Chapter 179: Weave Press
<span style="font-weight:400">After a brief moment of thought, Li Lang simply decided to call his new printer artifact, Weave Press. He never liked overthinking names, so he didn’t hesitate and moved on to other matters.
<span style="font-weight:400">There was still a lot waiting for him to do. With the creation of the Weave Press, he needed to run multiple tests on it. He needed to examine the talismans it produced to see how itpared to the ones he handcrafted. Then, he wanted to study the nascent artifact spirit, so that in the future, he could evaluate if the programming method he used produced any differing results from the traditional methods.
<span style="font-weight:400">The first thing on the list didn’t take long, as the mimeograph artifact only took a dozen seconds to print its first talisman. To those familiar with modern printing, it was on the slower end, but Li Lang wasn’t too concerned about that at the moment.
<span style="font-weight:400">When he was designing the artifact, there were many challenges he had to ovee in order for the end result to be able to produce working talismans. Taking the extra few seconds to properlyy out the Qi channels on the talisman wasn’t anything to be concerned about.
<span style="font-weight:400">The crux that solved his issues was the ink that had once saved him in his brushweaving trials. His research had shown that every attempt to incorporate the usual multi-element ink into the design had failed. He chalked it up to the operating system, the artifact spirit, not being able to separate the useful bits of energy like a human cultivator could with their will during the creation process.
<span style="font-weight:400">That’s why every single stencil on his mimeograph machine had toe with a unique drum that had multiplepartments for various inks. Different parts of it were filled with a variety of inks, with the required elements in the relevant section of the talisman.
<span style="font-weight:400">Li Lang found all that extra work he put into its creation had paid off when he found a seemingly average talismaning out of the machine.
<span style="font-weight:400">For the first talisman he nned to print, he decided to pick one he often used. It naturally led to the Warding Talisman being selected.
<span style="font-weight:400">The freshly printed talisman was slightly darker in appearancepared to the regr ones, but Li Lang had enough experience with working with the tree sap inks to find it normal. Still, he didn’t hesitate to have Ruby take in the talisman for further examination. It wasn’t much of a loss at all, as a new one would be printed a dozen secondster. He could try to activate the next one to observe its efficiency.
<span style="font-weight:400">Like this, Li Lang continued deep into the night, testing out his new supply of talismans. He ran every test he could think of, recording every result, so he couldpare it to the regr Warding Talismans.
<span style="font-weight:400">Early the next day, he called out to hispanions during breakfast.
<span style="font-weight:400">“You’re up early,” Long Yi noted as he ate.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Umm, d-did you sleep at a-all, boss?” Wei Ping asked worriedly.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes, I’m fine. I’m nning on heading out of the city for a bit this morning. Do any of you want to join?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Li Lang gave Wei Ping a meaningful look. The young man could understand that this was about another experiment. He had been with Li Lang since that start, when they first recruited their subjects for these tests. What few people knew was that Wei Ping was just as eager to participate in these experiments.
<span style="font-weight:400">To be precise, he wasn’t obsessed with any experiments, other than ones rted to the advancement of cultivation. He, too, had grade-one aptitude. His thirst to break free from the shackles of his natural aptitude could be said to be even greater than Li Lang, who had the fortune of being epted by the Zi family. He knew exactly what it was like to be powerless.
<span style="font-weight:400">It was why Wei Ping was motivated to study like the newly recruited kids. He wanted to be capable enough to handle his role as a research assistant.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Y-yes, I cane.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Sure, why not? I could use the exercise,” Long Yi chimed in.
<span style="font-weight:400">“You boys are going to miss the start of the second day of the auction!” Sima Xue cried.
<span style="font-weight:400">Li Lang shrugged in response, eliciting a sigh from the young Nightmoon Valley girl.
<span style="font-weight:400">“You guys go do what you want, then. I’ll stay and summarize what you missed for you.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You cane too if you’d like,” Li Lang offered. “It’s not like you need to be at the restaurant to watch. Anywhere in the city works, right?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“It’s my duty as a Nightmoon Valley disciple to see this through properly. Besides, I’ll watch over the kids for you guys.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Suit yourself.”
<hr>
<span style="font-weight:400">Li Lang’s little trip to the outskirts of Prity City was a short one. He mainly went outside to confirm the effects of his newly printed talismans.
<span style="font-weight:400">At the same time, with Sima Xue and the kids absent, he took the opportunity to freely share the details regarding histest creations with his twopanions.
