After finishing his meal, Andrew Grant didn’t immediately return to Cheng Yazhou’s home, but instead asked the restaurant owner where he could find a nearby incense and candle shop.

Incense and candle shops sell items used for funerals as well as Taoist and Buddhist supplies. Usually, very few people inquire about such shops, let alone a young man. So the restaurant owner gave Andrew Grant several strange looks before finally telling him where to find one nearby.

After getting directions, Andrew Grant headed straight for the incense and candle shop. Once there, he bought twelve packs of yellow talisman paper and some cinnabar.

One pack of yellow talisman paper contains about a hundred sheets.

Naturally, Andrew Grant bought the yellow talisman paper and cinnabar to draw talismans.

Talismans are a kind of “magical tool” used by Taoist practitioners to communicate with the mysterious forces of heaven and earth. There’s a saying: “If you draw talismans without knowing the trick, you’ll only make the spirits and gods laugh; but if you know the trick, you’ll startle even the spirits and gods.” This speaks to the profound mystery of drawing talismans, so it’s not something that can be done carelessly.

Although Andrew Grant had studied Taoism with Brian Clark for six years and practiced independently for another two, his skill in drawing talismans was still just passable—far from reaching the level of “startling even the spirits and gods.” So he still needed to spend a lot of time practicing. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. While there are tricks to drawing talismans and it’s far from as simple as just copying, proficiency is still very important.

Before coming to the county, he had almost run out of yellow talisman paper and cinnabar at home. Andrew Grant found the yellow talisman paper bulky and troublesome to carry around, so he didn’t buy any in Baiyunshan Town, choosing instead to purchase it after arriving in the county.

The owner of the incense and candle shop was a middle-aged woman. She found it very odd that a young man like Andrew Grant would come to buy yellow talisman paper and cinnabar. Usually, those who buy such things are either monks, Taoist priests, or elderly people. It was the first time she’d seen a boy of about fifteen or sixteen buying them.

“Young man, what are you buying yellow talisman paper and cinnabar for?” When Andrew Grant had paid and was about to leave, the shop owner couldn’t help but ask. Before Andrew Grant could answer, she quickly added, “I actually know some eminent monks from Guangyun Temple and Taoist priests from Qingguan Mountain Temple. If your family needs it, I can introduce them to come and perform rituals at your home.”

Clearly, she thought there had been a death in Andrew Grant’s family or that something unclean had happened.

“Thank you, ma’am, but that won’t be necessary. I’m just buying some to mess around with.” Andrew Grant was slightly taken aback, then casually replied before leaving the shop.

“Mess around? Young people these days really are getting harder and harder to understand!” The shop owner shook her head and muttered to herself as she watched Andrew Grant walk away.

Chapter 0013: Drawing Talismans and Cultivation

Back at the rented house, Andrew Grant saw that Henry Cole’s door was tightly shut, and he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t want Henry Cole to see him carrying a big stack of yellow talisman paper.

He slipped quickly into his own bedroom, closed the door, mixed some cinnabar, laid out the yellow talisman paper, took a deep breath, cleared his mind of all distractions, focused his thoughts and energy, picked up a brush, and began to draw talismans.

He started with some relatively simple talismans, such as the Clear Mind Talisman, the Evil-Repelling Talisman, the House-Guarding Talisman, and some less powerful attack talismans like the Water Arrow Talisman and Fireball Talisman.

Although these talismans were simple, drawing them well was not easy. Even though Andrew Grant had studied Taoism for eight years and inherited Samuel Grant’s legacy, and his cultivation had reached the third level of Qi Refining, after wasting nearly a hundred sheets of yellow talisman paper, he only managed to successfully draw one Evil-Repelling Talisman and one Fireball Talisman—a success rate of only about two percent.

After using up about a hundred sheets of yellow talisman paper, Andrew Grant was nearly exhausted. He sat cross-legged to recover for a while before finally regaining some strength, then carefully put away the two talismans that actually contained magical power.

These two talismans had cost him almost half a day, nearly a hundred sheets of yellow talisman paper, and three days’ worth of accumulated magical power. To others, they might look like nothing more than two ordinary scribbles, but to him, they were the fruit of his hard work, so of course he had to keep them safe for emergencies.

Given his current level of cultivation, his success rate in drawing talismans was so low that he needed to prepare in advance—better safe than sorry.

“I wonder when I’ll reach the level where talismans flow from my brush as I wish. Then I could create them with a stroke and wouldn’t have to work so hard like now.” After putting away the two talismans, Andrew Grant muttered to himself in dissatisfaction.

What Andrew Grant didn’t know was that nowadays, people who truly understand how to draw talismans are extremely rare, and most of them are elderly. Their success rates aren’t much better than Andrew Grant’s. If people knew that a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old boy could actually draw real talismans and still be dissatisfied, they’d probably want to bang their heads against a wall.

Of course, Andrew Grant was just venting to himself. He knew that to reach the level where talismans flow from his brush at will, not only would his spiritual power need to be extremely refined, but his magical power would also have to reach at least the ninth level of Qi Refining. Even his master, as powerful as he was, had only reached the eighth level back then. Andrew Grant was still far from that.

After putting away the talismans and muttering a few words to himself, Andrew Grant’s stomach began to grumble in protest.

It turned out that drawing talismans not only consumed energy and magical power, but also physical strength. Plus, Andrew Grant was still growing, so after practicing for half a day, the lunch he’d eaten was already completely digested.