Chapter 40 – The Power of Five Thunders

Lynn Naya was filled with a mix of heartache and excitement as she looked at the Five Thunder Talisman, which was the result of so many failed first-grade talisman papers.

She held the talisman in her hand, unable to put it down. No matter how she looked at it, she felt that this charm was more exquisite than any she had ever made.

I wonder what the talisman’s power is like.

The Talisman Book said the Five Thunder Talisman was incredibly powerful, but it didn’t say how powerful it was. She wanted to test it out, but she didn’t have a place to, and she couldn’t bear to use it, especially since this was her only Five Thunder Talisman.

She had three more first-grade talisman papers in her bag. She could try to make more, but she felt the success rate wouldn’t be very high with only three. The Talisman Master Association hadn’t sold their materials for this month yet, so she figured she would go there and buy them all at once.

After holding the talisman and reliving the process of making it, Lynn Naya couldn’t wait any longer. She tidied up and went to the Talisman Academy for the first time on a day she wasn’t scheduled to teach.

The Talisman Academy now served as the headquarters of the Talisman Master Association. In addition to the large building used for classes, five more rooms had been built two months ago for talisman masters to draw and exchange ideas.

Lynn Naya could see other talisman masters sitting at their tables, writing and drawing, almost every time she came here.

When she arrived, some disciples saw her and immediately bowed and greeted her. “Hello, Talisman Master Lynn.” “Hello, Teacher Lynn.”

It was hard to say whether her practical teaching method was more effective or if the other talisman masters’ skills were just worse than hers.

In the past few months, the Talisman Master Association had added eleven new members, six of whom had become talisman masters because of her guidance.

This led to a situation where people might choose to attend other talisman masters’ classes, but her classes were always full. Even some of her peers would come to watch.

Now, when people mentioned her, they would say, “As expected of a senior who has a treasure table in her house, her insights into talismans are on another level.” In short, she and that table were now a package deal.

“Hello, everyone.” Lynn Naya didn’t put on any airs. After greeting them, she went straight to Qiao Guanyuan’s room before more people could see her.

Qiao Guanyuan, as the president of the Talisman Master Association, had his own room. But that was all he had. He didn’t even have a servant. Lynn Naya could knock on his door anytime she wanted.

This also showed that the Talisman Master Association was still poor and just starting. If Lynn Naya had wanted to see someone to do something in the past, even a small-time person, she would have had to wait at least two hours and might not even get to see them.

“It’s rare to not see you drawing talismans,” she said, knowing that Qiao Guanyuan was taking a break, which was why she knocked and entered directly. “President Qiao, the Dao Palace’s talisman materials should have been distributed, right?”

When Qiao Guanyuan saw her asking for talisman materials again, he simply lifted his chin toward the cabinet next to him, allowing her to serve herself. “Take them yourself.”

Lynn Naya was used to this process now. The first-grade talisman materials that the Dao Palace gave out were basically split between her and Qiao Guanyuan. The other talisman masters didn’t have a need for them yet.

Since there were few people, they got a lot. The only shame was that the Dao Palace was a bit stingy. They only gave ten sets of first-grade talisman materials a month.

After Lynn Naya checked every piece of talisman material and confirmed there were no issues, she said to QiaoGuanyuan, “Before, there were a dozen of us, and we still got ten sets. Now that we’ve almost doubled, why is it still ten sets of materials?”

She didn’t think the Dao Palace was intentionally withholding the materials.

When she sold the talisman-making technique everywhere, the Dao Palace not only took the initiative to pass down some basic talisman-making methods, but also put some simple talisman paper and blood ink-making processes up for sale in the market.

As soon as the Talisman Master Association was founded, someone from the top took the initiative to contact them, and the talisman materials for the Talisman Master Association were now supplied for free.

All these signs showed that the Dao Palace was not trying to suppress the Talisman Master Association. Instead, it was supporting it, though it wasn’t taking it seriously. It was like they were just fishing for people, and if they caught one, they caught one.

The more this was the case, the more they had to fight for themselves.

When he heard her question, Qiao Guanyuan sighed. “We don’t have money. The steward said that the basic supply of talisman materials would be free, but if we want more, we either have to trade with a first-grade high-tier talisman or buy them with spirit stones. Otherwise, he can’t explain it. We don’t have either of those things.”

He suddenly looked at Lynn Naya with a burning gaze. “Half of the high-grade talisman materials every month go into your pocket. Logically, mid-tier talismans are good enough with normal talisman paper. Are you practicing the Five Thunder Talisman?”

Tsk.

Are people with high talent always so sharp about these things?

Even though she had been guessed, Lynn Naya would never admit it. “I wish I had your talent. The reason I’m taking these is so I can hoard them before others come and take my share. When more people need them, I might not get any.”

“Is that so?” Qiao Guanyuan looked at her noncommittally.

Lynn Naya looked back at him without a hint of guilt. “Don’t try to put the burden on me. You’re the president. If there are no high-grade materials for now, then so be it. It’ll be better when you break through or when our Talisman Master Association gets rich… wait a minute. Does our Talisman Master Association even have a legitimate business yet?”

If she remembered correctly, the land for the Talisman Academy was something Scarface Qing had worked hard to get. The only source of income for the Talisman Master Association seemed to be the money she paid for the high-grade materials every month.

But it was indeed difficult for the talisman masters at this stage to make money. The reason was simple: the success rate was too low.

The cost of the talisman paper and blood ink was there. A single Light Body Talisman was worth one spirit stone. It sounded valuable, but many people were willing to buy beast hides to make leather armor because they had a higher defense than ordinary fabric.

