Daily Intelligence: From Miner to Dao Ancestor of Alchemy and Talismans

The next day, just as dawn broke and the stalls at the east gate of the market were set up, Xu Yuan arrived.

He was still disguised, still looking like a down-on-his-luck old rogue cultivator, hunched over, mingling in the bustling crowd, walking unhurriedly, his eyes scanning the stalls on both sides.

The East Gate was the most chaotic part of Qingya Fang. There were no proper shops, only temporary stalls. There were people selling spiritual herbs, magical artifacts, collecting materials from demon beasts, and even selling spirit beast dung as fertilizer. It was a mixed bag, with all sorts of people from all walks of life.

Most of the vendors are rogue cultivators who have fled from war or low-level cultivators who can't make a living. The quality of their goods varies greatly, and whether you can find something good depends entirely on your eyesight and luck.

Xu Yuan hadn't gone far when he saw the three rogue cultivators mentioned in the intelligence report.

Two men and one woman, all dressed in tattered, coarse cloth, with messy hair, sallow complexions, and chapped lips, clearly had traveled a long way and suffered greatly. In front of them was a tattered burlap sack with scattered miscellaneous items: a few extremely poor-quality spiritual herbs, two cracked low-grade magical artifacts, and several dusty old storage bags, obviously taken from the dead.

Xu Yuan didn't stop walking. Just like any other wandering cultivator browsing the street stalls, he strolled over slowly and squatted down in front of their stall.

Instead of looking at the target storage bag first, he casually picked up a tattered piece of monster hide next to him and examined it from all angles, as if he was very interested in it.

The three rogue cultivators exchanged glances, and the oldest among them, a male cultivator, quickly spoke up, "Fellow Daoist, you have a good eye! This is Black Wind Bear pelt; it can be used to make defensive robes. I'll sell it to you cheaply for two spirit stones!"

Xu Yuan didn't reply. He tossed the demon beast skin back, picked up an old storage bag next to him, weighed it in his hand, and casually asked, "How much for this bag?"

"This also costs two spirit stones!" the male cultivator quickly said. "Don't let its age fool you, it has a large capacity and can hold quite a lot!"

Xu Yuan shook his head, threw the bag back, and finally his gaze fell on the storage bag mentioned in the intelligence report.

The bag was dusty and worn, with a white, frosty opening and dried mud stains. It looked even more tattered than the other bags, and no one would bother to pick it up if it were lying on the ground.

"What about this?" Xu Yuan pointed to the bag and asked.

"This one?" The male cultivator paused, clearly not expecting him to choose the most dilapidated one. He quickly smiled and said, "This one is the same as the others, it's also worth one spirit stone! If you really want it, you can take it for one spirit stone!"

Xu Yuan picked up the bag, examined it from all angles, and squeezed it. It was completely empty; he couldn't feel anything inside. A look of disgust immediately crossed his face as he frowned and said, "This bag is so torn; one spirit stone? Half a stone is more like it."

"No, old fellow cultivator!" the male cultivator hurriedly said, "This bag may look tattered, but it's perfectly fine and still usable! One spirit stone is really not expensive! My siblings and I have fled here, and we rely on this little bit to exchange for food. Please have pity on us!"

Xu Yuan pretended to hesitate for a long time, but finally sighed, took out a spirit stone from his pocket, and handed it over: "Alright, alright, just consider it buying a toy."

The male cultivator grabbed the spirit stones, his face immediately lighting up with joy. He quickly stuffed the bag into the cultivator's hand, as if afraid the cultivator would change his mind.

Xu Yuan picked up the bag, got up and left. The whole process took less than the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea. He didn't say a word to them and didn't attract anyone's attention.

The three rogue cultivators watched his retreating figure, secretly pleased with themselves, thinking they had made a fortune by selling a worthless, unwanted bag for a spirit stone.

They would never have imagined that the tattered bag they casually sold contained a complete high-grade talisman manual that would make all the talisman cultivators in the entire Qingyafang fight tooth and nail for it.

Xu Yuan took the storage bag but did not go straight back to the courtyard.

He mingled in the crowd, wandering around several times, squeezing through the general market for a long time, and then walked from the back door of the inn to the front door. Only after confirming that no one was following him did he quickly walk back to the courtyard with green tiles.

Close the door, bolt it, and knock off the lock.

Xu Yuan then removed his disguise, washed the charcoal ash off his face, and changed back into his blue robe.

He sat down at the table, picked up the tattered storage bag, and probed it with his divine sense.

The bag was empty except for a few tattered old clothes and two hardened fasting pills. Xu Yuan emptied everything out and shook them out one by one.

In the lining of the third old garment, he felt a piece of animal skin as thin as a cicada's wing.

Upon closer inspection, the animal hide was covered with densely packed runes, with the drawing techniques and the path of spiritual energy circulation marked in small cinnabar characters next to it. At the very top were four large characters—"Thick Earth Rune" diagram.

It is a first-class superior quality item, complete and flawless, with even the precautions and common mistakes made during the drawing process clearly marked.

Xu Yuan's eyes lit up.

The Thick Earth Talisman is one of the most practical first-tier high-grade defensive talismans. Once activated, it forms an indestructible layer of earth-yellow spiritual energy armor on the body's surface, capable of withstanding a full-force attack from a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator.

With this, he's essentially given an extra layer of protection!

If he had had the Thick Earth Talisman in Black Wind Valley, he would have been confident in dealing with those three Tribulation Cultivators even if he had run into them head-on.

Xu Yuan spread the animal hide on the table and began to examine it carefully.

The difficulty of drawing the Earth talisman is much higher than that of the Blade talisman. It consists of seventy-two strokes, and the spiritual power output of each stroke must be precise to the millimeter. There can be no pause in the middle. Once the spiritual power is cut off, the talisman paper will immediately explode.

Not to mention, the earth-attribute spiritual power must be sealed in the talisman to form a defensive armor, which requires an extremely high level of control over the spiritual power.

In the past, it would have been almost impossible for him to draw the Thick Earth Talisman.

But now, after practicing the "True Explanation of Fire Control" for so long, he has mastered the control of spiritual energy into threads, and his subtle manipulation of spiritual energy is far beyond what he could do before.

Xu Yuan took a deep breath, spread out the talisman paper, ground the cinnabar, and picked up the wolf-hair brush.

He dipped the pen tip in cinnabar, concentrated his mind, and slowly circulated the spiritual energy in his dantian, flowing along his arm and through the pen, precisely injecting it into the talisman paper.

The beginning stroke, the ending stroke—each stroke, steady as Mount Tai.

He applied the technique of transforming spiritual energy into threads from the "True Explanation of Fire Control" to drawing talismans. The released spiritual energy condensed into an extremely fine thread, which, following the tip of the brush, precisely landed within the patterns of the talisman paper, not a fraction more or less.

But when he drew the thirty-sixth stroke, his spiritual energy paused slightly and failed to keep up with the rhythm.

With a soft "poof" sound.

The talisman exploded instantly, splattering cinnabar all over the table.

Xu Yuan remained expressionless, swept the shattered talisman paper aside, laid out a new one, and picked up his brush again.

failure.

Lay it up again.

Another failure.

One, two, three...

The pile of waste paper in the corner kept getting higher and higher. He drew from afternoon until evening, and he burned more than twenty pieces of talisman paper, but he didn't even draw a single complete talisman.