138 Fusion

Cha Ming opened the door to Mo Tianshen's laboratory. He was a regular now and had a pretty good idea of when it was safe to enter. Today was a scheduled powder-pressing day, which happened concurrently with symbol experiments. Cha Ming could enter at his leisure.

"Good timing," Mo Tianshen said from the back. As usual, he was pressing powders like a lowly apprentice alchemist. The goal wasn't speed; it was a matter of replication and whether a dummy could perform the many of the sub-steps to save costs. "The next batch is over there, and I have a good feeling about this one. With any luck, we'll have a ninth version that's almost twice as good as the eighth, and at half the price to boot.

"That's great news," Cha Ming replied. "However, I'm afraid I'll have to go abroad in one month's time. I'm not sure when I'll be back." He noticed the older man's expression droop. "How about I find you a bunch of low-leveled talisman artists and teach them the necessary talismans for producing this batch? I don't believe that even senior alchemists know a good half of these symbols."

The older man nodded. "Very well. But you need to come back and help me. By then, I'll have a rather large stockpile for you to process."

"Deal," Cha Ming said. He got to work immediately, painting one pressed pellet after another. They had gotten to the point where the runes painted no longer cracked. Each pill was effective to lesser or greater extent, and the pill poisons were neutralized to a lesser or greater extent. For this batch, however, he needed to produce one thousand of each pill, as they would be used for human trials.

The day passed swiftly. While Cha Ming was busy producing the prototype pills, Mo Tianshen was busy in the back. The man was likely producing the next batch of pills required for his breakthrough.

He finished at sunset. Mo Tianshen walked out from the back at the same time with a look of exhaustion on his face. "You'll kill me with these pills of yours," the man grumbled, handing two large bottles and two small ones to Cha Ming.

"These are…?" Cha Ming asked.

"Can't you read labels?" he said gruffly. "You said you'd be gone for a long time, so I made you both the lesser-grade and mid-grade pills." Cha Ming's heart warmed when he heard this. "You need to wait until your cultivation stabilizes before using the next batch. Take them the same way as before. And by the way, your pills are killing me. They're bleeding me dry. I'll need you to hunt for some materials for the next batch. I'll need a Nine-Petaled Creation Lotus, a Crimson Annihilation Fruit…." The list grew, and Cha Ming took note of each ingredient.

The alchemist waved his hand, and dozens of jade boxes appeared. So did a jade sickle. "Use the jade sickle to pick them and store them inside these jade boxes. Only pure jade can fight the world's corruption and impurities after harvesting, allowing them to maintain their freshness and vigor."

Cha Ming gave the alchemist a heartfelt bow. "I won't let you down."

"I don't actually care if you find the ingredients," the alchemist said nonchalantly. "You'll have to help me with my experiments regardless, pills or no pills. I'll beat you to death if you don't."

They smiled at each other with amusement.

***

After securing the pills, Cha Ming proceeded to the Talisman Artist Guild and went straight to Jun Xiezi's office. The man received him warmly. "Have you made another talisman for me yet?" he asked jokingly.

"Almost," Cha Ming replied. "I have some thoughts on the next one. It relates to 'sharpness.' I'll let you know soon. I leave in one month."

"For?" Jun Xiezi asked.

"I'm just going on a trip," Cha Ming said. "I'll be sure to return when it's done."

"Make sure you do," Jun Xiezi said sternly. "You owe me, and don't you forget it. Now then, what brings you to my office today?"

"Straight to the point, I see," Cha Ming said. "Can we at least chat business over tea?"

"Ah, so it's a business matter," Jun Xiezi replied. "I always brew tea over business, and I happen to have a flower tea that just finished growing." The man took out a green ball and threw it into a large pot of hot water. It unfurled into what looked like a rainbow peony. "It's such a beautiful flower. Simple, but sweet tasting."

They both merrily sipped tea in the branch leader's office. "So. Business," Jun Xiezi said.

"Yes," Cha Ming said. "I need to recruit assistants for Mo Tianshen's research and for pill production for the upcoming ninth iteration of the cultivation-instillation pill."

