Eternal Swordmaster

Hisss.

The black cloth burned again.

Continuing, Lin Xin swept away the black ash, his face devoid of any expression.

The third piece lasted until the third stroke, the entire R had been written out, missing just the three dots on top. But he failed at the first dot.

The fourth piece... failure.

The fifth piece, failure.

The sixth piece.....the seventh piece....the eighth piece....the tenth piece....the twentieth piece.....the thirtieth piece...

Until the first basin of materials was completely used up, Lin Xin continued to fail. This Formation was one that many ordinary Inner Strength experts could possibly complete; it only required the final injection of Inner Qi and was the simplest of Formations.

But Lin Xin had not expected the difficulty to be so great.

In the afternoon, he cooked a meal with the rice he had bought and boiled a pot of cabbage with rabbit meat, simply seasoning it with some salt and oil. Surprisingly, it tasted quite good.

After eating, he continued with the second basin of materials.

Until nightfall, the soot in the corner trashcan had piled up halfway, yet Lin Xin's best achievement was only completing the first dot on top of the R.

And that was a fluke.

After depleting the second basin of materials, then the third, and the fourth....

Late into the night, icy rain began to fall outside, and Xiao Lingling and Wang Chong returned not long after it started raining.

Lin Xin looked up through the crack of the window and saw Wang Chong closing the door just as he was looking.

Hisss!

Suddenly, his brush paused slightly in his hand. Some sound seemed to emit from the black cloth.

Lowering his head to look, Lin Xin was immediately startled to see that the red symbols on the black cloth had been completed by chance without him realizing.

It had happened just now when he heard the two people returning outside, his hand had unconsciously continued writing, and by sheer coincidence, he had completed it!

Heats of warmth flowed without wind, gently fluttering the edges of the black cloth and creating a faint sound.

A strange thing occurred: the blood-red symbols in the middle of the black cloth rapidly changed to a light yellow color, and the ink on top dried quickly. The whole talisman seemed to become much smoother all at once.

"Success!!" Lin Xin was overjoyed, knowing that he had succeeded with the first talisman.

Without a moment's delay, he closed his eyes and looked at his attributes panel, where a new icon resembling a hexagonal Formation had appeared next to his skills.

He tapped into it with his mind.

'Formation Path — Mini Solar Yang Formation: Talisman Crafting.'

A new skill appeared in his view at the bottom of the screen.

"Just as I thought!!" Lin Xin was ecstatic. He had been anxious, afraid it wouldn't form a skill since it was just a step within a basic Formation. Now it seemed his worries were superfluous.

"Once more!"

Thrilled, he took out another piece of black cloth, spread it out, and held the brush. This time he didn't move it himself but hovered it above the black cloth while he lightly tapped on the Talisman Crafting skill in his mind.

As expected, an uncontrollable force took over Lin Xin, guiding his hand to slowly start moving. He relaxed as much as possible, allowing his hand to move on its own, while he wholeheartedly felt the essence of the process, combining it with the explanations and principles from the detailed Formation texts, seeking to understand and find the key to success.

Hisss.

Another talisman was successful, the blood lettering turning directly yellow.

"Impressive!"

Lin Xin took out another new piece of black cloth.

With no surprise, the new talisman was also a success, and so it went on, he successfully crafted five, laying them together.

He himself kept sensing the crafting process, and it seemed he was beginning to understand some of the mysteries within.

"The key to this talisman lies in this symbol. It is drawn using my own blood mixed with chicken blood, this is the core. The black cloth is only to enhance the success rate and carry Inner Qi, after all, ordinary cloth isn't metal and can't bear the transmission of Inner Qi."

Lin Xin thought.

"So, does this symbol drawing have any limitations on power? If, as the detailed Formation texts say, the symbols could be miniaturized, they could be applied in many areas."

No sooner did he think it than he tried. He fetched a new piece of black cloth, dipped the brush in ink, and began to write slowly. This time he didn't use the skill, but wrote by himself. Having experienced so many successes, he had a profound grasp of the finer details, needing only to mind stability.

Soon, an imperfect character appeared beneath his brush.

Hisss!

A warm current suddenly appeared on the black cloth, and the small nail-sized red character swiftly turned yellow.

"It really works!" Lin Xin's eyes flickered slightly.

He picked up the Formation Flag and slowly infused it with his Inner Qi. Instantly, the warm current on the flag strengthened rapidly, and the temperature also gradually increased as more Inner Qi was infused.

At the beginning it was only about forty degrees, and then it gradually increased to forty-five, fifty... sixty... Lin Xin felt it becoming increasingly hot to hold.

It was not until the Formation Flag reached around seventy degrees that Lin Xin paused. Strangely, the black cloth did not feel hot at all, but the temperature could not be raised further. Clearly, this was the maximum temperature of the mini Solar Yang Formation.

"It can actually reach such a high temperature. So what if I draw multiple such symbols on a single Formation Flag?" Lin Xin had a sudden thought and immediately acted on it.

