Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

By the time the morning sun rose, the trio had already taken to the skies, soaring away from the city. Ye Feng was practically bouncing with excitement, flailing his arms as he shouted, “Boss! We’ve got thirty thousand low-grade spirit stones! We’re rich!”

Li Guanqi smiled, though with a slight disdain. “Alright, that’s enough. Your father was throwing around millions of spirit stones for your sake. When you used to gamble with me, thirty thousand wouldn’t have even made you blink. What’s got you so worked up now?”

Ye Feng beamed, eyes bright. “How is that the same? That was money my father earned, which had nothing to do with me. But these spirit stones… we earned them together. Right, Big Head?”

Cao Yan sulked. “Second Brother, can you stop calling me Big Head? You’ve probably said it seventy or eighty times in the night alone! And we didn’t earn them—we took them.”

Li Guanqi didn’t find their bickering annoying. In fact, he felt at ease. The path of cultivation was long, and walking it alone could be unbearably lonely.

Ye Feng chattered like a village woman, stirring up Li Guanqi’s memories of Prosperity Village. His time there had been the happiest of his life.

But just as that warmth settled over him, he suddenly remembered that the bastard who had always bullied him in his youth was also named Zhao Beichen. He had killed the Zhao Beichen from the Purple Sun Pavilion, but the other one was probably preparing for marriage already. In Prosperity Village, people usually married at sixteen.

Meanwhile, Ye Feng and Cao Yan’s chatter had turned interesting.

“Big Head, you said you knew how to refine pills? How good are you?” Ye Feng asked.

“Uh… I think I’m pretty good. I can do more than refine pills as well. I know a little about making talismans and arrays.”Li Guanqi froze, turning to him with disbelief. “You know how to make talismans and arrays?”

Cao Yan gave a bashful nod and tapped the side of his head. Then, turning to huff at Ye Feng, he said, “This didn’t get big for no reason. I just have too much divine consciousness. I could not process all of it, so my head just… kept growing. Certain things happened, and I lost the ability to cultivate, but my divine consciousness kept building up.”

Cao Yan looked at them and smiled. “If I hadn’t met you guys, I probably would’ve died from my head bursting, even if I somehow avoided getting beaten to death.”

Li Guanqi unconsciously began rubbing his palms. He and Ye Feng exchanged a glance. They’d basically picked up the God of Wealth.

With someone like Cao Yan around, they could hunt demonic beasts and use the parts for talisman crafting. He could forge array banners or trays from rare minerals. With him, they wouldn’t need to worry about spirit stones ever again. He was the God of Wealth.

Ye Feng couldn’t wait. He pulled out a blank talisman and a pouch of cinnabar. He said to Cao Yan, “Come on, Big Head! Draw me something! I’ve never seen a real talisman master in action.”

Cao Yan frowned and asked, “You don’t have a talisman brush?”

Ye Feng stiffened and muttered, “You need a talisman brush? The shopkeeper never told me that!”

Cao Yan and Li Guanqi burst into laughter. Just as Li Guanqi opened his mouth to tell Ye Feng to put away the talisman materials, Cao Yan took the blank talisman and murmured, “I can do it with my fingers too, though it’s been a long time…”

As he spoke, he dipped some cinnabar on his middle finger. Vital force surged through his body as his right hand danced across the talisman’s surface.

In the span of two breaths, he finished and handed it to Ye Feng, then wiped his cinnabar-stained finger on Ye Feng’s clothes with a grin. “This is the simplest talisman, a Fireball Talisman. I haven’t drawn one in a long time, so I’m a little rusty.”

Ye Feng stared down at the cinnabar smudge on his chest. “Agh! Big Head! This is the only set of new clothes I have!”

Li Guanqi ignored Ye Feng and examined the talisman. The cinnabar hadn’t dried, yet it faintly pulsed with spirit power. The talisman was usable.

After some thought, Li Guanqi injected a wisp of vital force into the talisman and tossed it up in the air.

Boom!

A fireball, blue and a full chi across, exploded outward. Both Ye Feng and Li Guanqi swallowed hard.

“B-b-big Head!!! That’s what you call a Fireball Talisman?!” Ye Feng said, his voice cracking with disbelief.

Li Guanqi shut his mouth, unsure of what to say.

The Fireball Talismans they had purchased with contribution points from the Daxia Sword Sect could only produce fist-sized fireballs at best, and even those were quite weak. Cao Yan’s fireball was more than five times larger. It packed the same punch as a full-strength attack from a mid Foundation Building Realm cultivator.

The flames were a different color as well. The blue fire indicated greater heat and destructive power.

Cao Yan smiled like it was no big deal. “I can only manage that much with low-grade fire talismans. The high-tier ones are a bit much for me. I’m not great at arrays either… pill refinement is where I shine.”

Li Guanqi stared at him for a long moment. Cao Yan’s talent was on par with his own. No wonder he’d gotten dragged into clan wars. Even as an outsider, he could tell that Cao Yan’s family must’ve been quite strong.

But then Li Guanqi caught himself and smiled. He shook his head at his own thoughts. What’s the point of thinking about this now? I’ve already made my choice.

Then, Li Guanqi waved at them and said, “Let’s go. There’s a port near us. We’ll decide where to go from there.”

Cao Yan and Ye Feng flew behind Li Guanqi. Suddenly, Li Guanqi and Ye Feng’s expressions shifted, and they pulled out their jade slips simultaneously. A message from the Daxia Sword Sect had arrived. It was brief, but somewhat alarming for any disciple away from the sect.

From today onward, the Daxia Sword Sect shall seal itself from the outside world for three years. The sect is well; do not worry.

Ye Feng was stunned, unsure what to make of it. Li Guanqi, however, merely smiled and reassured him. “Don’t worry. If they say they’re fine, then there’s nothing to worry about.”

As they chatted, Li Guanqi took the chance to tell Cao Yan about their sect. Li Guanqi smiled faintly to himself. It looks like the sect has learned the essence of the eleventh level of the Qi Refinement Realm.

Li Guanqi hadn’t given them guidance for the twelfth or thirteenth levels—not because he didn’t want to, but because even revealing the twelfth level could make them a target. Many powerful forces would be eager to conspire against them, seeking their destruction.