Chapter 6 - Purple Spiral Herb
The Venerable took some seconds to ponder the answer “Purple Spiral Herb, it can only be found through serendipity. It’s a luxurious herb that very likely only the first rate sects can produce to groom their future leaders, this happens because only a land rich of natural chi can nurture it. Additionally, only one herb per generation could be produced on the same land, if two purple spiral herbs would be nurtured on the same ground a grievous fight would break out and most likely both the herb would perish for their injuries. Its miraculous properties help in opening the Mind Eye with a solid foundation and they also bring a qualitative change to it, terrifically boosting its effectiveness in fighting others’ open Mind Eyes. Its value can vary from 700 to 2000 commander crystals. Cultivators can easily have gains using this herb, but if they want to dig in deeper in its potential to grasp the true profundities of this wondrous plant they need skills, a firm Dao heart and luck”.
Anyone in the room was astonished, except for Falven and obviously the Venerable. After some seconds of contemplation Unbroken Fang tensely stared at the youth and bowed to him “I do not bow often, but when I do, I mean it! Please, accept this gesture, full of my awe and gratitude”.
After staying jaw-dropping for a brief moment, the lieutenants followed his gesture “Please young master, accept our apologies, we had the heavens before us but we were blind!” “Young seer, forgive my shameless skeptical attitude, meeting you has changed my lowly life!”.
The lieutenants were very loyal to their leader and could’t let him act more humbly than them. But their apologies were heartfelt, they totally meant them, this experience had changed their view on the world.
“Please stand up, I’am honoured of your gesture, but I am no saint nor wise sage. I have used your position to gain benefits myself, it was all for my personal gain. Now don’t forget my share, right?” “Yes, young friend, you’ll receive the 25% of the profits and that makes…” “Unbroken Fang, what about this. Give me 15 of the remaining 20 commander crystals and we’re good for this side of the deal. Just promise me to use the Purple Spiral Herb for opening your Mind Eye when the time comes. Venerable, can I please purchase these items from your Pavilion? I had a list prepared, the total expenditure should be around 15 commander crystals”
The Venerable was caught off guard again, the youth before him had exactly estimated the value of the traded goods. “Sure thing, sure thing. Clara, please go through our stores to collect the materials on the list. Apply a 20% discount, this young friend is our esteemed guest” The maid at his side quickly took the list and disappeared.
“Unbroken Fang, my advice for you is to take your crystals and quickly go to complete the transaction. Remember my words, never offend the man in the black mantle. Treat him as your ancestor or as an unbeatable tyrant”. “I’ll follow your advice young friend”. The leader said, before bowing his head again and leaving with his lieutenants.
“Young friend, I have got a glimpse of your list, may you be a Dao Imprinter?” Dao Imprinters are chi cultivators skilled in imprinting laws on tools, usually weapons, in order to bolster their combat potential. When the user of the weapon circulate its chi in the weapon itself, even if not knowledgable of the imprinted law, he would be able to exert part of its mysteries.
Dao Imprinting was a common way to increase the combat prowess of low grade cultivators, for example imprinting the laws of a chi skill. Instead of imprinting skills, more advanced Dao imprinters could infuse laws to confer particular characteristics to the weapon, this had the potential to increase the prowess of experts at higher cultivation stages. The higher the cultivation stage of the expert the higher the imprinted law level needed to be in order to actually be of any help. Most of the times Dao Imprinting was considered useful just for low and mid ranked experts.
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“Venerable Estimator, I would not define myself as a Dao Imprinter, but I can do a thing or two in this field. I am confident to create some nice Dao Imprints, upon check of your Pavilion would be possible to have them sold in one of your famous auctions? Additionally it would be very beneficial to me if at that time the guests get to know the creator of the imprints is looking for a sect to join. Of course, as the auctioneer, you’ll get a share of the profits. I insist on this”.
“Young friend, if our specialist states that your Dao Imprints are valid, and I’m sure he will, you can already consider them as part of the auction. Let the Shining Pillar Pavilion be in charge of everything, everything will be managed in the most suitable manner” The Venerable smilingly stated, before continuing “As an esteemed guest of our Pavilion, why don’t you use one of our rooms to work and rest? We have a large room for guests who come for trades and to collaborate with us. It’s equipped with an isolating set of laws, cultivation materials and anything that’s needed for Dao Imprinting. I can have carried there the goods you’ve just bought from us, it would be our honour”.
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Falven had immediately accepted the offer. The Venerable was showing goodwill to befriend him, the great isnights of the director told him the youth could be a beneficial ally in the future. The room was very spacious, with high quality and practical furniture and an area ad hoc for Dao Imprinting. The runes on the door were activated, sealing the whole space, no perceptual sense could spy on him.
Upon entering the Dao Imprinting area, he took out a medium quality scroll and started aligning on the desk the materials for the imprinting process: Moon Flower Nectar, Raging Flood Dragon Blood, Chi Polished Ink, Dao Enlightened Metal. Thanks to the Dao runes at the command of the Dao imprinter the furnace was activated and started melting the Dao Enlightened Metal. During the multing process Falven drew a set of simple runes in the air, infusing the Moon Flower Nectar and the Raging Flood Dragon Blood with his chi. His chi was under the control of the Asura Art and the profundities of the Asura law were drenching the runes.
When the set of runes was completed, half with the blood and half with the nectar, Asura laws were faintly exuded by the patterns. Falven controlled the melted metal to let it merge with the floating runes. Afterwards he drew with the Chi Polished Ink the same set of runes on the scroll, while still controlling the floating runes to prevent them from collapsing. The process was ended with the floating runes being imprinted on the scroll, perfectly merging with the ink ones. Success, the Dao Imprinting was flawless.
Even though he had created a very basic Dao Imprinting Scroll, his chi was completely depleted by the effort. Luckily he could use the restore area of the room, it had awesome properties and a thicken chi that allowed cultivators to quickly replenish the body.
The process was repeated several times, each time quicker and with a slightly minor chi consuption of the previous one. The Dao imprints would often fail to be completed, leading to the waste of efforts and materials, but with the passing of time the success rate sharply increased. Not only his mastery of Dao Imprinting was improving, but his chi was slowly growing too. Actually this depleting and replenishing process was a kind of training, although less effective of cultivating using the right resources and more mental energy draining, it still had beneficial effects on his cultivation.
This could happen because of the special area that allowed a quick chi replenishment. Even if half of the scrolls had issue and couldn’t be sold, the results were quite good. The youth kept practising Dao Imprinting until he had a 80% success rate.
To say the truth Falven wasn’t a Dao Imprinter, but his deep and profound knowledge of the Asura Law, a law based on the general principles of the world more than on specific attack or movement patterns, allowed him to have a good grasp on anything related to the Dao. The Asura Art had a section concerning implanting Asura laws in objects and the process was very similar to Dao Imprinting, although it required an open Mind Eye and much more chi. Falven knew the theory by the book and adding his God Mind Eye talent to the mix here you are the reasons why he was able to practise Dao Imprinting.
After having finished these basic imprints, satisfied with the achieved success rate and with the current amount of chi, he took out the high quality scrolls and started creating more complex Dao Imprints with more expensive materials.
Several weeks of hard work passed by, but in the end he left his room with a victorious smile.