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

Xu Yuan nodded calmly and, without beating around the bush, directly stated his conditions: "I can supply Bao Dan Lou with second-tier pills on a long-term basis, and all alchemy materials will be supplied by Bao Dan Lou free of charge and in unlimited quantities. In addition, I need a black gold card for the main branch of Bao Dan Lou in Blackwater City, which will allow me to access all the resources of the main branch, including access to pill formulas, material ordering, and venue usage, without any restrictions."

He was going to Blackwater City to attend the Alchemist Conference. The black gold card from the main branch of Baodanlou would save him countless troubles and provide him with a perfect cover for his identity.

"No problem! Absolutely no problem!" Wu Song agreed without hesitation. He would be willing to move the entire Baodanlou flagship store here, let alone a black gold card.

A pill refiner who can reliably supply second-tier pills is a treasure that all the pill refineries are fighting tooth and nail for; this condition is simply not worth mentioning.

He immediately signed an anonymous supply agreement with Xu Yuan, promising to supply all materials free of charge. He also rushed back to Qingyafang overnight and used his highest authority to get Xu Yuan a top-tier black gold card for the Blackwater City Baodanlou flagship store, which was delivered to Xu Yuan before dawn.

Holding the black gold card, I saw Wusong off; it was already late at night.

Just as Xu Yuan had put away the black gold card, the system notification sounded in his mind precisely at midnight.

[Ding! Today's intelligence has been updated.]

[Qingdao Daily: In the Blackwater City Alchemist Tournament, Pill King Valley will send its direct disciple, Lin Mobai, to participate, aiming to win the championship and monopolize the Blackwater City alchemy market. All rogue cultivators who dare to compete with him for the championship will be secretly eliminated by Pill King Valley; three participating second-tier alchemists have already mysteriously disappeared.]

The residual heat of the alchemy furnace had not yet dissipated, and the second-tier Qi Gathering Pill on the stone table still emitted a faint spiritual light. However, Xu Yuan had already suppressed his joy at breaking through in alchemy, his fingertips holding the high-grade spiritual brush, his eyes clear and bright.

Breaking through to the second level of alchemy only granted him a ticket to the Blackwater City Alchemist Conference, but it was not the foundation for his livelihood.

He knew better than anyone that Blackwater City was a mixed bag, with not only the direct disciples of Danwang Valley eyeing it covetously, but also the young sect leader of the Blood Fiend Sect leading a team to the meeting, and countless killing intents, both overt and covert.

Having alchemy skills alone is far from enough. Only by raising his talisman skills to the second rank and fully utilizing his life-saving trump cards can he survive steadily in this turmoil.

Not to mention the deadly predicament six months later, where the thousands of corpse puppets in Yin Wind Valley are impervious to blades and spears, and only a second-tier Yang Flame Talisman can precisely counter them. Filling the gaps in talisman skills is not only for the trip to Blackwater City, but also to ensure one's survival in the bloodbath six months later.

Without the slightest delay, Xu Yuan immediately closed the cave's stone door and activated the highest level of restrictions. He took out the top-grade thunder pattern talisman paper, half a pound of top-grade cinnabar, and the superior-grade spirit brush that had been with him for several years from his storage bag. Finally, he spread out the Pill Talisman Dao Scripture on the stone table and turned to the chapter on the second-order talisman Dao diagram.

The core of the Danfu Dao Jing is "Danfu and Dao are of the same origin, and Dao is the same." After breaking through to the second level of Dan Dao, his control over spiritual power has reached a state of perfection, and his understanding of Dao is far beyond what he used to have. When he looks at these second-level talisman diagrams, the previously obscure logic of the talisman patterns and the path of spiritual power flow have become incredibly clear. He can see through the core essence at a glance.

The essence of the Dao of Talismans lies in the perfect harmony between spiritual power and talismanic runes; the slightest deviation can lead to disastrous consequences. And the ultimate control over spiritual power granted by his eight-inch spiritual aperture is precisely the most core talent for cultivating the Dao of Talismans.

