It is often said that cultivation knows no time, and the same applies to alchemy.
From the moment Mo Fan successfully refined the Drunken Demon Pill, he became unstoppable, his interest in alchemy surging.
In the first month, he fully mastered the refining of the Drunken Demon Pill, raising the success rate to eighty percent. After exhausting all the herbs for the Drunken Demon Pill, he began refining first-grade pills.
According to the alchemy records, there were only three types of first-grade pill recipes: Qi Condensation Pill, Fasting Pill, and Qi Recovery Pill.
The Qi Condensation Pill was used by innate martial artists for cultivation, the Fasting Pill served to satisfy hunger, and the Qi Recovery Pill was for healing injuries.
Though all three were first-grade pills, it took Mo Fan three months to successfully refine them all and raise the success rate to seventy percent.
By the fifth month, Mo Fan started refining second-grade pills, specifically the Yuan Spirit Pill.
This pill was suitable for cultivators in the Qi Refining stage, making it a true cultivation pill and thus much harder to refine than first-grade pills.
This process consumed over half a year before he finally succeeded.
“I never thought alchemy would be so time-consuming!”
Mo Fan sat in the cave, his hair dishevelled, his face as black as ink, and his robe covered in a thick layer of dust.
He glanced at the marks etched on the nearby stone wall, densely packed, numbering over three hundred.
This meant he had been in seclusion here for nearly a year!
Mo Fan casually picked up a pill from the ground and popped it into his mouth. His ravenous stomach was quickly relieved, no longer hungry.
“A year’s time. I wonder what’s happened outside and whether Black Wind Mountain is still doing well?”
Mo Fan murmured, beginning to consider returning to Black Wind Mountain.
With this thought, he sent a message directly to Er Ha’s ears outside the cave, “Any news from Black Wind Mountain recently?”
Er Ha, who had been lounging boredly at the cave entrance, jolted upright, standing straight.
“Great King?” Er Ha asked uncertainly.
“It’s me. Any news from Black Wind Mountain?” Mo Fan asked.
“Replying to the Great King, there’s no news from Black Wind Mountain. However, there’s something about Red Fire Peak I’m not sure if I should mention,” Er Ha said, his eyes gleaming.
“What is it?” Mo Fan asked.
Er Ha then recounted what he had heard six months ago about the Earth Vein Fire Lotus.
“Earth Vein Fire Lotus?”
Mo Fan’s eyes lit up, and his thoughts of leaving were immediately set aside.
He was also somewhat curious about this miraculous Earth Vein Fire Lotus.
“Great King, should we keep an eye on that Earth Vein Fire Lotus?” Sensing the interest in Mo Fan’s words, Er Ha quickly asked.
“Yes, you take charge of this. If the Fire Lotus matures, come and inform me!”
“Yes, I obey the Great King’s command!”
Er Ha nodded excitedly.
After sensing Er Ha’s departure, Mo Fan didn’t idle. He summoned his flying sword to carve out another stone chamber in the cave wall, then used his demon energy to create a barrier to block the scorching heat of the earth fire.
Since he had decided to stay and investigate the Earth Vein Fire Lotus, he was in no rush to leave. However, he also wasn’t eager to continue with alchemy.
At this point, Mo Fan realised that his alchemy skills couldn’t improve further in the short term.
After all, alchemy was an extremely tedious process, requiring vast amounts of time to accumulate progress.
As a toad demon, he naturally disliked such scorching places, and staying too long made him increasingly uncomfortable.
After much thought, Mo Fan decided to put alchemy on hold for now.
With some time left before the Earth Vein Fire Lotus matured, Mo Fan took out the Talisman Compendium and a series of talisman-making techniques he had bought at the dilapidated temple market, deciding not to waste time.
He resolved to study the art of talisman-making!
If alchemy was preparation for breaking through to the Demon King realm, then talisman-making was to enhance his own strength and that of Black Wind Mountain!
Mo Fan had fought many human cultivators, almost always encountering talisman attacks, so he had a deep impression of them.
He spent half a month studying the Talisman Compendium, learning about various talismans and the basics of talisman-making.
Finally, he came to a general understanding.
Talismans, like pills, were divided into several levels, from strongest to weakest: Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, and Yellow.
The power difference between each level was vast, and they could be further divided into low-tier, mid-tier, high-tier, and top-tier.
For example, among Yellow-level talismans, the Speed Talisman was low-tier, the Demon-Seeking Talisman was mid-tier, the Diamond Talisman was high-tier, and the Thunderfire Talisman and Demon-Suppressing Talisman were top-tier!
Yellow-level top-tier talismans had the power to easily kill Qi Refining realm cultivators, and even Foundation Building cultivators could be seriously injured if caught off guard.
Mysterious-level talismans were even more terrifying. Even a low-tier Mysterious-level talisman’s power could rival a full strike from a high-grade magical weapon, while a mid-tier Mysterious-level talisman could match a top-grade magical weapon’s strike!
High-tier Mysterious-level talismans could kill ordinary Foundation Building cultivators!
Top-tier Mysterious-level talismans could even cause a Demon King to fall if they weren’t careful!
As for Heaven and Earth-level talismans, their power was beyond Mo Fan’s imagination.
However, every talisman required incantation runes as a foundation, inscribed onto talisman paper to unleash their power.
Thus, each talisman was unique.
What frustrated Mo Fan was that the talisman-making methods he had purchased only included one very basic incantation rune, called the “Seal” rune.
As the name suggested, it could seal techniques.
This was considered the most basic incantation rune in talisman-making, as it lacked the enhancement of incantations, so the power it unleashed wasn’t particularly impressive.
Moreover, sealing a technique into such a rune wasn’t easy, consuming vast amounts of energy and being prone to failure.
These factors made the Seal rune the most lacklustre among incantation runes.
It was like sealing a technique into a talisman, where the energy consumed was several times greater than the technique itself. The biggest limitation was that the strength of the sealed technique depended on the talisman maker’s cultivation level. If the technique exceeded the maker’s realm, the talisman would burn up, unable to withstand the power.
With such high consumption and restrictions, the Seal rune naturally became unremarkable, as the cost outweighed the benefit.
Other incantation runes were different. Most could be made instantly, with energy consumption equal to the technique itself, and they received enhancements from the runes, significantly boosting their power!
After learning all this, Mo Fan gave a wry smile but still wanted to give it a try.
With both demonic and spiritual energy in his body, he wasn’t too worried about the consumption of talisman-making.
“Since it can seal techniques, I wonder if it can seal supernatural abilities?”
“If it can seal supernatural abilities, the value of this Seal rune to me would be immense, even surpassing that of Mysterious-level talismans!”
A glint flashed in Mo Fan’s eyes, his heart surging with excitement.
“Perhaps this will become one of my trump cards!”
