Chapter 174: The Thousand-Mile Talisman Succeeds, Averting Peril

Xing obediently took the spirit stones and, after a quick calculation with his fingers, began to rapidly lay out the infusion array according to the method Qin Haoxuan had described. One by one, the spirit stones flew from his hand, landing with speed and precision in their designated positions.

Watching his skilled movements and accurate placement, Qin Haoxuan was secretly dumbfounded. If he had to arrange these ten thousand spirit stones himself, he had no idea how long it would take. Xing, however, finished the task in just half an hour. Looking at the densely packed wall of spirit stones, he marveled to himself, If I had set this up, it would never have been this good. It probably would have collapsed immediately.

Qin Haoxuan said no more and activated the array. The spirit stones immediately adhered to each other, forming a solid wall that even a grown man couldn’t push over. He then sent Little Gold outside and had it organize its five hundred Mighty Apes to rest in a circle around his house, preventing anyone from approaching.

He sealed his doors and windows and then took out the materials for the Thousand-Mile Talisman.

First, he picked up a piece of Azure Light Jade. It felt warm and comfortable in his hand, a far cry from the cold, hard black iron. After taking a few deep breaths, he began to carve. The jade was not as unyielding as the iron, making the carving easier, but he was still extremely careful. In a short time, the two-finger-sized piece of jade was covered in complex inscriptions. Even Xing, who was watching from the side, was stunned. Not long ago, Qin Haoxuan had struggled to even remember a few of the inscriptions from the jade slip. Now, to be able to carve these so accurately and skillfully, it was clear he must have put in an immense amount of hard work.

After the carving was complete, Qin Haoxuan let out a turbid breath, took another deep breath, and prepared for the second step.

He took out the prepared Spirit Transformation Stone Powder, Black Gold Ore, Blue Crystal, and other materials. He then stepped into the eye of the infusion array and began to activate it. The vast and powerful spiritual energy of ten thousand low-grade spirit stones surged forth. The milky-white flame in the array suddenly shot up half a zhang, nearly setting the roof on fire. If not for Xing’s quick reaction, who shot out a stream of spiritual energy to protect it, the roof would have surely been turned to ash.

Qin Haoxuan’s mind tensed, but with his firm Dao Heart, he quickly adapted. He knew that an array of this magnitude was no small matter; the flame temperature alone was much higher than that of the small practice arrays. He controlled the spiritual energy with even greater care, and the flame subsided.

Condensing his spiritual sense, he formed numerous tiny Spiritual Imprint Arrays. He sent his spiritual sense into the materials while also dividing a portion to monitor the fluctuations of the array, and carefully began the refining process.

The various materials were refined in the milky-white flame, and their dross was quickly separated from their essence. After a full half an hour of meticulous work, he had separated all the impurities. Ye Yiming watched with admiration, thinking to himself, This junior brother of mine truly seems capable of anything.

After completing this, Qin Haoxuan divided his spiritual energy again, levitating the refined essences in the air while he used his spiritual sense to further refine the Azure Light Jade talisman body. After another round of tempering, the jade’s azure glow became even purer, and its texture even more comfortable to the touch.

Xing’s eyes lit up, clicking his tongue in amazement. “This piece of Azure Light Jade cost a thousand spirit stones when you bought it,” Ye Yiming couldn’t help but praise. “Now, it would sell for five thousand. Junior Brother Qin is truly amazing.”

Qin Haoxuan gave a wry smile. Under the probe of his spiritual sense, he knew there were still some impurities left, but this was the limit of his ability.

With the refining half-complete, the next step was to merge the extracted essences into the talisman’s body. After a brief rest, he began again, his ten fingers flying. Under his control, the essences, which had been turned into a mist by the spiritual flame, were evenly distributed across the inscriptions on the talisman’s body.

Before long, he had finally completed the second step—smelting. All that was left was the final, most difficult, and most important step: infusion.

Drenched in sweat, Qin Haoxuan stepped out of the array. He was exhausted. He sat cross-legged for a while to recover his spent spiritual energy.

