Crimson Flame Mountain Range, deep within a cave.
Ling Tian bit his fingertip, squeezing out a drop of crimson essence blood.
The essence blood, as if being pulled, slowly drifted towards the Legacy Jade Slip.
The moment the two touched—
The roaring sound of the surrounding magma instantly vanished.
Ling Tian felt as if he had been thrown into the boundless Void Realm.
Beneath his feet, a silver river flowed quietly, with golden Talismans shimmering in its waters.
Looking up, nine blood moons hung high in the sky!
Within each blood moon, a Dragon shadow seemed to be imprisoned, screaming and struggling madly, as if trying to break free from this blood-colored cage.
“Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong!”
Deafening heartbeats came from the depths of the Void Realm, as if something was awakening.
Ling Tian looked down, horrified to find that his chest had become transparent!
A dark golden heart was tightly entangled by hundreds of blood-colored chains, and the other end of the chains connected to the end of the Void Realm.
There, a humanoid outline composed of talismanic patterns sat.
“A thousand years have passed…”
The outline slowly raised a hand and gently tapped the Void Realm.
In an instant, the entire illusion reassembled with a roar!
The silver river beneath Ling Tian’s feet rolled upwards, transforming into an ancient throne.
The nine blood moons fell, condensing into a dazzling crown.
The moment the Talismanic figure opened its eyes, the blood within Ling Tian’s body suddenly boiled!
Ling Tian’s arms grew Dragon scales wildly, his fingernails transformed into sharp Dragon claws, his spine crackled with explosive sounds, and a furious Dragon roared from the depths of his Bloodline.
“I am the Talisman Ancestor. When my Physical Body transformed into Dao, I left this remnant thought in the world.”
The Talisman Ancestor’s voice was like ten thousand swords scraping against profound iron; every word made Ling Tian’s Sea of Consciousness churn.
“A thousand years have passed, and you are the first to arrive here…”
The Talisman Ancestor flicked his finger.
In the Void Realm, nine scrolls slowly appeared.
The first scroll depicted a desolate battlefield: a Cultivator in green robes, using his finger as a brush, carved a crimson Talisman on his chest. With a raise of his hand, a hundred thousand Yao Beasts turned to ashes, but he himself was covered in cracks, like broken porcelain.
The second scroll depicted the Demon Realm purgatory: an old man with white hair, a purple lightning Talisman appearing on his spine. He summoned the Nine Heavens Divine Lightning, shattering an entire Demon City, and ultimately, was consumed by his own lightning Talisman, reduced to charcoal… And the ninth scroll was the most terrifying—
A young man in blood-red robes, with a Heavenly Talisman on his forehead, actually refined an entire Star Domain into a Talisman!
When the Heavenly Dao brought down world-ending lightning tribulations, he laughed as he tore open his chest, wrote the last character “reverse” (defy) with his essence blood, and perished with the myriad stars!
“This is the “Nine Talisman Heavenly Art”!”
The Talisman Ancestor’s voice echoed in the Void Realm.
“This art is the supreme secret scripture of my ancient Talismancer lineage! It does not cultivate external artifacts, but solely uses one’s own Bloodline as a furnace and a Talisman brush as a guide, refining the Physical Body into a ‘living Talisman’! And each Realm requires blood as ink and bone as paper to carve a life-bound talismanic pattern. Cultivated to Perfection, every gesture can summon the Laws of heaven and earth!”
“A Talismancer uses their own Bloodline as their Foundation. The purer and stronger the Bloodline, the more Talismans it can bear! And each time a talismanic pattern is carved, the Bloodline Power will be overdrawn once. If the Bloodline Power is insufficient, at best, one’s cultivation will be completely crippled; at worst, the Physical Body will disintegrate!”
“Nine transformations of talismanic patterns, nine life-bound Talismans, corresponding to nine Realms.”
“First Realm · Heart Talisman: Carved into the heart, it cleanses the meridians and refines the marrow.”
“Second Realm · Bone Talisman: Carved into the spine, it allows severed limbs to regenerate.”
