CH 353

With that, Shang Xia managed to scrape together seven pieces of rank three talisman paper. He also obtained some news of treasures that would bring great assistance to his path of talisman crafting. He hid in the small courtyard before starting to focus on the creation of the rank three talisman. 

He couldn’t be bothered about leaving the City Lord Manor empty for the moment. After all, the prestige of the Tongyou Institution was at an all-time high at the moment. No one would dare to step out to cause trouble.

Naturally, if there was someone who was crazy enough to make their move, Shang Xia had taken precautions. One couldn’t forget that there was a Martial Extermination Realm expert consolidating her foundations in the spirit cave under the City Lord Manor!

Next came crafting his talismans. No matter how talented one was, it was almost impossible to successfully craft a rank three talisman on their first try! 

Not to mention Shang Xia who wasn’t that talented in the first place.

He might have the knowledge and experience from the Zhu Family Talisman Scripture, but he still failed thrice in a row.

Just like that, he wasted three pieces of rank three talisman paper.

As for the other treasures that made up the ink and other assistive treasures, there was no need to mention that a lot of them went down the drain.

The greatest challenge Shang Xia had was splitting off his divine sense. He discovered that crafting rank three talismans was truly difficult, and it slightly affected his cultivation.

He split it off twice during his first two attempts, but before he could do it again, he already scrapped the third piece of rank three talisman paper. Splitting off their divine sense was a painful process, and weaker cultivators would be unable to withstand the effects. However, Shang Xia was an existence who was at the grand completion stage of the Martial Intent Realm and the effects it had on him weren’t as large as he had thought.

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He had solid foundations and even if his divine sense was exhausted slightly, it wouldn’t affect him too much. Perhaps due to the way he entered the Martial Intent Realm with an optimized rank three advancement formula provided by his Crimson Soul Tablet, his divine sense was already leagues ahead of cultivators at the same level. His divine sense also experienced a fundamental transformation when he comprehended the Man and Heaven Synergy Chapter and it was far stronger than before.

That was why Shang Xia was able to attempt the crafting process so many times without adversely affecting his personal cultivation.

Shang Ke estimated that he would be able to split his divine sense off thrice in a month if he gave it his all. Since Shang Xia’s divine sense was much stronger than Shang Ke, Shang Xia felt that he would be able to do it seven times before it affected his cultivation.

Of course, refining rank three talismans seven times in a month wasn’t possible. Unless all of them failed, he would be unable to make so many attempts. 

His three previous attempts that failed already cost him a month, but he learned an important lesson and that was to not overexert himself. He took another month to restore his divine sense to its peak state while summarizing the lessons he learned from his three failures.

Three months had passed since he took on the role as the temporary city lord of the Changfeng City when he made his fourth attempt to craft a rank three talisman.

In the months that passed, Shang Xia couldn’t be bothered with what was happening in the outside world as he concentrated on the art of talismans. He didn’t know why the Tongyou City hadn’t sent someone to take over his position, but he couldn’t care about it at the moment.

After all the preparations he made both physically and mentally, his fourth attempt went exceedingly smooth. Splitting off a portion of his divine sense affected his conduction slightly, but he was prepared. Shang Xia quickly maintained his focus while crafting. At that moment, Shang Xia’s advantage was fully displayed. His thick reserves and solid foundations allowed him to split off a portion of his divine sense without affecting his attention!

It was the third straight day that he was crafting the rank three talisman, and the amount of inner qi he poured into it had reached a terrifying amount. Even so, he had to ensure that the amount he imbued in every step was perfect. His control of inner qi had already surpassed a huge portion of rank three talisman masters! With the acute senses he had due to his powerful divine sense, Shang Xia managed to accurately control every detail during the crafting process. When he finally raised his brush, he successfully created a rank three talisman, the Golden Lightning Spear Talisman!

It was one of the 6 rank three talismans recorded in the Zhu Family Talisman Scripture and it was one that possessed similar qualities to his cultivation.

The properties of the talisman could be compared to the first three moves in his Nine Providence Spear!

With that, Shang Xia stepped into the ranks of a rank three talisman master. 

Thinking back to the situation in the Tongyou Institution, he realized that even with their foundations, there were two rank three talisman masters in total. One of them joined the institution from out of nowhere, and to put it strictly, the institution only managed to nurture a single rank three talisman master themselves.

Now that Shang Xia had successfully crafted his Golden Lightning Spear Talisman, he would be the third rank three talisman master in the Tongyou Institution, and he would be the youngest of them all!

As for rank four talisman masters… There wasn’t a need to mention the Tongyou Institution. The entire You Continent didn’t possess one either.

With the completion of his talisman, Shang Xia felt a huge mental load taken off. He heaved a sigh of relief and took a five day break before attempting it again.

It was a pity. He seemed too relaxed during his fifth attempt and failed halfway through the process.

Helpless, Shang Xia could only take a break for three more days before starting his sixth attempt. Unfortunately, it failed.

It was half a month since his successful attempt, and after exhausting so much divine sense, Shang Xia chose to call the rest of the month off and he started to recover to his peak state.

Four months had passed since he took on his role in the Changfeng City and after reaching his peak state, he no longer hesitated to start his seventh attempt. After all, that was the last piece of rank three talisman paper he had.

Recalling the same feeling he had during his successful attempt, he managed to complete another Golden Lightning Spear Talisman after three days.

His second talisman was of much higher quality than the first. The power contained in it was much stronger than the other one, and the talisman would be able to last for a much longer time before weakening.

Talismans couldn’t be kept forever either. Rank one talismans would probably lose their effects after half a year if it was kept out in the open. If it was stored properly in a spatial artifact or with some sort of seal, it might be usable after a year or more.

However, that would be a complete waste if it was used for rank one talismans. The cost of a spatial artifact was hundreds of times more expensive than a rank one talisman.

Rank two talismans would be stable for about a year or so if kept outside, and they could last for up to two years if stored properly! 

Rank three talismans were completely different. It would be stable for five years at the very least and if stored with special methods, it was possible to increase its lifespan to up to ten years! 

The reason behind that was because of the cultivator’s divine sense! With the divine sense stored in the talisman, it could last for a much longer time.