Chapter 88: Lan Ting's Growth

Lanting plunged into a profound abyss of self-doubt regarding her own teaching abilities; she had heard that Lu Yang had entered the Dao Seeking Sect as the top candidate, possessing a talent for spells that was absolutely second to none.

His previous demonstration of Pictographic Boxing, for instance, had proven as much, showcasing an extraordinary spell-casting talent that could transform the mundane into the miraculous.

How was it that the moment she began to teach him, things turned out like this?

Had she taught it incorrectly?

That shouldn't be; this was exactly how her senior sister had taught her, and she had used the same method to teach Meng Jingzhou and Mangu without any issues arising.

Could it be that she had underestimated Lu Yang's talent for spells, and that an exceptional genius who surpassed ordinary prodigies required some specialized method of instruction?

While doubting herself, a sense of guilt also welled up within her.

Lu Yang, lightheartedly researching his own talisman, was utterly unaware that a talismanic genius had fallen into self-doubt just because she couldn't teach him: "Do you guys think there's a kind of talisman that can make other talismans invisible? That way, my Invisibility Talisman would disappear."

Meng Jingzhou pondered for a moment before saying: "It's hard for me to imagine what purpose someone would have for researching the kind of talisman you're talking about."

Lu Yang put on his clothes crestfallenly and continued practicing drawing the Invisibility Talisman; the result was just as before, where the body became invisible but the clothes remained perfectly visible.

In contrast, Mangu's drawings grew more precise with each attempt, giving Lanting a great sense of accomplishment.

Meng Jingzhou gloated as he mocked Lu Yang: "Haha, just give up, it's impossible for you to draw an authentic Invisibility Talisman."

Lu Yang grew furious, pinching an Invisibility Talisman between two fingers and slapping it onto Meng Jingzhou's forehead: "Hah! You monster, take my talisman!"

Meng Jingzhou's body vanished, but his clothes remained.

Refusing to be outdone, he also pulled out an Invisibility Talisman and struck back at Lu Yang: "Daoist, don't think you're the only one who knows how to draw talismans!"

An Invisibility Talisman was also slapped onto Lu Yang's forehead, causing both his body and his clothes to completely vanish.

The two of them attacked each other with Invisibility Talismans, trading blows back and forth with absolutely zero lethality.

Sandwiched between the two, Mangu drew his talismans with rapt concentration, completely undisturbed by their antics.

"It's finished." Mangu picked up a stack of successful Invisibility Talismans with satisfaction; through continuous practice, his success rate for drawing them had reached nearly one hundred percent.

Meng Jingzhou and Mangu successfully completed their apprenticeship.

Lu Yang successfully completed his apprenticeship holding the Invisibility Talisman drawn by Lanting.

"By the way, Lanting, do you know how the Reverse Longevity Formation is laid out?" Lu Yang asked, wondering if the person in the shadows was indeed using Reverse Longevity Talismans to set up a Reverse Longevity Formation, only that it wasn't completed yet.

If that really were the case, then once they found over a dozen Reverse Longevity Talismans, they could easily deduce the locations of the other talismans based on where these ones were placed.

Lanting nodded, using her own spiritual energy as threads to sketch an extremely intricate formation in midair, consisting of at least a thousand nodes: "The Reverse Longevity Formation is massive with numerous nodes; if there are only a handful of people in the shadows, and considering they need to paste the talismans in hidden locations, they won't be able to finish setting it up in a short amount of time."

"Understood. Then could you please watch the shop while the three of us go out to see if we can be of any help," Lu Yang said.

"Ah? This humble maiden is to watch the shop?" Lanting felt somewhat anxious; back at the Laurel Fairy Palace, she always followed her senior sister's arrangements and lacked independent initiative. Now, being left in charge of such a large shop made her feel rather unsure of herself.

"It's fine, it's fine, nothing will go wrong, and if anything happens, just make the decision yourself." Lu Yang didn't think there was any issue with this, and left right after speaking.

After Lu Yang and the other two departed, Lanting grew restless at the thought of temporarily managing such a large shop.

"Let's set up a Spirit Gathering Formation," Lanting muttered to herself, finding something to occupy her time.

The Spirit Gathering Formation was a fundamental formation for a cultivator's cultivation; she had noticed that there wasn't one in the barbecue shop yet, and she had no idea how Lu Yang and the other two managed to cultivate.

"Everyone lives on the second floor, so I shall set it up on the second floor."

The Spirit Gathering Formation was the most basic of formations, and Lanting set it up with practiced ease; she pulled out spirit stones from her identity jade plaque and laid them out meticulously, exactly as she had been taught in class.

"Let's add a Mind Concentration Formation too, to allow one to enter a state of cultivation quickly."

"And an Isolate Sound Formation, to keep things quiet."

Lanting was thorough in her work; considering that the Spirit Gathering Formation might be too effective and draw the attention of other cultivators, she set up another formation to isolate fluctuations in spiritual energy.

"This way, everything is foolproof." Lanting was highly satisfied with her own attentiveness.

"Hello, is anyone there?" A voice drifted up from downstairs, causing Lanting to startle; from the sound of it, it seemed to be a woman.

Lanting went downstairs and saw a fair-skinned woman standing at the entrance, seemingly contemplating whether or not to step inside.

"Hello, may I ask who you are..."

"I run the tofu shop on Front Gate Street, my name is Wen Xiangyu. Is the young shop owner Lu in?" Wen Xiangyu's voice was gentle, sending a soft, melting sensation through whoever heard it.

"He has gone out, is there something you need?" Lanting remembered; Lu Yang had mentioned her briefly when explaining how they found the Reverse Longevity Talismans.

"Ah, it's like this. Isn't the Plowing Spring Festival approaching? I wanted to coordinate a joint activity with our barbecue shop."

Lanting invited Wen Xiangyu inside and poured her some tea: "What kind of activity?"

"Not to boast, but my tofu shop usually has many customers, and when the Plowing Spring Festival arrives, there will be even more."

"I was thinking if we could set up an activity where those who buy tofu at my shop can get a ten percent discount on barbecue here, and those who eat barbecue here can also get a ten percent discount at my tofu shop."

"There could also be a lucky spinning wheel, masks, and things like that."

"Masks?"

Wen Xiangyu produced a few masks; they were square-shaped and looked white and tender, resembling blocks of tofu.

"These are masks modeled after my tofu shop's mascot, and their sales are very high."

Lanting thought about it and felt that Wen Xiangyu's proposal was excellent, bringing only benefits and no harm to the barbecue shop's business; remembering Lu Yang's words that she had full authority while watching the shop, she agreed to it.

Seeing that Lanting agreed to her idea, Wen Xiangyu was overjoyed, and the two women began chatting about various minor details of the activity, ranging from what the wheel rewards should be all the way to what universal gravitation was.

"There is an invisible force that pulls all things in the world together. Lu Yang also agrees with my viewpoint, and he named this force universal gravitation..."

"However, Lu Yang believes this invisible force occurs naturally, whereas I believe someone has laid out a colossal formation that pulls us down."

"Oh right, you don't know about formations. Let me tell you, formations are incredibly interesting. This book, 'True Explanation of Formations,' describes formations in a profound yet simple way that is very easy to understand..."

Wen Xiangyu had arrived with a heart full of gratitude toward Lu Yang, but she left with a mind entirely consumed by the principles of formations.

After seeing Wen Xiangyu off, Lanting noticed the ghost of the tiger's victim skewering meat in the corner, and an idea popped into her head.

Lu Yang's ideas were wild and unfettered; if she wanted to teach him well, did she need to adopt his way of thinking?

For instance, could she use formations like the Levitation Formation and the Fire Gathering Formation as a basis to design an automatic barbecue formation?

Huh, that actually seemed like a very good idea.

(End of Chapter)