Cultivation: I can solidify equipment attributes

The next morning, Li Yuan went to the patrol team's station.

Wang De watched Li Yuan enter, but did not speak. Instead, he sensed the situation for a moment and then asked.

I wanted to ask you that yesterday.

Wang De picked up the hot teacup, took a sip, and glanced at Li Yuan.

"His aura has become much stronger. Has he broken through?"

"Five levels of Qi Refining."

Wang De nodded, a smile appearing on his face, but he quickly withdrew it.

"Alright. Level 5 Qi Refining is more than enough to qualify someone as a deputy captain in the patrol team, or you'll just have to wait it out."

"The situation was special before, but now you have the right to do so."

Wang De put down the teacup.

"I have two things to tell you. First, a new batch of cultivators trained by the Wang family will arrive in a couple of days. Most of them will go to the guard team, and a few will be assigned to the patrol team. I'll give you two new recruits then."

"Secondly, you don't need to go to the outer areas for now. You'll be in charge of patrolling the market and taking care of the things at hand."

Li Yuan nodded in agreement, saying that the cultivators they were training were the same peripheral members as himself.

Wang De waved his hand, indicating that they could leave.

After leaving the residence, Li Yuan walked along West Street to East Street.

Before I even stepped out of the alley, I could hear a cacophony of voices coming from ahead.

Turning into East Street, the scene before my eyes was quite different from the previous few days.

The streets were packed with people again.

The stalls stood side by side, filling all the spaces that had been vacated a few days ago. Some stall owners even squeezed a cloth mat between two old stalls, barely managing to prop up half of their space. The aisle was bustling with people coming and going, and the sounds of bargaining rose and fell.

At first glance, it looks similar to the busiest time of the market a few months ago.

Li Yuan walked along East Street at a moderate pace.

After walking a few dozen steps, I began to notice some differences.

A roadside stall selling scrap ore was deserted, with the owner dozing off, his chin resting on his hand. But next door, a stall selling herbs had four or five people gathered around itinerant merchants, all carrying large and small bags and storage bags hanging from their waists, haggling with the stall owner.

Further on, there wasn't much of a customer at the old talisman vendor's stall, but across the street, a short queue had formed in front of a shop. Li Yuan glanced at it; the queue consisted entirely of itinerant merchants, all carrying bulging cloth bags as they went in and out.

While itinerant merchants were buying supplies and selling goods, the business of local independent monks was even more sluggish.

When I reached the end of the north alley, the familiar, simple cloth shed was still there.

But the items on the stall were different from before.

Old Zhang's stall used to always have a dozen or so cleaning talismans on display, with fireball and ice cone talismans in the back row and exorcism talismans in the corner. The arrangement wasn't exactly neat, but it was clearly a business setup, and you could grab one at any time.

The stall was spotless today, with only a few cleansing talismans neatly folded and tied together with a thin string. The fireball and ice spike talismans were gone. The exorcism talismans were also gone. Four small stones, flattened by the wind, weighed down the four corners of the cloth.

It looked like it had been specially tidied up.

Old Zhang sat under the shed, without a brush for drawing talismans, nor any cinnabar or yellow paper. In front of him was a small cloth bag, tightly tied.

Standing next to him was a tall, thin boy in his teens with bright eyes. He carried a package on his back that was a size larger than Old Zhang's, and he was also carrying a bamboo basket in his hand.

Old Zhang's grandson, Zhang Qiu.

Li Yuan stopped in front of the stall.

Old Zhang looked up, saw it was Li Yuan, stood up, and cupped his hands in greeting.

"Fellow Daoist Li."

"Old Zhang." Li Yuan glanced at the clean stall and the packed packages.

Old Zhang didn't beat around the bush.

"I plan to take Xiaoqiu to Lijiafang Market."

His tone was flat, as if he were simply informing someone.

"Have you thought it through?"

"I've made up my mind." Old Zhang bent down to pick up the stones from the stall and put the last stack of cleansing talismans into his sleeve.

"Business here is failing. Herb prices keep rising, and my cost of drawing talismans is increasing, while the selling price hasn't increased much. If I stay any longer, I'll only lose spirit stones and not gain any."

Old Zhang straightened up and patted the dust off his hands.

"Moreover, there are also itinerant vendors stealing my business recently, so I'm afraid my business will be bad for quite some time."

