The moment the flood dragon soul sank into the spirit skin, Han Li flipped his palm without a second thought, and a blue-glowing talisman brush appeared in his hand. Six or seven inches long, small and delicate, it looked exceptionally refined.
With his other hand, he beckoned toward a green jade box sitting open on the table, and a wisp of golden liquid floated gently out of it.
Han Li dipped the talisman brush swiftly into the golden liquid, then set his expression and began defying the floating spirit skin, the brush moving with masterful precision through the air, dotting and stroking.
One after another, inscrutable golden runes poured from the brush tip, streaking forward in the blink of an eye and vanishing into the crimson spirit skin.
In the wake of their disappearance, runes of various sizes surfaced across the skin's face, blazing with golden light, as neatly aligned as if they had been engraved.
But the very instant those runes emerged, the spirit skin began to tremble violently. A dragon's roar erupted from it, and the surface bulged outward. The blood-red flood dragon soul burst from within the skin and shot off, clearly attempting to flee.
Yet in that same instant, the golden runes on the spirit skin blazed to life, twisting and writhing as though they had come alive. They wrapped tightly around the dragon soul and yanked it back with tremendous force.
Though stripped of its intellect, the dragon soul — the essence spirit of a divine beast born of heaven and earth — instinctively sensed the danger. It tore and struggled against the golden runes, desperately trying to break free.
At this moment, Han Li's brushwork grew even faster. Golden runes large and small descended directly upon the dragon soul. Before long, they had it completely trapped, then gradually dragged it back into the spirit skin.
Seizing the opportunity, Han Li paused his hand, swapped to a different purple liquid, and dipped the brush once more. This time he drew strange, rune-like symbols in unhurried fashion, flicking them one by one into the air.
In this manner, every so often Han Li switched to yet another kind of spirit fluid resembling cinnabar, and all manner of symbols and creased patterns appeared across the spirit skin in succession.
Before long, this palm-sized sheet of spirit skin talisman paper shimmered with densely packed, multicolored light, radiating an overwhelming spiritual energy.
Han Li's expression grew increasingly solemn. His brushwork slowed further still, and blue light flickered ceaselessly in his eyes as he pushed the spiritual insight of his Clarity Eyes to the absolute limit.
The moment a red rune was completed and flew into the spirit skin, an abnormal spiritual fluctuation suddenly surged from the half-finished talisman, growing more and more violent.
Han Li's face changed dramatically, and inwardly he cursed his luck. But without hesitation, he swept his wide sleeve across the ground. A wash of azure light swept outward, gathering up all the materials in an instant, while his other hand slashed through the empty air before him. A small blue shield shot from his sleeve, swelling rapidly and positioning itself in front of him.
The very instant Han Li finished all of this, the spirit skin detonated with a deafening dragon's roar.
A dazzling five-colored sphere of light exploded outward, blasting shocking spiritual energy in every direction like a massive wave crashing against the blue shield.
The shield wavered slightly, then held firm without budging an inch. Han Li stared, somewhat surprised.
According to the tremendous power a Descending Spirit Talisman should possess, a failed creation should have produced a far more devastating explosion. Blocking it so easily was nothing like what he had expected.
While Han Li was still puzzling over this, a streak of blood-colored light shot from the sphere of light, flashing toward the ceiling of the chamber at blinding speed, about to escape through the roof.
But the instant the blood light touched the ceiling, a layer of white luminous barrier materialized without warning, deflecting the blood light back down and forcing it to reveal its form.
It was the small blood-colored flood dragon — the poison dragon's essence spirit.
Han Li was stunned for a moment, then broke into elation.
Without a second thought, he raised one hand and clawed at the empty air. An enormous green hand materialized above the dragon soul, seized it in its grip, and pulled it downward.
Meanwhile, Han Li extended a finger and casually pointed at the shield before him. Rippling with blue light, the shield shrank rapidly, spun once, and darted back into his sleeve of its own accord.
Then Han Li fixed his gaze upon the recaptured dragon soul and once again activated the spiritual insight of his Clarity Eyes.
"Hm?" A look of surprise crossed his face, and he uttered a soft exclamation.
It was still the same essence spirit, but the soul force within it had clearly weakened considerably compared to before. The small blood-red flood dragon also appeared visibly listless and drained.
Staring at the dragon soul, Han Li stroked his chin, a contemplative expression settling over his features.
So a failed attempt at forging the Descending Spirit Talisman did not cause the dragon soul to collapse outright — it merely consumed some of its soul force. If that was the case, then although the Descending Spirit Talisman was extraordinarily difficult to create, he could attempt it multiple times before the soul force was fully depleted, giving him a genuine chance at success.
Of course, if he repeated the process too many times, the soul force would decrease substantially, and the power of the finished talisman would be severely diminished.
Having worked through the reasoning, Han Li let out a light breath, his expression easing somewhat.
Even some loss of soul force was far better than having the poison dragon's essence spirit disintegrate on the spot.
This was the best of a bad situation at least.
Han Li gave a wry smile, then retrieved all the auxiliary materials one by one and arranged them once more. Naturally, he swapped in a fresh piece of spirit beast skin.
A new round of forging began.
…
While Han Li was hard at work in the chamber, straining every effort to forge the Descending Spirit Talisman, the entire Heavenly Unity City had thrown itself into full mobilization within a mere two or three days.