I Alone Am Immortal: My Rebirth and Leisurely Cultivation

Chapter 57 Protective Cinnabar String

[The "Basic Introduction to Talismans" book has been distributed. Would you like to claim it?]

Li Yan touched the "no" button in his mind. Having learned from his previous experience, he dared not accept it rashly, and the current occasion was also inappropriate.

The dunking frenzy around him hadn't died down; in fact, his return had created even more excitement.

"Brother Yan, I want to learn basketball!"

"Yeah, Brother Yan, I want some too~!" Yu Bin said, wriggling like a maggot.

"No, you're too weak."

"You bastard! If you've got the guts, let's go to the toilet and have a go!"

“I’ll compete with you,” Xiao Shuai said.

"Count me in!" someone else said.

Several boys walked arm in arm toward the restroom, but Li Yan didn't go. He was joking; did he need to compete?

"To be honest, Li Yan's skills are really great. I don't know how to play basketball, and I can't describe it well, but I just feel that he..." Hu Die racked her brains for a moment, "...is quite adept at it."

Hu Die is naturally good at socializing, and in the past two days she has become good friends with several girls in her class. As soon as she spoke, those girls who originally had the same idea immediately echoed her.

"Yes! Luckily Li Yan stepped in, otherwise our class would have been outdone." Yu Qingya nodded.

"Now that you mention it, it would be better to have Li Yan as the sports committee member. I'd like him to provide guidance."

Li Yan glanced at the girl; she had her hair in pigtails and looked quite innocent. So, is this guidance legitimate?
Standing on the other side, Liu Ming, the sports committee member who had wanted to go on stage but was not as fast as Li Yan and felt his spotlight had been stolen, was immediately displeased upon hearing this comment.

"What are you talking about! It's just a dunk, anyone with hands can do it, I can dunk too!"

As he spoke, Liu Ming stepped out from the crowd with the basketball, shouting, "Watch closely, I'm going to perform a high-flying dunk!"

Liu Ming was tall and burly, looking very strong and powerful.

He had hesitated before about whether to continue dunking, but now he didn't care anymore. Li Yan's dunk performance was so popular, so if he could surpass Li Yan, wouldn't he become a male god?

"Mingzi, are you sure you can handle this?" Yang Xiong asked.

“What’s wrong with that? I was the captain of my junior high school basketball team! I even won the junior high school league championship!” Liu Ming said, tilting his head back.

The mention of the captain and champion instantly brought the atmosphere back to life, which was about to end.

Everyone looked over and saw Liu Ming already charging forward with the basketball.

He suddenly pushed off the ground a few meters from the backboard, leaping into an astonishing height, like an airplane taking off!

"Holy crap, he's that tall, about the same height as Li Yan just now, right?"

Li Yan looked up and shook his head.

"what!"

Wow! That's amazing!

"It looks like it's in a lot of pain."

A chaotic chorus of gasps and barely suppressed laughter erupted all around.

Liu Ming, holding the basketball in both hands, flew in an arc and slammed it down.

It went in!
The head is in too!
Then his head got stuck in the rim, unable to go up or down.

It looks like a shrimp with its head confined and jumping around wildly.

The instructors who were watching the commotion were dumbfounded. How did they even get up there?

"Damn, that's hilarious!"

"Liu Ming is quite capable, I feel he's more abstract than me," Yu Bin said, slapping his thigh.

"It's a pity I didn't get to see the whole thing."

"Isn't he the captain of the basketball team, and a champion? How come?" Hu Die wondered.

"Bullshit! I went to the same junior high school as him. He was on the basketball team, but he wasn't the captain. The team didn't win a championship, but he did participate in the league," Ye Daijia said.

Upon hearing this, Hu Die and the others were speechless. "This is just too much."

"We can't say that, we should thank him." Xiao Shuai leaned over, glanced at Li Yan, then at everyone else, and pointed to the backboard.

"Look, the instructors have all gone to rescue people. I reckon training won't last much longer this afternoon. What do you think, Brother Yan?"

"more or less."

Li Yan said calmly, while silently withdrawing the spiritual power he had prepared to help Liu Ming escape.

After glancing at the system panel, he couldn't think of a way to claim the mission rewards for the time being, so he decided to think about it when he got home that night.

Just then, he felt a chill down his spine, as if a cold, unsettling gaze was fixed upon him.

Turning my head, I saw Mei Mengqian with her head down.

Li Yan found it strange. After thinking about it, he realized that she seemed to have been spending her days off alone, so he went over to chat with her.

Why isn't anyone talking to you?

"I don't know, I just don't have it."

“You can’t be too cold when interacting with classmates. Not everyone is like Zhuzhu.” Li Yan recalled the first time he met her on the bus.

Mei Mengqian seemed to recall this as well, and nodded.

"Ah."

