Chapter 40: 【Basic Talismans, Image Searching and Tracking】 (Seeking collection, seeking...)

Hou Zhao was very puzzled that Lu Chengtong did not join the Danquan Peak.

"Brother Cheng, you are good at alchemy; after joining the Danquan Peak, you wouldn't be troubled by ordinary tasks. Why did you go to the Longfu Peak?"

Lu Chengtong had long since prepared a draft and replied:

"The so-called auxiliary miscellaneous arts are just to assist the Dao for gain. Now, I feel that I have no progress in the Dan Dao and cannot feed back normal cultivation gains to me, so I want to learn other aspects horizontally to seek a breakthrough."

This kind of statement could be understood.

Stones from other hills can be used to polish jade; if one wants to use other directions to assist one's own Dao cultivation, one indeed cannot be trapped in one technique.

All pursuits should be directed toward the needs of one's own development.

Hou Zhao was thoughtful, and he secretly made a decision.

Lu Chengtong did not know what he had in mind, and after parting with him, he returned to the Longfu Peak.

He had not yet officially entered the inner sect.

To become an inner disciple of each peak, in addition to reaching the Foundation Establishment realm in cultivation, one also needs to pass their respective assessments.

The assessment task given to him by the Longfu Peak was "master the drawing of three types of basic talismans within half a month."

This is very difficult for someone who has never learned talismans, although Lu Chengtong is already a Foundation Establishment True Person, but for things like learning, high cultivation does not necessarily mean strong ability.

However, since the task was arranged this way, it showed that it could indeed be completed, so what he had to do was be serious enough and not slack off.

The Treasure Mirror has a recording function; for this kind of repetitive labor, it can help find omissions and fill gaps, allowing Lu Chengtong to quickly find his shortcomings and make huge progress.

On the third day, he mastered the drawing of the first type of basic talisman, the first-order "Soul-Suppressing Talisman."

The Soul-Suppressing Talisman is an offensive talisman used to suppress and kill white-light ghosts.

White-light ghosts have a level equivalent to Fetal Breath realm cultivators, but their combat power is very weak, only possessing the ability to collide and ghost-cover eyes.

One Soul-Suppressing Talisman can blast them into soul-scattered nothingness.

There is a lot of killing in this world—humans, demons, etc. —and after death, under the nourishment of energy such as spirit Qi and resentment, it is very easy to produce ghosts.

Therefore, most families will prepare a Soul-Suppressing Talisman and put it at home, which can drive away evil.

In short, although this thing is low-end, it is very popular.

Drawing a Soul-Suppressing Talisman can be done with a cultivation level of the first layer of Qi Refining; for Lu Chengtong, who is at the Foundation Establishment realm, it is naturally easier to master.

But this still consumed him more than two days to learn.

To draw talismans, one needs to learn the characteristics of talisman paper, the characteristics of spirit ink, array patterns, and various other prerequisite knowledge; Lu Chengtong spent most of his time on this aspect.

With the foundation, the subsequent learning was much smoother.

On the fifth day, he mastered the second type of basic talisman, the second-order "Golden Light Talisman," a talisman used by Qi Refining cultivators for defense.

After activation, a layer of golden light wraps around the body.

It has both physical defense and spell defense; attacks below the middle stage of the Qi Refining realm are ineffective, and it requires at least the attack intensity of the late stage of the Qi Refining realm to break it after multiple attacks.

It is also a popular talisman.

Most cultivators basically do not have protective defensive Dharma treasures; to resist attacks, they rely entirely on spirit Qi shields.

But the defensive effect of spirit Qi shields is limited, and the pre-casting time is very long, so it is very likely that they will not be able to defend in time.

At this time, a Golden Light Talisman that activates instantly might be a life-saving item.

On the ninth day, Lu Chengtong mastered the last basic talisman for the assessment, the third-order "Fierce Bird Talisman," a fire-type offensive talisman with positioning and tracking effects.

