Wang Hao left together with Chu He and Chen Qing. When it was time to part ways, Wang Hao remembered the matter of the Soul Nurturing Grass.

He quickly stopped Chen Qing. “Fairy Chen, please wait! I have an impertinent request. I hope Fairy can fulfill it!”

“Brother Wang, please speak freely. If I can do it, naturally I will help.”

Wang Hao cupped his hands and pleaded, “I come from a small family. Although I am an alchemist, I haven’t been exposed to too many spiritual herbs. So, could Fairy please allow me to take a look at the Soul Nurturing Flower?”

“I wondered what matter made Brother Wang so solemn,” Chen Qing laughed lightly and handed the jade box to Wang Hao. “Brother Wang may look as much as he wishes!”

Wang Hao repeatedly thanked her, then opened the jade box. As soon as he smelled the Soul Nurturing Flower’s aura, he felt his mind become clear and serene, his thinking faster—indeed, having an effect that nourished the soul. He took a deep breath, then closed the box again. However, while closing it, he seized the opportunity to lightly touch the Soul Nurturing Flower with his finger, obtaining the seeds.

“Brother Wang won’t look longer?”

“I am already fully satisfied! I shall take my leave now!”

Watching Wang Hao’s retreating figure, Chu He couldn’t help saying, “This Brother Wang seems quite obsessed with spiritual herbs, but there was no greed in his eyes, showing he is open and upright!”

Chen Qing also said, “Brother Wang is an alchemist; it’s inevitable he’d be curious upon seeing rare spiritual herbs, but it is limited only to curiosity. Being able to guard his heart like this means he will surely become someone remarkable in the future!”

“It’s a pity he’s only from a small family and limited in exposure; otherwise, his achievements would certainly be higher!”

Chen Qing nodded. “Mm, Junior Sister also wants to try the Soul Nurturing Flower’s effects. Next time we’ll chat freely. Senior Brother, farewell!”

…

Returning to his shop residence, Wang Hao took out the Illusion Moon Butterfly eggs and observed them carefully. He hadn’t come into contact with these things before. They had insufficient vitality plus a different color from normal eggs, but since Sun Zhixuan was willing to buy them, they certainly had value.

Wang Hao guessed the color change wasn’t due to the passage of time but rather that they were like this from the start. Then, the cause was none other than one—mutation!

Mutant spirit insects didn’t necessarily mean a mutation towards a good direction. Just like selective breeding in the later era, there were good ones and naturally bad ones. The work was none other than selecting the good ones from among them.

These five eggs all had colorful stripes and were almost identical, indicating very likely their parent had already mutated. That saved Wang Hao the later stage screening!

How to replenish the vitality of insect eggs? This Wang Hao knew a little superficial knowledge about. Placing them in an area rich in spiritual energy was only one method; also using spiritual water to nourish them or preparing spiritual liquid… in short, using items containing spiritual energy to replenish their vitality.

Wang Hao didn’t have a formula for spiritual liquid related to insects. However, he had Beast Nurturing Pills. This stuff was greatly nourishing for spirit beasts and insects. Wang Hao only needed to use the Beast Nurturing Pill formula to refine a spiritual liquid, then soak the eggs. It should have an effect. Even if it failed, the loss was nothing more than a matter of one half-bottle of Yellow Dragon Pills.

So, he set about refining. Extracting only the medicinal essence didn’t need much time. Moments later, Wang Hao had refined the spiritual liquid. He soaked the insect eggs inside. To avoid a complete wipeout, he took out one and placed it on a pile of Spirit Stones. Comparing the two after a few days would allow him to observe the difference between them!

He placed the insect eggs aside, no longer concerned about them, and took out the exchanged talisman brush, preparing to draw talismans. Gathering those people’s experiential talks gave Wang Hao great inspiration, so he prepared to strike while the iron was hot and improve his own talisman-making skill!

Wang Hao began to concentrate his mind and calm his Qi. Before drawing talismans, there were many rituals. Initially, he thought they were useless, like shamanistic praying or playing ‘Good Luck Comes’ before a lottery draw back on Earth—besides psychological comfort, what else did they do? But those talisman masters said these rituals were indispensable—something about “the unseen has its own fortune,” mysterious and profound, etc. This made Wang Hao believe somewhat. Since others were all like this, why must he be deliberately unconventional?

Since he had long since understood the basic principles, after meticulously completing these complicated rituals, he prepared to draw talismans.

Not gonna lie, it was really somewhat useful. At this moment, he felt his heart completely serene, without the slightest ripple. Initially, the negative emotions from fear of failure all vanished.

“Then, let’s do it directly!”

Wang Hao took a deep breath, spread out the talisman paper, opened a bottle of spirit ink, and dipped the talisman brush.

He carefully controlled his spiritual power through the brush tip, evenly and smoothly transmitting it onto the paper. He was now drawing the Small Fireball Talisman, almost the simplest Tier 1 Mid-Grade talisman, comprising only six runes.

He had long since practiced the related runes thousands of times; he could draw them blindfolded.

Accompanied by muscle memory, runes appeared one by one on the paper. The paper also had slight fluctuations because it contained more spiritual power.

Seeing the last rune about to be finished, his heart felt joy. Because of this sliver of mental state change, the paper suddenly trembled.

“Bad!” he secretly exclaimed. With no time for regret, he hurriedly threw the paper out.

Puff! A ball of flame rose, and moments later, the paper became ashes.

“Seems drawing is most taboo about mental fluctuations. Those rituals are used to let masters calm their hearts,” he murmured, as if he discovered the trick.

So he redid the rituals again and attempted the Small Fireball Talisman. This time, strictly guarding his heart, it was smooth all the way, and he drew the last rune onto the paper.

“Hah, succeeded. So I previously took a detour, ah,” he sighed. “Cultivation indeed cannot simply be explained by science. Those rituals, which seemed useless in my view, are actually the key to success.”

Actually, they were not the key point. Many reasons contributed to his succeeding the second time—not just the ritual, but also his past accumulation of practicing thousands of times. If he now went to draw an unfamiliar Tier 1 Mid-Grade spirit talisman, he would certainly fail!

Again, he calmed his heart and Qi. He drew over a dozen Small Fireball Talismans in a row, and the success rate reached fifty percent. Since he was now a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator, drawing these low-level talismans didn’t waste too much spiritual power nor make him feel tired.

After the last sheet of paper was used up, he said with a joyful, excited tone, “Henceforth, I have no need to go out and buy Tier 1 Mid-Grade spirit talismans. I can save lots of Spirit Stones!”

Overjoyed, he stayed in his room drawing talismans for several days in a row. Initially, he only drew Fireball Talismans. Later, he began attempting Earthen Wall Talismans, Water Arrow Talismans, Sword Qi Talismans, etc. As the number of attempts increased, his talisman-making success rate also rose significantly, all stabilizing above fifty percent.