Chapter 12: Inscribing Charms with Care (Please Add to Favorites)
“Don’t get involved in this mess,” Wen Rongxin said sternly, pulling Li Guanxuan back. Her face was grave as she scolded him. She had witnessed firsthand how the marauding cultivators slaughtered entire families. Terrified, she had hidden herself in a house adorned with protective talismans.
Li Guanxuan nodded slightly, smiling. “Open your mouth.”
Though she didn’t know what her husband intended, Wen Rongxin obediently opened her rosy lips with a soft “ah.”
Suddenly, a pill slipped down her throat with a gulp.
Almost immediately, she felt a warm current envelop her face, then spread across the skin of her entire body.
“What is this?” she asked, astonished.
“A Beauty Preservation Pill. Thirty low-grade spirit stones apiece,” Li Guanxuan explained. He sighed. “Before my brothers and I came to the Immortal Ruins, we each had one. At first, we thought our appearance would remain forever at twelve years old. None of us could sleep for nights… Later, we learned that second-tier and above beauty preservation pills let cultivators change their age and appearance at will.”
Li Guanxuan looked at Wen Rongxin’s face, which was full of reluctant concern, as if she wanted to say something but held back. He laughed. “A first-tier high-grade beauty pill isn’t expensive, and you’re eighteen now—the most beautiful age for a woman… Unless you want people to think I’m your son when we go out together decades from now?”
Wen Rongxin blinked her clear almond eyes, saying nothing, but somehow conveying everything.
Li Guanxuan rolled his eyes. “Take care of yourself. Tonight, be sweet to me.”
…
In the days that followed, Li Guanxuan spent his days drawing talismans in the cultivation chamber, and his nights doting on his wife.
About a month later, Chen Yinshan came by to request talismans. Li Guanxuan gave him eight protective talismans and two explosive spirit talismans, all first-tier high grade.
When Chen Yinshan received the talismans, he was dumbfounded.
Without realizing it, Li Guanxuan had become a first-tier high-grade talisman master?
They’d promised to stay poor together, but Li Guanxuan had quietly risen above.
“No wonder you can afford deer antler wine,” Chen Yinshan muttered.
“Keep this quiet… We’ve known each other for decades, and I’m only telling you a little,” Li Guanxuan said with a smile.
“Relax, I finally have a first-tier high-grade talisman master to lean on. Only an idiot would betray you.”
Chen Yinshan grinned. “I feel much more secure about going to the Ten Thousand Mountains this time.”
“I’ll say it again: caution first. In this world, staying steady is the only real principle. Treasures come every year, but life is precious and irreplaceable. Don’t risk your life for a bit of profit,” Li Guanxuan said seriously. “Old Chen, you’re my only true friend. Don’t die out there—let’s move into Qing’an City together.”
“Stop cursing me.”
---
Chen Yinshan licked his lips, whispering slyly, “Is there any deer antler wine left? My legs have felt weak lately, you know…”
“Useless.”
“You’re tough, you’re impressive—but you only managed after drinking the wine.”
“Nonsense. When I pass by the fruit shop, the owner thinks I stole his sugarcane!”
“…”
---
That night, Chen Yinshan and his wife came for dinner.
Chen Yinshan drank until he was half tipsy, and the rest of his energy was so loud that Li Guanxuan, living next door, could hear it clearly.
Li Guanxuan couldn’t help but sigh: under a toppled nest, no egg survives whole.
Then, he himself engaged in a fierce battle with his own martial artist wife, who was at the first stage of Qi refining.
The martial artist lost by a narrow margin.
The next day.
Li Guanxuan resumed his monotonous routine of drawing talismans and doting on his wife.
Because of his agreement with Zheng Huangjin, Li Guanxuan tried to improve the quality of his protective talismans as much as possible.
As for explosive spirit talismans, his success rate was about one in twenty, which was quite decent.
---
A year later.
Chen Yinshan and his wife returned from the Ten Thousand Mountains.
They had reaped considerable rewards—plenty of medicinal herbs and monster beast corpses.
They dared not show these things before outsiders, but brought them out during dinner. A rough estimate suggested they could fetch nearly a thousand low-grade spirit stones.
“A year of gathering herbs and hunting monsters wasn’t wasted,” Chen Yinshan grinned.
“There’s so much. If you sell them at the market, you could get a thousand spirit stones, but the risk is huge—it’s easy to attract marauding cultivators. Tomorrow, come with me to the Myriad Images Pavilion; you’ll get at most nine hundred or so,” Li Guanxuan analyzed, frowning.
“Nine hundred spirit stones… that’s still a lot.”
Chen Yinshan felt the sting, and envied cultivators who knew how to do business.
Li Guanxuan smiled. “I’ll pay the nine hundred for peace of mind.”
“No way. We agreed on a fifty-fifty split, and that’s how it’ll be. I’ll provide the goods—you don’t need to worry,” Chen Yinshan shook his head, refusing to budge.
---
Zhao Guili sighed, “Just listen to Old Li. He’s right. If you display all those herbs and monster beast corpses at East Street Market, you’ll definitely get targeted by marauders. Then it’ll be a pile of trouble. Let’s just live quietly.”
Wen Rongxin nodded in agreement.
Seeing that even his wife said so, Chen Yinshan finally had to agree, albeit reluctantly.
The next day.
Li Guanxuan and Chen Yinshan went straight to the Myriad Images Pavilion.
“Fellow Daoist, to be honest, if someone else brought these, I would buy them all for eight hundred spirit stones. For you, after calculating everything, it comes to nine hundred sixty-eight low-grade spirit stones,” Zheng Huangjin said.
Chen Yinshan was quietly sipping the complimentary spirit tea.
Hearing that the goods could sell for nine hundred sixty-eight, his eyes nearly popped out.
He had never seen so many spirit stones!
And if they were sold piecemeal, it would take a year or more, with the constant risk of encountering marauders.
Now, to sell everything in one go, without being robbed—this was a windfall.
“Thank you, Manager Zheng, for your help,” Li Guanxuan said gratefully, bowing.
“We help each other,” Zheng Huangjin waved his hand and handed a pouch of spirit stones to Chen Yinshan, smiling, “Count them.”
“No need. I trust the Myriad Images Pavilion’s reputation,” Chen Yinshan grinned. He knew that Li Guanxuan and Zheng Huangjin had business to discuss, so he tactfully left the private room.
Then, Li Guanxuan took out a storage bag. “One hundred protective talismans, twenty explosive spirit talismans, all first-tier high grade.”
Zheng Huangjin’s breathing grew rapid. He scanned the contents with his spiritual sense and burst into hearty laughter.
“You’re straightforward, fellow Daoist!”
He continued, “Protective talismans, twenty spirit stones apiece; explosive spirit talismans, thirty each. Total: two thousand six hundred low-grade spirit stones. Any issues?”
Li Guanxuan took a deep breath, smiling. “Pleasure doing business.”
A year of drawing talismans and doting had finally earned him enough to move into the outer city!