Divine Tang Era

Chapter 117 The Spirit Child Arrives in July

Xu Dan carefully studied the method of controlling the envoy until he had memorized it all and practiced it in his mind before putting it away.

The technique itself isn't difficult; all it takes is imprinting a mark on the spirit child's soul, and then they will obey and be controlled. However, one cannot resist the imprinting process, otherwise it will fail, or worse, it will harm oneself. This is why his cultivation level is currently low; if it were higher, he could simply force the soul imprint onto the spirit child.

With preparations nearly complete, Xu Dan took out the possession token from the Hidden Mystery Cauldron and summoned the spirit child.

As soon as the child appeared, he looked at him with clear but foolish eyes.

After not seeing him for a while, the little guy's body has become even more solid.

He beckoned to him, and the child walked over curiously, standing in front of him and looking at him with wide eyes. His gaze was like that of a newborn infant, innocent and full of curiosity about the unknown world. Xu Dan patted his head, and the little guy closed his eyes contentedly.

At that moment, Xu Dan made hand seals and cast a spell, drawing a wisp of divine soul to imprint a mark deep within his soul.

The speed was incredibly fast. The child seemed to sense something, opened his eyes, but found nothing. He innocently looked at Xu Dan.

Xu Dan felt somewhat embarrassed and ashamed under their gaze, but he had no choice but to comply. The Soul Imprint was not only a means of control and communication, but also provided considerable assistance to the spirit child.

The mark was imprinted, and in the darkness, Xu Dan felt as if a thread connected them, creating a strange ties between them. Although he could already control the spirit child, it wasn't time for him to do anything. If he wanted to farm, he needed to provide him with clothes and tools.

Although the reincarnated child can walk in the sunlight, he is still essentially a soul.

Unlike ghosts, they are not afraid of sunlight.

Therefore, the clothing and tools needed for a lama are not ordinary items; they must undergo a ritual before they can be used. The methods for this ritual are described in books, but require clothing, tools, and other items. These items are also graded; generally, they are paper offerings, which can be worn after ritual, but paper offerings are easily damaged.

The rest are cloth, metal, and other materials, just like those of a living person, which can be worn after being refined through rituals.

Paper crafts are not only easily damaged, but also susceptible to water and fire hazards, so Xu Dan never even considered them. Besides, ready-made clothes aren't expensive; they're readily available in ordinary clothing stores.

Xu Dan bought three sets, one for the child spirit and two as spares. As for the tools, he had a blacksmith make them according to the style the child would use. Whether it was cloth or ironware, as long as it was refined through ritual, the child spirit could use it. However, compared to paper offerings, cloth and ironware were more difficult to refine, especially ironware.

It can be said that the harder and more durable something is, the more difficult it is to refine.

According to the book, there are two methods of ritual purification:

One method is blood refinement, which uses one's own blood as a catalyst and runes as an aid in the refining process. Because a mark has already been placed on the spirit child, anything refined using one's own blood can also be used by the spirit child, making it very suitable for cultivators who have not yet developed divine consciousness.

The second method is divine refinement, which involves using the power of one's soul to envelop and refine objects.

The second method requires the spirit to reach a certain level; otherwise, it is difficult to succeed.

There is actually another type of fire refining, but Xu Dan cannot refine his Qi, so he cannot cultivate true fire within his body and therefore cannot refine it. So Xu Dan chose divine refining, and since he has recently succeeded in nourishing his spirit and his divine soul power has increased, he also wants to give it a try.

So he took out the clothes he had bought and wrapped them with his spiritual power.

The clothes slowly rose from my hands and floated in front of me.

The power of his divine soul washed and refined the clothing, gradually removing its mortal essence. While refining it, Xu Dan mentally manipulated runes, imprinting them onto the garments. Both the runes and the refining process were crucial; not a single step could be wrong.

Xu Dan carefully controlled his divine soul power, refining it little by little and imprinting runes bit by bit, while his divine soul power was gradually consumed.

He was too happy too soon, thinking that his recent cultivation had been successful and that he would have more than enough time to refine clothes and tools.

But when it came to the ritual, it became clear that there was no surplus; in fact, it was far from enough.

After a while, his spiritual power was almost exhausted. Xu Dan's face was pale, and large beads of sweat dripped from his forehead. The refining process had reached its final step, and he couldn't afford to give up now. With a determined heart, he poured all the remaining spiritual power into it.

"Buzz"

With his mind blank, Xu Dan collapsed onto the bed and fainted.

Because of the excessive exertion, his divine soul was exhausted, leaving him listless and his face turning deathly pale. Even after fainting, his brows were furrowed, and he looked pained.

Fortunately, the refining process had reached its final stage, and with the addition of the remaining divine soul power, the clothes suddenly emitted a dazzling light, then subsided and returned to their original state, landing in front of Xu Dan, but seemingly with a strange change.

The soft moonlight shone through the window and fell on Xu Dan. As if drawn by something, it flew into his brow like birds returning to their nests.

Within the divine court, the golden lotus protects the divine soul.

The moonlight that flew in landed on the lotus petals, where it was refined and then absorbed by the divine soul.

His weakened soul, which had been weakened by the refining of clothing, began to recover as it was replenished by the power of the moonlight. Xu Dan's deathly pale face gradually regained its color, his expression was no longer in pain, and his furrowed brows relaxed.

"Hmm"

When Xu Dan woke up the next day, he felt a headache. He rubbed his temples and felt a little better.

He thought refining clothing would be as simple as drinking water or eating, but he never expected it to almost cost him his life. This is no ordinary task; he overestimated himself. It seems he can't refine clothing tools anytime soon. He'd better wait until his spiritual power improves further, or he'll be in serious trouble.

Fortunately, the clothes were already finished; otherwise, after spending so much effort and still not succeeding, I would have been devastated.

He picked up the clothes that had fallen in front of him, looked at them, thought they were nice, and gave them to the spirit child.

The child, dressed in the new clothes, touched them all with great curiosity, looking as happy as a fool. Seeing his joy, Xu Dan felt that all his efforts that night hadn't been in vain.

For the next period of time, he devoted himself to cultivating his divine soul and refining clothing and tools.

During this time, he even went to the market to buy a bunch of seeds, and together with the spirit boy, they cleared a plot of land inside the Hidden Mystic Cauldron, teaching him how to plant vegetables, how to water them, and how to fertilize them. He had to be taught, because the spirit boy didn't know how to do it.

In addition, the preparations for opening the shop are almost complete, but I heard that things are not going well in Jingning in July, so I plan to wait until after July to make a decision.

July arrived amidst his busy schedule.

As July arrived, the atmosphere in Jingning City became noticeably tense. The county government began distributing talismans, exorcising powder, and low-grade spirit charms free of charge to poor families and widowers and the elderly.

Xu Dan was also fortunate enough to receive it, but he resolutely refused the gold juice.

You'd be better off just letting yourself pee fresh, since that doesn't even have a smell.

Not only the county government was distributing them, but some wealthy families also took out the talismans they had bought, such as exorcism talismans, house-protecting talismans, evil-repelling talismans, and protective amulets, to give to their relatives, friends, acquaintances, and the poor and lonely.

Besides the wealthy, neighbors would also exchange talismans, pills, and other items to ward off evil spirits.

Xu Dan also received some, but didn't have anything to give back, so he took out some crispy dried fish to replenish their qi and blood, so that they wouldn't feel weak and helpless when they encountered ghosts and wouldn't know how to run away, which really made people laugh and cry.