She actually felt that she was fine on her own.

"You can't say 'um,' you have to say 'um um.'"

"Hmm."

The afternoon passed in pleasant conversation, and all the first-year students wanted to thank Liu Ming. Li Yan remembered that Liu Ming had always been fond of such vanity in his previous life, and this time he had succeeded in doing so.

When Jiang Yingzhu got home that evening, she kept mocking him the whole way, calling him "that idiot from your class."

"Oh, right, I also saw him on the school's online forum, and you too. Lots of people are talking about it."

Jiang Yingzhu stepped on Li Yan's foot with her foot, a half-smile on her face.

"I've noticed quite a few girls asking about you."

"So what? Are you jealous that I'm more popular than you?"

"Jealous my foot!"

Jiang Yingzhu rolled her eyes and waved her phone; it showed Ms. Fang's number.

"Fang Yi told me to keep an eye on you. Early relationships are no good, right, Mengmeng?"

"Uh-huh!"

Li Yan glanced at the two suspiciously; their expressions were normal, as if they were saying, "I'm doing this for your own good."

He didn't care about all that and just waved his hand.

"Don't worry, I won't date in high school."

He spoke very seriously, and after finishing, he wiped his feet and went back to his room.

Li Yan was worried that it would affect their studies, so he thought it was better to just have a flirtatious relationship in high school and not rush things.

Inside the room, Li Yan sat on the bed and clicked to claim "Introduction to Basic Talismans".

He had previously studied talismans through several Taoist classics and found that most of them were useful, while a small portion were ineffective.

Li Yan also didn't understand the underlying principles and hoped that this book could provide some answers.

The moment he received the reward, Li Yan's body stiffened, just like last time, as he was being controlled by the system.

The system guided him to the bookshelf, where he raised his hand and took down a book.

Then he regained control of his body.

Li Yan breathed a sigh of relief, glanced at the book in his hand, and frowned slightly.

This is an introductory book on calligraphy; I bought it when I was in elementary school.

Putting aside the fact that he has already mastered calligraphy, what could calligraphy possibly have to do with talismans?
As the great man said, practice makes perfect.

Li Yan did not deny the system's judgment. Since he had successfully received the system's approval, he would try entrusting the cultivation to someone else.

A few seconds later, his body stiffened again. He went to the desk, laid out paper and poured ink, and picked up his pen to write.

Patterns resembling regular script but not actually characters gradually appeared on the white paper.

The system is written very slowly, just like a beginner.

At the same time, Li Yan felt a sense of unease, because his mind was filled with both basic knowledge of calligraphy and seemingly plausible principles of spiritual energy drawing talismans.

The strokes leave their mark at the center of the talisman, while the concealed edges are inscribed with the transformation of spiritual energy; it seems that every stroke has its own function!

Calligraphy, in essence, is merely a beautiful external form of expression.

Li Yan felt that it could be engraved on paper!

However, receiving two kinds of information at the same time was difficult for Li Yan to handle, and he was even a little confused.

He tried to focus his energy on the principles of cultivating immortality, and suddenly those calligraphy theories disappeared as if they were filtered signals.

An hour and a half later, Li Yan had mastered ten types of talismans and finished learning the entire book.

He was starving and his spiritual energy was mostly depleted. Li Yan quickly made himself a few bowls of instant noodles and fried some steaks to replenish his energy.

There was a risk of failing to draw the talismans when he first learned them, but nothing happened the next day, and Li Yan continued to study how to draw talismans.

At night, I'll use the system to quickly cultivate!
Four days later, they were basically able to move beyond paper and carve talismans onto some regular objects.

So, on the morning of the last day of military training,

After dinner, Li Yan went downstairs first and carved amulets on the three of their bicycles.

This talisman can reduce the probability of dangerous accidents.

"Why are you coming down here so mysteriously? Are you secretly doing something shady?"

Jiang Yingzhu walked down the street carrying the trash, followed by Mei Mengqian, who glanced at Li Yan suspiciously.

"Oh, a package has arrived, and I need to get it urgently."

As Li Yan spoke, he casually took out a cinnabar bracelet he had prepared from his pocket.

Here, one skewer for each person.

"Why are you giving me this? It's a waste of money." Jiang Yingzhu said this, but she took the bracelet without any politeness.

"Mengmeng, which one do you want?"

"They all seem the same."

"Never mind then, just take one."

Seeing the two put on the bracelets, Li Yan nodded. Each bead on the bracelet had a talisman engraved by him with his spiritual power.

As for the cinnabar beads themselves, they don't have any special function.

He also mailed two strings of [items] to Mr. and Mrs. Li so they could take them with them.

As a basic talisman, the amulet's defensive capabilities are not outstanding; it can probably withstand damage similar to a dog bite.

Therefore, Li Yan could only win by sheer numbers.

(End of this chapter)