Tianyi, Daoyi, and Xi Ri sat facing each other. Their expression was incomparably serious.
“We have a serious problem at hand,” Tianyi said as the head of the trio. Daoyi and Xi Ri nodded in agreement.
It was a problem that would affect the proliferation of their creation to the broader realm. It was so crucial that if done incorrectly, no cultivator would use their creation.
“What are we going to name this… thing?” Tianyi finally posed the main issue at hand.
Both Daoyi and Xi Ri crossed their arms as they sunk deep into thought. Daoyi suddenly raised her hand and said. “Formation Tablet!”
“Rejected, sounds like a tool used to set up formations.” Tianyi immediately rejected the suggestion.
Daoyi lowered her hand and pouted, but she continued to think. In front of them, jade slates cut into rectangles of the exact same size, large enough to fit comfortably in a palm. Each one was half-finished with incomplete formations engraved on them.
“Sending Slates.” Xi Ri said, after a while.
“Better, but it still doesn’t quite sound right,” Tianyi said. “Most messages are sent through slips, but calling our creation a slip is a bit… yeah, no.”
“We need a term that appropriately identifies what kind of artifact it is first. ” Xi Ri said.
“What can it be classified as… ” Tianyi tapped the table as he began to think.
Daoyi suddenly raised her hand once more. “All-in-One Talisman! It’s perfect. It embodies everything about the All-in-One Talisman; it can send messages, connect two people with voice transmission, send videos, and even play music.”
“Talisman does indeed sound good. But All-in-One? I don’t think most cultivators would agree.” Tianyi said.
“Wireless Talisman?” Xi Ri suggested, both Tianyi and Daoyi gave Xi Ri strange looks.
“Brother Ri, aren’t all talisman wireless? Why would a talisman need a wire in the first place?” Daoyi said, her tone gentle.
Xi Ri awkwardly coughed into his fist. “It was just a thought, no need to dwell too much on it.”
“We need something like a brand, something that would automatically link the talisman with quality. Something like the Three Pure One or the Eight Immortals.” Daoyi said.
“We don’t need something immediately to be linked to quality.” Xi Ri said. “But we must have something that shows our uniqueness and eventually become famous. I don’t think any of us here have the capability to monopolize our creation, but we must leave a brand imprinted into the users’ minds.” Xi Ri analyzed, his tone peaceful and calm.
Tianyi grimaced, although he was skilled in formations, that didn’t mean that there was no one else who was better than. Just in the Buzhou Immortal Sect, many cultivators were more skilled in him, much less the whole Huang Realm.
“Xi and Yi Talisman, Xiyi Talisman…” Daoyi’s words were soft, but towards the end, they became incredibly loud and clear. Tianyi and Xi Ri both looked at Daoyi before sharing a glance and smile.
“Then it’s decided!” Tianyi said and then held his chin as he mouthed the words on the tongue; it flowed incredibly well and was catchy. The more he said it, the more pleased he became.
“Xi as in happiness and Yi as in will, just hearing the name will give the notion that it is a good thing to use.” Xi Ri analyzed.
“I think senior brother is especially pleased with the name because it contained two characters from his name. It’s a pity that brother Ri and I each can only contribute a single character.” Daoyi teased.
“What, no? This is just a coincidence!” Tianyi denied, a little too quickly.
“Haha, for bringing the three of us together, senior brother does indeed deserve to have two characters in the name.” Xi Ri said, but he couldn’t stop his lips from curling upward.
After a few more teasing words, Tianyi’s face became serious again. “Back to the previous matter, although I am confident in my formation skills. I cannot guarantee that another person won’t copy our design.”
“I don’t understand formations as you two, but can’t you write the formation in a code?” Daoyi asked.
Tianyi and Xi Ri looked at each other before chuckling. “Strictly speaking, most formations are already in a type of code. There have been greater formation masters than us whose formations have been decoded. Just go to the Immortal Scripture Repository, and you will find many.”
The trio engaged in a heated discussion of the Xiyi Talisman’s security before Xi Ri said. “We should focus on creating a prototype first before daydreaming about the extravagant features we are going install into it.”
