The recently required information broadened Ye Wei’s horizons; he started to think about concepts and ideas regarding cultivation as he had never imagined before.
“Master Ye, the conservatory has a tradition of giving newly-t.i.tled Runemasters a random stance. This traditional lottery is their reward for pa.s.sing the entry exam!” The sweet, enthusiastic voice said.
That’s how Master Yi learned his healing stance, the Green Mizzle…’
The stances gifted to new Runemasters did not guarantee to be high-grade stances, but they were always rare stances. The Green Mizzle given to Master Yi was only a low-level Myst stance; nonetheless, if he ever decided to sell it at the black market, it would fetch a high-level Myst stance’s price.
“When Master Yi was accepted into the union, he was randomly given a very practical stance. I hope I will get something functional as well.” Ye Wei’s face shone with glimpses of hope and expectation.
Even though the stance distribution was randomized, the conservatory selected stances according to each Runemaster’s will-force properties.
“Master Ye, will you do the lottery now?” the hologram asked with a friendly smile.
“Lottery? Oh, for the stance! Yes, of course!” Ye Wei took a deep breath and collected himself.
“Okay!” the hologram nodded and waved her hand. The badge Ye Wei held loudly shook and projected a fortune wheel in the air. It divided into different sections, and each of the sections had a rune carved on it.
The silvery wheel was shrouded in a thin mist. In the wheel’s center visibly shown a golden pointer.
“Let’s begin!”
The wheel spun on its own; no one touched it. Concurrently with the wheel, the golden lotus mark on Ye Wei’s forehead started glowing.
“Swoosh!”
The wheel rapidly spun; there was no use to estimate what rune one would receive. Amidst the blurriness of the wheel itself, the only visible feature was the golden pointer, and Ye Wei could not take his eyes off the golden pointer for a second.
“Ding!”
A crisp, alerting sound echoed the room as the wheel stopped spinning. The sharp end of the pointer halted at a small line of letters.
“Sky stance – Zodiac Sword. Volume one.”
When Ye Wei and the hologram read the chosen small golden letters, they both went silent, indicating their bewilderment and confusion.
‘A Sky stance!? How can that be?’
The holographic girl covered her mouth while Ye Wei widened his eyes. He could hardly breathe, and she could barely understand. For centuries, a Sky stance has not surfaced in the whole Zhou dynasty.
Ye Wei imagined Sky stances were just legendary, fictional anything but real. When Pu Yuan told him that Supernova stances could evolve into one, he thought Pu Yuan just exaggerated and Sky stances didn’t exist anymore.
“I… I…” Ye Wei was stupefied. He tried to comprehend what kind of power this newly acquired stance might possess.
“Can that be a Sky stance? I have never seen any Sky stances coming out of the lottery until now!” The hologram froze from the shock of this miraculous event; she felt reality was tricking her, playing with her logical mind. Realizing she was embarra.s.sing herself, she shook her head, decided to accept this illogical inconsistency, and congratulated Master Ye. She kept staring at Ye Wei, imagining what kind of luck this young boy had as there were only three Sky stances out of billion stances Ye Wei could have won.
“The first volume of Zodiac Sword… How many volumes are there in total?” Ye Wei asked, exhaling heavily at his supernatural luck.
“This volume can be bought by contribution tokens. You can look for yourself,” she waved her hand, and a hologram of a large jade wall appeared out of nowhere, with an extensive list of stance names and prices written on it.
From top to bottom it said,
; grade: Sky stance, number of volumes: twelve, cost: three hundred billion tokens.
; grade: Sky stance, number of volumes: eleven, cost: one hundred and eighty billion tokens.
; grade: Sky stance, number of volumes: ten, cost: one hundred and twenty billion tokens.
; grade: Earth stance, number of volumes: seven, cost: one hundred billion tokens.
; grade: Earth stance, number of volumes: seven, cost: eighty-eight billion tokens.
Ye Wei just stared at the presented list; he couldn’t believe the stance he had just won through complete chance was the most valuable one on the long list.
