Departed ink

Mortal tier recipe. No cultivation requirements

Sometimes it’s hard to let go, and rightly so in many sudden deaths. However, the soul is not reincarnated as soon as one dies and obtaining those final words is possible. Whilst stronger cultivators can temporarily (Or even permanently) pull a soul back from the afterlife, many find themselves too weak to perform such a task. A mortal recipe will never be good enough to pull a soul back, so we look at communicating instead.

I hope you know how to write with ink.

Ingredients and recipe Phased squid ink, 100 ml – natural gathering stage fluid Corpsebloom petals, 3 petals – natural gathering stage flower Any yin creature’s blood, 10 ml – natural gathering stage fluid Well of emotions, 25 grams (full of regret) – non magical mineral Body part of the lost one, a finger or equivalent – non magical body part

Lots of magical stuff required to form a link between worlds. We’ll go easiest to procure to hardest.

The body part will either be easiest or hardest in an ironic twist. This recipe is pretty much designed for mortals who will have a portion of their corpse intact even if their death was at the hands of a horrific beast. Cultivators have a problem of being completely destroyed during their death…

Corpsebloom is a flower which only blooms if feeding off a corpse, as such they are a common sight in graveyards. Simply pluck a few petals and you’re done.

Yin element blood is harsh to come into contact with. Although a gentler force than its counterpart, that just means the damage it does is more frightening. Taking in any yin force without a proper body results in severe damage to the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Use gloves or an equivalent when using this stuff.

Phased squid ink is easy to harvest all things considered, although the squid being mostly passive helps with this. The problem is how its ink cannot interact with most physical objects meaning specialised equipment is required to harvest it. Once more, just buy it.

Wells of emotions are small stones that can be found almost anywhere, although recent advancements do allow us to just synthesize it as pleased. In its initial form it holds no use except for leeching an insignificant percentage of the holder’s emotions. This slowly fills up the stone until it has a use. In our case, we need someone to fill this stone with regret.

Fortunately, the stone can only be filled with one type of emotion, so by making sure the first thing it absorbs is regret you can ensure that it will eventually be filled.

Begin by coating the well of emotions in your yin element blood, then leave this object to slowly break down over the course of a week. By the end of this time it will become extraordinarily brittle and even just the slight tap from a hammer will make it crumble. Ground up this powder and add the rest of your yin blood to it. Mix the two and place the resultant product above a small flame.

It does not need to be heated through, just kept warm enough to stop air from condensing around it.

While the stone powder is kept warm, pour 10 ml of phased squid ink onto the body part. You will notice it appears semi-transparent as a result, a temporary phenomenon that higher level recipes take advantage of. We don’t care about this spatial dissociative effect, instead just take the Corpsebloom petals and keep them stuck against the body part. The petals’ natural attraction to corpses should make this rather easy.

Now burn the finger to ashes. How you do this is entirely your choice, just make sure the result is a fine grey powder. This step can be rather difficult for those lacking experience in breaking down bone, in which case it is better to use a chunk of flesh over a finger.

The final step is mostly a test of the ingredients.

Split the remaining phased squid ink into two equal volumes and add them to both your ash and powdered stone. Mix gently with any tool capable of interacting with the ink, which you hopefully should have used half a brain on and picked up before starting this recipe.

In the containing with your well of emotions, you should feel a gentle sadness creeping into your mind. You will note that no amount of ‘joy’ will negate this depressive sensation. Instead just aim to reduce your time spent around the well of emotions at the moment. The effect stated means all your ingredients are of sufficient quality.

For the ash, once more there is no physical effect. Instead, standing near the mixture will reveal an intense sensation of death. Anyone with a slight sixth sense will feel sick at this point, however those with stronger sense will either resist or see through the falsified sensation. As a reminder, this is a recipe for mortals primarily, in other words, of course they don’t have a sixth sense.

Mix the final two parts and leave the finished ink to rest in a mausoleum for two weeks. After this period of time you will have your product.

Usage

It goes without saying, but this ink only contacts one person. Due to this it is not worth turning into a business, although some have tried. As a gentle reminder, please do not use this to pester the dead. Your friends and family will retain memories for roughly two months after their death, but after that their memories slowly fade before reincarnation. There is no point in troubling the blank soul who will inevitably take their place.

Using the ink is simple. A fountain pen is recommended for convenience, although brushes and ball point pens have been used before as well. Load the ink cartridge, if available, with the departed ink and write anything.

The connected person will receive whatever is written as a message and can use the connection offered by it to temporarily return some consciousness to the real world. Through this they can inhabit the pen and write something in return. Please do allow some time for the person to adjust as writing through this method is entirely new to most mortals.

This ink is mostly used by people who regret not being able to give a final farewell to the people they love.