This caused the price of beast hides to remain high. An unprocessed beast hide was at least five spirit stones, and a single hide could only be cut into no more than twenty pieces of talisman paper.

One could say that the talisman masters at this stage were basically paying out of their own pockets to learn.

“Forget it. We can’t rush this. It’ll be fine once you break through.” Lynn Naya said, comforting Qiao Guanyuan.

“Maybe. I’ve finished cleaning up. Do you want to stay and practice?”

“No, no.” Lynn Naya said, waving her hand as she knew he was trying to see her out. She left.

With eight first-grade talisman papers in her bag, Lynn Naya returned home. After eating, showering, and lighting some incense, she confirmed that she was in a good state before closing the door and locking the windows and taking out her talisman brush.

This time, with the experience of a successful attempt, she succeeded in making two talismans out of eight.

“Not bad.” Two out of eight. The success rate is decent.

Seeing that it was still early, Lynn Naya left her house and went to the herb forest. After changing her appearance, she headed toward the Peach Blossom Forest outside the safe zone.

She still needed to test the power of the Five Thunder Talisman to truly understand it.

She couldn’t test it inside the safe zone. If the commotion was too big, it would definitely attract trouble. She could only go to the wilderness.

The Peach Blossom Forest was full of miasma, so there was a much smaller chance of running into people compared to other places. The miasma also obscured the vision, and it was close to the safe zone, so if there was any trouble, she could quickly run away.

After entering the forest, Lynn Naya first used her spiritual sense to scan the surroundings. She chose a spot close to the middle where there was no one and then injected spiritual energy into the Five Thunder Talisman and threw it at the thickest and strongest peach tree.

With a loud bang, a bolt of lightning struck the peach tree. The large tree, which would take two or three people to wrap their arms around, was instantly reduced to dust right in front of Lynn Naya.

It just… disappeared?

Lynn Naya was stunned. She thought it would be charred or broken, but she never thought it would be destroyed so completely. She stepped forward and grabbed some of the peach wood ash. The ash just fell from her hand without her needing to rub it.

It’s so powerful against wood. I wonder if it would be the same on a person.

Just as she was thinking, Lynn Naya suddenly felt someone’s spiritual sense scan her. Without a word, she slapped a Light Body Talisman on herself and used her full strength to cast the Cloud Roaming Steps, a basic footwork technique given to all new disciples by the Dao Palace. She shot toward the safe zone at the fastest speed possible.

The Peach Blossom Forest was about ten miles from the safe zone. It wasn’t close, but it wasn’t too far either. With the footwork and the Light Body Talisman boost, Lynn Naya returned to the safe zone in a few dozen breaths.

As soon as she entered the safe zone and landed on the ground, Lynn Naya finally let out a sigh of relief. She put the two Five Thunder Talismans she was holding back into her storage bag.

The spiritual sense that had just scanned her had a very clear killing intent. The most important thing was that she hadn’t sensed the person’s presence. This meant that either the person was good at concealment techniques, or their cultivation was higher than hers. In any case, the person was not friendly.

I wonder why that person showed killing intent toward me. Do they want to kill me for treasure? Or are they doing something illegal and thought I found out? Or do they just want to kill people?

The first two had reasons behind them, but if it was the last one…

Lynn Naya couldn’t help but think of the evil cultivator retaliation she had been worrying about.

If the person in the Peach Blossom Forest was an evil cultivator, then things would be much more complicated.

Thinking about how she ran into something like this on her first trip outside the safe zone, Lynn Naya decided not to take on any outer sect missions for now. She would wait until the hype around the evil cultivators died down.

But for now, since she had sensed something, she couldn’t pretend that she didn’t know anything. She had to find a way to warn the others.

But before Lynn Naya could think of a way to warn everyone, the Dao Palace was already on high alert because someone had reported that a patrol team had gone out yesterday and hadn’t returned.

Soul fog would appear at night, so it was impossible for them not to return if nothing had happened. The fact that an entire team of five had gone missing naturally made the Dao Palace cautious.

The next day, Lynn Naya saw another group of disciples come down from the Dao Palace on the mountain. These disciples were a level weaker than the ones who had gone to clear out the evil cultivators before and were mostly in the early stages of Qi Condensation.

The Dao Palace mixed these disciples with the patrol teams. From then on, every mortal cultivator patrol team would have a spiritual cultivator, and the mortal cultivator patrol teams would only patrol within a twenty-mile radius of the safe zone. The areas beyond twenty miles would be left to the remaining disciples at the third layer of Qi Condensation and above.

Among these new disciples who had come down from the mountain, Lynn Naya also saw Zhou Feibai. Two years had passed, and his cultivation had reached the third layer of Qi Condensation.

Lynn Naya only glanced at him before she looked away. She had more important things to do.

The Dao Palace was so cautious that they even increased the rewards for all outer sect missions by five times. This was as good as telling everyone that the evil cultivators’ retaliation had already begun.

From now on, everyone, whether they were Dao Palace disciples or mortal cultivators, would face a bloody test. This could be a slaughter or an opportunity for them.

Perhaps this was also part of the Dao Palace’s “training” plan. But Lynn Naya still wanted to save as many people as possible.

Lynn Naya went to the Talisman Academy and found Qiao Guanyuan, asking him to gather all the talisman masters as soon as possible.

A twenty-mile radius wasn’t very big. With Light Body Talismans, everyone’s chances of survival would increase greatly. There wasn’t much they, as talisman masters, could do, but they had to at least make sure that anyone who wanted to buy talismans could get them at any time.