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

When the fifth-order purple lightning talisman took shape under Li Hanshan's fingertips, the air in the workshop seemed to freeze for a moment.

As the final stroke of the core rune was completed, the spirit ink suddenly shone brightly. A silvery-purple light flowed rapidly along the intricate patterns, enveloping the entire talisman in a flowing halo, even casting the shadows of the brush holders on the table a dark purple. The light lasted for several breaths, then slowly receded, settled, and stabilized, finally transforming into a thin layer of spiritual light adhering to the surface of the talisman, like a layer of glaze that had been repeatedly polished.

As Li Hanshan put down his talisman brush, disciples behind the surrounding long tables gradually stopped what they were doing. At first, only a few people at the neighboring tables glanced at him, but then their gazes converged like iron filings drawn to a magnet. One by one, they stood up, approached, and formed a circle around the edge of the table. Whispers spread from the edge of that circle, initially very soft, like a layer of fine sand blown by the wind, but gradually becoming clearer.

"Fifth rank...is that a fifth rank pattern?" a young female disciple asked the person next to her in a low voice.

"I've seen Elder Li draw fourth-order runes, but the structure of fifth-order runes is more than twice as complex as that of fourth-order. How could he have drawn one in just one year?" another disciple chimed in, his voice filled with suppressed shock.

The moment Shen Qingyue heard that the talisman was finished, she pushed aside the talisman she was examining and strode across the aisle between the long tables. The disciples watching automatically made way for her. Standing before Li Hanshan, her gaze fell on the fifth-tier Purple Thunder Talisman, which was slowly losing its light. As she picked it up, her fingertips trembled slightly, a tremor she herself didn't even notice. She turned the talisman over and over several times, her gaze following the intricate patterns one by one, finally settling on it.

Shen Qingyue looked up at him, her clear eyes swirling with an expression he had never seen on her face before—shock, disbelief, and a bewilderment she couldn't immediately process. Her voice carried a hint of dryness that even she could hear: "Fifth-tier Purple Lightning Talisman. You've been at the Purple Lightning Pavilion for less than a year, starting from the first tier, taking two months to reach the third, half a year to reach the fourth, and now you've even mastered the fifth?" She didn't wait for his answer, her eyes fixed on him, as if trying to see right through him.

More disciples rushed over upon hearing the news, disrupting the order of the entire workshop with the ever-spreading commotion. Those who had been engrossed in making talismans put down their brushes and rose to gather in the direction of the sound, the circle of onlookers growing larger and larger, with some even standing on tiptoe to see clearly. Whispers of discussion spread like wildfire among the surging crowd, ranging from surprise and admiration to suppressed suspicion and scrutiny.

"A fifth-tier Purple Lightning Talisman—only five people in the entire Purple Lightning Pavilion can reliably draw it. And he, a mere outer sect elder who's only been here a few months, actually managed to do it?"

"Did you see his brushstrokes just now? The curve of that line is exactly the same as the Fourth Elder's, even more stable."

"Just who is he? How could a rogue cultivator possess such profound knowledge of talismans?"

A young man in a steward's uniform hurried through the crowd, squeezed to Shen Qingyue's side, and said urgently, "Senior Sister Shen, I've already sent word to the Sect Master; she's on her way!"

Shen Qingyue nodded, but her gaze never left Li Hanshan. She could feel the surrounding gazes growing increasingly dense, like a tightly packed net enveloping Li Hanshan. He stood there, his expression calm as ever, as if the weight of the hundreds of gazes around him was nothing more than a passing breeze.

About an incense stick's time later, the workshop door was suddenly pushed open from the outside. The last rays of twilight streamed in through the crack, casting a long, elongated purple shadow on the bluestone floor. As Shen Yun strode in, the murmurs in the workshop abruptly subsided, as if choked. Her deep purple dress fluttered slightly in the evening breeze, her long hair held up with a purple jade hairpin, the hem of her dress making no extra sound as it brushed the ground. Her gaze swept past the disciples who automatically stepped aside, landing directly on the fifth-tier purple lightning talisman held in Shen Qingyue's palm.

Shen Yun walked up to Shen Qingyue, took the talisman, and examined it for a long time. Her fingers traced the aura along the edge of the talisman, pausing slightly when her fingertips touched the arc of the core rune. Then she looked up, her gaze shifting to Li Hanshan standing by the table. "Did you draw this yourself?" Her voice was neither loud nor soft, her expression extremely serious.

