Chapter 188 (1/2)
The round stones at the bottom of the stream slightly quivered, as if it intended to move yet failed eventually. Instead, those round stones just struggled to make several tiny swirls around. Then they rose to pa.s.s through the dense water weed and along with them, bubbles attached to the bottom of those weed leaves were brought up.
”It proves that the talisman is effective, but it's too weak. So we can just achieve some effect with the help of the flotage of stream water.” Fourth Brother lowered his head to see the pearl-like bubbles in the water and asked coolly, ”Little Younger Brother, I appreciate your att.i.tude to apply your knowledge of Talisman Taoism to real objects rather than talk empty talks. But I can't understand why you made this Wind Talisman so tiny? Where do you plan to use it?”
After a moment of silence, Ning Que answered, ”I plan to carve it in arrows, so it must be tiny.”
Fourth Brother looked back at him quietly and praised, ”Good idea.”
Ning Que smiled, yet before he could smile to his heart content, he heard Fourth Brother said,
”... Pitily it is still a daydream.”
He asked with big surprise, ”Why?”
Fourth Brother answered, ”Carving talisman on suits of armour can help to defend ourselves and carving talisman on knives and swords can help to kill others. Don't you think somebody has thought to carve talisman on arrows? Since ancient times, numerous people have thought about the idea, yet they all failed.”
Ning Que frowned and asked, ”Why?”
”There are thousands of reasons but only one reliable explanation, which is, all the previous attempts to carve talisman on arrows failed. So at least up to today, it is a good idea that is bound to fail.”
”Failure is the mother of success.”
”You are right, but don't forget, many mothers also give birth to unsuccessful children.”
”Then it doesn't matter if I try it again, right?”
”And then you need to redesign your talisman line. Now only the columns of Daming Palace are wide enough for you to carve your talisman. Even if you are powerful enough to regard the column as an arrow, then where to find such a thick bowstring?”
”Fourth Brother... ”
”Yes?”
”It is until today do I find you speak so acridly.”
”As a Talisman Master majoring in this skill, what I focus on is to carve characters at extremely acrid (tiny) places.”
”Good answer.”
Ning Que has thought of carving talisman on arrow to strengthen its power and enlarge its shotting range a long time ago. In fact, earlier last year during their journey back from the gra.s.sland when he heard about the narration of his hards.h.i.+p and sufferings in cultivation from the elder Lyu Qingchen, he has already formed the idea.
After being tempered in Min Mountain and the frontier fortress for many years, he has fostered an excellent skill of shooting arrows beyond compare. Therefore, when thinking and a.n.a.lysing how to fight with those powerful cultivators, he would naturally choose arrow. If Talisman Taoism could be applied in arrow, the safety distance and the suddenness of the attack would be ensured in the fight against a powerful cultivator.
When the elder Lyu Qingchen heard of this idea during their journey back last year, he directly denied it - Arrow was too light for a talisman to be carved on, and the primordial Qi would vanish too quickly. Unless these two intractable problems could be solved, or else arrow couldn't be the kind of weapon chosen by a cultivator.
Back then, Ning Que had the least experience of Talisman Taoism, thus he didn't think too much. However, he was at present a successor of Divine Talisman Master Yan Se and has encountered so many crazy and sublime beings in the Back Mountain of the Academy, so he always felt it possible to carve talisman on thin arrows. If it made sense, it would solve all the problems!
Although Ning Que had been discouraged by Fourth Brother's acrid words by the stream, he didn't completely lose heart. When back to Chang'an City, he bursted in the temple of South School of Haotian Taoism to visit his master, who finally gave him some suggestions after being badgered with for three days and two nights. And then Ning Que returned to Old Brush Pen Shop. After pondering for quite a long time with the pen and ink and foot line, he eventually contracted the Wind Talisman he prepared to carve on arrows to its smallest size.
It was midnight, and the lamplight was slightly swinging.
Sangsang who was coated with white cloth allover slowly flew up from her bed.
The white cloth was densely pasted with slender pieces of paper scrip.
On those pieces of paper scrip one could faintly recognize some weird lines.
A burst of m.u.f.fled sob was heard from the tightly-closed window.
The pale-faced Ning Que stood beside the bed, faintly looking at her.
The whole picture looked extremely strange and horrible.
After continuously drawing over forty Wind Talismans, he felt his Psyche Power in the Ocean of Qi was almost pressed out, and his face was extremely pale at the moment. However, at the sight of the little handmaiden slowly drifting up and those talismans pasted on her, he was filled with joy.
With the fluctuation of Sangsang's thin figure in the air, Ning Que moved his hands up and down, emotionly saying, ”What is the flying trapeze? This is! If I were to play magic, who cares about Liu Qian (a famous modern magician)?”
Sangsang who was hanged in the air frowned and said, ”Young master, I don't know who Liu Qian is.”
When arriving in the Back Mountain of the Academy, Ning Que took out that slender talisman and seriously handed it to Sixth Brother, saying, ”Senior Brother, succeed or not, it all depends on your skill.”
Sixth Brother took the talisman and examined it with confusion for quite a long time. Then he picked up the an arrow thrown by Ning Que the previous day and folded the talisman into a cylinder. And next he stuck the cylinder tightly to the thin arrow, finding them perfectly matched.
”Although they are suitable in size, I'm also afraid it still will fail later.”
Sixth Brother took out the delicate scorper and sat at a bright place near the window. He began to carve following the lines of talisman sticked to the arrow and his fingers moved quite stably without any trembles at all. The seemingly blunt movement of the scorper actually resulted in extreme accuracy. Instead of pursuing the meaningless beauty of movement, he preferred to focus on the real effect. The hair-thin blade perfectly copied the lines in the talisman.
After finis.h.i.+ng carving those talismans, Ning Que picked up the arrow and looked at it against the sunlight. He was shocked by the beautiful and smooth lines on the thin arrow and sincerely praised, ”Sixth Brother, you are really excellent in craftsmans.h.i.+p.”
Sixth Brother put the delicate scorper into the leather box and answered with an honest smile, ”I'm a true craftsman.”
The two walked out of the house and reached the Mirror Lake.
Ning Que first took a deep breath and calmed down. And next he put the arrow on a boxwood bow and slightly loosened and tightened his five figures of his left hand alternatively to transfer his Psyche Power from the Ocean of Qi to the lines of talisman on the arrow. In terms of an ordinary Talisman Master, his Psyche Power was the key and the talisman he wrote was the lock. Only his own Psyche Power could stimulate and release the power of the talisman.
”Buzz!” The tightened bowstring of the boxwood bow bounced back.
Almost simultaneously, his Psyche Power triggered the talisman on the arrow.
Between the bow, a gust of wind bursted out and quickly scattered, yet as for the arrow... it had gone elsewhere.
The surface of the lake was as quiet as a mirror, where no flying trace of an arrow was found.
In the woods on the opposite side of the lake, no flying trace of an arrow was found.
Under the blue sky, no flying trace of an arrow was found either.
If something flew by or climbed by or walked by, it must leave a trace, but where had the arrow carved with Wind Talisman gone in an instant?
Ning Que blankly put down the boxwood bow and turned back to Sixth Brother with an inquiring look.
Sixth Brother unfolded his hands, also showing an honest and confused expression.
Just at the moment, Seventh Sister walked out from the pavilion in the middle of the Mirror Lake. She looked enraged with her thin arch brows inverted, whose body was covered with extremely tiny chips of wood allover, as if she had just crawled out from some warehouse of a logging camp.
Ning Que failed to refrain himself from laughing out at her embarra.s.sed look, thinking to himself,