Cave Refuge-Chapter 283 - 278: Talismans, Pills, Weapons, Arrays, Puppets, Illusions
The three methods aren’t much different, and once learned, one could mass produce without limit.
However, no matter which method was chosen, there was an unavoidable flaw, which was that Dong Tianyu currently lacked basic materials.
Whether it was Array devices for formation, Talisman paper and Spiritual ink for Talisman making, or Spiritual materials for Artifact Refining, Dong Tianyu had none at the moment.
Not to say there was none at all, the Array devices for formations could be substituted with Spiritual Stones, but if one used this method to set up formations, the Spiritual Stones would continue to be consumed, and the consumption would accelerate if an earthquake occurred.
Although Dong Tianyu lacked Talisman paper for making Talismans, he could resort to using ordinary yellow paper and his own Essence blood to make them. Although the effect would undoubtedly be inferior to that of using Talisman paper and Spiritual ink, it was indeed a barely feasible solution.
As for materials for refining Magic Artifacts, there was not a complete absence. After the Cave mansion upgraded to a Cave, the original Earth Vein was also upgraded to a Spirit Vein, and a small part of the ore reserves in the Earth Vein was elevated to Spiritual materials.
However, these Spirit-bearing Spiritual materials acted as primers in the Spirit Vein, accelerating the surrounding ores to enhance their Spirit quality. Now, they could be excavated and used, but doing so would be like cutting off their root, tantamount to picking sesame seeds and losing watermelons.
At this point, someone might suggest simply using technological products in the Cave to transform them into appropriate Magic Artifacts.
However, the transformation ability inside the Cave was not omnipotent. The transformation turned technological products into items of the mystic side, with the mystical items obtained after transformation featuring functional effects similar to those of the original technological products rather than arbitrarily changing according to one’s ideas.
There might have been strategic weapons capable of inducing earthquakes prior to the natural disaster, but there were no defensive devices to prevent the occurrence of earthquakes, even if laboratories were researching similar instruments.
But Pengcheng couldn’t sustain such high-tech laboratories, so for now, this idea was impractical in Pengcheng.
Initially, the method of Artifact Refining was outright discarded by Dong Tianyu; after some contemplation, he also abandoned the method of making Talismans, unwilling to expend his own Essence blood without specific Spiritual materials.
After all, Essence blood is different from ordinary blood, being a concentration of ordinary blood combined with one’s own Essence, Qi, and Spirit. Not only do Cultivators like Dong Tianyu possess it, but under the same conditions, Martial Artists who specialize in blood and Essence actually have even more Essence blood in their bodies.
However, excessive consumption of Essence blood could result in a regression of Cultivation Level or a reduction in lifespan, so generally, no one would be willing to expend Essence blood unless in a life-or-death crisis.
Having discarded two options, Dong Tianyu now could only choose the method of setting up Formations to stabilize the land.
As for spells, they could indeed stabilize the earth, but they had no preventative effect and lasted only for a short duration. If he chose this method, Dong Tianyu wouldn’t need to do anything else and would have to stay vigilant for earthquakes at the camp at all times.
Although this method was economical, Dong Tianyu wasn’t that kind of person, nor did he have such a spirit of sacrifice. Otherwise, at the time of upgrading his Cave mansion, he wouldn’t have chosen to upgrade towards a Cave but would have directly upgraded it to a blessed land.
Looking at the same Formation, the amount of Survival Points required varied with the size of the covered area.
This wasn’t surprising, as Dong Tianyu’s choice wasn’t to completely master the Formation, but rather to obtain a Formation blueprint. With this blueprint, even if Dong Tianyu didn’t know how to set up Formations, he could still create the Formation by following the blueprint.
It wasn’t that Dong Tianyu didn’t want to fully master the Formation, but mastering it required proficiency in setting up Formations. As Formation Setting was one of the foremost skills among the hundred arts of Cultivation, learning it would require a significant number of Survival Points.
With the amount of Survival Points Dong Tianyu had saved up at present, unless he saved for a few more years, he wouldn’t meet the learning requirements.
"Loose Cultivators favor Talisman Craft, alchemy impoverishes three generations, Artifact Refining ruins a lifetime, without heritage don’t meddle with Formations and Puppets."
The meaning of this saying was simple, in the normal Cultivation World, Talisman paper and Spiritual ink were relatively easy to obtain.
The source material for Talisman paper was wide-ranging. It could be made not only from the leaves of Spiritual plants and the bark of Spirit trees but even from the hides of demonic beasts.
The sources of Spiritual ink were equally diverse, such as the juice of Spiritual plants, the sap of Spirit trees, and even the blood of demonic beasts could be fashioned into Spiritual ink.
Furthermore, low-level Talismans were convenient to produce, so many Cultivators would try making Talismans in their spare time.
After all, unlike other items, Talismans were often used in battle. For Cultivators at the lower levels, rather than buying cheaper Talismans made by others, it was better to make them when they had free time.
