Chapter 42 – The Way of the World

Scarface Qing didn’t make a big deal out of it. Lynn Naya simply waved her hand and gathered all the talismans that the others had finished making.

Since they had already been collected once at noon, they hadn’t accumulated much this time, only a few dozen. With hers and Qiao Guanyuan’s, they only had a little over a hundred.

“That’s all for now.” To avoid disturbing the others, Lynn Naya went outside with Scarface Qing. The two of them stood face-to-face and counted the talismans, then recorded them in a ledger. Afterward, both of them put a handprint on it.

Their friendship was one thing, but business was another. This was all for the sake of accounting later.

After handing the talismans to Scarface Qing, Lynn Naya looked at the sky. It was almost evening, and it was time for her to water her plants. She invited Scarface Qing, “I’m going to the herb forest, and you’re going to the market. Our paths are the same for a bit. Why don’t we walk and talk?”

“Okay.”

With Lynn Naya there, Scarface Qing told the two cultivators to wait for him at the fork in the road. He walked with Lynn Naya on the dusty street.

The weather was dry right now, and the road was just dirt. Anyone who walked a little faster would kick up a cloud of dust.

“You’re not happy.” Lynn Naya said, waving her hand to ward off the dust.

“Why would you say that?” Scarface Qing denied.

“When you’re unhappy, your scar looks especially fierce.”

“Really?” Scarface Qing couldn’t help but touch the scar on his face.

“Of course not.” Lynn Naya said. She had used her spiritual sense to see his expression when he came into the Talisman Academy, and his face was far from happy.

“No way. I’ve never…” Halfway through his sentence, Scarface Qing realized what Lynn Naya had said. He tried to laugh to ease the awkwardness but couldn’t. He just let out a long sigh. “I think someone is deliberately pushing this from behind. Even the rumor that people who stop taking beast cores will die a painful death has surfaced. The public is furious now. It’s one thing for them to curse the Dao Palace, but they’re cursing us, too, saying we’re profiting from them.”

Scarface Qing didn’t say the uglier words. He was afraid Lynn Naya would be sad and that it would break their hearts.

Lynn Naya understood. He was standing up for them.

“To be fair, we are profiting from this, and we’ve also gained a lot of other benefits.” She couldn’t deny that. “Even though the other talisman masters have a low success rate, the three of us—me, Qiao Guanyuan, and a talisman master named Chen Yun—have a good success rate.

“The talisman paper from one hide is basically drawn by the three of us first, ensuring that we can make at least one more spirit stone than the cost. The rest is left to the others. If they succeed, that’s great. If they don’t, they won’t lose any money.

“Besides making spirit stones, everyone has been working hard during this time. They’ve drawn more talismans in one day than they used to in total. They’re all getting more and more skilled. I reckon that when this is all over, a few talisman masters in the academy will break through to the next stage.

“Even I have benefited from this.”

This benefit was due to the fact that some of the talisman papers were of better quality. The hides of beasts that were about to break through to become first-grade beasts could be used to make Five Thunder Talismans.

She and Qiao Guanyuan found eleven such hides. After they split them, she would draw a Five Thunder Talisman whenever she felt inspired. She now had three Five Thunder Talismans in her storage bag, and she would probably have more in the future.

Of course, she couldn’t tell anyone about this.

“But you weren’t aiming for these things from the beginning. Even if there are benefits, you deserve them.” Scarface Qingsaid, his voice muffled.

“We weren’t aiming to be praised or recognized from the beginning, either. You don’t know this, but being able to save their lives in exchange for money is a great deal for me.” She wasn’t thinking about the next few years or a dozen years. She was thinking about the next few decades and centuries. One person now could be an entire family with four generations under one roof a hundred years from now. She would always win in this situation. Nothing was more important than her safety.

“I know you’re defending us and you think they’re being ungrateful,” Lynn Naya continued. “I appreciate you speaking up for us. It’s a blessing to have a friend like you. But because of that, I have to tell you my thoughts.

“We know and see more because we are standing on higher ground and have a longer view. As for them, they can’t see the path ahead, their path behind them is blocked, and their only wish to live a stable life will be shattered. It’s natural for them to be in pain, resentful, and take it out on others.

“It’s impossible for me to not be angry when I’m being cursed, but I know that what’s making them so ugly isn’t themselves. It’s this damned world.”

Scarface Qing was silent for a long time after hearing this. He looked at the residential houses on both sides of the street: anxious men, worried women, and skinny children.

Tomorrow was supposed to be a day of hope, but they were all terrified of it.

“Forget it,” Scarface Qing said, his resentment gone, replaced only by a bitter sadness. “I’ll let them off this time. If it happens again, I won’t let them into the market.” They were all suffering people. “By the way, is it true that you’ll die if you don’t keep taking beast cores?”

Lynn Naya smiled. “No, you just won’t be able to continue cultivating.”

“Oh, that’s good then.”

Soon, they reached the fork in the road. Lynn Naya said goodbye to him and told him to prepare more beast hides. “The talisman materials are almost gone. We can only last for two more days. You should have someone replenish them as soon as possible. Also, since there are not many people, you can give the first step of tanning the hide to ordinary people, then send them to the Talisman Academy for the second and third steps.”

After that, Lynn Naya headed to the herb forest.

Scarface Qing, however, was in a hurry after learning that the talisman materials were almost out. He had already bought a lot of beast hides and blood in the market. To prevent a shortage in the future, he announced that people could exchange these things for talismans.

