Chapter Eighteen: The Willow Vine Brush

There is neither sun nor moon in cultivation.

Lei Xiang had already spent twenty years training within the Precious Time Array, completing the first layer of the Divine Treasure Mirror. The spiritual energy clusters within his body grew ever more numerous, yet still fell far short of saturation, as though his meridians and sea of qi were bottomless pits, never filled no matter how much spiritual energy he fed them.

Yet, after mastering One-Heart Dual Use from the Boundless Divine Sea technique, Lei Xiang could wield two magical artifacts simultaneously. While this was common among Foundation Establishment cultivators, it was virtually unheard of during the Qi Refining stage. This made him eagerly anticipate the next stage, Three-Hearts Five Intentions; once mastered, he could control five magical artifacts at once.

Thus, for the past two years, he had adopted a regimen of dual cultivation: mornings spent on the Ten Thousand Talismans Return Scripture, afternoons devoted to Boundless Divine Sea, and evenings reviewing the day’s lessons. This way, nothing was neglected; if any technique neared a breakthrough, it received special attention.

Over three years, the ground sank seventeen times. Each time, Lei Xiang sensed it in time and escaped, changing locations, and now he had penetrated deep into the outer reaches of the Black Miasma Marsh.

He awakened Zhu Chi only three times, each time asking many critical questions, which Zhu Chi answered patiently, sparing Lei Xiang countless detours on his path of cultivation.

He hit a barrier with the Divine Treasure Mirror, but mastered One-Heart Dual Use in Boundless Divine Sea. Meanwhile, his talisman crafting with the Ten Thousand Talismans Return Scripture progressed rapidly. For talismans of medium grade and below, his success rate reached fifty percent.

Lei Xiang produced a talisman brush—strictly speaking, it was a stick of charred wood, burnt nearly black, with a dozen or so coarse hairs at the tip. These sparse hairs resembled a middle-aged man’s weak beard.

“Where did you find that bald stick? Using it as a talisman brush? If the people from the Ten Thousand Talismans Return saw this, they’d cough blood with rage.”

Lei Xiang laughed. “Master, they’d be envious, not angry. This isn’t just a stick; it’s a vine from a Level Two demon wood, the Sheep Demon Melon Vine, forged over forty-nine days to become the Sheep Vine Brush.”

“Oh? And whose pitiful beard is that?”

“Haha, that’s the real treasure. In these twenty-some years, over two thousand demon beasts attacked me. These are the strongest hairs selected from their pelts.”

“Let me see.” Suddenly, black smoke appeared at Lei Xiang’s brow, transforming in the air into an elderly man in black. His beady eyes darted around, and he stretched his body with relish. “Finally, I can move about! Staying in your head was suffocating.”

Since entering the Black Miasma Marsh, Lei Xiang had canceled Boundless Divine Sea’s restrictions on Zhu Chi, allowing him to act freely. Yet, due to his weak soul, Zhu Chi had not emerged until now.

Lei Xiang waved the Sheep Vine Brush before Zhu Chi, who stared intently. He still could not bear light, wind, or water, but in this darkness, at least he could observe, if not touch, anything.

“It’s made from the pelts of thirteen demon beasts, but I can’t imagine how you chose them.”

Lei Xiang grinned, showing his sharp canine teeth. “Among all the demon beasts I’ve slain these years, there was a Level Three beast, the Golden Thread Drill—a venomous snake. Its saliva is the most toxic, second only to the marsh’s poison fog. I took ten hairs from each of the two thousand beasts, soaked them in the Golden Thread Drill’s venom for a month. Only seventeen survived without rotting; those became the brush’s tip.”

“Interesting, clever. Does drawing talismans with it impart some toxicity?”

Lei Xiang replied modestly, “Master is far wiser than I. Over these years, I’ve dismantled and analyzed every talisman gifted by the Ten Thousand Talismans Return, achieving proficiency in talisman crafting.”

Zhu Chi shook his head in resignation. “You wastrel! Over ten thousand talismans ruined by you.”

