Chen Yu was about to rage quit the cultivation world and call it GGs. He'd already wasted five sheets of expensive talisman paper trying to make this damn Light Talisman, failing every single time despite his best efforts. The first attempt had gone wrong right from the start, his brush stroke too heavy and the ink bleeding into an ugly blotch. The second time had issues with his line drawing being uneven and shaky. And the last three attempts had gotten messed up right at the final connection point where all the formation lines came together, that critical spot where one wrong move ruined everything.
"F***!" Chen Yu got up and stomped his foot hard against the floor, feeling the frustration boiling over. He wanted to throw something, to smash his equipment against the wall just like he used to rage at his PC back when code wouldn't compile or circuits wouldn't work no matter what he tried.
He took several deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down before he destroyed all the expensive materials he'd just bought with his precious spirit stone money. Breaking his brush or spilling his ink in a fit of anger would be incredibly stupid right now when he couldn't afford to replace them.
After a few minutes of pacing around his small shack and breathing deeply, Chen Yu sat back down and spread out his failed attempts on the table, studying them carefully. He compared the lines, examined where each one had gone wrong, tried to identify the core problem that kept sabotaging him.
After contemplating different possible reasons, he realized the issue. There was a small imperfection in his brush strokes because this was literally his first time using a calligraphy brush in either life. He also wasn't an artist in his past life, he'd been an engineer, someone who worked with keyboards and circuit boards and mice, not brushes and ink and paper. His hand control and finger dexterity just weren't good enough for this level of precision work yet.
Chen Yu furrowed his eyebrows. This couldn't be easily solved. It would require repeated practice, building up muscle memory and fine motor control over weeks or months. But he also couldn't afford to wait that long, burning through expensive talisman paper while he slowly learned.
Then an idea struck him. OH! Why didn't he use the space to experiment with time acceleration?
He could have his clone practice finger exercises for artists, he remembered seeing some online back in his old life, exercises specifically designed to improve hand control and dexterity for drawing and painting.
Chen Yu immediately grabbed one of his spirit stones and dove into the space with his consciousness. As he connected to the clone, another thought occurred to him that made him pause. Maybe he didn't need to accelerate time for the entire body. If he could focus the acceleration just on the hands and fingers specifically, it would be more efficient and waste less energy from the spirit stone.
He started implementing the idea, feeding spiritual energy from the stone into the space and commanding the clone to begin finger exercises. Spreading fingers wide, touching each fingertip to the thumb in sequence, rotating wrists, drawing imaginary circles in the air with precise movements, all the exercises he vaguely remembered.
Then Chen Yu focused on accelerating time specifically for the clone's hands and arms.
1.5x speed... the hands moved slightly faster.
2x speed... noticeably quicker now.
5x speed... the movements became a blur.
Finally, at 10x speed, Chen Yu felt his mental capacity hit its limit. He couldn't push the acceleration any further without giving himself a splitting headache. But 10x seemed to be the sweet spot anyway, the spiritual energy from the stone wasn't being instantly depleted. At this rate, it could probably maintain the acceleration for about four hours, which meant the clone would experience almost two full days of continuous practice.
Satisfied, Chen Yu withdrew from the space but kept the connection active in the background. He placed the spirit stone close to his body so he could monitor it while he went to make some more rice. It was getting late in the day and his stomach was starting to complain loudly.
After eating another bowl of spiritual rice and resting for a bit, Chen Yu found that four hours had passed surprisingly quickly. He spent the time reviewing the talisman manual again, memorizing formation patterns and trying to understand the theory behind why they worked the way they did.
When he checked on the spirit stone, it was almost completely depleted, only about 1% of its energy remained, just a faint flicker of light in its depths.
Chen Yu connected with the clone and immediately felt the difference. His fingers moved with noticeably more precision and control. The muscle memory from nearly two days of practice had transferred over completely, and when he flexed his hands experimentally, the movements felt smoother and more confident.
Time to try again.
He sat down at his table, laid out a fresh sheet of talisman paper, and dipped his brush in the spiritual ink. Taking slow, calm breaths to center himself, Chen Yu began drawing the Light Talisman formation with renewed focus.
Just at the last connection point, his hand shivered slightly and the line wavered. The talisman paper flashed once, then went dark. Failed.
"Damn it!" Chen Yu gritted his teeth and glared at the stack of remaining talisman papers in front of him. "Look, you little shits, if you don't work, I'll rip you apart and use you as toilet paper when I get the worst diarrhea of my life!"
The threat was ridiculous and the papers obviously couldn't hear him, but it made him feel better. Just like back in the day when he'd threaten his TV or circuits to work properly. Somehow, talking trash to inanimate objects had always helped him focus.
Feeling oddly confident now, Chen Yu took another sheet and started again. This time his hands moved with even more certainty. The brush glided across the paper, each line flowing into the next. As he completed the final stroke, there was a small flash of light. The formation pattern on the paper glowed briefly, then settled into a faint, stable luminescence.
Success! His first-ever talisman!
Chen Yu picked it up carefully, examining his work. The formation wasn't perfect, some lines were slightly thicker than others, and one of the curves had a tiny wobble in it. This was definitely a lowest-quality Light Talisman, probably worth less than the standard market price. But it was functional, and that's what mattered.
Unable to resist, Chen Yu channeled a tiny bit of his qi into the talisman to activate it. The paper began to glow, emitting light like a modern light bulb, illuminating his dim shack with a warm, steady radiance.
A huge smile spread across Chen Yu's face. Creating things was truly the most enjoyable feeling in the world. This was what he lived for, taking raw materials and knowledge and making something functional, something real.
He left the talisman activated to test how long it would last, then immediately started working on another one. His confidence was up now, his hands warmed up and steady. The second attempt also succeeded, and this one came out slightly better than the first with fewer imperfections.
Chen Yu wanted to keep going, to make more talismans while he was on a roll, but he realized his hands were starting to hurt from the excessive fine motor control and his mind felt foggy with mental exhaustion. Pushing himself further would just result in mistakes and wasted materials.
He got up and started cleaning around his workspace, carefully putting away his talisman-making equipment. The ink bottle went in one corner, sealed tight. The brush was cleaned and wrapped in cloth. The remaining talisman papers were stacked carefully and hidden under his sleeping mat where no one would find them if they casually looked around.
Chen Yu also gathered his other spirit stones and hid them in a different spot, buried under the corner of his shack where the floor met the wall. Better to keep his valuables in multiple locations in case someone broke in.
He kept one spirit stone out though, planning to experiment more with the clone's cultivation before sleeping.
Looking over at his first talisman, Chen Yu noticed its light had finally gone out. It had lasted for about three-quarters of an hour, definitely less than the one hour described in the manual, but that was expected for such a low-quality first attempt. Still, it worked, and that's what counted.
Chen Yu lay down on his sleeping mat, exhaustion finally catching up with him. His eyes started to close, his mind drifting toward sleep and dreams of making more talismans, of selling them for profit, of building his cultivation-tech empire one step at a time...
BANG!
The door of his shack exploded inward, splinters of wood flying everywhere as it was kicked off its hinges.
Chen Yu's eyes snapped open, his heart immediately racing with terror as a figure stepped through the broken doorway.