It wouldn’t be long before he could produce a finished talisman.

"That’s wonderful! On behalf of my junior brothers and sisters, thank you, Senior Brother!" Mi Qian’s face lit up with joy upon hearing this. She quickly clasped her hands and bowed, her expression sincere and genuine.

"When will the next batch of supplies arrive? And what about the other teams? What’s their progress?" Lü Zhong asked.

Making Talismans by hand was just an emergency measure.

After three rounds of reinforcements, the team had expanded to a hundred people. The daily consumption of Warm Sun Talismans was in the double digits at least, far more than he could make on his own.

"Well..."

Mi Qian sighed before saying, "We sent a message to the surface a while ago, but we still haven’t received a reply. I’m afraid it will be some time before the transport team arrives. As for the First Senior Brother and the other teams, their progress isn’t looking good either. They’ve run into the same difficulties we have."

Lü Zhong wasn’t surprised to hear this.

After the team members finished carving up the Moon-Gazing Toad for its spiritual materials, he ordered them to rest for a day.

...

That evening, they had toad meat stewed with Spirit Toad Cream.

The toad meat was extremely "cold" in nature and needed to be paired with Spirit Toad Cream to neutralize the cold toxins within.

A large pot of Spiritual Food bubbled away. Eating the steaming stew was exceptionally comforting and washed away the day’s fatigue.

The texture of the Moon-Gazing Toad’s meat was similar to chicken. When stewed, not only was it delicious, but the Spiritual Qi it contained also far surpassed that of a Mud Shell Pig. It could not only restore one’s Spiritual Power but even provided a slight surplus of Spiritual Qi that could be refined to increase one’s cultivation.

Lü Zhong glanced at the Warm Sun Talisman on his side table.

He had just finished drawing this one; the ink on it wasn’t even completely dry.

Beside it were more Warm Sun Talismans, neatly stacked in dozens, ready to be distributed the next day.

The creation of a Warm Sun Talisman was much more difficult than a Golden Light Talisman. It was only because Lü Zhong had a solid foundation, along with the aid of his ’scene replay’ ability, that he could do it. An ordinary Talisman Maker, fumbling on their own, would likely take a year or two before they could successfully draw one.

Putting down his Talisman Brush, Lü Zhong habitually cast a Malice Detection Technique.

’Hmm, all clear!’

He picked up a piece of toad meat that had been stewed until it was fall-apart tender. But after just two bites, his expression changed.

His Dharma Robe began to move on its own, without any wind, emitting a four-colored Spiritual Light.

’It’s happening again!’

With a look of resignation, Lü Zhong had no choice but to put down his bowl and chopsticks.

He walked over to his bed, sat cross-legged to circulate his technique, and flipped his hand over to retrieve the Four Spirits Bead.

After breaking through to the Qi Refining Eighth Layer, the Spiritual Power conflicts from his Four Spirits Technique had become more intense and frequent. At the same time, the suppressive effect of the Four Spirits Bead was gradually weakening, its previous miraculous effectiveness long gone.

It took the better part of an hour to suppress the conflicting Spiritual Power.

He hadn’t realized it before, but now Lü Zhong understood.

Suppressing the Spiritual Power conflicts of the Four Spirits Technique with Pills or Magic Beads was merely a temporary solution, not a cure. It would only make the next conflict arrive sooner and with greater intensity.

The only real solution was to choose his lineage ahead of time.

Once he switched to a new Cultivation Technique, the problem of conflicting Spiritual Power would naturally resolve itself.

But Lü Zhong was truly reluctant to give up the profound Spiritual Power—far greater than that of ordinary cultivators—that came from practicing the Four Spirits Technique. Nor did he want to lose the "purifying" characteristic of this Spiritual Power. For a Four Spirit Roots cultivator like him, the latter was no different from an Immortal Pill and Spiritual Medicine, and it was the very reason he had been able to cultivate and break through so smoothly with so few bottlenecks.

While pacifying the Spiritual Power in his body, Lü Zhong was also deep in thought.

He had actually already made a decision about which lineage to choose.

If nothing unexpected happened, he would naturally choose the Flying Star lineage.

The Profound Moon Sword Cultivators were certainly formidable, but their path didn’t align with what Lü Zhong had already learned. If he chose them, he would have to start from scratch. The same was true for the Tuoyang Mystic Cultivator lineage. His Spiritual Universe Dharma Body was, at best, an entry-level Mystic Cultivation Method. The amount of research and comprehension required to advance further was by no means small.

’Forget it. I won’t think about this for now.’

Lü Zhong got up and walked to his side table.

The temperature in the lower waterways was extremely low, not far from the point where dripping water would freeze solid.

In the time it had taken him to resolve his Spiritual Power conflict, the pot of stewed toad meat had frozen into a solid lump.

