Chapter 40
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Chapter 40: Repairing the Jade Tablet
Li Hui sat up and picked up a black bead from the floor. The bead was slightly larger than a cherry pit, and its cold touch made his fingers tingle.
“This must be a Yin Soul Bead. No doubt about it. The Inner Sect Disciples purchased them at a high price. The accounts room under Jin Buduan managed it, and I had the fortune to see a dozen of them.”
Confirming that the beads were indeed Yin Soul Beads, Li Hui looked around, feeling his scalp tingle. There were too many! All together, they could fill two bags, and the six-link chain couldn’t hold them all.
The Spirit Sense Talisman used last night had fallen to the ground, with the nine patterns on the back still intact. It should still be usable. What an astonishing situation!
As for the treasure chest, it was untouched beneath some junk. He needed to remove the Miao Jade from the compartment; during a dispute, whoever touched the treasure chest would be unfortunate.
Li Hui placed the Spirit Sense Talisman back on his forehead, and immediately, swirling patterns appeared in his vision, revealing many scenes invisible to the naked eye.
“Wait! I saw them last night, and these corpses definitely had some elasticity. How did they suddenly turn into dried corpses after just one night’s sleep?”
“It seems something happened while I was asleep, definitely related to these Yin Soul Beads.” Li Hui looked down, and the mass grave that was previously unclear became fully visible. At the bottom of the pit lay a white jade bed, and on it rested a young man whose eyes and fingernails were blackened, clearly having died for some time.
“What a classic dragon robe! This person must have been a prince. But with the dynastic history spanning thousands of years, princes are everywhere, and there are so many of them. The state is plagued by this swarm of locusts. It’s rare to find a prince like Brother Cheng, who quietly resides in the sect, diligently studying refining devices for ten years. Most of them prefer to stir up trouble.”
Li Hui examined closely and found that the man was truly dead, lacking any corpse energy needed to preserve the body, so he set the matter aside.
There are priorities in what to worry about; no matter how white his hair was or how much time he had left, as long as he lived another day, he couldn’t be complacent. He must exhaust the silver snake bracelet’s value.
He took out two jade tablets, which were also yesterday’s findings.
Now, aided by the Nine Patterns Spirit Sense Talisman, he focused his vision inside. The outer layer was inscribed with numerous characters, comprising two outstanding cultivation methods, “Qing Wei Dong Xuan Zhen Jie” and “Qing Ming Zhi Yin Mi Lu.”
Such jade tablets could only be read at the Concentrating Spirit stage; those in the Spirit Motion stage lacked that ability. However, Li Hui could directly see through them, which was quite a skill.
What he truly cared about was the traces of the talismans hidden within the inner layer of the jade tablets.
“Indeed, they are Residual Talismans. It is said that runes are formed as high-level demon cultivators ponder and summarize the traces of the Dao, yet most have become distorted over time, giving rise to the concept of true talismans.”
“A true talisman is a symbol closely aligned with the source of the Dao. Because it can only be grasped intuitively, it is said that even within the Jade Symbol Sect, few can find many. There’s a saying that any jade talisman must be a true rune!”
“I wonder if the silver snake bracelet can activate the Residual Talismans or perhaps repair them.” Li Hui organized the jade tablets and mobilized his spiritual energy to attempt to perform a hand seal.
There were ten types of hand seals, covering the five elements, wind and thunder, Yin-Yang, heaven and earth, spirit lure, support, vitality, poison, seven emotions, and six desires.
These ten hand seals were truly comprehensive.
Of course, many basic talismans could be activated without hand seals, but specific talismans must be opened with a hand seal. Many talismans resemble ghostly drawings; you must try each hand seal to determine their properties. Thus, hand seals play an important role as the keys to talismans.
“Let’s try the Five Elements hand seal first.” Li Hui gestured, but the jade tablet did not respond.
