Chapter 492

Chapter 492: Preparing for Battle

"Cough, cough…" Li Hui stood up, holding his chest, his complexion looking poor.

"Where are we?" Qiu Qiu, who had just released her seal, discovered that they were inside an ancient stone city. Outside, the winds and sands were terrifying, occasionally transforming into massive skulls that gnawed at the stone city.

"You are in the Xun Wind Desert, beyond the Barbarian Nation. This is the stone city in the desolate wasteland," Li Hui said, stretching his limbs with a wry smile. "I gambled with the heavens to see if I would fall into demonic corruption, and I really did. So I lost that round, and now I’m in trouble."

"What happened?" Qiu Qiu felt something was wrong upon hearing this.

"Cultivating the heart of Dao into demons has allowed the Claws of Time to seep into the Cloud-Brush Dragon Claw Technique, and I’ve tampered with my body. This is serious trouble!" Li Hui looked up at the dust-filled sky while it was clear a force existed within the stone city, blocking the storm and sands from engulfing it.

"Did your future self use the Claws of Time? Wait, is there a way to resolve the heart of Dao used for demonic cultivation?"

"I can’t think of a way to eliminate the hidden danger right now. The good thing is he doesn’t know I’ve tampered with things; I managed to imprint a fragment of my divine consciousness into the silver snake mouth during the chaos," Li Hui suddenly realized. Qiu Qiu couldn’t detect the existence of the silver snake bracelet, and even if it were mentioned, she would quickly forget about it.

It was precisely because the silver snake bracelet concealed the energy that Li Hui retained a hint of divine consciousness to understand the circumstances, but knowing didn’t mean he had the ability to solve it. In this new environment, so far from Great Xia, it felt like breaking through the winds and sands near the stone city would not be easy.

"Forget it. I don’t know the intricacies of cultivating the heart of Dao into demons, so let’s put this aside for now. We need to prepare quickly." Li Hui took Jun Mo Xiao’s relics out of the treasure cabinet; the demonic treasures and Blood Jade Miao Jade had already been used up, leaving behind more than two hundred items, though most of them were similar.

"Wow, we struck gold!" Qiu Qiu cheered.

"Struck gold? My future self has been crazily relocating items, consuming enough top-grade Blood Jade Miao Jade to fill a cart, and the spiritual energy left in the treasure cabinet isn’t much. The young talents from other continents and the true disciples from the Jin Tian Sect are about to arrive; they didn’t come all this way just for a matchmaking event!"

"This…" Qiu Qiu was speechless.

"We can’t leave the stone city, and we’re bound to run into them. It’s likely that if we disagree on something, a fight will break out, so we need to bolster our self-defense measures. Otherwise, we’ll be left in the dark." Li Hui sat down, accelerating the flow of time around him as he prepared for battle…

Fortunately, he found a black-red-purple three-colored Dao robe among the relics and quickly shook it out to wear. Regardless of whether it was a dead person’s burial robe, it was better than being exposed.

Previously, it had been quite miserable; he had almost resorted to stringing together some leaves to cover himself, but there were no leaves to be found in this place. It must be said that this Dao robe was luxurious yet understated. Although it was not a spirit treasure, it felt incredibly comfortable to wear, refreshing his body and even regrowing his eyebrows and hair.

"Impressive! This Dao robe can keep my corpse intact for a thousand years," Li Hui adjusted his attire, feeling radiant and undoubtedly more handsome than before, exuding a heroic presence!

Suddenly Qiu Qiu said, "This high-level demon cultivator has quite unique tastes! He collected so many similar items to take into his coffin, over a hundred Dao Trace Stones. How strange, they are not demon trace stones; why did he take Dao Trace Stones into the coffin? Could they help him be reborn?"

"Maybe it’s really related to rebirth," Li Hui drew back his gaze and quickly closed his eyes; even a moment of using Bai Ze’s divine eye consumed an enormous amount.

"Oh? What do you mean?" Qiu Qiu asked, confused.

Li Hui picked up a Dao Trace Stone and examined it closely, pondering, "The Dao Traces formed by these stones relate to reincarnation. I remember you mentioned that to help a loved one enter reincarnation, a Rebirth Talisman for the Great Phantom of the Yellow Springs was drawn, with the side effect of being unable to remember others’ names."

