Although Martial Uncle Wen had a fiery temper, he was still quite good to his juniors.
If she went to ask him for a few talismans or spiritual tools for self-defense, he probably wouldn't refuse, right?
Well... probably.
When Xue Mingzhao arrived, Wen Shuxian was bent over his desk drawing a talisman. His brush moved like writhing dragons and serpents, and he was drenched in sweat. One look was enough to tell he was crafting something formidable.
Xue Mingzhao did not dare to disturb him. She quietly found a desk in a corner, sat down, and spread open the book on talismans she had just borrowed from the Library Pavilion.
After flipping through several pages, her eyes suddenly lit up.
The Sky-Blasting Talisman.
True to its name, if you threw it out, it would blast a hole right through the sky.
Below it was a line of small text: “Extremely powerful. Use with caution.”
The more Xue Mingzhao read, the more satisfied she became. This was a good one; it sounded incredibly powerful.
The only issue was that the talisman patterns looked rather complex, a massive, twisting web of lines.
She figured she would try drawing one first to test its power.
There were ready-made talisman papers and brushes on Wen Shuxian's desk. Xue Mingzhao spread the book open on the tabletop and began drawing, referencing the diagram.
She channeled her spiritual energy down the brush handle, letting it seep through the bristles and into the ink.
The pressure had to be controlled perfectly. If it fluctuated, the thickness of the lines would be uneven. Spiritual energy would pool in the thick sections and cut off in the thin ones, ruining the talisman.
The first one: the lines went crooked. Ruined.
The second one: she failed to control the pressure, resulting in uneven ink. Ruined.
The third one: halfway through, the tip of the brush became impossible to drag, so she had to give up.
The fourth, the fifth...
Finally, the tenth.
As the final stroke fell, the entire pattern connected from start to finish in one seamless flow.
But then a problem arose.
The book said that once a talisman was successfully crafted, the entire paper would glow faintly for a brief moment before returning to normal.
The one in her hand had absolutely no reaction. It didn't even spark.
Did she fail?
Xue Mingzhao picked up the talisman paper and examined it from all angles, but she couldn't ask Wen Shuxian.
He was currently sweating over his own work; if she disturbed him, she would probably be kicked out.
She decided to walk out of the hall herself. Stepping a good distance away, she threw the talisman paper toward a massive boulder in the distance and shouted with full force:
“Shatter!”
The talisman paper drifted lazily to the ground.
The boulder remained completely intact.
A small bird resting on the rock didn't even ruffle its feathers. It simply tilted its head and gave her a puzzled look. Zero damage, maximum humiliation.
Xue Mingzhao: “...”
The talisman paper lay on the ground, seemingly mocking her naivety.
The Chaos Spiritual Root said speechlessly, “Are you stupid? A talisman is a piece of paper that stores a spell; you have to activate it with spiritual energy to use it. Did you really just throw it out expecting it to explode on its own? Do you think it's a firecracker that goes off just because you throw it? Even a firecracker needs to be lit!”
Embarrassed, Xue Mingzhao mumbled, “It's my first time using one. I don't have experience.”
She jogged over to pick up the talisman, patted the dust off it, took a deep breath, and funneled spiritual energy from her fingertips into the spiritual talisman.
Locking her eyes onto the boulder, she threw it with all her might:
“Shatter!”
BOOM—
With a deafening explosion, the massive boulder was instantly blasted into a pile of fine powder.
The Chaos Spiritual Root went quiet for two seconds, then cleared its throat inside her dantian as if nothing had happened. “See? With my guidance, you succeeded. No need to thank me, just kowtow to me a couple of times.”
Xue Mingzhao herself was stunned.
She looked down at her hands, then at the pile of stone powder in the distance that couldn't possibly be any more pulverized, and the corners of her mouth slowly curled upward.
It actually worked!
She had blasted a massive rock to smithereens!
Before she could celebrate for even two seconds, Wen Shuxian flew out of the hall in a towering rage.
His voice was so loud the entire mountain peak shook. “Who! Who is out here?! I spent two painstaking hours drawing a talisman, and I was just one stroke away from finishing! Your explosion ruined the whole thing!”
As soon as Wen Shuxian emerged, he saw Xue Mingzhao standing dazed and alone next to the pile of pulverized stone. There was not another soul in sight.
He looked around in all directions, his temper still flaring. “Mingzhao, did you see anyone pass by just now?”
“Since they love explosions so much, if I catch them, I'll paste ten Exploding Talismans right onto their body!”
Xue Mingzhao opened her mouth and weakly raised her hand. “Martial Uncle Wen... I think it was me.”
Wen Shuxian looked down at the pile of completely pulverized stone, then back at her, and waved his hand dismissively. “Was it that brat Su Ye? Is he hiding because he's afraid of getting scolded? You don't have to take the fall for him.”
At that exact moment, over on Cloud Listening Peak, Su Ye—who was being watched closely by Su Mingyuan as he tirelessly practiced the Flowing Light Shadow—suddenly let out a massive sneeze.
He rubbed his nose and looked up at the sky in confusion. Why did it feel like someone was cursing him?
Xue Mingzhao took two steps forward and tugged on Wen Shuxian's sleeve.
Her tone was as innocent as could be. “Martial Uncle, it really was me. This is my first time drawing a talisman, and I didn't expect it to be so powerful. I didn't do it on purpose. Please, be the bigger person and forgive me just this once.”
Seeing that she didn't seem to be lying, Wen Shuxian's anger subsided slightly, but he was still irritated. “What kind of talisman did you draw? You almost blew up my Guanlan Hall.”
Xue Mingzhao led him back inside the hall, pointed to the ruined talisman papers on the desk, and honestly recounted the entire sequence of events.
She spilled everything—from borrowing the paper and brush, to ruining nine sheets, to the finished talisman failing to glow, and finally to her running outside to test her luck.
The more Wen Shuxian listened, the more off things sounded. His eyes slowly widened. “You said you drew a Sky-Blasting Talisman? And there was no spiritual glow after it was finished?”
Xue Mingzhao nodded. “The book said it only counts as a successful talisman if it glows. Since mine didn't react, I took it outside to test my luck. Who knew it would actually explode?”
A talisman finishing without a spiritual glow meant it was a failure, or at best, a semi-finished product.
A semi-finished product could be used? This was unheard of.
“Now, draw another one right in front of me,” Wen Shuxian commanded in a tone that brooked no argument.
Though Xue Mingzhao didn't understand why, seeing how serious Wen Shuxian was, she obediently sat back down at the desk, picked up the talisman brush, and began drawing slowly, stroke by stroke.
Standing behind her and watching, Wen Shuxian's shock grew with every passing second.
The Sky-Blasting Talisman was a talisman that could only be drawn at the Golden Core realm, and even then, the success rate was only thirty percent.
He had only started learning this talisman after reaching the third level of Golden Core.
This girl was only at the third level of Qi Condensation, yet she succeeded after practicing just nine times?
The final stroke fell.
This time, the talisman paper did not remain unresponsive like before.
The entire talisman suddenly burst with a blinding, dazzling red light that flashed and vanished in an instant.
Wen Shuxian's pupils contracted sharply.
Then, the talisman paper lit up again with an extremely faint, soft red glow that slowly flowed from the starting stroke to the final one before gradually dimming.
Then came another pulse, bright then dim, in a steady, unhurried rhythm—as if the talisman pattern were not an ink stroke drawn on paper, but a beating vein.
The entire talisman paper gently rose and fell with the dimming light, as if it were breathing.
This was... a supreme-grade Sky-Blasting Talisman!
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