Chapter 62, Golden Warrior Talisman

Translator: StarReader

 

Su Chen now had his first set of spiritual materials to craft a talisman, and he eagerly wanted to try making one. However, crafting a talisman couldn’t be done within the Medicine King Estate or within Gusu County City. Any disturbance would attract other errand disciples or unwanted attention.

 

Su Chen ventured deep into the Vaulting Mountains, miles away from Gusu County City, to a secluded and quiet place. He built a simple bamboo shelter to conduct his experiments.

 

He held the immortal book in his hands, carefully studying the jade slip of the Golden Warrior Talisman within it, reviewing the process of crafting the talisman in detail until he had memorized it.

 

Once activated, this talisman could turn even a defenseless junior sister or a weak child into a vajra warrior, boasting an ‘invulnerable body protected by golden armor, impervious to weapons, incredible strength, and power comparable to uprooting mountains!’

 

Whether in terms of defense or strength, there was a massive increase.

 

Su Chen was filled with anticipation.

 

Venturing into the martial world was always a high-risk endeavor. Your life hung by a thread; one careless mistake could cost you everything.

 

Just like when he had encountered the second-rate pirate chief Ding Shisan and been attacked with the hidden crossbow, or his confrontation with Daoist Qinghe at the Han Mountain Daoist Temple to retrieve this immortal book, or the ambush by the Daoist Qingshi in Lou County. Any one of those incidents could have led to his death from the slightest mistake.

 

If he had this talisman, in times of danger, all he’d need to do was stick the Golden Warrior Talisman onto his body, and it would give him an additional protective shield. And considering that three years passed since then, his Middle Dantian reached perfection at the first-rate realm, even venturing into the Upper Dantian realm—making him an early Grandmaster in his own right. [With a Golden Warrior Talisman as well, my strength would soar. The golden armor will make sure nothing can kill me.]

 

Even Daoist Han Shan’s five disciples—these peak first-rate experts—were no match for him. Even a sneak attack with blades wouldn’t pierce the shield, and it could still counterattack.

 

As long as the golden shield remained, he was unkillable, while he could kill them.

 

Within the Wu Region, martial affairs being as big as they were, apart from Daoist Han Shan and the other six Grandmasters, no one else could threaten his life. Perhaps even those Grandmasters couldn’t harm him either, since he was also a Grandmaster as well; they just had a dozen years more experience and deeper cultivation, but no essential differences.

 

[With this talisman in hand, that gap was closed.] Su Chen thought to himself as he placed an entire set of metal materials—a Golden Fox Brush, gold leaf for spiritual paper, golden sand for spiritual ink, and golden rock for the spiritual inkstone—on the flat ground before him. Gripping the golden sand spiritual ink, he slowly ground out some golden ink in the spiritual inkstone.

 

The golden ink was very thick.

 

Under the sunlight, it shone with golden light, like a brilliant glitter in a small pool of water.

 

However, for those with strong perception, they would find the golden ink to contain a strong metal spiritual energy, and the sharp spiritual energy penetrated the spiritual inkstone.

 

Drawing a talisman was simple. Just follow the instructions of the Golden Warrior Talisman pattern in the jade slip and draw it exactly on the gold leaf spiritual paper. Of course, this ‘simple’ aspect was only for a Grandmaster. For ordinary first-rate experts, they couldn’t even see the talisman pattern in the jade slip, let alone draw it.

 

Moreover, drawing also requires a steady hand. One jerk, one tremble, and the resulting talisman would be different, either defective orruined.

 

Su Chen tried drawing talismans for the first time.

 

The golden aura of the tip of the Golden Fox Brush was too deep and sharp, like a blade with True Qi. It pierced the gold leaf and ruined the paper.

 

This made him tense.

 

Drawing a talisman was harder than he thought, even for a Grandmaster, with a high risk of failure. The number of gold leaf spiritual papers he collected was limited, only five in total. Once he ran out, he had to go out and find some more.

 

Su Chen took a deep breath to calm his nerves and make his wrist as steady as possible. On his second attempt, he hesitated slightly right at the end, though the talisman wasn’t destroyed—it just had a flaw. The spiritual energy inside was unstable.

 

According to the jade slip’s instructions, this should be considered a flawed piece, still usable but likely ineffective, with its protective aura weakened by at least fifty percent.

 

Fortunately, on his third try, with more experience under his belt, he succeeded in creating a perfect Golden Armor Warrior talisman. He used his extraordinary perception to inspect it and found that the metal spiritual energy within pulsed strongly, forming a suit of armor made from condensed metal spiritual energy, thick and sturdy.

 

Su Chen was pleasantly surprised. Using metal material to craft the talisman according to the diagram indeed boosted its power significantly. It was like clay, which on its own was soft and weak, easily moldable. But once shaped into bricks by a master potter and fired in a kiln, they became hard beyond belief, capable of building walls that would stand for centuries.

 

The mud and bricks were made from the same material. The only difference was that the clay had undergone an extremely rigorous transformation process, altering its internal structure. It was the same with the talisman. The spiritual material itself was fragile. But after being refined through a meticulous drawing, it became something entirely different—a true talisman, a huge leap in quality.

