Chapter 53
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Chapter 53: At the End of the Ghost River
Two injured cultivators lay on the ground nearby, surrounded by a swarm of evil ghosts gnawing at them.
“Buzz, buzz, buzz…” The four Dharma clouds at Li Hui’s feet spun joyfully, emitting golden light that pulled the evil ghosts back from their bloodthirsty state, allowing them to peacefully dissipate.
Li Hui ignored the scene and fixated on the artifacts in the hands of the two cultivators.
"I must prepare ahead! I need to awaken the silver snake bracelet. The Ghost River Shattering Great Formation is incredibly powerful. Even with this Spirit Sense Talisman, I cannot see everything clearly; my vision only extends about a hundred zhang, and I can barely glimpse the shadows of the talismans. Once those talismans activate, their power will increase at least fivefold."
Thinking this, Li Hui bent down and ran to the two cultivators. He saw that their chests were almost hollowed out; they were beyond saving.
The nearby ghost mist billowed, and a roar resounded.
Li Hui quickly searched the bodies, considering, “In this environment, along with the formation’s deliberate provocation, all the surviving cultivators are elite. The real fierce battle should start in about half an hour.”
After a little while, Li Hui retreated to the corner of the wall, firmly remaining still, vowing not to recklessly run out.
He observed for a while and concluded that moving within the ghost mist would lead to unintentional slides. It would be easy to encounter enemies, and if he slipped into a chaotic battle zone or came across the wedding procession that passed by the street earlier, even with the four Dharma clouds beneath him, he would likely face a grim end.
Though he hadn’t tested it, Li Hui felt certain he wouldn’t be able to handle that wedding procession. He wondered if the ghost mist had also engulfed the monks from Guangxiao Temple, and if the two groups met, it would be interesting.
With no time for idle thoughts, he spotted two bags of treasures and three chains belonging to the two cultivators.
After dumping out their contents for inspection, Li Hui was immediately disheartened. How could they be so poor!
Aside from the low-level artifacts in their hands, there wasn’t a single valuable item in their bags. The chains were filled with mundane gold and silver, neither frost silver nor dragon scale gold. Remembering the little beggars, he reluctantly gathered up the miscellaneous items, the only worthwhile things being two finely crafted mechanical birds for communication.
About half an hour later, Li Hui struck gold again. Four cultivators clashed fifty zhang away, perishing together in a spectacular fashion. He didn’t know what deep grudge drove them to fight so fiercely, but their bodies lay in pieces, their resentment so profound that even the evil ghosts were unwilling to approach.
Fortunately, Li Hui had made it over in time; otherwise, the vengeful souls of those four cultivators could have easily turned into evil ghosts or even more vicious spirits.
This time he collected eight artifacts, and the silver snake bracelet finally showed some life, though its eyes remained closed. Li Hui recalled that when the silver snake bracelet consumed the screen and the dragon-shaped golden mist, it had been open-eyed, which appeared to be the greatest difference now.
Estimating that the bulk of the four cultivators’ wealth was tied up in those eight artifacts, their bags and chains were extremely lacking, containing only a few useful bottles of pills.
With idle hands, Li Hui took out his Ink, Brush, Paper, and Inkstone. The brush was a fine talisman brush with a near-purple tip, the ink was bright red Blood Ink, the paper was the recently acquired Feathering Blue Talisman, and the inkstone was sculpted from Sea-Patterned Stone.
In that corner, the talisman brush dipped into the Blood Ink touched the blank talisman paper. The brush moved like a dragon and snake, imbuing a symbol resembling a short dagger onto the paper, etched with precision.
The silver snake bracelet flickered—talisman complete!
Li Hui savored the sensation from earlier and turned the talisman over to inspect it, noticing two jagged lightning-like cracks.
“A Two-Patterned Golden Sword Talisman, engraved to resemble lightning; it should give a speed boost!”
“Unfortunately, the tier is too low. It’s equivalent to the full power strike of a cultivator who has activated the Spirit Motion three patterns. Only someone like Zhang Tianhua, using low-level spirit talismans cleverly combined, can form a powerful control of the battlefield to combat outer disciples.”
