Fantasizing about "what ifs" always brings psychological comfort.
In his previous life, many people around Xu Yuan loved doing it.
They fantasized about correcting the questions they answered wrong on exams, about seizing the business opportunities they had squandered, about making different choices when first opening their hearts to love and arriving at a different outcome.
Whenever he heard his friends sigh like that, Xu Yuan always felt like laughing.
While indulging in "what ifs" felt great for a moment, and continuing to indulge felt great continuously, all one could ever do was keep fantasizing.
And one's life was pretty much done for.
If you bombed a test, aim to do better next time.
If love slipped through your fingers, perhaps the next person would be even more beautiful.
Rather than savoring the pleasure of that mental opium, it was far better to focus one's attention on the future.
Xu Yuan had always scoffed at such things.
He had never believed he would be like those people—until Li Junwu died before his eyes, and he could do nothing to stop it.
Only then did Xu Yuan realize everyone was the same. He was no different; the past simply had never struck at his sore spots.
Holding her gradually cooling corpse, he had begun uncontrollably replaying every detail of the war, fantasizing about those critical junctions, fantasizing about "what if"...
What if he had chosen to take her and flee from the very beginning?
What if, when his uncle suggested retreating, he had listened to the man's words?
What if, instead of being reborn within the domain of the living and dead using the Dao charm of life and death, he had ignored the fusion of soul imprints, forcibly devoured Mu Nuo, and descended upon the world once more in a Saint's body blending Mu Nuo's origin source?
Could he have repelled that woman surnamed Wen?
Or perhaps, after Li Junwu died, could he have used Mu Nuo's domain of the living and dead to bring her back to life?
That sensation was intoxicating, tempting him to savor those possibilities again and again.
Xu Yuan naturally knew it was an escape, a form of mental opium... yet how should he put it?
It... it really was a continuous rush that felt great the whole time, making one sink into it with the slightest lapse of vigilance.
Still, it had to be said that his uncle truly understood him well.
Just as he was pacing in place and unable to move forward, his uncle had brought Big Block of Ice and the others over at the perfect moment.
The departed have passed, and the living carry on.
Succumbing to despair would only make the tragedy repeat itself.
Using all his unique traits, Xu Yuan had forged this one-of-a-kind talisman.
He did not know how future generations would use this thing, but at this moment, these talismans were born to protect.
The hall was utterly silent, save for the three women's stunning faces, which were frozen in astonishment over the talisman's effects.
Su Jinxuan blinked her pretty eyes, looking at Xu Yuan and then down at the wooden talisman in her hand, her plump red lips parted for quite a while without a word coming out.
Bai Muxi's eyes were wide, but compared to Su Jinxuan's shock, which nearly caused her to drop the wooden plaque, her own surprise was mostly an act.
This talisman touched upon a cultural blind spot for someone from the underground palace like her.
Yet she was not like Ran Qingmo across from them; she knew how to read the room—especially since even that ice block seemed completely baffled this time.
Ran Qingmo sat with her hands on her lap, clutching the hem of her black dress, staring unblinkingly at the man beside her.
To comfort Xu Yuan, she had stayed by his side the entire time.
Her speech was clumsy, so the way the two interacted remained no different from before.
Under the same roof, each went about their own business without disturbing the other.
She could not understand how Xu Yuan had whipped up something so formidable in just a few days.
She felt somewhat happy, yet also a bit dejected.
Amid the silence, Su Jinxuan poked the surface of the wooden talisman, asking hesitantly in a probing tone:
"Young Master... as far as Jinxuan recalls... no item like this should have ever existed before, right?"
Xu Yuan shook his head. "No, there hasn't."
Su Jinxuan's eyes widened. "Then it's an original creation of yours, Young Master?"
After a brief silence, Xu Yuan replied, "Yes."
He raised his eyes to gaze at the charming woman whose bones seemed spun of cherry blossoms, smiling gently. "A technique created using everything I have, exclusively for you all."
"..."
Her heartbeat quickened beat by beat. As a blush spread across Su Jinxuan's cheeks, a wave of formless bewitching charm unconsciously spilled forth.
Within the deep, quiet hall, peach blossoms seemed to bloom, their wispy fragrance refreshing the soul.
The instant Ran Qingmo sensed it, she quietly circulated her cultivation technique to resist it.
Bai Muxi turned her face away, clicking her tongue inwardly: *Vixen.*
Su Jinxuan lightly pressed a hand below her chest and asked softly:
"Yet surely there is no material in this world capable of bearing array patterns of such power?"
Sensing her enchanting charm, Xu Yuan smiled and shook his head. "Of course not."
Upon hearing this, Su Jinxuan hurriedly asked, "Then this wooden plaque..."
"This is not a talisman that uses array patterns as a medium," Xu Yuan gently interrupted. He retrieved a black box from his Sumeru ring and placed it on the low table.
This was the "Barrett" that Little Fourth from back home had made for him.
Xu Yuan remembered that one shot from this thing could kill a Grandmaster. Unfortunately, he had never had the chance to use it, and he supposed it would only ever be kept as a toy in his collection.
