After Becoming the Hero's Ex-fiancée

Frost Arrow Talisman (2)

It gnawed for a while but didn’t even manage to take one leaf down.

“Eh—” The kitten dispersed at Granny Jin’s cry of surprise.

Zheng Wan rubbed her forehead. She had only conjured two things but her soul consciousness had completely depleted. Her current soul consciousness was probably a puddle of water.

“Lassie, I was right, eh? Your Illusion Creation Arts and ice vital roots are incredible together!”

“Generally, the conjured illusions do not have any attributes, but the illusions you conjure carry your ice vital energy, and have the effects of freezing and retardation. Even if you get into a fight you can’t win in the future, you can escape by relying on the puppet mirror and your illusions.”

“……”
Zheng Wan asked resignedly, “So, this is an arts for escaping?”

“Silly, when you can conjure illusory domains, you can drag your opponents into the illusory domain you created. With this freezing effect, you will be invincible!”

“……”
If she remembered correctly, one had to be at the Grand Magnificence stage to conjure illusory domains. She was currently… one Cui Wang away from that stage.

“Alright, don’t waste time thinking about this and that. Just practise first.”

Zheng Wan resumed meditating and used the Soul Consciousness Arts to recover her soul consciousness, then practised using her Illusion Creation Arts a few more times, only returning to her room when she was exhausted. When she passed the table full of ruined talisman paper, she had a sudden thought.

“Granny, even though ice vital energy is unruly, when I was conjuring illusions just now, I found that when the vital energy passes the centre of my forehead to the Phoenix Jade, it seems to become much tamer. I’ll try again.”

“The Complete Collection of Talismans” was a good book.

The reason it has been popular in the Heavenly Realms for thousands of years was that it covered the fundamentals well and was comprehensive enough.

When giving explanations, it uses the simplest and most understandable terms, such as:
“At the end of it all, drawing talismans are a means to draw upon the vital Qi of heaven and earth for one’s own use. It’s just that these techniques are sealed within the talisman paper. Different talisman brushes and talisman paper will result in different reactions with the various types of heaven and earth’s vital Qi. The cinnabar pigment’s grade will also influence the grade of the talisman.”

It also has a compilation of the ordinary talismans of various elements, such as the Grade 1 fireball talisman and earth shield talisman, Grade 2 golden blade talisman, and so on. There were also common talismans without any elemental attributes, such as the divine movement talisman, strength talisman, diamond talisman, and so on.

Zheng Wan’s ice vital roots were too domineering. Among elemental talismans, only the frost arrow talisman and the ice shield talisman could be drawn with it.
However, there were very few of these talismans on the market, the reason being that it was extremely difficult for one with ice vital roots to draw talismans.

Therefore, whenever frost arrow talismans and ice shield talismans appeared on the market, they would be immediately snatched up.

As for the price, they cost three times more than what regular talismans of equivalent grades did.

For example, the market price of Grade 1 talismans like the fireball talisman and earth shield talisman was one low-grade Yuan stone for ten pieces. When it came to the frost arrow talismans, they cost one low-grade Yuan stone for three pieces. If the quality was good, it could even cost one low-grade Yuan stone for two pieces. The Grade 2 ice shield talisman cost a bit more, at one low-grade Yuan stone apiece.

After deducting the cost of the yellow paper, talisman brush, and cinnabar pigment, if the success rate was high, Zheng Wan could rely entirely on drawing talismans to support her family for the time being.

Earlier, she had been hitting the wall on the frost arrow talisman.

This time, she calmed down, meditated for a while, then ran the Soul Consciousness Skill to restore her soul consciousness to its fullest, cast a cleansing arts on herself for comfort, and changed into the Heavenly Plume Incandescent Robes that Cui Wang had given her.
This expensive garment had to be of some use, right?

After all the preparations were completed, Zheng Wan picked up the talisman brush again, dipped it in the cinnabar pigment, coursed the ice vital energy through her body, past the centre of her forehead, into the Phoenix Jade, and— put the brush to paper!

With her soul consciousness, she commanded the ice energy that had been rinsed by the Phoenix Jade to enter her right arm and it came out through her fingers and fell onto the talisman brush. Her wrist became light and dextrous, and she began to draw the pattern that she had already learned by heart by now.

Zheng Wan found herself entering an extremely mysterious realm.

At the beginning of the creation, the talismans of heaven and earth had formed rules of their own, and presently, these rules seemed to be guiding the movements of her talisman brush— her soul consciousness was being pulled, and her Yuan energy fell obediently into the talisman paper along with the cinnabar pigment.

One last stroke, and a lift of the brush—

The yellow paper suddenly lit up, and the red cinnabar pigment that was just laid upon it turned into a ghostly blue in an instant. The entire piece of paper lost its prickly texture and became cold to the touch.

“It worked.”
Smiling, Zheng Wan dusted off the frost arrow talisman and showed it off to Granny Jin. “Granny, look.”

Granny Jin said resentfully, “What rotten good luck. Its quality is actually upper tier too.”

Granny Jin sighed. She had initially thought that this girl’s mortal baggage was too heavy, and never expected a person with so many burdens could actually successfully enter the Illuminated Glass Heart state of mind that many cultivators would never be able to even touch in their entire lifetime.

“I didn’t expect that you’d accidentally enter the Illuminated Crystal Heart state.” A heart like crystal, unstained by dust, in this state of mind, be it drawing talismans or practising arts,  one could yield twice the result with half the effort.

“Heaven will always leave a door open.” Zheng Wan didn’t understand what the so-called Illuminated Crystal Heart state that Granny Jin was talking about, but it didn’t stop her from saying smugly, “My father was right.”

Next, she summoned all her energy, and drew talismans until the daylight broke in the east.

In the span of half a night, she managed to draw a total of twelve Grade 1 frost arrow talismans, most of which were of high quality. After a rough calculation, she made…
At least five low-grade Yuan stones.

Zheng Wan also discovered that because she practised the Soul Consciousness Arts after she finished consuming her soul consciousness to draw the talismans, her soul consciousness had thickened a little in just one night.

She was so excited that she drew for two days in a row, and only stopped when the fifteenth of the month came around. She put on that Heavenly Plume Incandescent Robes, dolled up carefully, and went to her appointment with Cui Wang early in the morning with the token he gave her.