After dinner concluded, Lu Zhiyun intended to take Sanqing Fairy back to their room, but Lin Shu stopped them.
His reasoning was, “If the Fairy returns to the room and won’t stop brainwashing my little junior sister into learning her own talisman methods, what then?”
Sanqing Fairy was about to say, “You’ve seen thr—” Oh, wait! No. She expressed that she had no such intention at all.
Defying his usual behavior, Lin Shu strongly insisted the Fairy stay at his place for the night so he could feel at ease.
Upon hearing this, Sanqing Fairy also acted out of character. She would rather swear upon the Great Dao that she would not influence Lu Zhiyun than go to Lin Shu’s room.
Lu Zhiyun simply thought the Fairy was being principled.
However, Sanqing Fairy knew that this old boy was vile. He wanted to take advantage of Lu Zhiyun’s absence to apply the family law to her.
‘Heh! Cunning man!’
As soon as she returned to her room, Lu Zhiyun sat impatiently at the table, intending to flip through the two books on talisman drawing methods.
Sanqing Fairy, on the other hand, set up a screen, brought out a bath barrel, and performed a **[Water Art]**. She casually tossed aside her celestial dress and jumped into the water to soak.
Lu Zhiyun placed the two talisman books to the side and took out dozens of sheets of talisman paper from her storage bag. Everything was ready.
But when she was about to start drawing, she remembered that she had seemingly never drawn a talisman before. She didn’t even know what the most basic **[Qi Gathering Talisman]** looked like.
Fortunately, Lin Shu had been very considerate. Tucked inside the book he gave her was a guide on how to draw simple talismans for beginners.
The paper contained several types of talismans, including those with five-element attributes and a simple **[Qi Gathering Talisman]**.
The patterns were not difficult to understand. They consisted of only a few strokes. Lu Zhiyun could learn them with a single sweep of her divine sense.
She began to gather spiritual energy at her fingertips, took out a sheet of paper, and started sketching.
In a short while, several types of talismans were finished, lying one by one in Lu Zhiyun’s palm.
“It’s a success!” Lu Zhiyun said joyfully. “I didn’t expect talisman drawing to be this easy!”
Back when she was at the Heaven’s Vault Sect, the lecturing elders had mentioned that it was easy for beginners to make talismans explode. Thinking about it now, it wasn’t that hard!
The fundamental requirement was focus. As long as one focused, talismans were a small matter.
Seeing that she had mastered the basics, Lu Zhiyun hummed a small tune and flipped open the talisman books from Lin Shu and Sanqing Fairy. However, in less than fifteen minutes, her small face slumped.
The dense talisman patterns on the pages were dozens of times more complex than the simple ones from before.
Lu Zhiyun thought of a line from a storybook: ‘You have already learned the basic sword style; now, let us try to defeat the Sword Demon Evil Cultivator!’
‘Heavens! How is that possible?’
Fortunately, her willpower was strong enough. she immediately slapped her cheeks to pull herself together.
Researching a new talisman was hundreds of times harder than merely copying one! She was currently just doing simple copying; how could she give up on herself?
She knew that the difficulties Lin Shu and the Fairy had faced must have been much harder than what she was facing now!
With that thought, Lu Zhiyun began to move her pen.
Time passed bit by bit. The sound of bathing behind the screen transitioned into light snoring from the bed. The midnight moonlight shone upon the thick stack of talisman papers by the window.
Lu Zhiyun’s understanding of talismans gradually deepened.
Although the Ascension Talisman was complex, as long as she mastered the rhythm and didn’t break the stroke, she could draw it in one go.
The Division Talisman was also very complex, but it placed more emphasis on the final hook of each stroke. With a little attention, it could be successful.
It was just that… although she had succeeded in drawing them, she could only use one in actual combat. Otherwise, her spiritual energy would be drained all at once.
Lu Zhiyun looked at the two successfully drawn talismans, feeling very conflicted.
Whichever one she used would decrease the other person’s favorability. What was she supposed to do?
Her thoughts circled back to her original idea—was it possible to combine the two talismans?
Lu Zhiyun stared at the two talismans and thought for a while. She folded the Ascension Talisman and the Division Talisman in half and pressed them together.
Then, she discovered to her surprise that the upper half of the Ascension Talisman and the lower half of the Division Talisman could actually form a new pattern.
Moreover, the two patterns were continuous!
‘This…’
Lu Zhiyun’s eyes lit up, and she immediately began to draw again.
One night passed in this manner.
***
The next day, Lin Shu woke up early and went into the courtyard.
He stretched his limbs and looked around, seeing only himself, the flowers, and the grass.
Looking at the tightly closed doors and windows of the small building, Lin Shu knew the Fairy probably wasn’t awake yet.
This afternoon, using his identity as Jiang Shu, he would participate in the Golden Core realm selection trials for the Rogue Cultivator Rankings.
Just as he was about to take out a Thunder Element Pill to gain some insights, an unusual aura drifted from around the corner of the building.
Lin Shu shifted his gaze. The aura wasn’t strong—it was also at the Golden Core realm—but it felt very familiar to him.