“Volume one cost how much!!?” He asked himself, seeing the volume he recently acquired cost ten million tokens. Briefly, he thought how insane that amount was comparing with his master, a ten-star Runemaster, who only had a few hundred thousand tokens.
Suddenly, Ye Wei remembered the gift the Combat Master vouchsafed to him, making him wonder how random was the lottery.
“Master Ye, would you derive the stance now?” the girl requested softly while Ye Wei contemplated this phenomenal gain. Upon buying or acquiring stances, they would be transferred directly into a Runemaster’s mind. The process of collected stances could not be visibly perceived.
“Absolutely! Derive, please!” Ye Wei a.s.sented without hesitation. The desire to explore the potentials and possibilities of the rare Zodiac Sword stance was overpowering him.
The badge in Ye Wei’s hand vibrated slightly; a vast wave of ideas transmitted to his badge from the expansive emptiness of s.p.a.ce, directly flooding Ye Wei’s consciousness.
Although Ye Wei ama.s.sed only the first volume of the stance, the amount of information was ma.s.sive. More than Ye Wei imagined or prepared for; it took over an hour until Ye Wei received the entire content of volume one.
“Master Ye, once again, I congratulate you for becoming a part of the union! If you need anything else in the future, you can use this badge to directly summon me,” bowing, the girl’s image blurred and eventually faded.
“It’s a shame, I can’t decipher this stance yet…” Ye Wei tightly clenched the badge and shook his head regretfully. He had discovered the minimum level to practice the stance was five-star condensed prime Warrior level.
Being just a two-star condensed prime Warrior, Ye Wei had a long way to go until he could utilize his new stance. Nevertheless, if he decided to use the Supernova stance, he could be able to try to learn the Sky stance’s basic, foundation. However, this would only be temporarily.
‘Humph, idiot! It’s only a Sky stance. On the other hand, I had offered you something much more powerful. Why would you even bother with something so weak?’ the Progenitor read and disrupted Ye Wei’s mind once again, ‘Now, don’t you think the Combat Master was a bit stingy, wasn’t he? He was obviously hiding other good stances for himself instead of sharing them with you.’
‘If you are trying to instigate something against the Combat Master, I will not sit here and do nothing! You old hound, I know exactly what you were scheming against me. Remember, I am young, but not a naive fool. Anything as powerful as Heaven stances are based on the creator’s’ cultivation experience and understanding. If I had tried learning your technique, surely, there would have been some awful consequences on myself, right?’ Ye Wei grunted and ignored the Progenitor. He kept himself occupied by browsing messages, tips left behind by other Runemasters, and checking the prices of scrolls, mystic arms and other useful cultivation tools.
Surprisingly, Ye Wei discovered something familiar on the list of formulas:
; grade: unknown, available volumes: vol. Two, five and seven, cost: (chap. two) three hundred billion tokens, (chap. five) eight hundred billion tokens, (chap. seven) one hundred billion tokens.
Ye Wei could not believe it. The formula that inspired the creation of the Supernova stance was listed. He reflected on how lucky he was to have given the first chapter by inheriting the Glacial Emperor’s legacy.
‘Even the Runemaster Union only collected three chapters…hmmm… what is the story behind these volumes?’ Ye Wei decided to buy the second chapter from the union as soon as he earned enough tokens.
“Oh yeah, I wonder how many tokens the demon blood in my bag is worth!” Ye Wei expressed, hoping to gain more wealth soon. He followed the instructions given by the hologram:
Low-rank demon general blood – reward: five tokens.
“What?! I nearly lost my life for that!” Ye Wei was stunned, His expectations dissipated and he felt deflated, realizing how far away he was from his goal. He understood now why even Master Yi only had a few hundred thousand tokens to his account. “How many decades do I have to live if I wanted to get that Sky stance through my own means…”
“Ye Wei!”
Zuo Qiu Ming’s voice abruptly sounded when Ye Wei continued browsing the goods through his device.
“Yes sir, I’m here!” Ye Wei quickly stood up, replying unexpectedly.