Chapter 3

"What's going on?" Li Muran immediately picked up the bronze mirror and focused his attention on it.

Over the past three years, he had always carried the bronze mirror with him, but had never seen it emit any light.

"This mirror light..."

Li Muran's eyes narrowed slightly as he carefully examined the light emitted by the bronze mirror. He found that the light had both bright and dim areas, forming some kind of complex pattern.

After just a moment, Li Muran felt his vision becoming blurry. Even with his keen eyesight, he found it difficult to see clearly.

"Find a flat surface and shine the mirror light on it, and it will be clearer."

Li Muran thought to himself and then, without hesitation, raised the bronze mirror, directing the light onto the last talisman paper on the stone platform—the only flat surface in front of him.

Sure enough, the pattern in the mirror light became visible, but Li Muran felt even more confused.

On the talisman paper, countless points of mirror light appeared, some forming a continuous pattern, while others were isolated. They seemed random and scattered, yet they concealed profound secrets.

The mirror light gave Li Muran a sense of extraordinary and profound mystery, but he couldn't quite articulate how profound it was.

"Sky Formation Talisman!" The words suddenly popped into Li Muran's mind. Indeed, the pattern of light and dark in the mirror formed countless complex talisman characters, as profound as the various Sky Formation Talismans recorded in ancient texts.

However, despite his intense thinking, Li Muran could not identify which type of Sky Formation Talisman the pattern represented.

"Could it be some lost Sky Formation Talisman?" Li Muran's interest grew even more, and he stared at the talisman paper without blinking.

As he looked, Li Muran became increasingly engrossed, all his thoughts deeply immersed in it, completely focused.

Suddenly, the talisman paper seemed to transform into a vast night sky, with the points of mirror light turning into countless brilliant stars. Many of the stars were connected by flickering lights, forming mysterious patterns.

Li Muran subconsciously extended his finger and traced the lines of light. As his finger moved, the flickering lights stabilized, in a rather peculiar way.

Li Muran continued to trace the lines, stabilizing every light in the "night sky." As his finger traced the last line of light, the entire night sky stabilized, and a silver moon appeared, emitting a dazzling light.

Li Muran felt as if he were in the midst of it, looking at the "night sky" around him, where the moon and stars were within reach, an indescribable wonder.

...

After an unknown amount of time, a chill came over him, and Li Muran suddenly woke up.

"I actually fell asleep..." Li Muran suddenly realized that the sky was slightly bright, the long night had passed, and it was already dawn, with a cool morning breeze.

Li Muran looked down and saw that he still held the bronze mirror in his left hand, but it was now ordinary and no longer emitting any light. His right finger, which had been bleeding, had dried.

"Lighting Talisman!" Li Muran hurriedly looked at the last talisman paper.

On the paper, strange blood-colored talisman characters were drawn, seemingly random but containing profound secrets.

Li Muran was both surprised and delighted, and just as he was about to examine the characters in detail, the first ray of dawn shone down, illuminating the talisman paper. In the sunlight, the characters suddenly and inexplicably disappeared!

"Oh no!" Li Muran's face changed dramatically, and upon closer inspection, the characters had changed.

Now, the talisman paper only had a patch of blood fingerprints, though messy, they formed the basic "seal" of a talisman, meaning the paper was sealed and could no longer be used or altered.

Sealing is the final step in making a talisman. Once sealed, the talisman is complete and cannot be changed. Any attempt to modify or add other characters would cause the talisman to self-destruct.

However, this talisman only had messy fingerprints, without any talisman characters, incantations, or Sky Formation Talismans, and was even inferior to a low-level Lighting Talisman. It could only be considered a useless talisman!

"Useless talisman!" Li Muran was shocked, but the Lighting Ceremony was about to begin, and how could he get another Lighting Talisman paper!

Seeing the time approaching, Li Muran had no choice but to put away the "useless talisman" and walk down the mountain.

An hour later, over a hundred young people gathered in front of the Lighting Hall on Kaiyuan Peak, discussing in groups, some with joy and others in silence.

After Li Muran hurriedly arrived, he was immediately surrounded by a dozen young people, who asked him in a flurry of voices:

"Senior Brother Zhao, what talisman did you draw? I bet it's a mid-level Lighting Talisman, right?"

"Hey, with Senior Brother Zhao's strength, a mid-level talisman is definitely no problem! A high-level Lighting Talisman is also possible!"

"High-level Lighting Talisman? Our sect hasn't had a disciple draw a high-level Lighting Talisman in a hundred years!"

"True! Among our batch of senior brothers, if anyone can draw a high-level Lighting Talisman, it must be Senior Brother Zhao."

"Indeed, I once saw Senior Brother Zhao repeatedly practice the Fire Sky Formation Talisman, always completing it in one go. He might really be able to draw a high-level Fire Lighting Talisman!"

"Practice is one thing, but when actually making a talisman, it is constrained by various invisible forces, making it a hundred or a thousand times more difficult!"

