"Just a few more diagonal lines and it will be perfect."
Inside a dimly lit room, the figure of a woman in her late forties was carefully making long strokes on a piece of leather. Holding her breath, she would dip the long white brush in red ink as she carefully made one line after another.
Throughout the ti, her hand swerve steady and her eyes concentrated on the thing in front of her. As she carefully drew one line after another, the diagram on the piece of leather slowly ca to life.
For a normal person, it would at most look like a ssy diagram that made no sense, but for those with knowledge... just a single glance was more than enough to tell them that the woman was trying to make a talisman.
With every passing second, the diagram on the piece of leather beca more and more complicated, and with it, the expression on the woman’s face turned incomparably grave.
And just when she was about to draw the last line, a muffled sound that ca from the other side of the room made her hand falter, disturbing the flow of the line.
"..."
"..."
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
The woman seed to have gone crazy as she lifted her head up and scread at the top of her lungs.
"NO NO NO NO." She seed to have lost her mind as she smashed the brush on her hand to the ground, shattering it into countless pieces. She then picked up the piece of leather and, in a fit of rage, tore it into small pieces, scattering them away.
But clearly, all of this was far from enough. Instead of calming her, it seed to have made her even angrier.
She then picked up the table she was sitting on and smashed it on the ground.
Still dissatisfied, she then finally glanced towards the side of the room and, without any hesitation, rushed there in anger.
"YOU LITTLE WHORE." Opening the door, she scread at the top of her lungs.
"Do you know what you have done?" Pointing her finger in front of her, she scread again.
"You ssed up my research."
"Do you know how long I have been trying to make this talisman work?"
"THIRTY YEARS..."
"Tonight I might have succeeded, but BECAUSE OF YOU..."
"BECAUSE OF YOU, I FAILED."
The more she spoke, the angrier she got.
"Now I have to start it from scratch."
Gritting her teeth in anger, she tried to calm herself, but another set of painful groans that seed purposefully suppressed only added fuel to the fla.
"Forget it." Taking a deep breath, the woman cald herself as she nodded her head slightly.
"I will be the first one in this entire world to make this talisman work."
"I will show the world that the talisman isn’t just a fairytale. It is actually true."
No one knew if she was talking to herself or to the other person in front of her.
"I will just have to start again."
"This ti, don’t disturb ."
"Do you get it?"
With a warning, she turned around and was about to head back to her room when her footsteps paused, and her figure ca to a sudden halt.
"Oh... I almost forgot."
Turning her head slowly, she glanced back from the corner of her eyes.
"I destroyed the last piece of material in a fit of rage."
"I probably need a bit more."
With a smile, she turned around and walked forward before reaching the middle of the room. Then, without any hesitation, she picked up what seed like a small, sharp piece of tal as she humd softly while reaching towards the figure of a small girl hanging on the pillar.
Then, under the numb eyes of the girl who seed to have lost her mind, she used the knife to peel off what remained of her pitiful little skin gently.
She didn’t seem to be in a hurry. Instead, she took her ti, skillfully using the knife to take off the skin bit by bit, without harming the muscles beneath it. It was as if she had done it countless tis.
It wasn’t until almost twenty minutes passed that she finally took off a palm-sized piece of skin.
Looking at her handiwork in satisfaction, she then picked up a small bottle of green liquid before pouring it on the part where she just peeled the skin.
"I am running out of the mixture again..." Muttering to herself, she walked back to her room, while constantly talking to herself.
"She said that she is going to improve the formula, but I doubt her."
"The last ti she did it, the mixture lted the bodies, and I have to go and grab from the distant villages."
"Tch." Thinking about the ss that those mixtures made last ti, she couldn’t help but let out a cold snort before closing the door and once again starting a new set of talisman making.
She first subrged it in a dicinal liquid to treat it, then, after half an hour, she took it out as she moved onto the next stage.
What she didn’t realise was that during the entire ti, a small figure was quietly looking at her every action from the corner of the room. From her failing to make a talisman, to going to the other room to get so fresh ’material’, and finally starting the process from scratch.
Everything was seen clearly by the other person.
But even if she were to see the other party, she wouldn’t have recognised her. After all, the person in question had changed his appearance to that of an ordinary young girl.
"....." Yang Ze, who saw everything from the sidelines, didn’t make any rash moves. He just stood there in silence, watching what the woman was trying to do. He wanted to see why the won in this place were so crazy. He wanted to understand why they were doing such unnecessary, mindless cruelty.
Initially, he thought he would have his answers after observing the woman, but to his disappointnt, it didn’t seem to be the case.
When the woman started to take off the skin from that poor girl, Yang Ze even wanted to step in, but sohow managed to hold himself back. After the heart palpitations he felt from just looking at the Royal Palace, he didn’t want to make any rash moves. Before making a move, he wanted to be sure that there would be no follow-up trouble.
"Should I just kill her as well?" The mont this thought ca to his mind, it was hard to suppress. For a mont, Yang Ze almost patted her to death, but then cald himself down.
"No... I can not let anger control my actions." Shaking his head, he began to think about his next course of action.
"I can’t kill her for now, but..." In that instant, an idea flashed past his mind.
"Yes... that is much better."
As soon as the idea ca to his mind, he acted on it.
Taking a step forward, he directly stood behind the woman, and before she could react, he raised his hand and stuck on the back of her neck, making her unconscious.
"Now then..." With a blank face, Yang Ze grabbed her by the hair as he took her to the corner of the room. "The two of us are going to have a lot of discussion."
