Chapter 92: Spirituality
The disciple first took out a detailed talisman diagram and explained it to Jiang Li while comparing it to a finished wooden board.
The things to take note of, how to use the rune carving knife, how to send spiritual qi when drawing the corners of the runes, and many other points for basic weapon refinement.
This was only drawing the most basic rune. If it was expanded to a complete array formation, this would also involve the problem of linking the runes together.
The steps were complicated and the changes were unpredictable. The difficulty could only be described as terrifying.
Jiang Li took the small carving knife and learned from the others. He wrapped the carving knife and his palm together with a cloth.
That way, he could avoid touching the shavings that fell from the carving material.
In short, the details determined success or failure.
Jiang Li took a deep breath before spiritual qi spread out from his hand.
Yin-attribute spiritual qi filled the carving knife, making it sharper and more stable.
Wood-attribute spiritual qi seeped into the wooden board, allowing him to completely master the wooden patterns on this spiritual wood.
After roughly holding the talisman paper and gesturing it on the wooden board, Jiang Li’s hand did not hesitate at all to start carving.
Stab~
An awkward scene appeared. Jiang Li did not consider his increased strength and directly used the carving knife to pierce the wooden board.
As long as he acted normally, only others would feel awkward.
Jiang Li immediately pretended to be nonchalant. He tried a few more times on the ruined piece of wood. After finding a suitable amount of strength, he threw away the piece of wood and took out a new wooden board.
Standing beside him, that outer sect disciple had a pained expression as he nervously watched Jiang Li’s next actions.
He wanted to remind Jiang Li to pay attention to his strength, but he was afraid that Jiang Li would feel annoyed, so he could only put on a bitter expression and stand at the side while feeling anxious.
Jiang Li calmed his mind and carved again. Although the wooden board was quite hard, it was incomparable to his great strength.
As his carving knife continuously slid smoothly on the wooden board, large amounts of wood shavings flew about, and pure spiritual qi was steadily filled in.
This was the difficulty of drawing runes.
The smoothness of the rune path was the most important criterion to determine whether a rune was good or bad.
The best runes were those that could be completed with one move!
As long as there was a slight pause or even a break, there would be a relatively obvious flaw in the fluidity of the pattern after the formation.
Generally speaking, one would be considered to have passed if they stopped for less than ten times. Three times was considered excellent.
In this aspect, talent, focus, and technique could not be lacking at all. Most importantly, it was the mysterious point of ‘spirituality’.
To put it in simpler terms, it was the talent for rune arrays.
15 minutes… 30 minutes… 45 minutes passed…
The blade in Jiang Li’s hand moved fluidly, dancing more and more smoothly.
In front of his eyes, it was as if he saw a dot of spiritual light on the wooden board of runes. He did not think anything and only held the carving knife in his hand as he chased after that dot of spiritual light.
In this wonderful state, a spirit carving that looked like a work of art was born.
An inner sect senior brother actually ran to the area where the registered disciples were working. This abnormality quickly attracted the attention of the surrounding disciples.
The few registered disciples beside him were attracted over.
In the beginning, they might have come with the intention of admiring and sucking up to him.
However, as they watched, they realized that something was amiss.
The scene before their eyes caused the jaws of these outer sect disciples to drop.
“So fast. Is it really that smooth?”
“Senior Brother doesn’t seem to have paused at all!”
“Senior Brother’s runes are so beautiful. Why do I feel that his runes are different from ours? But they’re clearly the same!”
“Senior Brother is so young, but he has a solid foundation!”
“Although Senior Brother is very young, he looks so handsome when he’s seriously carving talismans!”
“Which elder of our Weapon Refinement Hall is this senior brother a disciple of? Why haven’t I seen him before?”
“Senior Brother Da Mu, do you know?”
The few registered disciples later all looked at the registered disciple who stood beside Jiang Li from the beginning and asked him while trying their best to lower their voices and not disturb Jiang Li.
“This… this… I don’t know.”
This registered disciple, Da Mu, originally wanted to say that Jiang Li was not a disciple of the Weapon Refinement Hall. However, as he spoke, he was confused again.
It was really hard for him to believe that a person who drew runes for the first time could actually do it to this extent. This was unscientific and not logical in the world of cultivation!
He was more willing to believe that Jiang Li was actually an inner sect disciple of the Weapon Refinement Hall. It was just that Jiang Li had been rather low-profile earlier, and he had intentionally acted as if he did not know how to carve runes this time. The intention was to attract people’s attention.
But in the next second, his guess was ruthlessly rejected.
“Wait a minute, doesn’t he look like Senior Brother Jiang Li?” A registered disciple suddenly said.
“Be softer. Don’t disturb Senior Brother’s talisman carving.”
“Senior Brother Jiang Li? Which Senior Brother Jiang Li?”
That disciple’s voice was a little loud so someone beside him hurriedly stopped him. After noticing that Jiang Li did not react, he continued to ask softly.
“It’s that Senior Brother Jiang Li, the only outer sect disciple to enter the inner sect this year. I was fortunate enough to see him once when I was setting up my stall in the trading area. It should be him.”
Jiang Li’s reputation was not great, but his deeds of winning the “Outer Sect Grand Competition” and finally becoming an inner sect disciple by himself were spread throughout the entire outer sect.
Especially those disciples who had entered the sect for three years, practically all of them worshiped Jiang Li as their role model.
They hoped that they would be the next to stand out.
Registered disciples were just outer sect disciples, so how could they not know Jiang Li’s name?
“But… I heard that Senior Brother Jiang Li joined the Demon Vanquishing Hall? When did he join our Weapon Refinement Hall?”
It was a female disciple who asked this question. Then, everyone looked at her strangely.
“Have you forgotten that we are at the Demon Vanquishing Hall now?”
At this moment, Jiang Li finally finished his work. A beautiful curve connected the last bit of the circuit. The entire wooden board was covered in complicated spirit patterns, and they were densely packed but neatly arranged!
Huff!
He blew out a mouthful of spiritual qi, blowing away the fragments that fell on the wooden board. At the same time, he also poured spiritual qi into the rune path on the wooden board.
The spirit engraved runes on the wooden board immediately emitted a sparkling spiritual light. Then, the gravitational force acting on it was lifted.
After Jiang Li released his grip, the shimmering rune board still floated in the air without moving.
It was even more stable and lasting than the rune board he used as a reference.
“Junior Brother, I’ll compensate you with this rune board. Thank you. See you again.”
Jiang Li handed the wooden board in his hand to the registered disciple, Da Mu. After he finished speaking, he directly walked towards the elders of the Weaponry Refinement Hall not far away.
After all, he had already determined that he possessed the talent for rune array formations.
He could not keep learning runes from a group of registered disciples. That would be a waste of his talent.
Before this, when choosing a master, the Valley Master promised to let him study rune arrays. He even sent a white light into his inner sect disciple token.
That white light should be something similar to a letter of recommendation and a permit. Coupled with his status as the disciple of the Head Elder of the Demon Vanquishing Hall, it should not be too much of an obstacle.
Sure enough, after Jiang Li expressed his purpose for coming, the elders were a bit surprised at first. However, after seeing Jiang Li’s token, they did not say much and directly agreed.
Although they were too busy right now and did not have the time to personally guide Jiang Li, according to his request, they still gave him the right to casually help and accumulate experience here.