Zhou Yi flipped through the book several times and then committed it to memory.
The breakthrough of the Innate Realm wasn't just in martial power, or to put it another way, martial power was only an external manifestation. The true transformation was the elevation of one's essence, qi, and spirit towards a higher level of existence.
His memory was not far from photographic.
"Originally, I thought of overcoming the bottleneck in martial arts by practicing a few cultivation techniques. Now that I have the art of talisman, once I master it, I will be considered half an immortal cultivator."
Practioners regarded talismans and such arts as Dao Protection Art, while the Immortal Techniques were the foundation of attaining the Dao. Pursuing arts without foundation was neglecting the essence for the trivial.
Zhou Yi had obtained the Longevity Dao Fruit, so he viewed problems from a different angle than cultivators.
All methods that could increase one's strength in the world, whether it be cultivation techniques or talisman artifact refining, were all arts to uphold the Longevity Dao Fruit.
"The talisman brush should be made from the tail fur of a white fox, with a hundred-year-old fox being of the highest quality."
"The talisman paper should still be tanned from beast skin; the older the beast, the higher the success rate..."
Zhou Yi didn't need to hunt personally. The Divine Capital was the essence of Fengyang Country; rare and precious materials like the hundred-year fox fur would surely be sold there.
If there wasn't enough silver, it could be owed!
The next day.
Head Jailer Zhu heard that the small thief in the Heavenly Prison had been eliminated and, realizing Yu Jie had disappeared, he couldn't help but be shocked, given that the latter had entered the prison through his connections,
"Old Zhou, you are the stabilizing needle of our Heavenly Prison!"
The news of Zhou Yi's body refinement reaching his organs would not take long to spread to the Jinyiwei; surely, someone would come to recruit him.
The Zhou family had been prison guards for five generations; his background couldn't be cleaner, and he was more reliable than those martial artists from the jianghu who were sought after.
"Rest assured, Commander Zhu, I have no intention of leaving the Heavenly Prison."
Zhou Yi was indeed tempted by the possibility of talisman inheritance hidden within the imperial prison, but he had enough patience to wait for the right moment.
Time was always on Zhou Yi's side!
One month later.
The talisman brush and paper were successfully made.
Using the book, Zhou Yi started to self-study the drawing of talismans. Naturally, he didn't succeed at first; the True Yuan gathered at the tip of the brush but could not be fused into the talisman.
"Nothing is difficult for one who is accustomed to it!"
In the blink of an eye, two years had passed.
Zhou Yi's life was simple and uneventful, yet he still heard about many significant incidents from his colleagues.
At the beginning of the thirteenth year of Emperor Hongchang's reign, just after Zhou Yi had broken through to the Innate Realm, Fengyang Country and Great Yong formally signed a peace treaty.
The Minister of the Household proposed to the Emperor that the nation's treasury was depleted and requested the reduction of the Northern Border's military. Since Emperor Hongchang's accession, wars had been constant for thirteen years, so the rationale was sound.
Rumors say that in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, right in front of Emperor Hongchang and all the officials, Grand Secretary Zhang Zhengyang respectfully inquired to Li Wu, "This matter is of grave importance. Only with the approval of the Duke who secures the nation can we dismiss the border army!"
What happened afterwards varied according to different civilian accounts—some say Li Wu scolded the Grand Secretary on the spot, while others say Li Wu yielded, resulting in the dissolution of seventy percent of the million-strong Northern Border army.
As the court was unstable, the jianghu was also filled with shadowy undercurrents.
A rumor began to circulate at some point that a powerful family in Jiangnan, the Cang family, possessed a demonic technique that could absorb other people's inner qi.
The Cang family, a small clan previously not well-known, produced top and first-rate martial artists in just over a decade, with seemingly every family member becoming a martial arts prodigy.
And since the Cang family specialized in inner qi, it corroborated the rumors spreading throughout the jianghu.
In the fourteenth year of Emperor Hongchang, the Cang family was besieged by over a dozen sects led by the Buddhist and Daoist communities, resulting in the death of more than a thousand members, with none of the elderly, women, or children spared.
Someone asked Master Fang Yuan of the Huasheng Temple, "Did the Cang family truly possess a demonic technique that absorbed inner qi?"
Master Fang Yuan, with a compassionate expression, chanted a Buddhist mantra,
"Amitabha! Perhaps someone found it," he said.
This statement spread throughout the jianghu, and Buddhism gained yet another stain, prompting mockery from various factions and sects for a while. But after a few months, it ceased to be a topic of discussion.
