The Origin Realm was vast beyond measure. Apart from those distant, primordial lands where no human had ever set foot and the dark, far-off oceans, it was broadly divided into five continents: East, West, South, North, and Central.
The Yuxu Sect was located in Changyuan Prefecture, one of the thirty-two prefectures of the East Continent.
Changyuan Prefecture comprised seventy-nine prefectural cities, and the Yuxu Sect sat in a remote corner known as Lingtai Prefecture.
Lingtai Prefecture was desolate and remote, lacking spiritual rivers and blessed lands. Overall, its spiritual energy of heaven and earth could not compare to other regions.
At present, Shi Yu had yet to nurture a yellow sprout or establish a Dao Foundation. With only a single strand of innate true Qi in her dantian, which was difficult to invoke, she could not employ many of her methods, nor could she set up spirit-gathering arrays.
Her progress was painfully slow. Although she had mentally prepared herself for this, she could not simply wait around for this painstaking, incremental accumulation until she reached the first layer of the Qi Refining Realm.
With her Low-grade One-fraction Spiritual Meridian, if she lacked the assistance of abundant resources and relied solely on step-by-step cultivation to absorb and convert spiritual energy, who knew how long it would take to reach the first layer of the Qi Refining Realm?
In cultivation, taking the lead early meant staying ahead at every step—this was the insight she had gained from playing Xian Yuan.
While devoting herself to cultivation was one aspect, she also needed to plan ahead for everything else as early as possible.
Accumulating cultivation resources had to start early, lest she find herself empty-handed when she truly needed them.
Living here required money at every turn. First renting the courtyard, then buying spiritual grain seeds—Shi Yu had little silver left. She could not simply wait until her funds ran out and starve.
Recalling that besides loose cultivators, there were also many mortals in the market, an idea gradually formed in Shi Yu's mind.
She produced the small jade casket given to her as a freebie when she bought the spiritual grain seeds yesterday and studied it for a moment.
The jade quality of this casket holding the seeds was quite mediocre, but it was just barely usable.
After turning it over in her hands, she murmured in thought, “I can make a few jade talismans to sell.”
Though jade talismans carried the word “talisman,” compared to proper spiritual talismans, they were merely unranked trinkets not even worth assigning a grade. Selling such minor items would not attract the attention or disdain of cultivators, yet they held a sizeable market among the mortals living here.
Carving and crafting these jade talismans did not depend on how much spiritual energy one possessed; it relied purely on technique. Their functions were simple and limited, offering minor conveniences like kindling fire or repelling moisture.
Currently lacking cultivation to protect herself, taking out anything too eye-catching would be risky and easily invite greed or scheming. These jade talismans were just right.
They seemed quite sought-after in the market. During her few days wandering around, Shi Yu had rarely seen them for sale, and whenever one or two appeared, they were swiftly bought up.
It was easy to understand. Since a jade talisman was still a type of talisman, it required a talisman master proficient in studying source runes to make one.
Source runes were natural characters formed by heaven and earth, containing fundamental principles of the universe, profound and mysterious.
Studying source runes was not something achieved through simple tracing or copying; one had to expend mental effort to carefully ponder and comprehend the truths within before invoking them. Once carved, they could draw upon the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to produce an effect.
Few talisman masters were willing to lower themselves to make such trinkets. Since it required similar effort, why not craft proper spiritual talismans to sell at a much higher price?
Another reason was that jade talismans offered little profit. Weapons, pills, arrays, and talismans all carried a failure rate during crafting. Jade talismans sold for modest prices—fetching a dozen taels of silver was already good. Though ordinary jade stones were cheap, they still cost a few taels each. Factoring in the failure rate, one might even lose money, so naturally few were willing to make them.
Only novice talisman masters would buy these cheap jade materials to practice on, selling the successful ones to recoup some of their practice expenses.
Shi Yu, however, was different. The source runes she knew ranged from simple to infinitely profound, and the talismans she had crafted spanned from low to high grades beyond count.
With vast experience at her disposal, returning to make unranked trinkets like these meant failure simply did not exist. There was definitely profit to be made.
