Chapter 2: Fortune Guiding Talisman

Within the various cave abodes of Beast Slave Peak where demon beasts were kept, all sorts of beasts were locked inside iron cages.

Demon beasts were classified into spirit beasts, barbarian beasts, divine beasts, and other categories. Among them, spirit beasts, like humans, possessed innate intelligence and would transform into human form at a certain age. Barbarian beasts had low intelligence but powerful combat strength; they only gained intelligence after reaching certain grades of cultivation, and could then shapeshift.

Those imprisoned here were primarily spirit beasts and barbarian beasts, mostly in their beast forms, though a few still maintained human form.

In one isolated cave abode sealed with a barrier, a humanoid demon beast was imprisoned.

This humanoid demon beast had the appearance of a human woman. What set her apart was her fiery red hair and eyes the color of rubies. Combined with her rich, gorgeous features, her beauty was peerless and extreme, like a fully bloomed Golden Core of Fire.

Her neck and limbs were bound by thick chains. The clothes on her body were tattered, revealing many scars on her back. Whip marks also crisscrossed her long legs, creating a sharp contrast with her skin, which was like lustrous jade. These marks added a fragile, breakable quality to her.

This was precisely the spirit beast Cinnabar Bird Demon, Tantai Linlang, whom Huo Zhi was looking for.

Inside the cage stood another figure, a human cultivator, a woman in her twenties wearing a pink dress.

Looking at Linlang’s appearance, a strange light flickered in her eyes.

“As expected of the most gorgeous Cinnabar Bird Demon in the Demon Realm, such looks could almost enchant my very soul. But no matter how beautiful you are, you’re nothing but a feathered beast. Hmph!” The woman in pink held a long needle and muttered under her breath. The needle in her hand then plunged into the spot directly over Linlang’s heart.

As it was withdrawn, with Linlang’s body giving a slight spasm, the needle drew out a drop of blood, which flew onto a yellow talisman in the pink-clad woman’s other hand.

The pink-clad woman watched the blood trace the talisman seal pattern on the yellow talisman, her eyes trembling with excitement and greed.

How could she not be excited?

The sect leader and several Elders had used every form of torture on Linlang, yet none had pried out any news of the Inherited Spirit Talisman. They had practically given up, which was what gave her the opportunity to see Linlang.

The pink-clad woman was the granddaughter of a Sky Mist Sect Elder. She had a Late Foundation Establishment Stage cultivation. During a trial, she had fortuitously obtained the Love Poison Talisman, which could make a person obey commands unconditionally.

She had read in an ancient text about the unique nature of red-pupiled demon beasts. Wanting to take a gamble, she took advantage of the other Elders’ absence and used her status to dismiss the guards of Beast Slave Peak.

Right now, the Love Poison Child Talisman had already been used on Linlang. As long as the Mother Talisman was infused with Linlang’s Essence Blood and she then absorbed the Mother Talisman to take Linlang’s Primordial Yin, she could completely control her.

The secret treasure of Linlang, which even the sect leader coveted, would then be hers!

The yellow talisman absorbed Linlang’s blood. The blood spread along the talisman’s lines, gradually diffusing, and emitted a faint red light.

“Su’er…” A hoarse voice rang out. It came from Linlang’s mouth. The woman in pink looked at Linlang in the cage. She saw Linlang staring back at her with crimson pupils—a red so eerie it carried a sense of dead stillness. The hoarse voice was utterly cold and ruthless.

“You feathered beast, how dare you call me by name! Such insolence! Just wait… I’ll make you beg me through your tears…” The woman called Su’er looked at Linlang with a strange smile.

Once the Love Poison Mother Talisman was absorbed and began to be activated, Linlang, who had been struck with the Child Talisman, would enter a heat cycle, her target being the person who had absorbed the Mother Talisman.

Weakened as she was, and bound by chains, Linlang would naturally be at Su’er’s mercy.

Su’er detested demon beasts. She naturally wouldn’t treat Linlang like a human Dao Companion. She only needed to use her hand to extract Linlang’s Primordial Yin and absorb it.

Watching this extremely cold, beautiful creature weep and beg for mating would have its own unique flavor.

As Linlang looked at Su’er’s expression, it was as if a red flame had ignited within her eyes.

No one knew that inside Linlang’s body, a weak and timid pure white orb of light was merging with a sinister, viscous, dark red orb that had appeared out of nowhere. Little by little, the pure white was being assimilated into dark red.

This sudden appearance of dark red light was a strand of Origin Soul belonging to the Linlang who had died many years later.

