Li Lang watched on as his new mentor continued to inscribe runes onto the metal spear. He believed he recognized a few of the runes, but it was hard to confirm when it was distorted by the rounded surface and the other ones overlapping with it.
Yi Lin concentrated intently as he moved on from working on the shaft to the spearhead. He disassembled the spear and began inscribing on the interior side of the weapon before he finally set down the artifact.
“Is it done?” Li Lang asked.
“Yes, my part of it, at least. The Artificer who made this still has some finishing touches to do before this spear is ready to see battle, though.”
“Sounds like a lot of steps involved…”
“It’s not easy creating an Earth-grade artifact. Especially with enchantments on it. It is exactly because it is so time-consuming that they are so rare,” Yi Lin explained as he put the artifact away. “Anyway, try to focus on what I showed you earlier. It’s better to focus on the basics first before worrying about working with artifacts.”
“Understood.”
Li Lang watched and assisted in a few more commissions before the day was over.
He promptly returned to the inn for some training before dinner time.
With Brushweaving taking up a good chunk of his time, Li Lang needed to be more mindful of how he spent the day. While following a strict schedule could be stressful, it was something he was used to, so there were no problems.
Over dinner, the trio got together again and began sharing what they experienced for the day. They were each exhausted in their own way, so after hearing about how Long Yi had passed his apprenticeship test, the three swiftly retired for the night.
The next morning, the three kids split off once again. Li Lang trained throughout the morning and refined a batch of Nourishment Pills to stockpile for their upcoming trip. By the time he arrived at Yi Lin’s abode, it was already the afternoon.
“Good timing, I was just going to check on your Moon Brush. Let’s see how it turned out.”
The two went upstairs and quickly found the item in question. It was still drenched on top of the inkstone. Yi Lin once again materialized a bowl of water from nowhere and carefully washed off the ink.
After a night of soaking, both the Elemental Serpent’s Fang and Silverthorn Lion’s Mane appeared unchanged. However, Li Lang could immediately feel attuned to the two materials in front of him.
“Should be good. We just have to put it together now.”
The assembly process was quite dull. Yi Lin took out some paste that acted as glue and got a metal band to hold the bristle in place with the handle.
“Perfect,” Yi Lin smiled upon inspecting his new apprentice and his Moon Brush. “Why don’t we test it out right away? You have everything you need, so it’s all about technique now. Bring over your inkstone and come over here.”
Li Lang quickly found himself in his mentor’s position, holding his Brushweaving tools before a piece of blank talisman paper.
“Hmm, for your first talisman, what would be a good fit? Your inkstone had been dyed with your Qi without any special prep, so it should allow you to create a talisman of any element, albeit weaker, so there are a lot of choices…”
“Umm, what are some choices you’re thinking of? Maybe I can pick one out from what you’re debating between.”
“Hmm, the simplest talismans would be the ones that just produce a single element, I guess. Like ones that can produce water or fire.”
“In that case…How about one with just light? It’ll be the easiest to test right after I’m done.”
“Light…Sure. Give me one moment.” Yi Lin went off to a nearby bookshelf and took out some dusty texts. “There should be some common runes in here, but the most important part is to listen to the technique I’m about to recite. My inheritance has been passed down orally throughout the generations, so there’s no written text for you to refer to.”
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Seeing Li Lang nod, Yi Lin began to lecture Li Lang on the Qi technique for Brushweaving. He went through the specifics of how to channel one’s Qi internally, and unsurprisingly, the convoluted flow of Qi resembled the runes one drew.
One had to maintain an uneven output, adjusting the Qi by varying amounts each second they inscribed. Different elemental affinities made a huge difference as well. It was the reason why they all drew their talisman so slowly.
It took half the afternoon before the lecture ended and Li Lang had asked everything he needed.
“Ok, go ahead and try it out now. The best way to learn is by doing.”
Li Lang breathed in deeply as he internalized the teachings he received. When he breathed out, he immediately picked up his brush and dipped it into the inkstone.
Mimicking his mentor’s stance, Li Lang supported his right wrist with his left hand and began drawing. He had the texts Yi Lin fetched for him, opened on the table, so he could refer to the runes on the pages.
