Why are the Talismans I Drawn Banned Again?!

Chapter 189: 185: The Livelihood of a Million Pill Masters

Before formally drawing a talisman, a Talisman Master would generally choose to first sketch a draft with a pencil on paper.

On one hand, the draft made it easier to clarify thoughts and to make revisions, and on the other, it could effectively reduce the waste of talisman paper and spiritual power.

Once talisman paper was used up, it could be bought with money. When spiritual power was exhausted, there was nothing to do but wait for it to slowly recover over time.

The talisman sketch that Song Junhu dropped on the ground could, from its general structure, be discerned to be a kind of healing talisman.

However, what Song Junhu was planning to draw was not a simple healing talisman.

It somewhat resembled a Muscle Relaxation Talisman, categorized as having added certain effects to healing. It aimed to achieve effects beyond simple healing.

“Junsheng, if you’re not busy, take your friend to play elsewhere. Your cousin still has things to do.”

Without waiting for Song Junsheng to reply, Jiang Cheng, who more or less understood the talisman sketch, spoke up, “Brother Song, your graduation project involves designing a new type of healing talisman, right? Are you trying to incorporate some toxin into it, releasing the poison through the healing process to poison the enemy?”

In his heart, Song Junhu thought: This Talisman Master named Jiang Cheng, although he didn’t take the Talisman Master Certificate exam, his response just now was quite accurate. He wasn’t some college slacker who knew nothing about talismans.

Song Junhu couldn’t help but look at Jiang Cheng in a new light.

“More or less.”

Jiang Cheng nodded, “Your line of thought is not wrong, but you have chosen the wrong type of talisman. While healing talismans have a high hit rate, ensuring that your toxin hits, the healing ability itself would weaken the potency of the toxin. Going back and forth like this is somewhat counterproductive.

“I suggest you change from healing with added poison to support with added poison. To give a simple example, for instance, you could mix a nerve toxin into the ‘Concentration Talisman,’ which aims to help cultivators focus. This way, the frenzied nervous system of the affected person would actually facilitate the effectiveness of the toxin, achieving a combined effect greater than the sum of its parts.

“Or, you could mix a muscle toxin into the ‘Agility Talisman,’ which helps cultivators increase their speed. Letting them unwittingly wear out and kill their own muscles in the midst of activity…”

After Jiang Cheng “simply” gave a few examples, Song Junhu swallowed hard.

“Junsheng, tell your brother the truth, what kind of university did you attend? I feel like the things they teach at your school don’t seem quite like the righteous path of the Immortal Sects.”

Song Junsheng: Is there a possibility that it’s not the school’s fault?

Although Jiang Cheng’s remarks made Song Junhu feel apprehensive.

Song Junhu had to admit that the ideas Jiang Cheng casually mentioned were clearly much stronger than his own painstakingly conceived ones.

Just the switch from “healing type” to “support type” was a stroke of genius.

Many challenges hard to solve within the realm of healing talismans, once shifted to support, not only disappeared but also produced better effects.

Song Junhu began to take seriously the young man named Jiang Cheng standing before him.

“Are you planning to have our Ocean Talisman Studio draw up the talismans?”

“Yes, I’d like to ask you to help me produce a batch of talismans,” Jiang Cheng said.

“Then come in.”

Song Junhu led Jiang Cheng and Song Junsheng into the inner room.

“What kind of talisman do you want to produce? We at Ocean Talisman Studio don’t accept talismans that haven’t gone through authentication,” Song Junhu stated.

“Of course,” Jiang Cheng replied as he took out his prepared proof of certification and handed a sample to Song Junhu.

Song Junhu went quiet when he saw Jiang Cheng’s Willpower Empowerment Talisman.

Jiang Cheng had glanced at his talisman and understood it right away, but he now couldn’t comprehend the effects of Jiang Cheng’s talisman at all.

Fortunately, the materials Jiang Cheng provided included an explanation of the talisman.

After reading the explanation of the talisman, Song Junhu grew even more silent.

Using a feigned death tactic to improve concentration? What kind of thing was this?

Later, when Song Junhu saw the performance data for the Willpower Empowerment Talisman in the materials.

He found he had lost the ability to speak.

How should he put it?

It was rather sudden.

His own graduation project talisman, which had preoccupied him for nearly two months, had been pointed out for its key flaws in just a few sentences by Jiang Cheng and was completely overshadowed by his Willpower Talisman.

