It was not a luster, but a trace of the underlying color that peeked through the paper after the spiritual power had been contained to the extreme. It was dark and introverted, unlike any other talisman that released its power outwards.

[Equipable item detected: Concealment Talisman]

Although it's rough, it's at least a decent finished product.

The examiner looked at the talisman, his gaze lingering on its surface for a few moments.

He reached out and picked it up, flipped it over, and gently pressed his finger on the paper.

Then put it down.

"Passed."

Two words: crisp and clean.

He placed the concealing talisman on the corner of the table, stacking it together with the previous talisman.

"The onboarding process for Fu Tang will take a day or two. You can stay here for now. There are temporary accommodations behind the East Courtyard. Go to the guard post and register."

Li Yuan nodded and rolled up the recipe for the Concealing Breath Talisman on the table.

"Take the crafting method with you," the assessor added. "It's yours now."

Li Yuan tucked the animal hide into his sleeve, cupped his hands in greeting, and turned to walk out of the stone house.

As I stepped out of the east courtyard gate, I ran into someone.

Yu Fushi.

He was carrying a cloth bag, as if he had just returned from shopping somewhere, and was walking along the path in another direction. When he saw Li Yuan come out of the stone house where the assessment was being conducted, he paused for a moment.

"Finished the exam?"

"Um."

Master Yu sized him up.

"Did you pass?"

"Passed."

Master Yu was stunned for a moment.

He opened his mouth briefly, then closed it again, his lips twitched, and finally he just shook his head.

"You actually got in."

There was surprise in his tone, but it didn't sound like disbelief; it was more like a feeling of being caught off guard.

He patted the cloth bag in his hand, said nothing more, nodded to Li Yuan, and left with his things.

Li Yuan watched his departing figure, then turned and walked towards the temporary residence behind the East Courtyard.

The dwelling was a small stone house, more spacious than the low huts in the mine, with a larger table that could hold all the talisman-making tools.

Li Yuan put his things away and sat down at the table.

He took out the animal hide from his sleeve that was used to make the Concealing Breath Talisman and spread it out on the table.

I only drew seven pictures during the assessment, but only one was completed.

The success rate is too low.

Li Yuan picked up the talisman brush, dipped it in spiritual ink, and spread out a new sheet of talisman paper.

Put pen to paper.