Chapter 1805: Tailor-Made

Time swiftly passed. The 4th year of the Essence Luxuriant Calendar had arrived.

For more than a year, Shang Xia had remained in seclusion, focused on healing his injuries.

During that time, under Kou Chongxue’s personal leadership, the Tongyou Institution, Essence Luxuriant World, and even the Essence Luxuriant Heavenly Field had continued to grow stronger.

A year ago, the Essence Luxuriant World's fleet had launched a major campaign and forcibly seized 40 percent of the Spirit Tip World from the Essence Du Heavenly Field, towing it back successfully. Since then, the focus of Essence Luxuriant Heavenly Field has been on constructing a complete world from the fragment.

Unfortunately, despite all the precautions taken beforehand, the fragment from the Spirit Tip World lost too much of its world origin during the return journey. While they had hoped to form 13 or 14 continents, they were only able to establish 12.

Still, those 12 continents were far more developed and rich in resources than the early Azure Origin World had been.

Later, with assistance from the Essence Luxuriant World and the Spirit Qing World, a few Earth Stars and floating continents were merged into the fragment, bringing the total number of continents up by 3. Several existing continents were also expanded. Yet, they were still far from reaching the threshold for an ascension to a Spirit World.

Additionally, due to the disappearance of the Star Curtain, the Heaven Observation Field had been excessively carved up by surrounding powers. As a result, it had become increasingly difficult for the Essence Luxuriant World to dispatch fleets to collect advancement resources for this newly born Azure World.

Unless, of course, they could launch another expedition like the one against the Essence Du Heavenly Field.

But the battle in the Essence Du Heavenly Field a year ago had already made Shang Xia and Kou Chongxue deeply aware of how difficult it was to conquer a Heavenly Field.

Any future expedition would have to go even farther than the last, but it was impossible for the Essence Luxuriant World’s Sages to leave at the same time.

Even worse was that Shang Xia’s injuries hadn’t fully recovered.

In any case, the Azure World that had formed from the fragments of the Spirit Tip World was officially named the Azure Cheng World by their World’s Will after it formed.

As an Azure World, the Azure Cheng World didn’t contribute much to the enhancement of the Heavenly Field, but its future remained promising.

After all, it had once been part of a Spirit World. In terms of cultivators in the Martial Dipper Realm and above, it surpassed even the Spirit Qing World...

Even if its direct contribution to the Heavenly Field was limited, the Azure Cheng World clearly boosted the overall strength of the Essence Luxuriant Heavenly Field’s high-level combat strength.

However, perhaps because it had failed to cross the threshold into a Spirit World, the blessing of the World’s Will was relatively minor. Kou Chongxue hadn’t been able to break through to the second star of the Martial Emptiness Realm, and Shang Xia barely accelerated his recovery.

That said, Shang Xia hadn’t spent the entire year purely in seclusion.

At his level of cultivation, whether walking, sitting, or even distracted, his Big Dipper Star Origin would continue to cycle his inner qi, gradually healing his injuries.

Under these conditions, Shang Xia divided his focus between 2 major efforts, refining his rank seven arts and improving the Myriad Tinted Cloud Talisman.

He was especially focused on the latter. Shang Xia originally believed that he had completed the necessary upgrade. Once Ren Huan succeeded in using Star Devouring Silk to craft rank seven talisman paper, Shang Xia would immediately begin producing the upgraded talisman.

But reality proved he had been overconfident. There was still a lot of room for improvement.

Over the course of more than a year, Shang Xia finally recovered to close to 70 percent of his peak state. Meanwhile, after nearly exhausting half of the Star Devouring Silk produced by the Essence Luxuriant World in the past few years, Ren Huan finally succeeded in creating rank seven talisman paper.

Looking at the scroll-like sheet in front of him that was a foot wide and one and a half feet long, Shang Xia exhaled softly, "Whatever the case, it’s good that you finally succeeded."

Ren Huan let out a long sigh of relief.

Only he knew how much pressure he had endured over the past few years from the institution for squandering so much Star Devouring Silk while trying to make the talisman paper.

Rank seven Star Devouring Silkworms were already rare mutations born from world ascension. Even with careful breeding, their numbers remained small. The resulting silk and cloth were even scarcer. Yet, both were among the most versatile and coveted rank seven treasures. The institution’s upper echelon eyed every batch eagerly.

Despite that, Ren Huan had taken the liberty to claim at least half of each year’s yield, always selecting the best batch first, without producing a single usable piece of rank seven talisman paper.

Even with Shang Xia backing him, and everyone knowing the talisman paper was for their one and only rank seven Talisman Grandmaster, criticism had piled up. Many high-ranking institution members had even gone to Kou Chongxue, requesting that he personally suspend Ren Huan’s access to Star Devouring Silk.

Had Shang Xia not been in seclusion, it was likely that people would have come knocking on his door directly.

Now, at long last, Ren Huan could give the institution a proper answer.

Just Shang Xia’s statement had already lifted most of the weight off his shoulders.

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Shang Xia glanced at his longtime friend, then, after a brief pause, asked, "You’re aware that the Talisman Hall’s Talisman Seed legacy can rival, and in some cases replace, martial intents, right?"

Ren Huan blinked in surprise but nodded eventually.

He wasn’t a Talisman Grandmaster himself, but as the most accomplished talisman paper craftsman in the Tongyou institution and Essence Luxuriant World, his status in the Talisman Hall was extremely high.

The mid to high-level talisman paper he produced was highly sought after among Talisman Grandmasters within the hall. Even outside, many Talisman Grandmasters of the other factions paid a premium to acquire his work.

For high-level talismans, even a 1 to 2 percent increase in success rate was worth a high price.

And Ren Huan’s paper craftsmanship had reached such a level that he could tailor-make talisman paper based on a Talisman Grandmaster’s technique and style, greatly enhancing their chances of success. That was the key reason for his growing prestige.

It was also why he was qualified to access some of the Talisman Hall’s core legacies, including the extremely complex and prestigious Talisman Seed.

Seeing him nod, Shang Xia continued, "Spread the word. I’ll help out with the creation of 4 sets of rank five Talisman Seeds and 2 sets of rank six Talisman Seeds. Since they are going to be complete, both the talismans and talisman paper will need to be tailored to the Talisman Grandmasters. As for who receives this benefit... You’ll decide.”

Ren Huan understood immediately. Shang Xia was doing it to relieve the pressure on him. Once news got out, people would be flocking to curry favor with him. Any lingering resentment over the Star Devouring Silk issue would quickly vanish.

He felt deeply grateful but still muttered, "This is too important... Isn’t it too casual to be leaving it to me?"

Shang Xia snorted, "The talismans and talisman paper must both be custom-fit. My main focus will be on creating a rank seven Myriad Tinted Cloud Talisman anyway. You’re the talisman paper craftsman and you’re best suited to customize the talisman paper to each cultivator. If I don’t leave this task to you, who else can I trust to do it?”