Chapter 7: Ruthlessness

"Huh? You've been out for so long, how did you end up like this?"

Just as he stepped out of his room, Chen Lin saw the sallow-faced female cultivator walking in from outside the courtyard.

She was stumbling, her hair was as messy as a bird's nest, and her clothes were in complete disarray, as if she had just been rolling around on the ground.

She also carried an inexplicable odor on her.

The usually sharp-tongued sallow-faced female cultivator, for once, remained uncharacteristically silent. She didn't even dare to look at Chen Lin; with her head bowed, she gripped a rice sack tightly with both hands and hurried back to her own room.

Chen Lin glanced at her retreating back, thoughtful, then shook his head and ignored it.

This place was even more chaotic than the troubled times outside. Everyone had their own way of surviving, and there was no need to judge.

Carrying his pack, he walked out of the courtyard, followed the narrow path that had already been cleared for a distance, and turned into an alley. After checking that no one was passing by, he quickly dug a hole in a massive snowdrift naturally piled up by the wind and crawled inside.

After a long while, a bulky, dark-faced man wearing a fur-lined hat emerged from the snow hole.

The dark-faced man first checked his surroundings, and after confirming no one was there, he shook the snow off his body with satisfaction and walked out of the alley.

Lianyun Inn.

When Chen Lin—that is, the dark-faced man—arrived at the entrance of the inn, the sky had already turned completely dark.

"Stop. This place has been booked for the day. If you're looking for lodging, please go elsewhere!"

Just as he was about to walk in, he was blocked by someone.

"Oh, I am a talisman master. I heard that Young Master Lu San is offering a reward for talisman crafting here, so I came to try my hand."

Chen Lin's voice had also changed, becoming somewhat hoarse.

Both the disguise mask on his face and the voice-changing pill were items he had crafted relying on his "Ten-Times Guaranteed Success" ability; they were test subjects for his innate talent.

"So it is a talisman master. Please, follow me!"

Upon hearing that he was a talisman master, one of the two guards immediately smiled and ushered Chen Lin inside.

Chen Lin was slightly surprised.

He had expected to go through some trouble and had been thinking about what to say if they verified his identity, but he hadn't expected them to ask nothing at all.

He didn't know if this Lu Li was truly that desperate for the Soul-Detaining Talisman, or if he simply felt that within Kaiyuan City, no one would dare to act against a disciple of the Lu family.

Regardless, it saved him some breath.

Following the attendant into the inn's lobby, he found over a dozen people already present, either sitting or standing.

In the center of the lobby, Lu Li sat on a chair, his expression unreadable.

His junior sister sat behind him.

After Chen Lin was led into the lobby, the attendant retreated. Seeing that no one was speaking, he found a corner and sat down silently.

Following that, a few more people were led in.

Then, no one else came.

After waiting a while longer, Lu Li raised an eyebrow and stood up from his chair.

"My thanks to all the talisman masters for coming!"

He first cupped his hands in a salute, then looked around the room and said, "I presume everyone here knows what needs to be done. My time is tight, so I won't beat around the bush. Here is the crafting method for the Soul-Detaining Talisman. Everyone, please take a look first!"

With that, he produced a jade slip—the very same one he had obtained from the old shopkeeper at the Duobao Pavilion.

Chen Lin noticed that as soon as Lu Li finished speaking, the eyes of everyone in the room lit up.

Regardless of whether they could secure the reward of spirit stones, being able to obtain the crafting method for a niche talisman made the trip worthwhile.

He estimated that a large portion of these people had come specifically to "freeload" this crafting method.

"I'll go first. I want to see what is so mysterious about this Soul-Detaining Talisman that it required Young Master Lu San to hold a talisman-crafting assembly!"

A red-faced man stepped forward first, sneering sideways as he took the jade slip into his hand.

The information inside the jade slip required spiritual sense to view. After he pressed the slip to his forehead, his expression began to shift constantly.