Jun Xiezi raised his eyebrow. "That hardly seems like something I can help you with. Have you tried the Alchemists Association?"

"You misunderstand me," Cha Ming said, smiling. He then took out his brush and painted dozens of characters in midair. For each character, he withdrew a vial of liquid. "I had an epiphany some time ago. Mo Tianshen and I have been cooperating on a concept called runic alchemy. By using runes, we can enhance medicinal efficacy and manipulate physical properties for application." He motioned to the runes floating in the air. "These runes are all first-grade runes. They can be made with this medicinal ink or with other normal inks."

"Amazing," Jun Xiezi said. "But I'm afraid that none of our talisman artists know these runes. Even I don't, somehow, and I'm a grandmaster talisman artist. The heritage I have is incomplete, and my master was unable to pass on more knowledge to me."

"Thus, my offer," Cha Ming said. "I want you to offer the services of low-level talisman artists, at cost, to Mo Tianshen's efforts on this project. In return, I will teach the knowledge of all first-grade runes I know to the Talisman Artist Guild."

Jun Xiezi licked his lips. "All the way up to fifth grade," he said.

"Come now, second grade is really the best I can do," Cha Ming said.

"This is an indefinite agreement," Jun Xiezi said, shrugging. "The cost is astronomical, and the benefit of these low-level runes is limited. Fourth grade."

"You know full well that this will greatly expand the capabilities of the guild as a whole," Cha Ming said. "But you are right that low-level runes won't have such a big effect. Let's meet halfway at third grade. I truly can't pass on much more than this. I'm already stretching the limits of my oath. My students, for the full heritage I possess, must have condensed merit halos. By the way, do keep an eye out for people with thick accumulation of merit. As a favor to me."

Jun Xiezi's eye twitched at the mention of merit halos. "Fine. But I want them imprinted on knowledge-transmission jades. That way I won't need to fetch you to teach students all the time."

"How does that work?" Cha Ming asked.

Jun Xiezi pulled out ten jade plates, which Cha Ming saw were similar teaching jades he already had.

"Pour your qi and incandescent force into these plates," Jun Xiezi said. "Then pour your whole knowledge of these characters and paint them with your mind. The jade slip will preserve the knowledge, and the ones learning will see you 'painting' them and hear your words as they study the slip."

"So, I'll be a teacher to most of the guild," Cha Ming mused.

"As much of a teacher as someone who writes a textbook," Jun Xiezi said dryly. He watched as Cha Ming poured his knowledge into the slips. "Anything else?" he asked after Cha Ming completed his task.

"I have one last thing," Cha Ming said. "I always repay kindness, and you've given me so much advice free of charge. I felt I should share a discovery I made. But to do that, I need to ask—do you have a bottle of evanescence? Any kind will do."

Jun Xiezi pulled out a small golden vial with barely ten drops in it. Cha Ming waved his hand, pulling the stopper from the bottle and retrieving a single drop. Then he waved his brush and sprinkled ten thousand drops of liquified elemental essence into the air. One by one, they fused with the liquified gold evanescence until only a pale golden blob remained.

"I call this gold essence," Cha Ming said. "Likewise, there exists fire essence, water essence, earth essence, and wood essence."

"And what is it used for?" Jun Xiezi asked.

"Well," Cha Ming said, drawing a small portion of the blob into his brush. "If you use the classical techniques for creating talismans, it's beyond useless. The nature of the talisman will be unstable, as though the ink and the technique were incompatible. In fact, the rune might explode due to the instability." He began to paint a lesser-grade talisman on a slip of paper. "But if the technique conforms with the nature of the ink, the talisman creation will proceed smoothly, almost as smoothly as laying a formation."

Jun Xiezi watched as Cha Ming painted the talisman from start to finish. A look of enlightenment appeared on his face as Cha Ming placed the last stroke. "This is the technique described in Five-Element Talisman Artistry—A Primer!"

"That's right," Cha Ming said, smiling. "By using gold essence to paint talismans, their nature is aligned with heaven and earth. By using a technique that is also aligned with heaven and earth, an artist's success rate when drawing talismans will increase greatly.

