"There’s nobody over there, right?" Suzy double-checked.
Yeon shook his head. "No one. Relax, hardly anyone comes around this area. Ming is the only weirdo living out here."
Suzy didn’t push any further.
Before long, the three arrived at the edge of the hilly terrain. The area was wide open, barren, and completely deserted.
Ming still couldn’t fathom why Yeon was so bent on testing his charm. "My talismans are all top-tier stuff! Just trust me, alright? What’s there to test?"
Yeon snapped back without hesitation, "You already sold it to me, so what I do with it is my business. Shut up."
With that, he channeled his spiritual energy to activate the charm. The talisman drifted upward into the air, flying straight toward a barren hillside in the distance.
Then, Yeon bellowed, "Break!"
Following his shout, complete silence reigned over the barren hills.
The three waited for several long seconds, yet nothing happened.
Yeon shot a sideways glance in Ming’s direction, whose face had already turned a deep, embarrassed shade of purple.
Yeon drawled, "Ming, can your talismans be any less reliable? Does this thing even work?"
"Of course my talismans work! It’s your technique that’s faulty—it’s definitely a ’you’ problem!" Ming dug his heels in stubbornly.
However, his voice lacked any real conviction as he spoke, and he didn’t even dare make eye contact with Suzy.
...This is way too embarrassing.
If Suzy started suspecting his talismans were defective, wouldn’t his potential business deal go down the drain?
Just as Yeon opened his mouth to lob a few more mocking remarks, a deafening BOOM erupted from deep within the hills, catching all three completely off guard.
The explosive roar shook their eardrums, followed immediately by the distant hill collapsing in a dramatic roar, flattened into level ground in a matter of seconds.
The three stood frozen in total shock. Yeon, in particular, looked completely dumbfounded.
Huh??
HUH???
HUH????
Was he hallucinating?
Never in a million years would he have guessed that this talisman had a delayed trigger! But more importantly—its sheer power was utterly insane! It had literally blown an entire hill to dust!
Just how broken was Ming’s talisman-crafting talent?!
Suzy was equally rattled.
Staring at the massive plumes of dust rolling in the distance, her mind went momentarily blank. The noise had been so overwhelmingly loud that her entire body had shuddered on instinct.
It had been a long time since Suzy was shaken like this, but initial fright quickly gave way to pure awe.
This was her first time witnessing a mountain being leveled, and a single tiny slip of paper had brought down an entire hill. How was that any different from a military missile?
Is this what a cultivation world is like? It was terrifying—a small, flimsy talisman packed more destructive force than a grenade!
If I had something like this in my hands, wouldn’t I be able to blow up anyone I wanted? Suzy couldn’t help pondering.
Beside her, Ming was no less stunned than the other two. "Holy crap! My talisman actually did that?!"
Just a moment ago, his dignity had been dragged through the dirt by Yeon, but now he was walking tall again! Who knew this talisman would perform so spectacularly? That earth-shattering power was a direct slap in Yeon’s face!
Ming burst into triumphant laughter. "Look! Look at that! That’s my masterpiece! Tell me that isn’t insane!"
"Insane how?" Yeon couldn’t resist throwing cold water on him. "With a delay that long, if you use it in battle, the enemy will have packed their bags and run three miles away before it goes off."
Ming’s skill at making talismans was undeniably incredible, but why was he so wildly unpredictable? Where was the flaw coming from?
A talisman with this much destructive force was amazing, but a delay made it risky—what if its quality control was completely random?
That hit Ming right where it hurt. Feeling a bit embarrassed, he grumbled, "Well, the power is undeniable, isn’t it?! This charm easily matches the full-force strike of a Golden Core cultivator!"
As Ming tried to defend his honor, the two bickered back and forth for a bit longer before the group headed back to the front of Ming’s house.
"Ming, I need you to draw some talismans for me as well," Suzy urged, feeling somewhat excited after seeing the previous talisman explode.
"Sure," Ming nodded, "whatever you wish!"
"Great. Start right now and let me see you draw a few Earthbind Talismans."
Yeon systematically laid out all the high-grade tools they had just purchased.
The Jade-Heart Paper was stacked neatly in one corner of the stone table, the Pine-Bristle Brush rested across a blue-stone ink slab, and the cap of the Dew-Drop Ink bottle was removed, releasing a light woody-ash scent that mingled crisply with the earthy aroma of the garden.
Suddenly remembering something, Yeon chimed in, "How about this—draw a simple talisman first so we can test the results."
