6: Chapter 6 The Strategic Throat: Wangshan Town

Li Changqing held the Wolf-Hair Brush in his hand, took two deep breaths to calm his mind, and dipped the Talisman brush into the specially prepared spirit ink.

He then circulated the Qi within his body until it surged to his fingers and transferred into the Talisman brush in his hand, causing the ink-stained Wolf-Hair Brush to emit a faint glow.

With a slight movement of his fingertips, he gently dipped the brush onto the specially prepared Talisman paper. Unlike Mortal Talisman drawing, a Cultivator must not fully immerse the brush tip when making Talismans; one can only take the top thirty percent of the ink, otherwise, the Qi within the spirit ink would dissipate too quickly due to the brush shaft's rapid conduction.

The pale cyan Qi seeped through the brush hairs onto the paper, leaving a fine, hair-thin line. After about half a cup of tea's time, he rotated his wrist, the brush tip moving sometimes as fast as flying, sometimes as slow as a tortoise. As the spirit ink solidified, a flash of sword light flowed across the Talisman paper, then gradually dimmed and vanished.

A Rank 1 High Grade Talisman, the Silver Sword Talisman, was successfully made!

"Whew!"

Seeing this, Li Changqing let out a long breath, wiped the fine sweat from his forehead, and a satisfied smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. This was the seventh Silver Sword Talisman he had successfully made in three days.

He had attempted it ten times in total. A seventy percent success rate could be considered entering the Ranks of the top-tier Rank 1 High Grade Talisman Makers. Before his Breakthrough to the Qi Refining 7th Layer, although he had made Silver Sword Talismans before, his success rate was less than thirty percent—a world of difference compared to now.

Making Talismans consumes not only Qi but also mental energy. Typically, after a Cultivator makes a Talisman of the same Rank as their cultivation, they must take a proper rest; it cannot be done without limit.

Li Changqing held the Silver Sword Talisman in his hand and examined it carefully. The quality of this Talisman was still excellent, proving that he was becoming increasingly stable in making Silver Sword Talismans.

As long as a Cultivator injects Qi into the Silver Sword Talisman, they can activate it to unleash sword blade attacks in a specified direction, with power equivalent to a strike from a Cultivator at the Qi Refining 7th to 8th Layer. This is the convenience and power of Talismans.

The material cost for making one Silver Sword Talisman is half a Low-Grade Spirit Stone, while a finished Silver Sword Talisman can be sold for two Low-Grade Spirit Stones. This means that in these three days, he had earned nine Low-Grade Spirit Stones from making Talismans.

Sure enough, after officially stepping into the Ranks of Rank 1 High Grade Talisman Makers, his speed of earning Spirit Stones through Talisman Making would increase several times over.

However, he could not spend all his time on Talisman Making. At this moment, he already felt his mind was somewhat exhausted and was no longer suitable for continuing to make Talismans, so he prepared to begin meditating to Cultivate.

Early the next morning, Li Changqing opened his eyes. After meditating all night, his Divine Sense and Qi were fully restored.

In the following days, Li Changqing would meditate and Cultivate facing the purple Qi at the Mao hour every day, inspect Xuanling Lake and check the growth of the spirit rice at the Chen hour, study Talisman Making at the Si hour, eat and rest at the Wu hour, and use the Wei and Shen hours to Cultivate Spells and familiarize himself with Magical Artifacts.

For a Qi Refining Cultivator, Spells and Magical Artifacts are the foundation of survival in combat; they cannot be taken lightly. Such fulfilling days passed one by one.

Time flows like a river, years do not tarry, and moments pass in the blink of an eye.

Li Changqing had been guarding Xuanling Lake for over three months. After eating breakfast this morning, Li Changqing took his filled Storage Pouch and flew from Xuanling Island toward Wangshan Town.

Wangshan Town is located at the easternmost point of Anping County. It is the throat of the eastern part of Anping County and the only major road from Anping County into the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Range. It is also the safest and most convenient entrance for several nearby counties to enter the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Range, and is also called Wangshan Market by many. Therefore, Wangshan Town is the most important town under the Li family's jurisdiction in Anping County.

