Chapter 10: Essence of the Primordial Spirit

Yun Changtian looked at Tang Chuyang with some surprise. He was not surprised that this good-for-nothing, notorious wastrel of Jingyun County wanted to refine a Spirit Summoning Diagram, but rather he was shocked by Tang Chuyang's mature demeanor, which was completely different from his usual frivolous image. Even the usual air of arrogance and unruliness seemed to have vanished from this young man.

"Too strange, it's just too strange..."

Yun Changtian was inwardly amazed, but on the surface, he nodded heartily and said, "Alright! Since the young master likes spirit paper and spirit ink, I happen to have brought back a batch this time. I'll prepare a set for the young master right away!" After saying this, Yun Changtian, for some reason, felt compelled to add, "Oh, right, if the young master is refining a Spirit Summoning Diagram or a spirit talisman, our Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion has a dedicated drawing room that can be lent to the young master for free!"

As soon as these words left his mouth, Yun Changtian suddenly shook his head and laughed to himself, thinking, "What am I doing? With Tang Chuyang's wastrel nature, if I remember correctly, this guy hasn't even reached the Qi Induction stage of the First Yuan Realm. How could he refine a Spirit Summoning Diagram? He probably can't even convert the essence of the primordial spirit needed to draw the diagram!"

The first patriarch of the Tang family was a初级灵画师, which was no secret. Any family that could produce a spirit painter or a spirit talisman master would be eager to let the whole continent know, to enhance their family's reputation and attract wandering cultivators. The Tang family grew in this way.

However, the Tang family only produced one spirit painter. With Yun Changtian's experience, he knew all too well how difficult it was to become a spirit painter. Just the requirement of a multicolored primordial spirit made 99% of the cultivators on the Five Elements Continent sigh in despair. Tang Chuyang was almost sixteen and hadn't even contracted a low-level guardian spirit. Yun Changtian found it hard to imagine how he could refine a Spirit Summoning Diagram.

"Is he just imagining it? If that were the case, the world would be full of spirit painters..."

Yun Changtian found it amusing but didn't say anything more. Since he had promised, he wasn't the type to go back on his word. Seeing Tang Chuyang nod, Yun Changtian led him directly to the third floor of the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion.

The entire Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion was a five-story wooden pavilion. The first floor was a sales hall for ordinary spirit herbs, spirit pills, and spirit ink. The second floor was for VIPs, specifically to receive important clients who bought large quantities of spirit herbs, spirit pills, and spirit talismans, as well as to sell rarer treasures and materials, such as Spirit Summoning Diagrams, spirit ink, and spirit paper.

The third floor was the dedicated drawing room for spirit painters and spirit talisman masters. The Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion was a prominent force in Liuyun City, and naturally, it had its own spirit painters and spirit talisman masters, though not many. They usually circulated among the branches in various counties to refine Spirit Summoning Diagrams, so each branch had a dedicated drawing room.

"Here is our Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion's drawing room, young master. Please wait here while I go prepare the spirit paper and spirit ink you need. I'll have someone bring them up shortly. I have some matters to attend to, so I won't disturb you while you refine the Spirit Summoning Diagram..."

After leading Tang Chuyang to the drawing room, Yun Changtian politely spoke a few words and then went downstairs to prepare the items. He had no expectations for Tang Chuyang's ability to refine a Spirit Summoning Diagram, or rather, he didn't believe that this notorious wastrel could produce such a high-end item. Everything he was doing today was just to make up for what happened two months ago.

"Manager Yun, please go about your business. Don't worry about me..."

Tang Chuyang was happy to be left alone to experiment. He had been worried about how to prepare the necessary items in the Tang family compound, but now, with a dedicated drawing room for spirit painters, there was no better place to refine a Spirit Summoning Diagram.

The drawing room was about fifty square meters, with a simple and grand layout. Apart from a ziyun wood desk and a few intricately carved chairs of the same material, there were no other large pieces of furniture. On one wall hung several oil paintings of landscapes and figures, which Tang Chuyang examined but found to be ordinary paintings, not Spirit Summoning Diagrams.

Soon, a servant from the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion entered with a tray, bowed humbly to Tang Chuyang, and skillfully arranged the items on the desk. From his smooth, fluid movements, Tang Chuyang guessed that this servant was specifically trained to assist spirit painters.

After placing everything, the servant, who was about the same age as Tang Chuyang, looked up and said, "Young Master Tang, everything you need is prepared. Manager Yun instructed me to assist you with anything you need. I'll be waiting outside the door for your commands!"

"Thank you, there's nothing else I need. You can leave now..."

