Chapter 755: Development Pt.2
Who could have imagined that Shang Xia was creating his own rank five talisman?!
Creating a rank five talisman based on an inheritance and creating one from scratch were 2 different concepts!
The difficulty one would face would be on completely different scales!
From what Ren Bainian understood, Shang Xia only had experience crafting 2 types of rank five talismans. Also, he only managed to succeed 3 times in total.
It was his third try at crafting rank five talismans and even if he managed to create another 2, that would still put his total up at 5.
With 5 talismans under his belt, Shang Xia actually tried to craft a new rank five talisman. Ren Bainian didn’t know if Shang Xia was overflowing with genius or if he was crazy!
Shang Xia didn’t know what Ren Bainian was thinking of, but during the time Ren Bainian was taking to repair his brush, he continued to improve on his new Teleportation Talisman.
...
7 days later, when Ren Bainian was done, Shang Xia retrieved his brush. He used 3 more days to prepare himself before starting again.
This time, he was a lot more confident. He failed once, but he summarized his mistakes and tried to make some improvements while waiting for his brush to be fixed. The first part of the process went pretty smoothly and he completed one-third of the talisman before long. He became a lot more sure of himself as he went on.
3 more days passed and according to what he came up with, he compared half the talisman. Unfortunately, he hesitated slightly and his brush didn’t complete his stroke smoothly and a tiny trace of dipper qi built up where he paused. It destroyed the talisman paper immediately.
This time, the spatial fluctuations didn’t damage the tip of the brush. However, it left a tiny crack in the shaft.
Shang Xia was prepared for it and didn’t let Ren Bainian get too far. Ren Bainian was still in the Talisman Hall and he was able to immediately start repairing the brush again.
With the time Ren Bainian required to repair the brush, Shang Xia continued to reflect on the crafting process. He thought back to all the mistakes he thought about how he could improve the next time while making notes.
Kou Chongxue was the one who told Shang Xia to do that. After Shang Xia became a rank five Talisman Grandmaster, Kou Chongxue told him to record his experiences after every crafting process. The outcome didn’t matter. He would hand the records over to someone from the Talisman Hall who would properly phrase them and keep them in the archives so that others could look at them in the future.
Actually, Kou Chongxue thought of it when Shang Xia was still a rank four Talisman Grandmaster. However, things progressed too quickly back then. Shang Xia didn’t even want to join them initially. Before they could even establish a proper system to archive his experiences, he went ahead and broke through to the Martial Dipper Realm and became a rank five Talisman Grandmaster.
Whatever it was, 10 days later, Shang Xia retrieved the repaired brush from Ren Bainian as he started to craft his Teleportation Talisman once again.
With 2 failures under his belt now, Shang Xia started and quickly completed half the talisman.
When crafting the next part, he finally ran into more problems which he had to adapt to and fix on the spot.
On the sixth day, there was only a quarter left.
However, Shang Xia seemed to have realized he would fail the day before.
Even so, he didn’t stop. He pushed it as far as he could in order to learn as much as possible. Only then would he be able to improve further and take another step towards completing the Teleportation Talisman.
When he was nearly 80 percent done with the talisman, the brush finally reached its limit. Even with Shang Xia’s dipper qi, the White Bone Brush could no longer hold on after the excessive number of mistakes.
As space trembled all around, the talisman paper was torn to shreds. Luckily, he had previous experiences and he managed to ensure that the brush remained undamaged. Rather than destroying the brush, the entire secret chamber was destroyed. Even the protective formation around it shattered and the shockwaves might have traveled even further.
After failing 3 times in a row, Shang Xia was left with 2 chances.
If he still wasn’t able to craft the Teleportation Talisman, no one knew when he would be able to attempt crafting rank five talismans again.
The more critical things got, the more he had to ensure he didn’t panic and rush things.
Taking the chance when they were fixing his secret chamber, Shang Xia regulated his emotions and allowed himself to remain calm.
As someone had to repair the formation around the secret chamber, Chu Jia rushed over as soon as she heard the news.
She wouldn’t avoid Shang Xia just because he was trying to regulate his mental state. She approached him directly and asked, “Why don’t you head into the Tongyou Paradise to craft talismans anyway? I recall that our Tongyou Paradise has a special chamber built for you that is filled with heaven and earth spiritual qi. It will greatly increase your chances of success.”
Shang Xia shook his head in response. “No. It is indeed beneficial when crafting talismans, but the destruction caused when I fail to craft a rank five talisman is huge. If I fail to contain the destruction, it will most likely cause serious damage to the space contained in the Tongyou Paradise. If I were crafting low-level talismans, it’s fine. However, I won’t attempt to craft rank five talismans there unless I am 100 percent sure I won’t make a mistake. I only succeeded 5 times in total and it’s far from enough...”