<span style="font-weight:400">“You mean to say that this stack of talismans here is something you created overnight?” Long Yi skeptically muttered as he examined therge stack of talisman paper. “This stuff is worth at least ten Qi stones each, right? No, the store sells them for like fifty. Doesn’t this make you rich!?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“It doesn’t work like that. There is the cost and supply of the materials to worry about. Plus, if we’re to flood the market with all these Warding Talismans, the prices wille down. We’ll also draw the wrong kind of attention if we don’t distribute them discreetly. However, first things first. We need to verify how effective they arepared to traditionally crafted talismans.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“B-boss, we should still look for a s-safe ce to live before you print t-too many talismans. It’s inevitable people w-will find out if you’re looking t-to profit from this.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hmm, we’ll work out the logistics and business aspect of itter, but you’re right. It hurts to know we have the perfect ce already, but it’s just that it’s too dangerous to reach it as we are currently. We need to speed up our cultivation progress once we get back.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I k-know. I’ve beengging behind as well.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Even after all this time, the trio’s cultivation hadn’t changed that much since they exited from the pocket realm. Long Yi was still at the peak of Energy Gathering, in the ninth stage, while Li Lang and Wei Ping were in the eighth and seventh stages respectively.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hmm, the timing lines up perfectly,” Li Lang voiced. “We’ll need to start researching ways for us to safely breakthrough to Foundation Establishment as well. Long Yi is one thing with his grade three aptitude. For us, we’ll have to rely on the kids to test various methods.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Do you h-have any direction to look into, boss?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Not exactly yet. We still haven’t looked into Foundation Pills or the Ascension Pills. Hopefully, we’ll find something when we do. However, I think I’ve recently felt my bottleneck loosening with the creation of an artifact. Looking at how crafts assist in cultivation should be a good direction, as well.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You two sound like you’ll be busy,” Long Yimented. “I can help with taking care of the kids, but not much else. After we return, I n to focus all my time on tackling the final step to Foundation Establishment, if you don’t mind.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“That’s what we want. I did say we’ll be focusing on our cultivation next. It’s better to have you step into the next realm sooner rather thanter. There’s plenty of useful information to derive from your breakthrough.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hey,e on now. I’m not going to be trying out any of your untested ideas when the timees.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Don’t worry. I’m not that reckless. I wouldn’t propose anything to you that I don’t think would work.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Mhmm, sure.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Li Lang’s words earned him a skeptical re from his giant of a friend. The trio didn’t dwell on the matter too much, as they curiously inspected the result of the talisman. While they didn’t exactly have a Qi beast on hand to test its effectiveness, they had the capability of observing the distant Qi beasts and how they reacted.
<span style="font-weight:400">There was a lot to find out, but their tests didn’tst too long. By noon, the trio returned to the city and reunited with Sima Xue, the children they left behind, and the bunch of Nightmoon Valley disciples at the restaurant from the previous day.
<span style="font-weight:400">Additionally, there was one new party. It was the white-haired genius, Liang Po.
<span style="font-weight:400">His eyes shone as soon as he saw Li Lang.
<span style="font-weight:400">“You personally delivered the letter, correct?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes, and as I suspected, it was plenty of trouble. Next time—”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Then you were able to see Run?” the white-haired youth interrupted. “Did she write a reply?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“She sure did. Only verbally, though. However, before I ry it to you, I want to make it clear I won’t be delivering any replies for you. This was a one-time thing.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Li Lang had aplished what he needed in the righteous territory. He had recruited students and gained some clues on how to find the Abductress. There was no reason for him to travel there anymore within a short period.
<span style="font-weight:400">For the foreseeable future, he nned to hole up in the Luminescent Domain, umting wealth, and building up a stronghold to carry out his experiments in.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, yeah. I understand. Just tell me her message already!”
<span style="font-weight:400">Seeing the fervor from the normally carefree Liang Po, Li Lang began to realize something was amiss. He still dutifully recited the message he had been entrusted. It resulted in Liang Po unleashing a creepy smile as he chuckled to himself.
<span style="font-weight:400">It was only then that he began to make a realization.
<em><span style="font-weight:400">Wait? Is he in a rtionship with that Yan Run? Does that mean this dumb couple got me to ry their love letters?</em>
<span style="font-weight:400">Li Lang was stunned speechless upon arriving at that fact sote.