"Li..Little Li Tian.. Are you okay? Why are you so pale?" Long Tang Yun could not help, but worry. He had never seen someone look like he lost 100 percent of his blood before.
"I.. I can't do it." Wang Li Tian stuttered as he gulped down his saliva.
"Since you were able to remember the different runic symbols, the next few parts are better! The books you will be reading next is definitely more interesting!" Long Tang Yun tried to make the situation better, but as a result, the young boy got worse.
"Books!!!! Ahhhhhhh!!!" The pale face got even more pale.
Books were most definitely his worse enemy. When he was under tutorship of Mu Zhi Xuan. The Sword Martial God made sure he read a book out loud everyday. The punishment when he was not able to finish reading the book was that he had to stand under the Pressure Array and do weighted squats. Although the boy did indeed improve his language abilities and was finally able to write a larger variety of words, he started to develop a deep fear to books.
Long Tang Yun realised that the words he had used had driven the boy into an even deeper hole. Maybe it was better if he placed no expectations whatsoever on Little Li Tian. After all, he seems to be doing just fine without external pressure.
"Okay, okay. You do not have to read books if you do not want." Long Tang Yun tried to pacify the situation.
"Then, th.. the examination?" Li Tian probed.
"You do not have to take the examination next year if you not want to." The prime elder spoke with an angelic voice. Even he himself could not believe this was happening right now. Xin Shu Yi chuckled to the side.
"I am already very proud of you, junior brother! You managed to memorise the entire basic symbols!" Xin Shu Yi also pacified the situation.
"Yes, yes, good job my disciple!" Long Tang Yun added on.
Immediately when Wang Li Tian realised that he no longer had to do the examination, his mood swung back for the better. He was also praised by both of the people he respected and so, the boy had an innocent smile that warmed up the atmosphere. Long Tang Yun blew out cold air as per usual. It felt like his disciple was a ticking time bomb. If not diffused before the time limit, he would explode and combust in flames.
"Oh, how about Senior sister show you what I am working on right now?" Xin Shu Yi invited. "I can explain to you a little about artificing."
"Okay, senior sister." Wang Li Tian did not mind that. There was no books involved.
"Come along." Xin Shu Yi spoke to Li Tian. The next message was directed to her teacher. "I will take junior brother with me, teacher."
"Go ahead, go ahead." Long Tang Yun shooed them away with his hand gesture. When they were gone, Long Tang Yun could finally sit down and take a breather. What a tiring morning!
…
"Over here, junior brother." Xin Shu Yi led Li Tian to her research room. Just like how Li Tian had his 'study' room, Xin Shu Yi was allocated a room too, except that her was filled with more things. There were scrolls that were neatly rolled up and kept inside shelves. There were also some scrolls and rough sketches laid out atop her work table.
"Teacher must've explained to you about the three different specialisations in Artificing right?" Xin Shu Yi said.
"Yes." Li Tian replied.
"Then, you do know that Teacher Long specialises in Scroll Inscriptions?"
"Yes."
"Good, good. I will explain to you more about Scroll Inscriptions then." Coughing a little, Xin Shu Yi cleared up her throat. Her explanation began. "Just like Runes, scroll inscriptions have the same three different functions, attack, defence and utility. In order to do scroll inscriptions, the artificer has to release the spiritual energy refined in your body into the ink that you are using to inscribe. There is a reason why you have to transfer your own spiritual energy into the ink. Do you know why?"
Wang Li Tian shook his head. Xin Shu Yi smiled and continued to explain. "The first thing you need to know is the function of runes. Runes are used to draw in the spiritual energy in the world before it uses the spiritual energy to carry out a function. This drawing of spiritual energy cannot start just by writing out the runic symbol. Just now, the runic symbols you had wrote on the wall, it didn't start drawing spiritual energy, correct?"
Wang Li Tian acknowledge. There was no reaction from the world's spiritual energy.
"This is where your own spiritual energy comes into play. We need to use refined spiritual energy as a kickstarter. It will boot up the flow of spiritual energy into these runic symbols. Do you understand?"
"Ohhhh…" Wang Li Tian understood his senior sister's explanation.
"For us, Scroll Inscribers. We do not work on Rune blocks like these," Xin Shu Yi took the octagon shaped rune from her table side and showed Li TIan. Next, she picked up a slightly brown and rustic looking paper. "We use this instead. This paper is made out of demonic beast leather. Just like how Array specialists require the strong and durable octagon block, we, scroll inscribers need a durable medium to inscribe runic symbols. After millions of years of testing, people found that demonic beast leather is extremely durable in this aspect!"