—-----------------------------
Sun Qiao didn’t know how long she had been unconscious for.
She didn’t even know she was unconscious and dreaming.
In her dream, she finally managed to make a working talisman. Sothing that has been deed impossible since the beginning of ti. Not only was she able to create one, but she also made various versions of it. One could turn a land into a fiery hell, another could freeze mountains and seas, and one could even tear the sky in half.
After her initial progress, she was awarded the position of Master of the Resource Treasury Division. But that wasn’t all... She was then promoted to a core mber of the Yan Royal family, with the Yan surna being officially awarded to her, thus making her Yan Qiao.
Then from there, she managed to climb even further, finally becoming the empress of this Yan kingdom.
But her story didn’t end there. With her new breakthroughs in the talismans, she even managed to attract the attention of the Heavenly Sword Sect, who gave her the position of a Grand Elder. Then from there, she progressed leaps and bounds both in cultivation as well as in Talisman making.
In the end, she even beca the leader of the Heavenly Sword Sect.
And then, she created even more powerful talismans, as the mighty sects attacked her.
And just when she defeated them and was about to enslave all the sects and proclaim herself as the sole ruler of the entire Azure Dragon Continent, a bucketful of cold water shattered her sweet dream, bringing her back to reality.
"YOU..." Anyone would be annoyed if they were woken from such a good dream by a bucket of water, much less Sun Qiao. And just when she was about to curse at the top of her lungs, she finally noticed the situation she was in.
At the mont, her figure seed to be tightly bound to the large pillar. She could feel the rough texture of the rope on her skin as well as the uncomfortable cold on her back. It was only then that she realised that she had been stripped clean.
"You fucking bitch." It was only then that she saw a small figure standing in front of her with a bucket in her hand.
The figure was that of a small girl who looked to be twelve to thirteen years old.
No matter how much she looked, there didn’t seem to be anything special about the girl. But it was exactly that trait of being ’ordinary’ that frightened her.
Soone who could knock her out cold and tie her up like this... it wasn’t sothing that a child could do.
Especially not since she was an expert at the late stage of Body Refining.
"Who are you?" She finally asked the question in a trembling voice.
"..."
Yang Ze didn’t reply but kept on looking at the naked woman in silence. The woman was ordinary in every sense of the word, from an ordinary face to an ordinary figure to rough skin... she seed a complete brute, especially that large wild bush in the middle of her legs.
Shaking his head, Yang Ze cleared his head of those distracting thoughts and silently picked up the thick book from the table.
"If I am right, you have been practising the art of talisman making from this book, right?"
"What’s that have to do with you?" The woman was in no mood to answer a complete stranger.
"Unbind now, and I won’t pursue it further."
She threatened the girl in a low voice.
"Otherwise... the guards will teach you a bloody lesson."
"They are free to try." Yang Ze spoke without batting an eye.
"Now then..." He once again raised the book in front of him. "This is the book you have been practising, right?"
"...."
"...."
After a brief silence, the woman finally decided to play along.
"That’s right. But what does that have to do with you?"
Yang Ze only focused on the first half of her sentence while completely ignoring the latter half.
"In this book, it is said that the perfect material for talisman making would be the bark of old trees and for the best results, processed fabric from the bamboo."
"Nowhere in this book had it been ntioned that it should be a human’s skin."
Exhaling a mouthful of air, Yang Ze placed the book down as he stepped forward, gazing deep in the woman’s eyes.
"Then why are you using the skin of children?"
"Why!?" The woman sneered in response. "What does that have to do with you?"
The more she spoke, the angrier she got.
"How can a brat like you understand the complicated process of talisman making?"
"Go and suck on your father’s penis for milk."
Yang Ze didn’t retort. He took a step forward before putting a piece of cloth in the woman’s mouth, preventing her from making any noise.
It was only after that that he walked to the corner of the room, waved his hand to manifest a comfortable mattress, before sitting on it cross-legged with his eyes closed.
The woman watched in confusion as to what the girl was trying to do. She knocked her out cold, tied her up and then sat cross-legged? No matter how hard she thought, it just didn’t make any sense.
She quietly watched in confusion.
It wasn’t until a few minutes passed that her eyes widened in shock over what she was witnessing.
The small girl’s body seed to be glittering like stars.
This small phenonon lasted only for a brief amount of ti and was over before the woman could even make sense of what it was.
"Now then..." Opening his eyes slowly, Yang Ze’s figure disappeared from his initial position as he stood in front of the woman with a deadpan face.
"Don’t worry.. You aren’t going to die now."
Raising his hand, Yang Ze manifested a scalpel that doctors used back on Earth in surgeries.
"It’s just that I want to learn a bit of Talisman making as well."
"After all... I am a reputed mber of the Resource Hall, aren’t I?"
The woman’s eyes widened in horror as the girl’s figure blurred for a while before it was replaced by the figure of herself.
What stood in front of her was now another version of herself.
It was as if she were looking in the mirror. The sa face... the sa eyes... the sa hair...
Even the clothes the opposite party was wearing were exactly the sa.
"UUUUUU..." This was sothing that was beyond her understanding. This was the first ti she witnessed sothing like this, and in that instant, her blood ran cold, and her mind was filled with terror.
She suddenly understood why she wasn’t dead and was tied up to the pillar.
She could only watch in horror as her ’clone’ slowly inched near her face, as her soft, devilish whisper rang in her ears.
"Don’t worry... It won’t hurt."
"How can I... Sun Qiao... a talisman master, make such a newbie mistake?"
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