Tianyi stopped and awkwardly scratched his chin. “Sorry, I tend to get ahead of myself. I don’t try to run before learning to walk; I try to fly before even knowing how to walk, haha…” He recalled his Sole Yin, Eight Trigrams Yang Core Revolution Formation, and the lesson it taught him, yet he still hadn’t learned.
As they say, bad habits are the hardest to change.
With the group having solved their current dilemma, they immediately began to dive deep into the experimentation. Xi Ri was the busiest with his duties as a disciple of the Assignment Hall, while Tianyi and Daoyi were both people with more significant free time.
But Daoyi wasn’t skilled in formations and could only give novel ideas from a laymen’s perspective, not to say they were all useless. The problem was Tianyi. Without any pressure for a deadline or, more importantly, a threat to his life, his interest in the project quickly waned whenever he hit a roadblock. That’s why without Xi Ri, there practically no progress at all.
The project had been going for a few months, but it still wasn’t near completion. Tianyi toyed with the Xiyi Talisman in his hand, whether by coincidence or on purpose, it had reached a smartphone’s size. He didn’t know if his memories had unconsciously affected him, but the result was this familiar sensation shape in his hand. Neither Xi Ri nor Daoyi was beside him today, as both had their own business to attend.
There were numerous other Xiyi Talismans on the table beside him. Growing bored with the single one in his hand, Tianyi began to fiddle with them. Eventually, he stacked them all atop of each other like a deck of playing cards.
Having a mysterious urge, Tianyi drew the top talisman from the deck in a needlessly dramatic fashion. “My turn! Draw!”
Tianyi felt his face heat up at the childish action he just performed. He quickly checked his surroundings to see if anyone was there to witness his shameful act. Releasing a sigh of relief, Tianyi stared at the Xiyi Talisman in his hand as an idea began to form in his mind.
Soon ten jade rectangles were on the table, each one the same size as a Xiyi Talisman. The materials used to make them were the same as a Xiyi Jade Talisman, Lingering Dew Jade. But the material wasn’t the critical point; it was the formations Tianyi engraved upon them. Although Tianyi wanted to use paper as a base material, it was simply cheaper to use Linger Dew Jade to engrave formations than parchment that could withstand the formation engraved upon it.
Although Tianyi hasn’t realized it, a few days had already passed without his notice. When he wasn’t interested in something, progress would be incredibly slow, but when Tianyi was interested and invested, he would lose track of time.
Tianyi stacked them up all in a deck and moved a distance away. Ensuring that there was no obstacle in his immediate vicinity, Tianyi controlled the jade cards to circle him in a linear formation.
Suddenly Tianyi swiped a card from the circling group and revealed the engraving on it to an invisible opponent in front of him. “Activate attack card!”
The engraving on the jade card glowed and revealed the image of a flame. Simultaneously, the image seemed to have sprung to life as it materialized from the jade card, and a fireball shot forward. The jade card grew dim as the spiritual qi within it was depleted, and it floated back with other circling jade cards.
Then Tianyi pulled another card and said. “Activate defense card!” The image on the jade card currently in his hand was a shield, and after Tianyi spoke, a translucent shield appeared in front of Tianyi.
Tianyi didn’t end his experiment there as he tested out the other cards. There was a disembodied hand that punched forward, a leg that kicked ahead, a saber that sliced steel in half, spears that seemed to pierce through any walls, a massive hand that grasped whatever was in front of him, and even a giant that enveloped Tianyi.
All those skills that popped up from the jade cards were techniques that Tianyi frequently used before, but the only difference was that they did not contain the true qi of chaos that powered Tianyi’s attack, causing them to be several times weaker. But they were still all outstanding attacks in the Foundation Establishment and even the Core Formation realm. All these attacks were duplicated using formations, even if Tianyi didn’t need to know the principles behind the skills, he could still use them. “I shall name them Formation Cards.”
“Pft!”
Tianyi felt his body become petrify as he heard smothered laughter. He turned his head like it was on rachet to see Jiang Daoyi standing at the entrance. Her eyes were incredibly bright and filled with mirth. If medusa were to exist in the Huang Realm, then Jiang Daoyi would undoubtedly be medusa in Tianyi’s eyes. Her vibrant eyes seemed to petrify the very blood flowing through Tianyi’s veins.