With that thought, Xu Yuan channeled Source Qi into it. Densely packed, intricate array patterns emerged on the black box's surface. Using Source Qi, he then drew the wooden talisman from Su Jinxuan's hand, suspending both in midair together.
The black box was three feet tall and two inches across each side.
The wooden talisman was half an inch thick, four inches long, and an inch and a half wide.
By comparison, the disparity in size was glaring.
Xu Yuan's fingertips lightly brushed across the black box's surface as he spoke softly:
"The material of this black box already represents the pinnacle of current array pattern materials, yet its upper limit is merely killing a single Grandmaster at most."
"..." Su Jinxuan.
"..." Bai Muxi.
Hearing the young master say that somehow felt rather bizarre to them.
Xu Yuan shot the two women a glare and continued explaining:
"The wood I formed from the black death fungal carpet cannot possibly rival the accumulations of predecessors in array materials, and I know nothing about the Dao of arrays, so..."
At this point, Xu Yuan brushed the black box aside and suspended the wooden talisman above the four of them. A wisp of blood-red flame flashed in his eyes, and under the manipulation of a surging, vast qi dynamic, the surface of the talisman was dismantled bit by bit, revealing the meridian-like patterns hidden beneath:
"...I used human meridians as the carrier."
"How is that possible?!"
Su Jinxuan's instinctive cry of astonishment interrupted Xu Yuan. Realizing her impropriety, she quickly covered her mouth, her shimmering, watery eyes blinking several times before she spoke in a small voice:
"B-but... aren't human meridians impossible to replicate?"
Meridians were the foundation of humanity's status as the rulers of the realm.
To obtain meridians, the demon race did not hesitate to forfeit their vast lifespans to assume human form.
Countless predecessors had attempted to edit and forge meridians from the flesh and blood of aberrant ghosts, only ever producing hollow imitations.
Ancient texts and legends even recorded that the Dao of arrays was merely a substitute discovered by the ancient sages when cultivators first arose, once they realized meridians could never be replicated.
Yet at this moment,
Xu Yuan claimed he had replicated human meridians...
"Young Master, how did you do it?"
*Smack.*
The moment Su Jinxuan asked, Bai Muxi slapped her on the hip.
Su Jinxuan furrowed her brows, looking back with a hint of displeasure. But upon catching the expression in the other woman's eyes, she understood. Pouting, she lowered her eyes in apology:
"I am sorry... Jinxuan overstepped."
Xu Yuan would not joke with them.
If he said he could do it, then it was the truth.
Yet asking about the underlying mechanism touched upon a secret that could easily overturn the heavens.
On a smaller scale, it was a brand-new secret technique.
On a grander scale, this talisman method capable of replicating human meridians might well become an entirely new path of cultivation alongside qi, body, and soul hundreds or thousands of years down the line.
A path of cultivation where, so long as one was willing to burn money, one could utterly crush cultivators of the same rank through sheer spending.
Seeing the little succubus look so pitiable, Xu Yuan rolled his eyes and said, rather exasperated:
"Why are you so nervous? This talisman was created for you, so there is naturally no reason to hide anything. Just now, I was merely wondering how to explain it to you. Simply put, the black death fungal carpet contains the aberrant ghost's flesh editing ability, and my Dao charm can temporarily activate it, though for now it only lasts about a month."
Upon hearing this, Su Jinxuan immediately turned her head and glared at Bai Muxi.
This woman only knew how to step on her in front of Xu Yuan to elevate herself.
A completely black-hearted little white lotus!
Bai Muxi, however, did not take Su Jinxuan seriously in the slightest. After spending so much time together, she knew that aside from her seductive body, this woman was foolish to an endearing fault.
There was no way she could compete with her.
Just as she was thinking this, she saw that ice block across from them tug on the young master's sleeve.
Xu Yuan turned his head in confusion.
Ran Qingmo said in a low voice:
"Xu Yuan... someone has arrived outside. It seems to be people from Celestial Master Manor."
Xu Yuan nodded at her words.
"I know. I've already arranged for the servants to receive them."
"Oh..."
The dejection in Ran Qingmo's eyes was plain to see.
After not seeing him for a month, he had left her far behind...
With that thought, Ran Qingmo clutched her hands, her eyes blinking as she glanced at the two women across from her, each holding a wooden talisman while she was the only one without one.
The wooden plaque woven from the black death fungal carpet felt smooth and rounded to the touch, and one could faintly discern the intricate patterns gleaming with dark light beneath its surface.
Xu Yuan paused at the sight, then smiled.
"Haven't you already broken through to the Origin Realm? You're already so strong yourself; the two of them need it more than you do."
Hearing this, Ran Qingmo lowered her gaze, gave a sensible nod, and withdrew her hand.
Xu Yuan remained silent for a moment before sending a voice transmission:
"Don't be impatient. Once I make a Transcendent Realm talisman, I'll give the very first one to you."
"..."
Ran Qingmo sat on the prayer mat, hanging her head without saying a word.
Sensing her faintly, Xu Yuan saw that she had already begun cultivating...
Chapter 702