Chapter 753: Creating Another Rank Five Talisman

With guidance from Shang Xia, a rank five Talisman Grandmaster, the Talisman Hall experienced an all-rounded upgrade.

If there was one thing the upper echelons of the institution was disappointed with, it was the fact that there were 7 rank three Talisman Masters but ever since Shang Xia, there hasn’t been a second rank four Talisman Grandmaster.

It wasn’t Shang Xia’s fault for not properly guiding them in the way of talismans, or other strange factors. The gap between a rank three Talisman Master and a rank four Talisman Grandmaster was just too large. The difference was even larger than the Martial Intent Realm and the Martial Extermination Realm. In order to cross the chasm, a Talisman Master could only rely on themselves.

Shang Xia conducted several open demonstrations and went through the rank four talisman inheritances several times, but they couldn’t directly assist in others’ improvement to a Talisman Grandmaster. In order to become a rank four Talisman Grandmaster, one would require enough accumulated knowledge and experience in crafting rank four talismans.

From Shang Xia’s estimations, it wouldn’t take long for the second rank four Talisman Grandmaster to appear. If their progress was fast enough, a second rank four Talisman Grandmaster might appear in the next 2 years. In the worst-case scenario, they would reach that level in 5 years at most.

Of course, even though they would be a rank four Talisman Grandmaster, they would be far from what Shang Xia was back then. Moreover, they would probably only be able to focus on a certain talisman inheritance first while trying to maintain their success rate above 30 percent.

That was the path most Talisman Grandmasters in the Azure Ascension World took.

...

Bu Jingshuang and the others were really efficient. It hadn’t been long since they returned from the Three Unity Island when they handed over the resources to Ren Huan of the Talisman Hall.

As the best talisman paper craftsman in the Talisman Hall, the talisman papers he made would usually end up with Shang Xia. As such, Ren Huan had been tasked with allocating the resources the Talisman Hall received.

Shang Xia rushed all the way to the Talisman Hall because Bu Jingshuang managed to obtain a piece of rank five spiritual beast skin during the trade fair.

The rank five spiritual beast skin came from the Spirit Abundance World and was something obtained during the war 3 years ago. Crafting rank five talisman papers was a complicated process. Even with the required ingredients, one would need great skill in order to craft rank five talisman papers. With high-level beast skin, the difficulty of crafting high-level talisman papers would decrease by half.

Ren Huan might be a rank four talisman paper craftsman, but Shang Xia hoped that he would be able to attempt crafting rank five talisman paper with the rank five beast skin.

The risk of failure might be high, but that was the price every craftsman needed to pay in order to improve.

With the exception of the beast skin, Bu Jingshuang also brought back 3 pieces of rank five talisman paper. The other side requested that the Tongyou Institution repay them with a rank five talisman during the trade fair the following year.

3 pieces of talisman paper for a single talisman. That was the rule.

Usually, deals made in the Three Unity Pagoda would be anonymous. However, the Tongyou Institution didn’t intend to keep their rank five Talisman Grandmaster a secret. In fact, they seemed afraid that no one would know that Shang Xia was planning to look for resources to craft rank five talismans.

Every time a trade fair took place in the Three Unity Pagoda, the rank four talismans from the Tongyou Institution would be a great hit. They would usually be able to obtain a good portion of precious treasures for the institution.

The Tongyou Institution strictly controlled the use of their high-level talismans in the past. After the birth of the Azure Ascension World, the You Continent was relatively more peaceful. Their lack of resources was also solved and they started to allow a small portion of high-level talismans to be traded.

The number of cultivators who went over to the Tongyou Institution’s store to request for talismans was massive every year.

With the 3 pieces of rank five talisman paper Bu Jingshuang brought back, along with those he obtained through other channels in the past 3 years, Shang Xia managed to gather 8 of them in total. If Ren Huan could succeed, the number of rank five talisman papers he possessed would increase and they would be enough for the foreseeable future.

Even though Shang Xia didn’t know much about the production of rank five talisman paper, he was extremely invested in the process. He took special attention to Ren Huan when he started the crafting process.

Unable to take the pressure and the stinging gaze on him when he was crafting talisman paper, Ren Huan chased Shang Xia away under the shocked gazes of everyone present.

Shang Xia also realized that he was too impatient. His mentality was slightly affected and he planned to craft some rank four talismans in order to soothe his nerves.

Several more ambitious rank three Talisman Masters rushed over the moment Shang Xia announced that he would be crafting rank four talismans. They learned what he would be crafting and the timeline of the demonstration before splitting into 3 groups in order to observe the process.

Shang Xia was extremely familiar with crafting rank four talismans at that point. Even though the time required to craft a single talisman was short, the rank three Talisman Masters observing the process would feel drained out. They would need some time to recover after watching his demonstration.

