"Are they?" Cheng Yuan asked in a cracked shaky voice as he nervously pointed at Peng Zhen and Gui Bingwen who were currently swallowed up in a yellow sunny cloud. His voice was so low that it would be swallowed up by the space of the courtroom however to the members present even a tiny mosquito buzz was as loud as a dragon's roar.
"They are okay just a little bit worn out from the journey that's all," Feng Xin offhandedly replied. Cheng Yuan heaved a sigh of relief when he heard that.
"How could fatigue cause one to lose their entire hair?" Cheng Yuan thought to himself as he dare not ask it out loud. He stared at the cloud enveloping them suspiciously before his expression finally eased and heaved a sigh of relief. Even if he had a personal feud with them it was still hard for him to remain indifferent if something were to happen to them. Currently of the people left alive in the sect, he had known the two of them longest and had a great relationship with both. At least he thought he did, but after the revelation of today's events, he wasn't so sure.
"Yang Qing what did you do to those talismans? One of them reacted instantly before I even had time to get away. If I wasn't with Ellie we would have been swept up in its attack," Feng Xin said as he gnashed his teeth.
"Huh, there was something wrong with them? I thought these were my best talismans yet. Maybe I got too overzealous when I was making them. I had only just stabilized my realm and successfully pulled a fast one on the old fiend Lei Weiyuan. It was in that high that I started working on the talismans and it sort of went away from me. By the time I came to, there were piles of them lying around. I was in a dissociative fugue state at the time so I don't know what tweaks I added to them in that state. I just knew their general abilities and so forth. But it couldn't have been that bad, could it? I may not be an expert at making talismans but I know enough to be skilled at it." Yang Qing said as he nervously laughed while scratching the back of his head.
"You You You…Yang Qing did you just use me as a guinea pig for your talismans?" Feng Xin said with spittle flying everywhere pointing at Yang Qing with his fingers trembling.
"Calm down Feng Xin atleast you are back safe and sound right?... from your current look it doesn't look like they all malfunctioned. Though I am curious which one went wrong? I may have constructed them in an absent-minded state but I have confidence in their stability and the foundation I built them on. I did it using the insights I got from breaking through to the palace stage. This time I decided to use talismans instead of arrays which I'm more comfortable with as the added difficulty and nature of talismans would help me polish up and dig further into those insights. Those talismans ended up with my dao marks on them as a result of it that's why I'm surprised there were accidents," Yang Qing said as he scratched his smooth chin in thought.
Feng Xin calmed down once he heard Yang Qing mention his dao marks. Yang Qing was known to be lazy, devious, eats too much, leeches of others too much basically an all-around glorified parasite that the Order will never get rid of but of his few redeeming qualities one of them was how he was studious in his cultivation. The only thing that could match the effort he put into his soft life Yang Qing schemes was how meticulous he was in his cultivation.
The Order was a place that gathered talents from all walks of life. Those who passed through its gates constantly pushed the boundaries of what it means to be an elite or a genius. But then there were those whom those boundaries didn't exist for them, they went beyond normal or genius convention. They were monsters through and through who did the unimaginable.
These monsters were the likes of Zhang Qingge who became one of the youngest palace stage judges and cultivator at just 19 years but what made her classified as a monster was her battle aptitude. As a peak core formation expert, she fought against a 1st stage palace realm cultivator for 3 days straight without losing out despite the palace realm cultivator being a cultivator who had a gold core.
There was an oddity like Kang Huilang who achieved two different types of intents within a few months of each other when it would take most people decades to achieve just one of them and those are the lucky ones as most cultivators may spend their entire lives without achieving intent. Whilst those dubbed as genius would take a year to achieve one type of intent. It's rare to see one exhibit two different intents. Intents were an astral manifestation of someone's understanding of his or her weapon despite what kind it was. As such there were different kinds of intents i.e sword intent, saber intent, fist intent, spear intent, dagger intent, palm intent, etc/ To achieve intent of any kind one would need absolute dedication to understanding themselves and their weapon. This was why most cultivators only exhibited one type of intent making Kang Huilang who had two an oddity. The man himself was also an expert at using any weapon. The moment any weapon touched his hands it was like an extended part of himself. Everything seemed smooth and natural like he had been using the weapons for years despite using the weapon for less than a month.
There was a young alchemist who achieved master alchemist status when he was just in the foundation stage. Those who are dubbed masters in alchemy are those who have walked deeper into the alchemy dao that the pills or potions they produce have spirits in them.
One-tenth of the purple-grade cultivation arts at the Order was created by one elder. Purple-grade techniques would be coveted by sect 1 sects and even holy lands. Most rank 1 sects would have one or two and mostly it would be what they inherited from their ancestor or chanced upon in some mysterious realm. But regardless of where it was gotten from it would undoubtedly be one of the most important sect treasures that would be more valued than even the sect master themselves. Creating one would be considered a lifetime achievement that would leave people edifying you as a legend for a millennium but creating more than one it was unthinkable.