“Is there a problem?” Jiang Cheng asked considerately.

“No problem. Did you draw this talisman yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t ask a teacher?”

“No.”

“Completely independent?”

“Yeah.”

Song Junhu sighed, “Alright, I have nothing to say. Let’s discuss the production fee.”

Jiang Cheng smiled, “Just go by the market price. Please don’t give me any special treatment just because I’m Junsheng’s classmate.”

Song Junhu glanced at Song Junsheng.

Song Junsheng could not fathom Jiang Cheng’s intentions.

When Jiang Cheng said those words, was he suggesting to look after it, or not?

Song Junsheng scratched his head, sometimes feeling Jiang Cheng was straightforward, but other times he seemed incredibly complicated.

Just like the talismans he created.

In the native rankings of alchemist shops in Liang Kingdom, Miaodan Workshop ranked third before the fine.

First to fourth were, respectively: Pill Cauldron Pavilion, Pill Treasure Workshop, Miaodan Workshop, Secret Pill Pavilion.

After the disaster at Miaodan Workshop, the Shen Family, desperate to survive, continuously sold off the workshop’s high-quality assets. Most of these assets were swallowed up by Pill Treasure Workshop and Secret Pill Pavilion.

Leveraging the benefits of Miaodan Workshop’s downfall, Secret Pill Pavilion purchased a large amount of high-quality shops, medicinal gardens, spirit plants, pill recipes, and pill masters.

Currently, there’s a faint trend of fighting to maintain the third place or even aiming for the second.

Perhaps it won’t be long before they should defend second place or even compete for the first.

Normally, this would be a cause for celebration.

But Yu Jing, the master of Secret Pill Pavilion, had no joy whatsoever.

In the past two weeks, nearly all the shops of Secret Pill Pavilion in the capital had experienced varying degrees of performance decline.

Performance fluctuations are normal.

But a universal decline is rare.

What’s more strange is that the decline of Secret Pill Pavilion’s shop performance had a pattern.

On the map of the capital, it presented a pattern of dispersion centered around Huayuan Road, diminishing outwardly.

The closer the shop was to Huayuan Road, the more severe the decline in performance.

“What kind of trick is hidden on Huayuan Road?”

After pacing for a while, Yu Jing said, “We need to send someone to investigate thoroughly… No, I’ll go personally.”

Yu Jing changed into casual clothes and headed to Huayuan Road with a low profile.

Huayuan Road appeared quite normal, with its streets clean and tidy which didn’t seem like it was hiding any demonic cultivators or monsters.

Finally, Yu Jing arrived at the entrance of Tongbao Pavilion’s Huayuan Road Store.

He saw a long line of customers, standing against the wall, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Yu Jing looked incredulously at the store’s name again.

It was indeed Tongbao Pavilion, wasn’t it?

How could Tongbao Pavilion have so many customers?

Were they giving away money?

Yu Jing approached a cultivator standing in the queue and asked, “What are they selling here to have such a long line of people waiting?”

“It’s the Willpower Empowerment Talisman, of course. Don’t you know?”

Yu Jing was taken aback and asked, “Willpower what? Does it have any use?”

“It can enhance the absorption rate and effect of elixirs by about fifty percent. If you eat those expensive elixirs without using a Willpower Empowerment Talisman to boost the effect, that’s frankly a waste.”

Fifty percent?

Yu Jing found it hard to believe.

As the master of Secret Pill Pavilion,

Yu Jing’s way of thinking was not the same as that of an ordinary cultivator buying elixirs.

In the current peaceful societal environment, cultivators had a very stable demand for various elixirs. The competitions among alchemist shops relied on existing market share.

If a talisman could improve the effectiveness of elixirs, it wouldn’t lead to major development in the Cultivation World.

It would be a massive decline!

The entire alchemy industry would face a great recession!

A significant portion of alchemy demands would be offset by the enhancements brought by talismans.

Without demand, countless alchemists would become unemployed, then be forced to compete on pricing, reducing profits to compete through volume sales.

The elixir market would be oversupplied, with too many elixirs unable to sell.

Then more alchemists would become unemployed.

This vicious cycle would continue perpetually.

Eventually, the entire alchemy industry would enter into a destructive price war with endless losses.

Resulting in forsaken research and development and no successors willing to learn alchemy.