Chapter 170: Making Talismans

"The problem with the black jade talisman base is now considered solved, but the fusion of the black jade base and the dark gold is more difficult than I imagined."

Waving his hand, Lin Feng stored the processing equipment in front of him along with the paper doll into the Shadow Ghost Domain, then reached back to take out a blank black jade talisman base and some dark gold.

Last night, he had attempted to fuse them several times without success; every time, at the final critical moment, the entire black jade and dark gold talisman would simply shatter.

"Boom—"

Accompanied by the golden ghost fire beginning to burn, the dark gold placed by Lin Feng on the indentation of the talisman base began to gradually melt and fill every crevice.

Next, a large amount of eerie power belonging to the Xi Gui began to merge into this black jade and dark gold talisman; as the eerie power increased, the entire talisman gradually began to change.

The original talisman had distinct black and gold colors, but at this moment, the two colors gradually began to merge; the talisman itself, composed of dark gold, began to emit a special radiance, letting anyone who saw it know that this item was no ordinary object.

"Crack!"

However, just at the final moment, the black jade and dark gold talisman suddenly developed cracks, and immediately the entire talisman failed to fuse, turning back into black jade fragments and dark gold.

"Failed again!"

Regarding this result, Lin Feng's face darkened, though he had already been mentally prepared.

Afterward, he began to carefully examine this scrapped talisman, wanting to figure out exactly what was going on.

"If it were ordinary gold and jade fusion, a shattering phenomenon would also occur, but I have already performed preheating treatment; logically speaking, it shouldn't be like this, right?"

Separating the black jade and dark gold again, it was fortunate that the dark gold could be recycled after the talisman production failed; otherwise, failing once would be a huge loss!

"Swish, swish—"

Opening the old Daoist's talisman-drawing booklet, Lin Feng once again carefully studied the content on it, wanting to figure out what detail he had overlooked.

"Carving the black jade is no problem, and melting the dark gold is also no problem; the problem lies in using the eerie power to fuse the two!"

"That old Daoist didn't mention problems in this regard; could it be that the materials in my hands are problematic?"

However, the records in this booklet regarding the production of high-level talismans were already scarce, and Lin Feng flipped through it several times without gaining much.

"Continue trying? Or wait until tonight to go ask that old Daoist for a clear answer?"

Closing the talisman-drawing booklet, Lin Feng began to fall into a dilemma; although the problem of producing the black jade talisman base was solved, it was not a solution to keep wasting materials.

"Try a few more times, see if other methods can succeed?"

Thinking carefully, Lin Feng still decided to continue trying; if it really didn't work, he would go find that old Daoist.

"Boom—"

"Crack!"

"Still a failure!"

"Continue!"

"Crack—"

"I refuse to believe it!"

"..."

As he kept trying, Lin Feng gradually realized that there was a problem with the amount of eerie power he was fusing into the talisman.

At Profound Virtue Mountain, high-level talismans were produced by disciples with the help of the Dao Venerable's power.

But his production was done by directly controlling the eerie power for injection; this was like one person drinking water with a spoon while another person drank directly from a bucket.

These two were simply not on the same order of magnitude; others used a little bit as needed, while he was directly blowing the talisman up.

Because of this, that old Daoist never encountered a situation where fusion failed, while Lin Feng encountered it every single time.

Therefore, after Lin Feng reduced the amount of Xi Gui power being merged, this black jade and dark gold God-Inviting Talisman actually succeeded.

"..."

Finally, Lin Feng looked at the black-based, dark-gold talisman on the table, somewhat dazed; he hadn't expected that after failing so many times, this would be the reason.

"This is truly ridiculous!"

Somewhat speechless, Lin Feng held the completed high-level God-Inviting Talisman in his hand to fiddle with it; holding this talisman in his hand gave one a special sense of chill.

"I wonder how it will actually perform when used; should I have the Zhiren General take it to the Yinjian tonight to test it?"

Thinking of this, Lin Feng once again took action to continue producing more high-level talismans, because besides the Yinjian, the north also needed these talismans so that the Corpse-Collecting Zhiren could gain a firm foothold within the territory of the Barbarian tribes.

——————

Cloud Province, the Corpse-Collecting Zhiren was currently still staying in the village where he had previously saved those few children.

"Ha! Ha!"

"Right, just like that, use more force when throwing a punch!"

"You must be steady when standing in a horse stance; the steadier you stand, the less likely you are to fall down when fighting in the future."

"..."

In the desolate village threshing floor, Shitou was pointing out the movements to the four children of different sizes in front of him like a little adult.

Among these children, the youngest was only five years old and the oldest was twelve, but now everyone was very seriously practicing punches and horse stances according to the requirements of their senior brother.

"Master, are we leaving soon?"

In an empty room on the other side, Goudan asked the Corpse-Collecting Zhiren cautiously.

He was very clear that it was already quite rare for this mysterious master to be able to stay here for two days.

"Slap!"

The Corpse-Collecting Zhiren pointed at the few new disciples who were practicing martial arts hard and Shitou who was teaching them, then directly flicked Goudan.

"Ouch! I'm going to practice right now!"

Having been hit, Goudan immediately covered his buttocks and went to practice martial arts with his few junior brothers.

Watching these disciples of different sizes, the Corpse-Collecting Zhiren slowly stood up, then began to search slowly throughout this village.

Not long after, he found an ox cart at a farmhouse, but it was only an empty cart; as for the ox, it had long since been taken away by the Barbarians.

"Creak—creak—"

Pushing this ox cart to the edge of the drying field, the Corpse-Collecting Zhiren performed some simple repairs, and it was considered usable.

Afterward, the Corpse-Collecting Zhiren had Xiaohui place some miscellaneous items onto the ox cart, and after testing it for a few laps in the drying field to ensure there were no problems, it beckoned to those disciples.

"Master, are we leaving?"

"Click-clack."

The Corpse-Collecting Zhiren nodded in response to Shitou's question, then pointed at a few of the younger children, telling them to sit on the ox cart.

As for the people pulling the cart, it could only be left to the two older disciples, Shitou and Goudan, while the others followed alongside the ox cart, pushing it.

"Creeak~ creeak~"

Accompanied by the slow rotation of the ox cart's wooden wheels, the Corpse-Collecting Zhiren began to head toward the next village with these disciples.

The two young disciples sitting on the ox cart watched the village behind them grow further and further away, and tears began to fall in torrents.

The other two, who were older, pushed the ox cart with all their might; they were more aware that after leaving this time, they would likely never return.

But if they did not leave, there would be no way to survive; to live on, to seek revenge and wipe out their hatred, they had no choice but to leave their homeland...

After leaving the village, everywhere was desolate; the winter in Cloud Province was even colder and even more desolate.

From time to time, some skeletons could be seen on the road, and the Corpse-Collecting Zhiren walking at the very front would place these corpses into a corpse-wrapping bag.

Whether they were common folk, deserters, or dead Barbarian soldiers, it was all the same.

The dead were all corpses, and in the eyes of the Corpse-Collecting Zhiren, as long as it was a corpse, there was only one destination for it.

"Giddyup! Giddyup!"

"Rumble~"

Suddenly, a burst of urgent hoofbeats came from the distance, and at the same time, more than a dozen Barbarian soldiers riding wolf-beasts were in pursuit from behind.

Seeing this situation, Shitou and Goudan, who had been pulling the ox cart, immediately became nervous; they hurriedly let go of the ox cart and then took out God-Inviting Talismans, preparing for battle.