“I only wanted to study their crafting methods and secrets. That’s hardly wasteful. Besides, I’ve mastered seventy percent of the Ten Thousand Talismans Return, and can craft similar talismans at will. For anything below the advanced grade, there’s no barrier. Surely a greater gain.”

“Hm, your hands-on ability is strong. Once you reach Foundation Establishment, using base fire to forge artifacts will yield twice the results. But why hasn’t your cultivation advanced?”

Lei Xiang sighed. “I’ve hit a bottleneck. My sea of qi is like a glutton—no amount of spiritual energy fills it. Without accumulation, how can there be qualitative change?”

“You cheeky youth, how do you know so much at your age? But your reasoning is sound. Your meridians and sea of qi are much wider than others. If theirs are streams, yours is an ocean; so advancing to higher levels demands vastly more spiritual energy. But there’s a benefit: after each breakthrough, your power will exceed others of the same rank many times over.”

“With your current twelfth-layer cultivation, you rival Foundation Establishment cultivators. What you need most is spiritual energy—more, and purer. From what I know, there’s a spiritual vein at the marsh’s center. Go there to cultivate, but beware: it’s a hundred times more perilous. Take care.”

---

Lei Xiang gathered several clumps of Marsh Edge Grass. After burning them thoroughly, he used wind magic to blow the rising white smoke in one direction, dispersing the poisonous miasma and opening a path three feet wide.

He packed his belongings, raised his beast-skin tent, and followed the path.

A white haze stretched before him, blackness on either side. He walked thus for over ten days, stopping to use the Northern Dipper Pearl for orientation, then continued onward.

A faint green appeared ahead. Lei Xiang drew his eight-foot Snake Spear, ran forward, and found a small pond surrounded by lush plants.

This Black Miasma Marsh was peculiar; aside from the bothersome poison fog, it was a veritable paradise. There was no mud—only land that often became marsh, water that frequently dried, and frequent tectonic shifts.

After some reflection, Lei Xiang felt a violent tremor within his storage pouch. His spiritual sense probed and found the Purple Wood Spiritual Root restless.

Lei Xiang sent his spiritual will inward to calm and communicate; his suspicions were confirmed—the spiritual energy here was exceedingly dense!

He was about to release the Purple Wood Spiritual Root when the ground gave way beneath him. The land turned to mud; this was true marsh, and the timing was uncanny.

Lei Xiang pulled hard, freeing himself from his boots and rising three yards high. He tossed out his mount, quickly activated it, and leapt onto its back.

He looked down and saw the surrounding plants growing at a staggering rate, already over two yards tall, forming countless giant green hands pressing down. “So much for paradise; now it’s hell.”

The green hands formed a ring; below, the land had become bubbling marsh. Lei Xiang had no space to escape.

Break!

With a roar, Lei Xiang raised the Snake Spear, its shaft swelling to seven or eight yards. Gripping the base, he infused his arm with spiritual energy and thrust skyward.

With a crash, the green hands loosened, their ring broken, revealing the black sky.

Suddenly, the separated hands reached for Lei Xiang. In a single breath, his limbs, neck, back, even his mount were gripped by countless green hands, immobilizing him completely.

What kind of perverse thing is this?

Lei Xiang cursed inwardly, spiritual energy swirling within him. At a thought, a block of purple wood leapt from his storage bag.

The spiritual root, having been communicated with, sprang into the air, circled Lei Xiang, and released purple smoke. The smoke enveloped the green hands, greedily absorbing their spiritual energy. In an instant, the green hands withered, their color turning to brown.

The Purple Wood Spiritual Root continued to emit purple mist, draining the life from the green hands.

With their energy absorbed, Lei Xiang didn’t hesitate. He circulated his spiritual power, and the withered tree-vine hands broke apart.

Regaining his freedom, Lei Xiang gripped the Snake Spear with both hands, sent several spiritual commands into it, and the spear thickened to the size of a barrel. He pushed it horizontally into the encircling demon wood, bulldozing through like a steamroller.

