I'll make you the furnace and the cauldron, so you can refine Yin and Yang and prove the Great

The workshop was more spacious than Li Hanshan had imagined.

As the door opened, a scent mingled with the aroma of spirit ink and talisman paper wafted out, like crushed thunderclouds and wood ash intertwining to form a warm, misty haze. Hundreds of long tables were arranged in an array, with a talisman-making disciple seated behind almost every table. Some were intently sketching talisman patterns, others were checking completed works, and several were sorting finished talismans into boxes according to their grade. The oil lamps on the tables formed a warm, yellow sea of ​​light, enveloping the entire workshop in a uniform halo.

Shen Qingyue walked ahead, and as she passed through the aisle between the long tables, the disciples along the way looked up to greet her. Some called out "Senior Sister Shen," while others simply nodded, their eyes filled with respect. Li Hanshan followed behind her, sensing the curious gazes from the disciples—he was a new face, and his appearance in the Purple Thunder Pavilion's workshop was bound to attract attention.

Shen Qingyue stopped in front of an empty long table and patted several items on it: a stack of uncut talisman paper, a piece of freshly ground spirit ink, several talisman brushes of different thicknesses, and an unfolded scroll of paper. She turned to Li Hanshan, her gaze clear and frank: "The basic principle of the Purple Thunder Talisman is actually not complicated. Its core lies in sealing thunder-attribute spiritual power within the talisman paper using a specific rune structure. When activated, it can release corresponding thunder-based spells. The higher the grade, the purer the thunder power contained in the rune, and the greater the power released."

As she spoke, she took out a pre-made first-tier Purple Lightning Talisman and placed it on the table, gesturing for Li Hanshan to come closer for a closer look. The talisman was about three inches long and two fingers wide, its surface outlined with fine, silvery-purple patterns, like tiny arcs of electricity solidified on the paper, with faint spiritual light flowing around its edges. Shen Qingyue flipped the talisman over, pointing to several very shallow lines on the back: "Look here, these are auxiliary runes for a first-tier Purple Lightning Talisman. Their function is to stabilize the duration of the lightning power within the talisman. Without these auxiliary runes, a first-tier Purple Lightning Talisman can only last for a few months before dissipating on its own. With this layer, its shelf life can be extended to more than ten years."

Her tone carried the patience characteristic of a teacher, as if she were accustomed to explaining these fundamental principles to beginners. Li Hanshan listened intently, his Void Refinement level divine sense acting like an invisible net, meticulously capturing the movement of each rune and the rhythm of spiritual energy infusion as her fingers moved. He could feel the lightning-attribute spiritual energy contained within those silver-purple patterns flowing slowly, like a tamed stream quietly flowing through a narrow riverbed.

"Give it a try." Shen Qingyue pushed a blank talisman paper and a talisman brush dipped in spirit ink in front of him. "Start with the first-tier starting talisman. The starting talisman for the Purple Thunder Talisman is the most basic stroke—a curved arc, like this—" As she spoke, she lightly drew a line on her talisman paper, and an extremely thin silver-purple arc appeared on the paper. The line was smooth and even, with the end slightly upturned, like the hem of a garment being blown by the wind.

Li Hanshan picked up the talisman brush, his spiritual energy seeping from his fingertips into the brush handle, flowing along the tip and into the ink. His Void Refinement level divine sense was like a precise mirror, accurately reflecting every turn and every change in force of Shen Qingyue's arc. The trajectory of his fingertips almost perfectly matched the image. When the silver-purple arc appeared on the talisman paper, the lines were equally smooth and even, and the upward curve at the end was exactly the same as Shen Qingyue's handwriting.

Shen Qingyue paused slightly. She picked up the talisman and examined it closely, her gaze slowly moving along the arc of the line. After a moment, she looked up at him, her eyes filled with genuine surprise: "You've studied talisman making before? The way this starting talisman ends is very standard. Many beginners will have broken strokes or shaky marks at the end when they draw it for the first time, but your lines don't have any extra burrs."

"No," Li Hanshan put down his talisman brush, "I just observed more carefully."

Shen Qingyue didn't press further, but her gaze lingered on the arc for a moment, as if trying to find some clue within it. Ultimately, she simply nodded: "Then try the next few strokes. A first-tier Purple Lightning Talisman requires a total of seventeen basic runes. Draw them one by one in the order shown on the drawing. Don't rush; make sure each stroke is in the correct position."

Li Hanshan continued as instructed. With the experience gained earlier, the subsequent strokes went more smoothly than he had expected. The structure of those runes was not unfamiliar to him—they shared many similarities in stroke logic with the ancient runes Luo Li had taught him in his dream. Although the materials and spiritual energy attributes differed, the underlying principle of "building stable circuits on a carrier with spiritual energy" was exactly the same. He hardly needed to think; his fingertips moved naturally across the talisman paper, unfolding the silver-purple lines one by one.

By the end of the afternoon, he had completed the full paths of seventeen basic runes. Although the patterns on the entire talisman paper were still somewhat rough and there were occasional slight tremors at the edges, the overall framework had been established, like the skeleton of an unfinished building.

