AGM 234 – Invite
The night was as silent as still water.
Qin Wentian cultivated quietly in his room, columns of Astral Light cascading down from the skies, forming intense beams that illuminated the room’s roof.
Leng Ning sat on a vine swing within her courtyard. The vine swing was hung in between two trees, and it gently swayed in the wind. When she was young, her mom would often swing her on it, but after her mom passed away, her life became increasingly tedious. It didn’t help that her father’s status in the clan was low and he always ended up blindly agreeing with whatever the elders said.
Leng Ning sighed softly as she thought of this, laughing bitterly at her own fate. After which she lifted her head, her gaze attracted to the roof of Qin Wentian’s room. Why was the Astral Energy so saturated around that region?
“That braggart is pretty interesting as well.” Leng Ning wanted to smile, Qin Wentian’s skin was so thick it was funny. When she said that both Mo Qingcheng and him were a couple, he actually had the gall to nod his head.
Dawn approached, and Qin Wentian walked out of his room. Upon seeing how Leng Ning had fallen asleep on that vine swing, Qin Wentian couldn’t help but walk up and cover her with his outer coat.
Leng Ning’s eyelashes fluttered as her eyes slowly opened, still unfocused. After a moment, she smiled when she noticed Qin Wentian and greeted, “Good morning Mr. Grandmaster Inscriptionist.”
“Eh…” Qin Wentian sweated, “Morning.”
“It’s already morning, do you want something to eat? I’ll go make breakfast.” Leng Ning leapt down from the swing and brought some light pastries over. Although cultivators in the Yuanfu Realm could survive without food intake, many still preferred to do so, enjoying the taste of delicacies, satisfying their food cravings.
“Not bad.” Qin Wentian ate a piece, as he smiled.
“Thanks for the praise of a Grandmaster, should I inform the two other young masters as well? It’s about time to go to the White Deer Institute.”
“It’s fine, the two of them have no interest in the Dao of Divine Inscriptions. It doesn’t matter if they attend the lessons or not,” Qin Wentian replied, it was better for Chu Mang and Fan Le to stay here and cultivate instead of wasting time there.
“Okay, let’s go then.” Leng Ning nodded, and the two of them departed for the White Deer Institute.
However, right before they could enter the Institute, Qin Wentian found that the entrance was being blocked by someone.
Today, Yan Kong was clad in blue. His followers all had unpleasant expressions on their faces as they intercepted Qin Wentian’s and Leng Ning’s path.
“I heard that you stayed in her courtyard last night?” Yan Kong narrowed his eyes, staring at Qin Wentian.
“Yan Kong, you have no right to interfere in my business.” Leng Ning furrowed her brows, glaring at Yan Kong.
“Sooner or later, you will be part of my Yan Clan, you’d better watch your actions.” Yan Kong coldly stared back. After which, he shifted his eyes to Qin Wentian, “It’s no matter if you love women, but there are some women that you are unqualified to touch. Otherwise, you won’t even know how you’ve died. Let me just warn you in advance, you’d better separate yourself from the Leng Clan as soon as possible.”
After speaking, with mocking smiles on their faces, Yan Kong and his followers turned and entered the Institute.
“I’m sorry, I’ve caused you trouble.” Leng Ning felt somewhat apologetic.
“Why are you apologising? We are the ones that wanted to stay in your residence.” Qin Wentian shrugged, appearing as though he couldn’t be bothered at all. Fan Le had told him before, Yan Kong’s cultivation base was at the third level of Yuanfu, and in addition to that, with his attainments in the Dao of Divine Inscriptions only at the peak of the second level, he was of no threat to Qin Wentian. The only problem was that his Clan might be a little too troublesome to handle. Yet, if Yan Kong really wanted to make a move against him, Qin Wentian wouldn’t mind playing along with him.“Do you want to move out?” Leng Ning glanced at Qin Wentian, while shaking her head.
