Ba Yin’s ancestor was named Ba Lin, and his life experiences can be considered legendary.

He was originally a slave in a mine, living a dark and sunless life every day. It can be said that if nothing unexpected happened, his ultimate fate would be to mine until he died of exhaustion.

However, by a lucky chance, he actually dug up a damaged stone tablet in the mine, and obtained a damaged cultivation method from it.

After that, through diligent cultivation and his outstanding talent, he actually changed his own destiny.

However, because the cultivation method he practiced was incomplete, he was unable to reach Foundation Establishment even until the end of his life. But he left behind a family business for future generations, which has been passed down through the ages.

Because Ba Lin was unable to make progress in his cultivation, he later turned to the path of talisman crafting. As a result, he had some talent in this field and even gained some fame with his talisman techniques.

After Yuan Ming finished reading, he felt a sense of admiration for this ancestor.

Afterward, he read some more about this person’s related deeds and relics, gradually forming a more vivid and concrete image in his mind.

When he returned to the desk and looked at the scroll again, he immediately felt a different sensation.

After grinding the ink, Yuan Ming stood solemnly at the desk with his eyes closed for a long time.

When he opened his eyes, he immediately began to draw on the paper.

After about half an hour, Ba Lin’s image on the paper had already come to life, bearing a striking resemblance to the original, both in appearance and demeanor.

Yuan Ming looked at the details of the original portrait, and as he was about to continue drawing, his brow suddenly furrowed.

He suddenly raised his head and stared at a pattern on the clothing in the painting.

He found that the pattern was complex and completely different from the surrounding patterns, even appearing out of place.

At first, Yuan Ming thought it was just a crack in the paper or some kind of stain covering it. But upon closer inspection, he realized it was not that simple.

Yuan Ming’s spiritual sense and mana began to flow to his eyes, and his pupils shone slightly.

He looked at the painting, and his vision became incredibly clear.

“This is a talisman, it’s definitely a talisman,” Yuan Ming couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise.

After saying this, he was puzzled as to why there would be a talisman on the portrait, and it was clearly deliberately hidden.

“It’s just a talisman, why would it be deliberately hidden in the portrait?” Yuan Ming pondered.

At this thought, he suddenly remembered something he had read in the biography earlier.

Ba Yin’s ancestor was able to establish a career in the Southern and Northern regions as a peak-level Qi Refiner because he possessed a secret method of controlling corpses.

At the time, Yuan Ming found it strange because he was not a soul cultivator. How did he control corpses?

“Could this be a control talisman?” Yuan Ming suddenly thought.

He immediately took out yellow talisman paper, a brush, cinnabar, and other materials from his storage ring, and attempted to draw the talisman.

When he was in the Fire Refining Hall, he had practiced drawing talismans with Senior Brother He. Yuan Ming was quite skilled in this area due to his strong spiritual power, but it was his first time drawing on yellow talisman paper.

Yuan Ming carefully observed the appearance of the talisman, analyzed the starting and ending points of the strokes, and then, holding his breath, began to draw on the white paper.

Drawing talismans required a continuous flow of energy, and the lines had to be smooth without interruption. If the strokes were broken, the talisman would not function properly and would be useless.

Yuan Ming was well aware of this, but he failed on his first attempt.

He discarded the paper and tried again, but the result was the same.

However, Yuan Ming never lacked patience and never gave up. He practiced from day to night without a moment’s rest, even persuading Fu Qing to leave when he came to bring him food.

Fortunately, his efforts paid off in the middle of the night.

He picked up the white paper from the table and carefully examined it. It was identical to the image on the scroll, with smooth lines and no signs of interruption.

Yuan Ming nodded in satisfaction and set it aside.

The pile of discarded paper at his feet had accumulated into a small mountain, but there was only a little paper left for drawing.

This time, he laid out a piece of purchased yellow paper, prepared the cinnabar and spirit stone powder-infused ink, and began to draw on the yellow talisman paper with a fine brush.

Yuan Ming took a pill, sat by the bed to meditate and rest for half an hour, and then returned to the desk.With the experience of nearly a thousand attempts before, Yuan Ming found it easy this time, and with a single stroke, he successfully drew the spirit talisman.

As the rune touched the paper, Yuan Ming immediately felt a connection, noticing the yellow talisman paper slightly sinking, with a faint fluctuation of spiritual power emanating from its surface.

