Chapter 67: Stimulation Talisman

As the Tongyou Peak entered full battle preparations, a heavy atmosphere filled the area.

Disciples of the Protection Division would leave from time to time to fight cultivators from the Four Spiritual Peak.

Tang Yuan had ordered the patrol squads to give up on patrolling the area and they would throw all their fighting force into the skirmish that was going on with the Four Spiritual Peak.

As Liu Jitang brought away a huge portion of the fighting strength, the Tongyou Peak fell to a disadvantage against their opponents.

Every time the patrol squads returned, there would be casualties. The area they controlled reduced day by day.

The Four Spiritual Peak started to encroach on the Tongyou Peak.

…

When the fight grew more and more intense, the Shang Pavilion experienced an unprecedented period of calm.

As the Vigorous Sword Art focused on the aspect of strength, Shang Xia focused on transforming his Yin Yang Essence Qi to that of the strength attribute. He discovered that when he used the Yin Yang Diagram, he would be able to unleash double his strength!

Since that was the case, he felt that the opposite would be true too. He could easily transform the qi in his body to possess the softness attribute.

No good would come if he kept thinking about it. As such, Shang Xia decided to try it. He transformed the inner qi in his body to possess the softness attribute and he swung the sword around.

The technique he was displaying was completely different from those described in the Vigorous Sword Art.

He started on the second manual contained in the River Sword Policy, the Formess Sword Art!

Shang Xia’s method of cultivation was nothing more than suicide in the eyes of others.

One had to achieve balance when they reached the Martial Extremity Realm. They needed to advance carefully as they trained in the two opposing types of qi.

Throughout the process, one could easily die if they lost control of their inner qi!

As such, cultivators would tread carefully when it came to practicing the opposing type of qi. Training both at the same time was something a madman would do!

There were even some cultivators who had no choice but to seal off one type of qi, causing them to miss out on several opportunities.

Shang Xia’s actions were something they would never be able to understand.

As he practiced the Formless Sword Art, he realized that it wasn’t living up to its name. It didn’t make the strikes formless, and neither did it make the sword. In fact, it was more appropriate to call it a flowing sword style.

The way his sword moved became irregular, and the difficulty of comprehending the sword art completely was astounding. Every single strike came from an angle one wouldn’t expect. The person who trained in the sword art itself would go crazy from trying to master the haphazard sword movements.

As the sword technique had high requirements on one’s inner qi, Shang Xia contemplated if he should actually start training in it.

He had the ability to prevent different types of qi from crashing in his body, but he wasn’t confident he could control his qi so intricately that he fulfilled the requirement to utilize the sword art.

Luckily for him, the Delicate Jade River Sword in his hand had a softness attribute of its own and it was the best weapon he could ask for when training in the Formless Sword Art!

Previously, his main problem was that the sword still belonged to the Shang Clan. It would be taken away when the battle began, but now that he traded it with his aunt, it finally belonged to him.

The twin knives were something he obtained alone, and even the clan wouldn’t be able to take them away from him. When he saw the River Sword Policy in the Scripture Depository, he had already made the decision to trade his treasures for the Delicate Jade River Sword.

Despite his greatest efforts, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to complete training in both sword arts before the battle began.

…

When Shang Xia finally received his inner qi, he opened his eyes and walked out of his room. Utter silence filled the upper levels of the Shang Pavilion.

There would be occasional yells coming from the first floor, but they would quickly disappear.

No one came to interrupt Shang Xia’s cultivation and in the face of the massive battle, everyone seemed to have forgotten about his existence.

Shang Xia chuckled softly. Of course, that wasn’t the case. The only reason he could cultivate peacefully was because of the Shang Clan’s interference. They wanted to keep him away from the battle the best they could.

It also had something to do with all the credits he gained. Not only did he single handedly save his fellow disciples, but he also managed to make the Wind Swallow Race back off from the battle. Those were more than enough to make the Tongyou Institution reevaluate his worth.

At the very least, Shang Bing hadn’t appeared to reward Shang Xia openly as they were still discussing what he deserved.

If Shang Xia was adamant about returning to the Tongyou Institution, no one could force him to stay.

Of course, that would cause his image to drop slightly.

Circulating his inner qi slowly, Shang Xia casually unleashed his Chaos Essence Lightning Palm as a ball of lightning gathered in his hand.

.

Sending it towards Yan Ni’er, Shang Xia slowly approached the table in his room and picked up his brush. Dipping it into the ink, he started to draw some lightning runes on the tablets laid before him.

He was a talented talisman master and he chose to create as many Lighting Charms as he could. After all, they were the ones that possessed the most destructive power.

Since he obtained the Thorny Brush and the box of jade pendants, Shang Xia could feel that he was closing on becoming a rank two talisman master.

After selling away some of the treasures, he got Shang Quan to purchase some rank two treasures to create talismans.

When Shang Quan learned of his intentions, he encouraged Shang Xia to create more rank one talismans to consolidate his knowledge and deepen his understanding before trying to make anything better.

Shang Xia was in high spirits when Shang Quan brought out a ton of helpful ingredients and items. Shang Quan promised Shang Xia to split the profits after they sold away the talismans Shang Xia created. They were going to split the profits 80-20, with 20 percent going to the Shang Clan.

Since Shang Xia broke through, the amount of inner qi he wielded was much more than before. He finally understood the importance of getting good resources.

Before breaking through, Shang Xia could rely on the institution and his clan for the resources he required. Now, he would have to look for a huge portion of the treasures he required.

When Shang Quan agreed to split the profits of the talismans with Shang Xia, that was the greatest concession the Shang Clan could make.

Just as he was starting to create the talismans, Shang Xia noticed that there wasn’t a single board of Lightning Wood that was more than a hundred years old.

There were only several talisman papers and plaques made from uncommon materials.

Even though he could be considered a rank one talisman master, he didn’t know how to create any other talismans other than the Lightning Charms. The Lightning Charms he produced previously had close to forty percent of the power in his Chaos Essence Lightening Palm, but the amount of resources required to make one was terrifying! There was no way they could give him all the resources he needed.

Adding on the fact that his success rate for crafting those wasn’t too high to begin with, the Shang Clan would never allow him to try to mass produce them.

Strictly speaking, Shang Xia hadn’t made a single cent from any talismans he made.

That also allowed him to realize that his talent for creating talismans might not be as high as he thought. If he tried to create rank two talismans, he would be wasting a huge bunch of resources for nothing!

He could only focus on creating rank one talismans with the items before him.

Very quickly, he realized that creating lightning attributed talismans was something he was better at. He was capable of creating more than Lightning Charms.

After several tries, he managed to create something new and he looked at the talisman on the table with a smirk on his face. It was a different type of talisman entirely, and it was called the Stimulation Talisman. It was something used to save a cultivator’s life at a critical moment.