Chapter 353 - 342: Spirit-Breaking Talisman

Chapter 353: Chapter 342: Spirit-Breaking Talisman

Deep in the Ghost Mist Forest.

A streak of gray-black Evil Qi, sharp as a blade, tore through the thin mist of the forest and precisely pierced the skull of a Tier One Middle Grade Cyan Scale Leopard.

The Demon Beast’s massive body twitched twice before it collapsed heavily onto a pile of decaying leaves, its blood quickly staining the ground red.

[Requirement to permanently manifest Blazing Evil Spiritual Essence (Green): Kill thirty Tier One Middle Grade or higher Demon Beasts using Fire Element or Evil Element Magic (11/30)]

Li Yuan slowly descended from the air. He skillfully cut open the Demon Beast’s head and placed the contents into his storage pouch.

Instead of venturing deeper, he turned and headed back to the marketplace.

As he was walking down a street in the marketplace, the passive sense from his [Dark Evil Insight (Blue)] suddenly picked up an extremely subtle fluctuation.

Li Yuan paused, focusing his senses.

Within his sensory net, an incredibly faint wisp of Demonic Qi was seeping from beneath the ground in the direction of the marketplace, extending toward the depths of the Ghost Mist Forest.

This Demonic Qi was extremely weak and mixed with Spiritual Qi to conceal it. Without the boost from his blue-tier [Dark Evil Insight], Li Yuan would never have discovered it, even if he had swept the ground with his Divine Sense.

What truly caught his attention was the frequency of the Demonic Qi’s fluctuations.

It wasn’t spreading naturally, nor was it leaking from an Array. Instead, it was pulsing with an extremely regular rhythm.

One long, two short. A pause. Three short, one long.

It was like someone was beating on an invisible drum deep underground.

Li Yuan closed his eyes, concentrating all his senses on that thin, weak thread of Demonic Qi.

He imprinted the frequency of the pulses, the intervals between them, and the changes in their intensity into his mind without a single error.

’This is a code.’

It wasn’t a random spiritual turbulence, but a special communication method used by the Dark Abyss Association or some Demon Cultivator organization to transmit intelligence. ’The mole hidden in the patrol team is trying to send out information about the marketplace from the last two days.’

Li Yuan didn’t sever the wisp of Demonic Qi. The code itself was quite valuable.

’If I can use this mole to decipher the pattern of this frequency, not only will I be able to intercept this mole’s intelligence in the future, but I might even be able to spy on the Dark Abyss Association’s information network in the surrounding area, or even reverse-engineer the location of the Demon Cultivators’ contact points.’

After he memorized the entire pattern of the frequency’s pulses, the Demonic Qi fluctuations gradually subsided.

Li Yuan remained in place for a moment, confirming that the other party had finished transmitting their message, before turning and walking back toward the Mist Forest Marketplace.

By the time he returned to the marketplace’s administration office, it was nearly dusk.

As soon as Li Yuan entered, he saw Chen Yi speaking with a haggard-looking old man. The old man wore a worn-out gray Daoist robe, his Cultivation was at the Qi Refining Eighth Level, and eight Cultivators stood timidly behind him.

Most of these eight people were injured, their Spiritual Power was unstable, and their eyes revealed the exhaustion and instinctive vigilance of a long journey.

Seeing Li Yuan walk in, Chen Yi immediately stood up.

"Pavilion Master Li, these people fled here from Yunzhou. They say they know Sun Tong and came specifically to seek refuge in the Mist Forest Marketplace."

Hearing this, the old man quickly took two steps forward and bowed deeply.

"I am Sun Henian, a member of the Sun family from Yunzhou. Sun Tong previously sent a message back saying he had received protection here from you, Pavilion Master Li. After the Sun family’s residence was destroyed, our branch of the family drifted from place to place before finally making it here. I beg you, Pavilion Master, to take us in."

Li Yuan’s gaze swept over Sun Henian and the eight family members.

’The remnants of the Sun family’s power.’

Some time had passed since Sun Tong had brought news of the Jade Marrow Mushroom. It seemed Sun Tong had indeed passed on information about the marketplace to his other scattered family members.

"Sit down and talk."

Li Yuan walked to the head seat and sat down.

Only then did Sun Henian sit down, perching on the edge of his chair. He caught his breath and first spoke a word of thanks to Senior Li.

Then he continued, "We came in a hurry and lost several family members on the way. We truly have nowhere else to go."

"What is the current situation in Yunzhou?" Li Yuan skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the point.

Sun Henian gave a bitter smile and shook his head.

"It’s complete chaos. The Qi Shui Sect and the Evil Slaying Sect are in an all-out war. The Qi Shui Sect is losing ground steadily, and several large marketplaces in the central region have been conquered one after another."

He paused for a moment and lowered his voice.

"The most critical thing is that the Demon Cultivators have completely blockaded the main routes to the Primordial Yang Sect’s heartland. Many families and Loose Cultivators originally planned to flee directly to the Primordial Yang Sect’s core marketplaces, but now the roads are blocked, and they can’t get through."

