Wang Hao, Chu He, and Chen Qing left together. As they were about to part ways, Wang Hao remembered the Soul Nurturing Herb.
He quickly stopped Chen Qing:— "Fairy Chen, please wait. I have a request, and I hope you can grant it!"
— "Brother Wang, please speak freely. I'll naturally help if I can."
Wang Hao clasped his hands and implored:— "I come from a small family. Although I'm an alchemist, I've had few opportunities to see many spiritual herbs. Therefore, I'd like to know if the fairy could allow me to observe the Soul Nurturing Flower!"
— "I thought it was something serious to make Brother Wang so solemn," Chen Qing laughed and took out a jade box, handing it to Wang Hao:— "Brother Wang, feel free to take a look!"
Wang Hao thanked her repeatedly and then opened the jade box. As soon as he smelled the fragrance of the Soul Nurturing Flower, he felt his mind clear and his thoughts quicken. Indeed, it had the effect of nourishing the soul. He took a deep breath and then closed the box again. However, as he did, he took the opportunity to lightly touch the flower with his finger and obtained a seed.
— "Brother Wang, don't you want to take another look?"
— "I'm already satisfied. I'll be off now!"
Watching Wang Hao's figure recede, Chu He couldn't help but say:— "This Brother Wang is truly obsessed with spiritual herbs, but there's no greed in his eyes, which shows he's a fair person!"
Chen Qing also commented:— "Brother Wang is an alchemist, so it's natural for him to be curious when seeing rare herbs, but it's just curiosity. Being able to keep his heart steady like that will surely make him someone important in the future!"
— "It's a pity he's only from a small family with limited knowledge. Otherwise, his achievements would be even greater!"
Chen Qing nodded:— "Yes, this sister also wants to test the effect of the Soul Nurturing Flower. I'll talk to Senior Brother next time. Farewell!"
...
Back at the shop, Wang Hao took out the Illusory Moon Butterfly eggs and observed them carefully. He had never dealt with them before. They were weakened and their color was different from normal eggs, but considering that Sun Zhixuan was willing to buy them, they must have some value.
Wang Hao deduced that the color change of these eggs was not just due to time but that they had always been like this from the start. Therefore, the reason was simply: mutation!
Mutated spirit insects didn't necessarily evolve in a good direction. It's like selective breeding in later generations: there are both good and bad results. The task was to select the good among them.
These five eggs were all colorful, and the stripes were almost identical, indicating that their mother had likely already undergone mutation, which saved Wang Hao from having to do further selection later!
How to replenish the vitality of the eggs? Wang Hao knew the basics. Placing them in an area with abundant spiritual energy was just one part. It was also possible to nourish them with spiritual water or prepare spiritual liquid. In short, it was necessary to use substances containing spiritual energy to restore their vitality.
Wang Hao didn't have formulas for spiritual liquids, but he had the Spiritual Creation Pill. This pill was very nourishing for spirit beasts and insects. Wang Hao just needed to use the formula of this pill to condense a spiritual liquid and then soak the eggs in it. That would probably have some effect. Even if it failed, the loss would only be a bottle and a half of Yellow Dragon Pills.
So he began refining. It only took a bit of time to extract the essence from the spiritual herbs. In a short while, Wang Hao prepared the spiritual liquid, soaked the eggs in it, and, to avoid total loss, separated one egg and placed it on a pile of spirit stones. By comparing the two, he could observe the difference in a few days!
After setting the eggs aside, Wang Hao ignored them and took out the talisman feather he had acquired to prepare for drawing talismans. The experiences shared by those at the gathering had given him great inspiration, so he decided to take advantage of his motivation to improve his talisman crafting skills!
Wang Hao began calming his mind. There were many rituals before drawing talismans. Initially, Wang Hao thought they were useless. Praying for blessings, like a shaman, was like placing a lucky charm when shopping at Blue Star. What else could it do besides providing psychological comfort?
But those talisman craftsmen said that these rituals were essential, something like "there's hidden luck in the world," mysterious and inexplicable, which made Wang Hao believe a little. Since everyone did it, why should he be different?
Wang Hao had already understood the basic principles of talisman creation. After carefully completing these complicated rituals, he prepared to draw the talisman.
It really seemed to work. He felt an inner peace at that moment, without the slightest trace of uneasiness. The negative emotions caused by fear of failure at the beginning disappeared.
— "Then, let's begin!"
Wang Hao took a deep breath, spread out the talisman paper, and opened a bottle of spiritual ink, dipping the feather.
He carefully controlled the spiritual power through the tip of the feather, channeling it evenly and smoothly onto the talisman paper. He was drawing the Small Fireball Talisman, which was almost the simplest mid-grade first-tier talisman, consisting of only six runes.
He had practiced these runes thousands of times and could draw them with his eyes closed.
With muscle memory accompanying him, one rune after another appeared on the talisman paper, which began to emit faint fluctuations due to the contained spiritual power.
When the last rune was about to be completed, Wang Hao became euphoric, but this slight change in mental state caused the talisman paper to tremble.
— "Damn," thought Wang Hao, and before he could regret it, he hurriedly cast the talisman aside.
"Poof!" A fireball emerged, and the talisman turned to ashes in an instant.
— "It seems the biggest prohibition in talisman crafting is the fluctuation of the mind. Those rituals serve to calm the heart," Wang Hao murmured, as if he had discovered the secret.
Then he repeated the ritual and tried again the Small Fireball Talisman. This time, Wang Hao carefully maintained his focus and completed the drawing of the last rune on the talisman without any issues.
— "Heh, I did it. So that's what I was missing before!" Wang Hao sighed, realizing that immortal cultivation truly couldn't be explained by science alone. Those rituals that seemed useless were the key to success in talisman creation.
In fact, it wasn't just that. There were many crucial points in talisman crafting. His second success wasn't just because of the ritual, but also due to accumulated prior practice. If he tried drawing an unfamiliar mid-grade first-tier spiritual talisman right now, he would certainly fail!
Wang Hao calmed down again and drew more than a dozen Small Fireball Talismans in succession. The success rate reached 50%. Now he was a late-stage Qi Refinement cultivator. Drawing this kind of low-level talisman didn't consume much mana and didn't tire him. After the last piece of talisman paper on the table ran out, Wang Hao said excitedly and happily:— "In the future, mid-grade first-tier spiritual talismans don't need to be bought from outside, which can save a lot of spirit stones!"
Wang Hao was extremely happy and spent several days drawing talismans in his room. At first, he only drew fire talismans, then he began trying earth wall talismans, water arrow talismans, qi sword talismans, and so on. As the number of attempts increased, the success rate also rose significantly, stabilizing above 50%.
A mid-grade first-tier talisman craftsman can profit if they have a 40% success rate. Now he could even make money selling spiritual talismans, but Wang Hao didn't intend to sell them. He preferred to use them himself. He didn't have that much free time to make a lot of talismans. Of course, perhaps in the future, when he managed to create higher-grade talismans, he might change his mind with the high profits!
Wang Hao stored the spiritual talismans from the table and looked at the Illusory Moon Butterfly eggs. He found that the four soaked in spiritual liquid had a bit more vitality than the one placed on the spirit stones. Among them, two eggs were particularly prominent, and the colorful stripes on their surface were slightly brighter.