Li Hanshan nodded: "Yes."

"From beginning to end, was there no one else to guide you?"

"Senior Sister Shen taught me the basic techniques and rune structure. I figured out the advanced techniques for the later levels on my own by referring to the drawings." He didn't mention those times in the dream, those years studying the fragments with Luo Li on the banks of the Moonlit River, which do not exist in the real timeline.

Shen Yun placed the fifth-tier purple lightning talisman on the table, then took out a blank fifth-tier talisman paper and a talisman brush dipped in spirit ink from her sleeve and pushed them in front of him. She didn't speak, but her meaning was clear.

Without hesitation, Li Hanshan picked up the talisman brush. Pure Yang energy seeped from his fingertips into the brush handle, flowing along the tip into the ink. He made his first stroke on the blank talisman paper. As the silvery-purple arc appeared on the paper, the lines were smooth and even, like a tamed stream flowing forward in a pre-dug channel. He continued stroke by stroke, coherent and resolute. The intricate runes under his brush were like a dance rehearsed countless times, each step landing precisely in the pre-designed position.

As the final stroke was made, the silver-purple patterns on the surface of the fifth-tier Purple Lightning Talisman lit up simultaneously. The light circled the surface of the talisman paper again and again before slowly receding like the tide, leaving the entire talisman paper shimmering with a uniform spiritual glow. The entire process was fluid, clean, and efficient, without pause or hesitation.

Shen Yun stood across the table, watching the entire process of completing the talisman. Her gaze remained fixed until the spiritual light completely stabilized. Only then did she reach for the talisman, flipping it over for a final look before setting it down. "Over three hundred and fifty years," she began, her voice carrying a suppressed sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a complex emotion encompassing both emotion and reflection), "aside from me, no one in the Purple Thunder Pavilion has been able to draw a fifth-tier Purple Thunder Talisman for over three hundred years."

Li Hanshan put down his talisman brush, clasped his hands in a fist salute, and said, "This disciple was simply lucky; I happen to be quite sensitive to the structure of runes. Moreover, my spiritual power is predominantly Yang, which makes it more compatible with lightning-type talismans than that of ordinary disciples. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I was able to create the talisman so quickly."

Shen Yun nodded, as if accepting his explanation, but the light in her almond-shaped eyes clearly showed that she was not completely convinced and was still pondering. After a moment of silence, she said, "Come with me." After she finished speaking, she turned and walked towards the side door of the workshop, her steps calm but not swaying.

Li Hanshan followed her through the corridor illuminated by luminous pearls, turning several corners until they arrived at a room even quieter than the workshop itself. It was a simply furnished study; a wooden shelf against the wall held a scroll of blueprints and books, and several unfinished talismans lay on the desk. Shen Yun walked to the window, standing with her back to him. The night breeze seeped in through the half-open window, gently swaying the tassels on her hairpin. "Sixth-tier Purple Thunder Talisman," she began, her voice neither loud nor soft, yet carrying a suppressed seriousness, "You've only been here a short time. Fifth-tier talismans take longer to stabilize. Once you're proficient enough to consistently draw fifth-tier ones, would you be interested in trying sixth-tier?"

Li Hanshan's heart skipped a beat. A sixth-order spirit talisman was equivalent to a Void Refinement level technique. If he could learn how to draw a sixth-order Purple Thunder Talisman, his foundation in the Immortal Alliance would be even more solid. Shen Yun continued, "The complexity of sixth-order runes is incomparable to fifth-order ones. In the entire Purple Thunder Pavilion's thousand-year history, only two people have been able to consistently draw sixth-order Purple Thunder Talismans—one is the founding ancestor, and the other is me. If you can learn it, the Purple Thunder Pavilion will have a second person who can draw sixth-order Purple Thunder Talismans."

"This disciple is willing to give it a try," Li Hanshan said.

Shen Yun nodded and took a well-preserved roll of blueprints from the wooden shelf, placing it on the table. The roll was clearly very old; the animal hide on its surface had yellowed, and the edges showed clear signs of repeated handling. She unfolded the blueprints, revealing the densely packed rune structures beneath, several times more complex than the structure of a fifth-order purple lightning rune. Pointing to the rune structures, she explained the connections and the flow of spiritual energy within each one. Li Hanshan stood beside her, his Void Refinement level divine sense like a finely intricate net, completely reflecting every word and gesture of hers deep within his sea of ​​consciousness.