It was only after her death that Linlang learned she had been afflicted by the Love Poison Talisman, which was why she had become so devoted to that faithless, heartless man. She had given him her Inherited Spirit Talisman, selflessly handed over every fortunate encounter she found, and obeyed his every command. For him, she forgot her revenge, neglected her cultivation, even watched her own sister die a violent death, and finally sacrificed her own life for him.

Her life had been stupid and muddled, miserable with no one to pity her.

After death, her lucid Origin Soul, carrying hatred for the Heavenly Dao and the world, cultivated for hundreds of years in Youdu Ghost City. Her obsession transformed into a Devil, and during her heavenly tribulation, her soul was scattered and her spirit destroyed.

She never expected to open her eyes again and find herself back in that iron cage in the Sky Mist Sect.

The pain in her body, and Su’er before her—one of the enemies she wanted to flay, debone, and refine the soul of—confirmed it. She had truly returned to the moment she first entered the Sky Mist Sect!

Although this strand of Origin Soul was incomplete, not even a ten-thousandth of the cultivation she had amassed in the Ghost Domain, it carried her memories and her obsession.

Right now, Linlang’s body was extremely weak from torture, nearly immobile. The last thread of Spiritual Qi was solely used to maintain her human form—a final act of self-preservation after a demon beast was captured.

The feathers of a Cinnabar Bird Demon made excellent material for Talisman Brushes. Once in beast form, human cultivators would cleanly dismantle their feathers, bones, and blood.

Out of a treasuring of their feathers, as long as they had a single thread of Spiritual Qi within human cultivator territory, Cinnabar Bird Demons would strive to maintain human form.

Human form could also make human cultivators slightly more mindful, seeing a resemblance to their own kind. Or, they might be bewitched by the beauty of the transformed human form, offering a chance at self-rescue.

This was a bloody lesson learned by the Cinnabar Bird Demon clan.

With her previous life’s memories, after verification, Linlang naturally knew that the Su’er before her wanted to absorb the Love Poison Mother Talisman infused with her Essence Blood.

According to the sequence in her memory, it was not yet Su’er’s turn to absorb this talisman.

Just as expected, before Linlang’s Essence Blood had finished suffusing the talisman seal patterns on the Love Poison Mother Talisman, a man in the gray robes of a menial disciple crept over stealthily. In his hand was a golden talisman with an arrow that swiveled to point in a specific direction.

Seeing that golden light, Linlang knew who had arrived.

Linlang’s expression was cold. The fiery light in her crimson pupils seemed about to burst forth. The Heavenly Dao had let her be reborn, but at this very moment—possessing memories without the matching cultivation to resist. Did it want her to experience that kind of humiliating agony once more?

That gray-robed man was named Mo Zhenfeng. He was precisely the male lead of this book. In her previous life, he had been the holder of the Love Poison Mother Talisman, and the very man Linlang had foolishly loved with all her devotion.

When Huo Zhi jumped into the cave abode on Beast Slave Peak where demon beasts were imprisoned, she saw him and recognized him immediately.

That Fortune Guiding Talisman, shimmering with golden light and bearing a golden arrow that could flexibly change direction, was the male lead’s special cheat. It pointed toward the strongest fortunate encounter within dozens of miles, and also warned of danger. Relying on this, the male lead had scavenged his way to becoming the strongest Talisman Master in the world, acting without restraint.

The novel’s description of the Fortune Guiding Talisman only said it was an arrow. As for what the arrow looked like, it was not described in detail.

The arrow on the talisman in Mo Zhenfeng’s hand had smooth, slightly plump lines and golden hidden patterns on its body. The slightly curved, pointed tail and the arrowhead swiveled back and forth together. The more Huo Zhi looked, the more familiar it seemed. How was this thing so similar to the design drafts she had drawn?

Had the original author seen her design drafts? Or was it an accidental overlap?

Huo Zhi was puzzled but did not slow down. Mo Zhenfeng was conveniently leading the way. She just had to follow him closely.

Fortunately, Mo Zhenfeng’s cultivation wasn’t high, and Huo Zhi’s body was small and light, so she wasn’t discovered.

After turning several corners, Huo Zhi followed Mo Zhenfeng to the cave abode where Linlang was imprisoned separately. Mo Zhenfeng broke through the barrier and entered. Huo Zhi rushed in just before the barrier sealed itself again.

After entering, Huo Zhi saw at a glance the woman inside a massive iron cage, her body covered in wounds, her crimson eyes blazing like fire.

This was Linlang?!

The original novel hadn’t described Linlang’s appearance in much detail. It only said she was a spirit beast who could shapeshift into human form even at a low cultivation. She was only eighteen when she appeared. After being hit by the Love Poison Talisman, she became devoted to the male lead, pleasing him in every way. The male lead treated her like a servant or a slave.