This thing is equivalent to a full-force strike from a fourth-layer Foundation Establishment cultivator, and its power is enough to deter late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Many cultivators use it as a trump card to save their lives in critical moments.

Of course, compared to first-order and second-order talismans, it is expensive, and ordinary people cannot afford it.

The Treasure Mirror's help in learning and mastering talismans was too great; it recorded the drawing process completely from multiple angles, allowing him to summarize and learn after drawing, and every time he drew, he made huge progress.

Although it consumed quite a few materials, it was all worth it.

Being able to draw third-order talismans showed that he had initially mastered this technique.

On the tenth day, the third senior brother of Longfu Peak, the eighth-layer Foundation Establishment Mai Hongfu, conducted the assessment for Lu Chengtong.

After watching Lu Chengtong complete the drawing of first-order to third-order talismans, Mai Hongfu smiled:

"Welcome, Junior Brother, to join our Longfu Peak. From today on, you are an inner disciple of Longfu Peak. This is your identity jade token; let's go, I will take you to pay respects to the Peak Master."

Lu Chengtong followed him to pay respects to Longfu Shangren.

Inner disciples can call the Peak Master "Peak Master" or "Master," but this "Master" is only in name and not a true master-disciple relationship.

Only direct disciples have a true master-disciple bond with the Peak Master.

For an inner disciple in his seventies, Longfu Shangren naturally wouldn't care too much; it was just to get familiar with his face and let Lu Chengtong know who the Peak Master was.

After paying respects to the Peak Master, Mai Hongfu took him to choose a cave abode.

Inner disciples live on the mountain peak; there are many cave abodes on the mountain peak, and the entire mountain has been hollowed out, with Spirit-Gathering Arrays set up, and the spirit Qi in the cave abodes is rich.

Lu Chengtong had long since understood this and had chosen a place.

"Senior Brother, I can just stay in this Bing Zi Number Three Cave Abode."

This cave abode was the one chosen by a clansman of the Lu family named "Lu Xinyou," and he was the one who disappeared here.

Using this as a base point and searching around, he would definitely be able to find some clues.

Mai Hongfu made a record for him and finally exhorted:

"Inner disciples of Longfu Peak must hand in a portion of talismans every quarter; Junior Brother has just entered the sect, so you still need to continue to refine your talisman Dao, so that you can meet the sect's requirements and avoid losing spirit stones."

Lu Chengtong replied politely:

"Many thanks for the reminder, Senior Brother; I will improve my skills as soon as possible to meet the sect's requirements."

Mai Hongfu left, and Lu Chengtong immediately began to tidy up this cave abode.

Cave abodes that are not inhabited are cleaned daily, there is no clutter, and after turning on common arrays such as lighting, one can live there.

After opening the prohibition, ordinary people cannot come in unless they attack forcefully.

And to break the prohibition, at least the attack power of the late Foundation Establishment stage is required; otherwise, it will not reach the standard of breaking the defense.

After the prohibition was opened, Lu Chengtong estimated the time of Lu Xinyou's disappearance and used the 【Round Light Manifestation】 supernatural power to search for traces related to Lu Xinyou.

Because the time point he traced back was an estimated time, he needed to trace back multiple times and search slowly.

Fortunately, in addition to himself, there was also the divine soul power of the Treasure Mirror that could be applied, which allowed for a longer period of investigation.

Even so, after consuming the estimated divine soul power, he found no clues.

This matter was not urgent; he had already moved to this cave abode and could wait until the divine soul power recovered a bit before continuing to use this supernatural power.

He needed to reserve enough divine soul power to maintain daily cultivation and drawing talismans and refining medicine.

The technique of drawing talismans needed to be improved, as there were sect tasks that needed to be completed; pills still needed to be refined, as this was currently his stable source of wealth.

In the market, he still had a shop.

Thus, two fortnights later, on this day, Lu Chengtong finally saw the image of Lu Xinyou appear within the light ball reflected by the supernatural power. ===== CHAPTER 41 =====