24. I’m being perfectly serious! (Well, not really, but still!!!!)

On the day before Wen Zhihao’s talisman examination, Wen Zhihao carefully wrote one neat, “proper” copy of each talisman from the introductory talisman manuals.

The examination itself was held in a room in the Talisman Hall. Elder Liu Ru and one of her top disciples, Senior Cultivator Qian Jiarui, were there, sitting on two adjacent sides of the square table.

...In fact, Qian Jiarui was the cultivator who found Wen Zhihao’s forgotten sword at the Outer Battlegrounds, the same person who was the girlfriend of Huang Jialing, the beast-tamer cultivator who also rolled her eyes at Wen Zhihao…

Wen Zhihao showed a calm polite customer service face.

“Elder Liu, Senior Cultivator Qian,” Wen Zhihao greeted them and took a seat opposite Elder Liu.

“Show me the talismans you’ve made,” Elder Liu said.

Wen Zhihao placed the single (1) neat copy of each talisman on the table between them.

Cultivator Qian raised an eyebrow. “Did you spend the entire month simply writing these?”

“Does Senior Cultivator Qian wish to see everything that I did?”

Qian Jiarui nodded shortly.

So Wen Zhihao took out the other stack of talismans from his spatial ring.

At the sight of the messily drawn talismans, Qian Jiarui pursed her lips.

“Did you get bored halfway?” she said drily.

….Erk! “No, of course not,” Wen Zhihao responded, “Isn’t this more realistic? In the heat of the moment, my handwriting will be poor like this.”

A heavy pressure spread from Elder Liu. “Cultivator Wen, are you taking this seriously?”

“I spent a lot of time experimenting with them, these talismans definitely work. For example…” Wen Zhihao activated one of the light-emitting ones.

Elder Liu’s heavy pressure only lightened a little. She waved a hand, and talisman parchment, brush, ink and inkstone appeared in front of Wen Zhihao. “Demonstrate for us.”

Of course, Wen Zhihao can write the proper shapes. It just took too much time and effort. But because his position was at stake, he slowly and carefully drew the traditional talismans under the eyes of Elder Liu and Senior Qian.

Qian Jiarui looked at Elder Liu, then spoke to Wen Zhihao: “Tell us, what is your purpose for being a talisman cultivator? We will be blunt. At your progress, you are the worst talisman cultivator we’ve ever met.”

“It’s very useful,” Wen Zhihao said. “Look, these are some talismans I made. This one gives off smokeless heat, this one lightens objects, this one can be used to warm you up, and this one can dry your clothes, and this one can cool you down, this one can be used as an umbrella, this one will make cut flowers last longer…”

In short, these are all things Wen Zhihao personally found useful.

Qian Jiarui interrupted Wen Zhihao’s sales pitch: “If that is the case, then a crafting cultivation will be more suitable.”

Wen Zhihao shook his head. “Crafting cultivation is too expensive,” he said earnestly. “I have no intention to compete with other cultivators.”

Qian Jiarui was speechless.

“Truthful, I enjoy talisman cultivation much more than sword cultivation.”

(Or at least, he didn’t get sweaty doing it, and he could be as slow or fast as he wanted.)

Wen Zhihao continued, “You don’t need to teach me at all. I can study by myself.”

Qian Jiarui spoke: “If we accept your transfer, we will provide you with an allowance of talisman-creating items and you must fulfil your monthly quota of talismans that will be kept and stored in the Talisman Hall. The talismans you make must be of exceptional quality. This is in conjunction with your own training and study.”

“Will you give me the quota at the start of the month? Will the quota be fixed for that month?”

“Yes.”

Wen Zhihao smiled. “Then it is no problem.”

Something like that is so much easier than his old job, where his boss would keep changing his mind at the last minute, where jobs would be thrown at him to be due in a week, two days, a few hours! Wen Zhihao can already see his slow and peaceful life ahead. Doing this amount to keep his position in the sect was easy!

Elder Liu finally nodded. “Acceptable.” She took out a jade slip. “Study this manual next.”

“This junior disciple thanks you!”

Qian Jiarui then gave him his assignment for the next month, as well as his talisman-related allowance. “I would suggest you learn some offensive and defensive talismans if you wish to succeed in the Intra-Sect competition.”

Wen Zhihao smiled, saying nothing on that matter. Instead, he simply thanked them again and left, thinking that he should celebrate passing the test by asking Aunty Liu Jing for some food...

Back in the Talisman Hall, Elder Liu Ru and Qian Jiarui looked at some of the messy (and neat) talismans that Wen Zhihao left behind. Actually, it was a bit hard to look at, the handwriting was so bad! If they weren’t talisman cultivators, those things would just look like a big scribble!

Ah, forget it, Qian Jiarui thought. Disciple Wen is not my problem. More importantly, I need to prepare a gift for Lingling for our anniversary...

Wen Zhihao: <(￣︶￣)> I passed~ And they don’t have high expectations for me! So good!

Qian Jiarui: ...Forget him, or else my IQ will lower…*goes off to get comfort from her girlfriend*

Sun Fuyu: Wen Zhihao is so amazing!!

Wen Zhihao: Hehehe. But do you know who is even more amazing? Liu Jing!

Aunty Chef Liu Jing: ...Stinky boy, what do you want to eat now??