The second day, the third day, the fourth day. He stayed in the workshop until late at night every day, repeatedly drawing the basic runes of the first-tier Purple Thunder Talisman. The pile of waste paper on the table grew larger and larger, but the pile of waste paper was also gradually thinning—at first, only one or two out of ten sheets were usable, but later one out of five or six sheets could pass Shen Qingyue's initial inspection. Those talisman sheets that were judged to be usable were collected separately into a wooden box and neatly arranged according to their numbers.

Shen Qingyue would visit him several times a day, each time picking up a newly drawn talisman and examining it for a moment before putting it down. She rarely offered words of encouragement, but occasionally she would lightly tap a particularly neatly drawn talisman with her fingertip before moving on to the next disciple. That subtle gesture made Li Hanshan realize that she was indeed paying attention to his progress.

One afternoon a month later, Li Hanshan placed the final stroke of the seventeenth basic rune onto the talisman paper. Spiritual energy flowed smoothly into the paper along the end of the arc, and the silver-purple patterns on the entire surface of the paper lit up simultaneously for a moment before subsiding, leaving behind a complete first-tier purple lightning talisman radiating a faint fluctuation of lightning power. He picked up the talisman paper and examined it for a moment. The patterns on the paper were even and smooth, and the spiritual light at the edges remained stable, showing no signs of dissipation.

Before he could even put it down, Shen Qingyue's surprised voice came from beside him: "You're done?"

Li Hanshan looked up and saw her standing in the corridor, holding a cup of spirit tea that was already mostly cold. She had clearly witnessed him completing the final stroke as she passed by. She quickly walked over, picked up the talisman, and examined it several times. Her clear eyes flashed with astonishment: "A first-tier purple lightning talisman, from scratch to complete, it only took one month and three days. Even for ordinary disciples with good talent, it would take at least a year to independently complete their first complete talisman."

"Perhaps I have a talent for this," Li Hanshan said without further explanation. His Void Refinement level divine sense allowed him to accurately perceive every flow of spiritual energy within the talisman, while his Nascent Soul level spiritual energy quality made the lightning energy he infused into the talisman naturally purer than that of ordinary disciples. These advantages combined made his learning speed far surpass that of ordinary people. However, he knew in his heart that this was only within the scope of low-level talismans. When the grade of the talisman rose to the fourth, fifth, or even higher levels, the complexity of the rune structure would increase exponentially. At that point, the advantages of divine sense and spiritual energy would no longer be enough to compensate for the gap in experience and skill.

In the following months, he focused his energy on practicing second-tier purple lightning runes. The complexity of second-tier runes was several times greater than that of first-tier runes, requiring a total of forty-three basic runes. The connections and responses between each rune needed to be precisely coordinated down to the millimeter. He repeatedly rehearsed the direction of those runes in his mind hundreds of times, and each step he took when actually writing them was imbued with a resolute certainty after repeated confirmation. By the end of the second month, he had five complete second-tier purple lightning runes before him. Although their quality wasn't perfect, each one had passed Shen Qingyue's inspection.

As night fell, Li Hanshan returned to the courtyard, sat cross-legged at the table, closed his eyes, and drifted into a dream. The sound of flowing water rang in his ears, moonlight spilled onto the river, and Luo Li was sitting on a blue stone waiting for him. He briefly recounted what he had seen and heard at the Purple Thunder Pavilion—the workshops where hundreds of people simultaneously crafted talismans, the techniques for drawing Purple Thunder talismans, and his observations and comparisons of the Immortal Alliance's talismanic arts and the ancient talismanic arts.

After listening, Luo Li tilted her head and thought for a moment: "The Yao Guang Sect isn't known for its talisman-making techniques, but there are indeed some texts on talisman-making in the Scripture Pavilion. However, these texts aren't the sect's own tradition; they were collected from various places by our ancestors and piled up in a corner of the pavilion, rarely read. I have seen a few scrolls, but I didn't study them carefully at the time." As she spoke, it was as if she had unearthed something from the depths of her memory, and her clear eyes brightened slightly. "Next time I enter a dream, I'll find those few fragments, and we'll look at them together."

In the next dream, Luo Li indeed brought back those fragments of bamboo slips. The edges of the slips were badly worn, and the writing on the surface was much blurred, but the structure of the runes and the markings of the spiritual energy flow were still clearly discernible. The talisman-making techniques recorded in those fragments did share some similarities in basic principles with the Purple Thunder Pavilion's tradition, but in the construction logic of high-level runes, the ancient method emphasized the natural flow of spiritual energy within the talisman paper, while the Purple Thunder Pavilion's method focused more on the precise arrangement of runes. Each approach had its advantages and disadvantages, so Li Hanshan and Luo Li sat by the river under the moonlight, comparing, dissecting, and then recombinating the techniques in those fragments with the Purple Thunder Pavilion's methods one by one.

