Fu Xian walked to his pavilion, sitting on his mat while looking at the small pond on the side.
"The first move of the minor magic power is ’gathering water’, the second is ’feeling the water’, followed by ’connecting with the water’, then ’encompass the water’, ’shape the water’ and finally ’be protected by water’.
This is the first half of the minor magic power Minor Lake Shield. It forms the Shield that’s supposed to protect the cultivator.
The second half is about the lake – it’s ’observe the depths of the lake’, ’encompass the lake with thought’, ’connect with the lake’, ’water becomes lake’ and finally ’protected of the lake’.
How should I transform this spell into a talisman?"
Fu Xian asked himself, his mind thinking of various ways, "The simplest transformation is to directly define every move into a rune, then combine the rules in order and form a talisman.
But this would result in a lower quality talisman.
Another way is to pronounce each move and interpret it with many runes and symbols, but in this case... this spell has too many moves and isn’t suited to this pure type of talisman.
What about... Great Symbols?
While runes are usually the core of a talisman, Symbolic Talismans makes symbols the core of talisman. One then uses various runes to further amplify the symbol and empower it greatly.
But, is it suitable for this spell?"
He contemplated the situation before shaking his head "No, although I can create new symbols, their effect isn’t as great as known symbols. While it’s possible to use the symbols for both Lake and Shield, they aren’t as effective as a single symbol, or a symbol passed down from ancient times, like the Lake Goddess symbol..."
Observing the pond in front of him, he felt like it was truly beautiful, like a small piece of art.
Right then, it struck him "Right! Why didn’t I think of this!
Visual Talismans are a talisman-drawing art derived from spiritual painting!
It’s to use the simple direct transformation as an outline for a talisman, and from this outline, one draws an illustration to represent the talisman.
The combination of runes and illustration created an effect of superimposed quality, with a guarantee to reach middle quality and with great execution, even a higher quality!
It’s just that... compared to other talisman kinds, this one requires a certain understanding of spiritual painting and is rather difficult to master."
He thought about it but then shook his head "Although it’s difficult, in my past, I casually draw. Over the years, it became quite good, enough to at least depict a natural scene.
Although my painting hasn’t reached the level of an expert, I’m at least experienced.
In the end, this is still a talisman and not a painting."
Having figures out the ’Type’ of talisman he would draw, what was left was the ’Technique’ and ’Materials’.
"For the technique, the most common is to just draw a one sided flat talisman. But, since I have tried and learned the two-sided dual talisman so much, isn’t it best to use it this time?
Although usually the dual talisman is supposed to be two different talismans, in my inheritance, it was mentioned that higher talisman masters can split a talisman in half and draw one half on each side.
This kind of talisman is even better than the two known dual talisman techniques, which are ’double talisman’, where one talisman is drawn twice, and ’fused talisman’, where two different talisman are drawn to be fused into a whole different talisman.
Instead, this talisman technique, called ’half-side talisman’, meaning one half on each side, has a great synergic effect.
At least, it will boost the quality by one minor stage. And the basic power will also be 2 times higher than a single talisman. Although technically it’s barely able to contend with a double talisman, in reality, this isn’t the case at all.
While the double talisman is a technique to empower two talisman, the half-side talisman empowers the talisman at its core, boosting quality and prowess at the same time.
This is the difference between ’Core Techniques’ that are the core of talismans, and ’Boosting Techniques’ that only strengthen different aspects of a talisman.
Although including a core technique will make drawing this talisman more difficult, the resulting higher quality will make it worth it.
Let me try doing this..."
He decided to take this approach.
With this decision, he took a blank piece of paper and a normal brush.
He dipped the brush into a small vial of ink he casually took out.
Observing the lake, he once again engrossed himself into the vision he had when he casted the spell.
A vast lake spread below him, as if encompassing the whole world.
He observed the vastness of the lake and moved his hand, colouring the whole paper with a light grey colour.
Then he observed once more "A vast lake encompassing the world, but to encompass the world, one has to see an endless expanse.
Just a mere full piece of paper, it doesn’t give the feeling of ’encompassing the world’, rather, it looks like a mere grey piece of paper.
What makes a landscape a lake?
Depth and... movement."
He thought and drew his brush once more, this time, he pushed it hard on the centre, colouring it darker.
With another thought, he spread this darkness to around a third of the paper in the centre.
At this moment, he felt the paper slightly wet. Touching it casually, he strengthened the paper with his hand.
"A lake is a body of water, naturally it should be wet. But the body of water is carried by the earth, it can’t falter simply because it’s ’wet’."
Then he moved his brush once more, drawing circles around the depth.
He raised and softly touched the paper, the rings only a few shades darker than the surrounding water.
Finally, he put away his brush and looked at the painting –
A light grey piece of paper, with a dark grey centre and grey rings around the centre.
"This should do as an initial look.
Further refinement will definitely be required, but for now, this illustration should do."