"Father, down there is Gale Valley!"
Aboard the flying boat, Xu Xiaoliu leaned out and peered down at the place where black smoke billowed and fierce gales whipped about, his lips curling in disdain.
For a major Golden Core sect, how could their living conditions be so wretched?
Yet he could understand it. Fenghua Domain was dominated by Fenghua Palace, where women held superior status. Consequently, throughout the entire Fenghua Domain, the circumstances of female cultivators and male cultivators differed vastly.
A faction like Gale Valley, comprised predominantly of male cultivators, was only deemed worthy of being allocated such a harsh spiritual vein.
Thinking of it this way, Fenghua Palace having been willing back then to yield Baili Qingchuan to the Luotian Sect as a dwelling place had indeed been quite generous!
"Father, do you want us to go down and make the announcement?" the young woman beside him asked eagerly, itching to have a turn.
Xu Xiaoliu stroked his beard and smiled. "Of course you don't need to go. I will go myself!"
Showing his face in public like this was his favorite thing to do; otherwise, why would Luo Chen have entrusted this errand to him?
He had not experienced this in over a century!
The flying boat descended slowly, and from the distance, two cultivators flew toward them.
"Who goes there?"
Xu Xiaoliu clasped his hands behind his back and said with a chuckle, "An envoy from the superior Luotian Sect has arrived. Why haven't you taken me to see your Valley Master?"
The two cultivators exchanged glances.
They knew of the Luotian Sect.
They also understood what a superior sect meant.
But the superior Luotian Sect?
A short while later.
Inside a magnificent hall, Xu Xiaoliu stood before a burly man whose aura raged like an erupting volcano. Though Xu Xiaoliu's body trembled slightly, his expression showed not the slightest trace of fear.
"Could it be you do not yet know? The Supreme Elder of our Luotian Sect has returned from overseas and has already attained the realm of a Nascent Soul True Person!"
"The grand ceremony our sect is hosting this time has invited only Nascent Soul seniors. Only the major Golden Core sects of Fenghua Domain, in consideration of our temporary neighborhood, have been granted the chance to take a seat.
"The third day of next month—Valley Master, do not forget!"
As he spoke, Xu Xiaoliu tossed out an invitation card.
The burly man was originally skeptical, but the moment he caught the invitation, his expression shifted slightly.
The calligraphy upon it flowed like dragons and snakes, powerful and sinewy, resembling array patterns and restrictions at first glance!
Moreover, wisp upon wisp of magic power clung to it. When he opened the card, that wisp of magic power seemed to imprint his aura before sinking deep into the parchment.
In this way, even if someone else obtained the invitation, they would never be able to impersonate him.
The burly man parted his lips. Imbuing array restrictions into an invitation, with magic power flowing as if inscribed in talisman crafting—such methods were by no means ordinary!
Did that Luotian Sect, which had been nothing more than stray dogs, truly welcome back a Nascent Soul True Person?
He swallowed hard, reined in his fierce aura, and forced out a smile.
"Fellow Daoist... Fellow Daoist Xu, the journey is long, so you must be weary. Why not rest a while here in my Gale Valley?"
Arrogant before, humble after!
Xu Xiaoliu smiled. "No need. I still have to notify the other Golden Core sects of Fenghua Domain, so I will not linger. The third day of next month..."
"I will remember! I will certainly remember!"
The Valley Master of Gale Valley personally escorted Xu Xiaoliu out.
After he left, the Valley Master could not help but show a wry smile.
Originally, Fenghua Domain had only one superior Nascent Soul sect, Fenghua Palace. But as demon beasts ran rampant over the past century, more and more forces had retreated into Fenghua Domain.
Previously, both the Five Elements Divine Sect and Motian Cliff had temporarily stationed themselves here.
Neither of those two sects was peaceful; they had constantly been probing to expand their territories and win over vassals.
And now there was a Luotian Sect as well?
"Who knows what Fenghua Palace's attitude will be? Small sects like ours truly cannot tell which way the wind is blowing!"
***
"Senior Sister, did a Nascent Soul True Person truly return to the Luotian Sect?"
"Yes."
Fenghua Fairy narrowed her eyes slightly. Recalling her two meetings with Luo Chen, she spoke softly.
"That man's cultivation is profound. He is not inferior to me!"
At those words, the Second Palace Master of Fenghua Palace looked slightly startled.