The reason Feng Xin calmed down was that Yang Qing fell under the class of the Order's monsters. When he was at the core formation stage he had improved a few red-grade cultivation techniques to the orange grade with one of them even reaching the blue grade. Since then his feats have only grown including completing incomplete or broken cultivation techniques. His current cultivation mantra was an incomplete purple-grade mantra that he has been refining and improvising on as he continued with his cultivation. Of course, he would occasionally be monitored by the elders of the Order to prevent any mishap. When asked why he opted to choose an incomplete technique instead of using a complete purple-grade technique that was already available, his response was he wanted to walk and see the rest of the journey with his senses otherwise he wouldn't feel like himself. No one but him knew what it meant though it was choked up to the false esteemed master figure he likes to posture as every now and then. However one thing was undeniable, he had an uncanny gift for parsing through different kinds of dao. Improving and improvising techniques meant one had not only completely mastered it to perfection but he had grasped its core and glimpsed enough of its dao to add on it while still maintaining its originality. It has always been debated which was harder to improve on someone else's technique or create a new technique.
"It was the talisman with the cascading dawn whirlpool technique. The moment I input a bit of my qi in it even before I crushed the talisman the technique released itself and almost swallowed us all in its whirlpool," Feng Xin patiently explained. On the side, the cloud enveloping Peng Zhen and Gui Bingwen had already been dispelled and they looked much better than before even Gui Bingwen's hair started growing back odd enough it was black, unlike his earlier white web-like hair.
"Mmmh the cascading technique huh. It swallows the enemy and drowns them in yellow and black rays while also targeting their soul. But I don't remember adding anything to this spell though as it's pretty all-round in its offense. Wait, is the problem you were talking about it releasing early and nothing else?" Yang Qing suddenly asked.
"Yes, that was the issue. We were almost swallowed up in the whirlpool," Feng Xin answered showing a puzzled look at Yang Qing's obvious question. Wasn't this what he had been saying over and over?
"Phew, that's good then. The instantaneous reaction wasn't a malfunction it was deliberate. The talisman reacted the way it was meant to," Yang Qing said as he smiled in relief.
"Before you blow your top Feng Xin allow me to explain. I may play a lot but I wouldn't joke with your lives. You and Yi Jie know me well enough to know that I wouldn't do something like that," Yang Qing said.
Feng Xin didn't say anything but the silence was a tacit agreement to it. He may not trust Yang Qing to hold food for him but he trusted him completely to have his back.
"It's because of the recent attacks towards the people of the Order that made me alter a few talismans. Feng Xin, you may have fast agility and reaction speed but that still isn't enough, especially against someone in the palace realm. During our spar, you experienced personally how huge that gulf is and that was only with me holding back. What would you do if you faced off against someone close to or above my level? The only option will be for you to run but it's hard to outrun them if they are as fast as me. The next choice would be to use talismans to aid in your escape. However normal talismans have a time gap that though small is sufficient enough to let the opponent nullify its activation. Feng Xin, palace realm cultivators have a lot of means at their disposal. I only broke through but I have 50 different ways to stop someone from using their talismans what about a much more seasoned and craftier palace realm cultivator?
Talismans are a trump card but they have a fatal flaw which is how long it takes to activate. This is why I made some of those talismans require the tiniest of qi input to trigger self-activation. Yes, it does come with the risk of someone being affected by the spell but it's better than the alternative at least this way you have a chance. Though I should have told you about it beforehand for that I'm sorry." Yang Qing said as he cupped his fists in apology.
"I guessed as much, I'm glad my guess wasn't wrong though I suffered for it. You owe me five meals and that 3,000-year-old glacial rice wine of yours," Feng Xin said as he smiled slightly waving his right hand whose sleeves were torn.
"You give someone an inch they take a mile. I know you've been eyeing it. That's my private stash and not be shared with gluttonous company. But I will share a cup of Jiang Fu's new brew. He is about to breakthrough and he promised me his first pot of oolong tea," Yang Qing said as he formed a greedy smile with tiny droplets of drool leaking out.
"He is!!!? I can't wait." Feng Xin said with an equally greedy and drooling smile. The two for some inexplicable reason ended up staring at the ceiling giggling and gulping nonstop.
"These two are truly cut from the same cloth. Feng Xin must have come yelling, showing a pitiful look so he could score a free meal from Yang Qing. How can two people be so similar," Mao Yunru thought to herself as she shook her head at the two. Yi Jie at the side let out a long tired sigh. It seemed he had come to the same conclusion as Mao Yunru on Feng Xin's scheme.