Soon, the man pulled the jade slip away with a livid face. He seemed to want to say something, but after glancing at Lu Li, he didn't speak and instead handed the slip to the second person.

The second person took it suspiciously, and like the red-faced man, his face turned pale after observing it.

Next, the jade slip was passed around to everyone in the room, and everyone's expression was unpleasant after reading it.

Finally, it was Chen Lin's turn.

He pressed the jade slip to his forehead and probed it with his spiritual sense.

Images appeared in his mind.

This feeling was very strange, something ordinary people could never understand.

Soon, he finished reading the crafting method for the Soul-Detaining Talisman.

According to the contents of the jade slip, the requirements for cultivation were not high, and the crafting technique was not complex.

However, there was one drawback.

The stability of this type of talisman was extremely poor; under normal crafting conditions, there was almost no possibility of success.

To increase the stability of the talisman, the crafter needed to use their own soul as a primer, fusing it into the talisman.

The more that was fused, the higher the success rate.

Even so, the final success rate was quite low, and even after completion, the stability remained poor, lasting at most for one day and one night.

In addition to the drawing method, the jade slip also contained a secret technique for splitting one's soul.

This secret technique was extremely crude and simple, and using it caused great harm to oneself.

Chen Lin returned the jade slip to Lu Li, his expression also looking quite unpleasant.

Of course, he was faking it.

With his "Ten-Times Guaranteed Success" ability, he only needed to follow the normal crafting method to successfully craft the Soul-Detaining Talisman without needing to use the evil technique of using a soul primer.

At the same time, he sighed in his heart.

The drawbacks of this talisman were too great, and the effect only lasted for a day; otherwise, it would have been a great item for him to use his innate ability to make money.

Furthermore, this talisman was too niche—it was neither an attack nor a defense type, but rather used for storing souls.

Something used to store souls that only lasted for a day—he really didn't know what it could be used for.

Even if he crafted it, he wouldn't know who to sell it to.

"Alright, everyone now understands the crafting method for the Soul-Detaining Talisman. It is not complex to craft, though the success rate is a bit low. However, I have prepared sufficient raw materials and the rooms are ready. Everyone, prepare yourselves and let's begin!"

Lu Li took a large pile of materials from his storage bag and spoke loudly.

However, no one moved.

After a long silence, the red-faced man was the first to break it. "Fellow Daoist Lu, crafting this Soul-Detaining Talisman causes too much damage to the soul. You didn't make that clear before. Forgive me, but I am unable to help!"

Immediately, a withered old man also sneered sideways, "Indeed. Although the reward offered by Fellow Daoist Lu is extremely generous, the soul is the foundation of cultivation. Once damaged, one loses all chance at the Great Dao. A mere few spirit stones are not enough to make this old man do such a thing!"

"Pfft!"

As soon as the old man finished speaking, the junior sister who had been sitting silently, Lan Yuqing, let out a snort of laughter.

She also sneered sideways, "This fellow Daoist must be sixty or seventy years old, yet at such an age, your cultivation is only at the third level of Qi Refining, and you are still obsessively pursuing the immortal path. It truly makes this young woman admire you!"

Her voice was like silver bells, but every word was a stab to the heart.

The old man's face flushed red, but he stiffened his neck and said, "Even if the path is dim, soul damage has a great impact on our talisman crafting. This old man will not craft such a talisman. Farewell!"

With that, he walked toward the door with a livid face.

"Hmph!"

Lu Li's expression turned cold.

"Do you think this is some place where you can come and go as you please?"

As he finished speaking, a black light shot out from his hand, piercing through the old man's chest with a 'pfft' sound, before flying back like lightning.

The entire process ended in the blink of an eye, and the old man collapsed and died without even a reaction.

"Hiss!"

Everyone gasped, looking at Lu Li with eyes filled with shock, fear, and anger.

But not a single person dared to step forward.

Even the two people who had shown signs of the "sneering sideways" sickness held back and said nothing.