Cult of the Sacred Runes

Chapter 3: The Forbidden Stances

“Is Miss Zi Yan losing her temper?”

“Sleeping through Miss Zi Yan’s class and disrupting with sheer rudeness, how can Miss Zi Yan not be angry?”

“Miss Zi Yan is undoubtedly the most popular girl in our academy, Ye Wei can kiss his life goodbye if her admirers catch wind of this little episode of indiscretion!”

Most of junior three were grinning mischievously, as if they already knew how this story would end, with Ye Wei rotting in a corner.

“Pffft! He had it coming, there is no one he could nor should blame anyone but himself!” Xiao Qi taunted, it was obvious he was enjoying this moment from how much the corner of his mouth curled up.

“Ye Wei right? Have you ever heard of the story of Supreme Chen Feng?” Miss Zi Yan spoke with the utmost sincerity, while keeping eye contact with Ye Wei and sounding elegant as usual. Ye Wei’s talent was almost nonexistent and chances were that he would never become a Warrior in his lifetime, but he is still Zi Yan’s student and she felt that guiding him is her obligation.

“Supreme Chen Feng had nothing more than a red Sentient to work with when he was a teenager, but he didn’t give up, didn’t point fingers, or complain to anyone instead he put his efforts into studying thus understanding mystic runes. He perfected the Evergreen stance, the Raging Bull stance, and also the Blazing Butterfly stance. The year he became thirty he became a household name, a renowned Runemaster. Since then he created many mystic stances and in the process he also managed to upgrade his Sentient, from red to blue. Ultimately, he was able to become a Supreme!”

“Your Sentient isn’t something set in stone. By practicing, perfecting, and creating mystic stances one can resonate with nature. This ultimately yields energy from the cosmos which acts as a distiller, it cleanses and refines thus upgrading the Sentient!”

That being said creating and perfecting stances is easier said than done, only a handful of prestigious Runemasters are capable of such a feat, ordinary souls don’t stand a chance.

Runemaster is a class above Warrior. As the title suggests they are extremely proficient at the art of mystic runes; they can refine them, create them, and they can even inscribe mystic scrolls. The power of a Runemaster is sought after by powers, governing bodies, and the rich and evil. To have a Runemaster on one’s side often means winning wars and conquering nations.

There is only one Runemaster at South Star Academy, and he is none other than the vice principal. Although the principal and the school board had more power over administrating the academy, these people with fancier titles had the utmost respect for the vice principal.

The reason Runemasters are so highly valued is because of how truly rare they are!

First, Runemasters needed to master three hundred and sixty thousand basic mystic runes, of which every basic rune has its own complexities and properties. Therefore it’s basically impossible to master them if one was talentless, even if you spend your whole life studying.

Furthermore mastering three hundred and sixty thousand runes is just the bare fundamentals of becoming a Runemaster. Soul sensitivity is the key to feeling mystic runes allowing one to find flaws, or just ways to improve runes. The stronger one’s soul sensitivity is the more powerful the runes one can create and refine. One can only become a Runemaster by having satisfied these harsh and strange requirements, that is where their prestige and powerful status comes from.

“Supreme Chen Feng?”

Ye Wei slowly nodded listening to Miss Zi Yan’s mild scolding, which was kind of heartwarming. He had been sleeping and shouting in class and his punishment for the offences was a motivational story.

“The path to mastery is through practice, it’s never too late to start. Let’s see how well you know these three mystic runes.”

Miss Zi Yan turned ever so slightly towards the blackboard, with her slender fingers she pointed at the three mystic runes she drew on the blackboard. As she turned, the neck opening on her white gauze dress exposed her extremely delicate collarbone and looking at her from the back made her look even slimmer. Her long hair hung like a classic looking curtain in an ancient castle. The top half of her dress was a tight fit, contouring her body, highlighting her curves.

“Ye Wei was fast asleep, like a pig, when Miss Zi Yan was describing the properties of these three runes. There was no way he could recognise what they were, let alone how they worked.”

“He’s basically so dumb that even if the runes were flowing inside him, he wouldn’t be able to tell whether it was an itch, or a rune in his body!” A couple of mouthy students whispered jokingly in mocking tones.

Xiao Qi was sitting on the other side of the room with a twisted playful grin on his face. The grin caught Ye Wei’s attention as he groaned. Xiao Qi’s and his personalities were a monumental mismatch and furthermore Ye was only a mere one star Student unlike Xiao who was a five star, we can all imagine how well these two got along and how much they had in common.

The thought of having to be treated like dirt by despicable characters such as Xiao Qi was getting less and less appealing to Ye Wei!

He took a deep breath and raised his head to look at the three basic runes on the blackboard. Out of nowhere was a spark of inspiration, the runes felt familiar almost like they were flowing in his bloodstream.

Ye Wei blurted out: “These three mystic runes are from the rune set Water Seal, the set itself contains seventy-two runes and are all water type runes. These three runes are used in low Spirit level stances like the Triple Tidal Palm, Fist of the Oscillating Waves, Water Parting Finger, and Condensating Palm among others.

“The most used stance that uses these three mystic runes should be the mid Spirit level Ice Mirror Seal!”

His eloquent speech on runes and stances surprised even himself, “When did I learn all this?”. The winding runes glimmered faintly in Ye Wei’s Sentient, as he was talking about them.