“I-I-can e-explain!”
The next day Xi Ri was the met with the scene of Tianyi perpetually covering his face with his hands, while Daoyi hid the lower half of her face with her sleeves. Her shoulders continuously shaking, tipped Xi Ri off on her laughter.
“Did I miss something?” Xi Ri asked, confused.
“Nothing, senior brother just thought of a brilliant idea for the Xiyi Talismans,” Daoyi said.
“What sort of idea?” Xi Ri asked, seeing that Tianyi did not object; it was something plausible.
Daoyi didn’t say anything and passed the Formation Cards Tianyi had created to Xi Ri. Xi Ri picked them up and observed them, with his mastery of formation, he could discern that they didn’t have the same formations as the Xiyi Talismans. Xi Ri sent a questioning look at Daoyi and Tianyi.
Daoyi instructed to make the card face an empty space before uttering the activation phrase.
“Formation Card activate!” Xi Ri nearly dropped the Formation Card in shock at the sudden attack. After seeing the card dimmed, Xi Ri tried activating it again, but nothing happened.
“You need to replenish the qi inside of it,” Tianyi said from behind his hands.
Having come to an understanding, Xi Ri injected spiritual qi inside of it and activated it once more. “This is good! It’s not like normal talismans, although the power seems lacking, it more than makes up for it for being reusable. Only I don’t understand what this has to do with the Xiyi Talisman.”
“It’s made from the same material as the Xiyi Talisman. Whatever is engraved onto the Formation Card can also be engraved onto the Xiyi Talisman. Senior brother said the Xiyi Talisman can store a number of the Formation Card engravings, making it act like a versatile and reusable talisman. All you have to do is simply erase the old formations and download a new formation.” Daoyi explained.
Xi Ri’s eyes lit up. With this, as long as they kept producing Formation Cards only compatible with Xiyi Talismans, the people who used Xiyi Talisman will be returning customers and keep using it. Xi Ri gave a look of admiration to Tianyi for innovating such an idea, but Tianyi kept his face behind his hands.
“We have a guest,” Tianyi said. Tianyi was in control of the formations controlling Jade Peak Palace, so whatever happened inside Jade Peak Palace, it was simple as flipping through a book for Tianyi. Including whenever there was a guest outside the door.
“Greetings.” The guest was none other than Xia Yushan. He was slightly surprised by the presence of Xi Ri, who he had not seen before. Tianyi introduced the two, and then Xia Yushan looked at the jade talismans on the table in interest. “What are these.”
Xi Ri, as the principal director of the project, explained the concept behind the talisman.
Xia Yushan was inwardly dubious of the Xiyi Talisman. He was more interested in the Formation Cards created recently by Tianyi. “Junior brother Xi…Tianyi,” Xia Yushan added after realizing there was another person surnamed Xi in the vicinity. “How did you make these? Replicating the effects of techniques based on formations, you must have spent quite a bit of time on each one.”
“Not really,” Tianyi mumbled. “They were actually quite easy.”
Xia Yushan gave an impressed expression towards Tianyi. Tianyi wasn’t the first one to think of it, but the ease of Tianyi creating them was another matter. Most of the time, it wasn’t worth replicating the technique through pure formation alone. This was often why talismans were single-use items.
“Senior brother Xia seems interested in the Formation Cards?” Daoyi asked.
Xia Yushan nodded. “Using just these cards and some qi to attack, I admit I have never done such a thing before.”
Daoyi peaked at Tianyi, “Why don’t you and Senior brother Xi fight using the Formations Cards; we can see if there are any defects this way.”
Tianyi glared at Daoyi through his hands. Before Xia Yushan could say anything, Tianyi spoke. “It would be unfair. I am the creators of these Formations Cards, so I have an inherent advantage. Why don’t senior brother Xia and older cousin Ri spar with them? I’ll adjust the power so that they can only at most have the power of a Foundation Establishment realm cultivator who hasn’t formed their Spiritual Pillars yet.”
Xi Ri and Xia Yushan looked at one another before they both agreed. It didn’t make any difference to them. Despite having her plans foiled, Daoyi, was still happy to two people fight with the Formation Cards.