“Sorry for disturbing you again, but I have decided to take you up on your offer to learn Brushweaving under you,” Li Lang politely bowed.

The messy man in front of him scratched his head as he flashed a smile.

“You looked like a smart kid to me and I was right. I knew you would make the right choice. Come on in, there’s still some time before sunset. Let’s get started right away.”

“Understood, Master Yi.”

“Just call me Yi Lin. I’m too young to be messing with formal titles.”

“Of course…”

The two retreated into the mess of a house and went onto the even messier second floor.

“I was just getting started on a new order, so let’s go over the basics together. First, what do you know about Brushweavers?”

“Not much…Just that they use brushes to inscribe talismans.”

Yi Lin shook his head at the answer he got.

“Brushweaving is much more than that. Inscribing talismans and contracts are our most well-known works, but what we can inscribe on isn’t just paper. There are many Brushweavers like me, who are sought after by various other professions like Artificers. We can inscribe runes onto their work to enchant them, adding or reinforcing various functions.”

“...I haven’t seen that before, but then again, I haven’t come into contact with many artifacts before.”

“I guess I’d forgotten artifacts aren’t something you normally see until you’re almost in the Foundation Establishment realm. Hmm…Here’s one. I haven’t worked on it yet, but feel free to take a look.”

Yi Lin lifted a heavy long sword out from a messy pile. He almost handed it over to Li Lang, but realized last second that the young boy would have trouble holding onto something so heavy. He laid it out carefully on the ground.

Li Lang didn’t waste any time and immediately lunged at the opportunity, feeling up the great sword that was as tall as him. The blade was so wide that he didn’t doubt there was enough space for him to lie down on top of it.

At first glance, it appeared like any regular steel blade, but upon further inspection, a dull sheen constantly enveloped it. Li Lang could instinctively feel that the sword before him was much more dangerous than it appeared.

“This here is a Skysword. It cuts through the sky faster than what cultivators can do by themselves, allowing them to fly at high speeds during combat. I got a job to improve its ambient Qi absorption rate,” Yi Lin explained.

“...Interesting. How does it work?”

“That, you’ll have to ask an Artificer. I can only tell you what each rune does.”

The conversation was quickly steered toward the intricacies of what runes were and how they were the basis of Brushweaving.

After an hour of back and forths, Li Lang compiled a basic framework in his head.

He learned that runes were like pathways that conducted Qi in certain ways to produce specific effects. It was almost like programming, but wasn’t as predictable. Depending on the rune, the kind of Qi used, and the environment, the effects varied. The job of Brushweavers was to design a set of runes, with all these variables in consideration, to produce the desired result without overloading the ‘circuits’.

“Then what about the brushes and ink used? They can’t just be normal, right?”

Yi Lin looked amused as he nodded at his latest student.

“That’s right. The basis of being able to create these Qi pathways is reliant on the Moon Brush, the ink, and the Qi technique used to bind them to a surface. A Brushweaver’s school of techniques encompasses all of these topics. From how to craft your own tools down to how to inscribe on different surfaces.”

“No wonder you have so many inkstones lying around. You swap them out depending on the task at hand, right?”

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“That’s correct. You catch on quick.”

Li Lang grinned at having reaffirmed his choice. The reason he chose Yi Lin instead of Mei Wanying as his mentor was that he noticed this. Mei Wanying’s traditional school appeared to value consistency, and all her students used the exact same type of inkstones.

Meanwhile, Yi Lin was much more flexible and changed up his tools according to the situation. This increased the variables at play and would occasionally net him surprising results. While consistency was good, Li Lang never liked limiting himself for the sake of it.

He wanted to research all the variables. There was no way he would want to miss out on the many possibilities of Brushweaving.

Hours passed by as they chatted. They soon realized there wasn’t much of the day remaining for the two to dive further into the art of Brushweaving.

Yi Lin showcased how he dyed a normal inkstone, but didn’t have time to go into detail on the technique he used before it was time for Li Lang to return.

“Umm, Master Yi Lin, do you have any old tools you don’t want anymore that I can have?”