As Ye Wei’s little speech echoed in the classroom, all the student were shocked. Everyone stopped what they were doing, their eyes wide open, looking at Ye Wei stunned into disbelief.

Was Ye Wei actually right?!

“How is this possible?”

Xiao Qi too was stunned, he couldn’t even comprehend how Ye Wei could possibly understand the three runes Miss Zi Yan was talking about while he was asleep!

“Not bad!” Miss Zi Yan looked Ye Wei right in his eyes as she praised him. ‘Seems like he wasn’t asleep for the whole thing, maybe he was listening half awake and picked up a thing or two.’

Upon hearing this praise, Ye realised that the knowledge on runes he had learned in his dream was real! And this dream might be related to that magical book, which, strangely, now was nowhere to be seen.

Inside his Sentient there were countless runes flowing around shimmering in a golden hue.

“Pfft, mystic runes are way more complicated than that? I bet this idiot won’t be able to answer if Miss Zi Yan digs deeper with her questions! It was just dumb luck.” Xiao Qi was trying so hard looking at Miss Zi Yan trying to send her a telepathic message, ”Ask him more questions!” hoping Ye Wei would make a fool of himself answering them.

Miss Zi Yan got the signal as she chuckled and asked, ”So how many runes are used in Fist of the Oscillating Waves? That I went through that in class just now?”

“Sixteen.”

“How about Water Parting Finger?”

“Twenty-one!”

Ye Wei answered with great fluency.

It was out of everyone’s imagination that Ye Wei knew enough to answer these questions, and everyone in class was looking at each other in awe. He couldn’t have picked up this much before he fell asleep. Everyone was guessing he studied previously and learned before attending today’s lecture, as there was no way he could have learned all this from Zi Yan’s teaching while he was fast asleep having a nightmare.

What they didn’t know was Ye Wei did learn all of that during his sleep. And how much he learned was completely beyond their imagination!

As Zi Yan was looking at Ye his relaxed posture displayed a sense of indifference. She wanted to test his rune knowledge further and see what level he was on. She blinked and asked him the next question with a smile on her face: “How many mystic stances can one compose with these three runes?”

The spotlight was on Ye Wei again, as everyone in class looked to him wanting to see what his answer would be, as the questions Mis Zi Yan just asked was not covered in the lecture. Even the students who were paying full attention wouldn’t be able to answer it, let alone the clueless Ye Wei who slept through the lecture.

“I don’t see anyone else in junior three other than myself and Miss Zi Yan who could provide an answer.” Xiao Qi laughed at Ye Wei, as he took a nice deep breath holding his head high. With pride he scanned the classroom feeling superior to the rest of the flock, his eyes finally settling on Miss Zi Yan. He was looking forward to basking in the glory of answering the questions when Ye Wei finally chokes So he could gain even more presence in Miss Zi Yan’s heart.

Xiao Qi’s parents are senior class instructors at the academy, and when it comes to knowledge on runes, it’s safe to say Xiao Qi is the best in class!

“There are in total thirty-eight low level spirit stances, twelve mid level spirit stances, and six high spirit stances that consist of these three runes!” The pressure of being the centre of attention did not make Ye Wei hesitate, with his eyes on Miss Zi Yan, he answered calmly and with certainty.

“Nonsense!”

“Ye Wei can you please just keep it shut if you don’t know the right answer? People are trying to learn in this class and you are not helping!” Xiao Qi stood up with intensity, looking down on Ye Wei showing nothing but contempt, meaning every word he said hoping it would teach Ye Wei a lesson.

Xiao Qi has been waiting to let his frustration out, now he feels relieved.

“Oh Ye doesn’t know what he is talking about!”

“I’d have guessed Ye had it right judging by how calm he looked.”

“Ye Wei is definitely a confident man!”

Xiao Qi is the best student in junior three, both in real combat and rune knowledge his level is way beyond the others. Now that Xiao is calling Ye’s bluff, everyone in class believed Ye was talking trash and therefore started judging him.

“Ye Wei, may I educate you with the correct answer?! There are thirty-six low level spirit stances, ten mid level spirit stances, and five high level spirit stances that are made up by the three runes we just went through in class!” The sneer on Xiao Qi’s face was ice cold, as he stared at Ye Wei with pride. ‘I am second to none in this class when it comes to rune knowledge!’ He thought.

Surprisingly though Miss Zi Yan did not correct Ye Wei, instead she looked at him with her crystal clear eyes.

“Xiao Qi is not wrong.” Zi Yan slowly said.

Xiao Qi instantly became proud of himself after Zi Yan’s approval. While staring down Ye Wei with a playful glare. You have nothing on me Ye Wei, you piece of trash.

Zi Yan wasn’t finished! “But Ye Wei is correct too!”

At this point everyone in class was shocked. “How can they both be right?”

Zi Yan looked at Ye Wei showing a hint of curiosity: “Some stances take a big toll on the practitioner’s bodies and minds as such they are listed as forbidden. If you count those in Ye Wei was correct!”

The classroom went completely quiet.

The forbidden mystic stances were documented then archived in the academy court, which is only accessible to Warriors and even they don’t always have success with them, where on earth did Ye Wei learned about the forbidden stances?