Journey to the West: The Mountain Shaker

Chapter 21 The Tester

"What kind of behavior is this!"

Emerging from within the rock face was a withered, emaciated old Taoist priest with a wisp of beard and a full head of white hair. Seeing the mess on the ground, the old priest became even angrier and pointed at a middle-aged man in the distance, saying, "Thirteenth Brother, take these bastards away and punish them with twenty strokes of the cane! If they come to cause trouble in front of the gate again, beat them all to death!"

No one dared to speak, and without waiting for the middle-aged man to come over, they all lowered their heads and took the initiative to accept the punishment. Cai Fei, on the other hand, did not panic, but quietly moved into the rock wall.

The pungent smell of sulfur and burnt wood hit us, and inside the rock wall was another stone cave, several dozen feet in diameter.

Compared to the outside, this place can only be described as chaotic and disorderly. The stone walls are scarred and ravaged, the eastern rock wall is charred black, the stalagmites on the west side are all broken, and the ground is covered with water stains, ice marks, fire ash, and debris, making it impossible to find a place to put your feet.

Cai Fei tiptoed to avoid a pool of smoldering green liquid, his gaze fixed on the depths of the cave.

There are caves within caves. At the very back of the stone cave is a crescent-shaped door. The crescent-shaped stone door glows with the faint light of an array. An isolation array is set up at the entrance, and a large cleansing array is set up inside the door, making the interior exceptionally clean.

The interior is clearly divided into two sections: the apprentice area on the left and three secret rooms on the right.

In the apprentice area, various materials were neatly arranged, and more than a dozen talisman-making tables were arranged in a nine-palace eight-trigram pattern—more than twenty talisman-making apprentices were holding their breath and concentrating on drawing talismans.

However, Cai Fei's gaze was fixed on the secret room area—outside the very center secret room, there were two men wearing yellow and black striped Taoist robes guarding the outside, who were none other than the Chen family cultivators!

Noticing the people coming from outside, one of the Chen family cultivators turned his head and glanced at Cai Fei, then turned back without expression.

It was here after all!

That secret room in the middle is for Kong Fande's exclusive use!

In Cai Fei's understanding, even old Taoist priests rarely entered, so how could Chen Xuanbiao possibly get in?

Cai Fei was surprised, but he was there to do business, so he glanced at the person and then looked away.

It was obvious at a glance that the place inside was where talismans were made, and Cai Fei's location was a testing point for talismans.

In fact, although this place is small, it is one of the foundations of the Confucius family.

The Kong family of Sushan is famous for its talismans. This place is the training ground for apprentices. All the Kong family's talisman-making apprentices learn here, and the old Taoist priest who opened the door is the talisman master in charge of this place.

Since it is a test point, it naturally needs a tester.

Some talismans can be tested in the air, such as the common fire talisman, ice arrow talisman, and earth shield talisman... However, the feedback will be better if someone is there to test them.

Another type of talisman, such as the entanglement talisman, the acupoint shock talisman, the invisibility talisman, etc., must be tested on living people, preferably people with mixed dantian, the more mixed the better.

This is a technical job because the talisman maker needs feedback. The more detailed the experience of the person testing the talisman and the more accurate the description, the better it will be for the next improvement.

Cai Fei volunteered at the age of ten to become a talisman tester. He would come here to suffer every seven days and earn five or six thousand coins a year from this. For a young cultivator, this was a side income that wouldn't attract envy.

At the same time, he also took the opportunity to curry favor with the old Taoist priest who passed on talismans, and learned all of his skills over the past eight years.

After the old Taoist priest vented his anger, he returned to the cave, and the rock walls closed again, shutting out all smells and sounds from outside.

"Arrived early?" The old Taoist priest walked through the debris towards the inner cave, instructing, "Today is the day the restrictions are lifted. A group of people ran back from the mountains to hear the announcement and brought over a lot of materials. The monkeys will be busy. But you shouldn't get involved. It's like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut for you to work with these first-tier materials. Next time someone arrives early, they can follow the thirteenth elder to make some second-tier materials; that way, they won't waste their time."

"It's nothing, I just help out when I'm free," Cai Fei said with a smile, standing right in the middle of the outer cave, waiting for the apprentices to come out and try out the talismans.