“It’s fine, just ignore him.” Qin Wentian couldn’t be bothered and directly entered the Institute. Leng Ning stared at the back view of Qin Wentian, while continuing to shake her head. This fellow sure loved to act cool. In front of Yan Kong, he had nothing to say, but the moment Yan Kong wasn’t there, he went back to acting cool, causing her to be speechless.
Inside the Institute, Qin Wentian quietly studied Divine Inscriptions. It seemed that White Deer Institute’s knowledge regarding the Dao of Divine Inscriptions had opened up new paths regarding his comprehension.
Back then, he only knew that Divine Inscriptions could be used to forge weapons for conversion of Divine Energy. Only now did he understand that what he previously knew before was just the tip of the iceberg. The Dao of Divine Inscriptions was truly wide-ranging and profound.
According to the teachings of the Institute, he learnt that the Dao of Divine Inscriptions could be classified into four categories. 1) Divine Inscriptions for Forging of Weapons 2) Divine Inscriptions for Etching Formations 3) Divine Inscriptions for Battle 4) Divine Inscriptions for Refining Puppets!
The first category, Divine Inscriptions for Forging Weapons, obviously meant the forging of Divine Weapons which Qin Wentian had already understood. The second, Divine Inscriptions for Etching Formations, referred to inscribing Divine Inscriptions to set up formations or arrays for various kinds of purposes. As for Divine Inscriptions for Battle, this may be what Qin Wentian had comprehended before, e.g. using Sword-Type Divine Inscriptions to spit out sword beams manifested by Sword-Type Divine Energy, which were converted from Astral Energy. Yet, he understood that what he had comprehended then, was merely a hair from the back of nine oxen. Lastly, Divine Inscriptions for Refining Puppets, which referred to using the power of Divine Inscriptions to create/power up puppets.
Although the actual methods of refining a puppet wasn’t mentioned in detail by the White Deer Institute, Qin Wentian still felt great excitement blooming in his heart.
He had already made the connection that Divine Inscriptions and Innate Techniques both shared the same roots, and had proven that he could unleash the power of innate techniques through Divine Inscriptions, using his arterial pathways as a vessel. Similarly, when he used Divine Inscriptions to convert the Astral Energy within his body to Divine Energy, it was also channelled through using his arterial pathways as a vessel. Currently, Qin Wentian had a bold hypothesis, could the arterial pathways in the bodies of humankind also be a type of runic outline modelled from the same source as Divine Inscriptions?
If this hypothesis was true, then he had already gained some insights regarding the Dao of Puppet Refinement.
Other than expounding lectures on the Dao of Divine Inscriptions, the White Deer Institute teachers taught their students regarding various subjects such as conducting research, inscription techniques, how to destroy an already inscribed Inscription, etc. Without noticing it, the one-month timeframe soon came to an end. For people like Fan Le, it was indeed a waste of Yuan Meteor Stones, but as for people like Qin Wentian, the benefits gained far outweighed the cost.
Within the Institute, Bailu Yi gave her lecture in front of the inscription stone wall. She radiated an aura of purity, causing countless males to involuntarily fall in love with her.
“Okay, since tomorrow is the last day of the one-month time frame, I don’t intend to conduct the last lecture within the Institute. Instead, I plan to bring all of you to the Hell Arena over at the Eastern City to observe a battle fought with the usage of Divine Inscriptions,” Bailu Yi stated, causing the eyes of many in the crowd to narrow. The Hell Arena.
“What kind of place is the Hell Arena?” Qin Wentian asked Leng Ning in a low voice.
Leng Ning had a solemn look on her face, she could even feel her scalp turning numb when the Hell Arena was mentioned. Wasn’t this Bailu Yi somewhat too daring? She actually wanted to go to the Hell Arena?
“The craziest place within the Moon Continent is called either Heaven or Hell, also known as the Grand Xia Empire’s Grandest Casino. For the sake of profit, the people there would even place wagers with their lives on the line,” Leng Ning replied, as a mask of contemplation appeared on Qin Wentian’s face.