"I don't know the exact reason, but I have a theory. You see, gold evanescence and liquified elemental essence come from the same source. The same applies to other forms of evanescence. But this is seen as a valuable impurity. The two components are separated on extraction and sold separately. As a result, the liquified elemental essence becomes purer, but it is farther removed from nature. Therefore, the technique required to draw talismans must also be adjusted.

"Formations are more aligned with heaven and earth in the first place. Which means the effect of using liquified elemental essence is less pronounced and almost nonexistent. But for talismans, it has a huge impact. Senior Xiezi, my success rate for lesser-grade talismans is above nine out of ten since I changed my methods."

Nine out of ten was actually an understatement, but Cha Ming wasn't one hundred percent sure of the success rate with a normal talisman brush.

After a while, Jun Xiezi broke the silence. "I'll have to study this further. You need to account for the brush type in addition to those things you just mentioned. Your brush is quite expensive, from what I gather. The composition of the brushes used may need to be changed. But that's fine—the brush maker enjoys a challenge."

Cha Ming nodded. "I'll be off, then," Cha Ming said. "I have much to do before leaving."

***

Cha Ming's five qi pillars creaked and crackled as they broke past their limits with the help of the improved medicinal pills. Each pill contained double the energy they had previously, swiftly growing his pillars to the next bottleneck and subsequently crushing it.

As the pillars broke past their limitations, his qi seas drained to accommodate their growth. And once they dried up completely, Cha Ming replenished them with a much thicker foundation qi. The seas were turbid and wavy, filled with impurities from his last sub-realm.

Immediately after recovering, Cha Ming summoned thirty-six Dao sigils and practiced many combat formations that he'd read about. He planned to take full advantage of the next three weeks. As he practiced, he also thought about his next poetic talisman. Over the past several months, he had come to a realization.

It wasn't long before he lit the gray candle and settled into a meditative trance. The talisman he produced, if any, would tell him whether his insights were correct.

***

Cha Ming was in a dream. This time, he saw two giant blades in the sky. They were wielded by two giant gladiators, gods if their sizes were any indication. As they fought, the heavens trembled. Each strike of their swords brought waves of destruction to the world down below.

As they fought, their swords were covered in nicks. They lost their effectiveness. But one of the gladiators was determined. With every strike of his sword, he improved. And as he improved, the sword grew sharper.

His speed quickened and began outpacing his opponent. Finally, he cut off the giant's head. Throngs of people came out to greet him, but he wasn't satisfied. Instead of celebrating, he returned home and focused on his mistakes. He practiced the sword for years before returning to the arena for his next challenge.

Giant after giant was felled by his blade. As his skilled improved, his sword grew increasingly overbearing. It soon reached the point where all he needed was a single strike to cleave through his opponent's sword and armor.

But many people began to grumble. They said his sword was too powerful, that his position as the number-one gladiator wasn't deserved. So they challenged him to fight the second-best gladiator with a normal iron sword. They told him they would only acknowledge him as the best if he won under these conditions.

Instead of the indignant reply they expected, the gladiator did something unthinkable. He threw his sharp sword at a nearby mountain, where it shattered into 10,008 pieces. Then he picked up a dull iron ruler, an ancient weapon that resembled an edgeless sword, built to incapacitate instead of wound.

The surrounding people laughed at his arrogance. How could one possibly beat an iron sword with an iron ruler? The second-ranked gladiator also laughed. He took up his own iron sword and charged forward, confident in his victory. Seeing this, the lead gladiator arrogantly lashed out with the iron ruler. His opponent slashed out to defend with his sword, aiming to cut the ruler in half. But to his surprise, it was his own sword that was cut in half. And his armor. And his body. And his soul.

The crowd gasped. The gladiator had relied on pure skill. His blade was sharp because his skill was high, and not the other way around.

Do you understand? the voice asked.

Cha Ming woke. He drew out the next talisman with a practiced hand.

Honing his worth through endless practice;

Never questioning his skill.

