Chapter 41 – The Price of Survival

“This will be difficult,” Qiao Guanyuan said after listening to Lynn Naya’s idea. “We have too few people, and most of them can’t afford to buy talismans.”

The only source of spirit stones for mortal cultivators right now was from outer sect missions. With an income of two spirit stones a month, they had to buy weapons, learn cultivation methods, and get leather armor. They were constantly running low on funds. Even if they knew Light Body Talismans were useful, they couldn’t afford them.

Also, the Talisman Master Association had only twenty-four members. The number of mortal cultivators at the foot of the mountain had reached over 20,000 in the past two years. Giving a Light Body Talisman to everyone would take a very long time, even without factoring in the success rate.

“The main problem is still the spirit stones,” Lynn Naya said. “But the rewards for outer sect missions have been increased by five times. It’s understandable that they don’t have money this month, but they will have it next month.”

“But by next month, it might be too late,” Qiao Guanyuan said. What good were spirit stones if everyone was dead?

“We can allow them to buy on credit.”

“Credit…” Qiao Guanyuan understood what she meant. “Borrowing from tomorrow to survive today isn’t impossible, but if we don’t collect money now, where will we get our talisman materials? Those things aren’t cheap.”

“We’ll get them on credit, too,” Lynn Naya had already thought this through. “Scarface Qing is my neighbor. We have a good relationship. We should be able to get the materials on credit for a month and pay him back when we get the money.”

“What if the people who buy the talismans on credit don’t pay us back when they get spirit stones?”

“That’s why when they buy on credit, we have to record their names and addresses. If they don’t pay, we’ll go after them. If they still don’t pay, we’ll take over their house. If we can’t balance the books, I’ll take on all the losses myself.”

Qiao Guanyuan was speechless. He looked at Lynn Naya for a while, as if he didn’t recognize her. “This is a thankless task. If something goes wrong, you’ll lose everything. Is it really necessary for you to do this?”

“I don’t know,” Lynn Naya said. She didn’t have much confidence in human nature either. “I’ll do my best. It’s just money. Even if I lose everything this time, I can make it back later. But if someone loses their life, it’s really gone forever.”

Qiao Guanyuan didn’t say anything. After a while, he stood up with a blank expression.

“Where are you going?”

“You’ve said so much. It would be too heartless of me to not do anything. Besides,” Qiao Guanyuan said as he opened the door, “I was just an ordinary mortal before I got my beast core. Just because I’m a talisman master now doesn’t mean I think other people’s lives are worthless. The things you care about, I care about too.”

Qiao Guanyuan left. Fifteen minutes later, all twenty-four talisman masters had arrived.

Half an hour later, Scarface Qing came running.

After half an afternoon, the Talisman Master Association and the market agreed on a deal. Scarface Qing went back to the market to start the pre-sale.

At the Talisman Master Association, four of the twenty-four members said they would try their best to help, while the remaining twenty said they were willing to follow the president’s orders.

As evening approached, the Talisman Academy was already in full swing. All the talisman masters gathered to make Light Body Talismans in bulk. At the same time, the market started pre-selling Light Body Talismans, Spring Recovery Talismans, and mid-tier Spiritual Fire Talismans.

At first, not many people bought the talismans. The main reason was that they were too expensive. A Light Body Talisman was one spirit stone, and a Spring Recovery Talisman and Spiritual Fire Talisman were both two. Ordinary cultivators simply couldn’t afford them.

In the evening, before it even got dark, a sound of crying suddenly came from somewhere.

Everyone was stunned at first. After asking around, they found out what had happened. “I heard it’s a woman from the Dong family on the next street. Her husband took on a patrol mission today and hasn’t returned yet.”

It was already dark. If he hadn’t returned, it meant that…

“Weren’t the cultivators from the mountain supposed to be going along as well? How could something still go wrong?”

“I heard the cultivator who went with them didn’t return either.”

Hiss. Everyone around him took a sharp breath. Only then did they realize that this might be the reason why the reward for the outer sect mission had increased so much.

Just then, a man covered in blood ran toward them. Everyone was about to ask him what had happened when they saw him burst into the market next to them, smelling of blood, and shout, “Do you have any Light Body Talismans left? Give me two! No, give me five!”

Everyone was stunned by his actions and followed him inside. They saw that after the man found out he could buy talismans on credit, he wanted to buy ten at once, but the manager at the counter had a difficult expression and said each person was limited to one.

“Why can I only have one? I have spirit stones!” The man slapped five spirit stones on the counter.

“The situation is special right now, so please understand,” the steward said, trying to be tactful. He didn’t know why the owner had a purchase limit, but he had to follow the rules. “Why don’t you look at the Spring Recovery Talismans? This thing can heal wounds no matter how severe and can also restore a certain amount of spiritual energy.”

“Then give me two Spring Recovery Talismans and one Light Body Talisman.”

“My apologies, you are also limited to one Spring Recovery Talisman.”

The man was furious and started cursing at the counter.

