Path to Heaven
Chapter 39: Strive hard for level four

Chapter 39 – Strive hard for level four

Translated by: Pumpkin

Edited by: Fumma, Phillip, Earl

Proofread by:

The transparent Measureless Crystal powder was mixed with the black Cuttlefish Ink. This magically changed the liquid into a peculiar dark blue color. This liquid was boiling in a little steel pot. Waves of bright blue colored ripples, as well as an aroma similar to that of an orange peel, were being emitted from the boiling of this liquid.

When the Measureless Crystal powder completely dissolved into the Cuttlefish Ink, Wei Suo began to carefully pour this talisman ink into an extremely clean jade bottle. Without waiting for this talisman ink to cool off, he immediately dipped the Golden Thread Talisman Brush into the bottle. After the Golden Thread Talisman Brush soaked up some talisman ink, Wei Suo lifted up the talisman brush and placed it down on a piece of prepared gold colored talisman paper without the slightest hesitation.

With a natural and unforced manner, the Golden Thread Talisman Brush wandered on top of the gold colored talisman paper. The ingenuousness of Wei Suo’s penmanship when the brush passed through locations where the talisman diagram drawing was supposed to be extremely thin and slender had entranced even the green gowned old man.

The first talisman diagram drawing for the Illusion Light Talisman was extremely complicated. Had Wei Suo been making Fireball Talismans, then with his current speed, he would be able to finish a Fireball Talisman in half a cup of tea’s time if he does not make any mistakes while drawing the diagram. However, it had already been a cup of tea’s time now. The various strokes had only managed to create a diagram like a blooming chrysanthemum. Traces of light had begun to flow through the various lines of the talisman diagram drawing.

Wei Suo’s forehead was covered with a fine layer of sweat. To Wei Suo, the thing that limited his ability to make Fireball Talismans now was neither his success rate nor his speed. Instead, it was the state of concentration like the one that he was currently in. This sort of concentration greatly consumed his mental awareness. If his mental awareness were to be incapable of withstanding the burden from the high level of concentration, then mistakes would appear in his judgement. This would lead to a one hundred percent chance of failure in the talisman that he was making.

Following a dexterous movement of his brush, the tip of the writing brush created a fine winding arc in an instant. After that, the brush left the talisman paper.

Suddenly, all the lines of the talisman diagram drawing shined. It felt as if a flower was in full bloom.

“Fuck, it’s finally done!”

Wei Suo was a bit startled. He clenched his teeth and shouted.

The difficulty of this Illusion Light Talisman had greatly surpassed Wei Suo’s expectation. Wei Suo had been making this talisman for two entire days. Yet, it was only now that he managed to successfully complete the first layer talisman drawing for the first time.

“This guy actually managed to successfully complete the first layer talisman drawing in only two days?” At this moment, the green gowned old man had no choice but to admit that Wei Suo was gifted in talisman making. All the people whom he had encountered before would need at least seven to eight days before they could successfully draw the first layer talisman drawing of this Illusion Light Talisman. The green gowned old man also knew very well that the second layer talisman drawing was much more simple. Generally, those who were able to successfully draw the first layer talisman drawing would not fail in the second layer talisman drawing. The chance of this talisman being a success was extremely high. However, the green gowned old man still called to Wei Suo’s attention in an indifferent manner. “You only have two incense sticks worth of time to finish the next talisman drawing. Do you want to give a couple more shouts of celebration or something before continuing?”

“Fuck!”

Once Wei Suo heard the green gowned old man’s words, he was unable to celebrate anymore. His eyes turned around, he immediately wiped away the sweat that covered his forehead and slightly tidied up his clothes. After that, he instilled his True Elemental Energy into the half finished Illusion Light Talisman that he held in his right hand.

A layer of sparkling and translucent light membrane suddenly covered the golden seal. “Come!” Looking at the direction where the sparking light shined to, Wei Suo immediately stood to the front of the light membrane. The sparkling light emitted from the Illusion Light Talisman shined onto him. He shouted. “Stop!” A stream of his True Elemental Energy landed onto a portion of the talisman drawing. The sparkling light seemed to have been confined. It suddenly came to a stop before rapidly flying back into the incomplete talisman.

