I stem from a small temple. Atop a hill close to a bustling city, it has always been the destination for offerings and blessings. We specialize in Talismans, an art as ancient as the origin of our words. It wasn’t a small temple at all, but I never cared about that.

My passion was the art of drawing Talismans, fortunately the temple head had early on seen my talent and helped me master it. It wasn’t until my fifties that I finally was satisfied with my progress and left my ascetic life. I started drawing talismans for other people, mine were unique enough to pull some wealthy people from the city, enriching our temple somewhat.

But my focus was never beauty when drawing talismans, it was fluidity, the flow between everything like a stream of water that crosses mountains and valleys, never stopping. Some even called my art ‘obscure’ and ‘illegible’, naturally it didn’t affect my mood.

At the age of eighty, I finally wrote my masterpiece. It was ‘Unending Grace, Living Anew’, even though I have never been too religious, this coming from the Dao-Temple I have become the head of, I still wished for a new life where I can continue my studies of talismans.

I wrote this talisman only once, although it took long, I might have written it again in the ten-ish years that followed, but I refused, not even publicizing my work. The truest talisman coming from the heart should only be written once. Naturally I still cared for it and re-wrote the lines on the talisman when the ink faded even slightly, but I would never rewrite a new one.

On my last day, I kept the talisman on my heart in my sleep like always. It was wrinkled in different places, but it is a talisman to be used and not art. Like swords, there are ceremonial swords made like art, while there are true swords made for war. My ‘Unending Grace, Living Anew’ is not ceremonial, no matter how optimistic it sounds.

I lived my life for a long time, and then I died.

…

A new life, with unending grace truly. I woke up in a home vastly different that before, it was ancient to say the least. I followed the steps of my father, apparently my mother was gone. He kept talking badly about her, but how could I feel rage for a woman I never knew?

I was an orphan in my last life and the difference to this one wasn’t great. The father I thought would be great was just disgusting. The only single moment I saw my mother was when she gave birth to me, she had eyes full of care, but when she looked at father, her eyes were resentful.

After she run away, father was scolded by his elders and he himself also became full of rage. Every day he would come home drunk or with the smell of perfume.

What surprised me was the strength he carried himself with, even though he looked thin, he seemed to be as strong as heavy weightlifters. Nonetheless, I was basically uncared for my whole life till I was eight. Up to then, father was always away, luckily, he didn’t beat me at least. A maid would deliver food and care for me slightly, but her eyes were always full of disgust.

When I became eight, I finally came to knew that this world was a magical one. People would wield flying weapons or shoot great spells. The eight-birthday seemed to be a celebratory age for this world, I first came to learn some initial knowledge in the clan-school, and at the end of the year, we were all invited to the ancestral hall.

One after another entered to test their spiritual roots. Most of the children didn’t have any, from the murmurs I heard that they would be dismissed from the clan land and send to the village below. When it was my turn, I finally entered the ancestral hall.

A ‘formation’ was placed on the ground, I could easily read the words on it, so it was probably a bad one, at least I had heard that great formations were invisible to the naked eye of cultivators, while I was still a mortal.

I tried deciphering the formation, it was somewhat difficult to understand, if I had time, I would have surely been able to, but the elder at the end of the formation urged me to step forward. He also had a disgusted look like all the others.

When I stepped into the middle of the formation, he finally activated it. Five lights glowed at the five different circles outside the main circle, they read ‘Fire’, ‘Water’, ‘Earth’, ‘Metal’ and ‘Wood’, interesting concept, I knew they were the five main elements in Daoism, unsurprising as I was the head of a Daoist temple. Though it was somewhat surprising to know that a magical world such as this would use the same concept, since there were so many different elements not included. I just accepted it as a flaw of a lower formation.

After a few seconds, finally, only a blue light coming from ‘Water’ remained. The elder suddenly seemed to be ecstatic as he said lightly, barely hearable to me “Finally someone with a root! I wonder how strong his root is? This formation unfortunately only detects roots if they are higher than four-points… it’s fine, as long as we know his main root, he will do well in the clan. Even if he has four or five roots, with a water root at the four-point mark, he should do well.”

