Chapter One: Heaven's First Floor

  To create a talisman, it's not possible to produce something out of thin air. On the contrary, this art of talismans is specifically related to the Five Elements method, and the materials used are made from special textures that have been established for a long time. Shen Shi may be young, but he has been forced by his father to learn the art of talismans since childhood, so he naturally knows the materials needed to create a talisman.

  First, a special brush pen is required, which is usually made of spiritual materials with strong spiritual power, especially the bones of high-ranking demonic beasts. The higher the rank of the beast, the stronger its ability to absorb and store spiritual energy from heaven and earth, and the better the brush pen made from its bones will be.

  Secondly, the most basic medium for talismans is the talisman paper. This is not ordinary white paper that Shen Shi used to draw talismans in Xi Lu City. To create a real talisman, one must infuse spiritual energy into it and use special talisman arrays to form a specific five-element spell.

  Therefore, the talisman paper must also be made of spiritual materials to withstand spiritual energy. Because different five-element spells have different powers, the talisman papers used for each are also different. For example, the most basic first-level spells like "Fireball" and "Water Arrow" require the least amount of spiritual energy, so they only need ordinary "Yellow Talisman Paper". However, if one wants to create a second or third-level five-element spell with much greater power, they must use higher-grade talisman papers such as "Red Talisman Paper" or "Green Talisman Paper", and so on. Of course, the higher the grade of the talisman paper, the more expensive the materials will be.

  Apart from these two most important materials, the production of talismans also requires "cinnabar" used for drawing talismanic characters and arrays. This thing is not too rare, Shen Shi remembers that in the past when selling talismanic brushes and paper at Tianyi Building in Xilu City, the shops would often give away one or two bottles as a bonus.

  The materials are roughly these, but the main ones are talismans and paper, because they all need to be made of spiritual materials, so the prices have never been low. Adding that the production of talismans is difficult and complicated, it's hard to make them, so in Shen Shi's memory, the price of talismans has always been high. Ordinary cultivators who know about these things sometimes save time and effort, but they can't afford to buy them.

  At this moment, the four big characters "materials self-provided" are clearly written on the green board with white stripes in front of him. Shen Shi's heart sank a little, and he looked down carefully again. Sure enough, there were a few sentences at the end of the note that gave some guidance. It was nothing more than that the symbol pen and yellow symbol paper could be purchased on the island, including the lowest-grade symbol pen and five pieces of symbol paper, which cost about five spirit crystals per set. As for the cinnabar needed to draw the symbol text, it was also generously provided free of charge.

  In the end, especially when he saw the price, Shen Shi's face turned black and he turned around to leave. The five spiritual crystals didn't seem particularly expensive, but it was because these things were consumables! The symbol paper wasn't worth mentioning, as one sheet would be used up after drawing one symbol. As for the symbol brush, especially the low-grade ones, they were extremely prone to wear and tear due to their poor material quality, and would often break after being used less than twenty times.

  Under these circumstances, the price of five spiritual crystals is really too expensive. Moreover, Fu Lu has always been known for its complexity and difficulty. It's easy to make mistakes when drawing talismans every day. Once a mistake is made in one place, the whole talisman paper is wasted. So Shen Shi just thought about it briefly and felt that this matter couldn't be done at all, so he had to give up.

  "Scoundrel..." As he walked back to the front of the whiteboard, Shen Shi's face sank, and in his heart, he silently cursed that Ling Xiao Zong's Daoist hall.

  There were still many young people standing in front of the whiteboard, looking around. Shen Shi raised his eyes and looked around, seeing Sun You, He Xiaomei, and Jiang Hongguang still standing there, so he walked over and said: "How is it? Have you seen anything suitable?"

  He Xiaomei and Jiang Hongguang both slightly shook their heads, Sun You sighed and said: "After looking for half a day, I feel that the tasks on this are almost the same, calculating it all, it seems that the few things my younger uncle told us to do are indeed easier."

  Shen Shi furrowed his brow, pondered for a moment, then said: "How about... we go take a look too?"

  The other three people looked at each other and nodded in unison.

  "What's full?"

  Sun You looked at the smiling Shifu in front of him with a few points of astonishment.

  This senior sister was wearing the uniform of a Ling Xiao Sect disciple, with a slender figure and beautiful features. She looked to be five or six years older than them, in the prime of her youth, and seemed to have a good temper as well. Standing in the White Crane Hall to receive these new junior brothers, many young men liked to run over and chat with her.

  Sun You and others came to her place to register for the tasks that Xiao Shu had mentioned, just as they were discussing the first one, which was the best way to refine the elixir after repeated deliberation. The female master smiled and told them that the Dan Tang only accepted forty people today, and it was already full.

  "This is also too fast...” Sun You, Shen Shi and others looked at each other in dismay, with a bad premonition rising in their hearts. Shen Shi hastily stepped forward and asked: "What about the task that was assigned by Zhen Dang?"

  The senior sister glanced at a document in her hand and smiled slightly, saying: "We need thirty people for the Array Hall, it's full."

