Painting

The 'Distance' stroke had the ability to control the distance in which a talisman activated. For example, take the high level Ice-Storm Talisman.

No one wants a storm to form right over their head, so using the Distance stroke, one can set it to instead form far away from where it was originally summoned.

Of course to most talisman makers, this wasn't much of a solution. After all, putting a talisman stroke where it didn't originally belong, while not as difficult as making an original talisman, was still an incredible test of talent and experience.

But to Minos, that problem was non-existent. Rather than asking how he would do it, it was better to ask when.

Using a mortal brush and paper, Minos got to work on his idea. He naturally wouldn't just jump straight into something new, instead usually drawing it down normally and getting used to the process first.

After feeling satisfied, Minos went back to the rabbit. Just like before, he inscribed the Flesh Talisman, but this one was slightly different.

Pressing on it again, this time the fireball formed slightly away from the rabbit, giving it enough distance to gather properly. Once it was done forming, it shot forward, exploding as it hit the cave wall.

Minos nodded in satisfaction at the result, he then attempted the same thing with the Ice Shard Talisman and it worked as well.

The Levitation Talisman was the easiest, and without even changing anything, it worked immediately. With all that done, Minos had created his first line of Flesh Talisman, so now he wanted to see their limits.

Constantly summoning fireball after fireball, Minos firmly memorized the Flesh Talisman's current state after every shot. By the eleventh fireball, he noticed the talisman stopped working completely.

Looking closely at it, Minos noticed that the talisman strokes had deviated by a very slight margin. If he hadn't already burned the talisman appearance deep into his mind and paid close attention, he would have never noticed.

Even though the change was very slight, given how delicate the talismans were, the entire thing was considered broken, and he'd have to draw a new talisman if he wanted to get things working again.

Of course Minos wasn't very happy with this result. Only eleven uses weren't worth the difficulty required to inscribe a Flesh Talisman in the first place.

One has to realize that while it seemed easy to Minos, it was hundreds of times harder etching a talisman onto flesh vs paper, so for most talisman masters, this was a rather useless innovation.

While Minos didn't have plans of making his research public any time soon, his perfectionist nature still made him irritated by such a large weakness, hence he wouldn't stop until he got something that at least trumped regular talisman.

Minos soon realized the problem. While Nux didn't exactly have a physical form like most matter, it still interacted with the things it came in contact with.

While that interaction was incredibly slight and unnoticeable most times, it became a hurdle when it came to Minos's research.

Much like how a river of water will start curving to the sides as more as water impacts it.

The strokes in a talisman will similarly start to slightly twist as the Nux flows through it.

One solution was making the material itself stronger, such that the Nux couldn't alter its shape as easily. Another solution was to find a material that was more malleable, such that even if the Nux changed its shape, it could slowly go back to how it was intended.

Of course, since Minos wanted to inscribe his talisman on flesh, it went against his initial ideas to find some other material to work with. He could simply find someone stronger, but again, it meant his research would lose it the wide-range applicability that Minos was aiming for.

He couldn't help but rub his slightly aching head as he pondered solutions. Unfortunately, for the time being, he had nothing, so he decided to stop with the talisman research for now.

He naturally would never forget his cultivation, and while relying on conventional cultivation to get stronger was pretty meaningless given Minos's talent, he still trained at the allotted time everyday to keep his skills sharp.

Of course he was no longer using the Green Bull Tendon Fist anymore, rather swapping it out for the Twelve Beast Movement Tome.

Skills were usually split into stars based on how strong they were. The Green Bull Tendon Fist was a three-star skill, whereas the Twelve Beast Movement Tome would be considered a twelve-star skill.

Of course nine stars were usually the limit when it came to Mortal Renewal Realm techniques, twelve-star skills were Inner Heaven abilities, which just showed how extraordinary this twelve-star skill was.

The twelve beasts were split into the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and finally, pig.

Each beast represented the peak of a certain physical quality. The rat strengthened immunity, making one less susceptible to sickness and disease, the ox strengthened durability, making your flesh more resistant.