Her senior sister was a mid Nascent Soul cultivator, someone who counted as a formidable figure even across the vast Eastern Desolation. Even if the Supreme Elder of the Luotian Sect had attained the Nascent Soul realm in a mere century, how could he possibly rival her senior sister?
Yet looking at her senior sister's expression, it did not seem like an exaggeration.
While the Second Palace Master was unsettled by doubts, a thought suddenly crossed her mind.
"The Nether-Passage Pill recipe we obtained from Qu Lingjun is said to belong to Danchenzi. Could he..."
"It is merely a Tier 2 pill recipe. Given that man's temperament, he likely would not make trouble over that." Fenghua Fairy shook her head, saying with worry, "What I fear is his dissatisfaction!"
Dissatisfaction?
The Second Palace Master understood her senior sister's meaning in an instant.
Though Baili Qingchuan was good, it was simply too small.
In the past, a superior Nascent Soul sect commanded an entire domain at every turn, spanning tens of thousands of li of territory!
Even one as weak as the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect was the nominal master of the Jade Cauldron Domain, openly holding over ten thousand li of land.
Times had changed now. While one might not demand an entire domain as a True Person's place of cultivation, there still had to be at least a Tier 4 spiritual vein as a cultivation sanctuary!
Luo Chen's cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds, so his need for one would be even more dire.
What if he set his sights on Fenghua Palace?
"If it were only him alone, you and I joining hands would have nothing to fear. But the Five Elements Divine Sect and Motian Cliff harbored the exact same thoughts before."
Facing her junior sister's worries, Fenghua Fairy waved her hand.
"I am not worried about that. It is impossible for Luo Chen to join hands with those two factions. However, it is also a fact that Fenghua Domain has no other Tier 4 spiritual veins."
The Second Palace Master said anxiously, "Furthermore, we must guard against him swaying our vassals and laying hands on Fenghua Domain's territory!"
Turning guest into host and seizing the magpie's nest had never been uncommon.
When the Second Palace Master said this, her tone carried hidden resentment.
Yet this resentment was directed not at Luo Chen, but at the sacred land above them!
It was the sacred land, the Mingyuan Sect, that had ordered these refugees of the cultivation world to halt across the Five Domains.
And they had remained for years. Over time, those parasites would naturally harbor improper ambitions.
What she hoped for now was for war to erupt!
Let the war with the demon beasts break out quickly, driving this whole lot to the front lines so they would stop dirtying her home garden.
A voice sounded from outside the hall.
"Palace Master, someone has delivered an invitation!"
"Who?"
"The Luotian Sect!"
The First Palace Master, Fenghua Fairy, frowned. She beckoned with her hand, and the next moment, an invitation landed in her grasp.
Sweeping it with divine sense for merely an instant, she read softly:
"'Holding a belated Nascent Soul Grand Ceremony, broadly inviting fellow Daoists to gather at Baili Qingchuan.'
"What is this Luo Chen planning?"
***
Contrary to what many imagined, Luo Chen truly did not need to cultivate much lately.
In that short span of just over a year in the Central Plains, his realm had soared twice in quick succession.
He had skyrocketed straight from the first tier of the Nascent Soul realm to the third tier, nearly surging into the mid Nascent Soul realm in one breath.
Although his foundation for the second tier was fairly solid, having had decades of tempering inside the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven, the third tier that had abruptly surged was far too ungrounded.
Outsiders saw Luo Chen as sharp and overbearing, exuding a towering aura; while part of that was deliberate on his part, was it not also caused by his inability to fully control his majestic magic power?
Therefore, Luo Chen did not force his cultivation in the short term.
Instead, he turned his attention toward other pursuits.
Nourishing his soul with pills was one aspect; the second split soul, through years of nurture, was now close to breaking through to the standard of a Nascent Soul.
Practicing the sword scripture was another. If the *Thousand Clouds Myriad Transformations Sword Scripture* could reach minor accomplishment, it would surely serve as a major addition to his combat repertoire. In particular, it would allow him to wield the Yuan Tu Sword with greater ease, so along his journey, Luo Chen had devoted his energy to practicing the sword scripture.
Of the seven wisps of Scarlet Cloud Qi, he had refined two so far; the progress was respectable.
However, as powerful as this qi was, it was an expendable consumable!
Relying solely on ascending to the azure skies to harvest it himself was far too wasteful of his time.