The servant bowed and quickly left the drawing room, closing the door quietly behind him. The room was now silent.

"Now, I can finally test whether the knowledge I learned on Earth can be my means of survival in this world..."

Looking at the inkstone, specially made spirit brush, and spirit ink on the desk, Tang Chuyang felt a bit nervous. He took a deep breath, walked to the desk, and closed his eyes to think about the steps to refine a Spirit Summoning Diagram. After confirming there were no issues, he slowly opened his eyes and began to mix the spirit ink.

Refining a Spirit Summoning Diagram, the mixing of spirit ink is one of the most critical steps. Spirit ink is made from spirit minerals, yuan qi crystals, demon beast inner cores, blood, and other materials rich in primordial energy. The order in which each material is mixed can result in different effects of the spirit ink.

Yun Changtian was indeed very generous, providing Tang Chuyang with the blood of a spirit coffin bird, bone powder of a gold-swallowing beast, and second-grade spirit mineral inkstones for color, along with first-grade flying snow paper on the desk. These materials were sufficient to refine a second or third-grade Spirit Summoning Diagram.

Spirit Summoning Diagrams are divided into nine ranks and eighty-one grades, with nine grades per rank. The lowest is first-grade first-rank, and the highest is ninth-grade ninth-rank. It is said that above ninth-grade ninth-rank, there are even higher-rank Divine Transformation Diagrams that can summon the complete form of a higher realm guardian spirit, not just a thread of divine consciousness like a Spirit Summoning Diagram.

However, that was just a legend Tang Chuyang had read in records, and whether it truly existed was uncertain.

First, he poured the blood of the spirit coffin bird into the specially made inkstone. Although the spirit coffin bird is only a first-grade demon beast, its blood is one of the best materials for spirit ink because it relies on its blood essence for survival, and all its abilities are concentrated in its blood.

After pouring the blood, Tang Chuyang's consciousness sank into his sea of consciousness, entering the vast expanse of his mind to mobilize the essence of the primordial spirit. The second step in mixing spirit ink is to infuse the essence of the primordial spirit into the ink. Despite his rapid conversion of primordial energy, Tang Chuyang had only been cultivating for three months.

However, the amount of essence of the primordial spirit he had stored was not much. Tang Chuyang found that his primordial spirit was extremely voracious and stingy, only releasing a thread of innate primordial energy after consuming tens of thousands of units of primordial energy. Tang Chuyang needed to condense his primordial spirit and innate divine seal ten times to derive a single unit of essence of the primordial spirit.

In other words, Tang Chuyang needed to absorb one hundred thousand units of primordial energy to derive a single unit of essence of the primordial spirit, and to refine the lowest-grade first-grade first-rank Spirit Summoning Diagram, he needed one hundred units of essence of the primordial spirit!

Fortunately, Tang Chuyang's speed of absorbing primordial energy was terrifying, allowing him to absorb tens of thousands of units in one cycle, and up to twenty thousand at his limit.

If he were like an ordinary first-grade cultivator, who could absorb only a hundred or so units of primordial energy in one cycle, it would take several months to accumulate one hundred units of essence of the primordial spirit.

After asking a few sisters about the conversion ratio of the essence of the primordial spirit, Tang Chuyang learned that their conversion rate was 1000:1, meaning they could convert one hundred units of innate primordial energy from one thousand units of primordial energy, and this one hundred units of innate primordial energy could be refined into one unit of essence of the primordial spirit.

In terms of conversion efficiency, it was ten times that of Tang Chuyang!

Tang Chuyang could only laugh bitterly. He knew the problem must lie with his unique primordial spirit. For example, the essence of the primordial spirit of a first-grade cultivator is the same color as their primordial spirit, a clear red. Similarly, a Two Instruments Realm cultivator's essence is orange, and his second sister, Tang Chulan, a high-grade Three Talents Realm cultivator, has a clear yellow essence.

However, Tang Chuyang's primordial spirit and essence of the primordial spirit were both unique, being multicolored, with nine colors.

In the Five Elements Continent's cultivation world, it is a common practice for cultivators to complete nine cycles of cultivation each day, which is the most reasonable limit. Beyond nine cycles, it is not impossible to continue, but the cultivator must endure significant pain and the efficiency of absorbing primordial energy will decrease.

The pain and inefficiency increase with the number of cycles, and the more cycles one forces, the greater the pain and the worse the effect.

For a cultivator to stand out, relying on just nine cycles a day is clearly insufficient. For most cultivators, enduring the pain to continue cultivating becomes inevitable. Therefore, in the Five Elements Continent, the term "hard cultivation" truly means painful cultivation. Of course, if one has spirit pills to assist, it's a different story.