Begin your practice with the crane-shaped stance.

Xia Dong carefully put away the wind-controlling talisman that emitted a faint blue light, and without pausing, picked up his brush again and dipped it in ink.

Because one certificate is valid forever.

His next movements were fluid and effortless, without the slightest hesitation.

The second one, done.

The third one, done.

The fourth one...

As blank spirit papers were filled with intricate cinnabar runes, the wind-controlling talismans on Xia Dong's desk gradually piled up.

After a frantic drawing process, Xia Dong roughly estimated that his success rate in making Wind-Riding Talismans had stabilized at an astonishing 90%.

"Why isn't it 100%?" Xia Dong looked at the two or three pieces of spirit paper that occasionally turned to ashes, pondered for a while, and felt that it might be due to the materials or other reasons. In any case, this success rate was already very amazing.

After confirming that his skill in making wind-controlling talismans had reached perfection, Xia Dong put down his talisman brush.

He did not rush to achieve quick results, but instead sat cross-legged back on the bed and began to circulate the "Eternal Spring Qi Circulation Technique". While swallowing food to replenish his qi and blood, he patiently restored the magical power and spiritual consciousness that had been severely depleted earlier.

It wasn't until half a day later, when he was certain that he had fully recovered to his peak state of being full of energy, that Xia Dong once again spread out a brand new sheet of spiritual paper.

Next, he will create his true trump card for survival—the Breath Concealing Talisman.

According to the records in the jade slip of the Taiping Yinfu Jing, although the grade of the Breath Concealing Talisman is not extremely high, its practicality is very strong.

Even a low-level concealment talisman drawn on the most ordinary spirit paper, once affixed to the body, can at least perfectly evade the divine sense detection of a mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator during the talisman's effective period.

If Xia Dong's magical power is profound in the future, and he successfully condenses a "talisman seed" in his body to create a higher quality concealment talisman, then cultivators below the Foundation Establishment stage will find it extremely difficult to detect him when he is in a concealment state.

Of course, if the caster expends their magical power intensely or actively releases their divine sense to investigate others during the use of the talisman, the concealment effect will immediately fail.

Xia Dong took a deep breath and began to dissect the spiritual runes of the Concealing Breath Talisman.

The difficulty of drawing the Concealing Breath Talisman is a whole level higher than that of the Wind Control Talisman. Its runes are not only more complex, but also require magical power to form an extremely restrained, interconnected "dead knot" at the tip of the brush.

However, the core of the "Eternal Spring Qi Circulation Technique" he cultivated was to close all the pores of his body and return to the innate "fetal breathing" state, which inherently had a strong effect of conserving qi and blood and consciousness.

By drawing inferences from similar cases, Xia Dong only needed to ponder for a little while to gain a preliminary understanding of the obscure principles of the Concealing Breath Talisman.

"If I really manage to condense a talisman seed in the future, I won't even need talisman paper. I can form talismans in the void anytime, anywhere. This is no different from learning a breath concealment technique."

Having grasped the principle, Xia Dong picked up his pen again and began practicing tirelessly.

Creating talismans consumes a great deal of spiritual energy.

Ordinary cultivators value their divine sense more than their lives and dare not overuse it. This is because once the divine sense is overdrawn, it will damage the origin of the soul, which is extremely difficult to recover and may even lead to a terrible drop in cultivation level.

Therefore, those talisman masters have to stop and rest after drawing a few talismans, for fear of damaging their foundation.

But summer and winter are different.

He had no psychological burden whatsoever about the potential for his realm to fall.

Under this reckless and crazy experimentation, Xia Dong became completely immersed in the world of talisman making.

The general outline of the Taiping Yinfu Jing states: "Observe the Way of Heaven and act in accordance with Heaven."

The essence of the Dao of Talismans is to forcibly imitate and replicate the ultimate principles of the operation of heaven and earth through objects.

When ordinary talisman masters are making talismans, they are so worried about the dissipation of their magical power and the depletion of their spiritual consciousness that their minds are stretched to the limit. Where would they have any spare mental energy to appreciate the mysteries of heaven and earth contained in the process of making talismans?

But summer and winter don't have this burden.

Every time he put pen to paper, every time he felt the magical power outlining those mysterious and profound paths on the talisman paper, it was as if he were listening to the breath of heaven and earth.

hum.

After countless failures.

The first Concealing Breath Talisman is complete!

Xia Dong's wrist went limp, and the talisman brush almost fell. A strong sense of dizziness came over her.