This process was known as ‘image snapping.’ At this step, one must determine what sort of image the Illusion Light Talisman will display later. The reason why Wei Suo took an image of himself was because he wanted to produce multiple copies of himself when fighting an enemy or a demonic beast. At that time, this would cause his opponent or demonic beast to be confused and not know which one was the true him. The green gowned old man had mentioned before that the images produced by this sort of Illusion Light Talisman were extremely lifelike. Only through being hit by an attack would they distort and deform, allowing one’s enemy to determine it was fake.

“Fuck, I must definitely successfully make this talisman!”

Once the image snapping was completed, Wei Suo immediately grabbed the incomplete talisman and placed it on top of the stone table. At the same time, he immediately poured his True Elemental Energy into the Golden Thread Talisman Brush. Fluently, the Golden Thread Talisman Brush began to discharge the talisman ink within it. After that, Wei Suo dipped the Golden Thread Talisman Brush into the prepared talisman ink formed through boiling the Image Developing Stone with Cuttlefish Ink and began to draw on the golden talisman paper.

Following Wei Suo’s brush strokes, numerous profound lines began to appear on the talisman paper. Once the cyan colored talisman ink seeped into the talisman paper, it began to miraculously integrate with the blue colored talisman ink from the process before, creating a sapphire blue colored luster.

Beads of sweat began to seep out from Wei Suo’s forehead. The only thing that remained unchanged was the Golden Thread Talisman Brush he held in his hand. It continued to rapidly move about the talisman paper with extreme steadiness.

“Fuck!” Wei Suo suddenly felt a sense of weakness. Although there were not many talisman drawing strokes left, he had started to feel powerless.

The exhaustion of one’s psyche! Trying to make a talisman that he had never made before was a lot more exhausting on Wei Suo’s mental spirit than making the Fireball Talismans that he was familiar with.

Wei Suo clenched his teeth and strived his hardest to open his eyes. He forced his hands to continue to control the movement of the talisman brush with incomparable steadiness. At the same time, he began to gather his focus. Blue veins started to appear on his forehead. However, the movement of his hand was still soft like a gentle breeze. At this moment, Wei Suo no longer gave off the sensation of a vulgar individual.

“Finally completed!”

As he lifted the Golden Thread Talisman Brush away from the talisman paper, all of the talisman diagram drawings on the talisman turned into sapphire blue color. Wei Suo immediately fell weakly onto his chair. His sleeveless garment was completely drenched. However, in his eyes was an indescribable excitement.

The current Wei Suo was no longer the little cultivator who knew nothing when he made his first Fireball Talisman. He no longer needed to go and test out the talisman anymore. Just by merely looking at the gentle luster and smooth aura from the talisman, he knew that this Illusion Light Talisman was a success.

The most important aspect was that the beginning of all things were the most difficult. With the experience of one successful talisman, the following two and three talismans would not be as difficult to make as this one.

…

“Wahahaha!”

Two days later. Another burst of extremely vulgar laughter sounded in Wei Suo’s stone house.

Inside the filthy little stone house stood two practically same looking Wei Suo. Merely, one of the Wei Suo did not have anything on his hand whereas the other Wei Suo held five golden colored Illusion Light Talismans.

The person holding the five golden Illusion Light Talismans was naturally Wei Suo’s true body. He extended his hand and waved it toward the illusion created by the Illusion Light Talisman. His hand appeared as if it had passed through a layer of water screen. A ripple-like pattern appeared on the other Wei Suo.

“Truly similar. Haha, it should be enough to confuse those unintelligent demonic beasts.”

In the two days, Wei Suo managed to make six more Illusion Light Talismans. After having six Illusion Light Talismans, he was finally unable to contain himself from using one to try out its effect. The result made him extremely satisfied. If one does not touch the illusion, then as long as Wei Suo stood there motionlessly, one would not be able to determine which Wei Suo was the real one and which was an illusion.

“Oh, right. Old man, just imprinting me doesn’t amount to much. I gotta imprint some other things too.” Having five Illusion Light Talismans with his appearance snapped into them, Wei Suo became unsatisfied. He said to the green gowned old man, “I need to imprint some amazing skill technique, demonic beasts and such. I need to be able to scare my opponents. If I was to encounter those that are timid, I might even be able to directly scare them running.”

