Lan Ting began to deeply doubt her teaching ability. She had heard that Lu Yang had entered the Dao Seeking Sect in first place, so his talent for spellcraft was undeniably first-rate.
For example, his earlier Imitation Fist had proven as much—a spellcraft talent so consummate that it could turn the mundane into the miraculous.
How had things turned out like this the moment she taught him?
Had she taught him wrong?
That shouldn't be. Her Senior Sister had taught her this way, and she had taught Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu the exact same way without any problems.
Could it be that she had underestimated Lu Yang's spellcraft talent, and a genius who surpassed ordinary geniuses required a special method of instruction?
Along with her self-doubt, a feeling of guilt welled up inside her.
Lu Yang, entirely carefree, studied his own talisman, completely unaware that a talisman-crafting prodigy was spiraling into self-doubt because she couldn't teach him. "Do you think there's a talisman that can make other talismans invisible? That way, my Invisibility Talisman would disappear too."
Meng Jingzhou pondered for a moment before replying, "I find it hard to imagine what purpose anyone would have in developing the talisman you're describing."
Dejected, Lu Yang put his clothes back on and continued practicing drawing Invisibility Talismans. The outcome remained unchanged: his body turned invisible as it was supposed to, while his clothes stayed fully visible just as before.
Man Gu, on the other hand, drew his talismans more and more standardly with each attempt, giving Lan Ting a great sense of accomplishment.
Meng Jingzhou gloated, mocking Lu Yang, "Haha, give it up! There's no way you'll ever draw an authentic Invisibility Talisman."
Annoyed, Lu Yang pinched an Invisibility Talisman between two fingers and slapped it onto Meng Jingzhou's forehead. "Halt, fiend! Taste my talisman!"
Meng Jingzhou's body vanished, leaving his clothes behind.
Refusing to be outdone, Meng Jingzhou pulled out an Invisibility Talisman of his own and slapped it toward Lu Yang. "Daoist, don't think you're the only one who can make talismans!"
An Invisibility Talisman was stuck to Lu Yang's forehead as well, making his body and clothes vanish completely.
The two traded attacks with Invisibility Talismans, going back and forth with zero offensive capability.
Sandwiched between them, Man Gu concentrated entirely on drawing talismans, completely undisturbed by their antics.
"Finished." Man Gu picked up a stack of successful Invisibility Talismans with satisfaction. Through constant practice, his success rate at drawing Invisibility Talismans had approached nearly a hundred percent.
Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu successfully graduated from their training.
Lu Yang successfully graduated by taking the Invisibility Talismans that Lan Ting had drawn.
"Right, Lan Ting, do you know how the Reverse Lifespan Formation is set up?" Lu Yang asked. He wondered whether the mastermind in the shadows was indeed using Reverse Lifespan Talismans to establish a Reverse Lifespan Formation and simply hadn't finished yet.
If that were truly the case, once a dozen or so Reverse Lifespan Talismans were found, one could easily deduce the locations of the remaining talismans based on the positions of the ones discovered.
Lan Ting nodded. Using her own spiritual energy as thread, she traced an exquisitely intricate formation in the air with over a thousand nodes. "The Reverse Lifespan Formation is vast in scale and contains many nodes. If the culprits in the shadows are only a handful of people, taking into account the need to affix talismans in concealed locations, there is no way they could complete the arrangement in a short time."
"Got it. In that case, sorry to trouble you, but could you watch the shop? The three of us will head out and see if we can help in any way," Lu Yang said.
"Ah? Me, look after the shop?" Lan Ting felt a bit uneasy. At the Moon Laurel Immortal Palace, she had always followed her Senior Sister's instructions and rarely took the lead on anything. Being asked to oversee such a large storefront left her feeling quite ungrounded.
"It's fine, it's fine. Nothing will go wrong. If anything comes up, just decide for yourself." Lu Yang saw no problem at all and took off immediately after speaking.
