Green Moon City, Ye mansion.
Ever since the city learned Master Yi’s new legacy apprentice was a Ye, the once quiet corner where the Ye mansion was located became one of the busiest parts of the town. There were thousands of visitors arriving on foot and by carriages everyday.
With the compensation they got from the Du family, Ling He Merchant Guild, and General Zhou Wu the Ye family was able to hire some powerful Warriors to help them recover. On top of that, they were now backed by Master Yi. They were slowly becoming powerful enough to rival the Big Three.
If more members of the family were able to become condensed prime Warriors, it wouldn’t be impossible for Ye family to grow into the most influential force in Green Moon City.
Although the Ye’s were thriving, the Patriarch was seldom seen smiling.
Ye Zhong was a gifted child. He actually had a greater chance of becoming a condensed prime Warrior than his uncles Ye Han, Ye Yi, and Ye Yu who were already peak ten-star Warriors.
With his talented grandchild still in a coma, and knowing that the chance he would never wake up was very high, the Patriarch could not get himself to smile right now even if things were looking up for the family. Master Yi’s men had already been sent to the cities close by, but they were not able to find anything despite their thorough search.
“Have they tried Ning City yet? It’s a bit far, but they are more likely to find Welkin Leaves in a major city than anywhere else!” Ye Zheng Qing asked the messenger.
“Yes, Master! I will head there after I visit Mount Yu Ying later this afternoon. I will make sure Master Yi sends his men there if he hasn’t already!” The man in black uniform replied.
“Get going then, what are you waiting for?!” The Ye Patriarch has not been himself recently. His patience was overshadowed by stress and restlessness.
As the Patriarch sent the messenger away, his sons and him saw an approaching runicle. “Speaking of the devil! Do you think he has good news for us?” Everyone close to the gate put what they were doing aside to welcome the surprise guest.
“That’s a runicle! Could it be Master Yi?”
“Granddad! Dad! I’m back!” Was heard as the runicle door opened, and Ye Wei leaped out running towards his family.
“Master Yi!” Everyone bowed and greeted as a scruffy looking man in a gray robe shortly followed.
After arriving at Master Yi’s place, Ye Wei immediately fetched him and rushed to the family mansion. As for Lin Zi Yan, there were some things she had to attend to so she couldn’t come along.
“We found Welkin Leaves!” Ye Wei exclaimed.
“Did Master Yi found it for us?” At first, the Ye’s were shocked, and they gazed at the Runemaster with undisguised reverence and grateful looks.
“Oh, can we not talk about that? The men I sent to Ning City were useless! Little Wei and Zi Yan beat them to it!” Master Yi laughed and shook his head.
Everyone turned their heads to Ye Wei and was even more shocked to hear what Master Yi said.
“Granddad, we’ll talk about this later. Let’s go to cousin Zhong’s room!” There was urgency in Ye Wei’s tone.
“We have the Welkin Leaves now so there is a great chance I will be able to wake him up. ” Master Yi smiled and patted Ye Wei trying to calm him down.
The group went directly through the courtyard into Ye Zhong’s room. Ye Zhong’s eyes were tightly shut, and his face was pale.
Master Yi stared at him for a while before he channeled his Qi. He then rose both his hands as his will-force and Qi rushed out. His fingers quickly whizzed through the air, and within moments, three hundred and sixty-six runes were floating over Ye Zhong.
“Forbidden Stance, Green Mizzle!”
A vast amount of Qi flowed through the runes lighting them up and turning the whole sequence green. This was a forbidden mid-level Myst stance. The formula for this stance was given to Master Yi by the Holy Conservatory when he pa.s.sed the test to become a Runemaster.
Although it was only a mid-level Myst stance, its real value was no less than any high-level -one due to its practicality.
“Hand me the herbs!” The green light linked all three hundred and sixty-six runes together as the whole sequence vibrated. A screen of light grew upon the sequence, and the runes turned into a cloud shape.
Ye Wei gave Master Yi the Welkin Leaves right before the runic rain was about to fall. The Runemaster shredded the herb tr.i.m.m.i.n.g it into small silvery pieces with his Qi.
Drops of silver green life energy rained down onto Ye Zhong. It fell onto his skin and was absorbed by his body and then flowed to his Sentient.
