Some time passed as Jiang Hao engrossed himself in the talisman dao, refining his ability with the help of the comprehension-enhancing system.
[You have gained a subtle understanding of Talisman Dao +1]
[You have gained a subtle understanding of Talisman Dao +1]
As he kept making more and more talismans, his understanding of the system's uses increased.
Firstly, the system doesn't add more to what he already has. However, the system can help push the potential to the limits and break past what normally could not be broken through.
For example, in the world of cultivation, one's talent in a certain area of expertise is based on the depth of innate comprehension talent one possesses. Most of the time, these talents are decided at birth, but one can improve these innate talents at a young age, however, when one starts cultivation they will be stabilized. Never to change again.
So his system helping him improve his comprehension talents in certain fields through hard work is a very pleasant surprise to him, to say the least.
After all, he was always a firm believer in the grind.
Second, the system doesn't 'gift' him anything. Its sole purpose is to break past barriers. So, when he first heard the system notification,
[Innate talent of the Talisman Dao +1],
Jiang Hao realized that he could hasten his plans a little.
It's been 5 days since he woke up and today finally the slot in the divine ability section finished filling out.
[Name: Jiang Hao]
[Age: 19]
[Cultivation: Early foundation establishment stage]
[Cultivation method: Heavenly Sound Hundred Revolutions]
[Supernatural ability: Nine Revolutions Death Substitution, Daily Appraisal]
[Lifeblood: 70/100 (can be cultivated)]
[Cultivation: 63/100 (can be cultivated)]
[Divine ability: 3/3 (can be obtained)]
'Finally, let's see what the Turtle's system can provide me'.
He sat cross-legged on the futon cushion on the second floor and closed his eyes.
With a thought he 'clicked' on the divine ability section and with a soft 'boom' his mind went blank. A faint yellow light filled his vision and an immense amount of peace and tranquility filled his being.
It was too addicting to the point, that he felt like if he was in this state, he could stay at the same place for a thousand years. Mind you... this is the same man who mocked the Turtle for staying inside his house all his life.
Even though he felt like he had stayed in that state for a long time, it was in actuality only a split second. the faint yellow light faded from his mindscape and he felt like something had been 'written' on his soul. He felt like he knew this ability and had practiced for as long as he lived.
He opened the panel and saw the ability's name was "Clear and Pure Heart".
'Heh... what a cute name for a divine ability of a demon sect disciple'.
He shook his head and turned his ability on. And just like earlier, but not to that degree, he felt like he was washed of any 'mortal filth'.
It was like someone proficient in the Ice element infused ice into his soul. He felt like he would freeze, but it was very... comfortable. He felt transcendent.
Like he was in a trance, he stood up from the cushion and walked towards his study table where he used to draw talismans, and picked up the Grade-0 talisman instruction manual. With this ability and the partial enlightenment it provides, he came to his own understanding of the talismans he drew.
He felt like he could see all the weaknesses of the previous understanding of his Talisman Dao. All of the subtle mistakes he made, that ended up wasting monster blood ink or the inefficient spirit lines he drew... he could see them now.
He completed the Ten Thousand Sword Talisman in the blink of an eye.
It was a success!
He turned the ability off and sighed in contentment.
'This ability removed all unnecessary thoughts from my head and made me focus on one thing alone. With the help of the comprehension system, my understanding will advance by leaps and bounds,
And just like theorized,
[You have gained a major understanding of Talisman Dao +1]
"Damn!!... Major understanding! Like I thought, this ability is a game changer."
The Ten Thousand Sword Talisman was one of the 'hard' talismans to make for Grade-0 talisman makers. He had already made several other talismans with all the materials he had bought.
Spirit Concentration Talisman, Divine Sword Talisman, Fire Talisman
These are all just some plebian talismans in a sect as great as the Heavenly Note Sect. Spirit Concentration Talisman helps gather spirit energy for some time, Divine Sword Talisman makes your flying sword go a little faster, and the Fire Talisman?
It just conjures up a fireball.
But no matter how worthless they are in the sect, there are many disciples who would buy them, as using talismans is easier than doing them yourself after all. You can't take any chances in mid-fight.
'Alright... one income stream is set now. The next thing is to find out what the woman fed the Turtle'
Condition: Read my sub-conscious request and give me solutions>
[Jiang Hao/ Alexandor: Currently healthy. However, affected by Heavenly Extinction Yang Gu poison. Will be forced to enter a "sage" like state in the vicinity of any woman except the one who took the corresponding Yin Gu poison.]
