32: Fu Lian Vajra Soars Through the Nine Heavens

Just then, Zhang Sheng's pupils constricted. A familiar line of text quietly appeared on his talent panel: "Detected learnable skill—Drawing vajra talisman Runes, will you learn it?"

Learn! Without hesitation!

Drawing vajra talisman Runes?

Zhang Sheng immediately associated this with his experience refining essence food pills—although he failed his first attempt at Alchemy, he had unexpectedly comprehended the "Spirit Tempering" skill.

Making a vajra talisman involves three steps: drawing runes, spirit infusion, and spirit sealing.

A flash of inspiration struck Zhang Sheng: Why not first practice the rune drawing step to a higher Rank?

He decisively stopped the spirit infusion, took a new Talisman paper, and focused once again on drawing the runes.

"Skill: Drawing vajra talisman Runes (Beginner: 2/10)"

"Skill: Drawing vajra talisman Runes (Beginner: 3/10)"

...

As the pen tip moved, the panel prompts kept jumping, and the skill Rank quietly climbed.

"Skill: Drawing vajra talisman Runes (Proficient: 1/100)"

"Skill: Drawing vajra talisman Runes (Proficient: 2/100)"

As the skill stepped into the "Proficient" Realm, the time Zhang Sheng spent drawing a single rune was shockingly reduced from five minutes to two and a half!

Next, he immediately set to work on "spirit infusion" for the runes he had drawn.

Rip! The Talisman paper split; failure!

Rip! Another one scrapped!

...

Failure had become the norm, but Zhang Sheng's expression remained unchanged.

It wasn't until he began the spirit infusion on a "Proficient-Rank" rune that the talent panel finally lit up again: "Detected learnable skill—vajra talisman Rune Spirit Infusion, will you learn it?"

Zhang Sheng followed the same method and quickly mastered the final step—"spirit sealing."

...

When the two-hundredth-plus Talisman paper turned to ash, a complete—vajra talisman—finally lay quietly in Zhang Sheng's palm!

"Success!" he whispered inwardly.

With the boost from the System, Talisman making was still this difficult; one could only imagine the level of hardship for ordinary people without special Talents.

Zhang Sheng looked at his refreshed talent panel, his excitement beyond words.

"Skill: Making vajra talisman (Beginner: 1/10)"

Half a day passed in the blink of an eye. Zhang Sheng sat in meditation, circulating the Heavenly Circulation Method, refining essence food pills, and after replenishing his consumed spiritual power, he threw himself back into Talisman making.

Although the vajra talisman was only Rank 1 Low Grade, Zhang Sheng's cultivation focus had long been biased towards the Heavenly Circulation Method's Refining Essence into Qi, and he was not deeply involved in Primordial Chaos Qi Refining, which resulted in limited Dantian capacity.

Every time he drew a few dozen, his spiritual power would be exhausted, and he had to stop to consume essence food pills for replenishment. This cycle repeated over and over.

The next morning, Zhang Sheng put away the three hundred-plus vajra talismans he had worked so hard to make and fell asleep immediately.

At this moment, his drawing speed was no longer what it used to be, and the quality of the Talismans he produced far exceeded those sold in the school store!

"Skill: Making vajra talisman (Proficient: 311/1000)"

The life-and-death struggle in the Secret Realm made Zhang Sheng deeply realize: having spiritual power alone was useless if he lacked effective means of applying it!

He immediately decided to prioritize pushing the "Object Manipulation Art" to the Perfection Realm.

Considering the hidden danger of pill toxins, he sold all the Low Grade essence food pills he had previously refined to the school.

Afterward, he headed straight to the Alchemy Academy, rented an Intermediate pill room, used the stocked gold spirit rice, enabled a medium-sized Pill Furnace with a volume of six cubic meters, and went all out to refine supreme-grade essence food pills.

One hundred kilograms of gold spirit rice ultimately condensed into one supreme-grade essence food pill containing 100 points of spiritual power, enough to support the Proficient-Rank Heavenly Circulation Method in performing ten complete sessions of Refining Essence into Qi!

Alchemy, circulating the Heavenly Circulation Method, bitterly cultivating the Object Manipulation Art... Zhang Sheng was immersed in this cycle, not only finding it not boring but feeling fulfilled due to the constantly rising proficiency on his talent panel.

The next day, the third open class—"Secret Realm Survival Common Sense"—began.

The instructor was a new female teacher who looked serious, especially when emphasizing the subsequent assessment content.