Under the nourishment of this silver green energy, the scars and cracks in Ye Zhong’s Sentient slowly started to mend. He made a mumbling sound, and his eyelids twitched as he moved for the first time in a week.
“Cousin Zhong!” Seeing this scene, Ye Wei tightly clenched his fist in excitement. Everyone eye’s in the room widened, and they looked at Ye Zhong unable to contain their exhilaration.
After being asleep for so long, he finally moved! There were signs of him waking up!
The green rain stopped, and the cloud disappeared.
“Ye Zhong’s Sentient has recovered. He should be fine, but…” Master Yi paused to check his pulse and continued, “He needs to rest in bed for a while longer until he regains his consciousness and body strength back.”
“Thank you! And sorry for the trouble!”
“Thank you, Master Yi!” All of the Ye’s cried tears of joy. They were glad their precious Zhong was out of danger.
After hearing what Master Yi said, Ye Wei also exhaled deeply. His eyes filled with tears, he finally felt at ease after a week of constant worries about his cousin.
“I will stay in the mansion to keep watch until he fully recovers; meanwhile, I can teach little Wei how to train and cultivate efficiently now that he is a Warrior!” Master Yi said as he decided. How quickly Ye Wei advanced to the Warrior level left one breathless. Even Master Yi could not help but admire his young legacy apprentice. He knew he had truly made the right decision in choosing Ye Wei. And now that he had become a Warrior that meant he could finally start down the long and winding path of a Runemaster; he could now learn and refine stances! Master Yi thought all this while still in shock from Ye Wei’s talent.
“What?! Little Wei is a Warrior?!” When Ye Zheng Qing and the rest heard the news, their faces turned from their previous reverence to astonishment; they felt like they were in a dream and didn’t dare believe the words Master Yi just said.
“Are.. are you sure? Master Yi? This is just….” Ye Jing Jing said full of disbelief.
Ye Wei, a thirteen year old Warrior, was now one of the top young cultivators in Green Moon City. Everyone was ecstatic and immensely proud of what Ye Wei accomplished in such a short period of time.
For the next few weeks, Ye Wei trained under the careful guidance of Master Yi. It had to be mentioned that Master Yi’s knowledge was profound. It was vastly superior to anyone else in Green Moon City, and that contributed to Ye Wei’s quick improvement in understanding mystic runes and mystic stances.
During this time, Ye Wei focused on optimizing the Supernova stance. After taking Unyielding Gold, his bones were hardened from the pill’s nourishment.
This was the first time Ye Wei had locked himself up to cultivate in a training chamber, and it helped consolidate his foundation which had become unstable due to his sudden increase in strength at the Bloodmist Labyrinth.
After half a month, Ye Zhong finally woke and found that his body was slowly getting stronger and stronger. Shortly after the Ye family arranged for a feast to celebrate the occasion.
Knowing that his cousin was swiftly recovering, Ye Wei’s mood was greatly lightened. This caused his cultivation speed to accelerate, as there were no immediate threats he had to worry about. Finally, he felt at peace and was getting more skilled and stronger every day.
Over time, every bone in Ye Wei’s body underwent significant changes. Runes were layered on top of them starting from his hands to his shoulders and then down his spine to his legs, and afterwards, the runes even spread to his skull.
This process happened over the span of a month in the training chamber. Finally, all the runes on his bones were linked together as a golden light flowed through them. Ye Wei’s body had a golden glow from head to toe when the runic connection was established.
Ye Wei felt power envelope his bones. He clenched his fist, and a cracking sound was emitted from his body.
‘Is this the power of the Supernova stance?’
Ye Wei was thrilled. After a month of hard work and self-improvement, he finally successfully imbued all the specialized runes of the Supernova stance into his bones. If he wished to do the same with the second evolution of Supernova stance, he would have to spend quite a bit longer, but Ye Wei’s mind was eased just by thinking about how strong the first stage of Supernova stance was.
The first stage of the Supernova stance could make Ye Wei three times stronger than he current was, and if he used other stances while the Supernova stance was active, the power of those stances would also be increased three times too. Under the effect of the Supernova stance, Ye Wei would have enough Qi to use a low-grade mystic arm.