Spreading out a piece of black cloth, this time he used Skill to ensure a hundred percent success rate and tried to control the size of the writing with his consciousness as much as possible.

When using Skill, one's thoughts could control the direction of the Skill, as well as simple attributes like writing size. This was a subtle aspect he had discovered through trial and error.

Soon, the first symbol appeared on the black cloth, only the size of a soybean. As soon as it was written, it rapidly turned yellow.

Then the second one was completed smoothly, then the third, the fourth, the fifth.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, the Formation Flag burst into flames all on its own, with the yellow flames immediately igniting the desk. Lin Xin hurriedly scooped a large ladle of water and poured it over the fire.

Amidst the hissing sounds of water meeting fire, a large amount of steam and smoke spread out. Lin Xin, coughing, quickly exited the stone house and waited for the white smoke inside to dissipate.

Fortunately, it was the middle of the night with hardly anyone outside, with freezing rain still pouring down incessantly. He didn't mind getting rained on since he had been in the heat flow from drawing the mini Solar Yang Formation the whole time. It was good to cool down a bit outside.

Watching the white smoke fill the room, Lin Xin coughed a few times. He glanced at his body; his clothes were stained with red and black ink marks and smudges everywhere. Probably his face was a mess too, and his hair had some singed parts, emitting a faint burnt smell.

"It looks like the Formation Flag couldn't withstand it... It seems that in the mini Solar Yang Formation, the size of the symbols doesn't have much effect on the outcome," Lin Xin pondered. "So the symbols can be miniaturized, and when accumulated they can be so powerful. I haven't even infused Inner Qi and it can generate such high temperatures. What if I draw it on a weapon..." Suddenly, he remembered the content from the detailed analysis of Spiritual Artifacts he had read; the author mentioned this point, that miniaturizing and super miniaturizing symbols, when drawn, were key to refining Spiritual Artifacts.

But the difficulty with super miniaturized runes lies in the instability that is hard to grasp. The smaller the symbol, the harder it is to write, because with each reduction in size, the requirements for precision increases exponentially. Moreover, a large number of them need to be drawn and accumulated on one item, which demands too much from an Array Master both in terms of skill and mental exertion.

"I guess I'm the only one willing to draw a large number of low-level runes. The book says that drawing runes is mentally draining. Even the basic runes with fewer strokes are almost as exhausting as high-level runes. For the same power, instead of writing a large number of low-level runes, it would be more economical to write a few high-level ones."

After recalling the content of the detailed analysis of Spiritual Artifacts, Lin Xin saw that the white smoke had mostly cleared and re-entered the stone house, closing the door behind him.

Upon entering, Lin Xin glanced unintentionally at the Longsword hanging on the wall, and a thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

"What if, what if I could draw a large number of mini Solar Yang Formations on my Longsword? The metal's endurance is definitely much stronger! Could this greatly enhance the power of the sword??"

The moment this idea struck him, he couldn't suppress it any longer.

If the Longsword became the sort that burst into flames as soon as Inner Qi was infused, its power would definitely be commendable. Perhaps stacking two or three might not be remarkable, but ten, twenty, thirty, fifty symbols or even more, all piled up together...

"The combined power of several dozen mini Solar Yang Formations, absolutely, definitely could produce a substantial qualitative change!"

Lin Xin's heart gradually warmed with enthusiasm.

The more miniaturized the symbol, the more difficult it is, and the greater the mental effort required. But he has Skill, which doesn't require any mental effort at all; he could just let Skill perfectly control his muscles to draw the runes.

"Let's try it out first!"

Lin Xin took down the Longsword and placed it on a scorched, damp desk.

"The black cloth was only there to carry Inner Strength and enhance the material. The Longsword's melting point is far higher than the cloth's, so there's no worry about inadequate melting points. But why has no one used metal as a Formation Flag... Never mind, just try it and see."

Lin Xin picked up the brush, dipped it in cinnabar ink, and without using Skill, he began writing slowly on the blade of the Longsword.

After many successful attempts, he was deeply aware of some of the key tricks involved.

The writing went smoothly at the start, a warm current gradually rising up, but as he got further into it, Lin Xin vaguely felt as if a stronger and stronger distorting force was interfering with his stability.

Hisss...

After a sound like air leaking, the warm current around the symbol completely disappeared—the symbol had failed.

Lin Xin tried again, unwilling to give up.

It was still the same; writing on metal proved much more difficult than on black cloth, and the resistance increased the further he wrote.

"Interesting."

After some thought and feeling increasingly drained, Lin Xin lay down for a rest. After about an hour and a bit, his spirit somewhat restored, he got up and continued.

This time, erasing the symbols from the blade, he started writing with Skill.

The brush steadily began to inscribe on the Longsword.

Very soon, the first symbol was perfectly successful. A warm current slowly enveloped the Longsword and then dissipated.

"The second one!" Lin Xin tried his best to control his writing to be smaller, and continued to write slowly on the blade.

The second one was also successfully completed, then the third, the fourth...