Xu Yuan did not rush to put pen to paper. He first spent two whole hours thoroughly familiarizing himself with the basic runes, combination logic, and rhythm of spiritual power infusion in the second-order rune diagram. He even repeatedly deduced it in his mind hundreds of times to confirm that there was no omission. Only then did he finally lay out the talisman paper, dip it in cinnabar, and concentrate on putting pen to paper.

The first talisman he chose was the most basic and core second-tier defensive talisman—the Earth Talisman. This was the foundation of his survival and the most basic requirement for a second-tier talisman master.

The superior spirit brush swept across the talisman paper, leaving smooth lines with cinnabar. Xu Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly, his divine sense firmly locking onto the tip of the brush. He activated his eight-inch spiritual aperture at full power, controlling the spiritual energy with absolute precision. The thickness of each talisman, the amount of spiritual energy injected, and the speed and pressure of each stroke perfectly matched the methods in the Daoist scriptures of alchemy and talisman-making.

But when the last stroke was made, the talisman only flashed with a faint light before fading completely—the spiritual power of the talisman was mismatched, and it was ruined.

Xu Yuan was not discouraged. He laid out another sheet of talisman paper and began to write again.

One, two, three... more than twenty top-grade talismans were ruined one after another, but he remained calm. Every time a talisman was ruined, he would accurately find the problem and adjust the rhythm of the spiritual energy injection and the pressure of the talisman strokes.

As the last stroke of the twenty-fourth talisman fell, the moment the brush tip finished its work, a burst of earthy yellow spiritual light erupted from the talisman, and a heavy, steady earth-elemental spiritual power swept over, forming a faint spiritual power shield in the stone chamber.

Second-tier low-grade Thick Earth Talisman, done!

Xu Yuan picked up the talisman, tracing the smooth runes on it with his fingertips, a hint of satisfaction flashing in his eyes. The defensive capabilities of this second-tier Thick Earth Talisman were more than three times those of a first-tier top-grade Thick Earth Talisman. It could withstand even the full-force attack of a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator three times, making it a truly reliable life-saving trump card.

With the initial success, subsequent cultivation of talismanic arts became a natural progression.

For the next three days, Xu Yuan stayed indoors, eating and sleeping in the stone chamber, devoting all his energy to studying second-tier talismans.

He not only thoroughly mastered the second-tier Earth Rune, enabling him to consistently draw mid-grade quality runes, but also successively broke through several core second-tier runes.

The second-tier offensive talisman, the Void-Splitting Talisman, incites spatial rifts to cause damage. Its power is more than five times that of the first-tier top-grade Rock-Splitting Talisman. Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator who is unprepared will be severely injured and killed on the spot if hit by it.

The second-tier escape technique talisman, Windwalking Talisman, can triple one's speed after activation, lasting for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. Combined with his previous top-grade Windwalking Talisman, even Foundation Establishment cultivators would find it difficult to keep up with his escape speed.

The second-tier control talisman, the Immortal-Trapping Talisman, can form a triple spiritual energy locking array. Even a cultivator at the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refining would be instantly trapped for three breaths, and even a cultivator in the early stage of Foundation Establishment would be momentarily hindered. Most importantly, he spent an entire night finally drawing the second-tier Yang Flame Talisman. The extremely yang and powerful Yang Flame spiritual energy is the nemesis of all yin evils and corpse puppets in the world, perfectly countering the Corpse Puppet Technique of Yin Wind Valley. Even a thousand-year-old copper-skinned corpse puppet would be instantly charred and brittle upon being touched by a wisp of Yang Flame.

At this point, Xu Yuan's talisman system was completely perfected, encompassing offense, defense, escape, control, and counteraction—all without any weaknesses. He also firmly established himself as a second-tier talisman master, becoming the only cultivator within a hundred-mile radius of Qingya Fang to be at the second tier in both alchemy and talisman cultivation.