Cultivation: I Can Solidify Equipment Attributes

Chapter 76: Chapter 75: Vein-Expanding Talisman

After returning to his residence, Li Yuan dug out all the Demon Beast hides he’d acquired over the last few days and packed them into a cloth bag.

He hadn’t originally planned on selling the hides so quickly.

Li Yuan planned to sell them to Talisman Master Lu, as he could get a better price that way.

Unfortunately, when he made a special trip over, the courtyard gate was closed and no one was home.

Li Yuan didn’t waste time waiting, instead turning and heading to the marketplace to do some shopping.

After a round of the stalls on East Street and in North Alley, Li Yuan had managed to find basically everything on the list Yu Talisman Master had written for him.

The talisman paper for the Golden Armor Talisman had to be thick to withstand the Spiritual Power being forced across its surface. The Replenishing Talisman required a finer Spiritual Ink. The Vein-Expanding Talisman was the most troublesome; its paper couldn’t be too stiff, and a medicinal powder for soothing the meridians had to be mixed into the Spiritual Ink.

All the talisman papers had to be Tier One Low Grade.

After that round of shopping, the Spirit Stones in his sleeve felt significantly lighter.

Li Yuan stood at the entrance to the alley, running his hand over the Spirit Stones in his sleeve. He didn’t bother counting them; he could tell just by the weight that there weren’t many left.

On top of that, the Demon Beast hides were still on his hands, unsold. His expenses over the past few days had been considerable.

Fortunately, the materials were worth the cost.

As he reached the southern section of East Street, Li Yuan’s pace slowed.

There were far more people in this area than there had been a few days prior.

The main street was lined with unfamiliar faces. Some carried large bundles on their backs, while others had unopened wooden chests resting beside them. On a vacant plot of land to the south, a new wall was already half-built. Several Cultivators were using Magic to tamp the earth, raise wooden frames, and set beams with swift movements.

Earthen walls rose from the ground section by section, and wooden beams were laid across them. In the blink of an eye, a framework took shape.

Looking further back, however, many areas were still empty. A row of wooden stakes had been driven into the ground with string stretched between them, clearly marking out different zones.

Li Yuan walked over to a Loose Cultivator squatting beside a wooden chest and asked casually.

"New here?"

The Loose Cultivator looked to be in his thirties, his face tanned dark from the sun. He looked up at the sound of Li Yuan’s voice, and his expression immediately grew more reserved upon spotting the token at Li Yuan’s waist.

"Yeah, I came over from the other loose cultivator marketplace."

"Are things falling apart over there?" Li Yuan asked.

The Loose Cultivator glanced around before lowering his voice.

"It’s not that we couldn’t hold on, it’s just... chaotic."

"Demon Beasts show up on the outskirts from time to time, and there aren’t enough guards or supervisors. A while back, a few stalls were raided by rogue cultivators in the middle of the night. Someone died, and by the next day, everything was gone, picked clean."

As he said this, he jutted his chin toward the newly erected building frames to the south.

"Your Wang family, on the other hand, has been making some big moves lately."

"They’ve already sent people to clear out the Demon Beasts near the loose cultivator marketplace. Not a lot of them, of course, but it was the perfect opportunity for me to slip away with them."

Li Yuan glanced at the new wall.

"This place is expanding pretty quickly."

"Quick, sure," the Loose Cultivator chuckled. "Cultivators using Magic to build houses and walls is always fast. The tricky part is the planning—figuring out where to put the stalls, where to put the residences, where to leave paths, who collects rent where... all that has to be sorted out slowly."

"I know a bit of Earth Magic myself, so I’m familiar with this stuff."

The Loose Cultivator added with a smile, noticing Li Yuan’s gaze.

Li Yuan nodded and asked no more questions.

As he continued toward North Alley, he noted that the number of unfamiliar faces on the street had indeed increased.

Some had retreated from the other loose cultivator marketplace, some were traveling merchants who had caught wind of the news, and others were Loose Cultivators who saw Qinghe Marketplace expanding and wanted to secure a spot early.

With more people came more business.

By the time Li Yuan returned to his residence with the materials, dusk had fallen.

