Rise of the Wasteland in Cultivation

Old Xu went to the warehouse for a long time, probably searching every corner. An hour later, he appeared in front of Leng San, looking disheveled, and said with a smile, "I was lucky to find these. Third Master, see if they can be used for now."

Old Xu was holding a dozen dusty calligraphy brushes, a stack of calligraphy practice books, and two bottles of red ink.

Leng San frowned slightly. These brushes were of poor quality, perhaps because they had been stored for too long; the bristles would fall off with the slightest touch.

Old Xu chuckled and said, "Losing feathers is a minor problem; we can just glue them back on. Nowadays, people don't like to study. Few people even practice calligraphy with a pen, let alone a brush. Look, the gentle girl from the Canglang Squad is an exception. She often comes to the supply station to look for books, and occasionally she'll buy a couple of pens and notebooks to take back with her."

Leng San reluctantly picked out three relatively well-preserved calligraphy brushes and asked, "How much are these?"

Old Xu generously said, "Third Master, we're so familiar with each other, talking about money will hurt our feelings. It's just a few unwanted calligraphy brushes, they'll just gather dust in the warehouse. Since Third Master has taken a liking to them, let's give them away for free... cough, consider them freebies from those canned goods."

Leng San completely ignored the first half of Lao Xu's sentence, knowing that this guy was a shrewd strategist who wouldn't do anything without a profit, and wouldn't give things away for free. He frowned and asked, "You don't have cinnabar or yellow paper, do you?"

"We don't have any of those things. Red ink won't do? Third Master, you're not really going to draw talismans to catch ghosts, are you?" Old Xu looked at Leng San suspiciously.

Actually, it's best to use cinnabar when drawing talismans, not because cinnabar wards off evil, but because it has good "spiritual conduction" properties. Just like an electrical wire, the conductivity of an aluminum core is definitely not as good as that of a copper core. Under the same voltage, a copper core wire has less loss than an aluminum core wire and can withstand a larger current.

The same goes for cinnabar. Among the many materials used for drawing talismans, it has the strongest ability to conduct spiritual energy, resulting in a high success rate and greater power when used to draw talismans.

However, if cinnabar is unavailable, red ink can be used instead. Given these conditions, what more could one ask for? Therefore, Leng San had no choice but to accept the two bottles of red ink.

As luck would have it, at that moment, a scavenger returned from scavenging, his backpack bulging, presumably having made quite a haul. He came to the supply station to sell his wares. Upon hearing that Leng San needed yellow paper and cinnabar, he was taken aback and cautiously struck up a conversation, saying, "Third Brother, do you need yellow paper? I do have some here, but I don't know if it's the kind you're looking for."

"Take it out and let me see it," Leng San hurriedly said.

The scavenger pulled a large wad of crumpled yellow paper from his backpack and said somewhat embarrassedly, "It doesn't look very good."

Leng San was secretly delighted. This was authentic yellow paper, exactly what he wanted. He decisively said, "I'll take this. How many contribution points are you willing to sell it for?"

The scavenger was both surprised and delighted. He had found the yellow paper in a shop selling incense and candles and originally intended to use it as toilet paper. He never expected that someone would actually pay for it. He rolled his eyes and said, "Third Brother, just give me whatever you think is appropriate."

"Then 100 contribution points it is. If I find another one in the future, I'll take it again," Leng Sanfen said decisively.

The scavenger was overjoyed, never expecting that a stack of toilet paper would be enough to pay several months' rent. He immediately bowed and scraped, saying, "Okay, thank you, Third Brother. I'll be more careful next time. Oh, by the way, I have another box here. I don't know if it's the cinnabar you wanted, Third Brother."

The scavenger deftly took out a box of red powder from his backpack, which he had also found in the incense and candle shop. He had planned to take it back to the camp, dilute it with water, and make it into lipstick to deceive Tang Hao'er.

Leng San took it, smelled it, and confirmed that it was indeed cinnabar. He then nodded and said, "I'll take this. 100 contribution points."

"300 contribution points." Seeing that Leng San really needed it, the scavenger immediately raised the price. Kindness, honesty, trustworthiness, and gratitude were practically nonexistent among scavengers; profit was everything.

"Okay, deal!" Leng San agreed immediately.

The scavenger was both surprised and delighted, and a little regretful that he had offered too low a price. However, faced with the power of the opponent, he did not dare to go too far and honestly accepted Leng San's 400 contribution points, and the transaction was settled.

Next, Leng San indeed bought all the canned goods at the supply station before returning to the courtyard house.

Old Xu watched Leng San's back thoughtfully, thinking to himself, "This kid is using cinnabar and yellow paper, could he really be trying to learn how to draw talismans and catch ghosts?"

