Chapter 210: A Thousand, Two Thousand, and More

After gesturing with the carving knife in the air for a while, Qin Haoxuan opened his eyes. It was already very difficult to carve a few hundred inscriptions on such a small talisman body. For every doubling of the number of inscriptions, the difficulty of carving increased by more than double. And for a tenfold increase in the number of inscriptions, the difficulty would increase by more than a hundredfold.

Qin Haoxuan’s confidence instantly collapsed. When he had been making the Thousand-Mile Talisman, just practicing the carving had taken him so long and had ruined so much black iron before he had become proficient. Now, to carve ten times the number of inscriptions on a talisman body of the same size, how could he not lose heart? This was the first time he had lost his confidence.

Seeing Xing looking at him, he said in a low voice, “The number of inscriptions for the Mortal Talisman is ten times that of the Thousand-Mile Talisman. Even if you gave me ten years, I wouldn’t have the confidence to succeed, let alone the few days Master Chi Lian will give me. And I only have one talisman body, only one chance to carve it!”

“You’ve lost your confidence?” Xing said bluntly, his tone tinged with contempt.

“Yes. I simply can’t do it right now,” Qin Haoxuan admitted directly.

Thinking of carving several thousand inscriptions on such a small talisman body, and without a single mistake, because he only had one, and with not enough time to practice, because Master Chi Lian was frantically searching for him, Qin Haoxuan couldn’t help but lose heart.

Xing sneered. “Cultivation is an act of defying the heavens. When you were a mortal, could you have ever imagined that you would now be a high and mighty cultivator? If I’m not mistaken, you’ve been on this path for at most a year, right?”

After mocking him, Xing sneered and shook his head, walking to the side. “With such a strong spiritual sense, you were able to break the second restriction of The Great Art of Talismans, which is a hundred times more difficult than carving a few inscriptions, in just two days. Yet you say you can’t even carve a few inscriptions? To give up so easily, are you worthy of your deceased Senior Brother Pu? Are you worthy of the trust he placed in you? Cultivation is a battle against the heavens. If you can’t even fight against a small talisman body, on what grounds can you fight against the heavens?”

His words were like a morning bell and an evening drum, echoing in Qin Haoxuan’s ears and jolting him from his state of dejection. Fragmented images appeared in his mind: his first meeting with Pu Hanzhong, his rescue, his dedicated teaching, his final letter, asking him to work hard, take care of their fellow disciples, and help their master. If he were to give up just like this, once Master Chi Lian found him, there would be no way for him to live. If he were to die in such a cowardly manner, what face would he have to see his senior brother in the netherworld?

Thinking of him, two lines of tears slid down Qin Haoxuan’s cheeks. The confidence he had lost began to return, bit by bit, until it became an unstoppable conviction. I cannot die! I cannot die! So what if you are a Spirit Tree Realm expert, Master Chi Lian? I will live on! I still have so many things I haven’t done! I must continue to climb to the peak of the immortal path! I cannot fall! I must refine this Mortal Talisman!

The dim light in his eyes gradually brightened, his gaze becoming more and more firm. Finally, he closed his eyes again and began to wave the carving knife with a rapturous focus, as if he were not drawing obscure inscriptions, but sketching the face of his most beloved. As time passed, his every stroke became more and more smooth and natural.

Seeing this reaction, the happiest one of all was Xing. He scratched the back of his head and muttered to himself, “I just shouted a few borrowed words, and he’s already trying again. He regains his confidence so quickly.”

Qin Haoxuan continued to wave the carving knife in his hand, simulating the tiny, complex inscriptions in the air. Failing time and time again, trying time and time again… at this moment, he was completely immersed in the world of the inscriptions.

In his closed-eyed mind, there was a golden talisman body, condensed from his spiritual sense. As the carving knife in his hand moved through the empty air, the inscriptions would appear on this golden body, just as he had practiced with the black iron before. The difference was that now, he was using a talisman body condensed from his spiritual sense to practice.

His carving knife moved quickly, and the inscriptions appeared on the golden body even faster. In a single breath, he had failed more than ten times, changing the golden talisman body a dozen times, just as if he had ruined a dozen pieces of black iron. But these golden bodies, formed from spiritual sense, did not even need to be thrown away; he could just let them dissipate and then condense a new one.

However, Qin Haoxuan, who was completely engrossed, did not know this. And Xing, who could not probe his spiritual sense, knew even less. Everything was happening naturally.

At first, he could only write a few hundred inscriptions on the surface before running out of space. Then, he tried to reduce their size, compressing them step by step. Before long, he could write a thousand. One thousand one hundred, one thousand two hundred… Two thousand one hundred, two thousand two hundred…

This process was easier said than done. To carve even one more inscription on a talisman body of the same size required immense effort and arduous training.

