Chapter 174: Quandary Manual, Hidden Needle Manual

As a matter of fact, any sort of inheritance in the dao of talismans was all over the place. In different parts of the world, the same talisman could have different names.

Talismans made by different masters were also different. Ordinary cultivators only cared about the effects, and they didn’t know too much about the details. That only served to disrupt the many inheritances out there.

The situation was pretty much the same as cultivators trying to raise their level. Cultivators at the Martial Realm would only bother getting their hands on an advancement formula to break through to the Martial Extremity Realm. They wouldn’t care about the compatibility they had with the medicine! They didn’t know how important a sense of compatibility was! If the medicine they used wasn’t effective and they forced themselves to break through, they would be much weaker than those of the same level! They would also find it extremely difficult to advance in the future.

Since obtaining an advancement formula itself was an amazing feat of its own, no one would care about the intricacies!

Back to the issue with the talisman inheritance from the Zhu Family. It was completely different from the others out there!

Out of the 23 rank one talismans, 18 of them were created with the same principle as 10 of the rank two ones. One could say that they were the basis of many rank two talismans contained in the inheritance.

As long as one mastered how to create those 18 rank one talismans, they would be able to smoothly break through to a rank two talisman master as their cultivation and comprehension progressed.

They would be able to save a lot of time and resources compared to others without the inheritance!

After becoming a rank two talisman master, 12 of the 14 talismans contained within formed the basis of some rank three talismans.

The same theory applied. For rank three talismans.

Looking at the Zhu Family Talisman Scripture, Shang Xia’s path to becoming a rank four talisman master became clear! He no longer needed to collect a ton of formulas to increase his comprehension in a certain aspect. As long as he followed the Zhu Family Talisman Scripture, it was a matter of time before he became a rank four talisman master!

Of course… It wouldn’t be as easy as he thought. When Shang Xia flipped through the Zhu Family Talisman Scripture, he discovered that the records for rank four talismans were gone!

It wasn’t because someone destroyed them on purpose. Instead, it was as though they weren’t recorded in the Zhu Family Talisman Scripture at all! Instead, the inheritance for the 3 rank four talismans was located in the Coral Forest.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Even direct disciples of the Zhu Family would have to obtain the approval of the higher-ups of the Zhu Family if they wanted to obtain the inheritance for the fourth rank!

Shang Xia suddenly thought about the several stone tablets that were wiped away in the courtyard previously.

Could those contain the instructions to create rank four talismans?!

Ache filled Shang Xia’s heart as he cursed Zhu Ying silently. From what Shang Xia experienced so far, Zhu Ying was only someone who would mess things up.

Thinking deeper into it, Shang Xia sighed eventually. He realized that Zhu Ying wouldn’t have cared about those inscriptions as he didn’t know that Shang Xia was a talisman master. Since Zhu Ying wasn’t a talisman master either, he probably had no idea what was written on those stone tablets. The only thing Zhu Ying cared about destroying was the formula for the Hundred Days Longevity Intoxication.

Since it wasn’t Zhu Ying, Shang Xia could only guess that the destruction of the stone tablets was done by the members of the Zhu Family. Liu Jitang and Murong Tianlan were suspects too!

In fact, Shang Xia felt that the two of them were more likely to be the culprits!

If he wasn’t wrong, they erased the words on the tablet after copying them somewhere! The copies should be in their spatial pouch!

Slapping his forehead in a fit of anger, Shang Xia realized that getting his hands on those wouldn’t be as easy as he thought. After all, Shang Bo planned to hand the spatial pouches over to Kou Chongxue in order to open them without destroying their contents.

The inheritance was sure to fall in the hands of the institution, and if he wanted to learn it, he would have to pay some sort of price.

That wasn’t the worst part. The moment those rank four talisman formulas were revealed, he wouldn’t be able to keep the entire scripture for himself!

Whatever the case, the pain was temporary, it wouldn’t affect Shang Xia’s state of mind.

The most important thing he had to do was to keep the Zhu Family Talisman Scripture safe. After sucking it back into his Embroidered Cloud Case, Shang Xia continued to look through his spoils. He quickly discovered several rare herbs, and it was more than enough for him to create another portion of Tempering Meridian Powder.

He also managed to find several rank three herbs and one of them was the Resplendent Grass he had been hearing about for some time now! He didn’t know if he could use it when creating the medicine he needed to advance, but no one would complain about having more treasures.

A thought flashed through Shang Xia’s mind all of a sudden. His Yin Yang Sword Formation might have a lot of space to improve, but his current cultivation was already at the grand completion stage of the Martial Extremity Realm! He could easily try to advance by creating any random advancement medicine he knew.

Looking through the rest of the herbs, Shang Xia didn’t recognize a few of them. He decided to just toss them into his Embroidered Cloud Case and deal with them when he got back.

Next, a short sword appeared in his hand. It was a low-grade weapon, and it was called Jade Creek. The sword was slightly less than two feet long, and it was shorter than Shang Xia’s Delicate River Jade Sword.

Even so, he was still extremely pleased with his discovery.

The two swords might not be of the same length, but Jade Creek was at least a graded weapon! With it in hand, Shang Xia wouldn’t have to worry about wasting even more swords when he used those sword arts that required him to dual wield.

Other than the sword, he eventually discovered two sword manuals contained in Zhu Ying’s belongings.

It didn’t take long for him to immerse himself in the manuals. One of them was called the Quandary Manual, and the other was called the Hidden Needle Manual. Both of them were part of the Zhu Family’s inheritance.