Chapter 3: Blade Shadow Mantis (Part 2)

The flesh, blood, and soul of the Blade Shadow Mantis were completely devoured by the Dark-Winged Demon Scorpion, leaving its shell intact. Although the essence of this Blade Shadow Mantis was lost, its shell was still excellent material for crafting talismans. If obtained by low-level spellcasters, it might be used to create numerous low-grade talismans, but advanced casters had different plans—in their eyes, this massive Blade Shadow Mantis shell could at most be used to craft one or two talismans.

Monier watched curiously as Guo Shieru took out the Blade Shadow Mantis’ shell and couldn’t help asking, “Will we refine it directly?”
Guo Shieru shook his head. “No, there’s one more crucial step.” At that moment, his Life Talisman Ball appeared above his chest.
He tapped the Life Talisman Ball lightly, and a pale green dot flew out, instantly expanding into a square-shaped talisman. Monier watched intently but couldn’t identify it—such a large talisman was rare; it was about a meter long and half a meter wide, pale green in color, with countless rune-like symbols the size of ants scattered across its surface.

Guo Shieru made the large talisman float above the Blade Shadow Mantis’ shell and chanted several spells in succession, activating the runes on it. Instantly, countless threads descended from the talisman and extended toward the shell.
Guo Shieru gave a sharp command, “Absorb!”
The inherent runes on the Blade Shadow Mantis’ shell rose along the descending threads. Gradually, a translucent image of a Blade Shadow Mantis appeared, entirely composed of those runes.

Monier gasped in shock. “It’s stripping the power of the runes!”
After chanting a few more spells, Guo Shieru ordered again, “Transfer!”
The translucent runes were immediately drawn into the green talisman. On that green talisman, an image of a Blade Shadow Mantis appeared—also made of runes—and retained the wounds from its death, where the runes were damaged.

Guo Shieru said, “Good! It’s going smoothly. The next step is to repair the runes.” He then chanted hundreds of spells. The image of the Blade Shadow Mantis on the green talisman became increasingly complete, and the damaged runes at the wounds gradually recovered.

Monier smiled bitterly. “It’s actually an Ancient Absorption Pattern Talisman—impressive!”
A moment later, Guo Shieru extracted all the runes from the Blade Shadow Mantis and successfully transplanted them onto the Ancient Absorption Pattern Talisman. He sighed in relief. “It’s really effective. Hehe, Master, this is the first time I’ve used it on a large mutated talisman insect. I’ve only tested it a few times before. It seems my Ancient Absorption Pattern Talismans are quite successful.”

He waved his hand to pull the Ancient Absorption Pattern Talisman back into his Life Talisman Ball, then began crafting the core of an Ancient Insect Talisman.

A mass of deep purple talismanic fire flew out from his life talisman sphere and landed directly on the massive shell of the Blade Shadow Mantis. Then, Guo Shieru cast countless spells to control the burning of the talismanic fire, while simultaneously tapping his life talisman sphere—several materials flew out one by one and fell into the flames.

Guo Shieru only had a few pieces of this deep purple talismanic fire; this was one of the two he had reserved and rarely used. This time, worried about a failed refinement process, he decided to use it. Using such high-quality talismanic fire could greatly increase the chances of success.

The runes on the Blade Shadow Mantis’ shell had already been forcibly absorbed, leaving behind only the bare shell. Under Guo Shieru’s control, the purple talismanic fire wouldn’t burn the shell instantly. Without control, given the intense heat of the purple talismanic fire, the shell, now unprotected by runes, would instantly turn to ashes.

This refinement process was meant to burn away impurities from the shell and extract its essence—what was known as the ancient purification method.

Guo Shieru was deeply obsessed with and passionate about various talismanic skills, but he lacked the time to experiment. If it weren’t for discovering the eggs of the Blade Shadow Mantis, he wouldn’t have thought of refining talismans. This opportunity was truly rare—eggs of mutated talismanic insects had a chance of giving birth to abnormal ones. In the secret realm, such abnormal creatures, whether talismanic beasts or insects, were extremely scarce. Such a chance must not be missed.

As the scorching sound continued, the rising smoke carried a foul odor. Monier waved her hand casually to disperse the smoke. The seven-meter-long shell of the Blade Shadow Mantis gradually turned into a grayish-white liquid, about the size of a football, continuing to shrink, though at a slower pace.

Guo Shieru carefully tapped his life talisman sphere, and a fist-sized piece of metal fell into the talismanic fire.

Monier saw it clearly and asked, “Is it Bodhi Gold?”

Guo Shieru replied, “It’s Bodhi Pure Gold. Hehe, I stole it from my master.” Ninety-nine percent of his materials came from his master’s talisman-making hall. Kuumu never questioned what he took; he was only told to pay attention to collecting various materials when going to the secret realm.

The Bodhi Pure Gold fell into the purple talismanic fire and turned into droplets of molten metal, quickly merging into the liquid mass. Then, Guo Shieru took out the talisman bead obtained from the Green Blade Mantis and added it to the fire.