After recovering, he stood up again and returned to the eye of the array. The talisman’s body, now infused with the essence of the materials, shimmered with a multitude of colors. Now, all it needed was the spiritual infusion, and the talisman would be complete.

He took several deep breaths to calm his mind and then began. As he activated the array, a torrent of rich spiritual energy surged from all directions, converging at the eye of the array where he stood. He was startled by the sheer volume and force of the energy. He knew immediately that if he let it rush into the talisman unchecked, it would be instantly destroyed. But with his current strength, he couldn’t possibly control its flow. What was he to do?

In his panic, an idea struck him. He immediately began to circulate the Sea-Gathering Art, and at the same time, the Dao Heart Seed Demon Art also activated. The raging torrent of spiritual energy was instantly drawn into his own body. If not for the Meridian Protecting Powder he had taken earlier, his meridians would have surely been destroyed.

The spiritual energy from the stones was extremely potent and contained a hint of a violent aura that was detrimental to humans. Even so, the powerful backlash was almost too much for him. But fortunately, his body was not as delicate as an ordinary cultivator’s. After a moment of adaptation, he calmed his mind, sent a strand of his spiritual sense into the talisman’s body, and began to direct the external spiritual energy to infuse it in an orderly fashion.

Seeing him absorb the energy directly into his body, Ye Yiming was horrified. But after a while, they saw that he was completely fine and was even able to multitask and begin the infusion. This display left even Xing dumbfounded.

The infusion process lasted for about an hour. When all the energy from the ten thousand spirit stones was depleted, the spirit stone walls collapsed with a crash. Qin Haoxuan swiftly took out the bundle of Footless Fire Bird feathers and shattered them with his spiritual energy.

A searing heat instantly gushed out. After destroying the twenty feathers, Qin Haoxuan quickly used his spiritual sense to extract the essence contained within and enveloped it with his spiritual energy. Soon, a small red pearl, no bigger than a fingernail, appeared before them. Inside it, a tiny Footless Fire Bird seemed to be flapping its wings, flying leisurely.

The final step in making a spiritual talisman: implanting the catalyst.

After taking a deep breath, he tossed the small pearl into the air and, gathering all the spiritual energy in his body, struck it. The fire pearl instantly exploded, and a rich, pure fire energy surged into the now-infused and incredibly hard talisman body.

“Wa-wu…”

A cry like that of a Footless Fire Bird was heard, and the three of them seemed to see a fire bird fly into the talisman. The catalyst implantation was a success! The originally azure talisman now shimmered with a flowing, fiery light.

The Thousand-Mile Talisman was complete.

Exhausted, Qin Haoxuan collapsed to the ground, holding the talisman in his hands as if it were a precious treasure. To have succeeded on his first try, it was truly not easy. His more than ten days of hard work had not been in vain.

“Congratulations, Junior Brother Qin, on successfully refining the Thousand-Mile Talisman!” Ye Yiming also let out a breath of relief, a great weight lifted from his heart. With this talisman, his chances of survival in the mortal world were much greater.

“I hope that Heavenly Talisman Sect’s claims are true, and this thing can really outrun a Spirit Tree Realm cultivator,” Xing said, his eyes filled with greed as he stared at the talisman. “But for you to refine this talisman with your aptitude is truly not easy. If it were a peerless genius from the Netherworld like me, it would be normal, but I didn’t expect you, who doesn’t show off, to be so formidable. I’m impressed, truly impressed.”

Whether he was praising or mocking, the exhausted Qin Haoxuan had no mind to deal with him. He simply lay down on his bed and, in a short time, fell fast asleep. He was simply too tired.

Ye Yiming and Xing exchanged a look, cleaned up the residue from the ten thousand spirit stones on the floor, and then left his room.

…

In his dreams, Qin Haoxuan saw himself “Entering the Mortal World.” Master Chi Lian was chasing him, but after he activated the Thousand-Mile Talisman, his speed was so great that even the Spirit Tree Realm expert could not catch him…

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