Luo Chen still had to think of a way to gather more Scarlet Cloud Qi.
Now that he had returned to the Luotian Sect and seen the sect's situation, Luo Chen had taken on one more task.
On the small stone terrace.
Luo Chen sat upright before a stone table, holding a magic-tool-grade Golden Lion Brush, attentively drawing fine patterns on a sheet of specially textured white paper.
He was thoroughly engrossed, as if nothing from the outside world could disturb him.
So absorbed was he that when Yao Mingyue supported the awakened Sima Huiniang out of the immortal's cave, he did not even notice.
After roughly half an incense stick of time, Luo Chen's hand, suspended in midair with the brush, finally came to a halt.
He let out a long breath and gingerly picked up the sheet whose ink was not yet dry.
Upon it were intricate patterns and peculiar characters, with obscure pulses of magic power occasionally circulating across them.
"Husband, are you crafting talismans?"
Luo Chen turned around and saw the two women staring curiously at the talisman paper in his hand.
"Huiniang, how do you feel?"
Sima Huiniang smiled. "I feel wonderful, though my cultivation has dropped a bit for some reason."
A drop in cultivation was only natural.
Luo Chen had drawn away much of the magic power in her body and sealed her Golden Core, allowing her to display at most the strength of the mid Golden Core stage.
This was to prevent excessive depletion of magic power, which would cause the Consonance Gu to turn around and devour Huiniang's mind.
Taking Sima Huiniang from Yao Mingyue, he gathered her onto his lap.
"With me here, whether your cultivation is a little higher or lower doesn't matter."
"Mm."
Sima Huiniang clearly did not care much about such matters either, looking curiously at the paper on the table instead.
"What talisman is this?"
"A Blazing Sun Talisman!"
Luo Chen smiled faintly and casually activated the talisman paper.
The talisman paper fluttered upward, spontaneously combusting without wind, and then—
BOOM!
A blazing sun suddenly emerged, radiating an immense, explosive power of destruction.
Yet all of it was restrained by Luo Chen, preventing it from spreading outward.
It seemed as though a firework had merely bloomed in the sky.
Sima Huiniang's eyes lit up. "It truly is a Tier 2 Blazing Sun Talisman!"
"Care to evaluate its power?" Luo Chen asked offhandedly.
Huiniang smiled. "It roughly equals the full-power strike of a late Foundation Establishment cultivator. It carries a hint of your former grace when you cast this spell to slay formidable foes back in the day."
Having said that, she paused, looking puzzled.
"Such talismans shouldn't be of any use to you now, right?"
Luo Chen chuckled and nodded.
"To me, it is indeed useless, but to the disciples of the sect, it will be of great use."
Sima Huiniang was exceptionally clever and caught on at once.
"You wish to draw a large quantity of low-tier talismans to bestow upon the sect's disciples and bolster their strength?"
"Mm, but not just low-tier talismans. Tier 3, Tier 4—I will craft them all."
"You can craft high-tier talismans?"
"It shouldn't be difficult. Given a little time and the appropriate materials, that will suffice."
As he spoke, Luo Chen pointed to the leftover materials on the table.
With Tier 1 cinnabar, Tier 2 talisman paper, and a magic-tool talisman brush like these, one could at best produce high-grade Tier 2 talismans.
Sima Huiniang understood and turned to look at Yao Mingyue.
"Mingyue, does the sect have relevant stockpiles?"
Yao Mingyue had only recently stepped down from the position of sect master and still remembered every asset of the Luotian Sect.
Without hesitation, she replied, "We have one Tier 3 talisman brush made from the soft neck fur of a blue-maned lion, of exquisite quality. We lack the corresponding talisman ink and cinnabar, but such items are very easy to purchase. As for talisman paper, it has been in high demand in recent years; our sect has little in stock, and what we have is of poor quality. However, over the years, the method of making talisman paper from beast hides has become increasingly popular. We could try buying beast-hide talisman paper from the Divine Talisman Sect; they sell finished paper!"
After giving her answer, her luminous eyes sparkled as she looked at Luo Chen in sheer wonder.
Her Martial Uncle actually possessed superb talisman-crafting skills?
This was truly unexpected.
To this, Luo Chen merely smiled without explaining.
Superb talisman-crafting skills?
He didn't have them yet!
Yet acquiring them wouldn't take long at all.
He had never practiced talisman crafting firsthand, but he had encountered it extensively!
