Chương 8

The hardest part of crafting a talisman usually wasn't drawing the pattern on the yellow paper. With Practice Makes Perfect enhancing her comprehension and memory, Elara had no trouble remembering every stroke. Her spirit-hair brush glided across the paper without the slightest hesitation, completing the entire pattern in one smooth, uninterrupted sequence. The real challenge came next: infusing the talisman with qi. That step determined both the success rate and the quality of the finished product.

Elara gathered spiritual qi at her fingertips and guided it into the brush. As she completed the final downward stroke, she released all the accumulated qi into the talisman. The yellow paper rose several inches above the table with a soft rustle. The lines drawn across its surface began to pulse with light. Last time, she had succeeded by the narrowest of margins. This time, she wasn't so fortunate. Bang! The talisman exploded under the pressure of the qi, scattering scraps of yellow paper throughout the room.

[Soul-Calming Talisman proficiency +3.] [53/100]... Elara immediately began a second attempt. Another soft pop sounded, but this time, the pattern didn't even have a chance to light up before the paper burst apart. [Soul-Calming Talisman proficiency +3.] [56/100] Two failures in a row should have been extremely unlikely at her current proficiency, but Elara had already figured out the problem. The tools I used inside the Ember Sanctum were made from materials taken from at least Rank Two spirit beasts.

Better tools improve both the success rate and the quality of the talisman. She looked down at the cheapest spirit-hair brush she had been able to afford. The Sanctum's spiritual qi was also incredibly dense. Drawing in qi there never lowered the surrounding concentration enough to destabilize the flow. Out here, every attempt reduced the density of spiritual qi around her. If that caused the qi entering the talisman to fluctuate at the wrong moment, the paper could no longer contain it. There was no easy solution.

Elara would simply have to keep practicing and use higher proficiency to compensate for her inferior tools. Talisman Masters, alchemists, and artifact smiths... No wonder those three professions had been known as the Three Costly Trades in Seed of Ascension. Their tools cost money. Their materials cost money. Even improving their success rates depended, to some extent, on how much money a player was willing to spend. The name suited them perfectly.

Spirit Gardening, Elara's current profession, belonged to the Three Common Trades. At least she hadn't ended up among the Lower Three. The Three Common Trades were exactly what the name implied. Even without exceptional cultivation aptitude or deep pockets, someone could still learn one of them and make a living. Beyond the Three Costly Trades, the Three Common Trades, and the Lower Three, there were dozens of other classifications, including the Three Official Trades and the Three Esoteric Trades.

Players in her previous life had loved debating those labels, which collectively covered more than a hundred professions in Seed of Ascension.... [Soul-Calming Talisman proficiency +3.] [59/100]... If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. [Soul-Calming Talisman successfully crafted. Proficiency +5.] [70/100] After five failed attempts, Elara finally succeeded on the sixth. The yellow paper glowed faintly with spiritual qi.

It hadn't exploded, and every line across its surface connected naturally with the next, drawing in qi and sealing it within the pattern. Judging by what she had learned during the lecture, this was a properly crafted, high-quality Rank One Soul-Calming Talisman. I finally made one. Now I need to focus on the Guidance Art. Elara examined the talisman with open excitement.

After carefully brushing the flecks of paper dust from its surface, she set it beside the table and retrieved the Guidance Art manual from beneath her pillow. The manual was extraordinarily thin, only three pages long. Unfortunately, the first two pages were devoted almost entirely to why the Divine Sects had created the art, what purpose it was supposed to serve, what the word guidance meant, and several theoretical extensions of its underlying principles.

To Elara, it felt less like a cultivation manual and more like one of those mandatory college career-planning courses from her previous life.

"Why does this keep dancing around the point? I just want to learn the Guidance Art." She skimmed the first two pages with a growing frown. When she reached the final page, she discovered that nearly the entire thing consisted of signatures. Only at the very bottom did she find a hastily scrawled line that looked as though it had been added as an afterthought. Take up the talisman. Look directly at its reverse side.