When the person stepped out, Lin Shu finally realized who it was.
“Lu Zhiyun” was walking with a sword in hand, her steps as graceful as a lotus. Her posture was elegant and pleasing to the eye.
Lin Shu looked closely at “Lu Zhiyun.” Things really were different once the realm increased; she exuded the aura of a powerful expert, and even her temperament had changed.
But why did he feel like his little junior sister had grown a bit taller? And certain places she was once self-conscious about now possessed a definite curve?
‘Did she drink too much milk?’
He spoke with relief, “Junior Sister, the Ascension Talisman is still better than the Division Talisman, right?”
“Lu Zhiyun” looked at Lin Shu with confusion, seemingly not understanding his words. But in the next moment, the tips of her ears turned slightly red as if she were driven by embarrassment and rage. She raised her sword and lunged at Lin Shu.
“Evil cultivator! Taste my blade!”
The sword technique was the familiar **[Cloud Breathing]**, though the sword energy was a few degrees sharper. One could faintly sense the embryonic form of sword intent and a sword heart.
Lin Shu didn’t even dodge. He raised a finger and tapped, firmly catching the tip of the sword, rendering “Lu Zhiyun” unable to move.
“You aren’t my junior sister!”
Lin Shu looked at the slightly more mature, beautiful face in front of him. Although she looked exactly like his junior sister, her temperament was clearly different.
“Lu Zhiyun” did not answer. She simply kept shouting, “Let go! I’ll fight you to the death!” “To think you’d dare make me do such a thing!” “Death before dishonor!”
Just as Lin Shu wanted to question her further, “Lu Zhiyun” gradually dissipated. All that remained in her place was a single talisman.
Lin Shu picked up the talisman and found it to be one he was quite familiar with.
‘An Ascension Talisman… but why is the lower half different?’
While Lin Shu was puzzled, another graceful figure came running hurriedly from around the corner. It was still Lu Zhiyun.
However, this one was clearly different from the one just now—this one was a bit smaller!
‘It seems this is the original junior sister,’ Lin Shu thought.
Lu Zhiyun was panting heavily as she asked, “Senior… Senior Brother! Have you seen ‘me’?”
“I have,” Lin Shu said, raising an eyebrow and holding up the talisman. “Which ‘you’ are you asking about?”
Lu Zhiyun breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the talisman she had drawn was in Lin Shu’s hand.
“Junior Sister, what is this all about?” Lin Shu asked curiously.
Lu Zhiyun lowered her head, looking a bit guilty. “This… this is a new talisman I tried to draw…”
“???” Lin Shu tilted his head.
‘This child just learned to walk and already wants to fly?’
And from the looks of it, she had actually succeeded!
Lu Zhiyun explained, “I was afraid that the Fairy and Senior Brother would argue over this! So I just decided to learn both. After learning them, I found that the two types of talismans could be folded in half to create a new one!”
Lin Shu came to a sudden realization and felt that she was truly a sensible, good child!
However, he was still shocked by the latter half of her sentence.
“In other words, you combined the Ascension Talisman and the Division Talisman?” Lin Shu rubbed his chin as he pondered.
“Yes!” Lu Zhiyun nodded. “Senior Brother… the clone you saw just now was the effect of the talisman!”
“The purpose of this talisman should be to leave a clone and increase the clone’s realm. It’s just a bit disobedient!”
Lin Shu looked at the well-behaved Lu Zhiyun in front of him, then at the talisman in his hand. He felt something was off.
The “Lu Zhiyun” from earlier clearly held a deep grudge against him, and it didn’t seem like a simple misunderstanding. She was far too different from the current obedient junior sister.
She was in the Golden Core realm, her appearance had changed, and she functioned as a clone…
Lin Shu seemed to have grasped the root of the problem. He circulated his spiritual energy to inspect the talisman.
“As I thought! There’s the effect of **[Time Magic]** in this talisman!”
“**[Time Magic]**?” Lu Zhiyun asked in confusion. “What does that mean, Senior Brother?”
“It means this talisman doesn’t simply buff a clone like you thought. It grants this clone the strength of your future self!”
Fearing he was being too cryptic, Lin Shu explained further, “To put it simply, you’ve invited your future self from the Golden Core stage!”
That explained why the clone possessed her own consciousness.
Hearing this, Lu Zhiyun smiled proudly. Back during their training in Green Mountain Town, she had heard Ye Qing say that magic related to time required extremely high talent to master.
She hadn’t expected to succeed with a casual attempt!
“Then… Senior Brother! How was the Golden Core version of me? Was she powerful?” Lu Zhiyun asked.
“Not bad! Her sword techniques were sharp, and it looks like she already has the beginnings of a sword heart and sword intent,” Lin Shu praised.
The smile on Lu Zhiyun’s face grew wider. But in the next moment, Lin Shu changed the subject and asked, “I just don’t know why she called me an ‘evil cultivator’ and tried to cut me down…”
“Junior Sister, do you happen to know what that’s all about?”