Chapter 129: Papermaking and Talisman Drawing

The next morning, Lin Feng was feeling a bit bored, so he continued drawing talismans in his room.

Recently, the number of people dying unnatural deaths in and around Luohe City had decreased; sometimes, a whole day would pass without Zhang Dazhuang, Li Erniu, and the others delivering any corpses.

According to the brothers, the new Inspector was making a strong impression, burning with the "three fires" of a new official, making all the bureaucrats in the various government offices across Jiangzhou behave honestly and submissively!

In truth, Lin Feng knew the root cause was that the heavy-armored paper dolls in Li Yanbing's hands had basically cleared out the *guiyi* in Jiangzhou.

Coupled with her focus on people's livelihoods and governance, the number of unnatural deaths had naturally dropped significantly.

Although the source of corpses had dwindled, Lin Feng didn't mind; the corpse-collecting paper dolls could bring him plenty anyway.

After practicing talisman drawing for a while, Lin Feng set down his brush. For the past two days, he had also been practicing basic Corpse-Suppressing Talismans and Evil-Warding Talismans.

If it were before, he might have looked down on these yellow talismans, but the situation was different now.

The scale of the corpse collectors was expanding, and producing some Corpse-Suppressing and Evil-Warding Talismans would be perfect for those disciples to use.

The only problem was that he currently lacked the proper materials to draw true talismans.

Grave-grass paper, *gui*-blood cinnabar, and a wolf-hair talisman brush—he was still missing one of these three things.

As for the wolf-hair talisman brush, he had already had the wooden men in the deep mountains hunt a few yellow weasels, and then directly used the hair from their tails and bamboo to make some brushes; he wouldn't be short of them for a while.

*Gui*-blood cinnabar was even easier; the *Tou Gui* could provide him with *gui*-blood directly, and it only needed to be mixed with cinnabar to be used.

Finally, the most troublesome item, the grave-grass paper, couldn't be bought, and he didn't trust having a papermaking workshop do it—if they added other materials halfway through, it would all be for nothing.

So, Lin Feng chose to make it himself. Of course, papermaking required a large space and the proper procedures were quite troublesome; Lin Feng had no mood to actually do the work himself.

"I wonder how those paper dolls are doing with the work?"

Lin Feng thought for a moment and simply closed his eyes, his consciousness traveling directly to the depths of Xinglong Ling, where a crude papermaking workshop had been built at some point.

For this workshop, Lin Feng had specifically ordered the heavy-armored paper dolls to dig a water channel, ensuring a constant supply of fresh water.

Papermaking requires several steps. First is collecting raw materials: tree bark, hemp cloth, or grass will all work.

Next is soaking to remove impurities, leaving only the cellulose, followed by mixing the cellulose with lime and pounding it into a pulp.

Finally, the pounded cellulose pulp is placed into a pool for paper molding, drying, and other processes.

Lin Feng had already harvested enough grave grass from the various graveyards outside Luohe City.

Now, every night, the heavy-armored paper dolls under his command would patrol the graveyards, and harvesting some grave grass was simply too easy.

When Lin Feng's consciousness descended onto one of the paper dolls, the entire workshop was already working according to the various steps.

The collected grave grass was soaked in large vats made from hollowed-out bluestone; under normal circumstances, this step would require waiting several months.

After all, only after a long time could the other components in the grass decompose, eventually leaving only the cellulose.

However, Lin Feng couldn't wait that long, so he relied on *guiyi* power instead.

A *Zhiren Xiaowei* stood before the vat, occasionally using *guiyi* power.

The dry grass soaking in the clear water soon began to turn black in the vat, and subsequently, everything except the cellulose and similar components was decomposed.

Once completed, heavy-armored Zhiren will come over to fish out these grass stems and rinse them clean in clear water; afterwards, these stems are mixed with lime and pounded to a pulp in a stone mortar.

"Thump, thump, thump."

Several stone mortars were being continuously struck by heavy-armored paper dolls using wooden poles; it wouldn't take long for the grass stems mixed with lime to turn into a paste.

This pounded grass pulp would be poured into another large pool, where specialized paper dolls would stir the water to ensure the pulp was evenly mixed.

Finally, several heavy-armored paper dolls would use fine screens to mold the paper in the pool, and the molded paper would be placed on wooden boards to dry.

Eventually, it turned into sheets of rough, yellowish grass paper. The entire process was not a bit inferior to a regular workshop; in fact, the efficiency was higher, and the quality of the grass paper produced was even better!

Lin Feng controlled a heavy-armored paper doll to approach a sheet of dried grass paper; seeing that it was basically dry, he peeled it directly off the wooden board.

"Riiip—"

However, because the paper doll didn't control its strength well, it tore the grass paper. Fortunately, the whole sheet was large enough that it could still be used even if torn.

Soon, this grass paper was in Lin Feng's hands. Looking at the paper, which still emitted a faint scent of pulp, Lin Feng revealed a smile.

"If this sheet hadn't been torn, it should have been enough to make a hundred talisman papers. But even now, it can make sixty or seventy."

Simply folding the grass paper a few times, Lin Feng began to cut it, resulting in talisman papers of uniform size, with the most suitable length and width.

"I wonder how many talismans I can draw with this stack of talisman paper."

Looking at the talisman paper in his hands, Lin Feng couldn't hold back; he picked up the wolf-hair talisman brush, dipped it in *gui*-blood cinnabar, and began to draw.

"Swish, swish—"

As the dark red ink spread, a Corpse-Suppressing Talisman quickly took shape. However, Lin Feng's face twitched, as the first attempt had failed, which was no surprise.

"Again!"

Failure was expected; drawing talismans wasn't a game, and it wasn't easy to make the size and shape exactly the same.

After failing more than twenty times in a row, Lin Feng, with a dark face, finally managed to produce one qualified Corpse-Suppressing Talisman.

"It's a good thing talisman paper doesn't cost money, otherwise, at my current success rate, I'd lose my shirt sooner or later!"

A qualified talisman, besides having an inexplicable *guiyi* power, most importantly gave people an inexplicable, special feeling just by looking at it.

For example, in Lin Feng's eyes, this Corpse-Suppressing Talisman had a sense of heaviness; the originally thin talisman paper, now placed on the table, would definitely not be blown away by the wind.

Having succeeded once, Lin Feng's interest was piqued, so he waved the talisman brush again to continue drawing. Soon, all dozens of sheets of talisman paper were consumed.

In the end, he obtained three Corpse-Suppressing Talismans, with a success rate stabilized at about one in twenty.

Although the success rate was still very low, it was clear he had basically entered the door. Being able to draw real talismans without a master's guidance meant his talent was quite good.

"Phew—after all, it's not as fast as directly gaining a skill. It's a pity that old Daoist didn't provoke me; otherwise, if I buried him, I might have gained some decent abilities."

"No, that old Daoist was a *Gui* controller; if I planted him, I'd probably only get a *Gui*, and whether I could draw talismans would be hard to say."

The expression on Lin Feng's face was a bit regretful, but then he thought of another possibility.

"Forget it, let's continue practicing!"

Thinking of the latter possibility, Lin Feng suddenly felt a bit bored, so he again took a sheet of grass paper from the papermaking workshop in the depths of Xinglong Ling through a heavy-armored paper doll. ===== CHAPTER 130 =====