One year, two years, five years, ten years. The river flowed quietly beside them, moonlight spilling onto the unfolded bamboo slips, reflecting a warm glow on the faded characters. Luo Li's fingertips would sometimes touch the turning point of a rune, sometimes trace a smooth arc in the air along the direction of spiritual energy. Occasionally, when the two disagreed, they would stop to argue for a few words, then start trying again. Li Hanshan firmly memorized the fused and improved techniques deep within his sea of ​​consciousness. The movement of each rune was like a path repeatedly drawn, clearly and firmly imprinted in his divine sense.

As the morning sunlight streamed through the window and fell upon the table in the courtyard, he would apply the improved techniques he had repeatedly verified in his dreams to his talisman-making practice in reality. The rune structures refined in his dreams were equally smooth and effective in reality, and the quality of the talismans he drew became increasingly higher, from occasional successes at the beginning to stable talisman creation later, and then to being able to continuously draw high-quality third-tier purple lightning talismans.

That day, Shen Qingyue picked up his latest completed third-tier Purple Thunder Talisman, examining it closely. The silver-purple patterns on the talisman's surface were even and smooth, its spiritual light as stable as ever, showing no signs of dissipation. She remained silent for a moment before putting it down. Despite having been repeatedly astonished by Li Hanshan over the past few months, her voice was still unsettling: "You can now consistently draw third-tier Purple Thunder Talismans. This is already considered above average among the outer disciples of the Purple Thunder Pavilion."

Li Hanshan put down his talisman brush and gazed out the window at the sky, which was bathed in the warm gold of twilight. The twenty years in his dream were nothing more than a fleeting dream in reality, at most two days' worth of time. That disparity in time occasionally made him feel disoriented. But at this moment, the silver-purple light flowing on the talisman paper in his palm was real, like a tamed river flowing quietly in a narrow riverbed.

The third stage is just the beginning.

In the following time, Li Hanshan continued to learn how to make talismans. As for the tasks assigned by the Hehuan Sect, Li Hanshan was not in a hurry at all. These tasks had plenty of time. If it were other disciples of the demonic sects, even if they infiltrated the Immortal Alliance, it would be extremely difficult for them to find out information, especially some core information.

He buried himself in learning talisman-making at the Purple Thunder Pavilion, and every month or two, he would study with the maid in his dreams. More than half a year later, Li Hanshan drew a fourth-order spirit talisman, once again astonishing Shen Qingyue.

In another dream, Luo Li brought something. She held a yellowed animal-hide scroll in her arms, carefully unrolling it on the bluestone. The scroll was densely covered with thousands of ancient seal characters and rune structures, the strokes as fine as hair, arranged neatly. "The complete 'Ancient Talisman Record'—I had someone buy it for me." Her tone held a hint of pride. "But there's so much content inside, we'll probably have to slowly work our way through it." She sat down beside him, handing him the beginning of the scroll, and the two began to study it word by word, starting from the first page.

Time flies when you're in a dream. In the first year, they studied the most basic principles of ancient rune structure. The rules, which were completely different from the current Purple Thunder Pavilion's rune system, took Li Hanshan a lot of effort to gradually adapt to. By the fifth year, he could understand the drawing logic of most of the basic runes in the scroll. Luo Li was also learning alongside him. The two of them would often argue for a long time about the best angle to start drawing a particular rune, and then choose the smoothest route after trying various possibilities. In the tenth year, they began to try to restore several long-lost intermediate-level runes recorded in the scroll. The structure of those runes was several times more complex than that of the Purple Thunder Rune. The spiritual energy flow of each node needed to be repeatedly considered. If they were not careful, the spiritual energy of the entire talisman would dissipate and turn to ashes.

A dream has now lasted for nearly twenty years.

Five consecutive dreams passed, and a hundred years later, on a moonlit night, the last few pages of the still-undeciphered rune structure lay before them. Luo Li leaned against the bluestone, her fingertips still tinged with the faint light left from her earlier simulation of the runes. She turned to Li Hanshan, her tone a mixture of weariness after satisfaction and anticipation: "Grandpa, if you try it back in reality, you should be able to draw a fifth-tier spirit rune."

When Li Hanshan opened his eyes, the morning light was seeping in through the gaps in the window paper, casting a thin, long golden band of light beside the bed. He got up and left the bedroom, went to the table, spread out a blank talisman paper, and took out a bottle of special spirit ink for fifth-order purple thunder talismans—it was left to him by Shen Qingyue a few days ago, saying that she wouldn't need it for the time being and that he should practice first.

He took a deep breath, dipped his brush in ink, and pressed the tip of the brush onto the talisman paper without hesitation. The talisman structure he had repeatedly sketched in his dreams appeared clearly in his mind. The spiritual power at his fingertips flowed precisely along the route that had been meticulously refined over a hundred years. The turns and twists of the strokes in the Purple Thunder Talisman, from the first to the fifth level, had become instinctive. About two incense sticks later, a talisman shimmering with dark purple lightning took shape under his brush. The patterns on the talisman's surface were arranged like a finely carved circuit, radiating a powerful aura that even a Nascent Soul cultivator could perceive.

Fifth-tier Purple Lightning Talisman. Successfully completed.