Awakened: The Spirit King!

As the brush milky white threads soaked in the vulture\'s blood, all of them became as black as charcoal.

Right after soaking them for seven seconds, he pulled the brush out of it. After giving it a few jerks to make the excess amount of ink drip out of it and drop into the pot, he brought it atop the paper made out of the body of a black trunk tree, which was an exotic material but not too costly.

Xie Yang\'s eyes narrowed, and the atmosphere around him turned serious. He knew that while drawing the magic rune, he couldn\'t make a single mistake. Otherwise, he would waste these precious resources, and he would need to start from scratch.

Leader Ye also knew that he shouldn\'t disturb him as it wasn\'t easy for a person to create magic runes. A person needs to be absolutely focused and stable to create one. The hardest part of making a talisman wasn\'t obtaining items and ingredients but making the rune. If a person draws even a single line out of place, he would fail and also waste the talisman paper.

Leader Ye had met many talisman masters as they were on his master\'s payroll. His master doesn\'t accept rank-5 talisman master into the family. As for rank-4 and rank-3 talisman masters, he wouldn\'t hesitate to accept them with open hands. Several such talisman masters were working for him.

He was paying the rank-4 talisman masters of the manor a ridiculous amount of money every month to keep them in the family. The best talisman master of the Xie Manor of Cloud city was rank-3, and said person earned three times his salary because he makes tons of profit for the family.

From that point, one can tell how profitable this profession was and how much the lords of the glorious sun kingdom cherished them. If his young master proves himself as one and acquires a talisman master license, his worth will undoubtedly increase, and the honor of the Cloud City Xie Manor will also increase.

Xie Yang took in a deep breath, imagined the shape of the seal-breaking magic rune in his mind, recalled the necessary number of strokes to create one, and then pressed the blood-soaked part of the brush on the black paper. He swung it around, elegantly drawing a fine, dark as the veil of the night, line on it.

He had only drawn one fine stroke and still needed to draw the remaining ninety-nine stroke with an equal amount of accuracy.

Without decreasing his level of focus, Xie Yang twisted his wrist, again and again, to etch one bloody line after another onto the paper. Leader Ye, with eyes of interest and curiosity, looked at how his young master efficiently used the black vulture blood as ink to draw a magic rune. Eventually, Xie Yang drew the entire magic rune on the paper. It took him less than five minutes to make one.

Both he and Leader Ye had their eyes on the paper. It was as if they were looking forward to seeing something.

Pa!

A crisp sound echoed in the silent room, and the black magic rune that looked like a curse shone in a bright luster, which dimmed and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"Congratulations, young master, for creating a rank-5 magic rune in a single attempt, a feat which even I can\'t accomplish. The talisman masters of the manor also can\'t say with confidence that they can make a rank-5 rune in a single attempt. Your control over your body and your exceptional memory is like god\'s blessing, simply too good to be true."

Why was making a talisman hard? It was because a person could only depend on their exceptional memory and the control over the movements of their hands to etch a magic rune onto a paper. Without it, one can\'t make a talisman. Leader Ye didn\'t like complex stuff, so he always hated memorizing magic runes. He had tried a few times to learn a rune but felt dizzy after a few seconds, so he gave up.

Some people weren\'t made for it, and he was one of them. As for the talisman masters of the family, even if they are used to making talismans, they would still sometimes make a mistake while etching magic runs of the paper. As a result, they would waste the talisman paper. Yet, his young master drew one without making a single mistake.

If that was not unrivaled calligraphy, Leader Ye didn\'t know what it was.

"I\'m still not done yet," Xie Yang replied before drawing another magic rune beside the first one.

He passed a few lines between them, making it seem like they were connected, thin silky black threads attaching them.

Leader Ye speechlessly sat on his spot and looked at Xie Yang, the emotions in his eyes changing rapidly. At first, there was a surprise in his eyes. But three seconds later, it turned to shock and bewilderment. Two minutes later, he was looking at his young master like he had seen a ghost. He found it hard to believe his eyes. What the heck had he just seen?!

His young master created a rank-4 magic rune without breaking a sweat?! Was such a feat possible for an eighteen-year-old teenager who had to spend most of his life in bed because he was sick?!

Pa! Pa!

Two crisp sounds woke Leader Ye from his stupor, and he immediately closed shit his gaping mouth.

"Now, I am done with etching the magic runes on the paper." Xie Yang looked at Leader Ye and said, "Brother, I will have to trouble you in helping me integrate the solid spirit core into the magic runes. You know how to do that, right?"

Leader Ye replied, "I have helped a few talisman masters in the past, so I am quite good at it."

"Good. That will make things easier for me." Xie Yang said as he took the spirit core out of his inter-spatial ring, which was gifted to him by Leader Ye, and placed it in between the two magic runes and on the lines connecting the both of them.

"On the count of three, let\'s do it."

"En."

"1."

"2."

"3."

After Xie Yang counted to three, waves of spiritual energy surged out of Leader Ye\'s body, and a single blue wave surged out of Xie Yang\'s body, and all the waves slammed into the solid spirit core.

It shattered apart, several pieces scattering on the black paper.

[Integrate!]

Using their spiritual energy, they forcefully integrated the black pieces of the dark-type spirit core into the magic runes.

The magic runes now have gained a starry twinkle, meaning they were successful in the last process. As a result, they had created a rank-4 seal-breaking talisman.

"You did it, young master!"

"It wouldn\'t have been possible without your help."

"Cough!"

"Cough!"

Xie Yang and Leader Ye clapped and then calmed down. They weren\'t little kids! What the heck were they getting so excited for?! So embarrassing.

"What now?!" Leader Ye asked.

"Didn\'t I tell you what this does?" Xie Yang raised his eyelids and glanced at him.

"Nope." Leader Ye shook his head in declination.

He really hasn\'t told the other a thing about it.

"With this talisman, we can break the seal on this magic pouch, which belonged to Merchant Jin."

To prove his words, Xie Yang picked the talisman, shouted activate while pouring his spiritual energy into it, then flicked it towards the magic pouch of Merchant Jin.

While in mid-air and moving towards its target, the talisman morphed into a black arrow.

It stabbed the magic pouch.

It didn\'t create a hole in it.

Instead, it vanished inside of it.

In a matter of moments, the so-called blood seal that was making it impossible for Xie Yang and Leader Ye to access the magic pouch disappeared.

"Let\'s see what\'s inside of it."

Xie Yang took away the red thread, which was keeping the pouch\'s mouth close.

He dipped two fingers into its entrance before pulling to each side, causing the mouth of the pouch to open wide.

Then, he and Leader Ye took a look at what was inside of it.

What they saw left them amazed!