“And in addition, after tomorrow, I plan to select one person out of the whole group to continue studying the Dao of Divine Inscriptions with me,” Bailu Yi added, causing many flashes of excitement to flicker in the students’ eyes. They wondered who’d be the lucky one chosen to study Divine Inscriptions with Bailu Yi as their teacher.
After hearing her words, many people shifted their gazes to Yan Kong. If Bailu Yi wanted to select one out of their numbers, she would most certainly choose the one with the highest attainment in the Dao of Divine Inscriptions. If this was the case, the person selected would undoubtedly be Yan Kong.
Yet Qin Wentian didn’t feel the same. He noticed that more than once, Bailu Yi would glance in his direction. Qin Wentian knew that the Sword-type Divine Inscription he inscribed a month ago had succeeded in capturing Bailu Yi’s attention. Not only that, throughout this one-month time frame, he had quietly used a few methods to hint about his talent in the Dao Divine Inscriptions.
This was the only way to get into contact with the branch of ‘hidden’ Azure Faction’s members. Apparently now, the opportunity had come.
“Leng Ning, I wish to treat Bailu Yi for a meal after this, you can return first,” Qin Wentian whispered to Leng Ning beside him. His statement caused Leng Ning to be thunderstruck, and after she recovered, she glared at Qin Wentian, “Bailu Yi rarely interacts with males. A few days ago, Yan Kong asked her out but was also rejected.”
This fellow’s opinion of himself was as great as before. Where did he get such self-confidence from?
“I know.” Qin Wentian nodded, seemingly unconcerned. Leng Ning was speechless, and decided not to say anything more. Since he wanted to ram his toes into a wall of steel, let him do so then.
Yan Kong, who was sitting a few seats in front of them, turned and glanced at Qin Wentian. This fellow was truly obstinate. Even now, Qin Wentian still hadn’t moved out from Leng Ning’s courtyard despite his earlier warnings.
And now, he also wanted to take Bailu Yi out for a meal? What a joke.
“Okay, that’s all for today. Class dismissed,” Bailu Yi spoke.
“Teacher Bailu,” Qin Wentian called out when he saw that Bailu Yi was about to leave.
Bailu Yi paused when she heard’s Qin Wentian’s voice. From the start, she already had a deep impression of Qin Wentian. In addition, throughout this one month, Qin Wentian was always very serious about his studies and would speak out once he had any questions, regardless of how idiotic the questions might sound. He didn’t seem to mind people taking him as a fool.
Bailu Yi felt that it was strange how Qin Wentian seemed to have so much trouble with the basics, yet could still inscribe such a profound Divine Inscription. Not only that, from all the hints he was dropping, Bailu Yi could sense that Qin Wentian’s attainment may not merely be at the peak of the second level. This was also the reason for her earlier announcement saying that she would select one among the group to continue studying the Dao of Divine Inscriptions with her.
“Is there something you need?” Bailu Yi asked.
“Can I take Teacher Bailu out for a meal? I wish to consult you on some questions regarding Divine Inscriptions, and I wonder if Teacher Bailu would be free?” Qin Wentian walked in front of Bailu Yi, smiling as he inquired.
“Xu…” The group of learners all exhaled slowly. Qin Wentian’s invitation immediately caused a wave of commotion. Was this fellow crazy? Or was he dreaming? He actually wanted to invite the goddess of their hearts out for a meal?
Was he trying to be a clown? They were all waiting for the rejection that would turn Qin Wentian into a joke. Back then, when Yan Kong asked Bailu Yi out, she had rejected him without hesitation.
Yan Kong stared at Qin Wentian, feeling that he was extremely ridiculous. He then shifted his glance to Leng Ning before laughing in a low voice, “This friend of yours, is there something wrong with his head?”
The surrounding people all burst out in laughter.
Leng Ning’s countenance turned extremely unsightly, but she couldn’t control what Qin Wentian wanted to do, could she? She had already warned him!
“Yeah, sure!” At that moment, a melodic voice drifted over. Yan Kong’s face twitched, his mocking smile still frozen in place, and his eyes widened so much it was as though his eyeballs were about to pop out from their sockets.
