Returning to the rented house, Ge Dongxu saw Cheng Le Hao's room door was tightly closed, and he breathed a sigh of relief inside. He did not want Cheng Le Hao to see him carrying a large pile of yellow ritual paper.
He dashed into his own bedroom, then closed the door. Ge Dongxu prepared some cinnabar and laid out the yellow ritual paper. He took a deep breath, completely clearing his mind of any stray thoughts, focusing his mind, and with a brush in hand, he began drawing talismans.
The talismans he was drawing were relatively simple runes, such as the Heart-Cleansing Talisman, Evil-Repelling Talisman, House-Protecting Talisman, and some Water Arrow Talismans and Fireball Talismans with not very strong attack power.
However, simple as these talismans might be, drawing them successfully was not easy. Even after eight years of following the Dao and inheriting Ge Hong's legacy, with his cultivation having reached the Qi Cultivation Third Layer Realm, he had wasted nearly a hundred sheets of yellow ritual paper but only managed to successfully draw one Evil-Repelling Talisman and one Fireball Talisman, with a success rate of about two percent.
After drawing over a hundred sheets of yellow ritual paper, Ge Dongxu was nearly spent. He sat cross-legged for a brief period of breath regulation before he felt some strength return. Then he stood up and carefully stored the actual talismans imbued with mana, the Evil-Repelling Talisman, and the Fireball Talisman.
These two talismans had almost taken him half a day, nearly a hundred sheets of yellow ritual paper, and three days' accumulation of mana to complete. To others, they might seem like nothing more than ordinary ghost drawings, but to him, they were the fruit of his labor, which of course had to be well kept for any emergency.
Because his current success rate in drawing talismans was so low, he needed to prepare in advance. This was what it meant to be prepared for anything.
"I wonder when I'll be able to reach the realm where the talismans follow my heart, able to create a talisman with a single stroke, without the hardship of the process," Ge Dongxu muttered to himself somewhat dissatisfied after storing the talismans.
What Ge Dongxu did not know was that in this world today, those who truly knew how to draw talismans were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, and they were mostly older people whose success rates were not much better than Ge Dongxu's. If people knew that a teenager of about fifteen or sixteen could produce real talismans and was still unsatisfied, they would probably be banging their heads against a wall.
Of course, Ge Dongxu was just grumbling to himself. He knew that to reach the state where talismans followed his heart, it required not only an extremely refined spiritual power but also that his mana reached at least the Qi Cultivation Ninth Layer, and even his highly skilled master had only achieved the Qi Cultivation Eighth Layer. He had a long way to go.
After storing the talismans and grumbling a few words to himself, Ge Dongxu's stomach started to protest with a growling sound.
It turned out that drawing talismans not only consumed mental and mana energies but also physical strength. Moreover, Ge Dongxu was at an age where he was still growing, so after half a day's practice, the bit of food he had eaten for lunch was long digested.
He went downstairs for dinner, and after eating, Ge Dongxu did not linger outside and went straight back to the rented house.
When Ge Dongxu returned, Wu Xiaojuan was washing the dishes, evidently, they had just had dinner. Seeing that Ge Dongxu had returned to his room early and had not roamed outside, Wu Xiaojuan felt much relieved.
Smiling, he greeted Wu Xiaojuan, then continued upstairs. Passing by Cheng Le Hao's room, he saw him lying on the bed reading a novel, Huang Yi's "A Step into the Past." This novel was very popular recently and was rather explicit in some aspects. Perhaps for this reason, when Cheng Le Hao heard footsteps at the stairway, he quickly stuffed "A Step into the Past" under his pillow, pretending to be pondering something. But the chubby fellow had not noticed the tent pitched high in his crotch.
"Damn, it's you, kid!" When Cheng Le Hao realized it was Ge Dongxu, he gave him a white look and then took out "A Step into the Past" from under the pillow and continued reading.
"What novel are you reading? Hiding it like it's something shady!" Ge Dongxu asked casually.
"Huang Yi's novel 'A Step into the Past' is really good. Do you want to read it? I'm on the third volume right now, and I still haven't returned the first two volumes. I can lend them to you," Cheng Le Hao said.
"Thanks, but I'd better stick to my own reading," Ge Dongxu smiled, shaking his head as he walked away.
"Damn, you're already this diligent before school starts!" Cheng Le Hao rolled his eyes and then lowered his head to enjoy his novel once more.
Ge Dongxu returned to his room, closed the door, and instead of reading, sat cross-legged on the bed, guarding his Spirit Platform, maintaining its clarity, and commenced his daily meditation.
The Cultivation Technique Ge Dongxu practiced was called the 'Baopu Nine Pill Mysterious Method', a Superior and Profound method. Unfortunately, nowadays nature's spiritual energy is scarce, everywhere is filled with murky energy, and only during the Chinese Hours of zi and mao can one barely cultivate. At other times, even Superior and Profound techniques are mostly ineffective, so Ge Dongxu usually relied on the Meditation Method to condense spiritual power, which is unaffected by the fluctuations of the murky energy of nature's spiritual energy.
Since Talisman Drawing had consumed a significant amount of mental energy today, Ge Dongxu needed to meditate promptly to recover his spiritual power.
He sat in this position until the zi hour, which is from eleven at night until one o'clock in the morning.
Ge Dongxu quietly opened his room door, crossed the stairway, passed the room behind it, and reached the balcony.
A bright moon hung in the sky, and the moonlight, like water, poured down, carrying a hint of coolness rare in the summer days. At this time, the usually bustling county city had become exceptionally silent. One could faintly hear the chirping of insects.
"The zi hour, when Yin is at its peak and Yang begins to arise, the time of Yin Yang transition, is the best moment for cultivation in the day. Treasure it," Ren Yao's words flashed through Ge Dongxu's mind and, almost reflexively, he sat cross-legged, with his hands embracing his abdomen.
Soon, Ge Dongxu's abdomen rhythmically ballooned and contracted, and at the tip of his nose, one could vaguely see breaths moving in and out, like one's breath on a cold winter day, visible as a mist, though relatively less obvious.
Quietly, the moon hid behind the clouds, and soon an hour passed. Ge Dongxu slowly opened his eyes, sighed lightly, stood up and returned to his bedroom, lay on his bed with his hands behind his head, gazing at the ceiling with a somewhat desolate expression.
"The county town has a high population density, dense buildings and not few factories. Even though I picked a place close to a park on the mountain, the air here is still much muddier compared to Baiyun Mountain. Even during the zi hour, the spiritual energy in the air is pitifully scarce. Cultivating here ten times might not even compare to one session on Baiyun Mountain. But I need to study in the county town, so it's definitely not convenient to return to Baiyun Mountain for cultivation. What should I do?" Ge Dongxu gazed at the ceiling, feeling the Mana in his body that had scarcely increased, and couldn't help feeling quite vexed.
Since receiving his inheritance two years ago, he had made rapid progress, and after each cultivation session, the Mana in his body had a noticeable increase, yet today it was barely discernible.
"It seems I can only think of solutions through Elixirs and setting up Spirit Gathering Arrays, but Refining Elixirs requires precious materials, and setting up Spirit Gathering Arrays needs Jade. Where can I, a poor student from the mountains, get the money to buy these expensive materials?" Ge Dongxu thought about two solutions, but the need to buy expensive materials for either Refining Elixirs or constructing Spirit Gathering Arrays caused him more worry and a headache.
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