The slides switched, presenting shocking images: globally, White-Grade and Yellow-Grade Secret Realms were being born at every moment.

Some countries, unable to clear the Secret Realms in time, had outbreaks of the "Seven-Day Disaster."

The descending Yao Beasts fed on humans, causing heavy casualties.

The "Yao Beast Compendium," compiled by China in conjunction with other nations, was updated in real-time, detailing the characteristics of known Yao Beasts and methods to counter them.

Books such as "Secret Realm Environment and Weapon Matching" and "Squad and General Team Tactical Coordination" were all listed as mandatory content. Three days later, there would be a strict written examination.

The total score was 100, and the passing line was as high as 90 points! Once failing, 200 academic credits would be deducted directly! The strictness of the assessment was staggering.

More importantly, the school required students in each class to form squads of no more than seven people to register and participate in the crusade mission of the White-Grade Secret Realm as the second week's weekly exam content—mandatory participation!

"Must participate in the Secret Realm crusade?" As soon as this order was issued, the classroom was in an uproar.

The shadow of the Secret Realm experience from a few days ago still lingered; many students turned pale, and some were even trembling uncontrollably due to excessive fear.

However, this was the survival Law of the First Cultivation University!

Beep, beep—a message popped up: "Team up together, interested?" Sender: Yellow-hair Lin Xiaotian.

Zhang Sheng naturally agreed: "Good! But I want to bring Wu Xingyang; he has a healing Talent, you know."

"No problem! I've also invited An Shenhu on my end."

The four quickly started a group. Lin Xiaotian tapped his finger, and the group name instantly became—"Protecting the Common People."

...

Zhang Sheng thought of his other two roommates and wondered how they were doing.

But for them, perhaps staying away from this dangerous Secret Realm crusade was actually a blessing.

Although he and Fatty had an average impression of An Shenhu, there was no deep hatred.

More importantly, the other party's "Danger Perception" Talent was indeed of extraordinary value.

If he hadn't identified the Yao Spider disguised as a rock in time last time, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

Before registering, the primary task was to formulate a combat plan. The four quickly expressed their opinions in the group.

Two days later.

June 3, 2030.

In front of the school's helicopter platform, Zhang Sheng and his group of four were fully armed, standing solemnly. Their weapon configurations were unique:

Wu Xingyang: carrying a rocket launcher on his shoulder and a semi-automatic rifle at his waist.

Lin Xiaotian: dual-wielding submachine guns, with a fierce Aura.

Zhang Sheng and An Shenhu: their main weapons were both semi-automatic sniper rifles.

"I have a Talent that boosts sniper accuracy, why are you using this too?" An Shenhu looked puzzled.

"Heh," Zhang Sheng's mouth curled slightly, carrying a bit of confident sharpness, "Through diligent study and practice, my marksmanship has already reached the Transcendent Realm. How about we compete to see who kills more Yao Beasts?"

"You're on!" With his Talent, An Shenhu was naturally unafraid.

In addition to the sniper rifle, Zhang Sheng also carried several high-explosive grenades, smoke grenades, and twelve cold-gleaming alloy Flying Daggers purchased from the store.

Thinking that he had bitterly cultivated the "Object Manipulation Art" to the Perfected State over these past few days, Zhang Sheng's heart was burning—no need to chant incantations, with just a circulation of spiritual power, the thought of Object Manipulation could be unleashed in an instant!

The propeller roared deafeningly, and the helicopter carried the four of them, heading straight for the White-Grade Secret Realm numbered "Hebei-0186."

As the helicopter landed, several teams had already gathered at the entrance of the Secret Realm.

Many of them were fellow students from their school.

Aside from Zhang Sheng's class, this Secret Realm crusade was the first real combat in the true sense for all participants!

Facing the slightly nervous group of over one hundred students were more than two hundred armed and stern-faced Armed Police Officers, who would be the safety guarantee for this trip.

"Brother Sheng, with the soldiers here, I feel much more at ease!" Fatty Wu Xingyang could not hide his excitement.

"Only this once," Zhang Sheng reminded, "From now on, we have to rely on ourselves. Here, take two each."

He took out a few Talismans and distributed them to the three.

"This... the vajra talisman that costs 300 academic credits each?!" The three looked at the Talismans in their hands, all shocked.

Zhang Sheng did not clarify that he had made them himself, only saying calmly: "Last mission, the school rewarded us with quite a few academic credits. For safety's sake, I bought a few in advance. Keep them safe."