The room grew quiet as soon as he closed the door.

He spread the materials out on the table and began sorting through the items he had bought.

He set aside the instruction sheets for the Golden Armor Talisman and the Replenishing Talisman, giving them only a passing glance before pulling out the page for the Vein-Expanding Talisman.

The reason was simple. ’This is the one I can use on myself first.’

Sitting cross-legged at the table, Li Yuan reviewed the instructions for the Vein-Expanding Talisman one more time.

The Vein-Expanding Talisman was more intricate than the Fireball Talisman, with more lines and layers upon layers of Spirit Patterns. Not a single stroke could be missing, nor could there be an extra one.

Li Yuan picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and set it to the talisman paper.

On the first attempt, he was only a third of the way through when the Spiritual Power dissipated in the middle of the paper.

’A failure.’

The second attempt started with steady strokes, but when he reached a looping pattern in the middle, his wrist tilted slightly, and the Spiritual Ink immediately bled to the side.

’Another failure.’

A third, a fourth, a fifth.

A pile of failed talismans quickly grew on the corner of his table.

The Vein-Expanding Talisman truly lived up to its reputation as an auxiliary cultivation talisman among Tier One Low Grade items; it demanded far more patience than the Cleaning Talisman, Exorcism Talisman, or Warning Talisman.

Li Yuan didn’t stop, continuing to draw one after another.

The room was quiet, the only sound the faint scratching of his brush on paper, occasionally punctuated by a soft SIZZLE—the sound of talisman paper being scorched by Spiritual Power.

Deep into the night, Li Yuan finally managed to steady his hand for the final stroke on one of the talismans.

As the Spiritual Ink settled, the patterns on the paper’s surface glowed faintly. It didn’t dissipate, nor did it burn.

’Success.’

Li Yuan picked up the talisman and examined it.

The Spirit Patterns on its surface were fine and unbroken, resembling layers of pathways converging inward. Compared to the failed attempts, the aura of this one was far more stable.

The panel immediately appeared.

[Detectable Equippable Item: Vein-Expanding Talisman (Complete)]

[Entry Preview: Vein Expansion (White) - Expands meridian capacity, slightly increasing the upper limit of Spiritual Qi circulation.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Unblock every meridian in the body.]

Li Yuan’s gaze lingered on the last line.

’Unblock every meridian in the body.’

Without hesitation, Li Yuan put down his brush, sat cross-legged, and began to circulate the Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill.

Spiritual Power rose from his Dantian, flowing along the twelve major meridians before branching out into countless smaller ones.

After one full circulation, Li Yuan, with his eyes closed, could clearly sense the state of the meridians within his body.

Most of the major meridians were already clear, as were a good number of the branch meridians.

The Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill itself served to clear the meridians. After his recent, constant practice, his Spiritual Power could now flow through all the major meridians and larger branch meridians.

But it wasn’t enough.

There were a few fine branch meridians near his shoulders, back, ribs, and lower abdomen that his Spiritual Power could touch, but not yet flow through.

And in even deeper places, there were hair-thin micro-meridians that merely quivered when his Spiritual Power swept over them, refusing entry.

’It’s not a matter of proficiency.’

The Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill involved a great number of meridians, but not every single one in his body.

Li Yuan slowly opened his eyes.

The panel remained unchanged.

’I’m still a long way from meeting the permanence condition for the Vein-Expanding Talisman. I’ll have to find another way.’

’The best option would be to find a Cultivation Technique that targets different meridians.’

Still, that didn’t mean it wasn’t useful now.

Li Yuan reached out, picked up the Vein-Expanding Talisman for another look, then carefully set it aside on the table.

The lamplight flickered, momentarily illuminating the instruction sheets for the Golden Armor Talisman and Replenishing Talisman on the table.

’I have a little over ten Spirit Stones left.’

’I just bought all these materials, and I’ve only just succeeded with my first Vein-Expanding Talisman.’

Li Yuan stared down for a moment, then reached for a second blank talisman paper, spread it out, and picked up his brush again.

The room fell silent once more, leaving only the soft sound of a brush tip meeting paper.