"Senior Brother Zhao, what talisman did you draw?"

Li Muran shook his head slightly and remained silent, inwardly smiling bitterly. He didn't know what quality of Lighting Talisman he had drawn, but he didn't believe it was a useless talisman!

The young people were accustomed to Li Muran's silence, knowing that the truth would be revealed soon.

Soon, over a dozen elders emerged from the hall, some with white hair, some still young, some with their hair tied up in a Taoist style, and others in ordinary robes. The disciples immediately fell silent and respectfully bowed upon seeing them.

These were the elders of the Yuanshu Sect. The elder in the center, with a kind and benevolent face and white hair, was the sect leader, Cangxia Daoist.

Cangxia Daoist raised his hand and smiled, saying in a clear voice:

"Since the founding of our sect by our ancestor, the 'Talisman Saint,' over a thousand years ago, our disciples have used Lighting Talismans to open their spiritual senses and embark on the path of immortality. Today's ceremony is the 216th Lighting Ceremony of our sect. Over 200 ceremonies, countless talents have emerged and achieved great things. I hope you can seize this opportunity today and seek the path of immortality!"

Cangxia Daoist then turned to the young Taoist beside him and said, "Junior Brother Mo, you will preside over this Lighting Ceremony. Please take the Ancestor Talisman."

Li Muran's heart stirred at the mention of the "Ancestor Talisman." He had read in the sect's records that the founding ancestor, Talisman Saint, had left a highly extraordinary talisman called the "Ancestor Talisman," which was the sect's most precious treasure.

The process of lighting for Yuanshu Sect disciples was also completed using this Ancestor Talisman.

"That's Junior Uncle Mo Yunzi, so young, and he's already a senior expert, not even thirty years old," Li Muran thought, looking at the young man who took the jade box from the sect leader, feeling quite envious.

Mo Yunzi bowed and respectfully saluted the jade box before carefully opening it and taking out a luminous jade talisman.

The jade talisman was only the size of a palm, with a layer of colorful light on its surface, very splendid.

"Junior Sister Qingxia has already used the Primordial Energy Talisman to fill the Ancestor Talisman with primordial energy. Junior Brother Mo can use it directly," Cangxia Daoist added with a smile.

"Understood!" Mo Yunzi bowed to Cangxia Daoist and then turned to the disciples, instructing, "Enter the hall one by one, in the order of your entry into the sect."

After speaking, Mo Yunzi and the others returned to the hall.

The disciples quickly formed a line, and a young man of about seventeen or eighteen was the first to enter the hall.

The young man, following instructions, first performed the three kneels and nine bows to the golden statue of the founding ancestor in the hall, then stood on a platform about a foot high in the center of the hall.

"Don't be nervous!" Junior Uncle Mo smiled at the trembling young man. "Close your eyes and place the Lighting Talisman you drew on your forehead."

"Yes, Junior Uncle Mo!" The young man did as instructed. The talisman he placed had one character and one seal, a low-level Lighting Talisman.

"Do you see anything in the space between your eyebrows, about an inch inward?" Mo Yunzi suddenly asked.

The young man, with his eyes closed, shook his head and replied, "Junior Uncle, it's completely dark, I can't see anything."

Mo Yunzi smiled and said, "You haven't been lit yet, of course you can't see anything; it will be different soon!"

As he spoke, Mo Yunzi waved his sleeve, and a green light flashed, a luminous green wooden sword flew out and was caught in his hand.

Mo Yunzi gently placed the Ancestor Talisman on the stone platform in front of him, then wielded the green sword, creating a series of green sword lights.

These sword lights gathered into the Ancestor Talisman. The talisman characters on the Ancestor Talisman immediately shone brightly, forming a dazzling seven-colored light column, about an inch thick.

Mo Yunzi pointed the tip of his sword, and the light column directly illuminated the Lighting Talisman on the young man's forehead.

In an instant, the characters on the Lighting Talisman shone brightly and detached from the paper, which then turned into a wisp of green smoke and disappeared in the light column.

The characters gradually shrank, turned into a blood-colored light, and entered the young man's forehead. The young man's body suddenly trembled, and a layer of misty seven-colored light appeared on his skin.

But in just a blink, the light disappeared, and the young man returned to normal, opening his eyes, looking confused.

"Try again," Mo Yunzi smiled at the young man.

The young man closed his eyes again, sensing the location of the spiritual sense. After a moment, he suddenly opened his eyes, surprised and delighted, and said, "Disciple saw a flame, about the size of a soybean!"

"You used a low-level Fire Lighting Talisman, so after being lit, you can only see a small flame. If you had used a mid-level Fire Lighting Talisman, you would have seen a flame about an inch in size," Mo Yunzi explained, waving his hand to signal the young man to step aside.

"Step aside, and after all the disciples are lit, the ceremony for choosing a master will begin. If an elder is willing to take you as a disciple, you can stay in the sect and continue your cultivation. Otherwise, you will have to leave the sect."

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