"A new stall area has opened in Lijiafang Market, allowing outside cultivators to set up stalls. The stall fee is halved for the first three months. I heard that the price of herbs there is 20% cheaper than here, and there are also several workshops making talisman paper. The price of animal hide talisman paper is also reasonable."

Li Yuan glanced at the boy beside him.

Xiao Qiu stood there, the bundle on his back wider than his frame, the bamboo basket in his hands weighing him down so that he leaned slightly to one side, but his eyes were bright and his lips held an undisguised excitement.

Old Zhang followed Li Yuan's gaze to his grandson, shook his head, but the corners of his mouth also curved slightly.

"Children don't know how dangerous things are outside."

Li Yuan thought for a moment and then said, "It's nearly a hundred miles from here to Lijiafang Market, and the road is not safe."

"I know," Old Zhang nodded. "This morning a caravan of itinerant merchants was heading south, and I arranged to go with them, just to have some backup."

Traveling with a caravan is indeed much safer than traveling alone with one other person.

Li Yuan did not try to persuade him further.

Old Zhang paused for a moment, then pulled a thin booklet from his pocket.

The booklet was small, a little wider than the palm of your hand. The cover was made of rough yellow paper, and the corners were curled up. It was bound with thin thread, and you could tell it was quite old.

Old Zhang handed over the booklet.

"This is for Fellow Daoist Li."

Li Yuan took the booklet and flipped through it. Inside were handwritten instructions for making talismans; the handwriting was crooked but clear, and each step was accompanied by a simple line drawing of the spiritual runes. There were two types of talismans in total—cleansing talismans and exorcising talismans.

"What are you doing...?"

Li Yuan asked.

"These are my insights from years of drawing talismans. My skill level is low, so they're not worth much. You could probably learn them from an experienced talisman master for a dozen or so spirit stones." Old Zhang rubbed his hands together.

"These are the only two I can really use. You've already learned cleansing techniques, so you'll pick them up quickly. The talisman is somewhat useful; it can ward off some evil spirits when you're out and about."

"As for the Fireball and Ice Cone runes, the person I learned them from said they couldn't be passed on to outsiders."

Li Yuan closed the booklet and put it into his sleeve.

The moment the finger touched the booklet, a prompt popped up on the panel.

[Equipable item detected: Talisman Crafting Manual (Complete)]

[Item Attribute Level: White]

Li Yuan's expression remained unchanged.

Thank you.

Old Zhang waved his hand.

"It's a little embarrassing to admit, but sometimes when I have conflicts with other independent cultivators, I'll say that I know a deputy captain of a market town, and most of the time it's still of some use."

After saying that, Old Zhang bent down and folded up the cloth, putting the last small stone back on the ground.

Li Yuan watched as Old Zhang pulled out several bamboo poles from the cloth shed and neatly bundled them together.

The stall was closed down.

From the time Li Yuan transmigrated here until now, he has seen this stall set up at the end of the North Alley every time he patrols. Old Zhang sits under the awning drawing talismans, and the stall is full of cleaning talismans that he can't sell out. Occasionally someone will come to buy a couple, but most of the time he just sits there.

Li Yuan took out a stack of talismans and some pills from his sleeve.

Two Spirit Shield Talismans, two Fire Serpent Talismans, one Swift Travel Talisman, and the healing pills I bought earlier.

"Take it with you on the way."

Old Zhang was stunned for a moment, but without refusing, he stretched out his rough hands and took them all.

"Then I won't stand on ceremony."

Old Zhang cupped his hands in greeting, then bent down and picked up the cloth bag from the ground.

Xiao Qiu came over from the side, cupped her hands in a gesture of respect to Li Yuan, her movements stiff but earnest.

"Thank you, Brother Li."

Li Yuan nodded.

Old Zhang tucked the bundle of bamboo poles under his arm and carried a cloth bag in his other hand, walking towards the alley entrance. Xiao Qiu followed behind, carrying a large bundle on her back, the bamboo basket swaying back and forth in her hand.

After walking a few steps, Old Zhang turned around and cupped his hands in greeting to Li Yuan.

"Fellow Daoist Li, take care."

Li Yuan nodded.

The grandfather and grandson turned out of the north alley and disappeared into the crowd on the east street.

After the cloth shed was demolished, a small area was left empty at the end of the north alley, with only a few shallow pits left from when bamboo poles were inserted at the base of the wall.

Li Yuan stood there for a moment, then turned around and continued his patrol.