Later, I would find out that one needed to have at least a four-point root to be able to cultivate. Apparently, anything less than that, even a three-point root would have progress so slow, it wasn’t worth it for a small clan such as this to cultivate them. The clan might have tried at least if they detected it, but the formation was so horrible, it could barely detect average people.

The elder seemed to have hidden his disgust greater, but I read his lips as he murmured to himself something like ‘what a waste for him to have this talent’, I ignored it, already somewhat used to it. The hypocrisy afterwards irritated me as he smiled greatly and was happy, he sent me out with a small bag containing a jade slip which was supposed to be my identification. He also told me to keep going to the clan school.

…

Years went by as I studied in the clan school about world of cultivation. For example, cultivation went from Qi-Refining to Foundation Building, Core Formation and Mystique Awakening, apparently there were higher ranks, but it was not something our family could touch upon. The clan was a Foundation Building clan, with the only cultivator in that stage being the ancestor.

More notably is the fact that it is a clan with talisman-writing as the core. I was happy and ecstatic, we learned and as I cultivated the basic water cultivation art ‘Water Cultivation Art’, I only needed a month to be about to breakthrough to the rank. But then, I came to know about others and how they needed much longer, so I stopped my progress.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I have been so old in my previous life, although I was mostly an ascetic, I still knew that fireflies lived short lives, and I didn’t want to be one. Still, I used the time to study less cultivation and more of the talisman-creation-art. We had a good heritage and I got to know a lot.

Secretly, at the age of ten, when most others had already reached qi-refining or were about to reach it, I also attempted a breakthrough. Unsurprisingly, I had a great foundation and instantly reached it when I tried.

I was just thinking of creating a talisman when I felt something in my dantian that was slowly filled with qi. Inspecting it, I instantly found my ‘Unending Grace, Living Anew’ talisman.

The surprise was great, but when I thought of my inexplicable reincarnation and talent in cultivation, I knew it came from this. I was overjoyed, but suddenly it struck me. I couldn’t reveal this talisman at all, which meant I couldn’t officially comprehend talisman-creation.

Every talisman creator would create a natal talisman to properly join the ranks of talisman creators. Else, you would only be called an apprentice and wouldn’t properly learn the art. It seemed the ‘Unending Grace, Living Anew’ talisman was my natal one already, which was great considering what it could do, but I couldn’t reveal it no matter what.

Without showing it, I wouldn’t be able to officially join the ranks in the family. Upon closer inspection, I also realized that the talisman was greatly damaged and absorbed nearly all my qi to rebuild itself.

The following years I learned the theoretical art of creating talismans, even created some few, but I was always short of qi and couldn’t officially join the ranks, so I was never valued by the clan. In the end, I opted for working in the library of the clan to enhance my chances of reading talisman inheritances.

I dislike most elders, but the elder in the library was always kind. Even though it was technically not allowed, he allowed me to read the books about talismans in the clan. Naturally it was only the lowest of the knowledge, but I read many classics about them and understood some theories as well as speculations from the previous elders of the clan.

Clearly, it wasn’t valued, and it was never proven, but at least I got to know that there were many different talisman techniques such as Stacking, Shrinking, Arrays, and so on. I even read a bit of ‘demonic’ talisman inheritance. It was just a small piece, but it talked about ‘Blood Talismans’, which was confusing since most talismans were drawn with blood.

In the end, I got to know that it meant human blood, which confused me even more, since it was normal that human blood was used for talismans. The strongest talismans were created with the blood-essence of the talisman-maker himself. I asked the library elder; he firstly scolded me for my thoughts, then he talked about how it meant that you would use the blood of others.

In all honesty, I had the exact same thought and understanding, but after the scolding, I didn’t express it. It was somewhat ‘stupid’, I thought to myself. I had learned that demonic techniques came with many drawbacks and such, but why would this talisman technique be demonic if it didn’t have the drawbacks at all. In the end, I accepted it as hypocrisy of the ‘righteous’ side.

Killing and murdering people? I have been so long in a Daoist temple; how would I be confused by people? Since one side was doing it, the other side would naturally also do it, both sides were equally at fault. I could accept using ‘demonic’ as a synonym to ‘faulty’ because of the drawbacks, but calling it demonic because it uses human blood? I would say that’s recycling, since blood would be spilled anyways.

