Transformation Talisman.

As the name suggests, it's for changing your physical appearance.

Back when Ji Yuan was at Water Dragon Sect, he'd asked around about this "Transformation Talisman," but the answers he got weren't exactly satisfactory.

This Transformation Talisman is indeed a type of Tier Two Talisman.

But its effectiveness... is frankly rather underwhelming.

Why's that?

Because the Transformation Talisman only changes how you look in other people's eyes. That is, once you use it, it's like casting a Blinding Technique on your own skin, making others see you differently.

It works, but even cultivators of the same tier can see through it easily.

Especially in the eyes of Foundation Establishment cultivators—a single sweep with their Divine Sense, and they'll spot something off instantly.

So its ability to disguise is pretty darn weak.

You could say it's better than nothing, but just barely.

But what about this Transformation Talisman Ji Yuan just got?

It's different, very different—he learned from these memories that once he uses this Transformation Talisman, it can truly alter his facial features.

Basically, it can change his appearance.

On top of that, even the aura on his body can change accordingly... If used in the Foundation Establishment Stage, only someone at Golden Core Stage or above can sense anything wrong.

Even Peak Foundation Establishment Cultivators would be none the wiser.

With that kind of effect... Ji Yuan had only one feeling.

Talisman Room products—always top-tier!

Too bad the panel doesn't just hand out a few for free, gotta draw them myself.

Ji Yuan decided to try making one now, to sketch out a few Transformation Talismans and see what they're really like. If they work well, heading out and about would get a lot easier.

Safer, too—and more room to misbehave.

With that thought, Ji Yuan got ready to head to the Enlightenment Room for a round of Talisman comprehension.

Before he left, he didn't forget to pop open the panel and take a look at the Level 3 Talisman Room's Spirit Effects and upgrade requirements.

[Talisman Room: lv3]

[Spirit Effect 1: +60% success chance for Tier One Talismans, +40% for Tier Two, +20% for Tier Three, +5% for Tier Four]

[Spirit Effect 2 (Talisman Treasure Swarm): Every three years, one usable twice Talisman Treasure is cultivated.]

[Upgrade Requirements: Mid-grade Spirit Stones × 600; Gold-Eating Rat King Whiskers × 5; Earth Vein Dragon Blood Pine × 9 jin; Successfully craft a Talisman Treasure (Not completed)]

Spirit Effect 1 was the usual upgrade stuff.

But Spirit Effect 2 was different... "Talisman Treasure Swarm," well, damn, it really does live up to the name.

A Talisman Treasure every three years.

The time sounds kind of long, but when you look at the upgrade conditions, not so much.

If you want to level this Talisman Room to Level 3, you've got to make a Talisman Treasure yourself. That means you need to be at least Golden Core Realm to get it to Level 3, right?

At least as far as Ji Yuan knew, he'd never heard of any Foundation Establishment Cultivator refining a Talisman Treasure.

Even if the panel didn't specifically say the Magical Treasure had to be your own, does that mean you can refine someone else's into a Talisman Treasure?

Let's just go with Golden Core Realm as the starting point—what's the lifespan for Golden Core?

500 years at a minimum.

Compare that to 500 years, what's three years?

And since the panel didn't give any details, Ji Yuan guessed once he hit Foundation Establishment, the ones he'd get would be Golden Core Talisman Treasures, and once he formed his core, maybe even Nascent Soul Talisman Treasures.

When that happens—that really would be strong!

Only issue is, these Talisman Treasures eat up a ton of energy. By then, he'd still need to see if he could find some treasure that can replenish Spiritual Qi on the fly. Otherwise, just having Talisman Treasures won't be much use.

After looking through everything, Ji Yuan closed the panel.

Heading back to the Enlightenment Room, with talisman brush, ink, and paper all ready, Ji Yuan settled his mind and got started trying.

Of all the Tier Two Talismans Ji Yuan had tried, the Transformation Talisman was probably the hardest—the runes were numerous, angles dense, and the slightest mistake would turn the paper to ash.

The only good thing was that it didn't have a five-element property; Ji Yuan didn't need to use anything else for assistance while drawing.

A few days flew by.

The Transformation Talisman was still beyond his grasp, so Ji Yuan headed to the Fish Pond instead, where a few mid-level Tier One Spirit Fish were being raised.

Every time Ji Yuan returned to the sect, he'd grab a few—can't make much money, but Spirit Stones do pile up, bit by bit.

But today, he wasn't here for the Fish Pond; he was after something else.

He walked to a wall of stone saturated with Yin Qi, reached his right hand into a crack, and with a little force, pulled out the massive stone wedged inside.

At once, a wave of thick Yin Qi rushed out toward him.

Ji Yuan quickly circulated his blood and Qi, shrouding himself in protective energy, or he'd have been eroded by the Yin Qi on the spot.

"Damn, is this place haunted?!"

With how dense the Yin Qi was here, if a beginner Qi Cultivator came by, one blast of it would probably kill them, and even a mid-stage Qi Cultivator would need a good rest to recover.

"Back when I put the Yin Ghosts in here, it wasn't this freaky. What the heck did they do?"

With that thought, Ji Yuan called out the two Yin Ghosts from the cave.

Whoosh!

Two black shadows darted out, circling around Ji Yuan.

He could tell the Yin Ghosts wanted to get close to him, but were scared off by his domineering blood Qi, so they didn't dare approach.

Ji Yuan just studied the two balls of black mist.

Compared to before, they looked about twice as big, and their aura too—both were now at Qi Cultivation level nine!

They broke through that fast?!

Just what was the deal with Bai Piao's Black Coffin? Was it really dug out from some mass grave?

For the first time, Ji Yuan was starting to doubt that, because he'd noticed: after the two Yin Ghosts came out, the Yin Qi inside the cave hadn't lessened one bit.