That was why other than the rank three Talisman Masters who had entered the Martial Extermination Realm, the others split themselves up into groups to observe the crafting process. They would take breaks between the demonstrations to ensure they would be in their peak state when watching his every move.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Shang Xia used close to 2 months to craft rank four talismans and he wiped out close to 20 rank four talisman papers the Talisman Hall gathered for the past year.

One had to say that the Tongyou Institution had been growing richer these years. They would be able to gather 20 talisman papers every year and that was something unimaginable in the past!

When Shang Xia first became a rank four Talisman Grandmaster, the Tongyou Institution... No, the entire You Continent pooled together all their resources, in order to gather 34 rank four talisman papers. Every single person, including Kou Chongxue, basically took out everything they had during that period of time! Compared to the current Tongyou Institution, they were actually dirt poor back then!

Shang Xia completed 13 rank four talismans in total with a success rate that surpassed the 60 percent mark. Moreover, he chose to craft the stronger talismans which were a little harder to craft.

A portion of the 13 talismans were handed over to the institution and a smaller portion had to be given to those who commissioned the Tongyou Institution to craft talismans. Anything leftover would be gathered by the Talisman Hall so that they could trade for more resources in the future.

According to the rules, Shang Xia was supposed to receive a portion of the benefits after crafting so many talismans. He decided to swap the talismans he was supposed to obtain for other things.

When he was done crafting the batch of talismans, he took a short break to restore his depleted inner qi. His mental state also quickly returned to its peak so as to calm himself enough so that he could start crafting rank five talismans.

He ran through the crafting process countless times in his mind and all that was left was for him to confirm them through the actual crafting process.

With so many rank five talisman papers, Shang Xia might not have enough rank five talisman ink if he had to rely solely on the Tongyou Institution. Fortunately, he managed to obtain a portion of rank five talisman ink from Yi Jingzi of the Heavenly Star Palace because of the friendship they developed during the battle 3 years ago. There was enough in there to craft 3 rank five talismans.

The only thing he lacked was a high-level talisman brush. It didn’t matter if it was the Purple Bamboo Brush or the White Bone Brush, but they were slightly lacking when used to craft rank five talismans. They were extremely suitable when it came to crafting rank four talismans, but that seemed to be the peak of their abilities.

Of course, to craft a better brush than those would be an extremely tall task.

One had to know that even those 2 brushes had been obtained from other continents. The Tongyou Institution didn’t have the ability to craft high-rank brushes. Ren Bainian might be great at repairing artifacts, but getting him to craft a brush from scratch was a shot in the dark.

Back then, Ren Bainian once made a suggestion to Shang Xia. If Shang Xia was able to find the bone of a rank five spiritual beast, he could attempt swapping out the body of the White Bone Brush. Even though the brush would still be a high-rank brush, it could close in onto something like a pseudo divine-grade brush.

Of course, if Shang Xia could find a rank five Purple Jade Bamboo, he could also make the same attempt on the Purple Bamboo Brush.

Shang Xia remained in the Talisman Hall for another month and he conducted two more lectures for the many Talisman Masters they had. He would patiently guide them with any questions they might face.

Just like that, 3 months passed. Ren Huan finally sent news that even though his success rate wasn’t too high, he managed to produce 2 pieces of rank five talisman paper.

For a rank four talisman paper craftsman like Ren Huan, the number of rank five talisman papers he could make wasn’t the important point. It was his initial success. Once he successfully created the first piece, his skills would increase at a rapid rate!

With the 2 rank five talisman papers Ren Huan made, Shang XIa gathered a total of 10 of them. He started to prepare his third journey to craft rank five talismans!

Because he only had 10 chances, he needed to make every one count. He needed great consideration and proper preparation. He used 1 entire month to adjust his mental state and physical condition and continued to run through the process of crafting in his mind. He also started to grab a feel for the best time to start the process.

Everything he was doing could be considered a part of his unique way of crafting talismans. Even though he didn’t feel the strange sense of inspiration, he felt that he reached a certain state of fusion with the environment around him. As such, he started his first attempt to craft a rank five Abyssal Emptiness Talisman.

Be it Shang Xia or the institution, they only had 2 rank five talisman inheritances.

Compared to the rank five Substitution Talisman, a rank five Abyssal Emptiness Talisman was much easier to craft.

Because he already made his preparations, Shang Xia succeeded in crafting it after 2 tries.

This talisman had been commissioned to the Tongyou Institution and they would have to hand it over to whoever it was during the next trade fair, but Shang Xia managed to gain 1 extra rank five talisman paper from their deal.

After resting for a period of time, Shang Xia restored himself to his peak state before starting to craft a rank five Substitution Talisman.

Actually, he felt that it was a little more pressing to craft a rank five Substitution Talisman. That was especially so because he didn’t have a complete fate dipper. Unable to split off Fate Dipper Clones, a Substitution Talisman would mean that he would gain another life.