As more and more materials were added, the liquid mass stopped shrinking and remained at its original size. Monier knew that the material for the talisman was almost ready.

Monier inwardly admired this skill, which combined purification and refinement into one, offering significant advantages over her own skills. The greatest advantage was its speed and convenience—it could be used in the wild. Her own skills, on the other hand, had to be performed in the spellcraft hall and couldn’t refine spell cores so quickly. Clearly, ancient spellcasters preferred to enhance their strength in battle, as being able to craft spells in the wild allowed for continuous combat.

At that moment, Guo Shier felt someone touching the defensive spell array and immediately said, “Masteress, go help quickly! Grandpa Nanshan has returned.”

Soon, Monier returned. She dragged in the corpses of two mutated spell insects using a virtual spell, holding two Soul Beads in her hands as she smiled and said, “Your Grandpa Nanshan is really good. In just a short while away, he caught two mutated spell insects—one is a swamp-specific mutated Poisonous Toad, and the other is a mutated Green Field Spell Snake—and he also refined two Soul Beads.”

Guo Shier glanced at them and was secretly pleased. With these two mutated spell insects, it should be sufficient.

Monier continued, “The Poisonous Toad is about level five, and the Green Field Spell Snake is level six. Heh, I didn’t expect there to be so many mutated spell insects here.”

Guo Shier increased the intensity of the spell fire, intensifying the burning. The liquid began to shrink rapidly, its color turning pure white, emitting a faint purple glow under the purple flames.

Monier asked, “How many spell cores can we refine?”

Guo Shier pondered for a moment before saying, “At most two. Hmm, it’s a bit insufficient… Oh right, I’m silly! We can check the spirit-containing spells in my Life Spell Ball; it contains many valuable items.”

Slowing down the purification process, Guo Shier took out several large bones of mutated spell beasts—skeletons of high-level spell beasts collected in the Bloody Secret Realm. He tapped his Life Spell Ball, and a wisp of golden light emerged—the golden spell fire—which landed directly on the beast bones. He said, “Masteress, help me!”

Monier cheerfully took over to assist him in purifying the bones, asking, “Are these bones from level eight spell beasts?”

Guo Shier nodded. “Yes.”

After a while, Monier had purified the large bones, saying, “Done. To continue purifying, we’ll need your spell fire.”

Guo Shier retracted the golden spell fire and poured the essence he had refined from Monier’s work into the purple spell fire. Soon, joy appeared on his face as he said, “Great! There’s hope of success!” With a gentle flick of his finger, a golden thread flashed, dividing the liquid material into two parts.

Then, an endless stream of spells was cast, with countless virtual talismans sprouting forth, accompanied by faint crackling sounds. Monier exclaimed in amazement, “Wow, dual-hand spellcasting, a secret technique!”
One spell, two curses, two talismans. This was a period of intense refinement. Within an hour, Guo Shieru cast tens of thousands of spells, leaving Monier in awe. Such speed and endurance were truly outstanding among novice saints.
The talismans began to take shape. As more and more virtual talismans appeared, Guo Shieru started collecting the purple talisman fire. After a while, the talismans were formed—rectangular shapes about the length of a palm, the most ordinary design, with talismanic patterns along the edges and a blank space in the center.
“It’s done!”
Guo Shieru’s tone was filled with excitement. The two insect talismans were completed. Though they were just blank talismans, he was proud of their quality, which surpassed that of true spirit talismans and approached that of ancient true talismans.
Monier took one and examined it carefully. She exclaimed in admiration, “It’s quite good. If refined properly, this talisman will be very powerful.”
Guo Shieru put away the two talismans and said with a smile, “Alright, let’s start digging for the insect eggs.” He took out a shovel to dig. Monier laughed and said, “There’s no need for that trouble. Let me do it.” She used virtual talismans to lift the soil directly. Only when the depth reached nearly three meters did she stop and say, “We’re almost there. You take over.” At this point, virtual talismans could no longer be used for digging, as carelessness might destroy the eggs below.
Guo Shieru carefully dug with the shovel, and soon he saw a cavity filled with rows of insect eggs.
Despite the giant size of the mutated blade shadow beetles, their eggs were quite small—each egg was about a foot long and as thick as a goose egg, all in dark green, protected by talismanic patterns. They were arranged diagonally close to each other, exuding a strong vitality and powerful spiritual energy.
Guo Shieru counted carefully and found there were 160 eggs, arranged in a spiral pattern. He sensed them and said with a smile, “Great! They’re about to hatch. Hehe, I’ll give them a boost.” He took out a small bottle and poured the liquid inside onto the eggs. With a simple spell, the liquid turned into mist that enveloped the eggs.
Monier wondered, “What’s this?”
Guo Shieru replied, “A catalytic liquid… I named it myself. It’s made using ancient methods. It was originally used for crafting talismans but can also accelerate egg hatching. It’s not very valuable.” Then he took out a shallow talisman basin.
Monier asked, “What’s this?”