Chapter 1047: Invitation from the Starry Pavilion

If he didn’t count the 7 sheets of rank five talisman paper he used to craft the talismans he already knew, he managed to craft 16 new talismans with 32 sheets of rank five talisman paper. He managed to hit a 50 percent success rate when crafting rank five talismans!

The success rate was naturally terrifyingly high when compared to other rank five Talisman Grandmasters, but to Shang Xia, it was barely passable.

However, he was crafting new talismans this time and he needed time to familiarize himself with it. Even so, he was able to maintain a terrifying success rate/

Anyway, it wasn’t as though he was no longer able to craft talismans. Even though he told everyone that he would be crafting talismans for half a year, he only used 2 months to use the 39 sheets of rank five talisman paper from the institution. He would be able to place all his attention on crafting his Six Harmony Teleportation Talisman next.

Unfortunately, Ren Huan already informed him about their plans back then. He decided to reopen the Talisman Pagoda now that he was done.

As expected, as soon as he did, Ren Huan came knocking.

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to work really hard… There are quite a lot of things here!” Ren Huan reminded.

Shang Xia wasn’t surprised at all. After all, he was one of the few rank five Talisman Grandmasters in the Spirit Luxuriant World. Since news of him being willing to craft talismans had spread, there was no way he wouldn’t receive requests. If no one came looking for him, he would probably have to bury his face somewhere in embarrassment…

With a single wave of his hand, almost 30 sealed spiritual cases plopped on the table. From how each case could hold 3 talisman papers, there would easily be more than 80 of them…

Shang Xia’s eyes widened in shock. “How the hell did you get so many of them?! Is this all the high-ranked talisman paper in our Spirit Luxuriant World?!”

His reaction wasn’t exactly exaggerated. Even though the Spirit Luxuriant World managed to nurture a bunch of resources in recent years, if not for the fact that the Tongyou Institution had a hand in pushing for the growth of the path of talismans, many high-level powers might not have been able to gather 10 rank five talisman papers even if they wanted to.

Who would have thought that Ren Huan wasn’t done? After Shang Xia spoke, he waved his hand again and even more spiritual cases appeared.

Even as a True Immortal, Shang Xia failed to keep his composure and his eyes widened in shock. “What the fuck is going on?! How are there so many?!”

Ren Huan pointed at the first batch of cases on the table and replied, “There are 74 sheets of rank five talisman paper in this batch. They requested 36 rank five talismans in total. Anyway, I already recorded the type of talismans you need to make.”

Even though he paused for a moment, he didn’t wait for Shang Xia to speak before he continued, “As for the rank five talisman papers here… A good half of it came from experts of our world. The rest were obtained from Star Origin City.”

Shang Xia was slightly taken aback at the revelation and gasped, “We even managed to extend our influence into Star Origin City?”

“Heh! What do you think?! The talisman paper here is only a batch used by them to probe you out. I believe once you complete the talismans here, as long as you’re willing to craft more in the future, they’ll be able to send as many resources as you want! You’re really going to get it in the future…” Ren Huan snorted.

Shang Xia shook his head instantly, “Absolutely not. I’m not a full-time talisman maker!”

Ren Huan laughed, “Relax… No one will dare to make your life difficult since you’re a True Immortal. You can choose to craft talismans whenever you want.”

Shang Xia eventually nodded. Pointing at the second pile, he asked, “What are these then?”

“According to the rule of using 3 sheets of talisman paper, they can’t just give us 74 sheets of rank five talisman paper for 36 talismans. Some of them provided additional talisman ink, incense, and some other treasures related to crafting talisman paper. There are also mid to high-grade essence crystals in there to make up for the difference.” Ren Huan explained.

He continued, “Moreover, these treasures have already been screened to ensure they’re useful. Otherwise, there would have been even more stuff here.”

Shang Xia nodded in response. “Alright. Leave the talisman ink and incense. Bring the rest back to the Talisman Hall.”

Ren Huan didn’t reject Shang Xia’s goodwill and he simply kept a bunch of spiritual cases. When he was done, he slowly asked, “Oh right, about the 6 new talismans, did you… Ahem, never mind! I asked too much…”

Shang Xia burst out laughing, “Relax. If there aren’t any accidents, 74 sheets of rank five talisman paper should be more than enough!”

Of the 11 rank five talismans he knew, other than the rank five Teleportation Talisman he wouldn’t easily reveal to the world, he was willing to craft the others.

Reviewing the requests, he saw that of the 36 talismans requested, 8 of them were Heavenly Lightning Curtain Talismans and 4 of them were Twin Frost Flame Talismans.

Other than the 2 offensive talismans, there were 6 requests for Dipper Protection Talismans.

Adding the 3 talismans up, that was already half of the total talismans he needed to make.

Of the remaining, there were 3 requests for Void Destruction Talismans and 4 Space Calming Talismans.

Not a single request was for the Mysterious Harmony Talisman. It seemed as though everyone knew their stuff and understood that the Mysterious Harmony Talisman was the most worthless talisman out of them all.