It was late at night when he returned to the courtyard. Stars filled the sky outside the window, and the bamboo rustled in the night breeze. He sat down at the table, closed his eyes, and drifted into a dream. The sound of flowing water reached his ears, moonlight spilled onto the river, and Luo Li sat on a blue stone, her bare feet gently swaying. He sketched the rune structure of the sixth-tier Purple Thunder Talisman in the void; the intricate patterns floated like an unfolded brocade under the moonlight.

Luo Li leaned closer for a closer look, her gaze tracing the structure of the runes one by one. "This technique..." She pointed to a bend in the rune, a knowing glint in her clear eyes, "is the same as the variant structure of the fourth-order rune I saw in that tattered scroll, only with more layers and tighter connections. Look here—if we replace this bend with the 'Flowing Cloud Turn' technique recorded in that tattered scroll, the efficiency of spiritual energy flow within the talisman would increase by at least 30%. The core problem with this rune is the unstable duration of the lightning energy. A sixth-order purple lightning talisman requires extremely high purity of lightning energy; if the duration is insufficient, it will dissipate the moment it is formed."

In the following dreams, the two repeatedly refined the rune structure of the sixth-tier purple lightning talisman. Luo Li's comprehension was astonishing; she only needed three dreams and over fifty years to completely deduce the improved plan for the rune structure. Each improvement added a layer of certainty to her clear eyes. By the end of the third dream, she could draw the entire structure with her eyes closed, her brushstrokes flowing as if she were painting a picture she had drawn a thousand times before. When she redrawn it under the moonlight, the trajectory of her fingertips was precise and resolute.

However, Li Hanshan hadn't fully mastered it yet. Although his comprehension was good, his accumulation of knowledge in the Dao of Runes was ultimately not as profound as Luo Li's. Luo Li sat beside him, guiding his fingers along the modified rune structures again and again, until his fingertips could smoothly draw a complete sixth-order purple lightning rune in the void. After using the dream realm twice more, he was finally able to draw the complete rune structure without looking at any reference.

He felt the golden membrane at the edge of the dream slowly contracting, signifying the imminent end of this dream cycle. Luo Li withdrew her last wisp of soul power, her voice softened and suppressed: "When you get back, try it with this improved structure; it should work."

As the morning sunlight fell on the table in the courtyard, Li Hanshan had already taken out the sixth-order purple lightning talisman blueprint given to him by Shen Yun. Following the improved design he had repeatedly confirmed in his dream, he began to write on the talisman paper. His fingertips were more determined than ever before, and his spiritual energy flowed steadily along the carefully crafted paths, spreading the fine silver-purple patterns one by one across the surface of the talisman. When the last stroke was made, the light flowing across the entire surface of the talisman was warmer and more restrained than that of an ordinary fifth-order purple lightning talisman. He placed the talisman on the table, confirming that its spiritual energy was stable as before, then stood up and walked towards the workshop.

In the afternoon, a large number of disciples gathered in the workshop once again. Shen Yun stood before the long table in the center of the workshop, holding the sixth-order Purple Thunder Talisman that Li Hanshan had just drawn in her hand. Her fingertips repeatedly traced the flowing spiritual light on the surface of the talisman, as if to confirm whether the talisman matched her own drawing. After a moment, she raised her head, her gaze falling on Li Hanshan. Her almond-shaped eyes surged with shock, and her voice carried a fluctuation that even she herself could not completely suppress: "The sixth-order Purple Thunder Talisman... you've drawn it."

The surrounding disciples erupted in a cacophony of discussion, and even the elders who had been observing from the shadows couldn't resist moving closer to examine the talisman. Some whispered amongst themselves, while others exchanged glances; their gazes, like flames being lit, illuminated layer by layer, making Li Hanshan's figure exceptionally clear.

Shen Yun stood silently behind the long table for a long time, her gaze never leaving the talisman on it, as if reassessing the value of the person before her through the silver-purple patterns. Then she raised her head, turned to Li Hanshan, and spoke with a solemn tone, her voice calm yet resolute: "Fellow Daoist Li, the talent and potential you have displayed in the Dao of Talismans are unparalleled in the history of the Purple Thunder Pavilion. I intend to betroth my daughter to you; what do you say?"