Huo Zhi had assumed she was a silly, plain-looking, love-struck girl. She never imagined Linlang’s human form could be so breathtakingly gorgeous. That image was a celestial painting even she, as an artist, could never have drawn.

“Damn, my daughter is this beautiful, and the male lead is blind?! Peh, it’s a good thing he was blind!” Huo Zhi cursed inwardly as she hurried to keep up.

In this same cave abode, Huo Zhi also saw the other woman, Su’er.

The talisman emitting red light in her hand was precisely the Love Poison Mother Talisman.

Seeing the appearance of the Mother Talisman, confusion rose in Huo Zhi again. This pattern was far too familiar. It looked like a retro, ornate key, carved with complex lines.

The arrow from before could be argued as a simple design that might coincidentally overlap. But this Love Poison Mother Talisman—wasn’t this something she had designed?!

Her original concept was that the so-called Love Poison Talisman was like a lock that sealed the affected person’s heart. The key pattern of the Mother Talisman had teeth capable of unlocking it, creating a bond between the two.

The creative pattern was exactly the same!

No way?!

A hypothesis formed in Huo Zhi’s mind, but she had no time to analyze it. Mo Zhenfeng was already making his move.

Mo Zhenfeng naturally saw the situation inside. He was dazed by Linlang’s appearance for a moment, but the Fortune Guiding Talisman flickered, snapping him back to his senses. It was pointing directly at the talisman emitting red light in Su’er’s hand! Although he didn’t know what that talisman was, Fortune Guiding Talisman had never been wrong. Whatever it was, he just had to snatch it. His appearance and aura were disguised; he wasn’t afraid of being recognized.

So the moment he noticed it, Mo Zhenfeng acted. He held a talisman between his fingers and infused it with Spiritual Qi. Once charged, the talisman immediately released several transparent threads of Spiritual Qi that flew toward the Love Poison Mother Talisman in Su’er’s hand.

The threads formed the shape of a hand mid-air, seizing the Love Poison Talisman. Su’er, who had been intensely focused on the talisman, never imagined it would vanish from her hand in an instant. By the time she looked toward Mo Zhenfeng, the Love Poison Mother Talisman was already being pulled to mid-air.

Furious, Su’er hurriedly tried to snatch it back, using a Wind Blade Talisman to sever the “hand” Mo Zhenfeng was using to hold the Love Poison Talisman. The two streams of Spiritual Qi collided in the air.

Before a victor could be decided, a white figure leaped over three meters high, collided with the Love Poison Mother Talisman in mid-air, and seized it with its padded paws.

That white figure was none other than Huo Zhi.

While still airborne, the sharp claws hidden within her two padded paws pressed the talisman between them, rubbing and tearing fiercely.

The talisman, which Su’er wouldn’t have dared even to crease, was ravaged by Huo Zhi until its runes were blurred. The high-grade demon beast hide talisman paper was torn to shreds.

Huo Zhi let out a long breath. Destroying the Love Poison Mother Talisman—at least that was one thing accomplished…

Just as this thought arose, she saw a red-glowing blood pattern shoot into her body with a whoosh, vanishing. Simultaneously, a red light also flashed on Linlang’s body inside the cage.

“…No way?!” Huo Zhi froze. Why did it feel like she had absorbed the Mother Talisman!

She remembered that once talisman paper was destroyed, the talisman became useless. What was different about Mother-Child Talismans?

“Um, Host, the Love Poison Talisman has been activated. You have truly been afflicted by it!” 006 responded at just the right moment.

“Which Fox Demon is that?! Return my talisman!” Just as Huo Zhi heard 006’s words, she also heard Su’er’s angry shout.

Seeing that her talisman had been absorbed by a Fox Demon, Su’er was furious and directed her Wind Blades at Huo Zhi.

Mo Zhenfeng frowned deeply. Since obtaining the Fortune Guiding Talisman, there had never been anything he failed to snatch. This was the first time.

He felt some regret at not getting the talisman. Judging by the situation, the talisman had already bound itself to that Fox Demon.

But what excited Mo Zhenfeng was that the Fortune Guiding Talisman was glowing even brighter than before, pointing squarely at that Fox Demon!

The talisman had never been this bright before!

The talisman was stolen, but wasn’t there an even greater fortunate encounter here?!

That Fox Demon had absorbed the talisman, making her the most valuable fortune on the scene, even more so than the talisman from before!

This seemingly weak Fox Demon might also be a formidable species, possibly possessing a powerful Lifebound Beast Rune Talisman. The combined fortune of both would be even greater.

Mo Zhenfeng looked at Huo Zhi with greed in his eyes. Without hesitation, he activated another talisman and aimed it at Huo Zhi.