'Share!'
Yang Jing recited the word in his mind, activating the Skill. Iron Head immediately felt the Magical Power it had cultivated pouring out as if through a funnel, vanishing rapidly until its Cultivation had dropped by an entire layer before it stopped.
Meanwhile, Yang Jing felt a warm current surging between his eyes. The sensation was wonderful, like soaking in a hot spring.
[Bright Qi (5%)]
A moment later, the warm current dissipated. Yang Jing discovered that by circulating his Magical Power to his eyes, he could faintly see the workings of the Heaven and Earth Spirit Mechanism. The Five Elements Spirit Mechanism was divided into cyan, yellow, crimson, white, and black, rising from the earth and dispersing into the world. The Great Sun, moreover, continuously released a crimson Spirit Mechanism into the heavens and earth.
That was right—he had shared Iron Head's Bright Qi Talent. A single layer of Qi Cultivation only granted Yang Jing an incomplete version of the Talent, allowing him to roughly distinguish the colors of the Five Elements.
At this stage, the Bright Qi Talent wasn't very useful.
Iron Head felt its entire body lighten. Although it had lost a good portion of its Magical Power, the Muddy Qi and Evil Qi entangling its body had truly diminished along with it.
This made it spin around with joy.
[Affinity: 79]
Yang Jing activated Share again.
[Bright Qi (10%)]
The Spiritual Qi World in his eyes instantly became much clearer, as if he had upgraded from a 480p world to 720p.
Yang Jing patted Iron Head's head in satisfaction.
"Get to work."
Iron Head nodded obediently, its four short legs carrying it as it stumbled into the Spirit Field.
It circulated its Magical Power and cast the Spiritual Rain Technique recorded in the Five Talisman Scripture.
[Spiritual Rain Technique: Mastery (12%)]
Iron Head's Spiritual Rain Technique didn't draw upon the Water Qi and Spiritual Mechanism from the air. Instead, it extracted Spirit Water from the Spiritual Spring, transforming it at will into a countless, dust-fine Spiritual Mist that enveloped the three-mu Spirit Field.
Under Iron Head's deliberate control, the Spiritual Mist dampened the leaves of the Spirit Plants and soaked the soil around their roots.
This method had a high utilization rate for the Spirit Water, but it required a high level of mastery in the Spiritual Rain Technique—something Yang Jing couldn't achieve.
SNORTING, Iron Head ran into the Spirit Field, pulling out the sprouting weeds with its mouth. After finishing that, it killed and ate the Spirit Insects and Spirit Eggs on the Spirit Rice and Cyan Light Vines, busying itself happily.
Yang Jing nodded in satisfaction. With Iron Head around, he was freed from these chores and could focus his energy on cultivation.
He took the previously processed Cyan Light Vine Hides from his storage. He had stacked these Vine Hides neatly in a large vat, added water from the Spiritual Spring, and thrown in a Five-Fat Stone. It had taken about seven days to soften them.
He fished out the softened Vine Hides, tore them apart along the grain of the fibers into bundles, and picked out any fibers that were too short or broken.
The selected fibers were then placed into an iron mortar and carefully pounded and ground. This separated and loosened the tangled fibers, but it was crucial not to break or crush them.
He placed the pounded fibers into an iron pot, adding Spirit Wood gum and water from the Spiritual Spring to boil over a high flame. This step required extreme precision with the amount of gum and the cooking temperature. If there wasn't enough, the resulting Talisman Paper wouldn't be able to withstand Magical Power; if there was too much, it would easily obstruct the flow of Magical Power and lower the Talisman Success Rate.
Yang Jing activated his Spiritual Eye to observe the flow of the Spiritual Mechanism inside the iron pot as the Cyan Light Vine fibers absorbed and became saturated with the Spirit Glue in the boiling water. When he felt it was about right, he immediately picked up a bamboo screen and dipped it into the boiling water to scoop out the pulp.
The fibers adhering to the bamboo screen were placed on an iron plate. After being dried, they were cut and became Talisman Paper.
The Talisman Paper made from Cyan Light Vine Hide had faint cyan lines within it, like a network of veins. The denser the cyan lines, the better the quality of the Talisman Paper.
One large vat of Vine Hide could ultimately produce thirty dozen sheets of Talisman Paper. Among them, seven dozen were Tier One Middle Grade, twenty-one dozen were Tier One Lower Grade, and two dozen were Substandard.
A dozen of the Middle Grade could sell for two Spirit Stones, while the Lower Grade sold for only one Spirit Stone and two Spirit Crystals. The Substandard ones could only be sold at a stall to Independent Cultivators, fetching about three Spirit Crystals.
The Talisman Success Rate was much higher this time, all thanks to his Bright Qi Talent.