"Hehe, one should love and act recklessly once when young; it is worth living a life without regrets!" Qiu Qiu laughed openly, "I no longer remember how to draw the Rebirth Talisman for the Great Phantom of the Yellow Springs. Does the Heavenly Talisman Sect have talisman methods that can utilize these stones?"

"Yes, and it’s not just one method," Li Hui mused slightly before responding, "There are a total of four methods. The first is the Yellow Springs Talisman, which is a soul-searching talisman. The second is the Autumn Wind and Fallen Leaves Talisman, which is used to eliminate a portion of cultivation to be reforged. The third is the Eternal Glory Guarding Dao Talisman, designed to withstand calamities. The last is the Reincarnation Talisman."

Qiu Qiu marveled, "That’s right! The Dao is simplicity itself; the more powerful the talisman evolves, the simpler it becomes. I wonder what level the Reincarnation Talisman is at. Could it possibly facilitate reincarnation?"

"Naturally, it’s a celestial talisman," Li Hui stated as he gathered all the Dao Trace Stones together and continued, "The Reincarnation Talisman can reshape the Dao Foundation and provide a chance to start over. However, cultivating the heart of Dao into demons cannot be resolved this way. Perhaps cultivating the Dragon Spring Purple Talisman Classic to nurture the Heart Talisman could touch upon the boundary of the heart of Dao used for demonic cultivation."

"What are these Reincarnation Stones useful for? As things stand, they can’t help at all, can they?"

Li Hui smiled faintly, "They can be useful. I will fuse parts of these four talismans to create a fifth talisman, which can be called a Small Reincarnation Talisman. You know I’m cultivating the Qi of Taiqing, but the slow recovery of energy can be annoying. With the Small Reincarnation Talisman, I can promptly retreat and give rise to the Qi of Taiqing at the fastest speed, treating it like consuming Reincarnation Stones for Taiqing energy."

"Oh? Has your talisman method reached such a stage?"

"Hahaha, thank you for the compliment. It seems I must pay more attention to collecting Reincarnation Stones in the future; these things surely won’t be cheap." As Li Hui spoke, he picked up two pairs of golden wings to examine them closely, and the more he looked, the happier he became. "These are the wings of the Tear-Gold Dragon Bat, a legendary dragon beast that can only grow by devouring tear gold. They have long been thought to be extinct for many years; I didn’t expect Jun Mo Xiao to have preserved two pairs of Dragon Bat wings!"

"What a treasure! Tear gold can be used to draw Divine Ruin Talismans. If we can gather the eight mediums of gold, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, frost, and lightning, we can draw the Eight Extremes Divine Ruin Talismans. If we gather sixty-four Level Eight Divine Ruin Talismans, we may have a chance to fuse the Eight Trigrams and Eight Extremes Divine Ruin Talismans," Qiu Qiu explained as if recounting her own treasures, as she was indeed the Ink Demon, inherently interested in talisman-making.

"No, these two pairs of wings are too small; they can at most produce eight talismans. The Tear-Gold Dragon Bat’s ability does not lie in the tear gold; they can burrow into areas filled with metal, known as Metal Burrowing. If used in conjunction with the Ideal Body, I believe the power will be even greater and more effective." Li Hui quickly assessed the items, finally tearing open several animal-skin books that contained demonic sect secrets, smashing several gemstones imbued with gathering abilities, and began to write with the talisman brush.

Failure in talisman-making is common, especially when creating new talisman methods. Initially, there was a lot of exploration needed, wasting plenty of treasures, but after consuming more than a dozen Reincarnation Stones, he finally succeeded in creating a Small Reincarnation Talisman.

The Small Reincarnation Talisman belongs to the Yuan Talisman; Li Hui hoped to elevate it to a Jade Symbol, but after several attempts, he dared not try further. He currently lacked the conditions, and producing a batch of Small Reincarnation Talismans was already challenging.

"Five hundred and twenty-three talismans. The materials are insufficient; I can only make this many. I need to keep preparing for battle and accelerate to practice the Dragon Spring Purple Talisman Classic!"