Night was no time for flying, so Ji An decided to spend the night in the open clearing outside the Affairs Hall.
The bright moon hung high, casting its cool silver glow across his face.
He sat cross-legged and cultivated without the slightest thought of wasting time.
When the night grew chill and still, Ji An ended his meditation and turned to practicing spells.
The two new techniques he had just acquired were clearly more difficult than the Minor Rain Technique. After several tries, he finally managed to bring the Flamefire Incantation to the entry stage.
But the Sharp Gold Art… even after half an hour, he hadn't managed to break through. For the first time, he felt truly challenged.
What the hell? How hard can it be to get a farming spell to entry level!
Frustration only stoked his pride. He studied the incantation character by character, repeating the casting gestures and experimenting through failure. Slowly, he began to understand where the difficulty lay.
The other four spells demanded very little precision in controlling one's mana.
But the Sharp Gold Art required exquisitely fine control. The caster had to divide their mana into countless threads of metallic qi and release them strand by strand. On top of that, the art placed heavy demands on the strength of one's divine sense.
The difficulty wasn't even in the same league.
Even though the jade slip's instructions were detailed, the gulf between "knowing" and "doing" was as vast as the heavens and the earth.
Failure after failure did not discourage Ji An. In his past life as a salesman, there were times he had cold-called hundreds of prospects without landing a single deal. What was a few failed spell casts compared to that?
The stone tortoise was his ace, a cheat that could save him untold years of effort. But he refused to become the sort of waste who was nothing without a golden finger. Absolutely not.
He remembered vividly: the tortoise had only come to him after he had opened his spiritual meridians through his own hard work.
Perhaps this stubbornness, this resolve, resonated with the will of the metallic dao. His spellcasting grew smoother and surer.
Metal is sharpness.
In the darkness, the youth refined his technique again and again, his mistakes fewer each time.
When his mana was exhausted, Ji An did not hesitate to pop a Yellow Sprout Pill into his mouth, circulating the Clear Source Sutra to refine its medicinal energy into fresh mana.
The setting moon was swallowed by a drifting black cloud, plunging the world into deeper shadow.
Then rays of golden light rippled from Ji An's fingertips, piercing the darkness, lighting up his determined eyes.
"Hah! Dao-ye has done it!"
Ji An laughed wildly at the sky. Is there anything in this world that can't be mastered?
The cloud drifted away. Moonlight filtered down through the leaves, scattering across him like the reflection of stars.
Still too exhilarated to sleep, Ji An pulled out the jade slip for the third-layer Minor Rain Technique and pressed it to his brow.
After a quarter of an hour, he pulled it away, chewing over the differences between the transmitted incantation and the insights he had pieced together himself, reflecting on how his thinking needed to change.
Dawn crept over the horizon. The first sweep of sunlight rolled down the mountain slope and gilded Ji An's face in gold.
He narrowed his eyes and stirred the stone tortoise. Clear characters unfurled in his mind:
[Master: Ji An]
[Dao Resonance: 0]
[Spiritual Qi: Kan 18.5, Kun 11.7, Xun 3.7]
[Spells: Minor Rain Technique (Small Accomplishment 2%)
Thick Earth Formula (Small Accomplishment 1%)
Withering-Bloom Formula (Small Accomplishment 1%)
Flamefire Incantation (Entry 1%)
Sharp Gold Art (Entry 2%)]
He had already grasped five or six parts of the third-layer Minor Rain Technique. To go deeper, he'd need practice in the field.
Time to refine the ten points of Kan (Water) Qi!
The reason Ji An didn't go all-in was simple: if his Minor Rain Technique advanced to the fourth tier too quickly, his current mana reserves might not be enough to meet the demands of irrigating the spirit grain during its heading stage.
With a thought, his consciousness was drawn into the stone tortoise's inner space, where he stood at the Kan position and cast the spell again and again.
Strands of insight flowed through his heart, deepening his grasp of the third-layer incantation.