Seeing Qin Haoxuan practicing like a madman, Xing also closed his eyes and continued to cultivate the Dragon Demon Golden Body. When he opened his eyes the next day, Qin Haoxuan was still practicing frantically, though his face was pale, a sign of overexerting his spiritual sense.

I only ever heard him occasionally mention Senior Brother Pu before. I never thought his influence was so great, Xing thought. He knew his words had stimulated Qin Haoxuan, but he never expected the effect to be so dramatic, allowing him to rise from the ashes of his lost confidence. What surprised him most was that in a single night of practicing with his spiritual sense, Qin Haoxuan had practiced a full ten thousand times.

What did ten thousand times mean? If he had been practicing with black iron, ten thousand pieces of talisman-sized iron would have been enough to fill the entire tent, enough for him to carve at a rate of three a day for nearly ten years. And this was just the amount of practice he had done in one night. This was the benefit of a powerful spiritual sense, a benefit that a genius demon like Xing, whose own spiritual sense was too weak, could not experience.

Finally, on the morning of the second day, Qin Haoxuan slowly opened his eyes and let out a long, turbid breath. He looked at Xing and said, “The carving of the talisman body, I am confident now.”

Hearing his words, Xing glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and said, “You can thank me.”

From his tone, it was clear that he did not believe he was ready. Qin Haoxuan did not rush to prove anything. He carefully adjusted his thoughts, calmed himself, and then picked up the talisman body from the table. Seeing this, Xing was stunned. Is he going to start carving? How is that possible?

If his breaking of the second restriction could be explained by his powerful spiritual sense, then to carve three thousand inscriptions on such a tiny talisman body was something that could not be achieved without ten years of hard practice. Even an Unsurpassed Purple Seed could not do it. Aptitude was one thing, but perseverance was another. For something like carving, it was three parts talent and seven parts effort.

But how could Xing have guessed that the amount of practice Qin Haoxuan had done in one night was comparable to ten years of an ordinary person’s hard work?

After picking up the talisman body, the carving knife in his hand, as if it had a spirit of its own, plunged deeply into the material. A faint stream of spiritual energy was infused into the knife, and then, at an astonishing speed, it began to leave a series of complex and fine inscriptions on the talisman body.

“This… this…” Xing was so shocked he couldn’t speak. The proficiency of Qin Haoxuan’s movements was like that of someone who had practiced the basics of carving for ten years. There was not the slightest bit of clumsiness or hesitation. Looking at his focused and calm expression, Xing could not connect him with the person who had collapsed in despair yesterday. He pinched himself. It hurt. This was not a dream.

Although the carving was complex, under Qin Haoxuan’s smooth and flowing speed, it was completed in just the time it takes an incense stick to burn.

“Whew…” Qin Haoxuan took a deep breath. “It’s done.”

He held the talisman between his thumb and forefinger and held it up to the sunlight streaming through the skylight. In the light, the talisman body was translucent. After he infused a faint stream of spiritual energy into it, the three thousand inscriptions seemed to come alive, flowing freely on the surface, a beautiful and magnificent sight.

Xing’s jaw dropped in amazement. If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed that Qin Haoxuan had managed to carve the inscriptions after just one night of fumbling around with his eyes closed. No one would believe such a story.

“The first and most difficult step of the Mortal Talisman is complete. Next is refining and infusion,” Qin Haoxuan said with a smile. He placed a bag of spirit stones in front of the still-stunned Xing. “Don’t just stand there in a daze. Set up the array.”

…

In the few days that Qin Haoxuan had been refining the Mortal Talisman, the enemy army, which had been besieged for a full twenty days, could no longer remain patient.

In the tent of the enemy commander, General Chang, a group of generals were gathered, all of them looking worried.

“Gentlemen,” the general said, scanning his subordinates, “we have been trapped here for twenty days. The enemy has us surrounded but is not attacking. It seems they want us to run out of food and water and starve to death. Do you have any good strategies?”

The generals looked at each other. For the past twenty days, they had tried everything, launching over a hundred breakout attempts, but none had succeeded. They had tried to send for help with carrier pigeons, but the pigeons were shot down the moment they took flight.

Su Wu, although a general, did not dare to offend a High Immortal like Qin Haoxuan. When he had said to surround the enemy, he had obediently done so. When he had said not to let them call for reinforcements, he had dispatched tens of thousands of archers to all sides, ordering them to shoot down anything that flew in the sky.

Seeing the angry gazes of General Chang, one of the generals gritted his teeth and said, “General, I have a few words to say.”

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