Pressing her lips together, Chu Jia snorted, “Oh? So you do know that you only succeeded 5 times in total. Where did you find the courage to come up with a new talisman then?”
Shang Xia revealed a helpless expression and he chuckled bitterly, “I didn’t have a choice. The institution only has 2 rank five talisman inheritances and they do not possess a direct offensive or defensive property. Only during critical moments where one’s life would be threatened would they shine. Otherwise, they won’t be of much use...”
“Just because I’m a Formation Grandmaster doesn't mean that I don’t know a thing about talismans... The talisman you were making earlier doesn’t have any offensive or defensive properties either! It’s still going to be a talisman made to preserve someone’s life at the critical moment...” Chu Jia chuckled.
Shang Xia didn’t deny it. It nodded and explained, “That is correct. However, you cannot forget what happened when the experts of the Spirit Abundance World tried to leave. The talisman they used covered them in a spatial barrier and prevented them from any attacks thrown their way...”
Chu Jia gasped in shock, “So... You’re not just planning to come up with a rank five talisman that can allow one to shift through space! You also plan to come up with a new defensive-type talisman!”
Looking at the faint smile on Shang Xia’s face, Chu Jia’s gaze trembled slightly. “No... That’s not right... Are you planning to restore the rank six talisman?!”
“Haah... It’s not that easy to restore the rank six talisman. At the very least, it’s not something I can even think of at the moment. However, have you thought about it? Talismans used to only possess one property. However, the rank six talisman from the Spirit Abundance World managed to merge the effects of defense and movement into one...” Shang Xia chuckled in response.
The look of shock on Chu Jia’s face didn’t fade. “Are you planning to look into the secrets of an expert at the Sixth Order through the talisman?!”
Shang Xia maintained the smile on his face but he didn’t say more.
...
After 10 or so days later, the secret chamber was finally restored. Shang Xia started his fourth attempt.
With the successive failures, Shang Xia gained a lot. The confidence that he would be able to succeed soon filled him.
Alas, confidence didn’t equate to results. When he completed more than 90 percent of the talisman and was about to finish the talisman, everything crumbled. All his hard work went to waste.
The failure came so suddenly that Shang Xia wasn’t able to fully suppress the effects. The spatial cracks destroyed swallowed a good portion of the secret chamber he was in.
Fortunately, the formation outside had been personally laid down by Chu Jia and it stopped the damage from spreading directly into the Tongyou Institution.
In the skies 800 miles south of the city somewhere in the depths of the Thousand Leaf Mountain Range, a giant spatial tear appeared and a half-destroyed secret chamber fell from the skies.
Back in the institution, by the time the experts of the Talisman Hall and Tongyou Institution reacted, Shang Xia had already stopped the spatial fluctuations from spreading further. The only thing that shocked him was that he didn’t know where the other part of the secret chamber went after it was swallowed by the spatial crack.
When he failed earlier, he was fortunate he managed to retrieve everything of value before the spatial crack destroyed half the chamber. Only some useless treasures were lost.
By the time Shang Xia emerged from the destruction, cultivators of the institution had already gathered around. They stared at the region contained inside the formation that was completely wiped clean by then before staring at each other in shock.
“We need to be quick.” Shang Xia instructed the person in charge of the Talisman Hall to hurry with the reconstruction of a new secret chamber before looking for a place to think about matters.
The Talisman Master he instructed wanted to ask further but was stopped by someone at the side.
“Do not disturb him. He seems to have reached a state of epiphany...” The person who stopped the Talisman Master was Chu Jia, and of everyone present, she could be said to be the person who understood Shang Xia the most.
She casually laid down a formation around to prevent anyone from disturbing him before arranging for the members of the Talisman Hall to hurry up with their reconstruction of the new chamber.
They managed to complete the task in 3 short days, and Shang Xia immediately got to his feet the moment it was done. He didn’t care about anything else as he stepped into the chamber before sealing it up completely.
“Get everyone away. It would be best if you cleared out 1000 feet away from this secret chamber.” Chu Jia advised the members of the Talisman Hall before strengthening the formation around the secret chamber once again.
...
At the moment, Shang Xia was indeed in a strange state of mind. More accurately, after failing to craft the Teleportation Talisman for a fourth time, he seemed to have gained a tiny sliver of inspiration.
It was a pity the secret chamber was destroyed and he couldn’t immediately begin his fifth attempt. He could only try to maintain the special state of mind by meditating at the side.
The moment he entered his special state of mind again, Shang Xia knew that his final attempt would end in success.
Indeed... 6 days passed and Shang Xia completed the Teleportation Talisman without any hiccups in between.
Even though he didn’t know its effects, there was 1 more problem he was facing at the moment. He completed his rank five talisman, but he was still in his special state of mind. He no longer had any rank five talisman papers, and he used up all the rank four talisman papers he had a long time ago...
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