“Success,” Yuan Ming rejoiced inwardly.

He lifted the yellow paper talisman, examined it carefully for a moment, then waved his hand to summon the “Heavenly Serpent Elder.”

Whether it was a corpse-controlling talisman or not, he would know after a try.

Yuan Ming immediately pinched the talisman and slapped it onto the chest of the Heavenly Serpent Elder.

As the yellow paper talisman touched him, Yuan Ming channeled a bit of his mana into it, causing the talisman to ignite and turn into a ball of yellow light, which flashed and merged into the body of the Nascent Soul stage corpse.

As the light faded, Yuan Ming’s mind moved, and with a flick of his finger, he tried to command the corpse to move.

However, the Heavenly Serpent Elder stood still, motionless.

“What’s going on? Could I have been wrong, and this isn’t a corpse-controlling talisman?” After several attempts, Yuan Ming achieved nothing.

Just as he was feeling regretful, he suddenly noticed something unusual.

This corpse, dead for who knows how many years, was faintly emanating a pulse of vitality!

It was utterly preposterous.

Shocked, Yuan Ming hurriedly went forward to inspect and discovered that indeed, a force of vitality had appeared out of nowhere within the body, making it seem not like a rigid corpse, but rather like a living being.

After pondering for a moment, Yuan Ming pointed at his own brow, and a black soul crow flew out, crashing into the brow of the Heavenly Serpent Elder.

The Heavenly Serpent Elder slowly opened his eyes.

With the soul crow in control, Yuan Ming felt a deeper connection. He maneuvered the Heavenly Serpent Elder to walk around the room, changing postures, and his amazement grew stronger.

The original zombie seemed to have gained a trace of life, its body becoming more supple and flexible, and it was easier to control with the soul crow.

However, the vitality from the talisman was not permanent and was gradually fading over time, growing weaker and weaker.

“If this body has vitality and the soul crow acts as the consciousness, wouldn’t it be no different from a living person?” Yuan Ming had a sudden inspiration.

Thinking this, he immediately tried to use the Nine Revolutions Technique to stimulate the Heavenly Serpent Elder to circulate mana, but it was futile.

“It’s no use… Let’s try the White Ape Skin.”

While the power of the talisman had not yet completely faded, Yuan Ming took out the White Ape Skin and draped it over the Heavenly Serpent Elder.

As a thread of mana was channeled into it, the skin flashed with white light, stretching and wrapping around the body of the Heavenly Serpent Elder.

In no time, it actually transformed into a white ape over three meters tall.

At the same time, Yuan Ming felt the vitality within the Heavenly Serpent Elder rapidly depleting.

Before he could understand what was happening, the power of the talisman completely dissipated. Yuan Ming’s soul crow could not withstand the erosion of the negative energy within the body and was forced out.

“Alas, the talisman’s power was consumed too quickly, perhaps due to the use of overly common materials. Using higher-grade ones might be better.”

Yuan Ming rubbed his brow as he thought this.

At that moment, he reached out to retrieve the Heavenly Serpent Elder.

As he extended his hand, his expression suddenly froze: “What… is this?”

Only then did he notice that the White Ape Skin, which should have retracted on its own, was still covering the Heavenly Serpent Elder, not just draped over but maintaining the form of the white ape.

When Yuan Ming tried to pull it off, he found that the White Ape Skin was tightly fused with the body of the Heavenly Serpent Elder, as if it had grown together.

“What’s going on? Have the flesh and skin merged?” Yuan Ming was dumbfounded.

If this were a living person, repeated use of the skin-wearing technique could indeed cause the skin to fuse with the flesh and eventually become human-like.

But this was just a single use, and on a corpse at that?

Yuan Ming couldn’t figure it out. After a thorough examination, he found that the Heavenly Serpent Elder, now in the form of a white ape, had no other abnormalities and was still the same as before.

He even tried to control the corpse with the soul crow again and found that it could still be commanded as before, with no change in the duration of use, everything as usual.

He had no choice but to put it away.

After all this commotion, it was already getting light outside.

Yuan Ming rested briefly before picking up his brush to continue painting the portrait of Balin, as he had originally claimed he would complete the painting within seven days.

He examined the details of the original portrait once more, then meticulously revised it on the rice paper, finally completing the painting.

The portrait that emerged was very close to the original in terms of appearance and majestic demeanor, with the only difference being the newness, hardly distinguishable from the original.