After Ye Wei had begun to practice the Supernova stance, he found it easier to learn other stances. He was starting to understand why the Glacial Emperor was able to master so many of them and possessed such great power. ‘Seventy-two interstellar secrets,’ was an amazingly informative text on runes, just the Dark Sky chapter alone could be interpreted thousands of ways. If just one chapter was so knowledgeable, then what would the rest of the volume contain?
Not long after Ye Wei finished the imbuing process, Master Yi entered the training chamber, and there was a sense of heaviness on his face.
“Master, what’s the matter?” Ye Wei asked looking at Master Yi. Having been close to Master Yi for an extended period, Ye Wei discovered he was actually not as weird as he appeared to be. He had a soft, approachable, and affable side as well, and Ye Wei’s respect for him had grown ma.s.sively.
“Zi Yan left you this letter and an amulet. She had to return to her family!” There was a deep sadness in his voice. “She said it would break her heart to say goodbye to you face to face!”
Ye Wei froze after hearing Master Yi’s words. He had not seen Lin Zi Yan ever since he returned from Bloodmist Valley. He was under the impression that she was also undergoing closed door training since she acquired pills that would aid her cultivation. Never did he expect her to leave so suddenly.
Ye Wei’s felt sour and bitter in his heart. Although he knew this day would eventually come, but when it actually happened, he was not able to comprehend or handle the overwhelming feelings of shock and sadness he felt.
Ye Wei lowered his eyes trying to cover his emotions. Upon opening the letter, he could smell her fragrance, and lines of graceful handwriting projected into his eyes.
“Little Wei, it is finally the time for us to part, the time to say goodbye. I always thought of myself as just a guest in Green Moon City, that I came alone and would leave alone, that I would bring nothing back with me. I know that everything good will always come to an end, but I don’t know why I feel so unresigned to leave.
Thank you. You have given me a lot of good memories to take home with me, and I would also like you to thank Master Yi for me for how he took care of me during these past two years.
Life is full of meetings and farewells; it’s full of resentment, and now I have to return to my family. This is a piece of spirit jade, a token that represents my family. I hope this will remind you of me. If destiny allows, I hope we see each other again…”
Ye Wei remembered Lin Zi Yan’s tears and smiles. He held the amulet tight as his heart ached. He could feel her helplessness and reluctance just from reading her words.
“Master, can you tell me what family Zi Yan is from?” Ye Wei rose his head looking at his Master with determined eyes.
“One of the three royal families of the Zhou dynasty!” Master Yi paused briefly and sighed.
“One of the three royal families?” Ye Wei exhaled slowly, slightly startled. “I don’t care if she is blue-blooded I will make a name for myself in the capital one day!”
“If you want to go and find her, it’s not just the royal family’s respect and approval you need to earn…” Master Yi looked worried as he stared off into the distance, a spark of fear appeared in his eyes.
Ye Wei was slightly confused, but that was because he didn’t know to what lengths royals would go to have their way…
On the road outside Green Moon City.
A runicle was traveling at a high speed as a slender silhouette stood by the window looking towards the city as it became smaller and smaller.
Her long dark hair encircled by a chain of crystal beads linked together by a golden thread glowed purple under the rays of the sun pa.s.sing through the runicle’s window. Her long dress complimented her figure well and there was a silver gleam from her bracelet every time she moved her wrist. Her posture conveyed desolation and loneliness.
‘I didn’t think I would have to leave so soon. I might never see him again…’
Although she has not been close to Ye Wei for long, Ye Wei had left a lasting impression on her; he had deeply affected her heart. She gave Ye Wei the jade amulet so that he would remember her, but it was also a clue, a compa.s.s that might lead him to her.
“Your Highness, the royal selection is in five years. If you pa.s.s, you will be qualified to study at the Holy Conservatory. You have to train as hard as possible. Don’t let the ancient ones down!” An old lady bowed and spoke to her. She sounded respectful but came across a bit blunt.
Lin Zi Yan frowned and answered with displeasure in her voice, “I know!” It was apparent that she was repulsed by the idea.
She wanted to become stronger and get the chance to cultivate at the legendary conservatory, but she hated being her family’s chess piece.
Resentful and helpless Lin Zi Yan watched the tall walls of Green Moon City disappear at the edge of the runicle’s window.