Chapter 115: The Art of Fu Lu

  By the end of November, with the howling north wind and the snowflakes dancing in the sky, the coldest season arrived at the Manglong Mountains.

  One of the three major danger zones at the foot of Jianzong Mountain, the Hanming Cave, which was attacked by the cold tide ahead of schedule, has been completely sealed off. It is said that many disciples who entered the cave did not have time to return, and there is almost no hope of survival.

  Yin Wind Gorge became a forbidden place for ordinary disciples, and the remaining Fire Dragon Cave naturally became the last choice for most disciples. Every day, countless people entered the cave to mine, dig jade, and hunt demonic beasts.

  Qin Yun did not join in the excitement of this wave, except for attending the early class at Tianji Palace, most of his time was spent cultivating Jiuyang Xuan Gong and Ben Lei Xingyun Sword.

  According to the words of that Liao surname sword master from Tianji Palace Sword Cultivation Hall, Qin Yun's swordsmanship realm has already approached the great completion of sword energy. The only difference is that his strength realm is slightly inferior. As long as the latter can ascend one more level, the great completion of sword energy will be achieved!

  The swordsmanship can be divided into six major realms: Sword Style, Sword Energy, Sword Appearance, Sword Intention, and Sword Domain. Qin Yun has been practicing the sword for less than two years and has already reached the realm of Great Completion of Sword Energy, which is absolutely a rapid progress, even within the Sword Sect, only a few talented individuals can compare to him.

  However, few people understand Qin Yun's strength and talent, in the Tian Cheng Sword Sect he is still an unknown new disciple.

  At this time, Shui Wenyin returned.

  She returned nearly ten days later than she had expected, and it was unclear what had happened to her. She looked extremely haggard and went into seclusion at home after returning.

  Shui Wanqing didn't say anything herself, and Qin Yun naturally didn't dare to ask, but for the past two days, he had been staying in the Cloud Water Pavilion, fulfilling his duties as a disciple.

  On the third day's morning, Shui Wenyin finally came out of her room.

  She looked much better, with a hint of spirit on her pretty face, but the faint worry between her eyebrows was hard to shake off. Her plain white dress made people feel even more pity for her.

  She opened her mouth and said: "Qin Yun, I want to start teaching you the way of talismans from today!"

  "Master, don't you want to rest for a few more days?" Qin Yun asked cautiously.

  "I'm fine," Shui Wenyin sighed softly: "This time, we encountered a strong enemy outside. Fortunately, it was a narrow escape, and I may need to retreat for half a year."

  "Before that, I wanted to spend a month teaching you all the Fu Lu Shou techniques I've learned, hoping you can make progress and become accomplished. After I go into seclusion, Danfu Fang in the city will have to rely on you!"

  Her voice was still soft and gentle, but it contained an unshakeable determination.

  It's extremely difficult to master all of Shui Wanying's skills on the talismans within a month, even a genius wouldn't dare guarantee that they could grasp her decade-long experience and create mid-to-high-grade talismans.

  But Qin Yun heard from Shui Wanqing's words that she must have a reason for doing so.

  Especially when it comes to encountering enemies outside, Shui Wanying said it lightly, but just looking at her appearance when she first came back, the situation must have been extremely critical. Although she successfully escaped and returned, she would need to retreat for a long time to fully recover.

  Having understood all this, Qin Yun replied without hesitation: "The disciple will definitely work hard and never disappoint the master's expectations!"

  Shui Wan Xing smiled slightly: "I've taken in a total of five disciples, not counting Lü Liu. You're the most talented and also the hardest working. I believe you can do it too!"

  On that day, Shui Wenyin began to teach Qin Yun the art of Fu Talismans.

  She had originally given Qin Yun the three books "The Way of Talismans", "True Interpretation of Talisman Characters" and "The True Mechanism of Refining Talismans". Qin Yun had already flipped through them and memorized them, so he had a fairly good understanding of the basics of talismans.

  The Fu Talisman is a technique passed down by the Taoist family, which can be traced back to the ancient era. There were Honghuang Lianqi painters who drew papers as talismans to suppress evil and drive away evil, cure diseases and disasters, and evolve into thousands of magical powers.

  The legend is no longer verifiable, but the art of Fu Lu has been passed down for thousands of years without interruption, with many schools and types.

  Fu Lu is the general term for Fu and Lu, where Fu refers to symbols or patterns written on paper, wood, jade, or stone that are like characters but not characters, like pictures but not pictures. Lu refers to the names of heavenly gods and mysterious texts recorded among the various Fu, also known as ancient divine writings.

  To refine a talisman, one must understand and be familiar with the talismanic script and characters, and be able to accurately and meticulously write them out with a beast-hair brush dipped in cinnabar ink, without any slight error.

  A slight mistake can lead to irreparable losses.

  The art of Fu Lu can be said to be infinitely mysterious, and a person may not necessarily understand the true meaning in their lifetime, let alone refine precious talismans or even divine talismans.

  Shui Wanying had studied for over a decade, and her greatest achievement in the field of talismans was only a high-quality spiritual symbol, and even that was largely due to luck.

  Yellow Talisman, Cloud Talisman, Spirit Talisman, Treasure Talisman, Divine Talisman!

  Low-grade, Mid-grade, High-grade!

  Even the lowest-grade talisman requires infusing true energy into the brush tip while painting, otherwise the final refined talisman will be a waste product and unable to summon the power of heaven and earth.