He quickly switched to the Wind and Thunder hand seal, but there was still no reaction. He tried the Yin-Yang, Heaven and Earth, and Spirit Lure seals, yet it remained silent.
“Please don’t let it be the Support seal! There are too many types of support talismans and it’s hard to narrow it down.” Li Hui executed the hand seal, but there was still no response. He then tried the Vitality hand seal.
After attempting the Seven Emotions hand seal, both jade tablets remained utterly still. The Seven Emotions talisman was already quite obscure, and the Six Desires talisman was even more obscure, loved by those from demonic sects.
At this point, Li Hui was nearly ready to give up, feeling he had been overly fanciful. Even though these two jade tablets were originally talismans, their broken state left them as nothing more than a scale or a claw; how could they still respond?
When he completed the Six Desires hand seal, the two jade tablets actually quivered simultaneously.
Despite just a slight tremor, it sent waves of excitement through Li Hui.
“Six Desires? How intriguing. As long as there’s a reaction, which desire is it referring to?”
“Silver snake, it all depends on you! It all depends on you!” Li Hui rubbed his hands together, feeling a bit like a gambler who couldn’t back out; he hurriedly took out the talisman brush and Blood Ink, focusing his attention on the two jade tablets.
The true value of these Residual Talismans lay in their “intent,” or more precisely, in their direct connection to the essence of the Dao.
“Come on!” He continued to form hand seals with his left hand while holding the talisman brush with his right.
“Silver snake, give me a sign! You’ve eaten so many Duobao shells; if you want to keep eating, you should arm me accordingly!” True to his words, the silver snake bracelet reluctantly squeezed out a bit of silver light.
Though it was just a flicker, it set the talisman brush in motion.
Within the confines of the jade tablets, the brush moved with astonishing speed, infused with an overwhelming force that penetrated the ages, actually beginning to restore the jade tablets.
In a daze, Li Hui felt his mind becoming hazy as light and shadow walked beside him. He found himself in a world enriched with luxury, surrounded by dozens of enchanting beauties who surrounded him, gently unfastening their garments, whispering sweetly, and calling out with sighs…
Suddenly, exquisite wine appeared before him, and he exchanged cups with the beauties, laughing and drinking, feeling a surge of heroic spirit to savor life to its fullest, ensuring that his golden goblet never stood empty in front of the moon…
The beauties were exceptional, truly rare in the world.
The exquisite wine was likewise extraordinary, one of a kind.
Li Hui saw Senior Sister Lian Luosha and unapologetically pulled her into his arms, only to momentarily catch a glimpse of Sister-in-law Ji Mengxue, which shocked him. However, another person suddenly attracted his attention: it was the beautiful princess who remained by the green lamp in the royal palace.
“The royal palace? I was clearly in the royal palace; why…?”
Consciousness struck back like thunder. Li Hui was drenched in sweat, and he was astonished to find that the princess stood before him, holding a colored glaze lamp with a look of disbelief.
With a guilty conscience, Li Hui’s gaze flickered; he coughed lightly and said, “Cough, what brings you here?”
“It’s already night; I brought you something to eat.” Mu Qianyun set down the lamp and brought over a small table to place bowls and chopsticks.
“It’s night already? That was quick!” Li Hui found it hard to believe, glancing at the talisman brush in his hand; he had unknowingly written for several hours. He quickly looked at the two jade tablets, and his mouth went agape!
Cracks appeared all over the jade tablets, but they looked as if they had been frozen, with faint frost patterns on the surface. More crucially, inside the jade tablets, red symbols flickered slowly, sending a heart-stopping chill through him.
“Are these wine talismans? Color talismans? Or perhaps drunken talismans and infatuation talismans.”
Li Hui picked up the two jade tablets. Though his writing process had been hazy, he could sense the deep secrets of these two tablets.
In this moment, they could no longer be called jade talismans, nor were they even treasure talismans; they belonged to the realm of spirit talismans, but they contained unfathomable wonders.