Among the eighteen towns of the Li family, twelve are places where the clan's Mortals live, and the other six towns are either special resource points or have special strategic significance.

Although Wangshan Town does not have the largest population, it is the town that brings the most revenue to the Li family and is also the largest market in Anping County. Therefore, the Li family has not only set up two Rank 2 Formations in Wangshan Town but also has a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator stationed there all year round.

At high noon, the sun hung high in the center of the sky, emitting a scorching and full radiance. Thousands of rays of sunlight poured down vertically, illuminating the stone walls of Wangshan Town, and the earth was shrouded in a warm glow.

The stone walls were fully four zhang high, built from solid blocks of polished bluestone. The wall surface was covered with scratches of varying depths; some were gaps left by Sharp Weapon strikes, while others were gullies clawed out by the sharp claws of Yao Beasts.

Every three zhang along the top of the wall stood a three-meter-high arrow tower. Banners fluttered on the towers. The guarding Li family Martial Artists were dressed in uniform black fitted outfits, with long knives hanging at their waists and bows and arrows in their hands, their eyes scanning the front like hawks.

Although these arrow towers were only made of ordinary iron and wood, on the city wall, as long as they were operated by a Body Tempering Realm Martial Artist, they could harm a Yao Beast at the Peak of the Qi Refining Realm.

The two city gates were made of mysterious iron, with bowl-sized iron nails studded in the center. In the very middle was embedded a palm-sized mysterious iron plaque, on which the three ancient seal characters for "Wangshan Town" were carved. Between the lines, a faint spiritual light faintly flowed; it was clearly blessed with a Restriction by a Cultivator. At this moment, the city gates were wide open, and the flow of people entering and leaving was endless but orderly.

Li Changqing lingered not far from the city gate. He had been to Wangshan Town many times, but this time he was wearing a prepared invisibility mask, having come to hide his identity.

Considering that he would need to buy and sell items in large quantities in Wangshan Town for a long time to come, it was best to be careful so that interested parties would not notice the changes that had occurred in him.

As soon as he stepped into Wangshan Town, a familiar scent mixed with the fragrance of medicine, wine, and beast meat rushed to his face, instantly dispelling the chill of the mountain wind at the city gate.

Various buildings were arranged crisscross along the streets, and each street was built in an orderly manner. The first four streets were lined with shops, with signs covering everything: Xuanbing Pavilion, Spirit Beast Shop, Artifact Refining Workshop, Spirit Rice Shop, Baiwei Restaurant, and so on.

Of the middle four streets, three were specifically used for Loose Cultivators, Martial Artists, and Mortals to set up street stalls, while the remaining street was used by the Li family to hold auctions or large-scale events.

The last eight streets were where the people of Wangshan Town lived.

The flow of people on the street was like a mixed river, spreading out the various aspects of life vividly. The most numerous pedestrians were not Cultivators, but Martial Artists who possessed Martial Arts cultivation.

Wangshan Town was the town most favored by Loose Cultivators and Martial Artists in the nearby counties. Among the more than 20,000 residents, Martial Artists accounted for fifty percent, and more than half of the remaining people were the family members of Martial Artists and Cultivators; the proportion of Cultivators was relatively low.

There were more than two hundred shops in Wangshan Town. Except for the three shops opened by the Li family themselves on the main street, the rest of the shops were rented out to earn fixed income.

There were mainly two types of Martial Artists active in Wangshan Town: the first type were those who worked in the shops in Wangshan Town, earning a fixed income, seeking stability while fantasizing about the day when an Opportunity would fall upon them.

The second type were those Martial Artists who had long since disregarded life and death, often hovering on the edge of death as they ventured into the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Range.

Some of these Martial Artists did so for the sake of their own cultivation Breakthrough; after all, a Body Tempering Realm Martial Artist breaking through to the Innate Realm could also increase their lifespan by several decades, which was an irresistible temptation for many Martial Artists.

Others saw no hope for themselves and were fighting for a future for their descendants; even if it might cost them their lives, they would do their utmost to lift up their offspring.