According to the rules, the talismans that do not harm people are given priority. The first student took out an Entangling Talisman, which is the most commonly used enemy-trapping talisman by wood-type cultivators.

The talisman struck Cai Fei, and immediately eight vines stretched out of thin air, binding Cai Fei like a rice dumpling. He fell to the ground with a "bang." Countless tiny branches growing from the main vine burrowed into Cai Fei's body, causing a mix of numbness and itching pain all over his body, as if countless fire ants were gnawing at his limbs.

His mother is still infected with the virus!

Just as Cai Fei was about to struggle, all his senses suddenly vanished, and the vines disintegrated on their own, scattering like dead snakes on the ground.

"You changed the score? The new one is score number 27, right?" Cai Fei turned over and stood up, patting himself as he asked. Before giving feedback, he needed to confirm the score.

Each family's library contains a certain lineage of talismans, recording the successful experiences of their predecessors. The Kong family's library was naturally not open to Cai Fei, but due to their kinship, the old Taoist priest treated him like a teacher and friend, and showed him most of the talisman manuals.

The entwined talisman is a common item, and the Kong family collection records sixty-four different ways of its construction, which Cai Fei already knew by heart.

Sure enough, the student nodded.

Cai Fei turned to look at the old Taoist standing to the side. Seeing the old Taoist nodding and smiling, he said directly, "If I remember correctly, the gold sand used in this manual is mixed with Six-One Mud. The reason why these vines were soft but not tough just now is that the Six-One Mud in the talisman was not activated."

Cai Fei squatted down and tore the two vines at his feet to pieces. Sure enough, both vines had accumulated gray mud.

"You still need to work on coordinating your spiritual energy," the old Taoist priest said, reprimanding the student. "Wood overcomes earth, and you are primarily a wood elementalist. When you mobilize your energy, you are unconsciously suppressing earth spirits. Think about this problem carefully, or you'll be sleeping dead in a pile of talisman ashes!"

"Yes."

The student wiped his sweat and retreated, then took another one, this time with an invisibility talisman.

Cai Fei took the talisman, channeled his spiritual power into it, and a ripple appeared in the air. Cai Fei's body disappeared, but not completely. A vague outline of his figure remained in the air. After about a breath, the talisman collapsed, and drops of pinkish swamp-like substance fell to the ground.

The spell disappeared, and Cai Fei reappeared, his whole body hunched over like a shrimp, his waist and abdomen spasming in several places, and drops of blood dripped from his nose to the ground, taking a while to calm down.

With a loud "smack!", before anyone could react, the old Taoist's palm struck down with the force of wind and thunder. The apprentice staggered and crashed into the rock wall, blood trickling from the corner of his lips.

"This is the fifth time, fucking!" The old Taoist priest's fingertip almost poked into the apprentice's eye socket. "Enough ingredients to feed your whole family for a year, and this is all you get in return?"

The apprentice's eyes instantly reddened, and he bit his lip, remaining silent for a while before finally bowing his head and apologizing, "I'm sorry, Master."

It's no wonder the old Taoist was angry. Aolai is barren, and materials are hard to come by. The Concealment Talisman is considered a relatively high-grade item among first-tier talismans. Each one requires at least dozens of spirit stones to make. Judging from his performance, he is still a long way from success.

"You've added a bit too much 'Sandberry Juice' to this talisman," Cai Fei commented, wiping away his nosebleed. "More 'Sandberry Juice' is good for concealment, but too much makes the formation a bit sluggish... um... it's stagnant. The spiritual energy keeps getting stuck after it enters. Specifically, the water elemental energy got stuck at the third loop point, and the wind elemental energy can't get through at the seventh connection point..."

After he finished his rambling, the old Taoist priest scolded him a few more times: "Go back and reflect on your actions. Think things through before you start again. If you don't improve next time, you might as well give up on training!"

After scolding him, the old Taoist called out the next student and casually gave Cai Fei a healing spell.

Cai Fei covered his nose and stood up. After resting for a while, he had to face the attack of the fire talisman again...

An hour later, when the embers of the last fireball fell, Cai Fei was unrecognizable—his face was bruised and swollen, his body was covered in dirt, his clothes were charred, and his skin was covered in bruises. He was in a terrible state.

However, he was in high spirits, his eyes were bright, and he was staring at the various materials neatly piled up inside the cave.