Chapter 316 - Talisman

The wheels of the horse carriage slowly rolled down the path. The weight of the Black Taisui and Li Huowang’s belongings made the heavy carriage leave a trail on the muddy path.

Li Huowang carefully drove the carriage as he glanced at Bun who was walking beside the carriage. Then, he held Bun’s neck and pulled it up onto the carriage.

Bonk bonk bonk bonk~

Bun’s wagging tail was like a wooden stick that kept hitting the wooden carriage.

Seeing this, Li Huowang irritatedly pushed Bun and said, “Calm down!”

Then, he took out the letter that Tuoba Danqing had given him.

Just as before, there was an address written on it, but compared to last time, there was nothing else written on it about what had happened at the place. The only thing that was written on it was that two Yellow-ranked informants had died at the location, and so the person going there had to be extra cautious.

While Li Huowang didn’t know how strong Yellow-ranked informants were, he knew that it was not a minor issue.

There was no way that Tuoba Danqing would be able to use this to help him get promoted to the next rank if this were a minor issue.

While he knew that it might be dangerous, Li Huowang wasn’t afraid. He was already used to it after encountering so many deadly situations. After all, a man who had overcome the fear of death would be fearless.

After that, Li Huowang took out the talisman guidebook and read it once again. He read the first page which contained a brief introduction on talismans.

The introduction explained that there was either a Daoist by the surname He or someone called He Dao who discovered a method to use the power of the world through observing nature, either by listening to the calls of the bird or by looking at the patterns left behind by insect bites[1].

The method that was born through listening to the sound of bird calls and beast howls used sound as a medium. These were categorized as ‘Chants’. On the other hand, the method that was born through the observation of the insect’s bite marks and the constellations used drawings as a medium. These were categorized as ‘Talismans’.

However, the introduction only said that the methods were derived through observation. Thus, Li Huowang didn’t think that the power of the world would bite back at the user just by looking at it accidentally. Who knew what kind of power they’d borrowed from in this crazy world.

At the same time, he realized that everyone had their own logic in this crazy world, and that most of their viewpoints clashed with those of others.

However, Li Huowang didn’t care about which one was correct; be it the power of the world, The Three Pure ones, the Three Corpses, or the Five Realms of Buddhism. The only thing he cared about was which one could help him, even if it meant summoning the Jade Emperor to the mortal realm.

“A single talisman has to be made in one stroke. First, draw the character for four, then diagonally move toward the left before going down vertically, then draw the character for ‘ugly’ before writing the two characters for fire. After that, draw four circles with an inverse stroke to form the lotus...”

Blind Chen had warned him before that it was risky to use the talismans and it wasn’t easy either. Li Huowang had to chant while drawing the talisman. If he made a mistake in either the chant or the drawing, the entire talisman would become useless. Even more vexing was the fact that he couldn’t confirm whether or not his talisman was drawn properly or not.

It would take some time for him to learn how to use the talismans in the book.

Li Huowang suddenly felt that compared to using the Profound Records, it was much harder to use the talismans. Even though the price was much more steep, it was far easier to use the Profound Records.

As he continued chanting, Li Huowang placed a piece of yellow talisman paper on the horse carriage and bit his finger. Then, he used his bloody finger to draw the talisman.

“...The essence of the Heavens and Earth, the essence of the sun and moon. Combine the essence of the Heavens and Earth. Combine the brightness of the Sun and Moon!”

Li Huowang finished the chant in his heart and placed the talisman onto the rump of the horse.

At that moment, Li Huowang suddenly heard a faint whispering sound.

However, before he could hear what it was, the black horse pulling the horse carriage suddenly neighed as the veins throughout its body bulged and it suddenly started running much faster.

The sudden gust of wind blew Li Huowang’s veil upward, revealing his face to the outside world.

However, when Li Huowang heard the creaking of the axle, he suddenly felt nervous.

I hope the carriage doesn’t fall apart.

After running for some time, Li Huowang took the talisman off the horse, causing the beast to return to normal. But in just that short amount of time, the horse carriage managed to travel several miles. Despite his low expectations, the talisman was surprisingly useful.

Meanwhile, the black horse was sweating profusely as it drank water by the mouthful from the river. As Li Huowang scrubbed the sweat off the horse, he saw that it was an oily red liquid.

Are there really no other side effects to using the talisman?

“Woof woof!”

At that moment, Bun suddenly snarled as it ran toward the main path.

When Li Huowang raised his head, he saw that it was a peddler. As he saw the peddler walking into the distance, Li Huowang quickly chased after him with his horse carriage. He was quite close to the destination and he needed more information on the town.

“Hey! Wait up!”

When the peddler saw the bronze coin sword on Li Huowang’s back and his red Daoist robes, he placed down his shoulder pole and rubbed the sweat on his face. Then, he stared warily at Li Huowang. “What do you need, Daoist?”

“Nothing much. I was just thinking that it would be safer to travel with others. No reason to lose our lives to the bandits,” replied Li Huowang.

“Haha, Sir Daoist is quite the jokester. I don’t know about the other places, but there are no bandits around here. Rather than bandits, we should be more wary about the beasts within the forest,” replied the peddler.

“Really? But I’ve heard that this area is not very safe?” said Li Huowang, throwing out the hook as he waited for the fish to bite.

“That’s just within the county, and has nothing to do with us. Besides, there’s the merchant guild within the county and they don’t really need peddlers like us.”

“Oh? Is that so? This is my first time here and I don’t know the place all that well,” said Li Huowang, trying to dredge up some more information.

However, faced with his questions, the peddler kept his mouth sharp; it was as if he was wary of something.

Seeing this, Li Huowang did not ask any further but instead looked at the peddler’s wares as he asked, “What do you have for sale?”

Seeing that there was business to be done, the peddler instantly perked up. “I’m a food peddler, so I naturally sell food. I have a lot of types of pastes, orange dumplings, maltose sweets, and other such knick-knacks.”

After buying half of the peddler’s wares, Li Huowang once again raised his earlier queries. This time, the peddler finally answered after much hesitation.

The peddler looked toward the forest warily before whispering to Li Huowang. “Remember; you mustn’t tell this to others. I’ve heard that the Cangshui County has ghosts.”

“Ghosts?” Li Huowang was shocked. He had never expected someone to tell him something like this.

“Yeah. Do you remember the Ghost Festival that we celebrated recently in July? It’s said that the King of Hell forgot to close the gates, and now the beings of Hell have escaped.”

However, Li Huowang did not believe any of it. The peddler would have to be a God to know that the King of Hell forgot to close the gates to Hell. “What has happened to Cangshui County? Don’t exaggerate anything and tell me only the truth.”

1. Bite marks refer to the path certain insects make when feeding, such as termites where you can see the hollow paths in the wood they chewed through ?