Joe Yin understood Ye Wei was drifting further and further away from her. Nonetheless, she did not expect it to be so soon, to happen this quickly. She tried to remain positive and quietly wished Ye Wei the best in his future endeavours.
Commander Shi was feeling slightly embarra.s.sed. He rubbed his nose and said, “I’ve got another idea. We have a few special openings for honorable instructors. I personally know some runemasters who took the offer. You don’t have to do a lot. Rather, you just have to come and tutor the troops now and then. We offer our instructors great wages and benefits too.”
“Instructor? I am not sure. Will it be appropriate for my age?” Ye Wei felt a little bit embarra.s.sed by all the attention he was getting.
Commander Shi chuckled “What do you mean?! It will be perfect! It is not at all inappropriate considering your cultivation level. Furthermore, you are already a three-star Runemaster! You have more than enough knowledge to teach those young b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!” He was admiring young Ye Wei’s accomplishments. ‘Maybe one day, this kid will become a leader! I need to stay in good relationship with him.’ he thought.
“It would be disrespectful if I declined an offer from the Commander himself!” Ye Wei smiled shyly.
“Apart from a fixed salary, the Green Army gives their honorable instructors each a silver token. This token gives them clearance to command troops wherever they are.” The commander then explained the obligation Ye Wei was expected to follow. He could obtain higher leveled tokens if he was promoted. The Commander also explained what clearance yellow tokens, black tokens or even the renowned purple tokens would grant.
Each token has different authorization levels and functions. Only a handful of people were in possession of purple tokens in the whole of Green Army.
“What are you going to do now, Ye Wei? Will you go back to Green Moon City?” Asked Chen Yuan while he examined Ye Wei’s face. Even though Ye Wei was more than qualified to enter the next stage of the tournament at Qing state’s capital, he was already crowned the number one of G.o.d’s Seven, a three star Runemaster and a Green Army instructor, attending the next tournament would not help him achieve much.
“You deserve a larger stage than what the state-wide tournament has to offer…”
Ye Wei, however, was determined to meet his master and family as soon as possible, ‘I definitely want to go back to Green Moon City! Even though I do not plan to spend my entire life there, I need to meet with my Master first, then we will travel together to Qing State’s capital through a transportation array!”
Chen Yuan was silent for a moment worried about the dangers that might have been waiting on the other side of the city’s wall. He nodded and said: “If this is what you wish to do, you need to be careful! Even though the demon king was injured and he probably won’t dare to cross the boundaries any time soon, he is still dangerous and he will be looking for you, seeking revenge.”
“Thank you, Lord, for your concerns.” Ye Wei responded thankfully and thought, ‘as of now, there are more demons wandering in human territory than usual as Ziyan said. I have to quickly improve my cultivation for the sake of my own safety and also for the people around me, people that I care about.’
Ye Wei suddenly remembered something he read while browsing the Runemaster Union’s inventory using his runic badge, ‘I think I should try to get my hands on deception scrolls. With those specialized mystic scrolls it will be much easier to hide my tracks, but they cost three hundred thousand contribution tokens each! I have to think of ways to earn more tokens quickly and efficiently.’
“You don’t need to hurry home. I can arrange for you to stay here for a few days, so you can rest and gain strength before going on the road again. Once all of the other students returned to where they came from, I can send my men to escort you back to Green Moon City. Just for safety!” Said Chen Yuan sincerely while looking at Xu He and the South Star team.
“Thank you, Lord, that would be very kind of you.” Xu He quickly expressed his appreciation and bowed.
“Ye Wei, you should get some rest! We will leave you be!” Everyone started to back out from the room, giving the weakened runemaster s.p.a.ce.
Ye Wei, finally alone in his room, sat himself comfortably in lotus position, swallowed one of the two Sunfire pills given to him by the City Lord and began to cultivate.
A surge of scorching energy flowed down his throat, absorbed, it entered his meridians, spreading across his entire body. He felt like he swallowed burning magma. One by one, the blockages on his meridians were slowly unclogged by the heat.
‘This Sunfire pill is unbelievably good!’
Ye Wei though that after mending his meridians he could make good use of the residual energy from the pill, and that he should channel the heat into his dantian where the energy will eventually be absorbed, becoming his own.