That evening, the Qu family, who knew how to tan hides, received a request from Scarface Qing. He asked them to tan two hundred hides within two days. He said it was fine if they weren’t dried, as long as they were clean and flat and didn’t have any strange smells.

“No problem,” the Qu family head promised. “We have a lot of people. We’ll definitely get it done in two days.”

“Great. I’ll leave it to you then, old man.” Scarface Qing was in a hurry. He left a bag of deposit money and quickly left the Qu family.

As soon as he left, a young descendant, who was quick with his hands, opened the bag and poured out a shiny stone.

“Uncle, what is this?” the younger man asked in surprise. He thought it would be some valuable herbs or something.

Unlike the young man’s lack of knowledge, Old Man Qu was much calmer. “You’re so unknowledgeable. This is a spirit stone.”

Even though he tried to sound calm, his trembling hand as he took the spirit stone from the younger man betrayed his true feelings.

It was said that the cultivator market no longer used contribution points for payment and had switched to spirit stones. It seemed the rumors were true. This was the first time he had ever touched a spirit stone.

“A spirit stone?!” The others in the main hall saw it and wanted to look, but Old Man Qu stopped them. “What’s the rush? There will be a time when each of you has one. Right now, there is only one thing you need to do, and that is to do the job that Hall Master Qing gave us perfectly. If we do a good job this time, there will be a second and third time. WoodheadQu, you’re a smart kid. Go out and find something out for me right now.”

“Alright.” The young man from the Qu family left soon after.

About thirty minutes later, Woodhead Qu came back. He walked up to the Old Man Qu, who was already leading the work, and said, “I’ve already found out. Hall Master Qing didn’t ask many people to do this.

“The first place he went was his own workshop at the herb store. He had the women there stop what they were doing and process the hides. The second place was our family, and the third place was the homes of six of his close friends.”

“I heard that before the beast cores came out, Hall Master Qing sponsored these people with Qi-Blood Pills. These six people also wanted to repay his kindness and have been working for Hall Master Qing, so their families also get a share of this profitable job.

“That’s it. Hall Master Qing went back to the market to keep an eye on things.

“Oh, and Uncle, I just saw that the spirit stones in the hands of the other cultivators in the market seemed to be bigger than ours.”

“What do you know? In the past, there was fragmented silver, and now there are fragmented spirit stones. It’s normal.” Old Man Qu made something up. Spirit stones were expensive. It was normal for Scarface Qing not to give them a large one as a deposit for tanning hides. “Alright, go get back to work.”

He was more concerned about Scarface Qing’s attitude.

Scarface Qing had only found three groups of people, and their Qu family was one of them. This meant that ScarfaceQing had a good impression of them. If they did a good job, they might be able to form a connection with Scarface Qingin the future, which could be a rare opportunity for their entire clan.

Lynn Naya was unaware of the Qu family head’s thoughts. At this time, after she had finished watering the Cold Moon Grass, she returned to the Talisman Academy to continue working. When she came back, she saw a woman anxiously pacing in front of the locked gate.

“What’s wrong?” Lynn Naya asked as she opened the door. The Talisman Academy didn’t even have a gatekeeper, and the door was often closed.

The woman saw her entering the door as if she had found a life-saving straw. “Are you a talisman master from inside? My husband is leaving for a mission tomorrow, but he still hasn’t bought the talismans he needs. Talisman Master, can you please sell us one first? I’m afraid it will be too late if we wait until tomorrow. Can you, Talisman Master?”

Lynn Naya naturally wouldn’t stand by and do nothing when a woman was begging her like this. Besides, the woman’s words made her realize a flaw in the way the market was selling talismans.

“Of course,” Lynn Naya said. Since she couldn’t let an outsider in, she told the woman to wait at the door. She went inside for a moment and came out with a letter. “I need to ask for your help to deliver this letter to Hall Master Qing at the market. After you deliver the letter, he will arrange for you to buy a talisman first.”

The letter only had two lines of text and one talisman. It asked Scarface Qing to sell the talismans according to the order of their mission dates. Those who were going on a mission tomorrow should be sold to first, and the rest could wait.

She also asked Scarface Qing to give the talisman in the letter to the woman as a delivery fee since she was the one who pointed out the flaw in the market’s sales.

The woman thanked her profusely and left, while Lynn Naya went back to work.

Three days later, the number of mortal cultivators who had survived an encounter with an evil cultivator thanks to the talismans they had on them gradually increased. The number of people who came to buy talismans also grew, to the point where they had to line up on the street outside.

That evening, Zhou Feibai and his Senior Brother and Senior Sister returned from a patrol. When they reached the street they usually passed by, they saw a line of mortal cultivators from a distance.

“What’s going on?” The Senior Sister was a talisman cultivator and was on her first mission with them.

“It’s just a little trick by the mortals,” the Senior Brother said with a hint of contempt in his voice. “Recently, with the evil cultivators appearing, some mortals have seen a business opportunity and are selling Light Body Talismans in bulk. What a joke. Instead of relying on these crooked paths, they should just focus on their cultivation.”

Zhou Feibai thought his Senior Brother was really bad at talking. What did he mean talismans were a crooked path? His Senior Sister was a talisman cultivator. How was this any different from mocking her to her face?

However, the Senior Sister in front of him wasn’t angry. “But isn’t it true that mortal cultivators have a better chance of surviving with Light Body Talismans since their cultivation is generally not very high? You only see the profit and not the benefit. You’re so prejudiced that it’s no wonder your cultivation hasn’t improved in the past few years, Junior Brother.”