Chapter 241 - 234: Talisman Complete, Gathering in the Valley

Chapter 241: Chapter 234: Talisman Complete, Gathering in the Valley

What Jiang Zuo was preparing to draw was the most basic fifth-rank Talisman, the Burning Wind and Fire Sea.

It was called the most basic, but only after Jiang Zuo began drawing did he truly understand just how difficult it was to create a fifth-rank Talisman.

The difficulty was no less than when Jiang Zuo had first replicated the Beast Pattern. It was even more complex and prone to failure.

Each attempt to draw one consumed a massive amount of Jiang Zuo’s Spiritual Power and Divine Sense.

The Spiritual Power consumption was manageable. Although Jiang Zuo was burdened by the Daoist Shackles, drawing Talismans only required a trickle of Spiritual Power.

The drain on his Spiritual Power wasn’t an issue for Jiang Zuo.

However, the consumption of his Divine Sense was immense.

Even with Jiang Zuo’s powerful Divine Sense, he still needed time to recover after each failure before he could try again.

Only someone like Jiang Zuo could even do this. Any other Cultivator wouldn’t even have the chance to make multiple attempts.

Failure followed failure.

But Jiang Zuo didn’t grow discouraged. He had long grown accustomed to this level of failure from when he was first practicing the visualization to replicate the Beast Pattern.

Failure is the mother of success. Jiang Zuo failed time and again, but his experience continued to accumulate.

However, creating a fifth-rank Talisman required more than just experience.

For Jiang Zuo, especially, luck was also an indispensable factor.

Jiang Zuo lost himself in the process, losing all track of time.

He tried drawing it again and again. Then, one day, just as Jiang Zuo lifted his brush...

The Talisman he had just finished drawing before him suddenly erupted with a searing heatwave.

’This is... a success?’

Jiang Zuo didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

It was much like when he had inexplicably succeeded in drawing the Beast Pattern for the first time.

He didn’t have any special feeling in his heart, but he had simply succeeded.

"Still, the rewards are obvious. If I had better Spiritual Ink, my success rate would probably be much higher."

"More importantly, with a fifth-rank Talisman, I can kill a fifth-rank Talismanic Dao Beast."

"If I can obtain the legacy for more fifth-rank Talismans, the success rate shouldn’t be a problem anymore!"

Jiang Zuo mused.

To be able to create a fifth-rank Talisman by luck, one still needed the underlying ability.

If it were any other Cultivator in the Secret Realm, they wouldn’t be able to draw one even if given a hundred years.

’Once I draw two or three more, I’ll go looking for trouble with a fifth-rank Talismanic Dao Beast!’

What he had was only the most basic fifth-rank Talisman. Jiang Zuo felt it was unlikely he could kill a fifth-rank Talismanic Dao Beast with just this one.

To be safe, it was better to draw two or three more before heading deeper into the valley to hunt.

Jiang Zuo continued his seclusion.

Jiang Zuo didn’t know that in his effort to create this single fifth-rank Talisman, he had already been in seclusion for over half a year.

And while he was in seclusion, the situation inside the Celestial Talisman Institute had once again undergone a massive change.

A team of less than a hundred people had begun to frantically hunt other Cultivators.

At first, they operated in the shadows. But later, after being exposed, they stopped hiding and began to openly attack Cultivators outside their group.

Furthermore, the identities of the Cultivators in this team were far from simple.

They all came from the major sects, especially the Ten Great Sects. Disciples from the Divine Wood Sect, the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect, the Jasper Pool Immortal Sect, and the Thousand Illusion Sect were all among them.

There were even rumors that this team was formed by the disciples of the Ten Great Sects on their own initiative.

Their purpose was to rob and kill other Cultivators so that they themselves could survive.

Initially, these Cultivators from the major sects still cared about their reputation and acted secretly.

Later, after being exposed, they would at first fly into a rage out of shame.

But gradually, they grew indifferent to robbing and killing other Cultivators. No matter what their victims said, they would just watch coldly, completely unmoved.

"This is bad, Zhao! We’re pretty much the last ones who haven’t been killed yet."

"If we keep staying here, we’ll die at the hands of Hou Siming and his group sooner or later!"

"Yeah, Zhao! Why don’t we go join up with that senior brother? It’s too dangerous to stay here!"

Inside a room, several disciples of the Black Tortoise Dao Sect spoke with immense anxiety.

"It seems that’s our only choice."

Zhao Chengjun sighed.

He knew Jiang Zuo must be busy, and he didn’t want to disturb him if he could avoid it.

But now they had no other choice. If they didn’t go to Jiang Zuo for help, they would soon face a dead end.

Having made his decision, Zhao Chengjun sent a message to Bu Yuehua.

Jiang Zuo had introduced them to each other long ago so they could look out for one another in times of crisis.

Now, the Black Tortoise Dao Sect and the Spirit Seal Sect usually stayed a short distance from each other, keeping watch for one another.

At the first sign of trouble, they would notify the other party and retreat quickly.

This was one of the reasons they had managed to survive until now.

Bu Yuehua had also been thinking of seeking out Jiang Zuo for help, so she breathed a sigh of relief upon receiving Zhao Chengjun’s message.

The two teams immediately rushed towards the valley to the east.

However, the surviving Cultivators were extremely wary of any disturbance in the outside world.

The fact they were still alive meant they all had various monitoring methods.

Although Zhao Chengjun and Bu Yuehua’s groups were very careful when they moved, it was inevitable that some people noticed them.

"Zhao Chengjun and Bu Yuehua are both heading for that eastern valley. Is there a way to survive there?"