In his youth, his stall-vending friend Old Daoist Chen was a talisman master; later, a clan he personally destroyed also specialized in talismans, and he had reaped numerous foundational manuals on talisman crafting from them.
During his years drifting across the Northern Sea, he had met a talisman master of Lord Lushan's caliber and had even been gifted a copy of the *Lushan Talisman Records*.
It could be said that he understood the relevant treatises, essential taboos, and foundational principles of talisman crafting.
The reason he had never personally made talismans in his earlier years was simply that he found it a waste of magic power and time, and its returns paled in comparison to alchemy.
However, times had changed!
Luo Chen now held a different view.
His sect members were not numerous; with his wealth, rewarding each with a magic treasure or magic tool was certainly feasible.
Yet such formidable implements often required substantial time to refine, and because individual capacities differed, they might not be able to command multiple magic tools and magic treasures at once.
Sometimes, biting off more than one could chew was not necessarily good!
In contrast, a talisman inscribed with Luo Chen's powerful magic arts was far more convenient.
Of course, this inclination to protect his disciples was not his primary motive.
Luo Chen's main goal in taking up talisman crafting lay in using it to temper his magic power and accelerate the stabilization of his cultivation!
No art demanded finer control over the output of magic power than talisman crafting!
As long as he could master every measure of magic power, it would mean his realm was thoroughly stabilized, allowing him to employ any technique freely without fear of backlash.
As for crafting talismans?
Truthfully, it was not difficult for Luo Chen at all.
Before, he simply hadn't wanted to, not that he couldn't.
He had profound theoretical knowledge of talismans as a foundation, myriad spells mastered to the utmost peak as a base, and through practicing formation arrays, he had cultivated great skill in brushwork and calligraphy!
On top of that, his magic power was boundless and his divine soul potent.
It could be said that all conditions were fully in place.
The only thing that might need considering was the legendary notion of "innate talent."
Yet that was the very thing Luo Chen least needed to worry about.
He possessed the attribute panel!
As long as he crossed the threshold, it was just a matter of grinding proficiency through repetition, advancing the craft's levels, and letting it snowball from there.
It had only been a short half-month since returning to the Luotian Sect, and the talisman-crafting skill Luo Chen practiced in his spare time had remarkably already reached the level of a Tier 2 talisman master!
Furthermore, were it not for the constraints of materials, even Tier 3 talisman master would by no means be his limit.
So long as matching materials were available, Luo Chen could attempt to draw talismans of higher tiers and greater varieties.
Furthermore!
Luo Chen's thoughts went even deeper!
"Proficiency in Tier 4 magic arts is notoriously difficult to raise. Each casting requires giving my all, yet the power of a Tier 4 art is so colossal that I lack the vast space needed to practice.
"If I can inscribe a complete Tier 4 magic art into a talisman, then each drawing will equate to one full-power casting.
"In this manner, after hundreds of successes, not only will I reap a batch of terrifyingly potent talismans, but I can also push a given magic art to its absolute peak!"
At the thought of these future prospects, even someone as level-headed as Luo Chen could not help feeling a surge of excitement.
The woman in his lap seemed to sense the churning emotions within him, reaching up to gently knead the space between his brows.
"Talisman crafting is good, but it strains the spirit too heavily. Husband, you must take care of yourself."
"Mm."
Luo Chen nodded.
In the Dao of Talismans, the restriction on low-tier cultivators was magic power; for high-tier cultivators, however, beyond magic power lay the constraints upon the divine soul.
If one grew greedy for the power and worth of talismans and produced them in excess, it could easily impair one's own cultivation.
Luo Chen naturally would not put the cart before the horse.
He scooped up Sima Huiniang.
"Husband?"
"It is time for you to take the Hundred-Headed Tiandong. When the Nascent Soul Grand Ceremony arrives, both you and Caiyi must appear and accompany me by my side."
The woman froze for a moment, then beamed radiantly.
She, too, eagerly anticipated that day.
And the arrival of that day, for high-tier cultivators accustomed to secluding themselves for years at a stretch, was nothing more than the snap of a finger.
***
Year 3611 of the Shanhai Calendar, the third day of the ninth month.
White dew gathered in the night; the autumn wind blew biting and crisp.
At Baili Qingchuan, the mountain gates swung wide open.
Streaks of light converged from all directions, heading straight for Mount Daqing.
Chapter 786