Among the talismans the institution had a grasp on, there were 6 requests for Substitution Talismans and 3 Concealment Talismans. There was a single request each for an Abyssal Emptiness Talisman and an Illusion Talisman.

Even though Shang Xia was confident in his ability to craft talismans and knew that he would definitely be able to complete the task with 74 sheets of rank five talisman paper, he planned to leave a batch in the institution to begin with. He wanted to give the others a chance to try crafting rank five talismans. As such, he needed to properly consider how he should go about crafting the talismans.

Fortunately, he already had 16 complete talismans. There was no way he would miss his target, and the only thing he had to think about was the number of talisman papers he wanted to leave for the Talisman Hall.

Thinking about it quietly for a second, he eventually took out 15 sheets of rank five talisman paper. With 59 left, he chose to craft the Space Calming Talisman before anything else.

With his experience, he could tell that the Space Calming Talisman was the most complicated talisman among those he knew. He only completed 1 after 5 attempts.

Now that he had a better understanding of crafting the talismans, he succeeded on his first try!

He continued and succeeded twice in 4 attempts, and decided to craft something else.

…

3 months passed in the blink of an eye, and Shang Xia managed to complete 34 talismans with the 59 sheets of rank five talisman paper he prepared. His success rate closed in on the 60 percent mark, and it was truly a shocking feat that would leave others dumbfounded.

However, he actually threw 2 from the first batch he crafted for the Talisman Hall into them in order to make up the numbers.

He used a total of 5 months to craft more than 50 rank five talismans… Even though he already entered the Six Direction Realm, he felt his soul somewhat transformed. Also, after so many months of hard work, he was starting to feel exhausted.

Handing the completed talismans to Ren Huan, Shang Xia had to take a break. Only after he was rested would he be able to think about the Six Direction Teleportation Talisman.

It seemed as though half a year wouldn’t be enough. At the very least, Shang Xia felt that he wouldn’t succeed if he tried crafting the talisman at that very moment.

He wanted to take the time when he was resting to look for Chu Jia, but he received news that she had been running to the Tianya Pavilion frequently in order to look for a way to restore the Five Element Ring. She was going through the restoration process with the Blacksmith Grandmasters of the Hundred Weapons Mill and she had no time to bother Shang Xia for the time being.

Helpless, Shang Xia could only head over to Hai Min’s courtyard again.

He didn’t manage to enjoy a peaceful life for too long when Ren Huan came knocking and interrupted him.

…

“Are you sure it’s the Starry Pavilion?! They belong to the Star Origin Guard!” Shang Xia asked while staring at Ren Huan in disbelief.

Ren Huan looked extremely serious as he replied, “Can I joke around about something like that? The Deputy Pavilion Master of the Starry Pavilion said it himself. He wishes to invite you over to craft rank six talismans. He would provide the inheritance required to craft the talisman, along with talisman paper, talisman ink, and other resources. He even promised that if you agreed to help them, the Starry Pavilion would strengthen their connection with our institution and increase the scope of our cooperation. That includes divine artifacts or talisman brushes…”

A frown appeared on Shang Xia’s face. “Let’s not talk about the favorable conditions they are providing. If it’s just a mere rank six talisman, how can they not have their own rank six Talisman Grandmaster to craft it for them? They’re the Star Origin Guards after all… It won’t be difficult for them to hire a rank six Talisman Grandmaster either! Why are they looking for a rank five Talisman Grandmaster?”

Ren Huan wondered out loud. “I was planning to ask them the exact same question, but in their eyes, I’m a mere messenger. Deputy Pavilion Master Zhou Mingdao hopes that you can personally make a trip over there so that they can talk to you face-to-face. They don’t wish for too many people to know what they are doing either.”

Zhou Mingdao was a Martial Dipper Realm expert and the deputy pavilion master of the Starry Pavilion. In front of him, Ren Huan was a nobody! However, the same could be said about him when compared to Shang Xia.

The person inviting Shang Xia over was most definitely the mysterious pavilion master who hadn’t shown his face so far.

After thinking about it, Shang Xia turned to ask Ren Huan, “Did they tell you the name of their rank six talisman?”

Chuckling bitterly, Ren Huan shook his head. “He didn’t wish to reveal any information at all and they’re probably waiting for you to head over to talk more about it.”

After he was done, he looked at the calm expression on Shang Xia’s face and noticed that Shang Xia didn’t seem to be taking it seriously. He couldn’t help but continue asking, “What do you think? Are you going to go?”

Shang Xia laughed in response. “Of course I have to. However, from the looks of it, they don’t seem too anxious to invite me over. The rank six talisman they have doesn’t seem very important to them. We’ll talk about it after some time. It’s perfect timing as I have to enter seclusion to digest everything I learned.”

Shang Xia wasn’t putting on airs. He truly needed some time to process his gains.

Moreover, according to him, if he really accepted their invitation, he at least needed some experience crafting a rank six talisman. He could only make the decision after understanding the difficulty of crafting rank six talisman.

Of course, there was also the matter of him advancing to a second tier True Immortal…