Time ticked away slowly, even though neither of the children noticed that while they were absorbed in the newfound knowledge. Comparing the current mood to the initial, a visible difference could be noticed. None of the children were as tense, afraid or even in an alert state now as opposed to when Xun Feng mentioned the thing that shouldn't have been discovered. The first interaction with this sly old man left a deep and long-lasting impression on these children.
While some couldn't comprehend why he decided to raise a class of three volatile races mixed together, some understood that he held their fates and lives in his hands. Whether he wanted to use that advantage or not wasn't important, just the fact that someone could possibly put their hard work of cultivating and surviving to transform into a human being in pursuit of even greater heights was low-key terrifying.
Asura Ryuu, however, didn't worry about any of that even though he took a responsibility over these kids. No, rather than referring to them as kids and making himself be different from them, he much more preferred to call it the responsibility of looking after his brothers and sisters. He wasn't worried because there was his Divine World. Only him, Asura Tenka and Xiao Lan knew about it. How would anyone be able to harm his family if they can't find them?
Absorbed in the magical feeling the characters on the transparent tablet gave off, Asura Ryuu didn't even notice that his control over Spirit Energy and Spirit Power returned, as well as his connection to the Divine World. Writing down each of the characters Xun Feng showed them on his board should've been a boring task to do - after all, they're just doing what someone else tells them. However, contrary to all his expectations, Asura Ryuu found out that every character seemed as if containing an idea behind it, as if it wasn't merely a building block of information but an actual, conscious existence.
It would be a terrifyingly wrong understatement to call this a mere character. By asking Xun Feng about it, he found out that it really was not a character but rather a rune. Although both might seem the same, there was a very big difference between the two. Characters are merely collections of information that serve 'greater purpose' by building words and sentences and by doing that gaining some meaning. Runes, on the other hand, were a creation of the world itself. A rune is a 'language' of the world.
When one of the children asked about how runes came about, Xun Feng only laughed deprecatingly and shook his head. The words he said after that were the reason Asura Ryuu was so absorbed in writing these runes with 101% of his attention.
Xun Feng: "Ai, child, I wish we knew how runes came about. Since there was life, there were runes as well. Not only humans can use runes, all races are able to use them and they are the way how we know most of information about each other. Our languages are based on those runes, so that is why we all understand each other. However, if you want to find where it all began or how they formed, I'm afraid you would only find a dead end."
"Why?", the kid asked once again.
Xun Feng: "Because for all these years our world has existed, many beings gave up their prejudice against each other's races and unified under an organization called "The Seekers" in order to uncover the secrets of the world, as well as more profound truths that we can't grasp. They are a gathering of very smart and gifted people, and that organization has existed for several thousand years already. Even they were never able to put a finger on the origin and purpose of these symbols, so they gave up trying to do that and declared it impossible. How could common people like us ever try to uncover them if they haven't?"
Asura Ryuu: "Teacher I heard a certain saying: "The moment one gives up is the moment all future paths stop and their destiny crumbles. So long as we struggle, there will be a path for us to walk on." Just because we aren't able to do it now, doesn't mean we won't have an opportunity to do it in the future."
Xun Feng was surprised by the words he heard from this little disciple of his. He felt as if he was the student and not a teacher, but he didn't mind this feeling, because this was his own disciple.
Xun Feng stroked his white beard and laughed: "Hehe. Perhaps you are right, kid. If one gives up before trying, their life stops in place never to freely flow again."
Asura Ryuu naturally didn't want to criticize his teacher. The reason he said that was to influence the development of these young kids. How developed an adult's logic and problem-solving skills are depends the most on their experiences in childhood. That is because during early ages, children learn the new ways to tackle problems and if you tell them don't do this, don't do that because either of those isn't likely to happen, you've limited their worldview. That is why he didn't want a mere sentence from people who didn't succeed in finding the truth to discourage the members of his newfound family from trying it if they felt like so.