Meaning, this Yin Qi wasn't coming off the ghosts, but off that Black Coffin.

This thing's effect is that insane... Ji Yuan suppressed his blood Qi and stepped into the cave.

The Black Coffin was right where he'd left it, dead center—not a thing changed. Compared to before, though, it was now constantly gushing thick Yin Qi.

The Yin Qi radiated out from all around the Black Coffin, as if it actually had a coffin lid.

But he'd clearly seen before that it didn't... Ji Yuan had checked with his own eyes, but maybe not carefully enough. Now, spreading out his Divine Sense for a close look, he still found no gaps at all.

This Black Coffin was all of a piece—in plain terms, it was just a hunk of black stone shaped like a coffin.

The Yin Qi wasn't really leaking from "coffin lid cracks," but pouring out from all sides—he just happened to be looking from above, so it seemed that way.

He still had no idea why the Black Coffin had so much Yin Qi, but for now, that was a good thing. Meanwhile, the two Yin Ghosts had clung to it, greedily devouring away.

Ji Yuan figured that after they "ate" the Black Coffin, reaching the peak of Qi Cultivation shouldn't be a problem.

As for Foundation Establishment, that was probably out of reach.

Plus, if they wanted to break through to Foundation Establishment, they'd need to remodel the Yin Ghost Array themselves, at least bring the array to Tier Two—if not, they'd need to at least get it to Tier Two's doorstep.

Leaving the cave, Ji Yuan turned and glanced back.

"With Yin Qi this thick, I wonder if calling Tu Yue over would let her soak up some of it?"

"Even just letting her recuperate in here would be great."

No way he was going to neglect such a handy Corpse Puppet. Ji Yuan reached out with his mind and summoned Tu Yue, who was feeding the pigs at the moment.

But as soon as she reached the cave entrance, Ji Yuan could see her whole face seemed to relax—she actually looked like she was enjoying it? This might just work?

He let her inside, and Tu Yue looked even more comfortable, even the dryness in her hair smoothing out.

As for her cultivation... She was apparently a Wood Cultivator when alive, but Ji Yuan had no clue if that mattered after death, so he just let it go.

Think of it as a bit of nourishment.

After that, Ji Yuan blocked up the cave with a stone again, and headed back to his old wooden house.

Tu Yue, his veteran "employee," was on leave, so Ji Yuan, as the boss, had to get hands-on, tending the chicken and pigs himself again after ages.

As for the Big Toad—forget about it. If you let it raise the pigs,

who knows if it'd be raising pigs, or the pigs would be raising it.

Another ten or so days passed, and thanks to the Enlightenment Room's buff, Ji Yuan finally managed, by virtue of his own insight, to grasp the "Transformation Talisman."

Looking at the Talisman in his hand, he recalled how he'd always focused on fine details in his mind.

Now that he was holding it, seeing the big picture, Ji Yuan realized—

all the runes on the Transformation Talisman, when combined, actually formed a human shape.

"No wonder it was so hard."

Ji Yuan muttered to himself as he casually slapped the Talisman onto his body, and instantly felt a special Spiritual Qi flood his whole body, even covering up his original aura, turning it into a sinister, scheming vibe.

What's more, most of the Spiritual Qi from the Transformation Talisman concentrated on Ji Yuan's face, layer after layer.

Ji Yuan realized he could use this Spiritual Qi to alter his looks, though really it was just things like shifting facial muscles and changing the size and shape of his features—changing bone structure was still a no-go.

But that was plenty.

Ji Yuan fiddled with his appearance, then pulled a mirror from his Storage Bag to take a look.

One eye big, one eye small, hooked nose, crooked mouth... and that totally different insidious aura.

Excitement shone out of Ji Yuan's mismatched eyes.

"Jie jie jie."

"Killing people is going to be a breeze from now on."

"Ribbit—"

The Big Toad sensed something was off; it suddenly sprung over and glared at him furiously.

Ji Yuan put away the mirror and turned to look at it.

The Big Toad, seeing this ugly guy, naturally thought he'd hidden Ji Yuan away, so with a snap, it shot out its tongue.

Feeling the powerful impact, Ji Yuan cursed and threw his arms up to shield himself, ripping the Transformation Talisman off at once.

Even though his original aura and appearance returned, it was too late for the Big Toad to pull back...

A while later.

Ji Yuan finally got himself cleaned up. Luckily, he reacted fast. If he'd been a bit slower, he might have been eaten by the Big Toad.

Ji Yuan was annoyed, but thinking about how the Big Toad was just trying to protect him, he let it go.

He decided that for the next half month, the Big Toad wouldn't get any Spirit Pig to eat.

Damn thing... got its filthy drool all over me... Even after cleaning up, Ji Yuan still felt gross.

Time spun on; another month went by just like that.

Ji Yuan spent most of it studying the Li Family's Nascent Soul Technique, the "Canglan Nine Tribulations Sword Manual."

With the Enlightenment Room's help, and Ji Yuan's natural talent,

it wasn't hard to get started with the technique—he just had to wait till Foundation Establishment to convert his Spiritual Qi. The tricky part would be raising his level afterwards, delving deeper in cultivation.

In a way, this technique was easy to get into, but hard to advance.

Getting started was easy; growing stronger was tough.

Before he knew it, there were only two months left before Nine Nether Cave Heaven opened, and Ji Yuan made another trip to Water Dragon Sect to buy and sell.

After he finished up, he headed back to his place on Chulong Island to take a look.

It'd been so long since he'd been back, no way he could skip showing his face.

But as soon as he got there, he noticed a letter stuck on his courtyard gate. Opening it, he read—

"Fourth brother, if you're home, could you stop by my place? I need a favor."

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