Breaking the small jade casket that had held the spiritual grain seeds, she divided it into six roughly equal jade slips. Drawing the curved dagger gifted by her Second Senior Brother to use as a carving tool, Shi Yu focused her mind and began carving source runes onto the slips.
Holding a jade slip in her hand, she used the dagger as a brush, tracing lines across the surface. Her blade moved without the slightest hesitation or doubt, flowing like water and moving without a single hitch.
The carved lines emanated an ancient charm. After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Shi Yu withdrew her blade as a source rune was perfectly completed. Upon forming, a brilliant sheen flashed before fading inside.
Shi Yu inspected the finished jade talisman. After having the source rune carved into it, the ordinary slip of jade now held a distinctly different aura, subtly radiating a gentle luster.
This was a basic dust-repelling jade talisman. Placed inside a room, it would keep dust and dirt from settling for a long time.
Setting this jade talisman down, Shi Yu picked up the remaining slips and carved them one by one.
She had originally thought of varying her designs to create talismans with different effects, but out of caution, she discarded the idea and chose to make the remaining ones into dust-repelling jade talismans as well.
Once all six jade slips were turned into jade talismans, Shi Yu pressed her temples as exhaustion and fatigue washed over her.
She shook her head helplessly and muttered, “This physical constitution really is fragile.”
Carving just a few of the simplest jade talismans had drained much of her mental and physical stamina. If she tried to make even a few more, her body likely wouldn't hold up.
Putting away the jade talismans, Shi Yu was in no rush to sell them at the market. She took a big gulp of diluted Life Spring water, sat cross-legged, and circulated her technique to begin cultivating.
The Yin-Yang Fate-Tapping Record was truly extraordinary. Though her aptitude was poor and her progress slow, as the technique circulated and gathered spiritual energy, every bit was condensed solidly. As she cultivated, her exhausted mind gradually recovered.
To her pleasant surprise, cultivating while her mental energy was exhausted caused the technique to circulate faster than usual, slightly increasing her efficiency in absorbing spiritual energy.
Jolted alert, she seized the opportunity to feel the surrounding spiritual energy and strove to absorb and convert it.
By noon, her fatigue was mostly gone, and her stomach was empty. She paused her cultivation, picked a few handfuls of vegetables from the yard, and prepared a simple meal using the grain, oil, and seasonings she bought yesterday. Then, drawing half a bucket of water from the well, she added a tiny splash of diluted Life Spring water from her gourd and watered the plot again.
Looking at the lush, vibrant green sprouts of the White Jade Rice, Shi Yu tapped them with her finger. “Spiritual rice, oh spiritual rice, grow faster. I'm waiting to eat you.”
She was currently a loose cultivator and couldn't enjoy the privileges of disciples from major sects or prominent clans. But if conditions didn't exist, she would create them. She believed her background and foundation were no worse than those of any major sect or prominent clan; sooner or later, she would have all kinds of cultivation resources.
Just like this spiritual grain: loose cultivators couldn't afford it and had no means to buy high-grade seeds, so she would grow it and eat it herself. Later, she would find ways to acquire even higher-grade spiritual grain seeds.
Shi Yu maintained a great mindset.
After finishing these chores, her back was soaked in sweat once again.
Shi Yu had also considered whether to hire a few servants like other loose cultivators to handle cleaning and cooking, freeing her from mundane chores so she could focus on cultivation.
However, lacking the power to protect herself and possessing a treasure like the Life Spring water, living in a small courtyard alongside servants would inevitably lead to complications. Over time, even this small plot of spiritual grain could arouse suspicion.
Besides, there was no rush for now. Doing these chores was somewhat enjoyable anyway, serving as a way to temper her mind.
In the future, if mundane affairs multiplied to the point where hiring servants became unavoidable, they would have to be completely trustworthy and unfailingly loyal.
It wasn't that she lacked methods to control divine souls to ensure loyalty without fear of betrayal, but she felt it was unnecessary and preferred not to resort to such means.
Seeing that it was still early, Shi Yu grabbed the six jade talismans and set out to find a shop to sell them.
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