He called it the Sharp Talisman. The key defining characteristic of metal was shape, and humans shaped themselves through endless practice. That was the epiphany he had gained after practicing talismans and formations for so many months.

***

"So," Lu Tianhao said. He held his arms behind his back. "I suppose this will be your last lesson before you leave in three days?"

"I hope I won't disappoint you," Cha Ming said, bowing before they began their sparring match.

"Unlikely," the white-haired, white-clothed man said. "You're always full of surprises."

As usual, he made the first move. He sent out thirty-six blue sigils, creating a complex shape filled in with runic lines. Cha Ming countered with an earthen combat formation, soaking up some of the qi used to create them.

"Plundering my qi now, are you?" Lu Tianhao said, chuckling. He instantly summoned three lesser formations that struck Cha Ming's at key points in the creation process. Cha Ming's qi was in turn absorbed by these formations.

"Fair is fair," Cha Ming said, shrugging. He activated Stormchaser Steps and ran toward his opponent. As the man cast out another combat formation, Cha Ming threw out his own, but he also bashed with his staff, slightly disrupting some lines as they extended. They shivered, but the process was far from interrupted.

"You're learning," Lu Tianhao said. "You can't break my formations with your weak fist strength, but you can slow it ever so slightly with no disadvantage to yourself."

"You told me to use everything I have," Cha Ming said, throwing out a proper lesser-grade formation. He threw out twelve formation flags and twelve combat formations.

"Competing with speed against power?" Lu Tianhao said, summoning a thirty-six-symbol combat formation.

Cha Ming, seeing the element used, threw out twelve more formation flags. This second formation meshed perfectly with his existing formation, creating a bi-element mid-grade formation. Their formations were completed simultaneously. Cha Ming's formation was slightly superior, but ultimately, they were mutually destroyed.

Cha Ming didn't stop. Having just gained the initiative, he continued to throw out one combat formation after another, using his staff to disturb runic lines whenever he could. His advantage grew greater and greater, and finally he created a gold formation that cut down Lu Tianhao's incomplete wood formation and slammed toward him.

"Fine," Lu Tianhao said. "Try this!"

As expected, seventy-two water sigils shot out. The difficulty of this next level was a watershed, using twice the number of symbols and double the runic lines. Least-grade formations required up to ninety-nine runic lines, lesser-grade up to 199, and mid-grade up to 299. High-grade formations required up to six hundred runic lines. The power of heaven and earth rippled as the high-grade formation began to take shape.

I need to stop it! Cha Ming thought. He repeatedly hit the formation with his staff while summoning his own earthen formation. Lu Tianhao didn't stop his, clearly indicating that Cha Ming's own formation was insufficient.

If only I had more disruption, Cha Ming thought. But have I really used everything? His trained eyes could see several weaknesses and vulnerabilities in Lu Tianhao's arrangement, but he had no way to attack them. Or did he?

Cha Ming thought fast. He took out seven least-grade talismans from the Clear Sky Space. They were one of his favorites, Lesser Mount Tai talismans. The illusory mountains crushed down on seven of the key weaknesses. The rapidly growing formation shuddered before shattering. The seventy-two sigils flew outward.

"Well done," Lu Tianhao said in congratulations. "You're not a high-grade formation master by any stretch of the imagination, but now you know what to do if you need to break formations beyond your level. It's not always about matching a master's level against another, it's about using your knowledge of formations to break them and defeat your opponent."

Cha Ming bowed. "Thank you for your instruction, teacher," he said.

"It's nothing," Lu Tianhao said. "Now go and prepare yourself. Paint some talismans or something before you leave. And when you do, kill me some devils. And most importantly, don't forget to come back alive."

The scenery around Cha Ming faded, and he discovered that he was no longer in the man's office or inside his domain. He was back inside his own bedroom. And on his desk, he saw twelve thick books from Lu Tianshen's personal library on high-grade and peak-grade formations. And beside them was a ring. He used his incandescent force to probe the ring and discovered several large stacks of unmarked formation flags. It was the best gift Cha Ming could ask for.