“What? Didn’t I tell you? We’ll be going over how to craft your own soon. It’s better to use your own creation.”

“Of course, it’s just that I want to examine your old work for inspiration.”

“...Whatever, go take whatever you find. I may not look like it, but I take good care of things I deem important. Everything lying around is replaceable or is already useless to me.”

“Thank you!”

Li Lang didn’t hesitate to pick up several inkstones and blank talisman papers around the room. There weren’t any Moon Brushes, but he was already satisfied with his haul. He then took his leave, as it was getting late.

The sky was a warm orange by the time Li Lang stepped out of the house.

When he returned to his inn, he found Wei Ping and Long Yi already there. They were both intently reading something.

“Took you long enough,” Long Yi said. “How’d it go?”

“Not bad, you could say. I found a mentor and everything. As a result, I’ll be a lot busier from now on. How about you two?”

The two exchanged a quick glance before they wordlessly decided Long Yi would share first.

“I went with Artificer and will be taking a test to become a student tomorrow... They gave me this beginner manual and only gave me one night to prepare.”

“As f-for me, I f-found a master Woodsmith to t-take me under their wing. I’ll s-start learning from them tomorrow.”

“...So you both got accepted on the first day already. Why am I the only one who has to do some test?!” Long Yi yelped.

“Just try your best. Your goal is to pass whatever trials are waiting for us in the pocket realm, but we have no idea what standard we have to reach. You’ll just have to tough it out,” Li Lang consoled.

“I will. Artificing seems useful, and we don’t even own a single artifact. I don’t know if you guys have seen or not, but having a single artifact would give a tremendous advantage in combat.”

“As f-for me, I’ll stick w-with it even after the p-pocket realm. We’ll need s-someone to repair our Skyrunner i-if it breaks, or to g-get a faster one.”

“Yeah, our current one is pretty slow. Thanks, Wei Ping.” Li Lang patted the masked boy on the shoulder.

As much as Li Lang wanted to grill his friends about what they were learning for their profession, he knew better than to bother them when they were just starting out. He would have ample opportunities to do so once they visited the pocket realm and uncovered the various techniques buried there.

Leaving his two friends to themselves, Li Lang went about doing his own matters for a few hours before bed. He had to continue monitoring the results from their use of the Cleansing Drug. Plus, now, he wanted to put his new trophies into the auto-analyzer.

Without delay, he adjusted his hat where he kept Ruby and entered into the artifact space.

“Master, the latest report from analyzing your samples is on your computer. The auto-analyzer is now free. Do you want to select which ink stone or talisman paper to analyze next?” Ruby asked, knowing exactly what its master wanted.

“Hmm, let’s go with the paper. It’s blank, so it shouldn’t have any Qi and should only take a moment.”

Li Lang then directed his attention to his personal computer to review the new data. It was an analysis report on their flesh. He continued to do these daily examinations to collect more data.

Once again, he found their spiritual roots had slightly strengthened, allowing them to absorb a higher ratio of Qi to toxins. The consistent results he has seen were almost enough for him to confirm his theory of strengthening the spiritual roots’ ability to filter toxins. The only thing that nagged at him was how small the sample size was.

There was no way around that as Li Lang didn’t want to spread his invention around casually. That would only land him in trouble.

It’s time to move on to something else, though. Should I continue to study these spiritual roots or change topics to demonic cultivating…? No, demonic techniques aren’t relevant to our own cultivation progress right now. We need to get to Foundation Establishment as soon as possible so we can protect ourselves.

Right now, we are easily at others’ mercy. Plus, the wealth I could acquire at that level would afford us faster means of travel should the need arise.

While the auto-analyzer fired up, Li Lang began brainstorming ways to continue his research. There wasn’t anything particularly pressing for him to solve, now that he had the Cleansing Drug to bridge the gap in aptitude.

This meant Li Lang was now thinking about starting from the basics. Defining what spiritual roots were and exploring if there was a way to expand the number a cultivator had.

I only have five, I could sure use a little more…