Shen Luo lit the lamp at a corner of the desk, took out the three little porcelain bottles and sheets of yellow paper from his pocket, and laid them before him.
The amount of yellow paper wasn't much, just a few dozen sheets, intended for talisman inscription. They were correctly sized, but the texture of the paper was somewhat coarse, feeling grainy and abrasive to the touch.
Next, Shen Luo inspected the three porcelain bottles, frowning slightly.
In the little bottle that was filled with rooster blood, the blood had already coagulated into a lump, making it impossible to pour out. The black dog blood, although not yet fully coagulated, had turned quite viscous.
"This won't do, if it isn't used right away, I'm afraid it'll be wasted by tomorrow." Shen Luo frowned.
Having said that, he pulled open a drawer under the desk and took out a little awl made of hard hair and a jade inkstone.
The awl was made out of wolf hair and the jade inkstone was carved from a whole piece of Han Baiyu. Neither of these things were particularly valuable. They were all things he brought with him when he went up the mountain.
He first poured the black dog blood into the inkstone, instantly filling the air with a faintly metallic smell.
Shen Luo grabbed the pen barrel of the awl and stirred it in the black dog blood for a moment. The pen tip immediately soaked up the blood, turning a dark red color.
He turned a sheet of yellow talisman paper and laid it in front of him. As he picked up his pen, he suddenly stopped.
"I better take a look again." Shen Luo murmured to himself.
Having said that, he once again pulled out "Zhang Heavenly Master's Demon-Subduing Chronicle" and "Secret Techniques of Talismans Authentic Manual", two tattered ancient books, opened them and placed them on the side.
The summary section in the front of the "Secret Techniques of Talismans Authentic Manual" recorded, "A talisman is an agreement, a trust. It marries my spirit with that of others, my Qi with others' Qi. Spirits are formless, yet they take shape in talismans."
The book was explaining why talismans possessed eldritch powers: they acted as conduits for channeling the Qi of Heaven and Earth through human spirit, thereby infusing the formless spiritual power into the physical talisman paper.
Therefore, while drawing a talisman, one must concentrate and clear one's mind of errant thoughts. The inscription must flow naturally like a dragon or a serpent, this ensures that the Qi remains continuous, and thus, achieves a spiritual fusion.
Knowing is always easier than doing. Shen Luo was doubtful about whether the talisman inscriptions in these books were genuine, and it would be very hard for him to give his undivided attention and suppress all extraneous thoughts.
At this moment, holding his pen, his mind was still in turmoil.
In fact, he was not inexperienced with drawing talismans. He had practiced countless times on white paper before, but this was his first time inscribing them on yellow talisman paper.
"Talismans, the harmonious agreement of Yin and Yang, can only be utilized by the sincere...
Shen Luo took a deep breath, stood up from his chair, assumed a horse stance, and began to write on the yellow paper while reciting the text from the book.
With the words "Imperial Edict" as the starting point, the runes glided across the paper like flowing water. Soon, a talisman inscribed with "Ward off Hundreds of Evils" for protection was completed. This talisman was, according to Shen Luo, the simplest one in the book.
Shen Luo looked at the undried traces of blood on the paper and compared it with the talisman sketches in "Zhang Heavenly Master's Demon-Subduing Chronicle", his brows involuntarily wrinkled.
Although the two were quite similar, he felt something was off at first glance.
"I changed the brushwork, like shown in the book, but why does mine look like it's losing breath... It doesn't have that naturally perfect feel like in others' works," Shen Luo squinted his eyes and muttered to himself.
After contemplating for a moment, he suddenly wondered if it was because he took several pauses while drawing the talisman, failing to achieve the consistency mentioned in the book.
Thinking of this, he eagerly took a deep breath and started to write again.
As a result, his discomfort from holding his breath made his concentration worse, and the talisman he drew was even worse than the first one.
Shen Luo didn't get discouraged. After a short break and some deep breaths to regulate his respiration, he once again picked up his pen to inscribe a talisman, one after another.
In his view, the art of drawing talismans couldn't escape the rule of 'practice makes perfect'. He had previously practiced other unknown talismans thousands of times on white paper, so at this point, he should just be slightly short of proficiency.
More than two hours whizzed by.
Shen Luo's face seemed a little pale, but his eyes were flashing with a hint of excitement.
He held a finely drawn yellow paper charm in one hand, while the other hand held open the "Zhang Heavenly Master's Demon-Subduing Chronicle", his gaze moving back and forth between the two.
"Not bad, not bad at all. This one finally looks somewhat right."
Although it still looked different from the book, that feeling of disconnectedness was clearly gone.
With this progress, he felt a surge of energy coursing through his body. The exhaustion he had previously felt was wiped away, completely replaced by excitement.
The amount of black dog blood left in the inkstone was scarce. Shen Luo grabbed a small porcelain bottle and poured out all the remaining black dog blood inside.
Just as he was about to continue drawing, he suddenly stopped.
"I wonder if this protective charm really works?" Shen Luo was hesitant, silently pondering to himself.
Although this protective charm was simple, alike to house-protection talisman and peace talisman, it belonged to the type of talismans that attract good luck and ward off evil, with no obvious attacking effect. If you kept it on your person or had it in your home, even if it worked, it would be hard to notice.
"Aha, I've got an idea! Why not test that one?"
Shen Luo suddenly had a flash of insight as he remembered a tale from the "Zhang Heavenly Master's Demon-Subduing Chronicle".
The story told of the time when Zhang Heavenly Master encountered a troublesome Rat Spirit, and when numerous house-protection and disaster-averting talismans failed to drive it away, he resorted to using a talisman named "Small Thunder Talisman", a type of attack talisman, that shattered the transformed Rat Spirit into pieces.
He quickly flipped the ancient book to that page, indeed finding the illustration of the "Small Thunder Talisman" attached to the back.
Although there were many stories contained within the entire book, only half of them involved the usage of talismans, the majority of which were exorcism charms or house-protection talismans. The only attack-style talisman he could decipher was this one.
"Heh, here it is..." Shen Luo grinned, carefully observed it for a moment, and then picked up his pen to draw again.
Unlike the protective charm, this Small Thunder Talisman didn't start with the characters "Imperial Edict," but rather, it began with an ancient style written "thunder" character, which wasn't easy to write.
Shen Luo had never practiced this before, and in the beginning, he wasted several talisman papers.
Although he felt sorry for wasting the papers, he had no plans to stop himself, eventually managing to draw an acceptable "Small Thunder Talisman" after using more than ten pieces of talisman paper.
"I can't guarantee the 'Qi is full while Spirit is sufficient' now, we can only leave it to the will of heaven..." Shen Luo looked at the talisman in his hand and murmured excitedly to himself.
Capitalizing on the refreshment in his hand, he went on drawing, though out of the ten he finished, only one or two were presentable.
Soon, the black dog blood in the inkstone was almost used up.
After giving it some thought, Shen Luo opened the bottle containing the cinnabar, poured out some of it, and stirred a few times to quickly mix the two together.
The method of mixing cinnabar with dog blood wasn't Shen Luo's fanciful idea; it was a technique used by the Heavenly Master Zhang in the book. Otherwise, he would not have dared to waste materials recklessly.
When he was left with only a few sheets of talisman paper, and after drawing another two small thunder talismans, the black dog blood was also exhausted, leaving him with no more resources.
Shen Luo exhaled a long breath, then weakly leaned on the armrest of the chair and slumped down, feeling a bit drained.