“Third Realm · Wind Talisman: Carved into the feet, it allows for instant travel of a hundred miles.”
“Fourth Realm · Lightning Talisman: Carved into the right arm, it summons the Nine Heavens Divine Lightning to break demons and suppress evil.”
“Fifth Realm · Water Talisman: Carved into the left arm, it controls all waters under heaven, stirring up rivers and seas.”
“Sixth Realm · Fire Talisman: Carved into the chest, it grants the true Flame of Heavenly Fire, inextinguishable.”
“Seventh Realm · Earth Talisman: Carved into the Dantian, it borrows the power of earth veins, providing endless true Qi.”
“Eighth Realm · Soul Talisman: Carved into the glabella, it condenses an Incarnation outside the body, allowing one to do as they please.”
“Ninth Realm · Heavenly Talisman: Carved into the spiritual platform, it allows one to peer into the Laws of the Heavenly Dao, making words become Law.”
“This art, every stroke carved, is a struggle against heaven.”
“And each time a talismanic pattern is carved, one will inevitably face a ‘Talisman Tribulation’—either Burning Body by lightning and fire, or bone-eroding yin winds, or Heart Demon illusions.”
“Those who fail Undergoing Tribulation will have their Divine Soul consumed by the talismanic pattern, eternally imprisoned within the Talisman, becoming a ‘Talisman Puppet’.”
After he finished speaking, the Talisman Ancestor’s throne suddenly transformed into a high platform piled with white bones.
He stepped on the stark white bones, walked step by step to Ling Tian, and lightly tapped his glabella with a withered finger.
“Within your body, there slumbers a Bloodline that even I cannot see through… I wonder if you can bear these nine life-bound Talismans…”
Suddenly!
The Talisman Ancestor grabbed Ling Tian’s right hand and pressed it against his own chest!
In an instant, Ling Tian saw an incredibly terrifying sight—
A broken bronze sword was plunged into the Talisman Ancestor’s heart!
Black flames continuously gushed from the wound, and within the flames, countless Cultivators’ screams were carried, incomparably mournful!
“This is the fate of the failures!”
The Talisman Ancestor’s voice carried an bone-chilling coldness.
“Now, answer me—”
As the voice fell, the entire illusion collapsed into a giant blood-colored whirlpool.
Ling Tian felt himself falling into the depths of the Talisman Ancestor’s pupils.
In those pupils, nine giant bronze gates appeared.
Each gate was carved with different tortures: flaying and bone extraction, Divine Soul calcination, eternal imprisonment in the Yellow Springs… “Will you choose a path of near-certain death, push open these nine gates, and become the new Talisman Ancestor…”
The Talisman Ancestor’s afterimage twisted in the whirlpool.
“Or, will you seek a path of stability, slowly improving?”
Ling Tian smiled.
He allowed the violent Dragon shadow in his Bloodline to burst through his skin, condensing into a pair of huge blood-colored wings behind him.
“The three hundred wronged souls of my Ling family wail day and night, their blood feud unavenged. You ask me how to choose!?”
“Come!”
Ling Tian fiercely tore open his robe, exposing the area of his heart.
“Let me see if this damned old heaven can take my life!”
The Talisman Ancestor’s voice of approval echoed in the Void Realm: “Very good… I hope you do not forget your original intention…”
Before he finished speaking.
A Talisman brush had already pierced Ling Tian’s heart!
The moment the Talisman brush penetrated his heart, Ling Tian’s pupils suddenly contracted to the size of needlepoints.
He heard all the bones in his body make a crisp sound like shattering glass.
His vision was swallowed by a sea of blood.
When his vision refocused, he was horrified to find himself suspended above a ten-thousand-zhang abyss!
Three hundred and sixty blood-colored chains pierced through his limbs and bones, and the other end connected to the entrance of the eighteen layers of purgatory!
“This is the Abyss of Ten Thousand Tribulations and Locked Hearts.”
The Talisman Ancestor’s voice came from the very bottom of the abyss, accompanied by the roar of churning magma.