After all, they were not like those Sect disciples, whose Talismans purchased from the Sect were guaranteed in quality. The Talismans they bought from other Loose Cultivators came with no such assurance. A malfunction in battle or any other issue could endanger their lives.
Moreover, acquiring materials for crafting Talismans was relatively easy during everyday outings, so many Loose Cultivators chose to make their own common Talismans. They only opted to buy high-end Talismans from reputable shops, willing to pay a hefty price to ensure quality.
As for alchemy and Artifact Refining, there was no need to mention that before becoming skilled, it was essentially about smashing resources into proficiency. As long as one could invest enough resources, even with practice makes perfect, there was always a way to make some progress.
The idea was good, but in reality, although many knew that perseverance led to victory, the thickness of their wallets often couldn’t support their ideals, and they eventually succumbed to reality.
If the above three could all be proficiently practiced with enough money, then becoming a Formation master required certain talents and a family heritage of knowledge.
To become a Formation master, one must understand a vast amount of knowledge. False Formation masters used special Array devices to set up Formations, but true masters could use anything in nature to do so. The only difference was that the Formation’s strength varied slightly based on the spirituality of the objects used.
Refining Puppets was not much different from alchemy or Artifact Refining, both being skills that improved with practice; however, the consumption for Refining Puppets far exceeded the other two.
After all, unlike alchemy, which might need only a couple of herbs, or Artifact Refining, which might require one or two Spiritual materials, truly mastering a Puppet required a significant expenditure of materials.
And although Refining Puppets meant crafting the various components separately, it wasn’t considered complete until they were assembled and consecrated in the final ritual.
Once the consecration began, if even one component of the Puppet had an issue, the entire consecration might fail.
Consecration involved opening up the Spirit aura channels in all parts of the Puppet. Once completed, the Puppet would no longer be an assemblage of parts but a unified whole.
A failure in consecration was like a blockage in meridians. During the ritual, a vast amount of Spirit Energy could not circulate within the Puppet’s body. Accumulating in one place for too long would eventually overwhelm the Puppet’s material when it could no longer withstand the pressure of the Spirit Energy.
It would then burst apart spectacularly like fireworks, with a loud ’bang,’ and the Puppet would be blown to pieces. Because it was a Spirit aura explosion, the materials used in Refining the Puppet were essentially wasted.
Illusion represented the art of illusive skills. In reality, as a Cultivator’s strength increased, so did their mental strength and Divine Sense. In a fight against someone of the same level, or even a level lower, it was almost impossible to defeat the opponent with illusory skills.
Becoming an illusionist required not just an extremely high mental aptitude but also stimulating and enhancing one’s mental strength from a young age. To cultivate an illusionist, once the individual’s talent was confirmed, considerable resources needed to be invested during their childhood years.
Let alone Loose Cultivators, even ordinary families and even Sects with modest wealth would struggle to provide such cultivation.
If substantial resources to enhance mental strength were not invested early on, learning illusionist skills wouldn’t be very effective, unless the opponent was a beast with low mental strength. Against an opponent of the same level, unless taken by complete surprise, the effectiveness of illusory skills after the other had become cautious was negligible.
Looking at the introduction of the hundred arts of Cultivation in the Scripture Hall, Dong Tianyu could only drool over it for now. Relying solely on the output of his Cave, he could not afford to practice other skills.
Unless the level of the Cave was raised again or Blue Star produced a large amount of plants or beasts containing Spirit Energy, Dong Tianyu had no plans to learn other arts for the time being.
In just over a year, Dong Tianyu’s Cultivation Level had broken through from the fifth layer of the Foundation Building Stage to the sixth. Without a reference, he did not know whether his Cultivation pace was fast or slow.
Although the division of Cultivation levels in novels is very clear, the combat power shown within the same level can vary greatly between different novels.
In the earliest novels, becoming an immortal or a demon was already out of the question. In those stories, a Golden Core stage practitioner was at most an inner disciple within a Sect. A Nascent Soul wasn’t considered particularly powerful. The minimum Cultivation Level of a Sect elder had to reach the Soul Dividing stage, and the Sect leader, if not at the Transcendance Tribulation Stage, would at least be at the Mahayana Realm.
In modern novels, someone at the Foundation Building Stage could still be a great master. Not to mention reaching the Nascent Soul Stage, but even advancing to the Golden Core Stage meant you could strut around at the beginning of the story.
This wasn’t really a big deal, except that the actual combat prowess of someone at the Foundation Building Stage in these novels was even stronger than that of Golden Core Cultivators in older works.
But when Dong Tianyu began his Cultivation, he found that his combat capability tended more towards the earliest novels he had read; a Cultivator in the Qi Refinement Realm was about the same strength as a mortal born with martial talents, and the Foundation Building Stage did not offer a wide variety of combat techniques.
It was not like many novels before the calamity hit, where having attained the Foundation Building Stage not only made one a bigwig but also endowed them with unpredictable and formidable combat techniques.