  This requires the use of the Refining Talisman True Mechanism!

  Shui Wan Xing first imparted this set of Lianqi Famen to Qin Yun.

  The Lianfu Zhenji Jue is the orthodox heart method of Taoism, although it's not a mysterious and profound skill that's kept secret from outsiders, its breadth and depth are no less than the Jiuyang Xuan Gong cultivated by Qin Yun.

  The Lianfu Zhenji Jue is divided into five levels, each corresponding to a different talisman. That is to say, one can only refine the yellow talisman after reaching the first level, and the cloud talisman after reaching the second level, and so on, without any room for shortcuts.

  The biggest feature of this kung fu is that it can condense the true qi of a martial artist or qigong practitioner's dantian into what is called yuanli, and then use yuanli to control the brush to create talismans.

  No matter which of the five elements a martial artist cultivates, the yuan force condensed is undifferentiated. This means that although Qin Yun cultivates fire-attributed true energy, he can refine any type of talisman without hindrance.

  Moreover, the Lianfu Zhenji Jue has another method, which can use its own true power mixed with yuan power to refine special talismans. For example, Qin Yun's true energy is fire-based, so the fire-based talisman refined using this method will have increased power.

  In just five short days, Qin Yun had cultivated the Refining Symbol True Essence Technique to the first layer.

  The first layer of Gong Kui was the simplest, and he also had Shui Wan Xing, a highly skilled symbol master, to point out the tricks at any time, so he didn't encounter any difficulties.

  But wanting to break through to the second layer was not that simple, and Shui Wenyin did not ask him to practice again, but instead took out the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone that had been prepared long ago, and let him start copying and writing the symbol text.

  This most basic training cannot be achieved by any means of speculation, a thick book "Fu Lu Tu Jie", Qin Yun needs to repeatedly copy the 125 required symbols and characters inside for hundreds or thousands of times, until the writing is done with spirit and in one breath without any slight mistake.

  And these 125 characters and words account for less than one-tenth of all that I have learned!

  Every stroke and character, Shui Wan Cong would explain to Qin Yun the key to writing, the subtleties of starting and ending a stroke, and the taboos of hooking and turning.

  She sat beside Qin Yun, impatiently pointing out his mistakes in penmanship from dawn till dusk without getting tired at all.

  With such painstaking and meticulous teaching, how could Qin Yun disappoint her sincere expectations? He worked extra hard, writing a character ten times if it didn't work out, then a hundred times, and if that still didn't work out, he would draw it a thousand times!

  He also used his Hui Xin Tong Ming Xiao Shentong for this, and the effect was immediate.

  Ten days later, all 125 talisman characters of Qin Yun could be accurately copied without looking at the "Talisman Diagrams" and could be written freely on paper. Even Shui Wanqing couldn't find any flaws.

  Shui Wan Rong was extremely satisfied: "You indeed have a talent, teaching you the art of Fu Lu Shou was not wrong!"

  Actually, Qin Yun's current mindset is different from when he first heard that Shui Wanying was going to teach him how to refine talismans. At that time, he was somewhat skeptical and didn't want to spend too much time on this aspect.

  However, after the battle with Han Meng Kui and Hei Shui Mang as well as those five fellow disciples, Qin Yun only truly realized the role that the talismans could play, and it would be of great help to him in his future endeavors.

  As a result, his interest in Fu Lu Shou increased greatly, and with his strong personality, once he decided to do something, he would definitely work hard to achieve the best results.

  Having completed the transcription of one hundred and twenty-five talismans, Qin Yun entered the final stage of studying the basics of talismans - refining a real usable talisman.

  The ink, paper, and inkstone used for practice have all been replaced with specialized ones. Yellow talisman paper, demon beast tail hair brush, and beast blood cinnabar ink, each one is extremely valuable.

  Shui Wanying took out another book, "The 72 Basic Talismans", which detailed the patterns of the 72 basic talismans, allowing her to copy and practice drawing them.

  It includes all kinds of talismans for attack, defense, healing, exorcising and fire avoidance, which is an essential basic manual for beginners.

  Although there is "Seventy-two Chapters of Basic Talismans" for reference and copying, this last step is also the most difficult for Qin Yun!

  He needs to infuse the true energy of the yuan force into the brush tip on real talismans, drawing a decorative pattern composed of several or dozens of talismanic characters. Any slight mistake in the strokes or error in controlling the infusion of the yuan force will greatly affect the final product's effect.

  At first, Qin Yun was not used to the texture of brush, ink and paper, let alone adapt to the way of controlling yuan force, frequently making mistakes and wasting more than a dozen sheets of talisman paper, none of which were perfectly successful.

  One after another, Qin Yun's mistakes made him somewhat annoyed and frustrated. To think that the things he wasted were worth at least a few pieces of spiritual jade! Water Wanjing didn't care, but he was heartbroken!

  Qin Yun often went to Danfu Square managed by Green Willow in Xuanwu City, so he had some understanding of the prices of these items.

  But the more he tried to be careful, the more mistakes he made. Just as he was about to finish copying a Gathering Fire talisman, his brush slipped and left a blot, ruining all his previous work!

  Bang!

  Qin Yun couldn't help but slam the brush in his hand onto the table, barely suppressing the urge to tear the talisman paper in front of him into shreds.

  The small breakpoints at the connection of the runes seemed like a wide open mouth, silently mocking him!

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