In the blink of an eye, ten days passed.
There were only five days left before the lease on the wooden house expired and he would be driven out of the market town.
However, Xu Feng was not panicked at all right now; far from being panicked, he felt quite happy inside, solely because of the two thick piles of talismans sitting on the talisman desk in front of him.
"I've successfully crafted twenty minor fireball talismans and twenty-five ice sword talismans. The success rate for the former is thirty percent, while for the latter, it's fifty percent.
Logically speaking, I should craft more ice sword talismans, but because this kind of talisman isn't as powerful as the minor fireball talisman, it has never sold particularly well.
At the same time, its price is quite a bit lower, so when calculating overall, I'm better off crafting more minor fireball talismans.
Only, Master once told me that whenever he went to the talisman pavilion to sell talismans, the shopkeeper there would always warn him:
Try to draw several different types of talismans in one go as much as possible; otherwise, if you only go out to sell a single type of talisman, it's very easy to fail to fetch a high price due to market fluctuations.
That being the case, I should craft yet another type of talisman!
So, what on earth should I choose? The cleaning talisman definitely doesn't count—that's only used by novice Amulet Masters to practice their hands, and it's completely worthless in terms of spirit stones.
Since the talismans I've drawn so far are all offensive talismans, this last type should be changed to a defensive talisman. With offense and defense paired together, only then can I sell them for a better price."
Thinking of this, Xu Feng pulled a pale blue jade slip from his storage bag, pressed it against his forehead, and began examining the contents within using his Divine Sense.
It recorded the methods for crafting eighteen types of talismans—twelve Rank 1 Low-Grade ones and six Rank 1 Mid-Grade ones. These were solemnly handed over to him by his Master before he left, along with instructions to keep them safe and properly stored.
After mulling it over, his attention finally settled on a talisman called the wooden shield talisman. Among Rank 1 Low-Grade talismans, the difficulty of crafting this kind of spiritual talisman could be said to be extremely high.
The minor fireball talisman had four talismanic runes, and the Ice Arrow Talisman had only three, but the wooden shield talisman had a full six runes. Its difficulty could be said to have doubled.
Before starting to craft, Xu Feng first walked over to the left side of the room, where there were two prayer mats, one large and one small, normally used by the master and apprentice for meditation and cultivation.
He stared blankly at the large prayer mat for a short while, then said with firm resolve:
"Master, don't worry. Your disciple has grown up; I will work hard using the Amulet-Making techniques you taught me, craft enough talismans, and then take them out to sell.
No matter what, I will pay the rent so that when you return in your old age, you won't have to worry about not being able to find me!"
With that, he quickly sat down on the small prayer mat and began meditating to circulate his cultivation technique. Because of the continuous talisman-crafting just now, the already meager mana in his Dantian was practically exhausted—this wouldn't be enough to support him in crafting the wooden shield talisman.
Just as he was running his cultivation technique, tiny white, red, green, and yellow light specks flickering in the air, invisible to the naked eye,
began to slowly draw close to his body, then burrowed through his skin into his meridians, gradually converging into his Dantian.
That's right, Xu Feng was a cultivator with four spiritual roots, and this kind of spiritual root was also called a mixed spiritual root—only slightly better than the five spiritual roots known as waste spiritual roots, yet still considered a thoroughly trash-tier physique.
As a passing note, his Master, Liu Changsheng, possessed the exact same four-spiritual-root aptitude, though slightly stronger than his, because even among four-spiritual-root cultivators, there are still superior and inferior ones.
The difference in quality is reflected in the length of the spiritual roots. According to the laws passed down in the current Immortal Cultivation World, a single spiritual root for any cultivator at best won't exceed one foot, and at worst won't be less than one inch.
His Master's best was the fire spiritual root, approaching seven inches in length, with the other three roots all around five inches—considered an upper-middle level among four-spiritual-root holders.
If resources were plentiful, before the age of sixty, he could definitely cultivate to the Qi Refining 9th Layer and then make a breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Stage. Although the hope was slim, hope existed nonetheless.
As for his own four spiritual roots? None of them exceeded five inches; they were basically balanced, all hovering around three inches.
With this kind of aptitude, unless he continuously consumed medicinal pills, there was only a sliver of a possibility of cultivating to the Qi Refining 9th Layer before the age of sixty.
Yet this required an extraordinary amount of spirit stones to purchase resources. In the past, upon learning of his spiritual root aptitude, he had actually given up the notion of ever achieving Foundation Establishment, wishing only to live together with his Master in the market town without being driven out.
Yet now he had transmigrated here, and moreover brought along a cheat; thus, he must rely on the system's assistance to diligently study the hundred arts of cultivation, earn spirit stones to buy resources, and step onto that Great Dao of Longevity.
Because of his poor personal aptitude, it was only after five full hours that the mana in his Dantian grew full again.
Without wasting too much time, he stood before the talisman desk once more. However, instead of immediately rushing to start crafting, he began taking stock of the resources currently on hand.
"I still have eighty sheets of blank Talisman Paper, which is enough. The spirit ink only has a small piece left, but the refined spirit ink liquid will still be more than enough to craft over eighty talismans.
It's just that time is running a bit short. At my current level of cultivation skill, I have to stop after crafting three wooden shield talismans, and I can only continue after meditating to recover my mana.
The time it takes to draw a single wooden shield talisman is a quarter of an hour, and the time to recover mana is two hours. Coupled with the fact that crafting talismans also consumes Divine Sense,
calculating it this way, regardless of success or failure, the number of times I can craft the wooden shield talisman cannot exceed fifteen per day.
With eighty sheets of blank Talisman Paper and only four days left, it looks like I need to push harder; otherwise, even after selling the crafted talismans, it won't be enough to pay the rent."
He had started calculating this matter ever since the very first day he successfully crafted the minor fireball talisman.
The price of a single minor fireball talisman was about two spirit stones, while the price for ice sword talismans was two for three spirit stones.
Right now, the talismans he had crafted added up to a total value of seventy-six and a half spirit stones—still leaving him nearly halfway short of the one-hundred-and-fifty-spirit-stone rent.
Even if a wooden shield talisman was worth two and a half spirit stones, he hadn't started crafting them yet; whether he could successfully craft them and what his success rate would be were completely unknown variables, which was why he felt somewhat anxious.
Just like that, time slipped away swiftly amidst his single-minded dedication to crafting talismans and alternating with meditation to recover mana.
Reckoning the time, today was the final deadline for him to pay his rent. If he failed to hand over the spirit stones before midnight, he would be expelled from the market town.
"Sigh, in the end, it's still falling a bit short. I've only crafted twenty wooden shield talismans, which still leaves me short by over twenty spirit stones. What on earth am I supposed to do?
Besides, I still don't know the exact prices of the talismans; those prices were all calculated based on good market conditions. What if I can't sell them for that much?
How vexing. But for now, I can only go take a look at the shops that buy talismans."
Still, what had to be faced had to be faced. He let out a soft sigh, and finally, two months after transmigrating into this world, he pushed open the door that had remained tightly shut all this time.