That was merely the first talisman, considered a practice piece. Li Hui steeled himself and began to draw frantically.
The silver snake bracelet barely glimmered, somehow achieving an astonishing one hundred percent success rate, indicating it was clearly having an effect.
Not every Golden Sword Talisman produced lightning cracks, but Li Hui vaguely felt he was about to break through; he was challenging the three-pattern spirit talisman.
As expected, after creating fifty Two-Patterned Golden Sword Talismans, a Three-Patterned Spirit Talisman appeared on the paper, the short dagger symbol seemingly lunging forth, exuding fierceness and coldness.
“Could it be that to draw the Golden Sword Talismans, one must perceive sword aura and sword intent?” Li Hui began to understand, but he didn’t stop, determined to continue his fervent creation, and sporadically produced three-pattern Golden Sword Talismans. After a hundred talismans were made, almost each one was of three patterns.
There were no failures, the success rate reached an unbelievable one hundred percent, though the glow from the silver snake bracelet began to wane.
Li Hui was unwilling to miss the opportunity, sensing his spiritual energy dwindling; he took out a small gourd from his bag of treasures and swallowed three Spirit Nurturing Pills to replenish his energy. He also retrieved the jade turtle shell used for nurturing spiritual fields from the Hidden Sky Sect and placed it on his chest to hasten his recovery.
Once prepared, he immersed himself back into talisman-making.
As the two hundred twenty-sixth Golden Sword Talisman appeared, it had leaped from three patterns to four patterns. Li Hui inhaled deeply, reluctantly halting the talisman brush. The silver snake bracelet no longer sparkled; the benefits of the ten low-level artifacts had reached their limit.
Looking at his painstakingly crafted masterpiece from the past half hour, Li Hui smiled, stroking the silver snake bracelet while muttering to himself, “Not bad! Trading ten low-level artifacts for a hundred Two-Patterned Golden Sword Talismans and a hundred Three-Patterned Golden Sword Talismans! Among talismans of the same tier, the quality is undoubtedly high. In terms of trading price, there is a slight profit. If possible, exchanging spirit talismans for artifacts and continuously strengthening my talisman-making skills could give me a chance to become a talisman master.”
A golden light road seemed to appear before him, but he forgot that the talisman paper he used was not ordinary market material. Before he could dwell on it, the ghost mist suddenly thickened. Even with the nine-patterned anomaly Spirit Sense Talisman, his vision shrunk to thirty zhang, and he felt the ground vibrating beneath him.
That wasn’t a mere vibration. The ghost mist was like a tide, sweeping down the street.
The street resembled a river, and the ghost mist flowed like a stream; this was the true appearance of the Ghost River Shattering Great Formation. Whether cultivators or evil ghosts, they gathered and flowed in the same direction like fish.
“Boom…”
With a jolt, Li Hui found himself standing in a vast courtyard among twenty-some cultivators. Before they could see each other clearly, they were met with the sounds of gnawing, shouts, sobs, and wails from all directions.
The loud crashes continued, and Li Hui and the other twenty-some cultivators were relatively fortunate, while many others had become entangled with evil ghosts and zombies. To survive, they immediately unleashed their assassination weapons, desperately breaking through toward safer areas.
However, in the past years, countless people had met tragic ends in Fusu City. Among them, the ghost army guarding the walls and attacking them was boundless, all swept into this place by the ghost mist.
“Damn it, this is the end of the ghost river; all the ghostly beings will gather here!” The cultivator who spoke was instantly seized by a fierce ghost, having his mouth opened wide to swallow him whole.
Suddenly, a brilliant light shone, accompanied by chanting. The ghost mist sent in a dozen plump monks from Guangxiao Temple, and a cultivator shouted, “It’s the Zen masters from Guangxiao Temple!”
“Crack, crack…” The sound was chilling. In the courtyard, white light surged, and the dozen big monks didn’t even realize it before their bodies shattered into pieces, dismembered limbs and intestines flying everywhere, terrifying the nearby cultivators.