Ming nodded.
Standing before the stone table, he lowered his gaze to inspect the stack of Jade-Heart Paper. He picked up the Pine-Bristle Brush, feeling its heavy, solid weight resting between his fingers—a far cry from the feather-light, bargain-bin junk he usually had to work with.
Dipping the tip into the Dew-Drop Ink, he spread the liquid across the stone slab. Neither too thin nor too thick, the ink clung perfectly to the tip of the brush.
He held his wrist suspended in the air for a couple of seconds, as if re-attuning his senses to the high-grade materials.
Then, the tip descended, tracing his very first stroke onto the Jade-Heart Paper.
His movements were exceptionally fluid, every stroke landed with absolute precision—no hesitation, no stutters. The rune pattern for a Concealment Talisman wasn’t overly complex, consisting of a few primary lines and several supporting flourishes.
He drew at a blistering speed, yet it was fast without being reckless. Every line maintained uniform thickness and depth, looking as though he had painted it a million times before.
With a final, decisive flourish, he lifted the brush, picked up the completed talisman, held it up against the light for inspection, and handed it to Yeon.
"Done. Give this a shot."
Yeon took the charm. Instead of activating it right away, he looked down to inspect the inscribed runes.
The Jade-Heart Paper was pristine and smooth, and the ink had seeped cleanly into the fibers without bleeding or breaking off—the spiritual flow running through the charm was entirely seamless.
After studying it for a few seconds, he channeled his spiritual power to trigger the talisman.
Ming had drawn a Concealment Talisman, which made testing its efficacy instantaneous.
The second the spiritual energy activated, the paper burned away silently between Yeon’s fingers. There was no flash, no smoke, nor any of the flickering, unstable spiritual fluctuations that usually plagued Ming’s creations.
Yeon stood in place, waiting a beat.
Nothing seemed to happen.
After the charm burned to ash, he didn’t vanish into thin air, but when he looked down at his body, he noticed his form had grown strangely translucent—as though viewed through a thin, water-soaked veil. His outer contours bled smoothly into the stone wall behind him, making him flicker in and out of view.
He flexed his arms and lifted a foot; his movements remained completely fluid, free of any stiffness or sluggishness.
Taking a tentative step forward, the sound of his footsteps striking the ground was still audible, but his body resembled a diluted shadow, nearly impossible to distinguish under the bright afternoon sun.
Yeon glanced back at Ming, who was watching him with a tense, nervous expression.
Waiting patiently for a few more moments, Yeon remained cloaked for roughly fifteen breaths of time before the spiritual energy naturally dissipated, bringing his physical form back into crisp focus.
"It works," Yeon muttered, looking down at his hands before staring up at Ming. "Flawless performance. No delay, no misfires, and none of that erratic flickering nonsense."
Standing off to the side, Ming’s brother, Chen, beamed approvingly. "Not bad at all—a very effective cloak. Yeon, I couldn’t even sense your presence just now."
Yeon looked utterly shocked.
It was common knowledge that talismans were divided into strict ranks, and low-grade talismans typically had zero effect on higher-realm cultivators. Chen’s cultivation level was a full major realm above theirs, yet Ming’s talisman had successfully veiled Yeon from Chen’s perception!
On top of that, it had operated with complete stability without a single hitch!
So Ming’s talismans did not work properly before because he used low-grade tools, huh...
Yeon’s mind was flooded with complex emotions. Man, this guy is so tragic.
Ming, however, couldn’t care less about their inner reflections.
Having verified that his finished talismans functioned flawlessly, he immediately set to work drawing the Earthbind Talismans for Suzy.
This marked the very first time both Yeon and Chen had ever watched Ming work from start to finish—and what they saw left both of them completely dumbfounded.
"...How on earth is he so fast?!" Yeon couldn’t help muttering.
What the hell! Aren’t other talisman masters supposed to meditate, concentrate their focus, drain massive amounts of mental energy, and spend hours meticulously crafting a single charm?!
What is up with this bastard Ming?! Why is he so ridiculously fast?!
Before their eyes, Ming flicked his wrist a few times—swish, swish, swish—and a brand-new talisman was already finished. Anyone watching without context would think he was just casually slapping checkmarks onto scrap paper!
Within mere moments, all ten Earthbind Talismans requested by Suzy were completed.
Pausing his movements, Ming wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead.
"Are these enough for you?"
Suzy counted the finished charms, a bright smile spreading across her face as she nodded. "Can you draw more?"
"Ha! Of course I can!"