As the sun dipped toward the horizon, casting long shadows across his workspace, Xiang Yu decided to stop his pill refining efforts and turned his attention to the two talismans and blank paper he had prepared. He picked up a brush, then—just as he had done with the pill—redirected all his qi sense, focusing its full power on analyzing the talismans.
What he discovered surprised him. These weren't merely calligraphy marks as he had initially assumed. The visible characters were merely the surface layer—beneath them ran intricate patterns of pure qi, woven together with remarkable precision. If he had to compare it to something from his former world, the design resembled a computer motherboard—complex pathways of energy connecting in systematic patterns beneath the visible surface. Since both talismans were identical, they contained the same elaborate network of qi channels under the visible writing.