Now, Leng San returned to the courtyard house and immediately put up a "Do Not Disturb" sign outside the door. Then he began to "practice" drawing talismans. Actually, it was more like "reviewing" than practicing.

Since magic talismans are mostly used by low-level cultivators, Leng Shan rarely drew magic talismans after forming his Golden Core in his previous life. He mainly drew a few talismans for his juniors to protect them when friends asked for them.

Leng San first boiled a kettle of water to soften the brush, then mixed cinnabar with water and ground it into powder. Next, he cut the yellow paper into palm-sized pieces.

Chenxi walked over, her bright eyes looking at Leng San with curiosity, and she seemed eager to try. Leng San smiled when he saw this, and handed the scissors to Chenxi, saying, "You try it, just cut it like this."

The little girl immediately beamed with joy, took the scissors, and started cutting like Leng San. At first, her movements were rather clumsy, but after cutting a few pieces, she was able to cut quickly and well.

Leng San was extremely surprised. He took the ten talisman papers that Chen Xi had just cut out and compared them. They overlapped perfectly, without the slightest difference, just like they were cut by a machine. "Tsk tsk, the precision of her control is truly remarkable. She's definitely talisman master material. It's a pity Chen Xi can't cultivate."

Chenxi is indeed unable to cultivate. Leng San once tried to teach her a cultivation technique, only to discover that her dantian lacked a spiritual sea, making it impossible for her to refine and absorb spiritual energy; otherwise, it would have been extraordinary. Because Chenxi possesses purification abilities, if the purified spiritual energy were used directly for cultivation, her progress would be absolutely astonishing.

"My daughter Chenxi did a really good job cutting her hair!" Leng San praised, giving a thumbs up.

The little girl was clearly very happy to receive the praise and cut even more carefully, while Leng San concentrated, picked up his brush, dipped it in cinnabar ink, and began to draw talismans.

Drawing talismans is an extremely complex task, requiring both mental and physical effort. The intricate patterns must be drawn flawlessly without any mistakes or pauses, as even the slightest error can render the entire task futile. Therefore, the environment for drawing talismans must be quiet and undisturbed.

The first one is a complete failure!

However, this was within Leng San's expectations. After all, he hadn't painted for too long, and he had a different physical body. His cultivation had also fallen to the second level of Qi Refining, so his ability to control the brush had naturally plummeted.

The second one is also a waste!

The third one was finally successful. After the last rune was completed, the entire talisman paper was immediately enveloped in a pale blue light and emitted a faint spiritual pressure.

This is a basic speed-boosting talisman that increases the user's speed by about 10% for 10 seconds.

Next, Leng San continued to draw the Divine Speed ​​Talisman, drawing ten in one go, succeeding seven times. The success rate was getting higher and higher, after all, he was a Golden Core cultivator in his previous life, and his experience and consciousness were still there.

After drawing ten Swiftness Talismans, Leng San felt a bit tired. Drawing talismans was quite mentally taxing, and the spiritual energy in his dantian was almost used up, so Leng San put down his brush and began to cultivate and recover.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but when Leng San stopped cultivating, he found that it was already dark outside. Chenxi, that little girl, was fast asleep on the small table. Her delicate, jade-like face was rosy and as cute as a ripe apple.

Leng San smiled, carefully picked up Chenxi, put her on the bed, and covered her with a blanket.

However, just as Leng San was about to tidy up the table, he discovered that there were several extra talismans he had drawn, to be precise, five extra.

Leng San drew a total of twelve Swift Travel Talismans, five of which were unusable and eight were successful, but now there are clearly twelve successful ones.

Leng San examined them carefully and quickly realized that five of them were not drawn by him. He looked at Chen Xi on the bed in surprise. Obviously, these five extra drawings must have been drawn by Chen Xi. No wonder he was so tired that he fell asleep.

Tsk tsk, this little girl is too amazing! Back when I first learned to draw talismans, I wasted hundreds of talisman papers before I finally mastered this Swift Travel Talisman. She just watched from the side and learned it? And she even successfully drew five of them!

and many more!

Leng San counted the discarded talisman papers and found that in addition to the five he had ruined, there were five other ruined papers, which were obviously also Chen Xi's "masterpieces".

Nevertheless, the success rate is still 50%, which is an absolutely incredible success rate for someone who has never practiced before and is learning to draw talismans for the first time.

At this moment, Leng San seemed to have been hit by a violent blow. In his previous life in the world of cultivation, although he could not be considered a prodigy, he still had excellent cultivation aptitude. However, in front of Chen Xi, he was undoubtedly somewhat overshadowed.

It's a pity that Chenxi can't cultivate; otherwise, it wouldn't be impossible for her to cultivate to the Land Ascension Realm.