Fortunately, he had a way to solve this.

He picked up a Warm Sun Talisman and stuck it directly to the bottom of the pot. When activated, the talisman emitted heat. In no time, it melted the frozen toad meat, and soon the pot was bubbling and steaming again.

He took a bite. The flavor had actually become even richer and sweeter.

...

The campaign to clear the lower waterways continued to press forward.

The transport team arrived occasionally, bringing plenty of Warm Sun Talismans and Warm Sun Cloaks, as well as essential personnel reinforcements. They would also take all the Moon-Gazing Toad spiritual materials, purchasing them in exchange for Merit.

At times like this, the difference between Outer Disciples and Loose Cultivators became apparent once again.

Outer Disciples could choose whether to convert their Merit into Spirit Stones, whereas Loose Cultivators had no choice but to receive their share in Spirit Stones.

Day by day, the ledgers used to record the names of the dead were filled, one after another.

Even though Lü Zhong did his utmost to make Talismans, he couldn’t stop his team members from dying.

Gradually, the frequency of encountering Moon-Gazing Toads began to decrease. Soon, they were occasionally running into other teams from the sect. The cleanup operation was finally entering its final stages, and sometimes they would spend three days in a row just traveling.

During this time, just as Lü Zhong had expected, a Tier Two Moon-Gazing Toad actually appeared.

A single blast of Moon-Gazing Ice Breath instantly wiped out half a team.

Fortunately, Shuini intervened in time, preventing the tragedy of a full team wipe.

Half a month later, all the teams converged at a subterranean pool.

This was the source of the ancient city’s waterways.

Contrary to what most people had guessed, perhaps due to the thin Spiritual Qi here, there were no Demon Beasts lurking in the pool. There wasn’t even a single cold-water fish to be seen. The water was so clear you could see dozens of feet deep with a single glance.

The only reward was a few low-year Spirit Medicines growing by the edge of the pool.

The rendezvous marked the end of the operation.

Without the constant harassment from the Allied Army Cultivators and the Demon Beasts lurking in the waterways, Yongling City would become more stable and prosperous. Scenes of merchant caravans bustling to and fro would soon become common.

However, the cultivators who died here would likely be forgotten by all.

...

Boarding the sect’s Flying Ship, Lü Zhong quickly returned to his immortal’s abode.

He had been gone for so long that the courtyard was already overgrown with weeds. Nourished by the high concentration of Spiritual Qi, they had grown rapidly and were now half a man’s height.

It took a great deal of effort to finally clear them all away.

Gazing at the familiar courtyard, he felt as if a lifetime had passed.

DING-A-LING!

Suddenly, a crisp ringing sound echoed.

Lü Zhong turned his head and saw a small, red-feathered bird shaking a bell on its chest.

Looking closely, he could see a small slip of paper tied to it.

’Who sent me a Messenger Bird? Oh, it’s my cheap master. She’s so stingy, she couldn’t even spare a single Sound Transmission Talisman...’ Lü Zhong grumbled to himself as he untied the slip of paper and read it carefully.

The message on the paper was simple, just a few short sentences.

It asked Lü Zhong to visit Shuini’s immortal’s abode in the next few days when he was free, stating that she had a task for him.

’What could it be?’ Lü Zhong wondered, but he had no idea.

’I won’t dwell on it. I’ll find out when I get there.’

He shook his head, reached out, and took out a handful of Spirit Rice to feed the fluffy Messenger Bird.

Messenger Birds were a means of communication within the sect. Compared to Sound Transmission Talismans, they had the huge advantage of being cheap. After training, they could accurately reach their destination, which made them popular among the sect’s disciples.

Their only drawback was that they could be a bit petty.

If you didn’t feed them after they delivered a message, you could forget about them delivering your next message on time.

After feeding the Messenger Bird, Lü Zhong thought of his Spirit-Seeking Rat.

Here within the Heling Sect’s grounds, its Spirit Seeking abilities were useless.

Therefore, not long after joining the sect, he had rented it out to a reliable senior brother.

The Spirit-Seeking Rat had thus become a working rat, earning its own keep.

’Speaking of which, the day to collect the Spirit Stones is in two days. I wonder what the Spirit-Seeking Rat is like after all this time?’ Lü Zhong decided to make time to go see it and collect the Spirit Stones.

Although it was only five hundred Spirit Stones a year, every little bit added up, and it was not a small sum.

Afterward, he went to Wangxian Town.

Newly refined Spiritual Power always carried a bit of fiery energy with it.

There were many ways to grind away this fiery energy, but compared to sitting alone in a Quiet Chamber to painstakingly refine it, Lü Zhong preferred the union of Yin and Yang. It was both practical and a good form of exercise.