"Not necessarily a path to survival, but there are lots of fourth-rank Demon Beasts and even fifth-rank ones. Hou Siming and his gang might not dare to make a move there."

"Zhao Chengjun and Bu Yuehua might have found a hiding place inside."

"If we keep hiding here, we’re dead sooner or later anyway. We might as well follow them."

"If we’re wrong, we’ll just have to find another hiding place. It can’t be worse than our current situation."

A few people chattered among themselves and quickly decided to follow Zhao Chengjun.

There were quite a few Cultivators who thought the same way.

And as they began to move, more of the remaining survivors were alerted.

Watching the surviving Cultivators all rushing towards the eastern valley,

Some people, not knowing the reason, thought there must be a path to survival there.

They didn’t care about anything else and decided to follow the crowd and figure things out once they got there.

The result was that as Zhao Chengjun and Bu Yuehua went to find Jiang Zuo, hundreds of Cultivators followed after them in droves.

All of the surviving Cultivators learned of this development.

Therefore, it was impossible for the hunting party from the major sects to be unaware.

"The eastern valley? Have they found a hiding place?"

"But no matter what, if they can get in, there’s no reason we can’t."

"Since everyone is gathered in one place, it’s the perfect opportunity for us to go over and wipe them all out in one fell swoop."

Listening to the report from a subordinate Cultivator, Hou Siming sneered and spoke to the others.

Hou Siming was a disciple of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect. Although the Black Tortoise Dao Sect had suffered a great disaster, Hou Siming had been instructed by his sect before entering not to be courteous to them.

Besides Hou Siming, there was Guan Lingyan from the Thousand Illusion Sect, Shao Hongshan from the Divine Wood Sect, and Weng Rujin from the Jasper Pool Immortal Sect.

This hunting party of over seventy people was led by the four of them.

"Let’s go. The sooner we eliminate those people, the sooner we can leave this damn Secret Realm!"

Guan Lingyan said coldly.

If she had felt a trace of pity when they first started,

after hunting and killing nearly three hundred people, her heart had long since turned to iron.

Shao Hongshan and Weng Rujin had no objections.

Their thoughts were much the same as Guan Lingyan’s.

Moreover, they knew that even if they killed all those other Cultivators, the Secret Realm might not let them leave.

At that point, their own team would probably have to turn on each other.

Therefore, they were completely unmoved by the act of killing Cultivators outside their group.

Even if they made it back alive and the sects of those they had killed found out what they had done,

they could still righteously claim that none of it was their fault.

If anyone was to blame, it was this Talismanic Daoist Holy Land, and the other Cultivators who had entered.

Jiang Zuo was still in seclusion. He hadn’t even finished drawing the second fifth-rank Talisman when he sensed a disturbance at the valley entrance.

His Blood Qi Avatar was monitoring the entrance. When Zhao Chengjun and Bu Yuehua arrived with their disciples, Jiang Zuo knew that the situation must have become extremely critical.

He stopped his seclusion, walked out, and went to greet the two of them.

Upon seeing Jiang Zuo, both of them breathed a sigh of relief.

"Junior Brother Zhou Yong!"

Among the Black Tortoise Dao Sect group, besides Zhao Chengjun, the other disciples were only just now realizing that this supposed "senior brother" was actually Jiang Zuo.

For a moment, the expressions on their faces turned a little strange, and they had many questions they wanted to ask.

But Zhao Chengjun and Bu Yuehua were busy explaining the situation with the hunting party to Jiang Zuo, so no matter how many questions they had, they could only hold them in.

As Jiang Zuo listened to them, he wasn’t the least bit surprised that a large hunting party had appeared.

Under the rules set by the Secret Realm’s spirit, it was actually a bit late for things to have reached this stage.

However, what left Jiang Zuo speechless was...

...that just as the two finished speaking, other Cultivators who had been following them arrived.

After that, the Cultivators arrived in a continuous stream, and soon nearly a hundred of them were present.

So many Cultivators had suddenly gathered in the valley.

But few were happy, because they all knew that Hou Siming’s hunting party would soon arrive.

"The hunting party is definitely coming. Are we really going to stay here and defend with them? Shouldn’t we leave and hide?"

Someone couldn’t help but ask anxiously.

Even though there were over a hundred of them, numbers didn’t mean much.

Here, Talismans were everything.

The hunting party, aside from the disciples of the major sects, had specifically recruited Cultivators with exceptional talent for Talismans.

The Talismans possessed by the hunting party were far beyond what they could compare to.

If a fight broke out, they had no chance of winning, no matter how many people they had.

"Don’t be hasty. Don’t you see that the people from the Celestial Sound Sect, Spirit Seal Sect, and Black Tortoise Dao Sect aren’t planning to leave?"

The leading Cultivator of one group shook his head.

"They seem to be following that person’s orders. I think his name is Zhou Yong?"

"Zhou Yong? You mean the Zhou Yong who bears the Daoist Shackles?"

"I think that’s him!"

"I’ve heard Zhou Yong is very capable, but he’s ultimately just at the Divine Body Realm. In a place full of Three Flowers Realm Cultivators, what can he possibly do?"

Many Cultivators looked at Jiang Zuo, their gazes filled with doubt and suspicion.

They were confused, but when they saw that even the female Cultivators from the Celestial Sound Sect weren’t planning to leave and didn’t look like they were preparing to die, they, though somewhat shaken, gritted their teeth and stayed put.

And while they hesitated, the large hunting party arrived, blocking the entrance to the valley.

"Excellent! Almost everyone is here. Saves me the trouble of hunting you down one by one."

Hou Siming walked in, looked at the hundred-plus people in the valley, and couldn’t help but laugh.