  Shen Shi remained silent, while He Xiao Mei grew anxious beside him and asked, "What about the task from the Spiritual Beast Temple?"

  Taking a glance at the registration book, Shifu's sister smiled and said: "Oh dear, what bad luck! The Spiritual Beast Temple is also full, they're only taking forty people."

  "...". The four young men stood by, all speechless for a moment.

  After a while, Sun You muttered to himself, "What the hell, how can it be so fast? There were clearly so many tasks on that whiteboard, why does it seem like everyone is desperately squeezing into these few places?"

  He Xiaomei and Jiang Hongguang were both silent, seemingly also confused. Shen Shi, however, suddenly thought of the words his father had told him when they parted ways:

  Is this really the gathering of all the elites and geniuses under the heavens in the path of cultivation? Even if they are just youngsters, how many clever people are among them? And apart from this, Sun You, who comes from a noble family, will secretly receive some hints and care, what about others from noble families? The scale of the Ling Xiao Sect's affiliated families is so vast, with big and small ones, I'm afraid there are no less than several hundred families.

  He took a deep breath, not quite clearing the gloom from his mind, but Shen Shi still felt an inexplicable pressure. Having been through so many things, he hadn't lost confidence, and merely clenched his fist secretly.

  "I say, why don't we go take a look at the Red Clam Tribe's place?" Shen Shi said with a smile to his three companions.

  Sun You thought for a moment, nodded and said: "It seems that there is no other way. The other tasks also seem to be troublesome. Why don't we go over first and take a look? If it's really not good to do anything on the other side, we can come back?"

  He Xiaomei nodded and agreed, while Jiang Hongguang seemed hesitant at first, but eventually agreed to go together with the other three.

  The Hong Bang clan's residence was on the east side of Qingyu Island, a distance from Qingyu Village, but the roads on the island were flat and easy to walk, and it didn't take much time for the four of them to reach the small coastal village directly called "Hong Bang Village".

  In the distance, I saw a flat beach with dozens of houses of various sizes and strange shapes. Most of them were built on four thick wooden pillars inserted into the sandy beach, six or seven feet above the ground, where the wooden house was located. Ordinary people could even walk freely under these houses.

  At this moment, looking at the village where people are moving around, the strange red clam tribe with red shells can be seen everywhere. However, in addition to this, there are also more than a dozen new disciples of young boys similar to Shen Shisun and his friends here.

  Seeing this scene, Shen Shi and others were stunned. Sun You brought a few parts of incredulity and exclaimed: "No way, there are so many people rushing here? I've never heard that the task of grabbing on the island would be so outrageous?"

  Shen Shi pulled Sun You, who was still in a daze, and quickly walked forward, saying: "Hurry up, or else even this place will be gone..."

  Sun You was startled and quickly followed, He Xiao Mei and Jiang Hong Guang also looked surprised, following behind the two of them, hurrying towards Hong Bang Village.

  As soon as they entered the Red Clam Village, to be honest, the four young men were still a bit nervous, after all, this was their first close encounter with these "demon tribes" since childhood. However, looking at the surrounding Red Clam villagers walking around, although they couldn't be said to be very enthusiastic or hospitable, none of them seemed to have any ferocious or evil appearance, most of them had a "don't get involved in other people's business" expression, and the young men gradually gained more courage.

  In addition to the young men who had already surrounded the area, it made people feel that there was safety in numbers, and they also quickly walked towards the crowded place. Shen Shi glanced at the side along the way, only to see that most of the villagers in Hong Wan Village were leisurely, and a few clever-looking Hong Wan people even took advantage of this opportunity to set up small stalls on the roadside, with some coral-like, pearl-like, and various strange minerals, as well as rare sea beast bones, all of which were produced from the sea, apparently preparing to do business with these disciples.

  However, it's not the time to observe these things carefully now. The four of them rushed to the middle of the village and saw a place similar to an altar in front of them. In the middle was a carving of a strange sea beast, but Shen Shi didn't recognize what kind it was at first glance.

  Below the altar, a dozen or so young people formed a circle, with several Hongge tribe members standing in the middle. The leader was an old man who looked somewhat familiar to Shen Shi. After some thought, he remembered that it was the old man from the Qingyu gathering earlier. His gaze shifted and indeed saw the Hongge girl standing behind the old man. In addition to them, there were three or four other Hongge tribe members standing beside them, looking a bit taller than the others, all adult males of the tribe. At this moment, each face was filled with smiles, looking very happy.

  "Everyone, don't squeeze, don't squeeze." The old man chuckled and signaled the surrounding youngsters to be quiet. Then, stroking his beard with a smile, he said, "You all came here to earn spirit crystals, didn't you? This is a simple matter. Look," he said, waving his hand, and two robust men from the Red Shell tribe promptly brought over two large bamboo baskets. Inside, there was a constant rustling sound, as if many unknown insects were crawling around.

  The eyes of many young people fell on the past, and the boys didn't feel much, but the faces of several girls in the crowd suddenly became unnatural. He Xiao Mei, who was standing beside Shen Shi, stiffened her body at this moment, and her eyes inexplicably carried a few points of fear.