But no matter how much he cursed, the steward wouldn’t budge. Some passersby couldn’t stand it and started cursing the steward with the man. After cursing, a curious person couldn’t help but ask the man why he was so willing to spend so much money.

“If I don’t have a talisman, I’ll die,” the man said, still shaken from what happened in the afternoon. “Today, four other people and I took on a mission to dig for herbs on Tiger Mouth Mountain. But we didn’t find any herbs and ran into an evil cultivator. If I hadn’t had a Light Body Talisman on me, I would probably be dead on Tiger Mouth Mountain right now.”

After saying that, he didn’t look at anyone else and went to buy talismans. “Anyway, I feel like things are different out there now. This talisman can save your life at a critical moment. I’ve said all I can. Do as you wish.”

In the end, the man bought one of each of the three talismans for sale, bought some herbs, and left.

After he left, the others looked at each other. Some believed him and immediately went to the counter to buy talismans. Others didn’t and continued to stand on the side, watching.

The next night, the sound of crying in the mortal district seemed to have increased, and the reward for the outer sect mission was once again raised to seven times the original amount. A new jade monument was also erected outside the market’s main gate.

The jade monument would display the names of the people who took on missions that day. When a person left, they would drip a drop of blood on their name. If the person was alive, their name would still be lit. If they died, their name would go dark.

The people who were already feeling uneasy because of the past two days’ events would stand in front of the jade monument, their hearts clenching every time a name went dark.

Under such great psychological pressure, someone finally couldn’t take it anymore and shouted that they were giving up on cultivation and would rather die than leave the safe zone.

“I’ll just be a worthless person!” This statement was met with approval from many people. If they went out, they would die, so it was better to be a normal person and stay inside the safe zone.

But it wasn’t long before another rumor spread. It was said that those who didn’t continue to take beast cores would die a painful death, with blood flowing from their seven orifices and their meridians withering. The process would be extremely painful, and they would wish they were dead.

This rumor made many people who wanted to give up cultivation feel extremely pessimistic and angry. It seemed they would die whether they continued cultivating or gave up. They couldn’t escape their fate of death.

This extremely depressing and resentful emotion made them start cursing the Dao Palace for being heartless. They said that the beast core was a scam from the beginning, and its purpose was to make them puppets who would listen to the DaoPalace.

Besides cursing the Dao Palace, they also cursed the Talisman Master Association, believing that the association was taking advantage of the situation and profiting from the dead.

Scarface Qing had remained indifferent when they were cursing the Dao Palace, but when they started cursing the Talisman Master Association, he couldn’t sit still anymore. “I said, watch your mouths. I can ignore it when you curse other people, but the Talisman Master Association? Honestly, what money have they made from you?

“The guy in the gray clothes. Yes, you. Seven days ago, I remember you sold a spirit ox hide. That spirit ox was an unranked beast. Did you sell the entire hide for six spirit stones?

“You can compare the talisman yourself. How many pieces of talisman paper can you get from that hide? At most, no more than sixteen.

“These sixteen pieces of talisman paper are given to a talisman master. If they’re lucky, they can make five or six Light Body Talismans for you. If they’re unlucky, they might waste all of them. Now you’re telling me the Talisman Master Association is profiting from you? How are they profiting?”

“I don’t believe it. Why would they be so kind as to let us buy talismans on credit if they didn’t have a benefit?” someone shouted.

“Because your cultivation is low, because you die quickly, and because the place where you do your missions is at most twenty miles away from the safe zone. Having a Light Body Talisman gives you a great chance of escaping and coming back,” Scarface Qing said, looking at the dissatisfied people. “I know you’re all resentful, but if you don’t have the ability, you have to accept your fate. Instead of complaining and blaming everyone, why don’t you sit down and cultivate so you can change the world?

“Alright, I’m not going to argue with you all. If you want to buy a talisman, get in line. If you don’t, go far away. I won’t make a single cent off of you.”

The faces of the people who were cursed turned red and then green. Just as they were about to retort, seven or eight market law enforcers walked over and dragged them away. As for the others, after weighing the pros and cons, those who didn’t have talismans lined up.

After a while, the steward came to tell Scarface Qing that they were out of talismans.

“It’s fine. I’ll go get some.” Scarface Qing said.

He called two cultivators to go with him, just in case something happened on the way.

When he walked into the Talisman Academy and carefully pushed open the door to the talisman-making room, he saw more than twenty talisman masters still inside. Some were writing furiously, while others were exhausted and had collapsed with their brushes still in hand.

The weather was still hot in the late summer and early autumn. Many of them were sweating profusely, but no one made a sound. They were all focused on the task at hand. When one talisman was finished, they would immediately start on the next. The only sound in the room was the rustling of the talisman paper.

When Scarface Qing saw this, he decided not to tell them about the rumors outside. He rubbed his face, forced a happy smile, and walked quietly to Lynn Naya. He said, “The Light Body Talismans are selling like crazy outside, and the market is out of stock again. I know it’s not a good time to rush you, but people really need this to save their lives. Can you make another hundred by sunset today?”