Only one among this group understood all of this and it was none other than Asura Ryuu's other half - Asura Tenka.
Her eyes were full of wonder just like his, because when they were in The Realm of Gods, there were no runes like these. It seems like these runes are something of this world. Yet she knew full well how similar they seemed to the letters from one of the worlds from Asura Ryuu's past lives. The only difference, but the most important one, was that these runes had a 'life'.
When she felt how a mere symbol made of shiny lines gave her a feeling of being closer to the world, she was shocked. It's as if these runes were the interface between the beings of this world and the world itself.
Asura Ryuu really wondered how upper layers of Celestial Realms were if this middle layer was this special and magical. If runes connected with the world, could they also be used to control the events of the world?
He was really, really curious because in that case, he'd be overjoyed.
In his Earthly life, Asura Ryuu was a scientist, but what little people knew was that he was originally a programmer. Programmers made worlds from ground zero, defined the rules they operated to and brought them to life. If one paid close attention, they would notice that the description of a 'God' among humans matched completely with the definition of a Programmer. However, people thought programming was limited to digital devices, when in reality that wasn't true. Programming is just a fancy way of defining a set of processes: Thinking, Defining, Analyzing, Realizing, Materializing.
One must always think without restrictions when trying to develop a solution to an idea, and that is why during that process, human minds were operating directly inside the information dimension. None of the ideas they formed were materialized. If they had to be described, then they would have zero dimensions - only content, no position,no shape, no existence, just pure information. The content could be a potential position, but the idea containing that position couldn't have one. That is the definition of information, the thing that makes up all worlds.
When the solution becomes clear enough to be grasped and then that very solution is brought to 'reality', the humans have transcended and became Gods, although they never realized that.
The way of Programming was the way of thinking.
The way of thinking was the way of Gods.
If these runes had such capabilities, then Asura Ryuu was confident he could 'program' this world, if he understood the principles behind them, that is. Being able to program a world he lived in is no different than being the one to decide its fate. Such a limitless potential in such a simple glowing symbol shook all the logical foundations and reasoning Asura Ryuu had ever built in his previous lives. It would be strange if he wasn't absorbed in this phenomenon when it changed his life by merely witnessing it.
Asura Ryuu thought: "Ahhh... it truly is as they say, the frog never knows it is at the bottom of the well until it comes out of it. How wonderful. This ... is beauty."
Little did any of those present know how important this seemingly normal event turned out to be for the future.
There was a strange rule about runes in this world. Asura Ryuu first thought that runes were individual, as in one rune means one and only one thing. Xun Feng then explained how that wasn't the case.
Xun Feng: "These characters we use to write and read only take these special shapes because The Seekers decided that for the sake of being applied and recognized everywhere. In fact, you don't need to draw the exact shape to be able to explain your meaning to the one looking at that rune. Look at this."
Xun Feng raised his finger and drew a red square on his tablet and then turned the tablet in the direction of the children.
Xun Feng: "Can anyone describe what you feel when looking at this symbol. There's no right or wrong answer - whatever you feel is right just put it into words."
Long Xingyue absentmindedly looked at the symbol and raised her hand from the crowd.
Xun Feng: "Hm? What do you want to say, Your Highness?"
Long Xingyue woke up from her dazed state when Xun Feng's sentence reached her ears.
Long Xingyue: "Teacher Xun, please don't refer to me as 'Your Highness'. I've lost that title."
Xun Feng: "... HUH? EH? W-what do you mean, little one?"
Long Xingyue: "The Imperial rules state that any descendant of Royal bloodline deciding to go to any other teaching institution other than Royal Academy loses their background, family, title, power and standing. From the moment I came to this academy, I was only Long Xingyue with no family and background."
Xun Feng: "I never heard of such a rule before, are you sure there is a rule like that?"
Long Xingyue: "... That is what His Highness, The Emperor, has personally declared in front of all other members of the Royal Family. Even if there was no such rule before, his declaration has just created it. So from now on, please just call me by my name."