Half an hour later all the energy of the pill ceased to exist in his meridians. He did a well converting the surges as they reached his dantian.
Like a needle dropped in a haystack, no trace of energy could be find.
Ye Wei was shocked, dumbfounded. He originally thought that one Sunfire Pill would be greatly beneficial, that it would be enough to enhance his cultivation and fill his diantian with much needed Qi. Ye Wei came to the conclusion that the pill was ineffective because he was oblivious about his dantian being over-sized comparing to other cultivators at his level, that it required an absurd amount of energy to fill up. Hence the effect of the sunfire pill wasn’t noticeable in Ye Wei’s case.
Ye Wei swallowed another Sunfire pill. This time he took more time to refine the pill’s energy, therefore he acc.u.mulated a little bit more Qi.
“It seems that one or two sunfire pills have no effect on me and soon I will require more and more pills to be able to sustain my dantian. The perfect solution would be Cosmic energy but it’s not so simple to obtain. I can refine low level stances but the cosmic energy received from them would be minimal. I need to refine higher level’s stances to be able to obtain the needed energy”, murmured Ye Wei angrily.
‘The meridians were restored, but my fractured Sentient will need much more time to heal… But there might still be powerful demons around the city, I am never safe until completely recovered from my injuries.’
Even though Ye Wei’s Sentient was slowly healing it was still not quick enough, and it was very difficult to get pills that would have any effect on fractured Sentients, even the mighty City Lord himself did not possess anything that like it.
‘Oh, maybe I can get it from the Runemaster Union’s inventory!’ The idea flashed across Ye Wei’s mind. He quickly took the Runic Badge out from his bag and began to look for the pills that could aid his current condition.
“Condense Soul pill, Nourish Soul pill, Holy Spirit pill… This is it!” Ye Wei found the category he needed, he looked at the description and figured out his Sentient injury could be healed by just a Condense Soul pill, the more expensive options were meant for cultivators with more dire injuries. He then checked the cost of the item he needed, gasped for air in shock as he found out just one pill will cost him three hundred thousand contribution tokens.
The pill that helps to restore a fractured Sentient was quite rare, as it required a large amount of unique and limited herbs. In addition, these pills usually had no harmful side effects, hence why their value was so high. Condense Soul pill costed three hundred thousand contribution tokens; while the Nourish Soul pill five hundred thousand contribution tokens; and the Holy Spirit pill at six million contribution tokens.
If a Holy Spirit pill is available for a cultivator to take before a large battle or even a war, the Sentient will gain extraordinary strength, making it almost impossible to break. Unfortunately the pill is too expensive, out of Ye Wei’s reach for now.
‘I need to get some of these pills to restore my Sentient quicker, and also to recharge the iron talisman. It saved my life too many times to not have it prepared for another possible dangerous encounter.’
Thinking about the different ways to earn contribution tokens, Ye Wei remembered that he could try and answer some of the questions from the jade wall. The practical problems that rewarded well were unfortunately out of his reach, however he could try himself at theoretical questions. After answering just one question correctly, he already collected fifty thousand contribution tokens.
Ye Wei continued to flip the pages, looking for any question he would be able to try put his knowledge to good use, his eyes widened as one of the questions caught his attention.
“This couldn’t be… Someone submitted a question with a reward of two hundred and ten million contribution tokens?!” Murmured Ye Wei, shocked by the amount of tokens he could get from just one question. “Who would have put it here…
‘It is actually a very simple question!’ Surprise was all over Ye Wei’s face, while he wondered what kind of people would be resourceful enough to offer that much.
‘I can only see basic runes and seals in this rune sequence…’ Surprised to find out what the question was on.
What Ye Wei didn’t take into account is that the runes are way more profound and complicated. The pattern of certain runes can create a basic rune sequence, however every rune can be used differently according to how you pair them together. There were infinite amount of possibilities.
To become a Runemaster, one had to master the runic system, and learn how to make stances but to become a Grand-Runemaster, Runemasters would have to create their own runes, all runes as cultivators knew them, were created by Sages and Grand-Runemasters after years or even decades of research.
Ye Wei looked worryingly at the question, checked every word to make sure he read it correctly.
‘In the ancient book of life, there were a total of sixty thousand runes… What were the seven vermilion essence runes mentioned in the volume? Prove your answer.’