Li Yuan’s fingers tapped lightly on the tabletop twice.

"So, they can only head for the border?"

"Yes." Sun Henian nodded heavily. "The main routes are impassable, so they can only take the remote border paths. A huge number of Loose Cultivators, small families, and even some disciples from defeated Sects are now desperately flocking to the few border marketplaces at the junction of Liangzhou and Yunzhou. Although the trade route to the Mist Forest Marketplace is out of the way, it’s precisely because it’s remote that the Demon Cultivators’ blockade is relatively weak, making it a lifeline."

As soon as these words were spoken, Li Yuan immediately made an assessment.

’The situation is developing faster than I expected.’

The Mist Forest Marketplace was originally just a remote outpost on the border. It had profited from taking in the first wave of refugees, barely qualifying as a sanctuary.

But now, things were different.

With the main routes cut off, the flow of people was forced toward the border. This brought not only a large population, but also the resources they carried, their incomplete inheritances, and all sorts of information.

As more and more Cultivators poured in, the Mist Forest Marketplace would sooner or later become a huge "border transit point." Cultivators would need a place to stay, heal their wounds, and replenish their pills and Talismans before figuring out their next move.

A massive flow of people meant an extremely high throughput of goods.

’The marketplace’s current layout will have to be expanded again.’

Li Yuan gathered his thoughts and looked at Sun Henian.

"People are free to come and go in the Mist Forest Marketplace. If you wish to stay, you can just rent a house normally," Li Yuan said in a calm tone.

Sun Henian nodded, stood up, and carefully took a jade slip with a Sealing Spirit Talisman affixed to it from his robes. He presented it to Li Yuan with both hands.

"The Sun family established itself in Yunzhou not just because of our residence, but also because of the small Talisman Making Skill passed down from our ancestors," Sun Henian said respectfully. "This is the complete method for making a Tier Two Middle Grade attack Talisman. We are willing to exchange it for the right to live in a few houses in the South District, and a shop."

Li Yuan took the jade slip. Instead of immediately removing the Sealing Spirit Talisman, he used his Divine Sense to briefly scan it through a small gap.

’A Spirit-Breaking Talisman. Tier Two Middle Grade.’

The jade slip contained not only the complete diagram of the Spirit Pattern configuration, but also detailed instructions on the Spiritual Ink ratio and the key nodes for drawing the strokes.

In attack Magic and Talismans, the term "Spirit-Breaking" was worth its weight in gold. When Cultivators fought, their opening move was always a Protective Spirit Light or a defensive Magical Artifact. Any technique that could penetrate or weaken Spiritual Power defenses was always a hot commodity in actual combat.

This was a very hefty bargaining chip.

"Done." Li Yuan put the jade slip away.

"Thank you, Pavilion Master Li!"

Sun Henian looked as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. The eight family members behind him also showed expressions of relief, as if they had just survived a catastrophe, and then they walked out of the administration office.

Li Yuan sat in his chair for a moment.

’The situation in Yunzhou is deteriorating, and a large population is about to flood in.’

’I have to increase my production capacity again.’

After leaving the administration office, Li Yuan went straight back to his stone house.

He sealed the doors and windows, activating the soundproofing and Early Warning Arrays simultaneously.

Li Yuan sat down at his desk, swept aside the clutter, and took out a sheet of extremely high-quality Tier Two talisman paper, smoothing it out.

Then, Li Yuan took the jade slip Sun Henian had just given him from his storage pouch, tore off the Sealing Spirit Talisman, and extended his Divine Sense into it.

The complete structure of the Spirit-Breaking Talisman instantly unfolded in his mind.

The Spirit Pattern of a Tier Two Middle Grade talisman was extremely complex. It was no longer a simple single-line drawing like a Tier One Talisman, but a three-dimensional, nested structure with inner, middle, and outer layers. The innermost layer was the core that gathered Spiritual Power, the middle layer was an acceleration circuit, and the outermost layer consisted of sawtooth-like Spirit-Breaking Spikes designed specifically to tear apart an enemy’s shield.

Li Yuan closed his eyes. In his mind, he used Divine Sense Lines to repeatedly disassemble and reassemble the Spirit Pattern, calculating the Spiritual Power pressure and angle of every stroke.

The foundation of his Minor Achievement in Tier Two Talisman Making Skill was now fully operational.

An incense stick’s time later, he opened his eyes.

On the corner of the desk, a bottle of specially made Spiritual Ink mixed with the blood of a Tier Two Demon Beast had been prepared, emitting a pungent, bloody odor and rich Spiritual Qi.

Li Yuan raised his right hand, and five Divine Sense Lines spread out as usual.

One of the Divine Sense Lines wrapped around the shaft of a talisman brush, lifting it steadily and dipping the tip precisely into the Spiritual Ink.

He was going to try drawing a Spirit-Breaking Talisman right away.