It didn’t take long before his arm felt numb from holding onto the brush. He gritted his teeth and persevered.
Several hours later, after a few failed attempts, Li Lang wiped the sweat from his forehead as he looked down at his completed work. When he had finished the last stroke, he felt the air currents in the room change. He couldn’t help but be elated.
The talisman didn’t look like anything special, compared to all the ones he had browsed through before in stores, but every creator was partial to their creations.
“Very good. It’s not hard to complete a basic talisman like this, but you show promise. Shall we test out your work right away?” Yi Lin asked with a smile as he moved to close the windows to block off the light.
Li Lang nodded and quickly activated the talisman. Almost immediately, the talisman began to emit a soft white glow, lighting up the room.
“Perfect. This means you have the basics of the technique down. Now we just need to work on your knowledge, so you know how to mix several runes together without allowing them to clash or overload it!”
Yi Lin continued to ramble on about his education plan. Li Lang listened for the first part of it, but when he began to repeat himself, Li Lang swiftly tuned him out. Instead, he thought back to his experiences and began brainstorming the mechanics of how the talisman worked.
There are a lot of rules to follow in this with the runes and whatnot…It almost feels like programming, but instead of typing as many lines of code as you want, you have to slot in different pieces together like a puzzle. I’ll also have to explore how each piece affects each other and their environments.
While Li Lang wasn’t able to gain much by throwing a talisman into the auto-analyzer, that didn’t mean he couldn’t study it. Sure, it may be harder, but the core aspect of being a researcher is to study what they observe with a systematic approach.
Sooner or later, I’ll figure out how these talismans work. In fact…I should delve deeper into Alchemy as well. If only I could get more time…
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When Li Lang returned to his inn that day after successfully inscribing his first talisman, he immediately shared his experience with his peers. From their retellings, each of them was making good progress in learning the basics of their chosen craft.
“Artificing is different. I probably won’t be able to craft an artifact any time soon. I’ll have to spend some more time learning the process and gaining experience as an assistant before I am ready to craft one,” Long Yi said with a sigh.
“That’s t-to be e-expected. Otherwise, a-artifacts would be flooding the market,” Wei Ping quipped. “I, on t-the other hand, h-have learned to create a s-simple Skyrunner…O-one that is even s-simpler than the one w-we have. However, t-they take at l-least a month to g-grow.”
“Hmm, I knew it wasn’t possible to completely learn your select craft in just several months. The most important part I think is to learn what is important to your profession and focus on it. The trials are for younger generations in the Energy Gathering realm only, so they must value talent over your current skills.”
“How can we improve our talent?” Long Yi asked as he scratched his head.
“Aside from aptitude, talent in the crafts is a vague concept that is hard to quantify. That means the tests we will face will have a hard time differentiating talent and foreknowledge. We can focus on mimicking our mentors and acquire as much knowledge as possible.”
“B-boss, these are a l-lot of assumptions you’re m-making.”
“Yeah…but it’s better than nothing.”
The three then quickly went about their own training before bed.
Like always, Li Lang cultivated once in the morning and once at night.
While he was doing so, He couldn’t help but reminisce about the experience of employing the new Qi technique he was taught to create the talisman. He knew without direct guidance from his mentor; he wasn’t likely to succeed by himself yet, but remembering that feeling would help his body learn.
With such thoughts in his head, Li Lang went through the motions of enveloping his entire body in Qi and began to suck in the ambient Qi into himself to fill up the space that was now vacant. He would normally then return the Qi coating him, causing it to ‘jam’ into his filled container.
Inadvertently, this time, Li Lang managed to exert more force with his Qi. He felt as if his container had suddenly cracked and the previous restraints were broken. All the Qi he had been painfully trying to absorb all entered his body at once without resistance.
His body burned with power, and he subconsciously shot up from his seat and let out a grunt as he stretched his limbs.
Have I… broken through? And why was I able to exert more force with Qi all of a sudden? Was it from the improvements of my spiritual roots or from practicing Brushweaving?