In order to draw this Breath Concealing Talisman, his spiritual consciousness was once again severely strained.

He regulated his breathing slightly, then skillfully closed his eyes and sat in meditation, circulating his energy to recover.

When he opened his eyes again several hours later, a hint of surprise flashed in them.

His newly recovered consciousness had become slightly more resilient than before.

This sensation is extremely subtle, like a tiny speck of dust gently clinging to an inch of smooth, tender skin. If you pay close attention and observe carefully, you can still see it clearly.

To be precise, his consciousness did not expand in scope, but it underwent a real "tempering" in quality!

"Making talismans... can actually temper one's divine sense?"

Xia Dong never expected that this immersive talisman-making process, through the understanding of the profound principles of heaven and earth and the extreme squeezing of energy, could also have the miraculous effect of tempering one's divine sense.

With a sudden thought, Xia Dong continued to try making talismans.

I don't know how much time passed.

Inside the rough inkstone, everything was clean and tidy, with only a little dried, dark red residue remaining.

"Are you out of ink?" Xia Dong looked at the empty ink dish, somewhat unsatisfied.

He suppressed the urge to continue making talismans and stood up to stretch his stiff muscles.

Once his consciousness and magical power had fully recovered and stabilized, Xia Dong fell into deep thought.

What should we do next?

Should we first take these Wind-Riding Talismans to the market to secretly resell them for spirit stones and talisman ink, or... try that method?

In fact, a strange thought had been swirling in his mind all along.

What specific benefits do martial artists offer to cultivators?

Xia Dong stared intently at the dried inkstone, muttering to himself.

"If the blood of demonic beasts, because it contains powerful vital energy and spirituality, can be used to create talismans that carry magical power..."

"What about the blood of the warriors?"

Xia Dong's eyes flickered in the swaying candlelight.

He decided to try it with his own blood.

...

...

The Taiping Yin Fu Jing contains a method for making talisman ink, and Xia Dong is determined to try it out by using his own blood instead of the blood of demon beasts.

He turned and walked to the medicine cabinet next to him, took out an extremely clean white porcelain bowl and placed it on the table, and then took out a small knife to disinfect it.

Xia Dong took a deep breath, activated his Dragon-Capturing Skill, and deliberately relaxed the meridians in his left arm. Then, holding a knife in his right hand, he precisely made a cut about an inch long at the vein of his left wrist.

If an ordinary person suffered such an injury, blood would gush out like a spring. But Xia Dong's control over his body was already exquisite. Under his deliberate control, the blood simply turned into a smooth line, flowing slowly into the white porcelain bowl.

tick, tick...

The blood of Xia Dong now is completely different from that of ordinary mortals.

The blood was an extremely deep dark red, as viscous as mercury. When it fell into the bowl, it made a very subtle, muffled sound and even emitted wisps of warm white steam.

That's enough.

With a thought, Xia Dong instantly unleashed the power of the "Dragon-Capturing Skill," causing the muscles in his left arm to tighten violently, as if an iron clamp had locked onto the blood vessels. The muscle fibers at the wound rapidly contracted and closed, forcibly cutting off the bleeding in an instant.

He then treated the wound and took out the materials for refining talisman ink, sprinkling them evenly into the bowl full of blood.

Next comes the most crucial step.

Xia Dong slightly closed his eyes, and his immense divine sense instantly burst forth, completely enveloping the large white porcelain bowl.

The "secret method of ink refining" recorded in the Taiping Yinfu Jing was running through his mind.

"rise!"

Xia Dong let out a low shout, and the cold and dark Xuan Yin magic power in his dantian flowed continuously into the bowl through his fingertips.

boom!

The blood in the bowl, upon contact with the Xuan Yin magic power, began to boil violently, like boiling water.

Immediately afterwards, Xia Dong enveloped the blood with his divine sense.

It took almost half an hour.

The commotion inside the white porcelain bowl finally subsided.

The dark red blood in the bowl had completely disappeared.

Instead, there was a solid ink block, no bigger than a fingernail and as clear and translucent as red agate, lying quietly in the center of the bottom of the bowl.

Xia Dong stretched out two fingers and pinched the talisman ink.

It feels slightly cool to the touch, yet has a warm, jade-like texture.

The strangest thing is that there is no trace of the nauseating bloody smell on this talisman ink. Instead, it exudes an extremely dark and profound fragrance that seems to strike the soul directly.