The tally of Kan Qi dropped like water through a leaky funnel, while his comprehension of the spell grew richer and clearer.
When all ten points of Kan Qi were spent, Ji An's consciousness snapped back to reality.
[Spell: Minor Rain Technique (Small Accomplishment 2% → 31%)]
The refinement of ten points of Kan Qi had taken no more than an instant. To an outside observer, it would have seemed as if Ji An had only blinked.
His mouth twitched. What a clown I am… I thought ten whole points would be enough to push the spell to the fourth layer. Turns out, I'm still far off.
But he wasn't discouraged. Once the grain reached the heading stage, it would need daily irrigation. Combined with his steady intake of Kan Qi each day, if he wished, he could easily raise the spell to Great Accomplishment before long.
At that stage, the Minor Rain Technique alone could boost yields by thirty percent.
The Thick Earth Formula, once perfected, would add another twenty percent.
And the Withering-Bloom Formula another thirty percent.
Riding his talisman bird, Ji An left the Affairs Hall and headed straight for the Bihai Market, seeking out Wei Songnian.
"Senior Brother Wei, twenty Yellow Sprout Pills!"
He was flush with funds now, and to him, converting spirit stones into strength was the wisest investment.
"Haha, Junior Brother always takes care of my business. Good, good!"
Wei Songnian was inwardly astonished—he couldn't imagine where this junior had gotten so many spirit stones. But none of that showed on his face. Smiling, he handed over two porcelain bottles.
Ji An counted the pills, tucked them away, and placed two spirit stones on the table.
"Senior Brother, I'm planning to learn the craft of talisman making. Do you have any advice?"
With his sharp comprehension—and the stone tortoise as his hidden trump card—becoming a talisman maker was practically tailored for him.
Wei Songnian accepted the stones, his expression turning slightly awkward.
"If Junior Brother plans to sell farming spell talismans, the market is… not promising."
A talisman maker could only inscribe the spells he himself knew. Which meant Ji An could only produce farming talismans.
Take the Minor Rain Technique, for example—spirit grain requires daily irrigation during heading, spirit herbs need watering every few days.
Such spells weren't suited for talisman form at all. Price them high and no one would buy; price them low and you'd lose money.
"I mean, in the future, in the future!" Ji An was speechless. If farmers actually had to buy talismans just to water their fields, how could they ever make a living?
Wei chuckled. "Junior Brother certainly thinks far ahead."
Then he grew serious.
"If you show the same talent with attack spells, preparing early isn't a bad idea. My advice: start by learning how to make talisman paper and prepare talisman ink.
Even if you lack the gift for talisman craft, you'll still gain a useful trade. Farmers can grow their own talisman grasses, and the cost of paper drops significantly."
He paused, then added:
"Formal talisman inheritance requires a hefty amount of contribution points, but learning the basics of talisman paper and ink takes far less. If I recall, just twenty contribution points."
"Thank you, Senior Brother," Ji An said sincerely.
"We're family here, no need for thanks. If you do manage to make talisman paper or ink, bring them to me—I can sell them for you. Ordinary talisman paper barely turns a profit, but fine-quality stock is always in short supply and quite lucrative."
Ji An expressed his gratitude again, then excused himself. Riding his talisman bird, he flew back to the bamboo house in his valley.
Once home, he lay out all his belongings to take stock.
In two days, he had borrowed seven spirit stones.
Exchanging contribution points and buying pills had cost him three stones and sixty spirit crystals.
Counting what he had left, he still held four spirit stones, twenty crystals, and twenty-one Yellow Sprout Pills.
Of course… There was also the matter of the eighteen stones of debt.
Setting aside the debt, Ji An wondered: With these resources, can I push my cultivation to the fourth stage of Qi Refining?
It was a little tight, but add in the coming harvest of spirit grain within the year… it just might be possible.
He packed away his goods, swallowed a Yellow Sprout Pill, and began to cultivate once more.