Once Lu Yang and the others departed, the thought of temporarily taking charge of such a large establishment left Lan Ting fidgety and restless.
"I'll set up a Spirit Gathering Formation," Lan Ting murmured to herself, looking for something to keep busy.
A Spirit Gathering Formation was a fundamental formation for cultivator practice. She had noticed there wasn't one in the barbecue restaurant, leaving her to wonder how Lu Yang and the other two managed to cultivate.
"Everyone lives on the second floor, so I'll set it up on the second floor."
As a Spirit Gathering Formation was the most rudimentary kind of formation, setting it up came easily to Lan Ting. She pulled spirit stones from her identity jade pendant and methodically laid them out, strictly following what she had been taught in class.
"I'll set up a Mind-Focusing Formation too. That helps one enter a meditative state quickly."
"And a Soundproofing Formation to keep things quiet."
Lan Ting was meticulous by nature. Worrying that a Spirit Gathering Formation that was too effective might attract the attention of other cultivators, she set up an additional formation to isolate spiritual energy fluctuations.
"That should make everything foolproof." Lan Ting felt pleased with her thoroughness.
"Hello, is anyone here?" A voice called out from downstairs, giving Lan Ting a sudden jolt. From the sound of it, it seemed to be a woman.
Lan Ting went downstairs and saw a fair-skinned woman standing by the doorway, hesitating over whether to step inside.
"Hello, may I ask who you are..."
"I run the tofu shop on Front Gate Street. My name is Wen Xiangyu. Is Little Shopkeeper Lu in?" Wen Xiangyu's voice was gentle and mellow, delightfully soothing to the ear.
"He stepped out. Did you need something?" Lan Ting remembered; Lu Yang had mentioned her in passing when recounting how he found the Reverse Lifespan Talisman.
"Ah, it's like this. The Spring-Plucking Festival is just around the corner, so I wanted to hold a joint promotion with our barbecue shop."
Lan Ting invited Wen Xiangyu inside and poured her tea. "What sort of promotion?"
"Not to boast, but my tofu shop sees a lot of customers on ordinary days, and once the Spring-Plucking Festival arrives, there will be even more.
"I was wondering if we could arrange something like this: anyone who buys tofu at my shop gets a ten percent discount on barbecue here, and anyone who eats barbecue here gets a ten percent discount at my tofu shop.
"Along with a lucky prize wheel, masks, and things like that."
"Masks?"
Wen Xiangyu took out several masks. They were square and looked tender and white, just like blocks of tofu.
"These are masks modeled after my tofu shop's mascot. They sell very well."
Lan Ting considered it and felt Wen Xiangyu's proposal was sound—beneficial and harmless to the barbecue restaurant's business. Remembering that Lu Yang had said she had full authority to make decisions while watching the shop, she agreed.
Seeing Lan Ting accept her idea, Wen Xiangyu was delighted. The two women began chatting about the fine details of the event, drifting from what prizes to put on the wheel all the way to what universal gravitation was.
"There is an invisible force pulling at everything in the world. Lu Yang agrees with my viewpoint and named this force 'universal gravitation'...
"However, Lu Yang believes this invisible force occurs naturally, whereas I believe someone laid down a colossal formation that pulls us down.
"Oh, right, you don't know formations. Let me tell you, formations are fascinating! This book, *True Explanation of Formations*, explains them in simple, easy-to-understand terms..."
Wen Xiangyu had arrived with a heart full of gratitude toward Lu Yang, but when she left, her head was packed with the principles of formations.
After seeing Wen Xiangyu off, Lan Ting noticed the chang ghosts skewering meat in the corner, and an idea popped into her head.
Lu Yang's ideas were wild and unconstrained. If she wanted to teach him well, shouldn't she learn his way of thinking?
For instance, could she use a Levitation Formation, a Fire Gathering Formation, and the like as a base to design an automatic barbecue formation?
Huh, that actually seemed like a great idea.
Chapter 88