“True. If you were able to find a powerful cultivator’s skill technique or a level four or five demonic beast that would just stand there and obediently allow you to imprint within two incense sticks worth of time, then you would definitely be able to scare your opponent off.” The green gowned old man gave Wei Suo a side eye. To be honest, he had already thought Wei Suo’s idea of imprinting himself into the Illusion Light Talisman was already a very smart choice. He had originally only told Wei Suo about how to make this Illusion Light Talisman so that he could make Wei Suo train his talisman making skill and mental ability.

“That is indeed a problem.” Wei Suo had a long face. If he was a member of a powerful sect, then he would definitely be able to find a powerful skill technique being used or a powerful demonic beast to imprint. However, Wei Suo was a solo cultivator. Even if he was able to cast a powerful skill technique, it was impossible for him to have the time to do the imprinting process while casting the skill technique.

“Two incense sticks worth of time… What would be quick enough?” Suddenly, Wei Suo started to laugh mischievously. With an extremely vulgar appearance, he looked to the green gowned old man and said, “Old man, say, if I was to fight with someone and then a large group of huge white pigs decided to run past, what sort of expression do you think my opponent would have?”

“Fuck!” The green gowned old man was startled. He nearly fell to the ground.

“Wahahaha!”

Another half completed Illusion Light Talisman was formed. After that, Wei Suo took it and rapidly ran out of his house. After running past two alleys, he saw a circle with several tens of fat white pigs. Wei Suo ‘he he’ laughed and enveloped this group of pigs with the sparkling and translucent light cover. After that, Wei Suo rapidly ran back into his stone house. Following a disgusting laughter, a new golden colored Illusion Light Talisman was formed.

…

The green gowned old man was speechless.

Wei Suo didn’t only make a single White Pig Herd Illusion Light Talisman, he had instead directly made two. The green gowned old man began to think exactly what sort of appearance would Wei Suo’s opponent have on their face if they were to discover a large group of white pigs suddenly appearing and charging toward them while they were fighting with Wei Suo.

However, after being rejoiced for a moment, Wei Suo laid on top of his bed and became a bit depressed. “Old man, when exactly do you think I’d be able to reach level four Divine Sea Stage? I have already learned all of the Golden Serpent Thunder Techniques that I could learn. As for the rest, I would have to wait till I reach level four Divine Sea Stage to learn the following stages. Why is it that I feel that the effect of absorbing Spiritual Stone’s Spiritual Energy is inferior to before?”

Hearing what Wei Suo said, the green gowned old man also became serious. He nodded his head and said, “Unless you have a marvelous Pellet Medicine, it is impossible for you to shorten the amount of time needed to break through to level four Divine Sea Stage. The reason why the effect of your absorption of the Spiritual Energy is not as effective as before, is because the amount of True Energy and Spiritual Energy in your body right now has always been in a very abundant state. Cultivation is like eating. If you wish to be able to have a bigger stomach, then you must eat more and move more. Through eating a bit more every day, you’ll be able to expand your stomach. By doing more physical exercises, you’ll be able to eat more. If you wish to train faster, you must also use as much of your True Elemental Energy as possible everyday. You must consume your True Elemental Energy and then replenish them. Through that, the circulation of True Elemental Energy through your body would be even more efficient. It is just like eating; if you were to eat all day and not move, you would only get fatter. Cultivation is the same, it’s effect would naturally be worse.”

“You’re saying that I should go and fight more demonic beasts? If I were to do that, my cultivation speed would be faster?” Wei Suo’s eyes immediately started to shine. “No wonder they say that the powerful cultivators were all borne from fighting and not from staying at home and cultivating.”

“If you were to do that, it would likely allow you to absorb Spiritual Energy more effectively. The speed of your advance would also be a bit faster.” The green gowned old man took a glance at Wei Suo. “However, in theory, it’s not like you are required to fight demonic beasts. You can also face a wall and keep casting Cyan Water Blades as if your life depended on it or doing something similar so that you can exhaust all of your True Elemental Energy before training.”

“Fuck, do you think I’m stupid? Instead of killing demonic beasts and earning Spiritual Stones, you want me to fight the air? True Elemental Energy required Spiritual Stones and Energy Recovery Medicine to recover, okay?” Wei Suo shouted. “Fuck, I’ll go and get some demonic beasts tomorrow.”