No hope for eternal life

Chapter 173 Rapid Progress

When he woke up the next morning, Mu Changsheng still appeared in the medicine barrel, and Yang Wuque stood beside him and asked him questions. This had become a unique way of communication between the master and disciple.

"How is your formation practice going?" Yang Wuque asked.

"I can already set up a top-level second-grade formation, and I find that after my cultivation level has increased, it seems easier to set up low-level formations." Mu Changsheng expressed his thoughts.

Yang Wuque nodded slightly, agreeing and saying: "You are right, cultivation is the foundation of everything, so you must not forget your daily cultivation. In addition, have you started to try to carve the formation?"

"It hasn't started yet. I plan to try it after I go back today." Mu Changsheng answered truthfully.

"The method of carving an array is indeed similar to the method of drawing talismans. I have tried it before. One point that needs to be paid attention to is that, like drawing talismans, you need to abandon distracting thoughts as much as possible and use this to comprehend the meaning of the array." Yang Wuque instructed carefully.

"Disciple, please bear this in mind." Mu Changsheng said respectfully. These were all Yang Wuque's valuable experiences, and he had taught him everything he knew.

That night, Mu Changsheng began to engrave the formation plate of a first-grade, elementary spirit gathering formation.

To carve a formation, one needs a magical tool called a carving knife, which is similar to the talisman pen used to draw talismans. The carving knife that Mu Changsheng bought is of the fourth grade, which is considered quite good.

The talisman pen needs to be dipped in talisman liquid before use, while the carving knife is slightly different. The spiritual material that has been successfully refined needs to be embedded in the groove of the carving knife handle. As the magic power drives the carving knife, the carving knife will transfer the spirituality in the spiritual material to the array plate. Just like driving the talisman pen, the degree of driving the carving knife needs to be considered. Too much will result in overflow, and too little will result in loss.

In addition, the position of the carving knife is also very particular, almost reducing the original formation in proportion to the formation plate.

Therefore, whether it is driving the carving knife or determining the position of the knife, it is extremely demanding on the hand feel. There is no other shortcut and it requires repeated practice.

After a night of practice, Mu Changsheng finally transferred all the spirituality of the thirteen spiritual materials to the array plate.

But this is not the end yet. Mu Changsheng’s next step is the same as the third step in setting up the formation. He needs to connect all the spirituality of the spiritual materials together.

The first time, Mu Changsheng failed as expected, but this failure was different from the failure in setting up the formation. The spirituality of the spiritual material had completely separated from the spiritual material and was extremely fragile. It could not withstand a single failure, unlike when setting up the formation where there were multiple chances of failure.

There is only one chance to fail when engraving the array, so once you fail, you have to start over again!

It is for this reason that the practice of carving a formation is destined to be much slower than the practice of setting up a formation.

After two days and one night, Mu Changsheng didn't succeed once. You know, this is just a first-grade, elementary spirit gathering array.

"Sure enough, no path of cultivation is easy." Mu Changsheng smiled bitterly in his heart, got up and left home, because it was time to be beaten again.

The next morning, Mu Changsheng reported his situation and asked Mr. Yang: "This formation carving is obviously much more difficult than setting up the formation. Should I give up carving the formation and focus on setting up the formation?"

It’s not that Mu Changsheng retreated when faced with danger, but he had already practiced both the physical body and the art of talismans, and he couldn’t put all his energy into carving the formation.

In response to Mu Changsheng's question, Yang Wuque did not give an immediate answer, but instead began to think seriously. After all, this was related to Mu Changsheng's future, so he had to be cautious.

Then, Yang Wuque asked: "Do you have many spiritual materials for engraving arrays?"

"There are still quite a lot left." Mu Changsheng replied. He had purchased a large batch in the capital before, including some spiritual materials needed for a fourth-grade engraving formation.

"Then keep going. As I said, you are still young and it doesn't hurt to try more." Yang Wuque gave the answer.