A single harvest from the Cyan Light Vines yielded enough Vine Hide to fill six large vats, and harvesting twice a year produced twelve vats. In the past, Yang Jing's success rate wasn't this high, but even then, one vat of Vine Hide could produce at least fifteen dozen Tier One Lower Grade sheets and seven or eight dozen Substandard ones.
In contrast, planting Spirit Grain only yielded about three Spirit Stones per mu.
Yang Jing rose early the next day, placed all the Talisman Paper into his Storage Bag, put on his Conical Hat, and headed for Huangyuan Marketplace, leaving only Iron Head to guard the house. If he only focused on cultivating, he would eventually burn through all his resources. He planned to exchange the Talisman Paper for some Spirit Stones.
Besides, Iron Head's cultivation progress was faster than he had expected, so he could begin to set his plan in motion.
Upon arriving at Huangyuan Marketplace, he first went to Fukang Tower. It was rumored to have been opened by a Golden Core Master from the Supreme Profound Upper Yang Sect, one of the Six Great Sects. Although not as grand as the Celestial Treasure Tower, it had an excellent reputation.
Inside the tower, Yang Jing sold five dozen sheets of Lower Grade Talisman Paper. He then visited a few other shops to sell more before finally heading to the Celestial Treasure Tower to offload the remaining Middle Grade and Lower Grade Talisman Paper.
"Little Brother Yang, your craftsmanship is improving! This Talisman Paper is only limited by its raw materials. If you used the bark of a Purple Cloud Tree, you might even produce Upper Grade Talisman Paper."
The Celestial Treasure Tower's Third Shopkeeper, Wang Tong, pulled out a sheet of Talisman Paper and inspected it.
He specialized in purchasing elixirs, Talisman Paper, and Spirit Medicines for the Celestial Treasure Tower, and he had a very sharp eye.
"Just a bit of luck, that's all."
Yang Jing said modestly.
"This is more than just luck."
Wang Tong took out a voucher, wrote the Celestial Treasure Tower's coded script on it, and handed it to a maid standing nearby.
A moment later, the maid returned with a brocade pouch and placed it in front of Yang Jing.
Yang Jing counted the contents, transferred the Spirit Stones from the brocade pouch into his Storage Bag, and left the pouch on the table.
"Is there anything else you need, Little Brother Yang?"
Yang Jing said,
"I want to buy that Mica Pill Book."
Advancing Iron Head's cultivation progress required a large amount of Spirit Stones. The reason he hadn't spent all his Spirit Stones at once was so that Iron Head could learn Alchemy.
Pills, Arrays, Talismans, and Artifacts were the four most profitable of the Hundred Skills of Cultivation. Alchemists were especially wealthy, with wealth rolling in after even minor success, but it was easy to fall behind in one's own cultivation. However, since Iron Head would be the one doing the Alchemy, it naturally wouldn't slow down Yang Jing's own training.
Wang Tong was startled.
"Little Brother Yang, are you serious?"
The two had known each other for three years, so there was some friendship between them. Among the four arts of Pill, Array, Talisman, and Artifact cultivation, Alchemy required the largest investment.
Alchemy Techniques, Alchemy Furnaces, and spirit medicines—none of them were cheap. A single failure in Alchemy meant that all the painstakingly gathered Spirit Medicines would be wasted.
Even Immortal Cultivation Clans had to be extremely cautious when supporting their members in learning Alchemy.
"Of course I'm not joking with you, Brother Wang. The price of Vine Hide has gone up again. No matter how refined my Talisman Paper craftsmanship gets, all the Spirit Stones end up in the pockets of those Spirit Farmers. I'm preparing to take a gamble this time—I'm going to use all my savings to buy a Pill Book and a Pill Furnace and try making some Fasting Pills first."
Yang Jing deliberately concealed his true wealth. The Celestial Treasure Tower was a massive enterprise, and Wang Tong himself was wealthy, so he wouldn't resort to shady dealings. The maids and attendants, however, were another story.
"Alright, I'll make an executive decision. I'll sell you this Mica Pill Book for just forty Spirit Stones, Little Brother Yang. The Celestial Treasure Tower also has a Profound Gold Tripod, a Tier One Lower Grade Pill Furnace. If you want it, you can have it for two hundred Spirit Stones."
Wang Tong said magnanimously.
This was already the lowest price within his authority. The Six Great Sects encouraged the cultivators of the Chen Kingdom to practice Alchemy to supply the needs of the border defenses. As a result, the prices of Pill Books and Pill Furnaces were significantly lower than in other kingdoms. This was especially true for Pill Books; a price of forty Spirit Stones was practically a giveaway, but only cultivators who had accepted a Pioneer Order were qualified to purchase them.