With a rush like wind through dead branches, the demon wood was crushed, emitting pitiful cries and spilling green sap.

Lei Xiang cursed silently; these twisted plants were about to release poison. He hurriedly withdrew the Snake Spear, but it was too late.

Wherever the spear touched the green sap, rust spread visibly. Lei Xiang quickly pushed the spear out, flattening another patch of demon wood.

Meanwhile, the Purple Wood Spiritual Root, responding to Lei Xiang’s will, burped and reluctantly retreated into the storage bag. Lei Xiang saw clearly that, after absorbing so much green energy, the root had doubled in size.

---

The Snake Spear, however, was in trouble; as it crushed the demon wood, it was slowly being consumed, on the verge of ruin. Lei Xiang quickly reached into his storage bag, producing a black hammer about a foot long, which floated in midair.

Suddenly, countless black bubbles rose from the mud below, drifting upward and exploding to form a black cloud ten yards across.

Lei Xiang grabbed some Marsh Edge Grass charcoal, crushed it, and sprinkled it over himself, then crushed more and scattered it over the black cloud.

He knew this was a form of the marsh’s poison fog, and Marsh Edge Grass was its nemesis.

The black cloud was dispersed by the ashes, leaving little behind. Meanwhile, the surrounding demon wood grew ever more frenzied, fully engulfing the Snake Spear.

Lei Xiang swiftly formed a spiritual command; a beam of black light shot into the Thunder Hammer, which immediately flickered with a foot-long black aura, swelling as thunder rumbled within.

Seeing this, Lei Xiang threw out three silver Thunder Nails, which hovered in the air. He pointed to the hammer, which bulged and then struck the nails forcefully.

Three strikes, three thunderclaps, three bolts of lightning.

Bright silver lightning sliced through the dark sky, striking the green vegetation without waste.

No more encirclement, no more green sap—only death.

Lei Xiang had gambled correctly. Ordinary magical artifacts cut the demon wood, but the wood retaliated with poisonous sap; so he used thunderbolts to annihilate them completely.

Lightning struck from the Thunder Nails, turning swathes of green into black, charred powder. Thunder was even swifter and more thorough than the Purple Wood Spiritual Root.

Soon, all was scorched earth. The black marsh below greedily absorbed the remains, and its black bubbles grew ever larger, until the marsh itself churned like a boiling cauldron.

Lei Xiang had just put away the Thunder Hammer and Nails when the marsh below gurgled, releasing columns of steam as thick as giant trees, which wrapped tightly around him.

“Try a barrage of talismans, fresh from the forge!” Before he finished speaking, Lei Xiang hurled stacks of talismans—freshly crafted mid-grade ones with the Sheep Vine Brush. If the Ten Thousand Talismans Return saw this, they’d be heartbroken.

The first wave was all fire: fireballs, fire dragons, fire snakes, fire crows, and even three fire-thunder bomb talismans—a type unknown to the Ten Thousand Talismans Return, invented by Lei Xiang through insight from his Thunder Hammer’s lightning, combined with fire magic’s essence, just finished and ready for field testing.

Boom!

Hundreds of explosions erupted, the black marsh roiling ever more fiercely. The surface caught fire, but suddenly the marsh opened in the middle, like a giant mouth, swallowing hundreds of talismans in one gulp.

Faced with this startling change, Lei Xiang remained characteristically calm. He slowly reached into his storage bag, quietly watching the marsh’s movements. The surface was calm, only occasionally bubbling, but inside it crackled incessantly.

“Try digesting my talismans made from pure beast skin and blood—it’s bound to give you chronic indigestion.”

Sure enough, the marsh surged again, then spat out a heap of mangled beast skins, chewed and gnawed, most stained black-brown and rendered useless.

“Damn you, destroying my talisman barrage! Now I’ll crush you to pieces.” As Lei Xiang’s hand emerged from the storage bag, a nearly invisible white light flashed out, smashing down onto the soggy mud.