"Student understands." Mu Changsheng nodded and strengthened his confidence. There were still two or three months before the golden-patterned fruit arrived, and he could use this time to practice the formation with peace of mind.

So, Mu Changsheng returned home and continued to practice carving formations.

Three days later, Mu Changsheng finally completed his first first-grade spirit gathering array plate; a month later, Mu Changsheng completed his first second-grade top-level spirit gathering array plate.

Just when Mu Changsheng was concentrating on overcoming the difficulties of the third-grade formation plate, his four golden-patterned fruits finally arrived.

Wanbao Chamber of Commerce really kept its word and delivered four golden-patterned fruits to the door on time before the three-month deadline.

"Hello, Mr. Mu. The unit price of the four golden-patterned fruits is 85,000 medium-grade spirit stones, 78,000 medium-grade spirit stones, 92,000 medium-grade spirit stones, and 86,000 medium-grade spirit stones, respectively, totaling 361,000 medium-grade spirit stones. Excluding your deposit of 120,000 medium-grade spirit stones, you still need to pay 241,000 medium-grade spirit stones." The person in charge of Wanbao Chamber of Commerce said carefully.

After listening carefully, Mu Changsheng directly paid six top-grade spirit stones. The other party then gave him more than three thousand medium-grade spirit stones in return, and the two completed the transaction.

Mu Changsheng got the golden-patterned fruit, but he didn't go into seclusion to take it immediately because he wanted to wait for Mu Xun who had not returned yet.

A few days later, Mu Xun returned to the town on time and found Mu Changsheng.

Mu Changsheng handed two golden-patterned fruits to Mu Xun and said, "This is a gift for you."

Mu Xun was also a little surprised when he saw the golden-veined fruit. After all, he knew the value of the golden-veined fruit.

"You're making it difficult for me to give you my gift." Mu Xun smiled and gave a jade slip to Mu Changsheng. When he learned that Mu Changsheng was going to give him a gift, he also wanted to give Mu Changsheng a gift.

Mu Changsheng was no stranger to jade slips. He knew that they were used to pass on secret techniques, so he did not hesitate to take the inheritance information from the jade slips.

"Invisibility Talisman." Mu Changsheng was slightly surprised. It turned out that what Mu Xun gave him was a heritage talisman called the Invisibility Talisman, which was ranked third grade.

The invisibility talisman, as the name suggests, is used to hide the body shape and has the effect of hiding the fluctuations of one's own spiritual power. Although it is only of the third grade, once it is used, it cannot be discovered by ordinary Nascent Soul Realm without careful investigation.

"Your inheritance talisman is very practical, and is no less valuable than the golden-patterned fruit." Mu Changsheng said sincerely, because he had suffered losses from similar methods in the Six Nations Trial. Although this talisman has no attack power, it can work wonders under special circumstances.

"As long as it's useful." Mu Xun laughed. He knew that Mu Changsheng was good at talismans, so he prepared them specially. He has been busy with this matter almost all the time in the past few months.

"Now that you have the golden-patterned fruit, you should use it as soon as possible to increase your cultivation. Mr. Yang has always told me that cultivation is the foundation." Mu Changsheng said to Mu Xun.

"Yeah." Mu Xun nodded in response.

Before Mu Changsheng officially went into seclusion, he specifically informed Yang Wuque that even with the Golden-Patterned Fruit, a breakthrough would not be achieved overnight, and he would not be able to continue to use his skills for the next period of time.

"Just go and retreat with peace of mind." Yang Wuque naturally had no objection to this, because he believed that cultivation was the foundation of everything.

After Mu Changsheng left, Yang Wuque suddenly thought of another thing: "Come to think of it, the Tianjiao Meeting of the Shenhu Nation is about to begin."

On the other side, Mu Changsheng returned home, immediately took a golden-patterned fruit, and began his formal retreat.

After the golden-patterned fruit was taken into the mouth, it directly turned into a ball of golden warm current. Under Mu Changsheng's control, the warm current flowed to the dantian, and then wrapped the golden elixir in the dantian.