Chương 93: Chapter 92: Card vs Talisman

Yang stacked his tray and left the food hall, making his way down the familiar path toward the outer sect hall. He went in and immediately made his way toward Senior Brother Bo Yu's usual spot.

"Senior Brother Bo Yu, how are you?" The words came out with more enthusiasm than he intended. He held back a slight wince. Senior Brother Bo Yu looked up from the book he was reading with an expression of mild amusement.

"Junior Brother Yang. I must say I have never had anyone quite so excited to find me in the outer sect hall. Not that the enthusiasm is unappreciated." He set the book down.

"I have been well, since the few days ago we last met." The amusement still present.

"What brings you here?"

"I came for talisman supplies."

"Talisman paper?"

"Talisman paper and ink," Yang said.

"Of every kind." Senior Brother Bo Yu's expression shifted.

"Junior Brother, are you certain? High grade paper and ink are not something you will be using at your current level. Not for a long time."

"I am sure, Senior Brother. I would like to try some things." Senior Brother Bo Yu looked at him for a moment and then appeared to make the decision that advice unwelcome is advice best unspoken.

"Very well. You may buy what you like. But do you have the funds? Advanced grade material is not cheap." Yang opened his mouth and then stopped. He was not a Cardwright with seventeen years of accumulated income and a townhouse in an affluent district. He was an outer sect disciple who had been at the sect for a few months with no income except for the modest monthly allowance he received from the sect at the start of every month. He asked the prices and this time actually winced.

In the end he settled on a good range of the basic talisman papers he was already familiar with, several bundles of them, along with a selection of inks. He left out the more specialised papers and inks, the materials used for specific advanced talismans that were both outside his current skill and well outside his current budget. What he did buy was enough. It also wiped out his monthly allowance entirely. He thanked Senior Brother Bo Yu and left.

Back in his cave he placed the bundle on the desk and stood looking at it for a moment before taking out the basic cinnabar ink and the talisman paper he already had. Yang was not unaware of his faults. He had a tendency to obsess to the point of forgetting everything else to his own detriment, a constantly lengthening list of projects, and a habit of relying too heavily on his inner instincts. These were things he knew about himself.

Being deluded to the point of believing himself a genius was not one of his faults. He had years of card creation experience. In talisman creation he was a novice. He was not so arrogant as to think he could simply begin experimenting with talismans by overlaying his Cardwright knowledge onto them without first mastering the discipline on its own terms. If he intended to combine the two, he needed to understand talismans the way he had come to understand card inscription.

Both disciplines shared a surface resemblance but the differences between them were fundamental. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. The first was the inscription itself. Talismans used script, readable characters laid down in sequence, each stroke carrying meaning and directing qi along a specific path.

Card inscription used patterns and symbols, geometric circuits that an experienced Cardwright could interpret but that operated more like a closed diagram than a language. Reading a card inscription and reading a talisman script were not the same kind of reading. The second was the materials. Talisman components came from entirely separate origins. The paper, the brush, the ink, each was its own thing made from its own source.

Card materials, as Lord Ardeth's tour of the crystal mines had shown him, were all the same substance at different stages of development. The blank card, the inscription pen, the energy stone, all were the same crystal, just further along in its accumulation of energy. The third difference, and one of the more important ones, was duration. A talisman was single use, consumed on activation.

A card was reusable, powered by the mild energy the blank card generated continuously, the inscribed loop maintained by the crystal's own output rather than by any ongoing input from the user. A talisman required the practitioner's qi channeled through the brush during creation. A card required only the energy stone and learned technique, no personal qi at stake just the will to apply the energy of the stone to the inscription. Fail a card inscription and the card simply failed.

Fail a talisman and the improper qi flow could turn back on the practitioner. In short, talismans were more demanding and more dangerous to make. Cards were more forgiving. He picked up the brush, dipped it in cinnabar ink, and began the first stroke of a basic qi barrier talisman. He also had one significant advantage he had not anticipated. Years of willing energy through the inscription pen into card crystal had, it turned out, translated directly to pushing qi through a brush onto talisman paper.

He could feel the qi moving down through his hand and into the strokes as he laid them down, the flow controlled and smooth, and what struck him immediately was how much easier it was than working with the crystal energy had been. Qi came from within his own dantian where it was condensed after cultivation. Even now despite him directing the majority of the qi he absorbed during cultivation towards his soul, he was still using the qi from his own dantian. He could feel it.

The crystal energy on the other hand had been abstract, invisible, manipulated solely by will alone across a gap he could never fully close, at least not until he was standing literally on the crystal source. Whereas his own qi was extremely responsive. He had to actively restrain his output to avoid flooding the inscription. He completed all twenty-three strokes in the correct sequence and set the brush down. The talisman sat on the desk, clean and properly formed.

A basic defence barrier, enough to absorb an attack from a third stage Qi Condensation cultivator. He made three more. Then five more after that. All of them perfect. He sat back and looked at them. The sooner he mastered talismans the sooner he could begin the actual work of combining the two disciplines. He was more ready than he had expected to be. He reached for a fresh sheet of talisman paper and considered what to try next.

He was considering two similar defensive talismans, the stone skin talisman and the iron skin, both talismans were defensive body inscriptions, but they served different purposes. The stone skin talisman hardened the cultivator's flesh uniformly across the entire body, without altering its appearance, providing moderate protection that lasted longer, good for sustained combat where multiple strikes were expected or where there was a constant physical attack from the environment.

The iron skin talisman on the other hand concentrated the defensive effect into a much harder but more brittle barrier, capable of blocking fewer attacks but offering superior protection against powerful physical strikes like sword blows or physical projectiles. A cultivator expecting prolonged but mild attack used stone skin talisman. Whereas a cultivator facing a single devastating attack used iron skin.

Both were useless against direct qi attacks, protecting only against physical threats, but within that limitation they had their place. He dipped the brush again and began inscribing as time passed without him noticing.