“Out of four hundred and seventy-nine trial-takers throughout history, three hundred died in this abyss.”
Ling Tian was about to speak, but found his throat was tightly constricted by an invisible force!
His heart had transformed into a translucent crystal, suspended in front of his chest.
Every blood vessel had materialized into a crimson-gold chain.
The chains were covered with dense, forbidden incantations.
What was even more terrifying was—
The end of each chain was entwined with a ghoul of various forms!
“Jie jie jie…”
The ghoul closest to Ling Tian suddenly grinned, revealing a mouth full of fangs, and bit down on the chain!
Ling Tian only felt a surge of scalding molten iron pouring back into his heart through his blood vessels, making the veins on his neck bulge with pain.
Each time the ghoul gnawed an inch of chain, a fragment of memory exploded in his mind—
The Cultivator in green robes knelt in the heavy rain, the Talisman on his chest going out of control, tearing him into three thousand pieces of flesh;
The white-haired old man was consumed by the lightning Talisman, and his withered bones were covered with maggots formed by electric light;
A woman in red, trying to save her Dao Companion, accidentally refined her loved one into a Talisman Puppet… “Ugh ah!”
Ling Tian’s forehead slammed heavily into the Void Realm.
The blood beads gushing from his seven orifices evaporated into wisps of green smoke before they could fall.
He watched with his own eyes as the five fingers of his left hand were burned to charcoal.
His right leg, from the knee down, turned to dust—
This was the punishment for failing the trial, yet it had descended upon him prematurely!
“This is only the first stage, the Crimson Flame Tribulation.”
The Talisman Ancestor’s sneering voice floated up from the bottom of the abyss.
“Boy, is this all you’ve got…”
Before he finished speaking.
The second chain trembled violently!
A rift opened in the Void Realm to Ling Tian’s right.
Three ice soul specters, entirely dark blue, crawled up the chain.
Where they passed, sharp ice shards condensed, tearing Ling Tian’s right arm until it was a bloody mess!
“The second stage, the Cold Abyss Tribulation.”
The Talisman Ancestor’s voice was still cold.
“Those whose Divine Soul is devoured by the ice soul will have their Divine Sense eternally trapped in the Cold Abyss Purgatory.”
“Flame Dragon!”
“Break!”
Ling Tian gritted his back teeth, and the Flame Dragon Power in his Dantian circulated wildly.
The Flame Dragon Fire, usually as obedient as an arm, was now suppressed by some Law, unable to even spark a single flame.
Ling Tian could only watch helplessly as the ice soul specters’ sharp claws slowly pierced his chest, freezing the heart crystal with spiderweb-like cracks.
“Don’t struggle…”
Hundreds of resentful thoughts whispered in Ling Tian’s Divine Sense.
“Become us…”
Intense pain caused Ling Tian’s consciousness to blur.
In a trance, he seemed to return to Lingyun City when he was six years old.
He saw his mother’s trembling fingertips as she sealed herself in an ice coffin.
He saw the sky full of blood mist gushing out when his father’s heart was pierced by a black-scaled arrow.
Those images, buried deep in his memory, were now used by the ghouls as sharp blades, slowly dismembering his Divine Soul!
“Roar!!”
A world-shaking Dragon roar suddenly erupted from within Ling Tian’s body!
The shattered heart crystal now burst forth with brilliant dark golden light.
He suddenly opened his eyes, his left pupil crimson-gold, his right pupil profound night!
The phantom of the jade dragon sword shot up from the depths of his Bloodline!
The Dragon Soul entwined around the sword body was a hundred times larger than before!
As the Dragon’s eyes opened, the eighteen layers of purgatory simultaneously froze!
“This… This is… the aura of the Overlord Dragon Emperor?!”
For the first time, the Talisman Ancestor’s voice revealed shock!
“Within your body, it is actually…!”
However, the Dragon Soul gave him no chance to speak.
Its giant claws swung, tearing apart the crimson flame ghouls!
Its Dragon tail swept across, shattering the ice soul specters!
The dark golden flames spewed from its Dragon mouth burned the chains entwining Ling Tian until they were red-hot!