After all, there were too many significant events occurring in both the jianghu and the imperial court for Buddhism to remain a hot topic.
Issues such as Zhou Yi becoming a first-rate master, which constituted sizable news in the Heavenly Prison and could stir some ripples in the Divine Capital, barely made a splash in Fengyang Country.
The Jinyiwei sent people to recruit him, at first promising the rank of Captain, and later raising the offer to Banner Leader.
Zhou Yi rejected their offers several times, and eventually, the matter was dropped.
The eyes of the world forever focus on the newest people and events, and as two years passed, no one paid attention to the insignificant jailers. Whenever occasionally mentioned at the dinner table, they would be spat upon with disdain.
"Such people, even if they are experts, are hopeless cases!"
At the end of the thirteenth year of Hongchang, as New Year's Eve approached.
An imperial decree spread throughout the land, and the long-vacant position of Crown Prince of Fengyang Country finally had an heir.
The eldest prince, Zhao Xian, was married to the legitimate daughter of teacher Zhang Zhengyang.
"No wonder he's become the Grand Secretary, this vigorous old man is truly extraordinary!"
Zhou Yi clicked his tongue a few times and then put the matter out of his mind.
The imperial court and the martial world were to him but floating clouds, far less interesting than the art of talisman crafting.
After two years of painstaking copying and drawing, having worn out numerous talisman brushes and ruined countless pieces of talisman paper, the depiction of four types of talismans had become almost instinctual, complex strokes flowing effortlessly in one go.
True Yuan gathered at the tip of the brush, merging with the strokes into the talisman, making the cinnabar on the talisman paper crystal clear and translucent.
Pop!
A soft sound, and the True Yuan within the cinnabar dispersed, the talisman paper shattering into dust along with it.
Zhou Yi was already used to this; he carefully reflected on the reason for his mistake just now, changed to a new piece of talisman paper, and continued drawing.
Two years from ignorance to beginner's level, it was through such meticulous correction of errors that Zhou Yi had a premonition that the day he would complete a true talisman wasn't far off.
"I'm running out of talisman paper, I need to get some on credit again."
Zhou Yi had heard that the gang Mighty Tiger Hall in South City recently acquired a white tiger skin, and the hall's leader even held a banquet to celebrate the catch.
"Being a fellow disciple brother who practices the Five Tiger Fist, it's only right to borrow it for use!"
The leader of Mighty Tiger Hall, mentored by Luo Hu, did not participate in the rebellion back then, and later, amidst the Jinyiwei's closure of the fighting rings, snagged the remaining fist manuals and health tonic recipes, becoming a local boss in his own right.
"...an empty void, yet the Spirit Talisman forms itself!"
Zhou Yi's spirit was lucid and clear, and as the final stroke fell, a faint spiritual glow shimmered on the talisman paper.
"Eh? It didn't break!"
Zhou Yi was surprised and picked up the House Protection Talisman to inspect it closely; it was identical to the description in the book, but whether it was effective remained to be seen.
True Yuan poured in, and the talisman ignited without flame.
An invisible and intangible wave swept across the entire courtyard.
At that moment.
It was the depths of winter, the night deep and silent.
Whirlwinds of cold winds suddenly swept through the courtyard, producing a mourning howl.
"Who's there?"
Zhou Yi's eyes were sharp as lightning as he abruptly turned towards the jujube tree in the courtyard.
Where there was once emptiness, billowy black mist now floated, taking on a vague human form with only two red glows where the face should be.
Turning his head towards the grape trellis where they typically dined, drank tea, and enjoyed wine, he saw some shadows hiding among the trellises, others perched upon the stone stools, and even two ghostly figures sprawled across the dining table.
A dozen pairs of red, resentful eyes glared at Zhou Yi, as if ready to pounce and bite at any moment.
"Ghosts?"
Zhou Yi felt no fear in his heart but was rather intrigued. His True Yuan converged into his hand and caught one of the ghostly shadows.
The result was that the ghostly figure let out a shrill and pitiful scream when it touched the True Yuan and then dissolved into nothingness.
"That's too fragile, they can't be called ghosts, at most they're like remnant souls."
Zhou Yi, Protected by True Yuan, approached the ghost shadows.
Woo woo woo...
The malicious and ferocious ghost shadows were frightened into retreating continuously until they were squeezed into a corner, piled on top of each other like smoke and mist.
"You died by my hand while alive and even as ghosts, you dare not defy me, how boring! How utterly boring!"
Zhou Yi finished speaking, and his True Yuan formed a sword's edge, weaving back and forth among the ghost shadows, slaying them yet again as if they died a second time.