The years flowed and I barely progressed to the third stage of qi-refining, it wasn’t great at all, especially since the ‘Unending Grace, Living Anew’ talisman didn’t seem to heal at all, at most it was less faded. I thought of directly drawing on it, but not to mention making a mistake, a natal talisman would reject even the slightest qi.

After all, it was drawn with normal paper and normal ink, without any qi at all. Just the slightest qi would destroy it, only my own qi would be able to work on it. In one of the classics, it was written that this was an ‘accumulative’-type of talisman, which could be written on even dirt, as long as the meaning and idea was properly conveyed by a great talisman-maker, it would work.

But it was called an inferior talisman-type, and I had to agree. If it was written on great material, one could argue that it had great potential. But a talisman written on ‘mortal’ objects had no great potential, the only reason my natal talisman even worked seemed to be the work of a lot of time. I just assumed that between the moment I died and the moment I reincarnated, millions of years must have passed.

This meant that the talisman did great work, but it wasn’t something I would be able to re-create. In most situations, it was very likely that I would never be able to use it at all. And once I died, unlike before, it would just break instead of gathering qi for eons.

After all, it was already damaged and I would have to either live for millions of years for it to be fully healed before I could use it properly, or I would have to give it up. That is not possible naturally, as giving up the natal talisman was the same as abolishing every cultivation and cutting off one’s path. Adding that to the fact that it was so special, knowing I might die since it was the one that gave me the live, I didn’t attempt anything.

…

Time flowed again, when I was twenty, our clan ancestor died. Not only was it a great tragedy for the ancestor, but it was also a great tragedy for the whole clan. We wouldn’t even have known it if it wasn’t for an opposing clan announcing the death, apparently the clan ancestor was dead for longer, but it was concealed.

This clan allied with two others and in the end attacked our clan. I would have been sad if it was my first time dying, or if the library elder was still alive, but he had died five years prior due to old age. So now, I could only watch as the clan which I felt no love for, died down.

It was ruthless and painful, but I endured and accepted it. No matter how much I avoided the Daoism of my temple, it still integrated into myself, making me aware of the natural course of cause and effect, and I didn’t flee but fought back for the clan. It was my way of repaying all the help they gave me all those years, I even revealed all the talismans I drew throughout the years, but it was of no use, and I died.

…

A new live, the end of grace. I woke up again, right after my birth, looking at the caring face of the mother whose face I forgot. She turned to my father, resentful and hateful. I was confused, but suddenly, I felt a tearing sound where my dantian was supposed to be. With all the control I learned in my previous life, I kept it back and waited till no one was around.

At night, I let go of the control, and the natal talisman of my previous life fell off. It didn’t hurt, unlike how it was supposed to be if you lost your natal talisman, but I knew it was my talisman. The white talisman paper fell down and slowly disintegrated. I understood what happened. It brought me back to when I just started my new life. It wasn’t a reverse flow of time, no, the talisman that was integrated into my soul suddenly shook and broke.

The ’unending grace’ had looked into the future. The talisman had a spirit, such as every other high-level spiritual object. It deduced the future with the last of its energy. After all, it knew that its maker wouldn’t be able to repair it, it also knew that it would hold back its owner.

So, instead, it used the last bit of its energy and created a dream of how the future would be. It was so realistic; the maker hadn’t had a chance to realise this at all. And now, after it broke down. Tears streamed down my face, knowing the greatest creation of my previous life was destroyed like that. I knew I wouldn’t write it again, so it was my way of a funeral.

While being destroyed, the talisman gave a final grace to its maker ‘Creator, you have given me the grace of life, and I have returned it back. I shall give you one last grace, to repay the last cause and effect created between me and you, master. You have the single root of water, a talent so great, if it wasn’t for me… you would have reached heights unimaginable. I won’t be able to become your natal talisman in this life, but let me give you grace, a possibility for the re-creation of my own as your natal talisman.’

A sudden light shined from the disintegrated talisman, and enlightenment was gained. It was a strange state one could only hope to gain. In this enlightenment, I focused on the creation of a talisman with all my thoughts. The core of it was still Grace and Life, but I added my greatest interest in my past life to it as I formed an idea of a talisman.