The tiger increased strength, the rabbit improved burst ability, allowing one to explode into full speed almost immediately, the dragon improved lung capacity, the snake made one more flexible, and the horse improved stamina.

The goat improved vision, the monkey improved grip and arm strength, the rooster improved lightness, the dog smell, and finally the pig improved digestion, allowing one to consume more food in less time.

All twelve beasts allowed the human to reach near peak when it came to ability below the Inner Heaven Realm, and just by looking at the incredible complexity and depth of this skill, Minos could further guarantee its incredible value.

Walking out of the cave, Minos found a large piece of empty land and began training the movements. Each beast required the human body to conform to a completely different shape, and even for the most flexible people, it was a challenge.

While Minos had incredible physical control, his flexibility had never been something he trained with too much emphasis, so he actually struggled as he attempted to twist his body into the strange shapes required.

This had less to do with talent and more to do with physical quality. If one was born with flexible bones, this technique may come much more naturally to them.

While Minos wasn't born with anything like that, he had patience. So time after time, he pushed his body into the strange positions despite how much it hurt. He held each one until his body couldn't take the pain anymore, and then released.

The sun began to set under Minos's unrelenting training, and soon he heard a screaming come from near the cave.

"Minos, Minos! Where are you?"

"I'm here, relax." Minos said, as he walked out of the woods and came towards Rendo.

"Oh thank god. I thought you abandoned me for a second." Rendo said as he let out a long sigh.

"Butto wouldn't be worried." Minos smirked.

"Well Butto's gone to sleep for the day, so only Rendo is left." Rendo said in annoyance.

"Is that so? if that's the case, Rendo must be wide awake." Minos said.

"What do you mean, the day is already over." Rendo spoke exhaustedly.

"The day's over for Butto, but for Rendo, a new round of training has just begun." Minos said.

"No way! Rendo is tired too." Rendo replied in fear.

Despite his objections however, under Minos's apathetic gaze, he finally gave in. For Third Life Lock layer cultivators like them, a little lost sleep was nothing, so there were still things to do.

"Don't you think this time of day is best." Minos said as he watched the sun set with appreciation. "I'd be wasted on sleeping."

Soon the too arrived at a large cliff that towered over the surrounding forests. Looking down, one could see the dense foliage that spread beyond the eyes, glimmering as it reflected the light from the setting sun.

Even with Rendo's taste, he couldn't help but be stunned by the beauty for a moment. Minos smiled as he saw his reaction, knowing he was half-way there.

Minos sat down crossed legged on the dirt, from his robe he pulled out two large sheets of paper, two brushes, and a jar of ink.

Setting the ink between them, Minos handed the paper and brush to Rendo, under the other confused eyes.

"I can't draw, what's this for?" Rendo asked.

"Everyone can draw, you just can't draw well, but that doesn't matter, I just want you to try to reflect the beauty of this scene on the paper as best as you can. Whether the drawing is good or not is irrelevant." Minos answered.

Rendo wanted to keep talking, but Minos completely ignored him as he got engrossed in his own drawing. Seeing as he was no longer getting a reaction, Rendo could only give, attempting to draw as well.

The two sat in silence for the next hour, as the sky got darker. Soon enough, the world was completely black, but with a Shining Talisman from Minos, the two were unaffected.

Rendo had already finished at this point, but he could see that Minos was still completely absorbed in his craft. Another hour passed under Rendo's increasing impatience, but Minos was fortunately done by this point.

"So how did you do?" Minos asked with a smile.

"Not too well."

"Let me see." Minos said as he reached towards Rendo's painting, but before he could, Rendo snatched it away.

"N-no, it's not done yet."

"Are you shy? Don't be, I don't expect an amateur's work to be good anyways." Minos laughed as he snatched the paper from Rendo's hand.

However the result actually slightly shocked him. The painting wasn't bad at all, in fact, it was quite good. Minos couldn't help but get curious as to why Rendo wanted to hide such a good job.

"This painting is beautiful, why are you trying to hide it?"