 

He carefully inspected his creation, noting how the metal spiritual energy swirled within the talisman, creating intricate patterns that shimmered faintly under the dim light of his workspace. The craftsmanship was flawless, feeling admiration for the complexity involved in creating such a powerful artifact.

 

The Golden Warrior Talisman was now complete!

 

Su Chen was eager to test this talisman’s power and see just how strong it really was. Without proper testing, Su Chen couldn’t risk using this talisman in battle; otherwise, he’d be at a disadvantage during combat. Its use was straightforward—he simply had to crush it.

 

Clutching the Golden Warrior Talisman in his hand, Su Chen muttered its name and crushed it. In an instant, the Golden Warrior Talisman erupted with blinding golden light, enveloping him completely and forming a protective barrier around his body. Unable to withstand the brilliance, Su Chen instinctively closed his eyes.

 

When he reopened his eyes, he was astonished to find himself encased in a thin layer of golden armor, like a protective cocoon from head to toe.

 

“This Golden Armor is incredible—it completely covers my body without even the tiniest gap!”

 

Su Chen clenched his fists tightly, feeling a surge of exhilaration as he raced through the dense forest. “My strength feels like it’s multiplied by several times over!”

 

His Middle Dantian inner strength was profound.

 

When he unleashed all his power in a punch, it could unleash four hundred kilograms of force. Of course, this required the strongest inner strength to achieve. If he relied solely on external strength without using True Qi, his punch would only be around half that at most. As for speed, Su Chen hadn’t cultivated any lightness skill, so his speed was average—about ten feet per sprint. However, if he channeled True Qi into his legs, his range doubled.

 

Without casting any lightness skill or True Qi, Su Chen relied solely on his physical strength. He moved like a blur, leaping two or three dozen feet in a single stride and covering tens of yards through the dense forest in just a breath.

 

He was amazed by the incredible force surging through his legs—his power had increased several times over—and when he broke into a sprint, he couldn’t stop himself.

 

…

 

Su Chen transformed into a blur of blue light, scaling peaks and crossing rivers with ease. When he encountered sheer cliffs, he didn’t detour; instead, he grabbed onto the rock face with one hand, hoisted himself up twenty meters in a single pull, and effortlessly ascended hundreds of feet—far surpassing what any lightness skill could achieve.

 

It wasn’t until half an hour later that he finally stopped. At that moment, Su Chen found himself in a most awkward predicament—he was trapped inside the golden talisman and couldn’t free himself. He had no idea how long this golden armor would last. There was no way he could return to Gusu city or the Medicine King Estate while still wearing this gaudy golden suit.

 

Focusing his thoughts, Su Chen decided to test the defensive capabilities of the golden armor by jumping off a sixty-meter-high cliff nearby. With a deep breath, he leaped downward.

 

“Bang!”

 

After several jumps, Su Chen was startled to find that even these relatively minor impacts from the falls had barely affected the golden shield at all. The armor showed no signs of weakening, but the force of the falls shook him considerably. Fortunately, his robust True Qi protected his internal organs; otherwise, he would have suffered serious internal injuries.

 

Trying everything in his power, Su Chen even used his herb knife to attack himself, yet it was still as if striking stone—the armor held firm. He then built a large bonfire and attempted to burn the armor with the intense flames, but only a small portion of the heat seeped through, barely damaging the golden shield at all.

 

Su Chen couldn’t decide whether he should feel relieved or utterly frustrated by this discovery.

 

By evening, Su Chen encountered an enormous boar weighing hundreds of kilograms—its massive bristles and size made it seem like a king of boars in these mountains.

 

This wild boar, when charging at full speed, generated a force equivalent to thousands of kilograms of force, with its sheer power surpassing the combined strength of multiple peak first-rate experts. Even massive boulders would disintegrate under the slightest touch of its tusks. Deep within the mountains, numerous large caves were dug by these wild boars and used as their habitats.

 

Sú Chen, upon seeing this wild boar king, was filled with joy. He charged straight at it, aiming to use its sharp tusks to breach its own Golden Warrior Talisman. However, the wild boar king was knocked back instead. After numerous collisions, the boar grew fearful and retreated into the depths of the forest, limping and snuffling, unable to face this golden creature again.

 

Su Chen, finding no success in breaking through the shield, resorted to other methods. It took an entire day of relentless effort and toil until he exhausted the spiritual energy of the Golden Warrior Talisman. Finally, he was free from its confines.

 

Sú Chen conducted extensive testing within the deep mountains, thoroughly impressed by the talisman’s formidable defense capabilities. It could withstand a prolonged assault from ten peak first-rate experts combined. He promptly used up his remaining two gold leaf sheets to craft additional Golden Warrior Talismans, keeping them close for safety.

 

Only then did he depart the dense forest and return to the Medicine King Estate. With his newly acquired talisman technique, his strength and confidence greatly increased, putting him in high spirits. Not even a Grandmaster from the Wu Region standing before him would faze him now.

 

Even if he couldn’t win, at least he could escape.

 

Su Chen dared to think, after collecting other spiritual materials in the future, he would also make the other seven different talismans recorded in the immortal book, and his power would be terrifying. There would be no one in the Wu Region martial circles to match him.