The devoured ghoul remnants actually transformed into streams of blood-colored energy, pouring back into Ling Tian’s heart through the chains!
Ling Tian laughed wildly in intense pain.
“You want to eat me? Then I’ll swallow you first!”
He actively grabbed a chain entwined with a resentful soul and stuffed it into his mouth!
The foul smell burned through his throat, but it made the dragon blood in his body boil even more!
The cracks on the surface of his heart healed at a visible speed.
Dark golden Dragon scale patterns appeared in the newly formed flesh!
“Madman! You actually dare to use the Talisman Tribulation to nourish your own Bloodline!”
The Talisman Ancestor’s voice was filled with disbelief.
When the last ghoul was torn apart and devoured by the Dragon Soul, Ling Tian’s heart had completely turned crimson-gold!
He stepped on the chains, walked step by step to the Talisman Ancestor, and pulled out the Talisman brush plunged into his heart.
“Talisman Ancestor, now, it’s time to teach this junior how to carve Talismans.”
The Talisman Ancestor’s pupils suddenly contracted.
He saw a ten-thousand-zhang Dragon shadow appear behind Ling Tian.
What it held in its Dragon claws was precisely a brush tip condensed from Heavenly Dao lightning tribulations!
The eighteen layers of purgatory wailed in unison.
The remnant souls of Talismancers who had been devoured by ghouls now knelt before Ling Tian!
“Heart’s blood as guide, marrow as paper!”
The Talisman Ancestor closed his eyes and began to chant.
Ling Tian bit his tongue, and his essence blood condensed into three thousand blood-colored Talismans in the air.
Every drop of blood reflected the phantom of the eighteen layers of purgatory.
“Dragon scales as tip, tribulation lightning as ink!”
The jade dragon sword sang sonorously, and the Dragon patterns on its spine peeled off, transforming into a Talisman brush.
A purple lightning bolt struck down from the Nine Heavens, but was twisted by the brush tip into shimmering lightning plasma, writing dazzling seal characters in the Void Realm.
“Three mountains and five peaks, heed my command—”
The moment the incantation resonated, the earth veins within a hundred-mile radius began to tremble violently!
Five mountain peaks were squeezed together by an invisible giant hand, turning into Talisman paper; rivers rolled back, turning into cinnabar.
The entire world, at this moment, became an altar for drawing Talismans!
“Nine Nether as furnace, Heavenly Dao as fuel!”
Ling Tian’s eyes ignited with Chaos fire, and wherever the brush tip pointed, the Void Realm collapsed!
The netherworld Yellow Springs was forcibly dragged into the present world, millions of wronged souls wailed as they turned into Talisman fire fuel, burning spiderweb-like cracks in the firmament.
“Command—Heart Talisman!”
The final roar caused heaven and earth to resonate, and all phenomena collapsed into a single point of blood-colored light on his fingertip.
The moment the talismanic pattern was formed, time and space seemed to be paused.
That point of blood-colored light instantly shot into Ling Tian’s heart, erupting with dazzling blood-red radiance.
Through the translucent flesh, a dark golden talismanic pattern, like a living creature, slowly twisted on his heart.
“You are still too weak now.”
“Wait until you reach the Nascent Soul Realm, then come find me again. At that time, insert the Talisman brush into the Divine Treasure Acupoint, and you will naturally enter the Talisman Ancestor’s illusion.”
“Also, take this.”
Another Legacy Jade Slip floated into Ling Tian’s hand.
“Since you have already carved a life-bound Talisman, you are considered a successor of my Talismancer lineage. This “Myriad Talisman Guide” records the Talisman crafting methods and Talismancer Formations passed down for ten thousand years by the Talismancer lineage. Study it well, and do not disgrace the prestige of the Talismancer!”
The Talisman Ancestor’s voice was still cold.
His body slowly dissipated in the talismanic light.
Finally, only his voice remained, echoing in the abyss:
“Remember this feeling of carving a life-bound Talisman…”
“I look forward to our next meeting…”