Jiang knew that the system the Turtle had earlier was more than collecting bubbles from spiritual plants and knew that the appraisal ability is a brilliantly broken ability. After all, it only says "Daily".
It means once a day, he can appraise anything. So he tried giving the appraise ability a command that it should read his sub-conscious request and it worked out perfectly.
It's a system! It's never meant to be normal or logical after all.
'I see... except the Demon woman, I'm going to be forced into a sage state.
It's helpful in my case, after all, some of the innocent-looking bitches in this sect use charm techniques and will such the lifeblood out of a couple of people at night fucking like rabbits'
If your divine sense is not enough you won't know how you died. Even Turtle survived the fight against Yun Ruo because he was forced to enter the sage state and wasn't vulnerable to the charm techniques of the woman.
Jiang Hao wore a robe and looked at himself in the mirror.
"Tch... an average-looking face and an average-looking body. This is the cultivation world... if I can't bag some Ice Beauties and Fiery Phoenixes won't I be missing out too much?
And who the fuck would even look at this poor sob?"
[Are you crazy? Why would you go after women? Cultivate and accumulate some spirit weapons and save your life! This world is dangerous. It's better to avoid troubles and stay away from people like them.]
"*sigh* How would you know anything Turtle... you have zero charisma, and you lived for the sake of not dying. I want to explore the world and bask in the freedom here."
He came out of the house and started walking towards the library.
He knew that he couldn't find any information about the Heavenly Extinction Yang Gu poison in the library or the probability of finding it was very low, so he betted on the seemingly 'powerless elder' sitting at the counter.
He entered the library and acted like he was searching for something and once he felt like he had spent enough time, he walked towards the elder and bowed in respect.
"Elder, this junior has some questions and I couldn't find any information regarding what I was searching for."
The old man who looked like he was dozing off, opened his old and turbid-looking eyes and sized up the disciple in front of him.
Normally disciples don't care about an old man, but because Jiang Hao knew that this was cliche in any novel, he gave it a try.
"What are you looking for, brat?". The old man asked in curiosity.
"Elder, this disciple was searching for any information of the Heavenly Extinction yang Gu poison. Does the elder know anything about it?"
The old man who looked like he was interested in nothing, suddenly jolted in his seat and looked at Jiang Hao in shock.
"What... where did you hear that name?"
Jiang Hao was 'surprised'. And he 'contemplated' for a while, and finally 'relented'. He looked at the elder and told the 'truth'.
"Elder... this- this is a secret of mine and it is related to the fortuitous encounter I had when I was still a lifeblood refinement realm cultivator.
There was a piece of skin with those words and it got me intrigued that's why I asking. Is it something very dangerous?"
The old man sized up Jiang for a while and he closed his eyes and started speaking.
"It's not dangerous, but at the same time, it is. It depends on the perspective. It is a poison of the Return to the void realm. This poison binds two people together for eternity.
If they want to break out of it, they have to break through into the realm of the unknown. And as no such realm exists, you could say that they will be with each other for eternity."
Jiang Hao's eyebrows jumped to the top of his forehead in surprise. He expected something absurd, but Return to the Void realm? That's next-level crazy.
But as he thought about it for a while he was also inwardly happy. He bowed to the elder and started walking towards the exit.
The elder looked his back for a moment and closed his eyes muttering something about wishing he had the poison so he could feed it to his goat.
Anyway...
Jiang Hao's mind was making plans upon plans now.
'I see... the other person who took the poison is the demon woman and she can't kill me. No. She can, but she probably won't be able to... or more specifically she would have killed me if she needed to. With her cultivation, she could potentially ignore the sage state, but her body won't let me kill her, I guess?'
He was confused... why did the woman feed the Turtle a pill? Wasn't it too dumb to bind a nobody to her life?
She could have just killed him. It's not in his favor, but it's the most rational decision after all.
'Or does she have any other plans? No... I don't think so. She was injured and she was poisoned probably. Maybe there's more to the poison.
Dammit... too many variables'
Jiang scratched his head in frustration. He finally sighed and chose to deal with it another time. As for now, he's happy that he can remove the demon woman as a threat in his plans.
He reached his shack and went towards the Heavenly Fragrance Dao Flower. After checking it for a while he went inside his shack.
'As long as there won't be somebody immensely powerful snooping around in my life... I can cause as much chaos as I can.
I wonder how fun it will be~
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE'