Chapter 7

Li Yunxian logged into the game again and immediately saw the message the merchant had left for her.

“The other half of the cinnabar has been received.”

She stepped outside.

Li Yunxian suddenly noticed that the streets were much emptier than usual. While trading with the merchant, she casually asked about it.

The merchant didn’t mind sharing a bit of common knowledge with his regular customers: “These past two days, there’s been a guild war going on. Everyone’s busy at their guild territories.”

Li Yunxian frowned slightly.

She still remembered Sheng Yu, that wealthy woman who came from a guild background.

If all the guild members were occupied in battle now, without those affluent customers, would her talismans still sell?

A sense of unease crept over her.

Her gaze then landed on the merchant.

A sparkle lit up Li Yunxian’s eyes. “Brother Zhao, do you buy items?”

The merchant instinctively wanted to say no, but curiosity about what an artist like Li Yunxian was creating made him reconsider. “Show me what you’ve got first.”

Without hesitation, Li Yunxian pulled out a Lightning Flash Talisman.

The fleeting pattern on the talisman stirred a mysterious sensation in the merchant, leaving him momentarily impressed. But before he could get a clear look, the talisman burst into blue flames and was instantly consumed.

The merchant’s eyes were filled with confusion.

Is art nowadays just about burning things?

Fortunately, the lightning appeared swiftly. Halfway through the talisman’s combustion, a brilliant bolt shot straight out.

The thunderclap crackled with light, striking the wall behind the merchant and leaving a charred black scorch mark.

Seeing this effect, satisfaction spread across Li Yunxian’s face.

The power of this Lightning Flash Talisman far surpassed what she could produce when she first started, roughly equivalent to a second-tier Qi Refinement attack.

But the merchant, staring at the scorch mark, was speechless.

The thunderous sound had caused him to forget the initial marvel of the talisman’s pattern. All that lingered in his mind was the overwhelming lightning and... the utterly insignificant impact.

In this world, science and technology—or more precisely, refining technology—were so advanced that more powerful and dazzling effects were commonplace.

The merchant thought about how much Li Yunxian had spent at his place and the results she had achieved.

Once again, he sighed inwardly—

“Truly worthy of being an artist.”

After some calculation, the merchant finally gave a price: “Two game coins each. You can consider them fireworks.”

Li Yunxian was speechless.

Her biological parents were businesspeople; why did she have absolutely no talent for commerce?

Two coins was a price she simply couldn’t accept.

In the cultivation world, a Lightning Flash Talisman sold for no less than two low-grade spirit stones.

Converting to the material prices in the “Everything” world, it should theoretically be around thirty coins.

And she only had seventy-two talismans in total; after receiving the cinnabar, she could probably draw about seventy more.

Her cost was two hundred and ten coins, meaning that after two days of hard work, she hadn’t even made a hundred coins in profit.

The cultivation student assessment was coming up soon; she needed to earn at least two thousand coins in the next few days.

She rejected the merchant’s offer and said goodbye.

But this time, she didn’t return to her small room to keep drawing talismans. Instead, she headed straight to the trading market.

She planned to try selling the Lightning Flash Talismans there first.

Only now did Li Yunxian slowly realize that this was the proper approach from the start.

She should have made the best of her current artistic skills and tried selling them in the marketplace first, to see what sold best, and then produce in bulk.

How had such a simple truth escaped her until now?

Luckily, it wasn’t too late.

The trading market was also much emptier, but knowing the reason, Li Yunxian didn’t mind. As she wandered around, she was surprised to find the stall where she had previously sold potions was vacant.

Hoping to ride the luck of that previous success, she decisively sat down in her old spot.

No sooner had she settled than she caught the attention of the other market-goers.

Everyone knew that the Changguang Guild had been looking for the owner of this stall these past two days.

They all watched Li Yunxian silently.

Under the subtle anticipation of the crowd, Li Yunxian took out all her talismans and painstakingly arranged them to fill the entire stall.

A well-stocked stall was more likely to tempt buyers, she thought, striving to put her meager business acumen to work.

Those watching her pile up sheets of paper were speechless.

They all knew the Changguang Guild was searching for a drink vendor.

Besides, the previous owner was an ordinary person, but this new one clearly had reached the Qi Refinement stage.

That was a noticeable difference.

Most people withdrew their gaze, but a few who had previously bought drinks from Li Yunxian hesitated.

They felt the two stall owners looked exactly the same.

So they approached.

And recognized Li Yunxian.

Shock rippled through them.

“Boss, why aren’t you selling drinks anymore?!” a man with a bushy beard exclaimed.

Li Yunxian recognized him as her first customer and smiled calmly. “That didn’t sell well, so I switched trades.”

She gestured to the talismans before her. “Take a look, want to buy some of these... fireworks?” Her voice faltered slightly as she hesitated over the word.

During her conversation with the merchant about the two-coin price, she knew the Lightning Flash Talisman’s power was underwhelming in the “Everything” world.

The crowd’s expressions twisted between amusement and disbelief.

This vendor was truly something—first selling drinks, now fireworks, dealing in things hardly anyone sold in “Everything.”

But as the crowd looked down at the “fireworks,” their eyes were inevitably drawn to the intricate patterns on the pale yellow paper.

The design exuded an air of profound mystery—almost palpable, yet intangible.

No matter how one looked, it was just a stack of paper.

“Fireworks?” someone asked, puzzled.

Li Yunxian, seeing the growing crowd, wasn’t stingy about demonstrating the Lightning Flash Talisman again.

With an audience, she performed the charm toward the sky.

In broad daylight, a bolt of lightning shot up two stories high from the ground, both in sound and light worthy of its title as a firework.

The crowd stared, dazed, watching the talisman’s ashes fall from Li Yunxian’s hand. It was hard to imagine such bright electricity had erupted from a single sheet of paper.

It felt like the coffin of science was about to be nailed shut.

After a long pause, someone snapped back to reality, holding their breath before asking, “How much for one of these fireworks?”

Li Yunxian quickly calculated in her mind.

Two coins was far too low, but thirty seemed too steep and might not sell.

After some thought about how many game coins she needed, she calmly said, “Twenty coins each.”

In business, the price couldn’t be too high, lest customers think she wasn’t serious and walk away.

A price slightly high but not too high was best, allowing some bargaining to gauge the buyer’s true valuation.

Li Yunxian tried hard to channel her inner shrewd merchant.

Then, to her surprise, the buyer immediately agreed without hesitation: “Fine, give me one.”

Li Yunxian was speechless.

Oh no, the price was too low!

Brother Zhao misled me!

Shrewd merchant—failed.

But since the deal was made, she wouldn’t back down.

Money in one hand, goods in the other.

Twenty coins received, the buyer then asked, “How do I use this?”

Li Yunxian generously replied, “Use your spiritual power to activate it, then guide its release direction. If you don’t guide it, it will default to the pattern’s forward direction.”

The buyer tried it and immediately a flash of lightning soared again.

It was real!

No mechanical devices needed—just a single sheet of paper!

The buyer’s excitement grew, asking, “Do I have to hold it by hand?”

“No, as long as it’s within the range of your spiritual power,” Li Yunxian answered.

“Does it have to be flat to use?”

“Folding or rolling won’t affect it, as long as the pattern and paper aren’t damaged…”

Through these questions and answers, the crowd quickly absorbed the information.

Most of them were combat-focused cultivators, so their intuition about how to use such items was much keener than the merchant’s. They immediately realized its value.

Lightweight and portable, with remote operation capability.

And since it was paper, most detectors couldn’t detect it.

Whether used as a signal flare or to fake launching a powerful attack beam, the potential scenarios were vast.

The downside was that twenty coins wasn’t cheap. Buying a single-use item was a bit extravagant.

Still… given how persistent the Changguang Guild had been searching for Li Yunxian, maybe there was more to this talisman than met the eye?

With that thought, twenty coins didn’t seem so unreasonable.

Seventy Lightning Flash Talismans was neither too many nor too few, and they sold out in just over half an hour, one by one.

Many who didn’t buy were just hesitating over the cost-performance ratio, but seeing them sold out sparked their desire to purchase.

“Boss, do you have any left? Sell me one too. I’ve been waiting right here so long,” someone called out.

A buyer nearby rolled his eyes, “Yeah, standing here all this time just watching.”

The first man was annoyed, “What are you talking about?!”

As tension threatened to flare, Li Yunxian quickly intervened: “Don’t argue, don’t argue. There are more, more coming soon.”

She then brought out the cinnabar, lightly processed it, and mixed it into the materials she had prepared the day before.

Ink formed.

With a sheet of paper and a pen, under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Li Yunxian focused intently.

She began to draw.

The pen tip gathered spiritual power, flowing smoothly like silk. Strokes overlapped on the paper, weaving the pattern.

It seemed to take a long time, yet only a blink passed before a new Lightning Flash Talisman appeared before the mesmerized onlookers.

“Here you go, twenty coins,” Li Yunxian said, handing the talisman to the man who had spoken.

He took it with a confused expression, then suddenly remembered to breathe.

Though the crowd had some suspicions seeing it was just a piece of paper, they still held onto some illusions.

Maybe it contained microrobots or something.

But the reality…

This thing had zero science in it!

Yet the cultivators present, considering their own spellcasting experiences, found it not entirely unbelievable.

After all, they had sensed Li Yunxian’s spiritual power flowing uninterrupted during the drawing process.

“I want one too,” said someone who hadn’t planned to buy, now tempted by the demonstration. “Are they drawn on the spot?”

Li Yunxian blinked, promptly adjusting her sales plan. “Yes, but I’ll need some time to recover my spiritual power.”

She sensed the curiosity and eagerness around her but wasn’t bothered by others learning the method.

After all, as a wandering cultivator, much of what she learned came from the kindness of others.

Her words stirred the once-calm crowd back into excitement.

One talisman after another was drawn. After watching so much, the crowd felt like they had memorized the pattern and couldn’t resist trying.

During Li Yunxian’s spiritual power recovery, someone asked, “Boss, can I try drawing one? I’ll pay you twenty coins too.”

Li Yunxian was naturally willing. “Sure.”

She handed over paper and pen, adding some well-known tips from the cultivation world: “Keep your hand steady, input spiritual power naturally matching the thickness of the strokes, and the drawing must be done in one continuous motion without distraction.”

The other person responded in a somewhat confused voice, saying they understood but hadn’t fully grasped it. After barely two seconds of drawing, they declared the talisman ruined.

They were speechless.

“Twenty coins, try again!” they gritted their teeth.

Li Yunxian silently handed over more paper and ink.

The second attempt lasted four seconds.

“Again...” They wanted to continue, but the crowd protested.

“If you can’t do it, let me try!”

“Yeah, yeah!”

Hearing the crowd ready to argue again, Li Yunxian quietly pulled out her spare pens—three in total.

“Ahem... If you want to draw yourselves, I have more here,” she said sweetly.

The crowd was left speechless.