Circulate your qi and recite the following invocation: Student [name] seeks to carry on the ember of the Divine Sects. Grant me entry to the Ember Sanctum. That was it. It was almost absurdly simple. Elara had recited the same invocation while playing Seed of Ascension in her previous life, but she had always assumed the actual Guidance Art required some kind of training process. Instead, the entire thing amounted to a single ritual phrase. She didn't hesitate.

Elara drew a deep breath, picked up the Soul-Calming Talisman, and looked directly at its reverse side.

"Student Elara seeks to carry on the ember of the Divine Sects. Grant me entry to the Ember Sanctum." Elara entered the Ember Sanctum once again. She appeared before the towering gateway at the foot of the Stairway of the Great Dao. Clouds of white mist concealed the path beyond the second step, though she could just make out flashes of golden light in the distance. According to her memories from her previous life, the Stairway's second trial was a basic spell-sparring match.

Anyone who had chosen a combat profession in the game started with at least one offensive art, so clearing the trial had never been particularly difficult. The current Elara, however, was only an ordinary Spirit Gardener. If she entered the second trial now, she had almost no chance of passing. A few basic Spirit Gardener arts had some offensive potential, but they were uncommon and difficult to obtain. Elara wasn't willing to waste this entry attempt by charging into a trial she clearly wasn't ready for.

After weighing her options, she decided to take advantage of the Sanctum's altered time flow and practice the Minor Origin Breathing Art first. At the moment, she doubted she could defeat even an ordinary Qi Refining Tier 1 cultivator in a sparring match. That was the unfortunate reality of having no combat arts. For now, she could only keep her head down and build up her strength. Elara sat cross-legged and recalled the complete cultivation process contained within the Minor Origin Breathing Art's inheritance.

She raised her hands, formed the required seal with her palms facing each other, and began regulating her breathing. There was a trick to practicing the Minor Origin Breathing Art. According to the experiences left behind by previous cultivators, she shouldn't try to absorb spiritual qi right away. First, she needed to acclimate herself to the method's unique breathing rhythm. Inhale. Exhale. Elara adjusted the timing of each breath until she gradually settled into the proper rhythm.

As her breathing stabilized, warmth began spreading through her dantian. Hum! When she completed the first minor circulation prescribed by the method, spiritual qi began gathering between her palms. With each breath, the qi grew denser. Slowly, it began to rotate, forming a tiny vortex between her hands. The Ember Sanctum offered far more than its twelve-to-one time flow. The concentration of spiritual qi here was at least three times higher than in the outside world.

As Elara practiced the Minor Origin Breathing Art, the vortex between her palms swept up the surrounding spiritual qi and drew it into her body in a steady, unbroken stream. She repeated the process again and again, gradually mastering the method's breathing rhythm. After two full days inside the Ember Sanctum, Elara finally achieved basic mastery of the Minor Origin Breathing Art.

Once she had the method working properly, her cultivation speed was fully three times faster than when she had relied on her previous haphazard approach. [Minor Origin Breathing Art successfully learned. Proficiency +10.] [10/100]... [Two days of cultivation completed. Qi Refining Tier 2 progress +10.] [11/100] With the Ember Sanctum, Spirit-Touched Foundation, and a proper cultivation method all working together, two days of training had filled a full tenth of Elara's Qi Refining Tier 2 progress bar.

At this rate, she would need only twenty days inside the Ember Sanctum to break through to Qi Refining Tier 3. Elara ended her cultivation and confirmed that the Minor Origin Breathing Art had appeared on her interface. She slowly exhaled, still stunned by how much difference the right resources could make.

"No wonder a cultivator's backing matters so much. A blessed cultivation ground and a proper method can outweigh months of someone else's hard work." Ten progress points over two days might not have sounded extraordinary, but this was no longer Qi Refining Tier 1. Advancement became increasingly difficult with each new Tier. Yet rather than slowing down after her breakthrough, Elara's progress had accelerated dramatically. The Ember Sanctum and the Minor Origin Breathing Art deserved most of the credit.